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Lead Stories: Sunday, September 7, 2008

Chasing Beijing Qualifier, Kiplagat Returns to the Track on Saturday in Istanbul

Posted April 10th, 2008 at 8:07 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

In her first track appearance in nearly a year, two-time world road running champion Lornah Kiplagat will be looking to punch her ticket to the Beijing Olympics at this Saturday’s 12th European Cup 10,000m in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 33-year-old Kenyan-born Dutchwoman bypassed an attempt to defend her World Cross Country title in Edinburgh last month, she said, to focus on this summer’s Olympic Games.

“Lornah is just trying to run the qualification time for Beijing and is not looking for a very fast time,” said Kiplagat’s coach and husband, Pieter Langerhorst. “She needs to run, just like Hilda Kibet, 31:22.”
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Training for Dubai, Gebrselassie & Kiplagat Face Different Challenges

Posted January 7th, 2008 at 3:34 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

With the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon looming in just 11 days, Haile Gebrselassie and Lornah Kiplagat are making their final preprations, each facing their own special challenges.

Gebrselassie, the world record holder and #2-ranked marathoner in the world last year in Race Results Weekly’s rankings, is dreaming of the $1 million bonus on the line for toppling his own world best of 2:04:26 set in Berlin last September. Well, at least his Dutch manager Jos Hermens is.

“I and he are certain he can do under 2:04,” Hermens is quoted by race organizers as saying last week.

But Gebrselassie himself is more circumspect. “Yes, I did 2:04 in Berlin,” Gebrselassie told race organizers via telephone over the weekend. “But everything was perfect, the weather, the course, the pacemaking. Sure, it’s possible to do under 2:04, but everything has to be perfect again.”
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Note on the News: Violence In Kenya Reaches Top Athletes

Posted January 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

The violence in Kenya following the disputed presidential election has touched some of distance running’s top athletes, according to a well-reported story by Elias Makori, sports editor of the Daily Nation.

Makori reports that world marathon champion Luke Kibet was caught up in a machete attack and is lucky to be alive. That news comes on the heels of a report that Lucas Sang, an Olympic 400m runner, was hacked to death, his body burned. Makori also reports extensively on the efforts by Lornah Kiplagat (Pictured) and her husband and manager, Pieter Langerhorst, to defend their High Altitude Training Center in Iten, not far from Eldoret.

You can read the full story here:

http://www.aipsmedia.com/index.php?page=news&cod=1767&tp=n
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Kiplagat Has Calf Strain,
Not Knee or Ankle Injury

Posted December 24th, 2007 at 2:28 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

At yesterday’s Lotto Cross Cup event in Brussels, reigning world cross country champion Lornah Kiplagat was unable to finish the race, stopping after three of four laps in the women’s 6 km race which was won by Belgium’s Veerle Dejaeghere.

The Dutchwoman stopped because she felt a strain in her calf, not because of a knee or ankle injury which has also been reported.

“She started easy and ran very comfortable,” wrote her husband and manager, Pieter Langerhorst, in an e-mail message to Race Results Weekly. “She felt great and wanted to start pushing the pace with 1 kilometer to go. Right before the moment she wanted to start pushing, she felt something in her calf and stopped immediately.”

Kiplagat, who is scheduled to run the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on Jan. 18, was examined back at her hotel.
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Defar has impressive, second-place road racing debut at World’s Best 10k

Posted February 26th, 2007 at 10:14 PM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results

Meseret Defar’s 10 km road racing debut can only be viewed as a qualified success. She ran a very solid 32:08, good for second place, at the 10th annual “World’s Best 10k” in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sunday, February 25th.

However, she was ultimately beaten by over a minute by reigning world road running champion, Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands.

In windy conditions, the two were together at 3 km in a swift 9:17, but in the next five kilometers, the Dutchwoman opened a huge 46 second lead, splitting 8-K in 24:45. She went on to win in 31:05, her fifth victory here.
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