Haile is still the Greates of all time

i am very happy, when i heard Haile smashed the world record.

let me came to the point. every body needs cause. Haile inspired by Yifter and Kenenisa inspired by Haile.

However, both have their own quality. regrading the sport arena, i can see bekele is more sucessful than haile with in short period of time. Where as haile is more versatile in all aspect. he is witty, partcipate alomst in all social affair, his determination is so amazing.....

If Haile had made his breaktrough now, as a young runner, he would have beaten Bekeles times. Especially in the 10.000 he always had a extra gear but didn`t use it, because he would set a record anyway. Watching him run a world record 26.30 at Bislett some time before he ran 26.22, was amazing. He looked like he could have done sub 26.20 on the day, just cruising.

nomoredumbasses wrote:

If Haile had made his breaktrough now, as a young runner, he would have beaten Bekeles times. Especially in the 10.000 he always had a extra gear but didn`t use it, because he would set a record anyway. Watching him run a world record 26.30 at Bislett some time before he ran 26.22, was amazing. He looked like he could have done sub 26.20 on the day, just cruising.

Wow. This is such an intoxicating mix of opinion and conjecture. My opinion is that Bekele just has a little something extra that Geb does not, which makes him the greatest of all time. That much is indisputable...because it's my OPINION!!!

I feel stupid debating about runners who are so much better than me but here goes.

Geb was fantastic. However so far in his career, Bekele is looking even better.

Geb and Bekele both raced in their prime in the Paris World champs 2003. For Geb, this was his greatest championship race at 10000m. He ran his second 5k in under 13 minutes and tis detroyed the rest of the field. Geb had never ran like that before in a Championship final. Anyone who says that Geb was past his prime in Paris is just not with it. That was as good as you will ever get out of Geb and it was a phenomenal performace. However Bekele was STILL was able to outkick Geb off such a pace.

I think we should just enjoy the show, they are both awsome runners.

tall guy: You're correct, of course, that Bekele is dominating his competition right now... But that competition is clearly inferior to the Komen/Tergat competition that Geb had in the 1990s. Geb was the best in an era (for whatever reason!) of massive revision in the record books. In the 10,000--as we know--the record fell by 30 seconds through the efforts of Geb, Hissou, and Tergat, with Geb coming out on top everytime. In the 5,000 Geb broke Aouita's record, his own record once, and then Komen's once. Bottom line: Geb wasn't merely the world record holder (repeatedly), but he made massive overall improvements in those marks--which truly reshaped what we thought was possible at those distances. I can assure you that prior to Zurich 1995, no one "really" thought that a 12:44 5000 was possible any time soon, never mind 12:39 in 2 years. For better or worse, we aren't seeing that kind of massive rewriting of the record books now. One could interpret that to mean that Bekele is actually all the greater because he IS so far ahead of everyone else... I'm not sure.

I repeat: I'm a huge Bekele fan and am quite sure he has the potential to be one of the greatest track performers in history. He's already the greatest x-c performer in history. But he's young, and the next few years will tell. Historically speaking, he's NOT yet up to Geb's level...but me may...only time will tell.

I also repeat that times alone only tell part of the story. If we simply think that "faster" always equals "greater" then we are locked into the present, with no ability to make sense of the merits of past performers.

I think that when (not if) Bekele breaks 12:30 and 26 he will be considered the greatest of all time, but right now is too soon.

I doubt Bekele will even break 26:10, and it is doubtful he can move the 5000 mark down much at all.

12:30 and 26? You were born too soon if you think you will live to see those times.

So setting a WR by the largest margin is the greatest measure of who is the best all time runner, even if someone in the same era surpasses those times??

For all of you people that say that Bekele wouldn't be running the times that he is today if it weren't for Geb's breakthroughs...how can you really prove that? Its just as impossible to prove that as it to prove that Bekele would be running what he is today without Geb. Its all speculation.

And to say that today's times wouldn't be as fast as they are without Geb is like saying that we wouldn't be flying in airplanes had the Wright brothers not been the first in flight.

By the same token, saying that Bekele is better because he broke Geb's 5k and 10k records (by a combined time of 7 seconds) is like saying that some guy who made an airplane 10% lighter and more efficient than the one they used at Kitty Hawk makes him more of an aviation pioneer than the Wright Brothers

geb is the barry bonds of track and field. disgrace.

MarathonMind wrote:

I doubt Bekele will even break 26:10, and it is doubtful he can move the 5000 mark down much at all.

12:30 and 26? You were born too soon if you think you will live to see those times.

with the proper drugs anything is possible. gee, what a dirty sport that, unlike baseball, doesn't even have the desire to fix itself up and ban the cheaters. has geb EVER been tested?

"So setting a WR by the largest margin is the greatest measure of who is the best all time runner, even if someone in the same era surpasses those times??"

One last time and I'm out. In answer to the above, a simple "no" will suffice. One real measure of greatness is overall quality and longevity, or the sheer margin of superiority over other athletes of one's time. Ron Clarke, for example, lowered the 10,000 record from 28:18 to 27:39. Samson Kimobwa ran 27:30.5 to knock .3 seconds off Bedford's mark. Kimobwa was clearly faster than Clarke, but can you really pretend that he was greater? I'd be interested in your answer to this question.

By the same token, Geb was involved in a massive re-writing of the record books and, in addition (and unlike Clarke), was nearly unbeatable the entire time. Bekele may well achieve a similar level of historical significance but--on the track at least--he's not quite there yet.

Why should any of this be surprising or "controversial"?