Ritz beat Ebuya, Kipsirop and Komon in Zurich

convincing argument. i yield.

We will never know.

What do you mean?

Ritz decided not to show up.

do you know why the west is not going to win any cross country or long distance races in the near future? bc you people are too superficial. you are now saying Dathan Ritzenhein could have been a world cross country champion bc he beat ebuya, komon and kipsiro? ridiculous. this is why you people are not going to win anything. get your people to the starting line, stop daydreaming and come down to earth. forget wonderland. kenyans and ethiopians win bc they believe and they train to win. kenyans don't have time to look at last weeks times and records bc somebody new is going to run better times this week and win the race. look at the kenya national trials, compare it to world cross country results, do you see anything different? ebuya came in 3rd. does that mean anything to you? Bekele beat ebuya in zurich 5000m, ebuya beat Bekele in europe, does that mean anything to you? get the guy to run and stop wishy washy.

Bekele is also older and more focused elsewhere, there is no glory in a championship he has already won.

I think what you need to look at is the numbers in the race. In the olympics there are 3 kenyans/ethiopians/eritrians etc in the 5k/10k. At world cross you have twice that number as well as teams from morocco and uganda. On top of this, runners who dont make the kenyan team default to qatar and bahrain so kenya basically has its a,b,and c teams there so even if Ritz bet these 3 guys at zurich, he now has about 35 other africans to contend with.

Also look at the variability in the African results. Paul Tanui won the Kenyan trials by 30 seconds and got 8th at WXC. Tanui was also beaten in feb by Isaiah Ondieki, a "junior" who who didnt even make the kenyan team. The guy who was second the junior race was only 7th in the kenyan trials.

These guys are running crazy times all over the place so just because they where beaten once, it does not guarantee you that they will always be beaten.

I never implied that Ritz would beat any of these guys, only that he (and Teg) can hang with them on the track. Obviously, World Cross means WAY more to the Kenyans than to anyone else, and has become something of a dual meet between the fully sharpened and committed Kenyans and the other East African teams. I find it particularly instructive that Tadesse opted for Lisbon instead. I guess that winning the title, IN KENYA, was enough for him, he would rather now have the records.

I see the day soon when World Cross will be no more frequent than every other year.

I just don't see ritz ever winning a big race like that. There is always going to be someone with more speed than him. But he could medal by running his own race and then picking off the fading runners like he did in that 5000m.

Keeping up with guys in a track meet that occured AFTER the world champs is not the same as keeping up with guys in World fvckin Cross. Mottram beat Geb, but has Mottram ever beat Geb in a major championship? Nooooooooo.

Ebuyshit wrote:

Keeping up with guys in a track meet that occured AFTER the world champs is not the same as keeping up with guys in World fvckin Cross.

Didn't Ritz keep up with the Kenyans at the World Championships in Berlin? Hmmmm.

yea he did catch up to two of them after they faded but was well off the pass of the leaders.

Can't we agree that Ritz has the potential to at least mix it up with those guys? I don't think anyone here said that he would win for sure, just that he has competed well with them within the last year.

Ritz definitely belongs in these races and can hold his own.

If you watched the World Half Champs last fall, you'd know that Ritz didn't just "run his own pace and pick off fading runners".

Men

1 Zersenay Tadese, Eritrea, 59:35

2 Benard Kipyego, Kenya, 59:59

3 Dathan Ritzenhein, United States, 1:00:00

4 Wilson Kiprotich, Kenya, 1:00:08

5 Samuel Tsegay, Eritrea, 1:00:17

6 Wilson Chebet, Kenya, 1:00:59

7 Kiplimo Kimutai, Kenya, 1:01:31

Note that Tsegay was 5th in both Championships.

I wouldn't really count the half world champs. Outside of Tadese who won easily the field wasn't that great. The guy in front on him has run 13:09 and 26:59 and like 2:12 in the marathon. I don't think ritz sucks at all. Anyone who can run under 13 for 5000 and be within 5 seconds of Bekele in a pretty quick 5000 race is badass.

Komon is usually not as good on the track as he is on cross country.Ebuya had just come off Military's recg and was lacking in race fitness.Kipsiro had just recovered from injury.Basically Ritz was in top form.By the way there are african elites who are suerb in track but not so good in cross country e.g Micah Kogo,Ezekiel kemboi,Haile,Komen,Lagat.etc

No glory in a championship he has already won? He didn't think that the other 5 times he re-won XC championship.

Troll topic. The only reason Ritz beat Ebuya & Co. was because they went out at 12:30 pace and blew up. He would've been crushed if they dawdled at 12:50 pace!!

So let's see... on a track with splits every 400m, they misgauged pace/fitness and slowed at the end, but on a muddy XC course they would execute their pacing strategy perfectly. Those guys are a bit overambitious on the track but cool-headed pros on the dirt. OK. Oh, and Ritz, who was hanging out to dry the first half of the Zurich race, would not benefit in any way having a pack to run with in cross? Makes PERFECT sense.

bridge maintenance wrote:

Troll topic. The only reason Ritz beat Ebuya & Co. was because they went out at 12:30 pace and blew up. He would've been crushed if they dawdled at 12:50 pace!!

Ritz is a world beater.

There are times he's running that are uncomparible to any of these summer vacation times ran by the days of old lollipop lane lallygaggers. That having been said, coming from an oxen of a workhorse, the wagons wheel haven't fallen off, however the mph is quite fast. When water drips, we forget all life flows as does running water: without stopping, and along the contours that nature has provided (or humans have artificially destroyed/created). One thing's for sure, we are now obliged to go the speed we deem fit.