Yaseen Abdalla 2:11 in first marathon

Anyone know what the fastest debut Olympic marathon is? Must come only from universality athletes, right? I can't imagine there's (m)any universality athletes that still could've run 2:11 in the past, much less on a course like this.

He's an NCAA champ, but more of a Taylor Roe than a Parker Valby or a Nico Young, if that makes sense. I wonder if he's more suited to the marathon (I'm expecting a great XC result after this), or if he'll try to continue on the track more. When was the last time an NCAA track champ went to the marathon really quickly, particularly a 3k/5k guy? I know Mantz did, but he was a 2x XC champ and won the 10k iirc. Young was also a 10k guy. Yaseen won an indoor 3k right? I wouldn't expect a 2:11 on this course out of a 3k guy.

IIRC, Yaseen's only NCAA title is the 2022 DMR.

Who would have guessed that Yaseen would beat Cam Levins lol.

Yaseen's post race comments (via Strava).

"
6 week build, self coached, almost all on treadmill, no hills despite everyone b****ing 🤣🤣, first marathon at Olympics on the hardest course ever. Covid last week, pulled my hip flexor yesterday, had to porta potty at mile 15. IT’S TOO EASY.
was an honor to meet Haile Gebrselassie, Kipchoge, and Bekele. The literal goats of the sport.
I also led for approximately 2 seconds around 15 minutes in ✊

What a natural. Just a phenomenal performance that was unexpected. Just love it for him, hope he goes all-in. Goes back to Kenya and does the E. Cairess route.

Such a legend, such an inspiration

Really great performance on a difficult course. I wonder what he will do on a flatter course in the future. He seems to have dialed in his training well by not making it too complicated.

What's his strava username? The "Yaseen Abdalla" I'm finding on there doesn't seem like an active account, with most recent post being July 5th.

Yall. He took a bathroom break at mile 15. Cost him 30 seconds.

He could be a 2:04-2:05 guy on a flat course in a few years. 2:11 on a debut with a bathroom break after doing 90% of training on the treadmill is actually absurd.

I'm kind of shocked that he isn't go pro after that performance. I feel 2:11 is worthy of a pro contract considering it was a debut on a fairly challenging course. If he can stay healthy he could have a solid career at this distance at minimum. I was kind of shocked by his transfer to Arkansas after his Olympic run.

He transferred before the Olympics in June.

Unless he got a mind blowing contract, he's probably better off taking a free year of education and trying to be an NCAA champion in his last year. He's on a great XC team that could podium or he could leverage his marathon result into a possible outdoor title. Plus Arkansas is a huge T&F contender for the title

Might want to look up the course for the 1992 Olympic marathon. It was run in a sauna and the last several K were all uphill. The course had a net elevation gain of about 300 ft.

olympics.com

The most challenging marathons in Olympic history

@olympics

After the announcement of a Paris 2024 marathon route that has been described as a “great sporting challenge”, Olympics.com looks back at some of the most testing courses in the history of the Olympics, along with the athlete...

Link:olympics.com/en/news/the-most-challeng...

What is 300ft in normal measurements?

Those injections must be doing wonders, Yaseen! Great work!

I think it's around 452.4 ounces or 878745 quarters of an inch.

I wonder what he means by calling them "literal goats"? Does he mean that they're literally goats?

John Treacy ran 2.09.56 in his debut marathon to take silver - LA 1984

Zatopek gold in 1952.

W Yaseen :D