600m TT: the carnage of Nijel Amos

I agree with some of that. But consider this:

If Amos wins the Olympics next year he will have achieved what Coe never did.

If not, then I agree Coe had the better 800m career with two Olympic silvers.

Coe might have been ahead of his rivals on paper, but he never managed to execute fully when it mattered. Much like Amos to be honest.

how tf can a speed guy come through like that? holy moly...

funny cause if I had to guess by his looks alone I'd say amos for sure is a distance guy, doing the 800 for training or something

imbecile

+1

His progression in 2012 as an '18 year old' was absurd.

Then didn't get close to that form again for years.

But we know why he is ex-runner's favourite athlete.

You are hilarious. Coe, Ovett, the Inges, Willis, they all get a roll of excuses from you.

Blacks are cheaters and losers and whatnot.

haha anyway, go Nijel, clean as always towards sub 1:41!

Oh and your link?

"Even though some say he is likely to walk away with a mere warning it is not the first time for him to miss the doping test. Two years back Amos also missed the test when neither IAAF nor BAA was able to locate him on their radars."

Wow, Nijel missed two tests in two years!

Go Nijel, clean athlete flying the flag of Botswana with pride!

Yes, Coe only made two attempts to run his fastest 800m outdoors from 1979 onwards and he ran 1:42.3 and 1:41.7. He time trialled the 1000m twice and ran the equivalents of 1:42 and 1:41.

Unlike the Africans Bad Wiggins put above him, Coe was also competing in the 1000, 1500, and mile.

He also had to run in obligatory and pointless GBR vs Portugal etc races in the UK.

In 81 he had nobody to challenge him. He had one 800m time trial when not at his season peak and ran 1:41.7.

For most of that season he was challenging Ovett for the 1500 and mile WRs.

Compare to Kipketer who time trialled the 800m 6 or 7 times in.the year he finally equalled and then beat Coe's mark.

If Coe had gone for the WR 7 times in 81 he would likely have ran under 1:42 seven times and under 1:41 once or twice. With today's tracks, shoes, better competition, 1:40.5 or faster.

Not to mention Coe would likely have been at his peak in 82 and 83 without his health problems.

Coevett wrote:

If Coe had gone for the WR 7 times in 81 he would likely have ran under 1:42 seven times and under 1:41 once or twice. With today's tracks, shoes, better competition, 1:40.5 or faster.

Not to mention Coe would likely have been at his peak in 82 and 83 without his health problems.

See? Excuses for Coe.

Coevett wrote:

Compare to Kipketer who time trialled the 800m 6 or 7 times in.the year he finally equalled and then beat Coe's mark.

And this is the reason why you are known as a liar.

Kipketer time-trialled the 800 m 6 or 7 times in 1997?

Not according to the IAAF/WA:

In 1997 Wilson ran 3 indoor races at the World Indoor Championships. Hardly time-trials.

Then he ran 5 outdoor races before his 1:41.73, three of which between 1:43.5 and 1:47.9, hardly time-trials for a runner in 1:41 shape.

He then ran 4 races at the World Championships in Athens, no time-trials either, before beating his and Coe's mark in his next race.

In any case, his indoor WR was way superior to 1:41.73, and that came after two rounds, the first of which already a WR.

Why do you lie?

You mean health problems like his blood transfusion disease toxoplasmosis?

You can't escape the facts:

Steroids were legal until 1976 and not tested for until 1983.

'Suprise' testing was carried out for the first time in 1983. Before that athletes were informed beforehand that they were going to be tested at a competition.

Athletes were not tested at all apart from when competing at the Olympics Games or other major championships

Out of competition testing did not exist until the 90s.

Blood doping was legal, and widely used, until 1986.

A great study taken in 1984 at the Olympics found that 68% of those questioned were using steroids, but that 48% felt that they would support banning drugs from the sport if they could be accurately tested for.

So essentially everyone was a user, but half were using because they felt they had to.

donkeydoug wrote:

assistant to the regional manager wrote:

And how do you propose to make a single person running around an oval “more interesting”? Dress them up in purple tutus and put alligators every 100m? Any suggestions, or are you just one of those people that like to complain? You either love the sport or you don’t. Kudos to OTC and ATC for making the effort.

I live and breathe T&F and will readily admit this meet wasn’t worth watching. In fact, I turned to my wife at one point and apologized for having her sit through it. Races were dull, athletes were slow (go look back at those atrocious 4x4 splits) interviewers were clueless, no times or splits were shown, etc etc.

There’s a huge difference between being critical and just complaining. Critique all you want, but offer viable alternatives and solutions with your complaints.

Deal.

1. Film both runners from the same angle

2. Keep the time visible clock on the screen

3 .Give your clueless reporters some potential questions ahead of time so they can memorize them

4. Get some top athletes to race (OTC is stacked- where was everyone?)

5. Similar to the NBA all-star game, the winning athlete of each event gets to choose what charity winnings are donated to.

6. For the 1200 race, have the male runners run in lane 1, and a 2x 2x400 meter women's relay run simultaneously in lane two. Would be fun to watch the lead grow and shrink each leg.

7. Throw in a couple of novelty events to keep the action up. Tweet to the community- does anyone think they can break 54 seconds in a 400 while juggling? What about 4:40 in a mile while dribbling a basketball? Bring them in and attempt to break a world record, or film it earlier in the day and edit it in.

8. Elimination mile... need I say more?

9. Have athletes wear bluetooth chest straps and make heart-rate data visible on the screen. This is not difficult to do and would add some interesting data into the broadcast.

10. Beer mile

11. Do a walk-through ahead of time so commentators and reporters don't talk over each other.

12. Use some sort of boom or stand close enough that you can actually hear the athletes.

13. Allow betting/make a play-along bingo game (athlete throws up, athlete thanks God, etc)

Honestly, I've hardly scratched the surface here. But yeah, there's your constructive criticism.

ex-runner wrote:

One thing you can say is Amos is willing to push himself to a pain threshold I've never seen any other 800m guy attempt.

If he gets fit and healthy and avoids injury Amos will break the 800m WR. He has the guts to go for it.

Smart post.

I don't know why everyone is having a panic attack about a guy going out hard as hell in a race against weak competition. It was more interesting to watch than him jogging 24/25/26 for an easy 1:16 win. Probably more interesting for him to run that way, too (lol).

donkeydoug wrote:

1. Film both runners from the same angle

This.

What were they thinking??

Respect him for not being a coward and full sending it.

‘GRAND SLAM’ IS VENTOLIN

Coevett wrote:

Unlike the Africans Bad Wiggins put above him, Coe was also competing in the 1000, 1500, and mile.

Then it's his own fault they ended up above him.

Bottom line is Coe ran sub 1:43 exactly twice. And he didn't win any olympic golds either, so no point talking about medals.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Coevett wrote:

Unlike the Africans Bad Wiggins put above him, Coe was also competing in the 1000, 1500, and mile.

Then it's his own fault they ended up above him.

Bottom line is Coe ran sub 1:43 exactly twice. And he didn't win any olympic golds either, so no point talking about medals.

How many times did Ryun or Snell break 1:46? About 2 each. Does that preclude them from being all time great 2 lap runners? No.

Unlike Amos, Snell won Olympic gold (twice) and Ryun broke the 880yd WR. Snell is certainly above Amos, as is Coe and Cruz and several others.

When Coe ran under 1:43 twice, it was twice as much as all the rest of the world's 2 lap runners had ever broken 1:43. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but comparing the scene in 1980 (amateur, with a limited European circuit and numerous obligations to run in international matches) against a professional circuit with vast amounts of money and numerous pacers at practically every meet, is not a fair comparison. Most of the sub 1:43's occurred when Kipketer was aiming (on a fairly regular basis) to break Coe's WR from 95 onwards, and in the decade that proceeded in the height of the EPO era.

Coe won medals at practically every championship final or major meet he competed in from the European Indoor gold in 77 to the European Champs gold in 86, including 2 Olympic silvers, a World Cup gold and 2 European Cup golds. Amos has a Commonwealth medal and an Olympic silver, despite almost double the opportunities of winning medals that Coe had.

Personally I've never considered world records that important. They are fun and impressive to watch sometimes, but they aren't that important for the sport. Often run in low pressure environments where athletes can let loose.

What matters is head to heads, winning real races and executing a championships. That's what makes a great runner.

Coe was an all time great 1500m runner. Twice Olympic gold. One European Gold, Silver, Bronze. But at the 800m he ran a good couple of time trials. That's not the same.

Snell is an all time 800m great. Ryun, is not.

Amos beat Rudisha for Commonwealth gold. He is 3x African champion (extremely difficult compared to Europeans) and has an Olympic silver medal.

I think his career is still inferior to Coe for now, but if he gets that Olympic gold next year and then a world championship gold, it will be far superior.

Well done.