RE: Will Sammy Chalenga defend his title

Wake up dude. Most of the time you win by playing to your strengths or taking advantage of your opponents weaknesses/mistakes. Like, say running down someone who went out way too hard. The only way you could consider such a strategy cheap is if the kicker could EASILY beat the other person. Rupp couldn't have easily beaten Chelanga by another method, they were on a pretty equal level. He wasn't beating up on some incompetent loser in a showboat race. It's an effective tactic, not a crime.

yes there is a right and wrong way to win. the only wrong way to win is if you by cheating or running dirty then it is different. what rupp did was neither of these. do not try and make an argument against it you are just making yourself sound immature and just plain stupid. you probably admire pre to much is my guess.

one more thing to add. i am not biased because i hope chelanga wins monday.

[quote]sammy hagar junior wrote:

After all they did not have to do the work. They simply let others lead. This is not the way to run races. This is cheap.

Every runner out there has worked just as hard as you, so do your share of the leading.

I remember when the Spurs did the hack a shaq thing against the Suns. Yeah they were playing by the rules, but it was a cheap way to win. quote]

You are wrong. The athletes/teams that got beat, got beat because they had a weakness and their opponent exploited that weakness. That is a fundamental approach to sport: work to your strengths while exploiting the opponents weaknesses. Nothing cheap, immoral, or lacking in integrity in that. You simply seem to be imposing your PREFERENCE for a certain competitve style on to these contests. It is quaint to root for those who strive valiantly. Props to Sammy C for that but, bottom line is he lost because his weaknesses were exposed

Same with Shaq. Shaq could not make his free throws. If he could, the hack-a-Shaq would be ineffective. He ALLOWED it to be effective. HIS fault, not the Spurs. (The true warrior-competitor would have worked on that weakness in the off season. Maybe Shaq should have done less TV spots)Bottom line is Shaq's weakness was exploited by the Spurs and they won. The better team won. Period.

Chelanga could not kick with Rupp late, nor could he drop Rupp early. If he was fast enough to drop Rupp then no need to have a kick. Chelanga couldn't drop him (weakness #1) and he couldn't kick with him (weakness #2). Rupp exploited Chelanga's weaknesses and the better runner won. Period.

All the rest is just noise....

sammy hagar junior wrote:

Every runner out there has worked just as hard as you, so do your share of the leading.

He did his share of leading...the last 600 meters.

So in your mind Dave Wottle doesn't deserve to win the Gold medal in the 800m at the 72 Olympics?

Alb-E-P-O Salazar wrote:

Chelanga was the first non-professional athlete in an amateurs race. He is the 2008 NCAA XC Champion.

Chelanga trained with Tergat, and of course had the benefit of being the brother of one of Kenya's top marathoners, but yet that doesn't give him pro advantages? But, Rupp training with his highschool coach a few extra months, starting college in the outdoor track season instead of the prior XC season, does? Insane.

Alb-E-P-O Salazar wrote:

Chelanga was the first non-professional athlete in an amateurs race. He is the 2008 NCAA XC Champion.

That's for the NCAA to decide. You have no authority in the matter.

championship races are about winning, not style points. rupp will never get the pre award, but he has a bunch of championships and prior to his senior year he didn't have the ability to outkick his comp other than a dying solinsky.

Rupp left that pack last year very early in his pursuit of Chelenga. He was alone and away all on his own like Chelenga. Salazar knew darn well Sammy would go 4:23 ish at the mile. They watched all of Sammy's runs all year. Knew every split and knew exactly the slowing and when it occurred and how. Rupp is told you go (say 4:37 mile one), you are back such and such. Sammy always hits 2k here with no slowing. We have no closure at the 2k. Thru 3k Sammy always settles to (4:45 example only) So thru 3k we want a closure rate of 4 seconds only. I'll be at 3k line to tell you your closure. Sammy goes exactly this at 4k, we want you at this hill to do a slight surge and goal is 2 seconds closure by 5k additional. Sammy always picks it up at 5k. Just hold no closure thru 5k. At 6k we go. Closure of this, Sammy will be 35 meters out now. Ill be at 7k and give you your time, if its here you are on and got him. Etc etc etc. No doubt Derrick and company are all over this to. IMHO.

sadfsdaf wrote:

Chalenga went out too hard and died at the end. Rupp ran smarter, and won.

He obviously didn't "die."

It should be mandated that you die from asphyxiation.

sammy hagar junior wrote:

Sammy won the xc title last year. Sammy ran that race like a champion and didn't sit back and draft like rupp did. rupp was a freaking baby and deserved to lose. You could sammy so many times looking back asking rupp to take the lead. rupp didn't do anything. So yes Sammy won last year because rupp was a baby.

Pre would be ashamed to see Rupp and his style in an Oregon uniform. Oregon is supposed to be about dominance, not pussies. I'm not saying that Rupp should have gone out in 4:23, but that stupid bump that he gave to Chelenga is ridiculous. No class.

Rupp is a wuss wrote:

Pre would be ashamed to see Rupp and his style in an Oregon uniform. Oregon is supposed to be about dominance, not pussies. I'm not saying that Rupp should have gone out in 4:23, but that stupid bump that he gave to Chelenga is ridiculous. No class.

Most of the people that I know that knew Pre are big supporters of Rupp.

I think Pre would be ashamed of almost every runner out there. Chelenga being one exception.

Relying on a kick is very common for runners and very rarely do the best runners in a race take it out like a bat out of hell.

what did josh mcdougal do to rupp 2 years ago...He didnt want to lead either i believe it was sit, sit, sit some more and then kick past rupp. Sure hope you hated josh for doing that

Josh didn't bump Rupp or whoever was in first when they tried to share the leading duty. Rupp seems like he would have slowed way way down, however slow it took to stay behind Chelenga. Again, you don't have to be someone who loves running out front, but if the moment comes when you have to slow yourself down to not be in front and you still stay behind, then there's something wrong there. Just my opinion. I like Rupp and how he raced at the indoor 3k and events like that, just wasn't a fan of his NCAA XC race strategy.

so really what some of you are saying is that to be a true champion a cross country runner, running 10K in a championship race, should go out sprinting and just continue running the hardest they can run until they cross the finish line. So maybe first 400 in 48ish, 2nd 400 in 60ish, 3rd 400 in 64ish, 4th 400 in 68ish for a 4 minute first 1600, then fade to a 4:40ish, then to a 5:00ish, and so on until they're crossing the line, tongue out, at 7:00 pace somewhere near the back of the race (unless everyone else races "like a champion"). Are you telling me that this is what makes someone a champion? Being a complete idiot rather than running their own race makes someone a champion? I'd rather be the guy breaking the tape!

mister rogers wrote:

so really what some of you are saying is that to be a true champion a cross country runner, running 10K in a championship race, should go out sprinting and just continue running the hardest they can run until they cross the finish line. So maybe first 400 in 48ish, 2nd 400 in 60ish, 3rd 400 in 64ish, 4th 400 in 68ish for a 4 minute first 1600, then fade to a 4:40ish, then to a 5:00ish, and so on until they're crossing the line, tongue out, at 7:00 pace somewhere near the back of the race (unless everyone else races "like a champion"). Are you telling me that this is what makes someone a champion? Being a complete idiot rather than running their own race makes someone a champion? I'd rather be the guy breaking the tape!

Read the entire thread before you comment. Thanks... No what I actually said was that he didn't have to go 4:23 first mile, he just shouldn't slow down to an unnatural pace to avoid taking the lead. That's all I said. Next time read what is being written before you make an idiot of yourself.

Rupp is a wuss wrote:

Read the entire thread before you comment. Thanks... No what I actually said was that he didn't have to go 4:23 first mile, he just shouldn't slow down to an unnatural pace to avoid taking the lead. That's all I said. Next time read what is being written before you make an idiot of yourself.

Show me where it is written that one must share the lead. The only reason Rupp was up with Sammy in the first place was because he wanted to remain in a position to kick for the win. Whereas Sammy was there in order to put things out of reach so he wouldn't need to kick. Thus to me, that means that Sammy had to accept leading duties unless he was willing to run with the main pack, which Rupp would have been perfectly happy to do considering the team competition.