Best Brit
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 12:29PM Reading Chris Thompson's comments after Mo Farah won the 10,000 last night at the European track championships in Barcelona. First, let me say that the Spaniards are having a banner year in sport, what with the World Cup victory and the Tour. Now that they're hosting Europe's biggest track meet, it's just icing on the cake if they take home a few big victories.
Now on to Thompson's calling Farah the best distance runner in British history. Hmmmm. I guess that Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram don't count. I guess that technically one could call them "middle distance" runners (Cram's 800 of 1:42 was a marvel of precise speed; two back-to-back 51-second 400's), but I still think of them as distance runners. Anyway, Thompson can be forgiven the hyperbole, as he got second in that same race.
Which got me thinking about who America's top distance runner might be. I'm a big fan of Jim Ryun's and Steve Prefontaine's, but neither fulfilled their potential. Ryan Hall is great, but he has yet to dominate at the international level. Word is that he's headed back to the track to work on his speed. So if not these guys, who's the best?
Something to think about as we count down the days to XC season. In the meantime, check out this final at the World Junior Championships.
Keep Pushing... Always

