Deresse Mekonnen - 3:33.10 1500 - 5th Fastest Indoor All-time

Big time congrats to Nick Willis for 3:35.8 (NR). That looks promising for outdoors!

Not a bad run for Willis either considering it was only his second race in an entire year following hip surgery. His 3:35.80 broke John Walker's New Zealand indoor 1500m record. Not too bad. I think he will be just fine with the Commonwealth Games still seven months away.

Thats an excellent time for Willis and it was ahead of my predictions for the Kiwi. Given that hes only had a couple of low grade meets to run in previous to this his time was very impressive.

Go neo.

how tall is he?

yeah, congradulations white dude.

eel yddeg wrote:

yeah, congradulations white dude.

except mekonnen is not white, but yes congratulations to him he beat a good field in birmingham.

Well, practically every post in this thread is congradulating Willis and not the winner.

eel yddeg wrote:

Well, practically every post in this thread is congradulating Willis and not the winner.

your right, i thought they were congratulating mekonen as i did not read all the posters the first time.

only on letsrun, someone runs the 5th fastest time ever, and people want to talk about the guy in 5th place in that race.

i guess its part of the everyone can be a winner in running mentality, like in the marathons when the announcer says the people who are finishing in 4,5,6+ hours are every bit as much a winner as the ones who win. what a bunch of baloney. lol.

When I started this thread, I was hoping people would talk about Mekonnen and his potential. I mean he beat some great comp and ran a great indoor time. I just like to see great performances, regardless of nationality. But white people are going to favor white people. It's only natural. How many Ethiopians would cheer for Willis to win that race?

Douglas Burke has got to be the dumbest guy on LetsRun.

i think you are the dumbest guy on earth.

KBBBL wrote:

Douglas Burke has got to be the dumbest guy on LetsRun.

vivalarepublica wrote:

How many Ethiopians would cheer for Willis to win that race?

That's called national pride. But why would Americans get so excited about Willis getting 5th and not even mention Lagat getting 4th?

Tim Culpeppers wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

How many Ethiopians would cheer for Willis to win that race?

That's called national pride. But why would Americans get so excited about Willis getting 5th and not even mention Lagat getting 4th?

Willis = white, Lagat = Black. Pretty easy.

Great run for the top 5. Lagat can really get it for an old guy, but can he still win a "fast" race? It seems he can still beat just about anyone tactically, but when it's a fast pace he can't quite hang. Put me down as the white guy who almost always roots for the U.S. runner regardless of the "race". F*ck Willis:) j/k, he had a great run too.

I would always pull for Lagat over Willis...White American Guy

Chic Harley wrote:

Great run for the top 5. Lagat can really get it for an old guy, but can he still win a "fast" race? It seems he can still beat just about anyone tactically, but when it's a fast pace he can't quite hang. Put me down as the white guy who almost always roots for the U.S. runner regardless of the "race". F*ck Willis:) j/k, he had a great run too.

Lagat is great, and I'm not sure if any guy of his age has raced this well ever (Laban Rotich maybe?). But I agree, I don't think he can stay in there for the win with a fast race anymore.

And I'll admit, I'm always cheering for the Americans as well.

i admire deresse mekonnen's front running compared to nick willis' (aka - big putts). why the hell does he not even challenge and maybe try and slow down the race to get a chance. deresse would have slowed down had nick taken up the running and he would have waited to kick.

willis could have run 3:35 - 3:34

willis is a good runner .. but not great!

Deresse seems to be the Ethio Eamonn Coghlan- great indoors, but doesn't improve outdoors.

you do know eamon set the european mile record aged 22y in '75 with 3'53.3, which at the time put him 6th on alltime list behind bayi, ryun, keino, jipcho & liquori