Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Gebrselassie: Still Impervious at 40

Note:

If you are keen and have queries, please contact Coach Rameshon at 9100 4369 or you can email him at m.rameshon@gmail.com or swift.rameshon@gmail.com. Please refer to website http://flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)

By Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

12 Oct 2013

Haile Gebrselassie

Double Olympic gold medalist Haile Gebrselassie broke clear of Kenya’s Emmanuel Bett in the final stages to win the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow. The 40-year-old Ethiopian, in his first appearance in Scotland, crossed the line in 61 minutes nine seconds, a record for the annual half-marathon.

Having led the way for the first 5km, Gebrselassie invited the others to take their turn at the front. The world record holder at 20,000m and the one-hour race, surged 100m clear with a mile to go as they headed along the Broomielaw towards the city centre. And he maintained the gap over the final mile to cross the line first at Glasgow Green, 31 seconds before Bett.

“Today was really wonderful. I am so happy. It was a perfect set-up. I didn’t expect this kind of weather. When I saw the time at 15k I knew we were heading for a fast time,” said Gebrselassie.

The Great Scottish Run was first held in 1982 and has grown each year, with 24,089 people taking part last year.

Haile was born as one of ten children in Asella, Arsi Province, Ethiopia. As a child growing up on a farm he used to run ten kilometres to school every morning, and the same back every evening. This led to a distinctive running posture, with his left arm crooked as if still holding his school books.

He gained international recognition in 1992 when he won the 5000-metre and 10,000-metre races at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul and a silver medal in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships.

The next year, in 1993, Haile won the first of what would eventually be four consecutive world championships titles in the men’s 10,000 metres at the 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999 World Championships. His win at the 1993 was, however, his most infamous as he accidentally stepped on the heel of Moses Tanui’s shoe, causing it to fly off his foot. The contact causes Tanui to finish second behind Gebresalassie. Also at the 1993 World Championships he ran in the 5,000-metre race to finish a close second behind Ismael Kirui of Kenya. In 1994 he won a bronze medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Later that year he set his first world record by running a 12:56.96 in the 5,000-metres, breaking Saïd Aouita’s record by two seconds.

In 1995, Haile ran the 10,000-metres in 26:43.53 in Hengelo, The Netherlands, lowering the world record by nine seconds. That same summer, in Zürich, Switzerland, Haile ran the 5000 metres in 12:44.39, taking 10.91 seconds off the world record 12:55.30 (established by Kenya’s Moses Kiptanui earlier in the year). This world record at the Weltklasse meet in Zürich was voted “Performance of the Year” for 1995 by Track & Field News magazine. At the same Weltklasse meet in Zürich in 1996, an exhausted Haile, suffering from blisters obtained on the hard track in Atlanta (where he had won the Olympic 10,000 metres gold), had no answer to the 58-second lap of Daniel Komen with five laps to go as Komen went on to win and just miss Haile’s record, finishing in 12:45.09. In 1997, Haile turned the tables on Komen at the same meet. Coming off his third 10K world championship gold medal, Haile beat Komen in another Zürich classic on 13 August 1997, covering the final 200 metres in 26.8 seconds to break his 5,000 metres world record with a time of 12:41.86. Komen, in turn, took Haile’s record only nine days later when Komen ran a 12:39.74 performance in Belgium.

The next year, 1998, saw Haile lowering the indoor world records for 2,000 and 3,000 metres, enjoying success outdoors by taking back both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres world records, as well as earning a share in the Golden League jackpot for winning all of his races in the Golden League series that summer. In June 1998, in Hengelo, Netherlands, Haile set a 10,000 metres world record 26:22.75, breaking Paul Tergat’s world record 26:27.85, running evenly paced 13:11/13:11 5K splits.

In 2000, Haile again won all of his races, ranking first in the world yet again in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he became the third man in history to successfully defend an Olympic 10,000 metres title (after Emil Zátopek and Lasse Virén). The narrow Olympic victory over Kenya’s Paul Tergat came down to a blistering final kick, with Tergat’s 26.3 second final 200 metres being toppled by Haile’s even faster 25.4. The winning margin of victory was only 0.09 seconds, closer than the winning margin in the men’s 100-metre dash final.

In 2001, he won the IAAF World half marathon and the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. In the same year, he also worked with Peter Middlebrook and Abi Masefield he conceptualised the Great Ethiopian Run, which was latterly supported by Brendan Foster, British runner Richard Nerurkar the British ambassador to Ethiopia Myles Wickstead.

On 30 August 2003, Haile topped the polls when elected as a member of the IAAF Athletes Commission. Also in 2003, at the World Championships in Paris, Haile was involved in one of the most remarkable 10,000 metres races of all time while gaining a silver medal behind countryman and protégé Kenenisa Bekele. The last half of the 10,000 metres final at the championships was completed in a staggering 12:57.24 (12:57.2 for Bekele and 12:58.8 for Haile). According to the IAAF, “Not only was this split the fastest closing 5,000 metres in the championships, but it was also the fastest 5,000 metres in a global championship surpassing the 12:58.13 Salah Hissou recorded when he won the 5,000m in Sevilla’99.” (This remark remained true until a week later when the World Athletic Championships 5,000 metres medalists (including Bekele) all ran faster than the second 5,000 metres split in the previous week’s 10,000 metres.) “The difference between the closing 5,000 metres splits (12:57.24) and the 5,000 metres World record (12:39.36) was 17.98 seconds, which is a record. The previous best of 18.4 seconds (13:31.4 for the closing 5,000 metres when the World Record was 13:13.0) was recorded in the 1976 Olympics.”

In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Haile sought to become the first man in history to win three straight Olympic gold medals in the 10,000 metres. He was unable to do so, however, he finished fifth in a race won by his compatriot Kenenisa Bekele, who had broken both of Haile’s major track world records, the 5,000 metres and the 10,000 metres records. Shortly before the Athens games, Haile was unable to train for three weeks due to inflammation of his Achilles tendon. The injury was severe enough that he would not have competed otherwise but did so because of significant pressure from his country. This loss of the final period of training likely cost him a medal.

Since leaving the track after the 2004 Olympics, Haile has focused on road racing and the marathon. His adult marathons to date include London 2002 (3rd place), Amsterdam 2005 (1st place), London 2006 (9th place), Berlin 2006 (1st place), Fukuoka 2006 (1st place), London 2007, Berlin 2007 (1st place and World Record), Dubai 2008 (1st place), Berlin 2008 (1st place and another World Record), Dubai 2009 (1st place) Berlin 2009 (1st place), Dubai 2010 (1st place), and NYC 2010.

Note:

By Narayanan

Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).

He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

My Mizuno 10km 2013 Run Experience

https://www.facebook.com/flexifitness.runningcoachsg

The two Ministers, Mr Chan Chun Sing (extreme left) and Ms Indranee Thurai Rajah (middle) in the red and white t-shirt taking a group photo with Team Flexifitness

After coming in 4th in POSB Run 2013 in women open, I was looking forward to run in the Mizuno Mt Faber 10km Run. I have done 48min 10sec for the GPS measured distance of 10.3km POSB Run 2013.

I took my shower and came out of the toilet and it was already 6am. Quickly, my mother, brother and my sister gathered together in our house at 6 15pm and we started to make our way to the Mizuno Run 2013 start line.

Since I did not train, because of my exams, I decided to take this run not seriously. I was aiming for a 55min run for this Mt Faber Mizuno Run 2013. My mother and brother did not run and they came to support me in the race. Both of them went to the start point by themselves while Mr and Mrs Rameshon came to fetch me below my house to go to the start point of the run. My sister went to pick up my Emma Oh.

When I went there, I was relieved to see the place so easily. I could easily see the Start point of the 10km race. The Finish point was also the same place.

I reached the place at 6 50pm near block 122 and 123 of Bukit Merah View. The start point was at the open end car-park. Many people gathered there and the place had about 20 to 25 cubicles of mobile toilets.

It was not so crowded and it was easy to walk around the place. From the environment, I realised that there were a lot of people in the race but we could be comfortable to find our car, friends, etc. It was well spaced. Hence, I know that there is a limit to the race entry which made us enjoy this race.

At the car park, we saw Mr and Mrs Tan Eng Howe and his daughter by the name of Anja. We left the 4th storey of the car-park and went down near the start line to do our stretching. Some of the stretchings were our own. Once finished, we went to the start point of the race and waited for the Guest of Honour to flag us off.

It was a 15 min wait. There was no pushing to the start and I was happy with this. I was in fact near the start and the crowd of athletes behaved very well.

Just before the start of the race, the MPs, four of them, full-heartedly shook their hands with us and told us good luck.

We were appreciative of this gesture. I was thinking of the sacrifice that these four MPs are doing to come for the race to flag us off, taking away their rest period that they should be taking after Monday to Saturday of working. Inwardly, I was having my gratitude to them for their support for this race.

As the race was flag off by the MPs, I ran in such a manner that I was taking it easy.

At the 2.5km mark, I was feeling very thirsty and took a drink. At somewhere around the 3.6km to 3.7km, we had to go up Mt Faber. That was the point that I found it very hard to run. I was running 700m up the hill and faced another challenge, which was to go up a steep slope of another 500m to 600m upslope. I stopped during the race and felt very lethargic.

Once up, I was feeling very good after some time, I decided to run all the way with our Flexifitness athlete by the name of Benjamin. He paced me and finally at the last 150m, I saw Coach Rameshon who was cheering for me. He told me that there was 150m left. At this point, in fact, I was very tired. I gave my best and I did a time of 53min plus.

I realised that Mok Ying Rong came in first in the women open while Vivien Tang came in first in Women Veteran's section. The first position for Men Veteran went to Tony Seakens, while Coach Rameshon came in 5th position for the category of the race.

Picture 2 - Despite not training much, Coach Rameshon came in 5th in Men Veteran 45 years and above which was won by Tony Seakens

We waited for Coach Rameshon to collect his 5th position prize worth $100 for his race from the MP and Minister Ms Indranee Thurai Rajah. We took some photos with her later with our Team Flexifitness and then went for our breakfast at a nearby Bukit Merah food stall.

Coach Rameshon told us that since we had to take our exams, our performance will be down and he motivated us not to be affected by the race result.

Note:

By Narayanan

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Zola Budd, 47, Still Going Strong

flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)

By Rameshon

Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

https://www.facebook.com/flexifitness.runningcoachsg

Zola Budd, 47, gets invite to US College race, destroys a field of 106

Fit To Post Sports – Wed, Oct 9, 2013, 7:42 AM SGT

By World of Sport (original post from Yahoo Eurosport here)

British Olympian Zola Budd is famous for running barefoot, 'tripping' Mary Decker and being South African.

However, all that controversy throughout her career also makes it easy to forget that she was a fantastic runner. Correction: is a fantastic runner.

She proved as much last Saturday as, despite now being 47, Budd proved she can still run at a high level at a race in North Carolina.

Budd was given a special invitation to the HBCU Challenge 5K race, a competition for college runners. But rather than turn up, smile politely, sign a few autographs and smile for the crowd before jogging round, she simply destroyed the field of 106 women half her age.

Budd, not running barefoot this time, won the race in a time of 17 minutes and 47 seconds, which saw her win by a whopping 50 seconds.

The time was well short of her previous world record over 5,000m - 14:48.07 – but was still more than enough for an easy victory.

"I haven’t been running under 18 minutes for quite a while so I'm pleased," she said.

NBC's Olympic talk reveals:

Budd said she has been living in Myrtle Beach, S.C., f
or about five years since she moved from South Africa. She runs an elementary and middle school running program in Myrtle Beach and still does clinics in South Africa.

She was asked her advice for younger runners.
“Running is just a part of your life, not your (whole) life," Budd said. “Whatever happens, it’s fine. Just go along with the flow. Take the bad runs with the good runs. Make an experience of it. Don’t be too goal-oriented."

Note:

By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).

He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Preparation For Standard Chartered Marathon 2013 - 3km - 11min 26sec in Time Trial

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Standard Chartered Marathon 2013 - Hoping to do a sub-3hr

Picture 1 - Hoping to do a sub-3hr with Moses Ng, 47, and at the same time not getting any form of injury.

On 1st Dec 2013, I did my 3km time trial. I reached the 1km mark at 3min 37sec. At the 2km mark, I did a 7min 20sec and reached the 2.4km mark at 8min 58sec. At that point, I was feeling very tired and exhausted and realised that I was actually wearing a training shoe instead of a racing flat or my workout shoe.

I was running the last kilometre in 4min 06sec. Nevertheless, I felt very happy with this 11min 26sec as I realised that in 2008, 2 months before Stanchart, I did an 11min 36sec when Daniel Ling and Dr Benedict Tan did a 3km time trial with me in the past.

Hence, I hope that this is an encouragement for me to go for a sub-3hr as this is showing some form of conditioning that I am getting from the training that I am doing.

https://www.facebook.com/flexifitness.runningcoachsg

Note:

By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).

He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Tea With Moses Ng,47, at Nature Vegetarian - A discussion on his 3hr 17min 02sec feat.

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Tea With Moses Ng - Moses recounted on his run in KL marathon 2103.

Picture 1 - Nature Vegetarian Catering Pte Ltd

As Ashley and I were able to go to Gold Coast Airport Marathon 2013 for our race, Moses brought his time for 10km time trial from 44min to 41min.

He was not able to run the KL marathon a few months back as it got postponed. He was in KL to hear this.

On Sept 29th Moses Ng, 47, ran in the KL marathon finally. He did a time of 3hr 17min 02sec.

He decided to give me a treat today at Nature Vegetarian Catering Pte Ltd. He knew that I am a vegetarian and he decided to have the treat in the shop of my choice. I felt that I should be the one giving him the treat. He told me that he was very happy with the time and he felt appreciative and out of gratitude, he wanted me to join him for a tea.

I interjected that it was nice of him to give me a treat, but I felt why is he giving me when I should be the one giving. He told me that as of 5th position in Men's Veteran, he got US $200. I told him that I got $400 for coming first in MOE Olive 5km run in the Men's Veteran's category.

He was insistent such that I had to cave in to his demand. Inside me, I told myself that I have to respect his decision and that I am honoured to have a meal with him.

He recounted that in the past he had done a 3hr 18min and he has been trying to come back to this time and he was not able to. He was happy that he was able to now. I told him that he should have come to me a long time ago. Nevertheless, I felt that it is better late than never for Moses.

In the long run, I told him that he should be able to run a sub-3hr. He was pleased to hear this.

Moses, later told me in detail when I asked on the hamstring pull that occurred all of a sudden during the run, somewhere towards the half-way mark of the race. He told me that just before the 20th km mark, he suddenly got a pull from the hamstring and he had to rest and find out on the reason for this incident. He then decided to run and then got another pull at the same area of the hamstring.

In total, I asked him how many minutes he lost from there. He told me that in total he believed that he lost about 8min. I told him that he could have done a sub 3hr 10min and he told me that he believed so as he had to run on the non-affected leg, putting more emphasis on the leg and to put less burden on the affected leg.

Overall, he really wanted to pull out and he was happy that he was able to run in the race and pull through. He told that Team Flexifitness training did really help in the last 10km where he felt strong and went for it.

He also told me that fortunately, he did not wear any watch which would have deterred him from running the race as he would have panicked seeing the time racing as he had to just wait at the side with the injury. This strategy worked and he was very happy.

I told him that with his 40min plus 10km time trial timing, he can do this much and I suggested to him to do his best to get the time faster. He told me that he is looking forward to this.

After our meal, Moses discussed on Mizuno Wave 10km run, which is about two weeks from now. We told ourselves that we are looking forward to this. We are running in the men veteran's race.

Then, we left the place in a happy mood.

https://www.facebook.com/flexifitness.runningcoachsg

Note:

By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).

He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.