Fastest final laps?

[kuha]

Re: Fastest final laps?

There's little question that the Ryun of 1967 was as impressive as any other miler in history, at their absolute peak.

[paw]

Re: Fastest final laps?

before illness (a) and altitude and of course Keino, the man who was born and have trained in altitude in many years before Mexico 1968, beat Ryun:


http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=44790

world record in Los Angeles the 8th of july, 1967:
lst 440yards in 60.9 (Bailey)
880 yards in 1:57.0 (Keino)
Ryun at 2:39,2 with one lap to go
Keino leading past the three quarters in 2:55.0
Ryun's next 210 yards in 24.6
Ryun's last 100 meters in 13.5 (last 320 yards: 38.1-equivalent to 300 meters in 39.3). His last 440 in 53.9-last 880 in 1:51.3-last 1000 in 2.18.7-last three quarters in 2:48.7) the facts are from Nelson/Quercetani's 'Runners and Races'.

P.S. Ryun's set his world records in the mile 3:51.1 by leading from start to finish. And in that race his last lap was 53.7 (and last 220 yards 26.3)!



a) the illness from an earlier subject:

unless you have a clue about mononucleosis, i woudn't categorise that as an "injury" where you can recover in weeks/months

mono is a leading cause of the relatively common condition "chronic fatigue syndrome" or "viral fatigue syndrome"

this can last years - i've seen cases who had it for decade+

this diagnosis didn't exist 40y ago & it's likely from hearing about his post-'67
development & lack of improvement that he suffered with this for probably all the remainder of his athletic career

what he did post-'67 in view of this possible diagnosis is astonishing - i've seen cases where walking to the end of the road is the limit of their physical capabilities

if not for mono, he may have gone on to set records not broken until the '90s - in fact, they may have still not been beaten today !

[tandfman]

Re: Fastest final laps?

before illness (a) and altitude and of course Keino, the man who was born and have trained in altitude in many years before Mexico 1968, beat Ryun

I've always thought, but of course cannot prove, that if it hadn't been for Ryun's illness, he would have been able to handle Keino in Mexico.

[paw]

Re: Fastest final laps?

I've always thought, but of course cannot prove, that if it hadn't been for Ryun's illness, he would have been able to handle Keino in Mexico.

Seen in relation to Bodo Tümmler only finished 1.2 seconds after Ryun, one can imagine, that Ryun would have been much closer to or even had beaten Keino in spite of the altitude! If Ryun had been in the form of 1967 he would have done it, I think. He could set a world record by himself without any help, and in his world record of the 1500 meters he proofed, that he could ran with Keino at any pace, and finally he had better speed than Keino over the last lap:

Of course the altitude was a favour to Keino, who also ran the race of his life with help from a countryman.
Finally (of course in some different form for race) Ryun beat Tümmler in 1967 with 4.1 seconds (in Düsseldorf 17th of August 1967) - Keino beat Tümmler in Mexico with the advange of altitude with exactly 4.1 seconds!

And finally, Ryuns win over Bodo Tûmmler had to be seen in relation to that Bodo Tümmler normally had a very strong finish and could follow some fast pace for the first two laps (1:56,0) and finish one mile in 3:53.8 (Karlskrona 22th of August 1968)- but then he also had his best year in 1968!

[Per Andersen]

Re: Fastest final laps?

I've always thought, but of course cannot prove, that if it hadn't been for Ryun's illness, he would have been able to handle Keino in Mexico.

Then you would have to believe that Ryun was capable of running in the 3.34s at an altitude of 7400 feet.
I think it makes more sense to believe that only Keino could do that.

[berkeley]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Ovett's last half lap at the 77 world cup (subject of Ron Pickering's famous "one man's blazing speed has torn this field asunder" line) certainly must be up there among the fastest last half laps ... and apparently easiest.

[paw]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Ovett's last lap was not that fast, but his next to last 100 meters was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daFDi2bjkas

[SQUACKEE]

Re: Fastest final laps?

I know i saw it, i just dont remember where, Morceli, in a very slow 1500, ran his last lap in 50. something, it was amazing, anyone remember?

[liuxuan]

Re: Fastest final laps?

masterkova could trot out sub 57 seconds for the last ap of a 1500m at wil!

[kuha]

Re: Fastest final laps?

I know i saw it, i just dont remember where, Morceli, in a very slow 1500, ran his last lap in 50. something, it was amazing, anyone remember?

His most astonishing last lap that I ever saw was in the 1994 Zurich 5000. In decent conditions, he would have demolished the WR that day, but it poured rain during the race and the pacesetters were lazy. Morceli ended up running with the pack until 400 to go, and then just blasting away over the last lap--making many of the best 5000 guys in the world look like mere joggers. It was a truly amazing sight.

[deanouk]

Re: Fastest final laps?

His most astonishing last lap that I ever saw was in the 1994 Zurich 5000. In decent conditions, he would have demolished the WR that day, but it poured rain during the race and the pacesetters were lazy. Morceli ended up running with the pack until 400 to go, and then just blasting away over the last lap--making many of the best 5000 guys in the world look like mere joggers. It was a truly amazing sight.

Yes that was a pretty amazing run. His last 400m was 51.9 in a 13:03.85 5000m!
Last 800m 1:53.8 and he won by over 3 secs.
His 51.6 last 400 in winning the Worlds in 91 and his 50.7 in winning in 93 (3:34.24) were also stunning.

[joeltetreault]

Re: Fastest final laps?

I compiled some 1500 last lap stats for the WCs and Olympics in a similar thread:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14432&p=294707&hilit=morceli#p 294707

51.5....Morceli....1991 WC
50.2....Cacho......1992 Olympics (* I might be off by a tenth)
50.6....Morceli....1993 WC
51.3....Morceli....1995 WC
53.6....Morceli....1996 Olympics
51.5....ElGuerrouj.1997 WC

53.9....ElGuerrouj.2003 WC
51.9....ElGuerrouj.2004 Olympics (but Silva had 51.3)
54.1....Ramzi......2005 WC (but Kaouch had 53.1)
53.1....Lagat......2007 WC
52.8....Ramzi.....2008 Olympics (but DQ'd, Kiprop: 52.9)
51.8....Kamel.....2009 WC

[joeltetreault]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Another post from a few years back with final splits for the 5000m:

For what it's worth, below are closing splits for the winners of championship 5000m from 1968 to the present for as many as I could find (I seem to be missing my TFN '97, '00 and '01 issues with the splits). I am guessing that Lagat's last 400 (52.3), last 800 (1:50.6) and last 1000 (~2:23.4) may be the fastest closing segments in a WC or Oly championship event ever. Of course, this being the slowest WC or Oly championship in nearly 40 years, one sort of has to take these numbers with a grain of salt. It really puts the 2003 race in perspective, almost a minute faster, but it had the second fastest closing 800m and 1000m, as well as the third fastest closing 400m (at least with the stats below). The '83 race stands the test of time as its last 800 and 1000 are some of the fastest ever.

All stats are from TFN magazine, eTN, and IAAF. Most of the 1000m figures will be off by a little since it was calculated from the leader at 4k, not the overall winner.

Also note that these are figures for the winners, in some of the races, other runners closed faster than the winner (such as Baumann in '88 ). If anyone has their old TFN's lying around, please update the list with the missing splits for '97, '00, 01.

[key: fastest last 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000, 1200, 1600]

2007 13:45.87 - 13.1, 25.9, 52.3, 1:50.6, 2:23.4, 2:55.4, 4:00.3 (Bernard Lagat)
2005 13:32.55 - 13.5, 26.2, 54.2, 1:55.1, 2:26.2, 2:56.9, 3:57.7 (Benjamin Limo)
2004 13:14.39 - 12.6, 24.9, 52.6, 1:54.0, n/a, 2:57.6, 4:01.1 (Hicham El Guerrouj)
2003 12:52.79 - 13.1, 26.3, 53.4, 1:52.9, 2:24.3, 2:58.5, 4:02.5 (Eliud Kipchoge)
2001 13:00.77 [2:26.2 kilo] (Richard Limo)
2000 13:35.49 (Million Wolde)
1999 12:58.13 - n/a, 27.8, 56.0, 1:56.9, n/a, 2:59.4, 4:01.8 (Salah Hissou)
1997 13:07.38 (Daniel Komen)
1996 13:07.96 - n/a, n/a, 54.9, 1:54.9, 2:27.6, n/a, n/a (Venuste Niyongabo)
1995 13:16.77 - n/a, 26.6, 56.6, 2:01.1, 2:32.5, n/a, n/a (Ismael Kirui)
1993 13:02.75 - n/a, 29.1, 60.0, 2:04.3, 2:35.9, n/a, n/a (Ismael Kirui)
1992 13:12.52 - n/a, 24.9, 56.1, 2:01.3, 2:33.7, n/a, n/a (Dieter Baumann)
1991 13:14.45 - [2:45.4 kilo] (Yobes Ondieki)
1988 13:11.70 - n/a, n/a, 60.3, n/a, 2:35.5, n/a, n/a (John Ngugi)
1987 13:26.44 - n/a, 26.0, 53.2, n/a, 2:27.8, n/a, n/a (Said Aouita)
1984 13:05.59 - n/a, n/a, 55.0, 1:55.2, 2:26.7, 2:58.5, 4:02.3 (Said Aouita)
1983 13:28.53 - n/a, n/a, 57.3, 1:54.4, 2:24.7, n/a, 4:04.3 (Eamonn Coghlan)
1980 13:21.0h - n/a, 27.2, 54.9, 1:56.5, 2:29.6, n/a, n/a (Miruts Yifter)
1976 13:24.8h - n/a, n/a, 55.4, 1:57.5, 2:29.5, 3:01.3, 4:05.2 (Lasse Viren)
1972 13:26.4h - n/a, n/a, n/a, 2:26.5, n/a, 3:59.8 (Lasse Viren)
1968 14:05.0h - (~54.8 last quarter) (Mohamed Gammoudi)

[jeremyp]

Re: Fastest final laps?

What these fast finishes show, especially Ryun's and El G's is that these guys were so strong that even a good pace had little or no impact on their stamina. Snell ran a 24.5 last 220 in Modesto in 1962, and was only .5 from the WR.

[deanouk]

Re: Fastest final laps?

What these fast finishes show, especially Ryun's and El G's is that these guys were so strong that even a good pace had little or no impact on their stamina. Snell ran a 24.5 last 220 in Modesto in 1962, and was only .5 from the WR.

I think that's when he ran 3:56.1 in May '62. The WR at that time though was a bit quicker than 0.5 faster. It was his own 3:54.4.
Nevertheless, 24.5 for last 220 is amazing. His last 440 was 54.0.
It's a shame these races from that period are seldom available to watch on video, as we have to rely on hand timed observers who were there.