12:46 man and Olympic Silver Medalist Dejen Gebremeskal NOT running the 5000, only 10k in Moscow

* wrote:

Gebremeskel doesn't even have a qualifying time in the 5000.

Ethiopia couldn't select him even if they wanted to.

Not counting splits then? ;-)

He'll be in the 10000 - and if he's the best Ethiopian there he might be in the 5000 too, like they did with Dibaba in the Olympics last year. (She wasn't on the 5000 team until she won the 10000, almost didn't make THAT team either at first because of her history with injuries over the previous years).

Again, Gebremeskel doesn't have a qualifying time to compete in the 5000.

They cannot enter him.

Gebremeskel will kick Farah's ass! Mark my words!

He ran a controlled 26:51 a couple of weeks ago, leading most of the way, which almost equalled Farah's PR at that distance.

He will beat him handily!

The thing that makes it hard to pick him is that he hasn't raced since the 26:51 and goes in with no tune-up and no 10,000 prelim.

I wouldn't be surprised if he wins, just hard to make picks without seeing enough.

People mention that Farah's 10,000 PR is slow compared to the WR but no one in the upcoming WC has run faster than Farah over 10,000m.

Maybe you're right, although he is the only American distance runner in the last thirty-five years who has two World medals. However, top five would be great, but sub 27 would be better, and I'm sure if you asked him it's the time that matters to him. Currently, he is the third fastest American ever in the 2 mile (outdoors), 5000, and marathon, and the second fastest American ever in the half-marathon. It would be nice if he were second or third fastest in the 10000.

Everythings Better on a Ritz wrote:

Montesquieu wrote:

Please do so, but if you do, try to spell the word 'guaranteed' correctly. Thanks. But on the substantive point, of course DG has a chance, but given that he is not running the 5, he must realize his chance is in a fast 10, not a slow 10 with a fast whatever. And this will help Ritz's chances.

Ritz' chances of a medal are zero regardless of strategy employed or who is in the race.

Please wake up now.

I think Gebremeskel has a really good chance of winning, no disagreeing with that, and I really like the way he approaches races. even if he managed to get himself boxed in the Olympic 5000 metres last year! However to suggest he is going to kick Farah's behind is a bit optimistic. Farah is'nt a one hit wonder, after all he is a double Olympic Gold medalist, Current 5000 world champ, and 10000 metre world silver medalist, I think he deserves a little more respect.

Montesquieu wrote:

What's strange about the list Stretti blogged is that Ethiopia has entered only two guys in the Steeplechase, two men in the 800, and one women in the 800.[quote]

That's all that qualified. For all their accomplishments in in the long distances they have always been remarkably weak in those events.

Aman was the first Ethiopian EVER under 1:45 (Wote recently followed with a 1:44.99). Meanwhile Ethiopians are generally very short so it's no surprise they don't compete with the Kenyans in the steeple.

Or how about this? Closing out a 12:46 race with a last lap of 54.5, a last 200m of 25.9, and a last 100m of 12.8 seconds!!![/quote]

And Gebremeskel ran the last lap on the outside/shoulder-to-shoulder with HG! What an amazing performance!!

I never would have imagined such differences between the Kenyans and Ethiopians, and I never focused before the the general absence of Ethiopians at the world class level in those events. Wow.

Xfit_guy_the_real_one_1 wrote:

Montesquieu wrote:

What's strange about the list Stretti blogged is that Ethiopia has entered only two guys in the Steeplechase, two men in the 800, and one women in the 800.[quote]

That's all that qualified. For all their accomplishments in in the long distances they have always been remarkably weak in those events.

Aman was the first Ethiopian EVER under 1:45 (Wote recently followed with a 1:44.99). Meanwhile Ethiopians are generally very short so it's no surprise they don't compete with the Kenyans in the steeple.

Xfit_guy_the_real_one_1 wrote:

That's all that qualified. For all their accomplishments in in the long distances they have always been remarkably weak in those events.

Aman was the first Ethiopian EVER under 1:45 (Wote recently followed with a 1:44.99). Meanwhile Ethiopians are generally very short so it's no surprise they don't compete with the Kenyans in the steeple.

Who are you? This is obviously an imposter. That, or xfit guy is the greatest troll to ever grace these boards.

Hordan Jasay? wrote:

the real battle that we all want to see is Mo attempt to beat the ethiopians in a marathon run on a track

This^^ Marathon on a track.

Looky Here wrote:

Who are you? This is obviously an imposter. That, or xfit guy is the greatest troll to ever grace these boards.

I wouldn't be shocked if the crossfit guy is actually j_tupper or Canova or someone like them just messing with us this whole time...

I would suspect most of the trolls on here are pretty well educated on the sport. That Montesquieu guy on the other hand is one of the dumbest to post daily on Letsrun. In one of his posts on here he said no matter who is in the race or how the race goes Ritz could not medal. So if the top so many 10000m guys in the world got busted for EPO he couldn't medal?

I just realized that Tariku Bekele is left off the team as well. So none of their two medalists from last year is on for a repeat attempt at Mo.

Looks like they're gonna treat this year's Worlds as an almost full out generation shift over both the 5000 and 10000. Well - throwing Jeilan in as an untested forth guy joker in 2011 paid off big time - so one can see why that strategy is upped.

Also - Meselech Melkamu (the probably rightfull world record holder in the womens 10000) is on the Marathon team. That's interresting on two levels, the second being that it'll give us an idea of what Tirunesh Dibaba will be able to do once she's going up like that too.

I always figured Xfit_guy_the_real_one_1 was a troll screen name of someone who is actually a distance runner. Probably just forgot to change his name before posting.

Perhaps you all need a reminder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7gf-BRLzwM

jsjsk wrote:

just a friendly reminder wrote:

Mo Farah has a 10k PR of 26:46. Just thought I'd remind you all. It's gonna take one HELL of a pace to take the kick out of him.

26:46 isn't that fast. It's THIRTY seconds off world record pace.

It's faster than 26:51. And it's probably the second or third fastest PB in the field, maybe the fastest if Kenenisa and Tadese don't run.

Also, it's 64.2 second laps for 25 laps. That's like saying 12:52 isn't fast either.

4:17 pace for 6.2 miles??? LMAO I can barely do that for ONE mile #highschoolproblems

state qualifier kid wrote:

4:17 pace for 6.2 miles??? LMAO I can barely do that for ONE mile #highschoolproblems

Oh man. LRC, you're not gonna let this kid go, are you?