Ritz and Bekele at 2001 Junior World Cross

I'm obviously bumping this, but I find it interesting, if not spurious, that Ritz's 42 seconds back over 8k translates to roughly 52.5 seconds over the full 10k distance. Now, I well realize that cross country and track are "world's apart," but if you extrapolate the average gap per mile over 10k on the track, relative to Bekele's WR, it puts Ritz a hair under 27:10 for 10k, and I would say that's about right.

its a good comparison. It does seem that a muddy CC course would would help close the gap. For the day, I think Ritz was closer to his max performance than Bekele who has to be saving some gas for the 10K.

oops, 5K rather

It is "muddy" math, because I doubt the distance was EXACTLY 8k and Bekele won the short course the day before, not that he had to expand too much effort. I still think Ritz capapble of a sub-27:10 +/-, but probably not 27:00.

Pardon me, Bekele was 2nd in the short course race the day before.

I was in Oostende for the race. It was very muddy and Bekele was a huge favorite and won eassily with Ritz fighting for 3rd with Tegenkamp and a Kenyan. I think the times here are meaningless.

Nicholas Kemboi 4th place. Hard to believe that Ritz beat him. Kemboi was one of the few I thought would be able to challenge Kenny. His career is now washed up.

Stir-up was a poor choice of words. Should have gone with "augment."

coach wrote:

I was in Oostende for the race. It was very muddy and Bekele was a huge favorite and won eassily with Ritz fighting for 3rd with Tegenkamp and a Kenyan. I think the times here are meaningless.

I noted it was spurious, if not curious. Just thought for food -- that's all.