2 athletes start 200m apart in the track; first one to catch the other wins. Who will be the best in the world?

Kipchoge wins, 200m lead is a bit to much, it would be more interesting with 100m start (on indoor track)

100m lead I could see a 800/1500m guy winning overall

That would be a long distance runner's game. Even dropping a 1:40 800 is not enough, because Kipchoge can easily cover 600 meters in that time since that's only 1:57 marathon pace. It would be more tight with a Cheptegei. Take his 12:35 5k: Kipchoge might not be able to do 4800 meters in that time which is 13:07 5k pace.

Mekhissi-Benabbad wins this race. Anyone who catches him will just get punched and pushed over before the can pass him.

Cheptegei could put 200m on Kipchoge by 10k.

bump this is actually a very interesting thread

I feel like a good match up would be two people who's specialties overlap a bit. So a 1500/5k vs 5k/10k guy or 5k/10k vs 10k/HM guy. Will speed overtake or will endurance grind it out?

I think if the matchup is too polarized, speed would be heavily favored. If too close, the race would take too long and endurance would win. Finding a good match for Kipchoge would be difficult since he's too specialized in Marathon. Someone 5k or below would probably be able to catch him within 1-2 miles. And anything 10k & up I think Kipchoge would run them into the ground.

A more interesting matchup might be Ingebrigtsen vs Cheptegei. On the other end of the spectrum, Fred Kurley vs Grant Holloway might be fun to watch.

This would be a fun post-season workout for a high school team. I may steal this.

Practice visualization, race tactics, surging etc; could be interesting. My guess is they would do way too much way too early and have to run lactic- decent potential for some benefit here

Some sort of pursuit race on an indoor track could be fun! It's the best form of velodrome racing in cycling.

Then why did it die so fast ? I do find it interesting. And it doesn't have any signs of Deno posting constantly being a know it all.

Agree a 5 or 10km guy would catch him up. He's not going to have the10km pace he had years ago. Is there any current top marathon runner who can go sub 27 they could hold on?

That's correct based on their 10,000m PRs.

But he wouldn't put 200m on Bekele by 10k, who would presumably put 200m on Cheptegei sometime before 26 miles.

So, Cheptegei would beat Kipchoge but not Bekele.

Bekele would beat Cheptegei but not Kipchoge.

Kipchoge would beat Bekele but not Cheptege.

It's all about match-ups. No one would be the best in the world at this.

+1, incredibly real

You guys are missing the true potential of this format.

Take a participant pool of convicted murderers. Match them up roughly by age and weight. Give them 3 weeks to train. Put them 200 meters apart on the track and fire the gun. Winner gets life in prison; loser gets executed on-the-spot. Broadcast fees go to the victims' families.

This is a good thread, but I think Kiplimo would definitely be the best in the world at it. 7:26/12:48/26:33/57:31 is insane range. Plus between September and December 2020, he ran 7:26/12:48/57:37. Jakob, Cheptegei, and Kipchoge are all lacking in some way that prevents them from catching him, and on each of them, Kiplimo either has more endurance or more speed.

Also, he's shown he can go nutty running on his own at a suicidal pace. If you recall his 57:31, he ran his 5k-15k split in 26:37, which would be the #2 fastest road 10k ever behind the 26:24 WR. He also split through 15k in 40:27, 38 seconds faster than Cheptegei's 15k WR. And he still held on to break the HM WR. So yeah, I don't think there's anyone else in the world that could even put him under threat.

I'm taking Larry Murphy FTW.

The winner would be a great sprinter who is smart enough to cut the track, run on the infield and catch the other early, or even reverse course when the other is about to catch him. You never said this was not permitted.

It would be fun, but 200m is too long for anyone but your fastest runner to win. I was 1:59 and someone else on my team was low 1:50’s, but he only was 5 seconds faster over 1 mile and 20 slower over 2 miles. Over 5k, I was faster by nearly 1 minute.
If he’d go all out, he’d get within 100 of me, but I’d pull away soon after.

I think it’d just turn into a time trial ranging from 5k-10k.

He's not going to put 200m on Bekele at any point.

And Bekele would eventually pass him as they approach 26 miles.