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Athlete Ngetich Perishes in Ongoing Kenyan Violence
Posted January 21st, 2008 at 1:22 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons
The ongoing violence in Kenya has claimed the life of marathoner Wesley Ngetich, according to his manager Hussein Makke. The 34 year-old athlete was shot in the chest with an arrow today during fighting in his hometown of Trans Mara, not far from Masai Mara.
“They spoke to his sister-in-law who said they took him to the hospital and he passed away,” Makke explained in an e-mail message to Race Results Weekly. “I don’t have any further information at the moment.”
Makke got the news of Ngetich’s death from his on-site manager in Kenya, Francis Kamau.
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Hundreds Say Goodbye
To Vic Navarra
Posted January 5th, 2008 at 4:15 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Columns, SPOTLIGHT
Nearly 500 people filled Blessed Sacrament Church here this morning to bid their final goodbyes to Victor J. Navarra, the retired New York City Fire Department lieutenant who served as the start coordinator for the ING New York City Marathon for 25 years. Navarra died last Monday at the age of 55, having suffered for more than two years with sinus cancer.
In a life which was defined by service to others, Navarra was remembered for his roles as a family man and neighbor, a firefighter, and an event organizer. He joined the New York City Fire Department in 1977, rising to the rank of lieutenant, and serving 21 years for the department’s Ladder Company 35 in Manhattan.
“The word ‘dedicated’ didn’t even begin to describe Vic Navarra,” a fire department official said during the eulogy portion of Navarra’s funeral. “We have no better ambassador than Vic Navarra to show what this department is all about.”
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NYC Firefighter & Marathon Coordinator Victor Navarra Succumbs to Cancer at 56
Posted December 31st, 2007 at 10:30 AM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons
Victor Navarra, the retired New York City firefighter who was the start coordinator of the ING New York City Marathon for 25 years, died this morning after being in a coma for two days. He was 56 and had suffered from cancer which had begun in his sinuses.
“The more someone gives in life, the harder it is to lose them,” said ING New York City Marathon race director, Mary Wittenberg, in a prepared statement. “Vic was a giver. In every way. Of his time, energy, emotions and passions.”
Although he was retired, Navarra volunteered to work at Ground Zero after the attacks of 9/11 in 2001, spending long hours on “the pile” as the rescue workers called the massive heap of rubble left after the World Trade Center was brought down. In 2005 he was diagnosed with malignant tumors adjacent to his sinuses. Efforts to eradicate the cancer failed, and Navarra’s health was failing in the lead-up to this year’s marathon. Nonetheless, he was still engaged in the planning process and was still at the start of the race despite losing his eyesight to the cancer.
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Abilene Christian Coaching Legend Jackson Dies
Posted December 27th, 2007 at 4:21 PM by Martin Kennedy
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, College
J. Oliver Jackson, a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame who coached track and field athletes from Abilene Christian University who set or tied 15 world records and won four gold medals in the Olympic Games, died Wednesday at 87 years of age.
While Jackson directed Wildcat track and field for 16 years (1948-63), Abilene Christian fielded one of the top collegiate teams in the nation. The Wildcats under Jackson won 78 titles at the Texas, Kansas and Drake Relays, and his athletes also set or tied 17 American records and 15 national collegiate records.
He developed three U.S. Olympic team members - sprinter and National Track & Field Hall of Famer Bobby Morrow, who won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400m relay in 1956 in Melbourne; quarter-miler Earl Young, who won a gold medal in the 1,600m relay in 1960 in Rome; and Billy Pemelton, who placed eighth in the pole vault in 1964 in Tokyo.
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Bobby Doyle Rembrance
Blog / Fundraiser
Posted December 24th, 2007 at 4:18 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons
On the blog of Providence Journal sports reporter Carolyn Thornton, runners have been sharing their memories of the late Rhode Island marathoner, Bobby Doyle, who died earlier this month of a heart attack at 58 years old. You can read the posts, or add one of your own, at this link:
http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/running/
In addition, a fundraiser for Doyle’s children (he had three younger children from a second marriage: Brian, 15; Conor, 12; and Mackenzie, 6) will be held in February in Rhode Island, according to George McLaughlin who is organizing the event.
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USATF Release on the Passing of NYRR Founder Ted Corbitt
Posted December 12th, 2007 at 5:48 PM by Andrew Goodman
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Trail / Ultra
Ultrarunning legend, 1952 Olympian, New York Road Runners Founding President and pioneer in the field of course measurement and certification Ted Corbitt died Wednesday of cancer in Houston, Texas. He was 87.
Corbitt began his running career as a sprinter in Cincinnati and didn’t run his first marathon until he was 32 years old, placing 15th at the 1951 Boston Marathon. At age 54 he ran his 175th marathon, in Boston, in 2 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds, less than one minute slower than his first marathon 23 years earlier. His fastest marathon time was 2:26:44 in 1958. He ran a total of 199 marathons and ultra races during his career and formerly held American Records at 50 miles, 100 miles and 24 hours.
Shortly after the founding of the Road Runners Club of America in February 1958, Corbitt founded the first RRCA chapter in April of that year, the New York Road Runners Club (now the New York Road Runners). Corbitt was elected as the second president of the RRCA at the organization’s 1960 Annual Meeting.
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Dr. Robert Cade, Inventor of Gatorade, Passes Away At 80
Posted November 27th, 2007 at 5:00 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Nutrition, Hydration
University of Florida’s Dr. Robert Cade, the professor who led the group that invented Gatorade, passed away today at the age of 80. Cade’s death was confirmed by The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun after speaking with his family. He reportedly died of kidney failure.
Gatorade has generated more than $150 million for the university since Cade and his fellow scientists developed the sports beverage and named it after the school mascot (The Florida Gator) in 1965.
Cade is survived by his wife and six children.
Olympic Gold Medalist
Robert Taylor Dies
Posted November 15th, 2007 at 8:30 PM by Martin Kennedy
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
According to the Associated Press, two-time Olympic medalist Robert Taylor died Tuesday at a hospital in Missouri City, Texas, after becoming ill Monday at the school where he was a teacher. He was 59.
One of the finest sprinters of his era, Taylor won a gold medal in the 4×100m relay and a silver medal in the 100 meters at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.
“Robert had one of the greatest personalities,” friend Terry Henson of Tyler, Texas, told the Tyler Morning Telegraph. “His ability as an athlete was unmatched. He never really got his just due on how great an athlete he really was.”
Porter Robinson, who helped coach Taylor at Texas Southern, told The Associated Press that Taylor had “great, great talent.”
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Remembering Ryan Shay
Posted November 11th, 2007 at 9:45 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Columns, SPOTLIGHT
Today in East Jordan, Mich., a funeral was held for Ryan Shay, the 2003 USA marathon champion who collapsed and died at the USA Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon on Nov. 3, in New York City. He was 28 years-old and had been married only for four months to the former Alicia Craig, the Stanford University star who won the NCAA 10,000m title in 2003 and 2004.
The exact cause of Ryan’s death is still unknown, but it is clear that his heart abruptly stopped at about the 9 km mark of the Trials and, despite heroic and immediate medical intervention, he died before reaching Lennox Hill Hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
I knew Ryan both through my role as a journalist and a race organizer. It would be a stretch to say were close, but we were certainly friendly and shared a passion for the sport. I recruited Ryan to run the 2004 ING New York City Marathon where he set his personal best time of 2:14:08, cracking the top-10 in ninth place. It didn’t surprise me that Ryan would run his best marathon in New York, despite the difficulty of the course. He was so strong and so tough, the kind of runner who was well suited to the hills of the Five Borough Classic. Ryan really had heart.
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Olympic Medalist John Woodruff Passes Away
Posted November 1st, 2007 at 6:48 PM by Martha Jones
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics
According to The New York Times, National Track & Field Hall of Famer John Woodruff died Tuesday in Fountain Hills, Ariz. He was 92.
Best known for his amazing come-from-behind victory in the 800 meters at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, Woodruff died of atrial fibrillation and chronic renal failure.
Of the 12 American men who won gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, Woodruff was the last survivor.
While only a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh in 1936, Woodruff took the track world by storm by finishing second in the 800 meters at the National AAU meet, then winning the Olympic Trials.
Despite his inexperience, he was quickly established as the favorite at the Berlin Olympics. He didn’t disappoint, though he had an anxious moment in the final when he found himself boxed in. He pulled a tactical coup, virtually slowing to a stop and waiting until the entire field passed him, then moving into the third lane and sprinting from last to first. His winning time was 1:52.9.
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