Greatest final kick to a race

Alex ag rith wrote:

This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC__KsZDiZk

Emil Zatopek 1952 Olympic 5000 meters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qINaVe0oyx0

Emil takes a lead on the backstretch, but Chataway and the German guy sweep by.

Coming off the final turn, Zatopek finds an INSANE gear and just smokes 'em!

It's a different era, but just fantastic. Note Mimoun running for silver, he's so whipped he can barely lift his legs off the track but he wills himself to second. It underlines Zatopek's achievement.

I recall Morceli running an incredible last 400m in (possibly) his only serious 5,000m race. Think it was in 1994 and he ran something like 13.04.

Tried searching Youtube but couldn't find anything though.

SMJO wrote:

This, by far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0cyKvkcKx4

that was straight crazy. secretariat style. no wonder she was related.

Geoffrv wrote:

I recall Morceli running an incredible last 400m in (possibly) his only serious 5,000m race. Think it was in 1994 and he ran something like 13.04.

Tried searching Youtube but couldn't find anything though.

I too have never seen a video of that race.

You can get his closing splits from the awesome Morceli fan page. (http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~tetreaul/mstats.html) This page is well worth exploring as a piece of internet as well as track history--a genuine 1990s web page that is still online. Morceli closed in 51.93 in a 13:03.85 5000m. (Or perhaps it was 52.2 as reported at this page:

)

The race was at that year's Zurich meet. It had been hyped as a world record attempt. (http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/16/sports/track-and-field-records-could-be-falling-at-zurich-s-5000-meters.html) The record at that time was 12:56.16. But I have always heard that the race was run in a downpour--according to the meet website, "5.3 litres of rain per square metre between 8.40 p.m. and 9.40 p.m. - torrential conditions in the Letzigrund Stadium." (http://www.diamondleague-zurich.com/en/Meet-Info/Who-we-are/80-Years-of-History/) So the race went out too slowly and the record attempt was off.

The results are available here:

Contrary to what you usually hear, he did also run one other top-level 5000m, at Rieti that year, in 13:07.

Horst Girth wrote:

Emil Zatopek 1952 Olympic 5000 meters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qINaVe0oyx0

Emil takes a lead on the backstretch, but Chataway and the German guy sweep by.

Coming off the final turn, Zatopek finds an INSANE gear and just smokes 'em!

It's a different era, but just fantastic. Note Mimoun running for silver, he's so whipped he can barely lift his legs off the track but he wills himself to second. It underlines Zatopek's achievement.

how about the dude who takes a digger with 125m to go? awesome.

"greatest" kick? i'd have to go with Kim Conley's 5k in the Oly Trials.

sire of broad appeal wrote:

how about the dude who takes a digger with 125m to go? awesome.

He took an even bigger one a couple of weeks ago.

This is the best kick where Ereng sets the indoor world record. It is also the best call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-724HNIYJI

Wottle didn't kick. He ran an evenly-paced race, and waited for the rest of the field to die.

said88 wrote:

I can't remember exactly his time for the last 100m, but it definitely was well over 12 seconds.

post the ryun dusseldorf video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5iCsymMj0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOj0zjPzg-chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5vOhMwRQwI#t=2m25s

Billy Mills it is! Thanks to Robert Paulson and aslan for answering my thread and doing the work for me.

E/O/T

Qualifying Circumstances wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5iCsymMj0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOj0zjPzg-chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5vOhMwRQwI#t=2m25s

Billy Mills it is! Thanks to Robert Paulson and aslan for answering my thread and doing the work for me.

E/O/T

That is not the best kick, it is just an odd American kick. And Mills should have stayed with Clarke down the backstretch.

The best kick I saw came from my national highschool champs where the winner of the 800m won the most anticipated race of the meet in 1:50.2. His opening lap was 57.4 and then he kicked off hard with 300m left and closed in 52.8. It was intense.

http://nzrun.com/coverage/240513-2011-NZ-Secondary-Schools-TF-Champs/video/535754-Senior-Boys-800m-Final

again you show you have no clue

you seem incapable of watching a race & judging talent

that was an awesome run & reminds me of the leg-speed & power of a nijel of current guys

this was ereng's peak run of his career & very certainly he looked a 1'42-flat talent at worst that day

clearly you don't try to think

nonsense

no one has ever said anything about a kick having to be faster than other 200s

most fast 800 races have initial 200 as quickest

the only time in last 50y+ that the final 200 has been quicker than any other 200 in any 800wr was ryun in '66

why state the completely obvious ???

nonsense

a kick is the finish

it has nothing to do with any other 200s in the race, just relative to the field

go fetch them for an indoor 1'44 or better ???

again you are clueless & no grasp of maths

he ran last 2 curves on lane 2 line or worse - see 1'35 into race & see where his feet are

an outdoor track radius is 36.9, for indoors it is 18.45m

running whole of indoor curve ~ 1.0m wide adds distance of :

(18.45 + 1.0)*pi - (18.45*pi) = 3.14m

he did this for last curves = 2 * 3.14 = 6.28

it is clear you have no clue about maths

see above

nonsense

he ran ~ 806+m in 1'44.84, which for 800m ->

1'44-flat with no effective drafting

more nonsense

that is much faster than borza who ran 1'44.15i, which was route-1 race & no wide-running & drafting for a long way

borza ran 1'42.4 that same year outdoors

paul can be assumed to have that as an absolute slowest & likely some tenths better

again clueless

this was his peak day of his career

he had a long unbeaten run outdoors until mckean race but he went for wins, ovett-style of '77/'78 rather than chase the clock

& in '88 he wasn't spending much time on the circuit - he raced primarily to prepare for games

his budapest form indicates a guy in 1'42-flat at worst outdoors

Check this one out.

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/248556-2012-UIL-Texas-State-Championships/video/634351-G-4x400-4a-Courtney-Okolo-is-cheat-code-fast-UIL-2012#.UvNttYWmXfU

Bekele in the 10,000m in Athens. Of course it's a solo finish because no one stays near. Final 500m of 1:07.5. Together with El Guerrouj in the same Olympics some level we will hardly see ever again!

Horst Girth wrote:

Emil Zatopek 1952 Olympic 5000 meters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qINaVe0oyx0

Emil takes a lead on the backstretch, but Chataway and the German guy sweep by.

Coming off the final turn, Zatopek finds an INSANE gear and just smokes 'em!

It's a different era, but just fantastic. Note Mimoun running for silver, he's so whipped he can barely lift his legs off the track but he wills himself to second. It underlines Zatopek's achievement.

It's a great finish. Zatopek had already launched a sprint at the bell and then he looked destroyed but somehow he launched yet another sprint around the final bend on the outside of lane 2 to get around a group of 3 guys all gunning for the tape. Alain Mimoun had heavy shrapnel injuries in his legs from his action in World War 2 so he always carried a slight limp from that incident which became more apparent when he was sprinting flat out.

Another great last lap finish was Lasse Viren holding off a bunch of world-class milers in the 5000m final of the Montreal Olympics ...

Indeed Chris Chataway took a spill with 100 to go in the Olympic 5000 final vs. Zatopek, he'd kicked hard too soon and paid the price.

Here is Chataway's brilliant kick in 1954 for a world record 5000 vs. future Olympic double champ Vladimir Kuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXLX3WYFtY