Anyone here ROOTING for Lagat to take the American Record in the 5000 away from Ritz?

USA Track and Field National ChampionshipsLRC 12:58.56 For Matt Tegenkamp In Brussels

7 days ago, Bob Kennedy was the only American to ever crack 13:00. Now Matt Tegenkamp and Dathan Ritzenhein have shattered the barrier in an awesome 1-2 punch for American distance runners.and posted that ridiculous quote as the story headline. maybe they meant to say, "American born?" inexcusable.

thumpy wrote:

and posted that ridiculous quote as the story headline. maybe they meant to say, "American born?" inexcusable.

Yeah the Brojo's are f**kin idiots.

you 3 can bitch here, the rest of us will continue to root for ritz and teg (and lagat as long as hes not racing against other americans)

The reason that Ritz, Kennedy and Teg are in blue is that they have links that are about them, not because they were trying to highlight those those three performers. It is just how the internet works. If there is a link from that text, the color is blue, look at the rest of the page and it is the same thing.

If you know what you're doing, you can make the link any color you want, and you can change the color when your mouse hovers over it. It is NOT just how the internet works.

Coach D wrote:

If you know what you're doing, you can make the link any color you want, and you can change the color when your mouse hovers over it. It is NOT just how the internet works.

No, but it certainly is the default.

thumpy wrote:

USA Track and Field National ChampionshipsLRC 12:58.56 For Matt Tegenkamp In Brussels

7 days ago, Bob Kennedy was the only American to ever crack 13:00. Now Matt Tegenkamp and Dathan Ritzenhein have shattered the barrier in an awesome 1-2 punch for American distance runners.and posted that ridiculous quote as the story headline. maybe they meant to say, "American born?" inexcusable.

You Hasbara Playbook assholes are all the same. You know exactly what the Brojos meant, you disingenuous, hypocritical pieces of shit.

B. Johnson wrote:

the BroJos put the white guys in blue and left Lagat and Maree in black.

So?

So now I'm hoping Lagat curb stomps Ritz' record next year.

That would be the unbiased thing to do.

lagat should have been in the race today, bekele seemed to purposely slow with 2 laps to go to let the pack get back to him, if lagat were there i am sure bekele once he got a 5 meter lead he would hammer the rest of the race and bekele would have run faster and lagat would of either fell off of bekele or set an american 5k record, and ritz should have run too maybe he could of run a few seconds faster than he did in zurich.

lagat in the race would change how the race was run, but k. bekele still would of won, but bekele would have been forced to run faster.

4/10

I must admit I saw the homepage (employee #1 did it yesterday) and I was like "why the hell are the white guys in light blue". Then I realized that was because of the color of the links.

Just now I was thinking "What is Lagat up to? Why doesn't he go put the record down where he could put it?"

So I came on the boards and searched for Lagat during the last 3 days and found this thread.

I added a link to Lagat's 12:59 run to the homepage (now they are all light blue). He went sub 52 in that race the last lap to beat Bekele. He had to have been in 12:50 shape then.

Here is the link:

http://www.letsrun.com/2006/lagatwins.php

Lagat is now a little too old to do that. That said he is still a great tactical runner and will still be a medal threat for the next few years. The crafty Lagat does not have to be the fastest in the field. He knows how to place in major international races.

douglas burke wrote:

lagat should have been in the race today, bekele seemed to purposely slow with 2 laps to go to let the pack get back to him, if lagat were there i am sure bekele once he got a 5 meter lead he would hammer the rest of the race and bekele would have run faster and lagat would of either fell off of bekele or set an american 5k record, and ritz should have run too maybe he could of run a few seconds faster than he did in zurich.

lagat in the race would change how the race was run, but k. bekele still would of won, but bekele would have been forced to run faster.

"would HAVE won" ... just like you wrote "would have been".

He has won, he is winning, he will win ... nobody ever "of won" anything.

You get this from the lazy speech of most people "would've won" ... which is short for "would have".

I know Lagat today isn't the Lagat of 2006. But he still got silver at Worlds at 5k and bronze in 1500. He easily beat Tegenkamp and I'd have to believe he could beat Tegenkamp in a time-trial type European race.

Webb's mile record may be out of reach but I'd like to see him take a crack at both records.

Anyone know of his plans this summer?

there is nothing wrong with the white americans being singled out. Let's face it, they are a minority in the land of 5000m superstars, so let's give them their due.

Don't believe it?

Updated top 100 all time 5000m performer list:

East african born athletes : 75

American born athletes: 3

The gap has been closed!!! (hey, better than 70 to 1, right?)

Lagat would be considered more of a championship runner , kick to win in the big ones , broken pace , team strategy , crazy last 400. Time trial type or paced efforts as several of the big euro meets are not his cup of tea , note the times that win these paced efforts.

Summer is over , word is he will run 5th ave mile , better PR value.

Two things that are annoying:

1. "X would have done Y if only Z" what a load of garbage. So you're saying the mile record would be 3:41 if Ngeny had surged with 300 to go, rather than trying to pass in the final 150? So the WR in the 5000m would still be Geb's (or Komen's) if they had match-raced a WR attempt? You can speculate all you want, but saying "Lagat would have beaten" Teg or Bekele or Ritz is useless. HE WASN'T IN THEIR RACES.

Wejo's statement of "I think he was in 12:50 shape when X" is more reasonable. It's a statement of speculation, not certainty. You want certainty: Ritz is a 12:56 5k guy. Tegenkamp is a 12:58 guy. Lagat is, to date, still a 12:59 guy (twice).

2. The issue, while people keep harping on "white Americans" is not whether they're white or black or purple. Lagat was born--and competed for--Kenya. Shaheen, same deal. You think people in Qatar wouldn't have more national pride if a non-import were representing them? No difference in American. I"m PROUD that Lagat wanted to become a citizen. I have a number of close friends who went through (or are undergoing) the citizenship process. I root for Lagat as an American in the WC and Olympics.

But that doesn't mean it's unreasonable for me to wish that American-born males can run sub-13 or compete for medals in major championships. In fact, it makes me optimistic that more will follow them, and this "we can't do it" attitude, blaming poor performances on not running to school or not being poor or not being born at altitude, can end. I don't care if the next American record holder is white or black, Teg or Lagat or Fernandez or Webb or someone we don't even know of yet. I want the record to go lower, so more kids get fired up about running and competing. I want the AR to go lower to guys in red, white, and blue singlets aren't toeing the line at championships "just to race well."

You can root for Lagat or Ritzenhein or Tegenkamp or Solinsky or Fernandez or whomever. Just like Teg in his interview--it's good that Ritz did it, now it's time to go and train world-class some more for another crack. THAT is the attitude we need, not some pansy-assed whining about what a running website's font colors are.

^^^ = POD, thanks

If Lagat was running a 5000m race somewhere i would definitely root for him to break the American record. And if Ritz or Teg ran another one after that i would root for them to do the same, that's what being a fan of AMERICAN track and field is all about. You guys can justify it all you want with PC phrases like "American born" but at the end of the day if you root for the white people to beat the black people you're just a raciest and a bigot.