anything to sell newspapers!

[gh]

noted writer goes out of his way to trash Blake.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/gl ... 222.column

Better than writing real news I guess

[vip]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

Well, he wrote it as a blog, which only appeared on the newspaper's website, so I guess the title of this thread is misleading. Besides, I seriously doubt a rather obscure story on track and field would sell anything, much a less a newspaper. But, carry on.

[Marlow]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

Funniest line is near the end:

To be fair . . .

His premise is that you can't have a big drop in performance and be clean. News to all those pre-60s athletes who routinely had big drops. It happens. (not trying to be naive, either)

[JRM]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

His premise is that you can't have a big drop in performance and be clean. News to all those pre-60s athletes who routinely had big drops. It happens. (not trying to be naive, either)

I think there's a thesis here for a statistics grad student.

[Conor Dary]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

noted writer goes out of his way to trash Blake.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/gl ... 222.column

Better than writing real news I guess

Not the first time Hersh is writing nonsense about track.

From the Chicago Tribune, Oct 6, 2004 p. 2 Sports

by Phil Hersh

"If you are a spectator at Sunday's LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, when you see four-time winner Khalid Khannouchi approaching, turn your back on him.

After all, that is what Khannouchi has done to the United States in the past two Olympics.

The statistical record shows Khannouchi to be truly one of the greatest marathoners of all time.

The spoken record shows him to be truly a fraud."...

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=30207&p=440865&hilit=hersh+clo wn#p440865

[Pego]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

I apologize, if this hijacks the original intent of the thread, but in the case of Khannouchi, I agree with Hersh. He was just like prominent tennis players that always got hurt just for the Davis Cup weekend, only to have a miraculous recovery on Monday. Remember Lendl?

[guru]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

I'm a big fan of Hersh, but this column did catch me a bit off guard. Even so, I think all of us had a WTF moment when we saw Blake's time yesterday - a result that was just an average start away from breaking Bolt's WR. Blake's time/improvement has generated the most discussion of any post on a Facebook discussion group I'm a member of - 150 posts and counting. All seasoned track observers/coaches/athletes(including world class), and many with the same narrowed eyes as Hersh.

[Ned Ryerson]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

I apologize, if this hijacks the original intent of the thread, but in the case of Khannouchi, I agree with Hersh. He was just like prominent tennis players that always got hurt just for the Davis Cup weekend, only to have a miraculous recovery on Monday. Remember Lendl?

You realize that there is a big financial incentive for making the US Olympic team and running well at the Olympics?

[Cooter Brown]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

His first mistake, other than being a dick, is that he thinks the 100M WR and the 10,000m AR progressions are comparable. It's dubious enough comparing the progression of two athletes in the same event.

Doesn't really matter though. He's probably just bitter he works in an industry no one gives a shit about anymore.

[twinpeeks]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

I too thought that was strange comparison. I cannot stand Phil.

His first mistake, other than being a dick, is that he thinks the 100M WR and the 10,000m AR progressions are comparable. It's dubious enough comparing the progression of two athletes in the same event.

Doesn't really matter though. He's probably just bitter he works in an industry no one gives a shit about anymore.

[shivfan]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

A very poor article....

If he'd listened to Bolt's interview with the BBC, he would've seen why Blake had dropped so much off his PB. According to Bolt, Blake's execution of previous 200m races had been poor. According to Bolt, Blake does not run the curve well, so Bolt advised him to take his time around the curve, which is not his strongest suit, and to turn it on in the final 100m - which is what Blake did.

But it would never enter the head of writers like this guy that Bolt would actually have some intelligent advice to give one of his colleagues....
:roll:
Also, if he'd actually attended some training sessions at Track Racers, he would've seen Blake beating Bolt in training, and vice versa, of course.

[Trackrunner]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

Both Hersh and Tim Layden are cut from the same cloth. They cast a shadow on every exceptional performance by talking about drugs. True, few journalists bother to even talk about track and field but when it is cast in such a negative light it does nothing for the sport. Why not hail Yohan's performance and discuss performance enhancement on another day?

[gh]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

Well, he wrote it as a blog, which only appeared on the newspaper's website, so I guess the title of this thread is misleading. Besides, I seriously doubt a rather obscure story on track and field would sell anything, much a less a newspaper. But, carry on.

It's an expression! Simply means "to increase the profile of." You can get about 10,000 google hits on it.

[Conor Dary]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

I apologize, if this hijacks the original intent of the thread, but in the case of Khannouchi, I agree with Hersh. He was just like prominent tennis players that always got hurt just for the Davis Cup weekend, only to have a miraculous recovery on Monday. Remember Lendl?

We went over this before as noted above. However, as I said then it is one thing to have an opinion on this subject, but it is an entirely different thing to advocate, in a column the weekend of the race, at best, rude behavior and at worse, violence. After all, this was post 9/11 and Hersh saying that KK is an unAmerican ingrate, was really just trying to get a reaction and show what an ass he can be at times. Muslims have been attacked for less.

Whether one plays the Olympic game should be up to the individual. This running for the USA, while nice, doesn't always pay the bills, and in the end who really cares? Especially in the marathon where the big stars now skip it, along with the WC. Meb got a silver in the marathon and the American reaction was about .0001% of what reality tv stars get.

[Frans Rutten]

Re: anything to sell newspapers!

Funniest line is near the end:

To be fair . . .

His premise is that you can't have a big drop in performance and be clean. News to all those pre-60s athletes who routinely had big drops. It happens. (not trying to be naive, either)

To put the phrase a big drop in performance in perspective.

The other day I did two consecutive sprints (cycling acceleration of 125m) within 5 minutes under identical weather (headwindish) conditons. Although both performances had a rather similar character the difference still was staggering as it is more than a full second.

There was with the latter sprint though a minor violation of the equation. I started that sprint after a truck had passed me with normal speed and was 50m ahead of me. In my life experience of more than 250.000 cycling sprints I never experienced anything that would ressemble of randomness in maximal performing. JRM, quit the thesis.

Someone ought to ask Carl Lewis, why he didn't jump 30 feet, when it counted most.