Julien Wanders -, 13:57.61, last place in Luzern, Switzerland. Winner Kiplimo, 12:55.60.

The plan was for a fellow Asics athlete from France, Felix BOUR, to pace Julien to the Olympic qualifying time for the 5000 m, 13:13.50.

This whole episode about Julian training in Kenya for the past two years and also Swedish runner EmilDe la Oliva, training in Kenya for the past year and not producing the goods this year shows that training hard all the time in Kenya does not always work for European athletes. Both these athletes are super strong and can run all day at 20 km/h but that does not necessarily translate into fast track times. A more optimal type of regime for these athletes might be for them to spend limited periods of time at high altitude alternating with other periods of time at sea level. The huge sacrifice Julien has made to uproot and live permanently add 2800 m (in Iten) has not paid off at least not in 2020 and 2021. Covid may have exacerbated matters as well. Anecdotal evidence shows that some sportsman with Covid and having suffered from Covid are impacted which can last for several months or possibly even longer. We don’t know if this is the case with Julien but something doesn’t add up this year. The ROI has been so poor this year in general.

Is this one singular race result definitive proof that the east African lifestyle does not contribute to success in distance running, and it is instead genetics?

he apparently had covid late march/early april. he might never recover fully just like the athlete special.

Amateur scientist wrote:

Is this one singular race result definitive proof that the east African lifestyle does not contribute to success in distance running, and it is instead genetics?

No, this is simply a question with regard to Western athletes living permanently at altitude in a place like Kenya. Few athletes do that on a permanent basis and the two athletes that we are following here, Julien and Emil have both had a disastrous year 2021, at least up till now but we wish both of them success in the coming months if they can get their act together again.

te5n1k wrote:

he apparently had covid late march/early april. he might never recover fully just like the athlete special.

This, in a nutshell. Short video just over two minutes.

The story here is the Kenyan I’ve never heard of, Daniel Ebenyo, who ran 12:55. Looks like he’ll be at the Olympics, and a probable finalist.

Amateur scientist wrote:

Is this one singular race result definitive proof that the east African lifestyle does not contribute to success in distance running, and it is instead genetics?

Did he not set the European record over the half marathon distance while training in Iten?

This must be his clean performance. He just wants the road race prize money from races with minimal to no drug testing. Those minimal recovery, insane workouts he's done are only possible with unnaturally quick recovery from EPO.

Why this channel cut his prayers at the end of the race?

Because it looked like the one that do peoples in mosques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw9M6ZE1Dzk

Good luck Kiplimo.

lke_4:25 wrote:

Amateur scientist wrote:

Is this one singular race result definitive proof that the east African lifestyle does not contribute to success in distance running, and it is instead genetics?

Did he not set the European record over the half marathon distance while training in Iten?

Absolutely, and he had a superb year in 2019 but things started going bad in 2020 with the advent of COVID-19. Since then it’s been a very frustrating time for Julien. The paradox is that he continues to train well in Kenya and all his training mates including Europeans state that he’s “flying” in training but it does not translate into fast racing times on the track. Is it COVID-19 and the after affects of COVID-19, or some other problem? Perhaps Julian needs to press the reset button and go back in time to re-introduce former training plans. Canova might also advise him.

According to his training partner ( and fellow ASICS athlete, Felix BOUR/France) Julien Wanders is suffering from some kind of “muscle problem“ at this time which explained his poor performance in Lucerne, 13:57. In any case, credit to Julien for always finishing races no matter how bad he’s feeling and how poor the performance. It looks unlikely now that Julien will go to the Olympic Games. This is somewhat tragic for an athlete who puts his whole life into athletics and sacrifices so much but hopefully all this work will pay off at some point in the future because he is still young.

Julian's troubles did not start with COVID. He did terrible at the WC in Doha in 2019 (and did not finish the race this time...). He also always lacked of consistency on track, even in 2019.

I don't get his schedule at all this year. He ran a half marathon 10 days before a 5,000m. What was he expecting ? Moreover the 5,000m never was in his mind for the Olympics, he always said he will just do the 10,000m so I doubt that the plan was to make the olympics standards yesterday.

Adri1 wrote:

Julian's troubles did not start with COVID. He did terrible at the WC in Doha in 2019 (and did not finish the race this time...). He also always lacked of consistency on track, even in 2019.

I don't get his schedule at all this year. He ran a half marathon 10 days before a 5,000m. What was he expecting ? Moreover the 5,000m never was in his mind for the Olympics, he always said he will just do the 10,000m so I doubt that the plan was to make the olympics standards yesterday.

Indeed.

Latest: Just learned now from Instagram that the up-and-coming Swedish runner Emil de la Oliva, also suffered from Covid in Kenya during his long stay there for the past many months and this may explain his poor form this year. Last year 1329 and 2823, this year 1354 and 2925. so loss of half a minute over 5K and one minute over 10 K as a result possibly of COVID-19 long-term.

Disease is real and people should take care. For the average punter slowing down by one minute over 10 km is nothing but for a world class athletes that is huge.

Adri1 wrote:

Julian's troubles did not start with COVID. He did terrible at the WC in Doha in 2019 (and did not finish the race this time...). He also always lacked of consistency on track, even in 2019.

I don't get his schedule at all this year. He ran a half marathon 10 days before a 5,000m. What was he expecting ? Moreover the 5,000m never was in his mind for the Olympics, he always said he will just do the 10,000m so I doubt that the plan was to make the olympics standards yesterday.

+1 and all this is a mystery because unlike most athletes Julien Wanders does not communicate very well on Instagram with people outside his circle of very limited acquaintances and friends.This means that we have limited information about his current status and health issues

What I think is a reliable source that the Norwegian runner Moen will not be taking part in the Olympics. This is not confirmed yet but that is very sad. Canova is advising these runners so it is a big disappointment they will not take part in Tokyo/Sapporo. Wanders/Moen not taking part is very disappointing.

So Wanders is ranked 37th in the world over 10,000 and I’m assuming theres not 3 other Swiss athletes going if his health improves before the games can he compete?

BTW. Narve Gilje Nordas 4th in this race is trained by Gjert Ingebrigtsen. Nordas is going to Tokyo. His last 1000 at 2.29 in Luzern.

Wanders explains here that after a couple of kilometers he started suffering in his hamstrings which really handicapped him but he was able to finish the race.

Another elite runner commented that when runners have suffered from COVID-19 it will weaken them for many weeks or months following COVID-19 and this especially affects runners who have not been vaccinated as appears to be the case with the Swiss French runner. The other elite runner who wishes to remain anonymous seriously advises all runners to get the vaccination because they say that once they are vaccinated they will recover from COVID-19 much faster than people who remain unvaccinated.Another elite runner commented that when runners have suffered from COVID-19 it will weaken them for many weeks or months following COVID-19 and this especially affects runners who have not been vaccinated as appears to be the case with the Swiss French runner. The other elite runner who wishes to remain anonymous seriously advises all runners to get the vaccination because they say that once they are vaccinated they will recover from COVID-19 much faster than people who remain unvaccinated