[Pemps]

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:35 pm  

The_Enforcer wrote:

Offiah was fast but not as fast as he is made out to be. A lot of the tries he scored came from his abilty to swerve and run on an arc whilst sprinting. When Offiah was tight to the touch line with no room to run on an arc, he was run down a few times, once by Kevin Iro.

He was injured at the time of Iro catching him. there's no way Iro would be within 10 yards of him in a foot race. I don't remember anyone catching him in a straight race. I've seen people come across the field and tackle him, but they had a head start distance wise.

Mark preston was close to him for pace.

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:48 pm  

The_Enforcer wrote:

Offiah was fast but not as fast as he is made out to be. A lot of the tries he scored came from his abilty to swerve and run on an arc whilst sprinting. When Offiah was tight to the touch line with no room to run on an arc, he was run down a few times, once by Kevin Iro.

If only he had bionic implants....

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:59 pm  

Grimmy wrote:

If only he had bionic implants....

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:16 pm  

The_Enforcer wrote:

Offiah was fast but not as fast as he is made out to be. A lot of the tries he scored came from his abilty to swerve and run on an arc whilst sprinting. When Offiah was tight to the touch line with no room to run on an arc, he was run down a few times, once by Kevin Iro.

Offiah was fast enough 99% of the time. Remember Dave Jones catching him at Wakefield as others have, not convinced Kevin Iro could though, but there are 100’s of others who haven’t got to him. I am told Billy was a bit like that, never pulled away from chasing players because he didn’t need to but always did enough to get over the line.

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:42 pm  

Pemps wrote:

He was injured at the time of Iro catching him. there's no way Iro would be within 10 yards of him in a foot race. I don't remember anyone catching him in a straight race. I've seen people come across the field and tackle him, but they had a head start distance wise.

Mark preston was close to him for pace.

Agreed, nobody caught him from behind if he was fully fit. I remember Kevin Iro and Andy Mason running him down, but that was later in his career when he had started to fade, injuries and weight gain slowed him right down.

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:21 pm  

Mark Preston beat him in a 100 metre sprint around 1990 ish

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Mon Aug 03, 2020 11:39 pm  

Brian Bevan had speed to burn.

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Tue Aug 04, 2020 5:26 am  

MR FRISK wrote:

Mark Preston beat him in a 100 metre sprint around 1990 ish

no he didnt, i messaged mark preston about it and said it wasnt true a few months ago

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:03 pm  

Salty wrote:

Brian Bevan had speed to burn.

The number of tries that he scored was just crazy.

Keith Fielding at Salford in the 70's was pretty quick.

Re: Martin Offiah - Fastest Player? : Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:19 pm  

Itchy Arsenal wrote:

The number of tries that he scored was just crazy.

Keith Fielding at Salford in the 70's was pretty quick.

For the oldies he was on Superstars, although not a rugby player I remember Supermac Malcolm Macdonald being one of the fastest on that show. They claimed at the time that his time for the 100 was one of the fastest in Europe