Well, it pretty much says it all in the title. Hicham El Guerrouj ran 3:30.00 or better an astonishing 32 times! For comparison, in 2010, a mere two people just barely skated under 3:30. In fact, since El Guerrouj won gold in 2004, only six men have broken 3:30, with none breaking 3:30 in 2007 and 2008!
The man was simply unbelievable!
you mean the king of the metric mile?
wdfsd wrote:
you mean the king of the metric mile?
No, king of the mile as well. A world record confirms this in the mile
no? wrote:
wdfsd wrote:you mean the king of the metric mile?
No, king of the mile as well. A world record confirms this in the mile
well his 1500m equiv was faster than his mile equiv and ran A LOT more world class 1500m's than miles(due to less mile runs overall) so he his more dominant at 1500m.
"Metric Mile" is a dumb term and I cringe when people say it.
There is no such thing as a "Metric Mile". The 1500 is 1500 meters.
"unbelievable" sums it up for me.
4:43 was/is pretty incredible, although it's a shame about Noah Ngeny's eclipsed career.
A metric mile would these days be 1600 meters. HS kids are taught to believe they are running a mile, except in rounded off meters.
3:26.00 is better than 3:43.13 but not by as much as you might be suggesting. Maybe its equivalent to a 3:42.00, but I wouldn't go any lower than that.
The King of the Mile wrote:
Well, it pretty much says it all in the title. Hicham El Guerrouj ran 3:30.00 or better an astonishing 32 times! For comparison, in 2010, a mere two people just barely skated under 3:30. In fact, since El Guerrouj won gold in 2004, only six men have broken 3:30, with none breaking 3:30 in 2007 and 2008!
The man was simply unbelievable!
As great as he was, the fact that he was able to run so many sub 3:30's and in quick succession (with superhuman rates of recovery), shows that the period 95-04 was a special one for endurance performances. How many times has 3:30 been broken in the last 5 seasons by the rest of the world put together? About 6!
He was helped by the time in which he was running. By 2006, when I think I'm right in saying a new EPO test was introduced, the super fast times dried up.
...the super fast times dried up... and El G was gone!
He did it 7 times in 2002 alone.
el guerrouj is spanish for "the garage"
Are we realistic? wrote:
The King of the Mile wrote:Well, it pretty much says it all in the title. Hicham El Guerrouj ran 3:30.00 or better an astonishing 32 times! For comparison, in 2010, a mere two people just barely skated under 3:30. In fact, since El Guerrouj won gold in 2004, only six men have broken 3:30, with none breaking 3:30 in 2007 and 2008!
The man was simply unbelievable!
As great as he was, the fact that he was able to run so many sub 3:30's and in quick succession (with superhuman rates of recovery), shows that the period 95-04 was a special one for endurance performances. How many times has 3:30 been broken in the last 5 seasons by the rest of the world put together? About 6!
He was helped by the time in which he was running. By 2006, when I think I'm right in saying a new EPO test was introduced, the super fast times dried up.
Idiot. No, when the 1500/ mile lost its undisputed king is when the fast times dried up. The second, fourth, fifth and sixth fastest runners set their best times while hanging on to the back of Hicham el Guerrouj. Now nobody has the guts to run 1:50-1:52 and continue to press on. You can speculate all you'd like about El Guerrouj's legitimacy, but everyone knows that El G was a once in a generation athlete.
So everyone running today is clean? Good to know.
even the doped up ramzi never ran anything close to el g's better times.
Kenny F. Powers wrote:
So everyone running today is clean? Good to know.
No, but at least there IS a test for EPO now, as there wasn't any in the late 1990s. And what they had after was not very reliable. The test is now more sensitive, there are more federations testing out of season, and the Ramzi incident shows that they can keep things on ice and cath you out at a later stage. These were all post 2004.
Look at what happened to the majority of Moroccan track stars from that era. Where are their great middle and long distance runners now?
It wasn't just him. There were lots of out of this world performances at the time. He probably would have been the best in his era without the EPO, but people who marvel at 32 sub 3:30s plus 3:43, 4:44, 7:23 etc are being a little naive.
jjjjjjjj wrote:
even the doped up ramzi never ran anything close to el g's better times.
Exactly! Ramzi did run a ridiculous 3:29 with very uneven laps (think the first was 53), which suggests at least 3:28 flat, but that was a one off peak for the year performance.
EL G seemed to run them back to back throughout the summer.
Before the mid 90's hardly anyone had broken 3:30 or 13:00 specializing in one or other of these events. Then within the space of a few years we have several able to do both feats with ease and seemingly on a regular basis. Something not right there.
GUH wrote:
You can speculate all you'd like about El Guerrouj's legitimacy, but everyone knows that El G was a once in a generation athlete.
Or twice in a generation.
El G's 8 straight years of dominance and records were preceded by Morceli's 7 straight years of dominance and records.
3:27, 3:44
They raced each other in 3 Championship finals.
Are we realistic? wrote:
Kenny F. Powers wrote:So everyone running today is clean? Good to know.
No, but at least there IS a test for EPO now, as there wasn't any in the late 1990s. And what they had after was not very reliable. The test is now more sensitive, there are more federations testing out of season, and the Ramzi incident shows that they can keep things on ice and cath you out at a later stage. These were all post 2004.
Look at what happened to the majority of Moroccan track stars from that era. Where are their great middle and long distance runners now?
It wasn't just him. There were lots of out of this world performances at the time. He probably would have been the best in his era without the EPO, but people who marvel at 32 sub 3:30s plus 3:43, 4:44, 7:23 etc are being a little naive.
The fact that he was able to do it so many times rather shows that he was not a doping cheater. Epo/blood doping cheaters typically follow a different pattern: either they come from nowhere and run super fast in the championships or at least run a lot faster than they have done previously that year. Look at Ramzi or Sureya Ayhan (sp?).