Running News Daily

Few athletes have ever dominated the 3000m steeplechase with the brilliance, charisma and longevity of Ezekiel Kemboi. Born on May 25, 1982, in Matira, Kenya, Kemboi grew into one of the most iconic figures the event has ever produced, turning the steeplechase into both a spectacle and an art form.

Inspired by legendary Kenyan steeplechaser Moses Kiptanui and later mentored by Paul Ereng, the 1988 Olympic 800m champion, Kemboi developed the confidence and competitive mentality that would define his extraordinary career.

From the moment he emerged on the international stage, Kemboi brought a fearless approach to the barriers and water jumps. He raced with unmatched courage, often controlling championship finals with tactical intelligence and explosive finishing speed. His style made him one of the most difficult athletes to defeat under pressure.

Kemboi became a two-time Olympic champion in the 3000m steeplechase, winning gold in Athens in 2004 before reclaiming the Olympic crown in London in 2012. His ability to remain at the top for nearly a decade separated him from many great champions before him.

Even more impressive was his dominance at the World Championships, where he won four consecutive world titles in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 — one of the greatest championship streaks in steeplechase history.

Throughout his remarkable journey, Kemboi collected an astonishing 15 major championship medals:

7 gold medals

6 silver medals

2 bronze medals

He collected those medals across the Olympic Games, World Championships, African Championships and Commonwealth Games, consistently proving himself against the very best athletes in the world. His ability to deliver year after year at the highest level highlighted not only his remarkable talent, but also his resilience, longevity and championship mentality.

Beyond the medals, Kemboi became famous for bringing excitement and personality to the event. His unforgettable finish-line dances became iconic moments in athletics, turning victories into celebrations that fans across the world eagerly anticipated. He showed that a champion could dominate fiercely while still expressing joy and individuality.

Kemboi’s brilliance was also reflected in his incredible speed. His personal best of 7:55.76, set in Monaco in 2011, places him among the fastest steeplechasers in history and remains one of the standout performances ever recorded in the event.

For many young athletes, especially in Kenya, Ezekiel Kemboi’s story continues to serve as a powerful source of inspiration. From a small village in Kenya to Olympic and world glory, he proved that discipline, belief and fearlessness can elevate an athlete to legendary status.

Today, his legacy stands far beyond medals and records. Ezekiel Kemboi transformed steeplechase into a global spectacle and inspired an entire generation to dream bigger every time they approach the barriers.

The final meters of the Okpekpe International 10km Road Race are designed to reward the relentless. On May 25, 2019, in Edo State, Nigeria, they became something else entirely.

Kenyan runner Simon Cheprot was still racing — lungs burning, legs heavy, eyes fixed on the finish — when he noticed movement on the road ahead. Another athlete had gone down. It was Kenneth Kipkemoi, a fellow Kenyan, his body finally overwhelmed by the strain of elite competition. He tried to rise. He couldn’t.

Around them, the race did what races always do. Runners streamed past. The clock kept ticking. The finish line waited.

Cheprot slowed. Then he stopped.

In a sport where hesitation costs careers, he turned back. He reached down, lifted Kipkemoi, and wrapped an arm around him. With every step, Cheprot dragged his exhausted compatriot forward, not toward victory, but toward safety. The sprint was gone. The podium was gone. So was the prize money that so often defines survival in professional road racing.

What remained was a choice.

Cheprot knew exactly what he was giving up. A top placing in a World Athletics–labelled road race carries more than prestige; it brings financial relief, future invitations, and validation. By stopping, he erased all of that in seconds. Yet there was no drama in his decision, no gesture for the cameras. Just urgency, effort, and care.

Spectators sensed it immediately. The noise shifted — from cheers for speed to applause for humanity. Officials and medical staff moved in as Cheprot ensured Kipkemoi was no longer alone on the road.

In those moments, the finish line lost its power.

The images traveled quickly, cutting through a sports world conditioned to celebrate only winners. Here was something rarer: an athlete refusing to step over another’s pain for personal gain.

Cheprot finished far back in the results, his name absent from headlines that usually list times and places. But the act itself became the story. Not because it was emotional, but because it was honest.

Athletics often speaks about respect, solidarity, and fair play. On that day in Okpekpe, Simon Cheprot lived those words. He reminded the world that behind every bib number is a human being, and that the true measure of sport is not how fiercely we compete — but how we respond when competition asks us to forget our humanity.

The clock kept running.

The race moved on.

But something far more important stopped — and was remembered.

At the 2025 Athletics Kenya Trials held at Nairobi’s Ulinzi Sports Complex, Doreen Waka blasted out of the blocks and powered through a stiff -2.0 m/s headwind, crossing the finish line in 12.02 seconds to win the women’s 100m final. The performance not only secured her a gold medal but also earned her a coveted spot on Team Kenya for the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo.

She defeated a talented field, including Loice Nyanchoka Morara (12.09), South Sudan’s Lucia William Moris (12.10), and Delisha Atyang (12.14), while veterans like Monica Safania and Eunice Kadogo did not start. But for Waka, the win was about more than medals. It marked a defining moment in a career built on resilience, sacrifice, and an unshakable belief in her sprinting potential.

Running Barefoot, Dreaming Without Limits

When Doreen takes to the track, what you see is explosive speed. What you don’t see are the barefoot years spent training on gravel roads, the financial struggles, or the countless setbacks that nearly derailed her dream.

Born on November 13, 1994, in Kiambu County, Doreen discovered her athletic talent in primary school. She ran the 400m in Standard Four but didn’t qualify for competition—she was too young. A perceptive teacher, however, encouraged her to shift focus to the 100m and 200m, a piece of advice that changed her life.

By Class Five, she had qualified for the national primary school championships in Nyahururu, placing 4th in the 100m and 3rd in the 200m. A year later, she won silver in the 100m at an East African schools meet in Kampala, Uganda.

Despite early success, life at home was difficult. Her family lacked the resources to support her athletics career. After finishing Class Eight, a well-wisher helped her join Brokhurst Senior School in Machakos County, where she again reached the national stage in Form Three. But in Form Four, she was barred from sports in order to focus on final exams—just when she needed exposure the most.

A Coach, a Believer, a Lifeline

In 2017, everything changed. Doreen met sprinter Kalewi Awange, who introduced her to Coach Julius Migwi (often called Coach Julious). At the time, she was living in Githurai, Nairobi, with her mother.

“When I told my mom I wanted to train, she hesitated,” Doreen recalls. “Coach Migwi had to come home and explain everything. Eventually, she gave me her blessing: ‘You’re the one who will help me.’”

Coach Julious remembers their first meeting clearly.

“She had no shoes. No passport. No real support. We took her in like family,” he says. “I’ve been acting as her parent ever since.”

Since then, Coach Julious has supported her with food, rent, transport, and training costs—often from his own pocket. Despite the challenges, Doreen has never wavered. Most days, she trains without proper spikes or access to a gym, using rough murram fields instead of tracks.

“If she had the facilities athletes in Botswana or South Africa have,” Julius says, “she’d already be running 10.9.”

A Boost from KATA—and a Call to Bob Anderson

Though resources remain limited, Doreen has received small but meaningful support from the Kenya Athletics Training Academy (KATA), founded by Bob Anderson, the American entrepreneur and lifelong runner who created Runner’s World magazine.

“KATA has helped in important ways,” says Julius. “Bob understands athlete development. Now we’re appealing to him directly: please consider supporting Doreen with gear, gym access, and small financial support so she can focus fully on her training.”

Doreen echoes the plea:

“I’m not looking for a shortcut. Just a chance. Bob, give me one international race, one opportunity—and I will make you and Kenya proud.”

Denied, But Never Defeated

Doreen’s path has been lined with near-misses and painful exclusions. In 2019, she qualified for the World Relays during trials in Iten—but couldn’t travel. She didn’t have a passport.

Later that year, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, she trained inside the grounds of Kamiti Prison, staying with a friend near the facility. Her perseverance finally paid off in 2021, when she represented Kenya in the 4x200m relay at the World Relays in Poland. She returned home and won the national 100m title.

Yet again in 2023, after qualifying for the African Championships in Ghana, she was left off the final team list.

“It didn’t kill my spirit,” she says. “This year I qualified again. But they didn’t take a women’s 4x100m team.”

A Voice for the Overlooked

Now 29, Doreen Waka is more than just a sprinter—she’s a voice for the many under-supported female sprinters across Kenya.

“Athletics Kenya should not conclude that Kenyan women can’t sprint. We just need the opportunity.”

Coach Julious adds:

“She’s already inspiring others. Hurdler Gladys Ngure, who ran 14.05 at nationals, joined our camp because of Doreen. These girls are training in KSh 50 gyms. Imagine what they could do with real support.”

A Camp Like No Other

In a bold move, Coach Julius recently established a KATA Running Camp and KATA Potato Farm, part of a larger initiative spearheaded by Bob Anderson, who has now launched 25 KATA camps across Kenya since May 25.

“I think my camp is the only running camp that exclusively trains sprinters in all of Kenya,” says Julius.  "Thanks, Bob, for listening and helping Doreen go after her goals.”

This unique camp not only nurtures sprinters like Doreen but also provides food and economic support through potato farming, helping athletes stay focused on training while building a more stable future.

The Goal: Sub-11 and a Global Stage

Doreen Waka’s goal is clear: run 10.8 or 10.9 and place Kenyan women’s sprinting on the global map. With the right shoes, coaching, nutrition, and gym access, she believes it’s within reach.

“I believe in myself. I just need one solid chance.”

And with people like Coach Julius KATA, and Bob Anderson behind her, that chance may finally be coming.

Doreen Waka At a Glance

• Born: November 13, 1994 – Kiambu County, Kenya

• 2024 Trials: 1st in 100m (12.02s, -2.0 m/s headwind)

• International Debut: 2021 World Relays, Poland (4x200m)

• Coach: Julius Migwi 

• Goal: Sub-11 in 100m and a global podium finish

• Camp: KATA Running Camp for Sprinters – the only sprint-exclusive KATA camp in Kenya

By My Best Runs — with a special thanks to Eric Giacoletto for the inspiration

On June 1, 1954, Emil Zátopek etched his name into history by becoming the first person to run 10,000 meters in under 29 minutes. Clocking 28:54.2 in Brussels, the Czech legend not only set a new world record but also reshaped the future of endurance training.

Zátopek’s previous world records included:

• 29:02.6 in Turku, Finland (August 4, 1950)

• 29:01.6 in Stará Boleslav, Czechoslovakia (November 1, 1953)

His breakthrough in 1954 wasn’t just a time on the clock—it was a philosophical shift. Zátopek popularized high-volume, interval-based training long before lactate thresholds and GPS watches entered the vocabulary. He trained in ways that were radical at the time: running repeated intervals at what we now call the aerobic/anaerobic threshold. Often without proper equipment or ideal conditions, Zátopek’s approach was empirical, relentless, and incredibly effective.

Despite the lack of modern media, Zátopek became one of the most celebrated athletes of his era. His fame grew not through social media or global broadcasts, but through the power of newspapers and word-of-mouth. His grit, work ethic, and unforgettable running style made him a symbol of human potential.

Zátopek’s Olympic Glory

Zátopek’s 1954 world record was just one chapter in a legendary career. At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, he achieved an unmatched triple gold medal performance:

• Gold in the 5,000 meters

• Gold in the 10,000 meters

• Gold in the marathon — a race he had never run before

No one had ever accomplished that feat before, and no one has done it since.

He once said:

“If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.”

This quote continues to inspire runners around the globe. Zátopek didn’t just run races—he ran with purpose, embodying resilience, innovation, and heart.

70 Years Later—A Milestone for Women

Exactly 70 years after Zátopek’s barrier-breaking run, history repeated itself in a remarkable way. On May 25, 2024, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet became the first woman to run under 29 minutes for 10,000m, recording 28:54.14. Her time? Nearly identical to Zátopek’s—28:54.2 (manual timing).

The symmetry is striking and symbolic. What Zátopek accomplished in 1954 has echoed into the 21st century, reminding us that barriers are made to be broken—again and again.

Zegama-Aizkorri 2025: The Mountain Marathon That Defines Grit and Glory

ZEGAMA, SPAIN — On Sunday, May 25, 2025, the world’s most electrifying trail marathon returns to the rugged peaks of the Basque Country. The Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon, now in its 24th edition, is more than a race—it’s a rite of passage for mountain runners.

Each year, hundreds of elite and amateur athletes are drawn to the small village of Zegama to test themselves on a course that is as breathtaking as it is brutal. With 42.195 kilometers (26.2 miles) of steep, technical terrain and 2,736 meters (8,976 feet) of vertical gain, the challenge is legendary.

A Look Back at 2024: Jornet and Nordskar Shine

In 2024, trail running legend Kilian Jornet claimed his 11th Zegama title, completing the course in 3:38:07, the second-fastest time in the race’s history. The Spaniard’s unmatched mastery of this terrain—where weather, altitude, and technicality collide—continues to amaze.

On the women’s side, Norway’s Sylvia Nordskar delivered a breakthrough performance, winning in 4:29:12. Her victory came after years of chasing a podium finish, cementing her place among the world’s best mountain runners.

What Makes Zegama So Unique?

Zegama's course runs through the Aizkorri-Aratz Natural Park, an untouched alpine landscape of jagged ridges, mossy forests, and sweeping vistas. But it’s not just the scenery that defines Zegama—it’s the intensity of the terrain:

• Brutal Climbs: Runners face punishing ascents like Sancti Spiritu, where fans line both sides of the narrow path, turning the mountain into a human tunnel of noise and encouragement.

• Technical Descents: Slippery rock faces and steep downhills test a runner’s balance and nerve, often under unpredictable weather that can shift from fog to freezing rain in minutes.

• Unmatched Atmosphere: Thousands of passionate Basque fans hike deep into the mountains to cheer with cowbells, flags, and chants. It’s been compared to the Tour de France on foot.

In Zegama, you’re not just running against the clock—you’re running with the crowd, through weather, over stone, and into history.

2025 Expectations

With another stacked field expected for 2025, the stage is set for drama. Can Jornet make it 12 wins? Will Nordskar defend her title? Or will a new name rise through the mist?

One thing is certain: Zegama es Zegama. No other race captures the raw essence of mountain running like this one.

The 2025 Wanda Diamond League kicks off this Saturday, April 26, in Xiamen, China, launching the most prestigious one-day series in global track and field. With 15 elite meets on the calendar, this year’s circuit serves as both a proving ground and a preview for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this September.

While Olympic champion Grant Holloway will headline the sprint hurdles, it’s the middle- and long-distance events in Xiamen that promise some of the most compelling matchups of the weekend.

Chebet vs. Tsegay in the Women’s 5000m

Saturday’s most anticipated race may be the women’s 5000m, featuring a classic Kenya vs. Ethiopia showdown.

Beatrice Chebet, the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder in the 10,000m, opens her Diamond League campaign against Gudaf Tsegay, the reigning 5000m world champion and world record holder. With personal bests of 14:05.92 (Chebet) and 14:00.21 (Tsegay), the two are expected to push each other deep into record territory.

They’ll be challenged by rising Ethiopian talents Freweyni Hailu and Birke Haylom, both capable of delivering world-class performances.

Kipyegon Returns in the 1000m

Also making her season debut is Kenyan superstar Faith Kipyegon, who will race the rarely-run 1000m. The two-time Olympic and world champion is the current world record holder in both the 1500m and the mile.

In Xiamen, she’ll face Jamaica’s Natoya Goule-Toppin and Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi, both of whom are known for their championship pedigree over 800m. The 1000m offers an ideal distance for Kipyegon to sharpen her speed and stamina heading into the summer.

Men’s 3000m Steeplechase: A Deep Field Emerges

The men’s 3000m steeplechase will feature a stacked lineup, with top athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Morocco vying for early-season dominance. With the event’s tradition of upsets and tactical drama, this race will be one to watch for fans of distance racing.

2025 Wanda Diamond League Schedule

Following Xiamen, the Diamond League tour travels to 14 more cities before the two-day final in Zurich. Here’s the full schedule:

• April 26 – Xiamen, China

• May 3 – Shanghai/Suzhou, China

• May 16 – Doha, Qatar

• May 25 – Rabat, Morocco

• June 6 – Rome, Italy

• June 12 – Oslo, Norway

• June 15 – Stockholm, Sweden

• June 20 – Paris, France

• July 5 – Eugene, USA

• July 11 – Monaco

• July 19 – London, UK

• August 16 – Silesia, Poland

• August 20 – Lausanne, Switzerland

• August 22 – Brussels, Belgium

• August 27–28 – Zurich, Switzerland (Diamond League Final)

The series leads directly into the 2025 World Athletics Championships, set for September 13–21 at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo.

The third time is the charm. This is what 2019 World 3,000m steeplechase champion Beatrice Chepkoech is banking on as she braces up for a podium finish at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Chepkoech narrowly missed the podium in Rio 2016, finishing fourth (9:16.05) and placed seventh (9:16.33) in Tokyo 2021.

Tokyo saw Uganda's Peruth Chemutai (9:01.45), USA's Courtney Frerichs (9:04.79) and Hyvin Kiyeng (9:05.39) seal the podium while Rio Olympics top spots went to Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet (8:59.72), Kiyeng (9:07.12) and USA's Emma Coburn (9:07.63).

After heartbreaks in Rio and Tokyo, the 33-year-old is laser-focused on clinching the elusive Olympic medal.

“I have missed the podium in my last two Olympic appearances but I am optimistic on my third attempt. I will secure a podium finish,” Chepkoech revealed.

She also highlighted the importance of an Olympic medal to add to her rich trophy cabinet. “It is everybody’s dream to win an Olympic medal. I will be more than happy if I secure a podium in Paris,” she added.

Chepkoech’s impressive resume includes the 2019 world title in Doha, where she set a course record of 8:57.84 while leading Coburn (9:02.35) and Germany’s Gesa Felicitas (9:03.30) to the podium.

She also holds the African title having clocked 9:15.61 in Accra last year with Chemutai (9:16.07) and Ethiopia’s Lomi Muleta (9:26.63) sealing the podium.

Chepkoech is a bronze medallist in the 3,000m at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. She finished third in 8:22.68 behind Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay (8:21.13) and USA’s Elle Purrier (8:20.87).

Despite strong competition from World Champion Winfred Yavi and Uganda’s Chemutai at the Paris Olympics, Chepkoech remains unfazed. 

“Anything can happen in Paris, I can’t say I fear anyone. I am going to run my race and do my very best,” she stated.

Yavi edged out Chepkoech at the 2023 Championships in Budapest beating her to the title in 8:54.29 with Chepkoech settling for second in 8:58.98 and Faith Cherotich (9:00.69) sealing the podium.

Chemutai beat her to the Prefontaine Classic title on May 25, clocking 8:55.09 with Chepkoech clocking 8:56.51. At the Paris Diamond League earlier this month, Chepkoech finished ninth place in 9:27.21.

Yavi (9:03.68), Alice Finot (9:05.01) and Britain’s Elizabeth Bird (9:09.07) claimed the podium.

Chepkoech has been honing her skills at the Nyayo Stadium, where she has been training three times a week ahead of Paris.

“Training has been intense but rewarding. I do training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I have been focusing on my weaknesses to ensure peak form in Paris,” she shared.

In Paris, she will be joined by world U20 champions Jackline Chepkoech (2021) and Faith Cherotich (2022). The duo have been intensifying their training in Eldoret.

Chepkoech highlighted that training alone has been lonely but reiterated her desire to put in more effort.

“The other athletes are training in Eldoret so I am alone. It’s a challenge but I have to do my best to be ready for the Olympics,” Chepkoech stated.

She further highlighted the importance of having her coach along with the assigned coaches from the National Olympics Committee of Kenya. 

“Training with my coach has been good because we can strategise on the areas we see weaknesses. It was a good initiative from the federation to have me train with my coach along with the assigned coaches,” she revealed.

Val Constien has surmounted obstacles along every step of her career—including a devastating knee injury just 13 months ago. Now the 28-year-old is a favorite to make her second Olympic team in the 3,000-meter steeplechase heading into the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials.

Val Constien started 2023 in the best shape of her life. She had been an Olympian in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Tokyo Olympics. And yet, she had no professional sponsorships.

Constien, then 26, had spent the several years after graduating from the University of Colorado in 2019 continuing to train for the steeplechase under her college coaches while working a full-time job mostly because she loved it, and partly because she was betting on herself that she could continue to progress to a higher level.

While studying environmental engineering at CU, Constien twice earned All-American honors in the steeplechase and helped the Buffaloes win a NCAA Division I national championship in cross country.  She then finished 12th in the steeplechase at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. And yet the Boulder, Colorado-based runner hadn’t been able to attract a sponsorship deal from a shoe and apparel brand. She squeezed her workouts in before work, paid for her travel to races, and remained determined and hopeful.

But then, after winning a U.S. indoor title in the flat 3,000 meters in early 2023, she caught the attention of Nike, which signed her to a deal that would lead into the 2024 Olympic year. Finally, it was the break she’d be hoping for.

However, less than three weeks after signing the contract, while running the steeplechase in a high-level Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, Constien landed awkwardly on her right leg early in the race and immediately knew something was wrong. She could be seen visibly mouthing “Oh no!” on the livestream, as she hobbled to the side of the track out of the race.

It was a worst case scenario: a torn ACL in her right knee. That meant surgery and a long road back to running fast again.

“That was awful,” said Kyle Lewis, her boyfriend who was watching the race online from Boulder. “The doctors over there initially told her they thought it was a sprain, but she came home and two days later she got an MRI and found out that it was a completely torn ACL, and she was obviously very upset. That was only a couple of weeks after she signed the Nike deal. But that’s just kind of been like with Val’s whole career. Nothing has ever come easy to that girl.”

How Constien, now 28, returned to top form a year later to become one of the top contenders to make Team USA in the steeplechase heading into the June 21-30 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon—her preliminary race on June 24 will be only 398 days after her knee was surgically repaired—is a testament to the grit and confidence Constien possesses.

“It’s all just an extension of how tough I am and how willing I am to make hard decisions, and how badly I want it,” Constien said. “I love running. If I didn’t love running this much, I would’ve quit a long time ago.”

Constien had surgery last May 2023 at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, not far from where she grew up. But that also presented a challenging twist.

One of the most popular types of ACL reconstructions for athletes is called a patella tendon graft, in which the doctor cuts off pieces of bone from the patient’s tibia and patella and several strands of the patella tendon and uses those materials to replace the ACL. Usually those grafts are harvested from the same injured leg, but doctors determined Constien’s right patella had a bone bruise on it and wasn’t healthy enough to use. So instead, they grafted the replacement materials from her left leg. That meant undergoing surgery on both legs, rendering her recovery even more difficult.

For the first two weeks after surgery, she couldn’t stand up or sit down on her own. She had trouble moving around and even had to sit down to take a shower. It took a full month until she started to get comfortable enough to go on short, easy walks and start to regain her mobility.

“The first month post-op was really devastating,” she said. “I was in a lot of pain, and it was hot and I was uncomfortable. I’m glad he did it the way he did it, but it was a really, really challenging recovery.”

All the while, though, Constien never stopped thinking about getting back to racing and the prospect of what 2024 might hold. That’s what helped her make a huge mental shift two weeks after the surgery and refocus all of her energy into returning to peak form and chasing another Olympic berth.

That was obviously easier said than done, but Constien has grown used to working hard and battling adversity. Her college career had been disrupted by injuries and slow progress. She was overlooked by brands when she got out of school in 2019 and again in 2021 after she slashed 7 seconds off her personal best time to finish third at the U.S. Olympic Trials and earn a spot in the Tokyo Olympics. And after she ran two strong races in Tokyo—the first international races of her career—to make it to the final and place 12th overall.

Even when she’s been overlooked or discounted, Constien has always believed in her potential. And that’s why, after a year of hyper-focused dedication, she’s on the brink of making it back onto Team USA to compete in this summer’s Paris Olympics.

“I’ve told her many times, no matter what happens after this point, what a comeback it’s already been,” Lewis said. “But what’s amazing about her is that, after that initial rough part, when she wasn’t able to walk, she just did an incredible job of compartmentalizing and being focused. I never saw her get sad or upset. She was always just super clinical about everything and really happy.  It’s been incredible to watch.”

All last summer and fall, she continued building strength and began rejuvenating her aerobic strength—running more miles, getting stronger and getting faster. And that was amid working full-time doing quality assurance work for Stryd, a Boulder-based company that makes a wearable device to monitor running power and gait metrics. Heather Burroughs and Mark Wetmore, who have coached Constien since 2014, knew she had made considerable progress. But it wasn’t until early February that they began to realize the magnitude of her comeback.

“There was a point this winter, when she wasn’t running races, yet but she had some workouts that impressed me,” Burroughs said. “I wasn’t really worried about her ability to get fit enough the last four months, but it was whether her knee could handle the steeple work, especially the water jump.”

They never discussed that—because there was no point—and Constien went boldly into the outdoor season with her goal of breaking the 9:41.00 Olympic Trials qualifying standard. She started training outdoors in March and started her season by running a strong 1500-meter race on April 12 near Los Angeles (she won her heat in 4:12.27). But it wasn’t until May 11—roughly a year after she blew out her knee in Doha—that she ran her first steeple race.

At the Sound Running Track Fest, she ran patiently (with a smile on her face most of the way) just off the lead for the seven-and-a-half-lap race. She then unleashed an explosive closing kick to outrun Kaylee Mitchell down the homestretch and win in 9:27.22—securing her place in the Olympic Trials. That got her an invitation to the Prefontaine Classic, an international Diamond League meet on May 25 in Eugene, where she ran the best race of her life and finished fifth—and first American—in a new personal best of 9:14.29.

That put Constien at No. 7 on the all-time U.S. list. But more importantly, Constien closed hard after Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai had split the field apart en route to a world-leading 8:55.09, the sixth-fastest time in history.

“I’m more impressed by her comeback than she is, and it’s because I think she expected it,” Burroughs said. “It’s not that I didn’t expect it, but it was still improbable. But even now that she’s come back, she’s not impressed with herself at all. After the Prefontaine meet, I texted her about the race, and I got a five-word response—‘Let’s get back to work’—just very businesslike. She’s just dialed in and, to me, that says, ‘My big goal is yet to come.’”

For the last decade-plus, Emma Coburn and Courtney Freirichs have dominated the U.S. women’s steeplechase. They both suffered season-ending injuries this spring (broken ankle and torn ACL, respectively). Their absence leaves the event wide open for the likes of Constein, who is ranked second, and Krissy Gear, who enters the meet at the top seed (9:12.81) and as the defending national champion. But rising stars Courtney Wayment (9:14.48), Olivia Markezich (9:17:36), Gabrielle Jennings (9:18:03), and Kaylee Mitchell (9:21.00) are among several fast, young runners eager to battle for a spot on the Olympic team.

Constien knows she has two just goals to execute: run smart and fast enough to qualify for the finals on June 27, and then do whatever it takes to finish among the top three in that race.

Burroughs believes she’s as fit and as strong as she’s ever been, much improved since 2022, when she finished a disappointing eighth at the U.S. championships (9:42.96) while recovering from Covid. In fact, she’s even much better than her breakout year in 2021.

Over the past several weeks in Boulder, Constien has sharpened her fitness, including a final tuneup on June 12: a robust tempo run on the track with two hurdles per lap, which was preceded and followed by several fast 200-meter repeats. She’s also sharpened her perspective.

“There were definitely some dark times where I doubted myself and I doubted the process,” Constien said. “But I kind of just had to lock those thoughts away and just try to focus on the positive. And it’s really paid off.

“I never gave up when I didn’t have a sponsor and had to figure it all out on my own,” she added. “So tearing my ACL, yeah, that really sucks. That was really, really hard. But a part of me was like, ‘I’ve already done the hardest thing ever’ just by staying in the sport on my own. I look at it like, ‘I am the toughest person out here regardless of that ACL.’”

The renewal of the rivalry between Athing Mu, Keely Hodgkinson, and Mary Moraa will have to be postponed following the Mu's withdrawal from the Prefontaine Classic.

Athing Mu’s head coach Bobby Kersee has announced that the Olympic champion will miss the looming showdown against world champion Mary Moraa and world bronze medallist Keely Hodgkinson at the Prefontaine Classic, the Diamond League Meeting in Eugene, Oregon.

The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 25 and Mu has been forced to withdraw due to a lingering soreness in her left hamstring.

Speaking to Runner’s World, the coach explained that the injury is not worth risking to compete. This marks the third time that Mu’s hamstring has pushed back her 2024 season opener. The former world champion was initially scheduled to open at the Oxy Invitational in early May in Los Angeles, then the Los Angeles Grand Prix on May 18, but she unfortunately withdrew from the events.

“She’s a veteran, if she’s healthy, she can make the team. And so, if I injure her before, I’m gonna be called a fool; if I don’t race her before, I’m gonna get [criticism].

“So I have to do the math that’s going to put her on the team, and so whatever that math is between now and the 21st, that’s what I’m gonna do,” the coach said.

Meanwhile, Kersee confirmed that this season, Mu will be focusing on the 800m, the event in which she won a gold medal at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

He added that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will also focus on the 400m Hurdles, where she is the world record holder and she is also the defending Olympic champion.

Meanwhile, Kendra Harrison, another of Kersee’s athlete will not competing in the 100m hurdles. Kersee explained that the American suffered a tight back after traveling to compete in last week’s Atlanta City Games.

“She’s ready to go and that’s what I’m telling her. Right now, unless I know she’s 100 percent healthy ... athletes are taking a high risk right now for minimum gain.

“If you’re going to take a high risk, there’s only two races left in this year where you got to take a high risk for maximum gain and that’s our Olympic Trials and our Olympic Games.

“Everything else, you can’t take the risk if you’re not sure about what to gain and vice versa. And so I just think that, you know, in this case, well in all cases, that’s what I’m looking at as a coach: What’s the risk-reward situation, based on where we stand right now?

“Like Sydney last year, based on her career I mean, I could probably try to see if we could struggle through the world championship, but do I break down one of our world’s best athletes trying to sneak out one more medal and then subject her to more injury and don’t have anything this Olympic year, versus do I rest her?

"I think I’ve shown a little bit so far that maybe the rest did not hurt her and now she’s starting to compete again,” the coach said.

Valencia 10km Road Race silver medalist Immaculate Anyango is setting her sights on securing a spot in the women’s 10,000m team for a maiden appearance at the Paris Olympic Games.

With the Kenyan 10,000m teams (men and women) selection scheduled for May 25 in Oregon, USA, during the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League, Anyango is eager to showcase her prowess.

"I'll be heading to the Olympics Trials this week in Oregon. My goal is crystal clear: earn my place to represent Kenya in Paris," Anyango declared.

The Olympic qualifying mark for the women’s 10,000m is 30:40.00 whereas  Anyango boasts a personal best (PB) of 32:51.58 set at the  Fernanda Ribeiro Gala in Maia, Portugal.

Anyango is confident in her ability to meet the Olympic standard in Oregon. She said her mission now is to realise her dream of competing at the global extravaganza.

 "Making it to the Olympics is my ultimate goal. While the challenge of hitting the mark is real, my determination will drive me to succeed," she emphasised.

Acknowledging the tough competition in the women’s 10,000m field, Anyango remains cautious, admitting that, "The competition among female athletes in the 10,000m will be tough. It's going to be a demanding race."

However, she believes her meticulous preparations and participation in key races this year will give her an edge in the USA.

“My preparations are going on well. I have taken part in a couple of races this year and they have been crucial as far as my endurance and speed work are concerned,” she stated.

Anyango kicked off the year with a strong performance in January at the Valencia 10km Road Race, clocking 28:57 to secure the runner-up spot. Agnes Ngetich clocked 28:46 to obliterate the women’s 10km record.

She later went on to clinch the title at the Sirikwa Classic cross-country tour clocking 32:55.

Anyango also made the Kenya team to the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in March but finished outside the podium in position four (31:24).

The results, however, did not dampen her spirits as she went on to clinch silver at the Boston 5km Road Race in April clocking 14:59 behind Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay (14:45).

She also won another silver medal the same month in the Bengaluru, India 10km Road Race clocking 31:16 behind Lilian Kasait (30:56).

Recognised for her achievements, Anyango was awarded the LG/SJAK  Personality of the Month for February after her victory at the Sirikwa Classic.

She sees this accolade as a significant motivation as she prepares for the Olympic Trials in Oregon, stating, "The award will fuel my motivation as I gear up for the Olympic trials."

Kenyan athlete Daniel Ebenyo has expressed sadness over how injury has stopped him from becoming the first man to successfully defend an Okpekpe 10km International Road Race title.

The Kenyan top runner is also lamenting his inability to be the first man to break 28 minutes at the race after setting a 28:28 course record in 2023.

The 28-year-old won the men’s title last year and had promise to return to Nigeria this year but an injury he sustained in training means he will not be in Okpekpe to defend his title.

“I had a dream to be the first man to defend my title and and run another course record but definitely I can’t again,” wrote the Kenyan in a message to the Okpekpe race media.

Ebenyo, like the good sportsman that he is, is wishing the athletes who will compete for honors this year all the best.

“I am  hereby wishing all the runners all the best and may the best athlete win,” said  the  defending champion.

Ebenyo also has nice words for the organizers of the world-class, gold label 10km road race.

“Okpekpe is always a bridge and a mother to all races in Africa. God bless Okpekpe and God bless the organizer of the race. See you next year,” wrote Ebenyo who made the podium at both the World Athletics Championships in Budapest and World Athletics Road Running championships in Riga after emerging Okpekpe race champion last year.

This year’s race is the 10th in the series and organizers have assured of another world-class event come May 25 in Okpekpe in Edo State of Nigeria.

The race is the first road race in Nigeria to have its course measured by a World Athletics’ certified measurer  and the first in West Africa to be  granted label status to depicts its world-class status.

On Monday, Run Ottawa revealed the headliners for the 2024 Canadian 10K Championships, which is part of the Ottawa Marathon weekend on May 25-26. This year’s 10K race promises to be one to remember, with two of Canada’s best road racers and upcoming Olympians gearing up for a head-to-head matchup on the banks of Ottawa’s Rideau Canal—Ben Flanagan and Rory Linkletter.

Flanagan, who holds the the Canadian 10K record, returns to Ottawa after missing last year’s epic showdown between Cam Levins and Moh Ahmed due to a scheduling conflict. This will be Linkletter’s third consecutive year competing in the Ottawa 10K. This time he is coming off a marathon personal best 2:08:01 performance in Seville and looking for his first Canadian national title.

“I love Ottawa race weekend and I think the organizers and city put on an amazing event, says Linkletter. “So long as it fits my schedule, I intend to make it a tradition.” 

Both Flanagan and Linkletter have qualified to represent Canada at the Paris Olympics this summer, and the Canadian 10K Championships at Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend is an opportunity for the two to face off in the lead-up to the Games. Their last appearance together in the nation’s capital (the 2022 Canadian 10K Championships) saw Flanagan run away with first in 28:40, Linkletter second in 29:02.

“I’m excited to compete against Ben in Ottawa. He’s one of Canada’s greatest distance runners—especially at the 10K distance,” says Linkletter. “I would consider Ben one of my greatest rivals and friends in Canadian running. It’s an honour any time we can compete head to head.”

For Canadian fans, seeing two of Canada’s Paris Olympians compete on home soil is a rare treat. The Ottawa 10K, with its rich history and enthusiastic crowd, provides the perfect stage for such a showdown. The women’s elite race kicks off at 6:15 p.m. ET, followed by the men’s start at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 25.

For those who want to be part of the action, registration is open to join Canada’s fastest distance runners at this year’s Canadian 10K Championships. As Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend celebrates its 50th year of running in 2024, don’t miss the chance to be a part of it!

Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala and world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman of the USA will go head to head at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, on May 25.

Omanyala shattered the African 100m record with a lightning-fast time of 9.77 at the 2021 Kip Keino Classic, just narrowly trailing behind USA’s Trayvon Bromell, who clocked 9.76.

His dominance continued with back-to-back victories at the Kip Keino Classic in 2022 and 2023, clocking 9.85 and 9.84 respectively. 

He, however, fell short during this year’s edition placing fifth in 10.03. USA’s Kenneth Bednarek took the title in 9.91.

Coleman claimed the Diamond Trophy over 100m last year in Xiamen, China, by equaling the world lead of 9.83 set by Zharnel Hughes.

Also in the lineup is the World Indoor 60m bronze medallist Ackeem Blake of Jamaica.

In the women’s 100m, USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson will be the one to keep an eye on.

Richardson sped to victory over 100m at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, setting a PB of 10.65 to equal the championship record, and followed it by anchoring the USA to gold in the 4x100m.

She will, however, face fierce competition from World Indoor 60m champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia and African record-holder Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast.

The men’s 200m in Eugene will also be highly competitive as USA’s Erriyon Knighton, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and Bednarek going head to head.

Knighton – who has a lifetime best of 19.49 – took silver in that discipline at last year’s World Championships, earning his second global medal before even turning 20.

Tebogo won back-to-back world U20 titles over 100m in 2021 and 2022, then claimed world 100m silver and 200m bronze in Budapest last year, just weeks after turning 20. His PB of 19.50 is just 0.01 shy of Knighton’s.

Bednarek claimed Olympic silver in 2021 and followed it with world silver in 2022. Along with Tebogo, Bednarek is one of a small number of men who have broken 10 seconds for 100m, 20 seconds for 200m and 45 seconds for 400m.

Daniel Simiu aims to defend his title and make history at the Okpekpe 10km Road Race in Nigeria.

World Half Marathon silver medallist, Daniel Simiu, is setting his sights on making history at the upcoming Okpekpe International 10km Road Race, scheduled for May 25 in Okpekpe, Edo State in Nigeria.

Following his record-breaking win last year, where he set a new course record of 28:28, Simiu is not only looking to defend his title but also to become the first man to successfully do so in the history of the Okpekpe race.

"I am interested in returning to Nigeria to run at the Okpekpe race. Nigeria is like my second home,” the 28-year-old athlete remarked as per The Guardian.

When asked about the possibility of breaking his own course record and potentially becoming the first man to run under 28 minutes at Okpekpe, Simiu remained modest yet hopeful.

“Maybe I will try,” he said, leaving fans wondering if this year’s race will witness another groundbreaking performance from the Kenyan.

Since clinching the Okpekpe title, Simiu’s career has been on an impressive trajectory.

He went on to secure a 10,000m silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and added a half marathon silver medal at the World Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, to his accolades.

His season started with a victory at the 67° Campaccio-International Cross Country, followed by a dominant performance at the National Police Cross-country Championships and Sirikwa Classic Cross-country.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Okpekpe Road Race, and organizers are promising an event filled with glamour and entertainment, aiming to make it the best edition yet.

“The technical and administrative organisation of the event have been applauded by World Athletics with the elevation of the event to a gold label status after its return from a two-year COVID-induced absence,” highlighted race director, Zack Amodu.

The date when a showdown between 1500m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and 2023 1500m world champion Josh Kerr has been confirmed.

Serial track rivals Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen have both been confirmed as headliners for the Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic, the fourth leg of the Diamond League Meeting series happening in Eugene, USA on May 25.

The duo has been known to attack each other with the two-time World 5000m champion from Norway also attacking the Scot most of the time.

The Norwegian, from time to time has been on record, trash-talking his rivals including Kerr and he once referred to him as the guy next door.

In his recent interview Speaking to the UK Times, Ingebrigtsen noted that he believes his competitors are irrelevant and very inconsistent when it comes to the sport.

“I’m going to say my competitors are irrelevant in the way I see them all the same. One of the main issues is they are very inconsistent and that means my rivals are always changing.

“From 2017 I have had ten to 12 different rivals. It’s easier for them to have a rival in me but not as easy for me to have a rival in them,” Ingebrigtsen said.

After the Scot broke the two-mile indoor world record, the World 1500m silver medallist also made fun of him and noted that he would have beaten him blindfolded.

“I would have beaten him in that race, blindfolded… But it’s good that people run better than they have done before,” Ingebrigtsen said.

The duo now clashes at the Prefontaine Classic and Kerr will be debuting at the event. U.S. indoor and outdoor mile record holder Yared Nuguse will also be in the mix.

In last year’s race, Ingebrigtsen battled to the finish line with Nuguse with the Norwegian star winning in 3:43.73. Nuguse took nearly three full seconds off Alan Webb’s American record with a 3:43.97.

After a record-setting 2023 season, it has been a quiet year (so far) for Norwegian distance star Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The 24-year-old has been sidelined with an Achilles injury, which will keep him out of next month’s World Indoor Championships in Scotland and World XC in Serbia.

In an exclusive interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK, Ingebrigtsen remained confident that he would be good to go for the summer track season. “Plan A is to start the season in Eugene [Diamond League, on May 25], run Bislett Games [Oslo Diamond League] on May 30, and the European Championships in Rome after that [June 7],” said Ingebrigtsen. “I think that will work well this year. And then full focus on the Olympics after that, so most likely a good season in the late summer.”

Last year was one of the most dominant seasons of Ingebrigtsen’s young career; he set world bests over two miles and 2,000m and clocked the second-fastest mile time in history (3:43.73) at the 2023 Diamond League Final in Eugene. He also went through a lot off the track, marrying his longtime partner Elisabeth Asserson and having a public falling out with his former coach and estranged father, Gjert Ingebrigtsen.

Ingebrigtsen told NRK that he took some time off from running during his wedding and honeymoon in the Maldives, and when he tried to start training again, the challenges began. “I got sick during the break,” said Ingebrigtsen. “When I started training again, it hurt like hell, then the Achilles tendon snapped.” He believes the problem occurred from inflammation around the Achilles tendon on his right foot.

He also admitted in the interview that he was struggling with pelvic pain before the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, where he defended his world title in the 5,000m and took silver to Great Britain’s Josh Kerr in the men’s 1,500m, losing to a British middle-distance runner for the second year in a row (Jake Wightman, 2022 worlds).

Ingebrigtsen said he is still motivated by his loss to Kerr and is trying to use it as a lesson: “It is again very important to try to analyze what you have done, or what you have been through, to see that it is not necessarily to blame, but what you can perhaps do differently. And I’m a big fan of that.”

Kerr and Ingebrigtsen have been public about their dislike of one another. After Kerr won the world title in Budapest, Ingebrigtsen called the Scottish runner “just the next guy.” In a podcast, Kerr responded by saying that Jakob has “major weaknesses” and “surrounds himself with yes men.” On the prospect of another duel in Paris, Kerr said: “I just hope he’s ready to go. I hope that when we cross that finish line in Paris, everyone can shake each other’s hand and be like, “Whoever wins is good, they’re the best.”

With Ingebrigtsen currently training on the elliptical and water running, fans will be denied a potential early clash between the world and Olympic 1,500m champion at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March. Kerr hopes for glory on home soil, competing in a major championship in his home country for the first time.

 

The next US Olympic Track and Field Trials will be held in ….. Eugene, yet again.

Yes that’s right. Hayward Field will host the 2024 US Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field from June 21-30, 2024, USATF announced in a statement on Thursday. The Olympic track & field program will begin four weeks later, on August 1 in Paris.

2024 will be the fifth straight Olympic Trials hosted by Eugene (2008, 2012, 2016, 2021, 2024) and Eugene’s fourth straight USATF Outdoor Championship. Since the new Hayward Field opened in 2020, no other stadium has hosted the US championships.

That means that in 2024 — just as in 2015, 2016, 2021, and 2022 — the three biggest meets in American track & field will be held at Hayward Field: the Prefontaine Classic, the NCAA championships, and the USATF championships/Olympic Trials. Here is what the schedule will look like for 2024:

May 25: Prefontaine ClassicJune 5-8: NCAA championshipsJune 21-30: US Olympic Trials

Quick Take: Eugene does a fantastic job hosting big meets, but it’s time to give someone else a chance to host the Olympic Trials

Let’s make a few things clear. The new Hayward Field is the best track & field stadium in the country, and Eugene has a terrific local organizing committee in TrackTown USA that knows how to stage big meets. The 2024 Olympic Trials are going to be terrific — they always are.

When you’ve got a beautiful new stadium like Hayward Field, you don’t want it to go to waste. But from 2021-2024, almost every major track meet in the US will have been staged at Hayward Field. The three most important track meets in the US are the Prefontaine Classic (the US’s only Diamond League), the NCAA championships, and the USATF championships/Olympic Trials. During a four-year period, 11 of those 12 meets will have been hosted in Eugene. And that does not even include the biggest meet Eugene has ever hosted — the 2022 World Championships.

That’s a recipe for major Eugene fatigue.

The Prefontaine Classic obviously isn’t moving out of Eugene, and the NCAAs are locked into Eugene through 2027. But it’s a missed opportunity to hold USAs in Eugene every single year, particularly the Olympic Trials. There are a limited number of diehard track fans in the US, and any diehard who has wanted to visit the new Hayward Field has probably done it at this point. If a husband and wife are huge track fans and they already figured out a way to take their kids to Eugene for Worlds, are they really going to want to go back again to the same location for the Trials?

The Olympic Trials should be in Eugene at most once every eight years. The last two normal* Trials drew more than 20,000 fans per day (21,644 in 2012; 22,1222 in 2016) but it’s foolish to suggest that the Trials can only do those sort of numbers in Eugene.

*Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was ticketing uncertainty about the 2021 Trials until the very last minute, which meant attendance numbers were a fraction of previous years

In the United States, when you throw the word Olympic in front of anything, people go crazy. And the last few US championships has shown that the built-in track fanbase in Eugene — the diehards who will go to every meet — has dwindled significantly.

We’re confident that if you staged the Olympic Trials in Austin, Des Moines, Omaha, Sacramento, or Mt. SAC, you’d draw big crowds. The Olympic Trials will do well anywhere they are held.

The question then, is why isn’t this happening?

“We all know that getting [to Eugene], it’s trying,” said Will Leer, chair of the USATF Athlete Advisory Committee, when LetsRun asked him about this at USAs in July. “Small airport, it’s expensive, hotels are minimal. But the process by which championships are awarded is through a bid. That much is well-known throughout all of USATF. And time and time again, TrackTown comes to the table with the best bid.”

Eugene certainly has a lot to offer, but we also don’t how much competition there is to host these events. It’s not as simple as USATF just awarding the Trials to a different city. A potential Trials host needs a world-class track facility and a local organizing committee interested in bidding for the Trials, which requires dollars.

Sarah Lorge Butler reports that Eugene paid at least $3 million to host the 2020 Trials, writing, “TrackTown paid a nonrefundable rights fee of $500,000 and the total prize purse of $1.4 million. They also had obligations to provide $1.1 million for athlete support during the meet, to be used at USATF’s sole discre

It’s an expensive undertaking for any local organizing committee. We know Eugene has the dollars. It’s unclear whether anyone else does (If you know of any other city that bid for the Trials, please email us at letsrun@letsrun.com)

If it’s simply a matter of USATF needing to find $3 million to put on the Trials, we know where they could find it. USATF head Max Siegel was paid a ridiculous $3.8 million in compensation in 2021; reduce that to a more reasonable $800k and you could hold the Trials wherever you wanted without any financial impact on USATF.

The Ottawa Marathon turns 50 in 2024, and there’s no better way to celebrate than to be a part of Canada’s largest and most historic spring marathon, which will take place on May 26. Through the years, the marathon has seen everything from warm temperatures to course records and Olympic dreams, not to mention all the Boston qualifiers. But there’s a lot you might not know about Canada’s capital city marathon. 

1975: Only 3 women ran the first Ottawa Marathon

Ottawa has always been one of Canada’s premier running cities, and on May 25, 1975, a 42.2 km route was designed, starting and finishing at Carleton University. The race’s beginnings were modest, with only 146 runners finishing the inaugural marathon. Compared to recent registration numbers (30,000 plus), it’s next to nothing, but in 1975, it was already Canada’s biggest marathon.

The race was called the National Capital Marathon and was won “by accident” by Quebec middle-distance runner Mehdi Jaouhar, who entered the race with his roommate. Only three of the 146 finishers were women.

1976: The Ottawa Marathon champion had lunch with the Queen

This year was a special one for athletics in Canada, as the country hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics (still the only Summer Olympics our nation has hosted to date). The marathon quadrupled in size from the previous year, and the stakes and competition rose accordingly. The race was selected as the location for the 1976 Olympic Trials for the Canadian marathon team, attracting some of Canada’s top marathoners.

Toronto’s Wayne Yetman set a new course record of 2:16:32, earning a spot on the Canadian Olympic team for Montreal. Also included in his Olympic moment was lunch with Queen Elizabeth. Eleanor Thomas won the women’s marathon for the second year in a row, yet she didn’t take in any water or electrolytes on the course. Thomas was a smoker at the time, and famously said “quitting smoking was harder than running a marathon.”

1983: Man in Motion Rick Hansen raced the Ottawa Marathon

In preparation for his famous Man in Motion World Tour, Rick Hansen won the inaugural wheelchair division at the Ottawa Marathon in 1983. Previously, wheelchair athletes competed in the open field. Hansen was the pioneer of the wheelchair division in Canada after winning gold, silver and bronze medals at the 1980 Paralympic Games. He became the first Canadian Para athlete to win the wheelchair division at the 1982 Boston Marathon.

Between 1985 and 1987, Hansen wheeled more than 40,000 kilometers around the world through 34 countries to raise awareness about people with disabilities. The world tour started and ended on the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver.

1986: The marathon almost ended

After a major decline in numbers in 1984 and 1985, race organizers and the board of directors voted to cancel the event. The marathon faced new competition with the Montreal Marathon earlier in the spring, and Ottawa was having trouble attracting sponsors. However, after the cancellation announcement new sponsors emerged and organizers were able to move forward and add a 10K race.

The first Ottawa 10K attracted just fewer than 1,000 participants, but by 1988, that number doubled and continues to grow today as the premier event on Saturday of Ottawa Race Weekend.

4: Montreal’s Jean Lagarde won 4 straight marathons between 1993 and 1996

Lagarde had come to Ottawa to cheer on his friend in the marathon, but when he got there, the friend persuaded him to sign up. Lagarde thought, “Why not?” By eight kilometres, Lagarde was out front and on his own, and he held on to win his first of four straight Ottawa Marathons. Lagarde trained for the marathon by running 35 km every Sunday.

Lagarde’s best time in Ottawa was in 1994, when he ran 2:19:00. He also holds another impressive record, winning both the warmest and the coldest Ottawa Marathon to date (25 C and 1 C). Keep in mind that the date of the marathon at the time was the second week of May. He is still the only man to win four consecutive Ottawa Marathons.

Russian-Canadian runner Lioudmila Kortchaguina has also won the marathon four times, holding the record for the most women’s titles. She has raced the Ottawa Marathon more than 20 times, and she was the last Canadian woman to win (in 2007) until Kinsey Middleton won in 2022.

1995: The race weekend had an inline skating race

To boost registration numbers and add a Canadian twist to Ottawa Race Weekend, organizers held the inaugural inline skating 8K at the 1995 Ottawa Marathon. Hundreds of participants signed up with their skates, gloves and helmets to skate a timed portion of the course.

The inline 8K race didn’t last long; it was canceled the next year due to frosty conditions.

1998: Ottawa was the first Canadian marathon to have pace bunnies

Where did pace bunnies come from? Well, the Chicago Marathon was the first race to implement pace bunnies in North America. After Hilda Beauregard of Ottawa participated in the 1997 Chicago Marathon, she noticed that the race had provided pace bunnies in the mass field to help runners achieve their goal times. The runner brought the idea back to Ottawa, and the 1998 Ottawa Marathon became the first Canadian marathon to use pace bunnies.

Every year since, pace bunnies have been a regular component of the marathon, wearing caps with rabbit ears while holding marked signs with the projected finishing time, helping runners hit their goals.

1996: There was a blizzard during the marathon

Though temperatures are typically warm for the Ottawa Marathon, which is in late May, there was snow for the 1996 race. Four thousand runners experienced below-zero temperatures and 35 km/h winds, with snow squalls. The 1996 race still stands as the coldest marathon in the event’s history.

2010: Paralympian Rick Ball achieved a single-leg amputee marathon world record in Ottawa 

At the 2010 Ottawa Marathon, Rick Ball of Orillia, Ont., became the first single-leg amputee athlete to run a sub-three-hour marathon. Ball clocked 2:57:48 to break the world record. He held onto that record for seven years, until it was broken in 2017 by Lebanon’s Eitan Hermon at the 2017 Vienna Marathon, who finished in 2:56.53.

49 years of Ottawa Marathons

Ottawa’s Howard Cohen has completed his local race every year since the inaugural marathon in 1975. The retired physician has never missed a race, overcoming various challenges such as the 30 C heat threat that almost canceled the marathon in 2016, enduring a snowstorm in 1996, and even completing the 42.2K race with canes due to a torn hamstring injury.

Cohen has consistently found a way to make it to the start line and cross the finish. At 73, he has participated in the event virtually for the past four years, with his last in-person race dating back to 2019. Cohen was the first runner to register for the 2024 Tartan Ottawa International Marathon virtually, which will mark his remarkable 50th race.

Kenyans Paul Lonyangata and Cynthia Limo patiently waited before making decisive moves to earn convincing wins at today’s Honolulu Marathon in challenging conditions. High humidity and long stretches of strong winds, combined with the course’s notorious hills, led to slow finish times in the 51st running of this race, the fourth largest marathon in the United States.

The race began in the darkness at 5:00 am local time with a fireworks display. Dickson Chumba of Kenya, the designated pacer, set an aggressive early pace for men’s leaders, coming through 5-K in 15:17, which projects to a sub-2:09 time. (The course record is 2:08:00.) In his wake were Lonyangata, fellow Kenyan Reuben Kiprop Kerio, Ethiopian Abayneh Degu and a pair of U.S.-based Eritreans, Filmon Ande and Tsegay Weldlibanos.

Through 10-K, the pace was picking up, with Chumba –a three-time winner of World Marathon Majors races– in front at 30:25. Kerio had drifted back and was 19 seconds behind. But the pace started to lag on an uphill section between 13-K and 14-K and Kerio quickly regained contact with the pack. Meanwhile, Weldlibanos, who had been fighting the flu in the week leading up to the race, was the first casualty, dropping out around 15-K.

During a long stretch along Kalaniana’ole Highway the pace was lagging in the 5:20 per mile range and it was clear that this would be a tactical battle. “This is the graveyard of fast times,” Honolulu Marathon Association president Dr. Jim Barahal, riding in the lead vehicle, lamented of this notoriously windy stretch. “But it means we’re going to have a great finish.”

Indeed, the halfway point was reached in a modest 1:07:19. Chumba stepped off just before 25-K and moments later Lonyangata briefly surged ahead. The field came back to him within minutes, but as the course entered a less windy section, he made what would be the day’s decisive move. His pace quickened dramatically as he covered the 18th mile in 4:49. By 30-K (1:35:51) he had built a five-second lead over Kerio, with Ande another five seconds back. (Degu had dropped out some time after halfway, leaving only three men in the elite field.)

Lonyangata –who had finished second in his previous appearance in Honolulu in 2014, and owns a personal best of 2:06:10 from the 2017 Paris Marathon– continued to press the pace. Ande and Kerio were waging a back-and-forth duel for second place, and by 35-K, they were 21 seconds behind Lonyangata (1:52:14).

Lonyangata continued to look back for signs of danger, but a strong uphill surge as the course passed the Diamond Head volcanic crater for the second time kept him out of reach of his pursuers. “The hills you must run as hard as you can, you push uphill even if it’s hard,” he said.

He crossed the finish line in Kapiolani Park in 2:15:42. “When you prepare for everything you know you are ready,” said Lonyangata, who was cleared to compete again on May 25 after serving a 19-month suspension for using a banned diuretic (the Honolulu Marathon has drug testing). “And when you decide when to make the move, you have to go hard.”

Ande made up some ground in the final miles, despite dealing with pain in his foot, and finished 19 seconds back in 2:16:01.

Kerio, who finished second here in 2018 and has served as the pacer four other times (including last year), came home third in 2:17:32.

In the women’s race, Limo was making her marathon debut, and decided to wait slightly longer to make her move. For the early going she ran alongside Ethiopians Sintayehu Tilahun Getahun and Kasu Bitew Lemeneh, who was running her fourth marathon of the year. They hit 5-K in 18:17, then picked up the pace slightly through 10-K (35:59). There was no change at halfway (1:16:43) and 30-K (1:50:05).

Finally, after the 30-K aid station, Lemeneh began to slip behind. Limo and Getahun forged ahead, running together for the next 5-K segment. Finally, at 35-K Limo started to pull away. By 40-K her lead ballooned to a minute and 38 seconds. She cruised home in 2:33:01, running the second half slightly faster than the first and finishing more than two minutes ahead of Tilahun (2:35:16).

“When we got to 35 kilometers, I felt that I was still strong and I knew it was only seven kilometers that remained, so I had to do it by myself,” said Limo, the 2016 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships silver medalist. “I tried to push and push. I am so pleased.”

In addition to the high mileage she logged in Kenya during her build-up to this race, she credited the speed she sharpened while competing in numerous American road races this year, including wins at the Cooper River Bridge Run 10-K in Charleston, South Carolina, the Carmel (Indiana) Half-Marathon, the Toledo (Ohio) Half-Marathon and Philadelphia’s Broad Street Run 10 Mile. “I can say that it was not really so hard to do the marathon,” she said. “It is a matter of making up your mind that you can do the training. And I am so happy that I did that.”

Bitew (2:36:04) held on for third, and Japan’s Yukari Abe, who finished tenth in her country’s Olympic trials in October, took fourth (2:47:32).

Lonyangata and Limo earned $25,000 for their victories, along with a flashy gold medal worth nearly $15,000. They both credited hearty support from fans along the course as well as the throngs of mass-race runners, who were going in the opposite direction on the out-and-back course. (One enthusiastic participant encouraged Lonyangata with an enthusiastic cheer of “Go get that money!”)

“The other runners were so good,” a smiling Limo noted. “They were cheering, they were making us move faster.”

There were 15,594 starters this year, up from 14,645 in 2022.

The companion Start to Park 10-K was run contemporaneously with the marathon, with 6,976 starters and 6961 finishers. Joshua Williams was the fastest athlete in 32:02, but not far behind him was Molly Seidel, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist in the marathon.  Seidel clocked 32:25 and was the fastest woman on the day.  She, and training partner Jessa Hanson, were using the race as part of their humidity training for February’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials Marathon in Orlando, Florida.

“It’s so cool to come out and have the whole energy of the marathon around you,” said Seidel, who finished eighth at the Chicago Marathon two months ago. “This is such a fun vibe. I love to come out and race in Hawaii. Honestly, we wanted to get some good humidity racing, get a nice quicker tempo and then settle in. Coming out today was exactly what we needed. I love racing in humidity.”

Two prominent Kenyan marathoners have been suspended from competition on doping charges, according to a report by Capital Sports. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has banned Paul Lonyangata for 19 months for use of the drug Furosemide, and Edward Kiprop Kibet has been banned for three years for nandrolone.

Lonyangata won the Paris Marathon in 2017 and 2018, and was the third-place finisher in 2019. One week after the 2019 race, he admitted to using the banned substance Furosemide, after it was found in an out-of-competition sample in September.

Furosemide is a heart medication, but it is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances because it can mask the presence of performance-enhancing drugs.

Lonyangata rose to fame in 2017, not only because he won the Paris Marathon, but because his wife, Purity Rionoripo, won the women’s race on the same day.

Lonyangata will be banned from competition until May 25, 2023. His fellow countryman, Kibet, will be banned from all competition until February 2025, after testing positive for nandrolone, the same substance found in Shelby Houlihan’s sample last year, for which she was given a four-year ban.

Of all the sporting events that have been canceled over the past year in Central Oregon, perhaps none has endured worse luck than the Bend Marathon.

The event — which was scheduled for April 18 and includes a marathon, half marathon, 10-kilometer, and 5K race on roads and paved trails throughout Bend — has been canceled for the second consecutive year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the first major events to be canceled in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, the sixth edition of the in-person Bend Marathon will now be pushed back to 2022.

At last week’s Bend City Council meeting, councilors were unable to come to an agreement on issuing the Bend Marathon a special event permit.

Of all the sporting events that have been cancelled over the past year in Central Oregon, perhaps none has endured worse luck than the Bend Marathon.

The event — which was scheduled for April 18 and includes a marathon, half marathon, 10-kilometer, and 5K race on roads and paved trails throughout Bend — has been canceled for the second consecutive year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the first major events to be canceled in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, the sixth edition of the in-person Bend Marathon will now be pushed back to 2022.

At last week’s Bend City Council meeting, councilors were unable to come to an agreement on issuing the Bend Marathon a special event permit.

Marathon organizers Max King and Kari Strang had submitted a proposal that featured several safety protocols, including wave starts of no more than 75 runners, which would adhere to state and county guidelines for outdoor gatherings.

“They didn’t want to risk it,” a disappointed King said. “The spirit of the guidelines are that you don’t get that many people together, and we weren’t getting that many people together.”

King said he was expecting a total of about 900 runners across the four races. About 600 had registered before the event was canceled. In 2019 more than 2,400 runners and walkers participated in the Bend Marathon’s events.

The Bend Marathon course was to feature Bend parks, neighborhoods and the new paved trail through the Deschutes National Forest (paralleling the Cascade Lakes Highway).

King called it bad timing for the popular event.

“We obviously don’t want to spread the disease, and that is what people are risk adverse to,” King said. “When we look at other things that are already happening in the community, such as Mt. Bachelor, restaurants and retail being open, and the lack of spread in outdoor events and the risk being really, really low, I don’t agree with where they’re coming from.”

King and Strang were also planning to decrease aid stations, require masks at the start and finish, and not allow spectators.

The 2021 Bend Marathon will still offer a virtual option, as it did last year. Participants can run their distance wherever and however they want from April 12 to May 25, and then upload their finishing time to bend-marathon.com.

“We want to hype it up and make it fun for people,” King said. “We don’t want it to be just an afterthought. We’ll do some fun events around the race time and some fun videos about training.”

And for now, the plan is certainly for an in-person Bend Marathon in 2022.

After weeks and weeks of race cancellations, there’s finally some good news coming from the world of track and field: meets are set to be held in Norway, the Czech Republic and Finland in June.

Each of the meets will have limited events and restrictions on the number of people present, but professional track and field will officially be back all the same. They aren’t the Diamond League or Olympic competitions you’d expected to watch this summer, but they’ll be something to watch, and hopefully a sign of more events to come.

Norway’s the Impossible Games will be held in Oslo on June 11, the same date that was set for the 2020 Oslo Diamond League. There will be a small programme of events, including a world record attempt in the 300m hurdles by Norway’s Karsten Warholm, the two-time defending world champion in the 400mH.

The Impossible Games will also feature 100m, 200m, 600m and 3,000m races, as well as some field events. No spectators will be in the stadium for the event, but it will be broadcast live on television.

World Athletics reported on a Czech government announcement that says as of May 25, public gatherings of up to 50 people will be permitted. Thanks to these looser restrictions, the Czech Athletics Federation has plans to start a six-event series, with the first meet set for June 1.

The meet schedule and competition lineup has yet to be finalized, but confirmed events include women’s javelin, men’s shot put and men’s 300m. The dates of the series’ following five events haven’t been announced, but organizers say they will include a different lineup of competitions than the first.

Maximusport, a Finnish sports website, reported that track and field events will make a return on June 7 in Lahti, Finland. In order to follow government guidelines for COVID-19, only 50 people will be allowed on the field or track at one time and the number of athletes for each event will be limited.

Although runners will have no choice but to get close with their competitors on the track, field athletes will be asked to keep a safe distance between themselves at all times. Few events have been confirmed for the first competition, but 200m hurdles and 3,000m races will reportedly be part of the programme.

Norway, the Czech Republic and Finland have all seen steady drops in coronavirus numbers over the last month, and they have reported fewer than 300 COVID-19-related deaths each.

While you can’t run the BOLDERBoulder 10K in person this year, the race is offering a free virtual event. Anyone can run, jog, or walk a 10K from any location for a VirtuALL event on Memorial Day May 25, 2020.

The race is a Memorial Day tradition that typically attracts around 47,000 in person finishers. Because of the coronavirus outbreak this year, the race postponed the in person event until Labor Day in September.

But to keep the Memorial Day tradition alive, the race is offering a fun, free event that offers:

A VirtuALL Memorial Day 10K Bib to download and personalize any way you like.

Option to purchase a limited edition t-shirt or hat for $25 per item. Remember the days we OverCome and your accomplishments.

We give $5 of your purchase to the Colorado COVID relief fund.

Submit your time for a customized Participant’s Certificate.

To learn more go to https://bb10k.bolderboulder.com/

Anthony Osheku has predicted new course records at the seventh edition of the IAAF silver label Okpekpe International 10km Road Race.

Osheku, one of Nigeria’s top road race experts, believes the 2019 IAAF regulations and the decision of the organisers of the Okpekpe race to seek a gold label status for the event next year will make this year’s race the best in terms of the quality of its elite field of athletes.

“The 2019 IAAF regulations have made it compulsory for all label races to have a minimum of six men and six women from the pool of athletes whose status corresponds to the label being applied for. This will ensure that a Gold Label race, for example, has at least 12 of the world’s 300 best specialists at that particular distance,” began Osheku.

“What this means is that the seventh edition of the Okpekpe 10km road race will have at least 12 gold level running athletes in attendance, that is athletes who run 27,28 minutes consistently for men and 30,31 and 32 minutes for women.

“The last time we had athletes who ran under 29 minutes for men and 33 minutes for women was five years ago, precisely 2014 when the Ethiopian duo of Teshome Mekonnen and Wude Ayalew ran 28:35 and 32:41 respectively to set the current course records for men and women,” said Osheku, who hails from Fugar, a town near Okpekpe.

This year’s race will be held May 25 in Okpekpe, Nigeria 

Organizers of the annual 10 kilometer Okpekpe race said yesterday they want to achieve IAAF golden league status from the year 2020.

To achieve this, they said the race the year preceding must not have less than 100 athletes from 15 countries including China, United States of America, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Eritrea and others.

Addressing a press conference in Benin City, head of operations of the event, Zack Amodu said logistics and improved organization from the previous edition has been put in place to ensure a "hitch-free" exercise. On his part, head of the technical issues, Yusuf Alli said the race would live up to its bidding.

On his part, the security coordinator of the race, Austin Gbaraba said sniffer dogs, choppers and horses, would be deployed as part of security measure for the 7th edition.

He said the deployment of horses and dogs, is in addition to hundreds of security personnel that would be engaged to man strategy points, before, during and after the race which takes place on May 25.

Last year's race was won by Alex Kibet clocking 29:47.  The woman's race was won by Yami Dida in 33:01. 

It was a wet and soggy Saturday for the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.

The race began in front of the JW Mariott downtown, and more than 35,000 people participated in the event.

"I think it really is the perfect combination of Hoosier hospitality. There's 500 entertainers all around the route, it's the lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it's just the month of May in Indianapolis, people love it, there's an electricity in the air," event organizer Sabrina List said.

It started with a 5K at 7 a.m., and then the first wave of the mini began at 7:30.

Panuel Mkungo from Kenya won the mini with a time of 1:03:26. The female first place finisher was Ivy Kibet from Colorado Springs with a time of 1:12:10.

"I am very happy today. I want to thank my family and my friends for this beautiful race.

I just want to say thank you for the management of this race, it's a beautiful course and I am happy for running in this city in Indiana. It is my first time being here," Mkungo said.

The 500 Festival continues through the month of May with the Breakfast at the Brickyard on May 18 and then the parade May 25.

The city of Portland Oregon will select a race organizer to keep the Portland Marathon running in 2018. The former board of directors for the Portland Marathon announced last month the race would be canceled for 2018 and the organization would be dissolved. Mayor Ted Wheeler and the Portland Bureau of Transportation reported Friday that several event producers have contacted the city to express interest in hosting a marathon in 2018. The city is asking interested applicants to respond to seven questions that assess whether they have the experience, organizational capacity and financial resources necessary to successfully organize a marathon for October 2018. Response are due by May 25.  City officials want to know if organizers could recruit at least 170 volunteers to staff the barricades and whether they'd be willing to use the 2017 Portland Marathon route. Applicants will also need to prove they can provide a $25,000 deposit to host the event. Submissions that meet the qualifications will be tossed into a "blind draw," which city officials will conduct June 1.

A monetary award (the amount was not announced) will be offered for any competitor running faster than 1hr 10min in the Bermuda Day Half-Marathon Derby May 25. Gina Tucker, the president of the Marathon Derby committee, confirmed that cash is up for grabs after discussions with Lamont Marshall, who expressed concerns after his 2016 victory about the lack of prize money being offered. “The idea is to encourage runners to up their game as much as possible,” said Tucker. “It was important for me to reach out to Lamont and clear it up."  In recent years only six-times winner Chris Estwanik has gone under 1:10, in 2012 he ran 1:08.49 and then in 2015 when, on the reintroduced course out of St George’s, he clocked 1:07.46. Marshall won the race two years ago in 1:13.59.  This year the race has another change, with this being the first time that Bermuda Day will be observed on the last Friday of the month. The switch was made so the holiday, which involves the Half-Marathon Derby, the Sinclair Packwood Memorial Race and the Bermuda Day Parade, leads into the weekend.