A lot has been written and said over the last few years about how horrible 'time-chasing' is because it takes away the fan excitement of head-to-head competition.
I'm not convinced that we can't have both. Bannister vs Landy in the '54 Commonwealth Games produced a 3:58 when the World Record was 3:57. Ryun vs Liquori in '71 produced a 3:52 when the World Record was 3:51. What I hate most is some of the best athletes in the world going head to head at pedestrian race and then seeing who has the most blazing speed in the last 10% of the race. I HATE THAT!!! It reminds of those velodrome bicyclers that see how slow they can go without the bike falling over, so they can just watch other- like playing 'chicken' or 'russian roulette'. Yes, I would rather watch a single one of these athletes make a good shot at a rabbited world record attempt with the last 10% of the race basically solo man-against-the-clock. Wasn't that basically what Eamonn Coghlan was doing in his best WR-shots on the indoor circuit? Nobody was really in his class, and everybody knew he was shooting for sub-3:50. And the fans were standing screaming at the top of their lungs. Maybe the problem in combining both (fast times & good competition) is when you have MORE than two in the race with legitimate shots- there are so many variables to keep an eye on that an athlete chooses to NOT follow the rabbit's pace and instead goes into 'total tactical mode'. Those two races I cited (Bannister/Landy & Ryun/Liquori) were basically 2 people head-to-head with others thrown into the field just to fill it out (and maybe rabbit)- Commonwealth Games qualifying rounds notwithstanding- it was still really just Bannister vs Landy and everybody knew it. RT
