Very often Borzakovskiy has been severely criticised for his unorthodox running tactics, especially his habit of running well off the pace at the rear of the field. The tactic started very early on in his career. As he was fast for his age group he was usually put in races in which his opponents were not only much older but physically stronger as well. Quite often the result was that Borzakovskiy was barged, kicked and elbowed during the contests, and as such his adopted tactics led to a smoother ride even if it meant leaving his main effort to the very end of the race.
At 23, Russia’s Yuriy Borzakovskiy is Olympic 800m champion and is dreaming of beating the World record, and of the many gold medals and titles he has yet to win.
More goals – a 1:40 800m! So Borzakovskiy considers himself to be happy. But not entirely satisfied. He has so many things yet to achieve in his sport's career. His team of advisors is sure that one day he will be able to run each 200 metres of the 800m race distance in 25 seconds. This would mean a final result of 1:40.00!! Yet he has some drawbacks to overcome. For example, he naturally starts a race rather slowly and it takes Yuriy some time to get to full pace.
1.6s over 800m and over 2s in 1500m is not 'slightly faster'. Especially when Russia was such a mess, including the athletics system (not just the doping part).
The second part of your reply doesn't make sense. So the Soviets couldn't beat the Brits, but EPO era Borzakovskiy ran almost as fast as them, and this proves EPO doesn't work???
What's not making sense for you?
I don't want to quibble about the magnitude of "slightly faster" or "a little faster". Let's call it something more substantial, like "significantly" faster if you wish.
To make sense of my post, try to think about in terms of "what was their return on investment?". You tell me that the "Soviet Union had one of the most sophisticated doping programmes there has been". Well their best all-time 800m runner, Vladimir Graudyn (from the Soviet Republic of Russia), was "significantly slower" than Coe, by an even larger 2.37 seconds. Was the sophisticated Soviet doping program in the '80s "significantly worse" than GBR, BRA, USA, and KEN?
Then in the entire three-plus decades from the EPO-era to the present day, their best runner was still slower than the Coe from 1981 by 0.74 seconds, and a "significant" 1.56 seconds slower than Rudisha. I'll let you decide how you want to describe the smaller difference. Furthermore, Russia had exactly one runner (Borzakovskiy) faster than Graudyn.
This is not to knock Borzakovskiy, as he had a prolific 14 performances faster than Graudyn, and some medal success at the World and Olympic level. But I suggest that the low quantity (just one) of runners "significantly" better in the EPO-era than the "significantly" worse performance from the best Soviet runner from "the most sophisticated doping programme there has ever been", probably has to do with the talent of Borzakovskiy.
The case of the 1500m is similar -- the Soviet record is "significantly" worse by comparison to Cram (nearly 5 seconds), and the Russian EPO-era record is still "significantly" 2.61 seconds worse, compared to Cram from 1985, and a "massive" 6.2 seconds slower than El G.
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