jjjjjjjjjjj wrote:
the great distance talents hidden in other sports would not be the most explosive athletes on some teams, but they would be some of the fastest sprinters and best jumpers on their teams, because a great distance talent is going to be capable of 47 to 49 sec quarters (a few even better), with training.
I think that is wrong.
A) "explosive athlete" and "fastest sprinters/best jumpers" are usually correlated strongly, but you are acting like they are two different things
B) 99.99% of the best distance runners in the world are not capable of better than 49 flat for an open 400. Yes, the best all-time MID-distance 800 type guys can go 46/47. But they are not "distance" guys (5k and up). (and yes, someone like Alan Webb is a very rare exception)
B) this kid we are talking about is clearly a HUGE distance talent, but yet I guarantee you that he was not the "fastest sprinter" on his football team, because even when he was running track, back when he had more of a 400m runner's build, and probably worked on his speed and sprinting more, he was only running about 53 seconds for the 400 (see below), which isn't even that impressive. Distance talents won't usually be the fastest sprinters in any group of individuals (though of course there are the one in a million Alan Webb types, who still wouldn't be nearly as fast as the best sprinters on his football team I am sure, but who was/is of course extremely quick over 400).
Also, as truly remarkable as this kid's story is, we should realizes that he did not just decide to drop football one day, and then became a runner overnight. He has been running tack since at least 2008. His past results sort of prove my point too: he is not a great sprinter/explosive runner. Even when training for 400/800, and probably working on his speed a lot (and already showing distance potential with an eventual 1:58 800), he could only muster 53 400's most of the time. Not bad, but his endurance ability is clearly much, much better than his 400 ability. His 400 ability is dime-a-dozen, while 5k ability could be one in a million just about.
past results below
http://nc.milesplit.com/athletes/586039