Timely Thoughts

Another year and another successful London marathon. When you have Paris, Boston and the slew of other marathons all vying for attention during the month of April, it probably is best that these events take place before and not after, as they tend to provide a build up to the marathon which now undoubtedly is the Best of the Big City marathons.

And after Sunday, London will now become a feature in the mind's eye of many Americans after the truly successful debut of Ryan Hall.

Hats off to Dave Bedford and his team for getting the lad to take a crack at the distance amongst such a stellar field.

When Hall took the lead so late in the race it would have been a victory for many an American. Despite Deena Kastor winning London in 2006 with a sub 2:20 performance, this is something inspiring for a great many of the youngsters and this may ultimately have the same effect as Frank Shorters victory in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

We are not talking about relation to performance but inspiration.

The race was certainly a day for Champions especially amongst the men and Martin Lel delivered a magnificent 'coup de grace' in capturing the title over the final straight ahead of Moroccan debutant Abderrahim Goumri.

For Haile Gebrselassie it was yet again not a successful day at London and it is again back to the drawing board regarding his performances when surrounded by a stellar field that can go the distance. Beijing 2008 still needs a fair amount of work. The difference to the track and marathon is that his reputation alone was like a spell over his opposition, the marathon is a different beast. He will however be back.

The winning of Zhou certainly places her as a candidate to win the Olympics in 2008, however to forecast a year in advance is plain folly as anything can happen from 1 week to the next however she has certainly placed her marker.

The surprise New York City marathon winner of 2006, Brazil's Marilson Gomes dos Santos showed his performance was no fluke and performed considerably well considering that the next marathon after a big win can often be a disappointment.

Bring on the track season

TheEd

With the recent revelation that Drug Cheat, Tim Montgomery, is to be convicted on charges involving cheque fraud makes you again wonder if those who cheat to get ahead in sport are just plain criminal at heart.

When Italy made drug cheating equivalent to fraud with the same punishment to be meted out to drug cheats as those who commit the crime of fraud, I for one was all for it. Those who take drugs to get ahead mainly do so for monetary gain and in my opinion they are no better than criminals.

With the Montgomery case, a jail term seems to be the written result if stuck to by the judge on the case. Jail all to often does not provide a suitable solution and often leads to a petty thief moving onto things more criminal in activity.

How are we to stem the tide of drug use in sport if we do not punish the perpetrators effectively?

Montgomery had this to say: “I sincerely regret the role I played in this unfortunate episode,” and “I have disappointed many people, and for that I am truly sorry.”

Unfortunately, for the former athlete this isn't a plea he is making in front of those who govern athletics but to those who hold the keys to the big house and he is unlikely to get away with simply being banned from the sport for 2 years.

Again and again we see big names plain and unashamedly striking a deal, and often a deal that leads to nothing in effect to diminish the use of drugs in sport or to show that committing fraud comes with a responsibility for their actions.

I for one cannot openly speak of solutions however I do believe that 3rd party involvement, the suppliers and managers involved should be more harshly punished than the athlete.

Is this an example of a Gallery of Cheats?

To this day I find the most heavily punished persons in the sport to have been Ben Johnson and his coach, Charlie Francis. In effect they were punished for telling the truth about the state of the sport, of course Johnson did himself no favours by being caught a 2nd time and inretrospect got what he deserved.

Hopefully Dick Pound, Head of WADA, is more adept in providing solutions than I am

TheEd

April is now seen as the month of the marathon and to the hopeful in the Northern Hemisphere the coming of summer. The London Marathon falls squarely into this category and it is incredible that the once considered not so fast course (due to its slower times in comparison to now), is now considered the course best suited for a World best attempt.

This of course is not accurate as the Rotterdam marathon is most certainly a course more suited for record attempts however London offers a quality laden field and is seen as one of the Big City marathons that would establish any winner as a marathoner of quality were they to win.

And this is where the title of this particular discussion kicks in, and that is the fact that Haile Gebrselassie is still not considered a marathoner of quality until he wins against a quality field. Make no bones about it, London will determine whether the diminutive Ethiopian King of Distance is a man for all distances. In 2006, London was not a success for Haile where he finished in a disappointing 9th place with a time of 2:09:05. Since that set-back, Gebrselassie had raced a further 2 marathons in 2006, and has won on both occasions setting a Personal Best of 2:05:56 in Berlin before winning in Japan at the Fukuoka Marathon in a time of 2:06:52.

Whereas, Berlin was a crack at the World Record, an attempt hindered by an almighty wind over the last 10 kilometres, it was the after the win in Japan that Gebrselassie stated that he feels he has learnt enough now to feel quite confident about the daunting distance of the marathon.

That is why London 2007, for me, will be watched with eager anticipation to see whether the Ethiopian great can conquer the field assembled and then proceed to the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 in China as favourite.

The field assembled is simply put, awesome, however I for one do not expect fireworks from Kenya's Paul Tergat as the distractions he has faced have been there, so don't be disappointed if he withdraws in the last week. But who knows, if he appears on the start line he is surely prepared to duel with the world's best over the distance.

From an American perspective the debut of Ryan Hall has provided great excitement within US running circles however to debut amongst the world's greatest over the distance and to do well is a large expectation, despite a sub 60 minute half this year.

Bring on London

Now I had heard Henry Rono was making a comeback of sorts in an attempt to break the World Record for the age group 55 over the mile distance. The time stands at 4min 40secs, which should be no great shakes for a man of Henry's calibre.

However, after seeing the photo of him running at the Carlsbad this weekend, I am left in total awe and inspired. The man is not exactly thin and in the best shape one would expect of the ex-World Class athlete. He is overweight and is out there training to achieve his goal.

I am also in training of sorts to get down to running a sub 20minute 5km and I have lost 20kg in the past year. After seeing the photo of Rono, I now know it can be done and one must just get on with things instead of waiting for everything to be perfect. The weight, the timing etc.

Thanks Henry. Breaking 20 minutes wasn't the be all and all of the goal, it was the start and I am currently not carrying the excess Rono is carrying (OK, neither the latent natural talent) however once you have been a champion the desire to compete once out of shape is far less than for us ordinary mortals.

TheEd