THERE are some athletic achievements that simply boggle the mind. Two-mile record
a remarkable achievementThere wasn't a lot of discussion about this one last weekend. It was overshadowed by Justin Leonard's British Open victory, Barry Sanders' $34-million deal, and even the Tour de France.
But 43 years, two months and 13 days after the first sub-4-minute mile was run by Roger Bannister in England, somebody figured out a way to string together two sub-4s in the same race.
It's a shame that such a feat in the purest of all athletic endeavors -- track and field -- is so under-appreciated in a non-Olympic year.
But look at what Kenyan Daniel Komen accomplished on Saturday on an outdoor track at Hechtel, Belgium.
He ran two miles in 7 minutes and 58.61 seconds.
That's right.
You have to just pause here a moment and really try to consider what kind of engine hums inside a body capable of doing that.
Becoming the first human to run the event in under 8 minutes, Komen broke the world record of 8:01.08 set on May 31 in the Netherlands by Ethiopian Haile Gebrselaissie.
How did he do it? By clocking the first mile in 3:59.2 and the second in 3:59.4.
HE followed pace-setter Elijah Maru through the first three 400-meter laps, and then jumped in behind another rabbit, Martin Keino, for the next two laps.
But for the last 1,218 meters, Komen was on his own.
Nothing unusual about using pace-setters. The trick is to find the right ones.
Even Bannister had help in the historic 1954 sub-4-minute mile. Chris Chataway took the lead at Bannister's command at the 21/2-lap mark and paced him until the final 230 yards.
Unfortunately, Komen's feat once again underscored the sorrowful state of American distance running.
Sadly, we don't have anyone in this country who can hold his own with the best distance runners in the world.
But we did get an American record in Komen's race.
Bob Kennedy, who has competed in the last two Nike Waikiki Mile races on Kalakaua Avenue, was about 90 yards behind Komen when the African hit the tape. Kennedy broke Marc Davis' (former Waikiki Mile winner) U.S. record (8:12.74) with a time of 8:11.59.
Kind of discouraging isn't it?
Our best is nearly a football field behind the world's best.
THAT should bother us more than it does.
It says that the work ethic of American athletes in the most basic of all sports is far surpassed by athletes from poorer nations.
The last seven world marks in the two-mile have been held by Africans.
The best times in the world this year in seven distances ranging from 800 meters to 10,000 meters are held by Africans.
Families of kids in countries like Kenya, Morocco, Ethiopia and Tanzania can't afford to buy shoulder pads, helmets or baseball gloves. So they opt for the only thing they can barely afford: a cheap pair of running shoes.
Their kids grow up running -- not just because their coaches tell them to do so -- but because there's often no other way to get from point A to point B.
We sure don't have that problem here.
But one thing Hawaii kids do have in common with African youth is a lack of track facilities.
On an island with the immense population of Oahu, there ought to be more than four ovals (Kaiser, Punahou, Iolani and UH).
Track and field should be the natural underpinning for every interscholastic sports program here and the rest of the nation.