Who are some names of least known great distance runners?

By golly. You're right! Good catch. I must have been hallucinating.

Mike Slack is an excellent name. You guys are out of my league.

Tom Laris

Leonid Mikityenko

Nikolay Sviridov

Jurgen Haase

Lutz Philipp

Victor Mora

Willy Polleunis

Richard Taylor

Marc Smet

Michael Musyoki

Knut Kvalheim

Arne Kvalheim

Geoff Smith

Paul Cummings

Tony Sandoval

Don Paige

Wade Bell

Tom Farrell

T Wessinghage

Sando Iharos (sp)

Sam Bair

Ron Larrieu

Ole Oleson

Naftali Temu

Morgan Groth

Lon Spurrier

John Bork

*3 all time great names

Michael Jazy

Mark Enyeart

Laszlo Tabori

Kerry Ellison (3:57r and fierce 880 relayer)

Juris Luzins (another all time great name!)

Jim Beatty

Gordon Minty

Gaston Roelants

Fred Wilt

Doug Schmenk (does sub 2:16 [in mid 70s] and AAU champ count?)

Dave Patrick

Chuck LaBenz

Chris Chataway

Bill Crothers

Arne Kvalheim

Sorry if duplications but little late to the party

Definitely, marathoner Ahmed Salah from Djubouti.

From Wikipedia:

Hussein Ahmed Salah (born December 31, 1956 in Ali Sabieh) is a former long-distance runner from Djibouti, best known for winning a bronze medal in marathon at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He also won silver medals in this event at the 1987 and 1991 World Championships. In addition, he won the 1985 IAAF World Marathon Cup.

His personal best time was 2:07:07.

Love the name of his home country. Sounds like a lyric from Sir-mix-alot.

Bucky preston

Has anyone mentioned Belaine Densimo? He set the world's best time in the marathon of 2:06:50 in 1988 at Rotterdam.

I just did a quick check, and no one mentioned Densimo earlier. That he went unmentioned for so long shows just how obscure he has become.

And as the first runner to break the 2:07 barrier in the marathon, I would say that he's definitely great. In fact, I would nominate Belaine Densimo as the world's greatest obscure distance runner.

Sorry for the dangling modifier. (I'm not the one who broke 2:07.) I should have written:

"As the first runner to break the 2:07 barrier in the marathon, Densimo is definitely great."

That record stood for a long time too- over 10 years, broken by Ronaldo DaCosta in 98.

O.K. did anyone mention DaCosta?

I haven't noticed mention of Toshihiko Seko, perhaps missed it? Well known of course in the 80's, but you never hear the name anymore. Famous for the quote "the marathon is my girlfriend, I give her everything I have." 2x Boston champ, multiple Fuk, WR at weird distances like 20K/30K.

Nationally, how about Dave Gordon? Twice 4th at marathon Oly Trials, PR of 2:10-ish? Doubtful there was a nicer guy in the sport.

Mamede from Portugal? WR10000m in 84, but he blew up in big races.

Imagine making 4 Olympic Finals in 800m. 84-88-92-96. That statistic alone makes me bow to the great one. He gets mentioned a lot, 1:42 a bunch of times, etc, but the 4 finals just blows me away. Of course, you all know who I'm talking about....

Thread about his problems,similiar to Rono's story.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=825653&page=2

to clarify my post it's Denismo on the thread.

Good point about Densimo. I think the problem with him was that he was never that consistant plus at that time, there was Abebe Mekonen from Ethiopia who was running all over the place and winning or placing very high and he was more visible. When I was in Atlanta in 96, I was at the what's-that-park-called where Viren's statue was and out came 3 Ethiopian runners in their red-yellow-green uniform. You could tell, from his arm swing, one in the middle was Densimo and the one of the left was Mekonnen. I had my camera in my hand but I was dumb-struck I didn't even take a picture! It would have been an awesome photo...

I didn't even mention Seko because I guess he was so well-known and famous in my home country--hardly obsecure. Of course we all think Seko would have won gold medal in 1980 had it not been for boycott. Someone mentioned Bernie Ford. 1979 Fukuoka marathon was the Olympic trial. Ford was leading--I thought it was his first marathon???--with Soh brothers. Seko dropped back at 2km to go and everybody thought that was it for him. While Soh brothers left Ford, going up the last slight incline before the stadium, Seko caught back and, of course, with his kick, past the Sohs and won the race. What a race it was! Seko, by the way, became a coach at S&B team in Japan. He coached Takei (2:08), Nishida (2:08) and Kunichika (2:07 who ran Athens for Japan) but recently retired from coaching. Now he's one of the federation representatives. Very funny commentator--very entertaining.

Mamede was discussed on page 8.

As for the 800 guy, that must be Johnny Gray. His consistency and longevity at the highest level ranks him as great.

Nobby, what was Nakamura's first name, Seko's coach/advisor? My recollection is he had some unorthodox (but highly effective) methods and perspectives, at least unorthodox to Americans.

Kiyoshi Nakamura. I've had priviledge of meeting him in person in 1985, only a week before his death. I've written an article about him and my meeting him for Marathon & Beyond years ago. If you'd like, I can send you the draft. His method was not that all unorthodox. Very basic and make-sense. You might know but I'm the Lydiard guy and Nakamura's idea was based on Lydiard. One of the reasons why he agreed to meet with me (you have to understand, he was like a public figure at the time, center of media attention and all--almost like a movie star or rock star) was because I was studying the Lydiard method. Incidentally the main reason why I got my professional coaching job for Japanese corporate team was because Nakamura actually recommended me.

Brian Hyde was in the 1996 Olympics for the 1500. He was the last time qualifier for the US.

Don't think he's been mentioned yet Sydney Wooderson - world 800 and mile record holder (1937). At 1936 Olympics he broke a bone in his foot and in 1945 he finished behind Andersson running a PR of 4:04.2 for the mile. He won European 5000m title in the 2nd fastest time ever 14:08.6 and finished career as English national X-country champion in 1948. At 92 he is still knocking out CO2.