TEAM USA FOR WORLD XC here

Is this going to be the worst men's team we've ever sent to worlds?

On a positive note, I'm putting on the faith and hope I normally would put into the senior men's field into the junior boys competition. I hope Garret Heath and Kenny Klotz take it to those Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Ugandans, Moroccans, and such.

It seems to me that a lot of the people posting on this thread must be rather casual fans of the sport if they don't recognize the names and quality of the senior men's team that we are sending. They may not be the biggest names in our sport but they all are runners who have been progressing steadily toward the top of US distance running and have produced strong results over the last year or two. They are going to surprise many people. Good luck and go get 'em guys!

irun wrote:

I hope Garret Heath and Kenny Klotz take it to those Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Ugandans, Moroccans, and such.

I think you mean ELLIOT Heath; wish Garret was running too, though. Those Heath brothers are tough! Elliot's win at Nationals was a very pleasant surprise.

Question:

There is a lot of debate over this, and I can't seem to find clearly what the answer is (partially b/c I haven't sorted entirely through this thread), but why aren't all these guys going to Kenya for World Cross?

It is very dissapointing to see so many big names skipping out on a very important World Team Meet. Also funny the timing of it all...did anyone see this Showdown documentary that is coming out? It culminates with the US CC Championships and features Ritz, Culpepper, Meb, Torres & Abdi. It says in their preview something about going to Kenya, which is funny b/c none of these guys are going. Anyways, should still be a good documentary, just tainted a bit for me.

Maybe there should be a rule that if you qualify for World XC champs and don't run the race twice in 4 years, then you're ineligible to run for the US in the World Championships on the track, the Olympic Trials or the Olympics.

If these guys don't want to represent us at Worlds because they have other priorities, then they don't get to represent us at the Olympics.

You're either on the US Team or you're not. If you are, you get to go to whatever you qualified for ... World XC, World Track Championships, Olympics. If you qualify and don't go more than 50% of the time, then I guess you're NOT on the US Team, and you don't get to go to the Olympics or World XC.

Go ahead, rip me a new one. :-)

And good luck to the guys who ARE going ... enjoy the trip and have fun!

This just goes to show how selfish distance runners are. These guys don't think about their country they only think about representing themselves and what's best for themselves. They definitely fit the sterotype of the "Me First" distance runner who doesn't give a shit about the jersery that he wears in a race.

yeah then guess what will happen - then people just wont run world cross.

weird thing here is that people slam the CU guys for bailing out. but no one slams Meb or Hall who, if you use your logic, didn't put world cross before a possible London payday. heck they didn't even show up to run at the us cross meet. they are really doing their country a disservice i guess.

irun wrote:

Is this going to be the worst men's team we've ever sent to worlds?

On a positive note, I'm putting on the faith and hope I normally would put into the senior men's field into the junior boys competition. I hope Garret Heath and Kenny Klotz take it to those Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Ugandans, Moroccans, and such.

How can you leave out Tebow?

Let's put the shoe on the other foot...whatever that means. Let's say the roles were reversed, and it was Kenyans that were pulling out of a World X-C event. You can damn well bet the Kenyan federation would order them to compete...OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES.

For some of the "quick to make comments group, check this out before condeming people dropping out of the World XC trip, not to mention this:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/03/06/kenya.threat.ap/index.html

From the state department:

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Senior Mens Team race USA 11th See more>>

http://www.iaaf.org/WXC07/results/textfiles/eventCode=3651/textfile.txt