CLASS, AND HOW TO ACQUIRE IT
It’s been gratifying to get a bit of support for my views on the way Tirunesh runs her races. These folks at least seem to have read and understood the broader implications of my critique. To them and, of course to my detractors, I offer a story from a bygone age, the better to illustrate more fully my appreciation of runners typified by Pamela Jelimo back to the inimitable Filbert Bayi, to name but two.
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, sub-titled An Inquiry into Values, author Robert Pirsig spends many pages trying to dissect the concept of quality, and ultimately decides that it is indefinable. Yet Pirsig in his alter-ego of Phaedrus (Wolf), says that quality is something we instinctively recognise.
Around the time of the book’s publication thirty odd years ago, my pals started using the term ‘class’ in an all too definable fashion, quite different from traditional English notions of social divisions. It tended to be mostly in the negative, however, ie, someone who was too loud, or didn’t pay their round, or generally didn’t behave themselves as we saw fit was dismissed as having ‘no-class’.
This essentially is my criticism of Tirunesh. If she had class, she would do her share of the work, instead of acting like a parasite.
Now, I haven’t gone into potential gender issues here, ie some women believing they were born to follow. It’s bad enough having the guys on my back, more than a few of whom incidentally seem to imply in private emails that I should go easy on Tirunesh, ‘because she’s cute’. Ho hum. However, to get to the story….
For a brief period, beginning in the late 1980s, there was a late season, low-key Grand Prix meeting in India, initially in Delhi, then in Pune. The idea was the introduce world-class athletics to Indians, so a coterie of western stars was invited, on the promise of a guided tour and a good payday for a relatively ‘easy’ competition. In 1989, the supposed star of the show was Carl Lewis, who filled the pages of a range of journals for days beforehand, then contrived to lose the 100 metres to a little known Austrian, Andreas Berger, whose later claim to fame was getting himself banned for drugs.
But the real star of the Jawarhalal Nehru Stadium in Delhi that evening was Saïd Aouita. The Moroccan was nearing the end of his illustrious career, and could have contented himself with loping around the 1500 metres in something adjacent to 3min 40sec, and the unsophisticated audience would have been none the wiser. But Aouita had other ideas. He got a colleague to pace him for a couple of laps, before striking out on his own, racing the final 700 metres alone, and winning by the length of the finishing straight in just under 3min 35sec, on a humid evening with temperatures in the mid-thirties celsius.
The crowd instinctively recognised they were seeing something special, and rose to cheer him to the echo. At the meeting hotel later, I asked him why he had bothered to put in so much effort, when a sprint in front of the grandstand would have produced the same result. Serious for once in a social situation, he replied, “When the crowd pays to see Aouita, they deserve to see the real Aouita”.
Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is class.
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Brilliant piece Pat!
Aouita’s story really explains everything! In modern day sport, athletes are like actors in a movie theater. If they can’t entertain the audience, the audience will not bother putting up with them.
Tirunesh is a fantastic runner, the greatest of her generation at least. But she is testing meeting organizers, TV directors, and other stakeholders to their limits with her ignorance to the values of the sport which has lifted her from a no-one to a rich and famous star.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:28 am
She isn’t testing any meeting organizers since in non championship races she usually goes for records like every other distance star. Did she play follow the leader setting her world record?
It’s not like most of her championship races are boring either. The finishes of her 5k and 10k races in Helsinki were great to watch. Her struggling and falling behind the pack to later recover and win in Osaka was great to watch. This year she ran the second fastest 10k in history and a last 1500m of her 5k as fast as the 1500m final.
Her goal was to win the double and she did. Had she gone out in that 5k and tried to shake everyone else off with high pace her chances of succeeding would have been much lower. She faced Defar, athlete of the year last year and a great kicker. With a sub 30 10k in her legs it would have been silly to even try to run away from her and it would have put her at a disadvantage coming in to the last lap.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:01 am
I’m all in favor of Aouita’s approach to the sport. But comparing that meet in Pune to the Olympic final is a bit of a straw man argument. I’d surely prefer it if Dibaba ran that way. But I think there’s a difference between preferring one thing and demanding it. Your tone in your articles is that of someone who feels cheated. I don’t relate to that at all.
Championship races are what they are. Twelve (or so) runners all come together and the actions of one or a few dictate the responses of others, creating a unique scenario that will see one runner win and the rest lose. Sometimes the race is won in 14:40. Sometimes it’s won in 15:40. Either way, it’s a race. May the best woman win.
The funny thing is, when I analyze that race, the only person I blame is Defar. She’s Dibaba’s equal (essentially) in the 5k, and she’s fresh. It wasn’t Dibaba’s job to lead that race. It was Defar’s. If you put yourself in Dibaba’s shoes, why should she set the race up for Defar to win it?
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Steve Prefontaine
September 4th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Hi Pat:
Good point by Bryan (Smith?) It was Defar who was at fault in the 5km final at Beijing. She had not run the 10km as Dibaba had; so the onus was on her make it tough for her bitter rival long before the last lap of the 12.5 laps.
It turned into a kicker’s race after an appallingly slow opening, and Dibaba was able to sprint the last kilometre in just over 2:36 for her second gold medal, and Defar was not even able to secure the silver.
I gather that the two Ethopian women are not exactly the best of pals. Women are great at this deadly rival stuff - much better than men. Remember Fatty Whitbread v Tessa Sanderson? Judy Oakes v Gael Mulhall? And Szabo v Skezeley? (excuse spelling)
Athletes will always play to their strengths, so Dibaba will continue to sit in until the last lap in Championship races - she may only change her standard tactic if someone comes along who is able to outkick her. Right now I don’t see anyone capable of that.
Best, DC
September 6th, 2008 at 12:02 am
“forget the paced stuff, it’s another bore”
You wrote that in a comment to your first article. Now you write:
“But the real star of the Jawarhalal Nehru Stadium in Delhi that evening was Saïd Aouita. The Moroccan was nearing the end of his illustrious career, and could have contented himself with loping around the 1500 metres in something adjacent to 3min 40sec, and the unsophisticated audience would have been none the wiser. But Aouita had other ideas. He got a colleague to pace him for a couple of laps, before striking out on his own, racing the final 700 metres alone, and winning by the length of the finishing straight in just under 3min 35sec, on a humid evening with temperatures in the mid-thirties celsius.”
So, you’re OK with pacing for Said Aouita when you’re trying to use him to make a point, but, in general, you’re against pacing. BTW, Aouita was mostly a sit-and-kick runner himself in championship races. In 1984 in the Olympic 5000 final, he followed all the way until the last 250m, when he passed Antonio Leitao. This was a fast race, but not because of Aouita, who, like Dibaba, had the best finish and knew it. In 1988, also, Aouita did not lead a step of the 800, in which he finished 3rd. He also won the 1987 World Championship 5000, in much slower time, by sitting and kicking. Perhaps you would have found him boring, too, if you knew more about him.
Your knowledge of top-class Athletics must be very limited, BTW, if that’s the best example you could come up with. How about Ron Clarke’s many solo efforts, several of which resulted in world records? Unfortunately for him, he was never able to win a major championship, because he lacked the turn of speed of other runners, and, although he tried, he could not run them off their feet when he most needed to. (Many Clarke fans believe, however, that he would have won gold medals had the 1968 Olympics not been held at high altitude. We’ll never know.)
I have the greatest respect for Ron Clarke and for Tirunesh Dibaba, both great runners with very different strengths.
BTW, were you even aware of her troubles in the 2007 Osaka 10K, and how she fought back from a large deficit? I fail to see how you could have questioned her courage if you had been.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA
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