bl heb wrote:
wxc wasn't then and isn't today a major race. only the olympics, iaaf outdoor wc, ny/ch/bos/ber/lon/fuk/tok maras are majors. true ?
Wrong. I have seen some talk about how WCCC wasn't "that big a deal" back then.
Just look at who placed in the top-20 each year, from 1973 until whenever it takes to convince you. When I look at the perennial top-placers I see names like Mamede, Orthmann, Lopes, Antipov, Roelants (60's), Mammoudi (60's), Salazar, Porter, Karel Lismont, Cierpinski, Shorter, Rodgers, DeCastella, Monighetti, Nat Muir, Dave Clarke, Julian Goater, Steve Jones, Tim Hutchings, Craig Virgin, Alberto Cova, Nick Rose, John Treacy, Brono, Anderud, Mohamed Kedir.
These man were before the EPO-generation when a 13:25/27:55 was only 15/30 seconds away from the best of all-time. They were WR holders, multi-time Olympic medallists and 2:08-2:10 marathoners. Looking over the results of the WCCC from any year in the 70's or 80's would show men who had medalled in the previous Olympics, or would in the next one, and are full of those that led the annual lists in the 3k, Steeple, 5k/10k and marathon. Also the 1500/mile to a lesser extent.
These guys with bests around 7:40/13:10/27:30 would be like a 7:28/12:45/26:30 guy now. If you don't believe it look at the WRs and how close the PRs of guys like Craig Virgin or Salazar were during 1978-1983 ... you might get it, but probably not.
It isn't like that now (in 2010) because it is so hard to get on the Kenyan, Ethiopian, Moroccan or Ugandan squads and the top-36 is almost completely these nations.
It is still "perhaps" the hardest race to win, I say that because there has almost NEVER been a one-time winner. It has been dominated the last 25 yrs by Ngugi, then Tergat, Mourhit, then Bekele, so it looks like the best runner is usually able to win ... but it is still a deeper field than nearly any Olympic or WC distance running final.
I will agree that while I think there is more talent packed into each WCCC race than say, a 5k or 10k global final, one reason why you ignorant ones downplay the WCCC is because it doesn't ALWAYS have every top runner in the world.
I.E. I don't think Viren ever ran. Yifter ran, but perhaps past his prime and was not the best on his team. I don't think Rono ever ran. In the late-80's it seemed that fewer top-internationalists showed up, perhaps because of the beginning of big-money spring marathons.
In the 90's and now the trend continued with MANY of the world's best at WCCC, but many were missing.