Teg!!!!

Usher wrote:

I just watched the race on NBC, and couldn't help but wonder if Teg would have medaled had he run closer to the front of the pack rather than hanging so far back until the very last moment.

Uh, did you notice that for most of the last 1600, he was within a meter of Lagat? Early positioning was meaningless in a race that slow.

Teg,

if you're reading this, keep up the great work! it's cool to see you running so strong and competing with the best in the world. Goucher too--if you're reading this, i'm stoked that you both repped the US well along with Lagat by placing 3 Americans in the 5k final.

i'm proud to be an American runner!

It never ceases to amaze me how negative some of the posters on letsrun can be. I really feel sorry for how sad your lives must be if you feel the need to minimize a great championship performance.

I'd like to remind all those negative people that time DOES NOT MATTER in a championship race. It's a race, not a time trial. The winner is the first one to cross the line, you don't get an asterik next to your performance if the time isn't fast. It's called strategy.

If those people who don't have big kicks don't like it, they can do what the Russian silver medalist in the W's 1500m did, take the lead early and drive the pace. The only woman who could hang was undefeated on the Euro Circuit this year.

I don't think there is any doubt which country is the best in T&F. US men took gold in sprints, hurdles, jumps, distance and relays. Outstanding!

minister all wrote:

a great run by Teg, but let's not get too carried away

Seriously, let's not get carried away, there were many other Caucasion men distance runners who medaled or finished in the top 5 in Osaka

Teg has an advantage during the early/middle part of the races that he has to take advantage of at this level. He can see over the shorter runners and can sit back and draft AND see where he is going to get out of trouble eventually. Outracing T. Bekele isn't good enough for you?

jama wrote:

Teg, that was one of the guttiest performances that I have evey witnessed!!! Your kick was better than many of the world's best distance runners. Now, Matt, give your self more respect and start running up farther towards the front and take that next step! The fast times will come because now you know that you can run with these guys!!!! Good luck in your last few races in Europe.

many people, Mottram (what happend to him?), TB and others

looked very sluggish in the final. I have never witnessed such a weird 5000m final. The closing 400m must have been fast?

there were many sub-13 runners in the field, they closed in 2:23, the last 800 was in 1:51, 600-200 was in 54, lagat closed the last 200 in 26 (last lap in 52), and yet tegenkamp was able to hang with all of that, pass tariku and another guy in the homestretch and nearly catch kipsiro for the bronze. closing speed like that is what you need in championship races, so that was a tremendous job by tegenkamp. you haven't seen that ability in a 5k or 10k by an american born runner in decades. even bk never went flying by some of the best african runners in the last 100m. you just wish he had the confidence to go a bit earlier (he's criticized himself a number of times in the past for not going earlier, as in that great pre 2 mile (he beat both of the guys he lost to there--t. bekele and mottram)) or to get closer to the front with 400 to go. I thought teg would repeat his prelim tactics and go hard with 1k down to 600m to go to spread out the pack, but he showed that he can do well even in this kind of race. I also liked the way that goucher stuck with the pack (despite it being so slow, you have to suspect that ritz and rupp would have been content to jog ten meters back) and kicked hard at the end.

Do you think Teg will relive that last moment in his mind, over and over, or just get over it and move on? I was screaming at the tv to dive (sadly, I admit, because I already knew the result), although you always teach runners to run through the tape. Below it seems he wishes he would have dove. This is his USATF release quote:

"The last 600 was a steady grind. From 600 to 400 it was a gradual buildup, and it let me work into it. Over the last 400 I was trying to stay relaxed knowing that I would need another gear over the last 75 meters. There was nothing else I could do-maybe I could've dove across the line."

If only he leaned........

toooker wrote:

but in all honesty that was one of the weakest 5000m feilds ever assembled for a world championships.

Kipchoge, Mottram, Lagat, Cherkos, Bekele, Limo, and Bellani have all run under 13:00 for 5000m. Limo and Mottram were the returning Gold and Bronze medalists, respectively, from the 2005 World Championship 5000m Finals. Eliud Kipchoge won the 2003 WC 5000m Final, beating K. Bekele and El Guerrouj in the process, and also lays claim to a Bronze in the 2004 Olympic 5000m, a 4th place finish in 2005 WC 5000m Final, and has a PR of 12:46 for 5000m. Mottram and Lagat have both beat Kenenisa Bekele at 3000m and 5000m, respectively, which is an accomplishment in itself. Lagat is the 2nd fastest 1500m runner ever(winning Bronze and Silver in the '00 and '04 Olympics and Gold this year in the WC final), but also bares a 5000m PR of 12:59. Mottram lost to Kipchoge(gold) by a couple seconds in the CW 5000m Final(getting silver), but has PR's of 3:33.98, 3:48.98, 4:50, 8:03.50(2 miles), and 12:55. If that is not enough to sustain a high quality field, I don't know what is.

Think about this. What quality were the fields for Bob Kennedy before he ran 12:58? No one had run that fast in the early 90's, and now we have 6 runners in the 5000m final that have run 12:55 or better, and one who has run under 12:50. I don't think it was a weak field at all. I wish we would've seen more out of Mottram, Cherkos, Bellani, and Limo, but it was still a great run. Last 1000m in 2:23, last 800m in 1:51, last 400m in 52? And Tegenkamp was able to run from behind and pick people off in those last 1000m. That's pretty damn impressive. He really does have good leg turnover.

minister all wrote:

a great run by Teg, but let's not get too carried away

Have you no idea what you just saw? Americans do not close like that. Teg is better now than Bob Kennedy ever was; this and the 8:07 earlier this year show that. Is that nothing to get excited about?

yeah, the fact that not only did he run 7:40i in feb off not much track work, but that he ran 8:07.07 for 2 miles(which is faster than what E. Kipchoge has run for 2 miles) and 3:34.25(a solid 1500m time for a 5k runner- 2 seconds faster than Kennedy) is evidence enough that Tegenkamp has the capability to run sub-13 and actually compete with a lot of the African runners for medals.

I believe that Matt Tegenkamp, Alan Webb, Bernard Lagat, and possibly Chris Solinsky have the potential to beat Kennedy's 5000m and 3000m outdoor records. I was actually kind of shocked when Solinsky ran 7:36.9 to finish close behind Craig Mottram. He PRed 4 races in a row(3:39, 3:37, 7:36.9-3rd, 13:12-4th), and this is all after he won NCAA's. Maybe Schumacher had Solinsky on a closer training schedule with Tegenkamp, but Solinsky was solid and got even more solid as a runner. It's not like he busted out a 13:15/13:16 a la Dobson/Hall and never repeated those caliber of races in similar distances(Hall found he was not a 3k/5k runner in the sense of what his best event is) and who knows, maybe Solinsky is more of a 1500m runner, but 1500m runners can often be synonymous with 3000/5000m runners. Anyway, the USA looks promising in the 3000-5000m distances. The 10k may show some promise with Hall and Rupp, but I think we're going to have to wait until they show they can run low 27's and control/run the pace with the Africans.

It must be noted that it is remarkable how well Tegenkamp is able to close in some races- granted in the WC's 5k, it was off a slow pace, but he still showed the same speed as the winners- just about- he was just 5m from the front when they kicked and wasn't able to pick that gap up. But Tegenkamp also closed well in the Pre 2 mile, being the only runner to get away and be close to Mottram and Bekele as they took off from the rest of the field. We saw this in Solinsky in his 13:12 effort as he narrowly dodged a falling runner. Whatever Schumacher has these guys doing is right on the money. I wish we could see more of what he has his runners running exactly, and not because I care to try replicating it somehow with some individual, but because I'm curious to see what it is that is doing the trick, other than some good genes.