Hendn wrote:
Thank you. I also agree that Coe could not run a world leading 5000m. There’s more to speed needed to perform at that level and over such a long and illustrious career, Coe was unable to put one together, a single 3000 or 5000 like his peers Ovett Cram Aouita. He just could not do it.
You can’t run 17:54 for 4 miles and beat Coghlan (World 5000m champion) and Mike McLeod (Olympic 10000m silver medalist), setting a course record and beating Foster’s (ex World record holder over 3000m) time by 11 secs, without being capable of running a world class time (for the period) on the track got 5000m. That was in October 78, after a track season in which he had almost entirely focused on 800m running; having run 1 or 2 races over 1500/1 mile. The men he beat and the owner of the course record he beat, had all run in the 13:20’s that same season. The race in Ireland was another mile longer than the 5000m.
Coe ran only 1 competitive 5000m on the track his entire career, a rust burner in May 1980 when he basically jogged around for 11.5 laps in windy conditions, before easing away on the last lap.
He ran (and won most) a handful of 3000m, mainly indoor in Feb/ March, as an indicator of how the winter training had gone. In nine did he set out to run a pb or specific time. His pb of 7:54 was run on a 200m wooden track, renowned for being slow and hard on the feet. Nothing about it was conducive to a fast time.
I’ve never claimed that Coe was capable of running as fast as Aouita over 3 or 5k, but to claim his pbs represent the extent of his ability over those distances is ludicrous.