On this board there often is discussed the question about the "best" (mens) distance world record. Many are voting for Komens 3000m mark of 7:20,67. The argumentation often is going like: "Geb, Bekele and El Guerrouj could not break it...". Well, this argument is true for ALL RECORDS apart from the ones where the mentioned athletes actually had set records. In my opinion it really a stupid argumentation.
The following list gives you for all the 9 flat events from 800m up to 10000m the number of athletes who have come within 0,25% to the World Record, 0,50% within the World Record and so on until 3,00% within the World Record.
800m
1:41,01
1:41,26 1 (within 0,25% of the World Record)
1:41,52 1 (within 0,50%)
1:41,77 3 (0,75%)
1:42,02 3 (1,00%)
1:42,27 4 (1,25%)
1:42,53 7 (1,50%)
1:42,78 14 (1,75%)
1:43,03 24 (2,00%)
1:43,28 36 (2,25%)
1:43,54 50 (2,50%)
1:43,79 72 (2,75%)
1:44,04 105 (3,00%)
1000m
2:11,96
1:12,29 1
2:12,62 1
2:12,95 2
2:13,28 2
2:13,61 3
2:13,94 6
2:14,27 8
2:14,60 14
2:14,93 19
2:15,26 30
2:15,59 37
2:15,92 50
1500m
3:26,00
3:26,52 1
3:27,03 1
3:27,55 2
3:28,06 2
3:28,58 3
3:29,09 6
3:29,61 15
3:30,12 21
3:30,64 30
3:31,15 46
3:31,67 67
3:32,18 94
1 Mile
3:43,13
3:43,69 1
3:44,25 1
3:44,80 2
3:45,36 2
3:45,92 2
3:46,48 4
3:47,03 7
3:47,59 9
3:48,15 15
3:48,71 21
3:49,27 29
3:49,82 46
2000m
4:44,79
4:45,50 0
4:46,21 0
4:46,93 1
4:47,64 1
4:48,35 2
4:49,06 4
4:49,77 4
4:50,49 5
4:51,20 7
4:51,91 10
4:52,62 14
4:53,33 19
3000m
7:20,67
7:21,77 0
7:22,87 0
7:23,98 1
7:25,08 2
7:26,18 5
7:27,28 8
7:28,38 13
7:29,48 26
7:30,59 34
7:31,69 47
7:32,79 62
7:33,89 76
2 Miles
7:58,61
7:59,80 0
8:01,00 0
8:02,20 1
8:03,40 1
8:04,59 3
8:05,79 4
8:06,99 6
8:08,18 8
8:09,38 10
8:10,58 11
8:11,77 18
8:12,97 24
5000m
12:37,35
12:39,24 0
12:41,14 2
12:43,03 2
12:44,92 2
12:46,82 3
12:48,71 5
12:50,60 12
12:52,50 21
12:54,39 36
12:56,28 52
12:58,18 63
13:00,07 80
10000m
26:17,53
26:21,47 0
26:25,42 1
26:29,36 2
26:33,31 4
26:37,25 7
26:41,19 11
26:45,14 12
26:49,08 13
26:53,02 24
26:56,97 25
27:00,91 31
27:04,86 38
In the rarely contested events like the 1000m, 2000m and 2 Miles, only few athletes are close to the World Records. This clearly reflects the fact that these events usually are contested only with some record ambitions from the best. The best athletes in these events are much closer to there limit than the athletes from 2nd group. For lessere extend you can see this effect also in the Mile. And maybe even in the 3000m, which is not contested so regularly as the 800m, 1500m and 5000m. Special case is the 10000m, which is not anymore a regular GP event at all.
For the 800m, 1500m and 5000m the numbers are pretty even I would say.
All these numbers are not indicating one record clearly is THE BEST.
But I still would vote for the 5000m, than the 1500m and the 10000m. I think the 800m record should go to 1:40,5 soon.