He will go top 15, but ryan gregson of austria will beat him
He will go top 15, but ryan gregson of austria will beat him
German is talented wrote:
He'll be the first junior across the line - yet finish 9th behind 8 over-age Africans and everyone at Letsrun will be too scared to say anything about the obviously over-age "juniors". Because they're African.
Yeah, because we all know Africans are only fast until they have to compete against people their own ages.
You maybe right he could be top 15 with a medicore run or worse and DNF with a bad run or injury; however, remember he placed top 15 last year and this year he is on ANOTHER LEVEL of fitness compared to last year. German said top 15 is his goal after his 3:56 indoor mile but I have to think in his mind his trying to fly under the radar without putting high expectations on himself during interviews. Top 10 definitely with a solid run and top 5 if he has a good day!
VIPAM wrote:
You maybe right he could be top 15 with a medicore run or worse and DNF with a bad run or injury; however, remember he placed top 15 last year and this year he is on ANOTHER LEVEL of fitness compared to last year. German said top 15 is his goal after his 3:56 indoor mile but I have to think in his mind his trying to fly under the radar without putting high expectations on himself during interviews. Top 10 definitely with a solid run and top 5 if he has a good day!
I thought you knew what you were talking about. He was not top 15 last year.
Vipam, glad to see you back.....
Thread reader wrote:
Masturboking wrote:For serious though, its obvious that Luke is farther behind in training that the other two for whatever reason.
How is this obvious? What about his racing makes it so clear that he's behind the others?
I think what he meant to say is that it SEEMS obvious. Without being in the program we can't know for sure, but the fact that he consistantly ran ahead of Derrick the entire cross season (with Derrick outkicking him a few times) suggests pretty strongly that Luke was either sick or not as far along in training as Chris at U.S. Junior Cross. Also, German had already raced well before that race, and Derrick had a race under him as well. Considering that all of the other ducks had raced indoors prior to that event suggests that for any number of reasons Lanana did not want to race him yet.
Maybe injury, illness, or most likely planning that Lanana held him back a little bit. And to be honest, after seeing Luke race quite a few times now, he just didn't look fit in that race. And yes that is something you can identify in people if you have seen someone race a lot.
Australia.
But even considering this?
He did not finish top 15, and he's as dirty or as clean as Bolt.
My apologies I knew that he placed 25th as the first American Junior; however, didn't catch the error when I put 15th. After his 3:56 indoor mile he stated he wanted to be top 15; however, maybe after his Jr X-Country runaway and his 7:47 he will reassess his World Jr X-Country goals. It's true that Africa always have two or three UNEXPECTED outstanding unior X-Country talent but for the most part the others are some that have showed promise in youth competitions, previous African x-country meets etc. This year most of the outstanding junior talent has graduated to senior ranks with fewer on the horizon replacing those that departed. With a good run I think German has a shot at top 5 and can't wait to see who else make the American junior team!
Thread reader wrote:
How is this obvious? What about his racing makes it so clear that he's behind the others?
Maybe because he was right with/ahead of Derrick in cross country and got creamed at USA Juniors when Derrick, who fell in the first 1k and had to catch up. Unless he was sick, you really don't go from being within a couple seconds of a competitor each time you race to that far back in three months of training. Also you don't go finish from finishing fifth at NCAAs to finishing fifth in a 5k race without you being behind in training compared to your peers. You will rarely see a true freshman finish that high in cross and not do well in a 5k. Older guys with a lot more training can run really well in a 10k cross and not be as good at 5k, but rarely happens with true freshman.