Wanjiru says haile prevented him from running in Berlin

Geb? Pollen alergies? London?

I find that hard to believe. I don't think Geb's poor performances andsubsequent no-shows at London can be explained by pollen alergies. Is this something the great man has claimed?

Paula has asthma, yet the London pollen (!) didn't stop her going 2:15.

People react differently to different types of pollen.

Geb, is used to time trial kind of marathon.. His biggest aspiration was and still remains to win olympic marathon. But the problem is, he needs to be baby sitted at marathons. Many times, he runs his marathon placed right in the middle of the pack by the pacesetters. I remember when he dropped out several times at London marathon. The first, he jogged across the line badly beaten while claimed coz it "rained!" Second time, he said immediately after dropping out halfway that its something he "ate". Then later he said it was "allergy". Good lord which is which.. plus Paula Radcliff has asthma yet she kicks ass at London marathon. He dogged Beijing too claiming pollution! Now he wants to win olympics marathon in London 2012! How riduclous! did he not say he was allegic to pollen of London??!

ha ha, Yo mother wrote:

Yo,

Are you functionally retarded? You accuse Geb of ducking Wanjiru, who was an up and comer at the time, by racing Sihine and Bekele?!?

You don't duck someone with no golds or WR's by racing a guy with a bucketload of each.

How do you even find your way to the bathroom to avoid crapping your pants when you're that stupid?

sincerely,

your embarrassed mother

You are the world record holder in an event and you don't run it, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I agree with most of your points but I don't advocate 'no appearance fee'. I understand these guys have to make money whether they win or not and you have to make it worth their while.

Smaller appearance fees and bigger prizes. And that is not only first prize either, go deep so a top 10 guy can still pay the bills.

As I said before, I don't know, but I do know that as long as the runners can pick and choose which races they want to run we will have situations where the top guys don't race each other. You can't blame them since they need to make money when they can.

Somehow This wrote:

Haile IS a ducker. I don't see how anyone could argue otherwise.

Right, all those time he raced Komen and Tergat and Bekele and Koech and Tadese and Hissou and... the list goes on. Really? Haile is a ducker?

He is aducker when it comes to marathon. Take alot of marathon he runs.. only one competitor is allowed and he always goes for easy flat courses. Thats why he never competed in US major marathons like New York, Chicago or Boston... thats why he is arecord holder and has never WON MAJOR MARATHON SERIES POINTS!! Martin Lel did, Robeert Cheruiyot did and SAMUEL WANJIRU DID! GEB, NEVER AND WILL NEVER!

Ummmmm.... ever heard of the Berlin Marathon being part of the WMM series?

It is part of WMM but he has his hands on it.. Look back when Tergat ran World Record, he was racing with other stiff competition.. and was not even sure of winning let alone break world Record! Geb doesnt want try WMM coz he knows he will never make it. He cant control London with all galaxy of tough marathon runners. He cant control Boston neither NY coz he doesnt have a hand on it. He is always way back there when WMM points are awarded! And guess what? HE IS THE WORLD RECORD HOLDER! Funny!

In my mind Haile's resume allows him to do whatever he wants. If he wants to go for the records I am very happy with it. He's helped set the bar with his 5000/10000 12:39/26:22 records and now he doing the same for the marathon. I think it's absolutely wonderful for the sport. I don't really see it as ducking but rather focusing on getting the record. Since getting it in the marathon is hardest in terms of "everything" needing to be just right and then you only have a few chances, so you just can't run the big competition races. I believe the record was more important to him then getting the marathon gold in Beijing and now that he has it, he want to lower it further, it's what he's done befeore in the shorter distances. Of course he also wants the gold(who doesn't) which will be much harder for him then Wanjiru to get in London. Imagine Geb training for the marathon in 98/99 when he had the 12:39 speed, he is definitely past his prime, and Wanjiru hasn't even hit it yet. But for now I believe he can still beat Wanjiri in 2 years probably not. On the other hand Olympic marathon is often a crap shot and favorites don't often win. Haile has said to race the marathon is to race the distance first. I totally agree with that. I hope Bekele steps it up in the marathon soon. Even if in year or two Wanjiri takes the record from Haile(which I think would be great, I want it to keep falling). It will be Bekele that will ultimately eclipse Hailes status not Wanjiru, again simply because of past accomplishments. Geb has done everything, Bekele has done everything. Wanjiri has run the best marathon in history but that's NOT everything. All this current talk makes me think of boxing hype, except not really because most not runners don't know or care who Haile or Wanjiru even are. We need Usain Bolt to run the marathon:-)

Wanjiru is the one ducking. Why doesn't he run against the best on the track? In cross country? He only runs half and full marathons because he would get killed in the shorter races. Geb. runs against the best at all distances. The lack of short races will do to Sammy what it did to Hall. It will erode him.

the main argument of the guys who are saying "haile is a ducker" is beijing olympics marathon...and their argument is "Haile didnt run because he was afraid Wanjiru would kick his ass, and Haile doesnt want to risk losing"...so my question is why did he run the 10K instead in the olympics, where his chances of winning were NADA!... whatever the doubters say, I still belive Haile has a WR in him, not only for the marathon but also for the half...lets see what he does in NY in march

gwalkerruns wrote:

Wanjiru is the one ducking. Why doesn't he run against the best on the track? In cross country? He only runs half and full marathons because he would get killed in the shorter races. Geb. runs against the best at all distances. The lack of short races will do to Sammy what it did to Hall. It will erode him.

Because Wanjiru is a marathoner? He doesn't need to waste his time on the track, the marathon is his event. Geb has never raced the best in cross country so you know.

haha, YO wrote:

Because Wanjiru is a marathoner? He doesn't need to waste his time on the track, the marathon is his event. Geb has never raced the best in cross country so you know.

Because he wasn't going to beat Tergat, he damn near got injured at World XC in 1996 and he could make more money running 1500s, 3000s and 5000s during the indoor season. The shorter races also helped his outdoor season.