Sam Tanner of UW / New Zealand has gone pro early and signed with PUMA. Career best NCAA finish - 10th.

He has a better coaching and training situation in NZ than at Univ of Washington.

The 3:34.72 is a national collegiate record. He also really only ran for Washington for 1.5-2 seasons due to students going back home when covid first struck. The argument that his top finish was only 10th would only be somewhat justified if he had completed a full course of college study and competition over 4 seasons.

Puma is shotgunning money at running RN. The only legit world class athlete they have in terms of performance and results is Seidel, who isn't coached by their pet/in-house coach Cragg. The rest of it is banking on potential and you can ask Dark Sky, Gold Coast, and Freedom TC how that goes.

Grossly out of his element come big races. Has a tendency to grow complacent and wait too long to move, sometimes losing contact entirely, but doesn’t yet have the kick to justify these tactics.

But he is young and his 334 was no fluke. Let’s hope the confidence arrives and he puts it all together come Olympics.

msndjjxjnnnn wrote:

Grossly out of his element come big races. Has a tendency to grow complacent and wait too long to move, sometimes losing contact entirely, but doesn’t yet have the kick to justify these tactics.

But he is young and his 334 was no fluke. Let’s hope the confidence arrives and he puts it all together come Olympics.

Not to be rude, but I'm starting to think it may have been a fluke...has he come anywhere close to replicating that performance?

PUMA desperate.

New Zealand needs some hope.

Running Cult Member wrote:

Puma is shotgunning money at running RN. The only legit world class athlete they have in terms of performance and results is Seidel, who isn't coached by their pet/in-house coach Cragg. The rest of it is banking on potential and you can ask Dark Sky, Gold Coast, and Freedom TC how that goes.

I assume you mean only us athletes.

He ran that time towards the end of last years indoor track season and then was straight into his build up for the Olympics. After the Olympics he was straight back to NZ for some downtime and I believe he's also just got married. Hasn't had the opportunity to replicate that race. Give him time, he's only 21.

IfOnly wrote:

He ran that time towards the end of last years indoor track season and then was straight into his build up for the Olympics. After the Olympics he was straight back to NZ for some downtime and I believe he's also just got married. Hasn't had the opportunity to replicate that race. Give him time, he's only 21.

He just got married at 21??? Interesting...

Right during the summer of 2021 in NZ, he announced that he & his girlfriend were getting engaged. As soon as he left for the States, he ran his Olympic standard in Staten Island, and thought that no matter what happens at indoor NCAA, Pac-12s & outdoor NCAAs, that he's not coming back.

Someone was going to throw him some money...just happened to be Puma.

He's got Tom Ratcliffe as his agent.

rhimby wrote:

msndjjxjnnnn wrote:

Grossly out of his element come big races. Has a tendency to grow complacent and wait too long to move, sometimes losing contact entirely, but doesn’t yet have the kick to justify these tactics.

But he is young and his 334 was no fluke. Let’s hope the confidence arrives and he puts it all together come Olympics.

Not to be rude, but I'm starting to think it may have been a fluke...has he come anywhere close to replicating that performance?

Just saw this thread . Have to laugh at the letsrun posters . On one hand you talk about Geordie Beamish winning at Milrose and then downplay Tanners 3.34 as a fluke when a couple of weeks earlier he had beaten Beamish in the NZ mile and 3000 championships . I'm guessing he is currently in the biggest build up of his very short career - if this is the case don't be suprised if by the European summer he is mixing it up with some very good elites because his talent is up there with the best NZs ever had >

It hasn’t been long for Andy Powell at UW but he’s lost Cruz cup pepper and Sam tanner… hmm…

Sam tanner going pro is probably fine. For his age (20?) and having ran 3:34 it makes sense. Moving to the US for college might not have been the right move for him.

rhimby wrote:

msndjjxjnnnn wrote:

Grossly out of his element come big races. Has a tendency to grow complacent and wait too long to move, sometimes losing contact entirely, but doesn’t yet have the kick to justify these tactics.

But he is young and his 334 was no fluke. Let’s hope the confidence arrives and he puts it all together come Olympics.

Not to be rude, but I'm starting to think it may have been a fluke...has he come anywhere close to replicating that performance?

It might be a fluke when a junior high basketball player makes a half-court shot. There are no flukes in running.

UltraDude wrote:

rhimby wrote:

Not to be rude, but I'm starting to think it may have been a fluke...has he come anywhere close to replicating that performance?

It might be a fluke when a junior high basketball player makes a half-court shot. There are no flukes in running.

There are, in the sense that he was peaked correctly for his 3:34, and hasn't seemed to attain that peak fitness since. Will he get that fitness back? Probably, but if he doesn't, I'd call that performance a "fluke".

He ran 3:38/3:36/3:34 in dec/jan/feb.

Then he couldn't get within 4 seconds of that in the next 6 races. But most of those were rounds and championship style races.

My guess is he simply came in too fit.

He'll run 3:31 this year.

dsldkl wrote:

He ran 3:38/3:36/3:34 in dec/jan/feb.

Then he couldn't get within 4 seconds of that in the next 6 races. But most of those were rounds and championship style races.

My guess is he simply came in too fit.

He'll run 3:31 this year.

"finding fitness" is not always that easy, especially when you've lost it. But hopefully he can find it again!

just in germany wrote:

Running Cult Member wrote:

Puma is shotgunning money at running RN. The only legit world class athlete they have in terms of performance and results is Seidel, who isn't coached by their pet/in-house coach Cragg. The rest of it is banking on potential and you can ask Dark Sky, Gold Coast, and Freedom TC how that goes.

I assume you mean only us athletes.

Yes, probably because they're desperate for US running demographic marketshare.

who are you to judge wrote:

Just saw this thread . Have to laugh at the letsrun posters . On one hand you talk about Geordie Beamish winning at Milrose and then downplay Tanners 3.34 as a fluke when a couple of weeks earlier he had beaten Beamish in the NZ mile and 3000 championships . I'm guessing he is currently in the biggest build up of his very short career - if this is the case don't be suprised if by the European summer he is mixing it up with some very good elites because his talent is up there with the best NZs ever had >

Can't really compare Beamish coming off years of injury (NZ 3k) and Beamish after almost a year of healthy training (Boston 5k). Totally different athletes.

rhimby wrote:

dsldkl wrote:

He ran 3:38/3:36/3:34 in dec/jan/feb.

Then he couldn't get within 4 seconds of that in the next 6 races. But most of those were rounds and championship style races.

My guess is he simply came in too fit.

He'll run 3:31 this year.

"finding fitness" is not always that easy, especially when you've lost it. But hopefully he can find it again!

Yeah, it’s because Andy Powell didn’t work enough with him on strength. He eventually lost what he had as the year progressed. Thankfully he’s back in NZ with his former coach. Uber talented.