Salazar "Coaching From His Bed"

An article in The Oregonian indicates that Alberto Salazar is coaching from his bed. Salazar had a heart attack a week ago at the Nike World Campus and was rushed to St. Vincent. A stent was inserted to open an artery.

The article states:

He remains in the St. Vincent Cardiac Care Unit, listed in fair condition. He was unavailable Friday for interviews but apparently was monitoring his athletes' training.

Galen Rupp, coached by Salazaer, said, "from what I can tell, he's doing pretty well. He's anxious to get back to doing what he loves to do. We just have to make sure it's not too much too soon."

I wish him well, but can you say "Type A Personality?"

The Long Green Line

Check out this clip of The Long Green Line, a feature-length documentary about Joe Newton and the York Community High School (Elmhurst, Illinois) Cross-Country team. Newton has coached the Dukes for over 50 years and they have won 26 state championships and 1 national championship. Imagine being on a cross-country team with over 220 runners! Here's a discussion about the movie on Track and Field News Message Board.

From the website:

Newton encourages his athletes to remember that it is, “Nice to be great, but far greater to be nice.” Being a respectful gentleman is given priority over being a star athlete. By leading a respectful life as individuals, the entire team becomes that much greater. As the York team grew in number, the green uniforms began to dominate the cross-country course. In the meets without an entry limit, opponents watched in awe as the Dukes would cross the finish line – one after another – creating THE LONG GREEN LINE. It is a lifeline for these young runners as they move from adolescence into manhood. The Long Green Line is not only a team, but a rite of passage and has become cross-country legend. Newton’s teams have won more championships than any other team in the history of the world.

U.S. National Track & Field Hall of Fame: 2006 Inductees

The bio's of the 2006 inductees to the U.S. National Track & Field Hall of Fame have finally been published on the USATF website.

Here are the links to the bio's:

Ollan Cassell
Rex Cawley
Ben Eastman
Lynn Jennings
Matt McGrath
Bill Nieder
Dan O'Brien
Kevin Young

Here are some interviews with the inductees.

Name That Olympic Legend!

Who is the man in this photo?

Hints:

His nicknames were "White Lightning" then "El Caballo (The Horse)."

He was born December 3, 1950 in Santiago, Cuba.

He is now an IAAF Council Member.

He was a basketball player until he as 21, at which time he was discovered by Polish track coach Zygmunt Zabierzowski.

He was eliminated in the semi-finals at the 1972 Munch Olympics.

Give up?


He is none other than Alberto Juantorena, the first only athlete to win gold medals in both the 400m and 800m at the same Olympics, the 1976 Montreal Olympics. In the photo above he was doing some early shopping for 2007 Osaka souvenirs. In the photo to the right he can be seen outpacing Rick Wohlhuter of the USA and Ivo Van Damme of Belgium in the 1976 Olympic men's 800m final and setting a world record of 1:43.50. Here's the video of that classic race as well as the men's 1500m final.

Legendary Distance Runner Alberto Salazar Hospitalized

Alberto Salazar has been hospitalized after collapsing at the Nike World Campus with heart trouble. He did not have a heart attack but a stent has been inserted to open an artery. He is listed in serious condition at the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR.

You can follow this evolving story by watching the articles from the RSS feed that FLP has added below. It will continuously update you with breaking news on Salazar's condition. Let's pray that his condition improves:

Gebrselassie to Run Again This Saturday

Legendary Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie will come out of retirement by running the 10000m at the THALES FBK-Games in Hengele, Netherlands this Saturday, May 26th. Gebrselassie set 3 world records on this track and is known as "Mr. Hengelo." He said he isn't as good a runner as he was in the 1990s, but:

"Hengelo is my favourite race. I am training well and I have done training sessions on the track again. So came the idea to start Saturday in Hengelo.

People must not expect that I will attack the World record...The first thing I want is to race again on the track to feel the public and the atmosphere. If there is a possibility to win, I will go for it."

Gebrselassie took track and field distance running to a whole new level in the 1990s, including breaking the 5000m world record by an incredible 10.91 seconds. The rest of the East Africans have since caught up with him, but – at age 34 – Mr. Hengelo probably still has a few surprises for them, and the rest of us. As Tank told Neo in The Matrix, "I'm fairly excited to see what you're capable of."

Update on Henry Rono

I reported the other day that legendary middle-distance runner Henry Rono was planning to run the Bay-to-Breakers race in San Francisco, CA in his comeback as a masters runner. Rono, nursing a sore hamstring, finished in 50:35. He also commented on the state of women's running, saying that, "it seems like the women are catching up to the men."

Read Rono's blog here.

Is Galen Rupp Ready for the International Stage?

This afternoon I finally had a chance to watch the tape delay of the PAC 10 Track and Field Championships I tivoed last night (hmm... a tivo delay of a tape delay. I thought technology was supposed to speed things up?). Tom Feuer, the FSN announcer who (along with the ubiquitous Dwight Stones) did the color commentary for the broadcast. Feuer seems to think that Galen Rupp, the 21 year old distance-running phenom from the University of Oregon, is ready to break into the international running scene with his 5000m win at the Pac 10 meet. The proof? A 2:02.7 last 800m and a 61.6 last lap that left Arizona's Obed Mutanya some 15 meters back at the tape.

Mutanya challenged with some 150m to go, but Rupp easily held him off and pulled away to add 10 more points (he also won the 10000m) to the Oregon men's team victory. Impressive win, to be sure, but a 14:02 is a long way from a 12:50 Rupp will need to compete on the European circuit. Rupp's PR, set on April 20th, is a 13:30.49. That's not too shabby for a 21 year old but it's still 19 seconds off Juan Luis Barrios' world-leading time of 13:11.37. In fact, Rupp is only the 8th ranked American 5000m runner right now and 20th in the world.

Rupp is sure to rank among the world's top distance runners with a couple more years of seasoning. Right now, though, he needs to extend that incipient kick of his out to about 4 laps at a 60 second per lap pace. Otherwise, he's going to suffer the same fate that other 21 year old Oregon phenom, Steve Prefontaine, suffered at the hands (or should I say feet?) of Lasse Viren, Mohamed Gamoudi and Ian Stewart in the 1972 Olympic 5000m final. In that race, Pre ran his three next-to-last laps in 62.5, 61.5 and 60.3. He was with the leaders at the bell lap but Viren ran the last lap in 55.8 to win in 13:26.4 to Pre's 13:28.3 4th place finish. Nowadays, the last lap of a world-class 5000m race is usually even faster than that. There's a good lesson to be learned from that race. Hopefully Rupp has watched it:



I would love to see the American distance runners take center stage again at the world level. Rupp's not quite ready to do that, although he certainly could be in a couple of years.

Henry Rono Stuns Again

Henry Rono, the Kenyan superstar who stunned the track world back in 1978 by setting 4 world records in a span of 81 magical days, is making a comeback as a masters runner. Rono's record-setting streak (10000m in 27:22.5, 5000m in 13:08.4, 3000m SC in 8:05.4 and 3000m in 7:32.1) is "an achievement unparalleled in the history of distance running," according to wikipedia.com. He will run the Bay to Breakers 12K in San Francisco tomorrow, looking to best his Bloomsday time of 50:35 (a 6:47 pace) from a week ago.

He is currently ranked 7th in the M55 One Mile with a time of 5:45.8, which he ran on 5/12/07 at the Fountain of Youth Masters Mile in Camby, OR. He's a long way from the #1 ranking in his age group. Nolan Shaheed, who won the same race on May 12th in 4:42.7, holds that ranking.

Still, getting back to the top might not even be the point for Rono. The point may be running as far away from the bottom as he can. After that all-too-brief time at the top of the running world in the late 70s and early 80s, Rono drifted into alcoholism, ballooned to 220 lbs. and was even homeless for a while in 1994.

Some time after that, Rono made a decision to take back control of his life. He got treatment for his alcoholism, began a weight-loss program and started training again. He claims on his website that he is gunning for the M55 One Mile World Record at the 2007 World Master's Track & Field Championships in Italy, September 4 - 15, 2007. He is now a recovering alcoholic, he's lost 50 lbs. in the past 8 months, and he's thriving. Even if he never gets that record, Rono is stunning the world again with an amazing comeback of the human spirit.

Flashback: Mile World Record

If you've never seen the video, it was an unexpectedly close race between Hicham El Guerrouj and Noah Ngeny in Rome on July 7th, 1999. El Guerrouj made good use of his rabbits but Ngeny tucked in right behind El Guerrouj the entire way, finally making his move with 100m to go. He closed all the way to the tape but El Guerrouj hung on to win in 3:43.13 to Ngeny's 3:43.40. Both runners surpassed Noureddine Morceli's world record of 3:44.39.