He wasn't no 'kick in the last 200' pansy- he was a "lead for 10,000m' badass! If you wanted to win, you had to wrestle the lead away from him first!
But seriously, a courageous front runner, most likely one of the last great guys to be clean; broke some 25 world records and got a gold medal from Emil Zatopek. Sure, a bunch of athletes have had gutsy races but over their entire career?
Who can compare?
Still the one wrote:
broke some 25 world records
you better check this
safrazap wrote:
Still the one wrote:broke some 25 world records
you better check this
Why not? He broke his own world records a bunch of times. It doesn't say 25 different world records
Are you dumb? wrote:
safrazap wrote:you better check this
Why not?
I don't know what to say WHY Clarke hasn't broken 25 world records. He just hasn't.
And, no, I'm not dumb.
Your statement might be more interesting and debatable if you had said "greatest non-african runner of all time."
"Few people have ever exercised such absolute authority in any branch of sport as Elliott did in middle distance running from 1957 to 1961. During that span he never lost a 1500 metres or 1-mile race."NEVER LOST
Still the one wrote:
He wasn't no 'kick in the last 200' pansy- he was a "lead for 10,000m' badass! If you wanted to win, you had to wrestle the lead away from him first!
But seriously, a courageous front runner, most likely one of the last great guys to be clean; broke some 25 world records and got a gold medal from Emil Zatopek. Sure, a bunch of athletes have had gutsy races but over their entire career?
Who can compare?
He had 17 world records, check wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Clarke
You could certainly argue that other runners were greater - Nurmi, Zatopek, Geb, Bekele...
But you'd be hard pressed to find another athlete who had a single season as great as Clark's revolutionary 1965 season. In 44 days, in just 18 races, he set 12 world records, from 3 miles to 20K. And he broke not one but two major barriers: the 13:00 3 mile, and the 28:00 10K. And not only did he break them, he shattered them.
I love Ron Clarke, but sadly, the answer is no. He should have run the legs off everyone in the Tokyo 5k and 10k, but I don't think he even lead all that much. He got screwed by the altitude in Mexico City, but his record in championship races was less than stellar generally.
Nurmi, Zatopek, Geb, Bekele -- hard to put anyone above them, or pick between them.
1955 wrote:
I love Ron Clarke, but sadly, the answer is no. He should have run the legs off everyone in the Tokyo 5k and 10k, but I don't think he even lead all that much. He got screwed by the altitude in Mexico City, but his record in championship races was less than stellar generally.
Nurmi, Zatopek, Geb, Bekele -- hard to put anyone above them, or pick between them.
Nurmi and Zatopek: I can see that. But, can you say, with 100% certainty, that geb and bekele were clean?
Hold on wrote:
1955 wrote:I love Ron Clarke, but sadly, the answer is no. He should have run the legs off everyone in the Tokyo 5k and 10k, but I don't think he even lead all that much. He got screwed by the altitude in Mexico City, but his record in championship races was less than stellar generally.
Nurmi, Zatopek, Geb, Bekele -- hard to put anyone above them, or pick between them.
Nurmi and Zatopek: I can see that. But, can you say, with 100% certainty, that geb and bekele were clean?
Sorry to say that I can't. But I'll give Geb a pass just because of his personality and longevity -- he was great for the sport.
Bekele is like El G -- I really want to believe they were clean because they were simply so much fun to watch, but there's that shadow of doubt..