Salazar: Mo Farah's double gold at London 2012 was the greatest distance running achievement in history

Agreed. Mo would not have beat Bekele in his prime. Or Geb. Or Tergat. The last 16 years have been the most competitive ever and he was lucky Bekele was out.

Not to take away such a fine performance. But AlSal yelling at the security guard to let him on the track because "I'm his coach" to steal the limelight from the heartwarming moment with his wife and children just killed it for me. I love Mo, glad he won at home but the ego of AlSal at the Olympics showed me what poor taste he has.

I always considered Emil Zatopek's distance triple to be the best performance. If Farah pulled an olympic distance triple gold, then I'd give him props for the best performance ever, no doubt.

Alberto Salazar's comments are the most outrageous in distance running history.

Almost makes me think Salazar's athletes are clean. He was around in '08. He knows what Bekele did. If he doesn't consider Bekele's running legitimate because he feels Bekele doped, that might explain why he ranks Farah's achievement higher: Farah did it clean. (As far as he knows. And disregarding thyroid meds...)

Farah did not beat the best in the world. He did not beat Jeilan to win his Olympic gold. Therefore it was not a perfect achievement.

Alberto has always done and said things which manifested a tremendous amount of vanity. When Alberto opens his mouth, expect comments which will make him look good, and as he praises his god, as he praises Mo Farah, it is nothing but an exercise in narcissism.

Alberto touts Farah's London double as being the greatest in history because he feels it reflects well upon himself. The truth is that Farah's London double was symptomatic of a drop in quality in distance track racing. ElG or Lagat in their primes would have beaten Farah in the 5000m, and Kenenisa in his prime would have toyed with Farah in the 10,000m.

well

he did beat a 10k field who were capable of running 26'30 for top africans, but combo of injury ( kiprop ), lack of team tactics & what one coud almost describe as a palpable "paralysis thru fear" stopped them running a true run race

it's not mo's fault the opposition "collapsed"

in the 5k he beat a "fresh" ( no 10k in his legs ) ethiopian who had recently run 12'46 with a 54 finish ( propbaly worth ~ 12'40 - 12'42.5 at even pace for whole race ) who presumably was better in london

the double was a superb achievement & probably best to leave it at that

ventolin^3 wrote:

well

he did beat a 10k field who were capable of running 26'30 for top africans, but combo of injury ( kiprop ), lack of team tactics & what one coud almost describe as a palpable "paralysis thru fear" stopped them running a true run race

it's not mo's fault the opposition "collapsed"

in the 5k he beat a "fresh" ( no 10k in his legs ) ethiopian who had recently run 12'46 with a 54 finish ( propbaly worth ~ 12'40 - 12'42.5 at even pace for whole race ) who presumably was better in london

the double was a superb achievement & probably best to leave it at that

Who are you, and how did you sign in with Ventolin's name?

Heats were dropped in the 10k in 2004. This makes the doubles of Bekele and Farah very different from the doubles of Viren and Yifter who had to run 10 k heats, then 10k final, then 5 k qualifying rounds, then 5 k final. After running the 10k heats and final in Atlanta, Geb's legs and feet were so badly trashed that he could not line up for the 5K heats. That extra 10k of running on the track really does take it out of even the best athletes.

My gut feeling is that these days, the vast mass of exceptionally gifted Kenyan and to a lesser extent, Ethiopian runners, whereas they used to run track - now concentrate on running where the money is - road races and primarily - the marathon.

Every marathon race I see the results of nowadays, even relatively minor ones, seem to have around seven Kenyans in the first ten finishers.

Farah's 5,000 olympic winning time was the slowest olympic winning time ,relative to existing WR, in Olympic history--13:41 /12:37 = 1:04. The next closest is Mexico at altitude 14:05/13:16= 49sec.

Farah's 10,000 was second slowest olympic time ,relative to existing WR, in Olympic history --- 27:30/ 26:17= 1:13, the slowest being Mexico 29:27/37:39 =1:48.

One could point to numerous Olympic 5,000 & 10,000 that were far superior to London's . For example Munich 10,000 Viren beats stellar field in WR 27:38.

Montreal 5,000 Viren defeats two athletes who earlier in 76 season had come close to WR.

the 5/10k has lost a lot of top runners who went straight to the marathon. marathon a lot stronger the 5/10k is not as strong.

You have to go back 30 years to find a time that wasn't more competitive.

The Master Troll wrote:

Simple deductive reasoning will resolve this. Farah's 10k win was almost identical to Bekele's win in 2008. Both ran with the pack and then kicked with a lap to go, and both ran 53.4 for the final lap. But NO SANE MAN would try to argue that Farah's 5k win this summer tops Bekele's 5k win in 2008. The two aren't even in the same ballpark. Not trying to take anything away from Farah, just making sure no one takes anything away from Bekele, or anyone else for that matter.

One factor you don't note in the difficulty of Mo's accomplishment, is that this Olympics was in his home country with all the possible distractions of family and home town fans etc.

He lost a lot of sleep after the 10k because of that...

And all you can do is win on the day, everyone ran the same race, same temp, same conditions. He ran the strategy to win...which Bekele would have done if he could have.

And those that natter about a "healthy Bekele" this and a "healthy Bekele" that...

Bekele makes a lot of money and it was his and his coaches responsibility to have him healthy and ready on that day...

coach d wrote:

I thought it was well established that this was an "off" year for the East Africans. Renato said as much on LRC before the Olympics, and the Kenyans have said plenty afterward.

You could say the same thing about the 1500 with Kiprop obviously not at 100%.

The excuses are for losers...

Salazar had his guys ready on the day.

End of story, everyone knows that Olympic years are special, and tougher, and more stressful, and take more of everything... If the others were not ready or "off," well that is just losers whining.

coach d wrote:

I thought it was well established that this was an "off" year for the East Africans. Renato said as much on LRC before the Olympics, and the Kenyans have said plenty afterward.

You could say the same thing about the 1500 with Kiprop obviously not at 100%.

PS, the USA had 40 off years.

How did that excuse work out for you for 40 years?

The Animal Within wrote:

Agreed. Mo would not have beat Bekele in his prime. Or Geb. Or Tergat. The last 16 years have been the most competitive ever and he was lucky Bekele was out.

Not to take away such a fine performance. But AlSal yelling at the security guard to let him on the track because "I'm his coach" to steal the limelight from the heartwarming moment with his wife and children just killed it for me. I love Mo, glad he won at home but the ego of AlSal at the Olympics showed me what poor taste he has.

Get familiar with the idea that "perception is projection," you projected your own cynicism onto that situation.

Salazar had not one, but two athletes just accomplish an incredible feat.

Salazar wanted to celebrate with his athletes, got caught up in the moment. The energy with which he said "because I'm the coach" was one of joy, not ego or anger. Again, you're projecting your own immature, negative shite on a good man.

Salazar is now such a religious good two shoes character, that...who's set for life economically, that he really doesn't need to seek out attention. What he does is try to promote the sport, and celebrate his athletes success.

You, like most fans, don't understand what it might be like for after a 12 years quest (in the case of Rupp) and 700 days of coaching Mo 2-3-4 sessions a day - between runs and phys therapy etc...that a guy could get caught up in the moment.

What Salazar wanted, was a chance to hug his guys and have a picture taken with his team. In most Olympics support people like coaches, or family are not allowed on the track. UK Athletics, and LOCOG, and the UK Lottery etc., made a big long term goal of making this Olympics one that would "re-ignite" Olympic sport and athletic in the UK community. So...they kinda shilled to letting Farah's daughter and then wife down on the track...and those people are FAMILY to Salazar now...along with Rupp for whom Salazar is like a father...again what he wanted was a chance to be with his peeps to celebrate...

Now imagine it the other way around...you are the guy sitting there that close to the track, when your two guys go 1-2 in last event of the evening...and they can't quite get to you...wanna bet you wouldn't be straining at the bit to try and get to them? Additionally, most of Salazar's life he's been able to get on the track...so it was a natural impulse.

In the end, when things quieted down a bit, Salazar was admitted to the track to see his guys and get their team picture...as you can see in the British press.

I highly recommend that you understand that Salazar didn't ruin anything for you -- YOU ruined it for you. Your bias, your childhood conditioning conditioning you to be so negative and cynical. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder...so was that bitterness you felt...between your two earlobes...little man.

All I saw was a bunch of happy people.

Perhaps you should not let the cynicism and aholism of LRC influence you so much.

Just saying.

OR another way...why in the world would you be so easily influenced and co-dependent to some strangers half a world away or whatever...to influence your enjoyment of the celebration of a sport you purport to like.

I bet, if it had been Canova yelling with an Italian accident "because I-am the coacha," you would have adored it and thought it heart warming and had tears in your eyes...

Pity you!

am i missing something or didn't Farah defeat Bekele in this race? sounds like the tables are turned and Bekele could not defeat Farah in Farah's prime.

wqqqqqqqq wrote:

Almost makes me think Salazar's athletes are clean. He was around in '08. He knows what Bekele did. If he doesn't consider Bekele's running legitimate because he feels Bekele doped, that might explain why he ranks Farah's achievement higher: Farah did it clean. (As far as he knows. And disregarding thyroid meds...)

You can take it to the bank that Salazar's program is clean.

You can also note that I've been on this board for the better part of 6 years and that I have shared numerous things about Salazar and Rupp...that were all eventually proven in the public record.

Salazar's program is clean.

I know it is hard for haters to accept, but it is that simple.

Everything that there is to know is in the public record.

Yes, you can disregard the thyroid bs.