I was looking at going to the Penn Relays but without Usain Bolt, I'm passing. Justin Gatlin I'd watch and Assafa Powell too, but I'm not seeing any once in a generation runners that I'd travel/pay to see.

Meanwhile I'm looking at this list of USA vs The World and Nigeria is fielding a team but I can't think of a single sprinter I'd want to see.

And that got me to thinking about Africans in general and my limited experience with them in the athletic world (the few I ran against through high school were TRASH). On a global scale, the best long distance runners come from Kenya. But from the entire continent and different ethnicities (I don't think that's right) race? culture? I don't know ... I can't think of any great African sprinters. And let's consider sprinting in this case 800 or below.

I think Egypt has a young man that's pretty sick with the 800, but that's it. As far as the 400, I'd expect more and faster to fit the ideal body type for a quarter miler. 6'2-6'6, slim muscular build. Hell they could even knock out the 400 hurdles.

I wish I had seen Edwin Moses run. <--- not African just my favorite runner.

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

Africa has lacked the coaching and the sprint tradition of the US and carribean nations. That said, Nigeria always has great sprinters and Ghana occasionally puts someone forward. The Kenyan 4by 400m has been competitive since the 1990's too, so there is some success.

Btw, every year i tell myself I'll check out Penn Relays and I always forget.

I think his last season is 2016.

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

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"And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." ~ 2 Tim 2:4

We had dudes in high school that trained on that pink, gravel bullshit and they could hit 46-49 on a real track. That's a good enough baseline to get you into shooting for 44-46 with a real training and facility.

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

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http://perspectivesudans.blogspot.com/
i myself would never want to be god,or even like god.Because god got all these human beings on this planet and i most certainly would not want to be responsible for them, or even have the disgrace that i made them.

When you watch international meets, you are looking at the best in the world so any African you see there is more than pulling his weight. The training for sprints now involves state of the art analytical tools and custom made gear to fine tune performance. US/Europe athlethes benefit tremendously from this. The time gap between them is rarely significant (Usain Bolt is a freak of nature).

The cash incentive is also not as lucrative as soccer. Most "natural" athelethes are channeled into soccer in Africa because even playing for a third tier European club pays decent money.

Naturally? West Africans run fast. East Africans run far. I'll put my money on the average untrained teenager from those regions outperforming other teenagers in Europe/Asia in the corresponding type of race.

That said, Nigerian sprinters especially females are often in the upper echelon. And West Africans run under the Union Jack or other European flag sometimes

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

You'd be surprised how much culture plays into who's good at what.

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Get Out The Room!
http://getouttheroom.podomatic.com
@fakewilliamkatt

"You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do!" - Olin Miller

East Africans don't have a culture of sprinting.
They see all athletic heros running the distance races.
Kids who probably would be good sprinters aren't really encouraged to participate in track like those built for endurance.

Just like Caribbean athletes have a tradition of sprinting and Eastern Europe in the weight events. Athletes who fit the mold are pushed further, while others pursue other things.

Related, the coaches in that region are all experts in distance running.

But like was mentioned above, Kenya has a tradition of putting out good 400m runners and often has very competitive 4x400 relay teams.

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