Why Farah never tries for WR?

No head-to-head matchups found between Paul Tergat and Mohamed Farah

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TrackBot! Compare Kenenisa Bekele vs Mohamed Farah

Head-to-head record between Kenenisa Bekele (left) and Mohamed Farah (right):

WY Bydgoszcz 1999-07-16: 3000 m: 8:09.89 (2) VS 8:21.25 (6)

WJ Santiago de Chile 2000-10-21: 5000 m: 13:45.43 (2) VS 14:12.21 (10)

WC Lausanne-La Broye 2003-03-29: Cross Country 4.0 km: 11:01 (1) VS 12:13 (75)

WC Saint-Galmier 2005-03-20: Cross Country 12.0 km: 35:06 (1) VS 37:50 (37)

Norw Union London 2005-07-22: 5000 m: 12:55.55 (1) VS 13:48.46 (16)

WC Fukuoka 2006-04-01: Cross Country 4.0 km: 10:54 (1) VS 11:27 (40)

WC Mombasa 2007-03-24: Cross Country 12.0 km: DNF (0) VS 37:31 (11)

Norw Union Sheffield 2007-07-15: 3000 m: 7:26.69 (1) VS 7:42.83 (6)

Norw Union Birmingham 2008-02-16: Two Miles: 8:04.35 (1) VS 8:20.95 (6)

Aviva Gateshead 2008-08-31: 3000 m: 7:31.94 (1) VS 7:46.39 (5)

Bislett Oslo 2009-07-03: 5000 m: 13:04.87 (1) VS 13:12.28 (11)

WC Berlin 2009-08-23: 5000 m: 13:17.09 (1) VS 13:19.69 (7)

VD Bruxelles 2009-09-04: 5000 m: 12:55.31 (1) VS 13:22.33 (13)

WC Daegu 2011-08-28: 10000 m: DNF (0) VS 27:14.07 (2)

Pre Eugene OR 2012-06-02: 5000 m: 13:01.48 (4) VS 12:56.98 (1)

OG London 2012-08-04: 10000 m: 27:32.44 (4) VS 27:30.42 (1)

Great North South Shields 2013-09-15: Half Marathon: 60:09 (1) VS 60:10 (2)

Kenenisa "MF" Bekele total wins: 13

Mohamed "DEVASTATED" Farah total wins: 4

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Wow... And 2 of Mo's "wins" were Bekele's DNFs...

Look at the huge margins as well, prior to 2011!

Anyway, I agree with the poster who said Mo might regret never knowing how fast he could have gone in the 5 and 10.

Ido wrote:

Why Farah never goes for WR?

He has speed, he runs sub 3:30 for 1500. Why doesn't he tries to go for WR on 5000 and 10000?

He never tries that on the diamond league

I think he knows he isn't fast enough to break the 5&10 world records and if he attempts to do so will not only miss out on the records but fade and get passed in the last few laps and lose the race as well. He doesn't want other runners passing him in the last few laps of any race so as to maintain his mental edge.

Mirror mirror on the wall wrote:

Anyway, I agree with the poster who said Mo might regret never knowing how fast he could have gone in the 5 and 10.

He might wonder about it - then he'll look over at his medal cabinet with 4 x olympic golds, 5 x world champs golds and chill.

If you think the reason Mo runs the way he does is because someone else made him do it, I think you'd be wrong. I think he chases championship golds because that's his ambition. He knows where his talents lie, and plays to those strengths in order to win gold. Simple as.

Why do we always ignore the fact that he has the indoor 3k WR? He ran 8:03 to break Bekele's 8:04. That's kind of significant

Jskfnso wrote:

Why do we always ignore the fact that he has the indoor 3k WR? He ran 8:03 to break Bekele's 8:04. That's kind of significant

I mean indoor 2 mile

Jskfnso wrote:

Why do we always ignore the fact that he has the indoor 3k WR? He ran 8:03 to break Bekele's 8:04. That's kind of significant

2 Mile "Indoor" WR ≠ Real World WR

It's not a world record. It's a world best in an infrequently run off-distance which is much slower tham yhe outsoor world best for the same event and much, much slower than the world record for the closely related 3000m record, both indoor and out.

In short, people ignore it because it is clear he cherry picked a world best in a slow time.

TrackBot wrote:

WC Mombasa 2007-03-24: Cross Country 12.0 km: DNF (0) VS 37:31 (11)

Wow, Farah was 11th in World XC back in 2007. That's actually really good, coming 4 years before his big breakthrough.

Jskfnso wrote:

Jskfnso wrote:

Why do we always ignore the fact that he has the indoor 3k WR? He ran 8:03 to break Bekele's 8:04. That's kind of significant

I mean indoor 2 mile

Are you that dumb?

Bekele was a shell of his former self by the time that Mo became a world beater (yet Bekele was able to beat him in a half marathon and also owns a 16 second gap over Farah in the 5000m and a 29 second gap in the 10000m, plus a gap of 5:18 in the marathon!). So, Mo has not had great competition. Yet, some of his competition, as up and down as they have been, were able to run 12:46/47 in Paris in 2012. The fact that he can run away from all of them at every championship and that he has run about 3 seconds faster in the 1500m than Bekele, while also running 59:32, suggests that he should be or should have been capable of running low 12:40s. However, guys like El G, Geb, and Bekele are wired differently than Mo. They are all winners, but the former have a drive to dominate and set world records, while Mo is satisfied with winning and setting British records. Webb had the drive to dominate and set records (American ones) but not the health or the race tactics to get the world championships and Olympic victories or world records. (he would surely have run 3:45 or better with that health). If Bekele is fully healthy next year, a world record in the marathon may be followed by 10000m gold but he'd have to have the sprint capacity back as well.

Mo doesn't try for WRs because conversations like this one make him harder to beat. If everyone knew he was a 12:44 guy racing 12:46 guys, then planning how to beat him would be based on fact rather than guesses, ask Kipchoge about El G.

Because some people know what's important and some don't.

Winning is important. Records are nice, but not important. Wins never go away (unless discovered that you cheated). Records do (eventually).

Some people prefer racing, while other prefer time trials. Some are good at both, most are not. It always nice to know your strengths and stick to it.

That, and the current records are pretty darn good, and probably out of his reach.

Close, but I have a different take.

A race is where every one gets to the line and the purpose is to win. Nobody knows what the others are going to do, and there are no rabbits. Everyone is on there own.

World record attempts (these days) are something completely different. You get a series of pace setters, and pre-determined plan on who will lead when and at what pace. Sometimes that does not go completely to plan. In fact, most often the pace is probably slightly off - a little too fast or too slow here or there, but everyone knows the score for at least 1/2, if not 3/4 of the race.

And, of course, there are those to are good even just going out and blasting the pace on there own.

There are people who excel at racing, and those who excel running fast. Some are reasonable good at both.

Mo, or Lasse Viren, or Centro are good examples of those who excel at racing.

Webb is a perfect example of the later, but so are Geb, Bekele, and Pre. However, Geb and Bekele also had great kicks so there were still reasonably good racers, and Pre had a lot of guts to make bold moves from anywhere in the race so while it was more suited to flat out fast running he was also good at surging. Webb has only run good when there's a pacer and he has a good slot somewhere near the front (or when he's so much better than it's a solo effort).

momomomomo wrote:

Winning is important. Records are nice, but not important. Wins never go away (unless discovered that you cheated). Records do (eventually).

Records are just as permanent as medals. Even if your record is broken, you are still a world record holder. Likewise with medals. Both are important.

Geb and Bekele "reasonably" good racers???

Ido wrote:

He runs a lot of half marathons with fast times of 1 hour

He doesn´t run "a lot" of HM´s. He is good at the distance, but not spectacular.

He was beaten by a not fully fit Bekele and had to really work to beat Ritz in this year´s Great North Run.