Fastest final laps?

[Non Potest]

Re: Fastest final laps?

What about the women ?? Dibaba and her famous aunt as well as Defar (Eth) have run some senstional last laps. Any stats on their efforts ? Their races used to make me wonder if anyone trains for sprint distances in Ethiopia or because of their tradition in distances that all the runners including their fastest sprinters exclusively trainand compete over the longer distances. The sprint finishes of their distance runners are unreal.

[lovetorun]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Jim Ryun had great 800m speed also...not as fast as Coe, but he ran 1:44.9 for 880 yards at age 19 with no real competition. So I think if he had run as many 800m as Coe he would have been under 1:43.0.

[mrbowie]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Look. Jim Ryun is a Merkin. Of course he was better than Kip. End of story. Don't you ever watch the movies? The Merkin's always come out on top. Come to the party fella!

[deanouk]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Yes, I think Ryun and Snell were probably the most stunning with their amazing final 200--300--400 kicks in a 1500m or mile...their acceleration was amazing. The closest to them is probably Coe and Ovett.

I think Coe and Ovett were more than a match for Snell & Ryun in terms of acceleration over the last 200m. A lot of the splits given to the latter two were hand timed ones at the time and may be subject to some slight discrepancy.

Ovett's 12.0 penultimate 100m in his 25.1 last 200m in the 77 World Cup (3:34), &
Coe's 12.1 last 100m (25.0 last 200m, 38.7 last 300m) in Moscow Olympics and 12.5 (25.6 last 200m, 39.0 last 300m) in his Zurich 3:32 (1984); are testimony to that.

Remember, Coe ran few 1500s in comparison to the others and plenty more 800s. He ran a 24.1 last 200m (11.9 last 100) in the 79 Europa Cup final (1:47), a 12.0 last 100m in the 81 World Cup and 24.8 at the 86 Europeans (1:44). These rival anything Snell or Ryun produced, and can be readily seen on video.

[jeremyp]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Yes, I think Ryun and Snell were probably the most stunning with their amazing final 200--300--400 kicks in a 1500m or mile...their acceleration was amazing. The closest to them is probably Coe and Ovett.

All great 800m men. Then came the berber arabs, with 3 consecutive laps of 56 and killed off the kick.

[lovetorun]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Yes, I think Ryun and Snell were probably the most stunning with their amazing final 200--300--400 kicks in a 1500m or mile...their acceleration was amazing. The closest to them is probably Coe and Ovett.

[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.

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.

Right! It was the Coliseum relays where he ran 24.5 last 220 in a 3.56.1, leaving Burelson, no slouch, to see a 26 last 220 seem tardy, and in the 3.54.9 race in Modesto he ran the last 110m in 14.0, going by the 1500 in 3.40.9. Cram ran a 14 last 110 in his 3.46.32 WR Mile.

[basslop]

Re: Fastest final laps?

Juha Vaatainen finished his 27:52.78 at the 71 EC in 53.8. Then he ran a 53.0 at the end of the 5000 a couple of days later.

Väätäinen was the man. On the 5K and 10K i guess he was the first to manage such final laps. Remember that the 10K race was one of the faster in history so far. The WR back in '71 still was Ron Clarke's 27:39. do not forget GDR's Jürge Haase who followed Väätäinen and lost by just a few tenth of a seconds.

Väätäinen is a interesting guy. He was 30 in 1971. He started as a 400/800 runner. That explains his speed. In the sixities he represented Finland on the 800 and 1500. In 1972 OG he was stopped by back pain. He also planned to run marathon after that, but several injuries stopped his top runner career.

[no one]

Re: Fastest final laps?

it would seem to me that the USA has some fast last lappers, given all the races that are run each year. hafta think going back to late 60s, 70s, 80s etc ... I know there were fast guys running decent times ... with 53s +/- or so closing - no?

[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.

[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.

[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)

[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

[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.

[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.