Running on Empathy wrote:
Les wrote:I saw his 5k in person. It was an unbelievable performance. Even more unbelievable is why Chaplin ran him in a 5k prelim.
Great season, maybe the best ever, but he was never the same again. I wonder if those 50+ races ruined him. Yes, he was an alcoholic but he was drinking even DURING that fabulous season. Great runner, but burning the candle at both ends ruined him.
After Ovett schooled him in that famous two mile at Crystal Palace, Rono was never the same again, much like Prefontaine after he got schooled in Munich. He realized right there and then that no matter how many surges and slowdowns he could muster, he could never beat the top kickers.
Rono broke his 5000m record again in 1981. Ovett beating him in one race had nothing to do with his demise. It was the bottle that brought him down.