Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

[Bob Duncan]

Larry Rawson has written a column for the Runner's World web site where he speculates that Gebrselassie's age is actually 34 or 35, rather than 31. Here's the link:
http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300 ... 42,FF.html

[MJD]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

>Larry Rawson has written a column for the Runner's World web site where he
>speculates that Gebrselassie's age is actually 34 or 35, rather than 31.
>Here's the
>link:
http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300 ... 42,FF.html

There are tell tale differences in the looks of a 31 year old and a 34 year old? That's nonsense. He is what he is and what he does on the road and track will speak for itself. I thought RW had done something of late to try and improve its editorial content.

[Bob Duncan]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Well, we've heard this one before, that Africans don't really know their true ages, etc. I'm sure that Rawson will catch a lot of flak over this.

[steve]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Larry Rawson is the worst announcer track and field has ever known. Now he can also add the title of the worst journalist in track and field. He has no insight whatsoever. What makes it doubly annoying is that, to me, he comes off as though he thinks he is very clever. I wish he would disappear from sportscasting and journalism forever.

[MJD]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

>Well, we've heard this one before, that Africans don't really know their true
>ages, etc. I'm sure that Rawson will catch a lot of flak over this.

Forget that(although you are right). I just don't see a point anywhere in the article. There have been runners that were at their best in their early to mid twenties and their mid to late thirties so what does whether he is 31 or 34 have to do with anything at all.

[doug b]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

well i did a google search on gebs hero miuts yifter, which says yifter was 42 when he won the 5 and 10k which though not listed should be the 40 and over records. so if he is older maybe he will run as a masters runner. regardless of his age he just ran a 729 3k indoors, and with 3 sub 27 10ks last year, including his sub 13 5k in the second half of a 10k is amazing regardless of age. interesting that he ran an altitude marathon with little training at age 15 or 18, in the united states athletes in some sports are considered to old to be good if they start at age 15-18, i heard viren, van damme and others did not start serious training until 18-20 (though they may have been soccer players) maybe starting at a relatively late age is good for some people?

[doug b]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

excuse the typo it is miruts yifter, born january 1st 1938 in the tigray region of northern ethiopia.

[jhc68]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

It is a pretty silly column. Geb may well be past his prime, but he is still pretty damn good, and whether he is 30 or 35 has very little bearing on anything. As others have pointed out, runners peak physically at different ages according to their particular physiology, not at any set time.

The most irresponsible part of the essay, though, is the presumption that Geb's age could be determined by eyeballing him... if, as Rawson speculates, Geb may not even know his real age, then why in the world does Rawson think that HE might know better? What arrogance!!! Having traveled pretty widely, my opinion is that trying to guess the exact age of a person from another culture is pure folly.

[Bob Duncan]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

>Forget that(although you are right). I just don't see a point anywhere in the article.

One reason for bringing this out would be the implication of dishonesty, that Geb competed as a Junior when in fact he was older. Again, we've heard that one before regarding some of the Kenyans. It appears that nothing can be proven here, so why bring it up?

It is too easy to be speculative about people when you don't have to back up your statements. I think most of us would agree that a 2:48 marathon at age 15 is not unusual for a 15 year old boy who grows into the greatest distance runner in history.

[trackhead]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

On Yifter's age:

Part of the mystery of Miruts Yifter is the question of is age, which was variously reported as 33, 35, 36, 37 or 42. When asked to deliver a definitive answer, Yifter would only reply, "I don't count the years. Men may steal my chickens, men may steal my sheep. But no man can steal my age." Most likely he was 36.

[trackstar]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

>The most
>irresponsible part of the essay, though, is the presumption that Geb's age
>could be determined by eyeballing him...

Yes, I would think the example of Dick Clark would dissuade anyone from trying that.

[DIII Coach]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Even if he is 34, so what? As someone else said, he is still running great. Age 37 didn't seem to be a liability for Carlos Lopes. He's got the kind of frame that can handle mileage and a definite love of what he does. It would be interesting to know what his true age is however.

It wouldn't surprise me if Yifter were over 40 in Moscow.

[marknhj]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Got a case of Rawson's Revenge last night, trying to open his article froze my computer and I had to pull the plug. Despite thinking Rawson is a useless commentator I actually think he has a point about Geb. He's not the same man so far this year. Still great but he's lost something IMHO. No clue whether it's age or not though.

If he's commentating this weekend I'm interested what new football:T&F analogy he'll come up with. The women's 800m one a few weeks back will be hard to beat ("like running 7 lengths of a football field"). How about hurdlers are like running backs leaping over guys trying to spear them?

[Pego]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

<("like running 7 lengths of a football field")>

Did he really say this? In truth it's just about 9 of them.

[marknhj]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Pego...yep he said it. I think he was getting his meter:yard conversion ass backwards! During the same meet both him and his co-announcer actually said they found meters confusing...nice, for a track meet, eh?