Huh, interesting to see his profile. I ran in both of those Surrey League races he did in 2021-22, both were hard courses and crazy muddy. Based on where I was at the time, his 30:02 in Nov 21 (course was 8.7k, 190m elevation, very bad footing) is probably worth about 31-low / 31-mid for a fast road 10K. I know that doesn't get you to 2:11 but it's also a bit different than a 16:00 5k.
Sure, the 16.00 at Mole Valley is clearly worth a lot more on a flat course. But as you say, that's still not in the same league as 2.11 (a 31.00 10k is broadly equivalent to 2.23 marathon).
Even running 2.14 in London and then 6 months later running 2.11 is crazy. What changed? If this was a pro then all kinds of questions would rightly be asked.
Fair enough he had some slight ups and downs over selected race resuits in 2021 to Sept 22 though within narrow range. But that still leaves this dazzling progress through to London 24 and then a further major leap forward. So in two years and one month he went from a low to mid 15 min 5k level ( allowing for comments on parkrun hills from those who know the course ) to a 2.11 marathon. With, at this level, an extremely light racing programme to show progress. A bit like.....noone, really.
He's clearly very talented and whatever training he does has worked incredibly well, I dont think anyone can sensibly dispute those two comments. Yet...
More believable than the rest of this thread's drivel.
Looks like Laura Muir should have retired for 5 years. Maybe if she made the same leaps and bounds improvements that Georgi Bell made while retired, she could run sub 3:45.
Hated to see Laura run a PR at the 2024 OG and get smashed by Georgia Bell
I hadn't seen this before. It's odd. It goes blank for 6 days from 26 Sept then bounces back, supercharged on 2 Oct with a 3 mile effort in 4m47 per mile which seems miles faster than anything he'd been doing through September. Then he does Cardiff half in PB. His 3 days of training from 10 to 12 October are quite unusual. Then it's all easy tapering for Frankfurt.
From collegiate also-ran (4:12) to Olympic bronze medalist (3:52) in 1 year, finishing just behind sus Jess Hull who did NOT take a 5-year break from running, it clearly must be one or the other.
Discus
1. Her PowerOf10 profile shows that those times you quote are made up.
2. She left college over 8 years ago.
3. She won the European Duathlon Champs in 2023, when she was not concentrating on athletics (T&F to you Americans) and was working in a full time corporate job.
But what an absolutely fantastic plan to leave out all these facts because they don't fit your agenda.
I haven't read all of this thread, and I wasn't even very familiar with who Georgia Bell was before the Olympics, but I agree that her progression appears to be ridiculous.
However, if it is the case she is doping and that's the reason for her improvement, then just like with Paula Radcliffe, it does show that whenever a talented Brit dopes, then they are more than a match for the best East African dopers, and the idea of 'natural advantage' is again proven a myth.
I also think it's funny how it keeps getting pointed out here that UK athletics had an association with Salazar, and that this proves 'the Brits are dirty'. Hopefully the same people would accept that if that's true, then the Americans are 'dirtier than dirty'? I seem to recall that it was a BBC documentary that started the exposure and downfall of Salazar. And that several years ago, Laura Muir was forced to drop her new American physiotherapist or whatever, simply because he once worked for Salazar.
Georgia Bell did win the Under 15 English schools 800m and her time at that age was faster than Keely Hodgkinson, Phoebe Gill and Jemma Reekie. What is interesting is how many other girls where faster than all of them but never progressed usually having given up the sport
Georgia was in the group of juniors when I just started training as a coach. At the time Georgia and one other girl were setting the pace on all the sessions and it was a mixed group. I was not the coach and the other girl looked like a future sub 2 800m. I did an 8 x 300m session and this confirmed my thoughts. However, the coaches were pushing her into longer distances, eventually she switched to sprinting the quit and took up football.
Anyway Georgia has the edge in training sessions as had better endurance. The point is she was always very talented.
Its not like she ran at a good level for years then suddenly improved. She took years off switched to duathlon won the world championships then returned and only went full time this year
I would still think the level of improvement too good to be true but there is no association with any dodgy agents or coaches. In her career she was a high flyer having attended Berkeley and working as a cyber consultant
All excellent points which will be completely ignored by the e=average reader here because clearly every single person who runs faster than them is obviously doping.
Many people are underestimating how much and how hard Hunter-Bell was training. It changes everything. She has talent and has had a huge aerobic base, a clever racer and excellent coaching.
After 8 years of not running, GHB has surpassed all of Laura Muir's achievements as a mid-d runners in just 18 months. And at the age of 30-32. I can't help but struggle with that a little
From collegiate also-ran (4:12) to Olympic bronze medalist (3:52) in 1 year, finishing just behind sus Jess Hull who did NOT take a 5-year break from running, it clearly must be one or the other.
Discus
Talent plus all the modern advantages - shoes, bicarb, grey area stuff. We’ll never really know but tbh I don’t find her compelling until she gets gold.
I just want to remind everyone that Faith Kipyegon is 31 and nobody comes close to her in the 1500m, yet her age is never mentioned.
Kelly Holmes won gold in the 800m and 1500m at 34…
Georgia HB was a very talented runner when she was younger but she switched to dualthlon and never quite realised her potential. But then also did not suffer injuries/ get worn down.
I do agree that it was very sad to watch Laura Muir run a PB at the Olympics yet get beaten to a medal by Georgia, seemingly out of nowhere.
However this plays out, Georgia doesn’t have many years to maximise this current good run.