el gerrouj and sub 3.40

That is very true. Each increment of time gets more and more difficult. However, if you watch his mile WR video, or look at the lists on alltime-athletics.com, you will notice that when he ran the mile WR, he broke Morceli's by more than a second! THAT is sick.

El G ran 3:43 at his peak during a near perfectly rabbited race with competition pretty much the whole time. There is no way he could have run more than 1 second faster at the absolute max at any time or under any conditions during his career. I think 3:26.00 and 3:43.13 are almost exactly equal.

Although Noah ran 3:43 behind him and lost to him in every 1500 and mile except one, I don't know if we saw his true potential since his car wreck happened when he was what? 21? 22? somewhere around there.

As for El G not liking pain, I understand what you mean, but that's not really how I see it. I think after he got WRs at 1500 and mile indoors and out, plus the 2000 outdoors (any others?), he was content to just win most of the time. There were several races I saw that he just did his thing until 500 to go and then put a gap on the field and cruised home. It's kind of hard to push yourself to the limit when you don't have to. Even so, he ran 3:26.00, 3:26.16(?), 3:27.x, 3:43, and at least one 3:45 that I know of and I'm sure there are others (El G's hayday was kind of before my time).

I still wish he would have raced more distances in his prime though. Who knows what he could have run for 800, 3000, or even 5000 if he had focused on it during an off year (no WC or OC), but oh well. He truly was king of the mile!

well EL G ran an unofficial time of 1:42:70 at 800, and 7:23 for 3000 (second fastest time ever)

Bannister would've been about 110m back as El Guerrouj crossed the line.

I completly disagree that he could have run under 3:40 base on his Olympic performance. Whats it matter what he did in the last 800? Did you also see how slow the first 800 was, 2:01 and he finished in 3:34. Yes it was a very impressive kick and one of the greatest races ever, however, Lagat pretty much ran the same race. Could he have gone sub 3:40 also? I doubt it.

Agreed the Olympic race doesn't suggest anything. And the more I think about it, I do think it's totally ridiculous to think El G could've broken 3:40. However, I don't think 3:41.xx was out of the question. 3:26.00 is at least half of a second superior to 3:43, so it would only be a matter of improve a single second to get into the 3:41 range. I think that was within his capability, in his prime, if pushed. Again, I don't think we saw El G's best time since he set the record so early in his career.

As for the record in general, I agree that it's one of the best on the books, and I think that is becoming more and more apparent with each passing year. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it last 5 or even 10 more years, like one of Coe's records.

somehomodude wrote:

Agreed the Olympic race doesn't suggest anything. And the more I think about it, I do think it's totally ridiculous to think El G could've broken 3:40. However, I don't think 3:41.xx was out of the question. 3:26.00 is at least half of a second superior to 3:43, so it would only be a matter of improve a single second to get into the 3:41 range. I think that was within his capability, in his prime, if pushed. Again, I don't think we saw El G's best time since he set the record so early in his career.

As for the record in general, I agree that it's one of the best on the books, and I think that is becoming more and more apparent with each passing year. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it last 5 or even 10 more years, like one of Coe's records.

you mean 50 or 100 years...

Do you really think that? The only reason one might think that would be EPO/doping, but certainly someone will come along with a new method of undetectable cheating even better than EPO within the next 10 years.

Maybe Daniel Komen could have done it?

some good opinions on here...some people really get worked up over silly things like this simple question too- wow....i think the record will likely be broken within 10 years...remember what everyone said about morceli...3.44...dominated the event for years...no one will touch his record from rieti..then here comes el g...i wonder where the new wr setter will come from? kenya? morocco? as a side note, does anyone know what bile ran for his last 800m in '87 at the wc's? i am thinking 1.46 high or close to that...

Man, it's so hard to think of someone who could run 3:25 and run 2:27-8 so consistently like El G did for so many years... because that is the kind of talent we will have on our hands when someone reveals himself as heir to El G's throne. It's been so blah in the 1500 since El G left, no offense to Webb or Ramzi. It almost seems as though with El G left Lagat's ability to really blaze in the 1500... interesting coincidence.

When El G was at his best he said that he thought he could go on to run 3.40 and 3.24.