"Is Khalid Khannouchi the best marathoner ever?"

I agree 110%

I am not a big fan of Khannouchi.

yep.... drugs do not make a truly great marathoner.

History will remember him as the FASTEST marathoner ever...his results speak for themselves. He has gone head to head with the greats--and beat them all. Geb, Tergat, etc. Of course, they were on courses that suited him well--nothing wrong with that at all. His defining moment was dropping the hammer on Geb and Tergat at London. Nicest guy around, runs for a living, loves the USA and is clean. He is subject to TONS of testing--EPO included. Perhaps not the best due to the "no medal" thing--although World Champs Marathon? Other than us geeks here, no one cares about that either--a Chicago, London or NYC victory is as good, if not better thing that the World Champs title.

his 2:05:38? in London against Tergat and Gebre was atleast as good as Tergats 2:04:55.

Berlin is min.20sec "faster" than London and KK ran 2:05:38 in a RACE with several guys fighting for the win with surges etc. while Tergat was paced for 22miles or so with IDEAL SPLITS just focusing on the WR and no Race situation till the last kms when it was clear that Korir is gonna finish.

While we're at it, if he WAS in Athens at his usual Chicago-type self, how do you think he would have done? Personally, I think he would've run away with it.

KK isn't the best marathoner ever; I think we can all agree about that, but his accomplishments are nothing to scoff at. Two world records, multiple major marathon wins, and a great head-to-head record against major rivals.

I'd say he can easly have a case for him being the best ever....he won what was probably one of the greatest marathon field ever...with Paul T...Geb...and himself...i don't think there has been a marathon with greater potiential....but he has yet to win a major championship...but who cares....the point to running is running the fastest you can who cares about championship races...

this guy wrote:

hells no he isn't.. the guy has never won a major chapionship. shit, he hasn't even competed in one.

But these days, the big prize money marathons are almost always far more competitive than the Olympics are. You'll have many more elite runners from the dominant African countries competing in London, Berlin, Chicago, etc. Khannouchi's record in these races is unequalled, with 5 wins (3 of those sub-2:06) in Chicago (including one WR, one AR and a debut record) and a win in London (WR and AR) against one of the toughest fields ever assembled, including Tergat, Geb, El Mouaziz, Pinto, Jifar and Baldini. He lost once in Chicago with a "pathetic" 2:07:19 and was 3rd in a "disastrous" 2:08:36 at London in 2000. He did DNF the WCs, which is a big mark against him, but otherwise he's faced and beaten the best several times.

Who really could be considered the best if not him? Bikila? Cierpinski? Shorter? Those guys may be the best in Olympic history, but face it - they were 2:09 guys at best and couldn't lace Khannouchi's flats. Abera could definitely be considered with OG and WC wins, 3 wins at Fukuoka and one at London. But he's also blown up badly a few times (and he can be faulted there, because part of being a great marathoner involves not jeopardizing your record by over-racing). Baldini's a good one, too, with an OG win and two 3rds in WCs. Lopes has OG gold and a then-WR which would still win many major prize money races today. But nobody has the consistency of major wins and top times as Khannouchi. Nobody's really even close on the stopwatch. Three 2:05s and three more 2:07s, winning against incredibly stiff competition 6 times. Other than the dropout, 2:08 is his worst time and 3rd place is his worst finish. That kind of consistency is unheard of in the marathon apart from Khannouchi himself. Everybody else who has raced that many times has had big blowups (including a DNF or two in most cases) and a vastly inferior competitive record.

Again, the prize money races generally draw better and deeper competition than the global championships. Track and Field News recognizes this and figures it into their rankings. Khannouchi has the best record in these big city races and has beaten the best the world had to offer (in WR time twice). If he's not the best ever, he certainly can't be written off for serious consideration as such.

Rodgers, Bikila, DeMar and a few others may have something to say about that.

run away with, the guy runs fast, flat, cool temp. races. i think he would have struggled to finish and would have been lucky to have gotten to wash out mebs jock after the race. there is no way. not even close to being the best. a good time trial runner though.

We can all debate this till the cows come home and everyone has a right to their opinion. I'm fortunate enough to train on the same trails as Khalid and I've seen him many times recently running some unbelievable workouts. The path of his marathon career has led him to Chicago and London a bunch of times and there are probably many reasons for why it has materialized as such that we could not possibly have the inside scoop on. Regardless, as many other posters have noted, he has performed at a high level and has hammered the last 3-4 miles of a marathon better than anyone. My post is just to counter some of the bashing as you bashers know that if you had the chance to go for a run with Khalid, you know you would grab it. I'm sure Khalid will crank out another great one in Chicago.

No he is not. He competed at WCH and DNFed. If he was injured, he shouldn\'t have been there. He has beaten Geb once at his first try, so what? He never made it to Olympics and that counts. And if you empty headed Patriotists think that any large city marathon is better than Olympics than you too are attributing to the same possible fate of marathon running as soccer will encounter (it\'s going to be banned from OG, because FIFA, clubs and players do not agree to with participation of the very best at OG). The BEST is Abebe Bikila- he won 2 OG gold medals with unbelievable dominance- that is something!

The best marathon runner ever is Steve Jones. Please close the thread now boyo.

Time will tell wrote:

Rodgers, Bikila, DeMar and a few others may have something to say about that.

Rodgers please, if you said Shorter just maybe. Why not Clayton while you about it.

No, he isn't. The best ever is Paul Tergat.

That's the thing about running, we have times to say who's best.

SCOREBOARD!

Tergat wins.

that's the thing about track, not running asshat

He is one of the greatest of all time, no doubt in my mind at all.

The rest of the (non-american) world would be happier if the USA had any decent sort of out of season testing. Things might be on the change now, but for a long time you have not had a system worth talking about. This just means that non-americans are not as convinced by his performances as they might be. Shame really.