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Dibaba Golden Again!
Posted August 22nd, 2008 at 8:59 AM by Jared Markowitz
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics
Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba has completed a rare distance double, winning the Women’s Olympic 5000m title tonight to add to the 10000m title she won last Friday. Dibaba stayed near the front throughout and used a punishing final kilometer to hold off 10000m silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey and fellow Ethiopian Meseret Defar, who took silver and bronze respectively. Kara Goucher was the top American in 9th place and was closely followed by 10000m bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan in 10th.
Few races in these Games have been surrounded with as much intrigue as this one. There was the great individual matchup between Dibaba and Defar, two rivals who have traded the World Record in recent years (Dibaba currently owns it at 14:11.15 but Defar has run 14:12.88).
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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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Goucher Kicks Past Flanagan and Rhines for 5,000m Victory
Posted July 5th, 2008 at 1:35 AM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics
Image details: U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials - Day Six served by picapp.com
The women’s 5000m final at the 2008 US Olympic Trials featured a rematch of the top two finishers in the 10,000m (Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher) as well as several other medal threats in the Beijing Games. The race did not disappoint as Goucher stormed past Flanagan and Jen Rhines to claim victory in the last lap.
The race began at a controlled pace as Renee Metivier Baille, Lauren Fleshman, and Molly Huddle took turns leading the pack in the first kilometer, which was reached in 3:08.36. Sensing that her chance at the A standard was slipping away, Stanford alum Arianna Lambie went to the front and led for several laps, reaching the 3k mark in 9:12.68. Her efforts led to a six-person breakaway with Flanagan, Rhines, Goucher, Fleshman, and Sara Slattery in that order. The group continued to click off laps without much rearrangement until American Record holder Shalane Flanagan asserted herself with 1200m to go, breaking up the pack almost instantly.
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Faces in Races: Rhines, Fleshman, and Lambie Looking for Olympic Berths in Women’s 5000m
Posted July 4th, 2008 at 12:03 PM by Jared Markowitz
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics
The Women’s 5000m at the 2008 US Olympic Trials will feature several women who could be legitimate medal contenders in Beijing. Leading the pack will be Shalane Flanagan, the American Record holder in both the 5000m and the 10000m. Joining her will be fellow 10000m Olympian Kara Goucher, who was third in the that event at the World Championships in Osaka last summer. Another favorite will be Villanova alum Jen Rhines, a two time Olympian (10000m in 2000, marathon in 2004). Former Stanford star Lauren Fleshman has been outstanding in 2008 and rounds out the group of four women who have broken 15:00 in the qualifying window.
As in the other distance races, the A standard will be in play for this final. That is, the Olympic team will be comprised of the top three finishers who have run the A standard previously or in this race. The A standard in the women’s 5000m is 15:09, and the aforementioned four (Flanagan, Rhines, Goucher, Fleshman) are the only runners in the field who have reached that mark. It is likely that the three Olympians will be among this group, but there are several other strong contenders. Below we profile three runners in this final: Rhines, Fleshman, and Massachusetts native and Stanford alum Arianna Lambie. Finally, we make some picks for what should be yet another fantastic distance final.
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U.S. Olympic Track Trials:
Day 1 Preview
Posted June 27th, 2008 at 3:00 PM by Jesse Squire
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics
TV coverage:
USA, midnight-1 a.m. Friday night / Saturday morning (available in HD format)
Only two finals are on Friday; the women’s heptathlon (first day) leads off the entire meet, and the women’s 10k caps the day’s events.
I cannot say that I’ve followed the heptathlon as closely as other events, so I will have to defer to Track & Field News. They pick Hyleas Fountain to win, followed by 4time NCAA champ Jacquelyn Johnson and then Diana Pickler. Fountain, the defending national champion, has not competed in a multi this year and has only the third-best qualifying mark. But she took the dreaded fourth spot at the ’04 trials and has been waiting for this moment ever since. Johnson has had a full collegiate season, capped by winning the NCAA in Des Moines just two weeks ago, and cannot possibly be as rested and ready as Fountain.
In the women’s 10k, everyone’s favorite is Shalane Flanagan. She didn’t even consider running this event at the Trials until breaking the American Record in May. Her qualifying time is nearly a minute faster than anyone else’s, and she’s a proven ace both in cross country and shorter track distances. In other words, saving illness or injury, she’s essentially unbeatable.
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Great Line-Ups for Sunday’s adidas Track Classic
Posted May 15th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
Organizers have secured great line-ups for Sunday’s adidas Track Classic at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., and that includes the middle and long distance events.
The men’s 1500m is shaping up to the the top event, led by double world champion and two-time Olympic medalist, Bernard Lagat. Commonwealth Games medalists Nick Willis of Australia and Nate Brannen of Canada are also in the field, along with perennial Canadia star Kevin Sullivan and former NCAA ace Lopez Lomong. Nick Symmonds will be moving up from his usual specialty, the 800m, while 5000m man Adam Goucher will be moving down for a speed workout.
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Jen Rhines and Ian Dobson Withdraw from Central Park Challenge
Posted March 10th, 2008 at 11:00 AM by Jeremy Sussman
Section: News & Results
Jen Rhines and Ian Dobson (Pictured), both of Mammoth Lakes, CA, have withdrawn from the Central Park Challenge on Saturday, March 15, it was announced today by New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg.
Rhines, who on Friday ran in the preliminaries of the 3000 meters at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain, told race organizers that she was still suffering from a lingering illness contracted after the U.S. Indoor Track Championships at the end of February. Dobson, the 2006 Manchester Road Race champion, cited a hip injury as his reason for withdrawing.
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USA Indoor T&F Champs: Rowbury Blasts Ahead to Win Women’s 3k
Posted February 23rd, 2008 at 7:20 PM by Jared Markowitz
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
The Women’s 3000m at the 2008 USATF Indoor Championships was a very closely contested race until former Duke star Shannon Rowbury shifted gears and dropped the field impressively in the last 300m to claim the title in 8:55.19.
The race started with a tight pack reaching the 400m in 1:12 and the 800m in 2:25.37 led by Kristen Anderson. From there Jen Rhines took charge and was followed closely by Erin Donahue, Shannon Rowbury, Katie McGregor, Julie Culley and Amy Hastings (in that order). They reached 1200m in 3:36 and the mile in 4:48.83, right around 9:00 3k pace.
Hastings dropped off a bit as Rhines continued to push the pace and it became a 5 woman race as the 2k was reached in 6:02.9 and 2400m in 7:17.4. Katie McGregor and Julie Culley made bids to move up but were unsuccessful as they were forced outside.
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2008 Track & Field
Previews & Predictions:
Women’s Middle-Distance
Posted January 25th, 2008 at 5:25 PM by Jimmie R. Markham
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics
Maria Mutola recently announced that she will retire at the end of the 2008 season. That’s a shame because she has been the ambassador of women’s 800m running ever since she broke on the world-class middle-distance running scene in 1991 with a time of 1:57.63. Since then she’s run between 1:55.19 and 1:58.98 a staggering 108 times. The only other woman to come even close to running that many world-class times in the 800m has been the great Cuban runner Ana Quirot, who ran between 1:54.44 and 1:58.95 a total of 72 times between 1986 and 1997. The 800m event will truly be diminished when Mutola retires.
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Reebok Boston Indoor Games: Start Lists
Posted January 25th, 2008 at 11:07 AM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
Here are the start lists for the middle and long distance events for tomorrow’s Reebok Boston Indoor Games. Also, stay tuned for complete event recaps and analysis following tomorrow night’s event - right here at TheFinalSprint.com.
MEN -
BostonNOW 800m:
Said Ahmed, USA
Andrew Ellerton, CAN
Sam Burley, USA
Nick Symmonds, USA
Khadevis Robinson, USA
Mike Pachella, USA
Larry Brooks, USA
Mile:
Boaz Cheboiywo, KEN
Rob Myers, USA
Chris Lukezic, USA
Max Smith, NZL
Galen Rupp, USA [Pictured]
Fumikazu Kobayashi, JPN
James Nolan, IRL
David Freeman, PUR
Jason Jabaut, USA
Pablo Solares, MEX
Moise Joseph, HAI (pace)
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Which currently declared candidate would most improve USATF if elected as President of the Board of Directors?
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On November 23, 2008
Arden Eagan said:
Hey, what a great list! Just wanted to add that a new book for kids about Pre just came out...