Actually I like Rupp.
Wow, a stalker! I don't where you got the bitterness thing from, and I'm not familiar with Prefointen's attitude about it. Pre could as well be criticizing himself. Why did he sit for more than 3,000m of the Olympic final, where he didn't have the kick to finish in the medals? He had no place to criticize Norpoth for sitting on him, as he could have simply run faster.
Norpoth was of course a very good champion runner, however worked all the time on his speed and was lacking endurance. So he used the only tactic available to him. What I don't admire is that he did not prepare well in that sense, and was not prepared to run a hard race.
The same is the case with Lagat but to a lesser extent. I'm sure Lagat is stronger over distance, but still very weak compared to his DEPENDENCY on his speed. For example Lagat who ran 3:26 will never run 26:30 for 10k or 2:05 in a marathon, in fact he is not within 15 seconds of the record for 5k.
Rupp can run maybe 3:39, and has run 26:48 for the 10k! Who do you think I admire the most?????? Rupp of course.
Obviously we do disagree. :)
I don't hold Lagat's kicking speed against him. It is his weakness at doing anything else. We saw how Bekele destroyed him when he ran the last 5 laps in 4:56 (or so) in humid conditions and already a pretty good pace before that. The mistake Bekele made a few times was to keep waiting and testing his last 400m against people much faster for 1 lap - major mistake. I think it was only because he wanted to test himself and his ego, to see if he could win that way, as to run away from El G and Lagat earlier would have been very EASY for him.
The only answer is that he must have wanted the challenge more than the wins,
[quote[If he wins, it shouldn't matter how (clean obviously).[/quote]
Again we disagree. :)
I would rather get 2nd in 12:28, than "win" in 14:30, in the latter case a win that means nothing at such level.