{"id":531,"date":"2011-07-15T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2011-07-15T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T13:30:00","slug":"wheres-the-dominant-miler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"Where\u2019s The Dominant Miler?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For most of the World Championships\u2019 quarter century run, the \u201cmetric mile\u201d (1500 meters) has seen some truly elite \u201csuper\u201d milers rule.<\/p>\n

The first edition in 1983 was won by Steve Cram (GBR) over an all star field that included Steve Scott (USA), Said Aouita (MOR), and Steve Ovett (GBR) \u2013 almost as a prelude to his WR in \u201885.<\/p>\n

1991 saw Noureddine Morceli (ALG) win as a preface to his own WR in \u201892, before going on to win again in \u201895 \u2013 as well as set another WR in \u201895. In \u201897 the mantle was passed to Hicham El Guerrouj (MOR) who repeated in \u201899, \u201801, and \u201803 \u2013 and set the still standing WR in \u201898 while running 13 of the top 20 times all time along the way!<\/p>\n

Since then we\u2019ve seen a revolving door in the event with Rashid Ramzi (BRN), Bernard Lagat (USA), and Yusuf Kamel (BRN) all taking the title. Kamel was not a major factor last year, and is even less so so far in 2011. So it\u2019s a pretty solid bet that Daegu will once again see another \u201cmiler\u201d take the victory stand this year. <\/p>\n

Have we seen the last of the dominant miler? I realize that the WR in both 1500\/mile are WAY out there, so I\u2019m not necessarily saying that someone should rise up and start rewriting the all time lists. It has been a while, however, since we\u2019ve seen that miler that dominates the competition. A Ryun, Coe, Morceli, El G, that is able to just win win win \u2013 and of course doing it in fast times. <\/p>\n

Given today\u2019s group of milers, fast times means something under 3:31 \u2013 and someone able to go 3:29\/3:30 at will would clean up on the Circuit and at Majors. When you look at the list of the top 10 over 1500 meters in the last couple of seasons the potential seems to be there:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 3:29.27 – Silas Kiplagat – KEN\n
  2. 3:29.47 – Augustine Choge – KEN\n
  3. 3:29.53 – Amine Laalou – MAR\n
  4. 3:30.20 – Haron Keitany – KEN\n
  5. 3:30.90 – Andrew Wheating – USA\n
  6. 3:30.96 – Mehdi Baala – FRA\n
  7. 3:31.06 – Ryan Gregson – AUS\n
  8. 3:31.20 – Asbel Kiprop – KEN\n
  9. 3:31.21 – Antar Zerguelaine – ALG\n
  10. 3:31.47 \u2013 Abdalaati Iguider \u2013 MAR<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The issue has been that those have been mostly one off races with much slower back up performances \u2013 the exceptions being Choge (3:30.88), Keitany (3:30.90), and Kiplagat (3:30.61) who all have significant backup performances. So where does that leave us? It leaves us with the potential for a great miler to come forth. Believe it or not, Kiplagat, Choge and Laalou are all faster than Sebastian Coe\u2019s best of 3:29.77! Keitany better than Ovett\u2019s 3:30.77 \u2013 with Wheating and Baala close. What made Coe and Ovett great was their competitive nature and the ability to compete close to their best on demand. <\/p>\n

    That is what we are lacking now. The gutsy, go to the well, kind of milers that we saw in Ryun, Coe, Ovett, Cram, Aouita, Komen, Morceli and El G. Perhaps we will get a start to a new legacy in Daegu. After all, Worlds seemed to be a good stepping stone for Cram, Morceli and El G. And I\u2019m betting that one of the men listed above wins gold in Korea. I\u2019ll tell you which one when we\u2019re a bit closer to the opening of the meet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For most of the World Championships\u2019 quarter century run, the \u201cmetric mile\u201d (1500 meters) has seen some truly elite \u201csuper\u201d milers rule. The first edition in 1983 was won by Steve Cram (GBR) over an all star field that included Steve Scott (USA), Said Aouita (MOR), and Steve Ovett (GBR) \u2013 almost as a prelude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-8z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}