Abdirahman quietly goes to work

optimal forager wrote:

Let's see... a 20 year-old collegian breaks the collegiate record while WINNING an exciting race in a huge PR, OR... a pro gets buried in the pack of a Euro time trial, well off of his previous best, and only a few seconds faster than the young Oregonian. Hmmm, that's a tough call....

And thanks to Flocasts, you can now watch that race and see how great the way Rupp ran that time was.

Rupp has 15-20 more seconds in him -- now, not later. Maybe even that night, from the joke he made of most of that field. He was nowhere at halfway, the field broke open and he was nowhere -- then when he felt like it, he cruised back up to the lead pack, broke all but one of them, and ran 3:10 for his last 1200.

Rupp, if healthy, will break 27, and sooner than you think.

I'm not bashing Abdi. 27:22/2:08:56 is great stuff. But Rupp has even greater potential.

optimal forager wrote:

BTW GR will run CONSIDERABLY faster than 27:31 once he gets out of college and it's non-optimal racing demands

its

ToddsRoad wrote:

I believe that was that the year that Bickford and Nenow took turns and left the then world's best in ruin. 2737 for Bickford and 2740 for Nenow. The Stockholm crowd was into it. Mamede was a very close third. Or was that race in 86? I know Bick was the world leader in 85. Hodgie, can you help me? Also, do you have a favorite Bickford story?

Thanks

It was a close call for the number 1, Nenow might have gotten it as well.

My unreliable version of some events...

At the 84 trials in LA Bick tried to surge away with some speedy laps mid-race but his plan failed and he faded to 6th place finish. He was bitterly disappointed not to have made the team.

Cummings won the trial with a 55 second final lap in 27:59Virgin was second and Porter was third.

I felt especially bad for Bjorkland who finished fourth and hung it up after this race. One of the best of that era and a good guy too.

Cova won in LA but the Bicker bounced back and beat him at Van Damme running 27:47. Cova ran 27:57, and Jonesey (no sissy beer please) was third 27:58.

Bick had many great races right up through 1988 when he won the 10,000 trial in the extreme heat in Indy using a much more effective breakaway 60 second mid-race surge in a race that was won in over 29 min.

An achilles injury and other foot ailments hampered him in Seoul where he finished DFL.

I will try and come up with some more detail on the 85 season, perhaps malmo and others have some memory of it.

In '86 at Oslo I saw Nenow and Aouita (only 10k of career) alternate 800m's until Said outkicked Mark in American record. Nenow later that summer lowered his record, at Brussells I think.

never heard of him

The reason no one gets as excited about Abdis performances as they did for Hall and Rupps is because we expect it from Abdi. We know he can run 27:22 so we dont get excited about his 27:31. We knew he could run 2:08, plus it wasnt his first marathon ever, like it was for Hall. Also, Hall had the hype of shattering the HM AR close to his marathon debut, that interested people in what Hall was doing even more. And as far as Rupp, people get excited about him because he is still in college and had, until Abdis race, the fastest 10k in the country this year, and would have had the 2nd fastest in the country last year.

Raw details of 1985 10000m here:

http://digilander.iol.it/atletica3/Stagionali/WRL/1985/10000.htm

Other years are here:

http://digilander.libero.it/Mennea/index.htm

we probably dont notice because he is always so far back in the races he runs...of his top 3 race he has placed 7, 9 and 13 only one other on the list placed 7th everyone else is lower