I don’t even like Mo Farah but this is ridiculous. Someone with his combination of 1500m speed and 5000m strength is going to be competitive in any era. I would pick Mo in a championship race over all of the low 12:40s guys this year and it’s not even close. Nobody wins 10 global championships by getting lucky.
Mo would have never contested the WR in the 5000 or 10000, but I will admit he was born to win championship races. He was specifically built to be able to handle the first 4200 or 9600 and kick like nobody else in the final laps.
Some people characterize him as a "master tactician"... I think that label is overused. He was good at tactics, but Idk if he was a "master". A master is someone who is clearly inferior yet can use solely tactics to get victory. Mo used tactics but was clearly the superior championship racer and kicker.
Mo is certainly an all-time great but didn't have the complete package of having outstanding marks in his main events. Top 10 in my book but not the best.
I’m tired of seeing people here act like Mo Farah was mid. It drives me insane. His medal run during his reign was absolutely insane and completely unmatched. Just unreal. And let’s not act like this was solely the result of a kick. The reason he kicked so fast was because of his supreme fitness. He closed a championship 5k in 1:49 for christs sake!!! Could close in 52 in low 13s 5k races. Act like he couldn’t have beat anyone at any time. Not even mentioning the RIDICULOUS 1500 he dropped out of no where. Let’s not pretend he couldn’t have medaled there too if it had been his focus. And a range up to a 2:05 marathon. Cmon. Yet people here want to act like he’s an afterthought just to praise off Bekele or whoever. Pfft
Please don't use the word "mid." It's a lazy and stupid word.
He absolutely wasn't as fit as the best runners even during his prime. He also missed a few doorbells while he was at home and not even that made him fit enough to get any major records.
He was a good championship runner and had an awesome kick but was mostly lucky that the 5/10 fields were weak between Bekele and the current crop.
I don’t even like Mo Farah but this is ridiculous. Someone with his combination of 1500m speed and 5000m strength is going to be competitive in any era. I would pick Mo in a championship race over all of the low 12:40s guys this year and it’s not even close. Nobody wins 10 global championships by getting lucky.
Yes Sir!
You can say all you want about Mo Farah, but you can't say he wasn't a dominate championship runner. Mo knew how to win...PERIOD! An amazing range of fast times from 1500m to the marathon. The one thing a lot of people on this board don't realize is that WINNING races is the primary goal of any elite athlete. If a fast time is accomplished in the process of winning, then so be it. It's EXTREME rarified air that someone can achieve setting a WR and also win major championship races. As they say, "Times will come and go, championship medals last FOREVER and can never be taken away".
With super shoes, modern cocktails & training I would assume Mo would be kicking butt even in today's competition. You don't think Saladbar would be on top of the catching edge stuff everyone is getting away with at the moment?
I’ll stick with what I’ve always said about the Farah era. He was a great tactician with top speed and a good engine. He did have an abnormally weak era as Bekele/Kipchoge/Lagat were all done and Cheptegei/Jakob/Kiplimo/Kejelcha et al were yet to come. Love Hagos but he’s a ferocious competitor (and great win last week), but not an otherworldly talent. After that his biggest rivals: Tanui, Jeilan, Gebremeskel, Ndiku, Isaiah Koech? All good runners but not sure if any were top-end talents.
This post was edited 22 seconds after it was posted.
He absolutely wasn't as fit as the best runners even during his prime. He also missed a few doorbells while he was at home and not even that made him fit enough to get any major records.
He was a good championship runner and had an awesome kick but was mostly lucky that the 5/10 fields were weak between Bekele and the current crop.
Agreed entirely.
Most people forget he didn't ever run world best times. But he was a great championship racer. Even then, you know he was in the middle of the Salazar Slime for his entire prime.
My favorite part of the Mo doping investigations regarding L-Carnitine and other substances was when they asked him, under oath, if he had been injected with any substances while under Salazar. He said that he wasn't, despite the doctor's notes saying he was injected with many times the legal amount of L-Carnitine.
His lawyers then took a break and advised him off to the side for a few minutes.
They came back, and Mo was asked the same question again. This time he said that he had been injected, but he didn't know what with or with what amount.
The 10000 meters in Beijing 2015 was the greatest championship race over that distance. Scorching heat, yet a 27 flat victory time. Five men still together with one lap to go - Mo, Galen and all three Kenyans - the Ethiopians had been dropped, one of them even lapped if memory serves us right.
That's your Mo World Record right there if you want one - noone has probably ever run that fast in such high temperature - change my mind!
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