Who was it? Webb. I did not realize how long it has been since El G was in top form.
It is incredible to me that with all of the progress that has been made in 800m and up you have got to go all the way back to 6/29/01 to find a performance faster than Webb's AR. That was El G. Nobody else has come within more than a second of it.
As frustrating as Webb's career has been, this is an incredible achievement.
Who is going to be the next man to go 3:46?
eh? how many went under 3:30?
Manzano, baby!
look at the 1500m times. people have run the equivalent of 3:47 in the 1500m much more recently.
Plenty of people can run that fast, but everyone just wants to sit and kick nowadays
Which strongly suggests to me that the 3:43 and 3:26 were PED induced. Any doubters?
Webb was clean. El G was doped to the gills. That is all.
Oh, and one more thing... wrote:
Webb was clean. El G was doped to the gills. That is all.
Prove it.
llamarunner wrote:
look at the 1500m times. people have run the equivalent of 3:47 in the 1500m much more recently.
Exactly - the mile isn't such a big deal. It's not an Olympic event, it's not a WC event. Most of the big money T&F competitions don't include a mile. It's hardly surprising that we're not seeing loads of super-fast miles.
"It's hardly surprising that we're not seeing loads of super-fast miles."
There has only been 1 in over 10 years, if you consider sub mid 3:47 to be a super-fast mile.
Look at the 1500 equivalent. Plenty of people have run the equivalent of Webb's time or faster.
Here's a scatter-plot of top 1500 times (not just records) over the past 50 years. You can see the depth of performances building to a peak in about 2001 and then receding. It's not just mile times that have gotten slower since 2001:
http://sweatscience.runnersworld.com/2012/02/visualizing-the-progression-of-running-times/
I quickly counted 12 or 13 runners who have run 3:30.2 or better in the 1500 since the time you started counting sub 3:47 miles (2001). And 3:30.2 is the equivalent 1500 time, so obviously your "stat" is misleading.
However, since Webb ran his time in 2007, only a handful of runners (4) have run a 1500 time (3:30.2 or better) that is equivalent of 3:47.0 or better.
On the other hand, Andrew Wheating, barely out of college, ran a 1500 time not far off Webb's all time best.
The middle-distances are obviously affected by dope.
The 5000m/10000m is more difficult to analyse since, clearly
more talent is choosing the marathon these days (and still in their prime). Therefore 5000m/10000m times are slower now
and 42195m times faster. Of course it could be a combo!!
El G was the GREATEST OF ALL TIME!!!
Someone get ventolin to run his nifty little calculator. I bet it'll say he could've run 7:15 / 12:32
he was indeed. Too bad he didn't try 10000m. He would obviously be the first sub26 guy.
There are plenty of 3:2x 1500m guys on the scene. This is a misinformed thread/topic. Time abilities have not gotten slower since 2001.
Choge, Keitany, Kiplagat, Laalou and Kiprop (barely) are the only ones to run faster than Webb at 1500m since he ran 3:30.54 in 2007 to lead the world that year.
My thread is not misinformed or misleading at all. Im am not asking about the 1500m, period. Besides even if I was, unless you can demonstrate a marked drop in the number of elite mile races contested since 2007, you guys who are chimming in about 15 don't have a point. If Webb had run a smoking 500m, or 2000m, or some other obscure distance faster than anyone for nearly 4000 days, it would be notable. Bottom line is the mile is not an obscure distance.
Additionally, don't the pros have contacts with bonuses for national records, world leaders, etc.? I don't know it to be the case, but I bet there is some money in running a fast mile.
Twitched wrote:
There are plenty of 3:2x 1500m guys on the scene. This is a misinformed thread/topic. Time abilities have not gotten slower since 2001.
On the contrary, they have -- it's crystal clear in the link I posted above.