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Lead Stories: Thursday, January 8, 2009

Greatest Combined 800m/1500m Runners of All-Time?

Posted July 30th, 2007 at 2:52 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

alan webb sets american mile record on July 21 2007 courtesy of washington post With Alan Webb’s noteworthy 800m and 1500m times this season, I thought it’d be interesting to find out how he ranked on the all-time list of combined 800m/1500m times.

To be considered for inclusion on this list, a runner must have run both a sub-1:45 outdoor 800m and a sub-3:35 outdoor 1500m. I did an analysis and discovered that only 41 runners in history belong to this elite club, including Webb, who ranks 12th. Included in this club are 14 Kenyans, 5 Brits, 4 Americans, 3 Bahrainis, 3 Frenchmen and 2 Sudanese. Here they are, in order:

Rank. Name (Country) Combined 800m/1500m Time
1. Sebastian Coe (GBR) 5:11.50
2. Mehdi Baala (FRA) 5:12.13
3. Noureddine Morceli (ALG) 5:12.16
4. Steve Cram (GBR) 5:12.55
5. Noah Ngeny (KEN) 5:12.61
6. William Chirchir (KEN) 5:12.62
7. Rachid Ramzi (BRN) 5:13.19
8. Saïd Aouita (MAR) 5:13.32
9. Laban Rotich (KEN) 5:13.56
10. William Tanui (KEN) 5:13.88
11. Abdi Bile (SOM) 5:14.15
12. Alan Webb (USA) 5:14.38
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