wannabekila wrote:
ritz will finish 32nd. His aggressive running will be his undoing. He'll try to run with the big guns and get dropped about half way around.
after reading this thread, he will consider your words, but still fade to 29th.
wannabekila wrote:
ritz will finish 32nd. His aggressive running will be his undoing. He'll try to run with the big guns and get dropped about half way around.
after reading this thread, he will consider your words, but still fade to 29th.
Great talent. Smart racer. Tough. top 5
Didn't he get like 22nd as a frosh? He's a pretty smart racer, I would say top 15.
It depends on the Kenyan strategy. If they get obsessed with blocking Bekele, Ritz could benefit and place very high. On the other hand, Team Kenya may see him as a threat after Belfast and will not be surprised this time around.
Prediction: 8th - if he can muster a big late race push.
TOP TEN IN 1995 was quality
tergat
kirui
hissou
GEB
lahlafi
guerra
songok
chemoiywo
williams
fiz
kennedy 14th
It doesn't get much tougher than that. Look up some these guys pr's and I would venture to say that there pr's stack up against the runners today.
are we sure Ritz is a lock to qualify???
XC can be interesting...I say he SHOULD be there, but anything can happen in cross.
do you understand what country you're talking about?
do you really think ritz wont qualify over americans?
Top 5 my ass, He needs to beat Lebid, Baldini before he beats the ethiopians and kenyans.
your nuts wrote:
TOP TEN IN 1995 was quality
tergat
kirui
hissou
GEB
lahlafi
guerra
songok
chemoiywo
williams
fiz
kennedy 14th
It doesn't get much tougher than that. Look up some these guys pr's and I would venture to say that there pr's stack up against the runners today.
First, some of these still ARE the runners of today (Tergat, Geb, Kennedy) and those two guys are still faster than nearly everyone in history in the 5k/10k/marathon. Actually if you add up their PR's at those 3 distances Tergat and Geb ARE THE FASTEST in history.
Second, as one person mentioned, Ritz was 24th three years ago, while still in college. He certainly has a shot at top 10 if things go well.
Why do people like to kiss Ritz's ass so much?
I don't understand how estimating where Ritz will possibly finish at the World cross meet is kissing his ass. I think people are excited that we have a potential competitor for some top places. Are some of the predictions unrealilistic? Maybe... but it's nice to dream and to be excited for a kid who looks like he has the potential to be even better.
Last night I was cleaning my basement and came across my old magazines and I pulled out one for the fund of it and it was the article from '81 when Virgin won his second XC title. There is a picture of him near the front and there are SIX Ethiopians (Kedir, Balcha, Yifter, some tall guy, maybe Tolassa Kotu, ...) around him and only two other runners in sight period. Mamede and one other white guy.
It is funny, I forgot that Virgin had won the WCCC in the Spring before the Olympics and he had run 13:19 twice and 27:29 once that summer. He says in the article that the Ethiopians were really pissed off having lost two years in a row and they were not good sports afterwards. They were confused about the finish and apparently tried to finish after 9 kilos, but anyway ...
I couldn't help but notice the parallels to 2005: In '81 there was an Ethiopian who was the best 5k/10k guy in the World the year before at the Olympics (Yifter). There was a huge group of Africans at the front of this race, just like now (I think Yifter was fifth or sixth man and he was 15th overall). There was one great white 10k guy (Virgin) and one great 5k guy (Mamede) and some great Europeans (Julian Goater).
This is like Ritz, Mottram and say, Lebed. The only thing different is that everyone's pr's are 30 and 60 seconds faster and back then Kenya got third to Ethiopia and the U.S.
Thom Hunt and Nenow and Bickford were top-20 and Malley was 51st (stepped in a hole and strained his fascia the month before the meet - permanently altering the course of his career - ed.).
It was cool to see a feature length article on Virgin himself and the race also. I also saw the training he did leading up to the race.
5 weeks out - a 10k road race.
4 weeks out - XC Trials - narrow win over Nick Rose.
3 weeks out - travel to Cleveland and New York city.
2 weeks out - travel to memphis
Week of meet - bullshit 29:00 road race in Phoenix or something 7 days before, travel to Germany, travel to Madrid, then Race.
His training was pretty light also. The hardest thing I saw in there was a 2:07 half amongst soem 64 sec 400's.
There was also a lot of comments about how little people could communicate with the Ethiopians, that they were standoffish, and they always seem to have a knack for foul-ups (Yifter at '72 Olympics, finishing a lap early in Durham and some other stuff). Then they said, "On the other hand, how good is your Amharic?"
It was eerie how similar it was to today. They just didn't have the internet to circulate it instantly. Good times.
I think we're overrating Ritz.
The Kenyans, known for front-running a strong pace, changed 180 degrees and went out slow, probably due to overconfidence.
Ritz won regardless and he didn't let them catch him, but I would bet on him losing if they were to meet again anytime soon. I think they lost the race more than he won it.
was ritz top 25 a few years ago - i think his freshmen year at CU when he was top 5 at NCAA's as a freshmen as well???
jasonrexing wrote:
do you understand what country you're talking about?
do you really think ritz wont qualify over americans?
Webb didn't qualify in the 4k this past winter, and he went on to have an amazing summer (regardless of how he got bashed for his Olympic performance). He did, however, qualify in the 12k. It's cross-country. Anything can happen. Webb just beat Wilson over 3k and Wilson HAS made a USA 4K x-c team. It's cross-country.
Before you start offering your backside up, I would suggest you read Voltaire's Candide to see what at least half of that condition is like. I think there's a good chance he gets top five and I'll be surprised if he doesn't crack the top ten.
sta wrote:
Top 5 my ass, He needs to beat Lebid, Baldini before he beats the ethiopians and kenyans.
America needs an American born athlete that has the ability and the desire to compete against the best distance runners.
IMHO, Ritz is going to be great. I think he will have a phenomenal career at all distances he chooses to run.
The only thing that will stop Ritz will be injuries. His durability is the only question mark.
Out.