>Actually, Kipketer ran a 400 open a few years ago and ran 48-something.
>Certainly not his best, but it shows he doesn't have the leg speed to run
>the 400. He can though break 4:00 in the mile
> I think if the best 800 guys ran the 400 we would see a few 45s, a bunch
> of 46s and a whole lot of 47s. Many cannot break 48. For instance Marko
> Koers who I've seen run the 400 open several times hasn't broken 48 that I
> know of. I would guess he might hit 47.8 at the very best. There may be
> a couple of exceptions like Mark Everett.
I HIGHLY doubt that someone who can split 49.9 and not blow up entirely, as
many of the top 800m runners can, is not capable of running close to 46
seconds. Maybe they haven't done it because they rarely run it, mentally it
is different, and they don't train for the 400m. But it seems obvious that
most of them could. Since we are talking about potential rather than actual
performances, we will never get an asnwer to this.
And assuming that Kipketer could run 4:00 for the mile, that's roughly
equivalent to a 46.5 second 400m, something which plenty of 800m runners
could do, likely including Kipketer if he tried it a few times.
As for MJ, it is only logical to conclude that because he dominates the 400m
so completely, he could be competitive on the world level. Would he break
1:40 - who knows? Would he break 1:45? Of course he would.
I agree with the basic premise that the 800m is closer to the 1500m than it
is to the 400m, but I don't think that being able to run a good 1500m is
required for a good 800m.
I didn't see El G. or Morceli breaking 1:42, either.
- Ed Parrot
