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Lead Stories: Wednesday, November 19, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 3/19/08

Posted March 19th, 2008 at 3:23 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics, TFS News Briefs

Blue Collar High School Runner
Eugene, Oregon’s Register-Guard has a profile of high school speedster Luke Puskedra who describes himself as a blue-collar runner. Puskedra, who has signed a letter of intent to run at Oregon, has the fastest indoor mile time of 2008 for a high schooler, having run a 4:08.77.
Read more at: [Register-Guard]

Spotlight On MarathonWeb.com
New York’s Star Gazette features MarathonGuide.com in an article that covers a range of statistics found on the site including the average men’s time for a marathon (4:29:52), average women;s time (4:59:28) and the % of runners who broke 3 hours in 2007 (only 1.7%).
Read more at: [Star Gazette]

Carolina Klüft Will Not Defend Her Olympic Heptathlon Title
In an expected move, Carolina Klüft announced that she will not defend her Olympic Heptathlon title from Athens. Instead, she will focus on the jumps in Beijing.
Read more at: [IAAF]
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BIGgest Moments from Boston

Posted January 27th, 2008 at 8:09 PM by Jared Markowitz

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, College, High School

The 2008 Reebok Boston Indoor Games featured many exciting events on the track and in the field. As usual the meet attracted many of the world’s finest athletes- Olympic Medalists, World Champions, seasoned vets and rising stars. Each event at the Boston Indoor Games brought thrills to the crowd at the Reggie Lewis Center, but below we give our recaps and rankings (the latter being completely subjective) of the excitement delivered by each event:

1.) Women’s 2 Mile- Defar and Smith shatter previous WR

The Women’s 2 mile was a distance running clinic put on by two of the world’s finest distance runners, Meseret Defar (ETH) and Kim Smith (NZL). Defar’s goal in this race was to break the Women’s Indoor 2 Mile World Record of 9:23.38, set by disgraced American star Regina Jacobs.
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TFS News Briefs: 12/05/07

Posted December 5th, 2007 at 11:54 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, Drugs In Sports, TFS News Briefs

Paula Radcliffe “disturbed and disappointed” by Ohuruogu’s admission
British marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe, known for her strong stance against doping, has said that she is “disturbed and disappointed” by sprinter Christine Ohuruogu’s recent statements about her failure to make a doping test. Read more at: [Citizen, South Africa]

Winning Streaks of World’s Best Athletes on the Line
With the new year right around the corner, we “trackies” can begin to get excited about the 2008 track & field season. Some of the best athletes in the world will be laying their winning streaks on the line as they begin their ‘08 campaigns that will culminate with the best track meet of them all: the Olympic Games. Among those laying it all on the line are pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva, steeplechaser Saif Saaeed Shaheen and multi-event queen Carolina Klüft, each of whom has a winning streak of at least 15 competitions. Read more at: [IAAF]

Muggy Honolulu Marathon Expected
The weather forecast for Honolulu this Sunday, December 9th, 2007, looks grim for the 26,286 runners who have registered for the Honolulu Marathon. They can expect scattered showers, a high temperature of 81°F, 70% humidity and north winds of 10 MPH. The only good thing about this forecast is the rain. Read more at: [The Weather Channel]
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Kluft, Defar To Compete at Reebok Boston Indoor Games

Posted December 4th, 2007 at 5:33 PM by J. R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Carolina Kluft and Meseret Defar, widely considered the top female track-and-field athletes in the world, will be among the headliners at the 2008 Reebok Boston Indoor Games on Jan. 26, organizers announced today. Tickets for the 13th annual Olympic-style event are on sale now by calling 1-877-TIX-TRAC.

As reigning Olympic gold medalist in the heptathlon, Kluft owns the unofficial title of World’s Best Female Athlete. The 24-year-old from Sweden reinforced her claim last summer by becoming the first three-time heptathlon World Champion in the history of the sport. In Boston, she will compete in the long jump, her best individual event. In 2004, she made the Olympic long jump final just days after winning heptathlon gold.

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TFS News Briefs: 11/14/07

Posted November 14th, 2007 at 12:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, TFS News Briefs

Kiplagat to Run in Brussels X-C Meet
Reigning world cross-country champion Lornah Kiplagat will run in the ‘Lotto Iris Crosscup’ cross-country meet in Brussels, Belgium on December 23rd in preparation for the Dubai Marathon on January 18th, 2008. The 33-year-ols world-record holder in the 20k sees the race as ideal for testing both her speed and strength. Read more at: [IAAF]

Focus on European Athletes Who Made IAAF Performance of the Year Shortlist
An article on the EAA website focuses on the 6 European athletes who have made the IAAF’s short list for the IAAF 2007 Performance of the Year. The performances of Roman Sebrle, Yelena Isinbayeva, Lornah Kiplagat, Carolina Klüft, Blanka Vlasic and Yekaterina Volkova are featured. Read more at: [European-Athletics]

Fraudulent “Coaches” Overtake Kenya’s Great Rift Valley
Frauds who are posing as athletes and coaches have invaded the famed Great Rift Valley in Kenya, home to many of the world’s greatest distance runners. The “quacks” have set up unregulated training camps, are over-training young runners and are harassing schoolgirls, in some cases even impregnating them. Read more at: [Standard, Kenya]
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7,032 Points for Carolina Klüft!

Posted August 26th, 2007 at 8:41 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Special Features, Live Race Coverage

In the final event of the Heptathlon competition, the 800m Run, Carolina Klüft (SWE) won the world championships gold medal for the third straight time, setting a new personal best and a European record by running a time of 2:12.56. Her mark is the 7th best point total of all time and makes her the second fastest Heptathlete of all time, surpassing the 7,007 points set by Larisa Nikitina (RUS) in 1989. Only the indomitable Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) has scored better, with point totals of 7,291, 7,215, 7,158, 7,148, 7,128 and 7,044.

Lyudmila Blonksa (UKR) smashed her national record of 6,733 with her time of 2:16.68, worth 869 points and giving her a final score of 6,832. That score earned her a silver medal.

Kelly Sotherton (GBR) ran a 2:11.58, worth 942 points and good enough to overtake Austra Skujyte (LTU) for the bronze medal.
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Klüft: 2 PB’s, 2 SB’s in First 4 Events of Osaka Heptathlon

Posted August 25th, 2007 at 8:50 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Live Race Coverage

The Women’s Heptathlon began today with the 100m hurdles, the first event of the two-day heptathlon. Right away, the Nagai Stadium track in Osaka, Japan lived up to its pre-race billing of being super-fast. Britain’s Jessica Ennis set a personal best of 12.97 seconds in winning Heat 1, beating her previous PB by 0.07 seconds. Carolina Klüft came in 2nd, tying her PB of 13.15 and Kelly Sotherton rounded out the top 3 in Heat 1 with a 13.21, also a PB.

Here are the points leaders after the first event of the Heptathlon, the 100m Hurdles:

1. Jessica Ennis (GBR) 1129
2. Carolina Klüft (SWE) 1102
3. Kelly Sotherton (GBR) 1093

The second event of the day, the High Jump, turned out to be the Carolina Klüft show. By the time she missed for the first time at 1.92m, most of the heptathletes were already out of the competition. She went on to jump a PB of 1.95m, making three decent attempts at 1.98m.
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