Did I see El G seek out and exchange an embrace with Ngeny, just before the start? A great gesture, since Ngeny set back his plans with his only victory over El G in the Sydney Oly final.
Interesting how they are talking at the start of the race about whether El Gerrouj would move up and tackle the 5000m and that he would probably dominate it when he did. In the next Olympics he ended up winning the 1500/5000 double. The 2nd lap was a slower 59 seconds and after that El Gerrouj just decided not to even wait for the pace setter to drop off. He just blew by him and said goodbye to Ngeny and the others. After losing in the 2000 Olympics he made sure the rest of the way that everyone knew who was the best!
This race was in 2002 a few years before he became really competitive at the very top level. His peak was 2005-2007 and he didn't too badly in those years, he got Bronze in the 5000m at the 2005 World Championships, Silver in the 5000m at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in one the all-time great races (was accidentally tripped in the final of 1500m which he had a great chance to win), won Gold in the 3000m at the 2006 World Cup, then unfortunately suffered a hamstring injury in 2007 leading up to the World Championships. The "problem" for Mottram was that his best distance was 3000m - 2 Miles, which is obviously in between the 1500m/5000m distances in major Championships. Superb runner though.
Cram ran Dream Mile 1985 in 3 min 46 secs world record beat Coe! Plenty have run faster than 3:50 in this particular race Coe 1979 World Record 3:49 !He could b beaten Hicham & was beaten if u could stay with him no great kick 22-24 secs 200m or 50-52 secs 400m Coe Ovett Snell would of sat on him & if he hadn’t broken them & got a break would of taken him in the last 200m also what is his fastest 800m? He has unbelievable speed endurance but 400m speed no he doesn’t
Snell 3 gold Medals don’t say this man is the goat when he only has 2 & only 1 at 1500m Coe has 2 Snell 800/1500m double same Olympics do u people out there even know who Peter Snell is do some research look at his old races & u will b amazed & won’t b so quick 2 say this man or that is the goat they were all great
