Goucher, Ritz, Torres: Do they feel stupid for not going to Kenya?

tough boys on keyboards wrote:

Who have you talked to? Did they tell you that security was so thick that they couldn't go anywhere without scrutiny from armed guards? Did they tell you about staying awake until 9:00am because they couldn't fall asleep at night? Tell us who you talked to?

Sooooo, you have "substantiated" fears about...lack of sleep and armed guards???? Get a life by letting your kids get one!

Not so sure I'm ready to jump on Dathan or Adam for not going. Aside from the fact that it was a mute point since they were injured/sick, I agree that it would have been a fabulous life experience regardless of what "tough boys..." thinks.

Dathan and Adam don't need to gather fabulous life experiences right now, they need to run fast and racing in the heat can wreck you for months. Hopefully they've got bigger fish to fry...unlike those pesky Brits who think they've got a chance of magically resurrecting their distance runners come Beijing.

By Chris Mbaisi

Breathing with difficulties and sweating like a convict who’s just concluded hard labour, Veronicah Nyaruai heads to a drum of iced water outside the medical tent. She’s trying to say something, but ends up mumbling words whose meaning only God can decipher.

The athlete is behaving in a manner that suggests she’s either possessed or filled with the Holy Spirit — as no one seems to comprehend her new language.

A few metres away, Linet Masai is in a similar situation, only that hers is worse. She cannot even tell who she is. Paramedics diagnose her problem as memory loss. Psychiatrists are then called in to the rescue and it takes them close to an hour to bring Masai back to her senses.

These were common scenes at the Mombasa Golf Course on Saturday as the sweltering heat — which hit 36 degrees — took toll on runners at the just-concluded World Cross Country Championships. The juniors bore the brunt of the heat as their races were in the afternoon.

Masai had just crossed the line ahead of the pack in the junior women’s race, while Nyaruai had finished third before the girls found themselves in "wonderland".

The high humidity scattered plans of many runners and did not even spare the experienced lot as Kenenisa Bekele would testify. The Ethiopian pulled out after 9km after developing stomach stitches and saw his dream of winning a record sixth title slip from his grasp.

The immediate former junior women champion, Pauline Korkwiang, also had to pull out after the heat became too much. Korkwiang miscalculated the laps and sprinted to the finishing line thinking she had won. But when an IAAF official waved her on, she had to start again and got mixed up in the process. She then drained herself and succumbed to the heat. In another incident, world junior men’s cross country champion, Asbel Kiprop’s shoe had to be cut off his feet — like in the movies — after developing blisters.

The medical tent was a beehive of activities, akin to a disaster zone. Scenes synonymous to those at the Kenyatta National Hospital emergency ward were common as dehydrated runners checked in and out of the medium-sized tent in alarming frequency.

In the tent, athletes suffering from effects of excess heat were put on a drip. Activities outside the tent were not different either. Like Nyaruai, many athletes were dipped in a drum of iced water to cool them.

Paramedics and volunteers had to employ all their first aid techniques as they tried to resuscitate the dehydrated athletes.

The head of emergencies, Caleb Odera, said about 24 athletes were rushed to hospital with various problems. Most of them were however discharged on Sunday.

Although Mombasa was described as the best cross country course in history, it will also go down history books as the toughest ever.

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=1143966539

Beijing ready? wrote:

Beijing is going to be way more brutal than Athens was. Dr Randy Wilber who has done the studies on both Beijing and Athens claims that it will be every bit as hot in China with much greater humidity. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Olympians to see how their bodies respond to extreme conditions and then prepare accordingly. Instead we (or should I say they) took the easy way out. I hope that not one of those athletes that turned down this trip has anything negative to say about the conditions in China.

This is probably the best point, and one I also made on another thread. Heat? Long travel? Odd food? Sounds like a perfect dry-run for the Olympics next year.

This is proof positive that the americans have no intention of being competitive at the Olympic Games. We will send our best athletes (as Jack Daniels suggests is best) and they will complain about the conditions. The travel, the food, the armed guards. We will all sympathize, and life will go on.

he has quit running wrote:

This is proof positive that the americans have no intention of being competitive at the Olympic Games. We will send our best athletes (as Jack Daniels suggests is best) and they will complain about the conditions. The travel, the food, the armed guards. We will all sympathize, and life will go on.

And you'll be in the basement banging away on your mothers computer until she tells you it's past your bedtime.

They don't need "fabulous life experiences"? "Bigger fish to fry"? You mean competing on the world stage against the worlds best in Olympic-like conditions? If they don't need that, then what do they need? How much bigger fish do you need than Bekele and the other 30 Africans who run sub 27 10k's? It was a missed opportunity. Period. But they'll have others. It's just the mindset that's potentially dangerous...like Salazer said in a press conference, sitting next to Steve Jones before the XC nationals:

"I asked Adam if he thought he could finish top 10 at World Cross, and he said no. You're right, so why go over at all?"

Ah, that's the fierce competitive toughness we need to instill in our athletes...

Jefe in the CO wrote:

Aside from the fact that it was a mute point since they were injured/sick...

I guess it wasn't a talking point, then. At least not out loud.

It's a joke now that "U.S. distance running is on the way back."

ttc wrote:

It's a joke now that "U.S. distance running is on the way back."

It's a joke only if they're listening to you.

The answer to the original question is no, they don't feel stupid

then shame on them.

tough boys on keyboards wrote:

lil girls wrote:

What about the parents of the Junior Girls that stole an opportunity from their daughters because of their own unsubstantiated fears? Many of us joked about the threat of a "NON VIOLENT" protest. I have talked with several athletes and not one ever felt threatened or in any danger in any way. Shame on you parents.

Who have you talked to? Did they tell you that security was so thick that they couldn't go anywhere without scrutiny from armed guards? Did they tell you about staying awake until 9:00am because they couldn't fall asleep at night? Tell us who you talked to?

I just talked with the Hansons and they said the trip was great. They didn't travel with the team so their security was NONE. They said there was a larger risk of threat in any airport in the USA than there was at any place in Mombasa.

Milosz wrote:

They don't need "fabulous life experiences"? "Bigger fish to fry"? You mean competing on the world stage against the worlds best in Olympic-like conditions? If they don't need that, then what do they need? How much bigger fish do you need than Bekele and the other 30 Africans who run sub 27 10k's? It was a missed opportunity. Period. But they'll have others. It's just the mindset that's potentially dangerous...like Salazer said in a press conference, sitting next to Steve Jones before the XC nationals:

"I asked Adam if he thought he could finish top 10 at World Cross, and he said no. You're right, so why go over at all?"

Ah, that's the fierce competitive toughness we need to instill in our athletes...

I'm guessing that Dathan or Adam don't need to be instilled with "competitive toughness", I'm pretty sure they already have that covered. As for Olympic like conditions...tell me how running a a cross country race will mimic Beijing.

What they do need to do is train smart for the upcoming OLYMPICS which by definition means racing on either the track or the road. This was a cross-country race in severe heat. Of course they should have skipped it.

But for non olympic hopefuls this could have been something not to miss. Now do I think that the lady who complained of lack of sleep or too much security is a nut...yes.

No, they feel richer for how well that decision paid off!

Jefe in the CO wrote:

I'm guessing that Dathan or Adam don't need to be instilled with "competitive toughness", I'm pretty sure they already have that covered.

What makes you so sure?

As for Olympic like conditions...tell me how running a a cross country race will mimic Beijing.

How does racing enhance race seasoning, especially in similar conditions against a similar level of competition? You rode the short bus to school, didn't you?

What they do need to do is train smart for the upcoming OLYMPICS which by definition means racing on either the track or the road. This was a cross-country race in severe heat. Of course they should have skipped it.

You really parse that much difference between turf and pavement and tartan? So Tergat should suck on roads and track because he was so good at xc and stuck with it for so long and there was absolutely no carryover to track and roads?? Same for Kenny B?

Sagarin wrote:

One of them was seriously ill and one of them was injured. They wouldn't have run anyway.

You can't possibly know that. The injury came from doing repeats on a hard surface in preparation for a road race, rather than repeats on grass to prepare for xc. There's no guarantee that Goucher would have been in the right place to pick up his illness if he'd made the choice to represent his country.

Yo, Bekele ran that race KNOWING it was going to be hard as hell with the conditions. He took one for the team and sacrificed his XC win-streak. He is the world's best distance runner right now. IF adam and Dathan think they know the best way to Beijing, then why did they get their asses handed to them on the gut table by Bekele EVERY single time?

If Bekele decided this was the race to participate, then obviously he knows a crap-load more than Adam-30yrdold-never-broke-13mins Goucher and Dathan-injured-playing-soccer Ritz. Hardcore XC makes you mentally strong as a friggin ox, esp. if you have mental problems or a mental coach (Salazar..cough cough).

punks, stop bitchin and face the big boys.

they should! losers!

Are you implying that they don't possess competitive toughness? If you are then I hope you are qualified to judge them (that doesn't mean decimating the field back in your Jr High running days). If you aren't qualified then go back to being a hack.

So from this little pearl of wisdom am I to surmise that you weren't much of a track athlete. Cross country is quite a bit different and until they put it in the Olympics it will mostly matter only to European longitudes during Olympic years.

Yes I do.

Dathan and Adam are not Tergat or Bek. If they want to put themselves into the position to pull a Billy Mills they will need to squeeze every bit of talent that they have available to themselves. They will also need to be healthy and lucky. Comparing them to Tergat or Bek is a waste of time and implies that you have the mind of a chimp.