Have there ever been championship 10ks as slow as recently?
The 2012 London 10k was won in 27:30 ... about 1:13 off the WR. The 2013 Moscow 10k was won in 27:21 ... about 1:05 off the WR.
Now the Commonwealth Games and the Euro Champs are won in 1:40 and 1:50 slower respectively.
Before you rip into me, YES I realize that Championship racing is NEVER ABOUT THE TIME and I don't expect them to be fast races like Zurich or Brussels or Monaco. I realize THAT IS WHY they have races like those DL meets.
What I mean is that if you look at Championship 10k racing, historically the world has had some pretty fast races:
72 Munich - 27:38 WR, and everyone in top 10 set a NR
76 Montreal - 27:40 - second fastest time for Viren - still a top-5 time all-time
78 Prague - 27:30 - 8 seconds off WR, deepest race in history with a bushel of NRs.
80 Moscow - 27:42 - now 20 seconds off WR
83 Helsinki - 28:00 - a DEADLY slow race - still only :38 off WR
84 LA - 27:48 - SLOW race - still only :35 off the WR
87 Rome - 27:38 - still only :25 off the WR
88 Seoul - 27:21 - fast race - only :08 off WR
So, IO know my examples are ancient (but the gap from the WR is ZERO to 38 seconds), but if you look at the results from (the much more frequent WC meets) of the 90s and 2000s, when the WR had advance mightily, the same trend holds up: Championship races are still won regularly in 20-40 seconds SLOWER than WR.
Why are we at DOUBLE that amount the last several yrs? Yes, DOUBLE that. Besides WAY back in 2003 when Bekele and Geb ran the last 5k under 13:00 and Bekele won in 26:49 (still a relatively big chunk {:27} behind the WR) the 10k championship races have been :50-1:50 behind the WR.