Lest we forget: Sammy Wanjiru

Taro wrote:

Phantasy Star wrote:

Good lord. Stop spreading these soy-drenched myths about godlike Kenyan "teenagers."

At this point Sammy was in his 20s and already loaded to the dorsals.

Really!?

And I was just to coming to terms with the fact that global warming is a Chinese hoax, Barack Obama is a Kenya-born Muslim, and America may no longer be the greatest country in the universe.

This is just too much.

In your reply you listed 2 false items (hoax, Obama) and 1 true item (America).

no one gonna forget wrote:

Taro wrote:

Here's a clip of him clicking off a sub-29:00 road 10K on the opening leg of a Japanese high-school ekiden in 2002. He was 15 or 16 years old (1st year of high school in Japan).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWEjEvs-CsI

no one is going to forget Sammy Wanjiru.

Junior World Records in 10k (26:41) and half marathon (59:16) and Olympic marathon record holder (2:06:32).

Possibly the most talented runner ever. Liked booze and guns more than running, sadly.

Who doesn't like booze and guns more than running?

no one gonna forget wrote:

Taro wrote:

Here's a clip of him clicking off a sub-29:00 road 10K on the opening leg of a Japanese high-school ekiden in 2002. He was 15 or 16 years old (1st year of high school in Japan).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWEjEvs-CsI

no one is going to forget Sammy Wanjiru.

Junior World Records in 10k (26:41) and half marathon (59:16) and Olympic marathon record holder (2:06:32).

Possibly the most talented runner ever. Liked booze and guns more than running, sadly.

Sammy could have been the best... some of the most memorable marathons ever.

I wish some of the idiots on letsrun would cut it out with the EPO, age crap.... easy to accuse but no effing proof. I don’t recall when he ran the olympics if anyone doubted his age or his talent.

We all know Sammy was murdered ! There’s no way in hell anyone can explain his injuries except for blunt trauma to the back of the head and then he was shoved from behind off the balcony at his house! The bastards wanted his money - it’s that simple. When he wouldn’t give them what they wanted, they killed him!

Could have been wrote:

no one gonna forget wrote:

no one is going to forget Sammy Wanjiru.

Junior World Records in 10k (26:41) and half marathon (59:16) and Olympic marathon record holder (2:06:32).

Possibly the most talented runner ever. Liked booze and guns more than running, sadly.

Sammy could have been the best... some of the most memorable marathons ever.

I wish some of the idiots on letsrun would cut it out with the EPO, age crap.... easy to accuse but no effing proof. I don’t recall when he ran the olympics if anyone doubted his age or his talent.

I agree. I'm not sure if those posters believe that they sound like knowledgeable insiders to the world of distance running; I think they just sound like tiresome idiots.

I have a slight amendment to an earlier comment: Sammy was not merely the junior world record holder in the half-marathon; he was the open world record holder when he was eighteen years old. And that's not so outlandish as some would think -- two years earlier, 18-year-old Eliud Kipchoge outkicked El G and K. Bekele for the 5,000-meter world championship, and he's still doing pretty well fifteen years later. Some people, it turns out, are just really, really good.

Taro wrote:

rom wrote:

Thread not complete without

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-SxTnqCmLA

I like this one, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W96mPf57_qU

I especially like 1:30, when he jolts the other top runners out of their group snooze by bolting past them like they're walking.

And at 4:48, the race well in hand, he looks like a F1 race car wheeling through that little town.

He sure made it look like fun.

You nailed it, man. I had exactly the same feeling, watching that second video. I don't often exclaim out loud multiple times when watching running videos. But damn. What an inspiring runner. The thing is, he doesn't have particularly long legs. He's basically a stumpy guy. But he flies. How? That will always be a mystery.

askj wrote:

I don't believe Kenyan ages... he looks like he was 21-22

More like 23 or so.

KudzuRunner wrote:

The thing is, he doesn't have particularly long legs. He's basically a stumpy guy. But he flies. How?

In that sense, he was a lot like Bekele, whom I consider the greatest ever.

In Sammy's case, I think the key was his supreme mechanics. That's why Michael Yessis liked him so much. His perfectly positioned pelvis (little or no anterior tilt) ensured that his trunk was nearly perpendicular to the ground, which made for wonderful balance and efficiency. It was as if he was pushing his pelvis forward, rather than his or shoulders or head, as Yessis advocates.

Yessis also said Sammy's footstrike was a perfect example of the "pawback" that Yessis considers necessary for efficient, injury-free running.

His superb balance and efficiency may partly explain why he was able to maintain form so well in the brutal heat of Beijing.

I think there's a lot to learn from watching Sammy run.

I was was about to say the same, his form was close to perfection.

I'll add that his upper body was always relaxed, arms bent ~110°...efficiency!

Well, he may have had ideal form in most respects, but his arm-carry--at least at first glance--seems totally wacky. That's part of what makes him so endearing. His right arm is flailing out there. Bekele, by contrast, is arm-carry perfection. Even Geb looks far more balanced than Sammy.

Taro, can you talk about Sammy's arm carriage? Did Yessis ever mention this? Most East Africans, although by no means all, and especially the women, seem to pull their elbows in, so that they're almost punching their own chin with uppercuts. I'm exaggerating slightly, just to make sure the picture is clear. But Sammy's arm carriage is nothing like that. Ryan Hall also carried his arms low. But he was lean and lanky; Sammy, like Bekeley, is shorter, more solidly built, more muscular. Those arms! But they clearly never held him back. I've got an image of that Chicago Marathon finish in my head. Drop the hammer!

Bekele, I meant to write.

I stand by my claim...ALMOST perfect despite that (I guess I should have mentioned it) .

The Chicago marathon vid is exemplar on both our points. Wacky handicaped-looking right hand and perfect upper body and arm movement compared to Kebede.

Prpoer arm balancing is what matters more, hands become a concern for sprinters. What he was doing was kinda ugly but more efficient that the vast majority of runners .

Feels weird to post about running on LRC when even rojo is in full summer trolling mode, I guess he needs to get rid of this loan :/

The fact that Wanjiru ran 26:41/58:33 while living as essentially a Japanese person is all the proof I need to convince me that East Africans are more talented than the Japanese. I can't say it's the altitude, or the soft dirt roads, or the ugali, or the dirty doctors, or the Italian coaches, or the Dutch agents, or some kind of special Kenyan training.

KudzuRunner wrote:

Taro, can you talk about Sammy's arm carriage? Did Yessis ever mention this?

Yessis basically minimizes the importance of arm carriage in distance running, saying that the arms simply aid in balance, but he does discuss it in some detail in this video:

What Yessis says in that video about the danger of trying to change someone's arm carriage drastically brought to mind Salazar's tinkering with Mary Cain's arm carriage.