All-time World Cup day 2: Running Events

[jsquire]

I'd have to go back and look, but since he came to the fore I think El G has actually lost more un-rabbitted races than he's won. In the WC and a few other championship meets he's had a de facto rabbit helping him out. In any case, he's not invincible, while Morceli was under any circumstances.

[dj]

GH wrote: The big difference in the 400H, of course, was in the ability to carry a shorter stride pattern (shorter in terms of number of strides, not in the length thereof) deeper into the race.

Aside from the "bouncability," the other factor was the consistency in rubber surfaces. No more dead spots in tracks and runways.

[Guest]

Jsquire - I think you're right about El G. I can remember him losing a slow (for him) race to a "Dane" (another Kenyan transplant - not Kipketer). It was a race he should have won easily. Anyone is capable of a bad day or losing, but what stood out was that there was no rabbit for El G in that race. So I guess I've seen him run without rabbits outside of the games. Yeah, technically he had a rabbit in Sydney, but the guy did a crummy job, and El G was in effect his own rabbit, and not a very good one that day. Ngeny knew all he had to do was ... hang on. It's easier to move up on someone than hold them off a lot of the time. At his peak, Morceli seemed capable of winning any kind of race, as did most of the other greats. El G just never has presented that same image, at least not to me.

DJ, that remark about the dead spots in the track is a good point. When I go out on my run (stagger you could say) and hit the local synthetic track, at a hs(!) I always think back to my days chugging around on dirt, tracks with dunes, pits, dead spots, you name it. Good old days my ... foot.