The Men’s 1500m WR was set by a 23 year old

We actually don’t have many who can run 3:26xx.

What about this soft athlete of 2025 ? Then talk about ELgarouj the king of 1500m

Please learn English.

I thought about this the other day - as much as we like to hold onto these memories of El G, Lagat, Ngeny as gods because they were doing their stuff in our youths - it just doesn't add up.

The killer of the myth isn't just just their top end performances - it's the relative performances of their peers and putting that in context of today. The fastest "legal" 1500m of the last 20 years is Jakob's 3.26.74. And as the best guy of this generation (at least in terms of just how straight up fast a human can run 3 3/4 laps), he's still got a decent buffer over the rest - next fastest man up is Habz at 3.27.49 and then these guys also in the mid to high 27's (Kocker, Kerr, Nuguse, Koech). Couple of guys in the 28's and then a whole host running sub 3.30.

That kind of "spread"/distribution at the top of your event seems about right. Maybe Habz and Koech tilted things a little by running in the 27's, but given the access to todays technology - wavelight, bicarb, spikes and also event philosophy changing with more optimized training, it makes sense to me.

What doesn't make sense are the best times from 25 years ago. 3.26 in this era was just so far ahead of the pack it does not feel natural. Jakobs 3.26.73 in 2024 represents a 1.9% difference between the best and 10th best time of the season (3.30.65) and a 2.4% difference over the 20th best time. In contrast, if we go back to 98 the year of the WR (well in the very least the first time someone ran under 3.27), El G's 3.26.0 represents a 2.7% difference over that seasons 10th best time and a massive 3.4% over the 20th - that is a big difference. In 1998 El G's WR was 2.91 seconds better than that seasons next best performance by Laban Rotich at 3.29.91.

I don't think we can make a claim that the mens 1500m was a talent/depth devoid event still in maturation back in 1998 - El G just too far ahead, and it's the same in 2001 when Lagat joined him in the low 3.26's (almost 3 seconds (2.95) ahead of the 3rd best time that season of 3.29.29 from Chirchir).

I guess "bonkers" is one way to describe it ^^

Why the downvotes? How are all busts happening in Kenya if there isn't more testing in Kenya than before?

Please learn how to speak respectfully about the kings of miller,As for me, I speak three language obviously better than you, especially since you don’t even understand what athletics means.

It's to the gills, sir. Gills.

That's also not true. They busted Jemima Sumgong, Olympic champion. Silver medalist Kenyan running for Bahrain behind Sumgong. WR holder Rhonex Kipruto. WR holder Wilson Kipsang. Olympic champ and 3x World Champ Asbel Kiprop. World Champ Norah Jeruto, Kenyan running for Kazakhstan. London marathon winner Daniel Wanjiru. And more.

Not only that, but they killed Wanjiru and Kiptum, possibly 2 of the greatest marathoners I have ever seen, along with Eliud.

Fair point here. Though I think it's interesting that record progressions seemed to occur in clusters, while we're going on 5 years for the current 5k/10k

Such a shame Jakob missed prefontaine mile this year. I think it was his chance to beat the 1 mile WR..now its lost.

That shows El G was a true generational athlete. He's not the only one. Look at Bolt. In 2009, when he ran 9.58, the 10th fastest guy that year ran 9.97, nearly 0.4 slower! That's a difference of 3.9%. The two guys tied for 19th ran 10.02, which is a difference of 4.4%.

The sport has a longstanding history of longstanding records set by generational athletes. Just looking at today's men's records for championship events (excluding racewalking), the 1500m record isn't even in the top 5 for longest duration. The top 5 are:

1. Hammer, 1986
2. Long jump, 1991
3. High Jump, 1993
4. Triple jump, 1995
5. Javelin, 1996

Before Crouser broke it, the men's shot put record stood for over 30 years.

It's not limited to field events. Here are track records that lasted a long time:

• 100m - Bolt's record is going on 16 years; it's easy to see this one lasting a lot longer.
• 200m - Ditto the 100m, although it probably won't last as long as the 100. Before Bolt, Michael Johnson's record lasted 12 years, and Pietro Mennea's record lasted nearly 17 years.
• 400m - Lee Evans' record lasted a couple months shy of 20 years; Michael Johnson's record lasted nearly 17 years.
• 800m - Coe's record lasted 16 years; Rudisha's record is pushing 13.
• 5,000m - Bekele's record lasted over 16 years.
• 10,000m - Bekele held the record for over 16 years.
• Steeplechase - Shaheen's record lasted nearly 19 years. Rono's record lasted over 11 years.

Given that even a sample of 10 is relatively small, I decided to check how this holds up when you look at the top performances from the top 100 athletes of all time (

worldathletics.org

1500 Metres - men - senior - all

Open link

). It pretty much tells the same answer.

Mean = 24.7 (+- 3.3 s.d.)

Median = 25

Oldest/Youngest from the top 100 = 34 and 18

Here's how many of the top 100 athletes set their PR at each age:

18: 3

19: 5

20: 3

21: 7

22: 5

23: 10

24: 14

25: 16

26: 11

27: 6

28: 8

29: 5

30: 3

31: 1

32: 1

33: 1

34: 1

So, 23-26 is the golden spot. Based on this, I'd say Jakob still has a window of maybe ~2 years. Beyond that, it will really depend on staying perfectly healthy and an increasing amount of luck.

Interestingly, the mean age for the top 100 5,000m athletes is slightly younger at 24.1 (+- 4.1 s.d.) with a median of 23.5, and for the 10,000m it is even younger at 23.7 (+- 3.5 s.d.) with a median of 24). Not the way I would expect that trend to go. Btw, when I removed Kenyans from the 1500 list (historically known for questionable ages), the mean and median were relatively unchanged at 25.4 (+- 2.9 s.d.) and 25.

For the marathon, it's 27.9 (+- 4.6 s.d.) and a median of 27, but notably for the marathon, Kipchoge and Bekele (two of the top 3 to ever do it) ran their fastest marathons at 37 y/o. In fact, 4 of the top 6 marathoners of all time set their PRs at 32 y/o or later, and the mean age of the top 10 is 29.7 with Kiptum being the only one under 25 (who was still very much on an upward trajectory).

The teating of the Africans is very selective, obviously. If you’re a star, you’ll generally skate. If you’re a supporting player, you may be sacrificed to give the illusion of testing all and strict rule enforcement. This is why it’s almost always ‘training partners’ of various stars, or athletes on the way down due to age, etc.

Like the first guy said, most on the way down. Kiprop was having problems with his federation so they let him get popped.

And Bayi, who broke Ryun's record was 21

nah

they were running as fast as jacob couldvor would pace them.

that is not the case now

all the big guys can run 327 amongst stemselves now

326 is in the cards

laros can close in 24 high 200m in a 346 mile, so this guy can setvthe world record in the next 2 years unless something major goes wrong.

all this is based on current performance, progression based on trends, age

Advances in drug testing have occurred as well. El G was a special athlete though, regardless of cheating. He's still faster than any other cheater ever.

Those field event WRs stood for so long because they were set either in unbelievably rare wind conditions or improved beyond belief tracks. There is no doubt that Powell's long jump was due to the doped up Tokyo track specifically made for sprint records like this one. Still a phenomenal athlete, but not exactly a good comparison to the 1500m.

So if you really look at each running WR you listed, most came from an era with zero testing for EPO for a while. It still doesn't explain how with all the "benefits" runners have now that El Guerrouj was so far ahead and for so many years (nearly 30 now).