So with all this business about how all the world records/really fast times have been set lately at European venues, I'm wondering why. What is it that makes their tracks so much faster. Is it the surface, the weather, the crowd? I figure Stanford would be about as perfect as you can get out there in terms of tracks, but maybe not.
Anyone got any ideas?
Better competition. All the best runners show up in Europe and compete against each other, leading to fast times. Most races in America (like Stanford) are mostly just pro and collegian American runners
The conditions may be good, but mostly it\'s because the fastest runners in the world are competing there because that's where they can make the most money.
more mondo. less wind. more kenyans.
one race at bislett and you'll know. it's an aura that is unmatched.
So do the European race sponsors just pay more to get the African talent to run over there, or do they prefer running over there to here for other reasons. But yes, better competition seems to make the most sense.
Some of the european promoters have bought these new tracks that sit on top of a 'mondo' rotating device. the rotation mechism assures that the athletes at the top of teh field are running down hill all the time.
Also, time runs slower in some quaint scandinavian villages though sadly not slow enough to make American distance runners look fast. Its no coincidence that einstein discovered his theory of relativity in zurich.
What makes racing in Europe so much faster?
There are fewer Americans racing.
drugs
It is like asking why the standard of basketball is so much better in the NBA. Is it the courts or are the basket lower? It is just a better league and players.
When I used to live there, I competed in a B-level track meet in Germany. There were four heats of 15-20 runners in the 5000m. I think a 13:30 won the fast heat. My heat (the slowest) was won in 14:30. That made about 70 runners in the 13:30-15:00 all at one meet.
The runners were primarily European, so there were not many Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc.. Just tons of fast white guys, most of them not good enough to break onto the world scene, just fast enough to give po-dunk races like that a ton of depth.
When I used to live there, I competed in a B-level track meet in Germany. There were four heats of 15-20 runners in the 5000m. I think a 13:30 won the fast heat. My heat (the slowest) was won in 14:30. That made about 70 runners in the 13:30-15:00 all at one meet.
The runners were primarily European, so there were not many Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc.. Just tons of fast white guys, most of them not good enough to break onto the world scene, just fast enough to give po-dunk races like that a ton of depth.
It must be the race director giving them EPO.
genuine draft wrote:
one race at bislett and you'll know. it's an aura that is unmatched.
Who needs Bislett (although I wish I could have been fast enough to get in)? I ran a PR at a dinky meet in Italy. The aura is everywhere, but watch out for the elbows.
There's actually track fans over there.
Three things to take account of, although they don't explain everything: first, unlike the US, a greater number of meets in July and August; second, cooler and much less humid weather (discounting last year) than the US, especially in the evenings; third, there are so many countries within close proximity of each other (just a few hundred miles), that one can run in three or four countries, each of which has a big meet, without going through several time zones.
Europe wrote:
So with all this business about how all the world records/really fast times have been set lately at European venues, I'm wondering why. What is it that makes their tracks so much faster. Is it the surface, the weather, the crowd? I figure Stanford would be about as perfect as you can get out there in terms of tracks, but maybe not.
Anyone got any ideas?