philippe wrote:
Guerrouj ran 3:26.12 a couple of weeks before turning 27, so I don’t think he’s too old.
Great insights, thks!
philippe wrote:
Guerrouj ran 3:26.12 a couple of weeks before turning 27, so I don’t think he’s too old.
Great insights, thks!
To break the records he would have to be better than he ever was. After successive injuries, that have seen him reduced to a shadow of his former self, how likely is that?
Armstronglivs wrote:
To break the records he would have to be better than he ever was. After successive injuries, that have seen him reduced to a shadow of his former self, how likely is that?
Clearly zero.
Rubio wrote:
First of all: I’d love for all three records to be broken, because witnessing a world record is a privilege. I don’t care if it’s a European, an African, an American, or a New Zealander.
Well, actually, I’d prefer it to be Jakob in all of them because that would be legendary.There’s been a lot of debate on this forum about whether he’s past his peak, if he’ll never get back to his 2024 form... no one really knows that. The only factual thing we can say (even though correlation doesn't mean causation and all that) is that the current and/or recent records in this era in the 1500, the mile, and the 5000 were set by athletes who were even younger than him.
Jakob is very young (he’ll be 26 or about to turn 26) in a sport where the absolute top level seems to happen at an absurdly even younger age.
5000 WR
I had my doubts, but several users here have convinced me that Jakob is the best-suited athlete in history to sustain 60" laps.
And he could also set a time trial under better conditions: the last pacer dropped Joshua before 2500m, and he ran the fastest laps alone.
It would be an insane performance because, when they set their WRs/PBs, Bekele was 23, Chep 23, Komen 21, and only Geb was 25.*1500 WR
Jakob won't get better conditions: El G had perfect pacing up to about 1200m and flawless splits.
He was 23 years old. Beating that record at 26-ish (Lagat's PB came at that age) would be beyond awesome.MILE WR
It’s considered a slightly weaker record than the 1500 according to the scoring tables**, but it was set in a race that went all the way to a final sprint against Ngeny. Those conditions are practically impossible for Jakob to replicate.
El G was 24 years old.*I know I’ve left out Hagos (who was 30), but that was because his PB came in the greatest 5000m race in history. And Kejelcha was 26. Expecting to replicate that unicorn race without Aregawi, Kiplimo, Barega, Kejelcha himself... would be naïve.
**For those of you who have competed at a decent level in the 1500/mile: can you confirm that your mile PBs are actually closer to El G’s ratio compared to your 1500s?TL;DR: Like most people, I think Jakob’s best chances are in the 5000. And I’m not talking about flirting with 12:30. I mean running at WR pace all the way to the last lap and closing faster than Joshua, who “only” managed a 59.64 finish.
If he were to break any of these WRs, it wouldn’t just be the best performance ever in those distances -duh- but even more outlier and extraordinary for achieving it at, or very close to, 26 years old.
While we are going to get some very strongly held beliefs on this subject, the truth is nobody has any idea.
You got two opposing issues going here. His tremendous talent (and still young age) verses the horrible injury impacted 2025 year. Plus his recent difficulties in none paced championship level 1500s lately.
Can he set a world record? Absolutely
Will he set 3 world records? Anything is possible with Jakob.
But it is impossible to even realistically guess at this point, He may push hard and reinjure himsef even. Personally I hope not. I am a fan.
The recurring injuries are a concern.
The fact his two older brothers (training the same way) peaked by 24 is a concern.
Married with a kid and probably more kids coming is a concern. Yes, it takes the edge off.
Wife getting more involved with his career and race selection is a concern.
But definitely still rooting for Jakob. Hope he gets the 5000 WR and more. He's great for the sport.
philippe wrote:
Guerrouj ran 3:26.12 a couple of weeks before turning 27, so I don’t think he’s too old.
Yes that's fact - but it only serves to prove that a 27 year old man can basically 3.26 flat for 1500m (which I personally think is the true WR, that's a different matter though).
It's not as simple as just as a number of years lived on earth, because no career paths are the same.
A good example of that is how El Guerrouj was basically a 1500m specialist exclusively up until 2002. He didn't touch the 5000m competitively (ie. a race) from 1992 as a junior until the 2003 season and of course he retired in 2004. He had an elite career spanning a decade, 1995-2004. I counted 139 races on his WA profile across those ten years and only 18 of them were not 1500m/mile races (the majority were indoor 3000m races). Even if my counting was off by 1-2 races somewhere along the line it doesn't change the fact that he only really focused on being great at one distance the vast majority of his career. I'd be very surprised whether those 3000m races meant a massive shift in training for him. He ran five 5000m races in his pro career -2 at the Paris WC, 2 in Athens and the one head to head with Cherono in Ostrava.
This is obviously very different to Jakob who has been a legit dual 1500/5000 guy since 2018 at the Euros. Every championships he's done since then except for Tokyo 21 ('20) he's run both the 1500 and 5000m. You can simply not look at what El G did at 27 and suggest it would apply to Jakob. They have had markedly different career paths and are markedly different runners starting first and foremost with how they train.
Rubio wrote:
Is the mile WR -beyond what the tables say- actually "softer" than the 1500?
Can some coaches/competitive 1500-milers here provide insight?
It's a hard one to qualify. But when El G ran the record he was 3.28.21 at 1500m, so ran the last 109m in 14.92 (54.8 pace).
It just feels with the way that the 1500m has absolutely shifted more towards the realm of the 1500-3000-5000 athlete (vs the 800-1500 athletes of the 70's and 80's) that this final 109m is not as daunting as it used to be. Certainly that old "multiply 1500m time by 1.08" or "add 17.4 seconds" (or what it used to be) has markedly compressed because of that.
When Jakob ran 3.26.73, I have a hard time believing that if he had given up 10 meters of the track and hit 1500m in basically 3.28.0, he couldn't have run that last 109 in at least the same time El G did (in the high 14's). More likely he's in the 14.5 range so the math from there brings him out in the mid 3.42's (which is what I felt his potential was, who knows how he bounces back).
I think that's why it seems/is softer. I mean even Nuguse came within 0.86 of the record and that was in far less than ideal conditions - an extremely late season meet with a race run at 2pm in the afternoon in Eugene.
I'd love to see Jakob even get into a position in which he's lining up with a realistic chance at any of these records. Unfortunately I fear we've seen the best of him. That doesn't mean he can't win DL races or beat the best in big races, just not get to best ever territory again.
Injury history can be hard to narrow down such is the secretive nature of the sport but can anyone think of a middle distance runner who was at the top as Jakob was (WRs included) had to take time off which mortalized the athlete and that same athlete came back after the injury to break records? The one name who keeps popping into my head is Morceli who was injured at some point and never quite got back to the top and then eventually just faded away competition wise.
Rubio wrote:
Is the mile WR -beyond what the tables say- actually "softer" than the 1500?
Can some coaches/competitive 1500-milers here provide insight?
According to my favorite race predictor, Purdy, they are equivalent.
1500m is 1,096.26 Purdy points, while the mile is slightly stronger at 1,096.96.
Purdy equates 3:26.0 1500m to a 3:43.21 mile (compared to the WR of 3:43.13).
If you prefer VDOT, Jack Daniels says that the 3:42.35 mile is equivalent, so it depends on the model.