World Champion Emma Coburn Expresses Doubt that Beatrice Chepkoech's World Record in Steeple is Clean

The analogue of this, would be if there were someone like 15sec slower than Emma's (old) national Record, maybe 5th in USA all-time, who "called out" Coburn herself as a doper, for all the reasons given against Beatrice.

Not quite. The issue is not the relativity between Coburn and BC, or a runner say 15 secs slower than Coburn, but the size of the gap between BC's wr and everybody.

I like Coburn but the big issue here is she’s a mediocre flat runner. Can she break 4 minutes for the 15? Can she break 14:40 for 5k? There’re plenty of women who can hit these marks, so pristine hurdling it not why wouldn’t they spank you in the Steepld if their form was good.

Sorry - but you are wrong. Do the math for marks made in the last 10 years. The difference is closer to 5.5%. I was being generous in my previous example. For a better example, Kejelcha ran 7:28 this year and Cherioyout 7:27.5 in 2011. Those are the two fastest flat 3Ks in the last 10 years. At a 7.5% differential, those times would equate to only an 8:04 for the steeple. Obviously, there are many, many faster marks. Kipruto - at 7:53 (and Koech at 7:54) is at a differential of approximately 5.3%. 473 seconds for the steeple x .94.7 = 444.6 seconds or 7:27.9 for flat 3K. So that is a difference of 5.3% - no where close to 7.5%. The effect of the barrier height is difficult to measure - I'll grant you that.

Coburn is the real world record holder.