It may not make sense to Americans but to the rest of the world it does.
Well that's always been my question. Most of the planet doesn't use a "mile" so that's even more weird right? So 1500 is fine, but yes maybe since the track is 400m and 1600 sounds like a mile that is the sweet spot/ happy medium?
"The 1,500 meters has been part of the Olympic program since 1896, reflecting the French origins of the modern Olympic movement and its founder, Pierre de Coubertin. It’s also the distance used at the world championships and at the NCAAs. But the mile, just 109 meters longer, is a far superior experience for athletes and spectators."
Lame. Nobody normal could name 1500m PBs as the distance is The Mile.
They should scrap it as it's a non-distance. Something else that has been wrecked by inept non-British second-class europeans.
What next 25.9 mile marathon?
9670m 10k?
4894m 5k
Waste of time for a non-event.
If you're using the mile as the measuring stick, 1500m seems screwy, but if you think more metrically, 1500m = 1.5k, which is actually a nice round number. Once you get over 1k, measuring things in terms of whole or half-kilometers makes more sense than continuing with multiples of 400m.
Napoleon made all of Europe use the metric system. Unfortunately when he was gone the French screwed things up like they always do.
The British "mile" is one of many distortions of the old Roman "mile" of 1000 paces. The kilometer is exactly 1000 paces of a modern grown man (taller than Romans) so it is a mile.
Therefore the correct distance to have run was 1000 meters. On the original Frenchie 500m tracks, that would have been 2 laps.
If we go back to focusing on the 1000, we'll probably find it's soft and the top 800 runners and milers will all start pushing the 2:10 barrier.
This gets posted a lot on here but I agree. The 1500 is the only event in track that is always compared to something else. If you throw a shot put far or run a fast 200 everyone just says, wow thats a great 200 or wow thats a great shot put. Run a fast 1500 and everyone is like "Wow you ran 3:50 1500, that's like a 4:08 mile!"
What is this logic. Seb Coe, far and away the best miler among sub-1:42 guys, ran 1:41.73 and 2:12.18.
Ok dingbat, for the last time the 1000 record is soft because people hardly ever run it.
Coe made a grand total of 3 serious attempts (sub 2:17) at 1000m. 2:12.18 is equivalent to his faster 800s (1:43) but not the outliers, the single 1:41 and 1:42. Those outliers would not exist if Coe had only ran 3 serious 800s.
Off distance records are soft. Only exception is 7:20, as 3000 is run commonly enough
"The 1,500 meters has been part of the Olympic program since 1896, reflecting the French origins of the modern Olympic movement and its founder, Pierre de Coubertin. It’s also the distance used at the world championships and at the NCAAs. But the mile, just 109 meters longer, is a far superior experience for athletes and spectators."
Lame. Nobody normal could name 1500m PBs as the distance is The Mile.
They should scrap it as it's a non-distance. Something else that has been wrecked by inept non-British second-class europeans.
What next 25.9 mile marathon?
9670m 10k?
4894m 5k
Waste of time for a non-event.
I say there needs to be a race for 1729 meters, the smallest “taxicab number”.
It may not make sense to Americans but to the rest of the world it does.
That is because they are used to it.
95-96% of the world uses the metric system. Time for the USA to get on board. Well a long time ago they should have. Oh, and scrap the 1600 & 3200 high school events. Either go 1500 & 3000 or go back to the one mile and two mile.
95-96% of the world uses the metric system. Time for the USA to get on board. Well a long time ago they should have. Oh, and scrap the 1600 & 3200 high school events. Either go 1500 & 3000 or go back to the one mile and two mile.
Absolutely. 1600/3200 are even dumber than the 1500/3000
This gets posted a lot on here but I agree. The 1500 is the only event in track that is always compared to something else. If you throw a shot put far or run a fast 200 everyone just says, wow thats a great 200 or wow thats a great shot put. Run a fast 1500 and everyone is like "Wow you ran 3:50 1500, that's like a 4:08 mile!"
No, only in the USA does it compared to something else. The rest of the world that uses the metric system (95-96%) knows what a 1500 is.
"The 1,500 meters has been part of the Olympic program since 1896, reflecting the French origins of the modern Olympic movement and its founder, Pierre de Coubertin. It’s also the distance used at the world championships and at the NCAAs. But the mile, just 109 meters longer, is a far superior experience for athletes and spectators."
Lame. Nobody normal could name 1500m PBs as the distance is The Mile.
They should scrap it as it's a non-distance. Something else that has been wrecked by inept non-British second-class europeans.
What next 25.9 mile marathon?
9670m 10k?
4894m 5k
Waste of time for a non-event.
If you're using the mile as the measuring stick, 1500m seems screwy, but if you think more metrically, 1500m = 1.5k, which is actually a nice round number. Once you get over 1k, measuring things in terms of whole or half-kilometers makes more sense than continuing with multiples of 400m.
No, we are using THE TRACK as a measuring stick and the TRACK is 400. each section is 100m. so we run a 100m straight, then we run 200m that includes one straight and one curve, the we run one full 400m, then 2x400 for the 800, and now if you follow (it kept doubling) we should run 1600m.
The splits break down better, it's perfectly easy to explain to non runners, the 1500 is just ridiculous.
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Any race over one lap should be an integer number of laps. The 1500 and 5000 are both dumb on a 400m track. The solution, though, should be to switch all major events to a 500m track. Racing 500m and 1000m will allow new records to be set, ease of recording and making sense of splits, and leave in the past some questionable drug records. Also, steeple should be built directly into the 500m track so the race can be exactly six laps.
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