olympic marathon champion to face bekele in chicago

[doug091463]

the olympic marathon champion constantina tomescau-dita will be running the chicago marathon (see front page story) and her main competition could be bezunesh bekele who was wrongly taken off the ethiopian marathon team in favor of dire tune by the ethiopian federation. redemption time, GO BEZUNESH.

[lapsus]

The title made me look :shock:

[Dutra]

Show of hands here....

...who wants to take the OP out back and .... um .... "talk" to he or she?

:lol:

[eldrick]

well, she did win the gold, albeit fans will likely remember one as a default victory due to the ineptitude of big guns not chasing earlier & the other will be remembered as the win of a colossus, running like colossus

[az2004]

ineptitude....i suspect the women were more cautious than inept...

it's easy after the fact to say they were "inept", but i'd say brilliant strategy was more the driving factor...

[SQUACKEE]

I almost had a hahdatack! Sammy and Kenny racing over 26 miles in da windy city!

[az2004]

but what affect will beijing have on an autumn race...

i can't imagine he's able to go 100%...

[eldrick]

it's easy after the fact to say they were "inept", but i'd say brilliant strategy was more the driving factor...

i'd hardly accuse cathy & zhou of employing "brilliant strategy"

[az2004]

i do think cathy and zhou ran close to their best for that day...

cathy doing the philly distance run on the 21st...i do wonder what she's got left in her legs, after a hard marathon 6 weeks before..

[eldrick]

i beg to differ

this race reminded me of '93 5k when ismael shot off after a few laps & geb + pack didn't bother chasing him ( because ismael was 18 & running at near wr pace & i expect 99% of the world expected him to crumble at the end & get run over ) - only last coupla laps they realised he wasn't fading much at all & they started their desperate chase, but just too late - nothing wrong with geb that meet as he won the 10k

dita's race was similar, but not same stunning pace - she just didn't crumble & they left their chase too late

poor strategy

[26mi235]

i beg to differ

this race reminded me of '93 5k when ismael shot off after a few laps & geb + pack didn't bother chasing him ( because ismael was 18 & running at near wr pace & i expect 99% of the world expected him to crumble at the end & get run over ) - only last coupla laps they realised he wasn't fading much at all & they started their desperate chase, but just too late - nothing wrong with geb that meet as he won the 10k

dita's race was similar, but not same stunning pace - she just didn't crumble & they left their chase too late

poor strategy

I think that they left their charge too late because they did not have much charge in them. They did cut the lead a lot the last little bit, but I have to wonder what the winner had in the tank if they had actually been close.

[eldrick]

i don't think anyone ever posted the respective splits of dita & the big 2 for last few miles/km of the race

that woud be a lot more instructive

[joeltetreault]

i don't think anyone ever posted the respective splits of dita & the big 2 for last few miles/km of the race

that woud be a lot more instructive

Splits from iaaf/Beijing site...

40k splits:
1 Constantina Tomescu ROU 2:19:07
2 Chunxiu Zhou CHN 2:20:07
3 Xiaolin Zhu CHN 2:20:07
4 Catherine Ndereba KEN 2:20:08
5 Martha Komu KEN 2:20:08

Finish times:

1 Constantina Tomescu ROU 2:26:44 (SB)
2 Catherine Ndereba KEN 2:27:06 .
3 Chunxiu Zhou CHN 2:27:07 (SB)
4 Xiaolin Zhu CHN 2:27:16 (SB)
5 Martha Komu KEN 2:27:23 .


So the last 2.2k was run in:

Tomescu - 7:37
Ndereba - 6:58
Zhou - 7:00
Zhu - 7:09
Komu - 7:15

[PanAfrican Athletics]

i'd hardly accuse cathy & zhou of employing "brilliant strategy"

Right this marathon was a "once in a lifetime" oppurtunity for Zhou AND Ndereba. Zhou could've immortalized herself and made up for Liu Xiang's early exit. Ndereba could've been the 1st female Kenyan athlete to win gold and crown herself the greatest marathon runner of all times. Given the pace and who was in front of them their choice (to wait and wait and wait and wait etc etc) is perplexing to say the least.

bezunesh bekele who was wrongly taken off the ethiopian marathon team.

Yes she was replaced by Dire Tune. Dire finished in 15th place while the (much more) highly regarded Gete Wami and Birhan Adere failed to even finish :shock: . On a sidebar what do you think of this new "young" batch of marathon-runners (Wanjiru,Kebede etc) Bizunesh is a part of? It seems that people are really dedicating themselves to the marathon from an early age on.

[nevetsllim]

The young Ethiopians certainly aren't shying away from the marathons. It was announced on the front-page that Dire Tune is racing in New York this year - that will be her fourth of the year (1st Houston, 1st Boston, 15th Beijing) and her sixth in 17 months and she's only 23 - isn't this a bit much?

Likewise, Magarsa Tafa will be running in Berlin next week. This will also be her third of the year and her 11th overall marathon, aged 23 too.

Robe Tola already looks slightly stale. She's only 21 and has run eight marathons and since running 2:24 in 2006, her next marathons have been 2:39, 2:36, 3:26! (Osaka WCh), 2:33 and 2:34.