Alan
Webb more famous off campus than on it
Larry Lage (AP)
11 October 2001 – Ann
Arbour, Michigan - He scurried through
the rain to his 9 a.m. physics class,
his dripping yellow rain jacket covering
his 1.76 metre, 63 kilogramme frame.
He slid into the middle of the eighth row, joining about 100 students in a half-filled lecture hall, and put down his backpack and water bottle.
Eighteen-year-old Alan Webb looks like any other student at the University of Michigan. He isn’t, of course. President Bush asked Webb to sit next to him during a T-ball game at the White House this summer. He’s been a featured guest on the “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Good Morning America,” and CNN.
Sports Illustrated, USA TODAY and Time magazine have written stories on Webb, and The New York Times put him on the front page.
Why all the fuss?
In May in Eugene, Oregon, Webb broke Jim Ryun’s 36-year-old U.S. record for a mile by a high school runner. He finished in a stunning 3:53.43 to eclipse Ryun’s mark of 3:55.9 at the Prefontaine Classic against a field that included Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, the world record-holder in the mile and 1,500.
En route to a fifth-place finish, Webb also set a scholastic record of 3:38.26 for 1,500 metres, erasing another Ryun mark.
The Reston, Virginia, native accomplished those feats five months after becoming the first high school miler to go under four minutes in 34 years - when he ran 3:59:86 - at an indoor race in New York City.
Despite his remarkable achievements and the publicity that followed, Webb is just another face in the crowd at Michigan.
“I’m not Michael Jordan,” Webb said between sips of a fruit smoothie at the student union. “In a big class or on campus, nobody notices me. But in smaller classes, when I’ve had to introduce myself, people have said, ‘Are you that guy that broke some record?’ Then it’s a chain reaction, and people are like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve heard about you.’
“All the attention I’ve gotten from a couple good races is nice, but they’re not going to help me get better.” In his quest to improve, his six-day-a-week training routine includes more than 60 miles (95 kilometres) of running. He also finds time to play the guitar and watch movies. Comedies are his favourite.
But running - fast - is clearly his passion.
“I still have a lot of work to do,” Webb said. That attitude, along with obvious talent, is why many believe Webb might be the country’s next big track star. He could be the miler who ignites enthusiasm in the sport again, as did Ryun, now a U.S. congressman from Kansas, and Gerry Lindgren in the mid-1960s.
Marion Jones, the world’s fastest female sprinter, has said it was exciting to watch a “phenom” like Webb. Maurice Greene, the world’s fastest male sprinter, said he wouldn’t want to race Webb at a mile.
Former marathon great Alberto Salazar said Webb could be the “best in the world. He’s the greatest hope we’ve had since Jim Ryun.” And Bob Kennedy, among the leading U.S. distance runners, called Webb’s race “spectacular.” Webb’s collegiate career is off to a good start with the Wolverines, ranked 12th in the coaches’ poll. He won the first two cross-country races he competed in, including the Great America Cross Country, which had a quality field of 264 runners. A Big Ten athlete of the week honour followed.
Michigan coach Ron Warhurst is not surprised by Webb’s success.
“I knew he could do this, he knew he could do this and his high school coach knew he could do it,” Warhurst said. “I think he’ll be among the top two in the Big Ten and among the top 15 or 20 in the nation. But he has other ideas; he wants to do better than that.” Webb’s third race will be the Wolverine Interregional on Sunday at home, on Michigan’s golf course, and Warhurst wouldn’t be surprised if 2,000 people came to watch. “Alan has certainly generated a lot of interest,” the coach said.
Webb is not the only high-profile freshman running for the Wolverines.
His dorm roommate, freshman Nathan Brannen, represented Canada in the 800-metre race at the 2001 World Track and Field championship and ran the mile in 3:59:38 last summer. “We have the fastest room in the country,” Webb said. Michigan’s assistant coach Kevin Sullivan, who finished fifth at the 2000 Olympics in the 1,500, said Webb isn’t treated special among his teammates. “The guys on the team treat him like a freshman,” Sullivan said. “They rib him and play jokes on him, like any other freshman. He’s not on a pedestal.” That’s exactly the way Webb wants it.
“I’m just a normal kid that can run fast,” Webb said.
“I hope people don’t ever see me as intimidating. If people sat down and talked to me, they would see that I don’t think I’m more important than anybody else.”
