WHEATING 3:30.9

He landissed the field today.

PRRRR wrote:

Wheating lost .5 second when he got his feet tangled up with the runner wearing the orange nike kit. Nearly fell!

where did that happen?

A couple things to consider regarding some of the nonsense that has been posted so far in this thread:

1) To those crying "Alan Webb is still the king," are you the same folks who constantly show up in the "I saw Alan Webb at a burger king" threads? Interesting how an American runs close to Alan Webb's spectacular time and instead of praise for this new great achievement, Webb is suddenly defended despite the fact that he's been insulted for the last two years on this board. Interesting.

2) To those who are skeptical of the "7 second drop": Tell me, what exactly was the great Alan Webb's mile PR before his pre classic performance? Seems to me he also dropped something on the order of 5-6 seconds. It's a new level of competition, and hence a whole new atmosphere for racing. Why is everyone so surprised? If anything, the drop in Wheating's PR should be examined between his Pre Classic Mile (~3:34 equivalent) and this 3:30.9, which would make the drop about 3 seconds. Still a bit staggering, but this was simply a faster race.

3) I've read on so many other threads that Alan Webb is a more impressive runner than Wheating because he had superior PRs. Now, when Wheating steps up to the plate and delivers, why is he crucified? We should be celebrating this great talent instead of scrutinizing him for everything: improvement, lack of improvement, stagnation. What do you guys want? Christ.

Gregsonmobile wrote:

But what about Webb. That guy was kinda talented and it took his years to run that fast and he only faster than Wheating by a hair now. And he's better than Wheating on all cylinders, except strategy. I am growing increasingly skeptical of Wheating now.

I'm a huge Webb fan, but he was the most unpredictable runner I've ever heard of (except maybe Manzano now). He spent basically from 2002 outdoors to 2004 outdoors being utterly mediocre, then even after breaking out in 04 (again) had some setbacks until 2007 and obviously has been pretty much off since then. Not a valid comparison.

Jefe in the CO wrote:

The Big Ragu wrote:

Still overrated IMO. Webb still the best.

While 3:30 is OK, I guess, the real issue here is why did Wheating sandbag NCAA's and Pre!!!!

o.k i know where you are coming from...

Get Going>> wrote:

Isn't it time to stop? To stop doubting?

He's proven 80% of this message board wrong 4x in the past month or so. What will it take? The american record?

He's proven 99.9% of this message board wrong.

The Dbags post over and over again under different names, just to hate Ducks.

Must be a lonely life.

Just wondering.... wrote:

Get Going>> wrote:

Isn't it time to stop? To stop doubting?

He's proven 80% of this message board wrong 4x in the past month or so. What will it take? The american record?

He's proven 99.9% of this message board wrong.

The Dbags post over and over again under different names, just to hate Ducks.

Must be a lonely life.

Lets examine the Wheating haters line of reasoning over the past few years.

2008 - 3:38 blows pro field away with :26.0 last 200. This following at 1:50 800 indoors with one shoe on, a 1:47 win at Stanford Invite and a 3:58 mile win at Oregon Relays.

Haters angle: They weren't real pros, and anyone can kick a :26.0 off of such slow pace, but he won't be able do do it against the best in the world.

Loses NCAA 800 by .001 and gets blasted for a 1:45 PR for, well basically for nothing. Just because.

PR's and runs 1:45.0 AND makes the Olympic team. Gets blasted because he was excited, then gets blasted for finishing 4th in his round at the olympics. Haters will eventually turn this into "dead last in his heat" and ignore the fact that he peaked 2 months earlier.

2009, blasted for losing indoors despite being 6'5" and running on banked corners, and having a stress reaction in his food.

Outdoors blasted for barely winning ncaas, despite having a stomach illness and calf strain. Haters will say these are excuses, despite the fact that he had to miss USA's and a chance to make the world team on his home track when his coach held him out due to the calf not healed.

2010 - Blasted for losing the indoor 800 and his first outdoor 800 of the season to a 1:45 big kicker, they say he can't win the races that matter. They say 6'5" on an indoor track at 800 is no disadvantage, they say that your first race of outdoors "matters". Wheating wins both 800 and 1500 at outdoor NCAA's races that some would say mattered.

Haters respond by saying that Acosta let him win the 1500!!!

Haters point out that he still hadn't PR'd for 800 in 2 years and only one second in two years for 1500 despite the fact that he never was in races that went faster than his PRs. He's a small time winner, not capable of world class racing.

Summer 2010

Doesn't deserve to be in PRE.

After PRE - Still didn't deserve to be in PRE, won't get into big meets in Europe.

Gets 4th at Paris Diamond League, PR's with a terrible last corner. Haters quiet, thinking.

Gets 4th at Monaco, 3-4 second improvement from PRE.

Now Wheating has finally PR'd at both events and has proven he belongs in the Diamond League so haters bring on the drug allegations.

Am I missing anything?

exactamundo wrote:

Webb is the ultimate talent, set aside his bs and problems and it still took him years to drop that far.

Webb was a moderate talent compared to Wheating, with a huge athletic base from being almost a national class swimmer for years, and then developed so hard in highschool. Wheating is the ultimate talent, 1:45.0 in 3rd year of running.

A bit off topic, but while obviously this guy has found the distance where he can probably contend in a major championship, I've always wanted to see a sub-3:50 miler make the leap up to the steeple. A kid as rangy, tall, and fast (fast-twitch) as Wheating could probably do some real damage there. AR damage.

Oregon Dynasty wrote:

exactamundo wrote:

Webb is the ultimate talent, set aside his bs and problems and it still took him years to drop that far.

Webb was a moderate talent compared to Wheating, with a huge athletic base from being almost a national class swimmer for years, and then developed so hard in highschool. Wheating is the ultimate talent, 1:45.0 in 3rd year of running.

What I think is amazing is that in Wheatings first year of running he ran 14:55 for 5K indoors (nation leading) and then opened outdoors by beating the top returning 400 runner from Vermont in a 400 meter race. Then he runs 3:54 for 1500. He did all of this with no team, a coach by phone, and his first year of track as a high school senior.

He's all talent. As far a proving himself I think Lagat says it best about 4-5 minutes into this interview:

Bye the way, Gregson is a beast as well. Granted he's actually probably been training and racing longer than Wheating and has a good deal of international experience already, but he's only 20.

You know, if you are going to be all fact based, logical, and sober...

You really have no place on this board. ;-)

No, you didn't miss anything.

according to track and field news, the collegiate record out of season was Kip Cheruiyot's 3:33.07 (and American collegiate record out of season was Jim Ryun's 3:33.1 WR), so this smashes those records.

Earl Jones's 1:43.74 is the American collegiate record in the 800m and looks doable for Wheating right now.

THE ONLY REASON EVERYONE IS SHOUTING DOPER IS BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO ADMIT THEY WERE WRONG IN THE PREDICTIONS THREAD (EVERYONE SAID ~3:34), EVEN THOUGH HE RAN THAT AWHILE AGO GOING OUT SLOW.

NOOBS

Damn, people goin' on blast about how Wheating could be a cheat and that we're all hipocrits for accusing the africans when they produce similar results.

All while Silas Kiplagat runs a remarkably similar race given his background and what not.

wtf?

I'm honestly shocked at how many people are considering this as a possible cheat. I just don't see wheating being "that kind" of athlete. He's too damn likable. That and with Nike's involvement with UofO and Lananna...there is just way to much risk involved imo.

If this does come out as a cheat it will absolutely destroy the US distance and US track image as a whole.

What was that time in the 400? Anyone know?

Isn't it amazing how, if a guy runs the best race of his life, there are still people on this board who will, somehow, find a way to make negative comments about it?

So he really was jogging all those times!!!!!!

What you are missing is that the haters are a bunch of little pissy girly boys with tiny penises and gonads who can't break 17 for the 5K. They shouldn't let them out of mommy's basement again.

If I was Wheating I'd demand that they be outed by name and take their ass to court, let them try to prove he doped. Cowards all.

Never mind. I found it in that Runners World article. 52.4