Hicham El Guerrouj and Jon Rankin

I've made a couple more lenses on Hicham El Guerrouj and Jon Rankin, the past and future(?) of the mile.

Hicham is the undisputed King of the Mile.  Of the 10 fastest miles ever run, he's run 7 of them.  Same goes for the 1500m.  Out of those 20 performances, only 3 other runners were able to break the list: Noureddine Morceli, Noah Ngeny, and Bernard Lagat!  I also learned that he ran an amazing 13:43 leg in the World Road Relay Championships as a 20 year-old to help Morocco set the world record!  (See video here.)

The lens has a biography, stats, videos, and more.  It also asks the question you've all been dying to answer: If Hicham had trained for a 10k, how fast would he have run it?

Jon is The Fastest Miler You've Never Heard Of.  There's not even a Wikipedia entry about him!  When I first met him he was a 4:10 high school miler who told me he wanted to break the American Record.  I never thought he'd get so close.  He currently has a personal best of 3:35.26, but he's run 3:53.3 for the full mile on the roads! (See video on the lens.)  Now he's training for Beijing, but it's unclear whether he'll run the 800m or 1500m in Eugene.  You can voice your opinion here about which event you think he should run!

Also, be sure to stay tuned for the Reebok Grand Prix, where Jon will be running the 800m.  I just hope I'm not too distracted by the debate going on over which comic book movie action figure ninja was better: Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow.  (Go G.I. Joe!)

Comments

[morrocan assasin]

This jon Rankin guy is new, he is probably strong now but he wouldn't reach 5 % of what hicham had done, period. Hicham is the king of the middle distances . Hicham run 324 in his training although he has 3:26 for 1500 m but he missed to break it at the 1999 world championship because he was busy blowing kisses to the audiences . So hicham in my opinion is the king of the kings .He will definitely be missed .
Hicham , you are my hero.
Hicham is not only a runner but he is a motivator , if you're not sure then go and check the olympic 2004.