Saturday, March 22, 2014

Anna Maxwell 2:09.81 800m. at Gilroy "Garlic" Invitational

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Albert, long-time fan of the site, and really appreciative for everything you do here. If it's not too much to ask for, I'd like to start a discussion, and I realize that this might not be the best place to ask it, I'm not really sure where else to. Today, in the Varsity boys 3200 at Christopher, there was some tactics used by the Los Gatos team that I think were controversial, and I, as well as many others, are curious as to what other people within the community think about the tactics. I'm genuinely not writing this as an introduction to a roast of the team, in fact I don't believe that there was anything wrong with the tactics used, but I think it would generate a good discussion, as well as show a good display of how these sort of tactics are viewed on and off the track. If you decide to hold the discussion, I'm sure somebody would be happy to clue everyone else in on what transpired. For now, here's a video courtesy of the SLV team. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0alD4CXqQS8&list=UUb7z6IKWvzjLCT3JugQvBug
Thanks again for keeping such a great website.
And obviously congratulations to Anna Maxwell, who is an absolute monster.

Albert Caruana said...

I think the video speaks for itself. Anybody else at the same invite and thoughts on the boys 3200m. race?

Anonymous said...

What happened? It looks like one of the LG runners paced the other two through the first 1600m then stopped, then started up and jogged it in from there. Was there anything else to it than that?

If it's just the rabbiting issue, which I'm assuming is illegal under CIF rules (correct me if I'm wrong), then it seems like a non-issue since it was an early-season invitational. Really, why would anyone care?

Anonymous said...

"Rabbits" are athletes entered in the race and have and opportunity to win the race like anyone else. At the professional and collegiate level (Stanford Invite for the 1500 and up, major marathons, etc.) they are often paid. Occasionally they even go on to win. They are common practice for top level regional meets all they way up to the highest level including the diamond league. This is perfectly legitimate and breaks no rule and should in no way be seen as a poor sportsmanship.

The only thing that could have been better is letting athletes know before hand thee will be pace setters for the first mile to go out out in x:xx.

To be honest where kids are going for fast times or trying to hit qualifying marks this should be done more often. And is it any more different than when a boy SLV runner paced Maxwell in a dual meet 3200?

Rob said...

Maxwell hasn't ran a 3200m this year yet. Next a lot of schools put boys and girls 3200m together when it comes to Dual meets, when the field is small enough. You can't tell me you don't. It's better than hanging around for the next 30 minutes to watch a few boys and girls run separate races in the 3200m. Anna does pretty well on her own!

Anonymous said...

I think the concern is not for the rabbitting of the first 1600 meters but rather the fact that the rabbit then jogged slowly until the lead runner lapped him and then proceeded to "rabbit" another lap.

Albert Caruana said...

First, we are dealing with young students here. Second, if you as a coach are going to set something up like this which was an attempt to have Chris Foster run a qualifying time for Arcadia, then you need to let your athlete know your expectations and that when his or her rabbiting duties are done, step off the track.

Or Foster could have run at the Dublin Distance Fiesta last week. No rabbits needed there.

Anonymous said...

To be honest, the part that bothers me the most is that Foster had a perfectly good teammate in Haderle that he could have worked with. I mean i understand the mentality behind using the rabbit, but it's like come on. just goes to show how strong that team is right now

Albert Caruana said...

I agree with that assessment.

Anonymous said...

How about - just let the other runners know that the rabbit is only pacing.

Anonymous said...

As the author of the third post if the runner was lapped and then jumped in to pace later then both should be DQ'd. That is illegal and bad, very bad.

I only watched to the mile in the video. If the kid jumped back in after stopping and being lapped that is on the coach.

If that's the case who is the coach there making these calls. Weren't they suspended in xc for having their team outright not show for a league meet too?

Anonymous said...

Funny enough, their coach is actually the announcer during the race.
So I guess you could say he was literally... MAKING THE CALLS! HA!

Anonymous said...

Leave Chris Foster alone.
You're all just lucky he'll perform for you.

Anonymous said...

Hey Albert,

I posted an innocuous comment early yesterday morning (around 6:30am) and was the 3rd comment (first one after yours at 12:39 am). I asked if there was anything more than the rabbit dropping out at 1600m, and said that I didn't think it mattered since this was an invitational. Nothing extraordinary, but it was definitely posted and it's curious to me that the comment was deleted. Do you have some particular policy re comments that this violated? thanks

Albert Caruana said...

I don't recall deleting anything in this section. Feel free to post it again.

Anonymous said...

I know for a fact the coach had absolutely nothing to do with this unfortunate incident, and the announcer is not the LG coach.
Foster had no idea what was to transpire late in the race. By no means was this a plan by the coach or Foster. Anybody that knows Foster knows he would never go along with it.

Nils said...

Maybe this is a good opportunity, relatively early in the season, for *every* coach to go over the rules with their team. Let everyone know the parameters they have to work in. There are enough rules that it's not intuitive what's the "right thing" to do in every situation, especially for HS competitors who haven't studied the rules.

Anonymous said...

Foster or his coach knew nothing of the rabbit... or him jumping back in.

Can someone name this coach? Perhaps someone should just asked him.

Regardless. Foster or his coach should have told the kid to stop if it was not planned. The didn't which leads me to believe they knew what was going on.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I really don't know him or anything, but that seems pretty planned out to be just some joke that this kid plays. I mean he was seeded last out of everybody, I was in the race.
And if it wasn't pre-meditated then that looks a lot worse for the team that a kid just did that because he thought it would be cool.

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