Running News Daily

Marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge is set to continue his ambitious global running mission with a highly anticipated appearance at the NB42K Porto Alegre on July 12, 2026, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The South American race will form part of Kipchoge’s unique World Tour project — a challenge that will see the Kenyan great run seven marathons across all seven continents over the next two years. The initiative reflects his vision of using running as a universal platform to connect people and inspire communities around the world.

The visit to Brazil also carries deep personal significance for the two-time Olympic champion. It comes exactly ten years after his unforgettable victory in the 2016 Rio Olympic Marathon in Rio de Janeiro, where he captured the first of his Olympic gold medals and cemented his place among the sport’s all-time greats.

In a message shared on his social media platforms, Kipchoge expressed both excitement and nostalgia about returning to Brazil.

“Running is a universal language that speaks to hope, discipline, and unity. I am very excited to return to Brazil where I won my first Olympic Gold medal. Each continent has its own spirit, and I look forward to sharing this journey with South America while inspiring people to believe that No Human Is Limited. See you on the streets of Porto Alegre on 12 July at the NB42k!”

Kipchoge’s global journey will begin on African soil at the Cape Town Marathon in Cape Town, South Africa on May 24, before the legendary Kenyan heads to South America for the Brazilian stop.

As the world’s most celebrated marathoner continues to write new chapters in his remarkable career, his message remains clear — that running has the power to unite people across continents while reminding the world that no human is limited. 

When Olympic legend Michael Johnson launched Grand Slam Track (GST), the vision was bold: reinvent the sport with an athlete-first approach, big prize purses, and a reimagined global format. With a $30 million launch budget and promises to reward performance like never before, GST quickly gained traction. But after the abrupt cancellation of its final event in Los Angeles, questions are swirling—and athletes are asking where their promised money is.

The LA meet, originally scheduled for June 28–29, was expected to close out GST’s four-meet pilot season. Instead, the cancellation reportedly saved the organization upwards of $3 million, and left some top athletes publicly wondering when—or if—they’ll get paid.

Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, the 2022 world champion in the 400m hurdles, told Norwegian outlet NRKthat he is still waiting on his $250,000 prize check. He said the cancellation came as a surprise but remains hopeful that the money will arrive later this year.

Others were more skeptical. Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Kenya’s Olympic 800m champion and winner of the short-distance event at GST Kingston, admitted after his victory at the Bislett Games that he hadn’t been paid either. “It might come. Why shouldn’t it come?” he said. “They have to pay us. I’ll be patient and wait.”

American distance phenom Nico Young, who won the 3,000m at the Philadelphia Slam and followed that performance with a U.S. record in the 5,000m (12:45.27) in Oslo, offered a more cautious response: “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say anything about it. We’re working on it.”

Even those with positive experiences are waiting. Charles Philibert-Thiboutot, a two-time Olympian for Canada, praised GST after competing in Kingston. “Grand Slam Track was one of the best experiences I’ve had as a pro,” he told Canadian Running. “I’m sad to see it struggle, because I do think that’s the way athletes should be treated at the highest level.” Still, he acknowledged he hasn’t been paid yet—but was told the money is on the way.

An agent representing multiple GST athletes confirmed that only half of the prize money from Kingston has been paid, and that winners from Miami and Philadelphia are still waiting. Delays in payout aren’t uncommon in professional track, with 6–12 week lags the norm—but with Kingston now 11 weeks in the rearview, patience is thinning.

GST was originally backed by a $30 million budget, with $12.6 million earmarked for prize money—$3.15 million per event. The league also supported athlete contracts and high-end production values across its three completed events in Kingston, Miami, and Philadelphia.

In an email to NRK, GST spokesperson Callum Squires cited poor financial conditions at the LA venue as the reason for the cancellation. “The success of our three previous events has led us to make the difficult choice to end the pilot season and set our sights on 2026,” he wrote. “We will announce investors and new partnerships next week.”

Whether Grand Slam Track can recover and return stronger in 2026 may hinge on what happens next—and especially whether the league delivers on its most essential promise: paying the athletes who brought their best to the track.

He Lost Gold but Won the World’s Respect

In one of the most unforgettable moments in Olympic history, Brazil’s Vanderlei de Lima was on the brink of glory at the 2004 Athens Olympic Marathon—until a shocking intrusion changed everything.

With just over four miles to go and a commanding 25-second lead, de Lima appeared destined to capture Brazil’s first-ever Olympic gold in the marathon. Then, without warning, a man leapt from the crowd and forcefully pushed him off the course.

The assailant was later identified as Neil Horan, a former Irish priest already notorious for disrupting the 2003 British Grand Prix. Though a bystander quickly intervened to help free de Lima, the damage was done—his rhythm was broken, precious seconds were lost, and his chance at gold began slipping away.

Still, de Lima didn’t stop.

He returned to the course, running with remarkable resolve and even smiling and waving to the crowd as he entered the stadium. He crossed the line in third place, claiming the bronze medal—but earning something even greater in the eyes of the world.

His grace under pressure became a symbol of true sportsmanship. For his extraordinary display of dignity, Vanderlei de Lima was later awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal, a rare honor given by the International Olympic Committee to those who embody the Olympic spirit.

Though he was robbed of a gold medal, de Lima’s legacy endures as a timeless reminder: sometimes the greatest victories are not measured by the color of the medal, but by the strength of the human spirit.

What Happened to Neil Horan?

The man who infamously shoved Vanderlei de Lima off course was identified as Neil Horan, a former Irish priest with a history of disrupting major sporting events. He had previously interfered with the 2003 British Grand Prix and was known for spreading extreme religious views.

For the Athens incident, Horan was arrested and later convicted, receiving a 12-month suspended sentence from Greek authorities. Though he didn’t serve jail time, he was globally condemned for robbing de Lima of a likely gold medal. Horan was defrocked by the Catholic Church in 2005 and has since appeared sporadically in the media, showing little remorse for his actions.

Vanderlei de Lima, meanwhile, earned something far more enduring: the world’s respect.

As the iconic finish line of the Boston Marathon came into view on April 21, Brazilian runner Pedro Arieta, 34, was just moments away from achieving a personal milestone. He had been running strong, on pace to finish in under 2 hours and 40 minutes—his ambitious goal for the 2025 edition of the world’s oldest annual marathon.

But as he turned onto Boylston Street, with the roar of the crowd rising and the clock ticking, Arieta was faced with a choice that would define his race in a way no stopwatch ever could.

A Moment of Humanity on the Homestretch

Just ahead of him, Shawn Goodwin, a 35-year-old runner from Boston, stumbled and fell. While many runners—focused on their own times and finish-line dreams—sped past, Arieta instinctively slowed, stopped, and reached out.

He sacrificed seconds, and ultimately his sub-2:40 goal, to help a fellow runner get back on his feet and across the finish line.

Several spectators captured the act of sportsmanship on video. Within hours, Arieta’s gesture had gone viral—shared by runners, media outlets, and fans around the world as a moving reminder of what the sport is truly about.

A Finish Time with Greater Meaning

Arieta ultimately crossed the finish line in 2:41:29—just 90 seconds shy of his target. But the story he carried with him mattered more than the numbers.

“The Boston Marathon surprised me in more ways than one,” he wrote in an Instagram post the following day. “It was impossible to run past someone who needed help reaching their dream finish line and not help them complete the Boston Marathon.”

His wife, professional runner Luíza Cravo de Azevedo, who finished in 2:52:36, commented proudly on his post:

“The essence of sport to me is that right there. You dreamed about a sub 2:40 and when you were ALMOST there, God used you to lose a few minutes and do something with much more meaning.”

The Essence of Boston

For thousands of runners each year, the Boston Marathon is the culmination of training, sacrifice, and personal pursuit. But moments like this transcend time goals and rankings. Arieta’s act echoed the true spirit of Boston—a race steeped not just in elite athleticism, but in camaraderie, resilience, and shared triumph.

As Arieta and Goodwin crossed the finish line together, they reminded the world that sometimes, the most memorable moments in sport aren’t recorded on a clock—but in the heart.

The World Athletics Indoor Championships began on March 21, 2025, in Nanjing, China, featuring outstanding performances across various events.

Matheus Lima da Silva Sets South American Record

Brazil’s Matheus Lima da Silva set a new South American indoor record in the men’s 400 meters, clocking 45.79 seconds to win his heat and advance to the semifinals.  

Triple Jump Gold for Andy Díaz Hernández

Italy’s Andy Díaz Hernández secured gold in the men’s triple jump with a leap of 17.80 meters, setting a new Italian record. China’s Zhu Yaming took silver with 17.33 meters, and Brazil’s Almir Dos Santos earned bronze with 17.22 meters.  

Jeremiah Azu Triumphs in Men’s 60 Meters

Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu won the men’s 60 meters final, recording a personal best of 6.49 seconds. Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy finished second in 6.50 seconds, and South Africa’s Akani Simbine claimed bronze with 6.54 seconds.  

Woo Sang-hyeok Wins High Jump

South Korea’s Woo Sang-hyeok claimed gold in the men’s high jump, clearing 2.31 meters. New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr and Jamaica’s Raymond Richards both cleared 2.28 meters, earning silver and bronze respectively based on countback rules.

Strong Performances in Middle-Distance Events

In the men’s 800 meters heats, France’s Yanis Meziane led with a time of 1:46.07, followed by the USA’s Brandon Miller at 1:46.47, and Puerto Rico’s John Rivera at 1:46.84.  

The opening day set a high standard, with athletes delivering exceptional performances and setting the stage for an exciting competition ahead.

Florence - Writing one's name in the roll of honour of a noble event and doing it on the occasion of the 40th birthday, the challenge of the 40^ Estra Firenze Marathon is therefore even more electrifying and the task of making it so is entrusted to twelve men and eight women.

Top runners – Men

Five from Kenya and Italy, one from France and Burundi to beat the record to be beaten currently in the legs of the Kenyan James Kipkogei Kutto who in 2006 crossed the finish line in 2h08'40". The Kenyan Dikson Simba Naykundi (Caivano Runners) could succeed in his debut on the queen distance. Dikson Nyakundi brings with him the excellent record of 60'39" on the half marathon distance that earned him victory in Treviso in 2022 and has racked up several podiums in Italy, as stated in his curriculum in which we find, among others, the victories in Cremona in 2021 and at the last edition of the Neapolis Half Marathon.

In the race, however, there are those who already have experience on the queen distance and will try to have their say having already run below the record of the event. This is the Kenyan Edwin Kimutai Kiplagat who with 2h08'21", detached in Geneva in 2021, could captain the leading group.

Just over a minute away, the winner of the last edition of the Neapolis Marathon, the Kenyan Samuel Naibei Kiplimo who has already stopped the clock of the 2022 Run Rome The Marathon at 2h09'41", when he conquered the seventh position overall. Behind him is the first on the home list, the Moroccan with an Italian passport Hicham Boufars (Asd International Security) who participated in Florence in 2019 (third overall with 2h13'29"), in 2018 with a personal best (second overall with 2h12'16"), 2015 (2h13'36") and 2014 (2h17'12"), followed by the Kenyan Hyllry Chemweno who this year snatched the personal best of 2h13'28" by winning the Skopje marathon (Macedonia).

A little further behind is Lhoussaine Oukhrid (ASD AT Running) with a personal best of 2h16'25" followed by the Algerian with a French passport Menad Lamrani, last year at the personal best of 2h16'45" at the Rennes marathon (France).

At the start, with the task of acting as a hare, the Kenyan Simon Dudi Ekidor who brings the time of 2h18'58" from the 2019 Nairobi marathon.

Closing the ranks are three Italian regulars of this event, the Moroccan Khalid Jbari (Athl. Club 96 Alperia), capable of 2h21'32", his personal best, in 2022 and Andrea Soffientini (Dinamo Running), for him already three medals in the Firenze Marathon, in 2022 (2h26'36"), in 2021 (2h22'29") and in 2021 (2h26'36") and Kabir Hicham (Pol Moving SSD ARL) who in Florence conquered his best time with 2h22'44" last year, when he showed up sixth at the finish line, improving on the 12^ position of 2021 (2h27'24").

Burundian Jean Marie Bukuru makes his debut with the record of 63'03" in his legs at the 2023 Arezzo half marathon.

Top runners – Women

Five from Kenya, two national standard-bearers and one from Morocco for the glory of the 40^ Estra Firenze Marathon, although, barring surprises, it does not seem that the women's record of the route that belongs to the Olympic Lonah Chemtai Salpeter can waver, in 2018 she had lowered it by four minutes compared to the previous one bringing it to 2h 24'17".

On paper, the victory goes to the Kenyan Vivian Cherotich to whom the Italian roads bring luck, as told by the record with victory conquered at the last edition of the Romeo & Giulietta Half Marathon with a time of 1h09'18" which is on a par with the victory of the last marathon in Eindhoven (Netherlands) when she set her personal best of 2h26'41". Watch out for the Moroccan Souad Kabouchia who here in Florence, in 2021, has already taken fourth place running in 2h27'49", a handful of seconds from the personal best that gave her the victory of the last marathon in Enschede, which ended in 2h27'16".

Three minutes behind her it is possible to see the stride of her compatriot Dorine Cherop Murkomen who this year in Seville set her best time with 2h29'39".

The breath on the neck is of the Kenyan Teresiah Kwaboka Omosa (Caivano Runners) who has racked up several victories, including the half marathons of Udine (2021), Wachau (2022) and Nancy (2024) as well as that of the Salzburg marathon in 2018. For her, the record on the queen distance is from 2021 when in Fürstenfeld (Austria) she stopped the clock at 2h30'12".

A little more detached is the Kenyan Hellen Chepkorir who brings 2h34'16" scored in Kosice (Slovakia) in 2017. In the group of pursuers the Kenyan Lucy Chepoghon Chelele who boasts the time of 2h38'12" a few weeks ago in Nairobi, the blue of Kenyan origin Maria Gorette Subano (Cus Pro Patria Milano), last year able to snatch the bronze medal of the 39^ Firenze Marathon and recently improved at the Berlin marathon (Germany) where she finished her efforts in 2h38'45". For Italy also her teammate Sarah Giomi with the time of 2h40'22" set in Amsterdam in 2018.

Hall of Fame

The ranking by nations still sees the colors of Italy in the lead with 22 victories (11 among men and 11 among women), followed by Kenya with 16 successes (12/4), then Ethiopia which with 15 victories (7/8) extends its lead over Great Britain with 9 victories (3/6); then at 2 there are Bahrain (2/0) and Hungary (0/2). Austria (0/1), Belgium (0/1), Brazil (1/0), Israel (0/1), Yugoslavia (1/0), Morocco (1/0), Norway (0/1), Czech Republic (0/1), Russia (0/1), Rwanda (0/1), Slovenia (0/1) and Ukraine (1/0) all have one win each. There are 18 nations that can boast at least one victory in the roll of honour.

Victories of 9 different nations among men and 13 different nations among women. Men: Kenya 12, Italy 11, Ethiopia 7, Great Britain 3, Bahrain 2. Brazil, Yugoslavia, Morocco and Ukraine: 1. Women: Italy 11, Ethiopia 8, Great Britain 6, Kenya 4, Hungary 2. Austria, Belgium, Israel, Norway, Czech Republic, Russia, Rwanda and Slovenia: 1.

The 2023 edition of the Florence Marathon brought the tricolor back to the men's podium with Said El Otmani (CS Army), in the women's victory of Clementine Mukandanga who signed the national record for Rwanda while the last Italian who had the national anthem sung is Giovanna Volpato who in 2008 cut the ribbon in 2h34'13".

Since Australia’s Derek Clayton ran history’s first sub—2:10 marathon in Fukuoka, Japan, on 3 December 1967, there have been a total of 4538 sub—2:10 marathons (as of 30 October 2024), 4537 by men, one by a woman.

As with any new ground-breaking performance, Ruth Chepngetich’s 2:09:56 in Chicago on 13 October has forced us to reassess all our past assumptions, or, like many, to doubt the validity of the performance itself. But no matter how we got here, to whatever you want to ascribe it, this is where we are now, 2:09:56 by a woman. 

In this new reality, until proven otherwise, Ruth Chepngetich is the new Paula Radcliffe, just as Paula was the new Grete Waitz, one ground-breaker to the next, 1978 to 2003 to 2024. 

There have been many talented women champions through the years besides those three, including all the pioneers who had to overcome centuries of gender bias that restricted women from even showing their stuff.

But in terms of pure ground-breaking, the 1978 New York City Marathon drew a bright line between what once was and what would be. 

On 22 October 1978, Norway’s track and cross-country star Grete Waitz participated in the marathon for the first time, almost on a whim, as the trip was more of a honeymoon for her and husband Jack after the long track season. 

The 2:32:30 world record Grete ran that day was totally unexpected by both the public and Grete herself. She wore bib #1173, wasn’t included on the list of elite women, and came with no specific marathon preparation (not a single run over 13 miles). In fact, she was so upset with husband, Jack, for suggesting she come run the marathon that she threw her shoes at him in the hotel room following her victory. 

Still, like almost all debuting marathoners, after a short period of recovery and reflection, Grete concluded she could probably improve next time.

Thus, in New York 1979, following a more careful preparation, Grete ripped nearly five full minutes off her 1978 mark to record history’s first sub—2:30 by a woman at 2:27:33. Her margin of victory over England’s Gillian Adams was 11 minutes (2:38:33). The combination of the mild-mannered former geography teacher from Oslo and the raucous New York City crowds proved transformative, elevating women’s running to heights previously unimagined.

Though Japan’s Naoko Takahashi broke the 2:20 barrier for women in Berlin 2001, after Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen (2:21:15, London ‘85), America’s Joan Benoit Samuelson (2:21:21, Chicago’85), and Kenyan Tegla Loroupe (2:20:43, Berlin ‘99) all challenged the barrier in the 1980s and ‘90s, it was England’s Paula Radcliffe who established new headlands in the marathon in London 2003 with her 2:15:25.  

Nearly two minutes faster than her own 2:17:18 record from Chicago the year before, her 2:15 arced away from Catherine Ndereba’s 2:18:47 from Chicago 2001, completed just one week after Takahashi’s first sub-2:20 in Berlin. 

The quality of Paula’s 2:15 can be seen in the 16 years and an entire shoe technology revolution that developed before Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei did Paula one better in Chicago 2019 at 2:14:04. That performance plowed new ground again. And now we have Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago 2024 with history’s first sub-2:10, just a year after Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa’s first sub—2:12 in Berlin `23 (2:11:53).

Twice before, Chepngetich had come to Chicago with world record intentions. In 2022, she won the race in 2:14:18, just 14 seconds off Kosgei’s record. In 2023 she finished second in 2:15:37. On both occasions she flew through halfway under 66 minutes, only to falter in the second half. Perhaps she was a close reader of Malcolm X. 

“There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.” – Malcolm x

In simple terms, making innovative strides in athletics requires time, experimentation, and reviewing, similar to how new scientific theories are examined before full acceptance. But women just haven’t been at the marathon game long enough to produce a large enough sample size to define their outer limits with any accuracy. They are barely two generations in since 1978. 

Men have been competing for a much longer time with a much larger sample size. 

Though Eliud Kipchoge surpassed the two-hour barrier in Vienna in 2019, that was accomplished as an exhibition, not a sanctioned race. In that sense, we are still awaiting the next barrier breaker on the men’s side in the Marathon. 

Looking back, England’s Jim Peters stands as the first modern barrier breaker with his 2:18:40 win at the 1953 Polytechnic Marathon between Windsor and Chiswick in West London, England, history’s first sub—2:20. 

Next was Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila, the legendary double Olympic victor in Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964. His 2:15:17 in Rome still stands as the barefoot marathon world record. 

Next came Australia’s Derek Clayton, the first man under both 2:10 and 2:09. His 2:08:34 from Antwerp 1969 lasted for 12 years, holding off challenges throughout the entire Running Boom era headed by Americans Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers. 

Though never world record holders, the two Americans dominated the 1970s boom era, Shorter through the first half, Rodgers the second. 

The Eighties were the last decade of international marathon champions: American (Al Salazar, Greg Meyer); European (Steve Jones, Carlos Lopes); Japanese (Toshihiko Seko and the Soh brothers); and Australian (Rob de Castella). Kenya’s Joe Nzau won Chicago in 1983 in a thrilling duel with England’s Hugh Jones when Chi-town was still developing its reputation as a world class event. 

Ibrahim Hussein set new records in Honolulu and kick-started the Kenyan marathon revolution

The full East African deluge didn’t begin until 1987 and ‘88 when Kenya’s Ibrahim Hussein (already a two-time and soon to be three-time Honolulu Marathon champion) became Africa’s first New York City and Boston Marathon winner and Ethiopia’s Belayneh Dinsamo set the world record, 2:06:50, in Rotterdam 1988 that lasted over a decade. 

The list of marathon stars from other nations scaled back markedly in the 1990s. Mexico had its turn at the top via greats like Dionicio Cerón (1994-`96 London champion), and back-to-back New York Ciy winner German Silva (1994 & 1995). 

Moroccan-born American Khalid Khannouchi twice ran a world marathon record, first in Chicago 1999 (2:05:42), then three years later in London 2002 (2:05:38). And who could forget the personable Brazilian, Marílson Gomes dos Santos, who won New York City twice in 2006 & 2008, or Meb in NYC `09 and Boston 2014?? 

But the United Nations pickings get rather meager after that as East African athletes have had a stranglehold on the sport of marathoning, most dominatingly by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge. His run of sustained excellence over 42.2 kilometers was, and is, unprecedented in its longevity, including double gold in Rio 2016 and London 2020. And his last world record of 2:01:09 in Berlin 2022.

Sadly, the current record holder, Kelvin Kiptum, died in a car accident in February 2024 after establishing the 2:00:35 world record in Chicago 2023.

With the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon scheduled this weekend, we don’t expect to see any record performances. Yet, all the above is why we follow the game, isn’t it, to witness the arc of improvement over time, while hoping to discover a new name to remember? It’s as valid a focus as any other in this life. 

And despite its many flaws and corruptions, the sport of marathoning retains an innate dignity that many endeavors do not. People may have bruised, battered, and tarnished it in the name of glory and money. But it survives, nonetheless, as a simple reflection of the human drive to achieve more in the quest to discover our best. 

Doesn’t always turn out that way, but I don’t think we are done with it quite yet. Onward! 

Olympic engagement rings were almost as popular as medals at the 2024 Games

Paris 2024 definitely put the rings in the Olympic rings. With nine new engagements, the Paris Olympics set the record for the most proposals ever at one Games–very fitting for the City of Love. Four of these came from athletics, with a jumper, a thrower, a steeplechaser and a marathoner all taking part in what has seemed to become another Olympic trend. Some of the romantic gestures received criticism for overshadowing the athletic performances–but all partners said “yes,” and seemed pretty pleased about the special moment.

U.S. marathoner Dakotah Lindwurm

The American marathoner became an Olympian and a fiancée in the same day–on Sunday, her boyfriend had been waiting on one knee when she made her Olympic debut and crossed the line with an impressive 12th-place finish in the fastest marathon in Olympic history. Lindwurm was the first American to complete the race, clocking 2:26:44. She may not have won a medal or achieved a personal best, but she excitedly accepted the engagement ring.

French steeplechaser Alice Finot

Also making her Olympic debut, Finot broke the European record with her fourth-place finish in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase final on Thursday, finishing in 8:58.67. She then reached behind her race bib to pull out a pin that she had run with, before dropping to her knee and presenting the pin to her partner, Bruno Martínez Bargiela.

Finot told herself she would propose if she ran under nine minutes, seeing as nine is both her lucky number and marks the number of years the couple has been together. As if to slip an engagement ring onto his finger, she fastened the pin, engraved with the words “Love is in Paris,” to his shirt.

Brazilian triple jumper Almir dos Santos

Almir dos Santos followed his 11th-place finish in the men’s triple jump final on Friday by bringing his girlfriend, Talita Ramos, trackside at the Stade de France and popping the question. 80,000 onlookers watched as he gently placed the ring on her finger on her right hand; the couple got an overwhelming amount of attention for this huge “error”. (In Brazilian culture, the ring is switched to the left hand after wedding vows are made).

American shot-putter Payton Otterdahl

Otterdahl chose a slightly more private setting to make his grand gesture. While touring the city, he presented an engagement ring to his girlfriend, Maddy Nilles, in front of the Eiffel Tower. One day earlier, on Aug. 3, he took fourth place in the men’s shot put final.

Los Angeles (the next host for the Summer Olympics) isn’t known for being quite as romantic as Paris, so this new Olympic record will probably remain for a long time.

The curtains for the 2024 Paris Olympics fell on Sunday night with Kenya ranking 17th in the world after winning 11 medals.

Despite Kenya topping the African continent with 4 gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze medals, the results left a lot to be desired.

From 83 athletes competing in seven disciplines, a significant impact was expected from the Kenyan athletes and the world.

The show started with Judoka Zeddy Cherop falling 10-0 to Portugal’s Patricia Sampao in a record 22 seconds while Fencing African champion Alexandra Ndolo crushed out 13-12 to Ukranian Olena Kryvytska in her debut.

Maria Brunlehner and Ridhwan Mohamed finished 3rd and 4th in the women’s 50m freestyle and Men’s 400m freestyle heats respectively to crush out of contention for a swimming medal.

The sevens rugby team also crushed out in the group stage, after going down to Australia, Argentina and Samoa.

The women’s volleyball team booked their next flight after failing to win a single set following three identical 3-0 losses in a tough group B pool comprising Brazil, Poland and Japan.

Paris, the City of Love, had very little affection for Kenya as former world champion Julius Yego, finished a distant 5th in the javelin final with a 87.72m throw, to also bite the dust.

Africa's fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala's 100m Olympic medal dream was shattered in the semi-finals after clocking 10.08 seconds to finish 8th.

However, Kenya redeemed herself with debutant Beatrice Chebet grabbing double gold in the 5000m and 10000m women’s races.

The best performer was followed closely by Faith Kipyegon who defended her 1500m gold and added the 5000m women’s silver.

Another debutant, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, grabbed the 800m gold, while Ronald Kwemoi struck the men’s 5000m silver.

Mary Moraa, the dancing queen, grabbed the 800m bronze, same as Faith Cherotich (3000m steeplechase) and Abraham Kibiwot (3000m steeplechase).

Hellen Obiri and Benson Kipruto rounded up the bronze tally in the men's and women's marathons.  

Obiri failed in her quest for an Olympic medal having won silver in the women's 5000m in Tokyo, 2020 and Rio 2016 games.

History Making

Kenya will however keep pride in making history after Faith Kipyegon became the first woman to complete an Olympic hat trick after breaking her 1500m record in 3:51.29, before a fully packed iconic Stade de France. 

Debutant Beatrice Chebet was the best performer entering the history books by winning a double gold in the women's 5000m and 10000m.

The feat makes Chebet the first Kenyan woman to win Olympic 10000m gold for Kenya since the race was introduced in the 1988 Olympics.

She is the third woman after Tirunesh Dibaba and Sifan Hassan to win the 5000m and 10000m double at the Olympic Games.

"I'm dedicating this medal to all Kenyans. I just want to hear my country is proud. This was for you, you were in my mind and heart in every lap; I might have made history but I will sleep better knowing Wananchi wataenjoy the weekend," she said.

Kenya’s legend Eliud Kipchoge failed to complete an Olympic marathon treble after dropping out of the race at the 20km mark.

Kipchoge later confirmed he won’t be running in the Los Angeles 2028 summer games.

“I felt a sharp pain in the stomach and I couldn’t continue. I'm disappointed that for the first time in my career, I failed to finish a race .” Kipchoge said.

Lady luck also smiled on Kenya after Kipyegon's 5000m silver medal was reinstated following an appeal, after a push and shove with Ethiopian nemesis, Gudaf Tsegay, had her initially disqualified.

In the 800m final, Canada appealed against Kenyan winner Emmanuel Wanyonyi's personal best of 1:41.91 in the 800m, claiming he obstructed silver medallist Marco Arop. Kenya won the appeal.

Tokyo 2020

Despite the dismal show in Paris, Kenya had bettered the 2020 Tokyo tally of 10 medals and a 19th spot finish.

The post-Covid games had challenges but Kenya grabbed four gold, four silvers and two bronze medals.

Emmanuel Korir (800m), Faith Kipyegon (1500m), Peres Jepchirhir (marathon), and Eliud Kipchoge (marathon) were the gold medalists while Hellen Obiri (5000m), Fergussin Rotich (800m), Brigid Kosgei (marathon) and Timothy Cheruiyot (1500m) won silver.

Benjamin Kigen and Hyvin Kiyeng won the men's and women's 3000m steeplechase races respectively.

Rio 2016 

In the 2016 Rio De Janeiro games, Kenya managed six gold, six silver and one bronze medal for a tally of 13 medals. 

Rio 2016 Olympics gold medalists were Jemima Sumgong in women's marathon, David Rudisha in 800m, Faith Kipyegon in 1500m, Conseslus Kipruto in 3000m steeplechase, Vivian Ceruiyot in 5000m and Eliud Kipchoge marathon.

Meanwhile, Vivian Cheruiyot (10000m); Paul Tanui (10000m); Hyvin Kiyeng (3000m steeplechase); Boniface Mucheru (400m hurdles); and Hellen Obiri (5000m) all grabbed silver, while Julius Yego managed a rare javelin silver. Margaret Wambui won bronze in women's 800m.

London 2012  

The London 2012 Summer Games saw Kenya manage 2 gold, 4 silver and 7 bronze for a total of 13 medals.

Despite a cold and warm performance in the Queens land, Kenya won two gold medals to finish a distant 29th in the world rankings.

Legendary track masters Ezekiel Kemboi and David Rudisha grabbed gold in the men's 3000m and 800m races respectively.

Sally Kipyegon brought home the women's 10000m silver, while Priscah Jeptoo won the women's marathon silver medal as Vivian Cheruiyot grabbed the women's 5000m race.

Abel Kirui rounded up the silver medals haul after clinching the men’s marathon race.

Vivian Cheruiyot won bronze in the 10000m women's race, while Asbel Kiprop and Milcah Chemos clinched bronze in the men's and women’s 3000m steeplechase.

Timothy Kiptum and Pamela Jelimo clinched the men's and women's 800m race respectively while Thomas Longosiwa and Wilson Kipsang rounded off Kenya's bronze medals haul, winning the 5000m men's and women's marathon races.

What next?

As the nation awaits the Paris 2024 Games report on what worked and what didn't work, a lot will be looked into including preparations, sports science, lack of stadia and lack of funds among others.

However, one constant reminder is that Kenya must smell the coffee, lest our legacy is discarded by the improving rival nations every day.

The next Omanyala, Yego, Obiri and Kipchoge should be nurtured immediately if we are to remain world beaters in the summer games.

Beating the 2008 Beijing Summer Games remains the target, where Kenya sent a total of 46 athletes: 28 men and 18 women who brought home the best tally of six gold, four silver and six bronze medals.

The journey to the Los Angeles 2028 games starts with a new sheriff in town, CS Kipchumba Murkomen, at the helm of the Sports ministry.

The young American fulfilled his dream of Olympic gold on Friday, while Brazil's dos Santos repeated his bronze-medal performance from Tokyo.

The top two finishers from Tokyo 2020 traded podium positions in an electrifying 400m hurdles final at the Stade de France on Friday, as American Rai Benjamin unseated the defending Olympic champion, world champion and world record holder, Karsten Warholm of Norway. Benjamin, the silver medallist from Tokyo, took gold in a season’s best 46.46–well ahead of Warholm’s 47.06, while Alison dos Santos of Brazil repeated his bronze medal performance from Tokyo 2020 in 47.26 seconds.

Warholm, in lane 7, had Benjamin in his sights in lane 8, and gained ground on the American through the first turn, but couldn’t quite make up the stagger. By the home stretch, Benjamin was pulling away, leaving Warholm behind.

Having medalled at the last four major championships in the event, dating back to the 2019 World Championships in Doha, the 26-year-old Benjamin was one of the favourites for gold on Friday; he had the fastest time in the world this year (46.46). Warholm, Benjamin and dos Santos are the three fastest men ever in the 400m hurdles event. Warholm set the world and Olympic record of 45.94 in an empty stadium in Tokyo three years ago.

In May, the hurdler stirred controversy when he stated his intention not to wear a race bib on his uniform at the Olympics. (Race bibs are required to identify athletes as per World Athletics rules; clearly someone must have talked him out of it, since he was most definitely wearing race bibs at these Games; not wearing one would earn him a disqualification.)

Team USA had another standout night on the track, despite a disappointing loss to Team Canada in the men’s 4x100m relay. The American women redeemed the night by taking gold in the women’s 4x100m relay final.

It’s not all about height and weight. 

New research suggests incorporating waist circumference into how we predict health outcomes, instead of relying on BMI. 

Study authors say BMI does not take into account muscle mass or the links between abdominal fat and poorer health, among other downfalls of the measurement. 

In an effort to understand how body composition affects health, most medical professionals and researchers still use the body mass index (BMI), but this has always been a problematic and controversial method when actually applied to individuals, rather than large populations. For example, commentary in the British Journal of General Practice, published back in 2010, called use of BMI unethical, overly simplistic, and potentially harmful to a significant proportion of patients. 

A new study in JAMA Network Open assessed a possible pivot toward a different measurement tool: the body roundness index, or BRI. In addition to weight and height (which is all that the BMI includes), the BRI considers waist circumference because that can more comprehensively reflect visceral fat distribution, according to the study’s lead author Xiaoqian Zhang, M.D., at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine in China.

In the cohort study involving nearly 33,000 U.S. adults, researchers looked at the association between an increase in BRI from 1999 to 2018 and the significant rise in all-cause mortality (particularly cardiometabolic disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and cancer) during the same period. 

More abdominal fat has been linked to higher risk of these conditions because this type of fat is often visceral, which means it wraps around your organs instead of sits just under the skin. That means it can increase inflammation and drive more chronic diseases, Zhang told Runner’s World. For example, one study of Korean adults found those with normal body mass index had more cardiovascular risk factors if they carried excess abdominal obesity. 

“Because of the way it includes waist circumference, BRI effectively provides a more accurate indication of health problems related to being overweight or underweight,” Zhang said. “We found both the lowest and the highest BRI values are associated with significantly increased risks of all-cause mortality.”

The Problem with BMI

Considering a switch away from BMI involves understanding why this effort matters. BMI was not meant to be used on an individual level. It relied only on Belgian men (because it was a formula devised in the 1830s by a Belgian mathematician) and did not take women and/or non-Caucasians into account, the British Journal of General Practice authors noted. As other researchers note, it was also not meant to inform medicine or predict health outcomes

By looking only at height and weight, the BMI might measure general obesity but it doesn't distinguish body fat from muscle mass, said the recent study’s co-author Wenquan Niu, Ph.D., at the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine in China. Because of this, for example, many bodybuilders are classified as obese.

“Fat distribution and body composition can vary dramatically among individuals who have the same BMI,” he told Runner’s World. “That’s why we need a more accurate indication of health problems related to overweight or underweight. Using the BRI is more helpful for this, given the limitations of the BMI metric.”

What to Know About Waist-to-Hip Ratio

The BMI and BRI are not the only possibilities when it comes to body composition. One that’s easy to measure at home is hip-to-waist ratio (WHR), which involves measuring both of those and then dividing your waist number by your hip number. According to a study published in JAMA Network Open in 2023, the ideal ratio for most men is below 0.95 and under 0.85 for women.

Even if you’re physically active and are not overweight, the WHR can help identify your risk of future metabolic issues, because abdominal fat plays a significant role in issues like insulin resistance and hypertension, according to Vitor Engrácia Valenti, Ph.D., a researcher at Sao Paulo State University in Brazil who has done work on body composition. 

“The BMI calculation is far less helpful than your WHR, which can give you an indication of whether your waist circumference is outside the normal range,” he told Runner’s World. 

Other indicators of body composition are lean muscle mass and fat mass, but those require specialized equipment such as a DXA scan for accurate numbers, Valenti added. 

In general, the goal shouldn’t be reducing body fat as much as possible—you do need body fat for overall health—but to focus on reduction of abdominal fat in particular. 

Although “spot training” for this type of fat is not a possibility, a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Advances in Nutrition looked at 43 studies focusing on training styles and their effects. Researchers found that although aerobic exercise tends to produce slightly greater efficacy in decreasing belly fat, the biggest change comes when it’s combined with resistance training.

Daniel do Nascimento, a 2:04 marathoner who famously fist-bumped Eliud Kipchoge during the last Olympic marathon, has been banned after testing positive for three illegal substances.

Brazil’s national marathon record holder and Paris Olympic-bound athlete, Daniel do Nascimento, has been provisionally suspended by the Brazilian Doping Control Authority (BDCA) after testing positive for three banned substances: drostanolone, methenolone and nandrolone.

According to Brazilian media outlet Globo, do Nascimento tested positive for the three anabolic steroids during an out-of-competition test conducted on July 4 while training in Kenya for the Paris Games. As a result, he will miss the Olympics. He was slated to run the marathon after qualifying at last year’s Hamburg Marathon with a time of 2:07:06. His personal best of 2:04:51 from the 2022 Seoul Marathon stands as the South American record. 

The three banned substances in Nascimento’s test are all anabolic steroids (precursors of testosterone). Do Nascimento will likely face a four-year ban from athletics, jeopardizing his dreams for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The 25-year-old’s suspension may be reduced to three years if he admits to the three anti-doping rule violations.

Do Nascimento’s girlfriend, Graziele Zarri, was also suspended earlier this year after testing positive for androstanediol and testosterone in a test conducted by the Anti-doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK). She ran 2:42:48 in her marathon debut last December in Valencia.

Beside being the South American record holder for the marathon, do Nascimento is most famous for taking a porta-potty stop while leading the 2022 New York City Marathon. He set a blistering pace for 30 km, but ended up collapsing and did not finish the race.

Do Nascimento also made headlines at the 2020 Olympic marathon in Tokyo for exchanging mid-race fist bumps with former world record holder Eliud Kipchoge. The moment went viral, making do Nascimento a well-known name in Brazil and the distance running world.

The fastest high school sprinter in history is suing Gatorade, claiming the company gave him a fraudulently certified product that contained a banned substance and led to his four-year banishment from track and field, costing him a chance to compete in the Paris Olympics.

Issam Asinga, the Surinamese teenager who set the under-20 world record in the 100 meters, said that when Gatorade honored him as its high school track and field athlete of the year in July 2023, it provided a gift basket that included Gatorade Recovery Gummies. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the 19-year-old Asinga claims those gummies are the reason he later tested positive for the banned substance GW1516, which led to a four-year ban this May and stripped him of his record. The suit further claims the company took measures to protect its reputation, damaging Asinga’s in the process.

Asinga filed suit in the Southern District of New York against Gatorade and Pepsi Co., its parent company. He is seeking, according to the lawsuit, to “recoup the millions of dollars he has lost in economic opportunities, as well as compensation for the devastating emotional harm he has suffered.”

In an emailed statement, a Gatorade spokesperson said: “The product in question is completely safe and the claims made are false. … Gatorade products are FDA compliant and safe for athlete consumption, which was validated by the findings of the Athletics Integrity Unit investigation.”

Were he eligible, Asinga could have competed for Suriname at the Paris Olympics, earning potentially millions on a sponsorship deal. Instead, he is banned from the Games and lost his endorsement opportunity. The suspension also will prohibit him from training with or competing his college teammates at Texas A&M, and despite support from his coaches, Asinga believes he could lose his scholarship.

“You’re either guilty or you’re not,” Asinga said in a Zoom interview alongside his lawyers. “I know I’m not, so I’ve got to chase my dream. I’ve got two Olympian parents; I was born to run. Am I going to destroy my dream because of something I didn’t do, or am I going to keep fighting until the end?”

‘I was honored when they told me to get tested’

Asinga grew up in Atlanta, went to a St. Louis boarding school, lived a couple of years in his mother’s native Zambia, went to high school in Florida and currently attends Texas A&M. He is the son of track and field Olympians: His mother, Ngozi, competed for Zambia, and his father, Tommy, once served as the flag bearer for Suriname.

By the summer of 2023, Asinga had become one of the world’s most promising track athletes. That April, he stunned the track world by beating world champion Noah Lyles in a 100-meter race in Florida with a wind-aided time of 9.83 seconds.

Asinga chose to compete under the flag of Suriname. In a Zoom interview Wednesday, as he described the effect of his son’s suspension on his home country, Tommy began to cry.

“I felt like I had more of an opportunity to make a difference running for Suriname,” Issam Asinga said. “In Suriname, the one thing that’s holding them back is the facilities. They don’t have someone who can make that difference. I can use whatever I do in my track career to help better this country.”

Gatorade named him its 2023 Florida boys’ track and field player of the year and invited him to a July 11 ceremony in Los Angeles. One month before the ceremony, according to the lawsuit, Asinga took a drug test that came back clean.

“I was honored when they told me to get tested,” Asinga said. “I was like, ‘Okay, bet!’ That’s how I know I’m going somewhere.”

At a gathering the day before the awards ceremony, Gatorade gave Asinga and other athletes a gift bag that included cherry-flavored Gatorade Recovery Gummies. The container was stamped as “NSF Certified for Sport.” NSF is an independent public health organization.

According to the lawsuit, Asinga’s mother texted Issam’s coach, Gerald Phiri, a photo of the ingredient label and asked, “Is this ok to eat[?]”

When Ngozi showed him a picture of the Gatorade logo, Phiri wrote back: “Oh yea these are both fine. Gatorade doesn’t make products that are against sporting rules.”

For the next two weeks, according to the lawsuit, Asinga took two gummies after his workouts. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the drug-testing arm of World Athletics, tested him again July 18.

Asinga stopped taking the gummies “on or around” July 25, according to the lawsuit. On July 28, Asinga ran the 100 meters in 9.89 seconds at a meet in São Paulo, Brazil. This time, the wind was legal: He had broken the under-20 world record. The AIU tested him again on that day, and that July 28 test would come back clean.

On Aug. 9, 2023, the AIU informed Asinga he had failed the July 18 drug test. Picograms of GW1516 had been detected in his urine. When Asinga received the call, he said, he dropped to his knees in shock.

“It was devastating,” Asinga said. “It was the worst day of my life.”

Known as cardarine, GW1516 was originally developed as a potential treatment for obesity and alters how the body metabolizes fat, according the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. It is illegal for use in food or medication. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency notes in its handbook, “athletes should be aware, however, that dietary supplements may be contaminated with this compound.”

Asinga and his lawyer, Paul Greene, who specializes in defending athletes accused of performance-enhancing drug use, compiled a list of foods and supplements he had consumed that could be tested for GW1516. They included the Gatorade gummies.

“We kind of laughed it off,” Asinga said. “It was the last thing I would have thought this source would have been in. This brand is something I’ve looked up to my whole life. Gatorade is a part of sports.”

Asinga sent the gummies to the same lab, according to the lawsuit. On Oct. 26, 2023, according to the lawsuit, the lab notified the AIU that “preliminary findings” concluded the Gatorade gummies had been contaminated with GW1516.

When a company produces a dietary supplement that requires certification, it makes them in numbered lots so each lot can be tracked in case of contamination. By federal regulation, it must keep samples of each lot.

According to the lawsuit, further testing at the Utah lab confirmed not only the GW1516 contamination in the gummies Asinga had supplied; it also showed the same baseline concentration of GW1516 that had been detected in Asinga’s drug test. The chemical codes matched. The lab provided those analytical results to the AIU.

According to the AIU decision, the lab noted “two unusual aspects.” There was a “large discrepancy in the findings between the two containers of the Gatorade Recovery Gummies” and the contamination was present on the surface of the gummy rather than uniformly distributed.

The lab concluded “it was not possible to rule out deliberate adulteration of the product after it was opened,” the decision read.

Asinga’s lawyers said it defies belief that Asinga could have adulterated the gummies.

“All of them would have had to have been dipped individually in a formula that would have been watered to a trillionth of a gram,” Greene said. “An 18-year-old kid living in a dorm would have had to have done that. It’s almost laughable that that’s what he was accused of doing.”

According to the lawsuit, Asinga again contacted Gatorade and requested a sealed bottle from the 22092117150234 lot.

According to the lawsuit, Gatorade instead sent a bottle of recovery gummies to the AIU from a different lot. That lot had been tested by NSF and was accurately labeled as such, according to the lawsuit. The NSF, in a a public notice issued in early June, said the container in Asinga’s case came from an allotment it had not tested.

“They did a bait-and-switch,” said Alexis Chardon, the lawyer representing Asinga in court. “They said, ‘We don’t have a sealed supplement of the one we gave Issam. But we have this other one. Why don’t you take this one?’ That one was NSF tested. And then they let that lie fester.”

“Gatorade fully complied with the Athletics Integrity Unit investigation, including producing evidence that was accepted by the AIU that the gummies were not contaminated with the banned substance in their original ruling,” a Gatorade spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

When the AIU tested the gummies from that container, the results came back clean, according to the lawsuit. Once the AIU received those tests, it handed down its four-year ban to Asinga.

“Gatorade created, fed, and encouraged the false narrative that Issam was given ‘clean’ gummies and therefore Issam had adulterated the ones he got tested,” the lawsuit reads.

Attempting to restore a reputation

On June 14, less than two weeks after the NSF released its public notice about Gatorade, Asinga received what he hoped would be a breakthrough: A representative from the AIU called Greene and told him Gatorade had found and sent a sealed bottle from the same lot as Asinga’s bottle of recovery gummies. If that bottle was tainted with GW1516, it would be pivotal to overturning Asinga’s suspension.

The tests came back negative, according to the lawsuit.

Feeling “confused,” according to the lawsuit, Asinga contacted other athletes from the 2023 awards ceremony and found one who had a similar bottle of recovery gummies. When that bottle was tested for GW1516, according to the lawsuit, it also came back negative.

“For a while, it looked like we dug ourselves in deeper,” Chardon said.

According to the lawsuit, Asinga’s team had one more idea: On June 26, they asked for his original recovery gummies to be retested. They wondered whether the GW1516 had become undetectable over the previous six months.

On July 5, according to the lawsuit, the results came back: The gummies that once had tested positive now returned a negative result.

“Gatorade’s delay had cost Issam the possibility of proving contamination in a sealed container from the same lot he had ingested, robbing him of the possibility of ever meeting the AIU’s gold standard test for showing innocent ingestion of a banned substance,” the lawsuit reads.

In a statement, Gatorade said it “spent those months looking for the specific lot number in the field and, once sourced, immediately provided the product to the AIU.”

Because GW1516 is illegal, Greene said, scant testing has been done on it. Greene is hoping to organize lab tests that can prove GW1516 could become undetectable over the six months. He hopes to use that finding in his Court of Arbitration for Sport appeal later this year.

The lawsuit against Gatorade made Wednesday “one of the first days I can say I’m actually taking a deep breath and let it out a little bit,” Ngozi said. “As a parent, it’s so overwhelming. You never in a million years expect your child to be fighting for his character and his integrity because of something he didn’t do.”

Over the past month, Asinga lost his final glimmer of hope that he could run in the Paris Olympics. He has remained optimistic that he will sprint next year for Texas A&M. He has cried and felt depressed at times. Over the winter, he stopped practicing for several days and wondered whether track was worth it. He still believes he will prevail.

“It hurts,” Asinga said. “There’s been some bad days. The clouds might be over us. But they’re going to have to clear eventually.”

A new study from researchers at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil focused on women's aerobic capacity suggests that the mechanisms of VO2 max decline—and thus perhaps the best countermeasures—are different in men and women.Maximal oxygen uptake, or VO2 max, is perhaps the single best predictor of long-term health and longevity. It’s also the key trait that distinguishes elite endurance athletes. We know all this from more than a century of research… in men. Whether the same things hold true for VO2 max in women is less clear, because there simply isn’t as much data on them.

A new study from researchers at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil aims to fill some of this gap. They recruited 85 runners and 62 sedentary people, all women between the ages of 20 and 70, and split them further into younger (less than 50) and older (greater than 50) age groups. Then they tested their VO2 max with a progressive treadmill test to exhaustion, measured their body composition with a DXA scan, and collected information about their training and other health-related habits. The results are published (and free to read) in Experimental Gerontology.

The headline findings are unsurprising: runners had higher VO2 max than non-runners, meaning they were able to suck in, distribute to their muscles, and use more oxygen per minute; younger people had higher VO2 max than older people. But when you zoom in on the details, some more interesting patterns emerge.What the VO2 Max Data Shows

There are three ways of expressing VO2 max. The first is absolute VO2 max, which is simply the greatest volume of oxygen you can use per minute, usually expressed in liters per minute. If you get fitter, you’ll be able to deliver and use oxygen more quickly, enabling you to power your exercise on sustainable aerobic metabolism for longer. Conversely, if you get too unfit and your VO2 max drops too low, even simple daily activities like climbing the stairs will require more oxygen than you can supply, turning them into challenging anaerobic efforts.

Here’s how the absoluteVO2 max values compared for the four groups, with runners represented by circles and sedentary people by squares:All this means that absolute VO2 max is a useful marker of health and performance—but it’s less useful for comparison between different people, because the amount of oxygen you use depends on body size. A heavyweight rower might use twice as much oxygen as a diminutive marathoner, but if she’s twice as big then she’s not necessarily fitter. Instead, she’ll need all that extra oxygen to move her larger body around. A better comparison would be to divide each person’s VO2 max by their weight, giving what’s called relative VO2 max, expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight. Here’s what that data looks like:The key thing to notice here is that there’s a much bigger gap between the runners and non-runners in relative VO2 max than in absolute VO2 max, which is because the non-runners weigh substantially more on average. The relative value offers a much better reflection of how much fitter the runners are for running: what matters is not just how much aerobic power you can deliver, but how big a load that power needs to move.

Why Body Composition Matters, Too

The researchers also present a less-common third way of expressing VO2 max. In this case, they divided the absolute value not by total weight, but by the weight of each person’s lean mass, meaning primarily muscle as well as connective tissue.

To understand why this is relevant, it’s useful to think about VO2 max in terms of oxygen supply and demand. The traditional view of VO2 max was that it was dictated by oxygen supply—that is, by how quickly you could suck in oxygen, diffuse it from your lungs to bloodstream, and pump it to your muscles. These are all considered “central” limitations on VO2 max. The primary way changing VO2 max, in this picture, is for your heart to get stronger so that it can pump more blood to your muscles.

But oxygen demand also matters. It doesn’t matter how much oxygen you pump to your muscles if your muscles aren’t capable of extracting and, with the help of mitochondria, making use of it to provide aerobic energy. That’s why VO2 max is more closely proportional to your total muscle mass than to your overall weight. If you add ten pounds of fat to your body, your absolute VO2 max won’t change because fat doesn’t consume oxygen. If you add ten pounds of muscle, your ability to consume oxygen will increase, and your ability to supply oxygen will likely follow suit. How much muscle you have, and how effectively that muscle can use oxygen, are “peripheral” limitations on VO2 max.

Here’s what the data showed for VO2 max divided by lean mass only:An Unexpected Finding About VO2 Max in Women

Here’s where the surprise comes in. Based on earlier data from men, the researchers had hypothesized that these relative-to-muscle values would be less affected by aging than the relative-to-whole-body values. To put it another way, the male data had suggested that age-related declines in VO2max were primarily related to declines in central factors like the heart and circulatory system, while peripheral factors like the ability of muscle to use oxygen stayed relatively constant. But that’s not what they found here: both central and peripheral factors seemed to decline at similar rates in women.

Why should VO2-max declines in women be different than in men? One possibility is that it’s a fluke that’s specific to the relatively small group of women being tested here. But it’s also possible that there’s a genuine difference. The researchers suggest that “intramuscular adipose tissue”—that is, small amounts of fat located within the muscle itself, sometimes referred to as muscle fat infiltration—may play a role. This infiltration tends to be higher in women, and increases with age. If that’s what’s happening, then it suggests that the mechanisms of VO2 max decline—and thus perhaps the best countermeasures—are different in men and women.

There’s one final point to note in this data—one that, in this case, does echo previous findings in men. The runners experienced a steeper VO2 max decline with age than the non-runners. This might be a sort of physiological regression to the mean: the higher you start, the more you’re likely to fall. But it probably also reflects the fact that older runners tend to train less than younger ones, a pattern that showed up in this study too. There are plenty of good reasons for that, but it’s also a reminder: if you’re working hard to be super-fit now, you’ll have to keep working similarly hard to be similarly fit in the future. When it comes to fitness, saving for retirement only takes you so far.

Six weeks ago, 19-year-old Issam Asinga, the fastest teen sprinter in world history, was handed a four-year ban from the sport of track & field after testing positive for the banned substance GW1516. Asinga’s positive sample came in July 2023, just days before he ran 9.89 seconds to become, at the time, the youngest person in history to break 10 seconds for 100 meters. Asinga, who had been provisionally suspended since August 2023 by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), appealed the decision to the AIU’s disciplinary tribunal, who ruled against him and upheld the four-year suspension on May 27.

Until then, the details of Asinga’s case had been kept secret. Now they are public, and potentially explosive.

Asinga, who maintains his innocence, blamed the positive test on contaminated Gatorade gummies he received at the company’s National Athlete of the Year ceremony in Los Angeles last summer, where he was honored as high school track & field athlete of the year. Asinga has already appealed his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where it is expected to be heard later this year. He is also mulling whether to launch a civil suit against Gatorade because the gummies in question falsely carried an NSF Certified for Sport label, which signified that the product did not contain any prohibited substances. NSF has made a public statement saying the gummies from Asinga’s lot number were not NSF Certified and the NSF Certified mark was being used without authorization.

“They distributed a supplement that wasn’t NSF Certified for Sport that had a banned substance in it,” said Asinga’s lawyer Paul Greene. “That’s violation of product liability law, negligence, implied warranty, New York state consumer protection law. I mean, it’s bad. He had the possibility of getting endorsement and NIL deals that were going to be in the millions of dollars and he lost all that as a result of this. He also lost out on the chance to compete in the World Championships and the Olympics.”

The AIU, however, was not satisfied that the gummies were the source of Asinga’s positive test, and its disciplinary tribunal agreed.

Incredible 2023 high school season

Asinga’s is one of the highest-profile doping cases in recent years. After running personal bests of 10.44 seconds in the 100m and 20.76 in the 200m as a junior in 2022 at Principia High School in Missouri, Asinga transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida for his senior year, where he improved enormously and produced one of the greatest seasons ever by a high school sprinter.

During the 2023 indoor season, Asinga won national high school titles in the 60m (6.59) and 200m (20.48) at New Balance Nationals, tying the national record in the former event (he ran 6.57 in the semis) and breaking the national record in the latter. Outdoors, Asinga ran a wind-aided 9.83 in the 100m to defeat Noah Lyles, who would go on to win the world title in that event four months later. Asinga, who was born in the US but represents Suriname internationally, then ran 19.97 in the 200m in April (#2 all-time among US high schoolers) and 9.89 in July to win the South American 100m title in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The latter time ranked Asinga in a tie for ninth in the world in 2023. It was also a world U20 record and was the first time a US high school athlete had broken the fabled 10-second barrier.

Now that world U20 record has been stripped as Asinga finds him at the center of controversy. The 43-page decision in his case released by the AIU presents only two possible versions of events.

Option A: An 18-year-old was caught doping barely a month after being added to the international testing pool. Then he or someone in his camp tried to cover up his doping by manipulating evidence and defaming Gatorade, one of the world’s largest sports nutrition companies.

Option B: One of the greatest sprint talents in history was unjustly banned after consuming a tainted supplement given to him by one of the most famous brands in sports.

Neither picture is particularly rosy for the sport of track & field, but one of them must be true. After reviewing the evidence, the AIU and its disciplinary tribunal is clear which version it believes: Option A. As a result, Asinga is banned from competition until 2027 barring a successful appeal to CAS.

Background: Asinga enters the testing pool

Most high school track athletes, even elite ones, are rarely drug-tested. But by the spring of 2023, Asinga was running so fast it was becoming clear he could be a factor at that summer’s World Championships in Budapest. He was added to the World Athletics Testing Pool on June 1.

Asinga was tested on June 11 and returned a negative result. He was tested again out-of-competition on July 18 (in his training base of Clermont, Fla.) and again at the South American championships on July 28. The July 18 sample tested positive for GW1516, a banned substance that modifies how the body metabolizes fat and has been found to cause cancer. Specifically, Asinga’s sample tested positive for low levels of two metabolites of GW1516 — a metabolite is a substance produced when the body breaks down a specific drug. In this case, Asinga’s urine contained the GW1516 sulfone metabolite (at a concentration of 0.2 nanograms per milliliter in both his A sample and B sample) and the GW1516 sulfoxide metabolite (at a concentration of 0.5 ng/mL in his A sample and 0.4 ng/mL in his B sample).

On August 9, Asinga was informed of his positive test and provisionally suspended from competition. Shortly after, in an effort to prove his innocence, he began sending his supplements to be tested for contamination at the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL), a WADA-accredited lab in Salt Lake City. The first supplement Asinga sent, melatonin gummies, tested negative. Asinga then sent a larger set of supplements, including Airborne and Skratch Lab Hydration packets as well as Gatorade Immune Support Gummies and Gatorade Recovery Gummies, two new products he had received at the Gatorade National Athlete of the Year ceremony on July 10.

All of the supplements tested negative for GW1516 except the Gatorade Recovery Gummies. In December, SMRTL informed the AIU that of the five gummies tested, four were positive for GW1516. That much, the parties agree on. From there, the narratives diverge.

Contaminated during manufacturing or as part of a coverup?

Asinga said he began taking the Recovery Gummies shortly after the ceremony on July 10 — initially two per day, then less consistently before traveling to Brazil for the South American championships on July 25. He said he did not take any gummies to Brazil. Asinga declared the gummies as a supplement on the doping control form for his July 18 test and said he had no concerns about the gummies because the container carried the NSF Certified for Sport label.

Greene said the AIU was initially reluctant to share the results of the SMRTL analysis with Asinga because it viewed the test results of products from an opened container as unreliable.  (LetsRun.com reached out to the AIU for comment on June 2 but had not received an answer as of publication).

“Normally, SMRTL’s process and the AIU’s process is if there is a preliminary finding in a supplement, they don’t initially just tell the athlete straight away,” Greene said. “They try to go and find their own sealed version and test that too and then go to confirmation testing.”

But neither SMRTL nor the AIU could find a sealed version from the same lot number as Asinga’s gummies. So, after several weeks, the AIU relented and shared the news that the Gatorade Recovery Gummies had tested positive for GW1516. Asinga said he felt he was on his way to clearing his name.

“I was like okay, boom,” Asinga told LetsRun.com. “When I got that message, I was like, okay, finally we’re going to move forward.”

But the AIU did not agree with Asinga’s assessment and hinted at something far more sinister. In the disciplinary tribunal hearing, which took place over Zoom on April 30, Martial Saugy, former director of the WADA-accredited lab in Lausanne, Switzerland, served as an expert witness for the AIU and noted that the exterior of the gummies contained much higher concentrations of GW1516 than the interior of the gummies.

“I cannot see how these results would be consistent with a contamination during the manufacture of the gummies,” Saugy said. “These results point to an adulteration of the gummies at a later stage.”

Another key point: Asinga had opened both containers of gummies before sending them to SMRTL. And in SMRTL’s analysis, it noted a “large discrepancy” between the concentration levels of GW1516 between the containers. The two gummies tested from the first container each featured a concentration of at least 610 ng of GW1516 per gummy. Meanwhile of the three gummies tested from the second container, the highest concentration of GW1516 was 1.5 ng per gummy, and one of the gummies did not test positive for GW1516 at all.

This fact left open the possibility for manipulation; to be satisfied of his innocence, the AIU demanded to see a positive test from a separate, sealed container of gummies from the same lot number as Asinga’s.

Separate lot numbers bring questions

This is where things get complicated. The lot number printed on Asinga’s gummy containers was 22092117150234. NSF has issued a statement saying this lot number was not NSF Certified and the NSF Certified mark was being used without authorization. As part of the case, the Lausanne lab did test a sealed container of Gatorade Recovery Gummies, which tested negative. But that container was from a different lot number — lot 22092117150213, which was one of the lots that did receive NSF certification.

The gummies were not manufactured directly by Gatorade, but rather by a company contracted by Gatorade called Better Nutritionals, who manufactured the gummies for Gatorade at its plant in Gardena, Calif. As part of its case, the AIU called a former Better Nutritionals employee as a witness who testified that, for all intents and purposes, lots 22092117150234 and 22092117150213 were identical. This witness, referred to only as Witness B in the decision, made the following argument:

Witness B said lots 22092117150213 and 22092117150234 were part of the same batch of 20,000 jars’ worth of gummies cooked on the same day. That batch of 20,000 jars was separated into two lots: 7,500 jars (lot 22092117150213) would enter the marketplace immediately without the NSF Certified for Sport logo, of which a few would be sent to NSF for testing. The remaining 12,500 jars (aka lot 22092117150234, which included the gummies Asinga received) would be held back and given the NSF Certified logo predicated on NSF testing on lot 22092117150213.

Before NSF testing had been completed, lot 22092117150213 entered the marketplace without the NSF Certified logo.

By October 4, the 12,500 jars from lot 22092117150234 had been labeled NSF Certified. On October 18, Better Nutritionals received confirmation that lot 22092117150213 had been granted NSF certification, which was confirmed on the NSF website.

As proof that the two lots were part of the same batch, Witness B noted that the first six digits of the lot number, which refer to the cook date, were identical: 220921, or September 21, 2022. Furthermore, Witness B said the seventh digit refers to the specific production line used at the factory. Again, both were the same — 1, referring to the first production line.

Witness B said it would not be feasible to produce two separate batches on the same day, noting that a batch with 20,000 jars’ worth of gummies would take roughly 19 hours to complete with a minimum of eight hours to clean the production line between batches.

Witness B and another witness from Better Nutritionals (Witness A) noted there was no logical source for contamination as GW1516 is not an ingredient of any of the other products manufactured in the Gardena plant.

To simplify: one lot of 7,500 jars (lot 22092117150213) was NSF Certified but did not bear the NSF label. Another lot of 12,500 jars (lot 22092117150234) was not NSF Certified but did bear the NSF label, and that is the lot Asinga’s gummies came from. Better Nutritionals claims the two lots were cooked as one large batch of 20,000 jars, and as a result, the fact that one lot was NSF Certified means that both lots should be considered NSF Certified.

To represent him in his appeal, Asinga hired Greene, the sports lawyer who previously represented Jarrion Lawson, Shelby Houlihan, Peter Bol, and many others in their high-profile doping cases. Greene said he does not buy Witness B’s argument.

“There’s no such thing as two lots of the same,” Greene told LetsRun.com. “They’re not the same. Every lot is separate according to NSF and according to FDA rules.”

After it was informed of Asinga’s positive test by the AIU, the NSF conducted its own investigation and issued the following public notice on June 4:

Gatorade® Immune Support Gummies (citrus; lot number 22091937150233) and Gatorade® Recovery Gummies (cherry; lot number 22092117150234), manufactured by Better Nutritionals LLC, have been found in the public domain bearing the NSF Certified for Sport® Mark without authorization. These specific lot numbers, for these products, have not been tested, evaluated or certified by NSF and are not authorized to use the NSF certification mark or make any claims of NSF certification.

Furthermore, Greene noted that Witness B was terminated for cause by Better Nutritionals in December 2022 — the same month Better Nutritionals filed for bankruptcy.

Asinga asked a representative at Gatorade for a sealed container from lot 22092117150234 — the lot from which Assinga’s gummies came — but was informed that Gatorade Recovery Gummies had been discontinued for “manufacturing reasons” (Witness A said the gummies were discontinued because Better Nutritionals went bankrupt). The AIU and SMRTL also requested sealed containers from the same lot, yet Gatorade/Better Nutritionals only made containers from lot 22092117150213 available. Greene says that makes no sense. If the two lots are identical, Greene argues, why not send one from the same lot number as Asinga’s?

“Somehow they had several sealed versions from the 7,500 lot but nothing from the 12,500 lot,” Greene said. “I find it hard to believe they don’t have anything out there and it was an intentional choice to withhold it. It had to be. Why else wouldn’t they give us one from both? What’s the difference?”

If Gatorade has no sealed version, Greene says, they are in violation of FDA regulations, which state that supplement manufacturers must hold reserve samples from each lot they produce.

The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya has detailed how a top Brazilian athlete training in Kenya was nabbed over the use of a prohibited substance before she was suspended.

Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has explained how Brazilian athlete Graziele Zarri was caught cheating in the country before she was provisionally suspended.

Zarri was among five athletes suspended by ADAK over various doping offences last month, the others being Kenyans Samuel Kimani Wanjiru, Panuel Mkungo, Brian Kiptoo and Victor Kiptoo.

The Brazilian was nabbed for using prohibited substances S1.1 Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS)/Testosterone with tests conducted while she was in the country.

“I confirm that ADAK collected a sample from the athlete on 23rd January 2024,” ADAK’s Head of Legal Services Bildad Rogoncho said in a response to Pulse Sports.

“The sample was transported to and analyzed by a WADA accredited laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden; that is the Doping Control Laboratory - Karolinska University Hospital.

“The Sample tested positive for Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS)/ Pregnanediol, Androsterone, Androstane, Ketoetiocholanolone, Androstanediol, Etiocholanolone, Adilos, Epitestosterone and Testosterone.

“The athlete’s case was then referred to the Brazilian National Anti-Doping Organization for processing.”

ADAK says the athlete had been training in Eldoret when the sample was collected but when contacted, she denied having used the prohibited substance and claimed to have used a supplement acquired in Kenya.

She, however, failed to produce proof of the supplement and could not also recall its name, leaving ADAK with no option but to act.

“The athlete alleged to have bought and used some supplement which are suspected to have been contaminated with the substance found in the athlete's system. This matter is now being dealt with by the Brazilian National Anti-Doping Organization,” added Rogoncho.

Zarri is a long-distance runner who recently won the 5k race in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and had been training in Kenya, alongside her husband Daniel Nascimento, in a bid to make Brazil’s Olympics team.

Nascimento is the South American marathon record holder and the only Brazilian qualified for the marathon at the upcoming Paris Olympics.

On Monday morning, Surinamese sprinter and current world U20 100m record holder Issam Asinga was issued a four-year doping ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after testing positive for the metabolites of GW1516 in an out-of-competition test on July 18, 2023. Asinga and his agent claimed the positive test resulted from ingesting Gatorade Recovery Gummies, which were given to him after he won the Gatorade U.S. Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year award last July.

A few weeks later, at the South American Athletics Championships in São Paulo, Brazil, Asinga set a new U20 100m world record of 9.89 seconds, only to be provisionally suspended two weeks later, just before the start of the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

GW1516 was originally developed to treat obesity and diabetes, but is not approved for human use, due to its carcinogenic effects. It is banned both in and out of competition and is not eligible for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). A USADA bulletin from 2019 states that GW1516, also known as cardarine or endurobol, has been found in some supplements, despite being illegal.

Asinga claimed he took gummies from Gatorade that were supposed to help with recovery. He said two containers of the gummies revealed the presence of the banned substance, but the AIU panel stated he did not show proof that the gummies were the source of the drug found in his sample.

According to the AIU, Asinga claimed he took the Gatorade gummies the week before the positive test, and that subsequent testing of two unsealed containers of Gatorade gummies, provided by the athlete, revealed the presence of GW1516 and GW1516 sulfoxide. “The Disciplinary Tribunal found that Asinga did not satisfy his burden of proof to establish that the Gatorade Recovery Gummies were the source of the GW1516 metabolites detected in his sample.”

In making its decision, the AIU Disciplinary Tribunal stated that the Gatorade recovery gummies provided in unsealed containers by the athlete for testing contained significantly more GW1516 on the outside than on the inside, which practically excludes any contamination by raw ingredients during the manufacturing process. They also noted that the gummies were batch-tested by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), and that a sealed jar of the Gatorade recovery gummies, from the same batch taken by Asinga, tested negative for GW1516.

The 19-year-old sprinter plans to appeal the ban, which would take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

All of Asinga’s results from July 18 onward will be disqualified, including his two South American Championships gold medals in the 100m and 200m, as well as his world U20 100m record of 9.89 seconds.

Fast fields featuring Olympians, Paralympians, rising stars, and recent B.A.A. event winners will take center stage at the Boston 5K presented by Point32Health and B.A.A. Invitational Mile on Saturday, April 13. The deepest professional field in race history will include more than 100 accomplished athletes from 19 nations, set to square off for prize money and awards in the open, wheelchair, and Para Athletics Divisions. 

“More than 40,000 athletes will take part in B.A.A. races across Boston Marathon weekend,” said Jack Fleming, President and Chief Executive Officer of the B.A.A. “Saturday’s Boston 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile fields feature some of the fastest American and international stars, many who are aiming to compete at the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.”

A new champion will be crowned and the stage is set for another close race at the Boston 5K. Ben Flanagan (Canada), Edwin Kurgat (Kenya), and Alex Masai (Kenya) – all top-five finishers a year ago – will return. They were at the front of an exciting finish a year ago that saw the top 13 men come across the line within ten seconds of the winner.

Top Americans Cooper Teare, Zach Panning, and Drew Hunter look to be at the front of the field. Teare is the reigning U.S. club cross country national champion, while Panning led a majority of February’s USA Olympic Team Trials – Marathon and Hunter is a former national champion indoors at 2 miles. B.A.A. High Performance Team members Eric Hamer and Barry Keane will be racing their hometown event.

Also on the start line will be Ben Kigen, an Olympic steeplechase bronze medalist in 2021; Simon Koech, last year’s Diamond League winner in the steeplechase; and Merhawi Mebrahtu, the 5,000m World Junior Championships silver medalist. Ethiopians Getnet Wale and Addisu Yihune are the two fastest men in the field, having gone sub-13:00 on the track for 5,000 meters.

Leading the women’s field is USATF 5K National Champion and B.A.A. High Performance Team member Annie Rodenfels. Joining her are 2024 Team USA Olympic marathoner Dakotah Lindwurm, former American marathon record holder Keira D’Amato, perennial top-American Boston Marathoner Nell Rojas, as well as Team B.A.A. runners Abbey Wheeler, Bethany Hasz Jerde, and Megan Hasz Sailor.

Uganda’s Sarah Chelangat, the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile champion in 2023, and Mercy Chelangat, a former NCAA Cross Country and 10,000m winner, are both entered. Reigning B.A.A. Half Marathon champion Fotyen Tesfay of Ethiopia also comes back to Boston seeking another win.

In the wheelchair division, course record holder and six-time Boston Marathon champion Marcel Hug (Switzerland) will square off against Americans Daniel Romanchuk and Aaron Pike. Brazil’s Vanessa de Souza – the 2018 Boston 5K winner – is the women’s wheelchair division favorite. Perennial Para Athletics Division contenders El Amine Chentouf (T12, vision impairment), Brian Reynolds (T62, lower-limb impairment), and Marko Cheseto (T62, lower-limb impairment) will vie for prize money and podium placings. This will be the largest professional Para Athletics Division field in event history.

Nearly 10,000 participants will take part in the Boston 5K, serving as the first race of the 2024 B.A.A. Distance Medley series.

KRISSY GEAR LOOKS TO REPEAT IN B.A.A. INVITATIONAL MILE

Krissy Gear earned a hard-fought B.A.A. Invitational Mile win last year and now comes in with the target on her back as defending champion. Four of the top five finishers from 2024 return, including Susan Ejore (Kenya), Jazz Shukla (Canada) and Taryn Rawlings (USA). Micaela Degenero, the 2022 NCAA Indoor Mile champion, and 4:23.94 Helen Schlachtenhaufen are entered as well.

Massachusetts high school standout Ellie Shea will take on the professionals. The Belmont High School student-athlete finished 10th at last year’s B.A.A. Invitational Mile.

Massachusetts native and 3:52.94 miler Johnny Gregorek leads the men’s field of competitors. Melkeneh Azize of Ethiopia, the world junior champion at 3000m in 2022, and Harvard’s Vivien Henz, a national champion in Luxembourg, will each make their B.A.A. road racing debuts.

In addition to the professionals, student-athletes from each of the eight cities and towns that make up the Boston Marathon route will compete in a Scholastic Mile and Middle School 1K.

Former world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei will be keen to gauge her form at the Lisbon Half Marathon ahead of her return to the London Marathon.

Former world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei is the star attraction for the Lisbon Half Marathon, where she intends to have a great build-up for the London Marathon.

The 30-year-old will use the 21km race scheduled for Sunday, March 17 to gauge form and pace for the marathon that takes place in the capital city of England.

In addition to Kosgei, there will be other big names in the ladies' elite in Lisbon, with six more women with personal bests under 68 minutes.

Bosena Mulatie (65.46), Tigist Menigstu (66.20), and Betty Chepkemoi Kibet (66.37) will be hoping to stop Kosgei who suffered an injury last season and was forced to withdraw from the London Marathon.

Pauline Esikon (67.15), Vivian Melly (67.35) and Zewditu Aderaw Gelaw (67.25) are the other highlights beyond Kosgei.

The men’s field has attracted 10 athletes with the best marks under the hour. Abraham Kiptum will be returning and he is the biggest highlight, with a personal best of 59.09.

He will face a stern test from Ethiopians Solomon Berihu (59.17) and Dinkalem Ayele (59.30), but also compatriots Brian Kwemoi and Bravin Kipkogei Kiptoo (both with 59.37).

Meanwhile, several European athletes like the Norwegian Sondre Nordstad Moen (59.48), the Germans Amanal Petros (60.09) and Hendrik Pfeiffer (62.05), the Irish Stephen Scullion (61.08), Hélio Gomes and Rui Pinto have also confirmed participation. Brazilian Daniel do Nascimento, with a personal record of 61.03, will also be present, in what is his first race with Nike.

In advance of the highly anticipated race scheduled for this Sunday, March 10, 2024, the Nagoya Women’s Marathon held a pre-race press conference for the invited elite athletes today in Nagoya, Japan.

Gotytom Gebreslase (ETH), 2022 Oregon World Champion and 2023 Budapest World Championships silver medalist said, “My goal for Sunday is to run under two hours 18 minutes, and if the weather and pacemakers are good, I will try to break the course record of 2:17:18.” Her competitor Eunice Chebichii Chumba of Bahrain, 2023 Asian Games Champion said, “My preparation has been going well, and my focus will be to improve my personal best of 2:20:02.”

For Japanese athletes, the Nagoya Women’s Marathon 2024 will be the last chance to win a place in the Paris Olympics team by beating the new national record of 2:18:59 just set by Honami Maeda this January.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympians Ayuko Suzuki will aim to break the target of 2:18:59 so she can compete in the Olympics again to show what she really can do, adding that she was ready to turn the support of the local spectators of her hometown Aichi into strength. Sharing the same goal with Ayuko, Rika Kaseda commented that she had prepared for a high-speed race and would challenge herself to keep up with the pace of other fast athletes to grab the last ticket for Paris 2024.

In addition to these top elite athletes, many recreational runners will join the Nagoya Women’s Marathon 2024 from home and abroad, making it an exciting race with 18,000 participants. All finishers will be presented with an event’s exclusively designed Tiffany & Co. pendant and a New Balance T-shirt as the finisher prize.

Sunday’s race will be streamed live free of charge to 37 countries and regions (Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States of America) on the race’s official website at https://womens-marathon.nagoya/en/broadcast.php. Stay tuned for the race to start at 9:10 a.m. on Sunday, March 10, 2024, Japan time.

The logic is good and the anecdotes are common, but the evidence is shakier than expected, researchers find

The best way to prevent running injuries isn’t to waste your time stretching or searching for the perfect shoe; it’s to get strong. That’s where the zeitgeist has been headed over the past decade or so, as old ideas about injury prevention have produced disappointing results in studies. The rationale for strength training, by contrast, is seemingly unassailable: injuries occur when more stress is applied to a tissue than it can absorb, so strengthening the tissue should ward off injuries.

But that claim, too, should be treated with caution, according to a new systematic review of exercise-based prevention programs for running injuries. In Sports Medicine, a research team led by Richard Blagrove of Loughborough University in Britain sums up the available evidence. Blagrove, for the record, is the author of Strength and Conditioning for Endurance Running and has worked with plenty of elite runners on their strength routines, so it’s not like he’s an anti-strength-training zealot. I’ve written before about some of his previous research on strength training and running economy. But the overall picture on injury prevention is underwhelming—although, as Blagrove and his colleagues point out, there are reasons for optimism and some intriguing avenues for future research.

As with all systematic reviews, the first challenge is finding studies that meet your criteria. In this case, one of the key hurdles was ensuring that the subjects in the study were, by some reasonable definition, runners. Previous reviews of the topic have included military studies where running only made up a small fraction of overall training, and injuries sustained during other training activities were counted as “running injuries.” For the new review, they insisted that running had to be the subjects’ main training activity, comprising at least half their training time.

They were able to include nine articles with a total of 1,904 subjects—which, for a tricky topic like running injuries, isn’t a lot. The exercise interventions were all over the map: strength exercises like lunges and squats, plyometric hops and jumps, core routines, foot strengthening, and so on. Overall, perhaps not surprisingly given the wide variety of regimens, there was no significant benefit for the exercise groups compared to the control groups in injury risk (what proportion of subjects got injured during the studies) or injury rate (how many injuries they suffered for a given amount of running).

That, for now, is the state of the evidence. As always, we’re left hungry for more. What are the injury benefits of a straightforward strength-training routine? Given that this is among the most common forms of supplementary exercise among runners, you’d think we would know if it helps, but there’s almost no evidence either way. That’s important, Blagrove and co. point out, because there is robust evidence that this approach works in other sports like soccer. That doesn’t mean it will work in running, since the injury mechanisms are different, but it does suggest that it’s worth finding out.

One intriguing pattern in the data is that the three studies that produced the lowest injury risk also happened to be the three studies where the exercise routine was supervised rather than just assigned to be performed at home. Previous research has tended to find that people get bigger gains when they have a spotter or a personal trainer looking on. That could be because they dig a little deeper; or in this case, it could be that this is the only way to ensure people do the exercises at all. Sports medicine doctors and physical therapists often laugh about the patients who come for a follow-up visit claiming that they’ve been doing their assigned exercises religiously… but when they’re asked to demonstrate them, search for the piece of paper where the exercises are described. Exercises can only work if you actually do them, needless to say.

It’s also worth noting that Blagrove and his colleagues were particularly intrigued by a 2020 study from the American Journal of Sports Medicine that used foot and ankle strengthening, including exercises like the “foot doming,” based on the concept of a “foot core” providing stability to the rest of the body. In that study of 118 runners in Brazil, the control group was 2.4 times more likely to develop an injury during the one-year follow-up period. The survival graph from that study, showing the cumulative injuries for the control group (solid line) and foot-strengthening group (dashed line), is certainly compelling:

But the whole point of a meta-analysis is to pool more than one study, to increase sample size and reduce the risk of fluke results—and of investigator error or bias. One of the minor details in the meta-analysis: there were actually two other studies that met the inclusion criteria, both by the same research team. But when Blagrove’s team dug into the studies, they found identical baseline data—the same age, height, body mass, BMI, running experience, and biomechanical parameters—and identical injury occurrences… even though the studies had different sample sizes, durations, and exercises. The authors didn’t respond to questions about their data, so Blagrove’s meta-analysis excluded them.

The bottom line? We can’t say for sure, at this point, whether strength training or other forms of exercise lower your risk of getting injured while running. The logic is sound, and the circumstantial evidence from other sports is suggestive. Maybe more importantly, there’s also solid evidence that various forms of strength training improve running economy and boost your long-term health. It would be nice to get some injury prevention as a bonus, but the package is already pretty enticing.

Japanese ultra-runner sets women’s all-time best by slim margin as Aleksandr Sorokin takes men’s title at the IAU World 24-hour Championships in Taipei

Japan’s Miho Nakata set a women’s world record when winning the IAU World 24-hour Championships in Taipei on Saturday (Dec 2) while Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin retained his world crown and the British team won bronze in the men’s race, Adrian Stott reports.

With final results still to be confirmed, organisers are reporting a distance of 270.363km (167.995 miles) which, if confirmed, will surpass the distance set by Camille Heron of 270.116km (167.842 miles) at the last edition of the championship in 2019 by a mere 246 metres.

Nakata had been the early leader and at six hours had reached 78km, with Finland’s Noora Honkala and Herron in second and third. She reached 100km in around 7hr 50min, a total of 10 minutes up on Herron’s split from her world record run in 2019.

At halfway, Nakata had accumulated 146km, on par with Herron’s record split at the 2019 event in Albi. Herron was lying second with 142km, Norway’s Line Caliskaner was on 140km with Spain’s Carmen Maria Perez and Honkala also on 140km.

Herron seemed to encounter difficulties and retired at this point, leaving Nakata to power on and reach 100 miles in approximately 13hr 25min with Spain’s Perez at about 13:45 and Honkala at 14.00.

By 20 hours, Nakata had reached 228.00km. Although still moving well it looked like she was falling slightly behind record schedule despite being 12km ahead of Perez, as Ukraine’s Olena Shevchenko moved up to third.

A strong final three hours by Nakata took her past Herron’s mark, seemingly in the final minutes of the race. Shevchenko took the silver, while previous champion and world record holder Patrycja Bereznowska of Poland took bronze.

Putting Nakata’s run in perspective, her distance was only beaten by four of the men in the championship and increased her 24-hour PB by 14km from 256.024km. She also has a 100km best of 7:19:12 when finishing at the 2023 World 100km Championships in Berlin.

Positions changed a lot in the last couple of hours, with the likelihood of several national records yet to be confirmed in both the women’s and men’s races.

In the team competition, the experienced Polish team paced well to take the gold medals. Japan claimed silver and Czech Republic the bronze.

Sorokin retains global title

Aleksandr Sorokin had a similarly emphatic victory in the men’s race, although falling short of his current world record.

At six hours he led Brazil’s Denison Da Silva by 2km, with Greece’s Fotios Zisimopoulos in third. Reaching the first landmark of 100k in just over seven hours, he was slowly stretching his lead out.

Sorokin hit 100 miles in approximately 11hr 35min and totalled 166km at halfway. This compared with a 170.9km split when he set his exceptional world record of 319.614km in Verona last year. Zisimopoulos reached halfway in 158km, with Ukrainian Andrii Tkachuk now third.

Sorokin maintained a strong pace in the second half of the race to take the victory, surpassing 300km for the third time in his career to retain his title. Zisimopoulos, who had broken the record in the 245km Spartathlon race in September, cemented his place in the world ultra standings, taking second place with over 290km to gain his first ultra championship medal. Tkachuk took the bronze.

Lithuania took the gold medals in the team competition, with Poland taking silver.

Superb pacing from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland men’s team saw them earn well-deserved bronze medals.

Daniel Hawkins led the British men home in 10th, Former European 24-hour champions Dan Lawson was 17th and British record-holder Robbie Britton was the third counter in 22nd place.

21-year-old Catherine Reline will be eyeing a debut at the Olympic Games after a fruitful 2023 season.

21-year-old Catherine Reline will be hoping to extend her good fortunes to the 2024 season as she eyes the Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Reline has enjoyed a great 2023 season, securing a podium place in most of her races. The highlight of her career this season was finishing third in the Half Marathon at the World Road Running Championships.

She also won the Chemasusu Dam Half Marathon and also finished second at the Trunsylvania International 10K where Agnes Ngetich broke the world record.

However, Ngetich’s world record was not ratified since the course did not meet the standards of World Athletics.

“I have another race in Brazil then after that, I will come back home to prepare for the Olympic Games where I intend to make Team Kenya for the 10,000m,” she said.

Speaking about her preparations ahead of the Chemasusu Dam Half Marathon, Reline said she did not prepare well for the race since she was just from the World Road Running Championships in Riga.

“I had not prepared well for the race since I was just from competing at the World Half Marathon.

I rested for a bit and then went to compete…I wanted to try the half marathon because my body was not very tired and I felt like I had the strength to run another race,” she said.

Courtesy of her win, she walked away with Ksh 100,000 and she expressed her excitement about walking away with the money noting that the economic times are hard.

Isai Rodriguez and Sam Chelanga made history Friday at the Pan American Games, becoming the first American teammates to take the top two spots in the men’s 10,000-meter final at Julio Martinez Pradanos National Stadium in Santiago, Chile.

Rodriguez, an All-American at Oklahoma State, and Chelanga – the collegiate 10,000 record holder from 2010 at Liberty – became the first pair of teammates from any country since 1979 and only the third tandem in meet history to secure gold and silver in the event.

Rodriguez prevailed in 28 minutes, 17.84 seconds, the fastest Pan Am Games winning performance since 2007, and Chelanga clocked 29:01.21, with Guatemala’s Alberto Gonzalez earning bronze in 29:12.24.

Rodriguez and Chelanga joined Mexico’s Rodolfo Gomez and Enrique Aquino in 1979, along with Luis Hernandez and Gomez in 1975 as the only teammates to sweep the top two spots in the men’s 10,000.

Rodriguez secured the first 10,000 gold for the U.S. since Bruce Bickford triumphed in 1987 in Indiana.

It marked the second straight Pan Am Games that the Americans had two athletes on the 10,000 podium, with Reid Buchanan and Lawi Lalang achieving silver and bronze in 2019 in Peru. The U.S. also had a pair of 10,000 medalists in 1967 in Winnipeg.

The Americans added bronze medals in the women’s 1,500-meter final and javelin throw competition, in addition to the men’s shot put, taking the lead with 19 overall medals entering the last day of the track and field schedule.

Brazil leads with seven gold medals and is second behind the Americans with 18 overall medals.

Darlan Romani triumphed for Brazil in the men’s shot put with a fifth-round effort of 70-1 (21.36m).

Mexico’s Uziel Aaron Munoz secured silver at 69-4.75 (21.15m), with former Arizona standout and NCAA Division 1 champion Jordan Geist edging fellow American athlete Roger Steen for bronze by a 67-4.25 (20.53m) to 67-3.50 (20.51m) margin.

Colombia’s Flor Denis Ruiz won the women’s javelin gold medal with a throw of 207 feet (63.10m) on her opening attempt.

Nebraska teammates Rhema Otabor, representing the Bahamas, and American competitor Maddie Harris captured silver and bronze, respectively. Otabor had a mark of 198-7 (60.54m) and Harris produced a throw of 197 feet (60.06m).

Venezuela’s Joselyn Brea completed a sweep of the women’s 1,500 and 5,000 titles, clocking 4:11.80 to edge Cuba’s Daily Cooper (4:11.86) and American athlete Emily Mackay (4:12.02).

Gianna Woodruff believed she had become the first female athlete from Panama to capture a Pan Am Games gold medal in any event, clocking 56.44 in the women’s 400-meter hurdles.

But Woodruff was later disqualified as a result of Rule 22.6.2, which states that an athlete is penalized after “knocking down or displacing any hurdle by hand, body or the upper side of the lead leg.”

Brazil’s Marlene Santos, who ran 57.18, was elevated to the event winner, with Daniela Rojas from Costa Rica earning silver in 57.41 and Montverde Academy of Florida senior Michelle Smith, representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, taking bronze in 57.53.

Jamaica’s Jaheel Hyde emerged victorious in the men’s 400-meter hurdles in 49.19.

Brazil’s Matheus Lima earned silver in 49.69 and Cuba’s Yoao Illas was the bronze medalist in 49.74.

Cuba’s Luis Enrique Zayas cleared 7-5.25 (2.27m) on his third attempt to prevail in the men’s high jump final.

Puerto Rico’s Luis Joel Castro achieved a 7-4.25 (2.24m) clearance on his first opportunity to capture silver, with Donald Thomas of the Bahamas grabbing bronze after achieving the height on his third try.

Cuba added two more medals in the men’s triple jump final, with Lazaro Martinez winning on his first attempt with a 56-4.75 (17.19m) performance.

Brazil’s Almir Dos Santos secured silver at 55-6.25 (16.92m) and Cuba’s Cristian Napoles took the bronze medal at 54-8 (16.66m), holding off American athlete Chris Benard and his fourth-place mark of 54-1 (16.48m).

A Brazilian ultrarunner has set a new Guinness World Record for the most consecutive marathon-distance runs in 366 days. On August 28, Hugo Farias of São Paulo completed his 366 consecutive 42.2-kilometer runs to finish his Projeto Propósito in front of a crowd of 2,000 people.

Farias, 44, started his journey on Aug. 28, 2022, after quitting his job at IBM. He set out on this challenge with the goal of completing 365 marathons in 365 days to show people that anything is possible. He did not decide to do a 366th until recently, as he wanted to eclipse the Guinness World Record and surpass the accomplishments of Belgium’s Stefan Engels and England’s Gary McKee, both of whom completed the full calendar year.

Farias tracked the entire project on Strava, where he wore daily bib numbers according to the marathon number he was on. After completing his 366th run, Farias joked, “I think I will start reducing volume now.”

The father of one covered an astonishing 15,443 km, which is equivalent to a flight from New York to Singapore, and 123,000 metres of elevation gain, or roughly 14 times the height of Mount Everest. According to his Strava, Farias went through 27 pairs of running shoes during the challenge and had 10 shoes on rotation (over 10 days) for the first five months.

His Projeto Propósito required extensive planning, and Farias had support from a team of health professionals which included running coaches, a physical trainer, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, a nutritionist, an orthopedist, a dermatologist (his wife), plus cardiologists and physiologists. Farias also dedicated three months to physical and mental preparation before undertaking his marathon journey.

His Projeto Propósito required extensive planning, and Farias had support from a team of health professionals which included running coaches, a physical trainer, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, a nutritionist, an orthopedist, a dermatologist (his wife), plus cardiologists and physiologists. Farias also dedicated three months to physical and mental preparation before undertaking his marathon journey.

Former Valencia Half Marathon winner Kibiwott Kandie is among 14 Kenyans set to battle it out at the Valencia Half Marathon on October 22 in Spain.

Kandie, who holds the half marathon's best time of 57:32, will face tough competition from Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha who holds a time of 58:32 (second best time in the marathon).

Kandie, the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon silver medalist, will be hoping to cement his name in Valencia and replicate his amazing performance back in 2020 when he set the record time in the race. 

The two will be joined by runners, who have clocked under 59 minutes in the race,  including Matthew Kimeli, winner of the 15th annual UAE Healthy Kidney 10K in 2019 in Central Park, New York, who holds a time of 58:43. 

Sebastian Sawe, who holds a half marathon best of 58:58 from his win at the 2022 Bahrain Royal Night Half Marathon,  will be gunning to take the title from Kandie.

The 2022 Standard Chartered Marathon 10km bronze medalist, Bravin Kiprop, who has a time of 59:22 in the half marathon, will also be among the challengers alongside Josephat Kiprotich who won the 38th edition of the Maratona da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June.

Other Kenyan athletes in the race include Brian Kwemoi (59:37), Hillary Kipkoech (59:41), Erick Sang (59:50), Weldon Langat (59:55), Laban Kiplimo (1:00.13) and Kelvin Kibiwott (1:00.14).

Ethiopian’s Tadese Worku, 3,000m medalist at the 2021 World Athletics U20, and 5,000m world 3,000m junior record holder,  Hagos Gebrhiwet will give the Kenyans a competitive race.

Great Britain's all-time number three, Callum Robert Hawkins (1:00:00), will be looking to pull an upset for the group.

The women's challenge will be led by the 2019 world 5,000m silver medallist, Margaret Chelimo who holds a time of 1:05:26 in the marathon and she will be joined by Janet Chepngetich.

The 2020 World Half Marathon silver medalist and current European record holder over the distance, Melat Kejeta from Germany together with Ethiopia’s  2023 world cross country silver medalist, Tsigie Gebreselama will give the Kenyan ladies a tough race.

Suriname’s Issam Asinga, who only two weeks ago stunned the athletics world by shattering the U20 100m world record at the South American Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for the alleged use or presence of a prohibited substance . The suspension, which went into effect Wednesday and was announced by the AIU on Friday, is for the presence of GW1516, a substance that modifies how the body metabolizes fat, and which can boost endurance.

Provisional suspensions are issued before a hearing to determine whether the charges warrant any official punishment.

Botswana’s Nijel Amos, who won silver in the 800m at the 2012 Olympics in London, received a provisional suspension last year for the presence of the same metabolite ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore. He ended up receiving a three-year ban.

GW1516 was originally developed to treat obesity and diabetes, but is not approved for human use, since it was discovered to be carcinogenic. It is banned in and out of competition, and not eligible for Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). A USADA bulletin from 2019 says GW1516 is also sometimes known as cardarine or endurobol and has been found in some supplements, even though it is illegal. In 2017, there were 31 sanctions worldwide related to its use.

The 18-year-old Asinga clocked an impressive 9.89 seconds with a tailwind of (-0.8m/s) on July 28 to become the first South American sprinter to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m. His blazing run surpassed the previous record of 9.91 seconds set by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo at last year’s World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, and also broke the South American area record, bettering the 10.00 mark set by Brazil’s Robson da Silva in 1988.

In addition to claiming a world record in Brazil, Asinga’ also picked up a free PlayStation 5 with his performance. A tweet posted last week shows retired American sprinter Justin Gatlin handing Asinga the video game console with the caption “The special moment when Justin Gatlin promised Issam Asinga a PS5 if he ran a legal 9.8 and he delivered!”

Asinga has made headlines in the 2023 season, running for Montverde Academy near Orlando, Fla. Earlier this year, he beat world champion Noah Lyles in a 100m race to break the U.S. high school record, and a week later, broke Lyles’s 200m high school record in 19.97 seconds.

The provisional suspension appears to have dashed Asinga’s dreams for gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest later this month, where he was set to run the double. The sprinter has plans to head to Texas A&M University in the NCAA on a full track and field scholarship this fall.

In a remarkable debut on the international stage, 18-year-old Issam Asinga of Suriname stunned the athletics world on Friday, shattering the U20 100m world record at the South American Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Asinga clocked an impressive 9.89 seconds with a tailwind of (-0.8m/s) to become the first South American sprinter to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m.

Asinga’s blazing run surpassed the previous record of 9.91 seconds set by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo at last year’s World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, and also broke the South American area record, bettering the 10.00 mark set by Brazil’s Robson da Silva in 1988.

To make his record more impressive, his time was run at altitude, as Sao Paulo sits nearly 800m above sea level. Asinga’s new record also sparred other fast times in the field, with Brazil’s Erik Cardoso breaking the Brazilian national record for silver in 9.97. 

The 18-year-old sprint phenom has made headlines in the 2023 season, running for Montverde Academy near Orlando, Fla. Earlier this year, he beat world champion Noah Lyles in a 100m race to break the U.S. high school record, and a week later, broke Lyles’s 200m high school record in 19.97 seconds. 

Asinga’s sights are now on the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest this August, where he will run the sprint double. After worlds, Asinga will head to Texas A&M University in the NCAA on a full track and field scholarship. His exceptional talent runs in the family. His father, Tommy Asinga, holds multiple national records for Suriname and represented the country at three Olympic Games (1988, 1992 and 1996).

New research shows that motivational self-talk can counter brain drain.

Susanna Sullivan is no stranger to mental fatigue. From late August until early June, the 2:24 marathoner teaches pre-algebra to 104 sixth-graders—which, if you’ve ever dealt with middle schoolers, you’ll know can be exhausting.

“If a student asks, ‘Can I go to the office?’ I immediately have to make all these other considerations: Who else is out of the room? Do I trust the kid to go directly to the office? Are they distressed?” says Sullivan. “By the end of the day, my brain is toast.”

While her non-athletic colleagues may be able to go home and recharge after a long day, Sullivan needs to find a way to rally. Her coach, who is the head coach at George Mason University, holds practices in the evenings. Given that Sullivan is expected to make the American marathon team for the World Championships in August, these workouts matter... whether she’s mentally drained or not.

Much of the prevailing advice recommends doing your best to prevent mental fatigue. For runners like Sullivan, however, prevention isn’t a viable option. In that case, science suggests motivational self-talk might be the solution.

The Problem With Mental Fatigue

Anyone who has had a “long day” knows what mental fatigue feels like: you’re drained, you can’t concentrate, your self-regulation is trashed, and you probably have no interest in going for a run, never mind a hard workout. This comes from putting in the effort to pay attention to something while blocking out distractors—which research shows is tiring and kills your ability to self-regulate.

“There are a certain amount of effs you can give in a day. And if you give them all up, by the end of the day you’ve got none left to give,” says Shannon Baird, Ph.D., a certified mental performance consultant who works with the United States Army Special Forces.

Typically, Baird and others recommend finding ways to pause and recharge throughout the day to avoid creating a mental fatigue “deficit.” If you become mentally fatigued, the most common recommendations are to put off a hard workout or adjust your pace or intervals. Sometimes, however—as in Sullivan’s reality—mental fatigue is unavoidable, and you can’t reschedule. If you hit traffic on your way to a race, for instance, you can’t just move the race to a different day, and you probably don’t want to give up on your goals. In that case, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, try some motivational self-talk.

Why Motivation Is Important

According to Gleber Pereira, Ph.D., an associate professor in the physical education department at Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil and the lead author on the study, motivation is a key contributor to whether or not you’re willing to continue exercising, particularly at a given intensity.

“We have two reasons to explain how you stop or continue exercise: potential motivation, or your willingness to keep exerting yourself in exercise, and motivational intensity, which is how you perceive effort during the exercise,” he says. According to this model, a runner will slow down or stop when their perceived effort matches their level of willingness.

Mental fatigue has a double-whammy effect when it comes to potential motivation and motivational intensity:

First, researchers theorize that it may decrease your potential motivation before you ever start exercising. 

Second, it makes you perceive the effort as more difficult sooner than if you were mentally fresh.

Therefore, Pereira and his colleagues hypothesized that if they could manipulate athletes’ motivation levels, they could offset these performance-impairing effects of mental fatigue. They decided to test an intervention that is freely available to every athlete: self-talk.

Testing Motivational-Self Talk

The researchers took 12 men who typically exercised three to five days per week and had them perform three identical cycling tests to exhaustion several days apart. In the first two sessions, participants spent 30 minutes prior to the cycling test either relaxing in a comfortable chair (the control condition) or performing a mentally fatiguing activity called the Stroop task. 

During this task, participants identified the display color of words that appeared on a computer screen while ignoring the color that the letters spelled out. (So if the word “red” appeared in green ink, the participant was supposed to press the green button.) The researchers then used a brainwave-measurement technique called electroencephalography and asked participants to self-report their level of fatigue to confirm that, in the mental fatigue condition, they were in fact mentally fatigued.

In the third session, participants were trained how to perform motivational self-talk—essentially redirecting negative thoughts by using short motivational phrases such as “Let’s go!” and “You can do it!” They then performed their final cycling test, which used the same setup as the mental fatigue (Stroop task) condition; this time, however, they were instructed to use motivational self-talk cues whenever they had negative thoughts, felt tired, or otherwise wanted to stop.

It Works!

When the subjects were mentally fatigued, their endurance performance worsened (i.e., they quit sooner) by approximately 19 percent compared to the control condition. However, when the subjects were mentally fatigued and practiced self-talk during exercise, their endurance performance remained similar to the control condition—meaning that despite being mentally fatigued, they were able to maintain their effort for longer.

Pereira and his colleagues speculate that motivational self-talk works in two ways. First, it helps you maintain or increase your potential motivation, i.e., your willingness to exert yourself.

“Mental fatigue may decrease your potential motivation from before you exercise,” says Pereira. “But when you use motivational self-talk, you might increase your willingness to exert.”

Second, it affects your perception of effort. The researchers found that while mental fatigue increased participants’ ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and feelings of displeasure at the outset of the test (compared to control), the participants reached their peak RPE and feelings of displeasure—which would lead to slowing down and stopping—later in the test when they used motivational self-talk than when they didn’t. 

Put another way, motivational self-talk helped them to delay feelings of maximal exertion (“This is so hard, I can’t keep going”) and displeasure (“I hate this, it isn’t worth it”), which improved their performance.

How to Develop Motivational Self-Talk

According to Baird, motivational self-talk is all about manipulating your internal environment.

“Your body is crying for attention because you’re pushing your body. But you don’t have to listen to the thoughts. You don’t have to board that train.” Instead, she says, “you want to facilitate your brain to be an asset, not a detriment.” One way to do that is through motivational-self-talk.

ID Your Negative Thoughts

To replace debilitating thoughts with ones that will enhance your performance, start by identifying the thoughts that are your most common detractors from performance. Maybe they have to do with physical sensations (“This hurts”), boredom (“When will this be over”), or despondency (“I’m a terrible runner; I’m never going to achieve my goal”). Wherever your brain tends to go, you want to be able to quickly recognize these thoughts when the arise.

Choose Motivational Phrases

Once you are prepared to recognize your negative thoughts, write down several motivational self-talk cues that resonate with you. Some examples from Pereira’s study include “Do your best,” “Go to your maximum,” and “Keep going.” He recommends keeping the sentences short and referring to yourself as “you” rather than “I.”

Sullivan finds her motivation in comparing the task at hand to other hard things. “You only have to run for two more minutes” or “Just make it up this hill” works because, as she says, “That seems so much more manageable than 104 sixth graders. A hill is nothing compared to them.”

Practice

Finally, it’s time to practice using your phrases. “Every time your thought goes to some wish to stop or decrease the pace—that’s when you need to use it,” says Pereira. “If you can do it in practice, you can be ready to do it in a race.” 

Kenya’s Bernard Koech won the men's race at the Haspa Marathon Hamburg in a course record of 2:04:09, while Dorcas Tuitoek completed a Kenyan double by winning the women’s race in 2:20:09 on Sunday (23).

Their compatriots Joshua Belet and Martin Kosgey took second and third in the men’s race with 2:04:33 and 2:06:18, respectively. Long-time leader Tiruye Mesfin of Ethiopia struggled in the final stages and despite falling, she still finished second in the women's race in 2:20:18, while Stella Chesang clocked 2:20:23 on her debut to break the Ugandan record.

In almost perfect conditions a leading group of 13 runners formed in the men’s race right after the start and they stayed together until the 27th kilometer. The half marathon mark was passed in 62:32, slightly off course record pace. But after 27km the pace of the leading group increased and Koech, Kosgey and Belet broke away. Kosgey dropped back right before the 35km mark and the decisive moment came when Koech left Belet behind.

Koech built on his lead and with 2:04:09 he improved the course record by 38 seconds.

With 2:04:33 for second place, Belet was also under the previous record, while Kosgey followed in 2:06:18.

Brazil’s Daniel Do Nascimento, who was among the pre-race favorites, finished fourth in 2:07:06.

“I ran a god race and I knew that I probably had to run a time around my PB to win,” said Koech. “I spoke with Eliud Kipchoge about the course before I came here and he gave me some advice.”

Kipchoge won his marathon debut in Hamburg back in 2013.

Kenya’s Rhonzai Lokitam Kilimo finished fifth in 2:08:08, the same time as Germany’s Richard Ringer – a PB for the latter, which is two seconds inside the Olympic qualifying time.

As expected, it was Mesfin who took the lead in the women’s race early on. But with a half marathon split of 69:46, she was not as fast as she had planned. The 2:17:23 course record was out of reach, but at 35km Mesfin looked a certain winner.

She was around a minute ahead of her rivals, but then disaster struck. The 20 year-old slowed and then stumbled, falling to the ground in the final kilometer. Behind her, Tuitoek saw her opportunity and found another gear to pass Mesfin around 300 meters from the finish line.

“I was really surprised to win. I did not see when Tiruye Mesfin fell, I was just fully focused on myself. I still had enough energy,” said 25-year-old Tuitoek, who had a PB of 2:24:54 before the race. “I knew that I could probably run a 2:20 time. This course is really fast and good for records.”

Very fast times and thrilling races are expected at the Haspa Marathon Hamburg on Sunday. Just a year after Yalemzerf Yehualaw set a sensational course record of 2:17:23, which at that time was an unofficial world debut record as well, a fellow-Ethiopian will be at the start line, hoping to smash the mark: 20 year-old Tiruye Mesfin announced at the press conference in Hamburg that she targets a world-class time of sub 2:17.

Brazil’s Daniel do Nascimento is among the men’s favorites. The South American record holder wants to bounce back after disaster struck in New York in November. After taking the European marathon gold in Munich in sensational style last summer Hamburg will be the first race at the classic distance for Germany’s Richard Ringer. Around 12,000 runners have registered for the marathon event while the total number including shorter races is over 30,000. 

A live stream of the race will be available worldwide at www.haspa-marathon-hamburg.deon Sunday. The race starts at 9.30am local time and the coverage will begin at 8.45am. While the commentary will be in German the Twitter account of the Haspa Marathon Hamburg will carry English elite race updates. 

Tiruye Mesfin could indeed be in a position to break the course record on Sunday if weather conditions will be suitable. At the moment the forecast looks good, however there might be some wind. The Ethiopian youngster ran a superb 2:18:47 debut at the Valencia Marathon in December and believes she can run considerably faster in her second marathon on Sunday.

“I am in fine form and my preparations went very well. I will try to break the course record, but at least I want to run a personal best,“ said Tiruye Mesfin, who hopes to be in the mix for Olympic qualification. „My plan is to run the first half in 68:00.“ While this would lead towards a world-class time of 2:16 she knows that it will probably not be enough to secure an Olympic spot. “I think I would have to go even faster, but there is some time left and I could do it in a later race.“ 

Qualifying for the 2024 Paris games will probably be easier for Stella Chesang since the competition for places in Uganda is not as tough as in Ethiopia. Running her debut marathon in Hamburg she is ready for an adventurous pace.

“I want to go with the first and see how it goes for me and what is possible. I hope to achieve Olympic qualification,“ said Stella Chesang, who chose Hamburg for her first marathon “because of the fast course“. Her half marathon PB of 68:11 indicates that she could break the Ugandan record of 2:23:13. And her tenth place at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, in February shows that she is probably in very good form.

Kenya’s Bernard Koech is the fastest runner in the field with a PB of 2:04:09. He did not make it in time for Thursday’s press conference because of a strike at Hamburg airport. South American record holder Daniel do Nascimento arrived a day earlier and was present when the conference fittingly began in room Sao Paulo at the Radisson Hotel.

A year ago the Brazilian, who recently trained in Uganda for a longer period, stunned with a time of 2:04:51 in Seoul. However the 24 year-old then collapsed with ten kilometers to go at the New York Marathon in November. Daniel do Nascimento ran world record pace in the first part of that race and was ahead by well over two minutes at half way. “I made a mistake in New York, it was not a good strategy. After 30k I felt sick and got stomach problems. For me marathon is a bit like a marriage - there are difficult times and better times,“ he said. “I will run more intelligently on Sunday  and will surely finish this time.“

If he should succeed in breaking his personal best he would then most probably break the course record as well. Last year Cybrian Kotut improved the mark to 2:04:47, which is just four seconds quicker than do Nascimento’s South American record. Unfortunately the Kenyan is among a number of withdrawals the organisers have to cope with. Ethiopians Mule Wasihun and Muktar Edris, who wanted to run his debut in Hamburg, had to cancel their starts due to an injury as well. 

After his sensational gold medal performance at the European Championships in Munich last summer Richard Ringer returns to the classic distance for the first time. Olympic qualification is his next major goal. “Preparing for Hamburg everything went really well, even better than expected,“ said Richard Ringer, who will choose a more conservative approach on Sunday. 

"I don’t want to take too many risk now as I really want to make sure that I achieve the Olympic qualifying time and go under 2:08.“ Richard Ringer’s PB stands at 2:08:49. “At the moment I hope that a time between 2.07:30 and 2:08:00will be enough to qualify for Paris.“ Another German runner who will go for the Olympic standard in Hamburg is local runner Haftom Welday. The former Eritrean surprised with a 2:09:06 in Berlin last year and now hopes to run well under the Olympic qualifying time of 2:08:10. Since he will choose a more aggressive approach than Ringer there could be an interesting German battle in Hamburg as well.

Elite Runners with Personal Bests

MEN:

Bernard Koech KEN 2:04:09

Tsegaye Kebede ETH 2:04:38

Daniel do Nascimento BRA 2:04:51

Martin Kosgei KEN 2:06:41

Masresha Bere ETH 2:06:44

John Langat KEN 2:07:11

Henok Tesfay ERI 2:07:12

Joshua Kemboi KEN 2:08:09

Daniel Mateo ESP 2:08:22

Richard Ringer GER 2:08:49

Martin Musau UGA 2:09:04

Haftom Welday GER 2:09:06

Derlys Ayala PAR 2:10:11

Jeisson Suarez COL 2:10:51

Ernesto Zamora URU 2:11:26

Andy Buchanan AUS 2:12:23

Arttu Vattulainen FIN 2:13:29

Joshua Belet KEN Debut

Moses Koech KEN Debut

Demeke Tesfaye ETH Debut

Simon Debognies BEL Debut

WOMEN:

Tiruye Mesfin ETH 2:18:47

Sintayehu Tilahun ETH 2:22:19

Giovanna Epis ITA 2:23:54

Dorcas Tuitoek KEN 2:24:54

Marion Kibor KEN 2:25:15

Kumeshi Sichala ETH 2:26:01

Tsigie Haileslase ETH 2:27:08

Paolo Bonilla ECU 2:27:38

Obse Abdeta ETH 2:27:47

Rosa Chacha ECU 2:28:17

Zenebu Bihonzg ETH 2:28:59

Katja Goldring USA 2:29:01

Tereza Hrochova CZE 2:29:06

Molly Grabill USA 2:29:17

Loreta Kancyte LTU 2:30:48

Fabienne Königstein GER 2:32:35

Tabea Themann GER 2:33:51

Stella Chesang UGA Debut

Mekdes Woldu FRA Debut

Mary Granja ECU Debut

Ana Ferreira POR Debut

Double world champion Kimberly Garcia got her 2023 campaign off to a superb start on Saturday (25), breaking the 35km race walk world record with 2:37:44* at the Dudinska 50, the first World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting of the year.

The Peruvian race walker produced a solo effort from the early stages, passing through the first kilometre as part of a small lead group and then breaking away just a couple of minutes later. By the time she reached 5km in 22:41, she had a 16-second lead over Chinese duo Liu Hong and Ma Li.

Garcia’s lead grew to more than a minute by 15km, which she passed in 1:07:29 with four-time world champion Liu still level with compatriot Ma. World silver medallist Katarzyna Zdzieblo was a further minute behind in fourth.

Ma started to lose contact with Liu at about 18km, but Garcia continued churning out her metronomic splits, reaching 20km in 1:29:58. With 10km to go, Garcia’s lead

over Liu had grown to 84 seconds. Wu Quanming, meanwhile, was starting to close on Chinese teammate Ma.

Garcia reached 30km in 2:15:10, almost two minutes clear of Liu, who was safe in second place. Wu had moved into third by this stage, but Ecuador’s Magaly Bonilla was closing fast.

There was no catching Garcia, though, who maintained her relentless pace to charge through the finish line in 2:37:44, taking two seconds off the previous fastest mark for the distance.

Liu, who was making her debut at the distance, followed more than two minutes later in 2:40:06 but was rewarded with an Asian record. Bonilla was third in an Ecuadorian record of 2:46:32 and a fading Wu held on for fourth (2:47:34).

"I knew I was in good shape and that I could challenge the world record," said Garcia. "The first 20km was ok and at a good pace, then I started to tire and the wind got stronger. Thankfully I found some extra energy for the final five kilometres.

"It's a big thing for me to achieve this record," added Garcia, who also confirmed she will defend both of her titles at this year's World Championships. "I still think I can go faster, maybe at the World Championships. I'm not planning any more 35km races before Budapest."

Doctor remedies last year’s runner-up finish

One year after finishing second over 35km in Dudince, Mexico’s Jose Doctor triumphed in a national and meeting record of 2:26:37.

He trailed Olympic bronze medallist Evan Dunfee and Ecuador’s Brian Pintado during the early stages, as Dunfee led through 10km (41:25). They moved together as a trio up until 17km, reached in 1:10:14, but Dunfee then started to slip behind. By 20km, which Pintado and Doctor reached in 1:22:31, an 11-second gap had emerged to Dunfee.

Pintado tried to make a break after 22km, but Doctor reeled him back in just over a kilometre later. Brazil’s Caio Bonfim, meanwhile, was also moving through the pack. Doctor reached 25km in 1:43:21 with an 18-second lead over Bonfim, who was now in second, 24 seconds clear of Pintado.

Pintado continued to slip behind and eventually withdrew after 27km. Doctor, however, remained a safe distance ahead of Bonfim, while China’s Cui Lihong was making up ground on Dunfee.

Doctor extended his lead in the final kilometres and crossed the line a confortable winner in 2:26:37. Bonfim was second in 2:27:30. Lihong moved into third place with just over a kilometre left, finishing 15 seconds ahead of the Canadian in 2:29:00.

In the closest finish of the day, 2017 world champion Eider Arevalo of Colombia won the men’s 20km in 1:19:23 with double world bronze medallist Perseus Karlstrom finishing 21 seconds behind.

India’s Sandeep Kumar led during the early stages, going through 5km in 19:38 with a five-second lead over Karlstrom. The Swede drew level with Kumar a few kilometres later and the duo went through 10km in 39:33, 17 seconds ahead of Arevalo and Mexico’s Noel Chama.

Kumar was given a third red card and had to sit out a one-minute penalty, essentially taking him out of contention. It left Karlstrom alone in the lead between 12km and 17km when Arevalo finally caught up with him.

They rallied for the best part of a lap before Arevalo finally broke free thanks to a 3:50 final kilometre, winning in 1:19:23. Karlstrom was second in 1:19:44 and Chama was third in 1:20:46.

Elsewhere, Mexico’s Alegna Gonzalez won the women’s 20km race in 1:28:09, winning by more than two minutes from Puerto Rico’s Rachelle de Orbeta.

The former soccer phenom was burnt out and angry. Then he started running every day, no matter what. 

Hellah Sidibe shared his story with producer Sarah Vitak for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It was edited for length and clarity.

I went into this dark area in life where I was just mad. Why is this happening to me?

It all came down to, all right, I’m pissed at everything, but let me stop making excuses. Just look at myself, and just deal with what I can handle, what I’m in control of. That’s how it started.

My full name is Hellah Sidibe, but I have a nickname: Hellah Good. I got that nickname back in college. I played Division I soccer. Every time I would take the ball and start sprinting down the line, they’d just say, oh, he’s Hellah good.

Growing up in Mali, West Africa, soccer was the number one sport. We just loved playing, and we loved watching the top players on TV. We were trying to play like them: we were trying to score goals and celebrate the way they do.

We lived in an area where there’s dirt, so we would use our feet to trace and make marks. You would literally make the whole soccer field. In order to still see the line, we would go into our kitchens. When we make food, we make food with wood and charcoal. Everybody would fill that up in a can from their house and bring it to the field. The path that we created with our feet, we’d spray that chalky gray-white powder along those lines so it looked like the white soccer lines.

We’d pick teams. Say: you’re Brazil, you’re Argentina. We’d always take the South American teams because they were the best in the world at the time, when I was young. We would pick players, and we would be like, you’re Thierry Henry, you’re Luís Figo. I’d say, I’m Ronaldo Nazário. Sometimes you’d just paint their numbers on your back, on your bare skin.

We would recruit our own team within the neighborhood. The next neighborhood was within a five-minute walk, and we’d go play them. Their neighborhood we would call allez, which is away. And there was no pressure. We did it because we wanted to, and no one was yelling at us.

When I came to the U.S., it got a little competitive. There started being consequences. If you didn’t do something right, the punishment was: let’s make you run. So I got to college, and it added more to that because I was playing under a coach. His mindset was that we might not be the most skillful team in the country, but we’re gonna be the fittest team in the country. It was to a point in that sometimes the track team would joke around and say, are you guys with the UMass track team or the soccer team? Because whenever they went by the field, they’d see us just huffing and puffing.

So I started hating running. I would cramp up in my calves, my lungs would be burning, and my hamstrings would be on fire. I started having a fear of it. It wasn’t a fear where I hated the game, but it was fear of going to practice for that specific reason. You’re getting yelled at like it’s not enough, even though you feel like you’re giving your absolute best.

Out of almost 400 players, I was one of 20 picked up to face the US youth national team. All of those teams were after me: phone calls from teams, telling me, we want this player. We like his skillset. I was approached by Sporting Kansas City my senior year, and they were one of the top teams in the MLS and won the MLS Cup the year that I finished college.

I was told: you’re gonna get picked up in the draft.

There were domestic roster spots and international roster spot at the time. I don’t know if that’s changed; I haven’t really looked into it. It was the rule that only eight international players could be picked up per team, and the rest had to be domestic players.

The assistant coach at Sporting Kansas City was like, hey Hellah, I’m sorry to tell you this, but the reality is right now. We’d rather have a young player that is a U.S. citizen that’s not as talented as you, but we can develop them and we don’t have to worry about the paperwork side of it. But also we can pick up a big European player that can sell jerseys and tickets that can take the spot. Versus, I’m somebody who hasn’t made a name for himself.

He was just telling me the reality. It wasn’t even his decision.

Just seeing that—it is frustrating, and it’s tough. Your goal is to play the game that you love, and it’s getting pulled away from you.

I just started hating everything. I’m not a doctor, but I do think there was some depression looking back. When you’re in that spot, nothing matters. Someone could smile at you or could even want to hug you, and you want nothing to do with that.

It was a looking-at-myself-in-a-mirror moment. What can you do with yourself right now? What are you in control of? I literally had that conversation with myself. Being an athlete, you always fall back on your physical ability because it makes you feel a certain way mentally. You like challenging yourself. You like competing on the field.

I was just like, what are you gonna do now? You tell yourself you’re going to go to the gym every day for a week, and you can’t even last three days. Do something, and hold yourself accountable for once. Be consistent.

So that is what led me in 2017 to when I said, what is a fear of mine that I wanna face? And running was the first thing that hit my mind.

It was a two-week goal of ten minutes a day within the first week. I didn’t care about distance. It was time. I would just start my watch, and then after ten minutes I’d be done, so I’d be just over a mile.

The ten-minute goal wasn’t because I couldn’t do more than ten minutes; it was just attainable. I just knew that it wasn’t so much where I was going to hate it.

That didn’t last more than a week. Even within the first week, I was going as far as four miles, which is way longer than ten minutes. But I would get lost in it. It wasn’t about pace or distance or anything. It was about just being out there in the present moment.

I ran every day for two weeks. And then I said, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life. Let me do it every day for a year.

And now we’re here, running every day for 1,989 consecutive days. About to hit 2,000 consecutive days. And running across the U.S., doing a hundred-mile race, and still loving it like day one.

When things aren’t necessarily working out in life, it does mean it’s the end of you. It just means that it’s preparing you for something even greater. You just have to focus on what you can control and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Right now, I would not trade this for anything. Nope, I would not.

Hellah Sidibe is a runner, speaker, and content creator. He has run for more than 2,000 consecutive days. In 2021, he ran across the United States. In September of 2022, he competed in the Leadville Trail 100 Ultra Marathon. You can learn more about him at hellahgood.com.

Major marathon winners Albert Korir and Shura Kitata, as well as 2015 world champion Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, are among the many additions to the men’s elite field for the Boston Marathon on April 17, organizers of the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label road race announced today (11).

Today’s announcement expands upon four previously announced men’s entrants including world record-holder and double Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge, reigning Boston Marathon champion Evans Chebet, 2021 winner Benson Kipruto, and two-time victor Lelisa Desisa.

It brings the total number of sub-2:07 performers in the field to 15. Eight of those have bettered 2:05.

Korir, the 2021 New York Marathon champion, made his Boston debut last year and finished sixth. But Kitata, who beat Kipchoge to win the 2020 London Marathon champion, and Ghebreslassie will be making their Boston Marathon debuts.

Tanzanian record-holder Gabriel Geay is the third fastest man in the field, after Kipchoge and Chebet. Geay, who finished runner-up at the Valencia Marathon last month in 2:03:00, has had success racing on the roads of Boston, winning the 2018 Boston 10K and placing fourth at last year’s Boston Marathon.

“I am excited to be returning to the Boston Marathon this year,” said Geay. “I fulfilled a dream by racing in Boston last year, but my goal is to one day win the race, and I hope that 2023 will be my year.”

Brazilian Olympian and national record-holder Daniel Do Nascimento will make his Boston debut, as will Ethiopia’s Herpasa Negasa, a 2:03:40 marathon runner. Augustine Choge, one of the most versatile runners in the world, will also line up in Boston, hoping to conquer the marathon distance once and for all.

After a 2:08:16 marathon debut in Chicago last year, USA’s Conner Mantz will take on the Boston course for the first time. He will be joined by world 50km record-holder CJ Albertson.

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced today the men’s professional field for the 127th Boston Marathon, featuring 15 men who’ve run under 2:07 for the marathon distance, as well as multiple Abbott World Marathon Major race champions, Olympic and Paralympic stars.

Today’s announcement expands upon four previously announced men’s entrants including world record holder and double Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge, reigning Boston Marathon champion Evans Chebet, 2021 winner Benson Kipruto, and two-time victor Lelisa Desisa. A total of 109 men’s athletes from 21 countries are in this year’s professional field across the men’s Open, Wheelchair, and Para Athletics Divisions.

“The Boston Marathon is known for its competitiveness, with many races decided in the final meters on Boylston Street,” said Mary Kate Shea, B.A.A. Director of Professional Athletes. “This year’s field brings together athletes who’ve excelled at both speed and championship-style racing. Combined with the women’s professional field announced on Monday, this will be the fastest and most decorated Boston Marathon across all of our divisions in race history.”  

Behind Kipchoge and Chebet, the fastest man in the field will be Tanzanian national record holder Gabriel Geay, who finished runner-up at the Valencia Marathon last month in 2:03:00. Geay has had success racing on the roads of Boston, winning the 2018 B.A.A. 10K, placing fourth at last year’s Boston Marathon, and finishing in second and third at the B.A.A. Half Marathon in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

“I am excited to be returning to the Boston Marathon this year,” said Geay. “I fulfilled a dream by racing in Boston last year, but my goal is to one day win the race, and I hope that 2023 will be my year. Thank you, Boston for the opportunity!”

Joining Geay will be past Abbott World Marathon Majors winners including Albert Korir of Kenya (2021 New York City champion), Ghirmay Ghebreslassie of Eritrea (2015 World Championships gold medalist and 2016 New York City champion), and Shura Kitata of Ethiopia (2020 London Marathon champion). Brazilian Olympian and national record holder Daniel Do Nascimento will make his Boston debut, as will Ethiopia’s Herpasa Negasa, a 2:03:40 marathoner.

Last year’s seventh-place finisher and top American, Scott Fauble, returns for his fourth Hopkinton-to-Boston race, and will be joined by 50K world record holder CJ Albertson. After a 2:08:16 marathon debut in Chicago last year, Conner Mantz will take on the Boston course for the first time. He is coached by Olympic marathoner Ed Eyestone.

“I love the Boston Marathon. It’s one of the greatest sporting events in the world,” said Fauble. “It has a way of bringing the best out of people.”

"Boston is such a historic marathon, and I want to be a part of that history,” said Mantz. “I love the aspect of racing with no pacers and hills that break up rhythm, and Boston has both of those. When you add in the competition Boston is bringing this year with Eliud Kipchoge and many others, it makes the race so exciting!"

Ben True, a Maine native and four-time winner of the B.A.A. 5K, also is part of the American field. B.A.A. High Performance Team members Matt McDonald, Paul Hogan, and Jonas Hampton will have the hometown edge; McDonald set a new B.A.A. club record and lifetime best of 2:09:49 in Chicago last fall.

American Daniel Romanchuk will return as defending champion in the wheelchair division, coming off a 1:26:58 victory last April. Romanchuk also won Boston in 2019 (1:21:36), though he looks to be challenged by wheelchair marathon world record holder and reigning Paralympic marathon gold medalist Marcel Hug. Hug returns in search of his sixth Boston Marathon title and holds the Boston course record of 1:18:04. In 2022 the Swiss ‘Silver Bullet’ won the B.A.A. 5K in 10 minutes, 5 seconds, a course record time.

“Nothing can compare with the excitement and anticipation at the Boston Marathon,” said Romanchuk. “I’m incredibly excited and honored to be part of what should be a great race through the hills and all the way to Boylston Street.”

Aaron Pike, last year’s wheelchair division runner-up, and Ernst van Dyk, a ten-time Boston winner, are also racing. A $50,000 course record bonus is available to any open division or wheelchair division athlete who breaks a course record.

Paralympians Matthew Felton and Atsbha Gebre Gebremeskel lead the Para Athletics Division in the T46 classification (upper-limb impairment). American record holder and Massachusetts native Chaz Davis will look to defend his T12 (vision impairment) Para title.

Headlining the T62 and T63 classification are Marko Cheseto Lemtukei and Brian Reynolds. Cheseto Lemtukei earned a victory in 2:37:01 last year, while Reynolds set a pending T62 world record of 1:25:46 at the B.A.A. Half Marathon in November.

“A perfect society is one that sees diversity of its members as her strength,” said Cheseto Lemtukei, who returns as a two-time Boston Marathon Para Athletics Division champion.

The 127th Boston Marathon will be held on Monday, April 17, 2023 – Patriots’ Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—and will feature 30,000 participants. 

Former Olympic Games 5,000m gold medalist Vivian Cheruiyot is optimistic she will perform well next year upon her return from maternity leave.

The double world 5,000m champion said she is working hard on cutting her weight after maternity leave and she is ready to swing back into action next year. "Before hanging my spikes, I want to run better than before," she noted.

The double world 10,000m champion won her first Olympic gold at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil before switching to the marathon. She made her debut in the marathon in London in 2017.

“At the moment, I haven't planned for any race because I have just started training. Cutting weight is my priority right now but I hope to be ready for competition next year,” said Cheruiyot.

Cheruiyot, who started her running career in 1998, stated that she wanted to win the 2020 London Marathon title but that did not happen despite enjoying top form during that period.

“My last race was the 2020 London Marathon, where I failed to finish because it was during the coronavirus pandemic period. It was almost canceled but they decided to host it. I was in good shape, very fit and everything went on well but it was really cold and too much rain. That took a toll on me forcing me to drop out,” said the 2018 London Marathon champion

As age continues catching up with the Pocket Rocket, she explains that transiting to marathon from track and field and cross country after 18 years was not easy but it was the best time for her to move.

“My next move is to train, cut off my weight and come back for a few years and I will be done. Marathon and track and field are totally different. In track and field, the training is a little bit friendly because you cannot go for long runs like 40km per day or once a week but training for a marathon needs dedication, and a lot of exhaustion among others,” she said.

Cheruiyot regrets that her exit from the track had left the country weaker in the 5,000m and 10,000m. 

"When I quit track in 2016, I left strong athletes like Hellen Obiri and the late Agnes (Tirop) among others. Today, the 5,000m and 10,000m is a pale shadow of what they used to be," she said.

"I don’t know where we are heading but I believe the upcoming athletes will soon fill the void with good guidance. It will, however, not be easy to get athletes of our generation including  Obiri (now in the marathon), me, and the late Tirop.

"We used to be very strong, especially at world events and any time we lined up, Kenyans were assured of medals,” she said. She said one can no longer bank on the Kenyan women in the two events.

" Our opponents including Ethiopia and other countries are having a field day," she added.  She urged Kenyan athletes to train hard if they are to win medals.

"Athletics has become competitive and we can't afford to sit on the laurels and expect things to happen,' she cautioned. 

Endurance athlete and podcast host Rich Roll is known for his plant-based diet and healthy living. Whether you’re keeping a focus on nutrition or simply want a warm cup of something post-run, you’ll love Roll’s latte recipes from The Plantpower Way. He suggests taking the time to select a special cup you enjoy holding in your hands, noting, “One of the great pleasures of life is a favourite mug.”

You’ll need a strainer or cheesecloth for these. I find that substituting paste or powdered ginger or turmeric if I didn’t have any root handy works just fine.

Mocha Latte

Roll calls this a “creamy blend of cacao and coffee topped with a velvety layer of nut milk froth.”

Ingredients

4 cups organic fresh-brewed coffee (can use regular or decaf)

1/4 vanilla bean

5 Brazil nuts

2 tsp cacao nibs

1 tsp honey

pinch of cinnamon

Preparation

Brew a pot of your favourite coffee.

Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend on high for one minute.

Strain the mixture through cheesecloth or a fine strainer, pour into your favourite cup and enjoy. For an iced version, add three cups of ice and blend again.

Ginger Turmeric Latte

This frothy drink is full of anti-inflammatory and stomach-soothing properties. “Ginger works wonders for digestion, while the nutrient-rich hemp seeds blend to give you a nice and creamy protein-packed drink,” writes Roll.

Ingredients

2 cups water

1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled (ginger paste works well, available at most grocery stores)

1-inch piece of turmeric root, peeled

1/4 cup hemp seeds

1 tsp honey

dash of cardamom

Preparation

Bring the water to a boil.

Using a fine hand grater, grate both the ginger and the turmeric.

Add all the ingredients, except the cardamom, plus the boiling water, to a blender and blend on high for one minute.

Pour the mixture through a fine strainer or cheesecloth and serve. Garnish with a sprinkle of cardamom.

The running shoe hype train was high in New York City with a few fast yet-to-be-released shoes in the men’s and women’s elite fields.

For a few miles early in the New York City Marathon, Desi Linden surged into the lead of the women’s elite field. The two-time Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion didn’t think she’d run away and win the race that way, but she was just trying to keep the pace honest.

However, hiding in plain sight on her feet as she was off the front of the pack was a yet-to-be-released pair of orange, white and black Brooks prototype racing shoes. A day later, no one is willing to give up any details of the shoe, except that, like all of the other top-tier racing shoes in both the men’s and women’s elite fields, it features a carbon plate embedded in a hyper-responsive foam midsole. And although it’s all in accordance with World Athletics regulations, it won’t be released in Spring 2024 … so we’ll all have to wait a bit to see what that shoe is all about.

Linden’s shoes weren’t the only speedy outliers among the top 25 men’s and women’s finishers. While Nike, Adidas and ASICS shoes were the most prevalent brands among elite runners, there were several shoes that aren’t yet available to the public.

For example, the first runner to cross the finish line of this year’s New York City Marathon, women’s winner Sharon Lokedi, was wearing a pair of Under Armour Velociti Elite shoes. That’s notable for several reasons—because it was Lokedi’s first marathon, because the shoe won’t become available until early 2023 and because it’s the first podium finish at a major international marathon for a runner wearing Under Armour shoes.

There were also three pairs of yet-to-be-released Hoka Rocket X 2 shoes on the feet of three Hoka NAZ Elite runners — two of whom set new personal best times, Aliphine Tuliamuk (7th, 2:26:18) Matthew Baxter (12th, 2:17:15). Those fluorescent yellow shoes with orange, white and blue accents and blue laces were on the feet of Hoka pros at the Boston Marathon in April and Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October, but they won’t be released to the public until late February or early March.

Meanwhile, the winner of the men’s race, Evans Chebet, was wearing a pair of Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3, a shoe worn by four other runners in the top 25 of the men’s race and six among the women’s top 25, making it the second most prevalent model among the elites. Oddly, that was the same shoe worn by Brazil’s Daniel do Nascimento, who went out at record-setting sub-2:03 pace on his own, only to crumple to the ground at mile 21 after succumbing to fatigue and cramping.

The most common shoe among the top finishers was the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2, which was on the feet of 11 of the 50 runners among the women’s and men’s top 25 finishers. There were eight runners wearing either the first or second version of the ASICS MetaSpeed Sky.

Six runners wore Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Flyknit shoes, three wore Nike Air Zoom Alphalfy NEXT% 2. There were two pairs of On Cloudboom Echo 3 in the field, including those worn by Hellen Obiri who finished sixth while running a 2:25:49 in her marathon debut, while three runners wore Puma Fast R Nitro Elite.

And what about actor Ashton Kutcher? He wore a pair of purple Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% Flyknit shoes and finished in a very respectable 3:54:01.

Matt James, the former lead of the Bachelor, finished in 3:46:45 with Shalane Flanagan as his guide wearing a pair of New Balance FuelCell Comp Trainer shoes. Flanagan wore Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% Flyknit shoes, as did Meghan Duggan, an Olympic gold medalist hockey player who ran a solid 3:52:03. Lauren Ridloff, actress from “The Walking Dead,” ran in a pair of Brooks Glycerin 20 and finished in 4:05:48, while Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton finished in 4:20:34 wearing a pair of Brooks Ghost 14 and Tommy Rivers Puzey (aka “Tommy Rivs,” a former elite runner who survived a deadly bout of cancer in 2020, wore a pair of Craft CTM Ultra Carbon Race Rebel and finished in 6:13:54.

Here’s a rundown of what was on the feet of the top 25 women’s and men’s finishers in the Big Apple.

1. Sharon Lokedi (Kenya) 2:23:23 — Under Armour Velociti Elite

2. Lonah Salpeter (Israel) 2:23:30 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

3. Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) 2:23:39 – Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

4. Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) 2:24:16 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

5. Viola Cheptoo (Kenya) 2:25:34 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

6. Hellen Obiri (Kenya) 2:25:49 — On Cloudboom Echo 3

7. Aliphine Tuliamuk (USA) 2:26:18 — Hoka Rocket X 2

8. Emma Bates (USA) 2:26:53 — ASICS MetaSpeed Sky+

9. Jessica Stenson (Australia) 2:27:27 – ASICS MetaSpeed Sky

10. Nell Rojas (USA) 2:28:32 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Flyknit

11. Lindsay Flanagan (USA) 2:29:28 – ASICS MetaSpeed Sky

12. Gerda Steyn (South Africa) 2:30:22 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

13. Stephanie Bruce (USA) 2:30:34 — Hoka Rocket X 2

14. Caroline Rotich (Kenya) 2:30:59  — ASICS MetaSpeed Sky+

15. Keira D’Amato (USA) 2:31:31 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Flyknit

16. Des Linden (USA) 2:32:37 — Brooks Prototype

17. Mao Uesugi (Japan) 2:32:56 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

18. Eloise Wellings (Australia) 2:34:50 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

19. Sarah Pagano (USA) 2:35:03 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

20. Grace Kahura (Kenya) 2:35:32 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

21. Annie Frisbie (USA) 2:35:35 — Puma Fast R Nitro Elite

22. Molly Grabill (USA) 2:39:45 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% Flyknit

23. Kayla Lampe (USA) 2:40:42 — ASICS MetaSpeed Sky+

24. Maegan Krifchin (USA) 2:40:52 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

25. Roberta Groner (USA) 2:43:06 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% 2

1. Evans Chebet (Kenya) 2:08:41 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

2. Shura Kitata (Ethiopia) 2:08:54 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

3. Abdi Nageeye (Netherlands) 2:10:31 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

4. Mohamed El Aaraby (Morocco) 2:11:00 — ASICS MetaSpeed Sky+

5. Suguru Osako (Japan) 2:11:31 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

6. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Japan) 2:12:12  — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

7. Albert Korir (Kenya) 2:13:27 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

8. Daniele Meucci (Italy) 2:13:29 — ASICS MetaSpeed Sky+

9. Scott Fauble (USA) 2:13:35 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% 2

10. Reed Fischer (USA) 2:15:23 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

11. Jared Ward (USA) 2:17:09 — Saucony Endorphin Pro 3

12. Matthew Baxter (New Zealand) 2:17:15 — Hoka Rocket X 2

13. Leonard Korir (USA) 2:17:29 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

14. Matthew Llano (USA) 2:20:04 — Under Armour Velociti Elite

15. Olivier Irabaruta (Burundi)  2:20:14 — On Cloudboom Echo 3

16. Hendrik Pfeiffer (Germany) 2:22:31 — Puma Fast R Nitro Elite

17. Jonas Hampton (USA) 2:22:58 — Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

18. Alberto Mena (USA) 2:23:10 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

19. Jacob Shiohira (USA) 2:23:33 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Flyknit

20. Edward Mulder (USA) 2:23:42 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Flyknit

21. Jordan Daniel (USA) 2:24:27 — Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2

22. Nathan Martin (USA) 2:25:27 — ASICS MetaSpeed Sky+

23. Jeff Thies (USA) 2:25:45 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% 2

24. Shadrack Kipchirchir (USA) 2:28:15 — Puma Fast R Nitro Elite

25. Abi Joseph (USA) 2:29:16 — Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Flyknit

As the sun began to light Ben Franklin Parkway and the city’s skyline on Sunday morning, spectators and competitors were warming up for the coldest Philadelphia Marathon since 1994. Hands and feet were cold, and even contact lenses froze.

Yet spirits prevailed as the city showed up for those who prepared for this day months in advance.

“I had a phenomenal group of people that last half mile before we made that turn up Kelly Drive, and that saved my life,” said women’s winner Amber Zimmerman, who recently moved to the city.

The temperature at the start was 35 degrees, but the wind made it feel like the low 20s. Eleven miles of the marathon were concentrated in Center City, blocking the wind somewhat. However, at the finish, the wind was fierce along Boathouse Row and Kelly Drive.

“The race was good, but there was a lot of wind,” said men’s champion Dominic Ondoro, who thought he was slowing down because of the gusts. “I enjoyed the course.” The Kenyan runner who lives in Texas broke away from the pack in the last few miles, finishing in 2 hours, 14 minutes, 20 seconds, followed by Gilmar Lopes of Brazil and Bernard Kiprop Koech of Kenya.

Zimmerman triumphed in 2:31:35, her new personal best. Maegan Krifchin of Long Island was second and Fantu Zewude Jifar of Ethiopia took third.

“They’re great runners and they’re brave runners,” Zimmerman said. “And I thought, you know, I’m going to try to be a brave runner to put myself in it.”

In the first half of the race, Zimmerman said she felt strong but hit a wall in Manayunk where her body started hurting. Nevertheless, she pushed to the finish, knowing that others were close behind. A regular runner since 7 years old, she posted her first win in her new city.

“I was thinking about that this week. I get a little bit teary about it,” she said when asked about her journey. “I really tailored my training. I coached myself and I played around with a lot of harder, longer runs, and that really worked out for me this time. I’ve been trying to make myself tougher.”

First-place finishers take home $10,000, plus an extra $1,000 for Zimmerman as a Philadelphian. What will she spend it on? Her blue heeler Doughnut (an Australian cattle dog), she said, pointing to her socks featuring blue doughnuts.

“He’s really sweet and I told him I was going to run this race for him and I was going to win for him,” Zimmerman, who ran at the University of New Mexico.

This year’s marathon was a notable one for the city, as a nonbinary category was added for the first time. Fifty-five runners registered in the category and race director Kathleen Titus said he believes it will grow in years to come, along with prize money for these athletes as well as para-athletes.

“You look at it and it’s a city of diversity as well as adaptivity,” she said. “... Whatever type of an athlete you are, if you’re a runner, we want you to feel that you can come to Philadelphia and participate as you are, in the ability that you are.”

The city also cheered on its first marathon long boarder, Chris Koch, who completed his 13th marathon. The 40-year-old Canadian was born with a partially developed right leg and foot. Shortly after he pedaled across the finish line, he joked, “I couldn’t feel my fingers the whole time.”

Koch completed his first marathon in 2016. “I guess I’m a glutton for punishment,” he said. “It’s a great challenge. I’m a motivational speaker and I encourage people to keep raising the bar and keep pushing themselves. I don’t want to be just talking the big talk.”

Sporting a Bobby Clarke Flyers jersey and blacked-out front teeth, Koch looked the Philly part. After visiting the city when he was speaking nearby, he decided to add it to his marathon list.

“I literally boarded out Ben Franklin Parkway to the Rocky stairs, climbed up the Rocky stairs,” he said. “... I’ve always found marathons [to be] a neat way to see the city.” Koch plans to attend the Flyers-Calgary Flames game at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night.

Celebrations are in order for Koch and all the finishers. Runners will travel back home, rewind on the Thanksgiving holiday, and return to the grind soon enough.

When asked if she would be running on Monday, Zimmerman said she is probably going to walk. Probably.

Sharon Lokedi displayed remarkable discipline to win the TCS New York City Marathon on her debut at the distance, while Evans Chebet’s patience paid off to win the men’s contest at the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label road race on Sunday March 6.

Lokedi flew under the radar heading into the women’s race as most of the focus was on world champion Gotytom Gebreslase, two-time world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri, who was making her marathon debut, and world bronze medallist Lonah Chemtai Salpeter.

All four women featured in the large lead pack for the first half of the race as they passed through 10km in a conservative 34:24 before reaching the half-way point in 1:12:17. A few kilometres later, the pack had been whittled down to eight women, with two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat among them.

By 30km, however, three women had broken away from the rest of the field as Gebreslase, Obiri and Kenya’s Viola Cheptoo reached that checkpoint 1:42:27. At that point, Salpeter, Lokedi and Kiplagat were in a five-woman chase pack about 11 seconds adrift.

A few kilometres later, Salpeter and Lokedi caught the lead trio, then Cheptoo began to fade. It left Obiri, Gebreslase, Lokedi and Salpeter as the only four women in contention as they raced through Central Park in the closing stages.

Of those four, Obiri was the first to fall back, but she was far enough into the race to know that her debut marathon would not be a bad one. Somewhat surprisingly, Gebreslase was the next to slip out of contention, the world champion resigning herself to the third step on the podium.

It then left Salpeter and Lokedi to duel for the victory and for a moment it seemed as though Salpeter was the more comfortable. But with one mile to go, Lokedi dug deep and started to pull away from the Israeli runner.

Lokedi reached the finish line in 2:23:23 to win by seven seconds from Salpeter. Gebreslase took third place in 2:23:39 with Kiplagat, nine days shy of her 43rd birthday, coming through to take fourth place in 2:24:16 – more than four minutes quicker than her winning time in this race in 2010.

Cheptoo held on for fifth place in 2:25:34 and Obiri finished sixth in 2:25:49. Olympian Aliphine Tuliamuk was the top US finisher in seventh, 2:26:18.

“It was amazing,” said the US-based Lokedi. “I came in just wanting to be in the thick of the race. I knew I was strong and had really good training, so I wanted to go in and put myself in it and see where I ended up. I expected to run well, but it ended up being an even better outcome than I had hoped for.”

The men’s race played out quite differently, as South American record-holder Daniel Do Nascimento made an early break from the rest of the field.

The Brazilian led by 97 seconds at 10km, reached in 28:42 – just two seconds slower than his 10,000m track PB – and went on to reach half way in 1:01:22, more than two minutes ahead of the rest of the field and well inside course record pace.

A six-man chase pack – which included Chebet, Olympic silver medallist Abdi Nageeye, and 2020 London Marathon champion Shura Kitata – went through the half-way point in a more comfortable 1:03:35.

Do Nascimento continued to lead, although his lead started to wane – especially when he had to briefly take a visit to one of the road-side portable toilets. He passed through 30km in 1:29:09, now just over a minute ahead of Chebet, who had broken away from the rest of the chasers. By 20 miles, Do Nascimento’s lead was down to just 40 seconds. Not long after, and clearly struggling, he stopped running and crashed to the ground.

While medics helped Do Nascimento, Chebet cruised past. The Kenyan, who had won the Boston Marathon earlier this year, found himself with a 30-second lead over a three-man chasing group which included Kitata and Nageeye.

Despite a strong finish from Kitata, Chebet managed to hold on to the lead and crossed the finish line in 2:08:41. Kitata followed 13 seconds later, while Nageeye took third place in 2:10:31.

“The race was hard for me, but I was thankful for my team and have so much gratitude toward my coach,” Chebet said. “My team gave me motivation and I know that after winning Boston I could come to New York and also do well.”

Leading results

Women

1 Sharon Lokedi (KEN) 2:23:232 Lonah Salpeter (ISR) 2:23:303 Gotytom Gebreslase (ETH) 2:23:394 Edna Kiplagat (KEN) 2:24:165 Viola Cheptoo (KEN) 2:25:346 Hellen Obiri (KEN) 2:25:497 Aliphine Tuliamuk (USA) 2:26:188 Emma Bates (USA) 2:26:539 Jessica Stenson (AUS) 2:27:2710 Nell Rojas (USA) 2:28:32

Men

1 Evans Chebet (KEN) 2:08:412 Shura Kitata (ETH) 2:08:543 Abdi Nageeye (NED) 2:10:314 Mohamed El Aaraby (MAR) 2:11:005 Suguru Osako (JPN) 2:11:316 Tetsuya Yoroizaka (JPN) 2:12:127 Albert Korir (KEN) 2:13:278 Daniele Meucci (ITA) 2:13:299 Scott Fauble (USA) 2:13:3510 Reed Fischer 2:15:23

In record heat for November, Kenyans dominate the New York City Marathon.

Evans Chebet was among the runners who watched as Daniel do Nascimento separated himself from the rest of the men’s field at the New York City Marathon on Sunday. Do Nascimento, a 24-year-old Brazilian who is known for being — what is the word? — assertive, was a blur as he surged into the lead, then a speck off in the distance, and then gone from view entirely.

Chebet, a soft-spoken Kenyan who arrived in New York having already won the Boston Marathon this year, opted to exercise patience. Sure enough, as he approached the 21st mile of Sunday’s race, he saw do Nascimento again: face down by the side of the road, being tended to by medical personnel.

“I felt bad for him,” Chebet said in Swahili through a translator, “but I had to continue the race.”

On an unseasonably warm day, Chebet survived both the conditions and the competition, winning in 2 hours 8 minutes 41 seconds to complete a clean sweep for Kenyan men in all six of the world marathon majors this year. Chebet, 33, did his part by winning two of them — and two of the toughest. Of course, considering what Chebet had done in Boston, no one was surprised to see him tackle New York with great composure.

“Boston was actually harder,” said Chebet, who wore his laurel wreath to his news conference.

The women’s finish was much more unexpected. Sharon Lokedi, a Kenyan who raced in college at Kansas, was fearless in her marathon debut, breaking free from a celebrated field to win in 2:23:23.“Perfect weather for me,” said Lokedi, 28, who splits her time between Kenya and Flagstaff, Ariz., where she trains with the Under Armour-sponsored Dark Sky Distance group. “I didn’t expect to win. I expected to run well. But it ended up being a good outcome.”

Lokedi left an all-star cast in her wake. Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, a Kenyan-born Israeli who arrived in New York with the fastest time in the field, finished second. Gotytom Gebreslase of Ethiopia, the reigning world champion, was third. Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, who, at 42, is one of the world’s most decorated marathoners, was fourth. And Viola Cheptoo of Kenya, last year’s runner-up, was fifth.

“It was hot, but I was really prepared,” said Lokedi, who was the N.C.A.A. champion in the 10,000 meters in 2018. “I picked up water at every station to pour on myself.”Do Nascimento, who set a South American record when he finished third in the Seoul Marathon this year in 2:04:51, was the story in New York for much of the morning — until it all began to go poorly for him. Easily recognizable in his lavender tights and space-age sunglasses, he built a two-minute lead more than halfway through the race. But others in the field had seen him try that sort of bold strategy before.In brutal conditions at the Tokyo Olympics last year, do Nascimento was among the leaders when he collapsed in scenes that were vaguely horrifying and was forced to withdraw.

On Sunday, his superhuman pace was beginning to slow when he pulled off the course for an 18-second pit stop at a portable toilet. He emerged with his lead intact, albeit narrower, but it was clear that he was in trouble. About six miles short of the finish, he sank to the pavement and was forced to abandon the race.

“I want to feel sorry for him when I saw him on the ground,” said Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, who finished third. “But I was like, ‘Come on, man, this is the second time. You did that in the Olympics.’ ”

A spokesman for the marathon said do Nascimento was recovering at his hotel.

It was not an easy day for anyone. Galen Rupp, a two-time Olympic medalist who was making his long-awaited New York debut, dropped out about 18 miles into the race with a hip injury. And Shura Kitata of Ethiopia, who finished second behind Chebet, lumbered onto the stage for his news conference as if his legs were made of concrete. A race official handed Kitata a giant bag of ice, which he placed on his thighs.“It was very hot,” he said through a translator, “and that made it very tough.”

It was the warmest marathon on record since the race was moved to its traditional early November date in 1986. The temperature in Central Park was 73 degrees Fahrenheit at 11 a.m., shortly before the elite runners began to cross the finish line.

Scott Fauble, 31, was the top American on the men’s side, finishing ninth — a solid result coming the morning after he signed a new sponsorship deal with Nike. Fauble, who was also the top American finisher at the Boston Marathon this year, had been without a sponsor for months.

After agreeing to terms on a contract at dinner on Saturday night, Fauble took an Uber to the Nike store in Manhattan to pick up sneakers. The rest of his racing gear arrived at his hotel later that night.

“It’s quite a rush to get your singlet for the next day at 10 p.m. the night before the race,” he said.

On the women’s side, three Americans finished in the top 10. Aliphine Tuliamuk was seventh, Emma Bates was eighth and Nell Rojas was 10th. Tuliamuk, 33, who won the marathon at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2020 and gave birth to her daughter, Zoe, in January 2021, had not raced in a marathon since she injured herself at the Tokyo Games last year. On Sunday, she finished in a personal-best time of 2:26:18.

“I think that I excel when the conditions are not perfect,” Tuliamuk said. “I rise to the occasion, and I believe that today that was the case.”

Still, she had to overcome some adversity. In early September, she said, she experienced swelling in one of her ankles that forced her to take a couple of weeks off from training.

“In the back of my mind, I wished that I had a few more weeks” to train, she said. “But I also decided to focus on gratitude because I didn’t know that I was going to be here. And the fact that I was able to put in some solid training and had a chance to be competitive, I was just very grateful for that.”Gina Gregorio always watches the race from the corner of Warren Street and Fourth Avenue. This year she held signs that read, “Run to the Polls.”

“I love it when we’re right before the election because we can actually ask people to get out to vote, and it’s like nonpartisan, although I have had partisan signs before because I feel like it’s a great place to have your voice heard,” Gregorio said.

World Athletics (WA) announced the inaugural group of ‘Champions for a Better World’ on Thursday. Nine athletes, including three runners and six field athletes representing the six continental areas will lend their voices toward advocating for sustainable practices in sport and encourage other athletes to take a more active role in addressing environmental concerns. The athletes have been recruited to support WA’s efforts to reduce the sport’s environmental impact in alignment with the World Athletics Sustainability Strategy.

The Champions for a Better World group is announced as world leaders gather at the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference, and alongside new data from a survey carried out at four different WA championship events in 2022, with 737 athletes across 122 countries giving responses.

More than 76 per cent of athletes are seriously concerned or very concerned about climate change, with over 66 per cent feeling impacted directly by its effects. Seven in ten athletes believe climate change has already impacted athletics directly, and 90 per cent said that WA has a role to play in addressing sustainability in the sport.

“It’s clear that an overwhelming majority of our athletes are very concerned about the impacts that climate change is having on their lives and on our sport,” said WA president Seb Coe. “It’s critical for us to act on those concerns, to put practical applications in place where we can, and to drive the sport forward with the advocacy and the high-profile voices that athletes can bring.”

Brazil’s 400m hurdle world champion Alison Dos Santos shared that he believes athletes have a platform to raise awareness:  “As athletes, we have the important mission of raising awareness about the need to take care of the environment, both at social and economic level. Being able to influence others is very gratifying to me. I am very happy and enthusiastic about embracing this challenge.”

2022 Champions for a Better World

Track athletes

Tobi Amusan (NIG)100m hurdles world record holder, 2022 world champion

Ajla Del Ponte (SWI)sprints, 2021 European indoor 60m champion, 2022 Olympic 100m finalist

Alison Dos Santos (BRA)400m hurdles, 2022 world champion, 2021 Olympic bronze medalist

Field athletes

Kelsey-Lee Barber (AUS)javelin, 2019 and 2022 world champion

Sam Mattis (USA)discus, 2021 Olympic and 2022 World Championships finalist

Eliza McCartney (NZL)pole vault, 2016 Olympic bronze medallist

Ernest John Obiena (PHL)pole vault, 2022 world bronze medalist

Elena Vallortigara (ITA)high jump, 2022 world bronze medalist

Hugues Fabrice Zango (BFA)triple jump, world indoor record-holder, 2022 world silver medallist, 2021 Olympic bronze medalist

Video messages from each athlete will be shared on WA social media channels over the next two weeks.

Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge will battle nine world champions for the men's 2022 World Athlete of the Year Award. The 37-year-old Kipchoge, who is fresh from breaking his own marathon world record, won the 2018 and 2019 awards but also made the final list for the 2020 and 2021 awards.

The winner of the prestigious award in world athletics will be revealed on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December.

The announcement on Thursday marked the opening of the voting process for the 2022 World Athletes of the Year ahead of the 2022 World Athletics Awards in December.

Olympics 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm last year became the first Norwegian to win the Male Athlete of the Year Award, beating four other finalists who included Kipchoge and Olympic 5,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda  for the award.

Kipchoge will face world champions Ceh Kristjan (discus) from Slovakia, Brazilian Alison Dos Santos (400m hurdles), the 2020 winner, Swede Mondo Duplantis (pole vault), Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali (3,000m steeplechase) and American Grant Holloway (110m hurdles).

Others are Norwegian Jakob Ingerbrigtsen (5,000m), Noah Lyles (200m) from United States, Grenada’s Anderson Peters (javelin) and Pedro Pichardo (triple jump) from Portugal.

The athletes were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.

“It has been another memorable year for the sport and the nominations reflect some of the standout performances achieved at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world,” said a statement from World Athletics.

Kipchoge recaptured the Berlin Marathon title, smashing his own world record by 30 seconds on September 25 in the German capital.

The 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion clocked 2:01:09 to win, beating his previous world record time of 2:01:39 set when winning in Berlin in 2018.

Kipchoge had on March 6 this year won the Tokyo Marathon in a course record time of 2:02:40, beating the newly crowned London Marathon champion Amos Kipruto to second place in 2:03:13.

Kenya's Olympic and world 1,500m champion Faith Chepng'etich was on Wednesday named among the 10 nominees for the female 2022 World Athlete of the Year award.

Kipchoge is the only other Kenyan male to win the award besides 800m world record holder David Rudisha, who claimed it in 2010.

No Kenyan woman has won the award.

A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.

The voting process closes on October 31.

The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms.

Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube this week; a 'like' on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 percent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.

Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on October 31. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

Nominees

Kristjan Ceh (Slovakia)

- World discus champion

- Diamond League discus champion, throwing a national record 71.27m on the circuit in Birmingham

- European discus silver medalist

Alison dos Santos (Brazil)

- World 400m hurdles champion

- Diamond League 400m hurdles champion

- Ran a world-leading South American record of 46.29

Mondo Duplantis (Sweden)

- World pole vault champion indoors and outdoors

- Diamond League and European pole vault champion

- Improved his world record to 6.19m and 6.20m indoors, and then 6.21m outdoors

Soufiane El Bakkali (Morocco)

- World 3000m steeplechase champion

- Diamond League 3000m steeplechase champion

- Unbeaten in 2022, running a world-leading 7:58.28 in Rabat

Grant Holloway (USA)

- World 110m hurdles champion

- World indoor 60m hurdles champion

- Diamond League 110m hurdles champion

Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway)

- World 5000m champion, world 1500m silver medalist indoors and outdoors

- European 1500m and 5000m champion

- Diamond League 1500m champion in a world-leading 3:29.02

Eliud Kipchoge, (Kenya)

- Improved his world marathon record to 2:01:09

- Berlin Marathon champion

- Tokyo Marathon champion

Noah Lyles (USA)

- World 200m champion

- Diamond League 200m champion

- Ran a world-leading national record of 19.31 to move to third on the world all-time list

Anderson Peters (Grenada)

- World javelin champion

- Commonwealth javelin silver medalist

- Threw a world-leading NACAC record of 93.07m, moving to fifth on the world all-time list

Pedro Pichardo (Portugal)

- World triple jump champion with a world-leading leap of 17.95m

- World indoor triple jump silver medalist

- European triple jump champion.

Eliud Kipchoge is ready for a very fast race in the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON on Sunday which may well lead him to break the world record here for the second time.

The double Olympic champion, who set the current world record of 2:01:39 in Berlin four years ago and also broke the two-hour barrier when he ran 1:59:40.2 in a race in Vienna in 2019 which did not conform to regulations, will start as the clear favourite. 

Organisers of the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON have registered 45,527 runners from 157 nations for the 48th edition of the event. Germany’s most spectacular road race is part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM) and is also a Platinum Label Road Race of the international athletics federation, World Athletics. 

The 37-year-old Kenyan held back from making any hard and fast promises when he spoke two days before the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON. “I’d like to thank the organisers for letting me race again in Berlin after four years and expect a very good race. I’ve trained well as usual – every training day is a challenge.”In response to the question at the press conference, what would be “a very good race” for him, Eliud Kipchoge answered: “A very good race is a good race.”

That got the audience on his side before he added: “I want to inspire people and if a course record comes out of this at the end, I will appreciate it,” added this outstanding athlete. It should be noted that the course record is, of course, the world record, but Eliud Kipchoge was careful not to utter these words.

The world record holder, whose career so far has brought him victory in all but two of his 18 marathons, could well achieve his fourth win in Berlin after taking the title in 2015, 2017 and 2018. That would bring him equal with the Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie as the two men with most wins in Berlin. If the world athlete of the year for 2018 and 2019 is in world record form, Eliud Kipchoge should prove unbeatable on Sunday.

On the other hand, the elite field has plenty of strength in depth. Heading the list of challengers is last year’s champion Guye Adola from Ethiopia, winning the title in unseasonably warm conditions in 2:05:45 and beating the Ethiopian superstar Kenenisa Bekele into the bargain.

It was in Berlin in 2017 that Guye Adola ran what remains his personal best of 2:03:46 and on his debut at the distance. Only Eliud Kipchoge finished ahead of him though from time to time Adola took the lead. “I have prepared well and look forward to the race,” said the 31-year-old, who described Kipchoge as “a hero.”

The BMW BERLIN-MARATHON has greater strength in depth among the men’s elite field than ever before. As many as 18 runners have personal bests under 2:08. Among them is Ghirmay Ghebreslassie who caused a surprise when winning the world title in 2015 and also won in New York the following year. The Eritrean athlete has a best of 2:05:34 which he set in finishing third in Seville in February.

“It’s a big challenge to run in such a field and against Eliud Kipchoge. I’ll do my best and my aim is a place on the podium,” said Ghirmay Ghebreslassie.

An unusually large number of Japanese runners will be among the elite starters, the reason being that they are trying to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. There will be 13 of them with personal bests of under 2:10 in the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON. The fastest of them is Ryu Takaku with a best of 2:06:45.

The leading German in the field is Johannes Motschmann, who was a member of the German team at the European Championships which won the silver medal in Munich. Despite a short recovery time of six weeks since that competition, the 28-year-old wants to improve his personal best of 2:12:18 in the direction of 2:10. 

The race in Berlin is the biggest of my career so far. Since I’m a hometown boy here, I’d even rate it above the European Championship marathon,” said Motschmann, who runs for the Marathon Team Berlin.

The Austrian record holder, Peter Herzog, will also be aiming to take advantage of conditions at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON and run faster than ever before. His current best is 2:10:06 and his ambition is to become the first Austrian.

While a double world athlete of the Year in Eliud Kipchoge will take centre stage, a former star of world sport will be running some way behind him: the Brazilian football legend Kaká, a member of the team which won the World Cup in 2002, and also a Champions League winner and Footballer of the Year.

“I definitely wanted to run a major marathon and asked friends who recommended Berlin to me. That’s why I’m here. On Sunday I want to run 3:40. The marathon is something very special in that we, as mass runners, run together with the elite. I’m very excited,” admitted Kaká at the press conference.

Elite runners with personal bests

Eliud Kipchoge KEN 2:01:39

Guye Adola ETH 2:03:46

Ghirmay Ghebreslassie ERI 2:05:34

Dejene Debela ETH 2:05:46

Mark Korir KEN 2:05:49

Ashenafi Moges ETH 2:06:12

Tadu Abate ETH 2:06:13

Bethwel Yegon KEN 2:06:14

Awet HabteERI2:06:25

Ryu TakakuJPN2:06:45

Limenih Getachew ETH2:06:47

Hiroto InoueJPN2:06:47

Zablon Chumba KEN 2:07:18

Kenya Sonota JPN 2:07:23

Kento Kikutani JPN 2:07:26

Kazuki Muramoto JPN 2:07:36

Tadashi Isshiki JPN2:07:39

Atsumi Ashiwa JPN 2:07:54

Daisuke DoiJPN2:08:13

Rintaro TakedaJPN2:08:48

Yuki Matsumura JPN 2:09:01

Peter Herzog AUT 2:10:06

Johannes Motschmann GER 2:12:18

Third photo: Kipchoge's first run in Berlin 

Running is one of the most popular forms of physical activity worldwide. But though it requires little expertise or equipment – and can be very beneficial for our health – it unfortunately also comes with a relatively high risk of injury. In fact, one survey found nearly half of all runners experience injury or pain. Another study even estimated that runners experience nearly 18 injuries for every 1,000 hours of running.

Novice runners have the highest likelihood of sustaining an injury. The most common injuries they experience are in their lower body (such as in the Achilles tendon, shins or knees) and are often the result of overuse – an injury that happens in a muscle or joint due to repetitive trauma, usually as a result of doing more than you’re capable of, or not training with proper technique.

But that doesn’t mean injuries are inevitable. There are many ways you can protect yourself from an injury – so long as you ignore some long held ideas about the best way to do this.

Injury prevention myths

One common belief in the running community is that static stretching as part of a warm-up or cool-down can reduce risk of injury. But recent evidence suggests that stretching does little to prevent injuries. It may even reduce running performance in races less than 60 minutes long.

The belief that footwear is a significant factor in whether or not a person gets injured may also be untrue. While comfortable, properly fitting shoes are important for preventing minor issues such as blisters and can help with running performance, there’s little evidence suggesting that footwear alone reduces injury risk.

There’s also little evidence that shoes prescribed based on foot posture reduce injury. A study using army recruits during basic training even showed there was little difference in injury risk regardless of the type of support a person’s shoe had.

Evidenced-based tips

If you want to run injury free, here are the best, evidence-based ways:

1. Build strength

A recent study of Brazilian runners found that performing an eight-week training programme that focused on foot and ankle strength reduced injury risk by nearly 60% compared to a group who didn’t strength-train.

While exercising to prevent injury in runners is a relatively new concept, such programmes have also shown promise in other running-based sports such as football and volleyball where overuse injuries are also common. In general, strength training should be done three to five times a week for at least 15 minutes each session. Exercises should focus on building muscular endurance, coordination and balance – such as lunges and squats.

2. Not recovering between training sessions

Failing to recover between training sessions is shown to lead to chronic fatigue or over training – which can cause performance decline, low mood and muscle aches. These increase risk of overuse injuries as the body’s muscles and tissues aren’t able to repair and adapt between runs. The amount of time a person’s body needs to recover between runs will vary, though 36-48 hours is typical.

Not getting enough or not getting good quality sleep can also lead to overuse injuries, as sleep is important for helping the body to recover and restore itself. This is why it’s important to get around seven to nine hours of sleep each night – alongside adequate nutrition.

3. Avoid doing too much too soon

Runners are often also advised to follow the “10% rule” when training to avoid injury, meaning they shouldn’t increase their training load (the volume and intensity of their running) by more than 10% each week. Yet research shows that the 10% rule is no better at reducing injury risk than increasing your training load by a greater degree: increasing by up to 24% each week has no greater risk of injury for novice runners.

On the other hand, increasing running volume by around 30% each week is linked to greater risk of injury in novice runners. In practical terms, this would mean increasing your running load from 10km per week to 28.5km per week over a four-week period.

Given that injuries are typically the result of a combination of factors – including age, gender, experience and injury history – growing evidence suggests that the best way for runners to avoid injury is to learn how to listen to their bodies. A recent study showed that having an obsessive passion for running was associated with an increased risk of injury – this is likely due to runners ignoring their bodies and avoiding the early warning signs of injury.

Being able to listen to your body improves with experience. But two studies have shown that people suffering from both knee and Achilles injuries were still able to run without significantly worsening their pain or injury so long as they listened to their body and modified their running style slightly.

It’s unlikely a person can avoid getting injured altogether – though following these strategies may help reduce the risk and severity of injuries somewhat. If you do get injured, the best thing to do is consult a professional. But pain permitting, you may still be able to do other types of exercises in the meantime (such as cycling or using an elliptical or even strength training) to help as you recover. And, as you become more experienced as a runner, you may actually suffer fewer injuries than you did at the start.

A Brazilian runner, 40, was fatally injured at the Petite Trotte à Léon, part of the UTMB ultra, earlier this week.

The unidentified man fell 30-50 feet around 1:30 a.m., only 23 miles into the race.

The Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) got off to a tragic start following the death of a Brazilian runner earlier this week. The 40-year-old runner, whose identity remains anonymous, was fatally injured on the first night of the 300K (186-mile) Petite Trotte à Léon (PTL) team event.

“The runner was with his team on an official trail, which is secured for the PTL and marked throughout the year, between the Col de Tricot and the Refuge de Plan Glacier,” UTMB officials said about the accident, which occurred about 23 miles into the race.

At around 1:30 a.m. CET, the two-person Brazilian team was in a remote portion of the course with loose stones. It was there, above the French village of Les Contamines, that the victim fell an estimated 30 to 50 feet.

An Italian team, which was pacing behind the Brazilians, reported the incident after discovering the victim’s teammate safe, but in shock. A helicopter team responded shortly after and pronounced the runner dead before flying his body and teammate to a local hospital. 

“It’s so very sad, but it was an accident,” Catherine Poletti, cofounder of the UTMB and president of the UTMB Group, told Outside. “When you go into nature for adventure—it may be the mountains, it may be the sea—but all the time there is a risk. We cannot provide something with zero risk. It’s impossible. I think that’s a good thing because when you want to have an experience or adventure, you absolutely need to know where the limits are, what your experience is.”

The remaining 104 teams could choose whether they wanted to finish the race—all decided to keep running. 

Approximately 240 participants began this year’s PTL in Chamonix, France, on August 22. They will cover 82,000 feet of elevation gain within the Mont Blanc massif, traversing France, Switzerland and Italy.

To enhance runner safety, the race has instituted specific protocols, like selecting athletes based on criteria meant to ensure their successful completion. Runners are required to possess sound knowledge of the mountain environment, since they will likely encounter precarious weather conditions while also navigating steep slopes, falling stones, narrow paths, and glaciers. Due to a lack of marked trails, participants must be able to read a map and use a compass and altimeter, too. 

While the PTL must be completed in autonomy, there are aid stations where participants can sleep and eat by cashing in one of their four meal tickets. While on course, runners are tracked with GPS beacon and required to carry mountaineering helmets—which the Brazilian victim was not wearing at the time of his death.

This is not the first time a runner has died during the UTMB since the event was founded in 2003. In August 2021, a 35-year-old Czech runner fell to his death during the Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (TDS) race. 

Despite the inherent risk involved, approximately 10,000 runners are expected to compete in one of this year’s eight UTMB races, held from August 22-28.

Boston Marathon champion Evans Chebet will be looking to extend his winning form during the New York Marathon which goes down on November 6.

Chebet will be battling it out with defending champion Albert Korir among other top names in the elite field.

Korir stormed to victory last year after clocking  two hours, 8:22 seconds ahead of Mohamed El Aaraby with 2:09:06 and Eyob Faniel came third in 2:09:56.

Four of the six Abott World Marathon Majors will be taking place this season. Berlin Marathon will be held on September 26, London Marathon on October 2, Chicago Marathon October 9 and New York Marathon in November.

In an interview with Nation Sport, Chebet said that he has started preparations to make his debut in the New York Marathon race.

He said that the race looks competitive, given that only two Kenyans will be lining up for the contest, but he will do his best.

“I have started preparations for my first New Marathon race. I understand the course is tough but I believe with good training I will be able to register good results,” said Chebet.

The athlete said that he will apply the same tactics he used to win the Boston Marathon during the New York race, and if possible,  run a course record.

But this could be a tall order because since Geoffrey Mutai registered the 2:05:06 course record in 2011, no athlete has run close to that time due to weather conditions.

“I have asked around and I have been told that the course is tough, and I have to prepare well for that. Marathon racing needs a lot of calculation and you just can’t run without thinking what awaits you in the last few kilometres,” added Chebet.

At the same time, he said that there is need for athletes to travel with translators because they can use Kiswahili language to express themselves during the pre-race conference and interviews after the race.

“I feel comfortable expressing myself in Kiswahili, and I know many athletes are struggling but I think it is high time we have translators when we compete abroad just like the way Ethiopians do when they talk in Amharic,” he said.

The big names in the New York Marathon include; the 2020 London Marathon champion Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata, Brazilian Olympian Daniel Do Nascimento, Japan’s Suguru Osako who was third at the 2018 Chicago Marathon, Dutcs Olympic silver medallist and national record holder Abdi Nageeye and four-time Olympian American Galen Rupp.

World Athletics Championships marathon champion Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola is also in the mix. He won the world  having won the World Championships marathon title in Oregon, USA on July 17.

Albert Korir won the last Abott Marathon Majors series after accumulating 41 points for the 2019-2021 season.

The Abott Marathon Majors series this season began with the delayed 2021 Tokyo Marathon race which world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge won on March 6 this year.  Thereafter, Chebet won the Boston Marathon title on April 18.

Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola is also in the mix having won the World Championships marathon title last month in Oregon, USA.

One of the best distance runners in U.S. history will make his debut at the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon. 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Galen Rupp will headline the men’s professional field, which is one of the strongest in recent history with 13 Olympians and six national record holders on Sunday, Nov. 6.

Rupp has competed at every Olympics since 2008, winning silver in the 10,000m in London 2012 and a bronze in the marathon in Rio 2016. He also won the 2017 Chicago Marathon and was the runner-up there last year.

“I am looking forward to making my debut in the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon,” Rupp said in a press release. “This will be my 12th marathon, so I have a lot of experience on my resume. I know a win at the TCS New York City Marathon would be right up there.”

An American man has not won the race since Meb Keflezighi in 2009. 

The reigning champion, Albert Korir of Kenya, will return to defend his TCS New York City Marathon title after taking the tape last year in 2:08:22 to finish one spot better and 14 seconds faster than his runner-up performance in 2019. His victory marked his first Abbott World Marathon Majors win. Korir had previous marathon wins at Elite-label races in Houston, Ottawa, and Vienna City.

Last year’s runner-up, Morocco’s Mohammed El Aaraby, and the 2020 London Marathon champion, Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata, will join Korir and Rupp at the start line. Kenya’s Evans Chebet will also be in the mix, looking to add another world marathon title. The defending Boston Marathon champion and has top five in Berlin, London, and Tokyo, and will be making his first start in New York. Tokyo Olympic silver medalist and Dutch national record holder Abdi Nageeye will also return to New York to better his fifth-place finish in 2021.

Other international stars include Brazilian Olympian and South American marathon record-holder Daniel Do Nascimento, who was eighth at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, and Japan’s Suguru Osako, who was third at the 2018 Chicago Marathon and fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Marathon. Both will be making their TCS New York City Marathon debuts.

Five-time U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman, who has six career top-10 NYC finishes to his name, will make his final start at the 2022 marathon. The 45-year-old distance runner has announced he will retire from professional competition at the end of 2022. Abdirahman finished third in the NYC marathon in 2016. 

Brazil's Alison Dos Santos ran the third fastest time of all time to win the world 400m hurdles on Tuesday as Norwegian prodigy Karsten Warholm wilted at Hayward Field.

Dos Santos clocked a championship record of 46.29 seconds, finishing ahead of Americans Rai Benjamin and Trevor Bassitt, who finished in 46.89 and 47.39sec respectively.

Olympic champion and world record holder Warholm led coming into the home straight but seized up badly and eventually came in seventh (48.42).

Warholm last lost a 400m hurdles race in September 2018 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Since then, he had notched up a winning streak of 18 races and another four qualifying races in the 2019 world championships and 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Warholm laid down a performance that is widely considered one of the greatest Olympic track performances of all time when he smashed the 29-year-old world record to win the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Games in a time of 45.94sec.

But the 26-year-old pulled up injured at the Diamond League meet in Rabat in early June with a "muscle fiber tear" in a hamstring and although insisting he was at 100% going into the race, he missed his usual gas over the final 80 meters.

Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor, whose career was traumatized in June 2020 when he was hit by a motorbike during a training run and required surgery on a broken tibia, is due to contest his first major championship marathon in Eugene on July 17.

The 29-year-old from Nyen was named on the Kenyan team for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 along with 33-year-old Lawrence Cherono – who missed a medal by one place in the marathon at last year’s Olympics – and 35-year-old Barnabas Kiptum.

Kamworor, confident and outgoing, was flying high when he had his accident.

Although he had performed to high levels on the track, where he earned 10,000m silver at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, it was on grass and roads that he had excelled, winning the world cross-country senior titles in 2015 and 2017, and world half marathon titles in 2014, 2016 and 2018.

In his first competitive marathon in 2012 he finished third in Berlin in 2:06:12, and he was a consistent presence on the podium at World Majors Marathons thereafter, particularly in New York, where he finished second in 2015, first in 2017, third in 2018 and first again in 2019.

Kamworor ran his first race since the accident in January 2021, winning the Kenyan Police Cross Country Championships before going on to secure a place on Kenya’s Olympic 10,000m team after winning the national trials, only to have to pull out with an ankle injury.

But at the Valencia Marathon last December he was able to perform to the peak of his ability once more as he set a personal best of 2:05:23 in finishing fourth.

At the previous year’s running in Valencia, Cherono was second in a personal best of 2:03:04, putting him eighth on the world all-time list, having made his World Marathon Majors breakthrough in 2019 when he won in Boston in 2:07:57 and then Chicago in 2:05:45.

Like Kamworor, Kiptum also set a personal best last year as he clocked 2:04:17 in placing third at the Milan Marathon and he has a solid top-three record in virtually every race he has contested.

Such is the depth of Kenyan talent that they can name 2017 world champion Geoffrey Kirui as a reserve.

Meanwhile Kenya’s perennial rivals Ethiopia will be looking to their current world champion Lelisa Desisa, who found the way to win in the steamy heat of Doha three years ago, to make the most of his wild card entry to this year’s competition.

Desisa had early track success, winning the African U20 10,000m title in 2009, and he has since become a highly consistent performer at the highest level, achieving podium finishes four times in New York, including victory in 2018, and four times in Boston, where he won in 2013 and 2015.

He also has championship pedigree, having earned world silver in 2013 six years before his Doha gold, and has a personal best from 2013 of 2:04:45.

The formidable talent Ethiopia can call upon was made clear when it was confirmed that Desisa will have as teammates Tamirat Tola, Mosinet Geremew and Seifa Tura.

Tola earned Olympic 10,000m bronze in 2016 and world marathon silver in 2017. He set his personal best of 2:03:38 last year.

Geremew took silver behind Desisa at the 2019 World Championships, having finished second at that year’s London Marathon in 2:02:55, the third-fastest time in history.

Tura set his personal best of 2:04:29 last year in Milan before going on to win the Chicago Marathon in 2:06:12.

Uganda, the rising nation in distance running, earned this title in 2013 thanks to their 2012 Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich. But the 33-year-old hasn’t been selected for Oregon, nor have Stephen Kissa, who ran a national record of 2:04:48 in Hamburg earlier this year, and Victor Kiplangat who was third in the second-fastest time ever by a Ugandan, 2:05:09.

Instead, Filex Chemonges, Fred Musobo and Jackson Kiprop will run the World Championships marathon, according to the Uganda Athletics Federation. So Kiprop, who helped Kiprotich to win the 2013 world title, is back at the World Championships for the first time since 2015.

Kissa, meanwhile, is due to be in Oregon in the 10,000m, where he will run with fellow Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei, the world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder, while Kiplangat is reported to be running the Commonwealth Games marathon.

Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands and Belgium’s Bashir Abdi earned surprise silver and bronze medals respectively at the Olympics last year, but went on to confirm that their performance in Sapporo was anything but a fluke. Abdi set a European record of 2:03:36 to win the Rotterdam Marathon just two months later, while Nageeye was victorious at the Rotterdam Marathon earlier this year in a Dutch record of 2:04:56, finishing ahead of Abdi.

Both men will line up for the marathon in Oregon, only this time it will be less of a surprise if they reach the podium.

The United States will be looking to the highly consistent figure of Galen Rupp. After taking Olympic 10,000m silver in 2012, Rupp moved to the roads and earned Olympic bronze in 2016.

In 2017 he became the first US man to win the Chicago Marathon since 2002 and finished second at the Boston Marathon. He qualified for Oregon by finishing eighth at last year’s Olympics.

The championships will be in Rupp’s home state, in the same city where he made his first Olympic team in 2008 while he was a student at the University of Oregon.

The other US selections are Elkanah Kibet and Colin Mickow. Kibet, who is with the US military, finished 16th at the 2017 World Championships and set a personal best of 2:11:15 in finishing fourth at last year’s New York marathon.

Mickow is a 32-year-old full-time financial analyst for an organic and natural foods distributor who took up road running six years after finishing his college track career. He qualified for his first international vest after being the top US man home at last year’s Chicago Marathon, where he was sixth in 2:13:31.

Japan’s trio of male runners will be headed by Kengo Suzuki, who set a national record of 2:04:56 in February 2021 at the Lake Biwa marathon in Otsu. Daniel Do Nascimento of Brazil has run a 2:04:51 personal best this year and is another one to watch.

The three-loop World Athletics Championships marathon course only varies by about seven meters between its high and low points and the weather is likely to be considerably cooler than it was in Sapporo or Doha, where the men's marathon had to be held at midnight and the start time temperature was 29C/84F with 51% humidity.

Women's marathon

Ruth Chepngetich will defend her marathon title at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 on July 18 by virtue of a wild card.

Chepngetich claimed the first gold medal of the 2019 World Championships, clocking 2:32:43 in the steamy heat to gain her first major gold.

She went on to finish third at the 2020 London Marathon before a roller coaster 2021, when she set a world record of 1:04:02 at the Istanbul Half Marathon, failed to finish the Tokyo 2020 Marathon in Sapporo but then won the Chicago Marathon.

At this year’s Nagoya Women's Marathon she won in 2:17:18, just 10 seconds off her personal best and the second-fastest ever women-only marathon.

She will be joined on the Kenyan team in Oregon by Judith Jeptum and Angela Tanui. Jeptum set a French all-comers’ record of 2:19:48 to win the Paris Marathon this year, while Tanui won the 2021 Amsterdam Marathon in 2:17:57.

Ethiopia will be represented by Gotytom Gebreslase, who won the 2021 Berlin Marathon on her debut and finished third in this year’s Tokyo Marathon in 2:18:18, Ababel Yeshaneh, second at the 2019 Chicago Marathon in a personal best of 2:20:51, and Ashete Bekere, third in last year’s London Marathon in 2:18:18, who has run 2:17:58 this year.

USA’s Keira D’Amato, who broke the North American record when winning January’s Houston Marathon in 2:19:12 – taking 24 seconds off the mark set by Deena Kastor in 2006 – has answered a late call to join the host nation’s team following the withdrawal of Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel.

Seidel has been suffering from a hip injury that forced her to drop out of the Boston Marathon in April and withdrew from the team after being unable to resolve her issue, giving the 37-year-old D’Amato, who only began serious marathon running in 2017, three weeks to prepare, but she is reported to be in “great shape”.

Her teammates will be Emma Bates, runner-up at last year’s Chicago Marathon, and Sara Hall, who finished second at the 2020 London Marathon and third at last year’s Chicago Marathon.

Japan has named Mizuki Matsuda, who has a personal best of 2:20:52, Mao Ichiyama, who has run 2:21:02, and Hitomi Niiya, who has a best of 2:21:17.

Britain will be represented by Rose Harvey, Olympian Jess Piasecki and Charlotte Purdue, who ran a personal best of 2:23:26 in finishing 10th at last year’s London Marathon.

Other names to watch out for are Bahrain’s Eunice Chumba, who ran 2:20:02 in Seoul in April this year, and Israel’s European 10,000m champion Lonah Salpeter, who won the 2020 Tokyo Marathon in 2:17:45 and was going well in the lead group at last year’s Olympic marathon before dropping down to 66th place in the closing stages.

After also dropping out of the 2019 World Championships marathon, Salpeter will be seeking to make the global impact her talent warrants.

Meanwhile Eritrea’s Nazret Weldu, who has run a personal best of 2:21:56 this year, is another one to watch.