Did Wesley Korir Start 5 Minutes Back and Run 2:13

"The decision was made because Wesley handled himself in a professional manner. Had he of threatened to suit he not only would not of received a penny but he would have likely NEVER been invited to participate in a World Major Marathon again. Congrats to all."

If indeed he Carey said this, what a putz. He should just have said, we hosed it, the dude deserves his money. Then let it go at that. After a couple years of some bad decisions on the races part, macho posturing might be best left aside.

He also said that the shleps would still find fault in giving him the money. You did not disappoint.

Nope, I think his decision to give the money to Korir is straight up right. However, posturing and saying if this and that occurred yada, yada, yada...would be weak, if he indeed said that.

They started the Elite field five minutes in advance of everyone else so that, if the mass race were to be canceled, at least the professional race could continue as planned.

The whole point is that he is a good runner. He did what he needed to do and I assume they were telling him hes not good enough to run with them up front. Now look hes one of the best, I have ever seen.

quote]Wrong again wrote:

Wesley will be paid $15k. I heard it from Carey today. He will not adjust the prize money from the other 5. He will simply give Wesley an additional $15k. The decision was made because Wesley handled himself in a professional manner. Had he of threatened to suit he not only would not of received a penny but he would have likely NEVER been invited to participate in a World Major Marathon again. Congrats to all.[/quote]

It's GREAT that Carey ponied up and did the right thing. But his reasoning, if this is true, is backhanded and sours his attempt to cover his a$$. I believe Carey owed that money outright to Korir, and if he thinks he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart, I'll let him know that by never racing any of his debacles.

Holy cow. If you don't run, what then? The may not fill up by April 1st

way to be a swetheart wrote:

"The decision was made because Wesley handled himself in a professional manner. Had he of threatened to suit he not only would not of received a penny but he would have likely NEVER been invited to participate in a World Major Marathon again. Congrats to all."

If indeed he Carey said this, what a putz. He should just have said, we hosed it, the dude deserves his money. Then let it go at that. After a couple years of some bad decisions on the races part, macho posturing might be best left aside.

Now I like seeing people behave in a professional manner as much as anyone, but I don't get this logic. Whether or not you deserve the money should depend entirely on what happens during the race. I'm glad that they decided to pay up-I think that was the right decision-but it was the right decision whether the guy behaves professionally or acts like a total dick. Again, I wouldn't like to see him be a total dick about it, but prize money shouldn't be based on likeability. What he did in the race either earned money or it didn't under the rules regardless of anything that happened afterward.

Heathen wrote:

But was he the 4th person to cross the finish line? I'm not trying to be a d*ck, but in most marathons it's pretty clear, place matters, not chip time.

Seems like the rules were stacked against Korir, in that case.

This is clearly an unusual case. Nobody in the mass start is supposed to run that fast. Korir's stellar performance exposed a fundamental flaw in the RD's plan. You're quite right that place IS supposed to determine the finish for the elites--the better to encourage mano a mano duels in which the stakes are clear. The #4 and 5 finishers in the elite race might argue, with merit, that had they known Korir was "passing" them, in chip terms, they might have run harder and achieved a faster time. You can't just discount their case.

By the same token, Chicago is crazy if they don't find an extra $15K for Korir.

Korir gets the money wrote:

korir gets the money. prize money is based on GUN TIME. there were two gun times today - elite and OPEN. so korir's time was his official gun time . .. therefore, he gets the money.

Actually, that makes sense. Case closed.

LC wrote:

What he did in the race either earned money or it didn't under the rules regardless of anything that happened afterward.

By the rules he DID NOT earn the money. Carey will pay him however. He will probably have a place for him in the elite field next year.

What is the deal with top 5 Americans, now that the Korir issue has been solved. Are they going to pay the top 5?

The coordinator and the coordination team for this years elite field were horrible. There was no sustained effort to recruit US based elite runners to complement the international field.

To compound the problem anyone running slower than 2:15 was assigned to the sub_elite field. Why would they do this since there are very few USA sub 2:15 let alone sub 2:16 runners?

Most World Marathon Majors invite and help support development of national runners (NYC and Boston come to mind with large US fields) while having strong international competitive fields.

They have created their own mess. As stated before when are they are going to have a race with no snafus?

Their snafus keep making the headlines of the Chicago Tribune and really take away from the prestige factor of this marathon.

way to be a swetheart wrote:

"The decision was made because Wesley handled himself in a professional manner. Had he of threatened to suit he not only would not of received a penny but he would have likely NEVER been invited to participate in a World Major Marathon again. Congrats to all."

If indeed he Carey said this, what a putz. He should just have said, we hosed it, the dude deserves his money. Then let it go at that. After a couple years of some bad decisions on the races part, macho posturing might be best left aside.

I agree.

Is Carey going to pay all of the prizes for the American, Illinois, and masters categories, or is that also going to depend upon whether the prospective recipients handle themselves in a professional manner?

The criticism of Chicago is driving me nuts. In the years wejo and I were running seriously from 1997 to 2003 or so, no one in the US was better at recruiting US talent. I have no idea if things have changed dramatically but it's not like this was a good year to try to recruit US talent given the Olympics as well as Twin Cities.

People are saying the race is making a lot of mistakes. The mindset that someone is to blame for all bad outcomes in life is starting to ruin America. The weather in 2007 was a freak occurence. Could they have been bettere prepared? Yes. But did they do an embarrassingly bad job? No.

This year a guy in the regular field runs a good race and may or may not get prize money. It's not the end of the world. He clearly must not have been concerned with the prize money if he ran the race despite not being given an elite start. Clearly, he knew he'd be starting 5 minutes back and the odds of him getting in the top 5 in that field were very, very small.

Under the rules, he doesn't deserve it. It's very clear. Read the IAAF explanation.

http://www.iaaf.org/LRR08/news/newsid=48031.html

If Carey decides to give him the money, all the more power to him. It will yet again be another great move by a guy who took an nothing race and made it into a great one.

Please stop taking easy pot-shots on people that work hard to promote the sport.

rojo wrote:

The criticism of Chicago is driving me nuts......

Please stop taking easy pot-shots on people that work hard to promote the sport.

wejo started it...

rojo wrote:

The criticism of Chicago is driving me nuts......

Please stop taking easy pot-shots on people that work hard to promote the sport.

so confused wrote:

wejo started it...

Classic...

...POD

Rojo,You're off base on this one. As Pinkowski advertised the race, it's supposed to be "ONE Race". Korir's gun time was 4th best. Nowhere in the Chicago race application did it say that prize money was limited to the elite field. In fact, since they offered USA prize money 5 deep and there were only 3 USA runners in the elite field, one could reasonably assume that those in the "mass start" would be eligible for prize money. Carey made himself a mess with such a small number of elite runners... he screwed up and needs to pay Korir - as well as all the USA runners who should receive prize money.

Additionally, that IAAF article by Jim Ferstle contradicts itself. Initially, Ferstle claims that Carey decided to have "two races". Then later in the article, he talks about gun time and chip time, implying that Korir's chip time was 2:13:xx, but his gun time was not. That is wrong. Korir's gun time was a legit 2:13:xx. Additionally, the race was never advertised as 2 races. It was supposed to be ONE race and Korir is the 4th place finisher.

Ferstle is wrong. Estes is wrong. Pinkowski screwed up. Let's see if they claim that the USA runners and Master's runners don't get their prize money because they weren't allowed into the elite field. Seems like a neat way to avoid paying prize money.