Geoff Smith

your story indicates that its talent and not training.

Not really, what scouse is saying is that it is talent + training ... but not enough talent is taking up the training in the first place.

Geoff did come from a booming era in British distance running too, it was so competitive for the sub 30min runners back then. Nowadays, run sub 30 regularly and you will find yourself out on your own in all but a few big races in the UK. Sad but true. At least the sub-30 guys do bother their arse to turn out to these few meetings when they occur. Pity Thompson and Farah were tied to the Nike race on the same day as Leeds Abbey Dash 10k, this could have been a great platform for these two to help DOMESTIC road racing.....the London event was just them joining in with a 'Nike owned' Kenyan training run.

Maybe the Kenyans were only training but Thompson did at least beat them all in the fastest time recorded by a UK athlete this year. Leeds had better depth at sub elite level but Thompson would have won Leeds by nearly a minute.

Wasnt Geoff Smith at Providence....how did he get onto the roster if he started so late?

Smith won Boston, I believe, in 1984. One of the last yrs without prize money so the field was weak overall for the top spot. He set out to break the world record and came thru the 1/2 in 1:02:xx. He later bonked in the Newton hills. There's pic of him on Heartbreak Hill stopped with his hands raised to the heavens and a disgusted/anguished look on his face. He 'jogged it in' in 2:14 with the next guy still way back. It's chronicled in the Deridean book abou Boston. Good story.

Off the top of my head; he won boston twice and was third another year.

Also ran sub 4 mile, I believe.

I can remember the Kodak 10k being used as the AAA champs back in the 80s, what have we got nowadays.....20 years on??

What we are reduced to, is a 10k around an old airfield at a Fire Training College in the Cotswolds.....hardly a step forward is it?

What are your views on UK:A or AAA getting their shit together to put on a 'top quality' 10k road championship?

Would they bother? Its not a guaranteed moneyspinner, so would this be a factor?

They cannot pick a team from it for any major champs...so that rules UK:A out i suppose.

Would the faster guys run it? Thommo and Mo probably would not have turned out if it were not for the sponsor....why doesn't Thompson run in these kind of events more often??

In short Tim, would it be worth bringing our 10k champs into the 21st century?

Smith won Boston in 1984 in 2:10:34 running pretty much solo the whole way, and did the die-a-horrible-death-march in 1985 to win in 2:14:04. Both years Boston had possibly the worst competitive fields in the history of the race in the modern era. Smith was not one of The Greats, but a tough working-class champ who pushed himself to his limits.

3:55 for the mile...

mplatt wrote:

Off the top of my head; he won boston twice and was third another year.

Also ran sub 4 mile, I believe.

I named my son after him.

AAA 10k Road Champs

1984

1. Steve Jones 27:59

2. Colin Reitz 28.07

3. Alistair Hutton 28.13

2004

1. Glynn Tromans 29.50

2. Matt Smith 30.07

3. Stephen Hepples 3010

I know that these times relfect the general decline in standards, however, when you don't have as much depth it's important to get the best guys racing against each other as often as possible. The Reebok Series on the Country has worked quite well I think and perhaps a similar initiative for road races might help things.

Geoff Smith (d.o.b 24.10.53)PBs

Track

1mile: 3:55.8 (1st) Cwmbran 15 Aug 1981

2000m: 5:04.56 (4th) Edinburgh 26 Jun 1983

3000m: 7:52.68 (2nd) London (CP) 31 Jul 1981

2miles: 8:22.98 (7) London (CP) 27 Jun 1980

5000m: 13:26.33 (4th) London (CP) 8 Aug 1981

5000m (i)13:22.17 (3rd) New York 12 Feb 1982

10000m: 27:43.76 (1st) Dresden 13 Jun 1981

Road

10km: 28:06 (5th) Phoenix 2 Mar 1985

10m: 47:07 (1st) New York 1 May 1983

1/2Mar:

1:01:39 (2nd) Dayton 25 Sep 1983

Mar: 2:09:08 (2nd) New York NY, USA 23 Oct 1983

also ran

2:10:08 (5th) Chicago 21 Oct 1984

2:10:34 (1st) Boston 16 Apr 1984

2:10:39 (5th) Beijing 19 Oct 1986

>In short Tim, would it be worth bringing our 10k champs into the 21st century?

Well it is probably worth a try. Would it be a closed champs though? These days if there is a sniff of £10 to be won, up pops four unknown Kenyans to take all the money.

Some interesting points being laid out here. Geoff Smith was some talent and it shows the incredible depth we had in the distance events in the mid eighties.

With regard to the AAA's 10km and the racing scene as a whole I think there needs to be greater communication between race directors, athletes, clubs federations etc. In the mid eighties there were loads of great races full of top flight runners. These days there are less top flight runners, but twice as many races, so the road running fields are thin on the ground of top flight runenrs.

To take one small example. The Abbey Dash was chocka full of talented guys looking to move on up a level. How many of those guys discussed the race prior to on the Runfast forum? From the emails I receievd the answer is many! I think runfast was responsible to some degree for getting together so many decents runners

It seems there is quite a tight network in the North of England between a few of the clubs. Such networks need to be grown in the Midlands, the South and then nationally, because then perhaps the best runners will get to race each other, rather than be stretched over an ever increasing road race calender.

Look whats happens in the BMC GP's or the Reebok series, the best runners know to go those races as they are going to get good competition.

Hi Tim, when i watched the race at Cheltenham a few years ago, it had several Africans in it without spoiling the event. I would like to see a championship which does not offer prizes or appearance fees to foriegn athletes. I don't mind Africans running, so long as they don't run away with the money every week.

I believe that our athletes would benefit from a prize system based on finish times rather than positions.....if they know that they have to run lets say sub 31:00 to get onto the prize list and perhaps sub 29:00 to start receiving decent money for their efforts, then i am sure that you would get plenty more Brits aiming for this kind of event. Instead, we currently pay out on only positions or course records, which are usually so old that Geoff Smith himself could well own a few.

On the point that somebody made about Race Co-ordinators keeping in closer touch with each other....what a joke this is! Do you really think that Brendan Foster would give a shit if a Nova International takes athletes away from a AAA championship race?? Like hell he would.

Well done to Dave/Andy Norman etc who all got their collective arses onto the line at Leeds.