Bolt and Bekele

[midnightsun]

Folks, let's get real, training for the 100 and 200, Bolt can't hope to last 600m [with someone like Bekele that is]. He'll die a horrible death in the last 200m, and when you die a horrible death in races like 400, 600,800,1000, it's not that you slow down a second or two, you just come to a complete halt!

I agree with those who said that at 500 Bolt will prevail, but anything further than 550m is no contest. Live with it, great as he may be, he's not Superman.

[tm71]

in reality bekele would win an 800 race by going 25, 28, 26, 27 for the four 200 meter segments. bolt would go more like 22, 25, 30, 32 and get passed up in the last 80 meters. i think bolt would win a 600 meter race so maybe 700 would be the closest race. as i recall in my 30 yrs in track and field i have never seen a 700 meter race ever run.

[doug091463]

i dont likme these gimmick match races, when they had michael johnson and donovan bailey in a 150 meter match race i was thinking this could be okay if they had 8-9 competitors including linford christie, ato bolden, frank fredericks and whoever were the top people at the time, but of course the genius mastermind of this event never thought of having more than the 2 major stars in the race and bailey got a lead and johnson realizing he was going to lose faked an injury and bailey jogged it in, so it was a big disappointment for the event, if christie, bolden and others were in the race bailey would have actually had to run hard the whole way to win and he still may or may not have won.

with bolt vs bekele at 600-800 meters, i would look for them to both be at best soso at this distance, i dont really get excited at an 800 where no one breaks 1:44.00, unless its a junior and i dont think they would be under 1:44.00, and i dont care much for these almost never run distances as i dont know how to convert it to REAL distances, the football announcers drive me crazy with 40 yard times, i would rather they give 100-200 meter times, example i know sub 10.00 for 100 meters and 20.00 are fast a 4.2-4.4-4.6 for 40 yards i dont know.

now i am rambling off the subject.

[ATK]

bailey got a lead and johnson realizing he was going to lose faked an injury and bailey jogged it in,

If the race would have finished, Michael Would have murdered Bailey, but thats another discussion...

[lonewolf]

Bolt would dominate 400. Geb would stroll home in an 800. Split the difference seems fair. For no reason I care to defend, I favor Bolt at 600. .

[DrJay]

Has to be some sort of weird handicap race. Start 'em at the same time and give Bolt $4000 for every second he remains ahead of KB. The scoreboard and the teevee could show his winnings tally rocketing upward every 1/100th of second. American teevee would love it, kind of like the newest game show. Now someone needs to think of KB's payout strategy

[rainy.here]

in reality bekele would win an 800 race by going 25, 28, 26, 27 for the four 200 meter segments. bolt would go more like 22, 25, 30, 32 and get passed up in the last 80 meters. i think bolt would win a 600 meter race so maybe 700 would be the closest race. as i recall in my 30 yrs in track and field i have never seen a 700 meter race ever run.

Interestingly, 700m is really close to the square root of 100m*5000m. I would guess that the square root of the product of the distances is a good starting point to 'split the difference'.

[duckedup]

terrible idea. i would never pay to watch that. makes absolutely no sense. its like asking a point guard to play center and play in the pain the entire game and a center to take the ball up the court and run the offense.

[Rog]

I can't believe the posts in this thread... I mean come on, this is way too nerdy even for me.

Why not have them pole vaulting? Or playing versus Super Mario on the DS? Or having a staring contest?

I could go on, but for once I'm not going to. Let's just walk away with our dignity intact

[jazzcyclist]

Should you also include the best 400 and 800 runners in this race?

[Mikewats]

I think Bolt would win a 500m race and 600m race, bolt can probably run 45 flat if not sub 45 all out. Bekele is probably a 1.45 800m runner and about 48/9 for the 400 so he's looking at a 51 secs first 400m, bolt could stroll that and i couldn't see Bekele passing bolt in the last 200m after bolts done a 50 sec first 400.

800 Bolt would be destroyed I agree.

[jazzcyclist]

If it is a 600m, Bolt would have just enough in the tank to win. Assuming Bolt does go 46 for the first 400 (that would be an relatively easy 400m for him if you have even seen clips of him running the 400 recently) and Bekele could push things and run it in 53/52. worst case scenario Bolt would have a 6 second lead on Bekele and I doubt that Bekele could make up 6 seconds in just 200m, even though Bolt would be dragging to the finish line.

This will never happen of course, but it's a neat idea.

Bekele can do 53 second laps at the end of some 5000m races!

OK, so how fast would he run?

You really need someone like Eldrick to answer this but he must be capable of a 48 or 49 second 400m, so he could go out in 51 or so and come home much stronger than Bolt, but I think Bolt would still scrape a win.

Dibaba and Defar are probably capable of 52-53 in the open 400. I'd imagine Bekele could run 49 when he's in peak 5000 shape and sub-48 after a month of speedwork.

[Ned Ryerson]

Defar and Dibaba are worth about 55sec each.

[Mikewats]

Agree all this they can run quick at the end of a tactical 5000 race don't mean much. On the rare occasion of me doing an 800 and a bit of a slow race, I could sprint the last 200 pretty quick, it's usually a fine line between being out of gas and having a sprint finish, hence why the 800 is always a toss up of who is going to win.

[jazzcyclist]

Defar and Dibaba are worth about 55sec each.

I don't think they're that slow.