Coe vs El Guerrouj

Well Coe did extreme anaerobic work & some strength whereas El Guerrouj worked on speed & a lot of strength.

Wyco Loco wrote:

Well Coe did extreme anaerobic work & some strength whereas El Guerrouj worked on speed & a lot of strength.

The main reason El G was so good was because of his huge aerobic capacity, not his "speed". No other world class 1500m runner has been able to run a 12,50 5000m.

BTW, Coe did not do "some" strength. If you read Peter Coe´s books, you can see that he did A LOT of strength training during the buildup phase.

bröd wrote:

Wyco Loco wrote:

Well Coe did extreme anaerobic work & some strength whereas El Guerrouj worked on speed & a lot of strength.

The main reason El G was so good was because of his huge aerobic capacity, not his "speed". No other world class 1500m runner has been able to run a 12,50 5000m.

BTW, Coe did not do "some" strength. If you read Peter Coe´s books, you can see that he did A LOT of strength training during the buildup phase.

Daniel Komen? I'd call 3:29 1500m/3:46 mile "world class".

And if Geb gave a shot at a couple outdoor 1500 and miles, he would have run times similar to Coe (3:29/3:48) based on his 3:31 indoor...

Komen and Geb had amazing range.. and now Gen is still showing more and more range!

Even if Komen and Geb ran extremly good 1500m times, they were not 1500m runners.

In 1997, Komen ran:

3:31.29 to win in Bratislava

3:29.46 to win in Monaco

3:46.38 for 2nd behind El Guerrouj

3:47.85 to win Rieti

I'd call that a damn good 1500m runner/miler

Well the thread started as Coe vs El Guerrouj...which one would you rather be: someone who could kick ass in the 800 and the 1500 or someone who would own the 1500 and mile???

Marley wrote:

Well the thread started as Coe vs El Guerrouj...which one would you rather be: someone who could kick ass in the 800 and the 1500 or someone who would own the 1500 and mile???

He owns the 2k as well.

Seb Coe for two Oly gold medals (1500m), two silver (800m)!

He set as many world records as El G, about a dozen, inoor and outdoor.

But it is harder to succeed at 800-1500 than at 1500-5000m.

Plus, look how long it took for kipketer adn Ngeny to break Coe's record (1:41'73 and 2:12'12).

El G set WR in the 1500, mile and 2000.

Coe set WR in the 800, 1000, 1500, mile, 4 x 800.

Less important championship outside of Oly games (World championship), but more Oly games medals!

You might disagree, but based on the facts above, Coe, to me, was slightly more successful than El G throughout his career!

Actually Bekele "owns" the 2K as of last week.

That 2km was run indoors you fool. ElG still holds the real record.

I'd take Coe's career too, but I bet he must have been frustrated in not winning 800m Olympic gold considering how dominant he was. Additionally, running his best 1500m time at almost 30 he must feel that at his best he could have run a lot faster. Certainly at 1500/mile El G ran his best times when at his peak.

Komen also ran the most impresive world record of all time, the 3k.

I guess you can throw in Morceli into the discussion, considering El G and Komen were the ones to break some of his records.

Who would win if you were to put El G, Coe, Komen and Morcelli (all in their prime) in the mile?

el g would win, then coe, morceli,komen

El G would win, no doubt about it. 3:26.00 is another level, plain and simple. I have no doubt El G could've run 1:42 in a well paced race. The guy ran 1:46 after 700m at 2:00 pace to close the olympics, and he didn't even start really motoring til about 700 to go.

re: number of olympic medals won - it has to be noted el g only competed in the 1500 in '96 & '00 - if you consider the crap races/times that the '00 800 & 5k were won in, it's quite conceivable he coud doubled ( even trebled ! ) in '00 if he'd chanced it & you gotta think he couda whupped nybongbo in the '96 5k

it's not totally impossible that he couda added 3 more olympic golds to his collection

el g's pr is 1:42.7 (in training)

what if they all did a devil take the hindmost mile?