Silä’s 3,000m world record has been considered one of the toughest in athletics. Many men are now in such condition that it would break. The only thing missing is competition, writes journalist Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen Sports journalist
Italy’s Rieti, northeast of Rome, is one of the classic locations in the history of athletics. Among other things, the world records of men’s extremely competitive middle-distance running have come to the city to be improved By Steve Ovett, Noureddine Morcelin, Noah Ngeny and David Rudishan characters like
On the first day of September 1996, at the GP event in Rieti, there was a result that, in its absolute harshness, almost took your breath away. Kenyan in his twenties Daniel Komen posted a smooth 3,000m final time of 7:20.67, which shattered Morcel’s generous two-year-old ME time by just shy of 4.44 seconds. On the table of constant speed, Komen sped from 30 hundred meters to the pipe in an average of 14.69 seconds.
The result shows that he should be considered the best middle distance runner of all time Hicham El Guerrouj threatened it even in the closest way no less than 2.42 seconds away. That means about 17 meters on the track, or a small eternity.
In comparison, El Guerrouj’s rock-hard 1,500m ME time has been improved by 0.34 and Joshua Cheptegein 5,000m world record from a distance of 1.99 seconds.
Ordinary and others
In athletics, world records are never something to be trifled with, but even within track and field sports there are “ordinary” world records and then there are other kinds of records. Daniel Komen’s quote in Italy almost 27 years ago is clearly in the top five of men’s individual ME results in my own papers, although the 3,000 meters, unfortunately, is not part of the value race program for outdoor tracks.
For example, I put Komen next to him Usain Bolt’s 100m ME (9.58), deceased To Juri Sedy moukarislauts (86.74), Jan Zelezny three months before Komen, the bow of the spear (98.48) and Mike Powell’s long jump ME 895 from the World Championships in Tokyo 1991 – in the all-time record for a field event Carl Lewis against.
There are plenty of other very good candidates. Now the focus is generally only on cold and historical numbers, not on certain inevitable scenarios behind the aged world records of a sport that mercilessly measures human performance.
The above-mentioned records, except for a few streaks of challengers, may have been completely at peace, but this season and its last few weeks have opened up an amazing view. Or they would have opened if a smooth 3,000 meters was part of the program even in one of the remaining Diamond League competitions this season.
A cold ride for ME
Jakob Ingebrigtsen decided to run a rare two-mile or approximately 3,218.70 meter race in the Paris Diamond League on June 9. It was a cold ride for the 26-year-old ME – and it was run by one Daniel Komen.
Ingebrigtsen’s final time of 7:54.10 meant a 4.51-second advantage. At a steady pace, Ingebrigtsen would have bypassed the 3,000 meter point at the end of the front bend in 7:21.9, in real life in 7:24.
Lievin’s indoor competition in February Lamesha Girma was at the 3,000-meter finish with an ME time of 7:23.81, Spain Mohamed Katir 0.87 seconds behind. Girma’s kuti has not been left behind even under the open sky; In the Paris Diamond League, the 3,000-meter steeplechase world record of 7:52.11 clicked.
Katir took second place in the 1,500 meters in the Oslo Diamond League the other Thursday, barely a second behind Ingebrigtsen, who broke the 3.28 mark for the first time. Bislettin was also lit Yomif Kelejchan and Jacob Kiplimon 5,000 meter flat trot. The final time of 12:41.73 put the men in 5th place in the all-time statistics.
What circular conclusion can be drawn from this?
If Ingebrigtsen, Kirma, Katir, Kejelcha and Kiplimo were to be brought to the starting line of 3,000 meters at the same time and a man under 7.30 to be able to reach 2,000 meters, the world record would even move to the green side of 7.20 for a long time.
But it sadly seems that the gladiators will not find an arena to make this happen this season.
Pekka Holopainen
The author is a columnist based in Pori and the only sports reporter who has been selected as Journalist of the Year in Finland.
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