In a lot of peoples opinion Geoffrey Mutai is the best marathoner on the planet right now. However, If you asked this question a year ago everyone would have said Wanjiru.
Hypothetically, put a healthy/fit Wanjiru and a healthy/fit Mutai in London for the Olympics. Who wins?
Kind of hate to say it as it seems like speaking ill of the dead, and indeed Sammy probably had upside still to be shown, but...
Mutai.
Hasn't he run as fast at NYC as Wanjiru at Chicago?
And I think he has the focus and consistency to do more damage over a career than Wanjiru would have. Wanjiru showed incredible talent and work to get to the incredible heights he did, of course, but with so much wealth so young he seemed to have a pattern of basically partying for months, then training hard for 16 weeks, winning, and repeating this pattern. Mutai seems to be all business. Maybe not enjoying success until a fair bit later in life can be a blessing in disguise (Mutai worked as a woodcutter for a few years, I think).
The answer is simply whichever one was having the better day.
Wanjiru.
Didn't he have basketballs or something like this...or maybe those would have slowed him down.
Sammy hands down, he had 2:02 potential but more then that he was a racer. Think back to Chicago 2010 - straight beast mode if he felt pressure you know he had another gear.
Mutai would have cleaned up the race course with Wanjiru.
I <3 Tacos wrote:
Sammy hands down, he had 2:02 potential but more then that he was a racer. Think back to Chicago 2010 - straight beast mode if he felt pressure you know he had another gear.
...more than that...
"Then" is used to denote time or if/then relationships.
"Than" is for comparisons - more than, less than, rather than...
The LRC your welcome.
Plenty of people had faster times than Wanjiru (at the time of his death I think he wasn't even the 10th fastest Kenyan), but I don't think they had his grit.
I think if you put Wanjiru at his best up against *anyone* then he'd find some way to beat them.
thanks you for helping. Americans needs to learn how to spell.
ggg wrote:
Americans needs to learn how to spell.
I assume you're being ironic, but it should be "American's."
Engrishman wrote:
[quote]I <3 Tacos wrote:
The LRC your welcome.
You mean "you're"
Idiot.
Whaaaa? wrote:
Engrishman wrote:[quote]I <3 Tacos wrote:
The LRC your welcome.
You mean "you're"
Idiot.
Yet another Newbie exposes himself.
The Dingo wrote:
Hypothetically, put a healthy/fit Wanjiru and a healthy/fit Mutai in London for the Olympics. Who wins?
We'll never know...
use apostrophe's wrote:
I assume you're being ironic, but it should be "American's."
Oh you.
I <3 Tacos wrote:
Sammy hands down, he had 2:02 potential but more then that he was a racer. Think back to Chicago 2010 - straight beast mode if he felt pressure you know he had another gear.
more THAN that.
THAN THAN THAN
Wanjiru would win. He was smart upstairs marathon-wise. Remember he was about 90% fit(and perhaps less than that) in 2010 in Chicago and how he crushed Kebede. Kebede had to literally walk the last 300m. Now talk about when he is fit, he puts the check in the bank before the race starts.
Geoffrey Mutai shat on two of the hardest course records and has run under 2:05. Obviously Mutai
Great thread. I have given this a little bit of thought.
Look at Wanjiru's 5k splits for London in 2009.
5 km 0:14:08 25 km 1:13:35
10 km 0:28:30 30 km 1:28:35
15 km 0:43:12 35 km 1:43:18
20 km 0:58:14 40 km 1:58:32
half 1:01:36 finish 2:05:10
No one these days goes out in 14:08. I believe this is also the race where there was a 4:25 19th mile in there. Samuel may not have made every break in Beijing, nor did he show up with his A-game all the time. When he did, it was a sight to behold.
I think Wanjiru **13:12 at 17, 26:41WJR/59:16WR at 18, 58:33WR at 19** was probably the greatest marathon talent we've ever seen. The sad truth is that we will never know who is better. If he was still here, you have to imagine he'd be challenging for Gold at London as well this year. Isn't that crazy to think about!?!?
It hurts me to say this, but I think Geoffrey Mutai would win in a matchup if you took Samuel at his state before passing. Geoffrey's 40+ second win at Kenyan XC nationals shows his incredible, practically inhuman dominance in a modern era. Samuel would have needed to give up the boozin to make it a fair battle.
Samuel could have gone under 4 minutes for the mile no doubt, I think we can agree on that. Could Geoffrey Mutai? How much speed does he have in those legs that run 150 miles a week? In a tactical race like Chicago 2010, Samuel always seems to have a card up his sleeve. Then again, Geoffrey knows how to take control and pushes far from the finish line, putting strain on everyone to keep up or give up. Their matchup would have been insane and I'm getting upset thinking about it. !@#$
casual commentary wrote:
It hurts me to say this, but I think Geoffrey Mutai would win in a matchup if you took Samuel at his state before passing.
Exactly what I though. G. Mutai, Makau etc would have had their hands full with a 2008 Wanjiru but afterwards his performances were great but nothing out of this world...2008 Beijing was.
:)