Kenenisa Bekele disses Mo Farah and Galen Rupp: "Times are very important,"

Looking at the outliers on the very edge of the bell curve, you see that the most extreme 1 or 2 or 3 individuals can be spaced very far away from the rest of the group. So even with "natural" explanations, it is not unreasonable to see the 26:17 and 26:19 of Bekele and Geb be spaced so far away from the rest of the world's best runners. Drugs are not needed to explain how these once-in-a-generation type of runners are able to be in a class of their own. A bigger indication of drug use, is actually when you have a dozen runners all running close to the WR at the same time.

celery wrote:

[quote]You know he did wrote:

A bigger indication of drug use, is actually when you have a dozen runners all running close to the WR at the same time.

Yeah like Lance winning all those Tour de Frances by himself more than anyone ever managed before. The guy was a one in a million talent ...

The field in the Olympic marathon was very good, so the fact that Rupp won bronze with his special shoes and iced hats and so on indicates that he, as this Salazar-grey area product, is much, much better than a 2:09-10 marathoner. We'll see this the first time he does a fast, cool marathon in Europe.

Check out these guys from the preview of the Olympic marathon:

Among the top guys in time in 2016, Feyisa Lilesa and Ghirmay Gebreselassie, the 2nd and 4th finishers, weren't even mentioned. Rupp beat all of the top five in time in 2016 (entered in the race), except Kipchoge, and he beat the World and New York champ, Gebreselassie.

2016’s Fastest performers (among men entered)

1. Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya 2:03:05

2. Stanley Biwott, Kenya 2:03:51

3. Tesfaye Abera, Ethiopia 2:04:24

4. Lemi Berhanu, Ethiopia 2:04:33

5. Kaan Kigen Ozbilen, Turkey 2:06:10

www.letsrun.com/news/2016/08/2016-olympic-mens-marathon-preview-can-greatest-marathoner-world-eliud-kipchoge-become-greatest-marathoner-time-can-galen-rupp-medal-doubling-back-10k/

also slower than this fast dude from Eritrea (forgot his name, 26:36 or so)??????

tadesse:)

Eh.. wrote:

Bekele is at another level than Salazar's epo-elf, I just like that Hall is also at another level than Rupp when it comes to distance

Yea the Ryan hall that received 10th place and a DNF at his Olympic marathons. The only thing Ryan hall holds over rupp is his half marathon record and 2:06:17 clocking at London. Whether rupp matches those feats remains to be seen, but his track accomplishments and now marathon accomplishments dwarf Ryan halls career

Wish I could fade to a podium finish at the Olympics. Wow faded to 2nd at Boston. I am not sure you understand Boston it can play a lot of different ways and result in up and down times. Love to see Bekele run a real marathon course like Boston or New York. And sure wish I had a silver and a bronze at the Olympics and a second at Boston

The only thing that Hall has over Rupp is that he was a faster half marathon and marathon runner who ran with bigger balls, no kidding Rupp is a better track runner than someone who didn't specialize in track

sundown wrote:

The field in the Olympic marathon was very good, so the fact that Rupp won bronze with his special shoes and iced hats and so on indicates that he, as this Salazar-grey area product, is much, much better than a 2:09-10 marathoner. We'll see this the first time he does a fast, cool marathon in Europe.

Check out these guys from the preview of the Olympic marathon:

Among the top guys in time in 2016, Feyisa Lilesa and Ghirmay Gebreselassie, the 2nd and 4th finishers, weren't even mentioned. Rupp beat all of the top five in time in 2016 (entered in the race), except Kipchoge, and he beat the World and New York champ, Gebreselassie.

2016’s Fastest performers (among men entered)

1. Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya 2:03:05

2. Stanley Biwott, Kenya 2:03:51

3. Tesfaye Abera, Ethiopia 2:04:24

4. Lemi Berhanu, Ethiopia 2:04:33

5. Kaan Kigen Ozbilen, Turkey 2:06:10

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2016/08/2016-olympic-mens-marathon-preview-can-greatest-marathoner-world-eliud-kipchoge-become-greatest-marathoner-time-can-galen-rupp-medal-doubling-back-10k/

- Tight!! Well done

- Kenesia isn't talking trash ... it's not in their culture to do that .... as one said earlier: he's merely stating the facts on how fast he's run.

- I believe that many athletes with EXTREME PRs such as those reflected above oftentimes find Championship races difficult from a mental, weather, and course perspective. By that I mean, without a pacesetter & perfect conditions they have a tough time mentally adjusting during the race. Their expectations are so high on "Where I should be?" or "That split's to low!" that they begin to pay more attention to the conditions than the competition and lose their edge. It's likely much easier to "fall in the line" on a pace set race on a flat course with temps in the 60s & no humidity than where Galen's run: hot LA, humid Rio, and "warm" Boston all with no pacer.

Lickety Split wrote:

- I believe that many athletes with EXTREME PRs such as those reflected above oftentimes find Championship races difficult from a mental, weather, and course perspective. By that I mean, without a pacesetter & perfect conditions they have a tough time mentally adjusting during the race. Their expectations are so high on "Where I should be?" or "That split's to low!" that they begin to pay more attention to the conditions than the competition and lose their edge. It's likely much easier to "fall in the line" on a pace set race on a flat course with temps in the 60s & no humidity than where Galen's run: hot LA, humid Rio, and "warm" Boston all with no pacer.

Bekele, Geb, Kipchoge, Kipsang, Tergat, Komen, el G, ....yeah, all struggled as competitors, eh?

cerutty wrote:

Wish I could fade to a podium finish at the Olympics. Wow faded to 2nd at Boston. I am not sure you understand Boston it can play a lot of different ways and result in up and down times. Love to see Bekele run a real marathon course like Boston or New York. And sure wish I had a silver and a bronze at the Olympics and a second at Boston

Yeah, I'm sure Rupp would blow Bekele's heels off at Boston or NY.

How many XC championships did Bekele win again?

While you all are chasing your tails worrying about doping, pretending like you don't know that this has been the dirtiest sport in the world for coming up on 50 years now, you've ignored the point of Kenny's argument.

Whether or not Mo could have touched the records Is a moot point.

Times matter in this sport. Period.

I'm sorry, but being a good kicker in an era of gutless racing does not make one the GOAT.

Mo has never even attempted a fast race. If he went for it, hed be in the top 5 all time in the 5k. He could have run faster then 12:46. If he were just to try, even come up well short of the WR, id respect him and bring him up in the GOAT conversation because of his success in championship racing.

He has said he'll go for it this year, in his final year of track. I fear it may be too late for fast times, but I guess well see

Yeah, and cross country matters *zero* to the public, only to runners that compete in them. No races will have bigger payouts than marathons, and that's why hundreds of Africans compete to be an elite marathoner. Heck, most of the US public has no idea who Centro is, even though his gold medal win was well promoted by Nike.

I hope that AlSal will schedule a cool weather, paced marathon for Rupp so we can see what he's more capable of. Now that Rupp has 3 marathons under his belt, he's got a much better idea of what to expect and where he needs to improve. I suspect that's why AlSal's plan is - get him used to the race, then start refining for performance such as the speed needed for that final 10k of the race.

I'm in a charity race in May with Rupp and I'll be sure to tell him how much you all love him LOL. Like I said before, I'll hope he does great because he's an American and our best marathoner.

The post I respond had nothing to do with what he general public concern themselves with. What it suggested and implied is that Bekele's success and performance is based in his choice of marathon courses, and he'd struggle on "real marathon courses such as Boston or NY".

His unmatched XC record would suggest that implication is absolutely ridiculous.

cerutty wrote:

Wish I could fade to a podium finish at the Olympics. Wow faded to 2nd at Boston. I am not sure you understand Boston it can play a lot of different ways and result in up and down times. Love to see Bekele run a real marathon course like Boston or New York. And sure wish I had a silver and a bronze at the Olympics and a second at Boston

A real course like Boston? Last I checked, Boston wasn't even record eligible. It's a net downhill. Bekele would destroy Rupp even more so on this course.

He may or may not have doped. When you say "everybody knows" with no proof, you cast yourself as a self righteous arrogant ass. And that, everybody has a proof of.

As stated by others the Africans run for money. When Rupp runs 2:05 he will be in the conversation.Times matter.

bekele fan wrote:

"Times are very important," Bekele said. "On the track I don't see anyone out there looking like they can reach my marks at the moment. In the marathon, running two hours, 10 minutes and winning would not give you full happiness. Winning in two hours, four minutes would be a different feeling.

Of course it serves the world record holder well to say times are important. He's not going to say championship medals are important at this stage of his career since he hasn't won one since 2009 and probably won't again. Bekele could set a marathon WR, but since there are so many good marathoners he might not even win the race. Even if he wins and sets a WR for the same reason the record would not last long, nothing like his track records. The longer his records last, the more I'm convinced he used EPO to set them. (They were all set before there was a reliable EPO test.) Paula, for example, has never tested positive, but the longer her record goes untouched, I believe the more people believe she was dirty.

Watchin wrote:

Facts:

Ran away from Meb in the trials. Big whoop.

Faded in the Olympics.

Faded at Boston.

Still slower than Rodgers was in 1975.

Still slower than Clayton was in 1967.

Still the slowest marathoning sub-27 10K runner.

Unless your definition of "faded" is "sped up", then those are not facts. Rupps last 5k in the Olympics was faster than everyones except Eluids AND his last 10k in Boston was his fastest of the race. Try again!