What is the toughest REALISTIC double at the elite level?

This thread has gone quite a while without the mention of this:

Long Jump

Triple Jump

Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers would be pretty tough!

Mary j blisters ugly black ass

800/1500 not possible

"800/1500 not possible"

Give Rudisha a few quality 1500 workouts and he could drop around 3:30 and given he is from a sprint background, he'ld have a damaging finishing kick required.

Coe/Ovett were more than capable of this double.

Just because people have done the double doesn't mean it's easy.

The famous max magooski wrote:

800/1500 not possible

Seb Coe was pretty dang close... I think the current schedule might make it difficult though.

It all comes down to the schedule. Great steepler with 3:52 mile speed could get to the final in 8:25-35 rounds and have to make the final of the 5000 in a 13:30 race. The 5000 final usually is the last day and the steeple final is one or two days before.

Its realistic. No one tries it at the top level but Kiptanui could have pulled it off I bet in 1996. And medaled in both races.

Of tje sport peter kosgei 5k steeple. Dee three 4 life!!!!!!!!!

In the 1988 Olympic Trials, Andre Phillips came in 4th in the 110 hurdles and 2nd in the 400 hurdles. He went on to win the gold in the 400 hurdles in the Olympics.

10k/Steeple Dan LIncoln...The Fuc$ing man

macharia wrote:

10k steeple 5k

Didn't Ben Jipcho win the 880/mile/2 mile at a couple ITA meets in the mid 70s? That's gotta hurt.

Big Red Miler wrote:

Didn't Ben Jipcho win the 880/mile/2 mile at a couple ITA meets in the mid 70s? That's gotta hurt.

Jipcho ran 3:33.2, 8:20.7, and 13:14.4 (or pretty close to those times) to take 3rd, 1st, and 1st in the '74 BCG 1500, Steeple, and 5000. And while those times may not seem all that fast nowadays, back then, the 3:33.2 was a tenth off of the pre-race WR (Bayi and Walker broke the old record ahead of Jipcho), and the 13:14.4 was the second fastest ever. Look at youtube for the 5K--it was a great race.

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

D.C. runner wrote:

I think the 1500/5000 is truly the upward limit of the possible. We haven't seen that combo of speed and strength since El G and may never see it again.

Lagat was help by the fact that the others ran like a bunch of idiots. If you have the best 1500 guy in the world in the field you can´t jog for 4600 meters and expect to get away with it.

crazy raisin wrote:

The famous max magooski wrote:

800/1500 not possible

Seb Coe was pretty dang close... I think the current schedule might make it difficult though.

In terms of number of rounds, I can't remember the last time there were 4 rounds of the 800 in an Olympics or world champs!

When Coe attempted the double in 84, he had to run 4 rounds of the 800 followed by 3 in the 1500, all within 9 days. He came pretty close, against 2 of the best (in terms of depth) fields assembled at both distances, but Cruz just too good on the day.

Coe should have done the double in Moscow 80, but bad tactics rather than not being good enough, prevented him on the first leg. the opposite happened in Stuttgart 86, though that being a European. Cram did the 800/1500 double at the 86 commonwealths, though obviously the standard of opposition was poor compared to the Olympics.

Goes to show that it is possible but very difficult. As i pointed out in an earlier post, there are so many variables, especially in the 800, which can scupper the attempt.

The famous max magooski wrote:

800/1500 not possible

Mohammad Al-Azemi, 2011 Asian Championships - 1:46, 3:42.

Alex Kipchirchir, 2006 African Championships - 1:46, 3:46

well.. wrote:

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

Lagat was help by the fact that the others ran like a bunch of idiots. If you have the best 1500 guy in the world in the field you can´t jog for 4600 meters and expect to get away with it.

Also helped by the fact that Bekele wasn't in the race

Randy Oldman wrote:

Replying to myself, David Hemery was the 400IH Olympic Gold Medalist in '68 and the 110HH WC Silver Medalist in '69.

Akii Bua coming on the inside....

Sorry, but the original question is stupid. It's like looking for the biggest dwarf, or the smallest giant. The most intelligent stupid person or the stupidest genius.

You can do a ranking for all the doubles and try to find which one is more difficult than another.

But to find which one is the most difficult from the not so difficult (the realistic) ones? Think about it.

For sure 800/10000 is more difficult than 1500/10000 or 800/5000. And 800/Marathon is more difficult than all of them. But easy compared to 100/Marathon.

If I had to choose between 800/5000 and 1500/10000 I clearly would opt for the first. Even 800/3000 seems more difficult than 1500/10000.