calculo wrote:
Peer Mediator wrote:Elliott has always been above Ryun in any list or poll carried out by elite athletes, coaches, journalists, I've ever seen over past 40 yearslike who ?
name specific serious guys
of course.
1987 - IAAF carried out a survey of 1000 members from around the world to list their top 10 in each event.
1500m - 1. Herb Elliott - 1693
2. Seb Coe - 1495
... 5. Jim Ryun - 915
1992 - for his book on Coe, Born to Run, David Miller asked a panel of top milers, athletic journalists, coaches and statisticians to vote for their top 6 milers. P.222 of mentioned book has the lists.
10 had Elliott at no. 1 (including Dave Bedford, Chris Brasher, Ron Clarke, Derek Ibbotson and Harry Wilson), 10 had Coe at no. 1 (including John Walker, Steve Scott, Roberto Quercetani, Stan Greenberg and Runner's World), Ryun wasn't anyone's no. 1. One person (Robert Paviente, Editor of L'Equipe) had him at no. 3, his highest position; but actually behind Coe and Elliott. Of the 22 panel members no one put Ryun ahead of Elliott or Coe.
May 2004, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Bannister's first sub 4, AW asked 22 athletics experts to rank their top 5 leading milers. 'Coe was the only athlete to feature in the top 5 list of everyone...' On a points system of 6 for first, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for 5th, Coe came out on top with 89 points. Elliott was second on 81, El G third on 60, with Ryun in =9th with Cram, on 10 points.
Frank Horwill and Brendan Foster were 2 of 8 to vote Elliott no. 1. Mark Butler (BBC statistician) and David Moorcroft were 2 to vote Coe as top. The highest position anyone put Ryun was 3rd, by Jon Hendershott, a writer for T&FN, who had Coe at #1 and Elliott at #4, and Jim Denison, editor of The Coach, who had Elliott at #2 and Coe at #5.
2015 - World's Greatest in Athletics book published and compiled by 3 of the world's leading Athletic journalists and statisticians, Richard Hymans, Peter Matthews and Jonas Hedman.
For 1500m, El G is ranked #1, Coe #2, Elliott #4 and Ryun #10.
I think there are enough names there who have gone on record as ranking Elliott above Ryun as an all time great miler.