Yeah, right.
Yeah, right.
Difficult to answer but ...
800m: Billy Konchellah was amazing to watch. He was sooo confident coming from so far behind
1500m: he wasnt the best but Coghlin was pretty damn impressive especially on the boards. John Walkers quote "with 150 to go, the crowd would roar, it was then i knew the little bastard had made his move". classic!
5k/10k. Gebr had/has such talent that he could have won any way he chose. Viren did it 4 times so i'll go for him despite not having seen a lot of his races. Baumann knew how to win/place when it mattered.
Marathon: Tactics not so important here. More about good energy conservation etc. Difficult to build up the acumen with so few races but i was very impressed with Drossin in athens.
peepants wrote:
Who was the best "racer" (best at making moves,good kick,etc.) ever in the history of T & F and why?
i say viren.
agreed, viren outkicked the kickers. That takes an awful lot of balls and intelligence.
Kelly Holmes' tactics weren't too shabby in Athens.
Masterkova was pretty sharp in her day too.
Michael East manages to get it right 80% of the time. Just a shame about the other 20% of his races when he comes in way down the field.
James Thie had some pretty good indoor races in 2004 too, where he showed impressive tactics.
tyke wrote:
agreed, viren outkicked the kickers. That takes an awful lot of balls and intelligence.
hahahahahaha !!! Intelligence??? Seriously??? I hate the intelligent therefore great runner link. Its the worst link there is. Personally, if i had to choose, i'd say it pays to be a bit dumb in running. Blind faith is what it takes. There's nothing rational about training 150mpw to chase a low probability goal
Ref Viren
Possibly more to do with blood doping than tactics.
Foster beat him about 10 times I think them was beaten in the OG final by Viren.
never proven. You can't deny his tactics. Also, Viren was only really interested in the Olympics, and was never in top shape when Foster beat him.
1) Viren. Won four gold medals. I believe he may have won more than one Euro Champs gold as well.
2) Yifter. Won two in a watered-down Olympics, but who knows how old he was then, he may have been past his prime. He may also have won more in '72 and '76 had it happened differently.
3) Cova. Won EC 10k in '82, then WC 10k in '83, then Olympic Games in '84. He also ran the 5k at some meets. He ran against roughly the same group at all the championships and Lopes/Mamede, Schildhauer/Kunze, Vainio, the Ethiopians, the Americans, never got his number. He had a sublime tactical sense.
I don't give as much credit to Geb as it seems he deserves as he was the world's fastest 5k/10k man for most of his career, and he had better ability than most of his competitors at 1500/3k, so it isn't a surprise that he won what he did. It would have been surprising if he didn't win as he usually only ran one event and always had excellent teammates to help. It WAS surprising that he could do it longer than nearly anyone in history though.
Lasse Viren
how about his 1500/3k double at world indoors? that was impressive tactics to say the least! he outkicked the 1500 specialists in their own event!!
of course, i'm talking about geb (not viren or the other dudes that were mentioned).
No argument there however a couple of guys did beat him.
I wonder how he would have performed in '76 had he lived?
Henry Rono would through in some visious laps in the middle of the 5K/10K to break the field...usually worked.
It's funny, but Geb was one of the first names that came to my mind on this: I always thought he was utterly ruthless.
He would clip heels, refuse to share the pace, use team tactics and generally dictate races right up to the point where he's launch. (Remember how he abused Moses Tanui in Stuttgart, forcing him to kick his shoe off in the last lap? Tanui grapped his shoe and waved it in Geb's face after the race -he was NOT amused!)
It worked for about 7 years, culminating in one of my favourite finishes of all-time in Sydney 2000 when he dipped past Tergat.
Martin
That should be 'vicious'.
i don't go back as far as some people on this board, but i agree that geb in his prime was absolutely ruthless. he dictated the race from whatever position he was in. and the best tactic is always to be in control of the race.
That should be 'throw'. Always proof your work!
Viren no doubt. He not only outkicked the kickers Yifter in the 10K, Dixon and Quax at 5k. He also had the strength to put the screws to Pre, Stewart, and Gammoudi, with about a four-flat final 1600 in Munich. Along with this he had the intelligence and composure to execute these race strategies as opposed to how our boy Prefontaine fell apart in his last lap in Munich.
Herb Elliot
chuck d wrote:
i don't go back as far as some people on this board, but i agree that geb in his prime was absolutely ruthless. he dictated the race from whatever position he was in. and the best tactic is always to be in control of the race.
I'm being purely curious; what does it mean to dictate a race?
I agree that Pre had horrible tactics. I'm not exactly sure what guts are and whether everyone else was lacking in them, but he certainly remains very inspirational.