Europeans can't dissipate heat fast enough to run the best marathon. Their genes are adapted to surviving bitter ice age winters. They tend to be sedentary and store fat.
The thread title suggests that skin pigmentation is the dividing thing in this whereas it's altitude adaptations from birth or v young age. Sample of 1 but Ryan hall was raised at altitude similar to that of the kalenjin. Cairess maybe has good shot longer term. Increasingly the fastest marathoners representing European nations were born in east Africa at altitude. They aren't white.
Given that in the West the best Marathon runners almost always have had a career on track, surely it won't be someone coming out of nowhere and you'll probably have heard his name.
Currently the best active white marathon runner is probably Cam Levins, but while I think he has a chance to break 2:05, I'm not sure he has a 2:03 in him.
Hi boomer. Which records are Bekele and Geb currently holding? Your "to the gills" idols are not really relevant today, because there are better runners now.
Hi moron. Bekele holds the 2000 meters indoor and the 5000 meters indoor, both without clown shoes, both withouth clown indoor BU track and both racing them a couple of times (only once for the 2000 m) in his entire lifetime. Oh, and of course he is still the 2nd fastest of all time in both the 5000 m and 10000 m and the third all time on the marathon.
Geb doesn't hold WRs but "only" an african record and a couple of national record (why isn't he holding them? Because there is some guy named Kenenisa Bekele that sweeped them). Oh and he is still 3rd all time on both 5000 m and 10000 m and 6th all time on the 3000, both indoor and outdoor
In other words: most of today athletes (and I am speaking about dudes that will go to the Olympics, not about random morons in the NCAA which would be lapped twice on a 5000 by them) with cheater clown shoes on a 10000 m race would finish within a distance somewhere between 100 and 300 meters (depending on which of the two you are focusing about and from the exact PR of each athlete) behind prime Geb and prime Bekele without cheater shoes...
Will you still be saying "cheater clown shoes" 20 years from now when the shoes have gotten even better? Everyone recognizes the advantage, everyone has access to them, and there are no cons to using them, unlike drugs.
That 2:04:58 was run the year of the wind tunnel, and can't be seriously considered a legit time. It's also on the Boston course which itself is a non record eligible course. Hall's best run was his 2:06:17 in London.
except ingy isn't one of the greatest though. That would be Bekele, Geb or El g.
Hi boomer. Which records are Bekele and Geb currently holding? Your "to the gills" idols are not really relevant today, because there are better runners now.
You think Boomers were track fans of those three? El G retired 20 years ago, Geb about 15, and Bekele is still competing. Their fans were primarily Gen X and Millenials.
Only one runner, one time, has bested Bekele's WRs in the 5k and 10k. And they never came within 10 and 30 seconds of their own marks respectively again.
How many WCCC titles do Cheptegei and Ingebrigtsen have?
Name a distance runner competing today that has THREE Olympic golds like Bekele and El G.
Fisher will be about as good at the marathon as Bob Kennedy or Dathan Ritzenhein were. I doubt he even matches Rupp's PR.
I think Fisher could run 2:03-2:04, but I don't think he will. The roads don't seem to gold any appeal for him, he doesn't even jump in a few road races just for fun - he might be one of the only top 10000m guys that doesn't have a HM PB.
I heard him say that 90-100mpw is his ideal training load and that just won't cut it if the goal is to run sub-2:05 let alone sub-2:04. He kind of reminds me of Mo Farah in that respect: they prefer the track and Mo would never properly commit to the marathon so he didn't hit his potential in the event, despite running 2:05 and winning Chicago.
So, I don't think Fisher will ever run a great marathon, but not because he isn't talented enough, it just doesn't seem to be his bag.
Hi moron. Bekele holds the 2000 meters indoor and the 5000 meters indoor, both without clown shoes, both withouth clown indoor BU track and both racing them a couple of times (only once for the 2000 m) in his entire lifetime. Oh, and of course he is still the 2nd fastest of all time in both the 5000 m and 10000 m and the third all time on the marathon.
Geb doesn't hold WRs but "only" an african record and a couple of national record (why isn't he holding them? Because there is some guy named Kenenisa Bekele that sweeped them). Oh and he is still 3rd all time on both 5000 m and 10000 m and 6th all time on the 3000, both indoor and outdoor
In other words: most of today athletes (and I am speaking about dudes that will go to the Olympics, not about random morons in the NCAA which would be lapped twice on a 5000 by them) with cheater clown shoes on a 10000 m race would finish within a distance somewhere between 100 and 300 meters (depending on which of the two you are focusing about and from the exact PR of each athlete) behind prime Geb and prime Bekele without cheater shoes...
Will you still be saying "cheater clown shoes" 20 years from now when the shoes have gotten even better? Everyone recognizes the advantage, everyone has access to them, and there are no cons to using them, unlike drugs.
It's time to move on.
The cons in using them is that they allow to morons to consider Bekele and Geb as not particularly good because they don't hold WRs anymore (and BTW only one man in the history of humankind has ever been able to beat their times on 5000/10000 m, and he did it only once and with shoes that TODAY would not be allowed on a track).
However 20 years from now it will be hilarious seeing gen Z morons will pull their teeths out in frustration as high school sophomores thank to new shoes will be obliterating the times they made in their primes (which were 1 minute slower than what Bekele and Geb made...and I mean 1 minute over 5000 m, not over 10000).