Who are some names of least known great distance runners?

Dick Beurkle?

Loa Olafsson who set the women's 10,000 meter record but never had it ratified because she ran it in a race with men.

i served with steve tunstall,same pti course. total machine, breaking point never found. excellant tri athlete

HRE wrote:

history student wrote:

Overlooked by runners.

Who was/is buddy edelon? What did he do?

That sort of makes the point, eh. Best US marathon runner in the early to mid 60s and arguably the first American marathoner to be truly world class. Originally from Minnesota, he moved to England after college because he knew he'd have to compete against the best in the world regularly to get as good as he could be. In 1963, I believe, he won the Polytechnic Marathon in 2:14:28 which was the fastest marathon ever run. He had sciatic problems at Tokyo but managed to finish 6th there.

Find a copy of Frank Murphy's "A Cold, Clear, Day."

This is a great read:

I ran the 64 Olympic Trials at the Yonkers Marathon where Buddy Edelen beat the 2nd place "survivor" by about 20 mins or 3 1/2 miles. Of the 128 starters, only 37 finished within the 4 hour limit, in 95-100 degree heat. It was the most amazing race I've ever witnessed. I wisely dropped out at about 10 miles.

Living in the Past wrote:

To HRE and Malmo: if you guys are interested, I can send you footage of the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki. The last lap of the 10,000 meters (with Vataainen, Haase, and Sharaftnikov) will likely cause your heart to stop.

Its all on YouTube. I can remember being mesmerised by Vaatainen at the time. I was always surprised it was as 'slow' as 53.8 - he looked so much faster. Contrast with Virens style where he could run 53 but looked so economical it seemed he was running 60 or more!

For the lazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyaJhyNKNEc

Frank Sando

Juan Martinez - 4th at both 5,000 and 10,000 at 1968 Olympics.

I don't believe he has been mentioned previous.

Has Joyce Smith been mentioned?

Excellent recent interviews with heroes of days gone by...

Horace Ashenfelter

http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Ashenfelter.aspx

Dave Wottle

http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Wottle.aspx

He also was the first American under 30:00 for 10k and also he won the 1964 Olympic Trials Marathon by 3 1/2 MILES!

I skimmed through a page or two of this thread. Many nominees are hardly 'least known' (Dave Wottle??!) and quite a few were not really that great. Anyway, with apologies if he's been already mentioned......Jerome Drayton.

Pat Peterson

Sulieman Nyambui of Tanzania and Juma Ikanga, also of Tanzania I believe. I cannot believe neither of these two have been mentioned yet.

The name Sulieman Nyambui, what a cool name!

Stop mentioning people without giving their credentials. I'm not going to google every 2:13 marathoner's PR's.

Pete wrote:

Somebody mentioned Jerome Drayton - I hardly think he's one of the "least known" great Canadian distance runners.

I agree. Drayton holds the Canadian marathon record of 2:10:08 from 1975. (His name was mentioned on page 3 of this thread.)

For a more obscure Canadian, how about Phil Laheurte? Canadian champion at 5,000 meters in 1982. Ran the steeplechase in 8:29.3.

Google should not be necessary for these greats, but since you insist:

Suleiman Nyambui (born February 13, 1953) is a former athlete from Tanzania who won the silver medal in 5000 metres at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

He also won a bronze medal at the 1978 All-Africa Games, and twice (1987 and 1988) triumphed at the Berlin Marathon.

Attended the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) from 1978 to 1982, where, as an older aged athlete (he was 29 when he graduated), he won four straight NCAA titles in the 10,000 meters — one of only five Division I men to ever accomplish such a feat. He also won 3 straight NCAA titles in the 5,000 meters while at UTEP and was the 1980 NCAA Cross Country champion. In a memorable Millrose Games race in New York in February 1981, Nyambui broke the world indoor 5,000 meter record with a 13:20.4, just head of Alberto Salazar who broke the American indoor 5,000 meter record.

Outdoors, his 5,000 PR was 13:12. With Gidamis Shahanga at UTEP, they were an awesome 1-2 punch.

Nyambui had a low arm carriage that was distinctive and constrasted with the high arm carriage of Juma Ikanga.

Ikanga was perhaps five foot two, maybe five foot three, but competed with the best. He had a huge stride, with high knee lift.

From Google: Juam was a sentimental favorite in Boston after finishing second three years in a row at the Boston Marathon from 1988-1990. A great trainer, Ikangaa said "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare." He allegedly ran over 200 miles per week for ten years straight. His achievements:

2:08:01 PR at New York.

Boston - second place (1988-1990)

New York City - winner (1989)

Beijing - winner (1987)

Fukuoka - winner (1986), second place (1983)

Tokyo - winner (1984, 1986); second place (1988)

Melbourne - winner (1983, 1984)

He also ran in three Olympic marathons (Seoul, Barcelona & Atlanta), finishing sixth in Seoul and 7th in Barcelona.

Great old thread to revive. I have not read it all, but I would like to add Louis Zamperini.

New book about him is coming out in November from Laura Hildenbrand (sp?) who wrote "Seabiscuit". His autobiography "Devil at my Heels" is very good.

He was a very good runner, but his story of survival during WWII is amazing.

Greg Hill wrote:

Sulieman Nyambui of Tanzania and Juma Ikanga, also of Tanzania I believe. I cannot believe neither of these two have been mentioned yet.

The name Sulieman Nyambui, what a cool name!

Ummm, hardly unknown....particularly in the U.S. Who cannot remember the ding-dong battles Nyambui had with Doug Padilla (BYU), particularly indoors.