David Rudisha is given 4 years to get the US Olympic Trials 'A' Standard for every running event. Could he do it?

Oh, and no hurdle races. He would have a chance in the steeplechase, but the other two are ridiculous for someone who has probably never trained hurdles.

I doubt he'd get the 100 or 200. He'd probably have a better shot at the 200 though. All the training in the world can't get someone to run sub 10.07.

I actually doubt that he could get even the B standard in the 100 & 200

He could easily get the 400 hurdles, with his 45.5 personal best in the 4.

The 110 would be hard for him.

I don't think he would get the 100 standard, but he might get the 200 standard.

He could easily get the 400-marathon standards.

Call me crazy but I think Solinsky has the potential to do this. Hecould easily go 15-Marathon within a matter of weeks. Maybe even pull off the 800 B standard. Then from there, he'd have to do what you said, completely drop his mileage, and go for the sprinting. I don't think from there he could do it, but he does have at least 3 years to do it. He does have the build for it though.

What is the A standard for the 400 hurdles?

I don't know if he'd get the A standard for everything, but one thing's for sure- he would have won the 1500m at the past national championships. He could easily do a 3:47 1500 with a 51 last lap.

It gives him the option of running the 800m for Kenya in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, and then becoming an American citizen and run the 1500m for the USA in 2020 just like Lagat since the winning times of the 1500 are always so slow

Really interesting hypothetical - thanks for posting. Before answering, I do want to rant just a little bit on a pet peeve of mine that you brought up:

Team Analysis wrote:

My take: I don't think he'd quite be able to get it. The 100m and 200m are probably a bit quick for him, and there is not as much you can do to train these events. I predict he would get the 'B' standards, and maybe would run fast enough to qualify, but 10.07 is a pretty legit time.

I think there is just as much you can do to train a 100 as a 10k - why are top sprinters training their asses off if your statement is true? I understand the sentiment - some folks are really fast and others (e.g. Bill Rodgers) will NEVER break 10.5 no matter what. But consider a true short- sprinter e.g. Mo Greene; even if raised on a diet of soccer and then track like Cruz, this guy is never breaking 1:46 for 800m, and will never sniff 2:20:00 for the marathon. People pick (or their coaches choose) certain events to specialize in for a reason, not because some events are more trainable than others.

Ok, rant over, sorry! I agree, Rudisha could come close, but the 100m might prove impossible. I think your strategy is off, though. I think he would have to quit the (mid)distance training and get the sprints out of the way asap (like in the first two years) - if these don't happen first, they're not going to happen. Plus, age is more on your side for distance as compared to sprints. I wonder if a leaner-type decathlete could do this.

Some other thoughts I have are Ovett (who did sprints as a youth), Cruz, and Juantorena. Another interesting thing to think about is if any athlete could ever beat the A-standards of their era - it would be interesting to see what those standards were for the 1984 games, for example. In this case, you'd have someone like Cruz, who would give Rudisha a run for his money over 800m, but with (likely?) much slower 100m standards. If we made it relative for era, then I would image that Snell would be a lock, but again doing the distances in order from shortest to longest.

Obviously a huge 'what-if' but still fun to think about.

[quote]bmi overweight wrote:

Really interesting hypothetical - thanks for posting. Before answering, I do want to rant just a little bit on a pet peeve of mine that you brought up.

I think there is just as much you can do to train a 100 as a 10k - why are top sprinters training their asses off if your statement is true? I understand the sentiment - some folks are really fast and others (e.g. Bill Rodgers) will NEVER break 10.5 no matter what. But consider a true short- sprinter e.g. Mo Greene; even if raised on a diet of soccer and then track like Cruz, this guy is never breaking 1:46 for 800m, and will never sniff 2:20:00 for the marathon. People pick (or their coaches choose) certain events to specialize in for a reason, not because some events are more trainable than others.

quote]

I would say you are completely wrong on that, but it is just an opinion and you are entitled to it.

Jeremy Wariner has trouble getting the A standard for the 200. There is no way in hell that Rudisha would get the 100 and 200, the 400 is going to be a stretch, and the 5000 and up would probably be tough too - we just don't know enough about his long-distance capabilities to know if he could run well in those events.

No to the 100, 200 and marathon and a strong maybe for the 5,000 and 10,000 and a probably for the 400, 800 and 1500.

:|} wrote:

Call me crazy but I think Solinsky has the potential to do this. Hecould easily go 15-Marathon within a matter of weeks. Maybe even pull off the 800 B standard. Then from there, he'd have to do what you said, completely drop his mileage, and go for the sprinting. I don't think from there he could do it, but he does have at least 3 years to do it. He does have the build for it though.

Yes I call you crazy.

To run sub 10.5 you need sprinter talent.

Not talent

One white guy has gone sub-10, and he worked his butt off as a sprinter his whole life. Solinsky isn't gonna drop a 10.07 just by cutting his mileage and focusing on sprinting, I think it's safe to say. (Same with East Africans, who are much different from the West Africans with sprinting ability.)

herbbuttery wrote:

:|} wrote:

Call me crazy but I think Solinsky has the potential to do this. He could easily go 15-Marathon within a matter of weeks. Maybe even pull off the 800 B standard. Then from there, he'd have to do what you said, completely drop his mileage, and go for the sprinting. I don't think from there he could do it, but he does have at least 3 years to do it. He does have the build for it though.

Yes I call you crazy.

To run sub 10.5 you need sprinter talent.

Not talent

Sorry, I was drunk when I wrote that. I still did point out that he probably can't do it, so I guess I'm not crazy. But it is possible to hit a 10.3 for him. As a small distance runner (5'11" 140) in high school, I was primarily a distance guy (52 400, 1:55 800, 2:32 1k, 4:20 1600, 9:20 3200, 15:16 5k). This shows I didn't have much speed, yet I still managed out an 10.96 100 in one of my goof-off meets. I would think that Solinsky with his probably much greater 400/800 speed and his build could probably do much better for the 100.

going from 10.96 to 10;07 is like going from 4:15 to 3:50

Your talking going from what would be a pretty good HS time to a Pro time.

bmi overweight wrote:

I think there is just as much you can do to train a 100 as a 10k - why are top sprinters training their asses off if your statement is true? I understand the sentiment - some folks are really fast and others (e.g. Bill Rodgers) will NEVER break 10.5 no matter what. But consider a true short- sprinter e.g. Mo Greene; even if raised on a diet of soccer and then track like Cruz, this guy is never breaking 1:46 for 800m, and will never sniff 2:20:00 for the marathon. People pick (or their coaches choose) certain events to specialize in for a reason, not because some events are more trainable than others.

Hey, thanks a lot for posting. And thanks for disagreeing with something without ripping on me. A lot of people on this forum could learn from that. I just wanted to touch on this to clarify my opinion.

I do think there are things you can to train for the short sprints. I know that the short sprinters are training their asses off just as much as the distance runners, and for good reason -- I am sure that great sprinting achievements, like most great achievements, are not achieved without an amazing amount of hard work.

However, as far as developing talent in something you have not been training for, the long distances are much easier to improve in. For instance, consider two identical twins with no serious running background who can run a 4:00 marathon and a 20 second 100m. One twin trains very hard for the marathon, and ends up running 3:00. The other trains very hard for the 100m. What does he end up running? Probably something like 18 seconds. Certainly not 15. But his brother lopped of 25% of his time, and he cannot. (Note that the 100m time is probably weaker than the marathon time, especially for non-runners. But if you make the 100m time 17 or 18 seconds, the discrepancy only increases).

As another point, Rudisha is exclusively an 800m runner, which is 8 times 100m (and 4 times 200m). It is less than one fiftieth of a marathon. Yet almost everyone thinks that the marathon time would be quite possible, while the 100m time would not be. I think if Rudisha ran a marathon tomorrow, he would not get anywhere near 2:19. I think he would DNF or be over 2:40. Yet with a year or two of solid training, I think he would have the potential to be well under it. The same improvement just doesn't happen in sprinting. Rudisha's speed already is very good -- I mean, he's the 800m world record holder. So why do people think he couldn't improve the 'little' bit he has left when he has never trained for the sprints? Because you just don't get as much improvement in those events. This doesn't diminish the effort sprinters put into their running -- they have to work really hard for each one hundredth -- but there is just less you can do to improve in these events.

long way apart wrote:

going from 10.96 to 10;07 is like going from 4:15 to 3:50

Your talking going from what would be a pretty good HS time to a Pro time.

I agree with that. However, I believe with a good 2-3 years of training, he could go from whatever his 100 PR is to 10.28 and get the B standard. With that time he could probably also get the 200 B standard and maybe the 400 B standard.

On a similar note, which superhero would win the battle to end all battles?

Rod Dixon!