Fastest kick in track history.

Ovett's kick was legendary, without doubt one of the best ever when it came to changing pace in the last 200-300m. He started life as a sprinter and always had incredible natural speed. One of the best examples on video is his 1977 World Cup win:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7GogWlv7Q

His penultimate 100m was staggeringly fast and despite easing up and waving to the crowd with 70m still to run he clocks 25.xx for the last 200m. The look on John Walker's face at the end tells the story. As Malmo says, terrifying!

And as usual with these threads we have to show Paul Ereng's indoor 800m WR come from behind win.

Great visual over the last 200m.

two that come to my mind are cacho's already mentioned olympic final, and abdi bile's world championship final 800...

70's runnin fan wrote:

Yifter the shifter must have had dome fast 200's.

I've heard many times that Yifter broke 50 on his last lap on more than one occasion. My high school track coach was national level, connected and he swore it was true. Not sure if this is legend or real. Pre internet and Youtube so hard to verify.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more mention of Coe. He always had another gear off of a hard pace, look at his OR 1500 in 84.

Steve-O wrote:

Ovett's kick was legendary, without doubt one of the best ever when it came to changing pace in the last 200-300m. He started life as a sprinter and always had incredible natural speed. One of the best examples on video is his 1977 World Cup win:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7GogWlv7Q

His penultimate 100m was staggeringly fast and despite easing up and waving to the crowd with 70m still to run he clocks 25.xx for the last 200m. The look on John Walker's face at the end tells the story. As Malmo says, terrifying!

For sure Ovett has had a great finishing speed - but 37,0 for the last 300m? 300m is longer than 200m, 25,xx is slower than 37,0...

As I said, I can't believe this 37,0. Any evidence for that?

Standard Bearer wrote:

I've heard many times that Yifter broke 50 on his last lap on more than one occasion. My high school track coach was national level, connected and he swore it was true. Not sure if this is legend or real. Pre internet and Youtube so hard to verify.

Yifter has never - as far as I know - run sub 50 for the last lap. Not even close to that. Maybe 53-54, not faster. Or it must have been a really very slow race, but I very much doubt he ever has done this.

Alex Kipchirchir closed in 48 for the last 400 of a very slow paced 1500. I think it may have been the world athletics final in 2006?

Not Wottle. He ran very even splits, it's just that everybody else went out too fast, rigged up, and came back to him.

^ Yeah that's why I was saying 1500 plus. Though I suppose the 1:42 Rudisha split, or his 25.02 third 100 in his world record would count.

In 1967 Jim Ryun was in a 1500 race at a USA vs West Germany meet that included Harold Norpoth and Bodo Tummler. Going into the last lap, Norpoth pulled up on Ryun. Jim blasted away. Track & Field News' comment was that it was as if the screaming German fans "developed lockjaw," for dead silence replaced the loud roar. He ran the last lap in under 50 seconds, and ran the 100m on the backstretch in under 12 seconds.

Bekele's last 100m in his 10k WR appears to be in the 11.5-12.0 range...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6roXDygZ3ag

I know this isn`t the fastest but look at how many gears Bekele still has in that sort of speed (last lap begins at 4.25). Especially from 9800 meters -> (4.45 -> in that video) the kick is insane!

Cacho did a 50,1 last lap in Barcelona. But as earlier some mentioned Rui Silva in 2004, there was Rachid El Bashir who came extremely fast the last lap, especially the last 100m!

Ovett runs 24 at the 77 world cup, clowning the final 70. Walker stops flat and walks of the track with 150 to go. Morceli is left 40m behind. Watch the video, it is almost like a cartoon the way he left 3:47 milers behind.

Ryun closed in 37 a bunch of times.

Anon wrote:

Bekele's last 100m in his 10k WR appears to be in the 11.5-12.0 range...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6roXDygZ3ag

Indeed, it really was FAST, seems to be under 13, more close to 12,5 (haven't checked carefully), but definitely not sub 12. Fantastic race from Bekele with a truly fantastic finish.

Dreadful wrote:

it is almost like a cartoon the way he left 3:47 milers behind.

Ryun closed in 37 a bunch of times.

Can you please tell me these 3:47 milers? (besides Steve Scott)

And maybe you also can tell me more about these "bunch of times" where Jim Ryun has closed in 37. I'm sure he never has done this. Does there exist a video of this Düsseldorf race?

Running on Empathy wrote:

Deanouk can correct me, but I believe Steve Ovett closed the penultimate 100 in 11.9 or 12.1 at the '77 World Cup 1500, then slowed in the straightway.

Jim Ryun supposedly ran 37.xx for the last 300 of a slow 1500 in West Germany back in the late '60's.

Of course, Coe ran 12.1 or someting like that for the last 100 of the '84 Oly 1500.

You were just either side of the right time. Lol.

At the time Ovett's penultimate 100m in the 77 World Cup was reported as 11.8, as hand timed by his coach, Harry Wilson. On video inspection it was more like 12.0, with a last 100m of 13.1. So his last 200m was 25.1. I think it is an exaggeration when some suggest he was "clowning around" in the last 70m. He made his effort 200m out and there was no way he was going to sustain that burst all along the last 100m. He eased a bit, but body language can be misleading. He possibly could have run 24.7/24.8 flat out. A great burst, but what a lot of people never mention is that the prior 200m to that burst at 1300m was a very slow (considering it was the last lap of the World Cup) 29.1 for Ovett. The rest of the field really played into his hands and were almost like startled rabbits just waiting for Ovett to go in for the kill!

Coe's fastest last 100m in a 1500m race was 12.1, but in the Moscow final in 80, not the 84 LA race. In Moscow his last 200m was 25.0, and was preceeded by a 27.2.

His last 100m in LA was still a v. fast 12.7 (25.7 last 200m) considering it was a 3:32.5 race. Which is favourable when compared to Ramzi's 13.3/26.2 finish in his 3:32,94 victory (yes, I know he was stripped of gold) in the 2008 Olympics and Ngeny's 12.8/26.5 finish in Sydney's 3:32.1 final.

Coe also ran a 25.6/12.5 a couple of weeks later in Zurich, winning in 3:32.3.

I haven't come across a faster last 100m than that in any 1500 race faster than 3:33.

Jim Ryun has had many crazy splits attributed to him over the years. Conveniently, very few of the races in which he supposedly ran them are in the public domain. Many survive through word of mouth. I am pretty sceptical of the validity of many. E.g, his last 440 in his 3:51.1 Mile has often been quoted as 52.5, even in official IAAF publications. Then when the video to the race appeared on Youtube a few years ago, he is clearly seen going through the bell in 2:57.3, meaning his last quarter was 53.8 NOT 52.5. Quite a difference.

I know of only one person who has actually viewed the video for that Dusseldorf race where he is supposed to have run a last 300m of 36.4. Now this guy is the biggest Ryun fan I know, but this is what he wrote to me about it: -

"Yes, I saw the race back in September 2011 when I was in Lawrence, Kansas for a XC meet. The day before the meet I and a few others went through Kansas University with a phys ed teacher and he took us to an archive section. There were several tapes with footage of past baseball, football(American), games and some track tapes with the majority of the footage being Ryun's races since he is probably KU's greatest ever athlete. On one of the tapes was the Dusseldorf race, and I to was skeptical about the 36.4 300m finish. After timing it I came out with a 37.1 and looking back on it now I think that is probably a bit to fast as well. "

He came up with the following splits for that race:- 50.8, 37.1, 24.8

So his first 100m on that last lap was 13.7, followed by 12.3 down the back straight. Still an incredible turn of speed, but not quite the 11.6 of legend.

Ryun isn't the only one to have had his speed inflated over the years.

In 1978 Ovett's last 200m in the European Championships was quoted as being 24.8 in UK publication, Athletics Weekly. On video inspection, they took it from the wrong line and his last 200m was actually 25.7, almost a second slower. Moreover, his last 100m was 13.4, the 100m line clearly visible on the track. Surely anyone with that knowledge must realise that his last 200m couldn't possibly be 24.8, as that would have meant him running the curve 100m in 11.4!!

Despite the clear error in the time given for his last 200m, he still ran the penultimate 100m in 12.3, which is pretty fantastic considering the final time was 3:35.6

said88 wrote:

Anon wrote:

Bekele's last 100m in his 10k WR appears to be in the 11.5-12.0 range...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6roXDygZ3ag

Indeed, it really was FAST, seems to be under 13, more close to 12,5 (haven't checked carefully), but definitely not sub 12. Fantastic race from Bekele with a truly fantastic finish.

Not even that fast!

There is no 100m mark on the inside lane of this track. There is a 110m to go mark, which he reaches in 26:02.8 and the 90m mark in 26:05.6. That's 2.8secs for 20m, which is 14.0 flat 100m pace. His time with 100m to go would have been around 26:04.2, meaning his last 100m was about 13.3.

That's still ridiculously fast (and somewhat implausible IMO) for the end of a 26:17 10000m.

said88 wrote:

Steve-O wrote:

Ovett's kick was legendary, without doubt one of the best ever when it came to changing pace in the last 200-300m. He started life as a sprinter and always had incredible natural speed. One of the best examples on video is his 1977 World Cup win:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7GogWlv7Q

His penultimate 100m was staggeringly fast and despite easing up and waving to the crowd with 70m still to run he clocks 25.xx for the last 200m. The look on John Walker's face at the end tells the story. As Malmo says, terrifying!

For sure Ovett has had a great finishing speed - but 37,0 for the last 300m? 300m is longer than 200m, 25,xx is slower than 37,0...

As I said, I can't believe this 37,0. Any evidence for that?

Have to say that I have never seen this race and have never seen these closing splits given anywhere before.

The only information I have on the race (from T&FN publication, "The Milers") is that "a rabbit ran 57, 1:57.5 & 2:57.1. Under pressure from Scott, Ovett won 3:35.8 to 3:36.0"

Firstly, If the leader (could be Scott or Ovett?) reached 1200m in 2:57.1, I seriously doubt that Ovett wouldn't have been close behind. To have run a 37.0 last 300m, he'd have had to have been 1.7 behind the leader (c. 14m) at the 1200m mark. That just isn't how Ovett used to run!

He'd have probably have been close behind in around 2:57.4, giving him a last 300m of 38 mid, possibly 38 low.

Secondly, if it was a close win over Scott, he'd have had to close similarly, and the idea of him closing in 37.0 is even more unbelievable.