Querfeldein wrote:
Who knows whether or not Farah doped, but it is pretty clear that times from today are not comparable with those from the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Those times were set by four different athletes over less than ten years. They won't be touched any time soon, and they will increasingly be viewed in the same way that we now view women's sprint records.
https://sportsscientists.com/2016/08/world-records-fossils/
This. Agree entirely
It is not just Farah who can't touch these times (12:40 and under), nobody can.
We currently call Farah's competition weak etc. and that he is not as 'great' as Bekele et al. for not being able to do these times.
But after a few generations of the finest that East Africa can produce, with increased knowledge in training, strength and conditioning, nutrition and recovery programmes, nobody is within 8 seconds of those times. Gebremeskel and Gebriwhet ran 12:46/12:47. The young Kjelcha ran 12:53. These are great great times and perhaps they are equal in quality to the aforementioned greats.
Testing is much better, and times in these events are much slower. Particularly when we are talking about EPO.
Events where maximal oxygen uptake is critical such as the 3000, 5000 and 10,000, where EPO is more effective, we have seen a dramatic decrease in quality.
The marathon relies more on efficiency; more oxygen doesn't directly help it's how efficient your body is, it's easy to get enough O2 in the marathon.
In the 1500 and below there are many other factors at work.
(repost)