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Lead Stories: Sunday, September 7, 2008

Shalane Flanagan Wins 10,000m Bronze Medal

Posted August 15th, 2008 at 4:43 PM by Stephanie Lowe

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Shalane Flanagan won an Olympic bronze medal in the 10,000 meters Friday night in Beijing. She broke her own American record by 12 seconds with a time of 30:22.22. It was only the second time in history that a U.S. woman has medaled in the event.

Flanagan fell ill Tuesday night and suffered from stomach issues that caused dehydration and sleep loss. With competition that included Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands and Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, Flanagan had almost no room for error and some suggested that she should skip the race to focus and prepare for the 5000m. However, after resting for the past few days Flanagan was able to persevere and had an outstanding race.

Her plan was to start conservatively, but keep the leaders within striking distance until near the end when she would kick.

“I was in such a zone. My coach said to fall asleep for a couple laps and then give it go,” Flanagan said, “I ran my hardest and tried to give it my best. I was just running so within myself trying to stay calm.”
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Excellent Weather for Women’s 10-K Could Mean Fast Times, New Record

Posted August 15th, 2008 at 11:00 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

lornah-kiplagat Nine straight days of bad weather finally lifted here today giving rise to the possibility of fast times in tonight’s women’s 10,000m, the first final on the track of these Olympic Games.

At 22:00 local time, the temperature was 26°C (79°F) with 51% humidity, far better conditions than were anticipated by most of the 32 competitors from 18 nations who are on the start list.

The Olympic Games record is 30:17.49 set by Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia in Sydney in 2000. With athletes like two-time world 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba and multiple world road running record holder Lornah Kiplagat (Pictured) in the field, that record could go. The field is loaded with talent; 13 women have personal best times under 31 minutes.
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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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Ryan Hall: The Countdown
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 12)

Posted June 20th, 2008 at 7:55 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall, Road Racing

Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Ryan Hall as he begins his quest for Olympic gold! Check back every other Friday for Ryan’s latest entry at http://ryanhall.thefinalsprint.com/

As I laid awake last night trying to fall asleep, I did what I have a tendency to do once training is clicking well and I feel my legs beginning to feel “alive” again after the initial callusing is complete from the first month of marathon training; I began the countdown. Only a little more than two months until I run in the Olympic marathon.

Countdowns are nothing new for me. When I was a little kid my siblings and I used to fight over who gets to open the next day’s door on a Christmas countdown board. I am not going to lie, it was the chocolate behind the door that we were really fighting over, but it did make Christmas all the more special once it finally arrived.
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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

Hilda Kibet Winning 2008 NYRR New York Mini 10-k 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 NYRR New York Mini 10-K Top Competitors 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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Ryan Hall: The Team
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 11)

Posted June 7th, 2008 at 11:30 AM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

Eleven weeks to go. I go back and forth between thinking I have too much time before the games, and then feeling like there is not enough time. Eleven weeks sometimes feels like a long time to train at the intensity that I am now daily putting forth, but then when I think to myself that in two months I will be heading out to Beijing, I wish I could sneak in a few more weeks at altitude before then. I have found that it is usually a good sign to feel like I wish I had one or two more weeks of training. It is a sign that I am still fresh, still hungry, and still moving forward. Contrast this with my first marathon run at the 2007 London Marathon when I had been hanging on for a month after training for what seemed like an eternity.

Today I will be repeating the same workout I ran two weeks ago before I left for Bolder Boulder—a ten mile tempo run. Last time out it didn’t go so well. Waking up to snow was my second sign that I was going to have a tough day, with the first sign being my cranky ankle that had been bothering me after doing an hour and a half run on a rocky—yet beautiful—single track trail in Big Bear. So between my cranky ankle, snow falling, and being out there all by myself without my shuffle (which I forgot at home) I set myself up for a long day. Let’s not get too much into the specifics; we can just leave it at that I went out slow and came back even slower. Not to mention picking up my bottles off the ground didn’t seem to speed things up any. I left for Boulder concerned.
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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

Kastor Lewy-Boulet Russell top three 2008 USA Olympic Women's Marathon Trials 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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USA Olympic Marathon Team to Run New York Mini 10-K

Posted May 28th, 2008 at 2:35 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Road Racing

Kastor Lewy-Boulet Russell top three 2008 USA Olympic Women's Marathon Trials They finished 1-2-3 in Boston at the USA Olympic Team Trials - Women’s Marathon last month, and now Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Blake Russell will be teaming-up again to compete in the 37th edition of the NYRR New York Mini 10-K. Slated for Saturday, June 7, the “Mini” is the oldest all-women’s road race in the world, founded by Fred Lebow and the New York Road Runners in 1972.

“This is a formidable and very experienced squad with legitimate Olympic medal hopes that all of America should be very proud of,” commented Mary Wittenberg, president and CEO of the New York Road Runners. “Having them all here for the Mini reflects our commitment to America’s top athletes and demonstrates that the road to Beijing continues to run through Central Park for America’s Olympians.”
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Ryan Hall: I Can Be Beaten, But Not Defeated
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry 10)

Posted May 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

While on a run a couple of days ago I found myself laughing at Kai (our miniature Siberian Husky) as she tore off through the woods in hot pursuit of yet another squirrel, only to be left at the bottom of the tree peering up as the hot- tempered squirrel rattled off some expletives in its native tongue. I thought to myself, ‘why does she keep wasting her energy flying after squirrels when she has chased thousands of squirrels during her short life, yet has never, ever, even been close to catching one?’ But as I contemplated her spirit I realized that our spirits aren’t really any different. I have been trying to run with the best runners in the world ever since I was able to enter the same race in which they were competing, and while I have never won a race that would give the honor of being crowned “the best in the world,” I still find myself tearing off after the world beaters as if I have never been unsuccessful in beating them. When I watch Kai’s eyes as she spots a Squirrel I can see her come to attention as I though I put a fat sausage in front of her nose and then I see her wheels turning. I know exactly what she is thinking because I have thought the same thing a million times, “I am going after it.” Then the trigger is pulled and we are off to the races. I think this is what Coach Vigil means when he says that all that matters on the starting line is having big eyes. I love that saying. All that matters on race day is being ready to go after it, to go to war.
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