The Kernyan OG Marathon Squad revealed

why not just have a trial amd forget about having to choose?

captain and me wrote:

There is a reason why 3 are allowed per country - as technically all three could medal (as has happened on occasion) - so what is the point of having more? There isn't a team race (like in the World Champs Marathon, which replaced the World Cup as an event in this regard) so why would more be required per country? Should the US be allowed more 400m people, or Jamaica more 100m people?How about the race-walk, you could have 100's of people there as well.If you change one sport/event's requirements then others would be allowed to do the same. On the whole the Marathon isn't more important than any other event, nor is T&F more important than any other sport.

Totally agree with this. The whole point of the Olympics is the pressure the favorite nations are under to clean up the medals. E. Africans clean up at the diamond league and world marathon majors all the time. But, when you only give them three spots, the pressure is on big time to get a medal. You can't drop out at 25k and go out and get a nice appearance fee at a half marathon a month later. If you drop out at 25k in the Olympics, you let your country down and surrender a podium spot to another country.

But I also agree that it would be fascinating to see a once every few years marathon where the top 200 times of the past few years were invited in a best of the best battle for huge prize money. Maybe the Dubai marathon could pull off something like that on the year in between the WCs. Put up 10 mil for first, 5 mil second, 3 mil third, and so on. It is not like there is a shortage of cash in Dubai for something like that.

I think swimming only allows 2 per event from each country, specifically because they wanted to stop podium sweeps by Australia and the US.

Kenyan Coach 22 wrote:

Canova does not coach Moscrop. He is self-coached also

Canova coaches Mosop.

Profile here pre - Rotterdam:

If you know it better...., if you don't, please don't troll

Further on; Sponsor and Management

Wilson Kipsang; Adidas; Volare Sports; The Netherlands

Abel Kirui ; Nike; Global Sport Communications; The Netherlands

Moses Mosop; Nike; Global Sport Communications; The Netherlands

Mary Keitany; Adidas; Demadonna Athletics; Italy

Ednah Kiplagat; Nike; Boulder Wave; USA

Prisca Jeptoo; Nike; Rosa Associates; Italy

2x Adidas, 4x Nike, would have been better with Geoffrey Mutai (Adidas) for 50/50 and for other reasons...

But I can live with the choices of AK.

IMO, AK really set themselves up for this terrible decision back in the fall when they guaranteed the two 2011 WC winners a spot.

I bet Geoffrey Mutai runs Chicago this fall in 2:04:10 +/- 30 seconds.

What I really want to see now is a Makau/G.Mutai fall marathon matchup.

That doesn't make any sense. If you're feeling bad enough to consider dropping out at 25k, you're not going to medal anyway. Period. And I don't think anyone cares if you come in 11th place or drop out if you're a favorite for a medal. You had a bad day, and that's it. Did Tergat finish the 2004 Marathon in Athens? I think so, but I don't really remember. I just remember he had a bad day and didn't medal.

No one's gonna put that kind of money up for a marathon. The only race that could pull off attracting the top 200 is the Olympics. Only the 2012 Olympics won't have two of the top ten guys, and that's a shame. Injury is one thing, but antiquated rules is an even a bigger drag, in this case.

This is oddly enough a fair decision from AK even if it isn't the right one.

They picked the 6 best athletes and let them know they would be deciding it based upon the Spring races.

Kipsang is automatic.

After that the next London finisher was Kirui. Who was sufficiently slower than Mosop that you have to select Mosop and then Kirui.

E Mutai was behind Kirui with a less brave race. Makau and Mutai DNFed.

Think about if it was your college XC team and it was the final selection race? You wouldn't select the DNFs.

If you look at it from a perspective of guaranteeing a gold medal you have here a superb time trialist (Kipsang), the 2 x world champion who is used to these races (Kirui) and Mosop who after taking down the Chicago CR and finished 4 seconds behind Mutai at Boston is pretty much as close to Mutai as you can get.

Not having WR holder obviously seems odd but when you have a runner who has run only 4 seconds slower, on a worse course with worse pacers it really isn't a huge deal.

rojo - Who is Mosop Mosop and how did you get the scoop on everyone that a previously unheard of Kenyan with no running history was selected to the team?

Right. These three could sweep and I wouldn't be shocked. I'd be surprised, simply because it's so hard to do, but not shocked.

Former Baker wrote:

I think swimming only allows 2 per event from each country, specifically because they wanted to stop podium sweeps by Australia and the US.

Heck, wasn't the main reason for dropping softball the fact that USA was too dominant. Then I think they didn't win gold in the last Olympics.

Polepolesana wrote:

2x Adidas, 4x Nike, would have been better with Geoffrey Mutai (Adidas) for 50/50 and for other reasons...

But I can live with the choices of AK.

Please expand on your reasoning.

AK does not exist to please the shoe companies. It exists to pick the best marathoners possible. The better team it picks, the more money it will bring in in the long run.

I hope that shoe company politics do not come into this in anyway.

Phew!!! that was a tough one to pull. I think AK exonerated themselves from criticism by going with the obvious choices rather than being technical. Picking one of the DNF guys would have started a whole new discussion as to why this one not the other. The six provisional team named earlier was as good as it could get, so any three of that list is even better. Let the three go chase the medals and the three left out, go chase the world record. Mutai should go to Berlin but not with Makau in the race, otherwise try Amsterdam for Chicago would be unpredictable weatherwise and for emanuel may be NY would be good.

I like your analysis,that's given me a subtle understanding of the choices.

someone should do a comparison of the time between these big, fast races...

in 2008 I know Wanjiru ran London before his Olympic triumph (Lel and Gharib too, but Lel caught fever or something before the Beijing marathon so it doesnt count as a 100% effort, in my opinion)

im curiosu to know how many days elaspsed between London 2008 and Beijing 2008....

London 2012 and Olympic Marathon 2012 are separated by 100 days.

whats more, a comparison of the performances of the athletes who ran Dubai 2012 and London 2012, would be telling, i bet.

The Ethiopians are gonna crush it in the Olympics. They always show up when it matters most....think Jeilan, Kebede, Bekele, Dibaba, etc. etc.

It would be interesting to see a couple of the top kenyan's like Mutai change citizenship and run for a country like Qatar or Bahrain. I'm not saying it could or should happen, but I don't think current rules prohibit it as long they are able to gain citizenship. I can imagine they are upset to have set a world record or won a marathon major and not get selected through their arbitrary selection process.

Comparing someone who dropped out of Boston in the heat to someone who ran under much better conditions in London is not a fair process. I wish more countries had a marathon trials race that puts them head to head in same race.

London 2008, April 13 - Beijing 2008, August 24:

133 Days -- or -- 19 Weeks and 0 Days

Lel 2h05'15" -- 2h10'24" (5th)

Wanjiru 2h05'24" -- 2h06'32" OR

Hall 2h06'17" -- 2h12'33" (11th)

Gharib didnt run London 2008, that was Goumri.

Dubai 2012, January 27 - London 2012, April 22:

86 Days -- or -- 12 Weeks and 2 Days

London 2012, April 22 - Olympic Marathon 2012, August 12:

112 Days -- or -- 16 Weeks and 0 Days

119 days for Mosop (Rotterdam)

casual commentary wrote:

I bet Geoffrey Mutai runs Chicago this fall in 2:04:10 +/- 30 seconds.

What I really want to see now is a Makau/G.Mutai fall marathon matchup.

A Makau/G. Mutai matchup is very expensive. No marathon wants to take both in one race. And if they did, one of the two will DNF. It will be like the Michael Johnson/Donovan Bailey race @ 150m back in the 1990s. Am sure MAkau will pull a muscle. The best thing is for both of them to try and run 2:03/2:02 on separate races. This is especially for G. Mutai because I think AK underrates his 2011 Boston-NYC great performances. People say that his 2:03 in Boston is not legitimate and therefore he has a point to prove that he can run 2:03 too. For Makau, A WR is a WR. Only the best in the world runs a WR. He has the crown and therefore does not need anything else to prove himself. I felt AK would leave G. Mutai out owing to the problems he has had before with them(last year's world cross country camp where Geoff insisted on not joining the camp but rather train on his own). The only way Makau was going to make the team was if he won London or came a close second with a great time(under 2:05).