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Lead Stories: Sunday, September 7, 2008

Kiplagat Nails Beijing Qualifier Behind Tufa’s 30:38.33 Victory in Nijmegen

Posted June 27th, 2008 at 12:12 PM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

The third time was a charm for two-time defending world road running champion Lornah Kiplagat.

The Kenyan-born Dutchwoman clocked 31:04.04 in the 10,000m at the Asics Nijmegen Global Athletic meet in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, on Wednesday, well under the Dutch Olympic selection standard of 31:22. She will now join her cousin, Hilda Kibet, on the Beijing squad.

Kiplagat, the world record holder in the half marathon, fell short of the standard at the European Cup 10,000m in Istanbul in April, and dropped out of another race in Utrecht on May 30. She was ill in early June, forced to spend some time in a hospital in Kenya.
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Dutchwoman Kibet Is First at 37th New York Mini 10-K

Posted June 7th, 2008 at 1:20 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Road Racing

In hot and sticky conditions, the Netherlands’ Hilda Kibet won the 37th edition of the NYRR New York Mini 10-K, adding her name to the list of stars who have won what is the oldest and most famous all-women’s road race in the world.

Kibet, who just qualified for the Dutch 10,000m team for the Beijing Olympics at a race in Utrecht last Saturday, was in a group of four women through the half-way mark on the winding and hilly course in Central Park (16:12). Kenya’s Everlyne Lagat was the first to fall back from this group, then a little injection of pace in the seventh kilometer put USA marathon record holder Deena Kastor a few steps behind.

Kibet was then left to battle with Mexico’s Madai Perez for the last two kilometers. With 800m to go Kibet pushed one more time, and it was enough to secure her second New York City road racing victory in her last two starts (she won the NYC Half-Marathon presented by NIKE last August).
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Race Preview: NYRR New York Mini 10k

Posted June 6th, 2008 at 1:30 PM by Stephanie Lowe

Section: News & Results, Olympics, Road Racing

In preparation for the August 17 Beijing Olympic Marathon, all three members of the United States women’s team, Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy-Boulet and Blake Russell, will race in the NYRR New York Mini 10k. The New York Road Runners event starts in Central Park this Saturday, June 7, at 9:00 a.m. Kastor, Lewy-Boulet and Russell will be joined by some of the world’s top female distance runners, including Aziza Aliyu of Ethiopia, Madaí Pérez of Mexico and Hilda Kibet of the Netherlands.

The New York Mini 10k is exclusively for women and offers prize money ranging from $1,500 to $10,000 for the top five finishers. The race also offers prize money to the top five U.S. athletes ($500 to $5,000) and allows double dipping, which means if an American wins, she will receive $15,000.

Without five-time champion Lornah Kiplagat in the field, Kastor, 35, who won in 2004, will have the odds in her favor for reclaiming the title. However, Kibet, 27, has been training with Kiplagat, her cousin, and recently ran 10000-meter times of 31:01 and 30:55.61.
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Hilda Kibet Qualifies For Olympic Games In Utrecht

Posted May 31st, 2008 at 7:21 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

On a cool and nearly windless evening here Dutchwoman Hilda Kibet ran the third fastest time of the year over 10,000 meters, clocking a personal best 30:55:61 and guaranteeing herself a place on the Dutch team for the Beijing Olympics.

Running with her cousin, multiple world record-holder Lornah Kiplagat, the two athletes were trying to break the Dutch federation’s Olympic Games qualifying standard of 31:22.14, a much more difficult mark than the IAAF Olympic Games “A” standard of 31:45.00.

The two ran side-by-side through 3000 meters in 9:29:78. They had prepared together Kiplagat’s high altitude training center in Kenya, however Kiplagat was held back by a recent viral infection and had missed a week of training. At 4000 meters Kibet took the lead and made it to 5000 meters in 15:33:46; Kiplagat was some twenty meters back. At 6600m Kiplagat stepped off the track, leaving Kibet to run solo to the finish.
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Led by Kiplagat, Strong 10,000m Race Developing
in Utrecht

Posted May 13th, 2008 at 9:30 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Double world record holder Lornah Kiplagat (Pictured) and her cousin Hilda Kibet plan to compete at the 2008 Utrecht Night of the 10,000m in the Netherlands on 30-May so they can qualify for the Beijing Olympics, event organizers announced yesterday.

Both Kiplagat, who holds the IAAF world records for both 20 km and the half-marathon, and Kibet need to run 31:22.00 or better in order to qualify for the Dutch Olympic team for Beijing, much faster than the IAAF Olympic Games “A” standard of 31:45.00. Both athletes had hoped to achieve the Dutch federation standard at the European Cup 10,000m in Istanbul last April, but fell short. Kiplagat finished second in 31:53.72 and Kibet third in a personal best 32:05.49.
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Chasing Beijing Qualifier, Kiplagat Returns to the Track on Saturday in Istanbul

Posted April 10th, 2008 at 8:07 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

In her first track appearance in nearly a year, two-time world road running champion Lornah Kiplagat will be looking to punch her ticket to the Beijing Olympics at this Saturday’s 12th European Cup 10,000m in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 33-year-old Kenyan-born Dutchwoman bypassed an attempt to defend her World Cross Country title in Edinburgh last month, she said, to focus on this summer’s Olympic Games.

“Lornah is just trying to run the qualification time for Beijing and is not looking for a very fast time,” said Kiplagat’s coach and husband, Pieter Langerhorst. “She needs to run, just like Hilda Kibet, 31:22.”
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Plodding Pace Helps Defar to 5000m Gold

Posted September 1st, 2007 at 1:00 PM by David Monti

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

Meseret Defar, the reigning Olympic gold medalist and world record holder at 5000m, claimed her first outdoor world title on the pentultimate day of the 11th IAAF World Championships at Nagai Stadium.

Helped by a plodding pace set by fan favorite Kayoko Fukushi, who was doubling back from the 10,000m, Defar did little but wait for 11 of the 12 and one-half laps. In the early going, she simply trailed a step behind Fukushi who was turning gentle 74 and 75 second laps. It wasn’t until the 11th lap that Vivian Cheruiyot tried to jump start the race with a sub-72 circuit. At the bell, Defar applied the pressure, but held her big sprint for the end.

“In the last 400 meters I increased the length of my stride,” said Defar after the race as if teaching a class. “And in the last 200 meters I used my sprint to win.”

Elementary, my dear Watson! Her 58.6 second final lap gave her a more than adequate cushion at the finish, grabbing the gold medal in 14:57.91, Ethiopia’s third of these championships.
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Video: Post NYC Half- Marathon press conference w/ women’s champ HILDA KIBET

Posted August 6th, 2007 at 9:30 AM by Adam Jacobs

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

Below is TheFinalSprint.com’s video coverage of Kenya’s Hilda Kibet at the press conference following her victory at the 2007 NYC Half-Marathon on Sunday, Aug 5.

Hilda was able to out-sprint defending champion and fellow Kenyan Catherine Ndereba and Nina Rillstone of New Zealand in the last hundred meters to take the women’s crown. The three elite female runners untimely finished less than one second apart.

As NYRR CEO and President Mary Wittenberg predicted, the NYC Half-Marathon was in many ways Hilda’s “coming out party”.

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NYC Half-Marathon Champions: Hilda Kibet & Haile Gebrselassie

Posted August 6th, 2007 at 8:40 AM by Adam Jacobs

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

Congratulations to the 2007 NYC Half-Marathon Champions:
Hilda Kibet (KEN) and Haile Gebrselassie (ETH)!

CLICK HERE to check out TFS’s LIVE coverage, photos and videos from the Aug 5th NYC Half-Marathon and/or go directly to: http://www.thefinalsprint.com/tag/NYC-Half-Marathon/

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Hilda Kibet earns women’s title at 2007 NYC Half- Marathon in 1:10:32

Posted August 5th, 2007 at 8:46 AM by Nathan Schiller

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

Hilda Kibet out-sprinted defending champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya and Nina Rillstone of New Zealand in the last hundred meters to take the women’s crown. The three of them were separated by less than one second in the end.

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