Running News Daily

Age may change the body, but for Gwen Jacobson, it has done nothing to diminish the ambition.

At 68 years old, Jacobson is still running marathons in under three hours and 30 minutes—an extraordinary achievement that reflects not only her natural ability, but also decades of commitment, patience and a willingness to keep learning.

After completing more than 100 marathons, Jacobson has experienced virtually every side of the sport. She has celebrated memorable performances, battled injuries, endured setbacks and discovered that successful marathon running is about far more than simply accumulating miles.

Her remarkable longevity has been built on a philosophy that is both straightforward and demanding: set ambitious goals, train consistently and give recovery the same importance as the hard work itself.

Strength training has become a crucial part of her routine, helping her maintain the power and resilience needed to continue competing at a high level. Recovery is treated seriously rather than as an afterthought, while smart nutrition and meaningful cross-training help keep her body prepared for the demands of marathon training.

Jacobson's story is also a powerful reminder that experience can become one of an athlete's greatest advantages. After decades in the sport, she understands her body better, recognises the importance of adapting when necessary and knows that consistency often matters more than chasing perfection.

For many runners, simply reaching the start line of a marathon at 68 would be an achievement worth celebrating. Jacobson, however, is still setting the bar considerably higher.

More than 100 marathons later, Gwen Jacobson is proving that age does not have to put an end to big goals. Sometimes, with the right training, recovery and determination, the finish line can still arrive faster than anyone expects.

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is ready to take on one of the biggest challenges of the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships: conquering both the 100 metres and 200 metres against two of the strongest sprint fields in the world.

The American sprint star has officially entered both events for the three-day championship in Budapest, Hungary, taking place from September 11 to 13. After producing one of the most remarkable performances of the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Jefferson-Wooden now arrives in Budapest with another opportunity to prove that she is the dominant force in women's sprinting.

Her first major test will come in the women's 100m, where she will renew her rivalry with Saint Lucia's Olympic champion Julien Alfred. The two women currently share the 2026 world lead at 10.70 seconds following their thrilling clash in Zurich, setting the stage for what could be one of the most anticipated races of the entire Ultimate Championships.

The women's 100m final is scheduled for Saturday, September 12, and Jefferson-Wooden will enter with the confidence of a reigning world champion. But Alfred's presence ensures that there will be no room for error when the world's fastest women line up in Budapest.

Then comes the second challenge.

Just 24 hours later, Jefferson-Wooden will turn her attention to the 200m, where she will face another formidable opponent in Olympic champion Gabby Thomas. Jefferson-Wooden is the reigning U.S. champion over the distance and has produced a season-best of 21.69 seconds, while her outstanding form has placed her among the world's elite in the event.

The 200m represents the second half of a demanding double, and the women's final will take place on Sunday, September 13. The championship format means the world's best sprinters will have little opportunity to ease into the competition, making the physical and mental demands of contesting both events even more significant.

Jefferson-Wooden, however, has already demonstrated that she can handle history-making pressure.

At the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, she completed a spectacular sprint treble, winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Her 100m victory came in a championship record of 10.61 seconds, underlining the extraordinary level she reached during that unforgettable championship campaign.

Now Budapest offers the American another chance to build on that legacy.

The 100m will bring the explosive showdown with Julien Alfred. The 200m will present a different challenge against Olympic champion Gabby Thomas and another world-class field. Winning either event would be a major achievement. Winning both would further strengthen Jefferson-Wooden's growing claim as one of the defining sprinters of her generation.

She has already swept the global stage once.

Now, at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is going for another double.

Can the American sprint queen conquer both Budapest showdowns and add another unforgettable chapter to her remarkable career?

The Copenhagen Half Marathon is the latest major road race to abandon the traditional first-come, first-served entry system, with the hugely popular event set to allocate places for its 2027 edition through a lottery.

Registration will be free and will open on Tuesday, September 16, before closing on September 30. Crucially, runners will have exactly the same chance of securing a place whether they register on the first day or in the final minutes before the deadline.

A record 45,000 runners are expected to take to the streets of Copenhagen in 2027, underlining the extraordinary growth and demand surrounding one of Europe's biggest half marathons.

The move comes after the race's previous editions demonstrated just how difficult it had become to secure an entry. The 2025 Copenhagen Half Marathon sold out in just two and a half hours, while the 2026 edition—which will also serve as the World Athletics Half Marathon Championship this Sunday—had already moved to a ballot system when entries opened in March 2025.

Sparta Athletics, the organisation behind both the Copenhagen Marathon and Copenhagen Half Marathon, has now firmly embraced the lottery approach for its major events. The 2027 Copenhagen Marathon ballot attracted an astonishing 80,937 applications for only 35,000 available places, highlighting the enormous gap between demand and capacity.

Copenhagen is far from alone. Prague introduced a similar system in August, while Berlin and Lisbon also used ballots for their 2026 races, reflecting a major shift in the way Europe's most sought-after road races are managing unprecedented demand.

There will also be no official resale platform for Copenhagen's 2027 half marathon. Entries will remain strictly personal and non-transferable, meaning anyone attempting to buy a bib from another runner risks arriving at the start line with an entry that cannot be used.

For runners, the message is becoming increasingly clear: the days of simply logging on and buying a place in one of Europe's biggest road races are disappearing.

As participation in distance running continues to surge, the Copenhagen Half Marathon's decision is another powerful sign of a changing era. The biggest races are no longer asking whether they will sell out—but how they can fairly decide who gets to stand on the start line.

Josh Kerr is heading into the World Athletics Ultimate Championship with confidence at an extraordinary level—and his latest comments suggest his rivals have every reason to take notice.

The Scottish middle-distance star, who recently made history by breaking the mile world record in London with a remarkable 3:42.66, believes he may now be in even better shape than he was on the day of that historic performance.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Kerr delivered a statement that perfectly captures his current mindset:

“I wouldn’t want to race me right now.”

It is a bold declaration, but Kerr has given himself plenty of reasons to believe it.

Following his ambitious Project 222 challenge and his Commonwealth gold medal success, the focus now shifts back to his specialist event—the 1500 metres. And this time, there will be no opportunity to ease into the competition.

The World Athletics Ultimate Championship presents a completely different challenge: one race, no heats and no second chances. Everything will be decided in a single, high-pressure showdown against what could be the strongest 1500m field Kerr has faced this year.

For an athlete who has already conquered major championships, broken one of the sport's most prestigious world records and continued to push the boundaries of middle-distance running, Kerr appears to be arriving at exactly the right moment.

Perhaps the most worrying sign for his rivals is not simply his recent success—but his belief that his form has continued to improve.

If Kerr truly is stronger now than when he ran 3:42.66 in London, the Ultimate Championship could produce something very special.

The confidence is unmistakable. The form appears to be there. And with only one race standing between Kerr and another major statement, the rest of the field has been put on notice.

Josh Kerr likes exactly where he is right now—and judging by his words, he is ready to make sure everyone else knows it. 

Distance running has witnessed extraordinary seasons before, but 2026 is producing something that feels almost unprecedented.

Records that had survived for decades, marks that appeared untouchable and performances that had defined entire generations of athletes are falling at a remarkable rate. In the space of just four months, four historic world records were rewritten, creating one of the most astonishing stretches the sport has ever seen.

And with four months still remaining in 2026, the question is no longer whether this has been an exceptional year.

It is just how much further the boundaries can be pushed.

The extraordinary sequence began on April 26 at the London Marathon, where Sabastian Sawe delivered one of the defining performances in the history of the event. The Kenyan crossed the finish line in a breathtaking 1:59:30, becoming the first athlete to run a marathon under two hours in officially recognised, record-eligible conditions.

Eliud Kipchoge had famously broken the two-hour barrier in Vienna in 2019, proving that such a performance was humanly possible, but the specially organised conditions—including rotating pacemakers and a pace car—meant the time could not be recognised as an official world record.

Sawe's performance was different.

His 1:59:30 came in a conventional elite marathon race, and the historic morning became even more extraordinary as Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha finished in 1:59:41, while Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo clocked 2:00:28. In one astonishing race, three athletes went faster than the previous world-record standard.

Then came Monaco.

On July 10, Emmanuel Wanyonyi stepped into completely unfamiliar territory when he lined up for his first-ever 1000m race. What followed was nothing short of spectacular. The Kenyan middle-distance star stormed to 2:11.83, smashing a world record that had belonged to Noah Ngeny since 1999.

The previous mark had stood for 27 years, having been set four years before Wanyonyi was even born. Yet on his debut over the distance, Wanyonyi made history look effortless, while Britain's Jake Wightman also produced a superb performance to move into fifth place on the all-time list.

Just eight days later, London delivered another historic moment.

Josh Kerr had spoken openly about his ambitious mission, calling it “Project 222.” On the track, however, ambition turned into reality. The British star produced a stunning 3:42.66 for the mile, finally surpassing Hicham El Guerrouj's legendary 3:43.13 world record.

For decades, El Guerrouj's mark had stood as one of athletics' most iconic standards—a performance that appeared almost immune to the passing of time. Kerr changed that, producing a run that instantly secured its place among the greatest mile performances ever witnessed.

And then, in Buenos Aires on August 23, Yomif Kejelcha returned to the centre of the distance-running world.

Having already played a major role in London's historic marathon, the Ethiopian produced another extraordinary performance, this time over the half marathon. Kejelcha clocked 56:51, becoming the first man in history to break 57 minutes for the distance under valid record conditions.

What made the performance even more remarkable was the manner in which it unfolded. Kejelcha was running alone from around the 7km mark, with no rival beside him and no dramatic sprint finish required. He simply continued driving forward, producing one of the most dominant record-breaking performances ever seen on the roads.

Four historic records.

Four months.

A marathon barrier that had long been considered impossible in official competition. A 1000m record that had survived for 27 years. A mile record that had belonged to one of the greatest middle-distance runners in history. And a half-marathon performance that carried the event into completely new territory.

Distance running is living through a year unlike almost anything the sport has experienced before.

The most remarkable part?

2026 is not over yet.

With four months still remaining, the athletes of this extraordinary era may not be finished rewriting history.

Kenyan athletics legend Professor Mike Boit has received another prestigious recognition, nearly five decades after he etched his name into the history of the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels.

Boit was inducted into the Memorial Van Damme Hall of Fame during the 2026 Diamond League Final in Brussels, joining two global athletics icons, American sprint and long-jump legend Carl Lewis and former high-jump world-record holder Dwight Stones, in the 2026 class of honourees.

The occasion brought Boit back to the scene of one of the defining victories of his illustrious career. In 1977, he won the inaugural Memorial Van Damme 800 metres, becoming part of the meeting's history from its very first edition.

His victory in Brussels was another chapter in a career that had already established him as one of Kenya's pioneering international track stars.

Boit had announced himself on the biggest stage five years earlier at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, where he won bronze in the 800m. At a time when Kenya was still establishing itself as a major force in international athletics, Boit was among the athletes who helped open the door for the generations that followed.

His influence, however, stretches far beyond his achievements on the track.

After his competitive career, Boit built an impressive academic and professional career in sports science. He earned two master's degrees and a PhD, using his expertise to contribute to the development of sport and the education of future generations of athletes.

That combination of athletic achievement and academic excellence has made him an exceptional figure in Kenyan sport. His journey is one that moves seamlessly from the Olympic podium to the university lecture hall, while his pioneering achievements continue to form part of Kenya's rich athletics heritage.

His induction was marked by a special lap of honour at the King Baudouin Stadium, giving spectators an opportunity to celebrate a man whose name has been intertwined with the history of the prestigious Brussels meeting for almost half a century.

For Boit, the honour represents more than recognition for a single race or medal. It is a celebration of a lifetime of contribution to athletics and sports science, as well as the impact of a pioneer whose achievements helped shape Kenya's growing presence on the international stage.

Nearly 50 years after winning the first Memorial Van Damme 800m, Boit returned to Brussels in a very different role. This time, there was no starting line, no finishing tape and no medal to chase.

Instead, there was a standing ovation and a place among the legends.

From Olympic bronze medallist to pioneering international athlete, from Memorial Van Damme champion to distinguished professor, Mike Boit's remarkable journey continues to inspire.

His name is now permanently associated with the history of one of Europe's most prestigious athletics meetings — a fitting tribute to a Kenyan icon whose influence has extended far beyond the track.