Hypothetical race between Jim Ryun and Steve Ovett in their respective primes. Who would win?

Mean temp and max temp in LA on August 11 1984 was 3 degrees above those from July 8 1967

https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KLAX/1984/8/11/DailyHistory.html?req_city=&req_state=&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=

lol lol lol lol wrote:

ventolin^3 wrote:

you do realise the ryun of '67 couda gone sub-1'42 & sub-3'27 if on a '70s track with wabbits ???

You do realize you are an individual with a SEVERE mental illness who badly needs MUCH stronger medication in order to control your delusions and prevent you from continuing to spout such unsubstantiated gibberish?

In other words you are 20 something and the guy who favors Ryun is nearing 50. I'd go with age here. Heck you probably never even saw Ryun run or consider that the runners before you were PIONEERS OF THE SPORT AND TRAINING FOR DISTANCE RUNNING!!! Ovett would have known nothing if it hadn't been for guys like Ryun.

[quote]hemfaulk wrote:

Six inches shorter puts a head and neck area in front of the chest and nothing at all in front of the head. So, he's right that it makes a difference.

Ovett never ran faster than 1:44 when he had major incentive to do so. Ryun ran 1:44.3 at 19 after a prelim and when he was sick and he was significantly faster the next year. Ryun gets the easy nod at 800m.

Ovett ran faster at 1500m but not close to what he might have run at that time if he had the mind to do it--3:28-29. However, Ryun smashed the existing record by 2.5 seconds in one race and he ran 2:46 to close on cinder or some such surface (a superior close to Manangoi and Cheruiyot where the one drafted the other all the way and the surface and temperature were much more preferable).

He closed a 3:38 on dirt in 36/50. Dropping seconds for surface, pacing, and drafting conservatively, his times would rate with anyone but Morceli/El G/Lagat/Ngeny, and Kiprop. Doing so less conservatively would place him easily in their territory. Any way you slice it, his miles and 1500m, Ryun .

Learn to read I never said no difference. It's fractional. Since when does a head and neck measure 6 inches even for a pinhead like Ventolin. The record Ryun smashed was weak.

Show me the video of that 300m in 36.

John Wetton said he never understood why Ryun let Keino get so far ahead. He gave himself no chance. If he could run 3:26 surely he could have managed 3:35 even at altitude. Ryun had years if opportunity to run on good conditions on cinders. Hard rolled cinders is not that much slower than tartan. Tartan was introduced because it's all weather as the name implied

Ovett was a winner in big competitions. Ryun a loser.

When did you ever see Ovett lamely trip up.

I was going give this👍but Ovett was tripped in the 1976 semis, he did get up and got 5th. He did pull out of the LA 1500m too but it nearly killed him.

In short Ovett had a longer more distinguished career.

Specifico wrote:

Mean temp and max temp in LA on August 11 1984 was 3 degrees above those from July 8 1967

https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KLAX/1984/8/11/DailyHistory.html?req_city=&req_state=&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=

You're an idiot. The 1984 Oly final was run in the evening. The Sun was setting, nearly the entire stadium was in the shade, which means the track temp was the same as the weather service temp.

Ryun's 1967 race was run directly under the noon Sun, which means it was HOT, probably 90-95, on the track.

Remember, LA Coliseam is further inland thatn the airport which means coliseam temps are usually much warmer than the weather repoted temps.

Since when does the sun set at 6:55pm in LA in early August?

Looking at graph poster linked, temp in LA was 72F at that time on August 11th 84.

Temp at 1:40pm, time of Ryun's race, looked to be about same on graph for July 8th 67.

T&FN stated it was hot in stadium for Olympic 1500 final in 84.