Why have 800m times progressed much slower than any other distance?

Well the Australian record is from 1968 but was recently equaled. The question that i would raise is it the coaching or the pool of athletes. The fastest 800m ever by an Australian is 1:44.40. Snell ran faster on grass. Tough to explain.

Coach J.S.:

I have read that Wayde does long reps. Do you have any sample workouts of long reps done by Wayde?

A journalist went out with a measuring chain and measured the track. Hoping as author Pat Butcher said to get a story, he was disappointed to find the track was accurate

Back then a lot of tracks were 6 lane, what difference does that make?

ironside wrote:

"... golden age of white distance running." A white power post. Interesting who is considered white. Seb Coe, his paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants. Seb Coe had a maternal Indian grandmother.

Totally wrong on both sides. His father's parents were not Jews. They were East end Londoners. Therefore English.

His mother's father (not mother, as you claim) was Indian.

So he was 3/4 white English and 1/4 Indian.

There are very few people who would consider themselves white, who do not have members of their extended family going back a few generations, that are not from another country.

...and one more thing.

What would Coe have run if he'd just concentrated on the 800m like todays runners?

wr potential wrote:

http://digilander.libero.it/Mennea/Stagionali/WRL/1980/800.htm

Top 100 athletes for the 1980 800m, if it helps. Oldest is no.44 Kenyan at 32, youngest Joaquim Cruz at 17 with a 1:47.85, 3.3 seconds off Don Paige at the USOT.

Coe is the lightest, at only 54kg. Moscow 4th placer is 57kg. Apart from no.87 Greek at 54kg and no.81 Turk at 59kg, everyone else is over 60kg, with two over 80kg, no.9 West German at 82kg, and no.76 American at 85kg (1.96m).

Early in Coe's career, 79 - 81, he was usually listed as being 58kg. I've seen the stats for his weight fluctuate, but 58kg seems the more popular weight during his career.

is this a joke ???

you are timing a vid & using that as evidence of legitimacy ???!!!

it isn't

no

learn to read

one of olizarenko's HT in her 1'54.85 was 1'54.5 !!!

it means HT can be 0.3s too quick

lot of other problems

mickey mouse 6 lane track which woud never be taken seriously today

unknown meet which fizzled out by late-'80s

is this a joke ???

that was USTFF meet, one of the biggest meets in US

any meet with that prestige was bulletproof

firenze was unknown mickey mouse meet so pathetic it coudn't even get a working auto-time system !!!

there is no comparison between calibre of meets

is this a joke ???

you wouda been shocked i even found brief clip of race from '66 !!!

what runs apart from '60 / '64 / '68 games have whole of a race ???

KU possibly has likely full race & you can email asking them to post full vid

when i have time i certainly will or anyone here who is at KU can just go to archives & ask

you seem to have no clue about Ryun

his best 2 years were '66/'67 before mono finished him

he didn't regard 800 as a serious even back then & never bothered with another serious one in '66 or '67

next time he ran it with serious intent was '68 trials where mono caused him to bomb

you don't appear to have any analytical ability

it has been pointed out numerously his illness, prelim coupla hours before, huge amount of wide running, huge -ve splits all in huge wind on soft asphalt nowhere as quick as a '70s track & you still can't go & think/analyse for yourself ?!

i have numerously

it appears you can't analyse

who knows ?!

is this a joke ???

there is NO running clock in that vid

what are you talking about ???

a brief clip in prelim part of Kip's 1'41.24 has firenze with a running clock but that is absurd as no auto-time that day for race & couda only been some fabricated put-on clocking

no photo-finish = no auto timing = not legit from 1/1/81

is this a joke ???

it woud mean all auto times in ''80s were worthless !!!

you "wonder" hugely wrong...

utter total joke !!!

no one got cheated out of anything with submitted 0.01s timing

it has to exist to be submitted !!!

ukathleticscoach wrote:A journalist went out with a measuring chain and measured the track. Hoping as author Pat Butcher said to get a story, he was disappointed to find the track was accurate

eh ???

i have heard that story about rieti few times but never firenze

check your story

it has precedence tracks are short

stepanova ran a then incredible 52.94wr which i nearly fell off my lazyboy when i read it !

the track was only

398.15m !!!

& iaaf still ratified it !!!

WRs have been set on nonsense short tracks

Back then a lot of tracks were 6 lane, what difference does that make?

after-thought mickey mouse tracks fudged into a kickaball stadium or even joke of oslo onto a skating rink !!!

nonsense tracks

no serious meet today in synthetic track era is held on a 6-laner & same stipulation shoud apply from '68 of mexico with established dawn of synthetic track era & mandatory 8 or 9 lanes for legitimacy

meets held on 6-laners are joke

ukathleticscoach wrote:...and one more thing.

What would Coe have run if he'd just concentrated on the 800m like todays runners?

he did

it was his main event but he didn't ever have quick enough 400 speed at 45-high to ever dominate when likes of caballo had 44-flat/low, so he had to work on endurance to maximise his 800

it just happened it eventually got him a 3'29+

the question is what he couda run at 1500 if he'd concentrated on that

he maya just dipped into 3'27s

Fck off

Deanouk wrote:

His father's parents were not Jews. They were East end Londoners. Therefore English.

I don't know about Coe's heritage, but it is possible to simultaneously be English, an East end Londoner and Jewish.

I don't believe anything you say as a rule, but if another track unrelated to Firenze happened to be 398.15m, you do realise that that figure is for the inside rail. You do realise that a woman running the 400h in lane 3/4 would have run over 400m by running in the centre of her lane.

It's really basic maths.

This has nothing to do with Coe, because of course the Firenze track was fine, but I just severely dislike you and wanted to point out where you are being stupid.

I GIVE UP ON THIS THREAD!

BC It's only two laps! Isn't this common sense that a race that takes less than 2:00 is not going to have drops like a race that is 4:00 or 10:00 or 14:00 or 28:00 or 60:00? Why is this a discussion thread of this length? Hmmm

The 1980 top 100 list makes interesting reading. Harold Schmid ran a 1:45 which was the 9th best time that year. People on this forum keep talking about how the top 400m runners could move up to the 800m and compete, but why does nobody ever mention 400m hurdlers? I always thought that those two events would be the closest in terms of the physical demands. I wonder how fast Ed Moses could have been at 800m?

Also I see Said Aouita listed at 98 with a 1:47. It also gives his birth as 1959 there, which made him 21 in 1980. It seems at some point Aouita changed his birth to 1960 to make himself look younger in his breakthrough year of 1983 than he was (almost 24 and a year older than Cram).

Looking at the 400m rankings for 1980 is also interesting. Only 4 people broke 45 seconds, which shows how untypical the Mexico sub 44 world record was, as well as how fast Juantareno was for the period. Somebody earlier in this thread actually claimed he wasn't that fast for a 400m runner!

And if you take a look at 77, he had the top 3 times and 5 of the top 11 :

http://digilander.libero.it/Mennea/Stagionali/WRL/1977/400.htm

Leaving aside whether he was PED powered, it's a shame he had to have surgery at the end of 77. It's easy to speculate that he might have repeated the double in 1980 (although I guess it would have been a lot faster race in the 800 final which would likely have led to Coe winning).

Also had the top four times in the 800m in 77. Quite a stud really.

http://digilander.libero.it/Mennea/Stagionali/WRL/1977/800.htm

Coevett wrote:

The 1980 top 100 list makes interesting reading. Harold Schmid ran a 1:45 which was the 9th best time that year. People on this forum keep talking about how the top 400m runners could move up to the 800m and compete, but why does nobody ever mention 400m hurdlers? I always thought that those two events would be the closest in terms of the physical demands. I wonder how fast Ed Moses could have been at 800m?

Also I see Said Aouita listed at 98 with a 1:47. It also gives his birth as 1959 there, which made him 21 in 1980. It seems at some point Aouita changed his birth to 1960 to make himself look younger in his breakthrough year of 1983 than he was (almost 24 and a year older than Cram).

Schmid's first name is Harald.

This 1:47 is new for you? How many times have I given you his early progression?

Born in 1959 would make him 20 in 1980.

In his early career, Aouita's year of birth was usually given as 1960. Later it mostly was given as 1959. Maybe there are just different sources? Or maybe it's just not clear at all?