High hopes wrote:
Enjoyed reading the rankings but it's crazy that Molly Seidel doesn't make the world top 10. An Olympic bronze and 4th in New York gives Seidel a much better year than Bekere (3rd London, ranked 6th), Jelagat (1st in a weak Valencia field, ranked 8th), and Gebreslase (1st in a weak Berlin field, 9th on the list).
I think you definitely over-weighted times compared to results in the big events in the marathon list, e.g. Angela Tanui placing third for winning a bunch of B-grade races but Brigid Kosgei 4th after winning Olympic silver and taking 2nd in a loaded London.
We saw this thread as we were about to start recording this week's podcast and probably ended up talking about it for 10-15 mihutes.
Highhopes, we have good news to report. Upon further review, your hope that Seidel be added to our rankings is now a reality. We are going to put her in at #10. We'd like to send you a free pair of ON shoes for helping us realize our mistake. Please email
weldonjohnson@letsrun.comwith your size and address.
If you want a full explanation as to how we originally left Seidel off but are now including her, listen to the pod which will be out later today but let me explain a few things. We think Seidel's 2021 campaign (3rd Olymipcs, 4th NY) was better than Ruth Chepngetich's - who was originally our world #10. While Chepngetich won Chicago, Chicago was very weak this year and 2:22 wouldn't normally have won there and in her other race she lost to Seidel at the Olympics.
In general, marathon rankings are hard to do as people race various number of races a year - normally 1-2 or 3. In a normal year, we very much hold it against marathoners that only have one marathon finish. During this Covid-19 marred year, we didn't do that so much as basically the spring season was largely cancelled due to Covid. So when we originally did the rankings, we sort of went into it with the default being people were only expected to have raced once. We kind of viewed marathons #2 as a bonus marathon - sort of how we'd evaluate if in a normal year if someone attempted a 3rd marathon. If it marathon #3 doesn't go great, we don't hold it too much against you as compared to just doing two marathons and not even trying a third.
That being said, we now realize we can't ignore Chepnggetic's DNF because it came at the most important marathon of the last 5 years - the Olympics - and it resulted in her being beaten by Seidel.
We still like the other 9 women ahead of Seidel. Here is our new top 10.
1. Peres Jepchirchir, Kenya
1st Olympics (2:27:20), 1st New York (2:22:39)
2. Joyciline Jepkosgei, Kenya
1st London (2:17:43 — #1 in world)
3. Angela Tanui, Kenya
1st Dhaka (2:29:04), 1st Tuscany (2:20:08), 1st Amsterdam (2:17:57 — #2 in world)
4. Brigid Kosgei, Kenya
2nd Olympics (2:27:36), 4th London (2:18:40 — #5 in world)
5. Degitu Azimeraw, Ethiopia
2nd London (2:17:58 — #3 in world)
6. Ashete Bekere, Ethiopia
3rd London (2:18:18 — #4 in world)
7. Hiwot Geberkidan, Ethiopia
1st Milan (2:19:35 — #8 in world), 2nd Berlin (2:21:23)
8. Nancy Jelagat, Kenya
1st Valencia (2:19:31 — #7 in world)
9. Gotytom Gebreslase, Ethiopia
1st Berlin (2:20:09 — #9 in world)
10. Molly Seidel, USA
3rd Olympics, 4th NY (2:24:42)