The Track and Field Athlete of the Year award should go to
Paula Radcliffe for the women with no contest! On the men
side Khalid Khannouchi should edge out Hicham, Tim, and Adam Nelson! Paula's AOY is a given; however, is there any
male worthy of the award over Khalid's two MINDBOGGLING marathons?
Vipam
why mention Adam Nelson in a non-champs year?
Vipam wrote:
The Track and Field Athlete of the Year award should go to
Paula Radcliffe for the women with no contest! On the men
side Khalid Khannouchi should edge out Hicham, Tim, and Adam Nelson! Paula's AOY is a given; however, is there any
male worthy of the award over Khalid's two MINDBOGGLING marathons?
Vipam
Good question.
But Tuna, why do you say that about Nelson? What does Olympic year have to do with it? He's talking about the best seasons that any athlete had for 2002 and Nelson belongs up there.
That said, it's very difficult for a marathoner to be No. 1, esp. without any track backup and no major championship. Still, you have to put him in the top 5 or so, with Hicham, Felix Sanchez and a few other guys.
As for the women, I do agree that Paula should be No. 1, no question there -- ahead of Marion and others.
well then, Makarov had also done a great job
Sanchez DID NOT LOSE
Nelson has lost a few. I would equate Nelson's year to Olsson or even Walter Davis
whatcha think?
Paula will be AOY. She's a better athlete than Dragilia and gosh she won
KK and Paula seem deserving. Consider, though, that no marathon specialist, male or female, has ever been named AOY by TFN. The only "marathoner" on either list is Junxia Wang, who was AOY in 1993 and, of course, was recognized primarily for her track performances.
I don't think anybody else can come close to Paula or KK. KK's two sub-2:06s are phenomenal, I don't think any other male performer this year has run this well. El G would have to have broken the WR, which he didn't do, and neither did Sanchez. KK is definately one of the all-time greats, up there with Shorter, Rogers, Steve Jones, etc. He seems to have the marathon nailed. Now if he can just win an Oly gold...
How much (and how well) either one race on the track this year? It "Track & Field News" not "Marathon & Road Racing News."
I think for a marathoner to get AOY from those guys, they'd probably have to win an Olympic gold (in a clearly great performance) AND set a WR in the same year.
Two sub-2:06's THIS YEAR! 3 total.....2:05:42,2:05:38,2:05:50. Besides a couple of 2:07's and a 2:08(injured?)....amazing!
The arguement of it being hard for a marathoner to win AOY
honors ends with Khalid Khannouchi(USA). In track and field no marathoner have ever had a year that remarkably
resembled Khalid's and Paula. The competition for Male AOY honors:
Khalid Khannouchi(USA) Marathon
2:05:38(WR)..........1) Flora London*........4/11
2:05:56..............1) LaSalle Chicago**...10/13
*beat Paul Tergat 2:05:48, Haile Gebreselassie 2:06:35,
A. El Mouaziz 2:06: 52, Ian Syster 2:07:06, S Baldini 2:07:29
**Paul Tergat 2:06:18, D.Ngenja (Jap)2:06:16, T. Takoka
2:06:16, Ben Kiondiu, El Mouazia, etc
Hicham El Guerrouj(Mor)1500m/ Mile
3:40.20..............1) Norw Union..........6/30
3:29.96..............1) Gaz.................7/5
3:27.34..............1) Herc................7/19
3:26.95..............1) Van Dam.............8/30
3:30.00..............1) ISATF...............9/6
3:26.96..............1) GP II...............9/8
3:29.27..............1) GP Final............9/14
Mile
3:50.89..............1) Pre.................5/26
3:50.12..............1) Bislett.............6/28
3:48.28..............1) GGala...............7/12
3:5something.........1) Nor Union...........8/23
Felix Sanchez(DR) 400H
48.91................1) Bislett.............6/28
47.91................1) Gaz.................7/5
47.73................1) GGala...............7.12
47.86................1) Herc................7/19
47.35................1) WK..................8/18
48.08................1) Norw Union..........8/23
47.99................1) Van Dam.............8/30
48.02................1) ISATF...............9/6
47.62................1) GP Final............9/14
Robert Korzeniowski(Pol) 50k walk
3:36:39..............1) Euro Ch.............8/8
(lowered the WR by 47 seconds!)
Sergey Makarov (Rus)
had a stellar javelin season; however, with his 4 loses he's not a contender for Overall AOY
Robert Fezakas (Hun) Discus
he threw far and won 17/19 meets; however, with no meet
ladden with depth and no WR he is out.
Adam Nelson (USA) ShotPut
22.15................1) Sea Ray.............4/13
21.41................1) MSR.................4/21
22.51................1) Adidas..............5/18
21.95................2) Pre.................5/26
22.32................1) NC..................6/22
21.28................1)Han..................7/8
21.61................1)?....................7/10
21.63................1) Asics...............8/13
20.67................1) Raiffeisen..........8/19
21.34................1) GPF.................9/14
20.80................1)WcP..................9/20
Huge threws including 3 meets over 72-6, yet 2 losses-OUT
Roman Sebrle (Czr) Decathlon
8800.................1) ?............before 6/15
8800.................1) Euro Cham...........8/9
(two meets of 8800 enough for top five but not Overall AOY)
The 2002 year had several males running, performing, and throwing exceptional; however, none came close to mastering
their event like Khalid did in the Marathon. After spending the last 4 hours researching every event the above
individual were the best of their event and Khalid Khannouchi will win T&FNews Athlete of the Year honors with
a large amount of 1st place votes.
Wilson Kipketer 800m. Paul Tergat Marathon, Tim Montgomery
100m should also make the Top 10 Males Overall.
Vipam
Wow, dude, must be nice to have that much time on your hands...
You only showed one loss for Nelson. I still think T&FN will rank him 3rd or 4th, but I guess I hope I'm wrong. He may deserve it, but that's not usually how they do it.
Radcliffe, however, gets over the top with her track races added to the mix.
Ds-man
Thanks for commenting on Adam that enabled me to find a mistake I made. By the way I didn't research for 4 hours straight, you know I checked World News and went out to eat.
Adam Nelson placed 2nd at Asics on Aug 13 not 1st.
Do Khalid Khannouchi deserve the overall AOY honors, what's
your opinion?
Vipam
well done! An opinion back up by detailed facts and a
logical outcome, I agree Paula and Khalid should win AOY.
The things is does T&FNews agree?
M.J.
On the women's side, Paula deserves, and will win, AOY. Jones second, Guevara third.
On the men's side, KK probably deserves AOY, with El G a close second and Sanchez (running in a very weak event) a distant third. I pick KK as a slight favorite to win over El G in a very close, and hotly contested, vote. Oddly enough, the identity of the third-place finisher in London may be what tips the scale in KK's favor.
The editor himself commenting:
Subject: Re: t-and-f: AOY
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:15:34 -0700
From: ghill
To: lists on 10/13/02 8:35, Tony Banovich at tonyban@wtp.net wrote:> Okay, so the question of the day is for Garry Hill. Do you still think> that Paula is undeserving of AOY honors?>>The tough question now is, which of her marks is the POY? I lean towards the10K myself.gh
No way is Paula's Euro 10,000m win better than her Chicago
World Best. The World Record now is over a minute and 30 seconds faster than any other woman and will definetly win
Performance of the Year. Now on the other hand which male
will have the Performance of the Year-will it be Khalid's World Record also (most likely you think?).
Paula's a virtual lock to get Athlete of the Year. She may be a unanimous choice. And to the person who said the marathon is not a "track" event and may not count ....TF&N always ranks the top ten marathoners, and the marathon is on the Olympic and World Championships programs, so it counts. The only other female contenders are Marion Jones and Ana Guevara, and Marion's record in her second event, the 200, doesn't come close to Paula's in the 10,000 ...and Guevara, though she swept the 400 in the Golden League, faced pretty lackluster competition all year long.
Khalid may also deserve AOY, but I would anticipate a close vote with El Guerrouj and Felix Sanchez
Y'know, London and Chicago WERE more exciting than anything that happened on the track this year. I mean, even Monty's WR and meets like Zurich, etc., paled in comparison.
i agree with Khalid and Paula getting AOY honors but it
won't be that close as some think. they simply taking
marathoning and athletics to another level in 2002 and
no other athlete except Hicham came close to their superiority. Paula lock, stock, and barrel. Khalid wins
over Hicham!
In short - no to Khannouchi. Radcliffe, maybe, since she actually competed in more than two major races and ran on the track.
Don't get too ecstatic and think the marathon is the be-all end-all event. Most people I know wouldn't even consider watching one. To each his/her own.