Moroccan middle-distance man beats Herb Elliott and Seb Coe in AW vote to find the greatest miler in history
Hicham El Guerrouj has out-kicked Herb Elliott and Seb Coe in an AW readers’ poll to find the No.1 miler of all time.
A similar vote in 2004 saw double Olympic 1500m champion Coe emerge as your clear favourite ahead of 1960 Olympic 1500m champion Elliott with El Guerrouj a well beaten third, but over the past 20 years the Moroccan has cemented his reputation and legacy and has won this 2024 poll convincingly.
El Guerrouj took 27% of your votes in the past few days with Elliott and Coe tied on 14% each.
After this your votes went to, in order, Steve Ovett, Roger Bannister, John Walker, Jim Ryun, Peter Snell, Steve Cram, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Said Aouita, Noureddine Morceli, Sydney Wooderson, Filbert Bayi, Kip Keino, Walter George, Jack Lovelock and Gunder Hagg.
Filbert Bayi, Steve Cram, Hicham El Guerrouj (Will Palmer)
El Guerrouj was world record-holder for 1500m and the mile in 2004 as he set those records in 1998-99. But after holding both records for the last quarter of a century, he has demonstrated just how good he is.
As well as his long-standing world records of 3:26.00 and 3:43.13, he won four world 1500m titles from 1997-2003 and the Olympic 1500m and 5000m double in Athens 2004.
The 49-year-old was at the Bannister Miles meeting in Oxford in Oxford earlier this month, too, and you can read an in-depth and exclusive feature with El Guerrouj in the next issue of AW magazine, which is out in less than a week’s time.
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