David Krummenacker, America's latest hope in the mile, never realized how fast he could be until he started running backwards.

Buoyed by a new coach from Brazil, new training partners from Burundi and Kenya and new training bases in Arizona and Germany, Krummenacker, 27, has capitalized on new training methods that include plyometric drills like backward sprints. The drills, which also feature "kangaroo squats"--jumping like a kangaroo--empowered Krummenacker with the finishing kick to win two IAAF Grand Prix 800-meter races in Europe in July and become the fastest American ever in the 800 and 1,500 meters (metric mile) combined.

With his success, Krummenacker has replaced Alan Webb, last year's high school sensation, as the talk of the mile, track's marquee event. Webb, 19, who ran 3 minutes 53.43 seconds in 2001, left the University of Michigan in June after a spotty freshman year to return home to Reston, Virginia, to turn pro and train with his high school coach. He did not compete in the USA nationals in Palo Alto, California in June.

When Krummenacker competed at Palo Alto, he showed signs of his newfound strength, winning his second straight national 800 title with a blistering 25.5-second final 200. After that, Krummenacker captured the Paris 800 on July 5 and Rome 800 on July 12. An American man had not won a major 800 in Europe in more than a decade.

Then, switching to the 1,500 at Stockholm's DN Galan meet on July 16, Krummenacker took a close second to the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, Kenya's Bernard Lagat, whom he happens to be rooming with this summer in Tubinden, Germany. Lagat ran 3:31.38. Krummenacker's time, 3:31.93, was the fastest by an American in five years and the equivalent of a 3:49 mile. The 1,500 is about 100 meters short of a mile. After the race, Lagat told Krummenacker, "I looked over my shoulder with 100 to go, saw you coming and got scared."

Krummenacker, who did not make last year's world championship 800 final in Edmonton, Canada, has suddenly thrown a scare into the world's middle-distance runners. Among those he defeated at Stockholm were Laban Rotich of Kenya, a 3:47 miler, and William Chirchir, the 2001 Kenyan 1,500 titlist. Three days after Stockholm, Krummenacker continued his European assault in Monaco. At the Herculis meet, he returned to the 800 and ran a close second to the world recordholder, Wilson Kipketer of Denmark. Krummenacker recorded a personal best of 1:43.95 behind Kipketer's 1:43.76. He outran South Africa'sHezekiel Sepang, the 1999 world championship silver medalist. Kipketer's world record is 1:41.11.

"The plyometric drills help my body maintain strength in the latter stages of a race,' said Krummenacker by phone from Tubinden, where he was training for his next European races beginning with an 800 in Zurich on August 16. "In the past I would fatigue in the last 200. Now I feel, 'let's go guys, let's see who has it.?" Until late last year when he moved to Tucson and hooked up with Patrick Nduwimana of Burundi, the world's fourth-ranked 800 runner, Krummenacker was a journeyman runner headed for obscurity. A 1998 Georgia Tech graduate who'd won two NCAA 800s, Krummenacker was stuck in a rut training by himself in Atlanta. "I was doing every run alone," said Krummenacker, "I had no one to push me."

In Tucson, he began working under Luiz DeOliveira, a Brazilian living in Orlando, Florida, who coached Nduwimana via fax and email. In addition to plyometric drills, Krummenacker started doing less volume with more speed. Instead of running a set of ten 400s in 60 seconds with a short rest in between, he ran five 400s in 54 to 55 seconds. "David has gained both speed and strength," said Nduwimana, 24, who was graduated last spring from the University of Arizona and is currently sidelined with a stress fracture. "I think he can break the American records."

The U.S. records for the 800 and 1,500 are among the longest-standing on the books. Johnny Gray ran 1:42.60 in 1985. Sydney Maree ran 3:29.77 the same year. The U.S. mile record, 3:47.69 by Steve Scott, was set in 1982.

"David has the potential to break 3:30 right now," said DeOliveira by phone from Manaus, Brazil, the capital of the Amazon state, where he is coaching at a training center. "Our program enables him to sustain a certain speed for a long period of time."

DeOliveira's unorthodox menu of exercises first gained acclaim when he coached Joachim Cruz, a Brazilian who'd run for the University of Oregon, to the 1984 Olympic gold medal in the 800. DeOliveira said he employs three stages of plyometric drills, which total 63 different exercises. The first stage is for base distance training, the next for speedwork, the last for the competitive season over the summer. He integrates fast running between the drills, calling his approach "circuit training." With no weakness except lack of experience, Krummenacker, sponsored by Adidas, is the first American man since Jim Ryun in the mid-1960s--and currently the only athlete in the world--to excel at the Olympic medal level in both the 800 and 1,500. Last year no man ranked in the top-10 in the world in the 800 was also world-ranked in the 1,500. "You don't see simultaneous men's 800 and 1,500 success any more. It could be that both events are much deeper than in the past," said Steve Holman, America's leading miler of the 1990s. "For Dave, it's an embarrassment of riches."

Krummenacker called his world-class ascent "magical." After all, his high school coach in Las Cruces, New Mexico, had to convince him to give up basketball for track. He went on to run a 1:51.73 800 and earn a scholarship to Georgia Tech, where he was lured into pickup games with all-American Stephon Marbury, now with the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers.

 

Few runners would risk an injury playing ball but Krummenacker said he likes to try everything, "testing the waters." Quite literally. As a child, he surfed Long Island beaches while visiting his grandmother over the summer. Last year, between the indoor and outdoor track seasons, Krummenacker traveled to Hawaii for a surfing vacation.

"When I'm out on the water," said Krummenacker, "it's the same feeling I have when I'm running. Relax, no worries, like a dream."

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

 

Box: Krummenacker's European Holiday
Meet	Site	Date	Event	Place	Time
Gaz de France	Paris	July 5	800 meters	1st	1:44.83
Golden Gala	Rome	July 12	800 meters	1st	1:45.24
DN Galan	Stockholm	July 16	1,500 meters	2nd	3:31.93
Herculis	Monaco	July 19	800 meters	2nd	1:43.95