Wanjiru says haile prevented him from running in Berlin

Pad Berson wrote:

The defenses of Haile on here are as lame as lame gets

He doesn't want to be in a competitive marathon anymore. He knows he can't beat Wanjiru at his peak. He's not a racer at this stage of his career.

Youre kidding right? Sounds to me like the Wanjiru defenders are lame as lame gets. "Sammy wasnt given the money he wanted to run there....that means he was PREVENTED from running because Haile is scared." Are you people serious? If he wanted to race Haile there was nothing preventing him from doing so...except that he wouldn't make as much money as he wanted, so he didn't do it. You bash Haile for chasing money and not racing anyone, but you don't bash Sammy for chasing money instead of racing Haile? Hypocrite much?

X-Runner wrote:

If there was no offer then he was prevented form racing there.

How does it feel to know you've made the stupidest statement of the day so far?

Do you not get this? No one said "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" to Wanjiru. He, like anyone else, was allowed to run. No one prevented him from running. They prevented him from obtaining large sums of money for running.

That is a huge difference. I don't care if he's a professional athlete. If he's going to intentionally mislead the public into thinking the race directors blocked his attempt to enter the race, he deserves to be taken to task and shown what a liar he is.

And you're just a weak enabler.

You can't bash Sammy for money because he went and kicked some ass at the Olympics. Where was Geb there? Oh yeah, ducking him by running a stupid 10k and then picking up lots of cash in Berlin one month later. So Sammy is behind by quite a bit in the money department, plus he's young and hasn't earned as much. While Sammy may be the one choosing to go to other marathons you have to recognize Geb is ducking by choosing smaller marathons with very limited appearance fees, that is what drives away the good competition.

Wanjiru needs to either man up and enter Berlin w/no appearance fee or shut his yap.

He will never get Geb's record. He doesn't have the patience and focus it takes. He is a little boy up against a great man.

haha, YO: You can't bash Sammy for money

Anyone else think maybe it's possible not to bash either?

Do we really need there to be a good guy and a bad guy? Why? Do we miss having a god & a devil, so we continually recast prominent figures in sports & politics in those roles?

X-Runner wrote:

If there was no offer then he was prevented form racing there.

I too was prevented from running Berlin. They didn't offer me a single cent. Everyone I run with was similarly prevented from running Berlin. What have we done to scare Haile so much that he would prevent us from racing him in Berlin?

Heh, obviously you and Sammy W ought to bandit Berlin!

have it both ways wrote:

Wanjiru needs to either man up and enter Berlin w/no appearance fee or shut his yap.

Wanjiru has run a marathon for free, it's called the Olympic marathon. Where was Geb there? Nowhere to be seen.

but Geb already has plenty of Golds and has spent his whole career building his rep as one of the greatest ever, with his 25+ WR's. He doesnt need to answer to anyone. I agree Wanjiru should offer to run for free. If he is so sure he will win and get a WR he will get a ton of cash anyway. If the organiser still says no, then he can whine all he wants. I really like Wanjiru but this has kind of lost a bit of my respect.

Geb opted out of the Olympic marathon, just as Wanjiru has opted out of Berlin. The difference is that Wanjiru is trying to put the blame on Geb. Hence my name tag.

haha, YO wrote:

have it both ways wrote:

Wanjiru needs to either man up and enter Berlin w/no appearance fee or shut his yap.

Wanjiru has run a marathon for free, it's called the Olympic marathon. Where was Geb there? Nowhere to be seen.

o the reason Wanjiru couldn't have done the same as thousands of other people (fill out an entry form and send it in with the appropriate registration fee) is...?

And the reason you don't tell your employer that you'd like to work for free is...?

I may be ok with that if Geb hadn't run the Olympic 10k. He did not opt out of the Olympics but did opt out of the event that supposedly he is the best in the world at. Wanjiru should not be asked to run for free ever again in his life but I am sure when London comes around he will do it again.

Geb has never won a medal in the marathon.

on the runs wrote:

And the reason you don't tell your employer that you'd like to work for free is...?

You mean Wanjiru wouldn't have been good enough to pick up the substantial prize for first place and the world record bonus?

Just as I am free to find another employer willing (and able) to pay me more, Wanjiru is free to find another marathon willing to pay him what he feels he deserves in appearance fees.

That's the way the free market system works.

If my current employer is short of funds (whether the lousy economy or because they blew it on the CEO), I can take my services elsewhere to where they will get the appreciation I feel they deserve.

If Wanjiru feels that Berlin missed out by not staging a showdown with Geb, then that is their loss as he is free to find some other marathon to properly compensate him.

Geb actually challenged Wanjiru to show up in Berlin. You can't get more of an invite than this:

http://www.nation.co.ke/sports/athletics/-/1100/521152/-/t2nvm1z/-/index.html

Geb isn't ducking Wanjiru, and Wanjiru isn't scared of Geb. Both are trying to make a good living. Like a good boxing match these guys know the longer they wait, the more people will want a showdown. It isn't a co-incidence there are few races you get ALL the top players.

Um, yeah wrote:

You mean Wanjiru wouldn't have been good enough to pick up the substantial prize for first place and the world record bonus?

He's not assured to win or to get the world record. And two combined wouldn't be as substantial as his appearance fee.

Um, yeah wrote:[/b

Just as I am free to find another employer willing (and able) to pay me more, Wanjiru is free to find another marathon willing to pay him what he feels he deserves in appearance fees.

That's the way the free market system works.

If my current employer is short of funds (whether the lousy economy or because they blew it on the CEO), I can take my services elsewhere to where they will get the appreciation I feel they deserve.

Berlin spent most of their money signing Haile to a multi-year deal. Do the people who deride him opting out of the marathon at Beijing think that he was worried about Wanjiru when he signed that deal after 2006, before Wanjiru's debut? Haile knew that Beijing had shitty air and he knew that Berlin offered him a ton to come every September. Armed with that knowledge and those options, who wouldn't have taken the route he did?

With a significant portion of Berlin's athlete budget locked up in Geb's deal, how could they afford to pay Wanjiru the hundreds of thousands of euros he costs? Wanjiru is supposed to kiss a big chunk of his year's pay goodbye to please the running community?

The people on these boards who still compete do so for their own personal satisfaction (for the most part) Wanjiru and Geb compete because it's their job. No one here would say it's reasonable to expect someone to take a big pay cut at their job for personal satisfaction. If they opt to do so, great, but it shouldn't be expected or derided when they don't.

Geb isn't quoted inviting or challenging Wanjiru anywhere in that article.

Geb is great but he definitely had a stranglehold on berlin. You don't think that Berlin would come up with an extra couple hundred grand to put those two up against each other if Geb asked them to?

It's not Geb's job to say, "borrow around a million dollars so I can race Wanjiru." And Berlin budgeted for Haile for 2006-2009. You can't expect them to magically come up with the money necessary to bring in the world's other top marathoner.

I want to see these two guys race as much as anyone but neither is going to take a paycut in doing it (except for London 2012).

We could speculate till the cows come home. But one thing is clear, even to Geb lovers: If these two gentlenman raced, Geb would get his ass handed to him. Fauker out.

Wanjiru needs to approach Berlin now. They will at least give him some monetary offer and allow him an elite spot.

Geb is almost certainly going back to Berlin.

Problem solved, showdown on.

on a side note, I think Geb's best marathoning days are limited.