TheFinalSprint.com - Track & Field, Marathons, Racing News, Training Advice, Elite Athlete Blogs, Interviews, Podcasts, Videos and More! - TheFinalSprint.com is the Premier Destination for Track & Field, Marathon, Cross Country, Olympic and Road Racing Enthusiasts.

Lead Stories: Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Event Report: USATF Junior Track Championships

Posted June 23rd, 2008 at 4:00 PM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, High School

This past weekend in Columbus, Ohio, 22 athletes punched their tickets to the World Junior Championships (pending meeting qualifying standards).

The marquee matchup of Friday was the men’s long jump, in which the champions of the two major high school indoor national championships, Marquise Goodwin (Rowlett, Texas) and Christian Taylor (Goodwin, Georgia) met up against each other. The former won with a national high school leading mark of 25′ 0″, while the latter lost out on the precious second spot to Fresno State freshman Gary Lee.

The performance of that day was in the men’s hurdles. High school junior Booker Nunley (Garner, North Carolina) beat two college freshmen by .41 seconds and tied the stadium record for the high school (39″) hurdles with 13.40. This ties for 8th on the all-time high school list, and the stadium record he shares with Miami Dolphins reciever & kick returner Tedd Ginn Jr.
Read the rest of this entry »

One comment, add yours | Permalink

The Week in the Rear View: Racing News June 2 - June 8

Posted June 10th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Jay Hicks

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Columns, Olympics, Drugs In Sports, Week in Rear View

The Week In the Rear View is a weekly column wrapping up the week’s events in running and track & field. I am normally found at PreraceJitters.com, writing about the fast life of track and field.

This was a week that saw records drop. The Prefontaine Classic is one of the hallowed places in the United States to host a track and field meet. The standing ovation for Maria Mutola was griping. The track great won her 16th and final Pre Classic 800. One track expert I spoke with on the phone after the meet summed it up best saying, “The fans at Pre really get it. They really get the sport.”

Jeremy Wariner did more than “bounce back” from the rare loss to LaShawn Merritt in Berlin last week. The Olympic and World Champion ran 43.98 in the IAAF Golden League Meet in Oslo on Friday. Some of the pundits may have forgotten that Michael Johnson lost to Frankie Fredricks in the 200 after the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials and before going on to run 19.32 the Olympics Games.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comment on this post | Permalink

Walker breaks AR, Mutola wins for 16th time at Nike Prefontaine Classic

Posted June 8th, 2008 at 11:34 PM by thefinalsprint.com

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Meet records fell across all event groups, none bigger than Brad Walker’s American record in the pole vault, and Maria Mutola had a historic exit Sunday at the Nike Prefontaine Classic.

The fourth event of USATF’s Visa Championship Series, the Nike Prefontaine Classic drew a meet-record 14,221 fans to Hayward Field, site of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field June 27-July 6. They were treated to a formidable show, including no fewer than eight meet records and Walker’s AR.

The 2007 world champion, Walker looked magnificent throughout the competition. He had just one miss, at his opening height of 5.70m/18-8.25, then passed to 5.90m/19-4.25, which he cleared on his first attempt and which won the competition for him. Walker then elevated the bar to 6.04m/19-9.75. On his very first attempt, he cleared, brushing the bar just a bit, but leaving it up.
Read the rest of this entry »

Comment on this post | Permalink

BIGgest Moments from Boston

Posted January 27th, 2008 at 8:09 PM by Jared Markowitz

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, College, High School

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

Comment on this post | Permalink

Stay Tuned … Our LIVE coverage of the NYC Half- Marathon will begin shortly!

Posted August 5th, 2007 at 6:31 AM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Announcements, Marathons

Stay tuned! … TheFinalSprint.com’s LIVE coverage of the 2007 NYC Half-Marathon presented by Nike is set to begin in less than thirty minutes!

We will feature continuous, up-to-the minute updates throughout the race, as well as, post-race recaps, press conference video footage, spotlight interviews, and much more!

Comment on this post | Permalink

Logan Peak Run: Recap of my first trail racing experience

Posted July 17th, 2007 at 5:12 PM by Paul Petersen

Section: Running & Training, Columns

I have lost count of the total number of road, track, and cross country races I have participated in since I began running at age 12. My best estimate is somewhere between 250-300 races. However, my total number of trail races is a bit easier to tally: zero. Yes, although I frequently do training runs on dirt single-track, I have to admit that I was still a trail race virgin at age 28.

That changed a few weeks ago when I completed the inaugural Logan Peak Run, a trail marathon in the local Bear River Range outside of my town in northern Utah. I convinced my training buddy Cody to sign up for the race with me, and our plan was to run together the whole way and simply finish (while hopefully having some fun in the process).

I picked a tough course for my indoctrination into trail racing. Initial measurements reported the route to be 25 miles in length, but the race director suspected it was actually longer due to switchbacks and other features that are difficult to measure on a topographic map or even with a GPS unit. The course starts at 4900′ elevation and maxes out at over 9700′ on Logan Peak. The cumulative total of climbing and descent was over 7200′. I suspected that I might be a little in over my head.

Read the rest of this recap at our partner site: TrailFit.com

Comment on this post | Permalink

Race Recap: 2007 Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay

Posted July 11th, 2007 at 10:25 AM by Paul Petersen

Section: News & Results, Running & Training, Cross Training

Once you’ve been bitten by the “relay bug”, it’s hard to keep away from team running events. My first overnight relay experience was the Wasatch Back Relay (Utah) in 2005, and I had a fantastic time. Since then, I’ve gone on to run the Wasatch Back two more times, and also the Wild West Relay (Colorado) and Relay Del Sol (Arizona).

The Wasatch Back is a particular favorite of mine; the fact that it starts in my “back yard” and traces its way through some of the most beautiful areas in Utah keeps me coming back again and again. For the 2007 race on June 22-23, I rounded up my MarathonGIS.com team again, fresh off of our 2nd place finish at Relay Del Sol this past March. Our goal for Wasatch Back: Top 3 and a finish time under 18 hours.

Read the rest of the race report at our partner site: TrailFit.com

Comment on this post | Permalink

Race Recap: Great Midwest Relay (GMR)

Posted July 10th, 2007 at 3:30 PM by Perry Romanowski

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Running & Training, Cross Training

The following race recap was written by endurance “joggler” Perry Romanowski; a unique and talented athlete who successfully juggles while running marathons and other long-distance events at competitive paces. For more information about Perry, “joggling”, and/or to support his current charity venture, please visit: JustYourAverageJoggler.com.

The Great Midwest Relay (GMR) is a two-day race featuring a 190-mile trek from Madison, WI through Milwaukee, WI to Chicago, IL. 2007 marked the third annual running of this team event which is the longest distance race of its kind in the Midwest. Relay teams of 6-12 people run 36-continuous segments along bike paths, wooded trials and streets following red arrows the entire way. Some of the proceeds from GMR are donated to the Special Olympics and runners of all skill levels are encouraged to participate.

This year, 120 teams started and 115 teams finished. The winning time was a blazing 19:55, but the average finishing time was just around 27 hours. It was the first year I participated, so this review is presented from the vantage of a newbie. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. A few minor issues with the event organization were unfortunate but in the end, I’d recommend you try it if you have an inclination for team fitness events.

Read the rest of the recap at our partner site: TrailFit.com

Comment on this post | Permalink

Race Recap: Spar Mercury Women’s 10-K Challenge

Posted June 25th, 2007 at 5:00 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results

René Kalmer, a 26-year-old teacher from Krugersdorp, scored an emphatic victory in the second race of the Spar Grand Prix Series, storming away from the start and clocking a personal best of 32:54 in the Spar Mercury Women’s 10-k Challenge. After also having won the first race in the series, in Port Elizabeth on May 5, Kalmer now tops the points table with 66 points, 13 ahead of Poppy Mlambo, who finished third here.

Apart from Kalmer, the highlight of the day was produced by 42 year-old Russian Madina Biktagirova, who was sixth in a superb 34:59. Just a week ago, in the same stadium where this race also finished, Kingsmead, she finished third in the Comrades Marathon over a distance almost nine times farther than this.

Fellow veteran Grace de Oliveira, who won the last gold medal in the Comrades, was 24th here. Kalmer’s younger sister Christine, a student in civil engineering at the University of Arkansas, finished eighth in 35:27, her fastest time since 2004.
Read the rest of this entry »

Comment on this post | Permalink

Race Recap: PCT50 Trail Run

Posted May 19th, 2007 at 4:00 AM by Charlie Nickell

Section: News & Results

If you really want to confuse someone, tell them you’re running the Pacific Crest Trail 50-mile race through the beautiful Laguna Mountains in east San Diego. Before entering this race, there were no mountains in San Diego that we were aware of, Laguna was a place to meet overly friendly men with perfect cuticles and Pacific needed an “a” on the end to become a beer. The world made perfect sense.

After running in the 2007 PCT50, we’re singing a new geography tune. With an elevation gain of more than 7,500 feet, the PCT50 definitely runs up and down something large; if it’s called the Laguna Mountain range, than who are we to argue? The PCT50 delivers some of the most spectacular topography in the most unexpected area. Having driven Interstate 8 to transport Mexican families into the U.S., we’ve passed this area a dozen times and thought it was just another place for America’s Most Wanted to assimilate into some obscure community.

This seems to be a re-occurring theme but the PCT50 is less than two hours from Orange County and once again we had never truly visited the area before. Leaving silk plants and cell sites resembling palm trees is tough, but venturing to the PCT50 reminded us that we need to leave our home theaters and experience everything this planet has to offer—even if it means doing it by foot.

Read the rest at our partner site: TrailFit.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Comment on this post | Permalink