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Kenenisa Bekele has a combined score of 3821 in the three disciplines. [3:32.35 (1211), 12:37.35 (1304), 26:17.53 (1306)]. This puts him right between MJ's 3817 and Bolt's 3833. Is this a fair way to compare a sprinter's overall ability to a distance runner's ability? Or should we being talking 1500/5000/Marathon?
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I wonder what a list would look like in which athletes can use any three championship events. Carl Lewis would be near the top I suspect. Actually, why not include men and women. -
Using the 100, 200 and long jump, Lewis scores 3862, but of course I wouldn't call him the best all-around sprinter of all times, since only two of his three scores comes from the sprints.Originally posted by dakotaComment
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The greater issue is not what distances are used, but whether the points
awarded are fair: As has been discussed on many threads here, the point tables
are too crude a tool by far to give more than approximate results.
Without going through the leg-work, I suspect that there are some even higher
women's scores, when looking at arbitrary events: Koch, Krato, Flo-Jo (at least
with her 400r), Drechsler, JJK?Comment
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Good stats on the distance points.
I believe the fairest representation of the two groups' abilities is to take the distance races which have been near the same pace from the start to the finish. The 100m sprinters don't have the luxury of speeding up in the fifth 20m segment of a race because they are not on pace to strike at the world-record, because it becomes physically impossible to achieve a split required to do that so late into a race. Moreover, they don't have a pacer involved to set up ther races. The distance runner, on the other hand, can - and often does - challenge for records the final entire lap to 1.000m, and most of the time following a rabbit.Comment
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Daniel Komen (3.836 points) would have appeared to have been the head of the class had the 1.500m (1.251/3.29,46), non-OG distance 3.000m (1.300/7.20,67) and 5.000m (1.285/12.39,74) been considered.Comment
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To be fair, we should probably stick to championship distances, lest we end up including scores for 100/200/300, 200/300/400, 600/800/1000, 800/1000/1500 or even 1000/1500/mile combinations.Originally posted by EPelleComment
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I agree(d), hence the "non-OG distance" disclaimer.Comment
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FYI, Haile Gebrselassie's 5000/10,000/marathon combo score is 3889. :shock:Comment
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What of Henry Rono ? if you include the 3k and the SK steeple surely he comes out tops.Comment
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Even if you include the non-championship distance of 3000, his 3000/ Steeplechase/5000 combo score only comes to 3659.Originally posted by kamikaze7Comment
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However, Rono's scores would likely have been higher if the samples were weighted for his generation. Said Aouita's 1.43/3.29/12.58 would also have counted higher then than they do now.Comment
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As would Zatopek, Nurmi, etc. When were the first points tables devised?Comment
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When I first started reading T&FN in the mid-'60s everything was scored on the Portuguese Tables. They were first published in '49 and there was a '62 update.
Their usefulness ended with technological advances like synthetic tracks, auto timing, fiberglass poles and the flop (to say nothing of roids), all of which sent various events off on different tangents.Comment
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JJK get's her highest score from her heptathlon, Long Jump and 200m...5 points higher than if she used her 100mh:Originally posted by imaginative
7.49 = 1312
7,291 = 1350
22.30 = 1207
Total = 3869
Drechsler rather surprisingly get's her top score from the same 3 events, rather than 100/200/LJ as you'd expect:
7.48 = 1309
21.71 = 1254
6,741 = 1241
Total = 3804
Her 10.91 100m equates to 1213. If this were a heptathlon her 7.63 (2.1) LJ would count, meaning she'd get another 81 pts, total 3885.
The shock is Koch, who doesnt get over 3,800 pts:
10.83 = 1227
21.71 = 1254
47.60 = 1286
Total = 3767
That 400m score is way too low IMOComment
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