We'll have more in our 10k recap but Scott Simmons, coach of the American Distance Project runners, who went 2-3-4-7 in tonight's 10,000m, said the plan was for his guys to put in surges in the race and talk in Swahili so others wouldn't know exactly what was going on.
Turns out Sam Chelanga ended up surging more frequently than expected and the others didn't go with him so it turned into more of a unique fartlek by Chelanga but Simmons' guys did get 2 on the Worlds team.
Is that a big surprise to anybody, of course they will use a language others don't know. Any group of people working together can speak code. Listen to rap music, if u decipher some of the lyrics it would be shocking to some.
LetsRun.com wrote:
We'll have more in our 10k recap but Scott Simmons, coach of the American Distance Project runners, who went 2-3-4-7 in tonight's 10,000m, said the plan was for his guys to put in surges in the race and talk in Swahili so others wouldn't know exactly what was going on.
Turns out Sam Chelanga ended up surging more frequently than expected and the others didn't go with him so it turned into more of a unique fartlek by Chelanga but Simmons' guys did get 2 on the Worlds team.
I remember reading about 35-40 years ago (ouch) that the UTEP Runners would do this - so one race Alberto Salazar and Rudy Chapa started speaking "the Espanol."
Teammates using a skill completely in the rules that nobody else has to get a competitive edge? Stop the presses, how shocking!!!
Come on now guys.
This use to happen in a base softball league I played in. The league had a team from the federal prison on base. They use to talk in Spanish (?) all the time. I bet this happens in all sorts of leagues. If you had a AAU team where everyone knew another language, how nice would that be for the coach to be able to just yell to the players and the other side not now what was happening.
Soon runners will have to learn Swahili to avoid being caught off guard. Already the most popular (often the only) African language offered by learning institutions worldwide.
Your tax dollars at work.
Why does the U.S. Army pay for this again?
I went to a NHRA drag race where they had the U.S. Army sponsored drag race team and asked the same question.There must be better ways to recruit and better way to spend the defense budget.
They joined the army to serve and running is not serving. Although I ran for Simmons he is doing his job but wcap and all of these programs start to irritate me as it seems like a way to avoid the real military. When I put the uniform on I put it on to serve I find it frustrating when they are earning citizenship by avoiding true service.
Remember among est thousands of Kenyans now serving in united state military, the few with great talent where able to join the group WCAP. Was it to avoid serving then every Kenyan would have done so. I'm very sure those guys are proud to be serving as well as putting the name of the US at the top in world sport. So brother keep your comment to yourself.
Galen has to understand some running related Swahili. He's out there mixing it up with Kenyans regularly.
kipkip wrote:
Remember among est thousands of Kenyans now serving in united state military, the few with great talent where able to join the group WCAP. Was it to avoid serving then every Kenyan would have done so. I'm very sure those guys are proud to be serving as well as putting the name of the US at the top in world sport. So brother keep your comment to yourself.
I'm not saying they aren't proud to serve or avoid regular service. What I'm asking is how paying them to run professionally a good use of tax dollars.
FWAC wrote:
kipkip wrote:Remember among est thousands of Kenyans now serving in united state military, the few with great talent where able to join the group WCAP. Was it to avoid serving then every Kenyan would have done so. I'm very sure those guys are proud to be serving as well as putting the name of the US at the top in world sport. So brother keep your comment to yourself.
I'm not saying they aren't proud to serve or avoid regular service. What I'm asking is how paying them to run professionally a good use of tax dollars.
They are marketing toward a target audience. Young folks involved in sports make better recruits than fat out of shape kids that spend their time in front of the TV.
They serve after their careers are over.
Long term investment wrote:
They serve after their careers are over.
Is that actually true? Do the Army athletes have a different term of service than usual. Typically, you serve something like 4 years active duty and then 4 years in the reserve. If a runner competes for one Olympic cycle, they've probably fulfilled their active duty requirement over that time.
joho wrote:They are marketing toward a target audience. Young folks involved in sports make better recruits than fat out of shape kids that spend their time in front of the TV.
Is that true? Or even plausible? I'm not questioning that the Army runners are great guys and great runners. I'm sure they are. But did a single person in the US see the Army runners in the 10000m last night or even see Paul Chelimo win silver at the Olympics and think "I should enlist in the Army"? I doubt that happened even once.
Billy Mills (gold 10,000 in Tokyo) ran for the Marines in a similar situation
http://www.californiaindianeducation.org/sports_heros/billy_mills/
the military is a huge morass of money wasted, sponsoring distance runners is a molecule in a bucket.
If I am not mistaken, George Young also ran for a military branch.
I am allowed to have my own opinion and having drawn blood in that uniform I will make my comment known they should serve 4 years deployable before they run for wcaps.
C. Duque wrote:
I am allowed to have my own opinion and having drawn blood in that uniform I will make my comment known they should serve 4 years deployable before they run for wcaps.
I agree.
OK wejo. I'm still waiting for the punchline? What exactly was speaking Swahili supposed to do?
C. Duque wrote:
I am allowed to have my own opinion and having drawn blood in that uniform I will make my comment known they should serve 4 years deployable before they run for wcaps.
Men's distances is too competitive for them to take time off training to deploy and still be relelvant at this level.
WCAP athletes are still very much in the military; they wear the uniform (although probably not daily, like most servicemen) and serve their country.
I understand the critique of WCAP being a waste of resources, but the exposure guys like Chelimo give the Army is worth it. Maybe not true of all WCAP athletes, but definitely true of guys making Olympic teams.
This is coming from a guy who ran for a service academy, tried to qualify for WCAP, and never made it.
Eventually even Chelimo will work with an active duty unit.