Callum Elson only ran his second ever mile in 2022. now he's world silver medallist

It was a mickey mouse competition, could not believe how weak the fields were. Joke of a competition from World Athletics.

The reality is that if you are not 3:30-3:32 in the UK these days then you don't have a hope in hell in making the UK team.

He has his own podcast with two other runners, so you can listen to him talk through his training every week.

1 - Hobbs KESSLER - 1:45, 3:32
2 - Callum ELSON - 3:35 down from 3:40 this year
3 - Samuel PRAKEL - 3:47.7 Miler
4 - Maël GOUYETTE - 3:53 Miler
5 - Kieran LUMB - 3000m NR Holder
6 - Ryan MPHAHLELE - 3:32, Top 8 at World XC

and then of course not mentioning the day featuring Weteji, Hailu, Kipyegon, Kejelcha, Kipkorir, Chebet, Taye, Kemboi, Gebhriwet, Jepchirchir, Kipkemboi, Hull, Tanaka...

You're right, just a bunch of nobodies showed up... or are you only rating an event if it features Jakob?

The thread title makes Elson’s silver medal sound more significant than it really is.

Couple things on your resumes: Prakel isn’t a 3:47.7 miler except on a net downhill road course, and Mphahlele was only top-8 at World XC in the mixed-relay, not the individual race.

Elson ran a great race against primarily 3:35 guys, with a few faster PRs mixed in. The only finalist from any event in Budapest in this race was Reynold Cheruiyot, who must have been hungover or something.

Credit to the athletes who placed well, but these honestly are weak “World Championship” medals, particularly in the men’s mile.

I love how you mention their PRs, as if that somehow proves your point...yes these guys are nobodies on the world stage. 3:32-3:35 is NOT competitive. Only one of these qualified for Budapest and he failed to make it out of the first round.

Yes, the women's field was good. The half marathon fields were excellent. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the frankly embarrassing quality in the men's mile. Happy for Hobbs but man it had better be more competitive in the future.

Do they cover his training in college that was an exact copy and paste of Cooper Teare/Cole Hocker’s training under Ben Thomas?

You can only run against those that bother to show up.

It's a shame the competition was watered down. If they want to retain it as a multi-event championship, the WA should consider moving it to February and run it alongside the indoor season. For the top class mile and 5k athletes, this came at the end of a long year. If they held it in February, some of the top athletes might prefer an outdoor road race rather than indoors, the Kenyans don't usually race indoors so this could provide them with something other than XC early in the year.

his social media is annoying. yeah we get it dude, you use to play football. Will never make a team on the track. Maybe an indoor team if the 10 other GB guys ahead of him don't show up.

Callum is the GB version of David Ribich, effectively.

Well the issue is it's paired with the World Half Marathon Championships, which should have a global title event at least every 2 years.

But if you want strong fields maybe this is the way for March timing:

Year 1: World Indoors // World Cross
Year 2: World Road Champs

Alternating years, though they do have the new relay in Cross, which will impact the 1500/3K runners who could do World Indoors.

Callum Elson DII legend

Callum Elson has as many outdoor world championship silver medals as Jakob Ingebrigtsen this year.

I would say kudos to the selectors...

I knew someone would say this. It’s (obviously) true, but the entire point is the best athletes didn’t bother to show up.

He's also The Distance Project on YouTube. Improved a lot this year by going semi pro and done some trips to Europe to race. Actually trains about 30 miles from me with the Cambridge and Coleridge club which is one of the top running clubs in the UK.

This Post made me laugh. The poster essentially makes the runners seem much better than they are. I went ahead and added some comments above on recent form as a race on October 1st would not what someone ran in say April or May of that year.

The guy is just a normal person trying to run fast. Props to him for smashing it in the oppotunity he did and for making content while others sit on the sofa and complain. SHoes companys should be looking at him as hes got more personality than 15 EPO chugging kenyans combined