After the world championships this year in Dagau, Galen Rupp ran an American record of 26:48 in the 10,000 meter run at the Brussels Diamond League meeting, placing third behind Kenenisa Bekele, the great Ethiopian world record holder and Olympic Champ.
I was greatly amused to see Rupp's naysayers erupt as usual with criticisms of him on the message boards at the Let's Run site. One wag complained that Rupp will never get anywhere, as Bekele gained a good four seconds over Rupp on the last lap.
While Bekele and a Kenyan runner did indeed out sprint Rupp, let's take a look a the race. With just a few laps to go, the lead pack of seven or eight runners quickly winnowed down to three contenders for the win, Rupp among them. Why was Rupp's final lap a bit slow for an international 10K race at this level? Simple. The man was giving his all in pursuit of the win.
Rupp was not content to let any runner get away from him, and he did not back off to protect his finish. He went balls to the wall.
He could have run a 56-57 last lap if he'd backed off the pace. Instead, Rupp bent his will towards winning, and paid a price for it.
When a guy wipes more than 10 seconds off his national 10K track record, I define that as getting somewhere.
Can Rupp win a medal in next year's Olympics? I say yes, it is well within his capabilities. But, there are a dozen guys who could put it together on the day of the Olympic 10,000, not the least of who are Bekele and Rupp's training partner Mo Farah.
But anyone who saw the Birmingham Diamond League 5,000 last summer knows Rupp can do it. He ran second in that race behind Mo Farah, outkicking Ethiopian great Merga.
Merga is a top echelon runner with a splendid kick, and Rupp handily out-sprinted him in the stretch at Birmingham. That tell me that our man Galen has medal potential.
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