Outed By LetsRun.com Sleuths Yet Again – Abdelaati Iguider’s Then-World-Leading 3:32.88 1,500 Was Run From The Wrong Start Line
by LetsRun.com
June 24, 2015
The LetsRun.com community is famous for outing suspected marathon cheats across the globe (Kip Litton, Mike Rossi). If anything suspicious happens in the world of running, the LRC community is bound to sniff it out.
Well their expertise isn’t limited to the roads. It also translates to the track.
Way back on June 10, astute LetsRun.com messageboard poster “Deanouk” watched Morocco’s Abdelaati Iguider run a supposed world-leading 3:32.88 1500 in Marseille, France. There was one small problem. The race started on the wrong start line – it started in front of the actual 1500-meter start line. Timing the race, Deanouk realized the splits made no sense.
The first ‘200’ (in actuality it was less than 200) was 25.9, but the second ‘200’ (in actuality it was more than 200 as he timed it to the actual start line) was just 30.9. The same thing happened on the second lap. The 3rd 200 was 27.5 but the 4th was 30.9. The 5th 200 was 27.5 and the 6th 31.5. Clearly the start line was the wrong one. We only became aware of this yesterday when we saw the following tweet from Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis (Yes, it’s true. The employees of LetsRun.com don’t actually read anywhere close to all of the messageboard threads.):
http://t.co/ibHriRBHEg
Gotta love @letsrundotcom. These geniuses have discovered a world lead 3.32 1500m, was from wrong line.— Nick Willis (@nickwillis) June 22, 2015
| Overall |
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| Comfort |
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| Cushioning |
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| Durability |
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| Appearance |
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| Value |
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You can get more details in the messageboard thread below.
We also suggest you watch the race video. At the 27-second mark below, the runners are ready to race and are on the right start line but then are moved up.
A LetsRun.com visitor has taken some screenshots from the race broadcast which details the errors as shown below.
The screenshots below are courtesy of long time LRC “listener” first time “caller” (yes we know he’s emailing, we’re making a sports radio joke), Brock Hagerman, a New Mexico XC/TF alum who is now the Director of Athletics Compliance at Ball State University.
