Shopping hour wrote:
rekrunner wrote:
We can always speculate about what could have been.
My conclusion wasn't a conclusion so much as a statement of historical fact based on the complete set of examples.
We're not speculating on what could have been. We are strictly using what happened.
Our statement was based on a complete set of examples of their races over that range of distances.
It's more meaningful.
My favorite race was the one where they both jogged a mile in 3:45 and 3:46 .
It would be meaningful if all the athletes involved tried the same for all the events from 1500m to the 5000m.
What happened is, in the '90s, excluding El G and Komen, the next best was Morcelli, 3.08 seconds slower in the 2000m with 4:47.88, and Geb in 3000m, 4.42 seconds slower with 7:25.09.
Could Geb have run faster in the 1500m, mile, 2000m, and 3000m? Maybe. Speculation.
Could Lagat and Ngeny run faster in the 2000m? Probably. But speculation.
Could Lagat and Ngeny run faster in the 3000m? Probably not as fast as Komen. But again, speculation.