.jpg)
.jpg)
Solinsky: A Column By Len Johnson
By Len Johnson.
It’s taken a long time to do it and, in the end, the ‘wrong’ bloke in the race did it, but finally we have a non-African born runner under 27 minutes for 10,000 metres.
It’s taken a long time to do it and, in the end, the ‘wrong’ bloke in the race did it, but finally we have a non-African born runner under 27 minutes for 10,000 metres.
So, take a bow, Chris Solinsky. You’ve long since taken a victory lap: it was last Saturday at Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational that you won the 10,000 in 26 minutes 59.60 seconds, ahead of Kenyans Daniel Salel and Samuel Chelanga, and Galen Rupp, the man who was supposed to be taking down the American record that day.
I wonder if the track announcer paid hommage to Norris McWhirter along the lines “a time which is a new meeting and track record, and which subject to ratification will be a new US national record. The time is 26 _ “. At which point, the rest of the announcement was drowned out by cheering.
Probably not: after all, McWhirter was proclaiming history’s first sub-four minute mile by Roger Bannister when he used that form of words at Iffley Rd, Oxford, on 6 May, 1954. At Stanford, almost exactly 56 years later, Solinsky had merely set a national record and become the first non-African runner to achieve a feat already achieved by 30 athletes. His was not even a US all-comers’ record, Kenenisa Bekele having run a near-world record 26:25.97 in Eugene in 2008.It was also, in a sense, a run that was long overdue. Yobes Ondieki ran the first sub-27 in Oslo in 1993 when he recorded 26:58.38 and since then, another 29 African-born runners had broken into 26-minute territory. The world record came down 30 seconds in the four years from Ondieki’s breakthrough to August 1997. It now stands to Bekele at 26:17.53.
Arturo Barrios of Mexico set a then world record 27:08.23 way back in 1989 (which remained the fastest by a non-African born runner until Solinsky). At 5000, Dave Moorcroft of Britain ran a world record 13:00.41 in 1982; five non-Africans, including Craig Mottram, have since run sub-13, and a dozen more in the 13-13:10 range. So the potential to run sub-27 has been long untapped.
Yet Solinsky’s was a run of great significance, both for him and for distance running in general. Much has been made of his size _ at 1.85m/73kg _ he is, like Mottram, a big man. So big men can run fast.
But Solinsky’s performance, taken in conjunction with those in recent years of Mottram,
Dathan Ritzenhein, Matt Tegenkamp and, to a lesser extent, Alan Webb, shows that non-Africans can be competitive in distance running and that their failure to do so is more a failure of will than a matter of genetic disadvantage, not being born at altitude, not being “hungry”, or whatever.
Dathan Ritzenhein, Matt Tegenkamp and, to a lesser extent, Alan Webb, shows that non-Africans can be competitive in distance running and that their failure to do so is more a failure of will than a matter of genetic disadvantage, not being born at altitude, not being “hungry”, or whatever.At a personal level, too, it is a big break-through. Solinsky, 25, has been a less-acclaimed member of the US revolution in distance running over the past few years. Despite excellent high-school and college performances, he has been in the shadow of Rupp, Ritzenhein and Tegenkamp.
Solinsky made his first major US team in the 5000 at least year’s world championships, finishing 12th, a credible enough performance but one that was soon overtaken by the sub-13 runs of Ritzenhein and Tegenkamp. His most prominent international performance was probably his third behind Bekele and Mottram at 3000 metres in 2007 when he nearly caught the big Australian after Bekele had blasted away mid-race.
Coming into Stanford, too, the spotlight was directed elsewhere. Pre-race attention was all on Rupp and his search for a race in which he might break Meb Keflezighi’s US record 27:13.98. When he and mentor, Alberto Salazar, chose Stanford, it was big news. Few envisaged that he would run under the previous mark with 27:10.74 and wind up fourth and still without the national record.
Rupp helped Solinsky to the record, doing most of the leading from 4000 metres into the race until Solinsky, running his first full track 10,000, sprinted by with just over two laps remaining. He said later that he was not disappointed the others had left him leading.
"You can't blame other guys for doing what they did," Rupp said. "They did what gave them the best chance to win. I've sat on other people before and then outkicked them. That's part of the game."
And it’s a game that, thanks to the performances of the Americans, Craig Mottram, Collis Birmingham, and a handful of others who continue to be inspired, rather than intimidated, by the great African runners, is becoming increasingly more interesting to watch.
Now, time to focus on training. Only a few more uni assignments due and then it will be summer holidays. Run, run, run is what I will be doing....and I cant wait! It seems like an eternity since I last raced. 
.jpg)
.jpg)
