Haile G getting SMACKED

Thanks for linking to this, I had never seem or heard about this before.

Homeboy should have gotten slapped back, but you could tell Geb was kind of scared.

It is a race dude, if you want someone to help you, join a team sport.

*seen

That's the only time I've ever seen Geb win a race without his huge smile at the end. He seems honestly shocked.

Karma. We all know about Geb, but what has Machuka done since this race?

repeats repeats

titan fan wrote:

Karma. We all know about Geb, but what has Machuka done since this race?

5th in the 1995 WC 10k, 5th in the 96 oly 10k. His PR is in the 27:10 range. Ran on a couple Kenyan world XC teams.

Became a big road racer in the US, ran some absurd times - I believe he ran 22:08 for 8k one year on the roads.

That guy could have used some of that freakin energy and try to win the race...what a puss

I asked one of the other top Ethiopian runners about Machuka and basically they all thought that he was crazy. It sounded as if they thought that he had taken a lot of khat and they thought that it made him crazy.

I like that this was the World Junior Championships too. Nothing better than seeing a kid (assuming the other guy was actually 18-19 and not 25) punch another kid for beating him in a race. That one smack could have been the extra motivation that spurred Geb on for all those hard fought victories over his #1 Kenyan rival Tergat in the coming years.

I've heard stories of that finish for years but never seen actual footage of it before. I honestly thought it was one of those things that got blown out of preportion through it being told and retold over the years but, it was just what it was billed to be; Machuka stright choped Geb when he knew he was beat! Crazy!! Side note on Machuka: he was the Man on the US road scene in the early/mid 90s. He won everything for about 2 years and won big. He went out in like 4flat or 4:02 at Carlsbad the year he won and I think ran 13:20 (the hard way) there. He still has the CR at Bolder Boulder with and unwordly 27:5X. Imagine running that fast on the roads at mile-high altitude... He never really did anything of note on the track though. He made his money on the roads and got out while he was still pretty young.

-The Killer

I remember that. Machuka was a hell of a road racer, but short-lived career.

Could Geb have been disqualified for being "assisted" across the finish line?

Machuka punches like an NBA player.

The following year Geb stepped on Moses Tanui foot that the shoe came off after using (Moses) for the whole race as pace setter, Moses Tanui finished the race with only one shoe as Geb passes by him just on the line of what became photofinish though Geb's win became controvercial! Moses was so pissed that he took off the remaining shoe and threw it at Geb.... If it were me I would kick the hell out of Geb the cheater!

Geb clipped Machucka's heels the entire race. He didn't punch him because he was getting outkicked.

rody wrote:

...Moses Tanui finished the race with only one shoe as Geb passes by him just on the line of what became photofinish though Geb's win became controvercial! Moses was so pissed that he took off the remaining shoe and threw it at Geb.... !

Only it wasn't a photo finish.

Geb won by more than 1/2 a second, and he eased up the last 10 yards when it was clear he had won.

The rest of your story is true though. Geb sat the entire way, and the Kenyans were throwing in surges left and right to try and break him. With just under a lap to go, Geb stepped on Tanui's heel, stripping him of his shoe. Tanui took a couple of strides with the shoe half on his foot, then kicked it off around the first turn.

Then he bolted to the lead, figuring that he'd go for broke. It took Geb a bit to recover the surge, but by 150 to go you knew how it was going to turn out. Geb caught him on the straight, and although Tanui tried to keep with him, it just wasn't going to happen.

After the race, Tanui threw his shoe at geb. Geb was smiling his 10,000 watt smile the whole time, and Tanui approached him, and shook the shoe in his face. Geb tried to hug Tanui, but Tanui pushed him away, as Geb embarked on his victory lap.

A couple days later in the 5k final, the Kenyans wised up and quit the surge/recover tactics. Ismail Kirui made a break early on and got away and ran about the last half of the race by himself. Geb and another Ethiopian closed like bandits on the last lap, but just couldn't catch him. Geb probably waiting 100m too long before launching into his kick, as he clearly wasn't spent after the race.

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Another sensible option wrote:

[quote]rody wrote:

A couple days later in the 5k final, the Kenyans wised up and quit the surge/recover tactics. Ismail Kirui made a break early on and got away and ran about the last half of the race by himself. Geb and another Ethiopian closed like bandits on the last lap, but just couldn't catch him. Geb probably waiting 100m too long before launching into his kick, as he clearly wasn't spent after the race.

...the 5000m was before the 10000m.

I was about to say the same thing.

The way Kirui ran the 5,000m (going hard from a long way out) is different to how you can run a 10,000m. Ismael went 3,000m out. The equivalent would be to go 6,000m out in the 10,000m. Not possible. The Kenyans did their best in the 10km, with various short surges. The option was to do that or a Tergat in Atlanta type explosion for the last 2,000m. I know Kipkoech did the long run for home to win in Rome, but that was 1987. By 1993 the competition was becoming a lot stiffer. It was much harder to drop people.

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