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

On an Olympics scale no injury is trivial and any negative effects will be negligible.

That being said, the better runner is always going to be the runner that stays the healthiest and that day two runners were obviously better.

I don't care what perceived shape anyone is in, Nobody will run a faster race drafting behind a brick wall moving at world record pace in 50 degree weather with 0 humidity.

mcgato wrote:

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.

Just looked at the race on dvd at home, using pause and freeze frame to get Silva's splits. I think T&FN's above splits are slightly out. If anyone's interested I got the following for him: -

61.5/61.5/53.2/38.5

300m - 45.4

400m - 61.5

700m - 1:48.2

800m - 2:03.0

900m - 2:16.4

1100m - 2:43.3

1200m - 2:56.2

1300m - 3:08.5

1400m - 3:21.4

1500m - 3:34.68 (rounded to 3:34.6 for purposes of giving splits)

So his last 800 = 1:46.4; 700m= 1:31.6; 600m= 1:18.2; 400m= 51.3;

300m= 38.5; 200m= 26.1 (T&FN too kind for this one); 100m= 13.2

Thanks, Deano. Amazing running!

I am in state of shock actually. Not at Siva's running but that you made a post without mentioning your hero. How did you resist the urge not to mention Coe's time for the last 100 in in 1500 m OG performances.

ventolin^3 wrote:

prelim estimate for his 3'34.68 off

1'48.3/55.0/51.3 ->

3'26.4 !!!

ventolin^3 wrote:

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 !!!

ventolin^3 wrote:

~ pi*lane width...

call it

low/mid-3'24

This is why you're the laughing stock of this board. You've taken a guy whose lifetime best is 3:30 and transformed him to 3:26.4, then 3:26.1, then low/mid 3:24. WTF kind of crack are you smoking?

Get this through your head. Just because El G and Lagat ran 3:26 does not mean that everyone who finishes close to them in a race is therefore close to 3:26. Especially in tactical races, you might have 3:31 guys finishing within 1-2 seconds of a 3:26 guy. This does not automatically mean "oh, the 3:31 guy is clearly in 3:28 or better shape", and then you go to on your BS extrapolations.

Silva had a long career. He ran 3:30.88 in 1999, then ran 3:32 as late as 2005. He had his chances, there are many rabbitted Grand Prix races every year. Silva never broke 3:30. Screw you and your low/mid 3:24 fantasy.

I don't think that Rui would imagine discussing the gold with Hicham El Guerrouj and Lagat. The bronze was already a great victory, it's a pitty that he's been through so many injuries, but now he's on the right track.

omg go away and die wrote:

This is why you're the laughing stock of this board. You've taken a guy whose lifetime best is 3:30 and transformed him to 3:26.4, then 3:26.1, then low/mid 3:24. WTF kind of crack are you smoking?

Get this through your head. Just because El G and Lagat ran 3:26 does not mean that everyone who finishes close to them in a race is therefore close to 3:26. Especially in tactical races, you might have 3:31 guys finishing within 1-2 seconds of a 3:26 guy. This does not automatically mean "oh, the 3:31 guy is clearly in 3:28 or better shape", and then you go to on your BS extrapolations.

Silva had a long career. He ran 3:30.88 in 1999, then ran 3:32 as late as 2005. He had his chances, there are many rabbitted Grand Prix races every year. Silva never broke 3:30. Screw you and your low/mid 3:24 fantasy.[/quote]

Hush, by using ventolin^3's methodology I have acheived my goal of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon!

I think that he was giving El G the 3:24, not Silva. But I agree that Silva's race does not indicate anything close to 3:26. Indeed, the calculation gives Silva the better flattened out time when he was a solid 1.3 seconds or so back off of the 800m split and then of course he could kick very well off of that pace but he did not kick that much faster than El G and Lagat, so why does he get the better flattened out time? Obviously, he didn't make up half of the difference that he had cost himself at 800m. And then the fact that he never ran within 4 seconds of 3:26 indicates that he was never in that shape. Just because he could kick very well off of 3k pace does not mean that he could handle three 56's and a 38 (faster than his actual kick in the race off of 2:03 and 55.

Many of you did not answer the question. How good was Rui Silva's last lap in athens? It was good enough to earn him a bronze medal in the olympics.

[/quote]

This is why you're the laughing stock of this board. You've taken a guy whose lifetime best is 3:30 and transformed him to 3:26.4, then 3:26.1, then low/mid 3:24. WTF kind of crack are you smoking?

Get this through your head. Just because El G and Lagat ran 3:26 does not mean that everyone who finishes close to them in a race is therefore close to 3:26. Especially in tactical races, you might have 3:31 guys finishing within 1-2 seconds of a 3:26 guy. This does not automatically mean "oh, the 3:31 guy is clearly in 3:28 or better shape", and then you go to on your BS extrapolations.

Silva had a long career. He ran 3:30.88 in 1999, then ran 3:32 as late as 2005. He had his chances, there are many rabbitted Grand Prix races every year. Silva never broke 3:30. Screw you and your low/mid 3:24 fantasy.[/quote]

I've had plenty of run-ins with Ventolin over the years, and while I think some of his formulae have a lot of relevance, he does sometimes take it to the nth degree.

To be fair to Ventolin though, he very recently (on another thread- the one about best negative splits, I think) said that the formula he used to give Silva a "flattened" out 3:26 was flawed and NOT accurate. So, after using it for the last year, he has now adapted and is using a similar formula which gives Silva's run here (i.e. Olympic 1500, 2004) a flattened out value of 3:31.6, which seems very plausible given his 3:30 pb.

I don't think Ventolin has proclaimed the flaws to his formula on all the threads he has used it on.

deanouk wrote:

I've had plenty of run-ins with Ventolin over the years, and while I think some of his formulae have a lot of relevance, he does sometimes take it to the nth degree.

To be fair to Ventolin though, he very recently (on another thread- the one about best negative splits, I think) said that the formula he used to give Silva a "flattened" out 3:26 was flawed and NOT accurate. So, after using it for the last year, he has now adapted and is using a similar formula which gives Silva's run here (i.e. Olympic 1500, 2004) a flattened out value of 3:31.6, which seems very plausible given his 3:30 pb.

I don't think Ventolin has proclaimed the flaws to his formula on all the threads he has used it on.

Yes, well maybe he should have thought about the possibility that he was in error before he started calling everybody a monon and imbecile. He berates people all the time over a difference of opinion about what the best way to flatten out splits is.

Look, I find some of what he posts interesting but I just don't see the need to act superior to other people or to call them names. It's just a running message board.

1500 runner of sorts wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge6_o4SkQGg&NR=1

amazing last lap performance fron silva. He made up 15 metres on El G

why has he not achieved more?

His trade mark fast finish was enough for Bronze, but the two guys in front of him showed more balls.

El G showed the real balls in that race. Moving to the front with 750m to go and making a long drive for home. Lagat just sat on him and tried to outkick him in the last 125m. If I remember correctly Lagat actually moved past him for a few strides in the home stretch and then El G repassed him in the final 30m.

J.O. wrote:

1500 runner of sorts wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge6_o4SkQGg&NR=1

amazing last lap performance fron silva. He made up 15 metres on El G

why has he not achieved more?

His trade mark fast finish was enough for Bronze, but the two guys in front of him showed more balls.

Geb had a couple of rough weeks in the run-up to his Olympic wins too.