Who's the most talented middle/long distance runner ever?

Seb Coe, case closed

Nurvi went 141 races unbeaten.

9 Golds 3, silver, including a silver in his first ever international race.

World records from 1500m to 20K.

Cram was extremely talented! 3:57 mile as a teenager. Brendan foster noted how banged up he was and how much training he missed before destroying a class field at the 83' wchsmps. Negative split 1:43.22 looking easy at the coomonwealths in 86'. 3:46 mile with a 53.x last lap. Made it look like nothing. Always Hurt too- calves..lower legs..etc.

He is my answer.

Him, aouita, bekele, geb and Komen ofcourse. :)

Anti-womens rights wrote:

Seb Coe, case closed

Seb Coe himself has said that Steve Ovett was one of the most naturally gifted athletes ever, and that he (Coe) had to work a lot harder than Ovett to get to the WR level.

The hyper-talented always say others had more talent and that they had to work harder than the competition.....

Seb Coe had the best combo 400/800/1500 pr's of all time.

Coe worked for it Ovett had more talent

All of the 90s and early 00 stars were jacked on EPO

,there is no way to tell how talented they actually were

Zola budd?

A very talented middle distance runner that at least belongs in the conversation is Belgian Ivo Van Damme.

The guy had quick shifting gears like Coe & Ovett. He had two Olympic silvers in '76 (800/1500) at age 22. He was killed in a car wreck shortly after the games. He looked to be the sports next big star before the accident.

Webb was one of the great track runners in his day!

Do you realize that Defar has a better H2H record vs. Tiru? And that all of Defar's victories are from 5K down?

I like your choices. Webb is on my list of talented runners based on his HS record outdoor mile, and his AR mile record. He has a number of other impressive PBs in a wide range of events.

I don't know about best in the world, but Shannon Butler was the most talented 10,000 meter runner the U.S. has ever produced.

SomeGuyWithFacts wrote:

Herb Elliot

There ya go. /Thread

Either him or Ryun

mike-- wrote:

Honourable mentions

Ron Clarke

Henry Romo

Joaquim cruz

About Cruz:

I think only Ovett could match him in terms of pure talent. He was a basketball player and ran a 1:44 under relatively few training. Then wins an olympic gold setting the OR. Runs the second fastest 800m at the time (almost equal to coe's record). Finally wins an olympic silver after a bad strategy in a race where many think he could have won a second gold.

Slowpuke wrote:

Shawn H wrote:

Great post. I completely agree. You nailed it.

Triunesh > Defar in mid

Paula > Tirunesh so far in long, could change over the next few years

Abebe Bikila might yet be the best marathoner ever

Agreed - Bikila is a great contender for most talented marathoner ever.

just the facts wrote:

A very talented middle distance runner that at least belongs in the conversation is Belgian Ivo Van Damme.

The guy had quick shifting gears like Coe & Ovett. He had two Olympic silvers in '76 (800/1500) at age 22. He was killed in a car wreck shortly after the games. He looked to be the sports next big star before the accident.

That's true. Great to remember him. British era with Ovett/Coe/Cram could have been very different with Van Damme around.

He makes me to remember Prefontaine as well. Pre was also a pure talent. In my opinion both Van Damme and Pre would have won gold medals in either in 76 and/or 80.

Mike Honcho wrote:

Said Aouita. His range was unmatched.

Augustine Choge has matched it and then some. And Choge is not a self-outed cheater.

Choge has run

sub 1:45

sub 3:30

sub 7:30, and

sub 13

He's 5 seconds faster than Aouita over 5000, and when he finally moves up to 10,000 he will surely go

sub-27

which Aouita never even attempted to do and would have failed if he had.

Since Choge is only 27 it's also conceivable that he could go

sub 60

and

sub-2:05

too. If he achieves this he will have absolutely no rivals. He will have been the only true middle/long distance runner ever.

im shocked at how much ppl on here gock over and worship jim ryan. he was a tall rich overprivileged white piece of crap who ran 6 seconds slower than webb in the mile.

bekele remains the only runner in history to set wrs on all 3 surfaces. track, road, xc

I tend to look not just as the record setters, but those who had great achievements on less than consistent training.

El Guerrouj, for example, had many dominant seasons and went years without a serious injury. Obviously that consistency helps a lot, and without it I doubt he would have broken Morceli's records.

I think of Webb and Daniel Komen as having unreal talent. Tops of the list I would put Sammy Wanjiru. Achieved a huge amount at a young age and had a few great years. But was known to be less than fully dedicated to training and clean living. If he had the consistency of a Geb of El G I think he could have buried the marathon world record in the same way Radcliffe did.

On the womens side I place Radcliffe at the top of the list. That marathon record is so far off the charts it speaks for itself.

Wow you know so much personal stuff about Webb. Boyfriend?

How are you sure of the accuracy of testing at meets? Did you hold his junk while he peed in the cup? and what major drug cheats have won medals with the exception of Marion Jones. If you know anything about drugs in sports, you'd know that the only way athletes don't fall is unless they had a big enough name & big enough sponser (payoff). And to clear up what I said about the 80s. Please read a book; it was so prevalent HGH and anabolic were so used it wasn't even funny. And what does salazar have to do with Webb looking skinny. Everything about salazar is dirty. From the athletes he coaches to those he coached before! Thyroid meds, inhalers...please explain to me why these athletes need blood doctors to every meet they go too...