Running News Daily

Lisbon offers 150K EUR bounty for new records

Bonus for new world records in the half marathon.

Scheduled for March 17, the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon remains one of the world’s leading and fastest long-distance races and this year it will once again reward fast times with an attractive cash prize.

Therefore, as an incentive for the elite, the race organisers Maratona Clube de Portugal today announced a bonus of 150,000 Euro (162,500 USD) for new world records in this year’s race.

Lisbon already holds the best men’s mark – 57:31 (Jacob Kiplimo, in 2021) – and now, as well as wanting to improve on that stratospheric record, it also wants to add the women’s record, which is currently held by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey, with 1:02:52 in Valencia, the same year.

In addition to Kiplimo’s time, Lisbon has been the scene of other world and European records in the past, such as Zersenay Tadese’s world record in 2010 or Mo Farah’s continental record in 2015.

Carlos Moia, president of the Maratona Clube de Portugal (MCP) says: “This bonus of 150,000 EUR for a possible world record, both female and male, reflects our unwavering commitment to promoting talent and inspiring athletes to reach new heights of success and overcoming. We will continue our tradition of recognizing and rewarding excellence. Lisbon, with all its light and good energy, provides the perfect setting for moments of great achievement.”

Sunday’s races will be broadcast directly on RTP1 and RTP Internacional to more than 200 million potential viewers around the world.

(02/28/2024) Views: 433 ⚡AMP
by AIMS

Documentaries every runner should watch

If you’re tired of wasting time scrolling through Netflix searching for the right movie or show to watch, we’ve got you covered. There are plenty of movies out there on running, but we’ve selected five of the best documentaries for you to watch. Before you get started on these films, though, be warned: sudden bursts of inspiration are highly likely while watching these flicks, so be ready to feel the need to go for a run after viewing.

The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young

This film was released in 2014, and it tells the story of the Barkley Marathons, race founder Laz Lake and the runners who dream of finishing the event. Producers followed the 2012 event, before which only 10 people had completed the Barkley Marathons, but that number is up to 15 today. The documentary brought this race into the mainstream, and although viewership was likely primarily runners, it captivated non-running audiences as well. 

Boston: The Documentary

This 2017 documentary covers the history of the Boston Marathon, from its humble beginnings in 1897 right up to modern times. The film, which is narrated by Boston native Matt Damon, follows legends of the race (like the event’s first official female participant, Kathrine Switzer), 2014 winner Meb Keflezighi and four-time winner Bill Rodgers, as well as other past champions. In addition to the race’s history, the documentary looks to the future as organizers worked past the tragic events of 2013 and towards the Boston Marathons yet to come. 

The Runner

In Oct. 2022, The New Yorker released a short, 17-minute documentary called The Runner that follows an Indigenous Canadian ultrarunner named Darius Sam. The film documents a 100-mile run in 2020 that Sam set out to complete to raise money and awareness for mental health. Since then, Sam has continued with ultrarunning, and in 2021 he became the youngest male to run the Moab 240, a behemoth of a race through Utah. Sam’s efforts have also led to a whopping $150,000 raised for mental health charities. 

Breaking2

This documentary was produced by National Geographic and Nike, and it followed the build-up to the first-ever sub-two-hour marathon attempt, Nike’s Breaking2 project, in Italy in 2017. The film dives into the lives of the three Breaking2 athletes (Eliud Kipchoge, Zersenay Tadese and Lelisa Desisa), the months of planning that went into the attempt and the run itself. Although it ended up being unsuccessful (Kipchoge ran 2:00:25), it was still thrilling to watch, and the documentary is just as exciting. 

Icarus

Although this Oscar-winning documentary is not a running-specific film, it should still be at the top of every runner’s must-watch list. The Netflix film intended to focus on doping and how difficult (or easy) it is to get away with cheating in elite sports, but it quickly turned into a story about doping in Russia, which ultimately led to the downfall of a years-long program that involved countless Russian athletes and sports officials.

 

(02/23/2023) Views: 931 ⚡AMP
by Ben Snider-McGrath

We Now Have the Lab Data on Nike's Breaking2 Runners

To pick their two-hour marathon team, researchers tested some of the greatest runners on the planet. Now they're revealing what they found.

Here’s a quick and convenient way of finding out whether you’re ready to run a two-hour marathon. Head to the track and run six laps (roughly 1.5 miles) at two-hour pace (4:34.6 per mile), then run one more lap as fast as you can. Have a nearby exercise physiologist fit you with a portable oxygen-measuring mask, to measure your energy consumption at that pace. Then crunch the data to see whether your metabolism is settling into a sustainable pattern, or whether it’s spiraling out of control toward a fiery explosion.

That’s one of several tests that at least 16 elite runners underwent during the selection process for Nike’s 2017 Breaking2 race, which Eliud Kipchoge ended up winning in 2:00:25. Now the scientists responsible, including teams from Andrew Jones’s group at the University of Exeter in Britain and the Nike Sport Research Lab in Beaverton, have published some of the data in the Journal of Applied Physiology. It’s grouped and anonymized, so we don’t get to obsess about the individual details of Eliud Kipchoge’s physiology, but it’s a pretty rare window into the characteristics of best-of-the-best runners. Here are some of the highlights.

The runners were “predominantly of East African ethnicity,” with average bests of 1:00:04 for the half marathon and 2:08:40 for the marathon at the time of testing (they’ve since run, on average, 59:53 and 2:06:53). All were drawn from the global pool of Nike-sponsored runners, with a particular focus on those with half marathon times that suggested the ability to handle two-hour pace. The only runners we know for sure were among the subjects are Kipchoge and his fellow Breaking2 finalists, Zersenay Tadese and Lelisa Desisa. The inclusion of runners like Tadese, who at the time held the half marathon world record of 58:23 but had only run 2:10:41 for the marathon, helps explain the relatively modest average marathon time.

The testing, which was completed at either the Nike campus or the University of Exeter, included a bunch of body measurements like height, weight, body fat, lung function, and the length and girth of various parts of the leg and foot. This stuff is interesting, since some researchers believe that factors like the length of the Achilles tendon can influence running economy, but there were no unusual results. Biomechanical testing of ten of the runners who were examined in Exeter found that six were forefoot strikers and four were heel strikers, and the most efficient runners had the shortest ground contact time with each step. Again, this is more or less what you’d expect based on previous studies of elite runners.

They also did a VO2 max test on the treadmill, with the speed increased in stages until the runners gave up. Between each treadmill stage, the runners hopped off the treadmill briefly to have their fingers pricked for a lactate measurement to determine their lactate threshold. Here there were some more surprising results. The average VO2 max was just 71.0 ml/kg/min, which is unexpectedly low given that the range expected for elite endurance athletes is typically about 70 to 85. The lowest value among the Nike runners was 62, which is astonishingly low, and the highest was 84, which is high but far from unprecedented. You can think of VO2 max as the size of the aerobic engine; whatever gifts made these runners special, it apparently wasn’t having a huge engine.

You’d expect, then, that they must be extraordinarily efficient. Their running economy, which is a measure of how much energy you burn at a given pace, was indeed pretty good, averaging 189 ml/kg/km on the treadmill. That’s consistent with previous studies that found typical values of around 190 ml/kg/km in elite runners (and substantially better than the values of 210 or higher seen in recreational runners at slower paces), although there was a lot of individual variation between the most and least economical. As in previous studies, there was an inverse relationship between VO2 max and running economy: those with the highest VO2 max tended to have the worst economy, and vice versa. Whether that’s inevitable for some physiological reason, or simply a reflection of the fact that even elite runners are unlikely to hit the genetic lottery twice, remains a topic of spirited debate.

To measure running economy, you have to be running aerobically, since oxygen consumption is used as a proxy for energy consumption. If you’re having to burn a lot of anaerobic energy to maintain the pace, the energy estimate will be inaccurate. Interestingly, only seven of the 16 runners were able to fulfill this requirement while running at 2:00 marathon pace. The other nine were above their “critical speed” at that pace, which tells you pretty much right away that they had no hope whatsoever of running a two-hour marathon. (To be fair, the testing had to be slotted in between seasons for some of the runners, so they may not have been in peak condition.)

In the classic mathematical model of marathon performance, there are three variables: VO2 max, running economy, and a third variable that represents what fraction of VO2 max you’re able to sustain over the course of a marathon. That third variable is often approximated by the lactate threshold, which is the speed at which your lactate levels begin to gradually creep up as you start relying more on anaerobic energy.

But well-trained marathon runners are actually able to run the distance at a slightly higher speed than their lactate threshold. In this study, the runners hit their lactate threshold at 83 percent of VO2 max on average. Their critical speed, which is roughly when lactate levels start shooting up more steeply instead of just creeping up, occurred at 92 percent of VO2 max. Marathon pace tends to be somewhere between those two markers. In fact, a previous study by Jones and Anni Vanhatalo found that elite marathoners tend to run their marathons at 96 percent of critical speed, which in this case works out to 88 percent of VO2 max.

If you run the numbers, using lactate threshold as marathon pace predicts that the runners in the study should average 2:15:24 for the marathon. Using critical speed predicts 2:02:55. Using the Goldilocks value of 88 percent of VO2 max, in contrast, gives a prediction of 2:08:31—almost exactly corresponding to their average best time at the time of testing, which was 2:08:40. The takeaway: your critical speed (which you can calculate as described here) offers a pretty good estimate of marathon pace, assuming your training is adequately geared for the distance.

After all this testing, the team selected Kipchoge, Desisa, and Tadese. Kipchoge turned out to be a great choice. Desisa is a mixed bag: he was injured before Breaking2, and hasn’t run particularly fast since, but he did win last year’s World Championships and also won New York in 2018 and was second in Boston in 2019. You could do worse. Tadese, on the other hand, has never really managed to put it together in the marathon, despite stellar lab values (in earlier testing, he had the best running economy ever measured).

What was missing for Tadese? Jones and his colleagues suggest that the mathematical model needs a fourth variable, which they call “fatigue resistance,” representing “the extent of the deterioration of the three [other variables] over time.” A previous study from the Breaking2 researchers explored how critical speed changes over two hours of exercise. The gist: it gets worse, and some people have a greater decline than others. Maybe Kipchoge is unusually gifted in this regard; maybe Tadese got dealt a weak hand. It seems clear that fatigue resistance is an important ingredient for marathon success, but the problem for running scientists is that there’s no convenient way of measuring it—other than, well, running a marathon.

For more Sweat Science, join me on Twitter and Facebook, sign up for the email newsletter, and check out my book Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.

(11/29/2020) Views: 1,452 ⚡AMP
by Outside

Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor is in doubt of defending his world half marathon title for the fourth consecutive time on October 17 in Gdynia

Geoffrey Kamworor is not certain if he will compete after returning to training late, having recovered from injuries sustained from a freak accident on June 25 this year.

The world half marathon record holder was hit from behind by a speeding motorcycle, sustaining injuries on his head and above the ankle.

The 27-year-old Kamworor had to be operated on at St Luke's Hospital in Eldoret.

“I am not quite sure if I will run since I returned to training late owing to the accident,” said Kamworor, who resumed light training towards the end of July.

According to Dr Victor Bargoria, who treated Kamworor, the diagnosis was to open incomplete right tibia shaft fracture, knee bruises and scalp laceration.

“The procedure was debridement of contaminated soft tissue and loose bone fragments followed by irrigation and wound closure,” he explained after attending to the star at St Luke's Hospital.

The athlete who trains at the Global Communications camp in Kaptagat was targeting his fourth consecutive world half marathon title after 2014 Copenhagen, 2016 Cardiff and 2018 Valencia.

It’s in Copenhagen where Kamworor sealed his hat-trick with a championship record time of 59 minutes and 08 seconds, breaking Zersenay Tadese’s 2009 Birmingham’s winning time of 59:35.

Kamworor won the race in Valencia in 2018, beating Kenyan born Abraham Naibei Cheroben of Bahrain and Eritrean Aron Kifle to second and third places respectively.

 

Kamworor rolled out a world record when he claimed the Copenhagen Half Marathon in 58:01 in September last year, crushing the previous time of 58:23 set by Tadese in Lisbon in 2010. Another Kenyan Abraham Kiptum broke the record in 2018 Valencia but the time has been expunged for doping.              

Kamworor would go on to seal his double at the New York City marathon in November last year after his 2017 exploits but his dream of a hat-trick this year has been curtailed after the event was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Kamworor and World half marathon bronze medallist Pauline Kaveke were picked early March this year to lead Team Kenya for the 24th edition of the World Half Marathon that was planned for March 29 in Gdynia but postponed to October 17 due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Athletics Kenya will now have to rethink about the team selection after Kaveke and Victor Chumo, who is also in the team, were picked to pace at the London Marathon on October 4 this year.

The men’s team also had Kibiwott Kandie, who is fresh from winning the Prague Half Marathon in a course record and fourth fastest time in history over the distance of 58:38 on September 5.

Kandie, the national cross country champion, also won the Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Half Marathon in February in the United Arab Emirates.

(09/24/2020) Views: 1,583 ⚡AMP
by Ayumba Ayodi

Geoffrey Kamworor's world half marathon record of 58:01 has been ratified

In a sensational run, Kamworor chopped 22 seconds from the previous record at the Copenhagen Half Marathon on 15 September, coming tantalizingly close to breaking the event's 58-minute barrier.

It was an apt setting for the 26-year-old Kenyan who won the first of his three successive world half marathon titles in the streets of the Danish capital in 2014.

Covering the first five kilometers in 13:53, just outside world record pace, Kamworor upped the tempo to reach 10 kilometers in 27:34, four seconds inside his stated target. He was in front alone by the 11-kilometer mark, but didn't slow. He reached 15 kilometers in 41:05, the fastest time ever recorded for that distance and a stunning 11 seconds inside sub-58 minute pace.

His pace dropped over the waning stages but he still reached 20 kilometers in 55:00, another world best. He was just a few meters from the finish line as the clock moved to 58 minutes before stopping at 58:01.

“It is very emotional for me to set this record,” said Kamworor, who also won back-to-back world cross country titles in 2015 and 2017. “And doing it in Copenhagen, where I won my first world title, adds something to it.”

The previous record of 58:23 was set by Zersenay Tadese in Lisbon in 2010.

(11/19/2019) Views: 2,082 ⚡AMP
by World Athletics

Kenya's former world half-marathon record holder Abraham Kiptum has been banned for four years over an anti-doping violation

The Athletics Integrity Unit,  which oversees integrity issues in international athletics, including doping, had provisionally suspended the 30-year-old on April 26 for an Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) violation.

The passport uses blood tests to detect the likelihood of doping rather than testing for specific substances.

Kiptum's four-year ban commences from that date and all his results going back to Oct. 13, 2018 — including a half marathon world record (58 minutes and 18 seconds) that he had set in Valencia later that month — have been disqualified.

His time was five seconds better than the previous mark set by Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese in Lisbon in 2010.

Kiptum's compatriot Geoffrey Kamworor broke the world half-marathon record by 17 seconds in Copenhagen in September.

Kenya is known for its middle and long-distance running pedigree but has suffered damage to its reputation due to a number of doping violations in recent years.

(11/12/2019) Views: 1,613 ⚡AMP

Lelisa Desisa wins the marathon at the IAAF World Athletic Championships in Doha

Lelisa Desisa added a world marathon gold to the silver he won in Moscow six years ago as he and teammate Mosinet Geremew headed an Ethiopian one-two on the Corniche in conditions that were significantly more forgiving than those that had seen a slew of women marathoners pulling out on the opening day of the championships.

Desisa clocked a season’s best of 2:10:40, with Geremew four seconds back. Bronze went to Kenya’s Amos Kipruto, who finished in 2:10:51, with Britain’s Callum Hawkins clocking 2:10:57 to repeat his fourth placing from the 2017 World Championships marathon in London.

With the temperature at about 29C (84F), and humidity at about 48%, the two Ethiopians were part of a group that caught up with early breakaway leader Derlys Ayala of Paraguay just before halfway point and maintained enough energy to push on to glory in the final kilometre.

They left in their wake Kenya’s Kipruto, who had also been a part of the long-time leading group, and Hawkins, whose massive mid-race effort brought him into the lead group of three with only a couple of kilometres to go.

The effort to get there, however, cost the Briton dearly, and he had to accept his second successive fourth place in this event following the London running two years ago.

In the interim, Hawkins hit the headlines when he collapsed in the heat of the Gold Coast when he was only a mile or so away from what looked like a runaway win at the Commonwealth Games.

On this occasion he maintained his effort to the line, although that seemed little consolation to him in the immediate aftermath.

So Desisa went one better than he had in 2013, although the action that earned him most renown that year was his gesture in donating his Boston Marathon winning medal back to the city in sympathy with the bombing that took place near the finish line nearly three hours after he had passed it.

"It was hot, but I prepared perfectly for this race," said Desisa, who won the New York City Marathon last year. "I am very tired. But after I took silver in Moscow, this time I kept my power better.”

Zersenay Tadese, Eritrea’s five-time world half-marathon champion, led the lead group for much of the second half of the race before dropping to sixth place in 2:11:29.

One place above him, in 2:11:09, was South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka, who had also taken the responsibility for the lead for long periods.

Ayala, who had run a personal best of 2:10:27 only two weeks earlier in Buenos Aires, dropped out very soon after the halfway mark – one of 18 who failed to finish from the field of 73.

(10/06/2019) Views: 1,853 ⚡AMP

Augustine Choge, Victor Chumo and Bernard Lagat have been selected to pace for Eliud Kipchoge in his mission to run the first sub two hour marathon

Three seasoned road runners, Augustine Choge, Victor Chumo from Kenya and double world champion Bernard Lagat of the United States have been selected to pace for Eliud Kipchoge in his mission to run the marathon in less than two hours in Vienna in October.

Choge and Chumo are part of the team training with Kipchoge in Kenya for the race, which is set for October 12-20 window in Vienna, Austria. A specific date will be made known days to the race after the accurate weather forecast has been confirmed.

Kipchoge says to break the two-hour mark in marathon is about setting history and challenging his body to the limit.

"It's like stepping on the moon, going up the tallest mountain and even going to the middle of the ocean," Kipchoge said on Saturday.

Whereas the focus will be on the Olympic and London Marathon champion to improve on his last mark of two hours and 25 seconds, the three pace setters will carry the burden to lead the Berlin champion through his steps and see to it that he delivers the results for the INEOS 1:59 Challenge.

In Monza, Italy in 2017, Lagat was one of the pace setters together with Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa and Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese, both of whom fell by the wayside, leaving the Olympic champion to run over half of the race alone.

But now the organizers have announced the trio together with Norway's Henrik, Filip and Jakob Ingebrigtsen plus Australian pair Jack Rayner and Brett Robinson.

Further pacemakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

(08/17/2019) Views: 2,268 ⚡AMP

Both the men and women course records were smashed at the 35th Annual Zurich Marathon in Sevilla

Ethiopians Ayana Tsedat and Guteni Shone grabbed convincing victories at the 35th Zurich Maratón de Sevilla, an IAAF Gold Label road race, on Sunday February 17. 

Running in nearly ideal weather conditions, the 22-year-old Tsedat clocked 2:06:36 to improve the race record by 1:07. Likewise Shone’s winning time of 2:24:29 broke the course record by a similar difference, 1:06.

Both men’s and women’s contests had strong depth as five men ducked under 2:07 while four women ran inside 2:27 as the new circuit proved to be even faster than the previous one.

The men’s race opened at a steady pace of 3:00m per kilometer.  A group of 13 runners hit the 10km point in 29:56 with Kenya’s Daniel Kipkore Kibet plus the Ethiopian group of Tsedat, Belay Asefa and Birhanu Berga.

The Madrid-based Tsegay went through the halfway point in 1:03:18 with ten men still running at his shoulder. By the 27k it was Kibet who moved to the front to maintain the rhythm, sharing the lead with Tsegay by 30 kilometers, reached in 1:30:09. Surprisingly, the Eritrean, a 2:09:56 performer, didn’t quit the race at that point and ran on with relative ease.

By then the main group included Tsegay, Kibet and the Ethiopian trio of Tsedat, Asefa and Berga, with the race record of 2:07:43 seemingly well within reach. In the closing kilometer Tsedat launched his attack. First Kibet and then Tadese fell back while Asefa and Berga followed behind in single file, but unable to maintain the pace. Tsedat cross the line in 2:06:36 to obliterate his previous lifetime best of 2.09:26 set last year in Barcelona while Asefa (2:06:39) and Berga (2:06:41) secured an Ethiopian podium sweep, also improving their career bests.

Meanwhile Tsegay, the designated pacemaker, crossed the line in 2:06:46 to break the Eritrean national record and obliterate his previous best. Tsegay trains in Madrid under the guidance of Jerónimo Bravo, the coach who led Zersenay Tadese to the world half marathon record of 58:23 back in 2010.

In the women's race, it was Spanish marathon Roger Roca who was given pacing duties on track to break the 2:25:35 record set last year. He set a steady 3:26 per kilometer pace to go through the opening 10,000m in 34:25 with ten women following closely. The halfway point was reached in 1:12:40 by a group of eight Ethiopians.

The leading quintet passed 30k in 1:43:17, still led by Roca and well on schedule to set a new race record. Shone and Gebremeskel proved to be the strongest as they comfortably led by the 35k point, still on track for a sub-2:25 performance.

Then Shone, one of Tirunesh Dibaba’s training partners, made her move, reaching the 40km point in 2:17:03 with a 12 second advantage over Gebremeskel. The 27-year-old injected an even faster pace over the closing kilometers to romp home in 2:24:29, less than one minute outside of her PB set four years ago. Gebremeskel clocked 2:24:53, improved her previous best by more than five minutes. 

(02/17/2019) Views: 2,363 ⚡AMP
by from IAAF

The new Half Marathon World Record holder Abraham Kiptum has shelved plans to compete at the Xiamen International Marathon in China

Kiptum, who is also the Daegu Marathon champion, had wanted to race in Xiamen, a southeastern province of Fujian in China in January, but his management has confirmed that he will be running earlier in Abu Dhabi just one month after breaking the world record in half marathon in Valencia. Kiptum broke the men’s world record clocking 58:18 to take five seconds off the mark set by Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese in 2010. Now he hopes his top form will be enough to help him secure his second marathon title this year and in fast time. Valencia is also the city where Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei broke the women’s world record in 2017. “I would like to reach the midway in 1:02:30 and finish under 2:05,” he said of his plans for that race on Sunday. “I know the good shape my body is enjoying at the moment is optimum because I set a best time last month in Copenhagen but I was eager to run in Valencia. It has one of the flattest circuits I have ever run and I was confident of improving on my best. But to set the world record has exalted me.” (11/22/2018) Views: 1,891 ⚡AMP

Meet the new Half Marathon World Record Holder Abraham Kiptum, My Best Runs Profile

Abraham Kiptum was born September 15, 1989 and is from Nandi county (Kenya) the same county as marathon world record holder Eliud Kipcoge.  He also comes from the same village as former world marathon champion Martin Lel.  The 29-year-old, Abraham Kiptum ran the fastest half marathon ever on Sunday October 28 clocking 58:18 taking five seconds off Eritrean's Zersenay Tadese world record 58:23 set in 2010 in Lisbon. Abraham trains in Kaptagat and Kapsabet and started training for elite running about five years ago after getting inspired by former elite marathon star Martin Lel. Kiptum ran in primary and high school but wasn’t that serious.  It was just part of the culture.  The world record holder, with long and fast legs, journey to greatness started April 24, 2016 in Madrid when he clocked 61:52 in the half marathon, then he ran 61:26 in Casablanca placing first. His next break through was on September 16, 2018 in Copenhagen when he finished second clocking 59:06 and finally yesterday the world record in the Valencia ahalf marathon.  He had been running incredible well on Kenya soil.  In 2017 he ran two fast 10000m clocking 27:19 and 27:44 at high altitude in Eldoret. On October 15, 2017 he ran 2:05:26 at the Amsterdam Marathon.  Kiptum gain further confidence and knew he would give the world record a try when he ran and won on July 2018 the second edition of the Kabarak University half marathon clocking 62:02 on Kenya soil.  For the Half Marathon in Valencia on Sunday Kiptum was on his toes leading the pack at 5km clocking 13:56 and then 28:02 at 10km.  But after a short distance the tall champion with long and fast strides upped the pace to 2:44km/min and he went on to win and set a new world record.  The cheers and excitement from the crowd helped him bolt fast because he was aware the record was in his reach.  He moved easily to the finish line crossing with unbelievable joy. He said “I cant believe it, I am over the moon.  Obviously I knew I was in a good shape because I set a pb last month in Copenhagen but I was eager to run in Valencia. I was confident of improving on my best."  When asked when he started to move fast, he said, ”I realized the race slowed down between the 9th and 10th km, so I decided to step up the pace and go for everything.”  (10/29/2018) Views: 2,052 ⚡AMP
by Willie Korir reporting from Kenya

I can’t believe it. I am over the moon says Abraham Kiptum after clocking 58:18 a new world record

Zersenay Tadese's eight-year-old half marathon world record of 58:23 has been broken. 29-year-old Abraham Kiptum from Kenya, who ran 59:09 in Copenhagen last month, clocked 58:18 in Valencia this morning, October 28.  The Medio Maratón de Valencia Trinidad Alfonso is a IAAF Gold Label road race.   On a perfect day (a slight wind and 52F, 11C), the race opened according to the plan with the main pack passing the opening five kilometers in 13:56. By 10K, the pace had dropped slightly as the 15-man lead pack went through that checkpoint in 28:02. But shortly afterwards the long-legged Kiptum broke away from the rest of the pack with incredible ease and began to cover each kilometer in a stunning 2:44. The 15K split of 41:40 was just seven seconds slower than Tadese’s equivalent split from his world record run – suggested that Kiptum was on course to break his PB of 59:09.  Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer was still just two seconds behind Kiptum.  Boosted by the crowd and fully aware that he was close to world record, Kiptum kept on pushing hard to open a margin over the Ethiopians in second and third. The Kenyan reached 20K in 55:18 to take three seconds off Tadese’s previous world best of 55:21 set on his way to his world half marathon best of 58:23 in Lisbon eight years ago. Having covered the second 10K in 27:16, Kiptum strode home in 58:18 to bring the world record back to Kenya.   “I can’t believe it, I’m over the moon,” said 29-year-old Kiptum. “Obviously I knew I was in good shape because I set a PB last month in Copenhagen but I was eager to run in Valencia because it’s one of the flattest circuits I’ve ever run and I was confident of improving on my best. “In the race I slowed down between the ninth and 10th so I decided to step up the pace and go for everything.” (10/28/2018) Views: 2,235 ⚡AMP

Galen Rupp will battle strong international field at Chicago Marathon

Last August, when the elite international fields for the 2017 Bank of America Chicago Marathon were announced, it looked like the men’s race was being set up for a Galen Rupp victory. The men’s field initially featured only two men who had ever broken 2:08 in a recognized marathon and one of them, Dennis Kimetto, hadn’t run a good marathon in over two years. Rupp did indeed become the first American-born winner of the race in 35 years, but he had to defeat a quality field to do it. After several additions to the field, by the time race day came around, the race featured seven men who had broken 2:07 in the marathon plus Zersenay Tadese. Well Friday, Chicago released its full international field for the 2018 race and it is a quality field.  Mo Farah had been confirmed earlier.  If Rupp is going to repeat as champion, he’s going to have to earn it as the Chicago field features five men who have broken 2:06, nine men who have broken 2:07, and 11 who have broken 2:11. Perhaps more importantly than PRs is the fact that many of the men in the field have displayed great recent form. The race features six guys who have won a significant marathon this year: the 2018 Dubai champ, the 2018 Tokyo champ, the 2018 Rotterdam champ, the 2018 Prague champ, the 2018 Paris champ, and the 2018 Boston champ: Geremew, Dickson Chumba, Kenneth Kipkemoi, Galen Rupp, Paul Lonyangata, and Yuki Kawauchi respectively. (08/12/2018) Views: 2,357 ⚡AMP

Wilson kipsang, Eliud Kipchoge and Zersenay Tadese will face off at BMW Berlin Marathon

Wilson Kipsang is a strong contender.  Now 36, the Kenyan set his world record time of 2:03:23 in 2013 in Berlin. Kipchoge and Kipsang lined up last year with the target of breaking 2:03 as a key objective but such hopes were dashed by steady rain throughout. Kipchoge won in difficult conditions clocking 2:03:32 while Kipsang dropped out do to stomach issues. Another runner to be taken into consideration is Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea, five times a winner of the world half marathon title as well as world record holder for the distance. Eliud Kipchoge has a strong claim to be the greatest marathon runner of all time. He is the reigning Olympic champion, having won the title in Rio in 2016, three times a winner in London (2015, 16 and 18), twice winner of the BMW Berlin Marathon title as well as winner of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2014. He finished runner-up in Berlin in 2013 when Wilson Kipsang broke the world record. He broke into new territory in May last year when running 2:00:25 for the marathon distance, achieved on the Formula One circuit of Monza in Italy though substitute pacemakers made the time ineligible as a record. In Berlin on September 16 Eliud Kipchoge is keen to show what he can do in regular competition and under hopefully favorable weather conditions: “My preparation is entirely concentrated on Berlin. I am confident I can beat my personal best on this fast course if conditions are good.”  With good weather conditions the world record could fall Berlin.   (07/05/2018) Views: 2,419 ⚡AMP

Eliud Kipchoge seeking again to challenge the world record at Berlin Marathon

Eliud Kipchoge will race the Berlin Marathon for the fourth time on Sept. 16, seeking again to challenge the world record on the world’s fastest record-eligible course, according to event organizers. Kipchoge, a 33-year-old Kenyan Olympic champion, won Berlin in 2015 and 2017 and was second in 2013, his only defeat in 10 career marathons. Kipchoge’s personal best of 2:03:05, set at the 2016 London Marathon, is eight seconds shy of Dennis Kimetto‘s world record from the 2014 Berlin Marathon. Kipchoge’s two Berlin wins came in 2:04:00 in 2015 (with his soles flapping out from the back of his shoes) and 2:03:32 last year in rain and humidity. Fellow Kenyan Wilson Kipsang, who lowered the world record at the 2013 Berlin Marathon and has run four sub-2:04s, is also in the Berlin field. As is Eritrean Zersenay Tadese, the half-marathon world-record holder whose marathon personal best is 2:10:41, though he ran 2:06:51 in Nike’s sub-two-hour marathon attempt not run under record-eligible conditions where Kipchoge famously clocked 2:00:25 last year. (06/11/2018) Views: 1,858 ⚡AMP

Eritrea´s Tadese chasing fourth Lisbon Half Marathon victory

World record holder Zersenay Tadese will be gunning for a fourth victory at the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label road race. Once again, the Eritrean, who set the 58:23 world record on this course in 2010, is the principal name on the long elite entry list. But he can expect strong opposition from eight athletes who have covered the distance in under one hour, along with 2012 Olympic and 2013 world marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda, who has never run under 61 minutes --his PB is 1:01:15-- but is this weekend aiming to join the sub-60 fraternity. On the list of favourites, we can include Kenyan Sammy Kitwara who as the winner in 2016 is quite familiar with the course and with a 58:48 lifetime best, capable of fast times. His compatriot Stanley Biwott, the winner of the 2015 New York Marathon, is also part of sub-59 club with a 58:56 lifetime best. (03/09/2018) Views: 1,943 ⚡AMP

Half Marathon World Record Holder is Racing Sunday

World half-marathon record-holder Zersenay Tadese will run his first half marathon in almost two years at the 72nd Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon on Sunday Feb 4. Tadese, a five-time world half marathon champion, set the world record of 58:23 back in 2010. While his last sub-60-minute half marathon was back in 2015, the Eritrean’s recent performances suggest he will still be competitive on Sunday. The 35-year-old clocked 1:00:31 in his last half marathon, in Istanbul in April 2016. (02/02/2018) Views: 1,744 ⚡AMP

Kiplagat and Tadese lead Marugame Half Marathon

Organisers of the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon have revealed the entry list for the race. World record-holder Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea heads the men’s entries, while two-time world marathon champion Edna Kiplagat of Kenya is the top name in the women’s field. Five-time world half marathon champion Tadese, who set the world record of 58:23 back in 2010, will be competing in Marugame for the first time in his long and distinguished career. (01/18/2018) Views: 1,387 ⚡AMP