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Lead Stories: Tuesday, October 7, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 2/15/2008

Posted February 15th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Tyson Invitational Has High Profile Athletes
The Tyson Invitational meet will be held this weekend at the University of Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Indoor Track in Fayettville. Some huge names will be competing, including Sanya Richards, Wallace Spearmon, Jenn Stuczynski and the shot put and an all-star shot put shootout that will feature Adam Nelson, Reese Hoffa, Christian Cantwell and Dan Taylor.
Read more at: [Google News][Tyson Invitational Start List]

Lagat To Run 10000m in London?
Bernard Lagat has hinted that he may move up in distance for the 2012 London Olympics, saying that, “athletes like Haile Gebrselassie [have shown] how possible it is to be stronger as you get older.” Lagat will compete in the 3000m event this weekend at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham, England.
Read more at: [BirminghamMail.net, UK]

IAAF Tokyo Marathon Preview
The Tokyo Marathon will be held this Sunday, February 18th and it will be doubling as Japan’s Olympic Men’s marathon Trials. A slew of speedy foreign runners has been invited, including Daniel Njenga of Kenya, a 2:06 marathoner. Historically, Japan has been strong in the marathon at the international level, so – with its mix of domestic and foreign talent – this should prove to be a high-octane race.
Read more at: [IAAF][Tokyo Marathon Website]
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Oita and Tokyo Marathons Announce Elite Fields

Posted January 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Next month’s Beppu-Oita Mainichi and Tokyo International Marathons have released their elite fields. Included in the elite fields set to compete at the Tokyo Marathon is reigning champion Daniel Njenga of Kenya [Pictured]. Although Njenga is a native Kenya, he lives and trains in Japan for most of the year.

BEPPU-OITA (03-Feb):

Invited International:
Elijah Mutai (KEN) 2:09:27 PB (2005 Chunchon)
Mark Yatich (KEN) 2:09:52 (2003 Los Angeles)
Ruggero Pertile (ITA) 2:10:12 (2004 Roma)
Rachid Kisri (MAR) 2:10:36 (2006 Treviso)
Scott Wescott (AUS) 2:11:36 (2005 Beppu-Oita)
Asheber Girma (ETH) 2:16:39 (2007 Addis Ababa)
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Marathon Comes to Big Screen, But For Only One Night

Posted January 7th, 2008 at 10:07 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Movies

In an unusual arrangement, a full-length feature documentary film on marathon running will be shown in USA theaters, but only for one night: Thursday, January 24.

The film, “Spirit of the Marathon,” presents the stories of six runners who competed in the 2005 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, from from first timers to elite runners like Deena Kastor and Daniel Njenga. The film explores how recreational runners use the marathon as a device to confront other issues in their lives –like divorce– and how elite runners are in it for equal amounts of glory and cash.

“The normal person, they want to make their body slim,” Njenga says over shots of him warming up before the race. “But for us, we want to make money. This is like a job and I love my job.”

Filmed on four continents, the two-hour movie chronicles the training of these athletes, interspersed with interviews from well-known marathon runners and experts, like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Amby Burfoot, Dick Beardsley, Joe Henderson, Roger Robinson, and Kathrine Switzer. Shot in hi-def video, the footage of the Chicago Marathon is both varied and majestic; the producers had a crew of 62 on the scene and used 15 camera operators. There is also a rousing score.
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Chicago Marathon ‘07: Down to Four Men

Posted October 7th, 2007 at 10:46 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

The men go through the 30K mark in 1:33:05, on pace for a 2:10:55 marathon. It’s down to four men: Robert K. Cheruiyot (KEN), Jaouad Gharib (MAR), Patrick Ivuti (KEN) and Daniel Njenga (KEN). Njenga has made a herculean effort to get to the lead pack, so he is at a disadvantage, having wasted valuable energy. The last mile was run in 4:59. In 5th, Ben Maiyo (KEN) is 21 seconds back. In 6th, Jimmy Muindi (KEN) is 54 seconds back.

Just under 36,000 people have started the race. It is a sweltering 87 degrees at street level.

The lead pack of four men is averaging about 5:00 miles, but they keep throwing in surges at a 4:40 mile pace.

Michael Cox is the only American on pace to qualify for the Olympic Trials. He is on pace for a 2:19:42 marathon. Andrew Middleton still has a chance to make the 2:22 qualifying mark. He is on pace for a 2:22:09.

The leaders hit the 20 mile mark in 1:40:05. The last mile was run in 5:04. Cheruiyot is setting the pace. Cheruiyot, Gharib and Ivuti are running side-by-side. Njenga is tucked in right behind them, taking advantage of the wind they are cutting.

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Check back often for TheFinalSprint.com’s LIVE coverage of the 2007 Chicago Marathon, sponsored by Ultima Replenisher, at:

http://chicago.thefinalsprint.com

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Gharib, Limo and Rutto Headline Chicago Field

Posted September 12th, 2007 at 7:05 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

A great battle is in store at the fastest marathon in the United States when the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon celebrates its 30th edition on Sunday, Oct. 7.

Making his Chicago debut will be two-time world champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco. Boasting a 2:07:02 personal best, Gharib snagged the world titles in both Paris in 2003 and Helsinki in 2005. He passed-up this year’s world championships so he could be best prepared to win a World Marathon Majors title in the fall. Chicago’s extremely fast course should play to his strength as a runnner who prefers a pace which is both steady and fast.

The man who won Chicago in 2005, Felix Limo (Pictured) of Kenya, should be Gharib’s top rival. Limo, who also won London in 2006 and Berlin in 2004, has four sub-2:07 marathons to his credit. At London last April he was in the hunt for victory in the final meters, but finished third to Martin Lel and Abderrahim Goumri in nail-biting sprint finish. Limo had planned to run Chicago last year, but an injury forced him to scratch from the race.
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Njenga wins Tokyo Marathon

Posted February 18th, 2007 at 10:12 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Marathons

The man who was reduced to tears when he narrowly finished second at last October’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, Daniel Njenga of Kenya, easily won today’s Tokyo International Marathon, leading a field of 25,000 in the first mass edition of this race.

Njenga, 30, who runs for the Japanese corporate team, Yakult, pulled away from the field off of a slow pace around 25 km into the race, winning by more than a minute and one-half over Tomoyuki Sato of Japan. Njenga clocked 2:09:45 on a new point-to-point course to Sato’s 2:11:22. Sammy Korir, the second-fastest marathoner of all-time, faded from contention after 15 km and did not finish in the top-10.
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Big marathon debuts in Tokyo on Sunday

Posted February 16th, 2007 at 12:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Some of the world’s oldest and most important marathons are held in Japan, like the Fukuoka Marathon which was held for the 60th time last September and featured a blazing run by Haile Gebrselassie.

But that race had a only 303 finishers, and is emblematic of the elitist status which marathons occupy in Japan. In fact, there are no large mass marathons in Japan. The largest, known to Race Results Weekly, is the Tsukuba Marathon which had 9708 finishers last year, roughly one fourth the total finishers of the ING New York City Marathon, the world’s largest with 37,866 in 2006. The largest marathon in the world in terms of Japanese participants is not in Japan, but rather in the United States. The Honolulu Marathon had 17,905 entrants from Japan in 2006 out of a total of 28,635.

But all of that will change on Sunday as the Tokyo Marathon for 2007 will, for the first time, permit recreational runners to enter.
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Tokyo International Marathon announces elite field

Posted February 13th, 2007 at 3:35 AM by Ken Nakamura

Section: News & Results, Marathons

The Tokyo International Marathon, which for the first time will be held as a mass marathon with the participation of recreational runners, has released its elite international and Japanese fields. The 28th running of the event, scheduled for Sunday, February 18, will only have male elite athletes.

The two heavyweights amongst the overseas competitors are Daniel Njenga and Sammy Korir, both of Kenya, the #9 and #10-ranked marathoners in the world last year according to Race Results Weekly’s exclusive marathoner rankings.

Njenga has a personal best time of 2:06:16 set in Chicago in 2002, and Korir is the second-fastest marathoner ever, with a 2:04:56 career best set in Berlin in 2003 when he finished one second behind Paul Tergat when he set the still-standing world record.
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Robert Cheruiyot chosen as year’s top male marathoner

Posted December 28th, 2006 at 4:00 PM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Race Results Weekly (RRW), the wire service of distance running, also announced today that Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot has been chosen as the year’s top-ranked male marathon runner.

Cheruiyot, 28, who won both the BAA Boston and LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathons, got the #1 ranking over Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie because, according to RRW, “The fields he beat in Boston and Chicago were stronger and larger than those which Gebrselassie defeated at the real,- Berlin and Fukuoka Marathons.” Gebrselassie ran the world-leading time at Berlin (2:05:56) was the runner-up in the RRW rankings. He and Cheruiyot did not face each other during the year.
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Cheruiyot, Adere Win the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon

Posted October 22nd, 2006 at 11:45 AM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Both the men’s and women’s races at toady’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon came down to the very last mile.

Running in the cold weather that has become characteristic of the Chicago Marathon, Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya and Ethiopia’s Berhane Adere came away as the male and female champions.

Cheruiyot, the 2006 Boston marathon winner, just barely beat out fellow Kenyan Daniel Njenga, with a time of 2:07:35. Cheruiyot’s winning time was a mere 5 seconds ahead of Njenga.

In what was nearly a very tragic moment, Cheruiyot fell as he crossed the finish line and slammed his head into the pavement. (Video of Cheruiyot’s Finish Line Fall) He would eventually be taken off in an ambulance. However, race officials assured everyone that taking the champion to the hospital was just a “precaution”.

With only about a kilometer left, Berhane Adere beat out Russia’s Galina Bogomolova to win the women’s field in 2:20:42. Adere’s time broke the Ethiopian national women’s record.

As we have mentioned in previous race coverage, the Chicago Marathon is a part of the World Marathon Majors. Cheruiyot’s win put him atop the Majors’ leader-board.

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