Could Men’s DMR ever go sub-9?

it's more than possible, but would be extremely difficult to set up due to makeup of teams.

an adidas team could have hobbs, bryce, hoey and noah?? anyone better for 400?

nike would have hocker, Rai, Cooper, annnnnnnnnnnd......?

A realistic team would have to correspond with shoe deals............but,

Adidas (Hoey, Hall, Hoppel, Kessler),

Nike (Strand, Benjamin, Cohen, Hocker)

could both have outside shots.

looks like nike has an 800 problem. oh Donny Braz, where have you gone...

If we take shoe allegiance out of it, you need Nuguse on that anchor. Way better at solo-ing a fast time than Hocker and Kessler from what we’ve seen

1200m from Hobbs could be like 2:43-44.

He split 2:48.2 at the Olympics and then 2:47.0 at his next meet during 1500ms.

Olympic champion in 400m Quincy Hall is an Adidas athlete

Will they let Kiplimo run all four legs?

If we're talking about brand teams, then they don't all have to be Americans. Nike could theoretically have Jakob...

good point, not sure why we all overlooked that. hocker at 1200, Rai at 400 and Jakob at 1600 can probably make up for the weak 800 leg.

These are not close to the max abilities, though obviously nobody runs as fast in a relay.

Cole Hocker 2:44

Quincy Hall 42hi

Bryce Hoppel 1:41

Yared Nuguse 3:42

For the Brits:

Neil Gourley 2:46

Hudson Smith 42hi

Ben Pattison 1:42

Josh Kerr 3:42

And Kenya:

Brian Komen 2:45

Ekwam 44

Wanyonyi 1:40

Cheruiyot 3:44

France, the Netherlands, Norway and Australia solid teams as well.

It is much harder to split 3 55s when you don’t have perfect pacing the entire time

only if they pull a "Washington" and have a second team just as fast through 3 1/2 legs. And someone else to run the first 800 of the 1200 leg (and then drop out).

Official world records on relays are one country only. Check the indoor 4x400 records for proof.

Kind of crazy that UK would be likely be stronger competition than Kenya.

Would love to see a serious attempt at this !

This would generate interest. Get the shoe companies to put up the money. Have it at one of the big relay meets or even it's own event in conjunction with another event- like a road race that finishes in the stadium or just a regular track meet.

Norway for the win.

That's a fascinating lineup! Thanks for the analysis. However, I have some concerns.

Wanyonyi ain't splitting 1:40 in an 800. Cheruiyot is past his prime and probably can't run 3:44. Nuguse and Kerr can't run 3:42, either. The longer a distance is, the less you benefit from the running start you get in a relay. And what about Hocker? He ran 3:27.6- that's about 2:45 through 1200m. He should be able to run a couple seconds faster than 2:44.

I don't know enough to comment on the other runners.

Relays are messy- ugly. If these teams are in one race there will be trip-ups and handoff troubles. (relay technique cuts seconds- that's why HS and collegiate teams can run near-pro or pro times, and why America's relay team loses) It would still result in a WR race, but not to the extent you predict. And if it were a pure time trial, like the Brooks Beast's world record, then you'd have no... pacemakers. Obviously, breaking the wind is very important, especially when running. Unless you had a separate pacemaker for each leg, thus invalidating the official status of the event, I think the best-case scenario has your list running 1.2-3.0 seconds slower than your prediction.

I really think Norway wins. Nordas woukd hand off even. Jakob gets the stick 2 seconds behind and he catches up 800 in and wins over last 200. He doesn't lose when he doesn't lead.