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Micah Ward · Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2002 9:21 am Post subject:

Well our ladies put on a tremendous show at the World Cross Country Championships this weekend. Deena Drossin 2nd in the 8K and Collen DeReuck 3rd and the team winning the silver medal. In the 4K race Suzy Hamilton took 4th and the team finished 5th. This is very encouraging news as far as the women's ability to compete with anyone else in the world.

Now for the interesting part. Suzy was quite open in stating that the 4K team would have won a medal if Regina Jacobs had been there instead of practicing for the steeplechase. Now is it out of place for Suzy to say that type of thing about Regina...basically saying that the lack of a medal is Regina's fault for not being there? Or is Suzy simply saying that Regina should put the team's welfare ahead of her own...and is that the type of atitude that could help the US in international cometition? Peer pressure so speak.

Another interesting tidbit. Track and Field News reports that Irina Privolova may move up to the 800 this year. With the prospect of her speed for a finishing kick how intriguing is that?

Dan · Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2002 3:38 pm Post subject:

Big showing, indeed! I'm a bit suprised at how pointed Suzy's comments were, although she does tend to babble off topic quite easily, so it may have been intended as more innocent commentary than it came across...

If Privoliva moves up, wow, the 800 would really be loaded! The consensus is that athletic the requirements of it and the 400h are quite similar. However, I've gotta ask, what the heck are Privoliva's goals? Does she just want to prove she's really good at a lot of stuff, or is she happy coming up just shy of doing something truly special?

Dan

Conway · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:52 am Post subject:

Suzy babbles way too much and you have to take what she says with a grain of salt ... Not to defend Jacobs but I believe she said from the start that she was running in our champinships simply to test herself and see where she was ..

As for her training for the steeple, I can't blame her for that ... One of the few events for women where you realistically have a chance at breaking a World Record !!!!!

Which takes us to Irina ... One of my all time favorites I might add ... Which is why she is frustrating the heck out of me over the past few seasons ... A 10.77/21.87 sprinter ... She had difficulty with injuries in the sprints ... So decided to move up to the hurdles !!! Now I would have thought that that would have been more physically stressful than simply moving up to the 400 (where she already had a 49.86 pr without reallly training for it) ... So she moves up to the 400H and in her first season (with a relatively small nubmer of races) goes) runs 53.02 !!! Well within striking distance of WR of 52.61 ... But then she has more injuries during her off season training, takes last year off, and was discussing the 800 as early as last season ...

Frankly I'd like to see her run the 400 and give 47.60 a shot ... She has the speed, the stregnth and the heart to do so ... But I'm not her coach ... Soooooo ...

800 for Irina ... She will be awesome .. I've already stated her PR's .. There is no one else out there with her kind of speed ... No one .. And yes Dan the 400H and 800 are very compatible .. First that come to mind that did both are Harald Schmidt and David Patrick who both ran 47's in the hurdles and 1:44's in the 800 !!!

I would think she will run 1:55 this year if she runs it .. Maybe 1:54 ... If she would run it for say 3 years she could put the record near 1:51 or dare I say 1:50 ... But that is just my own guess ...

Distance_Guru · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2002 10:02 am Post subject:

I have to say way to go ladies. As for Suzy and her comments about Regena, was it her place to comment, maybe maybe not. But if it serves to light a fire under Regena or Suzy herself then I'm glad it happened. I know that they are already highly trained, highly motivated athletes but a good rivalry won't hurt. I know about 2 years ago they seemed to be almost even and sense then Jacobs has just caught fire rewriting the record books along the way. Maybe this could be a spark that pushes one or both of them up a notch.
Then again I could just be dreaming.

PS: I think Regena should have run, represent your country as often and as best as you can. But then again I love x-c and will probably never get the chance to ware the red white and blue.

_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

Micah Ward · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:31 pm Post subject:

I kind of agree with Guru about Regina representing the country. Of course, I am a bit old fashioned about that sort of thing and would love nothing better than running for the US at a major (or even minor) competition.

I am very interested to see what Privolova does. In fact I wish she was in the fantasy pool so that I put her on the Fighting Warthogs. (my team name)

Conway · Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2002 12:02 pm Post subject:

The Fighting Warthogs ?!?!?!? Hmm .. Have to work on a name ..

I have mixed feelings on the run for your country issue ... I too think it is the noble thing to do ... But on othe other hand what is the country doing to help/support Regina or Suzy ?? Regina is looking at ways to become more "productive" (ie make more money) in the sport ... At least that is my take on it ... The steeple could net her lots of money (Ooooo economics of track and field) if she can master it and win lots of races and more importantly break some records along the way ... Look at Dragila and the Pole Vault ... An event in its infancy she has been able to capitalize on monetarily ... I don't begrudge REgina thta opportunity ... And while I would like to see her represent the country as often as possible THAT could represent a loss of income for her ... And that is an issue first raised in the late 80's that still hasn't been properly addressed ... Sad

As for Privalova, she would do well competing for Speed City !!! Wink

Micah Ward · Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2002 6:05 pm Post subject:

Represent the country?

OR

Make money?

It is simply a sad commentary on US running that the choice even has to be considered. It should not be a financial burden to run on a team representing the USA.

Distance_Guru · Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2002 6:20 pm Post subject:

Here is a question, why couldn't Regina just keep training for the steeple and run the world x-c champs? I figure it might affect about 10-12 days of her training, train normally until 7 days before the compotition, back off the week before the race, then you loose around three or four days for travel and recovery and then maybe two days to get re-aclaimated. That time wouldn't be a total loss but it would alter her training a little. My gut says with all the world records she has been breaking she is a shoe in to get the Steeple too, wheather she runs at worlds x-c or not.

_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

Micah Ward · Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2002 5:05 am Post subject:

That is a good point. Regina's speed and endurance are without question so the only thing she needs to be practicing for the steeple is the technique of clearing the hurdles. Would going to the world XC put her that far behind?

Distance_Guru · Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2002 12:51 pm Post subject:

For that matter when Henry Rono set the world record in the steeple I'm pretty sure he steped every barrier in the race. Just goes to show that if you're fast enough in between the hurdles you don't have to be that good at getting over them. Of coarse at the time I think Henry held every world record from 3000 to 10,000 meters so he may have been a little better runner in comparison to the rest of the world than Regina is.

_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2002 11:42 am Post subject:

Several good points have been made here.

1) Representing the country vs. earning a living is a ridiculous decision to have to make.

2) Cross Country racing should not take away from steeple preparation, especially this far out from the real racing season.

A few thoughts to add:

Regina has one heck of a history of not showing up to the big international meets. Taken on a case by case basis, she always has a solid excuse, but when looked at on the whole, it looks very fishy. The woman is unbeatable in domestic meets but rarely ventures overseas, and I'm guessing most people reading this are aware of the common speculations as to why that is...

Look at the short course XC results the past few years (especially last year's US champs) and you'll see a very high number of steeplers among the leaders. Granted, Regina is new to the steeple and needs practice time, but an athlete of her caliber should become fairly comfortable over the barriers with only a few weeks of training. With so many steeplers doing well in the short course race, I just don't see that as a very valid excuse.

Dan

Paul · Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2002 5:50 am Post subject:

I am new to this site but enjoy it immensely. I think we should cut Regina some slack on this one. She was fighting that achilles problem last year and had a very strong Indoor season so far. Isn't she close to 40 now?? I watched her all last summer at Eugene, I think she's a class act.

thanks, Paul

Dan · Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2002 7:03 am Post subject:

She is very classy when presenting herself publicly, but it's her private decisions that quickly become public ones which have a lot of people questioning her. I agree though, she does handle herself very well and is fun to watch run. You know any race she's in will be exciting. All the more reason it would be nice to see her in an international race for a change...

Dan

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