More impressive: Kenenisa's Cross Country or Track Career?

Bekele is the greatest overall long distance runner of all time, but I'd probably give his XC career the edge just because the difference between him and the #2 all time on the track (Geb) was fairly close, whereas the distance between him and #2 all time XC is enormous.

What makes KB unique among the greats is his equivalence in both disciplines. Maybe Nurmi was comparable. Among moderns, only Tergat was reasonably successful in both, but he was not on KB's level.

???????????? wrote:

Bekele is the greatest overall long distance runner of all time, but I'd probably give his XC career the edge just because the difference between him and the #2 all time on the track (Geb) was fairly close, whereas the distance between him and #2 all time XC is enormous.

thats a pretty good point. However, I think what separates KB way ahead of geb is his performances in 5000m championship races. While KB and Geb both ran sub 12:40, Geb never seemed to turn that kind of 5000m talent into a n olympic gold at 5000. I would say it is not so close on the track between them. Had KB not doulbled in 08 and at the WCs, i wouldn't be rooting for his track career so much, but The 5k/10k doubles that he pulled for just phenomenal. Tergat didn't translate much into the 5k ever either.

Although KB's 4k 12k ones were pretty good too in XC, and tergat never really dabbled in those 4k races...

At that time (over a decade ago) were the World XC races the most competitive in the world?

The way I understand it, is that basically all the top guys in every middle and long distance even ran it. So you'd have world and olympic medallists in the 1500m, 3K steeple, 5K, 10K, half/marathon all running the same race. Is that accurate?

Hard to judge Geb's inability to win oly 5k gold because previously, there are heats for 10k and two rounds of qualifications for 5k. Pretty brutal.

???????????? wrote:

Bekele is the greatest overall long distance runner of all time, but I'd probably give his XC career the edge just because the difference between him and the #2 all time on the track (Geb) was fairly close, whereas the distance between him and #2 all time XC is enormous.

Na dude. Geb has him completely beat for GOAT title. Bekele lowered the records by a couples seconds. Geb lowered them by like 20.

Geb would have easily won the 5000 in Athens, but his feet were destroyed by competing the 10000 on the rock hard track.

Sabc szabo wrote:

Hard to judge Geb's inability to win oly 5k gold because previously, there are heats for 10k and two rounds of qualifications for 5k. Pretty brutal.

???????????? wrote:

Bekele is the greatest overall long distance runner of all time, but I'd probably give his XC career the edge just because the difference between him and the #2 all time on the track (Geb) was fairly close, whereas the distance between him and #2 all time XC is enormous.

Good way of thinking about it. Difficult to compare Geb and Bekele though as Geb was striding into uncharted territory, while Bekele had a benchmark and improved Geb's WRs by 'just' 2 and 5 seconds respectively (5 & 10).

Personally I think the way in which Bekele utterly dominated world XC was the most impressive part of his storied running career. The guy would cruise with the pack and simply decide when he wanted to win. Usually with 2K left to run he was gone or going. On the track he was beaten every now and agin, despite his incredible record at WC 5000 & 10,000. Also despite his 3.32 best he never really contested over 1500m/mile, whereas Geb notched up an indoor 1500m title. On the country he was unstoppable - unless he miscounted laps like in Mombassa!

Bekele is the GOAT for sure.

lazyafternoons wrote:

Although KB's 4k 12k ones were pretty good too in XC, and tergat never really dabbled in those 4k races...

The 4k didn't exist when Tergat was running.

His track career is more impressive because he is facing tougher competition on the track.

Track is what the top athletes prepare for.

Does it get much tougher than this? Who is missing from this list of vanquished cross country foes, besides Haile? Gebremariam, Sihine, Kipchogi, Kamathi, Tadesse, John Korir, Shaheen, Songok, Mottram, Chebii, Ivuti, Richard Limo, Paul Koech, Keflezighi, Abraham Cherono, Sammy Kipketer, Dejene Berhanu, Goumri, Gharib, John Kibowen, Mike Kipyego, Hissou, El Amri, Yuda, Talel, Abdirahman, Mekkonen, Dinkessa, Mosop, Mathathi, Kigen, Abdosh, Goucher, Soi, Brimin Kipruto, Komon, Ebuya, Choge, Masai, Kiptoo...

Star wrote:

His track career is more impressive because he is facing tougher competition on the track.

Track is what the top athletes prepare for.

2003 Paris wrote:

Does it get much tougher than this? Who is missing from this list of vanquished cross country foes, besides Haile?

Gebremariam, Sihine, Kipchogi, Kamathi, Tadesse, John Korir, Shaheen, Songok, Mottram, Chebii, Ivuti, Richard Limo, Paul Koech, Keflezighi, Abraham Cherono, Sammy Kipketer, Dejene Berhanu, Goumri, Gharib, John Kibowen, Mike Kipyego, Hissou, El Amri, Yuda, Talel, Abdirahman, Mekkonen, Dinkessa, Mosop, Mathathi, Kigen, Abdosh, Goucher, Soi, Brimin Kipruto, Komon, Ebuya, Choge, Masai, Kiptoo...

Star wrote:

His track career is more impressive because he is facing tougher competition on the track.

Track is what the top athletes prepare for.

Don't forget Mo Farah!

But do those athletes prepare to peak for XC in an effort to become champion or do they run XC to prepare for track and to fulfill a team obligation?

Nobody trains through the track WC or the Olympics.

To me, it's more impressive to win there or in a major marathon.

Most of the listed athletes are top athletes because of their track and road record, not their XC accomplishments.

Star wrote:

But do those athletes prepare to peak for XC in an effort to become champion or do they run XC to prepare for track and to fulfill a team obligation?

Nobody trains through the track WC or the Olympics.

To me, it's more impressive to win there or in a major marathon.

Most of the listed athletes are top athletes because of their track and road record, not their XC accomplishments.

That's a good point....but do you think Bekele was also peaking for the XC championships considering he also ran track at the same time and ran a lot if not all the golden league races....so not like he just raced x-country while others focused on track

Mo Farah gets beat by Garret heath. Cross Country does not have the talent it used to. Bekele destroyed people like Tadese and kipchoge

I think the most impressive thing about KB was his response to EPO. He defines the term "high responder".

Spoiler Alert wrote:

I think the most impressive thing about KB was his response to EPO. He defines the term "high responder".

^^^Most likely this

Tron wrote:

That's a good point....but do you think Bekele was also peaking for the XC championships considering he also ran track at the same time and ran a lot if not all the golden league races....so not like he just raced x-country while others focused on track

Well that's the impressive thing:

It's not the "or" it's the "and".

If he only had that XC career without any tack success or if he only had that track career without any XC success, I think the track Bekele would be more famous than the XC Bekele

lazyafternoons wrote:

Mo Farah gets beat by Garret heath. Cross Country does not have the talent it used to. Bekele destroyed people like Tadese and kipchoge

Garett Heath beat Kiprop and Bekele over XC.