Said Aouita's record as an athlete

Before the games Aouita was telling everyone he was going to run the 800 1500 and 5000.

I guess Keino was the only other to drop in distance so drastically and medal but he didn't win gold at the 5 or 10. He tried his improbable in one games so it seems like as good an achievement.

Said was still going to do all three, until he realized that they were serious about drug testing (i.e. Ben Johnson). He realized he better not take any more chances. Remember that lame wrap on his hamstring during the 5000 heats. He just jogged it in and called it a meet, so as not to arouse any suspicions. (just my opinion, but it was very strange coming back like he did).

Drugs aside, Aquita had a ton of talent, but his fragile ego made him come across as either a bombastic jerk or complaining whiner most of the time. His one brief stint with coaching in Morocco was highlighted by the old familiar charges of outside interference bad coaches use to explain their failures.

IMHO, unless he's undergone a complete personality transplant, he won't be able to coach a fly to land on a turd. I guess we'll see.

Aouita's record as a coach as listed in the front article seems pretty suspicious. Not only does it claim he coached Khannouchi to a WR which I don't think anyone believes, it claims he coached Boutayeb in 1988-- which would mean he was coaching this guy to a 10K gold while he himself was training and racing at 800 meters all summer and in the olympics. Was he self-coached? Maybe he coached himself and boutayeb and trained together? I remember the rumor was that these two guys hated each other and didn't train together at all because Aouita was so secretive about what he did. I then states he coached Skah in 92, and Hicham El Guerrouj... I thought El Guerrouj was coached by his brother or something? I think this may be a case where the Moroccan "National team coach" is getting credit for whatever the best runners from morroco do. But even then I don't see how he gets credit for Khannouchi's WR. Does anyone else have information?

Aouita and Boutayeb did run together with Aouita dictating the workouts. Apparently many of the up and coming athletes didn't like the way they were forced to help pace Aouita in his races at the expense of their own performances. Boutayeb thought the training was leaving him on the verge of breaking down so he left the camp before the games in '88. Many felt at the time he was rebounding from the brutal training Aouita prescribed.

So yes he coached Boutayeb but not actually through the Olympics. You be the judge if he deserves the credit.

is there that Said Aouita was ever connected to drugs?

Apparently that isn't a pre-requisite at thismessage board...anyone who runs well is supsected of using drugs...

Despite his obvious talent, I was never a Said fan, mainly due to his consistently abrasive manner with the press.

For my money, his championship record is tainted by the fact that he constantly ducked big-name opponents. Only in 83 in Helsinki did he line up with the best - and came third to Cram and Scott. In 84, he purposely avoided the 1500 (Cram, Coe, Abascal, etc) and moved to the 5000, which at the time was a pretty soft event. In 88, it was the same: ducking the Cram et al and running the 800- losing to Ereng and Cruz.

Yes, he had great range, but he was also alienated legions of fans, reporters and meet directors wtih outrageous comments, outright lies and an ego that would make Shaquille O'Neal blush. (One claim was that he ran a 3000 at the age of 16 - in football boots - in 8 minutes flat.)

Martin

Martin, I heard that it was around 8:12 and he ran it before or after a soccer practice but took his shoes off. That may be more realistic. You have to wonder about those stories which get distorted in the telling. Still, his VO2 Max was apparently 96 . An 8:12 from a 16 year old with super talent isn't that unrealistic. I knew a guy that ran 8:32 at 16 and he had atrocious form and no real speed( but undoubtedly an oxygen uptake like Aouita). I agree with your character judgement. He always sounded more like a sprinter/boxer with the trash he spewed out.

No one else has ever broken 27:30 and 1:44. That gives him the greatest range ever in my book. Hell, who knows if ANY of these guys were ever clean.

Could make a good argument that Barrios had close to the same range, if not better... or even Rod Dixon.

Not that it matters, I always enjoyed watching Aouita run, in spite of his mouth.

That said, I preferred to watch Cram gallop away from Aouita more than see Aouita win races.

I doubt Arturo even ran low-1:46; he definitely did not have that kind of range, sorry. His 1500 PR was 3:37. If you want to talk 1500-marathon range, there's more candidates, like Geb 3:31/2:06 ... but the 800/10k thing is much more rare. Of course you could say Slaney had it, but that's a whole nother story.

Then Aouita sticks out for running the 1:43 after the 27:26, instead of the natural progression to longer stuff, a la Dixon (with all due respect).

Geb has the best range, it's not even a contest.

BUMP

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He did not drop down from the 5000 to the 800. He was always primarily an 800/1500 runner. He ran the 5000 in LA because it was ridiculously weak compared to the prospect of facing a fit and healthy Coe, Cram, Ovett, Scott, Abascal, Gomez etc at 1500

In 1988 he devoted himself to the 800 and even his 1500 speed clearly diminished.

In 1980, had Ovett chosen to double the 800 and 5000, he would have won the silver in the 5000 along with the gold in the 800. That's range.

What could Jakob run for the 10000m now? And what could he run for the 800m next year if he devoted himself to it for the next 12 months?

Alan Webb

Beaten by Khalid Skah one month after he set a WR in 1993?

Kind of runners that have no personality.