Greatest Season of All Time (800m up since 1980)

gotta be Coe 81 undefeated and 4 world records, 2 of which are still in top 3 runners of all-time.

Rono?

'07 Webb?

I did since 1980, so Rono's amazing year is just before. It'd be very hard to compare across that era with Geb and Komen's far superior times, too.

1981 Coe is tough to beat with 4 world records, 2 of which are sitll great.

I'm thinking Geb's 1998 is incredible, though, with a few unique factors helping out (non-champ year, he ran full indoor campaign. Look at his stats from that year:

Haile Gebresalassie 1998:

1500: Indoors 3:31.76 win in Stuttgart(#2 AT)

2000: Indoors 4:52.86 WR in Birmingham (#2 AT)

3000: 7:25.09 win in Brussels (#4 AT), 7:25.5 win in Monaco, 7:27.42 win in Oslo Indoors: 7:26.15 WR (#2 AT), 7:31.70 win in Stockholm

5000: 12:39.36 WR in Helsinki (#2 AT),

10000: 26:22.75 WR in Hengelo (#3 AT)

In 1995 Moses Kiptanui broke the world record in 3,000 the 5,000 and the steeplchase and won a WC gold in the steeple.

Although geb knocked 11 s off that 5,000 record before the year was over.

Still not a bad year for Kiptanui.

wow, big oversight for me, I'll check it out and probably add that year in with stats,

Bekele had a great 04. Olympic 10k champ, silver in the 5. He set a WR in the 5000 indoor and outdoor and the 10000 outdoor, which he broke the next year. Also short and long course xc champ. But you can make an argument for many of these runners.

1981 Sebastian Coe

Indoor 800m wr, outdoor 800, 1000 wr (both 1.5+ seconds faster than ANYONE had ever ran, and lasted 15+ years each). 2xWR at the mile. Undefeated. Athlete of the year

1985 Steve Cram

WR 1500m, Mile (1 second off old record, stood for 8 years; 2000m, 1:42.88 800m beating Cruz. Not undefeated-lost a couple times at 800m.

1995 Nourredine Morceli

2000wr, 1500wr, world champion@1500, undefeated

(his '93 season of Wannemaker mile, world champion 1500 and 3:44 wr mile wasn't bad either)

1997 Wilson Kipketer

Incredible 2xIndoorWR (1:42.67), tied Coe's WR, then broke it twice by .62 total, World Champ. Athlete of the Year. Undefeated.

1997 Daniel Komen

2X WR at 2miles, wr at 5000m, world champion @5000m, 3:29, 3:46

1998 Haile Gebresalassie

Wr at 2000,3000m indoors, outdoor 5000+10000 wrs, undefeated

1999 Noah Ngeny

2nd to El G in wr mile and world champs, wr at 1000m...thats all really.

1999 Hicham El Guerrouj

WR mile, world champion, 2000m wr, 7:23 3000m, undefeated

2004 Kenenisa Bekele (tough guy to pick a best season)

Gold 10000, silver 5000, wr indoor 5000, outdoor 5000 and 10000 wr, double xc win

2005 Said Saeef Shaheen

world champion

2010 David Rudisha

2xWR by .1 total, ran 1:42.04, 1:41.51, 1:41.09, 1:41.01, 45.5 400m. African Champion, undefeated.

Your Call. (It's sure as hell not Shaheen or Ngeny!)

pretty sure wrote:

Your Call. (It's sure as hell not Shaheen or Ngeny!)

Nice work, you found some stuff I missed in my post.

Have to remember that Shaheen ran 3 of the top 11 steeples of all time in 2005(many of the others are his marks from other) and won against an all time steeple great in Kemboi at the World Champs.

For Ngeny, he ran 2 of the top 3 all time marks in the 1000, the #2 all time mark in the mile, and ran under 3:30 for 1500m meters a staggering 6 times and under a 3:32 3 or 4 other times. Lost only twice, and ran a not-too-shabby 4:50.0 2000 meters race, too.

Neither guy is the best, but I think they are in the class of others considering how well their times stand up.

Just think of 1995 as a whole.

Morceli breaks the WR in the 1500 and the 2000

Kiptanui breaks the WR in the 3000, Steeplechase (1st under 8) and 5000

Gebrselassie breaks the WR in the 10,000 (by almost 9 seconds) and then retakes the 5000 WR (dropping it from 12:55 to 12:44 in one race- I think the best performance ever in my lifetime)

7 distance WR's in one year by three people.

(none of them raced head to head)

And even stranger thing is that Morceli was ranked #1 in the world in 1994 at 5000, Kiptanui and Geb both broke the WR in 1995 but Ismael Kirui won Gold at the 5000 at WC's that year.

A couple of seasons worth mentioning:

Geb 2008 - 2:04:53 in Dubai (no.2 fastest time at the time, trailing only himself in 2007 at Berlin), 2:03:59 world record in Berlin

Khalid Khanouchi 2002 - 2:05:56 win in Chicago, 2:05:38 win in London, breaking his own world record and beating Geb and Tergat.

toro wrote:

Just think of 1995 as a whole.

1995-1999 in general were just absurd.

You had Kipketer winning in '95, '97 and '99 and setting WRs indoors and outdoors.

16 of the top 30 1500m times were ran during this short window (NONE in the past 6 years), including the wr

6 of the top 8 mile times ever (NONE in the past 9 years)

You had Komen shattering the indoor and outdoor 3000m records. 8 of the top 11 times were ran in this era.

6 of the top 8 5000m times ever ran (NONE in the past 5 years), including haile knocking like 10+ seconds off of it at once.

In 1993 the wr at 10000m was held by Ondieki at 26:58. 5 years later the record was 40 seconds lower and now there are dozens of performances faster than it.

For the marathon and half marathon, the past few years have been a golden age. But for 800-5000m on the track, 1995-1999 was every fans dream. Imagine 3 major world records falling in an hour and a half...

Pedro from NC wrote:

A couple of seasons worth mentioning:

Geb 2008 - 2:04:53 in Dubai (no.2 fastest time at the time, trailing only himself in 2007 at Berlin), 2:03:59 world record in Berlin

Khalid Khanouchi 2002 - 2:05:56 win in Chicago, 2:05:38 win in London, breaking his own world record and beating Geb and Tergat.

Geb ran a sub 27 minute 10000m race that year as well.

sub50 at the bell wrote:

gotta be Coe 81 undefeated and 4 world records, 2 of which are still in top 3 runners of all-time.

I concur.

Not only 4 outdoor world records at 3 different distances, including the Mile twice in 9 days, but an indoor 800m world (best) record.

As well as being unbeaten at all distances, it was the manner of his victories, which included beating the world's best 2 lap runners and winning gold in both the Europa and World Cups, when they actually meant something. He was also a whopping 2.6 secs faster than the next best at 800m that year, surely the biggest ever margin in the annual lists at that distance since. His solo 3:31 in Stockholm off a 52.4 first 400 and 1:49.1 800m was also one of the best runs at 1500m for the whole decade, and would surely have been another WR had the pace on the first 2 laps been more economical.

He also showed great range, running a 45.6 relay leg from a virtual standing start when beating the USA in an international match in June; as well as being the UK (AAA) indoor 3000m champion that year.

deanouk wrote:

I concur.

Of course you concur, we all know you can't get off the guys dick.

Coe was so damn good. I give him the gold, Haile's 1998 the silver, and el G's '99 the bronze.

I think there's some kind of cancelling eachother out dynamic with Kipketer and Rudisha, which is unfortunate but understandable. Their seasons are pretty comparable and thus it becomes kind of a package deal to put them in the top half as incredible as they both were in those two seasons. They kept to the 800 limiting their WR opportunities. It doesn't really jump off the page now that two men have run 1:41 multiple times in a season(which was unprecedented), but going undefeated and winning by wide margins in an event as tactically challenging and frequently raced as the 800 is something else.

surprised no-one has mentioned Said Aouita yet - 1987 season looks his best. He broke the 2000 m world record (4:50.81) and only six days later, his own world record for 5000m as he became the first man to go under 13 minutes, finishing in 12:58.39. Also set 2 mile WR and won 5000m at World Champs. I think he was unbeaten that year too.

harry wrag wrote:

surprised no-one has mentioned Said Aouita yet - 1987 season looks his best. He broke the 2000 m world record (4:50.81) and only six days later, his own world record for 5000m as he became the first man to go under 13 minutes, finishing in 12:58.39. Also set 2 mile WR and won 5000m at World Champs. I think he was unbeaten that year too.

I included him in using an admittedly imperfect scoring system and he finished last, but not far from the rest of the field.

The final rankings were:

1. Geb 1998 2. Bekele 2004 3. Coe 1981 4. Komen 1997 T5. El G 1999 & Kipketer 1997 7. Morceli 1995 8. Rudisha 2010 9. Cram 1985 10. Ngeny 1999 11. Kiptanui 1995 12. Shaheen 2005 13. Aouita 1987.

It seemed pretty close to right for me, but I'm sure many disagree with Coe having a lot of support. Thanks for the input, it was a very fun exercise.

For the scoring system and how they were ranked as well as point totals:

.

Coe may have had the best season but El G in 1999 was on another planet. I'll never forget how he won that World Championship 1500 and ran 3:27 from the front the last two laps.

I suppose if I could remember 1981 I would feel the same about Coe but you never forget watching something that you can't believe is happening like I did watching the Seville 1500.