Congrats to ALL the Americans who made the Xc team, right Letsrun!!!

I look forward to my President putting a halt to this WCAP bs and making these guys serve honest military duty. See how proud they are to be Americans if they are fighting for a living instead of running.

) African-born runners are starting to dominate USATF distance events / Leonard Korir takes another big win

One of the bigger themes over the last year has been the fact that African-born runners have started to dominate the distance events at USA national championships. At the Olympic Trials in Eugene last summer, African-born runners took 5 of the 6 Olympic spots in the men’s 5000 and 10,000.

Today at the the 2017 USA Cross Country Championships that theme continued in a big way as Kenyan-born runners went 1-4 in the men’s race and Kenyan-born Aliphine Tuliamuk absolutely dominated the women’s race, winning by nearly a minute (48 seconds) in 34:23.5.

The men’s winner was Leonard Korir, who continued his winning ways in 2017 by breaking the tape in 30:11.8. Korir was quickly followed by Stanley Kebenei (2nd, 30:14.3), Shadrack Kipchirchir (3rd, 30:18.6) and Sam Chelanga (4th, 30:22.2), all of whom train with Korir under coach Scott Simmons in Colorado Springs.

leonard-korir-usa-xc-champ-17The top American-born finishers were Laura Thweatt in the women’s race (2nd, 35:11.7) and Chris Derrick in the men’s race (5th, 30:27.7). In fact, if “American-born” were a category, Derrick would have quite the collection of wins. In addition to the “win” today, Derrick was the top American-born finisher at two NCAA cross country championships and five NCAA finals on the track. Without foreign competition, Chris Derrick would be a 7-time NCAA champion.

The U.S. men’s team for World XC should be quite strong as the top four will all be going to Uganda and they’re clearly all very fit (they beat Derrick, who ran 27:38 on the track in November, though Derrick won’t be at World XC).

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This is a disgrace.

And no, this has nothing to do with racism, it's about the place where they are not only born, but spent their entire youth.

USA is becoming the 2nd Qatar or Turkey.

justarnr wrote:

This is a disgrace.

And no, this has nothing to do with racism, it's about the place where they are not only born, but spent their entire youth.

USA is becoming the 2nd Qatar or Turkey.

I agree... those damn children need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and come over to America when they're 9! Talk about being lazy - waiting till you're a rational adult to make a life changing decision!!

The problem is in the loophole in the system to become an American.

No waiting period if you join the military.

These clowns join the Army and then just train to run.

Truer words wrote:

The problem is in the loophole in the system to become an American.

No waiting period if you join the military.

These clowns join the Army and then just train to run.

At least have the nuts to post under your own racist handle rojo.

American parents have a right to be upset when a college team and programs like the Army WCAP go to foreign countries (including Europe) to recruit a NCAA team and offer developmental scholarships to foreign recruits.

Do they target areas because of genetics? Why are runners from East Africa targetted?

Track and Cross Country is not a money making investment for any NCAA college - so they are using US tax dollars that could be invested in US resources; using the same dollars that US parents have funded by working, investing, and having deducted from our wages in some form (mainly taxes).

Truer words wrote:

The problem is in the loophole in the system to become an American.

No waiting period if you join the military.

These clowns join the Army and then just train to run.

Don't most of these imported mercenaries (Just like when they transfer to Qatar, Turkey, etc.) go train in Kenya for periods of time...where there is no testing? Extremely suspicious.

Of course they do.

Major Daniel Browne -joined May 1997

1LT Robert Cheseret - joined June 2009

SSG Robert Nunn - December 2000

SGT Hilliary Bor - July 2013

SGT Elkanah Kibet - April 2013 (deployed Iraq 2014)

SGT Augustus Maiyo - Jan 2010

SPC Paul Chelimo - May 2014

SPC Paul Katam - Jan 2014

SPC Shadrack Kipchirchir - June 2014

SPC - Leonard Korir - Sept 2015

That is somewhere about 60 to 70 years in the Army - except for Kibet the WCAP site does not commend anyone else for active duty.

Time for an investigation contact your Republican Congressman - we need to redeploy US dollars.

You need to get your fats sometime. Don't just post stupid stuff

1LT Robert Cheseret - joined June 2009 joined in 2009 and when back to serve active. Then came back 2015 July.

SGT Hillary Bor joined after olympics September after serving 4years of active time

The formation of the USATF running circuit was to encourage AMERICAN (not white, black, brown, red or yellow) distance runners to continue running beyond college by offering monetary rewards to help provide help with living expenses. So anyone from another country could not participate in the monetary rewards. I do not begrudge anybody the right to an American citizenship, but the Kenyans are truly taking advantage of a loophole to continue running and to benefit financially. This takes away from the main intention of the purpose of the American running circuit. Now before any of you bash me ask yourselves this: How many of the Kenyans would have joined the Army if they were told that although you will become an American citizen, you still have to wait 5 years before you can compete for any prize money being rewarded prize money on the running circuit or to represent the USA in international meets? Be honest with yourselves.

I only go by the official WCAP site.

I can only assume WCAP does not consider active duty a primary objective of serving in the Army.

Would think the WCAP Brass would be proud that the beneficiaries actually served.

We're going to give you an opportunity to change your statement. "White Boys" - that's like saying "I'm not racist. All you black boys know that."

Run faster and you can beat them. They're American now. Get over it. This crap about "running culture" as a youth is BS.

Alan

Since American born runners cannot compete on an international basis we buy success by expediting citizenship.

Would think the liberals would be offended by any program that discriminates against the poor, disadvantaged, and handicapped.

It must be difficult being a liberal - how do you balance all the issues and remain fair to all?

Nice incentive - train fulltime, Top coaches, world wide travel, and expedited citizenship. What a deal.

Kenyans long have dominated the sport of long-distance running, but this year several Kenyan transplants will be racing for their newly adopted country, including Chelimo and fellow military Olympians Hillary Bor, Leonard Kirir, and Shadrack Kipchirchir. Each followed a similar path to citizenship, racing in college and then finding a home in the Army's World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), which lets them train full-time, receive coaching from some of their sport's top coaches, and travel the globe as an ambassador for the military. Bor was naturalized as a citizen in 2013, but each of the others was eligible for citizenship earlier than they would've been without military service.

American Parents Unite wrote:

I only go by the official WCAP site.

I can only assume WCAP does not consider active duty a primary objective of serving in the Army.

Would think the WCAP Brass would be proud that the beneficiaries actually served.

You realize there is a larger Guard/Reserve force than active force right?

There's nothing wrong with the Guard or Reserve. Serving is serving.

Alan

OK some SERVE and some serve

Well said Rojo.

Skin color is the shallowest way to describe a person.

People who cannot resist interjecting color in describing somebody are stuck in a mental rut.

It's like walking in the library and grouping all the books by the color of their covers. We have all kinds of fascinating combinations in different colors.

I read the Invisible Man. And I have reversed it. People who judge me by my skin color are invisible to me. I look right through them.

I agree they're American. That's fine. I have no problem with that. I have a problem with how and why they went about becoming American. Once again, if the opportunity to make money off running didn't exist or there was a waiting period of 5 years, would they have taken that route? Overall the Kenyans are superior distance runners. Ultimately as more and more join our military to defend our nation, they will dominate all the top money winnings. This will discourage post collegiate runners and the intent of the running circuit will have been undermined.