quote]Sebastian Coalminer wrote:"middle distance" is pulling the semi-strawman act. If you read statements from El G's coaches, they trained him to be able to up the tempo over the last 600 to 800 to counter the Europeans who liked to wait until the last 100 - 300. They named Coe as the top example of the man who would wait until the homestretch, and Steve Ovett who at his best would blast off over the last 250. [/quote]I have no idea what the "semi-strawman act" is! Is it an American saying?I understand what you're saying and agree that the Moroccans had the right idea. However, to be fair to Coe, he didn't need to go from 500m out to win a race when he was at his best. He had superior basic speed so used that advantage by leaving it to the last 100m. The only time someone tried to run a long way from home was Straub in Moscow. It doesn't mean that Coe couldn't have run a 51 or 52 sec at the end of a 3:32 or faster race. It just never happened. I would think had Abascal run the penultimate last 200m faster in LA, Coe would have run 52 something. The reason EL G went so early (and Cram to a lesser extent) was because there were faster finishers in many of his races, and the whole ethos was different by the late 90's. If it were a Championship race he knew he had to go far out and even on the circuit he was always interested in the time, rather than just winning against a classy field as Coe and Ovett used to. It was very rare, even in record attempts in the early 80's, for the leading protagonists to be on their own from the pack with a lap to go (usually because the pacing had been so erratic and crap!). So, time and time again, Coe and Ovett would just be content to sit at the front of the pack and wait until the last 100m.
See previous comments. As you pointed out, they preferred different tactics. On the other hand, Morceli and EL G didn't approach the speed Coe produced over the last 100m in some of his races.
Yes that's right, but Coe had run in lane 2 on both the last 2 bends and thus covered about 6m further than Ovett before they even reached the home straight. Coe's last 400 would have been sub 50 had he run both bends on the curb.
Lol! Thanks for that. I'm glad others feel the same way about him. I thought he'd gone away for good this time. I don't mind so much what he puts, it's just the rudeness which is unnecessary.
Yes I have that book too. Called "The Milers". It's a great reference book, but as pointed out on here by several people, there are mistakes in it.
I've mentioned the Ryun anomalies before with other posters. And what they have for him in their book doesn't always correspond with what I've read in other books. Hence what many have been talking about on this thread.
Coe's splits for his Mile WR (Brussels) do not match what the clock shows. They do correspond with the 100m split times published by L'Equipe (French Sports daily) at the time. They were shown in AW and appear in "The Coe & Ovett File" book. His last 200m was 26.9, last 100 13.1 (given as 13.2 in The Milers).
The last 100m given for LA is also wrong. See posts on thread above. Wiki gives it as 12.7, I see it as 12.7, someone else sees it as 12.8!
Yes, it was the 3:29.67 Nice race. And the 11.7 (or 11.8) is completely wrong and accepted as wrong by the IAAF and all other statisticians. Someone thought the line as they entered the straight was 100m from home, but it was the 90m line. The IAAF "Progression of World Records 2007" book has Cram's last 100 as 13.7 and Aouita's as 13.3. But as we've found out from above posts, you can't always believe what you see in books, incl this one. When I looked at the race on my tv, even though tenths aren't shown on the video of this race, I believe their splits were slightly faster. You can do a frame at a time and work out roughly what each tenths looks like in terms of distance covered. I calculate Aouita's to be 13.1/13.2 and Cram at 13.6. The IAAF book also gives 0.9 between the two of them with 200m to go (26.8 C-25.9 A), which to my eye doesn't seem right. There doesn't seem to be as big a distance between them as that. Cram's time seems correct from video playback, but I can imagine Aouita's time was more of a guesstimate. Looks more like 26.1 to me. They were actually closer together at the bell, and I have their last laps at 53.4 for Cram, 52.9 for Aouita. Whatever, there will be debate as to which are correct, but the last 100m by both men were certainly outside 13 secs. So NO, Cram wasn't running in the 12's and neither was Aouita. NOR the 11's.