Fastest kick in track history.

oldold runner wrote:

Here is Deter Baumann kicking a 24.9 last two hundred at the 1992 Olympics 5K.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ZZjC-MEHc

Where did you get this 24,9? More like 25,3 I would say. But still very impressive, especially considering the fact that he had to slow down a little bit and had to pass Ondieki.

errrrrr? wrote:

The video says the previous lap was 63.27??

oldold runner wrote:

Here is Deter Baumann kicking a 24.9 last two hundred at the 1992 Olympics 5K. He is boxed, slows down to get out of the box and still runs 24.9. The 400 before the final 200 was in 53.4ish, that's a 1:19 last 600 meters in 13:12 5k. That is some fast running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ZZjC-MEHc

Well, I should have had my reading glasses when I looked at the video. Looks like five without them.

oldold runner wrote:

errrrrr? wrote:

The video says the previous lap was 63.27??

Well, I should have had my reading glasses when I looked at the video. Looks like five without them.

Maybe looks like five, but is six.

53 is impossible, it was 63.

Oh, my mistake!

I mixed "oldold runner" with "errrrrr?"

Thanks to everyone for a great thread, especially the guy who placed it and George Malley, a great competitor.My selections have already been mentioned, but maybe two anecdotes might be of interest.

I live in Washington, DC, and Abdi Bile competed for George Mason Uhniversity in suburban Virginia and stayed in this area. Whenever I am in a taxi and the driver is from Somalia, without exception, he knows Abdi. For years, abdi ran a business in suburban Virginia where he wired money back to Somalia from emmigrants who settled here. He is much loved. Unfortunately, I recently heard -- and I can't verify this-- that his business was closed because of the political situation in Somalia, which is virtually ungoverned, and the possibility the fund transfers might end up in the wrong hands.

Second, long after his career was over, Jim Ryun was doing some promotional work at the Cascade Run-Off in Portland. He decided to enter the race. a friend of mine, a very good masters runner, passed Ryunaround the nine mile mark of a 15 Km. Erik said in the last few hundred meters of the race, he got an up close and personal look at what many world class athletes had witnessed thirty years earlier: The Ryun kick. He said it was an absolute thrill.

Steve-O wrote:

Ovett's kick was legendary, without doubt one of the best ever when it came to changing pace in the last 200-300m. He started life as a sprinter and always had incredible natural speed. One of the best examples on video is his 1977 World Cup win:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7GogWlv7Q

His penultimate 100m was staggeringly fast and despite easing up and waving to the crowd with 70m still to run he clocks 25.xx for the last 200m. The look on John Walker's face at the end tells the story. As Malmo says, terrifying!

Who is the announcer in that video? He sounds like the announcer in other videos of that era, and I wonder if he was the official announcer of the circuit.

College Guy wrote:

Who is the announcer in that video? He sounds like the announcer in other videos of that era, and I wonder if he was the official announcer of the circuit.

Ron Pickering

announced many races back in the day for the bbc along with David Coleman and Adrian Metcalfe

said88 wrote:

oldold runner wrote:

Here is Deter Baumann kicking a 24.9 last two hundred at the 1992 Olympics 5K.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ZZjC-MEHc

Where did you get this 24,9? More like 25,3 I would say. But still very impressive, especially considering the fact that he had to slow down a little bit and had to pass Ondieki.

From my 1992 Track and Field News Olympic issue. Thats is what they wrote.

John O'Donnell wrote:

I live in Washington, DC, and Abdi Bile competed for George Mason Uhniversity in suburban Virginia and stayed in this area. Whenever I am in a taxi and the driver is from Somalia, without exception, he knows Abdi. For years, abdi ran a business in suburban Virginia where he wired money back to Somalia from emmigrants who settled here. He is much loved.

John, I second that about Abdi. Every Somali I've talked to in the D.C. area also lights up when I mention or ask about Bile. Thanks also for the perspective on the Ryun kick. Kind of like flying a Cessna 172 at 7000 feet and seeing a Lear jet ascend to altitude. A real holy sh#t moment.

bangalangadanga wrote:

Cacho's ~50.0 last 400 at Barcelona.

So freaking doped, it's just silly.

Awesome to watch, nonetheless.

What's freaking scary is he had another gear in that last 100.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=guse_orfEmY#t=193s

So, true. After running a 50 he still had enough energy to jump around...everyone else gasping for air thinking: "What the hell just happened?"

Cacho was amazing there but look at Rachid El Bashir last 200 meters especially the last 100 meters. That`s very fast! I think he could have even some chances to win if he haven`t been so far and locked in traffic when there was 200 meters to go. But overall an amazing race and Morceli didn`t have a chance there!

0/10

oldold runner wrote:

Here is Deter Baumann kicking a 24.9 last two hundred at the 1992 Olympics 5K. He is boxed, slows down to get out of the box and still runs 24.9. The 400 before the final 200 was in 53.4ish, that's a 1:19 last 600 meters in 13:12 5k. That is some fast running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ZZjC-MEHc

That is a very poor quality video of the race, which makes it difficult to read the clock at the 200m line.

If you look at this slightly better version of the race;

you can see the whole of the last lap. Baumann goes through the bell in 12:16.6, hits the 300m from home mark in 12:32.2, the 200m from home line in 12:47.3 and the 100m line in 12:59.8.

So we have a last lap of 55.9

last 300m of 40.3

last 200m of 25.2 (not quite 24.9)

& a last 100m of 12.7

His 100m from the bell went 15.6, 15.1, 12.5, 12.7

So his penultimate 200m was a fairly slow (for an Olympic final) 30.7, and his fastest 100m was from 200 to 100 out, which he covered in 12.5.

ccrunner609 wrote:

Bob Schul closes out gold medal 5000 in 64 with a blistering 37 last 300 on a soaked cinder track.

On all weather it would of likely been a 34-35 seconds effort. Way faster then anyone today.

I think you're exaggerating a tiny bit there!

From the video on Toutube,

you cannot clearly see the 300m line (1500 start line).

However, you can see the 200m line, & Schul crosses that before the clock changes to 13:22. I'd say it was around 13:21.8. The finishing time was 13:48.4, meaning his last 200m was well over 26.0. About 26.6. They went through the bell in around 12:53, making the last 400m around 55secs.

So in order to have run a 37 last 300, Schul would have run the 100m from the bell to 300 from home in around 17 secs (68 400 pace) and the back stretch 100m in around 11 flat.

That just didn't happen. His last 300 was around 40 secs. I doubt it was inside 40 flat.

someone had to do it wrote:

the cancer guy wrote:

I've always wondered about the "has anyone ever closed in under 50 thing" before. Memory is not serving me well at the moment, but, I want to say, in all the threads such as this, I have never seen 49.... yet. It's always 50.4 or 50.3 once all the replies have come in. Nonetheless, that's just amazing. Seconds faster than I could run a 400 flat out on my best day downhill in a storm.

Ryun did it, and on a cinder track nonetheless.

Where and when?

Can't believe no one has mentioned Sebastion Coe yet

malmo wrote:

Oslso has a small 6 lane track.

"Had". Bislet was rebuilt in 2005.

coe12345 wrote:

Can't believe no one has mentioned Sebastion Coe yet

I think I did!

Ok, just for you i'll mention that the fastest last 100m ever in a championship 1500m was Coe's 12.1 in Moscow 80, and that at the end of a last 700m in 1:33.2 (1:46.5 800m pace).

He also ran the fastest last 100m (12.5) that I know of at the end of a 3:32 or faster 1500m (or Mile equivalent), in Zurich 84.

Most of Coe's best kicks appeared in 800 races, and I think the OP stipulated 1500 or longer races!

But Coe has run the fastest ever last 100m in an international 800m (11.3 in a 1:47 European Cup race in 81) and you can see him run a 24.1 last 200m in another 1:47 European Cup race in 79 on Youtube. In that one he ran the entire curve in lane 2, going past traffic, and eased up waving at the end about 40m out. Probably worth 23.5 had he been on the rails and gone flat out to the finish.

Cacho seemed like the Ovett of the mid/early 90s. He didn't care that much about chasing times as he was always looking around. He also had a 3:28 1500m PR and a devastating kick. He beat Morceli and Nyangabo in 97 and almost caught El G.

I would be curious about his training regime during his peak years.