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Lead Stories: Saturday, September 6, 2008

BUPA Great Manchester Run Set for Sunday

Posted May 13th, 2008 at 10:30 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Road Racing

The BUPA Great Manchester Run boasts the fastest 10-K course in Great Britain and organizers have assembled a top-flight field of athletes to take advantage of it. Elite athletes manager Andy Caine has invited world marathon champion, Luke Kibet of Kenya; seven-time European cross country champion, Sergey Lebid of Ukraine; and former European 10,000m champion, Chema Martinez of Spain, to lead the men’s field.

The women’s field is just as strong, featuring three-time European Cup medalist and defending champion Jo Pavey of Great Britain; two-time world marathon champion, Catherine Ndereba of Kenya; two-time Olympic gold medalist Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia; and road running ace Anikó Kálovics of Hungary, who finished second in Manchester last year.
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Study Shows 69 Marathon Trials Qualifiers Under New Rules

Posted December 17th, 2007 at 3:31 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics

An independent study of athlete performances showed that under the new 2012 USA Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon qualifying rules passed at the recent USATF Convention, 69 men would have qualified for the 2008 Trials which were held in New York City last month, a 61% reduction from the number who actually qualfied. That race had 179 qualifiers and 130 starters.

The study, conducted by Race Results Weekly, showed that just 35 men would have qualifed with a 2:19:00 or better marathon run on either an IAAF record-standard course (no more than 50% start/finish separation and elevation loss limited to 42.195 meters), plus the Boston Marathon, from which the USATF Men’s Long Distance Running Committee said they would be inclined to accept performances.

Fourteen athletes who were accepted into the 2008 Trials with marathon marks better than 2:19:01 would have been excluded because their performances were achieved on aided courses, like the 2006 Freescale Austin Marathon (137 meter elevation loss), 2006 California International Marathon (105 meters), 2006 and 2007 St. George Marathon (781 meters), and 2007 Top of Utah Marathon (319 meters).
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