El G or Geb in a duece?

Geb--probably past his prime in an event as short as the 3200, and is training for 26.2.

El G without a doubt.

Well, El G does have a 3k PR 3 seconds faster than Geb--and better 1500m speed. Maybe if you made it a 3.5k, it would be more even. Of course, it would also be a ridiculous distance to run.

Since we are talking racing versus time trialing, I would take Geb without a doubt. Of course we may all get to see this played out if they meet at 3000m at this year's World Indoors.

I gotta go with Geb here. El G may have more speed or whatever, but he does not have Geb's kick, witness El G getting outkicked in olympics. In a time trial with rabbits El G may run a faster time, but together in the race, Geb would win. He is smart enough to keep the pace exactly how he wants it, and would slow it down if it got too fast. With trials and finals this would only work in Geb's advantage. El G has dabbled with other distances but really he has very little experience outside of the 1500, mile. Interestingly these two did race over 1500 back in 97 indoors. El G won a second over 1500, El G's prime distance.

u guys are crazy el g will smoke him yeah it would be close but el g will conquer and wait for athens he will have 2 golds after then along with oly history to amke up for past disappointment

Yeah, el g would kick his arse at anything 5k on down.

el g outta those two, but komen would beat them both

yeaj,. well komen's a druggie you fu*face

I agree that Hicham would probably beat Geb in a 2000m race; however, give me a break-Hicham win 2 Golds in 2004.

Wakeup the alarm clock just went off-Hicham won't even win 2 medals in the 2003 Worlds. I have seen the future of middle/long distance running and his name is K. Bekele(Eth). Hicham SHOULD win the 1500m at the World, but definetly not the 5000m (Geb, Kenenisa, and Sammy all could defeat Hicham in the 5k). In the 2004 Olympics he will be hard press to hold off Cornelius Chirchir 3:30.24 WJR-2002!

In the 3000m Geb over Hicham, maybe. Hicham is the world greatest 1500m/miler and great over 2000m and 3000m; however, the 5000m is both of those distances added together-thus a completely different story/outcome!

Vipam

Geb just broke the road 10K World record so I don't think he is past his prime.

Geb's 12:44, 12:41 and 12:39 show he is a pretty good time trialer himself.

Geb's 24.1 closing of 10,000 World Championship shows he has a hellacious kick.

At Two Miles I don't know what kind of pace El G would be able to run to leave Geb behind and I don't think El G has the explosiveness pull away from Geb over 200 or 400 to go.

You can throw in Komen if you want but I don't think he would get away from those two.

Geb would win in a World Record or in a tactical race as usual.

Throw in Aouita in his prime and ... ?

Gebreselassie consistently ran in the 7:25-7:26 range for 3000, 8:01 for 2 miles, during his best track years. At 30 years old this coming year, I doubt that he is going to get any faster than that at these kinds of distances. Maybe he will, but I doubt it.

El Guerrouj has not run these kinds of distances much yet, and is a little younger, so I would bet that he might be able to squeeze another second or three off his 3000 PR. For a 2-mile it seems reasonable that he could approach 8:00 at his best.

If such a race happened, I would probably bet on El Guerrouj. I think both of them will have their hands full with what they want to accomplish this coming year. It would be interesting to see a 3000 between them at the end of the 2003 season, like at Brussels or Rieti, especially if Gebreselassie wins the 10k and El Guerrouj wins the 1500 and/or 5000 at the world championships.

It would be close, but El-G would pull out the win (although I'd prefer if Geb won).

Monty

As amazing as Geb is, I have to go with El G in a deuce. All the indicators point to him. He has the faster 3K time, having raced it maybe twice seriously, not to mention the existing world record in the 2K. I think it would be similar to their 1500m duel in '97, with El G simply pulling away a little at the end.

How about Morceli in his prime. He would smoke both, remember his 51 second closer at the end of his only serious 5k(13:03)at Weltklasse a few years back

No, not Morceli, because Geb beat him in their 2 mile match race. It doesn't matter what excuses Morceli had, he just got stomped and DNFed. Also to note about El G's superior speed was that Komen had superior speed to Geb as well (look at mile, 1500), yet he got beat down several over 5k in the kick, aside from the one time he beat Geb in Zurich after the olympics.

Okay, using your logic. Then I still pick Morceli as he simply pulled away from Geb before the sprint ever began when he broke the world record in the 3k. In prime Morceli vs. Geb vs. El Guerrouj. Morceli all the way. He's the only one that can run a sub 51 off an already fast pace.

Yeah, El G's PR is 2 seconds faster (7:23.09 to 7:25.09) but neither one of these guys will run away from the other. It would come down to a kick and the last time I saw Geb race a 3000 he kicked a 54.7 en route to a 7:27 ('98 Oslo). I don't think El G can match Geb's explosiveness and absolute top end speed. Face it, Geb is the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen and when he is 100% he is basically unbeatable at any distance race. El G would prevail in a 1500 but that's the only distance where he could handle "Haile explosive".

Sorry, once again Morceli closed his 7:25 in 53 something. There is just no way that Geb could or would close in that.

I think some of you guys underestimate El G's finishing prowess. Perhaps this is because he is invariably alone, out front, going into the last lap. The last time I can remember seeing him sit on someone's shoulder going into the final oval was at the Olympics in Atlanta, just before he fell down.