James Fields wrote:
> To appreciate a 2:38/2:39 in the interior of a women's 1500m, consider an
> Olympic final-size field of this year's top 12 performers from 1000-meter
> races without a preceding 400 or following 100. This list is topped with
> 2:37.22 by the silver medalist at Sydney.
> 2:37.22 Violeta Beclea-Szekely, Romania
> 2:37.42 Letitia Vriesde, Surinam
> 2:37.89 Yelena Martson-Buzhenko, Ukraine
> 2:38.39 Yelena Afanasyeva, Russia
> 2:39.23 Fabiane dos Santos, Brazil
> 2:39.30 Natalya Dukhnova, Belarus
> 2:39.35 Luciana de Paula Mendes, Brazil
> 2:40.35 Sarah Jamieson-Kerry, Australia
> 2:40.56 Renata Hoppova, Czech Republic
> 2:41.02 Simone Beutelspacher, Germany
> 2:42.91 Seltana Aït Hammou, Morocco
> 2:42.98 Gladys Wamuyu, Kenya
Come, now. This is like a list of 5K runners' "best 400." How many really hot
kilometer races with a pacemaker do you see on the circuit each year? None. The
record is 2:30, IIRC, and that's not a strong record, either. It's true, though,
that it takes more energy to run 1400 meters with a 70.6 400 + 2:37 kilo than it
is to run 1400 in that time in an even pace.
BTW, I just finally watched the final today. I hadn't realized that Szabo was so
far out of it. She lost a lot of ground jumping over that fallen runner. She was
buried with 400 to go. I think she ran about 13.8 for her last 100. If she
hadn't had to hurdle someone, she would have won, IMO.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
