18-02-2019, 14:50
"Ethiopian teenager Samuel Tefera broke Hicham El Guerrouj's 22-year-old 1500m indoor world record with a stunning performance in Birmingham.
Many eyes were on Yomif Kejelcha, who just missed the mile world record last week but Tefera, 19, overtook his compatriot with 200m to go and finished in three minutes 31.04 seconds.
He beat El Guerrouj's previous mark of 3:31.18, set in Stuttgart in 1997.
Kejelcha, who was undefeated indoors this year, clocked 3:31.58." BBC website.
It was a wonderful run. Tefera is a wonderful athlete. BUT if he is 19 I am pope.
For years the majority of the sporting media colluded with East Germany by hardly questioning how their system could produce a seemingly endless series of wonderful performers. They did little to question Russia for years. And so now, at a much reduced level of import, I suppose the very occasional unguarded comment from Steve Cram is the best we can expect when athletes largely of East African origin produce world record performances before they reach their twenties, having already mopped up every age-group accolade on the way.
Tefera is a sensation, but shouldn't we just admit he's no more teenage than he's a ninja mutant turtle?
Many eyes were on Yomif Kejelcha, who just missed the mile world record last week but Tefera, 19, overtook his compatriot with 200m to go and finished in three minutes 31.04 seconds.
He beat El Guerrouj's previous mark of 3:31.18, set in Stuttgart in 1997.
Kejelcha, who was undefeated indoors this year, clocked 3:31.58." BBC website.
It was a wonderful run. Tefera is a wonderful athlete. BUT if he is 19 I am pope.
For years the majority of the sporting media colluded with East Germany by hardly questioning how their system could produce a seemingly endless series of wonderful performers. They did little to question Russia for years. And so now, at a much reduced level of import, I suppose the very occasional unguarded comment from Steve Cram is the best we can expect when athletes largely of East African origin produce world record performances before they reach their twenties, having already mopped up every age-group accolade on the way.
Tefera is a sensation, but shouldn't we just admit he's no more teenage than he's a ninja mutant turtle?