Emma Coburn 9:11.42 American Record - THANK YOU

Russian women are Highly suspect for drug cheating. I think the clean Steeple record is probably about 9:07 or 9:08. Who knows where Emma can go, especially if she could get a rabbit for 2k.

Guess we get to see as the season continues.

Yeah, that's really nice, but everyone is a suspect for drug cheating. Of course there will be more Russians caught since they are tested the most. Emma is just as suspect as Yuliya.

way to go Emma! I am a steeple wannabe- you are the real deal. Congrats on your record!!!! Amazing.

and yet no doping rumors..because she's a pretty American blonde I assume.

hi there wrote:

the fastest female steeplechaser has been Russia's Yuliya Zaripova. You know, the recent olympic and world champ that has run 9:05s and 9:06s. If she wants to tangle with the best, then she'd have to be able to challenge the Russian actually.

That will be interesting to see.

I think Coburn will keep improving for awhile, and for as long as she keeps racing in her current style.

hi there wrote:

Yeah, that's really nice, but everyone is a suspect for drug cheating. Of course there will be more Russians caught since they are tested the most. Emma is just as suspect as Yuliya.

It's no wonder so many athletes and human beings hate this board. Everyone's a suspect if they run well, if they don't run well, if they miss a race, or even if they start running poorly.

So go ahead a put a cloud over her record. What a strange little world you people live in. Are you just unhappy because you can't run competitively at a high level? You need to bring everyone down to make yourselves feel better?

Also, are you insinuating that more Americans would be caught if they were tested more? What proof do you have of that? Which Americans do you suspect? Kastor or Flanagan or Ritzenheim or Webb? Truly pathetic.

joedirt wrote:

Great race by Coburn. She has excellent hurdle form. Was I the only one that noticed that Ayalew ran Coburn way outside just before the last water jump and messed up her steps? That was a great last lap and you could see Coburn gain an extra step over almost barrier. I think Ayalew would beat Emma soundly on a flat 3000, but with the barriers they are on an even playing field.

Apparently you were. Where are all the screech owls that were out during the women's USA 5K? Not once but at least twice in the last lap in effort to break rhythm.

Coburn is this year's Pre. Tough gutsy great racing!

Julia Webb wrote:

way to go Emma! I am a steeple wannabe- you are the real deal. Congrats on your record!!!! Amazing.

I wish I could've ever ran the steeple. Seems so much more exciting than just flat races.

J.R. wrote:

hi there wrote:

the fastest female steeplechaser has been Russia's Yuliya Zaripova. You know, the recent olympic and world champ that has run 9:05s and 9:06s. If she wants to tangle with the best, then she'd have to be able to challenge the Russian actually.

That will be interesting to see.

I think Coburn will keep improving for awhile, and for as long as she keeps racing in her current style.

Will she keep getting destroyed on the final lap too? That will be fun.

The steeple times will drop a lot over the next few years. With the men, the steeple times are usually about 30 seconds slower than a flat 3k. With women, it is about 50 to 60 seconds. The event is still relatively new for women. Sub 9s could become common soon.

The men's steeple performances are probably about 30 seconds slower than flat.. women's 40-50 seconds slower than flat. I agree with you that we will see more fast times from the women in the next few years, but not simply because of the weakness of the current times. 5 years ago, Jenny Simpson left the event because she thought that it would become much more competitive quickly, but instead it stalled. Emma Coburn should be commended, at least on the American stage for revitalizing the push for fast times in this event. Her gutsy style of driving for the win by 'laying down the hammer' is going to bring her great rewards in the form of PR's, but is serving as a kick in the pants to many other runners on the US and World stage as well. GO EMMA!

Wejo,

Two things:

1) Maybe some runners could learn from her, but they can't learn talent.

2) The page you made for her record had a color scheme that about gave me a seizure. Good Lord, brother, please don't do that again.

You can see the whole race here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM0_u9SJDFw

Her hurdle technique is so much better than the East Africans it is crazy that they can stay with her at all.

You might want to sober up.

Buffalo Bill - real american wrote:

This 9.11 should really be considered the World record, and Jenny had the old one at 9.12. It is so obvious that all the africans cheat, whether it is age cheating or otherwise. Why the IAAF even allows them to compete is beyond me. The Russian 8.58 (don't ALL Russians) was also an obvious cheat, just like the Chinese women.

Rupp's 26.44 should also be considered the real WR. No way anyone legit is running under 12.55 (if Rupp can't do it then no one can without PED's) or 3.30 for 1500m either. Webb should be the mile record holder as well.

julsome wrote:

The men's steeple performances are probably about 30 seconds slower than flat.. women's 40-50 seconds slower than flat. I agree with you that we will see more fast times from the women in the next few years, but not simply because of the weakness of the current times. 5 years ago, Jenny Simpson left the event because she thought that it would become much more competitive quickly, but instead it stalled. Emma Coburn should be commended, at least on the American stage for revitalizing the push for fast times in this event. Her gutsy style of driving for the win by 'laying down the hammer' is going to bring her great rewards in the form of PR's, but is serving as a kick in the pants to many other runners on the US and World stage as well. GO EMMA!

I didn't really notice the time differential between women's and men's 3K/steeplechase races until you said this, but it is interesting to note.

When did women's steeplechase start being competed?

What do you guys think the WR should be based off the ~8:10 WR for 3,000M (yes, I rounded up, as I'm aware of Junxia's controversy)?

I would go with Obiri- 8:20.. too much controversy over the Chinese runners in the early 90's to think that any of those times are clean, but that is just me.

The women's steeple wasn't a part of world championships until 2005 and was first part of the Olympics in 2008.

I wonder what a reasonable explanation is for the stalling of the event, after fast times when the event was first contested at the 2008 olympics. I would love to see Emma Coburn lead the chase back to the 9 minute barrier. With her stature and form, I think she has the beginning of what it will take.

fantastic to watch Bekele's 5000m record. He looks effortless until the last lap, throwing in some sub 60s along the way. I can't say that seeing Hermens there inspires me with confidence in the result. Bekele himself was thinner at that time.

The only American distance runners to push consistently on their own or just behind the pacers in recent years have been Webb, Simpson, Jager, and Coburn.

9:11 is not soft. The American high school record for 3k flat is 9:00. Americans typically run in the low to mid 8:40s each year. In the men's 3k, there is a 37 second gap from the flat to the steeple AR's. In the women's 3k, there is a 46 second gap from Slaney to Coburn. But only a 30 second gap from Rowbury, not under the cloud of any drug scandals, to Coburn.

GoldenMiles wrote:

(yes, I rounded up, as I'm aware of Junxia's controversy)?

You need to round that up to 8:15, closer to 8:20. You may be "aware of" the Chinese shenanigans in 1993, but evidently you fail to appreciate their staggering scope. The track was obviously short in addition to the athletes being doped -- if it wasn't, please explain how Junxia was supposedly a whole STRAIGHTAWAY better than the rest of the DOPERS in the world at the time, in a meet in which she ran multiple heats of multiple events. The 1993 Beijing Games were utter farce, the IAAF is a joke for having ratified any marks from that meet, and even the unaccountably deified and supposedly educated Renato Canova fails to acknowledge it, most likely because he condones doping and cheating in addition to proper English.

Point being, the steeple WR isn't as far apart on the men's and women's sides as people are claiming, and you should all be doing your math in terms of % diffs, not absolute ones, remembering that women are ~11 percent slower than men in every event.