how good was rui silva's last lap in athens?

if someone can dig out as many splits for him as possible in that race, it woud be appreciated as we can get an estimate of what his flattened-out ability was that day ( there is some controversy about his last 800 iirc )

his last 800 was quicker than ElGs

Good to hear from you Ventolin - I'm a bit of a fan of yours. You're not perfect - but who is?

as i look at it it was more like 9 metres, not 15

They are coming down on european dopers.

He's always in the medal hunt- just not the winner.

baltocityrules wrote:

They are coming down on european dopers.

That they are.

Shame the African and American dopers can do whatever they want.

1:46+ - He had the fastest finish in the race.

yeah, i know - hoping for more detailed splits

( actually saw that race from the stands but didn't notice him as watching the titanic battle at the front - it was nearly midnight at getgo, about 75F still & i had had about 8, 500ml plastic glasses of carlsberg at 1.50 euro each ! )

using wiki as a start :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rui_Silva

says he went 1'46.3 with last lap of 51.3

prelim estimate for his 3'34.68 off

1'48.3/55.0/51.3 ->

3'26.4 !!!

shocking; but he did run close 2 guys up front who had run 3'27 a coupla weeks earlier & undoubtedly those 2 peaked for this race & were in 3'26 shape

someone will have to check his splits thoroughly as this kinda ability has to be questioned ?!

According to TFN, here are the times and splits for the top 3:

1. Hicham El Guerrouj (Mor) 3:34.18 (60.9, 61.0 [2:01.93], 53.3 [2:55.21], 39.0)

(13.1, 26.2, 51.9, 1:46.7, 2:49.2)

2. Bernard Lagat (Ken) 3:34.30 (60.7, 61.4 [2:02.1], 53.3 [2:55.4], 38.9)

(13.1, 26.1, 51.9, 1:46.8, 2:49.4)

3. Rui Silva (Por) 3:34.68 (61.4, 61.8 [2:03.2], 53.0 [2:56.2], 38.5)

(13.1, 25.9, 51.3, 1:46.3, 2:49.3)

First set of splits is from the beginning, and the next set is their closing times, in case anyone is baffled.

thanks mac

( now you know why it's keeping those back issues - one day we can do something with all those "pretty numbers" )

following are straightened out times

( note, hicham is entitled to 1s/lap quicker towards the end as he made the long drive solo with no drafting which other 2 had )

hicham ->3'27.5

bernie ->3'27.3

rui ->3'26.1 !!!

hicham wouda been into 3'26s with drafting to bell on circuit

bernie ran "slower" here than in zurich ( if you flatten zurich race ) - maybe he did suffer more in the rounds than hicham ?

rui ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????

( guy needed to show more balls - he couda won it )

You fail to recognize the mental boost Rui had chasing down guys.

same applies to 9 other guys in that field & i can guarantee that none of those guys flattened times ( if we had tim kips or ivan's or east's splits will show 3'26 )

One other interesting tidbit from this race is that ElG ran the first 700 meters in lane 2, and in fact a good part of the first 400 on the outside part of lane 2(close to the line separating lanes 2 and 3). Of course this kept him out of traffic for the most part, but he obviously ran a bit farther. Lagat appeared to hug the rail.

ventolin^3 wrote:

thanks mac

( now you know why it's keeping those back issues - one day we can do something with all those "pretty numbers" )

TFN actually has their e-newsletters archived on line. Yes, I have saved my back issues, but the most detailed info is through their e-newsletters. Have to be a subscriber to the magazine, though.

that means he ran an extra

~ pi*lane width

for each of 3 curves

lane width is ~ 1.2m, so he ran an ~ extra

11.3m

or about 1.7s ( at ~ 60s speed )

brings his shape down to about 3'25.8

if the observation that he ran a lot of 1st curve on 3rd lane line ( meaning ~ 1m from measurement line which is ~ 0.2m from each inner lane ), that knocks off another ~ 0.4s off that

we are down to maybe 3'25.4 & no drafting from long way out at ~1s/lap worth ( you expect drafting to the bell )

he ran last 2 laps out in front, so missed 1 lap of drafting

call it

low/mid-3'24

i don't know he managed to get from well pounded by bernie in zurich in high-3'27 to low/mid-3'24 shape in a coupla weeks, but he did somehow ?!

here's how you can work out flattened splits for yourself if you are interested

( late xmas present & happy & prosperous new year )

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3415815&page=6

According to Antonio Cabral (on page 9 on giant Renato thread) Silva had an abdowminal injury in Athens and could not train full speed:

You ask me if Rui bornze medal that´s sucess. According to his individual hopes and dreams he get his goal target. Despite he comes to Athens with an stomach injury that limited his training. He is very happy now, Next month he will do an operation to remove injury tissue.

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=458338&page=8#ixzz19jq03UyP

Buy your shoes from LetsRun and save 20% everday

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SlowFatMaster wrote:According to Antonio Cabral (on page 9 on giant Renato thread) Silva had an abdowminal injury in Athens and could not train full speed

bullshit

any guy who exhibits 3'26 "ability" has trained fantastically

( exception likely hicham who can slide 2s & exhibit 3'26 - he quoted he was in 3'24 shape rieti '02 & made good on his promise for 1200m

)

Well, Antonio is a Portuguese coach who is closer to the situation than I am, so I am taking his word for it. Also, Ron Hill and Derek Clayton come to mind as guys who ran well after forced layoffs or periods of light training due to illness or injury.

I'm sure Rui Silva trained fantastically until his injury. Maybe being forced to back off for a couple of weeks was just what the doctor ordered. A guy named Wottle also had his training between the US trials and the Olympic games severely curtailed by injury, and he did OK.