Fermin Cacho closed the 92 Barcelona 1500m in 50 seconds

Does it count as greatest when it’s pharmaceutically induced?

Cacho didnt run his best 3:28 until 97, five years after this. A PR is a PR dude!

He's a doper, who cares what his PR is

Why on earth did that fellow let Cacho pass on the inside with 200 to go?

Centro closed 16 Rios in 50 seconds.

He ran the last 500m in 1:03.

big daddy cacho wrote:

Is this the greatest finishing kick ever?

This was certainly a great kick but off of almost 2:07 at 800 it was inevitable. There are many other great kicks including Bile's '87 WC finish of 1:46.0.

From a strategy standpoint, this may be my favorite race ever. Morcelli was the heavy favorite. However, the Kenyans employed a team tactic. Kibet (1117) stayed outside of Morcelli boxing him the entire race until he could not maintain with about 250 to go. Morcelli then had to fight too much traffic to get out and going. The idea was for Chesire to run away late, unchallenged like Rono four years earlier. I think Chesire felt the pressure of Herold with 200 to go and naturally tried to force him a little wide going into the turn. The timing was perfect for Cacho to get by inside. There are a few YouTube versions in which you can hear the 60,000 fans erupt when Cacho goes to the lead and you can almost visibly see him respond. Also interesting is El Basir who goes from 8th to silver over the last 150. That was Morocco's first 1500 medal. He has a fantastic final 100 that gets easily overlooked due to Cacho. There was a lot going on in this race. I remember wathcing live thinking Spivey had a shot with 300 to go and kept pulling for him. I would love to hear his thoughts on this race.

big daddy cacho wrote:

Why on earth did that fellow let Cacho pass on the inside with 200 to go?

I've seen that last lap several times, and always wondered why Cacho looked over his shoulder so often, even when he had 4-5 meters on the field. Now that I've seen the whole race again, it turns out that it is a tic - he does it through the first three laps, too. Or a tactic to tell the competition to stay away, give him room, no mishaps. And perhaps that tactic helped him get through on the inside.

Star wrote:

Centro closed 16 Rios in 50 seconds.

He ran the last 500m in 1:03.

Yeah but the second lap was a 69. So not very impressive. Worst Olympic 1500 final by far.

if ever there were an example of someone juiced to the gills

The infamous Fuentos essentially confirmed last week he was doping Cacho for the 92 Olympics. It's unclear if even Morceli, let alone the other Africans had access to EPO at this stage, but Cacho was likely on it for some time already. If so, this was probably the last time that the biggest doper in a distance final was a European.

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

Star wrote:

Centro closed 16 Rios in 50 seconds.

He ran the last 500m in 1:03.

Yeah but the second lap was a 69. So not very impressive. Worst Olympic 1500 final by far.

A race that included 6 sub-3:30 runners is not the worst Olympic 1500 final.

peppa wrote:

He's a doper, who cares what his PR is

Dunno. Lots of people here go on about Lagats,Farahs, Kiprops, Gatlins, Colemans, Wilsons, etc etc PRs yet you didn't come here and complain before. How come?

He jogged into a 50 finish. Epic finish, epic spikes.

Coevett wrote:

The infamous Fuentos essentially confirmed last week he was doping Cacho for the 92 Olympics. It's unclear if even Morceli, let alone the other Africans had access to EPO at this stage, but Cacho was likely on it for some time already. If so, this was probably the last time that the biggest doper in a distance final was a European.

Ever heard of Mo Farah?

dedhjrj wrote:

Coevett wrote:

The infamous Fuentos essentially confirmed last week he was doping Cacho for the 92 Olympics. It's unclear if even Morceli, let alone the other Africans had access to EPO at this stage, but Cacho was likely on it for some time already. If so, this was probably the last time that the biggest doper in a distance final was a European.

Ever heard of Mo Farah?

Mohamed Abdi Jama Farah was born on 23 March 1983 in Mogadishu, Somalia

Nobody gaps the field by 7 or 8 meters in the last 100 plus turning around several times without “aid”

Yep, big red flag is the turnover he has off the final turn. Anyone who made such a huge move at 300m to go and can still gap hard in the homestretch off a slow jog burnup pace like this is definitely EPO'd out

see T. Makhloufi, 2012

Here's a sub 50 last lap. Because he was scarcely breathing after finishing a javelin thrower attempted to kill him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj8EJxCTQso

Cacho was a boss. Full control sprint. Absolute legend in Spain.

Have some perspective in life as well: the Spaniards allege Coe and Cram were doped on steroids during that era, and it will probably come out at some point in time in the future. Just like Radcliffe and all the British greats have fallen from Holmes to Froome. I think Ovett is perhaps the only clean athlete from that era.

BTW, what was that Moroccan's final 400m? I had him at 2:50.2 and he rallied for perhaps bronze?