Mike Honcho wrote:
Congrats...another Kenyan. And we wonder why the sport has plummeted so badly in America. You don't see Americans going to Kenya and waving their golf clubs around like fools. People ask where has track gone in America? Blame college coaches for giving "20" year old Kenyan freshman scholarships when there are decent high schoolers who have worked here in the states to earn it just as much. Cheresek is great, I'll give him that but a freshman? C'mon he's going off a midwifes say of how old he is and when he was born.
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This is coming from someone who has posted extensively about African age cheating. Do a search and you will see that I have looked at the issue from a number of angles. With that said, I saw Cheserek when he was 16, his physical appearance and demeanor seemed very much like a 16 year old. Keep in mind that Cheserek didn't just appear from out of nowhere to compete in Youth and Junior world competitions. That is what age cheating is usually about, backdating your age to win international sub-senior competitions and get a pro contract. In Cheserek's case, he competed in Kenyan grade school and age group competitions, he came from an orphanage and has a documented DOB.
I don't think anyone expected him to win NCAA XC, but I was expecting top-3. Go back and look at his conference and regional races, he spent half the race looking for his teammates and it looked like a tempo run. In fact, last year a lot of people thought he was capable breaking Chapa's 10K HSR off of middle distance training. If you talk to the folks from NJ, they will tell you Cheserek always had incredible endurance, his 1:49 800m in H.S. was actually more of a surprise. From memory, he did a training run with the Rosa's over the summer when he first came to the U.S., and as a sophomore he held his own. In high school, he trained like a H.S. athlete and mostly for middle distances and at Oregon he is getting a chance to train and compete at distances that show his true talent.