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Bekele Completes Distance Double
Posted August 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 AM by Jared Markowitz
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics
Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele has won the Olympic 5000 m, pulling away late to earn his second gold medal of these Games. Bekele clocked 12:57.82 for the distance, an Olympic Record and a remarkable feat considering the tactical nature of this race. Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge and Edwin Soi took silver and bronze in 13:02.80 and 13:06.22, respectively. Americans Bernard Lagat and Matt Tegenkamp finished in ninth and thirteenth, well out of medal contention.
The buildup for this race was not lacking in drama, as remarks made by Kenyan coach Julius Kirwa revealed the team tactics that his nation planned to employ. The Kenyan plan was focused on neutralizing reigning World Champion Bernard Lagat, a miler by trade who used his blistering kick to win off a slow pace last summer in Osaka. Of course the Kenyans must also have been concerned about their archrival Ethiopia, whose team of the Bekele brothers (Kenenisa and Tariku) along with Abreham Cherkos would prove formidable. Kenenisa Bekele owns the World Record in the 5000 m but had thus far failed to win a championship 5000m, due mainly to the physical toll of his dominance in the 10000 m.
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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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TFS News Briefs: 2/19/2008
Posted February 19th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics, Drugs In Sports, TFS News Briefs
Coe: Track & Field Can’t Survive Another Drug Scandal
Double Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe said that another scandal could wreck the sport of track & field, saying, “we cannot have another five years like the one we’ve just been through because I’m not sure the sport would survive that.”
Read more at: [The Age]
Oregon High Schooler Runs 1:52 800m With No Speed Work
Having done no speedwork yet, Elijah Greer, a junior from Oswego High School, ran an outstanding early-season time of 1:52.66 at the University of Washington’s Husky Classic. It is the best prep time of the season.
Read more at: [The Oregonian]
Pistorius May Have New Evidence To Help His Appeal
Oscar Pistorius, the South African 400m sprinter who has been banned by the IAAF, may have new evidence to help him when he appeals the ruling that his two prosthetic legs give him an advantage over runners with two legs.
Read more at: [News24.com, South Africa]
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Nixing Pacemakers and Increasing Prize pot, Zurich Introduces new one-day Meet Approach
Posted September 6th, 2007 at 4:39 PM by Bob Ramsak
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
When the IAAF Golden Series resumes on Friday night, Zurich’s rebuilt state-of-the-art Letzigrund Stadium won’t be the only new development at one of the world’s richest single-day meetings. For the first time in the sport’s professional era, the annual Weltklasse competition will not employ the services of pacemakers.
And that suits Bernard Lagat, the recently minted world champion at 1500 and 5000 meters, just fine.
“It’s fantastic,” said Lagat, who will contest the 3000 on Friday. “People always run fast and they get personal bests with pacemakers, but then again it’s so important that the race becomes tactical.”
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Lagat’s Second Gold Medal Caps World Championships
Posted September 2nd, 2007 at 4:33 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Live Race Coverage
While critics said he had bitten off more than he could chew, Bernard Lagat swallowed up the field of the men’s 5000m final here tonight, becoming the first man to win both the 1500m and 5000m at an IAAF World Championships in Athletics. He also became the first American to win a 5000m world title.
It mattered not his winning time of 13:45.87 was the slowest in the history of these championships. In fact, it was the painfully slow early pace which set the stage for Lagat to use his unmatched closing speed to clinch the title over Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, the 2003 world champion. In a memorable sprint to the finish, Lagat just edged his former compatriot by 13/100ths of a second, running about 52 seconds for the final lap.
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Tariku Bekele, Kipchoge Lead 5000m Qualifying
Posted August 30th, 2007 at 12:50 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia, the younger brother of Kenenisa, and Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, won their respective heats of the 5000m as the 11th IAAF World Championships finished its sixth day at Nagai Stadium.
Bekele recorded an improbably slow time of 13:46.42 to win his heat off of a very slow initial pace. Indeed, there was such a large group of athletes still together at the bell that Algeria’s Khoudir Aggoune, Kenya’s Isaac Songok and Joseph Ebuya, and Morocco’s Ahmed Baday were unable to advance to Sunday’s final despite finishing within two seconds of Bekele. Only the top five from each heat automatically qualified for the final.
“I was worried about the weather,” Bekele said in a statement released by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation. “It was very difficult out there and I hope to do well in the final.”
Jesús España of Spain, Bernard Lagat of the USA, Hicham Bellani of Morocco, and Moses Kipsiro of Uganda were the other qualifiers from the first heat. Lagat won the gold medal in the 1500m last night. He chose to celebrate with an ice bath and a pizza before getting to bed to rest up for tonight’s race. The slow pace definitely saved him precious energy.
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Prefontaine Classic: Recap of middle & long distance events
Posted June 11th, 2007 at 1:57 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
If the late Steve Prefontaine was watching this meeting from above his beloved Hayward Field, he surely had a smile on his face as gutsy performances in the middle and long distance events dominated this meeting.
For the second year in a row, the meet was held in cool and sometimes rainy conditions, and that was just perfect for the rollicking two-miler which was won by Australian Craig Mottram in the fastest time every on U.S. soil. John Jefferson and Bernard Kiptum set the early pace, and Tariku Bekele and Mottram were running 1-2 when Kiptum left the track after about 2000 meters.
Bekele led out of turn-2 on the final lap, but Mottram started his long sprint with more 250 meter to go. Bekele just couldn’t answer, and the big Aussie motored to the line in a sparkling 8:03.50, blowing through Eliud Kipchoge’s U.S. all-comer’s best of 8:07.68 set at the same meet in 2005.
“It comes down to the size of your balls, really,” said Mottram on live television after the race.
Bekele ran a personal best 8:04.83, while a hard-charging Matt Tegenkamp broke Alan Webb’s U.S. best of 8:11.48 with a terrific 8:07.07 clocking. Dathan Ritzenhein nearly got under Webb’s mark, finishing in 8:11.74 in fourth place. As for Webb, he finished a disappointing 9th, surely a letdown after his commanding victory over Bernard Lagat in the Reebok Grand Prix last Saturday.
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Gebrselassie; Bekele show excellent form in Hengelo
Posted May 27th, 2007 at 1:37 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
It has been nearly three years since he raced on the track, but Haile Gebrselassie showed excellent form tonight in Hengelo, breaking the 27 minute barrier for the eighth time in his illustrious career.
Gebrselassie, whose official age is 34 but many observers believe he is at least a few years older, finished fifth in 26:52.81. The race was won by his compatriot Sileshi Sihine who ran the second-fastest 10,000m of his career: 26:48.73. Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya was third in a personal best 26:49.01 and Moses Mosop was fourth in 26:49.55, also setting a personal best.
Gebrselassie has broken 27 minutes more times than any other runner. World record holder Kenenisa Bekele is next on the list with five sub-27:00 clockings, while Sihine is third with four.
Speaking of Bekele, he easily won the two-mile event in Hengelo, covering the last lap in about 55 seconds. A recent story in the Kenyan press about Bekele’s struggle to regain his form after the IAAF World Cross Country Championships may have overstated the depth of his problems. He clocked 8:13.51 to Edwin Soi’s 8:16.98.
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Mottram injures calf; pulls out of XC rematch with Bekele
Posted January 10th, 2007 at 7:01 AM by Martha Jones
Section: News & Results, Cross Country
Australia’s Craig Mottram, the 200m World Cup champion, was forced to withdraw from this weekend’s Great Edinborugh cross country event because of a calf injury.
The 9km race is being held this Saturday in Scotland and was supposed to be his first competition against five-time world champion Kenenisa Bekele since Mottram’s surprising World Cup victory last fall in Greece.
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Craig Mottram and Meseret Defar Set 3km Road Race World Records
Posted October 1st, 2006 at 2:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb
Section: News & Results
Australia’s Craig Mottram and Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar probably thought their year couldn’t - even possibly - get any better. However, it looks like they were wrong - very wrong.
The pair of dominating runners set new road race world records at the Newcastle/Gateshead Great North 3Km. As a matter of fact, they didn’t just break the records - they destroyed them by nearly seven seconds respectively.
Who was America's most-valuable male runner in 2008?
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