16 year old run World Youth Best 1:44.08 800ms to grab Gold, 2 others under 1:45

In this forum someone quotes a message from Renato Canova on letsrun where he admits some africans are older

http://www.tracktalk.net/archive/index.php?t-1810.html

Right.

The Kenyans and Ethiopians must be lying about the ages of their youth runners cause we all see how poorly their open runners are.

Hfdcr wrote:

If he's 25 y.o., that's a great improvement. The majority of 800m runners peak in their early 20s... What was his pb last year? It think it's more likely that he is 19, 20 or 21 y.o. (but who knows he could be below 19 y.o.). The point is that it's very difficult/almost impossible for a North American to medal in the middle distance at these championship. But then again, who/when was the last North American, who was not born in Africa, to medal at a Open "outdoor" world championship or Olympics in middle distance? So that's quite difficult too.

that is possibly the stupidest thing ever posted. the greats at 800m were doing it after their early 20s. think Coe, Kipketer, ...

Hfdcr wrote:

It looks like it's harder to win and medal at World Youth in most events than it is to do so at NCAA, even though some athletes are barely old enough to be in high school.

Men 800m 1.44.08 to win, 1.44.98 to medal

Women 1500m 4.09.48 to win, 4.11.56 to medal

Women 3000m 8.56.36 to win, 8.58.63 to medal...

Wait a second, I was not even running the girls times as a youth...

I don't think that I will see any north American juniors run 1.44.08 in my lifetime (forget youth).

Yeah, America has been weak in the 800, but there is hope for the future... America's HS bests over the past 12 years in most of the other track events have all been 1:44/1:45 caliber IMO (e.g. 45.25 400m, 3:53.43y, 8:29.46y, 13:37.91 5k, etc.), so it's only a matter of time until we see that caliber of athlete focus on the 800m.

old man river wrote:

from that picture, the youngest he could be is 25.

When I was in Kenya a few years ago training with a group, one of the guys had a younger brother who was also training. He was very straight forward with me about the fact that he was older than he says he is and he lies about it so he can compete at the non-senior events and have more opportunities. He said it's easy to get away with it because many hospitals don't have birth certificates and there's not a good system set up in Kenya to keep track of such things.

Obviously that's only one person that I know of who is 100% lying about his age. That being said, while he is/was a good runner, he wasn't fantastic. If you're not even close to being on the "world" level and you are lying because you hope it opens doors for you, why wouldn't other people do it who *are* at that level?

Facts:

Age when reaching pb for top 10 in the history of the world

Rudisha 21 yo (but could still improve)

Kipketer 24 yo, but was already running well at 22 and 23yo

Coe 24 yo, ran 1.42.3 at 23 yo

Cruz 21 yo

Kaki 21 yo (could still improve)

Koskei 23 yo

Borzakovskiy 20 yo

Bucher 24 yo

Rodal 23 yo

Seems like early 20s to me... Wait, none at 25 yo and older.

He seems to be on a steep improvement curve, so that's why my assumption is 19, 20 or 21.

Facts matter.

blaznbison24 wrote:

Here's a picture of the 16 year old:

http://www.iaaf.org/WYC11/news/newsid=60778.html#

Living a hard life ages you fast. We tend to forget that basic truth. And in Kenya, I'm sure the people growing up who become distance runners are NOT living a life of ease remotely comparable to even poor Americans.

And we know how rough some Americans, especially poor inner city youth and poor redneck youth tend to look, even at a young age. That picture means nothing, other than that the guy probably lived a hard life.

...and Bungei 22 yo

How growing up poor in an African country can age you:

http://www.edworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/child-poverty-is-widespread-in-nigeria.jpg

And these are probably 6 and 7 yr olds.

Dr. Dent wrote:

Anyone who thinks that Robby Andrews could medal someday in the Olympics should be thinking...

...can Robby Andrews even medal in the World Youth Championships?

Did everyone forget that he (and Casimir Loxsom ahead of him) medaled in the World Junior Championship last year?

Geez. Do some research. I'm a fictional pony and that didn't stop me from doing it.

inertia wrote:

He's probably 25.

Rubbish

Although I did here he set a masters record in the same race and has hair coming out of his ears

Yes, it's unfortunate that overaged athletes are showing up at the meet. But it's a reality and they are not taking the medals away, so my point remains, it's a very tough meet for a 16 or 17 yo to win.

Other than that, unless you have a concrete action plan that you will put in place to avoid overaged athletes to show up at the next championship, the situation will be the same in 2013 and the meet will be just as tough.

Quotes like this piss me off. IF, and thats a big IF, american athletes were training as hard at an early age and came from as poor conditions as these athletes, they would look older than their age.Don't assume a person is overage just because they look it. I know american teenagers who've had the life experience of someone far beyond their age, and it shows in their looks and their wisdom.

Hfdcr wrote:

Yes, it's unfortunate that overaged athletes are showing up at the meet. But it's a reality and they are not taking the medals away, so my point remains, it's a very tough meet for a 16 or 17 yo to win.

Other than that, unless you have a concrete action plan that you will put in place to avoid overaged athletes to show up at the next championship, the situation will be the same in 2013 and the meet will be just as tough.

i'm black so i can sort of tell a black person's age and this guy looks at least 21

Wow, that's a lot of evidence. All of that must mean that this year at the World Champs and next year at the Olympics, US athletes will not suck big time in the distance events.

I don't care exactly how old he is, just that he's not young enough to compete in this event. Just like a lot of those in that race.

It should be a level playing field.

There is evidence that some baseball players use performance enchancing drugs, that some ex cons do go back to jail, that some people actually like KFC grilled chicken ETC. It doesn't mean everyone does, just like it doesn't mean every African junior who post a world class time is lieing about their age. I love to see great performance rather it be Caucasin, European, Asian, African American, or African etc but it must eat so many of you up inside when young Africans do so well! WHY the hate?

Congratulations Leonard the fastest 16 year old ever at 800m 1:44.08 and he still have next year to lower that at the World Junior Championship. Maybe he'll make the Kenyan Olympic team at age 17!

No hate VIPAM, it's just a lie.

They're cheating real 16 year olds (maybe Kenyan) out of medals.

Leonard is a cheat, simple as that.