THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:
I mean Bekele is the greatest ever. Cheptegei is really good and getting silver today shows that while beatable on the track he certainly can still race as many were ready to say guys like Kiplimo and Kejelcha had too much speed for him.
You can think Bekele is better, but Cheptegei is great, outstanding or phenomenal and not just really good.
SDSU Aztec wrote:
THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:
I mean Bekele is the greatest ever. Cheptegei is really good and getting silver today shows that while beatable on the track he certainly can still race as many were ready to say guys like Kiplimo and Kejelcha had too much speed for him.
You can think Bekele is better, but Cheptegei is great, outstanding or phenomenal and not just really good.
I think he's really good. His WRs are impressive regardless of shoes/wavelights, etc... But would you still consider him great if he doesn't win more World/Olympic titles the rest of his career? I feel that's a fairly big component to being great
Sledge_Hammer wrote:
Webbster wrote:
Yep, a slow, medium or fast pace all play into Bekele's strengths.
In a 27:40 race like today's, I would bet my house on Mo against Bekele. He closed a 5k in 50 while the fastest last lap Bekele had ever mustered was 53 secs.
Has to be a troll.
Sledge_Hammer wrote:
The real GOAT is Mo Farah, who I'm sure would've won today's race. Sadly, the Olympic was delayed and father time has caught up with him or he could've won triple-double which would be unheard of in history.
So many clowns on LR today!
Wait; you're "El Keniano"?
I don't even think he will go down as the best of his generation. Outside of the 100m women, I think cheptegei benefited the most from the lack of testing during covid. He has come back down to earth this year. He's run some fast time trials but he's never looked like a dominant runner against his competition like hg, kb, or mf did
THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:
Phil Ken Sebben wrote:
I don't want Barega to go to the roads yet :(
Yes, what is that about!? I know there's big money in it, but he should go for a 5K/10K double next year to cement himself as an all-time great first. Selfishly, I'd love to see him, Kiplimo and Cheptegei all wait until the 2026 off-year to start chasing HM/Marathon glory full-time.
Dunno but the announcer brought it up during athlete introductions suggesting Barega intends to go to the roads after this season. He's only 21 FFS.
No doubt there has been a lot more overlap between road and track racing the past decade or so but if Barega goes full marathon I think we will have been robbed of a colossal track talent. Not sure sub 12:40/26:20 off of marathon training is in the cards for any human.
I want to see athletes like Barega crush fast fields and run world records. I don't want to see him use his talent to win road purses but still be able to show up to WCs/Olys and win slow 5s/10s. Selfish, I know, but still.
It’s not even close to be honest. Even ignoring all the dominant global medals and world xc victories, a past-his-prime Bekele nearly broke the marathon WR off of very limited training. If the latter part of his career didn’t feature so many injuries, he would be utterly unsurpassable.
Appearances in the top 50 5k times ever
Bekele-8
Geb-4
Daniel Komen-4
Eliud Kipchoge-4
Hagos Gebriwhet-3
Selemon Barega-2
Mo Ahmed-2
Sileshi Sihine-2
Yomif Kejelcha-1
Dejen Gebremesmeskel-1
Mohammed Mourhit-1
Ali Saïdi-Sief-1
Salah Hissou-1
Joseph Ebuya-1
Moses Kipsiro-1
Moses Masai-1
Abderrahim Goumri-1
El G-1
Paul Tergat-1
John Kipkoech-1
Brahim Lahlafi-1
Thomas Longosiwa-1
Stephen Cherono-1
Yenew Alamirew-1
Isaac Songok-1
Isiah Koech-1
Jacob Kiplimo-1
Jakob Ingebrigsten-1
Mohamed Katir-1
Joshua Cheptegei-1
A thread GOAT’ing Bekele? Easy Yessss. I love Bekele, goosebumps and weak knees and all.
tfrrsftw wrote:
It’s not even close to be honest. Even ignoring all the dominant global medals and world xc victories, a past-his-prime Bekele nearly broke the marathon WR off of very limited training. If the latter part of his career didn’t feature so many injuries, he would be utterly unsurpassable.
Don't you find this highly suspicious for a guy consistently DNF in a marathon to come out and run 2 seconds off the world record?
what next wrote:
tfrrsftw wrote:
It’s not even close to be honest. Even ignoring all the dominant global medals and world xc victories, a past-his-prime Bekele nearly broke the marathon WR off of very limited training. If the latter part of his career didn’t feature so many injuries, he would be utterly unsurpassable.
Don't you find this highly suspicious for a guy consistently DNF in a marathon to come out and run 2 seconds off the world record?
Amazing all these stupid posts today. Bekele was the best, he produced astounding races throughout his career, why would one more be suspicous?
briswiss wrote:
Cheptegei isn’t even in the same conversation as Bekele. Only comes up big during COVID year where I’m sure it was easy to beat testing
He never was.
Bekele is the greatest of all time - the ability, the accolades, the duration, the versatility - Cheptegei could have won that race and it wouldn't have changed that.
The Mt Rushmore of distance running -
Bekele
Geb
Farah
Kipchoge
in that order.