American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

[Walt Murphy]

Much has been written in recent years about the woeful state of American distance running. Well, after Friday night's great men's 10k at Stanford, the U.S. now has six men who have met the Olympic "A" qualifying standard of 27:49.00. The only country with more qualifiers is Kenya, which has an amazing total of 19 men (by my count) who have met the standard. Ethiopia? They trail the U.S. with "only" 5 qualifiers. No other country has more than two! Granted, there's still quite a gap at the top between the best Africans and the best Americans, but I'd say U.S. distance running is quite healthy(at least in the men's 10k).

AMERICAN "A" QUALIFIERS
Meb Keflezighi 27:24.10
Abdi Abdirahman 27:34.24
Bob Kennedy 27:37.45
Dathan Ritzenhein U.Colorado 27:38.50
Dan Browne 27:42.19
(Alan Culpepper ran 27:41.90 in 2003)

[15mph]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

American 10K running is healthy.

[Tustin Flash]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

Yes, this is encouraging...hope they aren't peaking too much now, but can continue to build towards Athens.

[15mph]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

Last nights 10K results would be comparable to 5 Americans running under 3:36.20 in the 1500meter race. Friday's 10k was one of the best US distance races in a decade. When the 10k is concerned the US distance slump looks to be over. Only a few African nations have more depth than the US in the 10k.

Will USATODAY mention this landmark race on Monday - OF COURSE NOT!

[Bob Duncan]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

Hopefully, this will have a positive affect on a lot of other runners, those who are not quite sub-28:00. Who knows, maybe we're entering a new era and the bad spell has been broken?

[kuha]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

Obviously an extremely impressive set of marks. By comparison, our mile "talent" looks very feeble.

[satch400]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

saw your guy N BASCOMB on CBS Sunday morning. Looked young and interesting . Unlike Kuha the pretentious old grouch. your biggest fan ,surfin Satch.

[Walt Murphy]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

<<Will USATODAY mention this landmark race on Monday - OF COURSE NOT!>>

You never know....(:-)

[EPelle]

Re: American Distance Running--Stanford 10k

>Obviously an extremely impressive set of marks. By comparison, our mile "talent" looks very feeble.

The guys are going after it -- running with guts and pushing themselves to the limit without the aid of rabbits.

From Oakland Tribune:

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0 ... 61,00.html

..."Riley, who will concentrate on the 5K at the Trials, sympathized with the plight of Stember, who did much of the work for the rest of the pack.


'He was out there by himself, which is a tough way to finish,' Riley said. 'Going after it like that shows he's pretty confident. As long as he's confident, he's all right.'"