Yong-Sung Leal returns!

Hold the phone, Bento Leal just looks like some white dude.

I dont think people really understand what a phenom he was, this is a great stpry.

He should make the true committment and move out to McMillan or Hansons. You are only young once. He is an incredible talent that is lacking in structure.

You are honestly recommending someone who can barely train at 40 mpw without injury to move to marathon development groups that run 120 - 150 mpw?

He is honestly just to talented to move to the marathon or train with any of those sub-elites. I picture more of a Schumacher or Salazar training situation for him, although Rupp would have to adjust to losing to yet another of his training partners.

daddy big bucks wrote:

He should make the true committment and move out to McMillan or Hansons. You are only young once. He is an incredible talent that is lacking in structure.

Can we delete this thread now?

Bancroft Bronco Alum wrote:

Seen Him--are you an SL resident? I went to Bancroft + SL (c/o 2000), and raced Yong Sung Leal. Actually, we were in the same races, that's about it. He was a freshman, and I was a senior. I know he trained at the marina quite a bit and then went to work at Orchard. I had no idea he was working out at Bancroft.

SL resident and work at BMS, used to be at AHS. You are B4 my time there.

YSL went to Arroyo HS and accessed the Marina/Bay trails from SLz. I believed he frequently did an 8-mile run in 48or less minutes.

curse of GF wrote:

Downhill Living wrote:

YSL is going to murder every distance runner in the world next year. I had heard that the comeback was hopefully fully on a couple months ago from one of my friends, we were freshman at a different HAAL school when YS was a senior. Will be following his progress very intently.

Just let the guy make a steady comeback, you guys are killing him before he has a chance. I'd love to have him and Fernandez healthy and live up to potential, but part of what makes Rupp amazing is that he STAYS healthy and LIVES up to potential.

That is where people should watch and learn.

Absolutely! Considering motivation, desire, smarts, opportunity, etc as equal amongst any runners... staying healthy is the #1 key for any talented, motivated, and driven distance runner. Injury is the BIGGEST limiting factor for runners. Being healthy is acheived by a myriad of factors, many beyond the individuals control, many within the individuals control. Some are just blessed with durability and can therefore reach their potential through larger volumes of base and intensity. Some try to train like this and end up on the shelf. (If you can't train, you will take steps backwards, you will lag, you will not meet your potential). Some know that they cant train like this, and thus stay healthy, but end up lagging some because of the limited training. They always have to take the conservative approach, which can stiffle confidence, and fitness. Reaching your potentail can still be done, but the road there isnt as simple as just having heart, desire, and a willingness to work hard. It requires the need for a governor on your training, which is the antithesis to a distance runners mindset.

Finding where you are at in all of this is EXTREMELY difficult. Can you imagine being willing to train hard, being fearless, implementing all of your injury prevention exercises, etc...basically, doing everything your suppossed to do, and then being rewarded with an injury instead of a chance to run that 5k that demostrates the fitness you acheived. This is often the difference between two otherwise equal runners, or two otherwise equal seasons, or two otherwise equal careers.

So, lets not get ahead of ourselves. At this point YSL is a 28:11 6miler (about 29:15 10km). Let hope he can train, train, train, and stay healthy, healthy, healthy. Congratulate him on his acheivements thus far, because he became a 28:11 6 miler via a tough, rocky, unfair, and difficult road.

BUMP!

info wrote:

So, lets not get ahead of ourselves. At this point YSL is a 28:11 6miler (about 29:15 10km).

Footlocker 2001:

1 Timothy Moore (12), Midwest (Michigan), 14:50.41

2 Bobby Lockhart (12), South, 14:51.55

3 Chris Solinsky (11), Midwest, 14:52.91

4 Nurani Sheikh (12), West (Utah), 14:56.51

5 Tim Ross, Midwest (Michigan), 14:57.90

6 Milos Mitric, South, 14:59.22

7 Yong-Sung Leal (12), West, 15:03.85

Notice the senior YSL is 13 seconds off the leader, 11 seconds off the junior Chris Solinsky who would win the next year. And as far as California supposedly being so competitive, Michigan puts in two (1st and 5th) in front of California's first.

And now I just looked at the 2000 Footlocker results. No YSL. Michigan had Ritz in 1st, Moore in 8th (winner the next year), and a guy in 24th. California only had Ryan Hall in 3rd, and Gotcher in 22nd. California for its population is freaking horrible at distance and XC in particular, as the national championships prove when examined as a whole. Doesn't matter if a California or Florida kid runs some fast track times. Put them in the same race (especially XC) with boys from regions with the tougher weather climates and the Sunshine kids almost always lose big.

Michigan has a pretty good track record at footlocker.

With that said, I can't wait to see what's to come with Yong-Sung.

It might have something to do with California having the latest State Meet and by far the most difficult road just to get to the state meet. By the time most CA kids run at State on Thanksgiving weekend, most have no desire to run Foot Locker. Those that do have to come back the following week and run at the FL regional meet.

California home of softies wrote:

California for its population is freaking horrible at distance and XC in particular, as the national championships prove when examined as a whole. Doesn't matter if a California or Florida kid runs some fast track times. Put them in the same race (especially XC) with boys from regions with the tougher weather climates and the Sunshine kids almost always lose big.

Really? And you came to that conclusion based on looking at a few years of data. Maybe you should have looked at 2005 instead, where CA boys placed 1 and 2 and placed 5 in top 11, plus the girl's winner.

But let's look at some numbers. There have been 32 years of Footlocker Championship races. In 8 of those years a CA boy has won and a CA girl has also won 8 times. So in 64 total races, a CA kid has won 16 of them. That's 25% of the time.

I would say that's pretty good and it well exceeds CA's proportion of the total population. The next best state is MI with 6 wins, followed by CO, IL, and NY with 4 each.

So what was that about CA being horrible at XC again?

Here are the states with multiple winners and the counts:

Total

CA 16

MI 6

CO 4

IL 4

NY 4

OH 3

VA 3

CT 2

IN 2

MA 2

MD 2

NH 2

NJ 2

VT 2

Girls

CA 8

NY 4

CO 3

CT 2

VA 2

VT 2

Boys

CA 8

MI 5

IL 4

MA 2

OH 2

Yong-Sung was actually a JUNIOR at the 2001 Footlocker race. Listing him as a 12th grader was a typo in the results that year. He graduated from high school in 2003. The only non-senior to beat him that year was a kid named Chris Solinsky. Anybody heard of him? Also, Yong-Sung finished ahead of some very good runners in that race (most notably Billy Nelson and Bobby Curtis).

Also, some of the best distance runners in the USA today are from California (Ryan Hall, Billy Nelson, Kyle Alcorn, Brett Gotcher, Tim Nelson, and Scott Baugh). Other than Ryan Hall (who is 2 years older than Yong-Sung), all of these other California runners are all about the same age as Yong-Sung and therefore often competed against him in high school. I'm sure they are all VERY AWARE of Yong-Sung's ability and I think they would love to see him competing against them once again. Of course Yong-Sung still has a ways to go before he reaches their level. But considering that he did not run at all for about 7 years and that his mileage for the last 6 months has been extremely low, his 6-mile time last weekend was absolutely MIND-BOGGLING!And I can't wait to see what he does next!! Go Yong-Sung!!!

I ran in the same league as YSL in high school, and can tell you that he is nails. He would routinely go all out in dual meets and set course records, pushing himself just as hard as if it were the state champs.

I remember at a track meet his freshman year, he had only run about 9:40 up until that point. He said he was going to break 9:20 and we were doubting him during the warm up .. he takes off the first lap in 64, never looks back and solos a 9:19.

Also, he was injured most of his sr year ... if not for that he would most likely have won a 3rd XC championship, and taken tim nelson and kyle alcorn in the 3200 (he finished third in 8:57 i think)

mind you, 64 is 8:32 pace.....even IF it's 64.high, its still 8:40ish at the slowest. same thing at W2W....point is, kid goes out even, he runs MUCH faster, so if people are impressed, wait til he gets into a race where he's smoother through the mile, has people to run with (instead of getting passed & running solo) and runs a flat course.

dude-

A lot of people here clearly don't realize that there are actual hills at Wharf. 28:11 for that course would be a bit under 29 undoubtedly on the track for 10k.

bump... of blow