OLD FATHER TIME
Joking apart (see previous piece), three recent respondents have raised a serious question in the wake of Haile Gebrselassie’s latest feat in Dubai three weeks ago, when he ran the eighth fastest time in history, despite a headwind and rainstorm in the final stages.
In response to the piece entitled, End of the Road for Haile? Tim Johnston wrote that if Haile wanted a couple more easier records under his footleather, he might try the 30,000 and 40,000 metres records (on the track). Johnston himself set a 30,000m world record back in 1965, and pointedly ends his post with, “For the ‘record’, the two successful attempts in which I was involved were genuine races, no hares…”.
Robert Johnson was more forthright. An avowed career-long fan of Haile, Johnson, a coach at Cornell University (USA), and co-founder with his brother Weldon of the much-visited site www.letsrun.com, wrote, “… how about a real race? Berlin last year (world record 2.03.59) was fantastic as it actually turned into a 2-person dual (with Kenyan James Kwambai). Is that too much too ask again? Given Wanjiru’s desire to be in Berlin and the fact that Haile is always in Berlin, will we see them both there this year? Let’s hope so. Obviously it’s going to be expensive to get them both.”
Johnson puts his finger on one of the reasons why Haile is unlikely to be at the Berlin Marathon (as opposed to the World Champs marathon, also in Berlin a month earlier). It is simply that the Berlin organisers couldn’t afford both Kenyan Olympic champion, Sammy Wanjiru, who is already enlisted, and Haile, since Berlin has far less money than any of the other World Marathon Majors (Boston, London, Chicago and New York).
But would Haile do it anyway, if the money were available?
Because while we’re on the subject of Berlin, Haile has made it plain that he won’t do the World Champs either, as he didn’t do the Beijing Olympic marathon. And there’s the crux of a problem that Mtoto raises in response to the blog, ‘Keep On Running,’ written after the Berlin world record. Mtoto, obviously a Kenyan writes, “Yeah Gebre holds the record, but he never won a competitive marathon. I bet he never won the race which include Kenyans Martin Lel, Samuel Wanjiru and Robert Cheruiyot, so simply he just hold record and nothing more.”
We could question the ‘nothing more,’ citing Olympic and world golds, close to 30 world records, etc, etc, etc. But we know what he means.
Because unfortunately, Haile has said nothing recently to refute this view. Indeed, in response to my own question about the World Championships the evening after the Dubai victory, he said, “I’ve run my World Championships. Now I’m running for times”. And on the subject of Wanjiru, while praising the young Kenyan, he said, “Let’s attack each other, I’ll attack his half-marathon record, and he can attack my marathon record”. On that score, Haile’s next outing is on March 14, at the City-Pier-City half-marathon in the Netherlands, where Wanjiru set the current world record of 58.33.
But those responses from Haile (and his avoidance of similar questions in subsequent interviews) suggest that he has no intention of lining up in a competitive marathon again, although he has suggested the Olympic race 2012, but even huge fan Johnson thinks that unlikely.
I have written at great length elsewhere about the bane of pacemaking, notably in my book on Seb Coe and Steve Ovett, two of the most notorious examples of world class athletes avoiding each other outside championships. While it is exciting to see a world record, it is better to see a great contest, and as with the unlikely contestant Kwambai in Berlin, a world record was the result. The most likely alternative, as in Dubai, is a failed world record attempt.
Because ultimately, athletics is about competition, in the case we’d rather see, Haile against Wanjiru, the world record holder against the Olympic champion, not Haile against the clock. But the scenario which Haile, arguably the greatest runner in history is now describing is one where he feels he has had enough of competing against his challengers, and is now content to simply challenge Old Father Time.
Indeed that might become his new nickname.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Another thoughtful piece, Pat. Whilst I can see Haile’s point, a clash between him and Wanjiru at the World Champs over 42.2 kms would be riveting.
Seems however that they will both race marathons at Berlin in 2009 - but a few weeks apart!
Coe and Ovett did a great dis-service to their British fans by not racing each other more times on home soil. We can list their records, but the memory of Ovett and Steve Cram going head-to-head in the Coke Mile at Crystal Palace in September 1983 will live with me forever. One was world 1500m champion, the other was world record holder at the distance (whilst Coe held the mile record with 3:47.33 in Brussels in 1981).
When they burst from the pack with 300m to run, it was an awesome sight - they seemed to be pulling away from the rest of the field with every stride, and the 19,000-strong crowd was roaring all over south east London.
Ovett lost - just; but both men were heroes that night.
That’s what it’s all about (as you state) - competition, NOT records!
February 10th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Good stuff, Pat - as usual. Actually, ‘for the record’, the records i referred to were 25 and 30k (dont think there is an official 40k record). I have no objection to pacemakers per se, who can in fact facilitate a head-to-head confrontation (cf. the great haegg/andersson races of the 1940s, all paced in the opening stages), but, yes, what we all want to see is genuine competition, rather than races against the clock.
February 10th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Haile is such an accomplished runner, who has defeated the best the world has to offer for much of his career, that many say he is the best ever. I find nothing wrong with his personally steering his career now to attack times and world records. He has earned this. If he can set a world record that no man has ever accomplished before, that in itself is a remarkable feat, and even though he may have done it in a venue that contained no current high caliber competition (Wanjiru), certainly that same competition has other races that they participate in, and if they want to try and beat Haile’s world records, there is nothing stopping them!
The man who runs the fastest time is the best! Track and field is ultimately all about the clock, after all. If Haile holds the world record, then he is BETTER than Wanjiru and all the rest, if they can’t run as fast a time. By the same token, Bekele is now the best in the 5 and 10, since he broke Haile’s records.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:49 am
The question is, will Haile G. actually dodge top level competition? Based on the London Marathons, obviously not. Hopefully the media and corporate sponsors will cough up enough money so that the “dream marathon” of Haile G., Wanjiru, Lel, Gharib and Kebede, in Berlin, can become a reality.
I think that Haile hasn’t had a lot of competition in Dubai, Berlin and Amsterdam because the organizers cannot afford any other proven 2:05 guys after they pay Haile his appearance fee.
February 12th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Robert McGinnis said:
“The man who runs the fastest time is the best! Track and field is ultimately all about the clock, after all. If Haile holds the world record, then he is BETTER than Wanjiru and all the rest, if they can’t run as fast a time. By the same token, Bekele is now the best in the 5 and 10, since he broke Haile’s records.”
This is just an opinion, and one that many of us disagree with strongly. When Dave Bedford took Lasse Viren’s World record from him, did anybody really think he was “the best?” Competitive ability is at least of equal importance with the ability to run fast. This does not detract from the magnificence of a World Record performance–but to me, the race is all. Contrast some of the “solo” WR’s in the mile and 1500 with Seb Coe’s mile WR at Bislett in 1979, beating everybody but Ovett. Now that was a performance for the ages.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
intersting post, I agree its wonderful to watch a great race but then you run the risk of it becoming a slow dawdle with nobody wanting to take it on early for fear of blowing up and it merely coming down to a last 400m-half mile sprint.
If the point was to tryly prove oneself as the genuinely fastest marathon (or half marathon) runner ever then they would have to both be willing to go out hard and stay that way right from the start.