Running Longevity - Impressive Performances

My high school coach ran sub 10 min 2 mile for 30 straight years.

Gaston Roelants, BEL (from Wiki):

"He equaled the record by winning four International cross-country titles (1962, 1967, 1969 and 1972) with three second places and in all nine top 10 placings between 1960 and 1975. His long career continued into his 40s and he won five world titles in his first year in masters' ranks and held the Masters World Record in the Steeplechase for 27 years." Also won Bronze in Euro Champs marathon 1974 (age37).

What about Ruth Wysocki? Didn't she run 4:07-8 in the 1500m at age 38? Anyone know for sure?

Yiannis Kouros...over 50 years old and still regularly setting world records.

And when I say this, I do not just mean age-group records, I mean outright records. The man is the master of multi-day racing.

http://yianniskouros.com/

Impressive, without a doubt, but if the three Olympics were consecutive, starting in '76 and ending in '84,that's an eight year span by my count.

Now this is longevity, Kevin Sullivan:

1500 Metres

2009 3:42.43 Tallahassee, FL 11/04/2009

2008 3:35.78 Carson, CA 18/05/2008

2007 3:34.16 Paris Saint-Denis 06/07/2007

2006 3:32.65 Roma 14/07/2006

2005 3:35.11 London (CP) 22/07/2005

2004 3:34.43 Roma 02/07/2004

2003 3:34.60 Gresham, OR 17/05/2003

2002 3:34.99 Rieti 08/09/2002

2001 3:33.91 Lausanne 04/07/2001

2000 3:31.71 Roma 30/06/2000

1999 3:34.61 Lausanne 02/07/1999

1998 3:34.80 Oslo 09/07/1998

1997 3:35.19 01/01/1997

1996 3:42.2 01/01/1996

1995 3:35.77 London 07/07/1995

1994 3:36.78 Victoria, CAN 01/01/1994

1993 3:39.43 01/01/1993

1992 3:39.11 Seoul 20/09/199

Kouros baffles me. http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/3/3_5/723.shtml -- At 46 he ran in the USA 24 hour championship race and won by 35 miles.

Bill Rodgers?

Who else belongs in this club besides Jerome Drayton?

His fastest time:

In the 1960's was 2:11:12 at Fukuoka, in 1969.

In the 1970's was 2:10:08 at Fukuoka, in 1975.

In the 1980's was 2:17:58 at NYC, in 1980.

Don't forget Carl Lewis.

28'3" long jump in June 1981 (still a teenager; 27'10" long jump fifteen years later...

I'm too lazy right now to check out his 100-meter times...

starmiler wrote:

Don't forget Carl Lewis.

28'3" long jump in June 1981 (still a teenager; 27'10" long jump fifteen years later...

I'm too lazy right now to check out his 100-meter times...

It still baffles me that he won the LJ gold 4x. That's insane!

Lopes also was in the 1972 Olympics but he took time off from the 1976 Olympics and 1984 Olympics.

Chuck Kennell

Skuj,

How about this? Al Oerter won 4 Olympic Gold Medals in a row in the discus starting in 1956 at age 19 or 20. He set a new Olympic record each of the four years. Oerter retired after the 4th Gold Medal in 1968 but then showed up for the 1980 Olympic Trials. He was 4th in a personal best at age 43.

RuKiddingMe! wrote:

does this qualify?...craig virgin going three times in 10000 meters, I mean that is a 12 yr span. How many runners have done that?

Nope. Doesn't qualify. Three Olympic teams (over nine years, not twelve) but no finals. Contrast that with Harald Norpoth and Mohammed Gammoudi. Both made the finals in three Olympics. Norpoth won a silver medal in Tokyo. Gammoudi won a silver in Tokyo, a gold and bronze in Mexico, and a silver in Munich. How many medals did Virgin win over three Olympics? Zero.

chuck kennell wrote:

Lopes also was in the 1972 Olympics.

Chuck Kennell

Which event? What was his place?

Skuj wrote:

What about the your Regional longevity gods?

How can a regional runner be a running god?

Haile Gebrselassie:

1993: World Champion at 10,000 meters.

2008: World best marathon time.

Hicham El-Gerrouj:

1996: 3:29.59 for 1,500 meters.

2004: Gold medals in the 1,500 and 5,000 (in which he defeated Kenenisa Bekele).

OrvilleAtkins wrote:

Skuj,

How about this? Al Oerter won 4 Olympic Gold Medals in a row in the discus starting in 1956 at age 19 or 20. He set a new Olympic record each of the four years. Oerter retired after the 4th Gold Medal in 1968 but then showed up for the 1980 Olympic Trials. He was 4th in a personal best at age 43.

Hey Orville, yeah of course, thanks for reminding me about Al. I remember a program on him when I was a kid....how much pain he was in during one of those later victories.....amazing!

But I never knew the 80 trials was PB. WTF??? Wow.

I had the honour of meeting Mr Gammoudi on a couple of occasions.....he was so very kind, smoking cigars, signed my Olympics book.....when he got on the bus I bagan a chant of "Gammoudi...Gammoudi...." and everyone, from various, countries joined in. He was such a major player in 64-68-72. Incredible. How about Zatopek then? What year did he run his fastest 5k, 10k?

Rock Opera wrote:

RuKiddingMe! wrote:

does this qualify?...craig virgin going three times in 10000 meters, I mean that is a 12 yr span. How many runners have done that?

Nope. Doesn't qualify. Three Olympic teams (over nine years, not twelve) but no finals. Contrast that with Harald Norpoth and Mohammed Gammoudi. Both made the finals in three Olympics. Norpoth won a silver medal in Tokyo. Gammoudi won a silver in Tokyo, a gold and bronze in Mexico, and a silver in Munich. How many medals did Virgin win over three Olympics? Zero.