Rappstar wrote:
mark.cotgrove wrote:
So, is there now any doubt?
ITU athletes are better than long-distance athletes, even at long distances - discuss
Shockingly, the best triathletes are the best at triathlon.
This is like the letsrun arguement about whether milers to 5000m guys are better than marathoners. Answer = They are different events. Some are able to span over the spectrum and do better when they go long after not doing as well at the shorter distance, some never bridge up well to the longer distance.
Mo Farah is only 2 second behind Sebastien Coe's 1500m former world record in 335th place all time. Meanwhile in the marathon he is ONLY a 2:08 marathoner ranked way back at 964 all time. In the 5000m he is only 64th all time with a 12.53 and in the 1000m he is only 16th all time with a 26.46. Meanwhile the guy is sitting on 4 Olympic golds in the 5000m and 10000m, because he has a crazy fast closing kick. At the London Olympics he ran a sub 4 closing mile including a 53 second final lap. The guy aparently can close at 49 second speed when he hits full stride
So who is a better runner...El Gherrouj who has the 1500m record, Kimetto who holds the marathon record, or Bekele who holds the 5000m and 10000m, or Farah, who holds the last 4 5000m/10000m Olympic golds? Different runners for different distances run under different tactics.
The reason I picked Farah is because he has some decent amount of fast twitch muscle composition to go with his aerobic engine. ITU racing can reward some guys with slighly different body composition than Ironman. To use an extreme example, let's compare Chrissie Wellington and Vanessa Fernandes/Emma Snowsill. I don't think either of these ladies would come within an hour of Chrissie in Kona.