Ben Saarel: Sorest loser at NCAA's?

I saw him run at the pac-12 on TV and thought he looked heavy-legged. I'm starting to believe that he won't improve much in the future.

I don't think much can be drawn from his interview which was some combination of shyness and disappointment.

I mean....why is that some of you clowns like the OP just insist on blasting people in the sport for nearly imaginary miscreant behavior? What blighted souls you have.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Ben's interview. He was gracious to speak to them after his obvious disappointment. In fact the only thing wrong is posters like this one who try to make drama when there isn't any. He displayed no bad sportsmanship. That you peg him a "sore loser" is more a display of your character than his.

OP and the rest are being nauseatingly hyper critical of saarel. You deserve a headbutt for your comments.

He was not throwing a fit. Not being immature whatsoever. In fact he showed amazing patience to actually calmly and respectfully respond to some idiotic questions. This was all immediately after the race. He knew he made a tactical mistake and admitted it. How can you lose respect for someone that takes responsibility for their own mistakes? You could tell it was eating him up that he failed. Running is a cruel sport and you are allowed to be frustrated and disappointed sometimes.

If you are somebody who can blow off a bad performance and immediately be happy and charismatic then you probably never even came within a lightyear of saarel's level. I have been at that level and when you don't run to where you know you are capable of it is difficult because you only have yourself to blame AND you have to wait a long time to prove yourself again.

Stop trying to make a story where there is none. There was absolutely no sore loser behavior in his interview. You would see interviews just like this from multitudes of runners except people who run bad races dont usually get interviewed!

Saarel is overrated. Stop hanging on his jock strap and making excuses. When it came to what mattered, he blew it. He tried to run with the big dogs, looked like a bonehead and got his wheels blown off. There's no reason to believe he's going to be some amazing runner. Then, to add insult to injury, he could barely articulate his thoughts OR chose not to, and gave short, blunt answers. Kids a goonk

Well gee whiz Ginger, I'm sure that if this guy knew the fat lady at home was expecting more of him, he would have turned that frown upsidedown and put on a better show for you. If he only understood that losing is supposed to be fun, he could have kept you as a fan--a dumb, fat fan.

8th in XC, 3rd indoors 3k, 1500m national qualifier, 1:51 800, 3:41 1500, 7:53 3k, 13:48 5K. 18 years old. An incredible season.

OP needs to post his PB's for full transparency!

Suck shit OP, i know you are a shit runner.

Why weren't you calling saarel overrated BEFORE the race?

Because you are a loser who can only criticize from the sideline

come on dude wrote:

Saarel is overrated. Stop hanging on his jock strap and making excuses. When it came to what mattered, he blew it. He tried to run with the big dogs, looked like a bonehead and got his wheels blown off. There's no reason to believe he's going to be some amazing runner. Then, to add insult to injury, he could barely articulate his thoughts OR chose not to, and gave short, blunt answers. Kids a goonk

I'm very sorry to hear that Mr. Saarel turned you down when you asked him out, but you really must find a way to get over it before you embarrass yourself further.

If you want an example of a sore loser - check out the co-owner of California Chrome's rant after losing the Belmont stakes. Now that's a sore loser. Saarel ? Not even close.

Ive been there. wrote:

OP needs to post his PB's for full transparency!

Suck shit OP, i know you are a shit runner.

Why weren't you calling saarel overrated BEFORE the race?

Because you are a loser who can only criticize from the sideline

You're a freakin goonk.

You don't have to be a great athlete to criticize lebron james or a baseball player or a football team, do you?? Why am I a loser? Did Saarel not get his wheels blown off? Did he not run foolishly? I'm sure he would agree with me...

If you can't let your racing do the talking (which he didn't) then you gotta talk through your mouth. But Saarel didn't. The best part is this: when asked why he performed better during xc, he corrected Letsrun and said he hadn't. And then said something to the effect, "Oh well based purely on results..."

Well duh Ben! What else are we basing performance on? How 'smooth' you looked???

come on dude wrote:

You're a freakin goonk.

You don't have to be a great athlete to criticize lebron james or a baseball player or a football team, do you?? Why am I a loser? Did Saarel not get his wheels blown off? Did he not run foolishly? I'm sure he would agree with me...

If you can't let your racing do the talking (which he didn't) then you gotta talk through your mouth. But Saarel didn't. The best part is this: when asked why he performed better during xc, he corrected Letsrun and said he hadn't. And then said something to the effect, "Oh well based purely on results..."

Well duh Ben! What else are we basing performance on? How 'smooth' you looked???

I was joking when I made my last post, but now I see that you really do care about this guy's performance and interview about ten thousand times as much as any sane, straight man would.

Dude what's your problem? Why do you feel the need to bash someone whom you've never met and never will meet because he wasn't freaking smiley in his post-race interview that came when he was still getting his breath back? Ben wasn't rude to other competitors; he was clearly very disappointed, frustrated with himself, and still trying to breath better.

Ben had a great season, and yes, in fact, he may be better at track than cross country. A 3rd place finish at NCAAs is better than an 8th place finish in my book. He'll learn from this and I'd be very surprised if he doesn't win the 1500 or 5k in the coming years.

Brojos/mods, please post the OP's IP so that we can try to figure out who this douche bag is.

jimjamesrunner wrote:

No reason to lose respect. I just gained respect for him. You can see that it burns him up that he didn't run better. He's mulling it over and trying to figure out what went wrong as well as planning the next move. He was totally respectful, he's just a competitor. If he keeps this fire burning, he'll be doing amazing things very soon.

+1

As long as they are not denigrating the accomplishment of the runners that beat them or being disrespectful, I like to see the losers disappointed. It makes them seem invested, so I want to be invested as a fan.

How many of you goonks like Centrowitz?

I watched the interview and did not see one thing wrong with his interview. Seemed tired. I had more of a problem with the interviewer asking one dumb question after another.

He forgot that as a highly paid pro, answering to the media is part of what he is paid for. Perhaps he had a good reason to do so.

wtf is a goonk dude?

You are a loser because you are criticizing someone who didn't do anything to deserve harsh criticism.

I wouldn't say he ran foolishly. Yes, he made some small tactical errors and possibly underestimated the field a bit which led to him not qualifying. In that elite of company its easy to make mistakes such as letting people get away with 300 to go.

Thing is, HE ADMITTED THAT in the interview. He did not make up BS excuses like so many runners do. He only blamed himself and even had the wisdom to know that it would be a learning experience in the future. Im pretty sure this was his first prelim. 1500 prelims can be weird and unpredictable. They are not the same as a fast 1500 at payton or wherever.

These are my reasons for grilling the OP. you came off as a big time couch criticizer who has never been in these situations. You dont understand.

And saarel is not an icon like lebron. Thats an entire different world