The salient (note spelling) FACTS are that Rupp WON a race among his peers, in a HUGE PR, while BREAKING the Collegiate Record, while Abdi (the subject of the thread) performed sub-par for his level and backround. Whether Rupp was 21 or 31 is a MINOR fact, other than the consideration of the fact that most of those young Ethiopians have many thousands of miles on their legs that Rupp doesn't (watch the film "Endurance" for more on this aspect). I'm sure that those young Ethiopians are great fellows, but we know next to nothing about them or their running careers, while the anyone following American distance running can relate the details, trials and tribulations of the top American runners from age 17 on. It is a tragedy that the 27:00 "19-year old" (i.e. born in the "Year that the cows had many blue flies") don't get the props of Hall or Rupp, but at least they don't get ripped by trolls on this site either.BTW GR will run CONSIDERABLY faster than 27:31 once he gets out of college and it's non-optimal racing demands, that much is clear.
Off the Grid wrote:
Saleint facts in this comment
20yrs old
Winner
Ages of finishers @ Hengelo:
Sileshi Sihine 24
Eliud Kipchoge 22
Moses Mosop 21
Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam 22
Haile Gebrselassie 34
Deriba Merga Ejigu 26
Mohamed Ali Aboosh 19
Habtamu Fikadu 19
Eshetu Wondimu ?
Sammy Kipketer 25
Assefa Raji 21
Khalid El Amri 30
Abdihakem Abdirahman 30
Being 20 and running +30 seconds faster than GR obviously doesnt rate on your radar screen.
This is one of 3-4 races this year that will determine world rankings and who gets into fast races at the end of the year. I would be VERY (happily) surprised if GR was in any of these.