My first instincts would say Jakob's 7:17, Bekeles 5000m olympic gold in 2008, Kipchoge running under 2hrs (even if not legal).
If we include factors like age, Bernard Lagat getting 5th in the 5000m in Rio at almost age 42 is pretty insane to me (and him winning the olympic trials the same year with final lap of 52.)
Bernard Lagat got caught with EPO in his system.he was/is a drug cheat. With what ever technicality, he got away with (B sample was stored improperly, etc...) is irrelevant. EPO was found in his A sample. How did it get there? He put it there.
Stop the bullsxxt now. Do you know the history of that test and why does not even have a warning? Among other things, the sample that is supposed to be stored near freezing was instead in almost 100F for many hours. All sorts of things can happen. And do they test for RAW EPO or just chemicals and concentrations from it.
So it is a test that raised a flag; but the correctly handled B sample showed no sign of EPO. That probably my just be viewed as a technically but it is not.
There is a pretty good record of this because not only was there an judiciation of this but a court case by Lagat. I think that the ruling was that there was no doping and even though his A sample results should not have been made public but it was sort of ruled the be a mostly honest mistake but my memory of the details is less than perfect especially about the suit. But go read the whole record. I did and changed my mind.
This post was edited 6 minutes after it was posted.
Reason provided:
Added about checking the record of his case which you can do
More than a dozen posters got my up vote and the quality of the posts are uniformly high. Of course there are many great efforts and many favorites. For me a sentimental favorite is Joan Benoit, first winning Boston as a Bowden college student. At the time here mark of 2:35:15 was exactly equal to my PB, and so was her 15km best at the time, again to the second.
But then she got Really good and won the first Woman's Olympic Marathon and I was in the stands watching.
But my top choice is Bikila's 2:15 WR followed up by his 2:12 WR.
Upon reflection I add another sentimental favorite that I watched as my birthday present in high school. It was the Coleseum Relays where Ryun ran 3:33.3[5?] just missing Michel Jazy's WR of 3:33.1; we had to wait forever for them to put up the decimal place after putting up the 3:33.
My first instincts would say Jakob's 7:17, Bekeles 5000m olympic gold in 2008, Kipchoge running under 2hrs (even if not legal).
If we include factors like age, Bernard Lagat getting 5th in the 5000m in Rio at almost age 42 is pretty insane to me (and him winning the olympic trials the same year with final lap of 52.)
Bekele's 5k gold in 2008 or Geoffrey Mutai's 2:05 in New York pre-super shoes.
Bolt’s 19.19 200m for me as well.
MJ’s 200m WR in the Olympic final was special too.
800m London men’s final with Rudisha was all-time.
Bekele’s 12:37 basically solo was amazing. There’s a video of it - watch his face
Totally agree with Barefoot Bikiila: the footage is spine-tingling.
Also up there, Paula R's marathon WR: it changed the concept and perceptions of women's long-distance running for ever. She was the fastest British person in 2003.
I don't know how Jim Ryun is consistently overlooked in these things. The kid ran 3:55 in high school 60 years ago! It was less than 2 seconds off the WR. And it would be 35 years before anyone came close to it again.
I might go with Jim Peters’s 2:20:42 in 1952 which took five minutes off the World Marathon Record at a time when the record had come down incrementally for decades — really since around the time 26.2 became the standard distance — and has come down incrementally since.
Not sure why so disagree. This WR has stood 10 years and no one is close in a very competitive field. Running 10.75 for 4 consecutive 100m is insane. This record wont be broken anytime soon
My first instincts would say Jakob's 7:17, Bekeles 5000m olympic gold in 2008, Kipchoge running under 2hrs (even if not legal).
If we include factors like age, Bernard Lagat getting 5th in the 5000m in Rio at almost age 42 is pretty insane to me (and him winning the olympic trials the same year with final lap of 52.)
If we are going by races of beauty, I would say Rudisha 2012 800m and Sifan Hassan 2019 1,500m.
Also, last year's Olympic final between Arop and Wanyoni was a beautiful race to watch.
My first instincts would say Jakob's 7:17, Bekeles 5000m olympic gold in 2008, Kipchoge running under 2hrs (even if not legal).
If we include factors like age, Bernard Lagat getting 5th in the 5000m in Rio at almost age 42 is pretty insane to me (and him winning the olympic trials the same year with final lap of 52.)
El G’s 3:26:00!! Hands down!! Ritz Ritzenhein is wrong!! This record won’t be broken this year!!
In terms of impact and era-defining achievement, it's clearly Bannister and the 4-minute mile
Terry Fox's run also has to be up there.
That’s a different type of run bruh! Maybe the OP needs to define what sort of ‘greatest’. My grandma racing a snail on the backyard could arguably be the greatest race of all time too si??
I hear hobbyjogger ostriches can run a marathon in under 40 min. Thats flying. But seriously, imagine a feakishly talented hunter gatherer on a fateful day. No home to go to devastated or otherwise No goatness to achieve. No supershoes, tracks or peds. MF and running from pure hate. Also no evidence.
Wave lights + pacemakers brings the performance way down for me. I'd have to say Mo Farah 10k in London - home games, fell early, massive favourite, field covered his every move, olympics, great field, iconic stadium
I was like - that's laughable. The only way someone thinks that's the greatest event in history is if they are British. And the IP address confirms it. So I applaud you for complimenting your own.