Eight hundred meter performance is an acquired skill. I don't know what you are arguing. Of course 800m performances are strongly correlated to 200m ability.
John Carlos, who was around J Ryun more than you were has stated J Ryun to have been a 44.xx 400m talent. I wouldn't go that far. I would put Ryun in the 46.50 to 46.99 range, assuming if he sprinted fresh based on his 1 mile training. If Ryun were adopted by then East Germans or then Soviets and told from age twelve to train as an 800m man, a bit faster than my above estimated range for Ryun.
I cannot find a f.a.t. 400m for Ralph Doubell either. Based on his 600 yard dash performances, I estimate R Doubell's 400m ability, about 45.50. R Doubell was a contemporary of Ryun. Over the years, there have been discussions: What if Jim Ryun raced 800m, 1968 Olympic?
You're looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses - something I am accused of. (Juan Carlos, by the way, was known for his tendency to exaggerate. 44x was Tommie Smith's range - a 19.8 runner over the 200).
I have to disagree. A few months before the 1968 Olympics, Smith ran 44.5, beating Lee Evans, who would obviously go on to run 43.86 at the Olympics. Considering SJSU training at the time, it is very, very likely that Smith was a 43.x guy.
Also, Smith was the first person in history to split sub 44 (43.8) on a relay, which was a month or two after that 44.5.
A guy in my high school class won a small school state championship in the 400M with that time! Now I realize these are world class athletes and it's not the first split, but MAN, 48.68 is ridiculous.
When someone says 4 x 400m relay split, you should be thinking this:
the athlete ran between 380 to 420 meters, with a running start, hand timed by his/her coach using the stopwatch app on their phone, who was not standing anywhere near the exchange zone, and may or may not have been wearing their glasses.
When someone says 4 x 400m relay split, you should be thinking this:
the athlete ran between 380 to 420 meters, with a running start, hand timed by his/her coach using the stopwatch app on their phone, who was not standing anywhere near the exchange zone, and may or may not have been wearing their glasses.
4x400 runners almost always run close to 400 meters. but yeah, there are some coaches who are very bad at getting splits. I don't trust any splits besides my own. It's an event I take great pride in, and competition to be on our squad is tight , so I take getting splits very seriously. there are definitely guys who take splits from the middle of the infield or who just aren't conscientious about getting the split at the line.
Although the race itself was fairly pedestrian, (to be fair,it was being run on a points basis)Farah's blistering last lap of 50.89 seconds in windy conditio...
No it’s not bait, it’s a fact. Mo Farah couldn’t break 12 seconds in the 100m. I don’t care about some hand timed, running start split. Doubt this guy could ever break 51 seconds in his prime. Did I say he can’t run a fast lap in a strategic 5k race?
You're looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses - something I am accused of. (Juan Carlos, by the way, was known for his tendency to exaggerate. 44x was Tommie Smith's range - a 19.8 runner over the 200).
I have to disagree. A few months before the 1968 Olympics, Smith ran 44.5, beating Lee Evans, who would obviously go on to run 43.86 at the Olympics. Considering SJSU training at the time, it is very, very likely that Smith was a 43.x guy.
Also, Smith was the first person in history to split sub 44 (43.8) on a relay, which was a month or two after that 44.5.
We are not disagreeing. I recall Smith's relay leg from '66. At altitude he could well have run faster than Lee Evans, who he beat before the Olympics. The point however is that whatever Carlos claims, Ryun was never going to be a 44x guy.
Why is it news if a mid distance runner can run a 48 split?
I expect better from a 3:32 1500 runner. That was the original deal with him, right? Dominant kick and wins the 5th place medal at the Olympics.
Nick Symmonds could only run a 48, and slowed to 3:35 over 1500, and is among the slowest 400 times of any 1:42/3 800 runner. How can a 3:32 1500 guy only run a 48? Unless he's just slacking. Cole should try harder.
I have never heard it described as "wins the 5th place medal at the Olympics."
If this is the best you can do with average effort, step up your effort.
"In light of the previous night’s downpours and the ominous clouds that hung in the sky over Lawrence on the morning of April 23, 1966, the organizers of the Kansas Relays expected no more than 5,000 spectators to show up for the day’s track event... They saw the long jumpers use a grain elevator’s conveyor belt for a runway... On April 23 of that year, with his 19th birthday less than a week away and storm clouds gathered overhead, Ryun took to the rain-soaked track at Memorial Stadium and shattered the 12-year old Kansas Relays mile record by more than seven seconds. The KU prodigy admitted that the wild cheering of the unexpectedly large crowd “spurred him on” to the fifth fastest mile in American history. His time of 3:55.8 represented the best time anyone in the world had yet recorded that year... Later that day he anchored the freshman mile relay team for KU and despite receiving the baton 20 yards behind the leaders reeled them in with a 46.9-second quarter-mile to give his team the victory."
I'm glad someone found this! I remembered the 46.9 quarter mile split from Ryun.
Reminder that a quarter mile is slightly further than 400m. If he had decided to train for the 400, sub-46 makes sense.
"In light of the previous night’s downpours and the ominous clouds that hung in the sky over Lawrence on the morning of April 23, 1966, the organizers of the Kansas Relays expected no more than 5,000 spectators to show up for the day’s track event... They saw the long jumpers use a grain elevator’s conveyor belt for a runway... On April 23 of that year, with his 19th birthday less than a week away and storm clouds gathered overhead, Ryun took to the rain-soaked track at Memorial Stadium and shattered the 12-year old Kansas Relays mile record by more than seven seconds. The KU prodigy admitted that the wild cheering of the unexpectedly large crowd “spurred him on” to the fifth fastest mile in American history. His time of 3:55.8 represented the best time anyone in the world had yet recorded that year... Later that day he anchored the freshman mile relay team for KU and despite receiving the baton 20 yards behind the leaders reeled them in with a 46.9-second quarter-mile to give his team the victory."
I'm glad someone found this! I remembered the 46.9 quarter mile split from Ryun.
Reminder that a quarter mile is slightly further than 400m. If he had decided to train for the 400, sub-46 makes sense.
Since that's a relay time it would convert to about 47.5 from blocks. To say he was capable of sub-46 is to similarly suggest a 45.5 runner is capable of 43.8 when they aren't a sprinter. It wouldn't happen. Ryun was a 22s runner over 200; he wouldn't put two of them together at less than a second for each 200 slower than his best over that distance.
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