Who are some names of least known great distance runners?

Don't know if anybody has mentioned Brownie Ross 8 time Sr. National AAU championships from cross country thru 30 K. Winner of NCAA 3000 steeplechase,P an AM Games 1500(1951), memebr of '48 & 52 OG teams.

Pekka Paivarinta (spelling)excellent in international XC, solid from 1500 meters on up.

Ian Hamer of Wales. Awesome talent.

Ian Hamer. Now there's an excellent addition to the list of undeservedly obscure distance runners. He ran 13:09 for 5k. It's hard to believe he made it this far without being mentioned. Good one, billzeebub!

Naville Scott was indeed a great great from New Zealand. He ran 1956 Olympics in 1500m final along with Halberg. He used to run bearfoot on the grass track, didn't he, Kim?

I remember Bill Scott Fukuoka marathon one year, tying with Chris Wardlow, it must have been either 1978 or 79. Very smooth runner. I remember there was another guy from Australia--long hair and wore glasses. He's from the same mining town as Steve Monegehtti's from (Ballarett or something...). Very powerful 10,000m runner. I thought he would do great in Moscow or LA... I don't know what happened to him.

Now I just remember this name and, he might have already been mentioned and he's by no mean "unknown" but... Craig Virgin. Two time world cross champ! I remember watching 1977 (or was it 79?) World Cup track & field 10,000m... No, it must have been 79 because Frank Shorter was the US representative in 10 for the first ever world cup which was held in 77 in Germany. Anyways, the battle between Yifter and Virgin was, once again, a Titanic battle. I remember Virgin led most of the way like a locomotive and, obviously got irritated and came almost to a complete hault to let Yifter lead. But...as fast as Virgin was, he was no match to the "shift" of speed of "Yifter the Shifter". I just loved the way Yifter duck down his head and go...

It's amazing that Yifter was still around. He first appeared on the international scene in 1971 when he ran against Pre and Stageberg in the US-African dual meet in North Carolina. He miscounted the laps and started his kick too soon. He tore up the track on his "last" lap and then stepped off. Pre continued and won the race. But Yifter's kick was jaw-droppingly decisive, and he was supposedly 33 years old way back then.

Add Doug Brown

Halberstadt ran for Oklahoma State. I think there was another South African there called Peter Kaal. Halberstadt sort of bounced around between the US and RSA for a time and was in Boulder last I knew.

If anybody, HRE would remember... Anybody remembers John Ngeno? He went to WSU and competed against Pre several times (can't remember if he beat Pre or not...). I remember him going to Europe in 1975 and running some outstanding 10,000m against runners like Shorter, Paivalinta, Usami and Kvalheim. I think he was right before Samson Kimonbwa (was that his first name?) at WSU.

I believe John Ngeno was NCAA 6 mile champion in 1974. Yes, he was there right before Kimombwa. I don't think he ever did beat Pre but won't swear to it.

Did we get Tom Laris yet?

Brandon Moen. Barely missed the treadmill world record because of treadmill problems- some saboteur unplugged it to prevent a small town boy from Minnesota from gaining world fame.

A_Goofy_Runner wrote:

Beikoku tamashi wrote:

Definitely, marathoner Ahmed Salah from Djubouti.

Love the name of his home country. Sounds like a lyric from Sir-mix-alot.

Nice one. That's acutally my first running memory - I would have never recalled his name. I was six years old at the time and watching the race with my dad (a non-runner, and of course at 6 so was I... although it could be argued that we're all runners at 6). If I recall Salah was leading in the latter stages of the race but was getting run down by the Italin who eventually won (Gelindo Bordin). I was crushed, as I was desparetly pulling for the man from the country with the funny name.

Djibouti won the first Marathon World Cup in 1985 - other members were Djama Robleh and Charmarké Abdillahi. Robleh's best was 2:08.8 ran, Abdillahi's 2:10.33 - all from a country with a population of less than half a million (at that time).

Cheryl Pedlow pioneer woman marathoner. I beleive she held the world record in the early seventies. Can you tell me her daughter's name?

Cheryl Pedlow Bridges Flanagan first woman under 2:50!! your answer is .... Mrs Steven Edwards

http://www.eliterunning.com/features/21/

This is advertising. And what is so great about running 2:50 for the marathon?

Last I knew, Halberstadt lives in Broomfield, about 10 miles from Boulder. He is a partner with another former South African, Mark Platjes in the Boulder Running Company. Last race I saw him run was a sub 18 5 km in Boulder at age 55. Great guy.

Glenn

Did he run for the Pacific Coast Track Club after college?

Wow, I can't believe that no one has yet mentioned the great British miler Frank Clement, even though he finished fifth in the Montreal 1,500 meters in 1976, which was a full second ahead of Rick Wohlhuter, who finished sixth. Wohlhuter wasn't even a specialist in the 1,500, but he is the most underrated American middle-distance runner from the 1970s.

history student wrote:

I'm curious of some of the lesser known greats out there. There's got to be some runners in the past that have done great things but somehow are overlooked historically. Who are some and what did they do that made them great?

Thanks

I didn't feel like reading the previous 17 pages of posts, so I don't know if he's been mentioned already but I would say that Bob Schul is a lesser known great. He was the 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist at 5k. And I believe he had the world record for 2 miles at one point.

I can't believe that no one has yet mentioned the Canadian Art Boileau on this thread. He ran 2:11:15 at Boston, finishing second.

Bob Schul has been mentioned already.