What is the greatest under dog victory in the history of track and field?

Ngeny wasn't that big of an upset. Sure he had never beaten el G, but he is the SECOND fastest miler of all time. Plus, he LOADED up on the EPO before the games.

Peter Rono Olympic 1500

Treacy beating Ovett, London 1980.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDCYrlN3UeQ

Solinski AR debut at Stanford 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE1ljKGKPJo

Kiprotich Gold at London 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqeMDGr93Mc

Brown-Trafton Gold at Beijing 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BERvPz1e_AU

Wow, Ovett acts like a real punk in the last 100 of that race.

Former Average Runner wrote:

Peter Rono Olympic 1500

You beat me to it. After Mills, Peter Rono is the greatest underdog win. A 3:34 1500 runner beating 3:29-3:31 big names taking the lead for the entire last lap.

He wasn't even the best 1500 runner in the NCAA and won Olympic Gold.

Billy Mills immediately came to mind when I saw this thread. While Wottles' win was awesome, Mills' performance stands out as a great underdog victory because of the significant drop in his 10,000 PR in that race. Wasn't it close to a minute better than his previous best?

Mike Fout winning 2007 Footlocker over German Fernandez, Colby Lowe, Luke Puskedra, Chris Derrick, Rob Finnerty, Don Canral and Ryan Hill. Those runners were and are extremely much more talented than Fout was/is.

18 year-old Kipchoge defeating Bekele and El G in the 1983 WC certainly wasn't expected. True, he was a world junior champ at 5k and XC but no one predicted him to win that race.

For me, Ngeny over El Guerrouj.

El G was the world record holder, 2-time world champion, and had only been defeated once since Atlanta.

El G led at the bell, but in the final 100, Ngeny pulled up and took the lead with about 20 m left.

Ngeny set an Olympic record of 3:32.07 over a 2-time world champion who hadn't lost in years.

True underdog victory!

Author: under dog

Subject: What is the greatest under dog victory in the history of track and field?

Not sure. You tell me. Not trying to be a jerk/troll on here.

when looking at the great upsets, you have to realize there are always uspets. So, looking at a race you pick out the obvious favorite and then say if there was an uspet, who could pull it off. In the Ngeny case, most would have picked Ngeny as the upset. Nobody would have ever even thought of bringing up the name of Mills in the talk of potential upsets.

Emil C wrote:

Plus, he LOADED up on the EPO before the games.

...and El G didn't?

At the 2000 Pasco Invitational in Washington State, a dog got loose on the track before the boys 800m, ran the bend and came galloping down the homestretch with the crowd cheering for him.

You folks haven't watched the video with Aussie Andrew Lloyd beating Ngugi et al, have you?

Mo Farah's amazing win over world record holder Bekele in the last olympics.

Ngeny is the second fastest miler in the world. His PR is less than .3 seconds off of El Geurrouj. Doesn't even compare to Billy Mills qualifying for the olympics without even being the number one american, then PRing by 49 seconds in the Olympic final after getting shoved out into lane 3 and running through a crowd of lapped runners in the final stretch to beat the 10k world record holder.

How could you even question it.

Mr. Battery wrote:

Ngeny is the second fastest miler in the world. His PR is less than .3 seconds off of El Geurrouj. Doesn't even compare to Billy Mills qualifying for the olympics without even being the number one american, then PRing by 49 seconds in the Olympic final after getting shoved out into lane 3 and running through a crowd of lapped runners in the final stretch to beat the 10k world record holder.

How could you even question it.

If you're gonna go by the numbers like that, how can you compare that to Abede Bikila's win in the marathon in 1960, barefoot no less?

What about Emil Zatopek's marathon win in 1952? He had already won two races and had never even run that far before for f**k's sake!!

it has to be mills or bikila in terms of pure underdogness, as in longest shots to win at the gun. top contenders in the marathon laughed at bikila for trying to race it and mills was seeded 26th out of 29 racers. I just don't think we will ever see someone sincerely seeded 26th in a world class race have the lead at 5k then set an oly record. that or bikila embarrassing the haters has to take the cake

I'll third Peter Rono. Dont think he ever won another race after that. As an Aussie, loved Andrew Lloyds CG victory