Men's Marathon World Rankings: Geoffrey Kirui is #1, Eliud Kipchoge #2... Galen Rupp #6

About time I've been waiting for this as I'm unemployed due to minimum wage laws I spend all day on letsrun.

Come on this is just ridiculous. Who are you taking lining up in a marathon right now - Kipchoge, period. Any major course, he'd win.

Kipsang and Rupp should be 3 and 4. They both got a 1st and a 2nd at their two majors. Cherono was great but he didn't run any majors. If you're going to penalize Kipchoge for only running one major, then Cherono should be penalized for running zero.

You should also add a top ten half marathon list since they got rid of the 10k rankings.

Eliud Kipchoge should be #1.

It’s not a perfect analogy, but let’s say Under Armour came up with a device to block the wind from blowing on a golf course and had Jordan Spieth skip the Masters to try to shoot a 55. If he did it, but some other guy won two majors on the year, and Spieth only one, the other guy would be ranked #1 in the world.

It's not just imperfect, it's terrible. Golf is purely a skill game, so there's no way to compare the hypothetical performances here. Breaking2 was still one man against the clock in an incredible feat of endurance. There is nobody in the world who could do what Kipchoge did in 2017. If you're going to call Kipchoge the best marathoner in the world and rank him #2, you might be showing your Nike bias again.

snow blow wrote:

Kipsang and Rupp should be 3 and 4. They both got a 1st and a 2nd at their two majors. Cherono was great but he didn't run any majors. If you're going to penalize Kipchoge for only running one major, then Cherono should be penalized for running zero.

Kipchoge was mostly penalized for running only one truly recognized marathon following legit rules. Breaking2 was a closed exhibition that didn't follow the rules. It was a great spectacle and if events like that become more common then maybe our rankings would change.

We give a lot of precedence to Marathon Majors but it is a self-selecting marketing group and Dubai is a very good marathon so is Amsterdam, Fukuoka etc. Tokyo when it first joined WMM was pretty weak. Just because you win a "major" doesn't mean we're going to ignore other remarkable performances. Also some guys may not be allowed into a major race for whatever reason so if we only favored majors then newcomers to the marathon would be penalized.

If Kipchoge had gone out and won another big city marathon instead of Breaking2 we'd put him #2 for sure. If his only race had been Olympics he might have been #1 and we came close to putting him #1 with Berlin but opted for Kirui.

If Federer blasts everyone at Wimbledon but someone else wins the French and Australian, the French and Australian guy is likely going to be #1.

Kipchoge not ranked #1?! You guys are high on all the wrong drugs.

Weldon, you and Robert have been around long enough to know this is a farce. I hardly think either of you even believe this.

moist wrote:

It's not just imperfect, it's terrible. Golf is purely a skill game, so there's no way to compare the hypothetical performances here. Breaking2 was still one man against the clock in an incredible feat of endurance. There is nobody in the world who could do what Kipchoge did in 2017. If you're going to call Kipchoge the best marathoner in the world and rank him #2, you might be showing your Nike bias again.

Our rankings aren't supposed to reflect who is the current best in the world, they are supposed to reflect who had the best season. For example if I lined up Asbel Kiprop and Matt Centowitz in a race in 2016, I'm picking Kiprop to win every single time. The betting odds would favor him to win every single time. Yet Centro was world ranked #1 over Kiprop in 2016.

If Adola had held on and won Berlin over Kipchoge he wouldn't have been ranked #1 over Kirui. Kirui won 2 competitive majors this year and Adola would have had one.

Geoffrey Kirui is a Nike athlete.

I was skeptical of Breaking2 beforehand but it was a marvelous event. Props to Nike for pulling it off.

Brojos trolling themselves? wrote:

Weldon, you and Robert have been around long enough to know this is a farce. I hardly think either of you even believe this.

Athletics Weekly has the same top 3 we do so we're not totally nuts!

Marathon

1 Geoffrey Kirui (KEN)

2 Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)

3 Tamirat Tola (ETH)

wejo wrote:

Our rankings aren't supposed to reflect who is the current best in the world, they are supposed to reflect who had the best season. For example if I lined up Asbel Kiprop and Matt Centowitz in a race in 2016, I'm picking Kiprop to win every single time. The betting odds would favor him to win every single time. Yet Centro was world ranked #1 over Kiprop in 2016.

That was a dumb mistake and so was this.

Kipchoge was #1 this year - the only reason you'd say otherwise is for click-bait.

I admit this makes you guys look a little more serious, but this is what happens when people think too much or look at numbers too much, they lose sight of reality. I’d say the rankings are fair, but clearly wrong. When i see world rankings I’m thinking it means who is the best in the world and Kipchoge IS the best in the world so this whole thing looks silly.

wejo wrote:

Brojos trolling themselves? wrote:

Weldon, you and Robert have been around long enough to know this is a farce. I hardly think either of you even believe this.

Athletics Weekly has the same top 3 we do so we're not totally nuts!

Marathon

1 Geoffrey Kirui (KEN)

2 Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)

3 Tamirat Tola (ETH)

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/merit-rankings-2017-international-men-72284

wejo wrote:

Our rankings aren't supposed to reflect who is the current best in the world, they are supposed to reflect who had the best season. For example if I lined up Asbel Kiprop and Matt Centowitz in a race in 2016, I'm picking Kiprop to win every single time. The betting odds would favor him to win every single time. Yet Centro was world ranked #1 over Kiprop in 2016.

Nah, I think what you're doing is stirring up debate to drive activity on the site. It's good business, after all.

Berlin was head and shoulders better than either of Kirui's wins. Breaking2 was so impressive that even if you rank it behind Kirui's WMM wins, it can only be just behind. That kind of weighting favors Kipchoge. That's not an argument based on "well so-and-so wins head-to-head every time." That's purely performance driven.

moist wrote:

wejo wrote:

Our rankings aren't supposed to reflect who is the current best in the world, they are supposed to reflect who had the best season. For example if I lined up Asbel Kiprop and Matt Centowitz in a race in 2016, I'm picking Kiprop to win every single time. The betting odds would favor him to win every single time. Yet Centro was world ranked #1 over Kiprop in 2016.

Nah, I think what you're doing is stirring up debate to drive activity on the site. It's good business, after all.

Berlin was head and shoulders better than either of Kirui's wins. Breaking2 was so impressive that even if you rank it behind Kirui's WMM wins, it can only be just behind. That kind of weighting favors Kipchoge. That's not an argument based on "well so-and-so wins head-to-head every time." That's purely performance driven.

it was NOT a marathon, but a great controlled run

Look, with all due respect to LRC, I'm sorry but your rankings carry about the same weight as Todd's Road Stumblers' or some list I might jot down. The gold standard in yearly rankings, and the only rankings that matter, especially in the US, is Track & Field News. They have Kipchoge first, and they are right. The rest of the list is pretty close to what LRC or anyone else might come up with: 1)Kipchoge 2)Kirui 3) Tola 4)Kipsang 5)Wanjiru 6)Rupp. Personally, I would like to rank Rupp a little higher, but T&FN (and LRC) are probably right.

Brojos trolling themselves? wrote:

Weldon, you and Robert have been around long enough to know this is a farce. I hardly think either of you even believe this.

The Twins of Bad Grammar have revealed themselves to be the true origin trolls of LRC.

Gotta get them clicks, bros!

Clickbait and controversy drive traffic. ??????????

Breaking2 was impressive but it was still a failure.