Running News Daily

Bristol man Alan Smith, completed the 2019 Berlin marathon just months after abdominal surgery

A Bristol handyman, who was running again less than three weeks after abdominal surgery, has raised £1,600 for Prostate Cancer UK by successfully completing his first marathon.

Alan Smith, from Stoke Gifford, is a member of the Frampton Cotterell Harriers and he completed the Berlin marathon in four hours and 21 minutes, barely four months after hernia repair surgery at Emersons Green NHS Treatment Center.

He said: “In 2011 I experienced my first hernia. The type of work I do involves a lot of heavy lifting, which damaged the left side of my abdomen. My GP sent me, under the NHS, to the treatment center.

“I could not speak highly enough of the care I received. I was back working within three weeks, which is really important when you are self-employed.”

When Mr Smith then experienced the symptoms on the other side of his abdomen, he decided he once again wanted to be treated at Emersons Green.

He said: “It was painful both when working and running. I didn’t want to let down my customers and I also had my place in the Berlin marathon. We all know people who have been affected by prostate cancer and I really wanted to do my part and raise money for the charity that carries out vital research and supports people living with the condition.”

Because he needed the operation quickly, Mr Smith chose to use Care UK’s Self Pay option, guaranteeing treatment within four weeks of referral.

He said: “When you are self-employed there is a risk you will lose more money because you are unable to work. This option would, hopefully, get me back to work as soon as possible and greatly increase my chance of making it to Berlin.

"I actually had my operation only nine days after my initial assessment, which was amazing” 

The operation, which went smoothly, was carried out by consultant general surgeon Paula Sabino dos Santos.

Mr Smith said: “We talked about my ambition to get to the marathon. She told me to start walking as soon as possible and to keep taking long walks to build up my strength, which I did.

“The first time I took some running steps I did it with a degree of trepidation, but it was absolutely fine. I did a couple of training sessions with the Harriers before completing a half marathon just three weeks after the operation. I was also back to light work within the same time.

“I promised Mrs dos Santos that I would send her photos from Berlin if I made it, and I was delighted to be able to send her photos of me wearing my finishers medal. I was very grateful to her and her team; I could not have asked for better treatment.”

New York marathon champion Joyciline Jepkosgei eyes London or Tokyo in 2020

New York marathon champion Joyciline Jepkosgei will gauge her fitness in cross country before coming to return to marathon running in April.

The 26-year-old, is still pinching herself after she staged one of the biggest coups in 2019 when running her only second marathon won in New York clocking an impressive 2:22:38, beating race favorite and defending champion Mary Keitany.

"It was a big surprise to me to win New York City marathon. Certainly, it was not in the plans because there were top contenders and I was there to make a new attempt to the distance after I had flopped in London," Keitany said on Monday.

Though she started light training after her run in New York, Jepkosgei said that it will be a while before she is fit to race again. However, she is open to run in Boston, London or Tokyo in 2020.

"The muscles still hurt and it is one day at a time. I was nervous at the start and I only realized that I could go for it after the halfway mark. The win crowned my season and beating my mentor was no mean task. Mary Keitany is up there with the greats in marathon and she will always win big races. The pressure was too much, but I took it in my stride."

She also won in June the New York half marathon clocking 70:07 minutes. But her winning time on New York race in November was just seven seconds off the course record.

"I always have the desire to take up challenges and I feel it is the right time to run the full marathon. I had already achieved in half marathon and taking up a new challenge was good for my career," she added.

In 2017, Jepkosgei smashed the world half-marathon record to become the first woman to run 21km in under 65 minutes. Brigid Kosgei later broke her record as she set 64.28 minutes.

Jepkosgei hopes one day she will be strong enough to challenge the world record in full marathon. Brigid Kosgei has reshuffled the tables with a fast run in Chicago in October when she posted a new world record of 2:14:04. She shreds Paula Radcliffe's record that had stood since 2003 of 2:15:25.

Usain Bolt said he was heartened to see the support that turned out for the inauguration of the National Stadium in Tokyo

“I know that Tokyo is going to be exciting, it is going to be extremely big because you can see the number of people in the stadium now,” said Bolt.

Usain Bolt ran a lap at the new Olympic Stadium with one of the Olympic rings in his hand, marking the facility’s opening, saying it was an honour to be given the opportunity.

“I was happy and excited because I won’t get to compete so the fact that I got to run on the track was an experience in itself and as was said earlier it was wonderful that everybody could come together and compete. It’s for a great cause, it’s to show the world that we need to unite as one. So I was very honoured and very happy,” said Bolt.

The lap, done at a jog with other former Olympians carrying rings as well, reminded Bolt that coming out of retirement was not on.   

“Iwon’t be competing. No. I’m actually in pain right now from the little run I just did,” he said.

Still, Bolt is an excited man because these Olympics will mark the first he has attended as a fan.

“I will be here watching them [Jamaican team to the Olympics] and cheering them on. This will be my first Olympics where I’m just here to watch, so I’m gonna really try to see everything and just try to enjoy it.”

Jamaican Sprinter, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce confirmed that she will tackle both the women’s 100m and the 200m at next year’s Olympics in Tokyo

Throughout her career, Fraser-Pryce has mainly focused on the 100m at major championships, only ever winning one Olympic medal(silver) in the 200m at the 2012 London Olympics. But next year, Fraser-Pryce is setting her sights on achieving the gold in both events.

“[I will be] doubling up definitely. Last year [season] I really wanted to attempt the double but coach had other plans, so I just worked with that plan. He knows best so I just worked with his plan,” she told reporters in Jamaica.

The sprinter has never dipped below 22 seconds in the 200m, which is also another aim for her in the 2020 season.

“I am definitely looking forward to doing the 200m, especially because I believe in my heart that I can run 21s. It’s a big passion of mine so I am working really hard towards that. So hopefully, I will get to run some more 400m even though I don’t like it, but hopefully I will get it done for 2020,” she shared.

Last month, Fraser-Pryce announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be her fourth and final Olympic games. “I am always grateful for the opportunity to represent my country, my family, myself, but Tokyo is my last Olympics. I definitely know that,” she said.

The sprinter did not confirm whether she would completely retire from athletics, but hinted at the idea. “It doesn’t make me feel anything. I will miss the sport, but I will be OK. I don’t think it will be hard to retire. Athletics is just one thing I do.”

Christmas Day Run Through Rome

If you’re in Rome over the Christmas and New Years’ holidays and want to get in a good run while also being a tourist, then this may be for you.

“Una Tapasciata nella Storia”, (“A Jog Through History”) is a friendly, non-competitive run through the center of Rome that passes many of the Eternal City’s most beautiful landmarks.

It’s the perfect chance to visit a gentler, quieter city when everyone (Romans anyhow) are still asleep and the chaos that usually defines Rome is momentarily suspended.

Runners assemble at Il Biscotto, a popular runner’s park across from the Baths of Caracalla (it gets its name because it’s shaped like a long biscotto cookie) and then head off on a joyful jog, that goes by the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, Piazza del Popolo, St. Peter’s Square and Piazza Navona. There are a few stops along the way for group photos but other than that it’s a run-at-your-own-pace 12 kms, accompanied by the cheers and holiday wishes of foreign tourists snapping pictures as the group goes by!

The run is the brainchild of local marathon runners Gino Mirabella (2h40’) and Renato Agostoni (2h26’) almost 20 years ago. What began as a low-key run among friends has now grown into an annual Christmas classic that runners who train at the tack by Caracalla or at the Biscotto wouldn’t think of missing. Fortunately, in Italy, presents are exchanged on Christmas Eve after the traditional multi-course dinner, leaving Christmas morning free for the runners in the family to sneak out and do their Christmas morning run.

And, because we’re in Italy, the run ends back at the Biscotto with a traditional Christmas toast of spumante and a table laid with Christmas panettone and other seasonal treats giving runners a chance to wish each other Auguri!

NOTE: For the truly intrepid runners, the run repeats itself on New Year’s Day, but for obvious reasons not as many runners show up.

INFO: Una Tapasciata nella Storia / Christmas Day Run Through Rome

DAY: December 25, 2019 and January 1, 2020

TIME: 9:30 a.m. get-together / 10 a.m. Start

PLACE: Il Biscotto, Via di Valle delle Camene

Russia confirmed that intends to appeal the four-year ban it was served by WADA

The appeal must be filed with CAS by December 30, and the ban will not take effect until after CAS renders a decision.

Russia confirmed on Thursday that it intends to appeal the four-year ban it was served by WADA 10 days ago for non-compliance in the ongoing Russian doping scandal. The ban covers the 2020 Olympics, Paralympics and 2022 Winter Games, in addition to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, during which Russia may not participate or host, and its flag will not be flown. It also may not bid on the 2032 Olympic or Paralympic Games. According to a report by InsidetheGames.com, the appeal must be filed with the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) by December 30.

The ban was imposed as a result of the data from the Moscow Laboratory, required as a condition of the September 2018 re-instatement after the previous three-year ban, was found to have been tampered with.

The ban does not prevent Russian athletes from participating as neutral athletes, provided they can prove they are clean and that their data was not among the manipulated data from the Moscow lab, something many commentators say makes the ban effectively meaningless.

It will not come into effect until after CAS reaches a ruling, which could take several months. (The Olympics opening ceremonies are scheduled for July 24.)

In a press conference held Thursday, Russian president Vladimir Putin said the ban “goes against common sense.”

After have had Open Heart Surgery, Erin Menefee Qualifies for Olympic Trials

Two and a half years ago, Erin Menefee didn’t know if she’d be able to run competitively again after having open heart surgery. But on December 8, the 27-year-old physical therapist realized her dream when she qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials at the California International Marathon (CIM) in Sacramento with a time of 2:43:10.

Surrounded by dozens of other women who qualified for the first time, Menefee basked in the accomplishment of a goal that motivated her throughout the long recovery. For the first time since she underwent surgery for a rare congenital heart defect in July 2017, she ran a personal best by more than eight minutes.

Setting a lifetime PR that beat the Trials standard by almost two minutes wasn’t just a running milestone for the San Diego native—it was a turning point in her life.

“Not having the definition of ‘post-heart surgery PR’ for this one just feels like a big weight [has been] lifted,” Menefee told Runner’s World. “I’m finally back to who I was before.”

Menefee was nearing the end of a long run in December 2015 when her heart started beating at an alarmingly fast pace and pain shot down her left arm. At just 24 years old, the former collegiate runner for the University of Arizona thought she was having a heart attack. Menefee could barely breathe, but she managed to get herself to the emergency room.

After a series of tests, her cardiologist discovered that she had partial anomalous pulmonary venous return, a condition where the veins that are supposed to carry blood to the heart’s upper left chamber instead carry it to the heart’s upper right chamber, or to other blood vessels. When this happens, poorly-oxygenated blood mixes with oxygen-rich blood, thus robbing the body of oxygen. The diagnosis meant that Menefee was only getting about 60 percent of the oxygen needed from her lungs to her body.

Because she was a healthy, young runner competing at a high level, the doctors decided to forgo the surgery option for periodic check-ups on the size of her heart. Eight months later, Menefee was getting lightheaded standing up from a chair and the tips of her fingers turned blue from the lack of oxygen traveling to the rest of her body. When she went in for more tests, they discovered that her heart was so enlarged that it required surgery.

On July 26, 2017—after she graduated from San Diego State University’s doctor of physical therapy program and days after she took her board exams—Menefee went in for surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. During the nine-hour procedure, doctors built a stent and moved her vein into its proper place from her heart to her lung. In order to reach her organs, they had to saw open her sternum.

The surgery was a success, and six weeks later, Menefee was cleared to go on her first run: an 8:49 mile.

Just five months before her surgery, Menefee had made her 26.2 debut at the 2017 Los Angeles Marathon, finishing in 2:51:31—within striking distance of 2:45:00, the 2020 Trials time standard. She trained for the marathon with the San Diego-based Prado Racing Team under Paul Wellman.

What to do when injury happens

David Roche, author and coach to many top trail runners, dispenses advice on what to do when injury happens.

Even the strongest runners occasionally get injured. If you think you may be injured and this is not something you’ve dealt with before (or even if it is), running coach and The Happy Runner author David Roche of the SWAP Adventure Team (Some Work, All Play) along with Black Canyon 100K winner Matt Daniels has put together a very simple how-to video for Strava on exactly how to approach the situation.

Roche coaches a lot of successful trail runners like OCR badass Amelia Boone, Western States winner Clare Gallagher, Barkley Marathons finisher John Kelly, Canada’s Kat Drew and Canadian Trail Running’s own Tory Scholz, and his approach is holistic–he’s concerned not just that you take care of the injury, but that you remain, well, a happy runner. While injury prevention is important, Roche acknowledges that we can’t always avoid injury entirely. That’s why he formulated these guidelines on what to do when despite your best efforts, something goes wrong with your body. (Roche coaches road runners too, by the way.)

Here are Roche’s Rules for when you think you might be injured.

1. If it hurts to walk, don’t run.- It may seem like basic common sense, but you’d be surprised how may runners routinely ignore it out of a desire to prove how tough they are, or to reassure themselves that they’re not really injured. But if you run on an injury, it will likely get worse.

2. There’s no shame in stopping.- One of Roche’s biggest assets as a coach is that he talks about shame, something that comes up frequently in injured runners who may think they’re wimping out if they don’t finish a workout (or a race) because something hurts. If you ignore rule #1, fine, but don’t ignore rule #2. Stop and take what Roche calls the Walk of Pride (rather than the more traditional Walk of Shame) back to where you started, and “live to fight another day.”

3. Talk to someone.- Confide in someone close to you that you’re injured, someone who cares about you enough to insist that you seek treatment. Many injured runners put off seeking treatment in the hope that whatever it is will get better on its own. (And we all know where that ends.) Whether it’s your family doctor, physiotherapist or chiropractor, getting seen will not only help you get on the road to recovery, it’ll help you cope mentally, too.

Bottom line, you want to get rehabbed so you can get back out there ASAP. If you follow Roche’s three rules, there’s no reason why you can’t do just that.

Kamino comes from behind to win Asian Marathon Championships

Japan’s Daichi Kamino capitalised on a late-race blunder by Ri Kang Bom of the People’s Republic of Korea to win the Asian Marathon Championships in Dongguan on Sunday (22).

Ri, who had set a personal best of 2:11:19 when winning in Pyongyang earlier this year, built up a comfortable lead in the closing stages. With 2:09 on the clock and just a few minutes of running left, Ri was about 100 metres ahead of his Japanese rival and looked to be the first man from his nation to win the Asian marathon title since 1985.

But the 26-year-old went the wrong way as he negotiated the final corner. With just half a minute of running left and the finish line in sight, Kamino dug deep and started striding for home. Ri, having realised his mistake, got back on course but his lead had shrunk to just a few metres.

Kamino’s momentum carried him past Ri with just 40 metres to go and he punched the air as he crossed the line, finishing in 2:12:18. Ri followed three seconds later, clocking 2:12:21. Japan’s Ryoichi Matsuo was further back in third, clocking 2:14:32.

Kamino, who is known in Japan as ‘God of the mountains’ for his heroics on hilly stages of ekiden races, was contesting his first marathon since the Marathon Grand Championships, Japan’s Olympic trial race in September. He finished 17th there, having been among the leaders up until 15km, and was a few minutes shy of his season’s best of 2:11:05 and PB of 2:10:18.

“After the Marathon Grand Championships, I felt depressed,” said the 26-year-old. “But I was glad I did my best here and didn’t give up.”

The medal order was reversed in the women’s race with Ri Kwang Ok and Kim Ji Hyang of the People’s Republic of Korea taking gold and bronze, either side of Japan’s Mao Uesugi.

Ri had also won in Pyongyang earlier this year in a PB of 2:26:58 before going on to finish 14th at the World Championships in Doha. She won comfortably in Dongguan, clocking 2:30:56 to finish one minute and one second ahead of Uesugi. Kim was third in 2:32:10.

It was the fourth edition in succession in which an athlete from the People’s Republic of Korea had won the women’s title.

Tokyo unveils final Olympics budget of $12.6 billion

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are expected to cost some 1.35 trillion yen ($12.6 billion US), organisers said Friday, unveiling a final budget showing increased revenue balancing out extra costs including countermeasures against heat.

However, officials admitted the budget does not yet include an estimated three billion yen for moving the marathon and race walk north to Sapporo, as they wrangle with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over who bears the cost.

Revenues from domestic sponsorship and robust ticket sales have increased income by 30 billion yen, according to the fourth and final version of the Olympic budget.

This equals out a rise in forecast expenditure for items such as transport and security — as well as the heat-busting measures. The overall 1.35-trillion-yen budget for the Games is unchanged since the last version of the budget unveiled last year.

There is also a 27-billion-yen “contingency” pot to deal with possible emergencies such as natural disasters. Organisers are still negotiating with the IOC over the cost of moving the marathon to the northern city of Sapporo due to the expected heat in the Tokyo summer.

“This is an unprecedented matter so there are no procedures,” explained Gakuji Ito, executive director for planning and finance at Tokyo 2020. “We will go into it line-by-line and we will interact with the IOC on a daily basis,” he told reporters

Organisers have also unveiled a series of countermeasures against the heat and humidity, including water mist sprays and special heat-absorbing paint on roads — all of which cost money. The IOC, wary that the ballooning cost of hosting the Games is putting some cities off from bidding, has urged Tokyo to make even more cuts.

But Tokyo is also being squeezed in the other direction, with some voicing fears that the cuts could harm the athletes’ experience plus the “look” of the Games.

2020 Schneider Electric Paris Marathon will be the first carbon-neutral major marathon in the world

New initiatives include the Schneider Electric Green Runners community. Just a few days before Climate Day held in France on Sunday 8 December, several marathon stakeholders came together in Paris to raise awareness about initiatives that can help to protect the environment. The event organising team notes that running plays a key role in these efforts…

More and more runners are going out plogging together. It is all about running and, even more importantly, picking up litter along the way. The 2020 Schneider Electric Paris Marathon organised its first plogging event, overseen by Run Eco Team, an organisation that has the support of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It was a fun moment in the streets of Paris that demonstrated the organisation’s motto “Running for a cleaner world”.

Nutrition, a key element in the preparation of runners, fits in perfectly with this lifestyle if it is based on responsible consumption, local, seasonal products and a zero-waste approach. The same applies to the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) concept, which means making one’s own washing powder, maintenance products and cosmetics.

Recycling and making the right choice on mobility by choosing more fuel-efficient means of transport (public transportation, bicycles, carpooling, etc.) whenever possible are other ways of doing one’s bit for the planet every day.

The Schneider Electric Paris Marathon team adds that the even is replicating these individual actions on a larger scale. Achieving carbon neutrality, reducing waste at the event (-30% over 3 years), recycling waste (67% vs 39% earlier), collecting and recycling clothes at the start (4.3 tonnes in 2019) and donating food that has not been handed out at refreshment stations to the Restos du Cœur and Chainon Manquant non-profit associations are just a few examples.

The 2020 Schneider Electric Paris Marathon wants to raise awareness about lifestyle changes among runners. The marathon organisers are encouraging people to join The Schneider Electric Green Runners community and take up weekly challenges to reduce carbon footprint. Each time #SEgreenrunners is used on social media, Schneider Electric, with the help of NGO partners, will plant mangrove trees.

Lublin runner Łukasz Sagan has won the 490km-long Authentic Phidippides Run setting a new record of 69:22:17, beating the previous record by five hour

It took Åukasz Sagan, 36, who is known as Saganis, less than three days to run from Athens to Sparta and then back to Athens, 12 hours ahead of the next contender. 

The 490 km route going through both urban and mountain areas has 6800 m elevation differences, making it even more difficult than it already seemed. 

Just like with regular marathons, the run commemorates Pheidippides, the ancient runner who brought the news of Greek victory against Persians in the Battle of Marathon to Athens.

Sagan’s support team were providing updates for fans during the three days the race took. 

They wrote on Facebook after 376 km: “Łukasz is fighting all the time! In the background of this photo you can see the mountains that he overcame at night. The strength you send really works. Crises come, but Łukasz has the strength to fight them. Keep it up.”

Sagan, known also by his nickname Saganis, began the race with a moderate pace, letting three Greek competitors overtake him. 

The strategy worked, as by the time he had reached Sparta, and according to tradition greeted the statue of king Leonidas, two of the Greeks, Stergios Anastasiadis and Dimostenes Marifoglou, were far behind him and in the end didn’t complete the race. 

He reached Athens at 3:30 in the morning. 

The Louisiana Marathon is expected to attract 8,000 runners over the Jan. 17-19 weekend

The projection for the 2020 event—which begins Jan. 17 with an expo at the Raising Cane’s River Center and continues Jan. 18-19 with a series of races downtown—is a significant jump from the early days of the Louisiana Marathon. It’s already a 183% increase from the inaugural event, which took place in 2012 and drew in 2,830 runners.

“It’s become the premier event,” says Pat Fellows, who helps organize the annual marathon. “People know what they’re getting—a great course and a great post-race party.”

Based on registrations to date and past statistics, runners will likely come to downtown Baton Rouge from nearly all 50 states and from as many as 10 countries. They’ll also bring with them an average of 1.75 additional people, swelling the potential economic impact even further.

Fellows declines to comment on anticipated revenues the weekend will generate. However, previous studies have shown the Louisiana Marathon generates between $2 million and $4 million in economic impact each year, spread among hotels, restaurants and other local attractions.

“We’ve sold out every downtown hotel every year,” Fellows says.

Some runners will arrive as early as the Wednesday before, while the majority will pour in that Thursday. 

Over the past couple of years, the event has steadily gained more runners after a downturn in attendance that took place at the 2017 marathon, when organizers’ marketing push was interrupted by the 2016 Baton Rouge floods. At its 2016 peak, the event attracted nearly 9,000 participants. 

In the meantime, marathon organizers are continuing a major marketing push that’s evolved over the years to include mostly social media promotions. Currently, they’re focused on getting the word out about the Saturday races, encouraging more people to register themselves and their children for the quarter-marathon, 5K and kids marathon, in particular. Meanwhile, the more publicized full- and half-marathons will take place Sunday.

Russia banned from competing in the 2020 Olympics and 2022 World Cup by the World Anti-Doping Agency

Russia has been handed a four-year ban from all major sporting events by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

It means the Russia flag and anthem will not be allowed at events such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics and football's 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

But athletes who can prove they are untainted by the doping scandal will be able to compete under a neutral flag. 

Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said the ban was part of "chronic anti-Russian hysteria".

"It is obvious that significant doping problems still exist in Russia, I mean our sporting community," he said. "This is impossible to deny. 

"But on the other hand the fact that all these decisions are repeated, often affecting athletes who have already been punished in one way or another, not to mention some other points - of course this makes one think that this is part of anti-Russian hysteria which has become chronic."

Russian president Vladimir Putin said the country had grounds to appeal against the decision.

Wada's executive committee made the unanimous decision to impose the ban on Russia in a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, recently.

It comes after Russia's Anti Doping Agency (Rusada) was declared non-compliant for manipulating laboratory data handed over to investigators in January 2019.

It had to hand over data to Wada as a condition of its controversial reinstatement in 2018 after a three-year suspension for its vast state-sponsored doping scandal.

Wada president Sir Craig Reedie said the decision showed its "determination to act resolutely in the face of the Russian doping crisis".

He added: "For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport. The blatant breach by the Russian authorities of Rusada's reinstatement conditions demanded a robust response. 

"That is exactly what has been delivered. 

"Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and rejoin the global anti-doping community for the good of its athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to continue in its stance of deception and denial."

But Wada vice-president Linda Helleland said the ban was "not enough".

"I wanted sanctions that can not be watered down," she said. "We owe it to the clean athletes to implement the sanctions as strongly as possible."

A total of 168 Russian athletes competed under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after the country was banned following the 2014 Games, which it hosted in Sochi. Russian athletes won 33 medals in Sochi, 13 of which were gold.

Russia has been banned from competing as a nation in athletics since 2015.

Despite the ban, Russia will be able to compete at Euro 2020 - in which St Petersburg will be a host city - as European football's governing body Uefa is not defined as a 'major event organisation' with regards to rulings on anti-doping breaches.

Fifa said it had "taken note" of Wada's decision, adding: "Fifa is in contact with Wada to clarify the extent of the decision in regards to football."

The promoters of the Russian Grand Prix also said they were "confident" the race would go ahead because their contract was signed before the Wada investigation and runs until 2025.

An F1 spokesman reiterated the comments of the promoters, adding: "We will monitor the situation to see if there is an appeal and what would be its outcome."

In a statement, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said: "Those responsible for the manipulation of data from the Moscow laboratory before it was transferred to Wada appear to have done everything possible to undermine the principles of fair and clean sport, principles that the rest of the sporting world support and adhere to. 

"This sincere lack of respect towards the rest of the global sporting movement is not welcome and has zero place in the world of sport. It is only right that those responsible for this data manipulation are punished."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it "supported" Wada's decision.

New Research Says More Sleep Could Make You Less Injury-Prone

Eight hours of shut-eye is just as important to your performance as proper training and nutrition.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, getting seven hours of sleep or less could up your risk of injury while training.

A lack of sleep could mess with protein synthesis, muscle recovery, immune system function, and

Getting enough sleep—about eight hours—is just as important as proper nutrition and hydration for preventing injuries and keeping your bones strong.

When it comes to injury prevention in running, there are numerous strategies that can help including dynamic stretching, proper cross-training, and increasing your distance gradually. Now, there’s another major tactic to consider: Getting some solid sleep.

A recent study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport looked at 95 endurance athletes, including runners, swimmers, cyclists, and triathletes. Over the course of a year, researchers tracked health complaints related to cardiorespiratory issues, gastrointestinal problems, and psychological struggles, as well as sleep quantity, training load, and new injury episodes.

They found the biggest increase in injuries were among those who skimped on sleep, reporting less than seven hours of shut-eye per night. There was also an increase in injury risk for those reporting psychological issues, although it wasn’t as high as the sleep connection.

In contrast, there was no significant association between new injuries for those reporting health complaints and higher training loads.

This adds to previous research connecting quality sleep with athletic advantages, according to W. Chris Winter, M.D., owner of the Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine clinic, and author of The Sleep Solution. He frequently works with sports teams, and told Runner’s World there is increasing awareness of the role of sleep when it comes to injury prevention and effective recovery.

“It makes a lot of sense to see sleep as a tool for athletic performance, since adults secrete growth hormone primarily during deep sleep,” he said, adding that this process is central to protein synthesis, muscle recovery, immune system function, and modulation of your body’s inflammatory response.

“It would stand to reason that chronic sleep loss or a sleep disorder would cause an athlete to suffer,” he said. “Not only do they get sick more easily, but it takes them longer to recover from an injury, and could even shorten the length of time they can remain in their sports.”

Another recent sleep study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research adds another advantage to consider, especially for older women. Research looking at over 11,000 postmenopausal women found those sleeping five hours or less per night had lower bone density compared to women who slept seven hours per night or more.

Even mood can be affected for athletes, according to research published in the journal Physical Therapy in Sports, which found that sleep problems led to mood disturbances and increased general health complaints.

To sum it all up: Getting enough sleep—about eight hours—is just as important as proper nutrition and hydration for preventing injuries, keeping your bones strong, and boosting your mood for years to come.

Revised Tokyo 2020 marathon course unveiled

The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) unveiled the course for the marathon events in Sapporo, Hokkaido, following visits by and discussions among representatives from the International Olympic Committee, World Athletics, Tokyo 2020 and local authorities.

The course features a larger loop approximately the length of a half-marathon and a second smaller loop of approximately 10 kilometres that will be traversed twice. This course has been designed with athletes' well-being in mind and will deliver maximum efficiency to the National Olympic Committees and related bodies, who will be looking after the athletes, as well as leave a standing legacy course for any future annual marathon and road events in the city so recreational walkers and runners can follow the footsteps of their heroes.

Venue - Sapporo Odori Park

Sapporo Odori Park will be the starting and finishing point for both the marathon and race walk courses. The park features a large open space of around 7.8 hectares in the centre of Sapporo featuring beautiful lawns, flower beds and trees. It is a popular spot for tourists and local residents and hosts a number of different events throughout the year. The park lies at the heart of the host city for the 1972 Olympic Winter Games, which already hosts another competition venue for Tokyo 2020 - the Sapporo Dome for football - allowing for organisational synergies.

The course - For the marathon, athletes will start by running two laps within the park against a backdrop of the Sapporo TV Tower, one of the city's landmarks, and will then head south along Sapporo Ekimae-dori Avenue towards the busy station area through streets lined with commercial and office buildings. Among other iconic landmarks, athletes will cross the Toyohira River, originally known as the Sapporo River, which gave the city its name, and then travel north towards Hokkaido University, one of Japan's prestigious former imperial universities, founded in 1876. With this marathon course, the attractions of Japan's most northerly prefectural capital will be showcased to the world during next summer's Olympic Games.

The race walk courses, approved by the IOC Executive Board earlier this month, features 1km and 2km loops for the 20km and 50km distances respectively, along Sapporo Ekimae-dori Avenue.

Commenting from Tokyo, World Athletics Technical Delegate and Council Member Sylvia Barlag said: "Developing courses for the Olympic marathon and race walk events is always an exciting challenge to achieve a balance of athlete welfare, showcasing the city, ensuring technical and broadcast requirements are met and providing a great backdrop for spectators to enjoy the Olympic experience. We have achieved this in Sapporo and want to thank all the stakeholders and, in particular, our athletes, who have come together in a short space of time to help create these courses. We now look forward to the world's greatest marathon runners and race walkers battling for Olympic gold on the streets of Sapporo."

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said: "The course's opening laps in Sapporo Odori Park will set the Sapporo cityscape as a fitting backdrop for the runners, sharing its charms with fans around the world. In addition to discussions with World Athletics and the IOC, which took place throughout the course finalisation process, I thank the City of Sapporo and Hokkaido Prefecture for their invaluable support.

We will continue to work closely with all parties concerned to ensure the marathons and race walks in Sapporo are a success."

World Athletics, the International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 will continue to work closely with the relevant local authorities to ensure the success of both the marathon and race walk events in Sapporo during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The Austin Marathon presented by Under Armour, introduces the Moody Foundation as its presenting sponsor

The Moody Foundation has given nearly $1 million to Austin Gives Miles since 2016. More than 25% of that total was given to 36 Central Texas nonprofits during the 2019 Austin Marathon.

The 2020 Austin Gives Miles presented by The Moody Foundation is already working to increase those numbers and further the positive impact on the Central Texas community. The 29th annual Austin Marathon, owned and produced by High Five Events, will take place on February 16, 2020.

“The Moody Foundation is proud to partner with Austin Gives Miles for the fifth consecutive year to match funds raised for the AGM Central Texas causes,” said Ross Moody, trustee of the Moody Foundation and chairman and CEO of National Western Life Group. “This initiative is near and dear to our hearts and has been for many years. We’re so excited to support a program that gives runners the opportunity to make their miles meaningful and encourages donors to give back to the Central Texas community."

Austin Gives Miles will receive a grant from The Moody Foundation for the fifth year in a row. The money raised annually through Austin Gives Miles significantly impacts a wide array of local nonprofits. Austin Gives Miles fundraised $1,187,000, recruited more than 1200 runners, and provided 1500 volunteers during the 2019 Austin Marathon. Austin Gives Miles’ six-year fundraising total is nearly $3.2 million. 

“This is a thrilling addition to Austin Gives Miles because The Moody Foundation has meant so much to this program for so many years," said Carly Samuelson, Austin Gives Miles Charity Manager. "The Moody Foundation’s previous contributions have had a far-reaching, positive effect on Central Texas nonprofits and this announcement will allow us to further that positive impact."

The Moody Foundation, based in Galveston, Texas, has funded projects and programs that better communities throughout Texas. The grant that will match Austin Gives Miles donations will have a positive impact on the Central Texas organizations and their specific causes by matching their funds raised (up to $10,000 per Official Charity). One of The Moody Foundation’s areas of support, community development, directly aligns with the goal of the Austin Marathon: to better Central Texas. Austin Gives Miles is excited to expand The Moody Foundation relationship and knows the positive effects will be far-reaching. 

The Austin Marathon will celebrate its 29th year running in the capital of Texas in 2020. Austin’s flagship running event annually attracts runners from all 50 states and 30+ countries around the world.

Having start and finish locations just a few blocks apart, being within walking distance of many downtown hotels and restaurants, and finishing in front of the picturesque Texas State Capitol makes the Austin Marathon the perfect running weekend destination. Austin Gives Miles presented by Moody Foundation is the perfect way for runners to get involved and give back to the Central Texas community

Organizers for the St. Jude Rock ‘N Roll Marathon have added a new 6.15 mile course distance to the April weekend run series

Along with the St. Jude Rock ‘N Roll Marathon, half-marathon, and additional distances, there will be a new 6.15 mile route through Nashville, giving runners of every level an opportunity to join in.

“There really is a distance for everyone!”

The new route will follow parts of all three run courses, touching upon the 5K, half-marathon, and full marathon courses.

The 6.15 Miler will start at 6:45AM on Saturday, April 25th, at the 5K starting line at the corner of 8th and Demonbreun Street downtown, and end at Nissan Stadium, crossing the main finish line with every other run.

The April 25th and 26th St. Jude Rock ‘N Roll Marathon weekend offers: 26.2 mile Marathon, 13.1 mile half-marathon, 5K, 6.15 Mile, 1 Mile, Kids Rock, Doggie Dash.

Reigning champions Lawrence Cherono and Worknesh Degefa will headline the 124th edition of the Boston Marathon

Lawrence Cherono won the 2019 race by two seconds over two-time winner Lelisa Desisa while Worknesh Degefa, the Ethiopian record holder at 2:17:41, won by an impressive 42-second margin.

During the race, Degefa said, “I could see first-hand how special the city of Boston, all the towns along the course, and the community is to so many people. And of course, I look forward to the challenge next April of once again racing against the world’s best athletes.”

That line up will include 2015 winner Caroline Rotich and 2017 champion Edna Kiplagat, both of Kenya, and Des Linden of the US, who won in 2018. Locally, Linden’s appearance will warrant considerable attention, coming less than eight weeks after she’ll race at the USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon on February 29.

“At this point in my career I enter each race with a heightened sense of urgency and have become very selective in what races I'm willing to commit my time and energy to,” said Linden, 36, a two-time Olympian. “The Boston Marathon has always been the most motivating race on my schedule. I hope to stand on the start line in Hopkinton as the first US Woman to have made three Olympic Marathon teams.”

In the men’s race, Cherono will take on 2018 winner Yuki Kawauchi of Japan, Kenyan Goeffrey Kirui, the 2017 winner, and Desisa, the winner in 2013 and 2015.

“Boston will have a special place in my memories forever,” said Cherono, who has won eight marathons, most recently Chicago in October. “I loved every mile of this race and fought until the end to achieve the first place and become part of the elite family to have won the most prestigious race of the world.”

World Athletics awards the Silver Label to the Madrid Half Marathon

World Athletics has awarded the Madrid Half Marathon the distinction of 'Silver Label', for which it recognizes the Madrid race as one of the best road races in the world.This distinction increases the international positioning of the traditional half marathon that will meet 20 years on March 29, 2020.

The 'Silver Label' comes to improve the bronze category achieved in the last edition and places the Madrid Half Marathon at the level of 26 other asphalt races that share this distinction.

In the world there are only nine half marathons with the gold label, the highest distinction, and one of them is Spanish: the eDreams Mitja Marató from Barcelona.

To achieve the new cataloging, the Madrid event has managed to overcome all the necessary parameters and requirements regarding its organizational quality, safety, elite sports level, number of registered, international promotion, media impact and exposure of the test.

In the last edition there were 20,000 participants.

Donavan Brazier and Michael Saruni will showdown at the 113th NYRR Millrose Games on Saturday, February 8th

The 113th NYRR Millrose Games will take place on Saturday, February 8th, and one of the most anticipated races of the day will be the men’s 800-meter run. This race figures to be a showdown between world champion and American record-holder Donavan Brazier and defending Millrose champion and NCAA record-holder Michael Saruni.

“The rematch of Donavan Brazier and Michael Saruni may be one of the highlights of the indoor season,” Armory Foundation Co-President Jonathan Schindel said. “But anything can happen with so many of the world’s best 800-meter runners back at the NYRR Millrose Games.”

The historic NYRR Millrose Games takes place at The Armory’s New Balance Track & Field Center and will feature dozens of Olympians and world championship contenders as they look toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics next summer.

After a dream season in 2019, Brazier has established himself as arguably the best 800m runner in the world. At Millrose last year, Brazier began his campaign by running an indoor American record of 1:44.41. He followed that performance with an indoor world best over 600m at the USATF Championships. Outdoors, Brazier collected another U.S. championship before claiming the Diamond League trophy in Zurich with an epic come-from-behind victory over Nigel Amos. Brazier then capped his season in style, destroying the field at the World Championships in Doha to win the gold medal, running 1:42.34 to break Johnny Gray’s 34-year-old American record in the process.

“After a successful 2019 season, I’m looking forward to running at the Millrose Games for the fifth year in a row,” Brazier said.

Brazier’s primary competition will come from Saruni, the man who bested him at Millrose in 2019. Saruni blasted a 1:43.98 in that race, making him the second-fastest indoor performer at all time. Despite being hampered by an injury outdoors, Saruni still managed a season best of 1:43.70 in Monaco. His personal best of 1:43.25 still stands as the NCAA record, and the 24-year-old Kenyan will surely be a threat.

Joining the field is 2019 breakout star Bryce Hoppel. The former University of Kansas standout won both the indoor and outdoor NCAA 800m titles during a 21-race winning streak. Hoppel went on to place third at USAs to punch his ticket to Doha, where he exceeded all expectations by finishing fourth in a personal best of 1:44.25. Entering 2020, Hoppel will look to establish himself as a medal contender in Tokyo with a strong performance at Millrose.

Isaiah Harris, another former NCAA champion who starred at Penn State, will be in the race. Harris competed at the 2017 World Championships, and he will attempt to reclaim that form heading into the Olympic year. Rounding out the field is the reliable veteran and Millrose stalwart Erik Sowinski. Sowinski is a former world indoor bronze medalist, and one of the most consistent middle-distance runners in the world, especially indoors.

The NYRR Millrose Games is the most storied event in indoor track and field.

More than 200 athletes share the distinction of being both Millrose and Olympic champions. In November of 2013, the New York Road Runners became the title sponsor of the NYRR Millrose Games, which is owned by The Armory Foundation. The NYRR Millrose Games is a USATF television series event, and The Armory Foundation appreciates the support of USA Track & Field.

Iain Mickle of Sacramento turned 59 three days before this year’s California International Marathon and finished in an impressive 2:42:57

Californian Iain Mickle of Sacramento takes the record for most time elapsed between sub-3 finishes. Even more impressive is that the first time he ran a sub-3 was a staggering 42 years, 151 days previously, when he was a junior in high school.

That’s a world record–for the longest elapsed time between two sub-3 marathon finishes, according to the Association of Road Racing Statisticians.

According to 1968 Boston Marathon champion Amby Burfoot’s entertaining story in Podium Runner, Mickle’s first sub-3 was at the San Francisco Marathon in July 1977, where he finished in about 2:50, 10 minutes ahead of his father, who ran the same race. It was also Mickle’s first marathon.

But Mickle didn’t run competitively very much for the next several years, so he doesn’t earn any kudos for sub-3 finishes across multiple decades or anything like that. Still, his comeback, which started about 10 years ago, is impressive.

He ran a PB of 2:38 at the 2014 Boston Marathon, and was #3 on the list of longest time elapsed between sub-3s, with 40 years, 146 days between sub-3s, before CIM put him on top.

Mickle’s record could be in danger, though. He took it from Antonio Arreola, 60, who is hoping to take it back again at Houston on January 19.

If Arreola does go sub-3 in January, he will have sub-3 finishes spanning 43 years and 45 days, and it would also make him one of the first runners in history to achieve sub-3 finishes spanning six decades.

Arreola’s last marathon was last year’s CIM, where he ran 2:54:48. Since then he has been dealing with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but managed to race two half-marathons this fall, finishing both in 1:22 high. Arreola set his PB of 2:46:17 in 2001.

The new 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon course has been confirmed

Details of the Sapporo Olympic marathon course have been published following the decision to move the road events 800km north of the host city Tokyo due to heat concerns.

In Sapporo, which was the host city of the 1972 Winter Olympics, temperatures during the Games period are set to be as much as 5-6C cooler during the day than in Tokyo, it is claimed.

The new course features one loop of roughly half-marathon length and a second smaller loop of approximately 10km that will be run twice.

Sapporo Odori Park will be the starting and finishing point for both the marathon and race walk events, with marathoners first running two laps within the park against a backdrop of the Sapporo TV Tower. They will then head south along Sapporo Ekimae-dori Avenue towards the busy station area and cross the Toyohira River before returning north towards Hokkaido University and on to the finish line.

“This course has been designed with athletes’ wellbeing in mind and it will deliver maximum efficiency to the National Olympic Committees and related bodies, who will be looking after the athletes, as well as leave a standing legacy course for any future annual marathon and road events in the city so recreational walkers and runners can follow the footsteps of their heroes,” said the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The race walk courses, which were approved earlier this month, feature 1km and 2km loops for the 20km and 50km distances respectively, along Sapporo Ekimae-dori Avenue.

“Developing courses for the Olympic marathon and race walk events is always an exciting challenge to achieve a balance of athlete welfare, showcasing the city, ensuring technical and broadcast requirements are met and providing a great backdrop for spectators to enjoy the Olympic experience,” said World Athletics (IAAF) technical delegate and council member Sylvia Barlag.

“We have achieved this in Sapporo and want to thank all the stakeholders and, in particular, our athletes, who have come together in a short space of time to help create these courses. We now look forward to the world’s greatest marathon runners and race walkers battling for Olympic gold on the streets of Sapporo.”

The Olympic road events are set to take place on consecutive days between August 6-9, with the women’s marathon having moved from August 2 to August 8 and the men’s marathon taking place on August 9, the last day of the Games.

The 2019 Missoula Marathon ranks among the best in America

The 2019 BibRave 100 rankings were released earlier this month and the Missoula Marathon was ranked as the No. 2 marathon in the United States.

The Missoula half marathon was named as a Top 20 Half Marathon and the race weekend was named as a Top 10 Best Weekend Experience.

"We take great pride in being ranked alongside events with much larger participant numbers and event budgets," noted Tony Banovich, Missoula Marathon race director. "It’s a testament to the Missoula community that we can provide a world-class race in Western Montana.”

Now in its 14th year, the Missoula Marathon weekend of events include a Beer Run, Runner Expo, 5K, Kids Marathon, Half Marathon and Marathon.

Over the years, it’s become known as a destination race and bucket list race for runners from around the world. The 2020 race weekend will be Friday, June 26 through Sunday, June 28.

Callum Hawkins has been pre-selected to race for Great Britain in next year’s Olympic Games marathon

The 27-year-old Callum Hawkins ran a Scottish record of 2:08:14 in London earlier this year before finishing fourth at the IAAF World Championships in Doha and will look to improve on the ninth place he achieved on his Olympic debut in Rio in 2016 when he lines up in Sapporo on August 9.

Doha marked the second successive World Championships marathon in which Hawkins has finished fourth as he also secured that result in London in 2017.

“British Athletics have taken the opportunity to pre-select him seven months in advance of Tokyo 2020 in order to give him the best possible preparation to compete for a medal,” the national governing body said when announcing Hawkins’ pre-selection.

British Athletics will officially select Hawkins for nomination to the British Olympic Association following the final marathon selection meeting on April 28, provided he has demonstrated form and fitness prior to the meeting taking place.

Despite the fine marathon performances of the likes of Charlotte Purdue, Steph Twell and Jess Piasecki this year, no British women have been pre-selected and attention will now turn to the Virgin Money London Marathon on April 26, which acts as British Athletics’ official marathon trial for the Olympic Games.

The top two finishers there are guaranteed selection as long as they have also achieved the qualifying standard of 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women.

Hawkins does not look set to be joined by Mo Farah on the GB men’s marathon team as the four-time Olympic champion announced his track return last month, with his sights on defending his 10,000m title in Tokyo.

Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei was voted the 2019 New York Road Runners Pro Performer of the Year after winning the TCS New York City Marathon

Joyciline Jepkosgei Voted 2019 New York Road Runners Pro Performer of the Year, in the second-fastest time in event history in her marathon debut and also winning the United Airlines NYC Half. The NYRR Pro Performer of the Year award recognizes the top athlete for his or her outstanding achievements at NYRR races over the entire year.

“Joyciline had an incredible year, becoming the first athlete ever to win an open division title at the TCS New York City Marathon and the United Airlines NYC Half in the same year,” said Chris Weiller, NYRR senior vice president of media, public relations and professional athletics. “She’s one of the world’s best runners and she showed it on streets of New York in her first two trips to the United States. We are extremely grateful at NYRR to have had Joyciline inspire our running community twice this year with her historic runs through the five boroughs.”

Jepkosgei, 26, won the 2019 TCS New York City Marathon in 2:22:38, just seven seconds off the women’s open division course record. It was the fastest time ever by a woman making her New York City Marathon debut. At the 2019 United Airlines NYC Half, during her first-ever trip to the United States, she won on a solo run to the finish in a time of 1:10:07. The world championship silver medalist in the distance became the sixth woman from Kenya to win the event, and the first to do so since 2014.

The finalists for the award were chosen based off their performances at the following NYRR races in the NYRR Pro Racing Series: NYRR Wanamaker Mile, United Airlines NYC Half, UAE Healthy Kidney 10K, NYRR New York Mini 10K and USATF 10 km Championships, New Balance 5th Avenue Mile, Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K and USATF 5 km Championships, and TCS New York City Marathon.

The other nominees for 2019 NYRR Pro Performer of the Year included: Geoffrey Kamworor (Kenya), Daniel Romanchuk (USA), Manuela Schär (Switzerland), Jenny Simpson (USA), and Nick Willis (New Zealand). The public vote accounted for one-third of the final tally, the media vote counted for one third, and an NYRR committee counted for one third.

Germany’s 1964 Olympic 80m hurdles champion Karin Balzer died on Tuesday at the age of 81

Born Karin Richert in 1938, Balzer made her Olympic debut in 1960 at the age of 22 and missed out on making the Olympic final by one place. One year later she married her coach, former pole vault Karl-Heinz Balzer, with whom she had briefly fled East Germany two years prior, only to return after being threatened by the Stasi.

Balzer won her first major medal when taking silver at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade. A talented all-rounder, Balzer’s first world record in the sprint hurdles came when she was contesting a pentathlon. She clocked 10.5 in the 80m hurdles to equal the mark that was already shared between Gisela Birkemeyer and Betty Moore.

That performance made her one of the favourites to win the Olympic title in Tokyo that year, but the competition was stiff. It what ended as one of the closest finishes in Olympic history, Balzer won by 0.01 from Poland’s Teresa Cieply with Australia’s Pam Kilborn a further 0.01 behind in third.

Balzer had equalled the Olympic record of 10.6 in the semi-finals. Her time of 10.5 in the final would have equalled her own world record, but the wind was marginally over the limit at 2.3m/s.

She gave birth to her son Andreas in 1965 and returned to the track one year later, winning the European title in Budapest. Balzer was East Germany’s flag bearer at the 1968 Olympics but she was unable to retain her title in Mexico City, eventually finishing fifth. It was the last time the women’s 80m hurdles was contested at a major event as the discipline was extended to 100m from 1969 onwards.

Balzer set the first official world record for the 100m hurdles, clocking 13.3 in Warsaw in June 1969. She improved the mark on two further occasions that year and became the first woman to better 13 seconds.

She also won her second and third European titles in 1969 and 1971. By the end of 1971 she had reduced the world record to 12.6, the seventh official world record of her career, and was named East German Sportswoman of the Year.

While in training for the 1972 Olympics, her fourth Games, Balzer’s son Andreas was involved in an accident and put in a coma. He died the day before the 100m hurdles final, but her husband didn’t tell Balzer until after the race, in which she earned the bronze medal.

Balzer retired in 1973 and gave birth to her second son, Falk, who went on to win European silver in 1998 and world indoor bronze in 1999. Along with Falk, Balzer and her husband coached Anja Rucker, the 1999 world 400m silver medallist.

A trained chemist, Balzer worked as a school teacher after her retirement from athletics and later worked as a lecturer in Cologne.

The Rome Marathon is under new management with a new name, logo and new date, Sunday March 29 2020

The Rome marathon is under new management and will be run Sunday March 29 it was announced this morning at the Ara Pacis Museum.

With a new name and logo, the new management has a desire to show that Rome loves sports and, in particular, running.

An international level marathon with tens of thousands of athletes, half of them from hundreds of countries will showcase Rome, a unique city for its charm, monuments, history and heritage. 

The Marathon looks to the future, but at the same time retains its unique charm represented by a path that runs the history of Rome and its symbolic monuments said the new director of the event, Michaela Castelli.  

Run Rome The Marathon is the most fascinating race in the world. you will feel your heart beat each of the 42.195 km that you will run.

Your steps will cross the same roads where the ancient romans used to walk more than two thousand years ago. every view will tell you a story. Every sight will be eternal like Rome is.

The course will carry through Foro Italico, the Mosque of Rome, you will be running on the same steets trampled a few millennia ago by the ancient Romans. On the route, you won’t miss Piazza Navona, Via del Corso, Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna, with the famous stairway of Trinità dei Monti. The main character of the marathon will be the Colosseum, majestic background, start and finish points of the race.

Running and monuments, sweat and history, personal achievements and medals to conquer, joy, thrills and tears. Rome will surround you, will embrace you, will capture you, Rome awaits you.

The marathon has ancient roots, here in Rome it has a strong tradition. We can go back a century, up to April 2, 1906, when Dorando Pietri won the marathon crossing the finish line in Piazza di Siena. Or we can go back 60 years, to the magic night in 1960 when during the Olympic Games in Rome, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila opens the season of African Marathoners, running bare footed the whole race. His run through Appia Antica enlightened only by torches became pure history in athletics, as well as his winning photo while crossing the finish line at the Arco di Costantino.

The marathon we all know and that will be held on Sunday, 29 March 2020 has its roots in 1995 with Italia Marathon Club, and has been awarded with the prestigious Gold Label IAAF in 2011. In 2019 FIDAL hosted the event and for 2020 a new organizing committee took place, made up by Infront, Corriere dello Sport – Stadio, Italia Marathon Club and Atielle Roma.

More than 115 countries took part in the past editions.

John Hancock and the Boston Athletic Association announced 16 Boston marathon champions will be running the 2020 Boston Marathon

In a joint statement this morning, John Hancock and the Boston Athletic Association announced that sixteen prior race champions, including 2018 winner Desiree Linden, would run the 2020 Boston Marathon scheduled for Monday, April 20.  The 2020 race, always held on the third Monday in April, will be the 124th running of the world’s oldest marathon.

“In our 35th year as principal sponsor of this historic race, we are excited to welcome back our accomplished champions,” said John Hancock chief marketing officer Barbara Goose through a statement.  “Their return is a testimony to the tradition and legacy that is the Boston Marathon. These champions are not just racing each other, they are chasing history.”

While today’s announcement included the race’s four open and wheelchair division champions from 2019 –Lawrence Cherono of Kenya, Worknesh Degefa of Ethiopia, Manuela Schär of Switzerland and Daniel Romanchuk of the United States– it is the inclusion of Linden, a two-time Olympian, which will likely get the most attention, at least domestically.  Linden, 36, who won the bitterly cold and rain-soaked edition of the race in 2018 where three quarters of the elite field couldn’t finish, will run Boston for the eight time.  Moreover, she plans to double back from the USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon which will take place 51 days earlier in Atlanta on February 29.  A top-3 finish there would put her on her third Olympic team.

“Running the Boston Marathon seven weeks after the U.S. Olympic Trials is a plan that has been in the works for roughly a year,” Linden explained in a written statement.  “I crossed the finish line in 2019 and knew if my body was capable, I wanted to return to Boston in 2020. My coach, Walt Drenth, and I had some long conversations on doing the double, how we would tailor the training, and if it was reasonable to expect to run well in both races.  We were both excited about the challenge.”

Linden’s marathon career began inauspiciously in Boston in 2007 when she finished 18th in 2:44:56, a time which would only have qualified her for next year’s Olympic Trials by four seconds.  But when she returned to the race in 2011, she was a different athlete, nearly winning in a personal best 2:22:38 after a thrilling three-way battle against Kenya’s Caroline Kilel and Sharon Cherop on Boylston Street.  Kilel got the win in 2:22:36, just two seconds ahead of Linden and six seconds ahead of Cherop.

Other prior race champions in the open division announced for the 2020 marathon were Yuki Kawauchi of Japan (first in 2018); Edna Kiplagat (2017), Geoffrey Kirui (2017), and Caroline Rotich of Kenya (2015); and Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia (2013 and 2015), the reigning World Athletics marathon champion.  Prior wheelchair division champions who have entered were Tatyana McFadden of the United States (2013 – 2016, 2018), Marcel Hug of Switzerland (2015 – 2018), Ernst van Dyk of South Africa (2011 – 2016, 2008 – 2010, 2014), Hiroyuki Yamamoto (2013) and Masazumi Soejima (2007 and 2011) of Japan, and Josh Cassidy of Canada (2012).

“The race for the tape on Patriots’ Day will surely be both competitive and compelling, as John Hancock has fielded a tremendous team of champions,” said Tom Grilk, the B.A.A. CEO.  “With 16 returning champions, the roads leading to Boston will be filled with many of the most decorated runners and wheelchair racers in history. Another memorable chapter in Boston Marathon history will surely unfold on April 20.”

The Boston Marathon –which recorded 26,632 finishers in 2019– is part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, a confederation of the world’s top marathons, and is also a World Athletics Platinum Label road race.  The Platinum Label is new for 2020 and has been given only to a super-elite group of eight marathons so far: Tokyo, Nagoya Women’s, Seoul, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York (two to four more may be added, according to World Athletics).

Yuki Kawauchi ran his 100th marathon at the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon in Japan

2018 Boston Marathon champion Yuki Kawauchi is not like most other competitive marathoners, who typically don’t race more than two or three marathons a year. Yesterday Kawauchi ran his 100th marathon, at the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon in Japan, about 150 kilometers southwest of Hiroshima.

Kawauchi won this race last year, in 2:11:29. This year he finished in 2:14:17, in seventh place, making it his 94th marathon finishing in 2:20 or under.

Students of Kawauchi’s career know that his first marathon was 10 years ago, at the 2009 Beppu-ÅŒita Marathon in Japan, where he finished 20th in 2:19:26. (He brought his time down twice more that year, in Tokyo and Hokkaido.) This means he has averaged more than nine sub 2:20 marathons per year.

While most competitive marathoners don’t race that distance more than twice a year, Kawauchi races about once a month.

It’s a different kind of impressive from the traditional quest to be the fastest in the world. A 2:08 guy (from Seoul in 2013), Kawauchi may not challenge the world’s fastest marathoners, but he dominates in sheer volume of running. He’s had his share of podium finishes–in addition to winning Boston last year in conditions that drove many of his faster competitors off the course (his 79th sub-2:20 finish), he has stood on the podium at the Gold Coast Marathon four times, and last year he won the BMO Vancouver Marathon, adding to the list of smaller marathons he has won. According to his Wikipedia page, Kawauchi entered nine marathons in 2012 and won five of them.

Kawauchi races ultra distances as well, which some say is his secret weapon. And he comes from a family of runners–his two younger brothers are also marathoners, and this year he returned to Boston with his mom, Mika Kawauchi, who started running marathons at age 52 and qualified easily.

At the rate he’s going, we predict that by next summer he’ll have 100 sub-2:20 finishes.

Des Linden will race the U.S. Olympic Trials and the Boston Marathon in 2020

Des Linden was undecided whether to race the Feb. 29 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials as recently as a month ago. But now Linden, the 2018 Boston Marathon winner, is not only committed to trials but also the April 20 Boston Marathon.

It would be, at 51 days, by far her shortest break between marathons, which has so far included 19 marathons dating to 2007. She’s 36 years old, and it may be her last Olympic cycle.

“I only have so many more chances at Boston. I love being there. Obviously, the Olympics [window] is closing down as well,” she said. “I like the trials and the competitive way we pick our team. I can’t imagine, at this point, watching either of those races and feeling like I had no effect on either outcome.”

If Linden does make the Olympic marathon team — by placing top three at trials in Atlanta — she would be in line to race four marathons over a little more than nine months when including last month’s New York City Marathon.

Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa and American Sara Hall ran the New York City Marathon on Nov. 3, 29 days and 35 days, respectively, after racing the world championships and Berlin Marathon. Neither finished New York, however.

This past August, when Linden committed to the New York City Marathon, she added that she might not race the trials. After her performance in New York — the top U.S. woman in sixth place — she decided she was ready for the trials-Boston double, which she had been considering since placing fifth at this past April’s Boston Marathon.

As far as how it will impact her trials build-up, Linden said her team will re-evaluate the process weekly. She hasn’t committed to a pre-trials half marathon.

“We’re obviously aware of what’s down the line, so we’re trying to get as much quality as we can without going too deep into the well,” she said. “It’s certainly going to be out there, but we’re trying to run well at both and not say, ‘This isn’t going well,’ and just train through it.”

Linden has been treating every marathon as if it could be her last. She has been incredibly consistent, placing no worse than eighth in her last 11 marathon starts dating to 2013.

Neither of Linden’s previous Olympic experiences was especially memorable. She dropped out of her first one in 2012 with a stress fracture in her femur. She was seventh in Rio, missing a medal by less than two minutes. The Kenyan-born gold and silver medalists were later busted for EPO and are serving lengthy doping bans.

“I don’t feel like I have anything to prove and anything unfinished,” at the Olympics, Linden said in August. “Quite frankly, the last experience is a hard sell to get back out there to try to compete for medals when you’re not even really sure what the field is all about. It’s a little bit difficult to be excited about that with the way we are about the [World Marathon] Majors. People investing in anti-doping have really been solving that problem [at the majors]. It’s a little tricky [at the Olympics], but certainly representing your country is special.”

Linden is the most experienced of a deep group of U.S. Olympic marathon hopefuls after the recent retirement of four-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan.

$12 million raised to battle childhood cancer, other life-threatening diseases at St. Jude Memphis Marathon

This year, 26,000 participants from all 50 states and 17 foreign countries  gathered in the Bluff City alongside 40,000 spectators for the 18th annual St. Jude Memphis Marathon® Weekend presented by Juice Plus+®. Among this year’s participants were more than 7,200 St. Jude Heroes who raised $12 million to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®.

One such St. Jude Hero, Adam Higham, became the 2019 top marathoner. The Collierville, Tennessee resident finished first this year with a time of 2:29:17. Since running his first marathon here in 2012, Higham has steadily worked his way to the top – having earned seventh place in 2015, then working up to second place in both 2016 and 2017.

“In the 18 years of St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend, more than 250,000 runners have come from across the country and around the world to embrace our great city and provide hope for our patient families in what can be the darkest time of their lives. Watching these tens of thousands of dedicated athletes running for a reason and raising more than $90 million in since the event’s inception reminds us of the power of people of every background to unite together to change the lives of those most vulnerable: our sick children from across the globe,” said Richard Shadyac Jr., President and CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“We offer our most heartfelt gratitude to Adam and to all of the devoted St. Jude Heroes, volunteers, partners, safety officials and supporters who helped make this year’s race weekend the best yet.”

Tia Stone of Searcy, Arkansas was the first female to cross the marathon finish line with a time of 2:58:20. Pius Nyatika of Memphis, Tennessee was the top male half marathoner, and set a new half marathon course record with a time of 1:04:20. Rebecca Robinson of Windermere, Cumbria, England was this year’s first female half marathoner with a time of 1:16:17.

The first to cross the 10K finish line was Dylan Hassett (female) of Alpharetta, Georgia with a time of 34:29. Shortly after, Owen, a St. Jude patient from Jonesboro, Arkansas finished with a time of 40:27. Tyler Pasley of Shelbyville, Illinois – 2018’s top 10K finisher – lead this year’s 5K with a time of 16:04, while Amber Douglas of Camden, Tennessee crossed as this year’s top female 5K finisher with a time of 21:13.

Since its inception in 2002, St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend has helped raise more than $90 million to support the lifesaving mission of St. Jude: Finding cures. Saving children.® Events like this help ensure no family at St. Jude receives a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.

The 2019 event weekend was made possible with the support of 4,000 volunteers; more than 20 sponsors, including Juice Plus+, Landers Auto Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, AutoZone, Lancôme, Shaw Floors, American Airlines, Campbell Clinic, FedEx, Kroger, Mitsubishi Electric, My Salon Suite, My Town Movers, Prairie Farms and more; partners Breakaway Running, Downtown Memphis Commission, the City of Memphis, Memphis Runners Track Club and National Black Marathoners Association; as well as national St. Jude Heroes coach Kevin Leathers.

British marathon champion Charlotte Purdue clocks 68:45 in Japan for her second fastest ever time winning the Sanyo half-marathon on Sunday

Britain’s Charlotte Purdue won the half-marathon in 68:45 for the British marathon champion’s second fastest ever time over 13.1 miles and her quickest on a record-eligible course (behind her 68:08 recorded at this year’s Great North Run).

It is over a minute quicker than she ran at the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon in February.

Purdue beat, among others, Japanese Olympic marathon trials winner Honami Maeda (69:08).

Sara Miyake was third in 69:23, while Canada’s Rachel Cliff set a national record of 70:06 in sixth.

Nike’s Fastest Shoes May Give Runners an Even Bigger Advantage Than First Thought

Anyone who saw Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya break the two-hour marathon barrier in October very likely saw something else, too: the thick-soled Nike running shoes on his feet, and, in a blaze of pink, on the feet of the pacers surrounding him.

These kinds of shoes from Nike — which feature carbon plates and springy midsole foam — have become an explosive issue among runners, as professional and amateur racers alike debate whether the shoes save so much energy that they amount to an unfair advantage.

A new analysis by The New York Times, an update of the one conducted last summer, suggests that the advantage these shoes bestow is real — and larger than previously estimated.

At the moment, they appear to be among only a handful of popular shoes that matter at all for race performance, and the gap between them and the next-fastest popular shoe has only widened.

We found that a runner wearing the most popular versions of these shoes available to the public — the Zoom Vaporfly 4% or ZoomX Vaporfly Next% — ran 4 to 5 percent faster than a runner wearing an average shoe, and 2 to 3 percent faster than runners in the next-fastest popular shoe. (There was no meaningful difference between the Vaporfly and Next% shoes when we measured their effects separately. We have combined them in our estimates.)

This difference is not explained by faster runners choosing to wear the shoes, by runners choosing to wear them in easier races or by runners switching to the shoes after running more training miles. In a race between two marathoners of the same ability, a runner wearing these shoes would have a significant advantage over a competitor not wearing them.

The shoes, which retail for $250, confer an advantage on all kinds of runners: men and women, fast runners and slower ones, hobbyists and frequent racers.

Many other brands, including Brooks, Saucony, New Balance, Hoka One One and Asics, have introduced similar shoes to the market or plan to. These shoes may provide the same advantage or an even larger one, but most do not yet appear in sufficient numbers in our data to measure their effectiveness.

What makes these shoes different is, among other things, a carbon-fiber plate in the midsole, which stores and releases energy with each stride and is meant to act as a kind of slingshot, or catapult, to propel runners. The shoes also feature midsole foam that researchers say contributes to increased running economy.

Whether the shoes violate rules from track’s governing body, World Athletics, depends on how one interprets this sentence from its rulebook: “Shoes must not be constructed so as to give athletes any unfair assistance or advantage.” It does not specify what such an advantage might be.

“We need evidence to say that something is wrong with a shoe,” a spokesman for the governing body, then called the I.A.A.F., told The Times last year. “We’ve never had anyone bring some evidence to convince us.”

In an announcement earlier this year, the group said, “It is clear that some forms of technology would provide an athlete with assistance that runs contrary to the values of the sport.” It has since appointed a technical committee to study the shoe question, and to make a report with recommendations. (The report was originally intended to be released to the public by the end of the year; it will now reportedly be released in 2020.)

When we asked Nike last year about whether its shoes might violate I.A.A.F. rules, a spokesman said the shoe “meets all I.A.A.F. product requirements and does not require any special inspection or approval.”

Last Thursday, the company said in a statement, “We respect the I.A.A.F. and the spirit of their rules, and we do not create any running shoes that return more energy than the runner expends.”

There is no such thing as a large-scale randomized control trial for marathons and shoes, but there is Strava, a fitness app that calls itself the social network for athletes. Nearly each weekend, thousands of runners compete in races, record their performance data on satellite watches or smartphones, and upload their race data to the app. This data includes things like a race name, finish time, per-mile splits and overall elevation profile. And about one in four races includes self-reported information about a runner’s shoes.

In all, this data includes race results from about 577,000 marathons and 496,000 half marathons in dozens of countries from April 2014 to December 2019.

How we measured the shoes’ effect

[These approaches are essentially identical to the ones The Times used last summer. See that article for more examples and methodological details.]

We measured the shoes’ performance using four different methods — each with its own strengths and flaws:

1. Using statistical models2. Studying groups of runners who ran the same pair of races3. Following runners as they switch shoes4. Measuring the likelihood of a personal record in a pair of shoes

None of these approaches are perfect, but they all point to the same conclusion: Something is happening in races with the Vaporfly and Nike Next% shoes that is not happening with most any other kind of popular shoe.

Besides race times and the names of shoes, we also have data on runners’ gender and approximate age. For some of the more serious runners, we have detailed information about their training volume in the months leading up to a race. We also know about the weather on race day.

When we put this information into a statistical model, times associated with Vaporfly and Next% shoes are a clear outlier — about 2 percent faster than with the next-fastest shoe. The model estimates the effect of wearing these shoes compared with the effect of wearing other shoes.

No statistical model is perfect, and it’s possible that runners who choose to wear Vaporfly or Next% shoes are somehow different from runners who do not. Regardless of the decisions that went into this model — even when trying to control for runners’ propensity to wear the shoes in the first place — the outputs were similar.

Strava is very popular among runners. At last year’s Berlin Marathon, for example, more than 10,000 runners uploaded race information to Strava, and this year, more than 14,000 did. Crucially for our purposes, about a thousand of those runners ran both races, and a subset of them reported racing in different shoes.

We could then examine the change in performance of two similar runners — people with similar race performances and, ideally, training regimens — and compare the improvement of a runner who switched shoes with a runner who did not. In Berlin, runners who switched to Vaporfly or Next% shoes improved their times more than runners who did not, on average.

For two athletes and a single pair of races, this might not tell us much. But in our data, there are thousands of instances when pairs of runners ran in the same two races.

When we perform this calculation for every pair of races in our data and measure the effect of switching to any kind of popular shoe, we see that runners who switch to these Nike shoes improved significantly more than runners who switched to any other kind of shoe. No other shoe comes close to having the same effect.

More than 110,000 athletes uploaded data for more than one marathon, and about 47,000 uploaded data for three or more marathons. The Strava data allows us to follow these repeat racers over time and as they change shoes.

When we aggregate the change in race times for runners the first time they switch to a new pair of shoes, runners who switched to Vaporflys or Next% shoes improved their times more than runners who switched to any other kind of popular shoe.

Race times are, in many ways, a crude way to measure performance. One marathon may be hilly or full of sharp turns; others may be flat and straight. Weather, too, is important, with higher temperatures typically resulting in slower times. And yet race times are how runners qualify for prestigious races, like the Boston Marathon, and most runners know their personal best times by heart, regardless of whether the race they ran was flat or hilly, on a hot day or a cold one.

We can follow the runners in our data with this measure in mind, testing whether a runner’s fastest time is more likely when he or she switches to any kind of shoe.

Someone can run a personal best for all kinds of reasons unrelated to shoes. A runner may train more, execute a better strategy on race day or run an easier course. Regardless, we found that runners who switched to these shoes were more likely to run their fastest race than runners who switched to any other kind of popular shoe.

Rachel Cliff sets new Canadian half-marathon record at the Sanyo´s Ladies Road Race

Rachel Cliff beat her own personal best to to set the new Canadian half-marathon record. It is also her fourth time setting a Canadian record in 2019.

At the Sanyo Ladies' Half-Marathon in Okayama, Japan, Cliff finished in sixth place but did so with a time of 1:10:06, beating her previous record of 1:10:08 that she accomplished in 2018 at the Woodlands Half-Marathon. Charlotte Purdue of England won the race with a time of 1:08:48 followed by Honami Maeda of Japan taking second clocking in at 1:09:08. 

Cliff set the Canadian 25K, 30K and marathon records at the Nagoya Women's Marathon earlier this year. The Vancouver native is searching to be apart of the Tokyo Olympics after she was left off the team in 2016 Olympic team. 

The 31-year-old also won bronze in the 10,000 metre at the 2019 Pan-Am games in Peru. 

Cliff was the lone Canadian in the top-10 at the Sanyo Ladies' Half-Marathon.

An 84-year-old Canadian man, Roy Jorgen Svenningsen, became the oldest person to ever run a marathon in Antarctica as he completed the Antarctic Ice Marathon

The senior runner, Roy Jorgen Svenningsen, was not the only marathoner to set a record at the extreme running event as this year's winner, William Hafferty of the United States, clocked a new record time coming in at an impressive 3 hours, 34 minutes and 12 seconds.

Runners braved windy, yet sunny, conditions as they made two laps around the Union Glacier exploration camp just 965km from the South Pole.

The first woman across the finish line was Lenka Frycova from the Czech Republic with a time of 4 hours, 40 minutes and 38 seconds.

There were three Irish runners, with James Murphy first across the line, finishing fifth overall, in a time of 4:21:15, while Sean O'Hagan finished in 5:30:46 and Paul Grealish in 6:42:37.

But it was the most senior of the runners that inspired most, when Svenningsen crossed the line at 11 hours, 41 minutes and 58 seconds.

Race organisers said it made him the oldest person to ever complete a marathon on the continent.

They also said Svenningsen, who will soon turn 85, has completed more than 50 marathons around the world having run his first in Calgary, Canada back in 1964.

Like father, like son: BMW Dallas Marathon winner Aaron Sherf makes his dad, a longtime competitor, proud

The Dallas Marathon has always been part of Aaron Sherf’s life. His dad, Cary, has completed the annual Dallas footrace 38 consecutive years.

On Sunday, Aaron, 30, of Norman, Okla., made his running poppa proud by winning the 49th edition of the BMW Dallas Marathon in 2 hours, 31 minutes, 21 seconds.

“It’s always fun to come back to Dallas,” said Aaron, who grew up in South Garland until his family moved to Arizona when he was six. “It feels good to finally win it.”

Conditions started cool in the mid-50s but quickly warmed into the 70s as the sun broke through the fog by mid-morning. Many of the front and middle of the pack runners set personal bests before conditions became more challenging.

Logistically, the race seemed to go smoothly, starting with a high-energy sizzle video and pyrotechnics at the start and an emotionally charged finish line, energized by Mark “Hawkeye” Louis, of KSCS, 96.3FM fame.

“Everything worked out perfectly,” said executive race director Marcus Grunewald. “I guess I have a race director’s high. I don’t want it to end, but at the same time, I’m looking forward to next year.”

Sherf, who placed third overall in 2016, found himself in fifth place at the halfway point. He said he intentionally ran a slower, more conservative pace to account for the unseasonably warm conditions. At Mile 16, he caught a glimpse of the leader.

That gave him the boost he needed to kick his pace up a notch. He secured the lead by Mile 18. Though he began to struggle at Mile 24, he credits relay runners including the boys high school relay anchor, Will Muirhead of Lovejoy for helping stay strong.

As he turned toward the finish line in front of Dallas City Hall, he saw the pedestrian bridge with a banner, notifying runners they were 100-meters from the finish line.

“Oh my gosh!” Sherf said. “It was so amazing. It almost turned into a track meet.”

Eliud Kipchoge believes he can break the marathon world record in London

Eliud Kipchoge believes he could break his own world record when he bids to become the first able-bodied athlete to win the Virgin Money London Marathon for a fifth time next April. 

The Kenyan superstar, who created history with his groundbreaking run of 1:59:41 in October, has announced he will race in the UK capital once again in 2020 for the 40th edition of an event he has won four times in four appearances. 

Kipchoge’s sub-two-hour run in Vienna was not eligible to be considered for world record purposes, given the controlled conditions in which it was achieved, but he can see the two-hour barrier being broken in a big city marathon in the not-too-distant future. 

For now, the official world record stands as the 2:01:39 which the Olympic champion ran in Berlin last year and, though he insists there is plenty of training to do between now and the London race day of April 26, he won’t rule out going quicker come springtime.  

“Absolutely,” was Kipchoge’s answer when asked if he could create yet more history in London, where he won in a time of 2:02:37 earlier this year which broke his own course record. “It is possible.”

Has what he achieved in Vienna in fact given him the confidence that anything is possible?

“Absolutely, yes.”

Kipchoge is undoubtedly the dominant force in world marathon and his achievements have gained recognition across the globe, with the 35-year-old currently in Britain to attend the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, where he will receive the World Sport Star of the Year award.

He is feted as a hero, too, in his native country, where he received a very different kind of medal. 

“Everyone in Kenya is recognising me,” he said. “I can say it is a crazy time. There was no need for a big procession because the president honoured me with the national certificate. I was given the honour – the golden heart – the highest recognition by the Head of State.”

Eliud Kipchoge will defend his title at the 2020 London Marathon

World Athlete of the Year Eliud Kipchoge will defend his title at the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon, a World Athletics Platinum event, set to take place in the British capital on 26 April.

Kipchoge, who earlier this year became the first person to cover 42.195km within two hours, has his sights set on continuing his incredible streak of record-breaking performances at what will be the 40th edition of the London Marathon.

In September last year he set an official world record of 2:01:39 in Berlin, then in April earlier this year he smashed his own course record to win in London in 2:02:37. The Olympic champion from Kenya will be aiming to become the first person to win five London Marathon titles.

Kipchoge is currently tied with Ingrid Kristiansen in the London Marathon history books for the most wins by an able-bodied athlete. The Norwegian great won four London Marathon titles between 1984 and 1988.

If Kipchoge continues his unbeaten run at the London Marathon next April – where he won in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 – he will surpass Kristiansen’s tally.

“I am delighted to be returning to the Virgin Money London Marathon in 2020,” said Kipchoge. “I love running in London where the crowd support is always wonderful. Breaking the two-hour barrier in Vienna was an incredible moment. It showed that no human is limited and that is a belief that continues to drive me on to set new objectives.

“Making history in London is my next target. I am proud that I am currently the only male able-bodied athlete to have won this great race four times and that no one, male or female, has won it more than that.

“Eliud Kipchoge is the greatest marathon runner of all time,” said event director Hugh Brasher. “Eliud’s belief that no human is limited resonated with millions in every walk of life and we are delighted that this extraordinary and truly inspirational man will be part of the 40th race.”

Kipchoge was given the highest honour of Kenya following his performance in Vienna, the Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya (EGH).

As well as his four Virgin Money London Marathon titles and the Olympic gold medal he won in Rio in 2016, Kipchoge has also won the Berlin Marathon on three occasions and the Chicago Marathon once. In addition, he has won the overall Abbott World Major Marathon series titles four times.

He is the first of the elite runners to be announced for the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon. Further names will be revealed in January.

15 Mind-Blowing Race Moments From 2019-From Kipchoge to Kosgei and all of the upsets, records, and victories in between, 2019 was a major year for running.

1-Kosgei Shocks Everyone in Chicago-On October 13, Brigid Kosgei made history when she won the Chicago Marathon in 2:14:04. The Kenyan ran almost perfectly even splits to achieve her goal in the Windy City, passing the halfway mark in 1:06:59 before clocking 1:07:05 for the second half.

2-Eliud Kipchoge Dips Under 2-Hour Marathon Barrier-In his second attempt at breaking the two-hour barrier in the marathon, Eliud Kipchogeof Kenya accomplished the feat with a stunning run of 1:59:40 on the streets of Vienna in October.

3-Joan Samuelson Crushes Her Goal 40 Years After Boston Victory-In 1979, Joan Benoit Samuelson set a national and course record when she won the Boston Marathon as a 21-year-old college student. Forty years after her historic victory, Samuelson, 61, set out to run within 40 minutes of her winning time at the 2019 Boston Marathon. On April 15, the 1984 Olympic champion wore a similar Bowdoin College singlet to honor her 1979 win and shattered her goal, crossing the finish line in 3:04. “To be here, 40 years later and being able to run, let alone being able to run a marathon, I feel blessed,” she said.

4-Jim Walmsley Obliterates His Own Western States Record-Ultrarunning star Jim Walmsley maintained his Western States winning streak when he obliterated his own course record in June. Navigating 100 miles from Squaw Valley to Auburn, California, Walmsley broke the tape in 14 hours and 9 minutes, which broke his own course record by more than 20 minutes

5-Donavan Brazier Breaks 34-Year-Old American Record-Donavan Brazier had the race of his life when he broke one of the oldest American records on his way to winning gold in the 800 meters at the IAAF World Championshipsin Doha, Qatar. With 250-meters to go, Brazier ran away from the field to secure the first 800-meter world championship gold medal for the United States in a time of 1:42.34. 

6-Dalilah Muhammad Sets World Record Twice-Dalilah Muhammad made history twice this season when she broke the 400-meter hurdles world record and lowered it once again on her way to winning the world championships.

7-Sifan Hassan Wins Unprecedented Double at Worlds-At the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Sifan Hassan won two gold medals that no man or woman has achieved in the history of the world championships or Olympic Games. The Dutch runner, 26, kicked off the competition by winning the 10,000-meter final in a national record time of 30:17:33. 

8-Maggie Guterl Becomes First Woman to Win Backyard Ultra-For 60 hours straight, Maggie Guterl ran the same 4.2-mile trail loop to become the last runner standing in the Big’s Backyard Ultra race. The Durango, Colorado, native ran 250 miles on her way to becoming the first woman to win the brutal race that rewards the person who can run for the longest amount of time.

9-Geoffrey Kamworor Breaks Half Marathon World Record-Holding a 4:25-mile pace, Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya shattered the world record at the Copenhagen Half Marathon in September, running 58:01. The performance, which was 17 seconds faster than the previous record, took place in the same city where the 26-year-old won his first of three half marathon world championship titles in 2014.

10-Joyciline Jepkosgei Debuts in NYC Marathon, Beats Mary Keitany-In her first marathon, Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya secured a title in a major upset. The half marathon world record-holder raced like a veteran in the New York City Marathonto beat four-time champion Mary Keitany in a winning time of 2:22:38, only seven seconds shy of the course record.

11-Kenenisa Bekele Wins Berlin Marathon 2 Seconds Shy of World Record-One year after Eliud Kipchoge set a world record that many believed would be untouchable for at least a few years, Kenenisa Bekele nearly surpassed it at the Berlin Marathon. The 37-year-old Ethiopian won the race in 2:01:41, just two seconds shy of Kipchoge’s record. 

12-Freshman Sha’Carri Richardson Shatters 100-meter Collegiate Record-In her first ever NCAA Outdoor Championship, Sha’Carri Richardson made history. In the 100-meter final, the LSU freshman sprinted to victory in a collegiate record of 10.75.

13-Drew Hunter, Athing Mu, and Colleen Quigley Win First Pro Titles-The USATF Indoor Championships brought out exciting breakthroughs for three young athletes. In the men’s 2-mile, 21-year-old Drew Hunter won the crown out of the “slower” heat by running a world-best time of 8:25.29. The women’s 600 meters was won by 16-year-old Athing Mu who defeated world silver medalist Raevyn Rogers in an American record time of 1:23.57.

14-BYU Snaps NAU’s Winning Streak at the NCAA Cross Country Championships-The Brigham Young team had a banner day at the NCAA Cross Country Championshipsin November. Battling muddy conditions, the BYU Cougars secured the team victory over three-time defending champions Northern Arizona in the men’s race. With a team total of 109 points, BYU beat NAU by 54 points to win the program’s first NCAA cross-country championship in history.

15-Joshua Cheptegei Sets 10K World Record After Winning Two World Titles-Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda capped off a banner year when he set a world record in the 10K on December 1, running 26:38 to win the 10K Valencia Trinidad Alfonso in Valencia, Spain. Earlier this year, he won the world cross-country championships and the world championship 10,000 meters in Doha, Qatar.

Barsoton and Shone smash race records at Kolkata 25K

Kenya’s Leonard Barsoton and Ethiopia’s Guteni Shone ripped up the record book at the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K 2019 as the pair set new event records for the World Athletics Silver Label Road Race – the only 25km race in the world with such a distinction – on Sunday (15).

Barsoton, the 2017 World Cross Country Championships silver medallist, crossed the line in 1:13.:05 to take 43 seconds off the event record set by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele in 2017 while Shone clocked 1:22:09 to win by more than a minute. She clipped took almost four minutes off the event record of 1:26:01 set by her compatriot Degitu Azimeraw two years ago.

Both of the winning times rank just outside the top 10 all-time marks for the 25km distance.

A large group of 11 runners in the men’s race went through the halfway point at 12.5km together in 37:11 (the 10km split being 29:41). However, over the next 2.5 kilometres several runners dropped off the back of the pack and just six were left at the front as 15km was passed in 44:21.

Despite the Ethiopian pair of Betesfa Getahun and Bayelign Yegsaw surging and pushing hard over the next five kilometres the same six – Barsoton, Getahun, Yegsaw, Uganda’s Felix Chemonges, Ethiopia’s Dagnachew Adere and Tanzania’s Faraja Damasi – were still more-or-less together as 20km was passed in 59:05; but with four kilometres to go Barsoton pushed hard for home and the move proved to be decisive.

Barsoton threw in a final 5km split of 14:00, the fastest 5km of the race, to win in 1:13:05 with Getahun, still with plenty of running in his legs despite his 2:05:28 marathon debut in Amsterdam less than two months ago, second in 1:33:33 and Yegsaw third in 1:33:36.

“It was a tough race and a tough course, and it was a close competition until the 20K mark, after which I broke free from the pack. I have been training hard this year, leading a disciplined life: sleeping early, rising early and training hard,” reflected Barsoton, whose previous credentials also include a half marathon personal best of 59:09 in Valencia in October.

"I had planned to push hard from 20km but looking at the other runners I decided to wait a little bit and then went at 21-k. But to beat a record of Bekele’s is so special. I’m very excited. 

“Next year, for sure I will make my marathon debut, but I don’t know where yet. However, I think I can run 2:03, a crazy time. If I can beat Bekele’s record here, I can run that sort of crazy time,” added Barsoton.

Bekele’s brother Tariku Bekele drifted off the back of the leading pack just after 13 kilometres and eventually finished 10th in 1:15:53 while Kenya’s 2009 and 2011 world marathon champion Abel Kirui, a late addition to the race, was a distant 11th in 1:18.08.

In contrast to the way the men’s race unfolded, Shone was out on her own over the last 10 kilometres.

After a group of seven women had passed 10km in 33:37, Shone started to increase the tempo and by the halfway point just had her training partner Desi Jisa for company.

The Ethiopian-born Bahraini hung on doggedly for another couple of kilometres but by 15km, which Shone passed in 50:03, the 2019 Sevilla Marathon winner was starting to pull away from her rival.

Shone passed 20km in 1:06:00 with Jisa now 42 seconds back and the gap continued to grow over the final five kilometres, which was covered in 16:09, before Shone crossed the line in 1:22:09.

Jisa hung on to take second in 1:23:32 with another Ethiopian-born Bahraini, Tejitu Daba, exactly one minute further back in third. The first five finishers were inside the former women’s event record.

“I have practiced (trained) very hard throughout the year and it is yielding results now,” Shone said.

“The temperature was a little hot and since the running was through the city there were many turns and bents to make the race tough. Moreover, you did not know what kind of surface to expect next, so you had to keep guessing. All of that made the course challenging and worth the run,” she added.

Diane Leather and Roger Bannister – the similarities and differences of two trailblazers

The world reverberated with the news that Roger Bannister had become the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes on 6 May 1954. Twenty three days later, a landmark was achieved in the women’s mile when fellow Briton Diane Leather became the first to dip under five minutes – unheralded, and, at the time, without fanfare.

Bannister’s progress continued to top the sporting agenda as he beat his Australian rival, and by then world mile record-holder, John Landy at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, before hoovering up the European 1500m title and retiring to start a stellar career in medical research.

Leather remained as a runner until 1961, but while she won two silver medals in the 800m at the European Championships, and captained the women’s team at the 1960 Rome Olympics, she never got the chance to run at her best distance in a major international championship.

Less than a month after Bannister had clocked 3:59.4 at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, Leather recorded 4:59.6 at the Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham – reacting with the words “Oh good. At last” – and the following year she ran 4:50.8 and then 4:45.0, which remained a world record until 1962.

By then Leather – who had also set an 800m world record of 2:09 in 1954 – had retired, aged 27. Women’s records for the mile were not ratified until 1967, and she never had the opportunity to race over her preferred distance at an international championship.

Both runners were honoured at the World Athletics Heritage Mile Night in Monaco last month with awards being made to Leather’s daughter, Lindsey Armstrong, and Bannister’s daughters Erin Bannister-Townsend and Charlotte Bannister-Parker.

The contrast in recognition for two great athletes who both died in 2018 was mirrored, oddly, in a contrast in recognition within their own families.

Lindsay Armstrong had no idea that her mum had been an athlete, or indeed a world record-holder, until she was 11.

“She didn’t tell me herself,” recalled Lindsay, who runs Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon. “I learned about it when I found some scrapbooks that one of her brothers had kept. They were on the bottom shelves somewhere in the sitting room, just tucked away.

“I didn’t know what to do about it – it was almost as if I was being naughty!

“In the end it wasn’t really such a big conversation. She said it was just something she used to do.

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. She wasn’t shy and retiring. But it was just something she’d done.

“On the day she broke five minutes for the mile, she had broken an 800m record earlier that day – it may have been a national record. So she had two great legs on her.

“She ran in the Olympics in 1960, but again they still didn’t allow her to run the mile. There was nothing further than the 200 until 1960 and then they were allowed to do the 800m. So she was the women’s team captain but she didn’t get to the final. Because, you know, it was six years past her prime. We have still got her Olympic jacket at home. She stopped soon after that.

“She didn’t talk about her athletics. I know that in later years according to people that knew her then that she felt somewhat slighted, and instead of letting it upset her she just turned away from athletics earlier than she would have done.

“But she did a lot of officiating in athletics after her career. So she didn’t really turn away from the sport. She always loved it.

“She was an extraordinary athlete. She ran the 400m, she ran the relay, she was a cross country champion. She did a huge range of distances.

“She was a chemist and she went on to be a child social worker. That was her passion. She was more than just an athlete. She was an extraordinary woman who really did change lives.

“She was beautiful – so beautiful. You could see it in the film we just watched. And it was really lovely to see. We were so proud of her. To be here with all these other extraordinary runners – she would have loved to be here.”

By contrast, Bannister’s daughters Charlotte, who is a Church of England Minister at the University Church in Oxford, and Erin, an accomplished painter, recalled their father introducing athletics into their life from the point where they could remember.

“I think it would be fair to say that my father was a pretty humble man throughout his life considering what he achieved both medically and athletically,” said Charlotte.

“But in terms of us being aware that he was a runner and that running was important was something that happened right from the start of my very consciousness.

“We were encouraged to run every day. There was a little park outside our house which was a square, and he would run every day of his life, right until he had a car accident and he no longer could. But it was deeply engrained within our childhood. Much more… why it was good for you…

Her sister continued the narrative: “Why he loved to be outside… being outdoors, and including other sports, including climbing and walking, and tennis, and sailing, and a whole range of sports. He was always trying things that weren’t necessarily to do with athletics. So things like sailing were quite dangerous, but they gave us enormous fun.”

Charlotte recalled: “He would train us to get off the starting line. He just loved watching people run, and he would come to our school sports days and he would look around the field and he would say that young boy or that young girl, they have got great style.

“And then of course he was broadcasting at the Olympics as a journalist – that was one of the times we were allowed to watch television, to see the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games.

“He didn’t generally talk about his athletics, but during anniversaries of his achievements he would sometimes talk about them, and he would talk about how his father had taken him to see athletics very early on.

“I remember going to Crystal Palace with him a lot. And then of course when he was Chairman of the Sports Council he would have to attend a lot of sporting events and if my mother couldn’t make it he would take one of us children.

“And then of course there were interviews. When something happened in the athletics world, he used to get rung up by the BBC and asked to comment on things to do with drugs, apartheid, politics…”

Both recalled travelling to Vancouver in 1967 for the unveiling of a statue depicting the decisive moment of the Vancouver Mile race, when Landy looked back inside him as their father was making his decisive burst of speed in the lane outside.

Charlotte added: “We used to have very interesting Sunday lunches, where there were always discussions around politics, athletics and sport, and it would be a summary of the week’s news and what was going on in the wider world. So there was no sense of not being involved in what was his passion – or of him not passing on his passion to us.”

World marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge has been awarded a Doctorate Degree of Law by the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom

According to the university, he was honored due to his commitment in the field of sports and being a marathon record holder.

The award comes days after Laikipia University also conferred Kipchoge a Doctorate Degree in Science during its seventh graduation ceremony.

An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements such as enrollment, a dissertation and the passing of comprehensive examination.

It is also known by the Latin phrases honoris causa ("for the sake of the honor") or ad honorem ("to the honor").

The degree is typically a doctorate or less commonly, a master’s degree, and may be awarded to someone who has no prior connection with the academic institution or no previous post-secondary education.

The degree is often conferred as a way of honoring a distinguished person's contributions to a specific field or to society in general.

Former Tokyo Marathon winner Sarah Chepchirchir, has been officially banned because of abnormalities in her athlete biological passport, which is usually evidence of abusing erythropoietin

Sarah Chepchirchir has previously been a training partner of 2016 Olympic Games marathon Jemima Sumgong, her sister-in-law, who is currently serving an eight-year drugs ban, under Italian coach Federicco Rosa. 

The 35-year-old's ban has been backdated until April 11 last year and all her results from that period have been wiped from the record books.

Chepchirchir's most notable performance came in 2017, winning the Tokyo Marathon in a personal best 2 hours 19min 47sec.

She had also set a course record at the Paris 20K in 2013, covering the 20 kilometres distance in 65min 03sec.

Chepchirchir's other personal bests included 68:07 for the half-marathon and 31: 39 for 10km.

She represented Kenya only twice in major international competitions, with a best performance of fifth in the half-marathon at the 2011 All-African Games in Maputo.

Nearly 50 Kenyan athletes are currently suspended for doping offences.

The latest runners to be provisionally suspended by the AIU are Mercy Jerotich Kibarus and James Kibet.

Sergio Mena is one of the favorites in the men's half marathon in Dallas and he will cap a rigorous and rewarding fall by running his debut half marathon

Commerce’s Sergio Mena will cap a rigorous and rewarding fall by running his debut half marathon Sunday.

Mena, 25, took his final two exams, Tuesday and Thursday, to complete his master’s degree in business administration at Texas A&M-Commerce. His parents came from Spain on Wednesday to watch him walk the stage at Friday’s graduation ceremony. He hadn’t seen them in 18 months.

“I have no idea how I’m going to do everything,” Mena said by phone last weekend. “I’m going to try to stay calm. It’s exciting.”

On Sunday, he will be among the favorites to win the runDallas BMW Dallas Marathon half. It won’t be easy. Missouri City’s Richard Powell hopes to defend his title. Powell clocked a 1 hour, 8 minutes, 9 seconds last year.

Former Rice standout Gabe Cuadra placed second overall at the October 2019 Koala Health & Wellness Houston Half in 1:08:16. Dallas’ Cody Campbell and Drew Wiles also hope to be in the mix. Campbell’s half marathon personal best is a 1:10. He’s using Dallas as a tuneup for his goal race, the Jan. 19 Chevron Houston Marathon. Wiles, a former Woodrow Wilson standout, won the Dallas Running Club Half Marathon last month in 1:09:19.

Mena grew up in Cuenca, Spain, about an hour from Madrid. He didn’t run competitively until age 16. He quickly progressed under coach Alberto Fernandez Gil’s tutelage, racing internationally and earning a scholarship to Eastern Kentucky University.

He completed his undergraduate degree in three years so he used his final year of eligibility to run at A&M-Commerce while working and studying for his MBA. He wasn’t sure he’d continue running after he used up his NCAA eligibility.

His former coach, Luke Scribner, persuaded him to join the Nomad Running Society, a local running group designed to be inclusive and bring liked-minded runners together. It helped renew his passion for the sport. He also realized that running provided structure to his days and balanced the stress of work and school.

“I need it,” Mena said of running. “I was doing it just for fun. I wasn’t caring how long or how many miles.”

In late summer, Mena decided to make the Dallas half his goal race. His training has gone well. He finished the eight-mile Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot in 41:47, just 25 seconds behind three-time champion Tyler McCandless, of Boulder, Colo., an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon.

Peter Snell has died in Dallas. He was a three-time Olympic champion and world mile record-holder

Three-time Olympic champion and world mile record-holder Peter Snell has died in Dallas. He was aged 80.

Snell, who is regarded as one of the greatest middle-distance runners, won the 800 meters at the 1960 Rome Olympics aged 21, and the 800-1,500 double at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

He was the first man since 1920 to win the 800 and 1,500 at the same Olympics. No male athlete has done so since.

Snell also won two Commonwealth Games gold medals in the 880 yards and mile at Perth in 1962.

He twice held the mile world record, and held world records in the 800 meters, 880 yards, 1,000 meters, and the 4x1-mile relay.

Snell's death was confirmed by family friend and New Zealand sports historian Ron Palenski, who heads New Zealand's Sport Hall of Fame.

“It is very sad news, a grievous loss for New Zealand,” Palenski said. “In terms of track and field, he is probably the greatest athlete New Zealand has had.”

Snell was coached by Arthur Lydiard, an innovator who was regarded as one of the world’s finest coaches of middle and long distance athletes. Lydiard also coached Murray Halberg to win the 5,000 meters at Rome in 1960.

Snell was the best miler of his generation, at a time when the mile was the blue riband event of world athletics. He began immediately after Roger Bannister's epoch-making sub-four-minute mile and while the glow of that achievement still suffused the sport.

In his physique he was unlike milers of the time: Snell was strong and powerful — more like a 400-meter runner — and not like the mostly lithe athletes who vied for world supremacy over the mile.

His stride was so powerful he often scarred the tracks on which he ran, kicking up puffs of debris, especially on grass or cinder tracks. Lydiard's training — based on massive mileage mostly on the road rather than the track — gave him enormous stamina but he also had unusual speed.

Snell's friend and training partner, Olympic marathon bronze medalist Barry Magee said “there will never be another New Zealand athlete like him.”

“He won three Olympic gold medals, two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and broke seven world records. He was the best-conditioned athlete of his time.”

Snell’s wife, Miki, said he died suddenly at his home in Dallas around noon on Thursday. He had been suffering from a heart ailment and required a pacemaker for several years.

Snell’s athletics career was relatively short. He retired in 1965 to pursue educational opportunities in the United States.

"Peter Snell was like a god to me," says MBR founder Bob Anderson.  "I started running in February 1962 and Peter was my hero.  I met him at one of our National Running Weeks in the early 80's and it was like meeting a rock star."

Snell graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in human performance from the University of California, Davis, and later with a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Washington State University.

He became a research fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1981, later becoming director of the university's Human Performance Center.

Snell was knighted by New Zealand in 2009. A statue in his honor stands at Cooks Gardens, Whanganui, near his birthplace of Opunake, where he broke the mile world record for the first time in 1962.

World marathon record holder, Mary Keitany said she is delighted that the national government through the president has finally rewarded her success

President Uhuru Kenyatta Thursday feted marathoner Mary Jepkosgei Keitany with the Order of the Grand Warrior of Kenya (OGW) award during the Jamhuri Day celebrations garden party at State House, Nairobi.

Speaking to Nation Sport on Friday, Keitany said that the award came as a surprise to her at a time she is almost retiring from the sport.

“I’m happy that the president has finally rewarded my exploits in the sport. Since I started running, this is the first time I have been rewarded by the government,” said the former New York Marathon champion.

Keitany also said that after being rewarded, she feels energized and will be looking forward to a good season next year.

“The award has given me morale to continue working hard and I want to say that I will be training harder for better results next year. For now, I’m still recovering after the New York Marathon race which I managed to come in second,” said Keitany, who is also the former World Half Marathon record holder.

Keitany uses some of her race earnings to support development in her community having partnered with Shoe4Africa to build a school in Eldama Ravine, Baringo County.

Keitany becomes the second marathon star to be recognized by the president after world men's marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge who was feted with Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya (E.G.H.) award during Mashujaa Day celebrations in October in Mombasa.

The Amica Newport Marathon, BankNewport 10 Miler, and Ocean Road 10K have all been named in the top 100 races in the USA by online racing resource Bib Raves

After a popular voting round followed by a judged round, these three events have secured top spots in their categories. All three events are annually produced by Portsmouth-based Gray Matter Marketing.

“It’s such a great feeling to have our runners nominate us to receive national recognition for events that we work hard on, and are very proud of,” says Lisa McCurdy, Director of Communications at Gray Matter Marketing. “The local support for our events has been outstanding, and runners from around the country and across the globe come to Rhode Island to not only run our races, but to enjoy visiting our beautiful state.”

The Amica Newport Marathon & Half Marathon was named as one of the top 20 half marathons in the USA. The race, which is scheduled for October 11th, 2020, is a gorgeous tour of Newport’s most stunning running routes, from downtown on Thames street out on to Ocean Drive and back through Bellevue Ave. to Easton’s Beach for a stunning seaside finish. The race regularly attracts more than 3,000 runners annually, many from out of state. In 2019 alone, the race raised more than $150,000 for local and regional nonprofits through direct donations and runner fundraising.

The BankNewport 10 Miler and Ocean Road 10K were both named in the top 20 races with a distance of 10 miles or less. The eigth annual BankNewport 10 Miler will be on May 31st, 2020, starting and finishing at Fort Adams and following the loop of Ocean Drive. The race benefits the Boys and Girls Club of Newport County and the Fort Adams Trust, and is a part of a three-race New England 10 Miler series with the other events in Portland, Maine and Stowe, Vermont.

The Ocean Road 10K, also celebrating its eighth year in 2020, is in Narragansett, Rhode Island on October 4th. Benefitting the Narragansett Historical Society, the course is flat and fast, running one-way from Point Judith Lighthouse to Narragansett Town Beach. The Ocean Road 10K has grown exponentially in popularity each year, selling out in late summer despite an increase in the field size. The event is expected to sell out again in 2020. 

In addition, for the second year in a row, RaceRaves has named the Amica Newport Marathon and Half Marathon as the top event in Rhode Island for its distance; in 2018, the online race review website ranked the best marathons by state, and this year the site ranked the half marathons. 

A New York Times study finds the Nike Next% and Vaporfly could lead runners to improved odds of a personal best

The New York Times repeated, with a larger sample size, the study of the Nike Vaporfly that they conducted in 2018. Their updated study included the Nike Next% and the findings were surprising. We knew the Vaporfly and Next% were arguably some of the best shoes on the market, but the NYT finds that their current dominance is undeniable.

The New York Times repeated, with a larger sample size, the study of the Nike Vaporfly that they conducted in 2018. Their updated study included the Nike Next% and the findings were surprising. We knew the Vaporfly and Next% were arguably some of the best shoes on the market, but the NYT finds that their current dominance is undeniable.

The study founds that, “The Zoom Vaporfly 4% or ZoomX Vaporfly Next% — ran 4 to 5 percent faster than a runner wearing an average shoe, and 2 to 3 percent faster than runners in the next-fastest popular shoe.” The name four per cent was born out of Nike’s finding that the shoe could make the wearer four per cent more efficient–efficiency translates to less effort at the same pace, which means a runner can go faster. So the claim that the shoe makes a runner faster as opposed to simply more efficient is new.

Another key finding was that men had a 73 per cent chance of running a personal best in the shoes, while women had a 74 per cent chance, “In a race between two marathoners of the same ability, a runner wearing these shoes would have a significant advantage over a competitor not wearing them.” The Times also reports, “In the final months of 2019, about 41 per cent of marathons under three hours were reported to have been run in these shoes (for races in which we have data).”

When someone first comes to running, they find that after the initial agony of getting your legs used to the motion, there’s quick improvement. You’ll run a 5K personal best and then a subsequent PB just weeks (or even days) later. Because you’re new to the sport, the time melts away in the first few races.

But as you progress and become better, it can take months and even years to run a personal best. And for the competitive runner, staying patient is the hardest part. But what if someone told that runner who’d been trying to PB for 14 months, 27 days and 13 hours, that if they spent $330 CAD they had a 73 per cent chance at finally improving? If they have the budget, that’s an appealing statistic.

Two weeks ago Molly Huddle, who has the sixth-fastest marathon time among American women in 2019 (she ran a personal best 2:26:33 at the London Marathon), replied to a tweet by sports journalist Cathal Dennehy about the AlphaFly (Nike’s next step in the carbon-plated game). The shoe was first seen on the feet of marathon world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge, who raced to a 1:59:40 finish in them at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna last month. Huddle’s comment: “Kinda nervous as to how this would affect the Olympic Trials over here @usatf.”

It’s not just Huddle who has noticed the effect the shoe (or prototype versions) could have on the US Olympic Marathon Trials. Runners are qualifying for the event at unprecedented rates. With the qualifying window still open for another five weeks, entries are already nearing the thousands.

It’s important to note that the qualifying standard for the trials did get two minutes easier (2:43 in 2016 to 2:45 in 2020). But does two minutes warrant a potentially doubled field size or are technological advantages, like the Nike shoes, the reason for the jump? The New York Times’ finding would suggest the latter.

OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon has once again been named Best Half Marathon in America by The BibRave 100

The race was also named in the Top 10 Best Weekend Experience category, while the Delta Dental 500 Festival 5K was named one of America's Top 25 races, 10 miles or less. The 500 Festival presented the accolades during an awards ceremony for The Running Event in Austin, Texas.

“The entire OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon team is ecstatic that our half marathon has been named best in the nation for the second consecutive year,” said Bob Bryant, president and CEO of the 500 Festival.

“What makes this accolade even more special is that it is voted on by participants. With so many great half marathons in this country, we are elated that ours stood out as the favorite among runners, walkers, and wheelchair participants."

Rankings in the list are based on runner nominations, running industry surveys, and online voting.

Voters indicated the Mini's lap around Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a major highlight. The 2020 Indy Mini is scheduled for Saturday, May 2.