Ethiopian marathon team announced: Picks are as debatable as Kenya's

How can you pick Feyisa Lelisa over Lelisa Desisa?

Say that fast 5 times.

Peter Piper wrote:

How can you pick Feyisa Lelisa over Lelisa Desisa?

Say that fast 5 times.

Damn... got stuck on the fifth!

I would have picked:

Berhanu: has been racing really well.

Bekele: very good performance in the last Marathon and a great racer.

and yes, Desisa: very good championship racer and seems to always be "hungry".

Without Bekele I'm not going to watch these doped up games.

Looks like a nice pay day for Kenny at this years Berlin Marathon.

Kenny's counting the $$$$$$$$$ wrote:

Looks like a nice pay day for Kenny at this years Berlin Marathon.

Has anyone ever set the Marathon WR in Berlin in an Olympic year? I'm not suggesting Bekele could do it, but others left off of Olympic teams perhaps?

Does this mean Bekele is focusing on the 10000?

Or does this mean we don't see Bekele in anything at Olympics?

IDK, but I'd love to see Bekele vs. Farah.

Analyze This wrote:

Has anyone ever set the Marathon WR in Berlin in an Olympic year?

Haile Gebrselassie in 2008.

bye bye Bekele wrote:

Men:

Tesfaye Abera

Lemi Berhanu

Feyisa Lelisa

Bekele, Desisa, and Tsegay are alternates.

I would have picked the 3 men's alternates for the team.

Abera: won Dubai this year, fastest ETH so far in 2016

Berhanu: won Dubai last year and fastest ETH of 2015, 2nd in Dubai this year, won Boston this year

Lelisa: Won Tokyo this year

Bekele: 3rd in London this year, DNF in Dubai last year behind Berhanu

Desisa: 2nd in Boston this year behind Berhanu, 3rd in NYC last year

Tsegay: 3rd in Boston this year behind Berhanu and Desisa, 5th in NYC last year behind Desisa

Two 2016 World Marathon Major winners and the Dubai winner, one of whom beat all three alternates, and two of whom are the fastest Ethiopians of 2015 and 2016. Hard to argue with this team selection.

survey says wrote:Abera: won Dubai this year, fastest ETH so far in 2016

Berhanu: won Dubai last year and fastest ETH of 2015, 2nd in Dubai this year, won Boston this year

Lelisa: Won Tokyo this year

Bekele: 3rd in London this year, DNF in Dubai last year behind Berhanu

Desisa: 2nd in Boston this year behind Berhanu, 3rd in NYC last year

Tsegay: 3rd in Boston this year behind Berhanu and Desisa, 5th in NYC last year behind Desisa

Two 2016 World Marathon Major winners and the Dubai winner, one of whom beat all three alternates, and two of whom are the fastest Ethiopians of 2015 and 2016. Hard to argue with this team selection.

Berhanu is a fair point. As for Abera and Lelisa, Dubai is a flat time trial with hardly any turns. It doesn't tell you much about how someone will run in Rio. Tokyo is the least competitive of the WMM. First in Dubai or Tokyo shouldn't count more than top 5 in a more competitive WMM.

bye bye Bekele wrote:

Berhanu is a fair point. As for Abera and Lelisa, Dubai is a flat time trial with hardly any turns. It doesn't tell you much about how someone will run in Rio. Tokyo is the least competitive of the WMM. First in Dubai or Tokyo shouldn't count more than top 5 in a more competitive WMM.

According to the ARRS' competitive level ratings, the last 6 WMM races ranked this way:

1. NYC - 832

2. Boston - 803

3. London - 769

4. Tokyo - 708

5. Chicago - 692

6. Berlin - 637

So no, Tokyo is not the least competitive. It wasn't as competitive as London, but it's hard to argue why you should choose someone who finished more than a kilometer behind the winner in London over someone who won in Tokyo.

Dubai, for comparison, had a competitive ranking of 691 this year, about the same as Chicago. It was 791 last year when Bekele DNF'd, higher than this year's London ranking. The three alternates are all solid but the three guys chosen are the top dogs right now.

The IAAF story adds that Tigist Tufa and Tirfi Tsegaye are the women's alternates.

http://www.iaaf.org/news/news/ethiopian-olympic-marathon-team-2016

Aberra won Hamburg this year too, only fair to have on the team especially given his time in Dubai.

But yes, Berlin/Chicago/NYC will be interesting with Bekele, Kipsang and Kimetto fresh from no Olympics.

Whatever these rankings are, they're complete BS. Did you not watch the London marathon?

Far South wrote:

survey says wrote:

According to the ARRS' competitive level ratings, the last 6 WMM races ranked this way:

1. NYC - 832

2. Boston - 803

3. London - 769

4. Tokyo - 708

5. Chicago - 692

6. Berlin - 637

http://more.arrs.net/raceSeries/search/1/name/asc

So no, Tokyo is not the least competitive. It wasn't as competitive as London, but it's hard to argue why you should choose someone who finished more than a kilometer behind the winner in London over someone who won in Tokyo.

Dubai, for comparison, had a competitive ranking of 691 this year, about the same as Chicago. It was 791 last year when Bekele DNF'd, higher than this year's London ranking. The three alternates are all solid but the three guys chosen are the top dogs right now.

Whatever these rankings are, they're complete BS. Did you not watch the London marathon?

I wonder how they managed to call Boston more competitive than London, or Tokyo more competitive than Berlin.

Far South wrote:

Whatever these rankings are, they're complete BS. Did you not watch the London marathon?

Yes, and so did the Ethiopian selectors, apparently.

grox wrote:

I wonder how they managed to call Boston more competitive than London, or Tokyo more competitive than Berlin.

Since you asked,

"The competitive level is derived from the average point level for the five highest ranked runners in the race (CL5) compared to the average point level for the ten highest ranked runners in the world (CL10) at the time of the race. The competitive level is calculated as 1000 times (CL5-BP) / (CL10-BP) where BP is the base point level (2600 for men, 2500 for women). The competitive level nominally ranges from 1000 (most competitive) to 0 (least competitive) but may exceed these limits on occasion."

All this blabber about the Kenyan and Ethiopian teams! Despite that Rio will be the WINTER olympics because it's winter there, the average low temperature is 65 F and will quickly climb to about 80 during the day. Despite the low humidity it will still be a heat-dissipation contest dominated by hot-desert people such as the Eritrean from last year.

Also don't forget that top marathoners don't care about the oly marathon. Don't expect a big effort from them.

survey says wrote:Since you asked,

"The competitive level is derived from the average point level for the five highest ranked runners in the race (CL5) compared to the average point level for the ten highest ranked runners in the world (CL10) at the time of the race. The competitive level is calculated as 1000 times (CL5-BP) / (CL10-BP) where BP is the base point level (2600 for men, 2500 for women). The competitive level nominally ranges from 1000 (most competitive) to 0 (least competitive) but may exceed these limits on occasion."

http://arrs.net/CompLevl.htm

A formula that ranks the last NYC and Boston marathons ahead of the last London marathon is obviously flawed.

bye bye Bekele wrote:

A formula that ranks the last NYC and Boston marathons ahead of the last London marathon is obviously flawed.

Please explain how.