geb will NOT run olympic marathon.

GOOD FOR GEB for pulling out of the ridiculous, polluted Potemkin village.

as a long time sufferer of 'exercise induced asthma' i can truly say that those with asthma will truly suffer in beijing.

i currently work in seoul, korea and have for the first time in my life, had to go to the hospital because of asthma troubles due to air pollution. the air in seoul is bad, but no where near as bad as beijing. just walking down the street caused serious breathing problems. the 'bubble boys' of lets run need to remedy their acute case of rectal cranial inversion and realize that unless you have visited the hospital emergency room because you can't breath and then spend the next 2 weeks coughing up phlegm, should just go back to reading their comic books, gameboys and blow-up dolls because you have no idea of the real beast that is beijing's pollution. the govt will have to shut down the country for a few weeks and pray for a couple of weeks of rain for the air quality to be good. why do you think many national olympic committees have been spending lots of time and money trying to come up with filter masks for their athletes? let the darth vader olympics begin!

toro wrote:

Geb ran 26:52 without really focussing on the track.

It was marathon training.

If he gears towards the track 10000 there may be a different result.

Even if he has lost 10 seconds from his 5000 speed he is still sub 12:50 with 2:04 marathon strength and a plethora of experience.

We've seen him close a 10000 in 24. for the last 200 and 12:58 for the last 5000 (in a losing effort in the latter).

If he misses out on the 10000 there may be room in the 5000.

I bet he could beat Lagat in a Championship 5000.

What is the Ethiopian depth in the steeplechase?

ethiopia has a national steeple record of 813.57 that was set in the 1980 olympics, not good considering how many great 5 and 10k runners they have. there are 4 americans that have run faster than the ethiopian steeple record.

Excellent point, and you know I'm a fan and all, but with all due respect, Tergat's mere entering the marathon opened the way for him to win gold. I hope beg does run it, that way people won't be able to ask, "What if?"

copy & paste puss

As a person who used to live in Beijing and still visits there every weekend, I can tell you the pollution is awful. Last Sunday on a run I had a shortness of breath and felt like I was half way going to pass-out/have a heart attack. I do run in beijing often, but on sunday it was terrible, and from what I hear it has not cleared up. Originally I thought it was me, but after speaking with some other runners in beijing they reported similar symptoms.

I would suggest the Letsrun guys take a trip to beijing and check out how bad the pollution is... It's difficult to comment on a place if you have never run there.

Noah

yes douche, i do know that geb has won many gold medals without the aid of pacemakers. the point is - how many marathons has he won without pacemakers; and with other top marathoners in the field. his record there is not that great.

geb's result in the last olympics 10k placed him fourth, behind three other ethiopians. so his chances in the 10k four years later can hardly be rated as good. so just watch next for geb to either fail to qualify or else not be selected for the olympic 10k. or if selected he just 'participates' at the 10k in bejing and ends up with an honourable failure. people will still love him for that. either way it will leave him free to concentrate on the berlin marathon and another million bucks if he breaks the record. at this stage in his career the million is worth more to him than a possible olympic medal at most, or maybe no medal at all. if i were him i know which i would choose - berlin.

I had training- induced asthma. I wouldn`t have bothered a doctor with it, had I not been running. Non runners don`t push themselves the same way and will never know they would need medicine to perform at their absolute best.

I believe you are referring to the 96 Olympics in Atlanta. Geb was convinced the track surface was too hard and might cause him injury.

Who wouldn't love to see another final 1600m like the 10k in Atlanta? What was the last mile...4:04? Holy crap that was fast.

the former mobile9 wrote:

And what is the percentage of elite middle and long distance runners effected by asthma versus that of the general populace? Can you cite a study detailing the effects of elite level training on ordinary people with respect to asthma?

Jana and Paula are clean, I have no doubt about it.

whats your definition of clean?

taking substances not yet banned but later on become banned, like actovigen?

tricky wrote:geb's result in the last olympics 10k placed him fourth, behind three other ethiopians.

Easy there. Tadese (bronze) is not Ethiopian. Eritrea fought a long war with Ethiopia for its independence.

As for Geb running 26:52 off of just marathon training, I'm skeptical that he could run much faster. In 2003, he was outkicked by Bekele at the World Championships and Sihine wasn't far behind. That was five years ago. I'd put Sihine ahead of him by now. Considering Ethiopia's depth at the 10k, there's no guarantee that Geb would get that third spot, though I think he would.

you're right about tadesse. he is eritrean, i think. the point i was trying to make is that after winning gold in 1996 and 2000, geb was out of the medals in 2004. so what chances he can win again in 2008. pretty small i think. oh, and by the way that war with eritrea was not for independence. it was about a border dispute.

Add any "new" shit you want. I'm certain that they're legit.

I love people pointing to his decline citing his being outkicked 5 years ago (did I mention that he still closed in 12:58) or that he was 4th 4 years ago.

When he dropped out of London many said he was finished as a top level performer.

He has since had a nice one hour track performance and the 2 fastest marathons ever.

I agree that he is now an under dog but I wouldn't place his chances of winning as so small.

I know that when most people set a marathon PR they consider themselves as in the best shape of their life. And if that PR happens to be a WR...

I guess his speed must be shot.

toro wrote:I guess his speed must be shot.

Lets look at facts here and I know the Geb lovers will counteract it:

1) Jos was a blood doper himself as an athlete so years later a leopard does not change it spots.

2) What happened in the Dr Fuentes indition with Jos being listed?

3) Geb has been running for 25+ years and was a superstar at 18. How can someone as they get older keep getting better bearing in mind the wear and tear on their body over many years

4) Taking into consideration 3)how can someone have 3-4 operations, miss a few months and keep coming out and breaking world records and running sub 27min on the track.

5) How does someone run 2.04 and then back it up a few months later with no physical problems.

6) Look at Deek, Steve Jones, Alberto, Lopes, Bordin etc... and those guys towards the end could not hardly walk let alone get better and better.

7) He has always said that he wanted to win the Olympic marathon in Beijing so I am guessing heat and what ever he is on will be life threatening.

8) He works are heck of alot in Ehtiopia and around the world as a good will ambassador and how does he keep the level of training up to continually keep getting better

9) London is 4 more years away and that is on the radar??

As I said, the Geb lovers will shoot me down but it just seems impossible that he can keep doing this. At Least Tergat is now starting to look older and has lost that invincibilty but with Geb it is crap.

The only good thing is he probably would not have won in Beijing anyway as favourites don't win.

Not too many facts here dipshit.

Haile has run 3.31 indoors. I doubt Bekele can do the same. They are the two best runners and kickers ever. Bekele has beaten his times by a small margin over 5 and 10.000. They have never met , when Haile was at his peak. 2003-2004 he had problems with his achilles.

I believe Haile has a good shot if he is in peak shape and does not tow along Bekele, like he did in 2003. I also believe Haile might still run the marathon in august.

now ethiopiarun.org is reporting that geb may run the olympic marathon, but only if it can be moved to a venue in china away from the pollution of beijing.

OMG! You're such a martyr, putting yourself out there like that to get shot down!

1) Everyone knows what Jos did. That's not in question. But I'm not stupid enough to think that Sarah Schwald and SFH were cheating because of it. Just because Mark Block is mentioned in Book of Shadows doesn't mean that Amy Mortimer is taking anything.

2) What about Fuentes? Jos has 120 athletes. Geb is one of them.

3) That's the thing about Geb: he is past his best but he is kicking ass at the marathon. If he had quit running track 10 years ago he would be faster in the marathon than he is now. He is just that good (and I think he's in his 40s).

4) Again, that good. Goucher missed the better part of two years and ran 13:11 at almost 30 yrs old. Ryan Hall missed most of his time at Stanford and is now a medal candidate in Beijing. And Geb is just that much better than all of them.

5) The marathon doesn't break him down as much as others. He's said that long breaks don't work for him. He is THE BEST EVER and he's clean. Zero doubt.

6) Yeah, they're not as good as him. Kipketer made winning look so easy because he was another level above the rest. Maybe if you could jump on the track and run 26:50 without thinking about it, a 2:05 would be an off day for you.

7) So this is guesswork, then? I thought that you had some sort of evidence... Everyone is concerned about pollution. If you want to get on the starting line and bandit it, be my guest.

8) Read his book, or show up in Addis like the Yank in Addis and find out for yourself instead of making baseless accusations. He runs twice a day and does office work inbetween. Go to Addis and see for yourself.

Something I've pointed out before and no one has been able to refute: Mike Long of Elite Racing won much deserved praise on this site for throwing that drug cheat from Morocco off his course a year or two ago, because he didn't want a convicted drug cheat having any part of his event. And when he died suddenly, does anyone remember who was front and centre? That's right: Geb. Explain to me how you know better than he did.