Brett Larner Makes Fun of Us and You for Freaking Out over Zane Robertson's 59:47 Half

Zane is white and speaks English. Just like most of us here. That's why letsrun should write about him.

No reason to be ashamed of the truth. And don't ever let lefties intimidate you.

Is Brett Larner taking a page from the book of Rick Fisher? Is he a bit overly obsessed with Japanese, and Kenyan/Japanese, distance running? Personally, I admire the Japanese running culture and tradition, but Larner seems to have taken it a step beyond that.

Rick Fisher was a promoter of the Tarahumara Indian runners. He brought them to ultra races such as the Leadville and Western States 100-milers back in the 1990s. His runners did well, but Fisher himself was a notorious a**hole. As Fisher said: "I could care less about the ultra community...I don't care about white people. I like for the Tarahumara to kick white butt."

From an Outside Magazine article about Fisher after the 1995 edition of Western States:

Earlier, in a scene oddly reminiscent of big-haired boxing promoter Don King working the angles at a heavyweight bout, Rick Fisher, the Tarahumara's American sponsor and chauffeur, had stormed the finish line after the last of his team crossed, accusing just about everyone in sight of cheating the Indians out of victory. Fisher also accused the race organizers of verbally and physically harassing them and--bizarre as it may sound--trying to "steal the Indians' blood." (Western States runners are asked to give a small blood sample after the race so that the effects of distance running on the human body can be studied, but Fisher believes that there are less ingenuous motives. "The Tarahumara blood is very, very rare," he's said. "The medical world wants to get its hands on it for genetic testing.")

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/Running--Let-My-People-Burn-Rubber.html

Fair enough. But why are they allowed to run in World Championships for Youth or Juniors, where there is an age limit? They are taking away the opportunity from others who are legitimately under-18 or under-20. They should not be allowed to compete at all. Just like there are Little League cheats and there have been college age cheats (David Kimani and Boaz Cheboiwo) there have been HS age cheats. If you don't have reliable documentation (and you are telling me they don't), you should not be allowed to play.

I would say that maybe nobody knows any better or that they don't realize what they are doing, but it has been going on for 25 years now.

The Junior and Youth records are now out of reach of anyone who doesn't age cheat, and even if you age-cheat, you need to be a top-5 all-time type.

I hope i'm the gullible one in believing you will no longer post about Kawauchi; though he doesn't deserve the attention he has received in the past he at least deserves something.