examples of successful moves down in distance?

i was watching the 2004 olympic 1500m last night, and the announcer was discussing how one of the athletes (i think a kenyan, but not sure) started out runnin the marathon. the coach gradually moved him down and this guy saw more success each time he moved down a distance, and he ended up making the final at the olympics, which i think is pretty cool.

on a personal note, in early college, my coach wanted to train me for 5k-10k stuff and the marathon. as i got older, i developed my speed, and my senior year i was running solid 1500's against guys who had been running it their whole life. i was able to break 4 minutes in the 1500, which was an accomplishment for me, and this season i hope to run 3:50. it still feels like a completely new distance, but 1500's and 5k's are still in the same ball-park. no biggie. even top 1500 guys like sage could still turn out good 5k's, and top 5k guys like Hall could still turn out good 1500's.

dick buerkle..Villanova....from decent 3 miler, X-C type, to a 3:54 US mile champ as a 30 year old Spanish teacher, indoors.

leonard hilton...same story

I am in a very similar situation and would like to hear also.

El G

Seb Coe

A couple lower-level examples:

Andy Jugan, state HS mile champ, DI conference champ in 440.

Tom Tuori (sp?), UofRochester, 9:17 3200m kid in HS (and didn't go to States!), qualified for 1988(?) OT in 1500.

And a woman I coached who'd been stuck in 5000 her whole college career. I time trial'd everybody one day for a flying 20m, and she was the fastest woman on the team. Ended up all-East (DIII) at 600m.

Said Aouita of Morocco

1984 Olympics gold medalist in 5000

1988 Olympics bronze medalist in 800

Johnny Gray started out in HS as 2 miler and became one of greatest 800 meter runners ever.

Andre Bucher: steeple>1:43 800

I'm possibly the example you're looking for.

Never ran 8's or 15's in HS cause I didn't have too much speed. Went to college on a 9:15 2 mile PR and got down to 14:14-5km, 4:08-mile , 2nd DII Nats XC.

After college I was a 5km runner but sat around 14:20's and even did a couple of 10kms in the mid 29's.

Then I changed my training a little and almost raced 800's and 1500's exclusively and went from PR's of 1:55, 3:51, 8:24 and 14:14 to 1:49, 3:41, 8:01 13:49 in 2 years.

I still have my strength but the 1:49 speed is helpful towards the end of some 3's and 5's now.

Go for the shorter distances for a while - just make sure you train properly for them and don't keep doing 5km training while racing 800m.

good luck

TrackCoach wrote:

Johnny Gray started out in HS as 2 miler and became one of greatest 800 meter runners ever.

No one wants to know about high school.

How about Mike Stember.

An Olympic miler that will medal in 2008 in the 800.

I'm moving down from a 3000/5km/triathlon background plus a few years off with injuries, down to 400m...

I've never trained for speed events before, never played sports as a kid even, etc, so all of this is quite new.

My coach is pretty adamant that if you train for it, it will happen, and I'm pretty excited to try something new. I'm still pretty young so I guess it could work.

Consider yourself bumped!

all* wrote:

even top 1500 guys like sage could still turn out good 5k's, and top 5k guys like Hall could still turn out good 1500's.

I agree with your overall point, but the example's you picked are funny because Sage is often criticized for underperforming at 5k relative to his 1500 times and HS 3200 times. Likewise, Hall is criticized for never improving his 1500 time since HS, while improving his 5k to 13:15.

Cragg running down to 3:55, or Webb running up to 13:10 might be better examples.

The German guy who won a 400h medal at the Worlds(I think) a few years back actually initially raced as a marathoner.

Kenteris, Sydney 2000 200m Winner, shifted down from 400m.

bucher, moved down from the 10k to the 800 after a "training" race in the 800 that went well.

48man wrote:

Kenteris, Sydney 2000 200m Winner, shifted down from 400m.

...after shifting up in steroid injections (see also Me'Lisa Barber 400>100)

Pretty sure that Harvey Glance started as a miler in HS--his big brothers were milers.

Apparently someone caught on before too long...