Mo Farah - Greatest Range of Any Distance Runner Ever?

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

The argument isn't saying Mo is the greatest distance runner of all time, just the greatest range. Range would imply doing well at shorter events and the long event. His 1500m is far superior to all of his marathon competitors. He doesn't have GOAT range right now with only a 2:06 marathon, but it is clear that after today he can probably manage 2:04:XX which, in my opinion, would get him into GOAT range territory. 3:31 and 3:28 are pretty far apart. None of the other top distance guys can hold a candle to 3:28.

EVERYONE, please read this post from ThatAverageRunner.

thanks for steering the conversation back on topic. The thread always devolves in GOAT which isn't the point, it's best range.

someone needs to make a chart of all the best times of all the usual suspects in the GOAT conversation so we can look at things objectively for this range conversation. Google Doc or something.

no speculation. no "what ifs". no hypotheticals. only based on what has been run.

5K/10K times don't matter. If Sir Mo never ran a 5k in his life he would still have a 3:28 and a 2:06 marathon.

The only guy who could exceed that range is Augustine Choge. He has a 1:44 800, a 3:29 1500, and a 59:2x half-marathon. He just needs to run a fast marathon. Rui Silva has a 1:44 and a 2:12 marathon, that's the best marathon/800 combo I can think of.

When Mo or any current-day runner runs 3:27 for 1500 and 2:03:37 at New York Marathon, they can claim to have surpassed Master Rod. And that is being generous. The GOAT.

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.

If the baseline is proximity to WRs or world rankings, Rod is the MAN!!!!!

No comparison, Kenenisa Bekele owns the WR in the 5000m , 10000m, and 2nd fastest ever in the marathon. Throw in his 3:32 1500m and he is no hands barred the best range ever, how is there any discussion.

All time list:

1500m.......top 100

5000m.......1st

10000m.....1st

Marathon...2nd

Aouita was world ranked #1 in every distance from 800m to 10,000m during various points of his career.

He won Olympic medals in two entirely different races - 800m (bronze) in '88 and 5,000m (gold) in '84.

No other guy mentioned on this thread has ever come close to matching either of those two things.

Really, the only thing Mo is faster than Geb at is the 1500m. And even there, Geb is helluv impressive for being indoors. Literally everything else, Mo is not on Gebs level PR wise.

And don’t throw out that two mile time.

Both Bekele and Gebrselassie crush Farah's times beyond 1500 meters and are in a class of their own. I do think there is an argument to be made that Kipchoge (who is probably a better runner than Farah) has greater range, though it seems less decisive than Mo vs Bek and Mo vs Geb.

ck3237 wrote:

What about Said Auiota, 1 43 to 27 25

yes, doper said could have run 142 and broke 27 in the 10k if he was so inclined to try.

then again, elg was the same.

no marathons for those guys though.

ovett had 21.5 200 or whatever with 2 mile wr, which is real strange.

coe could probably do the same. infact he won 3000 m and cross in his youth.

at the end of the day, the greatest range goes to coe or ovett,

the alien could run 46 400 or whatever and win world class x country.

i give it to coe-ovett as most versatile, greatest range.

Carlson Tucker wrote:

Bekele v Farah.

1500m - Farah

Mile - Farah

3000m - Bekele

5000m - Bekele

10000m - Bekele

Half marathon - Farah

Marathon - Bekele

Greatest range? Bekele.

Farah was defeated by Bekele in a half in their only head to head matchup at that distance and his prs from 5000 and up are significantly better. Kipchoge is also better at the 5000 and MUCH better at the marathon. Also convincingly beat Farah in the indoor 2 mile.

d2xccoach wrote:

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.

Shhh, he's white. People will get angry here.

How about we make another thread asking who the best clean athlete with natural range is?

Well at least these two were before EPO, so they have some credibility.

My candidate would be ......

Steve Ovett!

O.K., well maybe the guy who showed the most potential natural range.

Started off as the fastest junior in the country at 400m by over a second, ended by winning Commonwealth 5000m gold looking ridiculously easy AFTER being worn out and injury wrecked and coming close to death making two Olympic finals in LA whilst suffering heart problems.

In between won Olympic gold at 800m and set multiple world records from 1500m to two miles.

Defeated Henry Rono over two miles, setting the world record in the process, when Rono was having an incredible season breaking world records from the 3000m to 10000m, including the 3000m steeplechase.

Thrashed Steve Jones, future world marathon world record holder (and still British record holder until 2 days ago) in a half-marathon he entered for fun at the last minute whilst still moving up to the 1500m from the 800m.

And no suggestion that Ovett did this with any endurance drugs, unlike every other name mentioned in this thread (apart from Rod Dixon). Some of the 'everybody is dirty' school of thought have claimed he might have taken roids (on the assumption that everybody was taking roids), but even they haven't been absurd enough to claim Ovett he was blood doping.

As a couple of others have pointed out, the most impressive range combines distance greatness with real speed (which implies at least 800m).

It's clear that just about any elite athlete with a minimum of micro-dosed EPO can perform at any event from the 1500m to the Marathon and then rationalize it as 'natural superior East African master race genetics'. The really impressive guys are those like Ovett who had blazing speed AND demonstrated a natural ability to do great things at distance.

njsfjdsfds wrote:

Watch Haile v. Komen in Zurich 1997. Absolutely insane that Geb could kick the last 200m like that in a 12:41 race. I think best range 1500-Marathon would be between Haile, Bekele, and Komen. Komen never ran a marathon but I think based off of ability he could win the 1500-5000-10000 if there was enough time at the next World Championships. He would at the very least medal in the 1500 and 10000. That's just insane.

Holy crap.......he shifted with 300m to go and left Komen in the dust. That was crazy in that type of race.

You Said It wrote:

Aouita was world ranked #1 in every distance from 800m to 10,000m during various points of his career.

He won Olympic medals in two entirely different races - 800m (bronze) in '88 and 5,000m (gold) in '84.

No other guy mentioned on this thread has ever come close to matching either of those two things.

Aouita has the best range of all runners.

You have to compare PRs of the runner relative to the WR at the time.

Aouita's times were either WRs or close to the WR at the time from 800m to 10000m.

Hardloper wrote:

5K/10K times don't matter. If Sir Mo never ran a 5k in his life he would still have a 3:28 and a 2:06 marathon.

The only guy who could exceed that range is Augustine Choge. He has a 1:44 800, a 3:29 1500, and a 59:2x half-marathon. He just needs to run a fast marathon. Rui Silva has a 1:44 and a 2:12 marathon, that's the best marathon/800 combo I can think of.

Choge ran a marathon: 2:22. Until he does better, we are just theorizing. And yes, many of us (including me) are theorizing on potential range, not just actual performances. So if we are going to go there, it's clear that if guys like Choge and Silva, who have run very well for long distances also, could run a just-under-1:45 800m, then guys like Geb and certainly Farah could have also broken 1:45 based on not only their fast 1500's but their speed/kick demonstrations in 5k's. (if they had focused a small bit of energy on 800 training). I mean 3:28.8 is worth 1:42.1. Even 3:30 (which Geb was certainly capable of outdoors) is worth 1:42.7. So yes, they were not 800 runners so I would not expect them to run 1:42, but 1:44.9 ? (which is what Choge and Silva ran). They were capable of that no doubt. Again: no doubt.

I will give it to Mark Carroll-

11.1 100m to 2:10 marathon. :) Hey, if you want GOAT range, you gotta run the whooooole range to prove it.

ok let me make a list

I=indoors r=road

Bekele

1500-3:32

2000i-4:49(converted to 3:49.4 indoors)

3000-7:25-7:30i

2miles.i-8:04

5000-12:37-12:49i

10000-26:17

half-60:09(beat mo)

marathon-2:03:03

Geb

800i-1:49

1500-3:31i

mile-3:52

2000i-4:52

3000-7:25-7:26i

2smiles-8:01-8:04i

5000-12:39-12:50i

10000-26:22-27:02r

half-58:54

marathon-2:03:59

Mo

100-12.9

800-1:48

1500-3:28-3:39i

mile-3:56-3:57i

2000-5:06

3000-7:32-7:33i

2mile-8:04i

5000-12:53-13:09i

10000-26:46

half-59:32

marathon-2:06:22

feel free to add more to this list

Tyrone ReXXXing wrote:

it's clear that if guys like Choge and Silva, who have run very well for long distances also, could run a just-under-1:45 800m, then guys like Geb and certainly Farah could have also broken 1:45 based on not only their fast 1500's but their speed/kick demonstrations in 5k's. (if they had focused a small bit of energy on 800 training). I mean 3:28.8 is worth 1:42.1. Even 3:30 (which Geb was certainly capable of outdoors) is worth 1:42.7. So yes, they were not 800 runners so I would not expect them to run 1:42, but 1:44.9 ? (which is what Choge and Silva ran). They were capable of that no doubt. Again: no doubt.

Gebrselassie actually HAS RUN the 800m. 1997 and 1998 indoors in Dortmund. His results were 1:49.35 (5th) and 1:50.39 (6th). Both times he obvioulsy was in great shape which his other results before and aftere clearly indicate. I don't say these times were his limit, which obviously must be wrong. But both times Gebrselassie was close to the leaders for long time and faded badly at the end.

I very much doubt that Gebrselassie was capable to run 1:44.9 (even outdoors). I don't think he could have run under 1:46, at least not without specific training.

First of all, that's a different Marcus Caroll of a randomass D2 school who ran the 100m. Don't worry already investigated it.

Second of all, I only mention Augustine Choge's marathon potential because unlike those 800s it MIGHT happen in the future though probably not.