Cierpinski, even
Cierpinski, even
just spent 10 confused minutes thinking you ment henry rono
Charlie wrote:
Worst on paper going into the race would be Billy Mills.
Everybody loves an underdog story, but the myth about Mills is way overdone.
He went into that race with a better 10000m PR than Gammoudi, the race silver medalist and future multiple OG medalist. A low 29 10000m PR wasn't bad in those days of crap tracks and few opportunities for fast races.
Before that, he had a scholarship to Kansas when it was the best running school in the US.
He won a Big 8 cross country title and was an NCAA All-American.
And he was no fluke. The season after Tokyo he set a world 6 mile record that was on par with the 10000m WR.
Wow Unbelievable wrote:
There is a lot MORE evidence against Cierpisnki, it's in Stasi files, and anyone who does not acknowledge this is lying to himself and to the rest of us.
so you admit there is evidence about other runners in these races. Good. That is a start.
it's clear you are ignorant of historical perspective
he ran last 2 laps solo & still had some more kick in his 52.9
he was in maybe
3'31
shape & that's after rounds in brutal heat/humidity/smog
that is better a shape than walker may ever have been
yes, no great champ, but 3'31 in '88 in those conditions/rounds was not poor
probably in 3'28-flat shape
probably in 3'29-low shape
3'30 that day
damn race flatters him by being so slow
it's obvious he was maybe mid/high-1'43 guy who got lucky with a very slow 1500
he shouda run the 800 if timetable allowed
he wouda given tanui a battle to the finish
his form that day still wouda been good for a bronze at worst if best guys had brought their '87 form there
he reminds me very much of a laban who ran 3'29.9 a decade later
nonsense
it wouda been in '72/'76/'80/'84/'92 & maybe gold in 4 of those
he woudn't have beaten coe in '84, but '80 was another matter
K5 wrote:
Jaygeta wrote:Allan wells actually had a pretty good record against some of the fastest from that period. Keep in mind that sprinting was pretty slow comparatively back then.
No boycott, no win for Wells.
1981
World Cup - Gold
1979, 1981, 1983,
European Champs - Gold
1978
Commonnwealth Games - 100m and 4 x 100m Gold
1982
Commonwealth Games - 100m and 200m Gold
To weeks after the Olympics he ran a sprint challenge to establish whether he really was the best in the world. He won, beating Stanley Floyd, Mel Lattany and Carl Lewis
Randy Oldman wrote:
K5 wrote:[quote]Jaygeta wrote:
Allan wells actually had a pretty good record against some of the fastest from that period. Keep in mind that sprinting was pretty slow comparatively back then.
No boycott, no win for Wells.
1981
World Cup - Gold
1979, 1981, 1983,
European Champs - Gold
1978
Commonnwealth Games - 100m and 4 x 100m Gold
1982
Commonwealth Games - 100m and 200m Gold
You do realize that the USA does not compete in the Euro Champs or Comm Games and that the USA was by far the number one sprint nation in the world at that time. And that the World Cup did not attract the quality of runners like an OG? Wells was a good 100 meter guy; but a weak one for an OG champ. 1980 was his best year and he ranked #2 in the world.
Well of course Peter Rono didn't have the career of some others, but this doesn't mean he was not a great runner. Peter was only 21 when he ran the race of his life when it mattered most. He also won the Kenyan Olympic Trials that year, which even then was no small feat. He certainly was capable of running 3:32 or so, and to have taken control of that race the way he did at age 21 showed that he had greatness in him. Rono ran 1:46 when he was still just 20 years old, and ran 3:34 at age 22. This was a real talent.
K5 wrote:
Randy Oldman wrote:No boycott, no win for Wells.
1981
World Cup - Gold
1979, 1981, 1983,
European Champs - Gold
1978
Commonnwealth Games - 100m and 4 x 100m Gold
1982
Commonwealth Games - 100m and 200m Gold
You do realize that the USA does not compete in the Euro Champs or Comm Games and that the USA was by far the number one sprint nation in the world at that time. And that the World Cup did not attract the quality of runners like an OG? Wells was a good 100 meter guy; but a weak one for an OG champ. 1980 was his best year and he ranked #2 in the world.
Rubbish. The US took the 81 World Cup very seriously; Lewis in 100, Lattany in 200, Moses in 400H, Nehemiah in 110H, etc. Wells did all he could in 80 & 81 to prove he was the best all round sprinter at the time.
ventolin^3 wrote:
toro wrote:Sure it was a great effort. He won the Gold medal.He took the lead and he held on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYjaJDII65kBut there was nothing special about his PR or performances outside of this race.
And there was nothing special about this race when you look at the splits.
They went out in 59, 2:00, 2:56 and finished just under 3:36.
His last 800 was 1:52 and last lap was 52.9
he woudn't have beaten coe in '84, but '80 was another matter
The whole post is full of nonsense but the last part is particularly hilarious.
Rono's last 700 was 1:35.7 in 88, Coe's was 1:33.2 (that's 1:46.5 800 pace), Rono's last 400 was 53.0, Coe's 52.2, last 200 Coe was over a second faster, 25.0 to 26.1. Then after all that Coe still has loads left to run the fastest 100 of the entire race, 12.1, while Rono slows from a 13.0 round the bend to 13.1 in the final 100. Rono wouldn't have medaled in Moscow.
Ovett was in 3:30 / 3:47 form that year and ran a faster last 100 of 12.6 than he did in the 800 final. If Ovett couldn't get past Coe on the day, it's sure as hell obvious to any sane individual that a far less talented athlete as Rono certainly wasn't getting past Ovett, let alone Coe.
Rono was a bit like Straub, just not as good, and the closing stats show that clearly.
Again, Nils Schumann.
agip wrote:
here is a list of the winners of the mighty euro champs marathon:
Rothlin -
Baldini
Holmen
Fiz
nijboer
Moseyev
agip, are you freaking serious? If you don't know Röthlin, Baldini, Fiz, and Nijboer, the problem is you.
Easy - Kenteris
Noah Ngeny.
Hardloper wrote:
agip wrote:here is a list of the winners of the mighty euro champs marathon:
Rothlin -
Baldini
Holmen
Fiz
nijboer
Moseyev
agip, are you freaking serious? If you don't know Röthlin, Baldini, Fiz, and Nijboer, the problem is you.
sheesh, I never said I didn't know them - I said 'not much of a list is it?'
remember the point of all this that I am trying to demonstrate that the winners of the OG marathon are not as legendary as the winners of track races. I said Baldini is not a great runner, someone else said 'oh yeah? he won the european championship in the marathon!' my response was 'the european championship marathon is not a first tier marathon.'
do you disagree with that? Was Fiz able to win a marathon major? let's see...here are his marathon major finishes:
Boston: 10th
NYC: 7
NYC: 9
in other words, when you put motivated Africans in the race with tens of thousands of dollars at stake, he is not in that class. Nor are any of the european marathon champs.
Put another way -
winners of the 10000 are always legends:
Farah
bekele
Geb
Geb
Skah
winners of the OG marathon...much more luck involved, and the quality of winners is far lower
1987 world rankings in the 1500m (Yeah t&f rankings have issues)1 ..........................Saïd Aouita (Morocco)2 ...............................Abdi Bile (Somalia)3 ..................José Luis González (Spain)4 ...................Steve Cram (Great Britain)5 .....................................Jim Spivey (US)only an injured cram made the olympics. I also seem to remember Coe running a pretty decent 1500m later that year.Give Rono credit for stepping up and taking advantage of the situation but it was a weaker than normal field.
What about Venuste Niyongabo winning that 5k?
If we are talking middle distance and above, I am going to nominate Fermin Cacho, the 1992 1500 gold medalist. Minus a few spectacularly fast races, he was more of a sit and kick specialist, who timed the '92 final perfectly.
Off his 3:30 he had to be in 12:30 shape that day:) Hard to call a 3:30 runner bad. The 5k was a bit of surprise but the super fast guys (Geb, Hissou, komen) either bailed or didn't make the team. I
El Keniano wrote:
What about Venuste Niyongabo winning that 5k?
Goucher Needles wrote:
If we are talking middle distance and above, I am going to nominate Fermin Cacho, the 1992 1500 gold medalist. Minus a few spectacularly fast races, he was more of a sit and kick specialist, who timed the '92 final perfectly.
????
3:29 runner is the worst?
rumor that Chesire was paid to move left and let Cacho by.