Austrian 19 year old kid wins Linz Half 1:03:25. Future monster.

Maybe 10 years and before super shoes. Aren't there dozens of Africans same age that run under an hour?

Is he held to the same standard as everyone else? in regards to blood tests? I have my kid running just around the same volume and I require him to get tested for EPO and other drugs just to show transparency in the sport. Mind you he is 16. I think we should hold him to the same as other possible dirty athletes.

Current drug cheat, future recipient of lifetime ban.

I ran the Linz have ~15 years ago. Assuming it's the same route, it's not a tough course, but not extra 'fast' either. In other words, you can run fast there, but you wouldn't travel there to get a PR. (I just want to answer the question directly about the course - others indicated that the weather was hot for the race in question.(

3:56/8:21/14:18 is not good for someone turning 20 soon. There are 20 year old women that can run these times.

8:21 is equivalent to an 8:58 3200m, and 68 American boys ran 8:59 or faster in one meet ... this week. They were all 16, 17, or 18.

One of my teammates ran 3:55 at age 19 and didn't even make the traveling squad.

American high school levels are humongous at the moment. Those kids are like pros training daily, doing summer camps etc ..from freshman in High school, etc. High schools like American Fork and Newbury Park are almost like training camps with academics thrown in the middle, allowances for runners to re sit exams at different times, etc. None of that in Europe, which is club and amateur based until a much later age.

Let's see what all those Arcadia phenoms are doing in 10 years time at peak athletic maturity. This kid from Austria is on a long term plan and posting 63:25 at age 19/20, winning by 2 mins, in torrid conditions, shows future 60:00/61:00 potential, 5-7 years down the road, and those Arcadia guys may not produce that ...

Some monster.

How many East African 19-year olds have run under 60 minutes?

You have some very odd ideas of what the average American hs training is like. Pretty much every Euro kid I read is far more professional.
I am sure some 3:55 20 year olds went on to break 60. But not many..

10....led by the late Sammy Wanjiru...

Timo would be #260 on the world u20 all time list in a sea of Kenyans, Ethiopians and Japanese, the latter having the most depth.

If Timo had posted 1:02:00, on a course like Valencia (which I believe is a better barometer) he would be #95 on the all-time world list. I believe his 1:03:25, is equivalent to a 1:02:00-1:02:30 type Valencia performance. Kid is an aerobic slow twitch monster. At the same age as Timo, Kibiwott Kandie was running 1:03:25, and is now at 57:00.

Can someone please ban Ghost1 from LetsRun with all his non sense posts? You always talk about people that are totally irrelevant, there is maybe 1% chance that this kid will go sub 27.20 and no evidence at all that he can go sub 2u05. Stop posting like this and try to give us some relevant info. Thanks. Gr, Gjert.

Man! Thank you for posting this. I'm alway thinking the same when reading his posts!

Are you this guy who hit your kids with a towel?

If so, i hope you get what you deserve, sucker.

Hopefully he avoids that route and just goes pro and maximizes his potential.