Mo Farah - Greatest Range of Any Distance Runner Ever?

Donyiyo wrote:

Seyta wrote:

Three individuals from that list deserve to be on there. Gebreselassie, Bekele, and Kipchoge.

The rest of them have either times or range that suck to high heaven in comparison to the three above. No amount of world records or medals won in the amateur era are enough to offset the fact that they would be lapped by modern-day runners on the track, or struggling minutes back on the roads. The exception is Mid-distance runners like Coe, Ovett, and Cram, who had very commendable times, but are heavily restricted to mid-distance rather than distance. They would've had to do something like El Guerrouj (winning the 1500/5000 double) to be in contention.

They all deserve to be there, end of story, now go change your diapers.

No. They do not. There are three spectacular distance runners on that list. The other distance runners are solely there because of historical nostalgia, since "old-timers" seemingly cannot let their heroes go. Running is one of the most objective sports there is. For whatever reason, certain people are incapable of understanding that a 13:20, no matter how great at the time it was, is plainly inferior to a 12:55.

If you want to take "era" into account and claim that "13:20 was otherworldly for era X", then you'd better also take into account that the entire talent pool from "era X" was more pitiful than that of modern day elite women's triathlons. Paavo Nurmi and Ron Clarke toed the line against amateurs who had to balance training with actual careers and livelihoods. Farah toes the line against legions of Africans who know that they could make more from winning a single race than they otherwise could in half a lifetime of work, along with a large population of professionals who can dedicate their lives to running day in and day out.

The amateur era was mediocre runners dominating a shallow talent pool. Awarding any sort of "Greatest of All Time" title to a guy who would get lapped in a modern 10K is basically handing out a participation medal.

Didn’t someone say Rupp would have placed top 3 in London had he run?

You obviously value times over Championships, but Championships are what it is all about.

Bekele and Gebrselassie both have better range.

I have to make a case for Kipchoge: 7:27 (not far from either Geb or Bek)and 12:46, which are as good as 3:28; and clearly, somewhere south of 2:02:50 for a marathon. He is in a league with both Geb and Bekele here, with a comparable 3K and better marathon by far. If 50K were an Olympic distance he would dominate that even more.

The standard of European, American, Australia/New Zealand running was much better back in the day, so you could say that the current Africans don't have the white competition the likes of Henry Rono etc faced.

The USA and Europe dominate nearly every other sport on the planet, and the number of elite athletes from these countries dedicating their lives to running is much smaller than the 60' and 70's. From that point of view, the global talent pool for running is getting smaller.

And yes, a lot of the improvement in times is down to EPO.

Bekele v Farah.

1500m - Farah

Mile - Farah

3000m - Bekele

5000m - Bekele

10000m - Bekele

Half marathon - Farah

Marathon - Bekele

Greatest range? Bekele.

Naturalrunners wrote:

Before you go any farther look into Kipchoge. 3:49 mile indoor: 7:27, 12:46...

How does 3:49 come close to 3:28.

Dies a runner actually have to be the greatest of all time. Perhaps we should just stop watching until at least a white American can run well. Mind you Rupp is great and still gets slagged off on here. More importantly he did it when he counts unlike Webb & many others readers here rate just off odd fast times

Farah has a very impressive range just not up with Geb or Bekele. He's ahead of Said.

But Farahs run in that heat is worth 2:05 at least. He's not far off and took down s lot of faster runners today. That field was better than any recent Olympics or Works champs

AerobicMonster wrote:

njsfjdsfds wrote:

Best range 400-1500 would be Seb Coe. He ran a 45.5 400 relay split, a sub 3:29.77 1500 out of his prime, and is the third fastest ever over the 800m. So currently he'd be an Olympic level 400m runner, a possible Olympic level 5000m runner, a fast 1500m runner who would do insanely well in championship races, and the best 800m runner outside of Rudisha.

Wilson Kipketer would destroy coe in the 800m.

He is neither 'Olympic level' in the 400m nor the 5000m.

Nonsense. Coe in 81 was running 45 sec relay legs in early June. If he'd focused on a few 400 races that year he would have been in with a good chance of running 45.4 (the 2016 qualifying mark) and would certainly have been good enough to be part of a UK 4 x 400m squad.

At 5000m, his pb of 14:06 does not represent his ability. He ran that event once as a senior and that was an early season jog for him in the Yorkshire County Champs, where he won easily.

The last (2016) Olympic 5000m qualifying mark was 13:25. Coe would also have been capable of that at any time during the peak summer months. In 78, after a season of almost exclusive 800m running (just 1 mile race), he ran 17:54 for a 4 mile race, beating Coghlan (13:26.6 that year, 83 World Champion), McLeod (13:25.2 that year, 84 Olympic 10k silver medallist) and broke Brendan Foster's (European Champion ) 1977 (a year where he ran 13:21.2) course record by 11 secs.

Had he focused on the event for a season and been in the right sort of paced race, I have no doubt he could have run 13:10 - 13:20. Of course, that's not going to be a medal threat on the global stage today, but it would have put him in the top 5 in the world most seasons then, and would also be good enough to at least get to the Olympics.

Over 800m, at his best, he would be at least a match for anyone today, and better than anyone from the last decade, with the exception of Rudisha.

Kipchoge beat Farah over the distance Farah is world record holder (2 mile indoors)

No one said Rupp, that time is what Kipchoge run indoor and if you do not think Kipchoge at his could have run under 3:30 then you are mistaken and he has fast than MO on the half marathon and the 5km, 3km and of course the marathon. The only exception is the 10km which they have similar PB, but we know Kipchoge never tried hard for the 10km. He was a 5km runner then he went to marathon when he can no longer medal on the 5km. Anyway, at this point i think Kipchoge have a better range than MO.

Zatopek!

Zatopek!

Zatopek!

njsfjdsfds wrote:

Best range 400-1500 would be Seb Coe. He ran a 45.5 400 relay split, a sub 3:29.77 1500 out of his prime, and is the third fastest ever over the 800m. So currently he'd be an Olympic level 400m runner, a possible Olympic level 5000m runner, a fast 1500m runner who would do insanely well in championship races, and the best 800m runner outside of Rudisha.

relay splits don't count, you get a flying start. Bolt ran sub 9 in the 100 afaik in a relay

800 coach wrote:

You obviously value times over Championships, but Championships are what it is all about.

range is about times

range in distance championships though

1500, 3000, 10000, half, and marathon(2nd in one 5k champ) for Geb

5000 and 10000 for mo

3000-5000-10000-marathon for Bekele(no attempts at 1500 or half)

total titles

Bekele:19

Geb:11

Mo:10(also no medals indoors even)

Carlson Tucker wrote:

Bekele v Farah.

1500m - Farah

Mile - Farah

3000m - Bekele

5000m - Bekele

10000m - Bekele

Half marathon - Farah

Marathon - Bekele

Greatest range? Bekele.

Bekele's 2000m indoors wr is worth 4:49.2-5 indoors only 1 guy better....

What about Said Auiota, 1 43 to 27 25

Flying Kiwi wrote:

When Rod Dixon ran 3:33, he was 1.5 sec behind the WR

When he ran 2:8:59, he was 41 sec behind the WR...at NEW YORK, which is easily a minute slower than Fukuoka.

Gonna be hard to beat that, though Geb with his 3:31i and WR marathon are in the discussion.

Rod Dixon was the first name that came to mind with the question posed as "Greatest Range of any distance runner ever?" Length of career at the highest levels plays in his favor too. Winner at 1500m in all kinds of international races, and his pr was the 5th fastest all-time at the time. Ranked #1 in the world at 5000m in 1975. Hugely successful on the roads, won Falmouth in 1980 against a top international field. Won at the marathon, NYC 1983. Olympic bronze at 1500 (1972). XC World Championships bronze at 12k (1982). 10th in the Olympic marathon in 1984.

I hate to bring this up because I don't want it to be so, but let's not lose sight of the fact that Farah set most of his best times in a period of a year. From 3:28 to a 59:30(?) half and a 2:08 marathon, and winning WC in the 5000 and 10000.

Now just 8 months or so from his last double WC, he is running third in London with crazy conditions (warm and first half in 61).

No other athlete, not Geb not Bekele not anyone have run those times over that range in that short of time. That pretty much seals the deal.

Now to get all Bad Wiggins on you all, Augustine Choge may actually be the "ultimate" in this category. His 800 time is something none of the others mentioned could hope for, and he's already run a 59:30 ish half. Should this guy ever move to the marathon and crack 205 and/or have some big results, he'd get my vote.

epicTCK wrote:

njsfjdsfds wrote:

Best range 400-1500 would be Seb Coe. He ran a 45.5 400 relay split, a sub 3:29.77 1500 out of his prime, and is the third fastest ever over the 800m. So currently he'd be an Olympic level 400m runner, a possible Olympic level 5000m runner, a fast 1500m runner who would do insanely well in championship races, and the best 800m runner outside of Rudisha.

relay splits don't count, you get a flying start. Bolt ran sub 9 in the 100 afaik in a relay

Who said relays don’t count?

When he ran 45.6 there, 90 mins after front running a 1:44.0, he had no flying start. He practically tripped and staggered through the line at the start, costing him about 0.5 sec.

The guy he beat was ranked in the world’s top 10 over 400h.

That was clearly someone capable of sub 46 flat for 400m.