Oregon and Cheserek should be ashamed and embarrassed

I love the announcer saying "no one in college can beat him"...just as the Villanova runner was pulling up besides Ches. I can't wait until this punk gets to the Pro level and see how far these antics get him.

King Putz wrote:

I love the announcer saying "no one in college can beat him"...just as the Villanova runner was pulling up besides Ches. I can't wait until this punk gets to the Pro level and see how far these antics get him.

If his coach is worth a damn it won't happen again.

My freshman year of college in an indoor meet at Cornell, I had the brilliant idea of trying to intimidate a Syracuse runner by staring at him during the race. It worked just as planned, but the Syracuse coach complained to my coach who promptly took me out to the woodshed. I haven't been to that woodshed since.

Okay, I hadn't seen it live and was confused about what I saw about it on Twitter and reading through this thread...

I just watched the race, and that was pathetic. Pathetic. I wanted to throw up when they got to a walk coming off the curve about 500 meters in.'

I have nothing against Oregon, and frankly root for them more often than not, but I'm glad that happened. That was just awful.

Also, what the hell did that Georgetown kid do? He just sprints out for about 10 meters, looks around, then stops again. Pure nonsense all around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImGK9vxa8XQ

^Video link, as long as it stays up.

This turn of events is doubly satisfying. One, it's fun to see Oregon get humiliated. Two, it's hilarious to see the Oregon fans/sheep getting sliced up by malmo.

I mean, seriously, he has a point. If you're a grown man and you call a college freshman/sophomore "King" anything, you might want to reconsider your life's trajectory.

AT wrote:

Okay, I hadn't seen it live and was confused about what I saw about it on Twitter and reading through this thread...

I just watched the race, and that was pathetic. Pathetic. I wanted to throw up when they got to a walk coming off the curve about 500 meters in.'

I have nothing against Oregon, and frankly root for them more often than not, but I'm glad that happened. That was just awful.

Also, what the hell did that Georgetown kid do? He just sprints out for about 10 meters, looks around, then stops again. Pure nonsense all around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImGK9vxa8XQ

^Video link, as long as it stays up.

There is obviously some pathetic misplaced loser hating going on here by low life's like Malmö and trialswatcher.

Ches tried to let others lead and they started walking. I don't think he was expecting everyone else in the race to walk.....maybe trying to let someone else take the lead was a poor tactic, but the pathetic part was everyone else not Ches.

Why is Ches getting so much crap here? I saw a bunch of college kids refusing to lead, not one. I also thought the race was exciting and interesting. The booing to cheering to booing to cheering was entertaining. The crowd was heavily involved with the race.

Actually I like the nickname King Chez. The more nicknames the better. My point was rhetorical -- if you are going to become outraged about the reduction of a patriarchal nickname to a matriarchal one, then perhaps it's fair to apply the same righteous indignation to the patriarchal nickname?

It's not by any means completely Cheserek's fault, but I was glad to see that after he intentionally tried to give up the lead multiple times, and the way he acted at the end of that DMR yesterday.

That being said, you can't seriously say that it was everyone else's fault and NOT Ches. The blame can be shared, but Cheserek certainly takes some, and probably more than anyone else.

Jersey Shore's Finest wrote:

Why is Ches getting so much crap here? I saw a bunch of college kids refusing to lead, not one. I also thought the race was exciting and interesting. The booing to cheering to booing to cheering was entertaining. The crowd was heavily involved with the race.

Maybe because Ches is like 28 and hardly a college student anyway. A hired professional should act like a professional.

Like OMG, he's like 28??

AT wrote:

Dumb....... wrote:

There is obviously some pathetic misplaced loser hating going on here by low life's like Malmö and trialswatcher.

Ches tried to let others lead and they started walking. I don't think he was expecting everyone else in the race to walk.....maybe trying to let someone else take the lead was a poor tactic, but the pathetic part was everyone else not Ches.

It's not by any means completely Cheserek's fault, but I was glad to see that after he intentionally tried to give up the lead multiple times, and the way he acted at the end of that DMR yesterday.

That being said, you can't seriously say that it was everyone else's fault and NOT Ches. The blame can be shared, but Cheserek certainly takes some, and probably more than anyone else.

I don't think it was Ches's fault at all. I've seen hundreds of races where someone moves out to let someone else lead and I've never once seem the pace drop that much. How could anyone have expected that pathetic display by all the other runners? Ches didn't want a walkathon, he just wanted to not lead. Everyone else decided to walk instead of letting it happen. So yes I blame them more than Ches.

Emotions are running high around here...and it's pretty ridiculous. I hope if people are commenting, they've watched the whole race.

I got it, Cheserek slowed down. I'm not defending him, because my coach would have literally beat my ass for doing something like that. Looking holistically: why the hell didn't anyone else step up and take the lead? Stanford, Georgetown, Wisco...they all have legitimate anchor runners. Cheserek didn't just stop, he kept moving out and slowing down from the handoff to allow someone else take the lead, per his gameplan. Nobody wanted to, so he slowed down a LOT, probably because he foolishly only had that one gameplan. Georgetown ended up stepping up, but seemingly looked up at his coach/stands and did the EXACT SAME THING Cheserek did: pulled off to the side and dramatically slowed to allow the pack to pass him. From a completely unbiased standpoint, after the initial "WTF?" of Cheserek jogging, I started thinking that everyone in the field should be embarrassed. Ches started the jog, but everyone fell right in like a bunch of pathetic lemmings.

To Rojo's point, I could care less about Oregon showing up to any meet...as most can attest who have competed/been to Penn, the only people who watch the distance races are distance fans. The races cycle so quickly that there's not a lot of time to sit and dote on each race. The overwhelming majority are there to 1) watch Jamaica and 2) watch USA v. World (read: Sprint) races. But I will also admit that Oregon creates a lot of distance muscle for one school: Acosta, Rupp, Hasay, Centro, Ches, Wheating, etc. Those are the track athletes that have the potential to be household names, at least for T&F. From a marketing perspective, it would behoove a lot of races to bring in Oregon and their national champions and potential future world record holders/Olympic medalists. And for the big meets where Oregon runs, their pro grads typically run as well.

Yeah, what are you guys all butt hurt about? He decided he didn't want to lead so he slowed down. Nobody else wanted to lead either. It's not like he tried to impede anyone. A race is a race. As long as you don't cheat, all that matters is the first one to cross the line. Who knows if Oregon would have won if he had run hard from the bell.

Bad Wigins wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImGK9vxa8XQ

After seeing it, I think Cheserek is not going to make it as a pro. He relies on that kick but it will never be the best in the world or anywhere near it.

I don't know about that. Not sure here but he has closed in 24 before in the 10000. Anytime you can do that you will be right up there with the best in the world.

I completely agree with all the posters who are showing some rational analysis now, as opposed to the idiots who can think only "hate Oregon". Every team in that race had an opportunity to start running and quit walking. Cheserek took his coach's instructions to heart, not realizing that every other runner was to cowardly to run an honest pace that would allow him to tuck in and wait for the final lap. I believe that this race will only work in favor of Oregon and Chez as they move into the championship part of their season. This happened at what is basically an exhibition meet. It was a good place to learn a lesson and realize that American runners can be unpredictable and sometimes cowardly, as we saw today.

How many wheels you got? Best team at the meet...

LM wrote:

I don't know about that. Not sure here but he has closed in 24 before in the 10000. Anytime you can do that you will be right up there with the best in the world.

If Gebremeskel, Farah, Jeilan, Bekele, Bekele, and even Rupp had been behind him with 200 to go in that crawlfest, he would have finished 7th with a gap in front of him.

Cheserek ran an idiotic race and disrespected his competition period. Oregon really flew all the way across the country for the King to try and hide behind lesser runners and sprint in? And he ran the equivalent of a 4:15 mile. That was a terrible race plan and showed no guts.

Lets go back to a similar situation 2002. Alistair Cragg gets the baton 2 seconds ahead of Gabe Jennings. Does he slow down and wait for the whole field to catch up? No he runs a 55 first lap and Gabe runs a 53. Cragg hangs on to a gritty 404 split and the Hogs run 16:09 and Jennings is destroyed.

Cragg tactics in that race, like Chesereks, also cost the Hogs the record. But he won the race and put everyone away without and disrespect. Just balls.

Hopefully next year the King will come back and show us what he can really do.

there is no reason for the other teams to be embarrassed. All but one of them had been gapped and had spent more energy catching up, so taking the recovery gave them a chance to even things out. Exactly the right strategy, kudos to Georgetown's coach or whoever.

And the one that wasn't gapped knew his best chance to win was a slow pace. And it worked.

The only one setting himself up for disaster was Cheserek. He could easily have won simply by superior fitness over the distance, but he couldn't kick his never-lead habit. That's why people were so happy to see him lose. If Farah goes down like that, people will celebrate the same way.