SCRUNNERS.COM

The 3200m is going to be fast. 16 guys under 9:03 including Fernnandez,Puskedra, and Lowe. Lovelace will be one of the favorites in the slow section (if you can call it that). I'm surprised that they allowed Solomon Haile to race. He entered the US from Etheopia last year as a twenty year named Solomon Semunguse at a Virginia high school. When he discovered he needed to be younger to compete he moved to MD and became Solomon Haile (a 17 year old). I don't have a problem with foriegn runners. I raced against Jama Bile, Ibrahim Aden, and Martin Keino in high school (all footlocker finalists) who all used real documentation to verify their ages. I became friends with Jama, son of former world record holder Abdi Bile. They were all good guys. It seems like some of these new guys are looking for a college scholarship under false pretense (ever heard of John Riek, his age has gone from 20 to 30 to 19).

Proof?

Here's a picture of him as 20 year old Solomon Semunguse of McLean, VA "abroad in hopes of obtaining a manager".
www.runwashington.com/news/dec07jaw10krpt.html

Here's a video of him as 17 year old Solomon Haile of MD
www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1612745676&channel=187691702

Event 13 Boys 2 Mile Run
================================================================
Section 1 at 6:50pm; Section 2 at 8:00pm
National: $ 8:36.3h 5/6/1979 Jeff Nelson, Burbank, CA
Meet: M 8:41.55 6/15/2007 Matt Centrowitz, Broadneck,
Freshman: F 9:04.4h 1973 Eric Hulst, Laguna Beach, C
Sophomore: O 8:50.6h 1974 Eric Hulst, Laguna Beach, C
Junior: J 8:41.10 2000 Dathan Ritzenhein (m), Rock
Senior: S 8:36.3h 5/6/1979 Jeff Nelson, Burbank, CA
Freshm: 9:01.68 2005 Sintayehu Taye (m), Portlan
Name Year School Finals
================================================================
Section 1
1 Haile, Solomon 09 Silver Spring, MD 9:07.66 (JUNIOR???)
2 Abdalla, Mohamed 08 San Jose, CA 9:08.61
3 Lovelace, Luke 08 Chapin, SC 9:18.61
4 Krause, Elliot 08 Appleton, WI 9:19.00
5 Springer, Andrew 09 Westerly, RI 9:21.13
6 Bodary, Chris 08 Downingtown, PA 9:23.45
7 O'Donnell, MacLean 08 Oak Ridge, TN 9:25.15
8 Udland, Tyler 10 Short Hills, NJ 9:25.80
9 Lachowitzer, Kevin 08 Perham, MN 9:26.62
10 Bosshard, Joe 08 Crested Butte, CO 9:36.33
11 Hernandez, Francis 10 Windham, NH 9:41.53
-- DelBene, Colby 08 Patterson, NY DNF
-- Beabout, Ryan 08 Wheeling, WV DNS
Section 2
1 Fernandez, German 08 Riverbank, CA 8:34.40S
2 Puskedra, Luke 08 Ogden, UT 8:47.06O
3 Lowe, Colby 08 Southlake, TX 8:47.07O
4 Finnerty, Robert 08 Burnsville, MN 8:50.96F
5 Williams, Kevin 08 Lakewood, CO 8:51.30F
6 Darling, Maverick 08 Ovid, MI 8:57.80F
7 Aprill, Bobby 08 Dexter, MI 8:59.50F
8 Unterreiner, Miles 08 Gig Harbor, WA 9:02.48F
9 Kaulbach, Max 08 Philadelphia, PA 9:06.44
10 Keveren, Sean 08 Brentwood, TN 9:06.59
11 Medrano, Francisco 08 Lafayette, IN 9:06.75
12 Hill, Ryan 08 Hickory, NC 9:07.36
13 Smith, Douglas 09 Succasunna, NJ 9:11.48
14 Bazell, Graham 09 Columbia, MD 9:13.06
15 Nicolls, Bobby 09 Parker, CO 9:23.42
-- Sheinbaum, Julian 08 Scarsdale, NY DNS

Here is a little more info on Solomon Haile. He raced in Austria on 9-16-07 with a DOB of 87, He raced in Italy two weeks later (couldn't find an age), two months later he starts racing US road races for prize money.

10-13-07 Hartford Half Marathon he is 20
10-21-07 8k Fairfax Va he is twenty
11-11-07 Outer Banks Half-marathon he is twenty
12-09-07 Jingle all the way he is twenty
1-01-08 10K Leesburg VA he is twenty

These are only the race results that listed the age that he put on his entry form. He raced and won plenty of others (some gave prize money). Maybe he forgot for six months that he really was a 17 yearold junior with a different last name, but taking the prize money is illegal (unless it was taken on behalf of his school that he didn't belong to). Here are the links, some have pictures, you tell me it's a different guy.

www.pentek-timing.at/results/show_results_db.php?veranstnr=10493&racenr=4

www.caiaprica.com/4luglio.html
www.coolrunning.com/results/07/ct/Oct13_14thAn_set7.shtml

www.runwashington.com/news/oct07starkidsrpt.html
www.bigfootrunning.com/results/race/581/733

www.athlinks.com/results/40897/59597/33730945/Jingle-All-The-Way-10K-2007.aspx
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/09/AR2007120901571.html
www.runwashington.com/news/jan08rotary10krpt.html

Is that proof?

Some of the links aren't working. This link has the previous links.
www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2537756

Looks pretty damning.
Wonder if his high school association is aware of this by now.
I could see him still being eligible to be enrolled in school, but not eligible for athletics.

In South Carolina, if I recall correctly, if you turn 19 after July 1, you are no longer eligible for interscholastic sports in the SCHSL. Technically, you could compete in Foot Locker, NON, and other invitational meets as an unattached runner I suppose as long as you are a high school student.
Not sure of all the rules and regulations on those.

Actually he would have been inelilgle for Footlocker and NIN,NON. At Footlocker you cannot turn 19 before sept 19 (two weeks before the regionals). At NON and NIN you have to have neen born after Sept 1, 1988. There is a 75% that he has already turned 21 with his entry in the Austria race as a twenty year old last September. I just wonder who the Immigration dept. thinks it let into the country and for what reason. He either entered our country; as well as, Austria and Italy with false documents under false pretense or he enrolled at Sherman High with false documents. Does it not scare anyone else after 9/11 that some 20-21 yearold world traveler possibly from Ethiopia (some African countries harbor terrorists, although Ethiopia is not generally considered as one of them) could get into the country with false documents and enroll in a high school. I'm not suggesting that he is a terrorist, just that he is at Sherman high school and on TV and in all the newspapers on a national level and does one immigration official know who he is, how he got here, why he is here or how old he is. How hard would it be for some terrorist to do the same thing without the national publicity. It just another example of someone dropping the ball that is supposed to be protecting our borders.

Here is something else odd. On 1-20-08, a 30 year old Ethopian named Solomon Haile won a 3000m in the VA/DC area in 9:01 (4:50/mile). It could be an age misprint, but 17-21 Haile has PR's of 24:33 8K (4:55/mile) and 1:07:17 half marathon (5:05/mile). It also could be his brother who is an avid runner that works for the Colorado Department of Transportation who is 30 (maybe in town to have a visit). The significence is that alot of African people have multiple last names. It is possible that 3,4,5, brothers all have Solomon and Haile in their name. Maybe a new birth certificate was sent to the US.

Maybe he just has a doppleganger.

Maybe he works for "21 jump street", I don't know, but it's very suspicious.

A lot, if not all, of the Kenyans have several last names. And plenty of them adopt Anglicized first names, too.
I frequently get e-mails from Kenyan guys who want to run for me and they have several "last" names. It may be like Hispanics wyo take both their maternal and paternal family names.