Van Niekerk 800m

I doubt it...the energy demands between the two events are so different at the world class level. I bet he could run 1:50.

Al pacino wrote:

Van Niekerk runs 43 for 400m. Can't he run 7 seconds slower and then do another lap like that and break the 800m WR.

Agreed. It would be great to see. He could break the 100 sec. barrier.

Pure Speculation wrote:

I doubt it...the energy demands between the two events are so different at the world class level. I bet he could run 1:50.

I agree, maybe 1:48 at the fastest. The aerobic side of things increases dramatically between the 400 and 800. Try holding your breath for 43 seconds. Not impossibly hard is it? Now try holding your breath for 100 seconds. That gets quite a bit harder now doesn't it? Of course they're not holding their breath but they are raising their heart rate and they need more oxygen and the difference in breathing for the two events is similar to this breath holding experiment. If he put in the right training for a year, he could potentially become a world class 800m runner but IMO he can't break the world record.

Juantorena moved up, there are some others.

It may be possible for him to be competitive with the best.

David Verberg ran 1:50 last weekend and he's a 44-mid 400m runner.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSE3TH5jId0/?taken-by=adiverb&hl=en

We've been over this before, boys. The 800 is TWICE as far as the 400. You can't think of it as just one more lap. Sure, if you are running 24 laps, one more isn't going to change the physiological demands. But DOUBLING your race, especially when the shorter race is almost 100% anaerobic and the longer race is about 50/50, that is a big deal. A 400m guy may not be world class at 800m. Now, since the 800 is much more similar to the 1500 in terms of energy demands, you sometimes have guys who are world class in both of those events. Even that is rare, though.

Don't see why not. He could also break the 1500 and 5000 WRs too if his stamina holds up. He certainly has the speed for it!

Extra saucey wrote:

Don't see why not. He could also break the 1500 and 5000 WRs too if his stamina holds up. He certainly has the speed for it!

Yep and if he can bag the 5000 then the 10,000 is his, also. Since he's so fast, that is. With the 10,000 record it is only a matter of time before he bags the marathon WR. Who can outkick him in the 'thon?!?! Nobody!!!

Van Niekerk is the only sub 44 runner to also run sub 10 for 100m.

So the 400 should be on the upper end of his range.

For him to run a fast 800 would be historic range.

Jayordon wrote:

Pure Speculation wrote:

I doubt it...the energy demands between the two events are so different at the world class level. I bet he could run 1:50.

I agree, maybe 1:48 at the fastest. The aerobic side of things increases dramatically between the 400 and 800. Try holding your breath for 43 seconds. Not impossibly hard is it? Now try holding your breath for 100 seconds. That gets quite a bit harder now doesn't it? Of course they're not holding their breath but they are raising their heart rate and they need more oxygen and the difference in breathing for the two events is similar to this breath holding experiment. If he put in the right training for a year, he could potentially become a world class 800m runner but IMO he can't break the world record.

So Rudisha can hold his breath longer than Van Niekerk can?

id advise people to look at VN training, plenty of aerobic and long over distance reps of 600s at good pace!

look at his build and the way he ran the WR.

For you to say this guy would struggle to break 1:50 just goes to show how insecure you are yourselves at failing to do so!

without specific sessions he could go 1:45 with ease, at least. breaking 1:40 however, tough task but at his age it would be do able.

Personally Id like to see him win a global 200 medal and then at some point also an 800 medal and that would be the GOAT without a doubt

AJ2000 wrote:

id advise people to look at VN training, plenty of aerobic and long over distance reps of 600s at good pace!

look at his build and the way he ran the WR.

For you to say this guy would struggle to break 1:50 just goes to show how insecure you are yourselves at failing to do so!

without specific sessions he could go 1:45 with ease, at least. breaking 1:40 however, tough task but at his age it would be do able.

Personally Id like to see him win a global 200 medal and then at some point also an 800 medal and that would be the GOAT without a doubt

You have no idea what you're talking about.

The faster you run the 400m, the LESS like the 800m it is. A high school kid running 52+ seconds for the 400m has to have some decent aerobic development to maintain that level of effort for nearly a full minute. A guy running 43 seconds is basically running a long sprint.

I know that LR thinks that the faster you run the 400m, the better you should be at the 800m, but really the faster you run in the 400m, the less likely you are to be able to run an "equivalent" time in the 800m because the skills necessary for the events diverge as you get better.

Also…. wrote:

Jayordon wrote:

I agree, maybe 1:48 at the fastest. The aerobic side of things increases dramatically between the 400 and 800. Try holding your breath for 43 seconds. Not impossibly hard is it? Now try holding your breath for 100 seconds. That gets quite a bit harder now doesn't it? Of course they're not holding their breath but they are raising their heart rate and they need more oxygen and the difference in breathing for the two events is similar to this breath holding experiment. If he put in the right training for a year, he could potentially become a world class 800m runner but IMO he can't break the world record.

So Rudisha can hold his breath longer than Van Niekerk can?

For one, Rudisha has much longer legs than Van Niekerk.

long sprint wrote:

The faster you run the 400m, the LESS like the 800m it is. A high school kid running 52+ seconds for the 400m has to have some decent aerobic development to maintain that level of effort for nearly a full minute. A guy running 43 seconds is basically running a long sprint.

Except the same thing is happening at elite levels in the 800m. The energy systems needed to run ~1:40 is more "sprint-like" than it would be for a HS kid running 2 flat. I don't see any reason an elite 400m couldn't in principle make a great 800m runner although WvN may not be the best candidate because, as a previous poster noted, his 100m is fast enough that 400 is likely near the top of his range. I would have loved to see what someone like MJ could have done in his prime at 800m.

I would love to look at his training. All I can find is this (scroll down to #7 talking about reps over 800m and 1000m):

https://spikes.iaaf.org/post/how-van-niekerk-went-sub-44

Do you have any links to his training?

When posters doubt van Niekerk can race 800m much faster than 1:48, are posters assuming van Niekerk would fail to adjust his training to race 800m? It's unfair to place limits on van Niekerk. He is the only athlete to race: 100m sub-10, 200m sub-20 and 400m sub-44. If van Niekerk were willing to sacrifice some of his 100 & 200 speed in order to train like a 800m man, who knows?van Niekerk is too good at 100, 200 & 400 for van Niekerk to engage in such an experiment.

so many people with excellent 400m speed have tried. I guess El Caballo

is the one getting closest. 1:43.50?

VN will never run as fast as DR over 800m

Al pacino wrote:

Van Niekerk runs 43 for 400m. Can't he run 7 seconds slower and then do another lap like that and break the 800 WR?

I mean, going 7 seconds slower that should be very easy for him. I think I can go 2 laps 7 seconds slower per lap than my one lap time. And his 7 seconds are even easier because it's bigger portion of his overall 400m time

Absolutely no way! An athlete can get $50K from meet owners for simply announcing a WR attempt and $200K for setting a WR. No athlete would knowing not attempt a world record if they though they could. Niekerk is a true sprinter, he has sprint efficiency, which does not compute to aerobic efficiency. I suspect he could probably run 1:48 off of his current training and probably 1:45 if he trained for it.