Gudaf Tsegay rues leaving her Garmin in the hotel room
14:00.21 – Yikes!
Ethiopian 5k world record holder Gudaf Tsegay was bitterly disappointed she didn’t break the 14-minute barrier at the Diamond League event on 17th September, that disappointment quickly turned into the most heart-breaking athletics story of the year so far. She was seen shaking her head as she crossed the finish line in Eugene, regretting leaving her Garmin in the hotel room and all the performance-enhancing features that come with it.
A smiling Beatrice Chebet came in second, gave a quick thumbs-up to the crowd and quickly reported that she heard Tsegay quietly rambling,
I just needed to have PacePro up and running. All the decent Pros use it for every race. I’ve been an idiot. I know I’m an alright runner but I need Garmin to make sure I run at an even pace, without it I feel useless.
Chebet was then seen to console Tsegay, pat her on her shoulders and whisper “Strava” into her ear. What followed immediately afterwards amazed everyone as Tsegay broke down in front of bewildered trackside officials who also couldn’t understand why she kept repeating
Oh no! This won’t count. This won’t count. This won’t count.
Similarly, a bemused roving ‘athletics reporter’ from The Telegraph, who hasn’t worn a pair of running shoes for about 20 years, was scratching his head and asking some young guns what “Strava” was and “Where is the cinder? Is this the warmup track?” and “Why is there an extra lane?”.
Moments later, Chebet was seen laughing and celebrating riotously as she pointed at the official results on her iPhone. She had just finished syncing her Suunto 5‘s results up to the cloud and had her victory confirmed on Strava. Despite the obvious elation, she was weirdly contorting her wrist whilst taking a selfie; she knew she’d look good wearing a decently made watch in the victory photo that she was just about to add to her workout. She also muttered, “It’s better than that plastic sh1t, in any case.”
All in all. A good day for Chebet. She immortalised her place in history.
Opinion
This strangely mirrors near identical events just over three years in Monte Carlo when Cheptegei experienced similar Strava issues and Mo Farah recounted his Coros Pace woes from Rio 2016.
Ethiopia, Uganda…come on guys get your act together. Sort the tech. It’s not difficult.
WR Progression: Here
Jeez. I hope I haven’t just offended lots of people.
Joshua Cheptegei | Gutted About his STRAVA GPS Track | 5000m World Record
????WORLD RECORD????
⏱️1⃣4⃣:0⃣0⃣.2⃣1⃣
Gudaf Tsegay makes history in the 5000m!#EugeneDL ????????#DiamondLeague
???? @matthewquine pic.twitter.com/FVFaFA2IQG— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) September 17, 2023
Is this satire or a real story? Very hard to say…