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Lead Stories: Sunday, July 20, 2008

America’s Tyson Gay Named Male Athlete of the Year

Posted November 27th, 2007 at 8:00 AM by Jamal Walker

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Three-time World Outdoor champion and 2007 Jesse Owens Award winner Tyson Gay was named the Male World Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo over the weekend.

Gay had an historic year in 2007, sweeping the 100 and 200 meters at both the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Osaka and the USA Outdoor Championships. He added World Outdoor gold in the 4×100m to become the fourth man in World Championships history to win three gold medals at a single championship.
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Defar, Gay Named World Athletes of the Year

Posted November 26th, 2007 at 2:00 PM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field

Meseret Defar and sprinter Tyson Gay were named the World Athletes of the Year for 2007 at the World Athletics Gala held in Monte Carlo last night.

Defar, 24, shattered her won world record in the 5000 meters, running 14:16.63 in Oslo in June, breaking her own previous standard by more than eight seconds. The reigning Olympic 50000 champion, Defar also won the event at the world championships and twice lowered the world best for 2 miles. She also set a world record indoors in the 3000, running 8:23.72 in Stuttgart in February.

“I don’t have word to describe how happy I am,” said Defar, who dedicated the award to women athletes in Ethiopia. Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele have earned the honor in the past, but Defar became the first Ethiopian to win the world governing body’s annual award.

Gay, 25, won three gold medals at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka last August, sweeping the 100 and 200 metres and running the third leg on the victorious 4×100m relay. In the 100, Gay clocked 9.85, relegating world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica to third. In the 200, he clocked 19.76, taking down Michael Johnson’s meet record. He was just the fourth athlete to collect three gold medals at a single world championships.
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Other news, editorials and links of interest . . .

Posted September 4th, 2007 at 9:56 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics

2008 Boston Marathon Registration to Open on Wednesday, Sept. 5th
– Boston Athletic Association (BAA)

Chicago makes run for Olympics official
– Chicago Tribune

Tim Layden’s World Track & Field Championships Wrap-Up
– Sports Illustrated

Highlights Aplenty, if Largely Unseen
– New York Times

WCSN.com Reaches Distribution Agreement w/ FOXSports on MSN
– Press Release via BusinessWire

Khalid Khannouchi Healthy Enough To Fight For Last Shot At Olympics
– Runner’s World

USATF 20km Champs: Women’s race recap
– EliteRunning.com

Last Marathon with LaSalle name will go out with a bang
– Chicago Sun Times

Men’s Olympic marathon trial appears to have deep field
– SignOnSanDiego.com

Another day, another marathon: Engle wins HOA to cap busy weekend
– ColumbiaTribune.com

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Podcast 75: MICHELLE PERRY on her 2nd consecutive 100m hurdles World Championship

Posted September 3rd, 2007 at 6:24 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts

Episode sponsored by: Bill Rodgers Sportswear
After 21 years Bill Rodgers Sportswear is closing out their line of high-quality running apparel. Visit shopfest.com to take advantage of an unprecedented 50% discount on all in-stock items!

Welcome to Episode 75 of The Final Sprint Podcast featuring my interview with American hurdler MICHELLE PERRY who successfully defended her 100m hurdles title and added to Team USA’s historic gold and overall medal count at the now concluded IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan

In the interview Michelle talks about surging for the lead in the last 10m and how it felt waiting for the official results of the extremely close race.

Download the podcast to hear Michelle discuss these topics, as well as, her advice for less experience runners, the keys to her consistency and dominance, how she stays busy and calm in the days before a race and what her second consecutive 100m hurdle World Championship means for her quest for Olympic gold.

Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)

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Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Michelle Perry
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File Size: 9.46 MB | Length: 9:14 MIN

Episode sponsored by: Bill Rodgers Sportswear
After 21 years Bill Rodgers Sportswear is closing out their line of high-quality running apparel. Visit shopfest.com to take advantage of an unprecedented 50% discount on all in-stock items!

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Video: Recap of the 2007 IAAF Outdoor Track & Field World Championships in Osaka

Posted September 3rd, 2007 at 12:16 PM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The below video includes a collection of key moments from the 2007 IAAF Track & Field World Championships from Osaka, Japan. Featuring winning performances by: Luke Kibet, Reese Hoffa, Tirunesh Dibaba, Jefferson Perez, Valerie Vili, Tyson Gay, Ivan Tsikhan, Yekaterina Volkova, Nelson Evora, Kenenisa Bekele, Team USA, Meseret Defar, Veronica Campbell, Bernard Lagat, Jeremy Wariner, Brad Walker, Allyson Felix, Liu Xiang, Michelle Perry, Catherine Ndereba, and many more!

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Team USA Superlatives:
2007 IAAF World Outdoor T&F Champs

Posted September 3rd, 2007 at 11:53 AM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Notable accomplishments by Team USA athlete at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Osaka:

- 1st medal in women’s 10,000m

- 1st gold medal in men’s pole vault

- 1st gold medal in men’s 1,500m

- 1st medal of any kind in men’s 5,000m

- Bernard Lagat is first man to win 1,500-5,000 double at World Championships

- 1st time three Americans in men’s 5,000m final
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Lagat’s Second Gold Medal Caps World Championships

Posted September 2nd, 2007 at 4:33 PM by David Monti

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

While critics said he had bitten off more than he could chew, Bernard Lagat swallowed up the field of the men’s 5000m final here tonight, becoming the first man to win both the 1500m and 5000m at an IAAF World Championships in Athletics. He also became the first American to win a 5000m world title.

It mattered not his winning time of 13:45.87 was the slowest in the history of these championships. In fact, it was the painfully slow early pace which set the stage for Lagat to use his unmatched closing speed to clinch the title over Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, the 2003 world champion. In a memorable sprint to the finish, Lagat just edged his former compatriot by 13/100ths of a second, running about 52 seconds for the final lap.
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Video: Lagat pulls off rare double gold

Posted September 2nd, 2007 at 2:09 PM by Hariz Siddiqui

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

Watch the video below to see Bernard Lagat storm through the final stretch of today’s men’s 5,000m final with his patented late-race kick to earn his second gold medal at the 2007 IAAF World Championships.

Lagat, who also won a gold in the 1,500m, became the first American in history to earn a gold medal double in the 1500m and 5000m at either a World Championship or Olympic Games.

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Team USA ties gold medal record; Lagat and Felix make history

Posted September 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb

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

It was a night of firsts, and one of history, for Team USA Sunday night in the final session of competition at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

With victories in the men’s and women’s 4×400m relays, the United States became the first country to sweep all four relays at a World Outdoor Championships.

Bernard Lagat became the first man to win the 1,500/5,000m double at Worlds, and the first American ever to medal in the 5,000.

Allyson Felix became the second woman in history to win three gold medals at a single World Championships, as the relay team of Dee Dee Trotter, Felix, Mary Wineberg and Sanya Richards ran the fastest time in 14 years.

The men’s 4×400m relay of LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, Darold Williamson and Jeremy Wariner ran the third-fastest time in history.

Breaux Greer became the first American since the inaugural World Championships in 1983 to win a medal in the men’s javelin.

At the close of competition, Team USA tied the all-time World Championships record for gold medals with 14, matching its feat from 2005, and tied the American all-time medal tally at a World Outdoor Championships with 26. Team USA led a medal table in which a record 46 countries won medals; Kenya had five gold and 13 overall, and Russia had four gold and 16 overall. The other occasion on which the United States won 26 medals, in 1991, just 29 countries were on the medal table.

Not a bad night.
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Japanese Medal Hopes Riding With Women Marathoners

Posted September 1st, 2007 at 4:00 PM by David Monti

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

Tomorrow morning’s women’s marathon will be the last opportunity for the Japanese team to win a medal at these 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics which draw to their conclusion tomorrow night. It was in Gothenburg in 1995 when the Japanese were last shut out of the medals, and in only two world championships have the home team not put at least one athlete on the medal stand: the Swedes in Gothenburg in 1995 and the Canadians in Edmonton in 2001.

No team has been more successful in the history of the IAAF World Championships women’s marathon than the Japanese. Of the 30 medals which have been distributed in the ten previous editions, Japan has won eight, double their nearest rival, Romania. In addition, they have won four of the last five World Cup team competitions which were first integrated with the World Championships in Athens in 1997. In Helsinki in 2005, the Japanese lost the Cup to the Kenyans by four minutes and are anxious to take it back.

Leading the Japanese will be veteran Reiko Tosa (pictured), the 31 year-old silver medalist from Edmonton in 2001 who boasts a 2:22:46 personal best. Tosa prepared for these championships in Kunming, China, according to a report in the DAILY YOMIURI newspaper.
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