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Lead Stories: Saturday, September 6, 2008

Lagat Cautiously Optimistic As Double Ambitions Begin

Posted August 15th, 2008 at 8:00 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

With the start of his quest to succeed Hicham El Guerrouj as the Olympic 1500 and 500m champion now just a day away, Bernard Lagat believes he is ready and indeed up for the daunting challenge.

“This is the one I’ve been looking forward to,” the reigning world champion over both distances said at a press conference. “My preparation has really been at the top.”

The first round of the men’s 1500m is scheduled for Friday evening, the first five races on the Kenyan-born American’s busy Beijing schedule. Lagat said that both distances will pose their unique challenges, but that it’s the 1500m that may pose the stiffest test.
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2008 Beijing Olympic Preview: Men’s 5000 Meters

Posted August 12th, 2008 at 2:00 PM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Men’s 5000 Meters
The Schedule: heats, Wednesday Aug 20; finals, Saturday, Aug 23
The Americans:
#5 Bernard Lagat, Matt Tegenkamp, Ian Dobson
The Contenders: #1 Edwin Cheruyuiot Soi (KEN), #2 Tariku Bekele (ETH), #4 Kenenisa Bekele (ETH), #11 Craig Mottram (AUS), #13 Eliud Kipchoge (KEN), #14 Abraham Cherkos Feleke (ETH)
The Stats: Records, 2008 List, 2007 Worlds, 2004 Olympics
The Medal Picks: T&FN - K Bekele, Lagat, Kipchoge;
SI - Soi, T Bekele, Kipchoge
The Story: Who wins and who medals will depend very much on how the race plays out. A slow pace favors Lagat, who has far and away the best finishing speed, but it’s unlikely that all the other finalists will want to hand the race to him like they did last year in Osaka. A hard pace from the gun reverses that advantage/disadvantage situation but is even less likely. More expected is gamesmanship, surging, and a real race taking shape in the last eight or so laps.
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2008 Beijing Olympic Preview: Women’s 5000 Meters

Posted August 12th, 2008 at 11:30 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Women’s 5000 Meters

The Schedule: heats, Tuesday Aug 19; finals, Friday, Aug 22
The Americans: #6 Shalane Flanagan, #7 Kara Goucher, #12 Jen Rhines
The Contenders: #1 Meseret Defar (ETH), #2 Gulnara Samitova-Galkina (RUS) #3 Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH), #4 Meselech Melkamu (ETH) #5 Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet (KEN), #8 Penina Chepchumba (KEN), #22 Liliya Shobukhova (RUS)
The Stats: Records, 2008 List, 2007 Worlds, 2004 Olympics
The Medal Picks: T&FN - Defar, T Dibaba, Melkamu; SI - T Dibaba, Defar, Jepleting
The Story: While everyone knows the men’s 100 and high hurdles will be great showdowns, this race has been getting short shrift. Too bad, because it’s going to be a great race.

Teammates Dibaba and Defar have owned the long distances for several years. They have not raced each other head-to-head this year, but did appear in separate 3k and 2-mile races in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games. Dibaba broke the 5k World Record in Oslo’s Bislett Games, running 14:11.15; later in the summer, Defar ran 14:12.88 in Stockholm. Both are strong and have withering kicks. It will be a war.
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Gerry Lindgren: The Self-Proclaimed “Wimp” Who Revolutionized Running

Posted March 25th, 2008 at 1:34 PM by Stephanie Lowe

Section: News & Results, Motivation, Track & Field, Olympics, Special Features, Interviews, College, High School

Despite protests of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, President George W. Bush recently stated that there will not be a boycott from the United States. According to CNN, Bush believes the Olympics “should be about the athletes and not necessarily about politics.”

Former U.S. Olympian Gerry Lindgren, 62, agrees. He thinks China will benefit from hosting the Games.

“I think they need to leave politics out of it,” he said. “China has made some great strides forward in the last few years.”

Lindgren recalls backlash of the 1980 U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics. He did not plan to compete in Moscow, but he knew how disappointed the U.S. team was to miss out on the Olympic experience. Lindgren said he was upset with former President Jimmy Carter’s decision and said the Olympics should have been “the only avenue in the world that wasn’t political.”
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