5 Years Ago Today (7/21) Alan Webb Set The AR In The Mile - Post Your Recollections Here

Flotrack recorded that race (and kind of accelerated their development to be a key player in the internet-broadcasting of track). I happened to be at the track, with half the crowd being American (or with NCAA background).

It also shows the irrelevance of the mile in track outside the US and the UK. Ray Flynn (a miler himself) knew Webb was in in topshape and arranged this race, because:

a) there weren't any opportunities to run a mile in Europe. The only one is in Oslo & that race was already run;

b) Webb, Flynn, his coach knew that this shape could deliver him the AR in the mile: Webb came of a Paris GL win (3.30) and Heusden pr of 1.43.

On the other hand, the Brasschaat-meet (now sadly ended) was a pretty big meet in the time that American distance runners hardly could get in the toptier Golden League or IAAF World level meets. Cragg & Ritzenhein ran a pr on that day and a lot of (nowaday) stars were in the Flanderscup meets like Solinksy (pr'd in a FC 1500 meters).

On the other hand, those meets give athletes a chance to race, run fast times for contract-bonusses and earn a bit of money (prize-money is $100 or so). And most athletes can't get in the better paid DL/IAAF meets.

The comparisson with Kobe Bryant doesn't work, because he's in a league. He's getting paid by the Lakers & Nike, so he performs in their arena/stadium. The weekly attendance of the NBA probably beats the yearly attendace of (pro) trackmeets in the USA.

Problem is (imho) that athletes, managers, meetorganisers & IAAF/USATF, don't come to an agreement to set up a real series of meets with sufficient opportunities for the big stars to race each other on regular basis (as the DL promised) and for the upcoming stars to enter those meets.

not an immediate recollection, but i think he couda gone lot faster than 3'46.9 that day ( 100m drills beforehand doesn't help ! )

pace was fairly even but still few tenths to come off

however, main factor was that he was chasing only a fairly "modest" 3'47.6 & the pace was geared to just crack that

following a pace to match that to bell doesn't give you much leeway in last lap to pull out a lot more time

if scott's record had been say 3'46.0 - 3'46.5, the pacing wouda have to have been something like 0.25s+ quicker each lap & i don't think he wouda been too fatigued following that & still producing a similar last lap finish

i reckon he in more like 3'45.5 shape that day, which is far better measure of his talent/ability