BRITAIN - AGAIN THE WORLDS LEADING 800m RUNNING NATION

Mark Sesay or Martin Steele?

Being an American, I think the Americans on this message board had better shut up. When was the last time we saw 5 guys in a domestic meet run 1:46 or better in early June? Much less 5 guys who are 24 years and younger? If I were British, I would be excited about the future of 800m running in the UK. Those are solid, solid times. I will bet two of those guys go 1:44 low later in the season.

As for Cram, his era was not 1985-86 (honestly, does anyone on this board pay attention to the history of this sport?!). From the late 70s into the late 80s, the man was a force from the 800-3000. You didn't win the Commonwealths and Euros back then without being great. It just so happens that his best years were, unfortunately, non-Olympic years (or even WC years). If he'd stayed injury free for longer periods of time, I have no doubt Cram would have gone 3:45 or faster. Quite possibly one of the most naturally talented milers of all time. And one of the most hilarious-a great guy to know.

I'd just care to point out that having been in america and spent a large amount of time there, your thoughts about teeth are slightly skewed.

Imagine my surprise when at a party, some guy come son the mic and says they're switching to the green and blue lights or whatever they were, so there i am, surrounded by reasonably attractive girls (nothing to get excited over), when the lights change.

next thing i know, i'm surrounded by a bunch of witches who's teeth are now glowing BRIGHT FLOURESENT GREEN due to the huge amount of bleech you dopey americans subject your teeth to. this also happened in every night club in america! Excuse us Brits if we don't want to have our gums retreat back into nerves which medical evidence proves occurs due to the excessive dental treatment!

oh and by the way, is it just plain ignorance or are you claiming that every single person in the entire united states has perfect teeth? because for a country so diverse in the monetary scale as yours is, i very much doubt every trailer park, homeless person, rejuvenation programme has an adequate up and running Dental Care program. My advice - shut your smug mouths, and save the beaming pearly white smiles you've spent thousands on or taken a huge wage cut to get and save your smiles for people who give a crap about what you say. Go smile in the mirror, Because your boring everyone!

You'll have to excuse them, they only just rank above Germany when it comes to comedy and humour.

The dental joke thing keeps getting churned out because they can't think of anything else thats funny.

It's boring. The people who make the 'joke' are boring.

As for the comment on Becky Lyne, she ran 1:58 so I hardly think that's something to criticise, in terms of finishing in 2nd place to someone running a Kenyan and Commonwealth record.

I mean a Kenyan record and 3rd commonwealth all time (Janeth Jepkosgei).

Yeah there were some impressive breakthroughs. There's no reason why we shouldn't still be competitive at 800/1500 on world stage, times haven't moved on that much since the early 80s unlike the 5k/10k.

As someone mentioned these guys are all young especially Rimmer and Hill 19/20??? In fact is Rimmer still a junior? so there's way more to come. As for the women, with Becky Lyne, Lisa Dobriskey, Kate Reed we have some exciting times ahead. Wonder where that time puts Lyne on the uk all time lists?

Becky Lyne is now third on the UK all time lists.

thats promising, but i wouldnt make a declaration like that until someone wins something significant, like a wc or a golden league or something. ncaa is very promising though.

i am a big fan of british running though and would LOVE to see a comeback. just a bit early to call like GW Bush ala the 'victory' of the war in iraq

What happened to Ricky Soos? He ran well in Athens, is he still improving?/

turkey leg wrote:

Is this the real Sebastian Coe?

Is this the real turkey leg?

I thought I had you for dinner last Sunday...

It's really sad when a person has to go stealing an innocent peice of food's indentity on a message board. There should be a law against impersonating delicious meals.

dental jokes aren't funny, I can't see why people want to try and entertain themselves by posting dental jokes on an athletics forum.

The English always have had the best sense of humour, John Cleese would be turning in his grave, if he was dead and then as a result had a grave.

UK 800 runners are definitely strong, but compared to America their 1500, 5k, 10k, and Male Marathoners are still lacking. Last year 7 American's got the WC A standard in the 1500. Only Kenya had more A standard metric milers than the US. Also 5 US 5k runners broke 13:20 in 2005.

Lets not forgot that Lukezic made the WC indoor final this year and then preceded to run a solid 3:54 mile outdoors. This guy will soon be beating East just like Webb does now. Don't forget about 3:53 miler Myers. He is lost now but will come back.

In short the US is better than the UK in every distance event with the exception of the 800. That could also change if Krummenacker and Robison find their game.

Even without Webb the US is slightly better than the UK at mile running.

US milers that will give UK milers absolute fits.

Lagat 3:44 (simply the best in the world)

Webb 3:48 (erratic, but ranked 7th by IAAF 2005)

Myers 3:53

Lukezic 3:54 (3:34 1500 WC indoor finalist)

Krummenacker 3:54 (3:31 1500!)* Krummenacker has a faster 800 pr than any active UK 800 meter runner.

Darkhorse

Jason Lunn (30+ year old ran 3:55 indoors 06, actually has beaten faster East once)

With this talent East would have to work to make the US team.

yes but how many of these were born in the US?

I would a few are African. Many of the young stars are born in America. I am talking about runners such as, Hall (13:16 5k), Ritz (27:45 10k), Webb (3:48 mile), Myers (3:53 mile), Johnson (1:44.9), Dobson (13:15 5k), and Lukezic (3:34 1500). That is solid A standard talent from the states. Lagat and Meb just make things even better. In short the American born runners are pulling their weight. In the 2004 Olympics two Americans got medals in the Marathon. One was born in African and the other the US. I would say that is a nice solid mix. America is after all founded on immigrants.

Things could be looking up for UK distance though. What the UK needs now is more runners who can break 13:20 for the 5000 and 3:55 for the mile. East can't carry UK miling alone.

Tosser, I am from T&T but I currently reside in the USA. Fair enough, I will not make fun of the dental hygiene of Brits anymore, I am sorry, I will move on to another topic.

What do you call a beautiful a woman in England? a tourist.

English men have large penis's

It was certainly great to see these 800m boys perform so well but there's a huge difference in running a BMC paced race and performing in Championships.

Did you see the result of the AAAs Championship 10,000m, also held at the Watford meeting?

The guy who took the bronze medal didn't get below 30 minutes!

In the past he probably would have been denied an entry.

A pal of mine ran 14:15 for 5000m in his County Championship some 30 years ago and was considered too slow to be accepted for the South of England Championship over 5000m let alone the AAAs