Lagat is a true class act and spoke about how he felt more tired than normal when the kicking started. He also revealed he's been sick for a while and said that he only was able to get in good training this past week.
Towards the end, he broke down after explaining how he wanted to make the team for his kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZihzXEKeJIA&feature=youtu.be&a
Crazy that the last time there was a World Championships without Bernard Lagat was 10 years ago.
Heartbreaking
World Masters champs instead! Lol
I was thinking yesterday of who my favorite US mid distance runners are.
I was thinking Derrick, Lagat, Andrews and maybe Jager (in that order).
After this video, I'm thinking Lagat is number one. He's been the most classy US runner in the last decade. Just positive all the time and classy with all his competitors. I wish that he would have come in third (and displaced the guy that came in third today).
I was also thinking of who my less favourite runners are. But I'll spare you that list.
It would be interesting to know who Letsrun's favorite athletes are.
Put up a list of the 800m finalists and the top 12 in the 1500, steeple, 5000 and 10000 and have people choose 3 athletes.
It would be interesting to see where they all rank.
just such a classy guy and you can see that he is very frustrated for himself not to have the health (he was sick a couple times after Pre) and the fitness, but when he becomes upset it is from the idea that he couldn't do it for his kids when they were there to watch.
I sincerely hope that starting tomorrow he switches the focus of his training to the 10k, or maybe even the marathon, and makes a bid for his fifth Olympic team next year. Perhaps the 2016 Olympic Marathon is where he finally achieves the Gold it seemed like he was destined for.
Hopefully Lagat can regain his hunger after this weekend's disappointment, get some solid training under his belt and blast a sub 13 this summer. That should give him at least some compensation for missing the world's this year.
Lagat has recently said he completed his longest run ever of 16 miles. I doubt he would be able to get gold in the 2016 Olympic Marathon without longer long runs.
He's still my favorite of all time, regardless of him missing out on a team spot today. Such a great attitude, and such an AMAZING athlete for so many years. I wish him the best.
masters fan wrote:
Hopefully Lagat can regain his hunger after this weekend's disappointment, get some solid training under his belt and blast a sub 13 this summer. That should give him at least some compensation for missing the world's this year.
fast is better than medals
Bad Wigins wrote:fast is better than medals
Wrong. Fast gets forgotten. Fast is relative. Fast has expectations....the expectations of medals.
Lagat's best running will always be from 1500 through 5k.
He would not be any good at a marathon.
From here on, he can keep competing, and should realize that getting older is inevitable.
Lagat's passion for running is evident. He is not as fast, all the time, as he once was, but I hope he continues running, at least part-time, long into the future.
Lagat should become a coach. He has the proper attitude, and desire, and the knowledge to train without killing yourself. Nike should give Lagat a shot at coaching, if Nike doesn't someone else certainly will.
Devil Dog wrote:
Bad Wigins wrote:fast is better than medalsFast is relative.
Relative is exactly what fast is not. It is measured with extreme precision by clever Swiss people. The clock is absolute.
Kipketer is remembered for running 1:41.11. Nils Schumann won the big yellow rock, but is he mentioned among the all-time 800 greats? No. He's just the guy who beat Kipketer once.
BLAST FROM THE PAST 3.0 wrote:
The extremely jealous, Lagat-hating, bigoted, masters runner who holds the age 45 1500 record posts again.
I diagree
I think it's important to realize Lagat tested positive for EPO, and that suspicion will always linger about him.
I think he is a doper.
Seems like a great guy though
Great Kenyan guy. Maybe he can try for their team?
cool kid wrote:
I think it's important to realize Lagat tested positive for EPO, and that suspicion will always linger about him.
I think he is a doper.
Lagat did not test positive, fool. Your failure to understand what a positive test requires makes you an clueless-fool.
Now, please provide links of any sort that indicate Lagat failed a test? Links other than the one you provided to the sample handler who sabotaged the A sample by conveniently cooking the sample in the trunk of their auto --where temperature climbs to a level deadly to humans in a matter of minutes-- for an entire day. Unfortunately, for fools like yourself, the handler of sample B was an honest person who did not cook the sample.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/3078642.stmMore tests????? wrote:
cool kid wrote:I think it's important to realize Lagat tested positive for EPO, and that suspicion will always linger about him.
I think he is a doper.
Lagat did not test positive, fool. Your failure to understand what a positive test requires makes you an clueless-fool.
Now, please provide links of any sort that indicate Lagat failed a test?
My list of favorite American Runners as of today -
1. Galen Rupp
2. Evan Jager
3. Matt Centrowtiz
4. Robbie Andrews
5. Ben True