Is it just me or is it sad that a college kid is the 1500 national champ?

Most normal people love it when an underdog wins! Did you really need Lagat to win another USA title?

Is it sad that a college sophomore runs 3:36 and then two years later improves and wins USATF?

No. That sounds pretty promising for the US, actually.

If they ran a little faster at the start, that college kid may very well have still won.

I don't think Wheating and Manzano's 1:44 speed were liabilities in that slow race.

I would say more exciting than sad.

Centro is not your everyday "college kid". This kid is talented, savvy and fast. He has run fast when needed, and tactically when needed. Qualifying for Daegu required a tactical race and he showed that he is a man amongst men--not just some "college kid".

Centro is not your everyday "college kid". This kid is talented, savvy and fast. He has run fast when needed, and tactically when needed. Qualifying for Daegu required a tactical race and he showed that he is a man amongst men--not just some "college kid".

Believe me, I do love when an underdog wins, but I feel like Centro beating Lagat is pretty equivalent to somebody slightly better than Josh Cox beating Geoffrey Mutai or something. Lagat can run 1500 10 full seconds faster than Centro, so if he had just hammered the whole run, Centro wouldn't have been able to hold on, even if Lagat is a little past his 1500 prime. Physiologically, Lagat is simply a faster runner right now. In any case, I wish Centro the best of luck at Daegu.

I think people missed the point of this thread. Its that, although Centro is good, the others are professional runners and should be at a much higher standard. Its like if the top professional basketball team played the top college team; they would be expected to win easily since they are the best players, not get outkicked like Wheating, Lagat, etc all did. The problem is that the pro's are not that much better than the other runners, which is not a good sign for the pros (but a good sign for collegiate running)

Raptured wrote:

Believe me, I do love when an underdog wins, but I feel like Centro beating Lagat is pretty equivalent to somebody slightly better than Josh Cox beating Geoffrey Mutai or something. Lagat can run 1500 10 full seconds faster than Centro, so if he had just hammered the whole run, Centro wouldn't have been able to hold on, even if Lagat is a little past his 1500 prime. Physiologically, Lagat is simply a faster runner right now. In any case, I wish Centro the best of luck at Daegu.

No this is like a young up and comer like Moses Mosop beating an older Tergat or Geb, a sign of a new era.

Lagat ran 3:26 10(?) years ago, that does not make him a 3:26 runner today. Likewise Centro's 3:36 is from 2 years ago. It wouldn't surprise me if they both have good races and run 3;31/3:32 together somewheres.

What many of you are missing is the fact that the WC are almost 3 months away. Notice how many college runners placed in the top three in all events. Many! They are sharp. A week after winning the NCAA basketball Championship, the team would give a solid NBA team a great game if it was their first game of the season. History has always shown many collegiates grabbing WC or OG spots only to look average by championship time. Centro & Jock are sharp. BL & NS are not. The tables will likely be turned by WC.

Raptured wrote:

Nothing against Centro, but I'm sure he has quite a few years of development left before he reaches his potential. A men's 1500 going out in 65 is just sad and the fact that guys like Lagat, Wheating, and Manzano let a college kid beat them is even more sad. These guys need to nut up and run a little faster at the start so they don't get beat by a 21 year old college kid in a sit and kick race. If Americans continue to race this way, track will never become a popular sport.

its just you

Centro will get the experience he needs at the World Championship to increase his chances of getting through to the finals in London next year.

If you want to compare to other sports you can look at it like this. In the 2006-2007 NBA season Lebron James was 21-22 years old, he took the Cavs to the NBA finals and was arguably the best player in the NBA. Nobody said this is horrible for the sport of basketball because a kid who should still be in college just dominated the defending champion Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals.

I am not saying he is comparatively going to be the “Lebron James” of the 1500 (i don't think that comparison can even be made), but what I am saying is that it is possible that on that particular day he was the best runner and would have won under any racing tactics (slow start, fast start, even pace etc…) and that a “young” athlete being better than veterans is not a bad thing.

No. A 21 year old man is physically mature and ready to run with the pros.

David Rudisha was 21 when he set the WR... Usain Bolt was 21 when he ran 9.69... 21 is as good an age as any.

You're talking about sprinting events. Hey, this guys over here is talking about sprinting events! 100 and 800s, HA!

I once heard of this guy named Ryun, he did something amazing as a High Schooler. He might have been ranked in the world. I cannot remember, but the world must have sucked to let some HS punk get recognition and win US titles/

sad

You misspelled "promising."

guys like Lagat, Wheating, and Manzano let a college kid beat them

That sounds like they all agreed to throw the race. They didn't. He outsprinted them.

So is Centro incapable of world class times and is merely sharper than the pros at this stage of the year and was in the right spot to take advantage of this dice roll of a finish? Maybe. Or maybe he beat a guy who ran 3:30 and three others that ran 3:32 last year because he's fit enough to do that himself in the right race and is actually the best 1,500 runner in the US. Ulrey's lifetime best was 3:39.93 all the way through the 2009 USAs and he lowered it to 3:35.23 two weeks later, then made the semifinals at Worlds. Let's give Centro a chance to run in some fast races where people are chasing times before writing him off as nothing more than a kicker in slow races. Maybe he gets rudely shown the door in a really fast one or maybe he knocks nearly 5 seconds off his PR in one race like Ulrey did.

Did you watch the 400 or 400 hurdles?

chubb wrote:

A week after winning the NCAA basketball Championship, the team would give a solid NBA team a great game if it was their first game of the season.

No they wouldn't. They would lose by 30.

I agree with what you're saying, however there are a few important facts wrong with what you said about LeBron James.

1. You can't say 'a kid who should still be in college' because nearly every top prospect in the past 2 decades has skipped college or left after freshman year.

2. The Pistons were not the defending champions, the Miami Heat were.

3. At this point, he was not 'arguably the best player in the NBA', the best players were without a doubt, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, and Steve Nash just to name a couple. There's no way you could say LeBron at this point matched up to Kobe and Duncan just past their primes.

Had Lagat won a 5000 the night before, or did I hallucinate that?

What I don't get is how Manzano could have been so far behind in a slow, tightly packed race.