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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Eamonn Coghlan...Still 'Chairman of the Boards'...

Back in the late 70's and early 80's in the USA, races like the indoor mile were huge events and attracted big crowds. One of the most famous races at the time was the Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile in New York. Over this distance, Eamonn Coghlan excelled and won the event in what was then a record seven times. For this achievement, he earned the nickname 'The Chairman of the Boards'.

In 2010, Bernard Lagat set a new record by winning the Wanamaker Mile eight times. He also set the fastest time in 2005 when he ran 3:52.87. It's also worth noting that Marcus O'Sullivan from Cork also won the Wanamaker Mile an impressive six times.

After the most recent event, I had a look back at the previous winning times. It's easy to just look at the number of victories and just say someone won it X times. But was the competition to win in more modern times as intense as when it was back in the 1980's?

Surely consistency must count for something? Who had the fastest average winning time? As you can see from the results below, Eamonn Coghlan won his Wamamaker Mile races on average over a second faster than Lagat and two seconds faster than O'Sullivan.


 The Master is still ' The Chairman of the Boards'.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous15/2/12 10:17 am

    It's a race. You can only beat what's put in front of you.
    What should have Lagat have done ?
    Run faster so that he could have beaten his opponents by an even greater distance just so he could increase his average time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous15/2/12 10:32 am

    Not wishing to cast any aspersions but the following may be of interest

    http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728

    ReplyDelete
  3. John Desmond15/2/12 10:35 am

    In fairness....I'm only 'slightly' biased ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous15/2/12 11:46 am

    Amazing times by Coghlan. And Marcus O'Sullivan as well > 101 sub 4 minute miles in his career. Great to see the new crop of Irish lads doing so well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous15/2/12 3:26 pm

    Stats or not, the avg time of Lagat is still slower. Was it harder to win back in the eighties?

    ReplyDelete

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