--- Marko Velikonja <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> What's distressing about pacemakers to me is not so much that they turn
> races into time trials, but that they are in effect part of a
> race-fixing scheme. They are generally hired by the meet promoters to
> bring the field through certain distances in a certain time, usually to
> suit the desire of one athlete in the field (i.e. El G, or before him
> Morceli, et. al.), whom the promoter presumably wants to win and set a
> record.
While it may not be clean head to head competition, I see nothing wrong
with it. It may not even be an advantage to the star being paced.
Consider that the star runner is probably the class of the field and would
be leading the race if things like wind and mental aspects could be
factored out of the equation. The rest of the field gets to be paced by
the star, so that person is actually working harder. By adding a rabbit,
the only person who has to work harder than the rest of the field has no
intention of finishing, thus it's pretty much even for everyone else.
After all, there's no provision I'm aware of saying only the star can
follow the rabbit.
Are 1:45+, 8:20+, 13:30+ with tactics that Ato Boldon might describe as
"jog 25 laps then run a 200" any more interesting? I certainly think not.
Dan
=====
http://AbleDesign.com - AbleDesign, Web Design that Can!
http://Run-Down.com - 8,500 Running Links, Free Contests...
------------------------------------------------------------
@ o Dan Kaplan - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<|\/ <^- ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
_/ \ \/\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (lifetime forwarding address)
/ / (503)370-9969 phone/fax
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free!
http://photos.yahoo.com/
