Today on Episode 142 I had a chance to speak with German Fernandez of Riverbank High School in Riverbank, California where he was preparing to run the 2 mile at the Nike Outdoor Nationals which will be held in Greensboro, North Carolina from June 19th through the 21st, 2008.
German recently broke Ryan Hall’s state record in the 1600m run by winning in 4 minutes, 0.29 seconds and then followed that by eclipsing Dathan Ritzenhein’s National High School Federation 3200m Record by winning in 8:34.23. He is headed to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he will major in Criminal Justice and run track with Colby Lowe, another outstanding member of the class of 2008 runners.
In the interview German talks about Colby and fellow seniors Michael Fout, Luke Puskedra and Chris Derrick and compares them to the outstanding class of 2001 (Hall, Ritzenhein and Alan Webb). He explains why he decided not to run the 2 mile at the Prefontaine Classic. Download the podcast to hear German discuss these topics, as well as, his outstanding double, the type of training he does, his plans for the rest of 2008 and for the long-term, and to check out his answers to our rapid-fire questions segment.
TO DOWNLOAD: Right click here and select “Save As”
Host: Jimmie Markham | Guest: German Fernandez
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Adam Jacobs
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 10.7 MB | Length: 00:15:35
On Episode 139 of TheFinalSprint.com Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, I had the pleasure of being joined by Chris Derrick of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois.
In January Derrick was named the 2007-2008 Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year. He also finished second behind TFS Elite Athlete Blogger Michael Fout at the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships and most recently ran the fastest 5k ever (13:55:96) in a high school race at the Arcadia Invitational.
In the interview, Derrick talks about his recent successes and why he’ll head to Stanford this fall instead becoming an Illini. Download the podcast to hear Derrick discuss these topics, as well as, whether the current crop of elite high school runners (Derrick, Fout, Puskedra, Lowe, Fernandez, etc) could match the level of success already achieved by Hall, Webb, and Ritz, his answers to our new “Rapid Fire Questions” segment, and much more!
TO DOWNLOAD: Right click here and select “Save As”
Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Chris Derrick
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Adam Jacobs
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 13.6 MB | Length: 00:19:56
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No Guinness World Record For 101 94-Year Old Marathoner
According to several sources, Guinness World Records is refusing to accept Buster Martin’s record of being the world’s oldest marathoner, saying that the French-born Brit “has applied to us but he has not been able to present sufficient evidence for us to verify his age for the record”. For his part, Martin is sticking to his claim that he is indeed 101, not merely 94.
Read more at: [Google News]
Joan Samuelson To End Where She Started
An article on Boston Globe offers an in-depth profile of running legend Joan Samuelson during the build-up to this weekend’s US Olympic Marathon Trials. Samuelson said she wants to “end my career where I started my career.”
Read more at: [Boston Globe]
New Olympic Trials T&F Website
Eugene, OR, the home of American track & field, has a running friendly (and savvy) media, the best of which is The Register Guard. Their Sports Editor, Ron Bellamy, also happens to head up the Track & Field Writers of America. It’s no surprise, then, that they have a new website that is devoted strictly to covering the 2008 US Olympic Track & Field Trials, which (of course) will be held in Eugene, OR. Enjoy!
Read more at: [Road To Eugene ‘08]
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Blue Collar High School Runner
Eugene, Oregon’s Register-Guard has a profile of high school speedster Luke Puskedra who describes himself as a blue-collar runner. Puskedra, who has signed a letter of intent to run at Oregon, has the fastest indoor mile time of 2008 for a high schooler, having run a 4:08.77.
Read more at: [Register-Guard]
Spotlight On MarathonWeb.com
New York’s Star Gazette features MarathonGuide.com in an article that covers a range of statistics found on the site including the average 
men’s time for a marathon (4:29:52), average women;s time (4:59:28) and the % of runners who broke 3 hours in 2007 (only 1.7%).
Read more at: [Star Gazette]
Carolina Klüft Will Not Defend Her Olympic Heptathlon Title
In an expected move, Carolina Klüft announced that she will not defend her Olympic Heptathlon title from Athens. Instead, she will focus on the jumps in Beijing.
Read more at: [IAAF]
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The 2008 Reebok Boston Indoor Games featured many exciting events on the track and in the field. As usual the meet attracted many of the world’s finest athletes- Olympic Medalists, World Champions, seasoned vets and rising stars. Each event at the Boston Indoor Games brought thrills to the crowd at the Reggie Lewis Center, but below we give our recaps and rankings (the latter being completely subjective) of the excitement delivered by each event:
1.) Women’s 2 Mile- Defar and Smith shatter previous WR
The Women’s 2 mile was a distance running clinic put on by two of the world’s finest distance runners, Meseret Defar (ETH) and Kim Smith (NZL). Defar’s goal in this race was to break the Women’s Indoor 2 Mile World Record of 9:23.38, set by disgraced American star Regina Jacobs.
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