Is Yomif Kejelcha the best runner to have never won anything big outdoors?

Sileshi Sihine has 5 outdoor silvers and a bronze with 12:47/26:39 prs. Plus two medals at World XC back when it was a much bigger deal. Had the misfortune of running at the same time as Bekele.

I feel if he ran the 5k in 2019 he would have won. He was a clear #2 to Cheptegai that year. With his mile PR as fast as it is I wonder why he bothers with the 10k.

Seeing how Kejelcha is still a pro runner and only 24 it's not really appropriate to use the word "never." I think Kiplimo would be the better runner to have NOT YET won anything, based on his PR's.

I would probably have to place Henry Rono above Kejelcha.

Paul Tergat? Not counting XC

It's insane to me that Kejelcha is only 24. It feels like he has been around forever and he is always on the shortlist of favorites any race he shows up for. It would be a shame if he can't pull off a big one at some point-- my most distinct memory is him missing the indoor mile WR by .01 then getting cucked by Tefera a week later for the 1500 WR.

Well if he is 24 then he ran 7:53 at age 15 and 7:36 at age 16.

Tergat’s 5 XC and 2 world half titles count to me.

No offense to the incredible Mr. Rono but based on personal bests he’s not in this conversation.

And based on world records Kejelcha is not in this conversation.

Daniel Komen

Komen won worlds in 1997

You cannot compare runners from different eras. You don’t think Rono, with all of the technological advances would be running much faster today? Rono and Ron Clarke are the two names I immediately thought of

I agree, when we’re talking greatness. Taken at face value (times and performances), current runners would dominate runners from previous generations (not mine, as they were EPO fueled). He’s just a “better” runner than Clarke or Rono, not greater.

Perhaps I should have clarified what I meant by “best”. If you lined up all the guys who have never won anything at their peak fitness and had them race (not counting all the benefits that *could* have been had with the advent of training, shoes, nutrition advances, etc), who would run faster than Kejelcha at any event, mile thru 10k?

Not sure I’d bet on anyone else to beat him, which is why it’s so baffling that he’s never won anything of note.

Webb should be in the conversation. He was on top of the world in July of 2007, but he only got 8th in the final in August of 2007 in Osaka.

With WRs in the 3k, 5k, 10k and steeple?

theres probably tonnes of these people they just get forgotten about

still time for him to do a mo farah though

is mo the worst to have won everything?

Sileshi Sihine, Hagos Gebrhiwet, Silas Kiplagat — there're plenty of great athletes who won a lot of Diamond/Golden Leagues and ran super-fast with no global titles. In 2015 and 2017, he was inches away from the bronze medal in both instances. He didn't run poorly, and the guys that beat him weren't flashes in the pan at all. I'd say Tokyo was his first real underperformance and it seems like that was due to injury.

... and then he got the Indoor Mile WR.

It does raise an interesting question - what would you prefer: a global medal (WC or Oly) or a WR? I personally would rather the latter but from conversations I've had with teammates everyone seems to go for the former

Surely though every competition there HAS to be a winner. There will always be a WC or OC, but there is no guarantee that a WR will always be broken