Monday, 29 July 2013

Mo will beat Bolt?

'Farah will beat Bolt'


British distance superstar Farah - the Olympic 5000 and 10,000m champion - has challenged the undisputed king of sprints Bolt to a one-off race for charity.
Farah suggested a distance of between 600m and 800m, and Bolt has accepted the challenge, though he says 600m would be a fair distance.
Former 110m hurdles star Ridgeon says Farah will be far too fast for Bolt if they race over 600m but he says 550m would be too close to call.
"For me Mo Farah wins it every time. He's so fit. His range is from 1500m all the way up to the marathon. I think it is easier from him to drop down a little bit than for Usain Bolt to step up," he told Sky Sports News.
"Usain Bolt would definitely win at 500m, Mo Farah would win at 600m. So to create the ultimate race where they are both dipping over the line at the same time I think 550m would be the ultimate distance.
"At 550m, right now, I think Mo Farah would take it. Usain has run 45.3 seconds at 400m but after that he's in unchartered territory."
Professor Roderick King of Leeds Metropolitan University, an expert in Sport and Exercise Biochemistry, agrees with Ridgeon's analysis on distance: "The distance at which I think they would both be equal is about 550 metres.
"But both individuals would have to be strategic about how they ran.
"Usain would have to keep a little bit back in reserve, then perhaps do a sprint finish. Mo is going to go a little bit faster than he normally would do, but hope he can also do a limited sprint finish. If it's a 500m race Bolt is going to win it, if it's 600m then Mo is going to win it."
Campbell, a former Olympic champion himself, believes the race is a realistic prospect: "You can already tell how excited everybody is to potentially see Mo Farah against Usain Bolt. I think the fact that they are both represented by the same agent could mean that this could happen.
"How good this would be for the charities who would benefit from this race."
And Campbell says a 600m race would be a far more painful experience for Bolt than Farah.
"Usain Bolt is a 100m, 200m runner. There has been talk in the past about him moving up to 400m. But the pain sprinters feel when they move up to 400m is phenomenal. It's not a distance he would like to run but in aid of charity, 600m would probably be the limit.
"Usain would have been blessed with a tremendous amount of fast-twitch fibres. He wouldn't have a fantastic endurance pace.
"As a 100m, 200m sprinter a lot of the work he would do would be explosive work. The fact that he runs 200m means he will do over-distance work and 600m would probably be the limit of what he would do in training. He will run 600m but he won't run it very quickly.
"After 600m there would be a lack of oxygen that he wouldn't be used to. A lot of sprinters hold their breath so straight away, just the breathing patterns and the way he would attack and run the race, these are the things that would give Usain Bolt problems."
Campbell said tactics would be key, with both men having to think carefully about how to tackle the race.
"I think what Bolt would do is he would just try and stay with Mo. It would depend on the pace that Mo decided to go off at. If I was Mo Farah I would just try and attack it from the beginning. If Usain is able to go with the pace, then his kick will be tremendous," he said.
"But Mo has been working on his pace this year and we've seen that with him breaking the British 1500m record. It's not that he hasn't got any speed but we're talking about (racing) the great Usain Bolt.
"Mo can run 50 seconds for 400m. Usain could probably run 45 seconds for 400m. But when you take it up in distance it becomes very, very difficult for Bolt."

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