Obea Moore? Brendan Christian? Bill Miller?
The 400m? The vault?
You guys know better. For Chrissakes David, YOU ARE a distance runner!
Saying that lots of legitimate 16-year-olds or 19-year-olds were able to run
XX.XX or jump XX.XX in a 400m or a jump has no bearing on distance running.
Kebba, last time I looked into it, the 100/200 and Steeple were different
events with different physical requirements. You might want to check this
out.
Can a sprinter or jumper put up national class (or
flirting-with-world-class) times while still well under 20?
Of course.
Distance running and sprinting are different sports, not just different
events. Check the historical average of distance record holders and sprint
rec. holders ... then check the same for Major Championship winners.
Late-20's for the skinny guys, early 20's for the fast guys.
I'll shut up about bogus Kenyan Juniors .. but please give me something
better than; "7:58 could be legit, because Americans run fast sprint times
at 16."
/Brian McEwen
P.S. Now we not only have women's WRs that will never be broken, but Junior
records as well.
-----Original Message-----
From: denise lockett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 5:59 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: t-and-f: believe it or not
gh wrote:
> Brian McEwen writes:
>>Tell me that you believe a 16 year old can run 8:19 or 27:43 (as the
records would have you believe) and I will shut >> up.
>No, i don't believe it. But then, I don't believe anybody of any age can
run 12:39 or 26:22 either!
>
> How do you think the rest of the world feels about Obea Moore's 45.14 at
age 16? I don't believe that one either!
>
> gh
I'll take that a step farther - anyone who saw Obea Moore at the Olympic
Trials in Atlanta would certainly not have believed he was 16, and I don't
just mean his performance. He looked far more physically mature than I could
ever hope to, no matter how many gray hairs I get. So comments about how old
some East Africans look are not necessarily very relevant either.
Look at what Brendan Christian did in 2000 as a high school sophomore. That
would have put him in the Olympics from most countries, and been knocking on
the door of the finals. That - somewhere just above or below 10th place - is
the same kind of finish someone with a 8:19 or a 27:43 PR could expect at
the world level if they ran well.
Are the world junior records legit? Maybe not. Is there any chance the true
WJR is not held by a Kenyan or Ethiopian? Probably not. Given how big the
gap is between them and the best from real birth certificate countries, and
how dominant they are in competitions where it doesn't matter how old they
are, I would expect their juniors to be a lot better than everyone else's.
david honea
