In my opinion, categorizing yourself as a pure "200 runner" doesn't make any sense
The 200 should always be a secondary event.
It's either you run the 100/200 or the 200/400
If you focus primarily on the 200, you're wasting talent on either the event above or the event below, depending on what your specialty is.
A 21.00 200M runner can run either 46.00 or ~10.3-10.4
Some people are just better at the 200. They just have that "it" factor for the 200 and nothing else. I train them all the time, it just happens.
In other cases, people become specialists in the 200 because a 20.9 takes them much further in HS than a 10.4 would, and oftentimes most 20.9 HS runners don't have the endurance to run much faster than low 47s. As a result, they become better at the 200 just from running it a lot and just end up become "specialists" at it.
I think Noah Lyles is a good example of this, just at a more extreme level. He didn't want to run the 400, but a 20.0 was gonna take him a lot further than a 10.1 would have to he focused on that instead and eventually became known as a 200 specialist.
World Championship Silver medallist, World Indoor and European Champion, pb of 19.87 which was the British Record for 30 years but never ran sub 10 for 100 nor sub 45 for 400.
In my opinion, categorizing yourself as a pure "200 runner" doesn't make any sense
The 200 should always be a secondary event.
It's either you run the 100/200 or the 200/400
If you focus primarily on the 200, you're wasting talent on either the event above or the event below, depending on what your specialty is.
A 21.00 200M runner can run either 46.00 or ~10.3-10.4
Some people are just better at the 200. They just have that "it" factor for the 200 and nothing else. I train them all the time, it just happens.
In other cases, people become specialists in the 200 because a 20.9 takes them much further in HS than a 10.4 would, and oftentimes most 20.9 HS runners don't have the endurance to run much faster than low 47s. As a result, they become better at the 200 just from running it a lot and just end up become "specialists" at it.
I think Noah Lyles is a good example of this, just at a more extreme level. He didn't want to run the 400, but a 20.0 was gonna take him a lot further than a 10.1 would have to he focused on that instead and eventually became known as a 200 specialist.
And some fast sprinters simply hate doing the 200. Coleman has run 19.85 but rarely runs it. IMO Coleman isn't geared for the 200 but 19.85 is hard to argue against yet I still think he is physiologically better geared for the 60/100. So my theory is Coleman intuitively knows the 200 isn't his race despite that 19.85.
Pietro Paolo Mennea (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjeːtro menˈnɛːa]; 28 June 1952 – 21 March 2013), nicknamed la Freccia del Sud ("the Arrow of the South"), was an Italian sprinter and politician. He was most successful in the 20...
I’d be surprised if Erriyon Knighton ever enjoys as much success in the 100 or 400 as he does in the 200. Might not be as sexy, but let him have his fun. And that Tommie Smith guy? He was double trouble, ffs.
