I was there and watched the race then talked to the top three guys
afterwards at the small press conference. The barrel start suprised
Mottram who was not used to remaining in a lane, but it didn't bother
him. Rono zoomed out very quickly so that by the time any of the
other guys looked up after the turn, Rono was already down the
straight. No one chased down the rabbit who was running, it looked
like, 12 sec hundred meter pace. Rono did not look over his shoulder
and slow to allow the field to latch on as some rabbits do to
sometimes correct initial exuberance.
Rono did go 1:55 and 4:04, but just before he stopped the crowd
seemed to think it was watching a guy trying to run away with the
race and a pack trying to catch him. I think this because I heard
what I thought to be a sigh of dissapointment from the crowd.
After the race I asked Mottram why he didn't follow the rabbit. I
wanted him to say that he thought the rabbit when out too fast but
instead he got annoyed with me and ask if I had ever run a race. That
got the rest of the press group laughing since they all knew that I
had and that I was looking for a quotation not being critical. I
asked each guy why he didn't go with the rabbit or why the others
didn't. Finally Cragg said that he didn't want to be the guy leading
when the rabbit quit.
Apparently no one did.
The pack of them hit the mile in 4:18. 56 last 400 was the word for
Mottram who said that was ordinary and he had been running 51s in
practice.
Tom
Personally I find the rabbits distracting.
On Jan 29, 2006, at 10:17 AM, Jorma Kurry wrote:
What I've heard second-hand is that the rabbit was somewhat
inconsistent. Reports of 1:55 at the 800? I find that hard to
believe, but that's what I heard. Then 4:04ish at the mile.
Supposedly 7 together with 600m to go.
----- Original Message ----- From: "B. Kunnath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <t-and-f@lists.uoregon.edu>
Cc: <t-and-f@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 9:53 AM
Subject: t-and-f: Boston Indoor 2 Mile Results
1 Craig Mottram AUS 8:26.54
2 Sileshi Sihine ETH 8:27.03
3 Alistair Cragg IRE 8:27.39
4 Tariku Bekele ETH 8:27.56
5 Boaz Cheboiywo KEN 8:27.75
6 Dan Lincoln USA 8:27.85
7 Abebe Dinkessa ETH 8:28.22
8 Markos Geneti ETH 8:29.13
9 Ian Dobson USA 8:32.77
10 Gebre Gebremariam ETH 8:34.82
11 Reid Coolsaet CAN 8:37.37
12 Ryan Hall USA 8:37.74
-- Geoffrey Rono KEN DNF
Seems like slow times for some fast runners...anyone know what it
was like out there?
bk
