and why?
and why?
Now...
right now. Because there is bolt, rudisha, and bekele. These guys are all world record breaking machines and to say that this is not the golden era of track would be ridiculous. If you said that somebody would run 9.58 and 19.19 20 years ago, they would have laughed at you. Rudisha and Bekele also have records that will probably not be broken in the next 50 years unless it is by themselves.
in the 60s when it was on network television and everyone cared. Imagine watching Lingren race the Russians and Jim Ryun race against anyone and everyone. If you're a Brit it must have been when you could watch Coe Ovett and then Cram
fast wrote:
right now. Because there is bolt, rudisha, and bekele. These guys are all world record breaking machines and to say that this is not the golden era of track would be ridiculous. If you said that somebody would run 9.58 and 19.19 20 years ago, they would have laughed at you. Rudisha and Bekele also have records that will probably not be broken in the next 50 years unless it is by themselves.
Nowadays it's a sport dominated by a few countries, and there are too many races/ too much emphasis on paced time trials in almost every meet. There is less variety in types of races that we see, and the top athletes seem to have their own pace makers wherever they go.
Rudisha's 800 WR is only 0.1 faster than Kipketer from 13 years ago, and hardly superior to what Coe was doing on a crappy track over 30 years ago!
I have to say the late 70's and 80's were the most exciting time to watch athletics for me, and it was a time that the stars of the sport (at least in Europe) were household names and on an equal footing with footballers, cricketers, tennis players, etc.
You had great names and rivalries from contrasting nations, e.g. Gohr v Ashford, Koch v Kratochvilova, Nehemiah v Munkelt, Coe v Ovett, Lewis v Smith, Moses v Schmidt, etc.
In the 1970s. A lot because of Prefontaine. Its no longer the golden era because Pre died and running fans on LetsRun hate Prefontaine. God forbid any runner actually goes out of their way to promote the sport like Pre did.
ryan foreman wrote:
In the 1970s. A lot because of Prefontaine. Its no longer the golden era because Pre died and running fans on LetsRun hate Prefontaine. God forbid any runner actually goes out of their way to promote the sport like Pre did.
Pre was drunk driver
The ancient Greek games for sure. They even had the option of putting the medal over your big head or little head in those days. That's golden in my book.
I'd say early 80s, when the Brit milers were dominating the scene.