In May, I made this bold prediction about Gary Reed possibly running 1:43-mid to lower his personal best and National record:
Let’s take Canada’s Gary Reed for example. His PB for a 400m is 46.72 from 2003. His PB for 800m is 1:43.93 from that magic Rieti meet in Italy 2006. Take his 400m time, add 5 seconds and multiply by 2 laps and you get 1:43.44.
According to my formula, Gary can still shave 0.5 seconds off his 800m PB!
At the Herculis Monaco Grand Prix, he ran 1:43.68 to set a new National Record.
Here are the results of the Men’s 800 Meters:
1 Borzakovskiy , Yuriy RUS 1:42.79
2 Kamel , Yusuf Saad BRN 1:42.79
3 Mulaudzi , Mbulaeni RSA 1:43.26
4 Reed , Gary CAN 1:43.68
5 Ismail , Ismail Ahmed SUD 1:44.34
6 Rimmer , Michael GBR 1:44.68
7 Lathouwers , Robert NED 1:44.75
8 Som , Bram NED 1:45.55
9 Czapiewski , Pawel POL 1:46.76
10 Etès , Brice FRA 1:47.03
Tangui , Sammy KEN DNF
Heck, I’ll take a mid 1:43 PB and NR and come 4th any day! Hell, I’ll take last place!
[...] quite a range. One thing is certain: to run a good 800 meters, you need 400 meter speed in the 46 point category like Gary Reed or Sebastian Coe. Gary could easily make the finals at our National Championships if he entered the [...]