X Runner wrote:
At the time, many thought that Bekele may have had better closing speed than El G.
I can't say that I ever heard that one before.
As for the general thread discussion, I don't think that the running world has changed as much as some here seem to think it has. Long before Ngugi's Olympic victory, people were saying that frontrunners can't beat kickers in championship races, that you can "no longer hide from speed" in world-class competition, and so on. Frontrunners have always been at a disadvantage in big races, but every once in a while, a guy without great top end speed gets to the line first -- sometimes by setting a hard pace from early on, sometimes by cranking up the pace from 600 to 800 meters out, sometimes by repeated surges. There may not be anyone out there who is currently capable of that against Bekele, but that's primarily because Bekele is almost invariably the most aerobically fit runner in the race, not because he's got the best "raw speed." Bekele has been outkicked by quite a number of guys during the past four years at distances from 3K to 5K, but he hasn't gotten outkicked at 10K, largely because the guys with the best "raw speed" generally aren't near him with 400m to go, or have been worked over and softened up by the first 9600m.