Anyone?
Anyone?
According to IAAF this year there has been 584 people people under 1:50.00.
Is that this year, or ever, or currently alive, or anyone who has ever gone under 1:50 regardless if they are alive or passed on?
first sub 1;50 happened in 1932
one pretty good all time list has 710 men under 1;46
restate your question it is too vague
There are currently and have been many college 400m specialists with sub-47 400m PB capable of racing sub-1:50 for 800m but never bother to try. You may ask: Why not race sub-1:50 if able to do so? Answer: For NCAA D1 athletes, racing 1:49.9 800m often means nothing. It may mean a last place finish.
There is not a universal policy regarding 800m athletes and college cross-country. I find high school cross-country harmless for 800m athletes. No one will force a sixteen or seventeen year old high school 400/800 athlete with PB of 52.5/1:57.5 to log 100 miles a week over the summer for high school cross-country. Most, not all sub-47 400m college athletes have a cross-country exemption. If a 400m athlete were to race sub-1:50 800m, said runner may be told to run college cross-country. Most sub-47 400m athletes do not want to be jv college cross-country runners. Taylor McLaughlin fits my example. If he would have raced sub-1:50 800m this past spring, then what? Would Taylor McLaughlin have been told to log 100 miles a week this summer to prepare for fall, 2018 cross-country?