Did Carl Lewis ever run a 400m?

Yes I recall that he did. He ran a 47 and went out close to 21.0 I believe the first 200.

Bif Bradley wrote:

Yes I recall that he did. He ran a 47 and went out close to 21.0 I believe the first 200.

ouch! that's gotta be the most painful 26 sec 200 ever run by a sprinter!

i thought i had seen/heard something about a 45-high that he ran in an early season meet in a SMTC uniform way back when.

3 qualifying rounds and final of the 100m

mighty porn stache wrote:

i thought i had seen/heard something about a 45-high that he ran in an early season meet in a SMTC uniform way back when.

I highly, highly doubt it because even when he took a shot at the 300 record, he died a serious death. He couldn't even hang on from 240 to 300, so I doubt he would hold on well enough to run a good 400.

48 32.18 Carl Lewis USA 01.07.61 4 London 18.08.1984

(merritt has run nearly a second faster, and Lewis got FOURTH in this race despite it being 1984, his prime. He was leading at 200 but faded badly

)

He ran quite a few in H.S., mostly on relays, but from what I remember he did not like it. (In fact, I will say he hated the 400) Carl always had tremendous top-end speed, but he was a horrible starter and average drive phase. Once Carl improved his early phases, there was no way he was ever going to run the 400 again. You can search high and low, but I doubt you will find any 400m results for Carl. As much speculation as there is about what Jeromy Wariner could do in a 400, there even more talk about what Carl could do in the 400m.

Confused about Letsrun wrote:

As much speculation as there is about what Jeromy Wariner could do in a 400, there even more talk about what Carl could do in the 400m.

Ok...but we DO know what Jeremy Wariner can do in a 400. There isn't much speculation.

He did, probably at MtSAC. Go to Track and Field News and look at the list of top points for sprinters and you will see that there is a points entry for him at 400m. Seems to me it was about 47-flat.

Carl ran a 46 before, plus I saw him run a 800 @ 2.08 in training shoes- not an all out effort

From memory, I don't recall any open 400s, but he split a high 48 in H.S. and a high 46 in college. The plan was for him run more 400s, but as he got better in the 100 that went out the window. I think he ran an 800 as a youth and/or his freshman year in high school and even high jumped a coupled of times. In spite of his poor start, Carl was a pure sprinter and I don't think he could have been a great at the 400.

suzie-q wrote:

Carl ran a 46 before, plus I saw him run a 800 @ 2.08 in training shoes- not an all out effort

naw those are all out efforts for a 100m sprinter/jumper. Those are their long runs, and they are usually serious efforts.

46.74

do you think carl lewis would have had a chance against blake, bolt and gay?

Allen Johnson ran a leg on a 4x400 relay in the world championships qualifying round. Might be hurdler toughness.

Oliver wrote:

do you think carl lewis would have had a chance against blake, bolt and gay?

I do, both in the 100 and 200, except for Bolt. Nobody has a chance against 9.58/19.19

There were times when Lewis could actually get a pretty good start. His 200 time is already competitive. With the 19.6 he could have gone, he has to be in the conversation for silver. I'm still skeptical about Blake's missed-start 19.26. That time is too fast, as is Dix's time. And I don't think that Gay is much faster, if at all, than his PR.

Just better tracks alone would make enough difference to get Lewis from 19.6x to 19.5x. There really has been a significant improvement for sprinters--particularly for great accelerators like Powell, but also for all sprinters.

Plus, with Bolt, the 200 has now achieved a new prominence, and is trained and competed more often by the top sprinters. Back when, it was an event that you also ran, in addition to the 100, if you could just "hold on" long enough to be decent.

In the 100, the 9.86 showed what he could do with a quicker track surface. That wasn't even his best race, IMHO--had he had that surface earlier in his career, or had he had a better race on that day, it would have been 9.80, which is competitive in any era. The hardness of the Tokyo track likely gave an advantage similar to what is now realized running on a new surface, maybe slightly less.

Plus, I think that Lewis really could have improved his top-end...sometimes he showed flashes of brilliance, but he also tied up sometimes. I think he could have gotten down to 9.75 using modern form, techniques, and tracks, which is easily competitive with Gay and Blake.

If he were to use whatever Bolt is using, he may well get 9.6 and 19.2, I think he was THAT good.

If he had juiced like Johnson, I think he would have been even better than 9.79 in Seoul. Imagine a bunch of 9.7x's in 1988.

Carl had incredible top-end speed and he could have been a very good 400m sprinter if he worked on it, but he hated the 400. Carl was very stubborn and had a history of fighting with coaches as far back as high school not to run the 400. Carl's H.S., Willingboro had a very good 4x4 and although he was a 10.5 100m sprinter, most of his relay legs were only 50 point. I think he split 48 once or twice in H.S., but I don't recall him running an open 400. At age 17, he was already one of the best long jumpers in the world. Carl was first and foremost a long jumper and once he became better in the 100 and 200, it assured him that he would not have to run the 400 anymore. Btw, unless you are a decathlete, almost no one competes in more than 2 individual events and absolutely nobody competes in more than 3 individual events.

I don't know about him running a open 400m but I witnessed him and his Santa Monica teammates (Mike Marsh) running a 4 x 400m relay against our team in Texas and Santa Monica losing!

If Carl Lewis had not been a world class long jumper I suspect he would have turned some heads in the 400. I was at the New Orleans Olympic Trials in 1992 and watched Carl warm up on the warm-up track across the street from the main venue while I was watching an athlete I coached also warm up. Carl had a reputation for the sort of hard work and focus that makes one a champion. His hour long warm-up would have been a great practice session for most runners, even distance runners. I suspect he jogged, ran, and sprinted a total of 4 miles, stretching a few times during and after the warm-up. With his speed and fitness, there is no reason why he wouldn't have learned to pace himself for world class 400s, but a world class long jumper and 100M man is not going to do that.

He ran one and he's still not done.