Is Farah the next Lagat?

In answer to the question of Farah being the next super vet I will say no as being a double Olympic champion (with the possibility of a couple more OG golds) I can't see him allowing himself to slide back from the top of the heap to an also-ran (though I'm still blown away with Lagat's later career performances). While Lagat has the World Championship golds, he never won the Olympics and most probably has neither the cash that Farah has earned, nor the prestige of being British as he did do that citizenship fraud thing in 2004.

Good points. I noticed the 800m was very fast in 2014 and 2015.

Anyone done a similar analysis?

Lagat's best at age 32 was 3.33.85. Mo is 5 seconds faster than Lagat was at the same age (Willis is 4 seconds faster at the same age). However, 3 years later, Lagat was still running 3.32.5 (at age 35). Lagat' performance took a dive between age 31 (he was still running 3.29 at age 31) and 32. It's in the 32 to 37 y.o. period that Lagat's performances didn't really deteriorate.

With a 5 second buffer on Lagat (at age 32), maybe Mo (or Willis) will stick around longer. This is Mo's career. He is not putting his medical career on hold for this. If he is still making a mid 6 digit annual income in 8 years, by running, why not keep going. Will he really be a better colour commentator than Cram?

We will see how he performs in the next few years...

Gyuggsxjhbwsazfgh wrote:

Lagat's best at age 32 was 3.33.85. Mo is 5 seconds faster than Lagat was at the same age (Willis is 4 seconds faster at the same age). However, 3 years later, Lagat was still running 3.32.5 (at age 35). Lagat' performance took a dive between age 31 (he was still running 3.29 at age 31) and 32. It's in the 32 to 37 y.o. period that Lagat's performances didn't really deteriorate.

With a 5 second buffer on Lagat (at age 32), maybe Mo (or Willis) will stick around longer. This is Mo's career. He is not putting his medical career on hold for this. If he is still making a mid 6 digit annual income in 8 years, by running, why not keep going. Will he really be a better colour commentator than Cram?

We will see how he performs in the next few years...

Lagat started running 5,000m when older and improved at that distance setting his pb aged 36

Lance's 1998? test results were positive but suppressed. Remember that they were identified by a French newspaper?

Mo Farah is not the next Bernard Lagat. Mo Farah is the first Mo Farah.

Gyuggsxjhbwsazfgh wrote:

Mo is 5 seconds faster than Lagat was at the same age

Only in sunny Monaco which means diddly squat.

Lagat' performance took a dive between age 31 (he was still running 3.29 at age 31) and 32. It's in the 32 to 37 y.o. period that Lagat's performances didn't really deteriorate.

Lagat's performance took a dive as soon as El G left the scene. 3:29 was nothing for him, there was just nobody to push him to go any faster. Plus he had beaten El G in their last duel so there was nothing left to do. He got bored and moved to a more challenging event.

That last El G-Lagat duel was the last 2 legit sub 3:28's ever.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Gyuggsxjhbwsazfgh wrote:

Mo is 5 seconds faster than Lagat was at the same age

Only in sunny Monaco which means diddly squat.

Lagat' performance took a dive between age 31 (he was still running 3.29 at age 31) and 32. It's in the 32 to 37 y.o. period that Lagat's performances didn't really deteriorate.

Lagat's performance took a dive as soon as El G left the scene. 3:29 was nothing for him, there was just nobody to push him to go any faster. Plus he had beaten El G in their last duel so there was nothing left to do. He got bored and moved to a more challenging event.

That last El G-Lagat duel was the last 2 legit sub 3:28's ever.

This is a pretty excellent wind up, worth a solid 8/10 for me.

Lagat's 1500m times "took a dive" when El G left the scene, but Kiprop's emergence as the world's best and boldest and time trialling at Monaco each year has nothing to do with Monaco's 1500m times? No, it's obviously an illegal track, sure it is.

The conspiracy theory that the IAAF is based up the road so they allow an illegal track in their manor is also on the intersection of decent troll/complete stupidity.

(If anything, the IAAF could do with world records happening at global championships when more of the public are watching ie Which got more publicity and hype out of Rudisha's 800m world record at the Olympics and Dibaba's 3:50? Exactly.)