Many of you may have seen this already, but I thought it was fun, so I'm sharing it. Let's hope Lagat takes his son's advice to heart at the World Championships this week and next...
When Bernard Lagat stepped to the start line for a much-anticipated race against Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele over 3000 meters in Paris on July 18, there were undoubtedly more than a few people in the Stade de France pulling for the affable American.
Lagat's most devoted fans, his wife Gladys and 3-year-old son Miika, were back in Germany watching the race on television.
As Bekele began to pull away, turning that anticipated duel into a personal time trial (watch video), Miika did not like what he was seeing out of his dad.
"I guess somewhere in the race my wife said, ‘Oh, it looks like daddy will not win today,' and Miika freaked out," Lagat said in a recent interview. "He yelled at the TV, yelled at Bekele, and yelled at me. Then when he saw that Bekele won and I did not, Gladys said Miika cried, ‘No! Only daddy is number one!' When Gladys told him that I was number two that day, he cried and cried.
"After a couple minutes, the sadness disappeared and anger set in. He demanded that Gladys call me, and ask why I did not win. When I spoke to him on the phone, it took 20 minutes for me to explain it to him. I almost teared up explaining to him why I lost. Then he finally said, ‘Daddy, next time you are number one! Only you! OK? Is that a deal?"
http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=105551&SPID=13055&&DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=204773047
