What a DISASTER. Name an event that has imploded worse than the men's 400m...

What about that American who also ran a good 200. He placed in the World's or Olympics.

Or Triple Jump

Things at the present moment are pretty dismal.

But we should admit that we had a few good seasons of HJ with Barshim very nearly breaking Sotomayor's WR on several occasions, and a few other guys over 2.40 (Bondarenko, Drouin, Protsenko), and Vlasic doing the same on the women's side.

Also, for the TJ, a bunch of guys over 18 meters for several seasons, and Taylor got very close to Edwards record. Obviously the womens TJ is being actively reinvented.

Lots of near misses of some really old records, indicating that there is in fact hope even it if doesn't look like it right now. The LJ on the other hand has looked pretty ble

This is actually crazy. For comparison, in 1968 the 1500m world record was 3:33.1 by Jim Ryun. Recently, 14 guys just ran faster than that in the slowest 1500m race on the circuit (London DL).

I would guess that whoever wins the world title this year will be the only one to break 44.0 in the final.

norman's strange. i remember his interview after he bombed in tokyo. seemed fine one minute and was sobbing and couldn't continue the next. i get that he was devastated--he wanted to show out in tokyo, but iv'e always thought there was something off in his comportment, a certain immaturity, which i'm guessing goes hand-in-hand with his inconsistency

titan submarine. what do i win

Yes, that’s exactly what it is. Way harder training, way less prestige. The best guys in the world to run the 4 would be the best guys currently running the 100/200 (with some exceptions). Lyles, knighton, tebogo would all be at the top in the 400.

Honestly the 400 is a weird event for me as a viewer as well...almost seems like it’s too long to be run in lanes, but too short for there to be any interest in the middle of the race because there’s no tactics and they’re staggered until the final stretch...you pretty much just wait to see who’s leading off the second turn and watch the race from that point. When watching meets I’m much more entertained by the 1, 2, 8, and 15

Barshim is another perfect example, he receives a ton of financial support from Qatar. Without that he likely would have moved on to something else.

There's no cash in the 400 like in the 100.

And the 400 is hard.

The other thing that has left a bit of a vacuum in the 400 at the international level was the retirement of Clyde Hart down at Baylor. Hart had a training system that was perhaps less brutal than most (lots of 200m repeats) and yet still produced world class 400m runners. Hart's athletes like Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner tended to have fairly long careers.

400M workouts are extremely hard. The reason that Kerley & Norman drop down to the 100/200 is part wear and tear on your body and financial. As I said before the 400M workouts are so hard and taxing on your body. I don't think people who have never trained for it realize how the workouts tear down your body. It's a reason why 400m runners don't run as many races when you have to train, get on a plane, run on one days rest if that and try to recover. There is a reason why you don't see consistent sub 44's, the body can only do that so many times a season, it's hard. Look at MJ's 1999 season when he ran 43.18, he wasn't even running consistent sub 45's.
On the financial side of it you can run 100s every day. You can run at a Diamond League meet on Sat and then hop on a plane and run another 100 at a Continental meet the next day. You can't do that after running an intense, competition level 400 and traveling the next day. Heck, you can run a 100 and 200 at the same meet and collect two checks. So you can make more money with half of the training and wear and tear on your body.

Yeah, but what if Adam Goucher decides to come back this year and runs a 43.20 next week, automatically bumps one of those guys off the team based on time and speed. Poof! Done with imploded 400m. What say you?

Alberto Juantorena won the Olympics in 1976 running a then-WR 1:43.50. Sadly, that time would have won last year's WC. Men's 800 has been stagnant for decades. The event at the top has progressed due to a few standout individuals like Coe, Kipketer, Rudisha, but as far as depth goes the event hasn't moved forward.

THANKS BRANDON

JuVaughn Harrison in 2021 jumped just 2.5 inches less than that and 2 Americans jumped within 6 inches of that indoors this year.

Yes, his stupid participation in a touch football game with has been stars that were inetnt to show they 'still had it' was in October 2017, costing him firstly the Comm Games (early 2018 and again 2022), WC 2019, OG 2021...did I miss anything.

Apparently obese ex EPL soccer player and current coach, Bennie McCarthy landed right on him..ouch

Makes me appreciate the longevity LaShawn had even more.

Also OP had CLEARLY never heard of a little guy by the name of MATHEW BOWLING !!!

Do you thinknhumans will continue getting faster FOREVER.? Serious question.

Isn't JH the #1 ranked high jumper in the world? The one who placed first at Doha and Florence? He's a disaster because he doesn't have the mechanics you prefer?