Mo Farah told us today he thinks he could have run 12:45 in his prime.... Agree or disagree?

Isn't it "Mohammad"?

PickleRick wrote:

Using Emma's win is a dumb example. She's a cute, blonde, American girl who looks like the kind of girl you dated in high school. She's relevant to you and I and we're excited when she wins.

Looking back at high school the girls I dated were reasonably good looking but none were anywhere near Emma in the looks department. Either you look like Paul Walker etc or you were hung like a horse 🐎

Who knows whether or not Farah doped, but it is pretty clear that times from today are not comparable with those from the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Out of competition testing for EPO and later the biological passport did not, and does not prevent doping, even when it is administered effectively, but they do set upper limits, at least for the highest profile athletes. EPO and later blood doping was undetectable (or more accurately: was not routinely tested for) when Geb, Bekele, El Gerrouj and Komen set all the current world records from 1500m to 10000m.

Those times were set by four different athletes over less than ten years. They won't be touched any time soon, and they will increasingly be viewed in the same way that we now view women's sprint records.

https://sportsscientists.com/2016/08/world-records-fossils/

I don't think Mo Farah has had the right training program to make him run a world record times or somewhere close to it. Even if he did get that kind of training, he would probably get a career-ending injury from overtraining. Remember that he's training with the Nike Oregon Project, one of the best training programs that prepares athletes to get medals in championships instead of chasing times.

Mo Farah is only good at what he does and it works for him. It's even amazing that he was able to uphold his legacy since 2011. Yes, he has very good strides and can cover the ground smoothly enough to stay with the pack, but his ferocious kick on the last lap is what makes him unbeatable. (I only wished Galen Rupp had been there training with him more often these past years so that he'd have better results - it can't be just Mo Farah)

I can see that he's aging(but he can still be competitive - check out Bernard Lagat) that his kick isn't as precise and deadly as it was before. He'll be 35 to remind you all. So I don't think he would've broken his PRs in the 5K and 10K on track in those past years.

Gold medals are remembered long after world records.

Farah is an all time great.

Geb a greater one.

Koeman is a very good runner but akin to butch Reynolds ie freaky times but lacks the medals...

To be the best you must win some world golds!

Kid running after kipchoge wrote:

To me this whole interview is not legitimate. What is this crap?? Talking with an athlete about what he could have done if only he had tried? Unless the interview is a criticism of Farah's legacy, and it doesn't seem so, I don't accept the legitimacy of making such an interview! Farah doesn't even have to run anymore? Now he just has to "could have run"??

Maybe asking him about distances he doesn't compete like 400m or 800m, but asking him what he could have done about the distances he ran dozens of times??

What he could have run is what he ran! Nothing more!

I don't accept your legitimacy as a person.

Honestly your posts here are pretty much useless.

Sucking off Kipchoge wrote:

Kid running after kipchoge wrote:

To me this whole interview is not legitimate. What is this crap?? Talking with an athlete about what he could have done if only he had tried? Unless the interview is a criticism of Farah's legacy, and it doesn't seem so, I don't accept the legitimacy of making such an interview! Farah doesn't even have to run anymore? Now he just has to "could have run"??

Maybe asking him about distances he doesn't compete like 400m or 800m, but asking him what he could have done about the distances he ran dozens of times??

What he could have run is what he ran! Nothing more!

I don't accept your legitimacy as a person.

Honestly your posts here are pretty much useless.

Bite me

Kid running after kipchoge wrote:

Well this is how Farah will be remembered- the guy who "could have" but never did. Some legacy

Good joke.

4 Olympic Golds, 6 World Golds and 2 World Silvers.

The guy who could have.

meg the great wrote:

Isn't it "Mohammad"?

If you see him driving a van run! Run and hide! Too soon?

Querfeldein wrote:

Who knows whether or not Farah doped, but it is pretty clear that times from today are not comparable with those from the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Those times were set by four different athletes over less than ten years. They won't be touched any time soon, and they will increasingly be viewed in the same way that we now view women's sprint records.

https://sportsscientists.com/2016/08/world-records-fossils/

This. 100% agree.

It is not just Farah who can't touch these times (

Querfeldein wrote:

Who knows whether or not Farah doped, but it is pretty clear that times from today are not comparable with those from the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Those times were set by four different athletes over less than ten years. They won't be touched any time soon, and they will increasingly be viewed in the same way that we now view women's sprint records.

https://sportsscientists.com/2016/08/world-records-fossils/

This. Agree entirely

It is not just Farah who can't touch these times (12:40 and under), nobody can.

We currently call Farah's competition weak etc. and that he is not as 'great' as Bekele et al. for not being able to do these times.

But after a few generations of the finest that East Africa can produce, with increased knowledge in training, strength and conditioning, nutrition and recovery programmes, nobody is within 8 seconds of those times. Gebremeskel and Gebriwhet ran 12:46/12:47. The young Kjelcha ran 12:53. These are great great times and perhaps they are equal in quality to the aforementioned greats.

Testing is much better, and times in these events are much slower. Particularly when we are talking about EPO.

Events where maximal oxygen uptake is critical such as the 3000, 5000 and 10,000, where EPO is more effective, we have seen a dramatic decrease in quality.

The marathon relies more on efficiency; more oxygen doesn't directly help it's how efficient your body is, it's easy to get enough O2 in the marathon.

In the 1500 and below there are many other factors at work.

(repost)

the first 3 times were done pushing from start to end.

Farah has always won races with a sort of sprint of variable length.

So Farah was one capable of doing something between 12.40 and 12.46.

"..Well I think there is a tradeoff. It's hard to chase times and peak perfectly for the champs."

This is so obvious to any thinking person that it comes as a surprise to me that it needs repeating so often on these boards.

Farah decided that winning golds was more important than chasing times in artificially created situations. Some people may disagree with his priorities, some would argue that he got it right.

Whatever, I think that this is the reason why of all his track PRs only the 1500 represents what he could possibly have run at those distances.

More interesting debate; do you think he will have a successful career on the roads and what do you think his marathon PR will be by the time he ends his serious running career?

Londoner wrote:

Gold medals are remembered long after world records.

Ok, quick test.

Who holds the 5000m world record?

Who won the 5000m at the 2000 Olympics?

Just saying...

No, I never said that. Read again what I said. I put forward a POSSIBLE reason why Farah didn't attempt to try and break the 5 & 10 k WRs.

I clearly stated that I had doubts about all 3. But IF all three doped then it cannot be denied that the era Bekele and Geb competed in was one where it was far easier to cheat (mainly because they were from countries where their National federations had NO testing out of season) and where they could have taken as much EPO as possible without being caught. Farah's dominance has. Even in a period where not only has it been far more difficult to get away with it, but also the benefits to performance (through micro dosing as opposed to as much EPO as possible) would have been far more marginal.

im not sure if were just discussing distance runners or all runners...

if all runners... bolt, jesse owens, steve prefontaine, and roger bannister are in a class of their own. probably with bolt as the most famous.

laying down the truth wrote:

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

BUT DIDN'T

...think of the career he could have had. Wasted talent.

asdfasdfa wrote:

Kiddiidyyd wrote:

Too bad that he never ran it. He must regret it now. Had he actually done it, we may consider him GOAT. Oh well...

Without setting a world record or coming close (i.e. 12:45 isn't close) you aren't going to be considered the GOAT.

That being said other than that one race in 2012, nobody has come close to 12:50 in like 10 years. At some point they might need to add the asterik to all those 1995-2010 times from the undectectable EPO era.

I disagree. Yes, I think the current generation of athletes can't touch the current set of mens distance record's. Yes, the current records exist because of drugs. However, to suggest that Farah, his NOP/Aden compatriots, and all of the east africans running with him, are clean at all is laughable. This is why I hate the post 2005 WR idea, todays athletes are no more credible then they were back in the 80s. Doping will always be 1 step ahead of anti-doping agency's.

Also, the 2012 paris race suggest something else. Several athletes today are capible of sub 12:50, but I think there has been a "Mo effect" that people now just run to win. Watch any diamond league race. They will ask for moderate pacing of around 12:55 pace, then the best athletes in the field will sit in the middle of the back. The people up front are second tier athletes, so when the pacers drop the pace slows dramatically until an actual competitor in the race takes it, at the race is won in 13:05 or so. This is what 90% of diamond league races are. Occasionally you will get a race like paris, where the pacers really push the pace and the athletes commit to it after they drop. That's why the athletes in that race got such fast times. They weren't better than the other athletes of their generation, they just had an actually paced race.

rojo wrote:

So right there you have a great example of why I think Geb is greater than Farah. People always say Farah doubled so many times. So what?" Do you not think that Geb's 1997 World 10k gold (after running a trial) and 5k world record in the span of 7 days is better than Farah winning a 10k and 5k (without 10k heats)?

Without a doubt the best thing you've ever posted Rojo. Well done.