ttc wrote:
Sir Lance-alot wrote:I agree Ritz should run world x-c and should do quite well, BUT.....
You are using a comparison of a performance by Ritz, where he ran even splits and had the greatest day of his life by farrrrrrr, against a performance by Bekele where he was tired from completing a historic double in the WC's (where he demolished Ritz at 10k), went out too fast (12:30 pace thru 1k, 12:40 pace thru 2k) and just mailed in the victory to stay alive in the jackpot to say: 'Hey Ritz has a chance to beat Bekele at cross because Ritz is a good cross runner and just ran a great 5k! ' What the f*** kind of cross runner do you think Bekele is for crissakes?!?! Oh, I don't know, the greatest one in history maybe?! Hey, Ritz got 24th as a teenager, and Bekele, oh let's see, how did he do back then, oh yeah.... he won both races every year for about a million years in a row. Yeah, those accomplishments are comparable!
Clearly you've taken too many hits to the head in your recent foray into MMA if you think Ritz has a shot against Bekele in cross. Hey, awesome run by Ritz, but he ain't beating Bekele at 12k x-c unless he shoots him during the race.
I would've taken even more hits to the head, if I'd thought Ritz would've gained on Bekele in a 5K and finished 3.95 seconds behind. Bekele's own manager said Ritz' presence (with the other runner) pushed Bekele on the last lap. Now THAT'S crazy. If Ritz can do that in his worst distance event, then I'd like to see the XC 12K.
Ritz finished 9th in the Olympic marathon, THEN 6th at the world 10K, THEN the AR 5K. He's getting better and is clearly not the same runner, versus even 3 weeks ago. I'm not about to place any limits on him. Especially when he finished 24th in world cross as a teen. Ritz has now become a world elite. On a good day, he can do most anything, and is proving it.
Clearly you're not getting the message. Bekele doubled in the 5K/10K five days before he ran the zurich meet. If fresh like ritz, he would've beaten ritz by 10 or more seconds in that 5k. XC is ritz strongest event but Bekele is the king in that area as well. But besides bekele ritz could easily get in the top 15 at worlds possible top 10 but of course it depends on how the race is run.