In Your Opinion the Greatest Negative Spilt Athletic Races of All-Time

Well you got the first two that came to my mind.

I also like Bekele's 2008 Olympic 5000m continuous acceleration.

1K Splits went

2:45

2:37

2:38

2:32

2:25

For an Olympic record 12:57

From the front for at least the entire second half of the race.

Those are the exact 2 that immediately came to my mind.

Ronaldo da Costa marathon world record in 1998, splits of 64:42/61:23 to run 2:06:05, 45 seconds under the previous record. And he did a cartwheel at the finish.

VIPAM wrote:

Abdi Bile (Som) allows the pace to lag at 1:50.8 for the first 700m (2:01-2:03 800m pace)

You better check that math.

Didn't Jim Ryun run a 62 first lap in his mile world record or something? I think I remember reading somewhere that he closed his last 1200m ridiculously fast.

In my first marathon I ran a 2:03/1:51 split for a 3:54 time. That, my friends, is a 12 minute neg split. So put that in your pipe and smoke it homey!!!

9.92/9.27=19.19

Obviously 1500 at 2004 olympics. One of the greatest races ever!

2004 olympic marathon was pretty good too

1:07:38 first half

1:03:17 second half

1:56:00/1:45:00 1st Marathon L.A.

The 2003 World Champs 10,000. That was the first to come to mind.

In person the 1996 10,000 blew me away. Tergat and the Kenyans trying to put the hurt on Geb. Last 5000 was 13:08 and the last 2000 was 5:05!

2003 World Championships 5000 would get my vote.

Another one was the Olympic 1500 in 2004. 3:34, El G closed in 1:46.xx

Also, 1976 Olympic 10000. If Viren had run the last 1500 of that race in the 1500 final that year he would have been fourth.

Yeah, 2004 Olympics 1500 has got to trump the 1987 World Championships 1500, especially if both were closed in about the same time 1:46.xx.

The stage was bigger since it was the Olympics, it was more historic due to the players involved (El G trying to get his gold), and the race was two seconds faster. So they still closed in 1:46.xx after a faster opening 700.

I forgot about the 2004 Olympic 1500m and that was a great race; however, I don't know if it trumps the 1987 Worlds race. Abdi Bile race was 17 years earlier and at that time such a spilt of 1:46 FLAT was unthinkable off a 700m that was run near 4 minute a mile pace. It took 17 years before anyone came close to that feat; however, BOTH of the 1500m runners performance was INCREDIBLE!

Anyone know of any women performances with running negative spilt track races (800m and up) that was impressive?

VIPAM wrote:

Anyone know of any women performances with running negative spilt track races (800m and up) that was impressive?

10000 meter world record by Wang Junxia. 29:31, her last 5000 split would have been the world record at the time (like 14:32 or so).

The 1971 Dream Mile between Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori comes to mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sup-ZmlhAPc&feature=related

Dave Wottle's 800 olympic gold in 72

Wottle ran even splits.

I recall that Cosmos Ndeti ran some big negative splits at Boston but don't recall what they where.

Bekele's WR in the 10,000mtrs. I'm not even sure if he negative split, but I believe he ran 13:08 or so for his last 5k. Anyone who can put 2 of those back to back gets my vote.