Quote Originally Posted by Witton Park View Post
I know Lauren - and maybe the racing is a side issue - there's evidence out there for and against. It's hard to make the comparison with ladies as they weren't running distance until recently. But the men running in the 60s and 70s had an approach that produced far more depth over 5K - marathon in those days than we do now.
http://www.thepowerof10.info/ranking...ex=M&alltime=y
The half marathon all time rankings show other than Farah, we have to go to 20th place before we get to a time recorded this century. In fact Tomas Abyu in 50tyh place all time is the fastest in the last 10 years.

Gebrselassie is phenomenal - but he won the world junior 5K and 10K in 1992. In 93 he won the Senior 10K and silver in the 5K when he was only 20.

He was probably on 100 mile weeks and with some intense work thrown in and we are still talking potential for athletes in their mid 20s.

Richard I have been involved in this sport for a long time and during it I have seen athletes come and go. To be competitve on an international basis today, you have to have certain characteristics and in some cases you have to be prepared to do things that aren't right. Like it or not that is the way it is.

Some athletes can run 29-30 minutes for 10k. For them that is their limit and no amount of training will ever make them go any faster. If you want guys who are going to run 27.30- 28.00 minutes naturally then it requires a certain physique. Even then they'd have to have the determination to succeed.

Saying we are not competitive because our runners don't do long races is a non-sequiter. Just as I cannot run 10 seconds for the 100m no matter how hard I train some men will never run 27.30 for 10k. Unless those few with the potential to run such times take up the sport it is a fruitless exercise to say we are 'uncompetitive.' It is also pointless to blame the non existence of medium or long races for teenagers as one of the possible causes of failure.