Nick Willis 1:46.89, Alan Webb 1:48.34, Andrew Ellerton 1:46.77 in Italy Today

Webb is an American. The other two don't need to be mentioned.

I have the greatest respect for Mr. Scott, but just about every fan of track and field on the planet (besides yourself) knows that Jim Ryun was the greatest American miler of all time.

best ever is not webb wrote:

No, the best miler the U.S. has is Steve Scott. Webb has a long way to go to be considered better, overall, than SS.

Coach D wrote:

So where are all those morons NOW who wanted to write Webb off after ONE race--never mind the recovery from injury and no speedwork?

Aas I said at the time, give him a full year of training, then decide.

Easy jumpy. This is the drivvle you've posted: "Webb finished 8th out of 12 runners in a low key 800! Take that all you naysayers!"

The morons are still there and in agreement that this result is piss-poor for the current mile AR holder. Practice your timing a little bit more as he's bound to have a result worthy for the morons.

fgfg wrote:

Webb is psycological weak

Yes, because the Psychologically weak manage 3:47 miles in their careers.

Um sorry to break it to you, but Steve Scott is not the best american miler and neither is Jim Ryun. I don't know if any of you keep up much with U.S. track and field, but you should really check out this link: http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=39876.html

fixed

Max efficiency wrote:

fgfg wrote:

Webb is psycological weak

Yes, because the Psychologically weak manage 3:46.91 miles in their careers.

"Webb is psycological weak"

-what a fool. seriously? i hope that english is not your first language.

Curious Fan wrote:

Um sorry to break it to you, but Steve Scott is not the best american miler and neither is Jim Ryun. I don't know if any of you keep up much with U.S. track and field, but you should really check out this link:

http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=39876.html

If -- like most modern fans from civilized countries -- we expand the discussion to include 1500m runners instead of just "milers," you might also consider a certain world champion who has run a hell of a lot faster and accomplished a hell of a lot more in his distinguished running career than any of those other guys.

My preference, however, is not to get into debates about the "best" or "greatest" from various eras.

Heard through the grapevine wrote:

Salazar wasn't kidding about Webb's steep improvement curve recently. At this rate he could win the road mile coming up soon.

Sorry to break it to you, but according to the Purdy tables, a 1:48.34 800 is actually a WEAKER performance than the 3:41 1500 he ran last week. Let alone he came in a noncompetitive 8th. Not a "steep" improvement curve.

I know what the nut huggers will say: blah, blah well he's working on his "strength". Well then run a competitive overdistance race like 3K or 5K.

i dunno man wrote:

skip bounds wrote:

Probably confused with Nate Brannen (sp?) who was the Canadian high school phenom in Webb's year.

what ever happened to nate brannen?

Nate is opening a running store in florida with Kevin Sullivan, who's also had some injury problems lately.

I'm not sure if Reebok dropped Nate completely, but he was definitely having some sponsorship issues last winter.

doubtingthomas wrote:

Sorry to break it to you, but according to the Purdy tables, a 1:48.34 800 is actually a WEAKER performance than the 3:41 1500 he ran last week. Let alone he came in a noncompetitive 8th. Not a "steep" improvement curve.

I know what the nut huggers will say: blah, blah well he's working on his "strength". Well then run a competitive overdistance race like 3K or 5K.

And 1:43.84 is weaker than 3:30.54 according to the IAAF scoring tables.

Webb is a better runner than Ryun and Scott because he ran faster than they ever did/could. It's straightforward.

kljajldfj wrote:

Webb is a better runner than Ryun and Scott because he ran faster than they ever did/could. It's straightforward.

No, that makes Webb a faster miler. What determines the better miler is race performance, and big race performance in particular. Ryun has an Olympic silver medal. Scott was the 1500 silver medalist in the 1983 world championships.

nut hugger wrote:

doubtingthomas wrote:

Sorry to break it to you, but according to the Purdy tables, a 1:48.34 800 is actually a WEAKER performance than the 3:41 1500 he ran last week. Let alone he came in a noncompetitive 8th. Not a "steep" improvement curve.

I know what the nut huggers will say: blah, blah well he's working on his "strength". Well then run a competitive overdistance race like 3K or 5K.

And 1:43.84 is weaker than 3:30.54 according to the IAAF scoring tables.

Right. Webb is 4.5s off his 800m PR, or running at 96.97% of his PR velocity. If he does that in the 1500m, he'd run 3:40.26, which is faster than the 3:41 he ran last week. Yesterday's race was certainly not a step back from last week's race, and stop trying to compare apples to oranges. We can say, however, that cutting 4 seconds off his 800m race from two weeks ago is definitely encouraging.

Rule number one of sarcasm: you do not talk about sarcasm.

Rule number two of sarcasm: you do not talk about sarcasm.

It's not so straightforward. Here are three things to consider. First, the tracks Webb runs on are vastly faster than anything Ryun ran on (especially when Ryun was at his peak). Second, when Ryun was running nothing like the current European summer circuit existed. Third, and maybe most important, is that I don't believe Ryun ever ran in a rabbited race. Running 3:51, on cinders, while leading all the way, is quite an accomplishment.

kljajldfj wrote:

Webb is a better runner than Ryun and Scott because he ran faster than they ever did/could. It's straightforward.

congrats LR for not putting this as the headline:)

Thanks for the video posting.

I love the Spaniard's stride. Very Juantorena-esque. I was surprised to see him hold it together but he looked very good all the way.

Webb looked fine to me. Just not all zippy at the end, yet.