ColinRyan&Dad wrote:
There's one aspect that no one seems to be giving any thought to: the psychology of breaking the 1:42 barrier.
Wanyoni broke it! Once he did that - becoming the 1st this season to run 1:41, he set the bar - and showed that it was possible. Then 3-4 guys ran 1:41 in same race (they new it was now possible - and if you cant run that fast, you are not worthy); next thing you know Marco Arop runs 1:41.20 (a PB by 1.5 seconds); Hoppel runs 1:41.67 - a PB by a second, and a NR by 0.67). Then Crestan, PATTISON, run low 1:42s, and 2 other Kenyans run 1:42.08.
Back in the day - when Bannister first broke the 'impossible 4minute mile' - suddenly others came out of the woodwork and did it. Within 4 years it was 3:54.5. The 'psychological barrier was broken.
Back in July, when Arop's PB was 1.42.85 from 2023 (remember he was world champ that year) - he watched 6 runners run between 1:41.48-1:42.43. Imagine what must be going thru his mind.
Bottom line is ... he had to re-set in his mind to what was possible - and raise the bar of what he had to do - and he did it - running 1:41.20.
Was he fitter than he was in 2023? Of course, he must have been, BUT - the psychology of the mind has to account for some (a lot ?) of that improved times - not just for him but for Hoppel and all the others.
Was better drugs a factor? I don't think so - otherwise, why did it impact ALL these runners in the same 2 months this year, but not other years? I don't buy it.
Also - look at the 400m hurdles. Check the top 8 times from each of the last 10 yrs - they were crap times 8-10 yrs ago (few sub 48s), then all of a sudden, these last 4-5 yrs there's 3 guys regularly running 46s.
Karsten broke the barrier, then De Santos + Raj accepted the challenge and upped their game.
Bannister was the first to apply science to track training. Landy was the first to use serious, for the time, mileage to train. Back then running was an amateur sport people dabbled in - they just did whatever and knowledge of training methodology wasn't widely available.
There hasn't been a 142 "barrier" since maybe the 1990s. Coe broke 142 in the 80s and he was viewed as the best there ever may be, but by the 90s it was kind of accepted that it would just take the right athletes and it was just a matter of time for any given sub 142 performance.
If anything, I'd look to training methodology and tech to explain the depth of track today.