Rai Benjamin on the 800: "If I really wanted to… I think if I seriously ran it I could probably run 1:44." Fact or fiction?

agree with this so much. I have a 49 second kid right now with a natural proclivity for distance. Ran an 18:30 hilly 5k with no training/no mileage. I told him i think he is definitely capable of a 1:52 after some time, and one of the first things he said was that he was afraid his college coach would make him run cross. I couldn't even tell him it's not true. All I could say to him is that a good coach would have him as part of the team, AT MOST, but with sensible base training for his event, without expectations for cross results. But I have seen so many high school coaches abuse 400 runners during cross, trying to squeeze every last second out of them for an event far out of their range.

Dobek spent a year training with the best polish middle distance coach in history (former coach of Czapiewski and Kszczot). After that year he lost his speed and went back to running just 1:46. He is trying to go back to 400m right now. He showed great aerobic capacity in the last years - after just a year he was able to run tempo run of 3:20-3:10/km with very low lactate level of 2-3 mmol. That is unusual.

But Dobek never was a world class sprinter and never would be.

Based on your title, are you asking if it's fact that "he said it" or fiction that "you made it up that he said it?"

Otherwise are you asking whether we agree or disagree with his opinion?

Also, he's not even saying he could run 1:44. He's just saying he thinks he probably could but acknowledges he'll never try because it wouldn't even be a great time, and from the context it seems he's implying a 1:44.9 would be in the "1:44 range he implied"

So yeah, I have no idea and don't care about that, but I'd like a better thought out question.

Britton Wilson ran a 2:02 800m indoors, which was competitive but not on the same level as her 400/400mh. I think the speed endurance core 400mh training wouldn't be too dissimilar to 800m training for the more 400/800 types (Mu, Hodgkinson).

Harald SCHMID | Profile | World Athletics

20.6 44.9 47.4 144.6

Schmidt was a speed guy, so the top 3 400H today, can go 144 for sure, but it depends on the training for over distance, have they ever done it?

Two words.... Harold Schmid

20.68, 44.92, 47.48, 1:44.83

Letsrun does not care that an African American can run fast over 800.

Most athletes that step up to the 800 run their PR/PB in the first year and then go backwards, for exactly the reasons outline above. They spent too much time working on their weakness and forget their main asset, their speed.

I don't know. I believe any human with that much speed cannot also have the endurance for an 800m. 600m, yes. But 800m, I don't think so

It's hard not to laugh - it's 2004 again and we are all talking about how smooth Wariner is and how easy it should be for him to run an opening lap 7 seconds slower than his PR and then how easy it should then be for him to "just" run one more lap in 53 seconds.

Seems like this happened to Brandon Johnson as well, since he popped a 1:43 in 2013 and then returned to type running 1:46 in subsequent seasons. I do wonder how much of this is also just injury because I'm sure that's an issue for someone used to sprinting volume stepping up. Don't know enough about Dobek to say if he's been plagued with injuries but a similar thing ended Fiasconaro's career, since he just couldn't stay healthy but I believe he also had issues even when training for 400.

These are all reasons why I think 1:44 would be tough for Rai because he'd be coming up against all of these challenges but probably even more so because he seems like more of a pure sprinter.

He’s being modest. He could go 1:41 under the right conditions

I mean even Nick Symmonds ran a 1:42.9. I don’t think it’s unreasonable that Rai MF Benjamin could do better

Wariner is a sample of one. All sub-20.25 men are not the same. J Wariner's 800m effort was in 2015. J Wariner was 31 years old in 2015. J Wariner set his 200m p.b. at age 22 and his 400m p.b. at age 23. To say J Wariner was on the back 9 of his track & field career by 2015 would be an understatement. Let's say you're a 37.5 200m sprinter today. I cannot make generalizations about men your age because you may sprint 200m in 37.5.

Really? So you think RB could join the 5 men in history who have broken 1:42? This seems to be a stretch but you can say anything, however outrageous, because he says he is not going to try.

Don't think so. Edwin Moses thought he could be competitive at 800, too. He actually ran 1:48.98. Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner gave the 800 a try and struggled to win a 1:53 race against weak competition. Track and field events require specific training for each event.

This guy was pretty good at 400H/800:

worldathletics.org

David PATRICK | Profile | World Athletics

David PATRICK, United States

Open link

Looking forward to the easy double gold in Paris and breaking Rudisha's WR in the 800 then, Korir and Wanyonyi got nothing on this guy!

I say no way, his 200 time says he is a sprinter and there is just a physical difference between a middle distance runner. If he was only a 21x 200m sprinter that would suggest better 800 potential.