Bekele - 12:37.35 WR!!

[DentyCracker]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

Just saw it. FREAKING AWESOME.
At least he had the decency to show a bit of face strain towards the end. Did the last 3k in front. The big boss. If he shows up in this kind of shape in Athens the others will be running for the other 2 medals. I cannot omagine anyone being able to stay with that sort of pace. He tried it last WC but clearly was tired from the 10. As far as I know he has no plans to run the 10 in Greece.

[[email protected]]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

>As far as I know
>he has no plans to run the 10 in Greece.
http://www.iaaf.org/GP04/news/Kind=2/newsId=25432.html
“As to the Olympics, although I feel comfortable at both 5000m and 10,000m, I will run the 10,000m in Athens,” concluded a calm Bekele.

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

I am going to drive this point home again:

http://www.friidrott.se, our national athletics website here in Sweden, is one of several national sites which does the sport of athletics justice: Not only does it report on our beloved athletes here in our tiny nation of 8,9-million, it reports on those who make news and headlines across the world.

Today:s Headlines:

MAURICE GREENE 9.78W!
JENNY [KALLUR] STARK TVÅA I HENGELO

The Greene machine, Justin Gatlin and Nicole Teter got top mention on our site, as did Kenenisa Bekele in the Kallur article for his WR.

USATF is catering to Americans - whereas other sites (Leichtathletik (http://www.leichtathletik.de/Dokumente/ ... sp?ID=5625), BBC Sport, Eurosport - for example) help keep their viewers in touch with athletes across the entire spectrum. I don:t expect USATF to mention Bekele:s WR, but it would have been good news for those (few, if any) who may go to USATF for its first source of news.

Wow -- newsflash: 2004-06-01 15.00 GMT+1 and not one, single, solitary word from USATF on Alan Webb:s 3.33,70!!!

[DentyCracker]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

I stand corrected. El G can realistically think about doubling now.

[gh]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

<<Wow -- newsflash: 2004-06-01 15.00 GMT+1 and not
>one, single, solitary word from USATF on Alan Webb:s 3.33,70!!!>>

Question the priorities if you like, but remember this was Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. Three days of disappearing from your job and enjoying the onset of summer. Wouldn't surprise me if there was nobody in the Indy offices the last three days (particularly with significant chunk of staff stuck at Stanford doing meet production).

[Cyril]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

Wow -- newsflash: 2004-06-01 15.00 GMT+1 and not
>one, single, solitary word from USATF on Alan Webb:s 3.33,70!!!

Yeah, Masback has to get his head out. It seems that he is not only not properly promoting the sport but, at times, is actually working against it.

Maybe he has too much going on with the drug shit or maybe he is trying to let Webb live in peace rather than having the media attention on him like it was last time. Keep the pressure off. But, come on! The sport has been dying and we have a couple sparks now - its time to light it up!

He should also see Webb's experience as one that can benefit the entire US program. The lessons learned by Webb should be used by others who want to go beyond current US standards. There is now a model to emulate. Others can learn from Webb's experiences. We now have a US kid who is doing what the other world class middle distance guys have been doing for the past decade and its working!

And, yes, what about the promotion of international nonUS stars? Why not promote the sport regardless of Nationality? We now have in the Ethiopians, and specifically Bekele, the greatest distance force ever on the planet. And, do high school distance kids have any idea? No. Ask Craig why not.

OT - if Bekele is in the 10, what will Geb run?
Maybe they are figuring to be deep enough to sweep both? But, a Bekele/Geb showdown would be interesting. The only way I can see Geb beating the youngster would be if Bekele does the front work and Geb can hang and gets that kick back.

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

<< Question the priorities if you like, but remember this was Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. Three days of disappearing from your job and enjoying the onset of summer.

GH: I understand your point there... I accept the fact that being away from work even for a few hours can be much -- especially when track meets happen all over the globe on weekdays, weekends and some holidays. We just had two red days here in Sweden (Sun/Mon) -- both holidays... results were up pretty quickly after the meets. Our athetics staff did not have the same coverage as USATF will (or perhaps now does -- I have not checked back at their site as of yet), but someone was on the ball with everything going on in the world.

Something tells me that if USATF had a message board, the themes would not be as interesting, diverse, intense, sometimes outrageous as they are here on the TFN boards. Seems like folks who post here really, truly, deeply care for the sport of athletics and all of those involved - both fans, the athletes and the future of the sport.

[marknhj]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

Not track.

EPelle...just in case you're in need!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&c ... &printer=1

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

Not sure what the wife would say about a big truck pulling up to the front yard -- honey, did you order a pizza? No dear, the 10-pack is here!

Should start in the UK where "educators" are teaching kids to perform "safe sex" by ...

[Cyril]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

><< Question the priorities if you like, but remember this was Memorial Day
>weekend in the U.S. Three days of disappearing from your job and enjoying the
>onset of summer.

USTAF needs to see itself and a legitimate business with a product to sell. In order to sell the product they must promote the product. If you don't have a product anybody wants regardless or promotion it won't sell. When you do get a marketable product you better promote the hell out of it ASAP. You must strike while its hot because in this game products don't stay hot forever.

They now have some great products in what is to be one of the best years to market them - and bring visibility to the big picture T&F.

Instead negative - doping scandle- news gets all the big PR and positive news - athletes starting to really do well gets almost nothing.

There should be accountability if the business doesn't do well. And it hasn't been doing well for a long time now.

[EPelle]

Webb on the Web

It is now 19.11 (GMT+1) and no sign of Webb on the Web. Maybe USATF will combine Webb:s upcoming 800m and yesterday:s 1500m performances into one story.

[gh]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

<<Should start
>in the UK where "educators" are teaching kids to perform "safe sex" by ...>>>

Showing schoolmaster John Cleese and his wife in the screwing scenes from "The Meaning Of Life".......?

[marknhj]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

><<Should start
>in the UK where "educators" are teaching kids to perform
>"safe sex" by ...>>>

Showing schoolmaster John Cleese and his wife in the
>screwing scenes from "The Meaning Of Life".......? >>>>

Showing John Cleese in screwing scenes with wife in Fawlty Towers would certainly promote abstinence; however showing him with Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda would have the opposite effect...

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

Which was the film where he was caught wearning women:s clothing? And got blackmailed.

[Dutra]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

>>This guy is just awesome and he's not done with the world records
>yet...

No, he's far from done. So young, scary fast! And, its his first race
>this outdoor season? What about when he get in shape in a few months?>>

Geb broke records in Hengelo and didn't improve them in those years I don't believe.