Fast runners who couldn't perform when it mattered most

Nenow poor at championship races.

Centrowitz Jr. good at championship races.

whenitmatters wrote:

Alan Webb - Wins 2004 Olympic trials in 1500, gets eliminated first round in Athens. Wins 2007 US Title in 1500, bombs World finals in 8th place. Didn't even qualify for 2008 Olympics. Sort of been a wreck ever since but seems to be coming back.

NO. TERRIBLE example. He was never in a position where he was expected to do that well in global championships. The fields were very good.

T & F news never ranked him much higher than #7 in the world I don't think. And T & F news is based on the entire season, not just the global final, because the guy they ranked #1 in one of those years DIDN'T EVEN MAKE THE FINAL. That just shows you how much of an accomplishment making the final is. If you think he belonged near the Olympic final in 2004 then you don't follow the sport.

In fact the fact that he could beat Lagat at US championships is PROOF that he had the ability to come up with a win even when the odds were against him.

So please don't even START with this shitty example.

Morgan Uceny? Medal contender at both the WC and Olympics and fell both times. Hope to see her back up there soon.

Ron Clarke is the classic example.

My teammate couldn't perform when he had the chance to have a threesome with some girls from UW-Oshkosh before nationals two years ago, too drunk. He wasn't very fast though.

You are wrong. A 3:46 miler should've had a world championship/OG place higher than 7th. Webb is a great example.

Lagat won both 1500m and 5000m at 2007 Worlds. If Webb could have beat him in the US Champs, why couldn't he have medaled in Osaka? Was Lagat just cruising the trials? If he could beat Lagat in the US Champs, then he should have done better in the finals.

Lasse Viren was the opposite. Meb would be another good example.

Fernando Mamede is one of the best examples.

Running never "matters." It's entertainment. It doesn't matter that Webb never won an Olympic medal. If he had won an Olympic medal, that wouldn't matter either.

Steve Holman?

doesn't matter wrote:

Running never "matters." It's entertainment. It doesn't matter that Webb never won an Olympic medal. If he had won an Olympic medal, that wouldn't matter either.

Of course you are correct. Your post doesn't matter either, and neither does mine which points out that yours doesn't matter.

Fernando Mamede. Smashed the world record for 10,000 (27:13) in 1984 and dropped out during the heats at L.A.

He also had the fastest time going into the 1983 Helsinki World Championships and finished near dead last in a kick race.

He was not like Ron Clarke or Dave Bedford, runners that broke World Records but didn't have closing speed to win in a championship setting on the last lap. Mamede started as a 400 runner who ran for the Portuguese Olympic 4x400 team in 1972.

"If you think he belonged near the Olympic final in 2004 then you don't follow the sport."

In 2004, Webb ran 3:32.73 for 1500m.

In the 2004 Oly final, there were three runners who never ran faster than 3:32 point for 1500m in their careers.

Yet those three made the final, while Webb didn't get out of his first heat.

I was on the backstretch in Sacramento when Webb won the Trials. There were plenty of people in attendance who knew the sport who looked for something more than was delivered.

George Atlas wrote:

Fernando Mamede. Smashed the world record for 10,000 (27:13) in 1984 and dropped out during the heats at L.A.

Mamede ran off the track during the final in L.A., not during the heats.

LEO MANZANO 2012

kite fliar wrote:

[quote]George Atlas wrote:

Fernando Mamede. Smashed the world record for 10,000 (27:13) in 1984 and dropped out during the heats at L.A.

Mamede ran off the track during the final in L.A., not during the heats.[/quote

I guess I forgot. I recall waiting up during ABC coverage of Carl Lewis in the long jump waiting for that 10,000 final but the never showed it.

Nonetheless Mamede going in as a recent World Record holder is to this day the number one example of a fast runner who couldn't perform when it mattered.

Not Jim Ryun, Dave Bedford, Ron Clarke, or Alan Webb.

Mamede did get a bronze medal at the 1981 World Cross Country Championships, so it is not really true that he could not perform when it mattered, but yes, he did appear to let the pressure get to him most of the time.

kite fliar wrote:

Mamede did get a bronze medal at the 1981 World Cross Country Championships, so it is not really true that he could not perform when it mattered, but yes, he did appear to let the pressure get to him most of the time.

Vera Nikolic in the womens 800m is another example of not coping with intense pressure. This could have ended tragically, but fortunately she came back to win the European Championships in 1971 and finish 5th at the 1972 Olympics. Going in to the 68 Olympics as world record holder she had the weight of the Yugoslav nation on her young shoulders. They had already hung the gold around her neck and even prepared a celebratory stamp to commemorate her expected victory.

From Madeline Manning Jackson's biography Running For Jesus:

i just knew i could hold my pace, and even if a couple of runners passed me, i had enough left to finish among the qualifiers for the finals. Then i began wondering about vera. i glanced around. my lead was secure but vera wasn't even second. i couldn't afford to keep looking behind me, but i took one more long glance an i moved into the last curve. no vera. she wasn't going to challenge me for the lead. she must be running just hard enough to barely qualify and is saving herself for the final, i told myself.

but i was wrong. as i crossed the finish line i turned around and looked through all the runners and vera wasn't there. doris brown, waiting to run in the next heat, had watched our race. what happened to vera? i asked her, puffing. then i noticed some of vera's teammates crying. what's wrong with everybody, doris?

i don't know, mad, doris said. vera stopped after 300 meters and just walked off the track and right out of the stadium.

i could hardly believe it. i knew she had a lot of pressure, but she was too tough an athlete to quit a race. no one knew what happened or why. that night i learned that her coach had followed her out of the stadium and up to the footbridge that connected the practice track and the stadium. he saw her climbing the fence on the bridge and caught her just before she tried to jump to her death.

it really shook me up. i wanted badly to see her, but they were not letting her talk to anyone.......................

the next day, as i left the olympic village to go for the 800 meter finals with doris...we noticed vera with her coach. she was crying. i left the other girls and ran to her.

how are you feeling? i asked, she didn't speak much english but she shrugged and nodded, trying hard to hold back her tears. i took her hands in mine, and thought i knew she wouldn't understand every word, i'd hope she'd understand where i was coming from. she looked amazed that i would break my concentration on the finals just to talk to her. i know that you are a great athlete, i said. i want to see you go back and get yourself together and get your mind together. pray to god for strength, and when you come back, you'll come out fighting and be the runner i know you are. she cried openly and then nodded as we hugged each other.

(a year later at the europe vs. americas games in germany i ran into vera's coach. how is she? i asked. she's here, he told me. when you stopped to talk to her before your own finals, it brought tears to my eyes. if you hadn't done that, i'm sure she would have given up. it was the turning point in her life. she's back in training, and while she's not in top shape yet, she's coming back. by then she had seen me and ran up to hug me. 3 years later in munich she was again among the top 5 800 meter women in the world.