Question in office earlier - Bolt v Farah

[JustJack]

Do you think a prime Usain Bolt could beat a prime Mo Farah in an 800m race?

I reckon it would be close but Bolt would dominate the first 400 and then have enough to get home.

Makes you think why one of these sprinters dont try it really?

Bolts best 400m is 45 seconds

Farahs best 800m is 1 minute 48 seconds

 

[biggar]

Peak Farah would beat Bolt over 800m. Pretty sure of that.

Would start to get interesting over 600, I’d say.

 

[Jack2jack]

I'm with you on this. Bolt's built for explosive starts over shorter distances, Farah, would nick it.

 

[JustJack]

Peak Farah would beat Bolt over 800m. Pretty sure of that.

Would start to get interesting over 600, I’d say.

But what people don't calculate is that Bolt doesn't just stop at 400m

I reckon he would have enough momentum to go another 50m at a top speed before slowing down, although granted would be moving through the bend in an 800m race

But if you calculate that he does 450m in roughly 50 seconds, he would then only need to do 350m in around 57 secs to beat Farrah, running an average of 16 seconds for every 100m.

Light jogging pace for him surely?

Meanwhile Mo is consistently running around 13.5 secs every 100m for the whole race

One chap reckoned Farrah would over take him before the final bend :shock: