It's been almost twenty years since there was an 800 runner like Pamela Jelimo on the tracks. Considering the Eastern Europeans and Soviets were almost certainly on all types of drugs (I don't know about Quirot, but she was close to the drug-tainted Sotomayor), it's possible this is the best female 800m runner ever. She just crushed last year's Kenyan 800m sensation Janeth Jepkosgei at the Golden League. I still haven't seen video of her running, but I want to now.
She's a converted 400m hurdler, showing herself to be one of the biggest talents in track and field. To my eye this performance is almost as good as Bolt's 9.72 (remember when Bolt ran 19.7x as a junior? Turns out it wasn't a fluke). And since it's in the 800, it's more exciting.
1:53.28 Jarmila Kratochvílová 26.07.1983
1:53.43 Nadezhda Olizarenko 27.07.1980
1:54.44 Ana Fidelia Quirot 09.09.1989
1:54.81 Olga Mineyeva 27.07.1980
1:54.94 Tatyana Kazankina 26.07.1976
1:54.99 Pamela Jelimo 01.06.2008
Things I hope:
- That Bolt, Gay, Merritt, Wariner, Jelimo, etc are not on drugs
- That if they are, we find out
- That the media stops reporting the "medal count" of each nation every twenty minutes
Things I want to watch in the Olympics:
- Jelimo vs. all in women's 800
- Xiang vs. Robles and others in the hurdles
- Lagat trying to double (I assume Bekele will run only 10K. If not, it gets even more interesting)
- Hoffa vs. Nelson
- Gay, Bolt, Powell
- Lel, Wanjiru, Hall, and many others in the men's marathon
- Will Leer (who knows? 1:47 the other day)
Lagat is interesting. The only huge standout at 5000 right now is Bekele, who will probably just collect his 10,000 gold and leave it at that. There are all kinds of stars at the very long distances (Sihine, Tadese, Wanjiru, Kogo, etc.), but it doesn't look there's quite the same caliber of competition out there for 5000m that there was 5-10 years ago (Geb, Komen, El G, Chereno and E. Kipchoge at their best). Probably 2-3 runners will be in 12:50 (fresh, time-trial conditions) shape, 3-4 more in 12:55 shape. Lagat is maybe the best bet, but I'd take the field over him. The 1500 is even harder. Lagat is definitely off his peak 3:26 shape, but still the best in the world until someone proves otherwise. If he does pull off the double, it'll have to be one of the all-time great achievements in the sport: four golds in two years. Unlike El G, Morceli, Aouita, Coe, who were a second or two better than the rest of the world when they picked up their hardware, Lagat doesn't appear to be faster than everyone else. Instead he has some sort of mystical race-savvy and ability to peak at exactly the right moment. The new Viren.
7 comments:
Where did Will run 1.47? That's pretty neat!
at the, uh, somewhere or other. i saw it on facebook, but it's on his wikipedia page, too
Nike Mile, there was a video of the race off of a link on TFN, you may still be able to find it if you search. I think it was an event organized by OTC coach. It was also at a track with trees in the middle which may or may not be famous....
Oh yeah Megumi I've heard of that track before. Salazar coahces Goucher and Rohatinsky there. I saw some video of their training. I think it was on the Nike web-page when I was looking at frees. It looks awesome. Also, Mark, what about Webb? Obviously his season so far hasn't been too bright but I think he could still be in the top fight for the 1500. That is, assuming he makes the US team.
Hey noobs: this is the famous Track with Trees In the Middle, not that Nike POS.
Good discussion! This Jelimo is fast, but "best ever" has little to do with all-time lists. Mutola is the greatest.
Holy crap - did you see the Bolt 9.72 video?! When he's in full-flight...BEAUTIFUL, even if you're a distance runner you gotta recognize that's good running.
Looks like Leer has a legitimate shot, especially with that closing gear of his.
Hell yeah he does. If Leer can run 1:47 in the Nike Mile he's WAY ahead of everyone else who ever lived!
Dibaba just ran 14:11 for a 5k WR in Oslo, closing her last 800 in under 2:10.
Next week she's running the 10k in Ostrava, which I believe is the same venue where that awesome photo of Alan Webb was taken a few years back. I think any performance calculator on the web will predict sub-30 for her. But the big question is: how close can she come to Junxia's WR?
Post a Comment