Jo72 wrote:
The argument is not mainly that she has a very fast finish (not only kick on the last 100, but last lap or more).
But it's simple statistics that most female 3:57 1500m runners have run 800m sub 2. I am not looking up all the Russians and Chinese but most of them ran sub 2 (many of them testo-powered 1:55 or around that).
Simpson and the Turkish convicted doper Ayhan ran around 2:00.6, so these are two fast ones who did not break 2 min. but I'd say that with more 800m races they would very probably have run sub 2 as well.
The claim also was not that Houlihan would run 1:55 (world class), but 1:59 off her 1500m training. Probably faster IF she focussed on that distance.
Simpson closed in about 1:58 in one of the world champ finals if I recall correctly.