Run-Down Forums

[AM_Runner]

Well at least now you can vote for the Best Distance Runner in History...

A few weeks ago when there was a poll on Letsrun of the World's Greatest leaders on the site I started thinking this is running website we should have a runners one.

So I threw some ideas around and came up with a list fairly quickly of over 80 distance runners tried to narrow it down and then rank them into 16 person brackets. What came about is my attempt at this. My rules here were that I would start with the 1500/Mile and go up folks who were good at 800 were considered only if they were also great at the 1500/mile Hence the high rankings of guys like Coe and Snell - but not including amazing atheltes like Kipketer and Cruz...

If this works out I think we could do the same for the shorter distances maybe a bracket for each 100/200/400/800 and let the winners square off...

Anyway I only gave #1 rankings to Olympic Champs (Tergat gets a #2 yet again) I also when laying out the bracket tried to get like runners together so some may be higher or lower than you expect - but that shouldn't skew the voting too much.

Some interesting matchups showed themselves based on where I ranked the runners - for example - Viren with a #2 seed faces Pre again with a #15 seed - Shorter faces Khannouchi in the first round as do Boston Billy and Al Sal

Seko vs. Clayyton promises to be a fight to the finish as does the speed matchup of John Walker and Steve Cram...

Anyway have fun with it...

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?edit=1&tid=155176&tclass=Distance%20Champ

I will leave the voting open for a about a month till May 14th...
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The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.

[Dan]

Playoff brackets is an interesting approach to the debate... It'll be interesting to see if it results in anything different than the obvious choices: Geb, Bekele, Viren, Nurmi, etc.

Dan
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[AM_Runner]

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=155176

Looks like this one works better
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The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.

[Paul]

How does one vote? I must have missed something.
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Paul

"Gaunt is Beautiful" Cassidy's T-shirt

[AM_Runner]

Well first off all the brackets were wrong so I fixed them new URL is here

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=155310

Also I changed it slightly to Wolrd's Best runner so that if we want to do other brackets later we can add them in

Follow the link you will hav eto create an ID and then you can add your picks in once the voting is done on the 14th the overall winner will be listed... - don't see how anyone will beat the emporer but we shall see
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The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.

[Paul]

I kind of wondered if we would have to log in. thanks!
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Paul

"Gaunt is Beautiful" Cassidy's T-shirt

[AM_Runner]

Cool well let me know what you think about it and we will see how it goes.

Thanks...
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The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.

[Conway]

I've been trying not to stick my nose into the distance runners realm cause I usually disagree, but had to check this out … Interesting concept … But not sure how folk are supposed to compare across genres and/or disciplines …

For example, I already disagree (that's my nature I guess) with some of the first round results … Not sure how Bill Rogers beats Alberto Salazar … Or how Eamonn Coghlan beats out Said Aouita … Morcelli over Ovett is a tough one … As is Walker over Cram, Zatopek over Puttemans, and Elliot over Lagat …

Just curious …
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Conway
Speed Thrills

[AM_Runner]

I had this long post all set and I lost it ahhhhh

Basically what happened is that no one really put anything in...I think what you see when you log on is the last entry not the totals I took a quick look at all of the other 4 entries and they all had Aouita over Coghlan (I might possibly go with Coghlan but it would be a mostly a "go with the heart vote" always been a big fan and met the guy a few times)

I am curious on your opnion on the others though

I could grab a buch and post them here for discussion I think its possible to discuss different eras based on competition and the like but I agree its difficult - I basically thought it was an interesting take on it and thought folks woul dget behind it - they didn't - Oh well i thought it was fun to go through the excersize anyway

Its all opinion but if Auoita is such an easy win over the Chairman of the Boards - why woul dMorceli a not be a winner over Ovett? I don't see how Zatopek is even a second thought over Puttemans

Also not sure how Boston Billy doesn't beat Salazar both have American and US records to their names but Rodgers has many more wins 4 each in NYC and BOSTON when they were "the" marathons as well as a Fukoka win - every major road race and over a long period of time as well more # wrld rankings in the marathon as well
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The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.