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Lead Stories: Thursday, August 21, 2008

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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Kara Goucher to Run Women’s Mile at Millrose Games

Posted January 30th, 2008 at 12:01 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The 2007 world championships bronze medalist at 10,000m, Kara Goucher, will contest the New York Road Runners women’s mile at Friday night’s 101st Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, organizers announced yesterday. She will face, amongst others, Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova, the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships silver medalist at 3000m.

Goucher has an excellent chance of improving on her modest 4:46.45 personal best. Coached by Alberto Salazar, Goucher is working on improving her speed this indoor season to help her be more competitive at the end of her longer track races. She has very strong personal best times of 8:34.99 for 3000m, 14:55.02 for 5000m, 31:17.12 for 10,000m and 1:06:57 for the half-marathon.
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Records, Upsets Highlight Boston Indoor Games

Posted January 27th, 2008 at 10:00 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

A world best by Meseret Defar, an all-comer’s record by Craig Mottram, and upset winners in both the men’s and women’s miles gave the sell-out crowd of over 4000 fans plenty to cheer about at the 13th Reebok Boston Indoor Games here tonight at the Reggie Lewis Center at Roxbury Community College.

Defar, of Ethiopia, the reigning Olympic and world champion at 5000m, made her seventh appearance at this meeting her best yet. Paced by Serbia’s Marina Muncan and pushed by New Zealand’s Kim Smith, Defar destroyed Regina Jacobs’s 2002 two mile world best by nearly 13 seconds. With Smith never more than a few steps back, Defar went through the first mile in four minutes and 38 seconds, and came back to run the second half in 4:33.5, breaking the tape in 9:10.50. Smith powered home right behind her, running the #2 indoor time ever in history: 9:13.94.
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Gold Medalists Defar & Dibaba to Both Race in Boston on Saturday

Posted January 22nd, 2008 at 3:27 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The gold medalists of the women’s 5000m and 10,000m at last summer’s IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Meseret Defar [Pictured] and Tirunesh Dibaba, will both compete at Saturday’s Reebok Boston Indoor Games (RBIG), organizers have confirmed. Although the two athletes will run similar distances, the two Ethiopian stars will not be running head-to-head; Defar will run two miles and Dibaba 3000m.

“Defar and Dibaba did not want to race each other in the first meet of the year, and a 5000 didn’t fit into the training of either one right now,” explained Mark Wetmore of Global Athletics & Marketing, the Boston-based athlete management firm which manages the meet and represents the two athletes. “This was a way to get them both into the event, and that was our priority.”

Both athletes have enjoyed record-breaking performances –and disappointments– at the RBIG which is held at the Reggie Lewis Track Facility at Roxbury Community College.
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Shobukhova, Baddeley Win Invitational Miles at New Balance Games in NYC

Posted January 21st, 2008 at 11:02 AM by David Monti

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

Both Liliya Shobukhova [Pictured] and Andy Baddeley ran with confidence at the 13th New Balance Games here today at the Armory, winning the invitational miles held during one of the largest and loudest high school indoor track meets anywhere, with some 5000 competitors.

Shobukhova, of Russia, the former world indoor record holder for 3000m, loosely followed the pacemaker, Caryn Gehrke of the Nike Central Park Track Club, preferring to stay a few meters back because none of the rest of the field of 14 runners was with her. She hit the half-way in 2:16.1 with Canadians Hilary Stellingwerff, Carmen Douma-Hussar, and Megan Metcalfe in a group just a few meters back.
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Top Women’s Mile On Tap at New Balance Games in NYC

Posted January 16th, 2008 at 10:35 AM by David Monti

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

Saturday’s New Balance Games at the Armory Track and Field Center here will feature a top women’s mile, a tasty appetizer for the great middle distance races which will follow at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games and the Millrose Games over the next two weekends. There are also invitational miles for men, and high school boys and girls.

Race director Ian Brooks has assembled a strong international women’s field, and nobody has more experience running the mile on the Armory’s fast 200m banked Mondo track than Canadian Carmen Douma-Hussar [Pictured]. She will be making her sixth start in this event since 2002. She won the race in 2005 and has only once finished lower than third.
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Shobukhova wins Prague Half-Marathon in photo finish

Posted March 25th, 2007 at 11:00 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Liliya Shobukhova made her half-marathon debut a memorable one, winning the Hervis Prague Half-Marathon today by an eyelash over defending champion Caroline Kwambai.

Both women were timed in 1:11:14, well off of Kwambai’s course record of 1:10:08 set last year. Shobukhova, the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships silver medalist at 3000m from Russia, used her 4:03.78 1500m speed to touch the finish tape just centimeters ahead of Kwambai from Kenya.
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