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Olympians, champions and top americans will lead fields for 2021 Asics Falmouth Road Race

Falmouth Road Race, Inc., organizers of the 49th Annual ASICS Falmouth Road Race, one of America’s premier running events of the summer season, today announced the men’s, women’s, and wheelchair open fields for this year’s race. Defending champions Leonard Korir and Sharon Lokedi lead an accomplished field of Olympians, World Champions and top Americans participating in the August 15, 2021 race.

WOMEN’S OPEN DIVISION

Lokedi, a Kenyan elite and 10-time All American at the University of Kansas, will race 2019 runner-up Sara Hall, who has won 11 U.S. national titles from the mile to the marathon. Hall recently finished sixth at the U.S. Olympic Trials 10,000m and won the AJC Peachtree Road Race, which hosted the National 10K Championships. The duo is joined by Edna Kiplagat, a Boston, London and New York City champion as well as a two-time World Athletics Marathon Championships gold medalist. 

Twelve-time All American and NCAA DI 10,000m champion Emma Bates and 2021 Olympic marathoner Molly Seidel will also participate. Bates is gearing up for a fall marathon and Seidel will run, alongside her sister Isabel, as a post-Olympic celebration.  

Accomplished women racing the leaders include Jordan Hasay, an 18-time All American and multiple podium finisher at the Boston and Chicago Marathons; former Falmouth champion and three-time Olympian Diane Nukuri; NCAA 10,000m champion Natosha Rogers; young talent Iveen Chepkemoi; Emily Durgin who finished runner-up at the AJC Peachtree Road Race with a 31:49 personal best, and Taylor Werner the recent USATF National 6K champion.

Many of the women in the field raced in the 5,000m and/or 10,000m at the recent U.S. Olympic Track Trials including Rogers, Durgin, Werner, Erika Kemp, Makena Morley, Jaci Smith, Fiona O’Keefe,  and Paige Stoner.

MEN’S OPEN DIVISION

The 2019 podium of Leonard Korir, Stephen Sambu, and Edward Cheserek return. Korir, an Olympian, became the first American man to win the Falmouth Road Race since 1988. He has 10 USATF national titles and holds the fastest-ever marathon debut by an American (2:077:56). 

Sambu looks to add an impressive fifth Falmouth Road Race title to his name. A road running star, Sambu set the 8K world record at the B.A.A. 10K, a race he has won twice. He is also a four-time champion of the Shamrock Shuffle. Edward Cheserek, the most decorated NCAA distance runner of all time with 17 NCAA Division I titles, ran for the University of Oregon. At Boston University in 2018, Cheserek ran the indoor mile in 3:49.44, which at that time was the second fastest indoor mile in history.  

Chasing the trio are 2018 Falmouth Road Race champion and 2018 NCAA 10,000m winner Ben Flanagan, of Canada, and Ben True, who holds five national titles, set a 5K national record at the 2017 B.A.A. 5K and recently finished fourth in the 10,000m at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Fresh from a two second 1-2 finish at the 2021 AJC Peachtree Road Race, Sam Chelanga, a six-time USATF National Champion, and Fred Huxham are in the field, as are B.A.A. 10K champion David Bett, 2018 Falmouth runner-up Scott Fauble and top 5,000m runner Emmanuel Bor. 

Many of the men running the ASICS Falmouth Road Race competed at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Track Trials including Korir, Chelanga, Bor, True, Biya Simbassa, Jacob Thomson and Frank Lara.

Women that have been barred from Olympics for being manly

One day, Annet Negesa was pushing her body to endure and make her the champion she believed she was born to be. On another day, her Olympics dreams were crushed because she was faster, stronger.

Annet Negesa reportedly still harbours intentions to run for her country. She runs every day, with the hope of returning to international competitions one day. 

Hers is a case of unfinished business, a dream that was cut short in June 2012 when she received a call from a doctor from track and field’s world governing body telling her, according to the New York Times newspaper - that “she would no longer be competing in the London Olympics because her testosterone levels were too high for competition,” thereby giving her an unfair advantage over other female athletes.

Negesa, 20 then, was one of Uganda’s top athletes. On the back of her London preparations, she set a national record for 800 metres earlier that year at a meet in Netherlands.

She was a three-time national champion and brought home a gold medal at the 2011 All-Africa Games.

She identifies as female and was born with external female genitalia but also with internal male genitalia that produce levels of testosterone that men do.

Most women, including elite female athletes, have natural testosterone levels of 0.12 to 1.79 nanomoles per litre, according to World Athletics. The typical male range after puberty is reportedly much higher, at 7.7 to 29.4 nanomoles per litre.

After years of litigation, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2019 upheld World Athletics’ testosterone restrictions for female athletes in races with distances from 400 meters to the mile after renowned athlete Caster Semenya (we shall get to her later in the article), filed an appeal.

The court ruled by a 2-to-1 vote that the restrictions were indeed discriminatory but also a “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” means of achieving the World Athletics goal of preserving a level playing field in women’s track events.

Therefore intersex athletes (these are said to be roughly one in every 2,000 births), who want to participate in middle-distance women’s track events must take hormone-suppressing drugs and reduce testosterone levels to below five nanomoles per litre (5 nmol/L) for six months before competing, then maintain those lowered levels.

Unfortunately, the intervention seems to have come seven years late for Negesa, who claims World Athletics physician Dr Stéphane Bermon gave her surgery as her first option to reduce testosterone levels in 2012. 

But Negesa has since battled persistent headaches and achy joints that have not allowed her to pursue her career. Her postoperative care, which according to documents seen at the Kampala Hospital by the New York Times should have been recommended in further discussions with Dr Bermon, did not include the kind of hormone treatment that might have helped her body adjust to the change.

After Negesa appeared in a ‘break the silence’ documentary on German television’s ARD network in October 2019, World Athletics issued a statement denying that it participated in or recommended a specific treatment to Negesa.

Third category

Nine years after Negesa’s predicament, another recommendation to World Athletics; to introduce a third category of events in order to allow competitors with high testosterone levels to compete in their preferred disciplines, seems to be gathering steam after Kenyan 800m runner Margaret Wambui was ruled out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

“It would be good if a third category for athletes with high testosterone was introduced; because it is wrong to stop people from using their talents,” Wambui told BBC Sport Africa.

The sport’s governing body, World Athletics, says it has no plans to introduce such a category and will stick to its current classifications of men’s and women’s events.

The idea of a third category in athletics has been floated before, but Wambui is the first athlete to express outright support for the suggestion.

“We would be the first people to compete in that category - so we can motivate others who are hiding their condition,” she said.

Since World Athletics introduced its latest rules governing DSD (disorders of sex development) athletes in 2018, not one of the three athletes who stood on the 800m podium in Rio has contested the distance at a global international championship.

At the 2016 Games, Wambui was beaten to gold by Semenya and silver by Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba.

“It is sad to see that the whole podium won’t be there.”  “They cut short our careers, because that wasn’t our plan. I feel bad that I won’t be in the Olympics because of World Athletics rules,” says Wambui.

The Bix is back: Race returns with resounding success

The crack of a starting pistol sent a scribble of smoke upward, queuing upbeat dance club music.

Miles away, a barber shop quartet serenaded with harmonic tones.

Palmer College of Chiropractic members dressed as vertebrae snaked their way up the infamously steep Brady Street.

Good Samaritans sprinkled cooling droplets of mist and rushed to the aid of an overheated runner.

A volunteer raked a neat pile of thousands of discarded water cups out of the road.

"These 14,000 cups have gotta go somewhere," Jen Broders said.

Post-race Jello shots were downed and accompanied by dives onto a front-lawn water slide.

Runner, walkers, past Olympians, pint-sized entrepreneurs, Marilyn Monroe look-alikes and "short-legged, no-talent" family members, friends and supporters packed the streets of downtown Davenport on Saturday morning for the 47th annual Quad-City Times Bix 7. More than 9,750 people registered for Bix races, according to race officials, marking the first time participation has dipped below 10,000 since 1986 (not counting last year's virtual Bix).

"Since last year's race ended, we've been planning for a very different race because our plans have changed on a monthly, weekly and daily basis," Bix 7 Race Director Michelle Juehring said.

The 53-year-old became race director in 2020 after the retirement of former longtime Race Director Ed Froehlich. She guided the race through its virtual version during the COVID-19 pandemic and was in the midst of preparing for her first full-blown Bix as its director.

Through all the changes COVID-19 forced in 2020, planning for the 2021 race was not without lingering pandemic-induced difficulties.

"We didn't know if the race would be open to all contestants until, basically, the last week in June, first week of July," Juehring said. "I am very grateful to have a whole race, but the road to getting here has forced us to be flexible and change."

Shade become prime real estate along the race course for bystanders. The temperature at race time was 78 degrees, tied for the third-hottest in Bix history, with 82% humidity and a 9-mph wind.

Though the start-time temperature was reasonable, the mercury shot up quickly and so did the action inside the medical tent. By 9 a.m., the temperature had climbed above 80 degrees. By 10:30 a.m., the mercury reached 85 degrees, at which time 36 people had been treated in the medical just past the finish line, one of whom was transported to the hospital. Another 10 runners were taken from the course to the hospital. Craig Cooper, spokesman for Genesis, said Saturday evening that one person had been admitted to the hospital but all others taken to Genesis had been treated and released.

Beat the Elite runner Doug Boleyn, 53, was the first patient escorted into the medical tent. Innovation officer at Genesis Health System, Boleyn was treated by colleagues from Genesis, which staffs the medical tent with dozens of volunteer doctors, nurses, aids and others. He was treated and released. 

The hot, hazy and muggy conditions, though, didn’t slow former Olympian Leonard Korir, 34, of Colorado Springs, Colo., who won his third Quad-City Times Bix 7 with a time of 32 minutes, 48 seconds, edging 25-year-old Frank Lara, of Boulder, Colo. Forty-one-year-old fellow Olympian Edna Kiplagat of Kenya won the women’s division.

“To win it three times, I’m so grateful,” said Korir, who credited his experience and training for his third top finish at the Bix 7.

As runners slogged through the heat and crowds on Kirkwood Boulevard, a gray tarp, continuously sprayed with a hose, offered brief refreshment for those brave enough to jump on.

Watching over the scene, resting on a lawn chair with Happy Birthday balloons tied to the back, was a large photo Sean Troncao's mother smiling.

he loved the Bix, Trancao said. It was one of her favorite days of the year. This year the Bix fell on her birthday weekend, so the family chose to celebrate at the Bix and bring her back to the event she loved so much.

"It just felt fitting to make sure she could join us," Trancao said.

Tom and Linda Hughes arrived on McClellan Boulevard at 6:15 a.m. Saturday to reserve their usual spot for their large family to watch the road race, and to promote organ donation through the Iowa Donor Network.

The group wore matching T-shirts featuring a photo of Tom's sister, the late Mary Ellen Smith. Smith used to run the Bix every year and was killed several years ago in a pedestrian-truck crash. Upon her death, all of her organs were donated.

Jerry Spaeth, Carl Anderson and Ken Stark stood on the side of the road enjoying a drink or two and cheering on Stark's wife, who he said has been running the Bix 7 for 22 years.

"I ran it for 15," Anderson said. "Now I stand here and drink beer." 

Tokyo Olympics preview: marathon-Women's marathon

World record-holder Brigid Kosgei will start as the woman to beat in the marathon when she hits the road on the Games' penultimate day. But she won’t be lacking for formidable opposition.

The 27-year-old Kenyan has been among the best marathon runners on the planet since 2017 when she first threatened the 2:20 barrier at that year's Chicago Marathon, finishing second in 2:20:22. She returned the following year to take the title in 2:18:35 and then returned again in 2019 to smash the world record with a jaw-dropping 2:14:04 performance.

She followed up well with a successful title defence at the London Marathon last October in 2:18:58, winning by more than three minutes to secure her fourth consecutive marathon victory.

Kosgei hasn't contested the distance since and has only raced twice in 2021, so her current form will be somewhat of a mystery. This will also be the first time she has competed at a major championship. Given her marathon pedigree, though, you can expect her to arrive in Sapporo well prepared.

But she'll have plenty of fast company, beginning with her teammates.

Peres Jepchirchir, the two-time world half marathon champion, heads to her first Olympics courtesy of her 2:17:16 victory at the Valencia Marathon last December, the fastest in the world last year. Just over a month earlier, she broke the half marathon world record for a women-only race, clocking 1:05:16 at the World Half Marathon Championships.

They'll also have Ruth Chepngetich, the world champion, for company. Chepngetich clocked 2:17:08 in Dubai in 2019 that currently places her fourth on the world all-time list. After a third-place finish at the London Marathon last October in 2:22:05, Chepngetich returned to action at the Istanbul Half Marathon earlier this year when she broke the world record in a mixed race, clocking 1:04:02.

That Kenyan trio is about as good as they come. But the Ethiopian team isn't too far off that mark.

Birhane Dibaba clocked 2:18:35 to finish second in Tokyo last year, one of the fastest performances of 2020. Teammate Roza Dereje was even faster a few months earlier, clocking 2:18:30 in Valencia in December 2019. Zeineba Yimer, 23, is another rising star, clocking 2:19:28 and 2:19:54 at the 2019 and 2020 editions of the Valencia Marathon.

Expect Israeli record-holder Lonah Salpeter to be in the hunt. The 32-year-old broke into the all-time top-10 after a sensational 2:17:45 run to win the 2020 Tokyo Marathon and has tuned up with a solid but pressure-free 2:22:37 run at home in March.

Helalia Johannes of Namibia, the surprise bronze medallist at the 2019 World Championships, also made a notable jump last year into the sub-2:20 club, finishing third in Valencia in 2:19:52. She'll turn 41 the week after the Olympics ends and is showing few signs of slowing down. Winner of the Commonwealth title in 2018, Johannes excels in championship races held in hot conditions.

Japan will be well represented by a pair of consistent runners who could be ready to challenge for the podium. Mao Ichiyama has a 2:20:29 lifetime best from her victory at the 2020 Nagoya Marathon and was nearly as fast the following year when winning in Osaka in 2:21:11. Meanwhile, Mizuki Matsuda clocked 2:21:47 to win the Osaka Marathon in 2020 and 2:21:51 to win Nagoya earlier this year.

Ankle injury rules out Kenya's Geoffrey Kamworor at Olympics

Kenyan 10,000 meters runner and 2019 New York Marathon winner Geoffrey Kamworor has pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics due to an ankle injury, he told BBC Sport Africa on Thursday.

The 28-year-old is a three times world Half Marathon champion, and previous world record holder, and had hopes of a medal in the 10,000m after winning the national trials.

He won silver at the 2015 world championships in Beijing, behind Britain's Mo Farah.

The injury comes after he was hit by a motorcycle while training near his home in June last year, suffering a fractured tibia.

"These are obstacles which can come on your way when you come back from a tough injury earlier on. It's only now extremely bad timing," the BBC quoted his manager Valentijn Trouw as saying.

All about the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics

While the men’s marathon has been a staple of the Olympics since the first modern Games in 1896, women were not allowed to run the 26.2-mile race until the 1984 Summer Games, which were held in Los Angeles. Now both the men’s and women’s races are among the most anticipated events on the Olympic calendar.

When is the Olympic marathon?

The women’s race is scheduled for Aug. 7, and the men will run on Aug. 8, the final day of Olympic competition.

Where will the Olympic marathon take place?

While the bulk of the Olympic competition takes place in Tokyo, the marathon races will be staged in Sapporo, which is located 500 miles north of the host city. Local Olympic organizers were eager to keep the race in Tokyo, but the International Olympic Committee pushed to relocate both marathons and the racewalking events in October 2019 due to concerns about high temperatures in Tokyo.

Who will represent the United States in marathon?

The United States staged its Olympic trials in February 2020, so the top American runners have had nearly one and a half years to prepare for the Sapporo course.

Galen Rupp, 35, was the top men’s qualifier, posting a first-place time of 2 hours 9 minutes 20 seconds at trials and earning a spot in his fourth Olympic Games. Rupp won silver in the men’s 10,000 meters at the 2012 Games before tackling the marathon four years later. He took bronze in the 2016 Olympic marathon with a time of 2:10:05, even though it was only the second time in his life that he tackled a 26.2-mile course.

He’ll be joined in Tokyo by fellow Americans Jake Riley and Abdi Abdirahman. Riley, 32, was 42 seconds behind Rupp at trials and was also the top American finisher at the 2019 Chicago Marathon. The Somali-born Abdirahman will be competing in his fifth Olympics and at 44 years old will be the oldest American runner to ever compete in a Summer Games.

Kenyan-born Aliphine Tuliamuk won the women’s marathon trials with a time of 2:27:23, and will be making her Olympic debut at age 32. Before the Tokyo Games were postponed due to covid-19, Tuliamuk had planned on starting a family immediately following the 2020 Olympics. The year-long delay changed her timeline and she gave birth to her daughter, Zoe, in January.

She’ll be joined at trials by Molly Seidel, who finished the trials just eight seconds behind Tuliamuk, and Sally Kipyego. The 27-year old Seidel will be making her Olympic debut. She was also the second American woman finisher at the 2020 London Marathon.

Kipyego, 35, is a decorated long-distance runner who will be competing in her second Olympics. Running for her native Kenya in 2012, she took silver in the 10,000-meter race.

Chevrier breaks course record at La Montee du Nid d’Aigle

Italy’s Xavier Chevrier and Kenya’s Lucy Murigi took top honours at the highly anticipated La Montee du Nid d’Aigle, the third stage of the WMRA World Cup series, on Saturday (17).

The race hub in the picturesque Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains, in the Haute-Savoie region of France, combined with a tough course and a field of top runners made for a fantastic mountain running race.

Blue skies greeted the runners at the start, with a few whispy clouds higher up in the mountains. Conditions were hot for the runners, particularly on the exposed parts of the course, making the 19.5km uphill-only race particularly relentless.

The route starts at Le Fayet and heads along the river towards St Gervais, and then to La Villette, climbing gradually. It then heads away from the road and into the trees and begins to climb more steeply all the way up to the finish at Refuge du Nid d’Aigle at 2394m.

With deep fields in both the men’s and women’s races, both podiums were wide open. As expected, the flatter first few kilometres of the race were fast and furious and before too long gaps had opened for the men and women.

Murigi, who finished third at Grossglockner last weekend, struck out into a lead over French duo Anais Sabrie and Christel Dewalle. Chevrier and Italian teammate Francesco Puppi also made a break for it in the men’s race, but they were hotly pursued by a group including France’s Julien Rancon, Alexandre Fine and Henri Aymonod.

Chevrier and Murigi maintained their leads, though the races remained close. In the closing stages, Chevrier pulled away from Puppi while the chasing runners jostled for third place.

Chevrier went on to win the men’s race in a course record of 1:44:25, followed by Puppi, more than a minute behind (1:45:49). Aymonod completed the all-Italian men’s podium in 1:46:44. Julien Rancon was fourth in 1:48:43 and Remi Lonchampt rounded out the top five in 1:50:18.

Dewalle, who is a 10-time French VK champion and excels on the steeper climbs, chased Murigi hard on the final climb, but couldn’t catch the Kenyan. Murigi won in 2:06:08, just two seconds outside the course record, with Dewalle just 21 seconds behind. Sabrie was a further minute in arrears (2:07:34).

France’s Mathilde Sagnes was fourth in 2:08:37 and Simone Troxler fifth in 2:10:43 with the top five finishing within five minutes of each other.

The next stop on the WMRA World Cup calendar is the Tatra SkyMarathon on 24 July.

Will Ethiopian-born Dutch distance star Sifan Hassan make history at Tokyo Olympics 2020?

Sifan Hassan is an Ethiopian-born Dutch female long-distance runner. Her plans to compete in 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m track races at the Tokyo Olympic Games have created buzz in the running world.

If she is successful in winning gold medals in all three races, it will be unprecedented in the history of Track and Field at the Olympics. No female distance runner has won more gold medals in the 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m track races at the same Olympic Games.

Athletes in the past have attempted the 5,000m and 10,000m double at the Olympics, but the 28-year-old has added a 1,500m event to her menu that is being intensely debated.

At the 2019 Doha World Championships, she made history by winning gold medals in the 1,500m and 10,000m, to become the first female runner to do so.

Why is it tougher to set records in the Olympics

There is a major difference in competing at the Olympics and posting a fast time during one-day international competitions.

During lucrative one-day prize money events across the globe, race organizers have pacemakers to break records. However, elite athletes employ different tactics to win medals at major championships including Olympics.

Therefore, timings are faster in one-day competitions rather than at the Olympics as the main aim is to win medals and not break records.

Since races at the Olympics are sometimes slow in comparison to one-day meetings, the tactical battle could be an advantage for Sifan as she has both the speed and endurance.

At the Tokyo Olympics, the women’s 5,000m preliminary round is scheduled for the evening session on July 30 while the women’s 1,500m heats are slated for a morning session on August 2.

There is enough time between the 5,000m and 1,500m heat for Sifan to recover.

But it could be punishing for the Dutch distance runner as the event progresses. After the 1,500m heat in the morning session, she will be racing the women's 5,000m final in the evening session on August 2.

Sifan's next race, the women’s 1,500m semis will be on August 4. The final is on August 6.

After a good race on August 6 will she recover to compete in the women’s 10,000m final on August 7?

Having shown her prowess over distances ranging from 1,500m to half marathon, Sifan would be one to watch at the Tokyo Olympics.

In the first week of June, Sifan smashed the women’s 10,000m five years old world record in Hengelo, the Netherlands. She clocked 29 minutes 06.82 seconds to better Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana’s record of 29 minutes 17.45 seconds set at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Last week (July 9) at the Monaco Diamond League, Sifan clocked 3 minutes 53.60 seconds to finish second behind arch rival Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, whose winning time was 3 minutes 51.07 seconds.

The inspiring story of Sifan Hassan

As a teenager, Sifan had to flee Ethiopia. She was barely 15 and reached the Netherlands as a refugee in 2008. She began running and enrolled herself in a nursing course. She gained Dutch citizenship in 2013.

According to Sifan, the nursing course took a backseat as she became a professional athlete. She will compete in Japan for her adopted country.

World 1500m champion added to Kenyan Olympic team as 18-year-old dropped

World 1500 meters champion Timothy Cheruiyot, left out of the Kenyan Olympic team after finishing outside the top three qualifying places at last month’s trials, has been added to the squad for Tokyo 2020. 

Cheruiyot, pictured limping away from the trials with a hamstring injury, won the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco last Friday (July 9) in a personal best of 3min 28.28sec, the fastest time run since 2015 and seventh best ever.

The 25-year-old from Bomet expressed hopes after his win that he would be able try to add the Olympic gold medal to his world title and he is now due to do that against a field that will include his perennial 20-year-old Norwegian rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen, European record holder with 3:28.68.

"I am thrilled to be part of the Kenyan Olympic team," Cheruiyot, now the favourite for gold, told Agence-France Presse. 

 "I am in better shape than I was during the trials and I promise to deliver a medal for Kenya in Tokyo."

Cheruiyot’s addition has been made possible by the ineligibility of the relatively unknown 18-year-old who finished second at the trials, Kamar Etyang.

He has had to be removed from the team because he does not have the minimum number of three out-of-competition tests that Kenyan athletes must fulfil in the 10 months before any major championship following the country’s placement in category A of the World Athletics and World Anti-Doping Agency watchlist.

Kenya's Olympics general team manager Barnaba Korir told The Nation that Athletics Kenya had petitioned the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) over the issue of Etyang without success.

"It’s really unfortunate that Etyang had to be dropped due to the AIU rules which require one to be tested three times out of competition," Korir said.

"We have explained this to the athlete and he has understood the situation we are in."

He added that the AIU were unable to make exceptions to the ruling.

"We were in the same situation in 2019 when two athletes Michael Kibet and Daniel Simiu were dropped from the team that was heading to the World Championships [in Doha]," Korir said.

"This is because Kenya is in category A and we need to strictly follow the rules so that we can get out of the woods in future."

Cheruiyot had made it clear after his Monaco victory that he was hopeful of being in the team for Tokyo 2020.

"I missed competition a lot after spending a lot of time in Kenya where I had a few issues like my hamstring injury and after also losing a relative in my family on the day of the Kenyan trials explaining why I missed out on making the team," he said.

"I am therefore happy I am back again after all this.

"Hopefully that will be the deciding performance to make the team for Tokyo.

"My hope now is to be in another Olympics, that is where my mindset is and I will be very happy if I achieve that."

Ingebrigtsen, reportedly unable to train for the preceding fortnight because of a bacterial infection, finished second, with Spain’s Mohamed Katir setting a national record of 3:28.76 in second place.

Three other athletes originally named for the Kenyan team for Tokyo have been dropped - racewalkers Samuel Gathimba and Emily Ngii and 400m hurdler Moitalel Mpoke.

Kenya will send 40 athletes, mainly runners, to Tokyo 2020, which are due to open on July 23 with the athletics programme running from July 30 to August 8.

The Nairobi Marathon is to return on October 31 after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic

The race is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and has been held annually since 2003 - with the exception of 2020.

This year’s physical event will only be open to 2,500 elite runners only, with a remote alternative available for other participants.

Relay races over 10 kilometres, 21 km and 42km will also be held.

The marathon course will set up on Nairobi’s Southern Bypass, starting and finishing at the Carnivore Gardens and taking in views of Nairobi National Park.

To be invited to the physical marathon, men need to have recorded a time of 2 hours 20min 0sec of better in 2019, while the cut-off time for women will be 2:30:00.

Kenyan athletes will be selected based on Athletics Kenya’s database, training camps and previous marathons in the country.

Athletics Kenya will communicate with other national bodies to determine eligible international athletes.

A series of warm-up races are also scheduled to enable athletes to practice with their fellow runners, trainers and coaches.

The virtual event will run from October 25 to 31, and it is hoped that 13,500 runners will take part. 

Participants can choose one of five challenges on the Strava app, 5km or any of the physical race distances.

Times for the virtual event will be recorded through Strava, and runners who complete their challenge will receive a reward. 

These prizes include Strava virtual badges, a premium subscription to the app for a year, places at physical warm-up races, shopping vouchers and Liverpool FC merchandise.

As reported by Capital Sports, chief executive of Standard Chartered Kariuki Ngari said during the launch of the events: "Upon cancellation of the marathon last year, we took time to engage with a couple of stakeholders and gained some useful insights for future marathons.

"One of the key things that came up was the adoption of virtual marathons and the emergence of virtual running communities across the world. This has been reflected in our hybrid marathon this year which will allow for virtual participation. We have also considered key issues such as safety and have consequently set up measures to ensure Covid safety protocols are observed during the marathon.

"Last year, a number of elite runners were affected due to the cancellation and we stepped up to offer financial and educational support through the KipKeino Foundation. We look forward to seeing many of them participate in this year's marathon and we will keep working towards ensuring our athletes are well equipped to perform well."

Brimin Kipkorir won the men’s Nairobi Marathon the last time it was held in 2019 with a time of 2:10:43, while Purity Jebichii triumphed in the women’s race in 2:30:34.

US marathoner Aliphine Tuliamuk infant daughter will be able to join her in Tokyo for the Olympics

U.S. long-distance runner Aliphine Tuliamuk announced Tuesday that her infant daughter was granted a visa and will be allowed to travel with her to Tokyo for the Olympics. 

"The last 6 months with you baby Zoe have been the best ones of our lives, your dad and I are so blessed to get to watch you grow and teach you everything we know about this world," Tuliamuk wrote on Instagram. "And now we are beyond excited that you get to come to Japan and cheer on your mama as she goes after her biggest running goals, ZOE’s VISA ARRIVED TODAY!"

Her elation comes after the IOC's decision to allow Olympians to bring their infants who are still breastfeeding. Originally, all foreign spectators, including family members, were banned from the Olympics due to concerns over COVID-19 in Japan, but the decision was changed in June. 

Tuliamuk, 32, won the 2020 Olympic marathon trials and is set to compete in Sapporo (where the marathon will be for the Summer Games) on Aug. 7.

Tuliamuk and several other Olympians who are mothers told The Washington Post in May that they were extremely concerned at the thought of having to make a choice between the Olympics and their children. This thought was especially scary for Tuliamuk, who may have the youngest child of all the U.S. Olympians.

“If I’m going to perform my best, she’s going to have to be there with me—and I hope she will be," Tuliamuk said. "I am still nursing Zoe and cannot imagine her not being with me."

Thankfully, she will not have to make that decision. 

Aliphine Chepkerker Tuliamuk is a Kenyan-born American long distance runner. She placed first at the Women's 2020 Olympic Marathon trials in Atlanta, GA on February 29, 2020 with a time of 2:27:23 and will be representing the United States at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. She won $80,000. 

Elite field for 125th Boston Marathon will include 13 former champions

The field for the 125th Boston Marathon will include 13 former champions with a combined 30 first-place Boston finishes, the Boston Athletic Association announced on Wednesday. The group competing on Oct. 11 includes World Athletics Marathon champions, Paralympic medalists, Abbott World Marathon Majors winners, and Olympians.

Four of the last five women’s open champions are scheduled to run: American Desiree Linden (2018), a two-time Olympian; Kenyan Edna Kiplagat (2017), a two-time World Athletics Marathon Championships gold medalist; Kenyan Caroline Rotich (2015); and Atsede Baysa (2016).

Two-time champion and course record holder Manuela Schär returns to defend her title in the women’s wheelchair race. Schär, a three-time Paralympic medalist from Switzerland, won Boston in 2017 and 2019 and is the only woman to have clocked a sub-1:30 marathon. Also among the wheelchair contenders is five-time Boston champion and 17-time Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden, who will race the 400 meters, 800 meters, 1500 meters, 5000 meters, and the marathon at the Tokyo Paralympic Games for Team USA.

The three returning men’s champions have all posted lifetime bests under 2:07:30. They are Kenya’s Geoffrey Kirui (2017), Ethiopia’s Lemi Berhanu (2016), and Yuki Kawauchi (2018), who will attempt to become the first man from Japan since Toshihiko Seiko in 1987 to earn two Boston Marathon titles.

Four men’s wheelchair champions with a combined 16 titles will return, including defending champion Daniel Romanchuk of Illinois. The 2016 and 2021 Paralympian for Team USA made history by winning the 2019 race and Abbott World Marathon Majors Series XII at just 20 years old. Course record holder Marcel Hug of Switzerland, who had four straight wins from 2015-18, is back. Ernst van Dyk of South Africa, the most decorated champion in race history with 10 titles, also will compete, as will 2012 winner and former course record holder Josh Cassidy of Canada.

The race also features restructured prize money awards that will include equal course record bonuses for the open and wheelchair divisions and the introduction of prize money for the inaugural para athletics divisions. Boston will be the first Abbott World Marathon Major event to offer equal $50,000 course record bonuses across open and wheelchair divisions, and the first event to provide a designated prize purse for athletes with upper limb, lower limb, and visual impairments.

“We are delighted to welcome so many champions from such a diverse range of competition back to Boston for the 125th running of the Boston Marathon,” said Tom Grilk, BAA president and CEO. “While October’s race marks a long-awaited return to racing, it will also recognize and celebrate the many world-class athletes competing for an historic prize purse across multiple divisions.”

Jake Wightman aiming to break 38-year-old Scottish record in final Tokyo tune up

The Olympic-bound Scot, who turned 27 on Sunday, will sign off his build-up in the historic Emsley Carr Mile at the Diamond League leg against a largely domestic field that also includes his 1500m rival at the Games, Jake Heyward. But despite two wins in four starts this summer, Wightman admits he’s hunting a fast time for the ideal pre-Games booster ahead of his medal tilt.

“It's weird running this because it could not go well,” he said. “And it would not be a nice way to go into Olympics. But I want to be able to try and run quick because I feel like the rounds in Tokyo, and especially a final, could potentially be quick. And I've not gone fast this year, really. So I want to try and make sure I get a race which prepares me for that.”

The European medalist will target Graham Williamson’s Scottish mile record of 3:50.64 that has stood for exactly 38 years to the very day.

Andy Butchart is slated to run the 3000m at the Grand Prix despite his Olympic place remaining in limbo just days before he is due to travel to Japan. Nicole Yeargin will get her Diamond League debut in the women’s 400m while Beth Dobbin takes on Rio 2016 gold medallist Elaine Thompson over 200m.

For Wightman and his Edinburgh club-mate Josh Kerr, there remains uncertainty too, with no confirmation still on the fate of world 1500m champion Timothy Cheriuyot, whose omission from the Kenyan team for Tokyo could yet be overturned. But whether or not the fastest man in the world this year is at the Games, opportunity knocks, Wightman insists.

“I don't think that the rest of us are that far behind or going to be discounted,” he said. “We could still be in there. Matt Centrowitz from 2016 is the one person that keeps me going. Thinking that anything can happen in an Olympic final. Because nobody would have said that Centro was going to win that race. If you have a perfect day, you can do anything.”

“Hopefully I get that,” he said. “Steve Cram let me know he has got the stadium record. So that's another incentive, to try and get that.

“I need to try and improve my mile time. I don't really getting the chance to run them too often. And obviously there's a lot of history in the event. So have a time that you can say is sub-3.50 to me is a lot bigger deal than obviously running four minutes, which I did a while ago.”

Kipyegon cruises to Kenyan 1500m record in Monaco

It’s all about keeping the faith.

Going into tonight’s 1500m at the EBS Herculis meeting in Monaco, world champion Sifan Hassan announced that she had asked for a pace of 61-second laps, which would add up to a second or so under the current world record of 3:50.07.

The Dutchwoman has set world records twice previously in Monaco, most recently over the mile two years ago, and she was feeling confident after rediscovering her love for the metric mile with a victory over Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence last month.

Hassan even floated the idea of adding the 1500m back into her Olympic schedule, having previously declared that she would attempt the 5000m-10,000m double.

She locked in behind the pacemaker from the beginning, her ambition obvious. Only Kipyegon and Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu dared to follow and the race was down to three when they reached the bell.

Hassan then turned the screws, but Kipyegon clung to her like a limpet down the back straight as the Dutchwoman stretched out her legs for the run home.

In the past three years races have inevitably gone Hassan’s way in this situation, her unmatched mix of speed and endurance proving irresistible. But not this time.

As they entered the final straight Kipyegon kicked hard, dashing past her rival and sprinting down the straight to win in 3:51.07, a Kenyan record and the fourth fastest time in history. In the last 90 metres she put two-and-a-half seconds into Hassan, who finished in 3:53.60, with Hailu third in a personal best of 3:56.28.

Despite her recent losses to Hassan, Kipyegon said she remained confident that her day would come.

“I knew Sifan was going for a fast race and my goal was to run a fast race here and I thank God that was,” she said. “I am really looking forward to Tokyo and I know it will be a very hard competition but I hope to go there and defend my title.”

Kipyegon gave birth to her first child in 2018, returning in 2019 to finish second to Hassan at the World Championships in Doha, but has now found an even richer vein of form than that which carried her to the Olympic title in 2016 and the world title in 2017. “I came back after giving birth and I feel like a role model for the young mothers out there and the young athletes,” she said. “I hope to show them that when you go for maternity leave, this does not mean the end of your career. You can come back strong and win races.”

Fellow Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot was also a man on a mission tonight.

With his Olympic dreams hanging in the balance, the world 1500m champion dashed to the fastest time in the world for six years.

An out-of-sorts Cheruiyot was a shock fourth at the Kenyan Olympic trials last month, putting him in grave danger of missing selection. The situation has been complicated by the fact that second-placed Kamar Etiang has not completed the requisite number of anti-doping tests to qualify for the Olympic Games so his eligibility is in question.

That has left Cheruiyot in limbo just weeks before the Tokyo Games, but he thrust aside all that uncertainty to race with clear intent in Monaco.

In the fastest race of the year, he led at the bell and fought off all challenges, setting a personal best of 3:28.28 as four men dipped under 3:30.

Spanish surprise packet Mohamed Katir took almost five seconds from his personal best to finish second (3:28.76 national record) ahead of European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:29.25) and Australia’s Stewart McSweyn, who set an Oceanian record of 3:29.51 in fourth.

Cheruiyot revealed afterwards that a hamstring injury and the death of a relative on the day of the Kenyan trial had affected his performance there but he still hoped to be selected for the Olympics.

“Hopefully that will be the deciding performance to make the team for Tokyo,” he said.

Amos and Muir impress over two laps

On a night of high-quality middle distance running, Botswana’s Olympic medallist Nijel Amos roared back to top form, recording the fastest time of the year to down a field full of Olympic contenders.

With his arms flailing, Amos used his awkward but effective running style to propel himself past Kenya’s Emmanuel Kori (1:43.04) and Canada’s Marco Arop (1:43.26).

Britain’s Laura Muir also had the last laugh in a world-class 800m field, looming late to take the win in a big personal best of 1:56.73. Muir had never cracked 1:58 previously for the distance, but had the strength to haul in her training partner Jemma Reekie (1:56.96) and USA’s Kate Grace (1:57.20) in the final metres as all three women set personal best times.

Muir has decided to focus her energy on the 1500m in Tokyo but that will be no easy task as Kipyegon demonstrated.

Both 3000m steeplechase races were suffused with drama and unpredictability at the Stade Louis II.

The men’s race descended into confusion when an official rang the bell a lap too early, but world silver medallist Lamecha Girma still managed to run a world-leading time of 8:07.75 to take the win from Abraham Kibiwot, just 0.06 behind.

In the women’s race, 2015 world champion Hyvin Kiyeng made a break from the pack after two kilometres but misjudged the remaining laps and kicked too early. After crossing the line and hearing the bell for the actual final lap, the Kenyan tried to muster some energy to run another circuit. USA’s 2017 world champion Emma Coburn positioned herself to challenge Kiyeng as they approached the water jump, but Coburn stumbled at the hurdle and fell into the water losing all momentum, leaving Kiyeng to take the victory in 9:03.82, with world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech second in 9:04.94 and Winfred Yavi third (9:05.45). Coburn regathered herself to cross the line in fourth place in 9:09.02.

Baker blasts to 100m victory

There was unpredictability too in the men’s 100m where the form book was upended as the ever-reliable Ronnie Baker claimed victory in 9.91, from African record-holder Akani Simbini (9.98) and Italian Marcell Jacobs (9.99).

World leader Trayvon Bromell, regarded by many as the man most likely to win the Olympic 100m crown in Tokyo next month, lacked his usual zip and could only finish fifth in 10.01.

World 100m champion Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce used her early speed to take the lead on the bend in the women’s 200m, but could not hold off the Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the straight.

Miller-Uibo, who has chosen to focus on the 200m for Tokyo, won in 22.23 from Marie-Josee Ta Lou (22.25) with Fraser-Pryce third (22.48).

New world 400m hurdles record-holder Karsten Warholm returned to the competition track for the first time since his heroics in his hometown Oslo last week, eager to challenge his new “personal best” of 46.70.

He made a typically aggressive start, making up the stagger by the second hurdle, but ultimately he could not match the pace he set last week, crossing the finish line in a meeting record of 47.08, still the fourth fastest time of his career and faster than all but five other men in history.

He was pleased to maintain such a consistently high level of performance. “This was a good race so I’m satisfied,” he said.

Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos continued to build his Olympic medal credentials with a strong second place in 47.51, just outside his personal best of 47.34, also set in Oslo.

In the field, US pole vaulter Katie Nageotte carried her fine form to Europe to clear 4.90m and claim an impressive victory over world champion Anzhelika Sidorova and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi, who both cleared 4.80m.

A tight high jump competition was decided by a jump-off after both neutral athlete Mikhail Akimenko and Canadian Django Lovett were tied with best clearances of 2.29m. Akimenko then claimed the victory by leaping 2.32m in the decider.

World triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas had a tough night at the office, fouling four of her six jumps, including two that looked like they would have challenged the world record (15.50m). She led after five rounds with a best leap of 15.12m but could not find the board in the all-important sixth round under the Final 3 format being trialled in the Diamond League this year.

Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts took the win with 14.29m after she was the only one of the top three to register a legal jump in the final.

The men’s long jump also finished with an anti-climax after Miltiadis Tentoglou was the only one to hit the board in the final round (8.24m).

The women’s javelin was the only throwing event on the programme and saw a return to the winner’s circle for the veteran world record-holder Barbora Spotakova, who threw a season’s best of 63.08m in the sudden-death final round, the farthest mark ever achieved by a 40-year-old thrower.

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon runs spectacular 1500 at Herculis meeting

Off of an early fast pace, Kenya's Faith Kipyegon kicked to glory today in the 1500m at the Herculis meeting at the Stade Louis II, clocking the fourth-fastest time in history, 3:51.07. The 2016 Olympic 1500m champion swept past the tiring Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan in the homestretch, to beat the reigning world 1500m and 10,000m champion by two and one half seconds and break her own Kenyan record.

"I thought I could run faster than that," Kipyegon said improbably after the race.

American 800-meter runner Chanelle Price got the race off to a good start, leading Kipyegon, Hassan and Ethiopia's Freweyni Hailu through 400m in 61.5 and 800m in 2:03.6. Price quickly stepped aside, and Hassan took the lead and was clearly focused on running a fast time. Kipyegon stayed close, but did not attempt to pass. She knew this was a great opportunity to run a fast time.

"I knew Sifan was going for a fast race and my goal was to run a fast race here and I thank God that was," Kipyegon said.

The petite Kenyan, who took a full year off in 2018 to have her daughter Alyn, waited until she came out of the final bend to launch her lethal sprint, and she clearly showed the kind of fitness which will be required to defend her Olympic title in Tokyo.

"I am really looking forward to Tokyo and I know it will be a very hard competition but I hope to go there and defend my title," she said. "I have a lot of pressure because the 1500m is a tactical race. Now I will train hard and hope to do my best at the Games."

Hailu, who is only 20 years-old, held on to get third place in a personal best 3:56.28.

There was also fast men's 1500m tonight. Off of the perfect pacing job by American 800m runner Chris Sowinski who hit 400m in 54.2 and 800m in 1:50.8, reigning world champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya had a narrow lead over Australia's Stewy McSweyn and Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Spain's Mohamed Katir was close behind the leading trio.

With about 200 meters to go, Katir tried to pass Cheruiyot on the outside, but the tall Kenyan quickly responded. In the homestretch, Katir continued to dig, but Cheruiyot would not relent and beat the Spaniard 3:28.28 to 3:28.76. Cheruiyot's time was a 2021 world leader and a personal best, while Katir bested Fermin Cacho's 24 year-old Spanish record of 3:28.95.

"Today's race was good and I won it for the third time," said Cheruiyot who also won here in 2019 and 2020. "I missed competition a lot after spending a lot of time in Kenya where I had a few issues like my hamstring injury and after also losing a relative in my family on the day of the Kenyan trials explaining why I missed out on making the team," Cheruiyot added. "I am therefore happy I am back again after all this."

There were more fast times down the finish order; 11 men broke 3:33. Ingebrigtsen finished third in a season's best 3:29.25, and McSweyn ran an Australian record 3:29.51. McSweyn has also run an Australian record for the mile in Oslo eight days ago.

There were strong 800m races here for both women and men. In the women's contest, Scotswoman Laura Muir got a dramatic victory moving from fourth place to first by sweeping wide in the final 50 meters. She ran a personal best 1:56.73 ahead of her training partner Jemma Reekie (1:56.96 PB), American Kate Grace (1:57.20) and Jamaican Natoya Goule (1:57.35). Goule had led the race into the final 200 meters but tied up in the homestretch.

The men's two-lap race played out similarly when 2012 Olympic silver medalist Nijel Amos muscled past the tiring Marco Arop of Canada --who had led after the pacemaker dropped out-- and Emmanuel Korir of Kenya in the homestretch. Amos finished in a world-leading 1:42.91, while Korir got a season's best 1:43.04 and Arop a personal best 1:43.26. Clayton Murphy, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist finished seventh in 1:44.41.

"It is always a good feeling coming out here to Monaco, that I am always winning out here, always having a good time," said Amos. "So I try to channel that positivity and bring it to the race. No matter what shape I am in, it always seems to come together."

Nick Butter ran a marathon in every country in the world is now running around Britain

Nick Butter has faced gunfire, muggings, dog attacks and a minor heart attack in his running career. Now he has a new obstacle: Britain’s rugged coastline.

Butter is best known as the first person in history to run a marathon in each of the world’s 196 countries, which he did over 674 days from 2018 to 2019. Over the course of that mammoth challenge he ran in temperatures that exceeded 40C and fell below 20C, around an erupting volcano and through a forest swarming with frogs. He recounted his experiences in a book, Running the World.

His latest challenge is a little less extreme, though by no means easy. This time Butter has embarked on Run Britain, an attempt to run 200 marathons around the coast of Britain in 100 days. His anticlockwise journey began in April at the Eden Project, in Cornwall, and will end there later this month.

After his world tour ended, Butter says he wondered what to do next. But fellow endurance athletes told him to do what he loved, without feeling the need to keep topping each previous expedition just to challenge himself.

He explains: ‘When I think about the amount of people that live in Britain that have never seen many beaches, let alone the entire coastline…what do I love to do? Take photos, see the world and travel. And then you combine that with what I can do in Covid times. And here I am.’

Mountains to climb

It hasn’t been easy. When we ask if there have been moments where he doubted his ability to continue, Butter pauses. ‘‘A lot of moments,’ he says. The former skier has had four or five injuries since the challenge began, including a slipped meniscus in his knee and a stress fracture in his shin.

And while Butter’s respiratory fitness has gone through the roof during his latest epic tour, his body fat has plummeted from 11 per cent to just 2.7 per cent, which he agrees is too low. ‘I’m just skin and bones now,’ he says. ‘And I'm eating like a horse, I’m eating everything every day. And I still can't put weight on because you just burn it off and burn it off.’

Faced with those kinds of challenges, many runners would call it quits. But although Butter has had to adapt his schedule to build in more resting time for injuries, he’s determined to get to the end.

He says: ‘I started this trip very publicly saying I really don't know if I can do it. And it turns out that I can do it, but just a bit slower than I was planning to.’

The drive to keep going is partly down to the ‘machine’ Butter now has behind him: his support team, photographers, PR people and brand representatives, each with different demands. But it’s also due to the charitable intentions behind Run Britain: this challenge is a fundraising vehicle for the 196 Foundation, a micro-trust Butter set up after seeing the scale of poverty in countries such as Sierra Leone while on his Running the World trip.

‘I realised I wanted to do something significant that was going to be a bit of a legacy piece of the journey, and that I could continue putting my energy into for the rest of my life,’ he says.

Launched at the beginning of this latest expedition, the Foundation now has around 500 monthly donors. These donors give £1.96 a month: no more, no less. Anyone can write to the Foundation to suggest a worthy cause – whether that be an orphanage in Kenya or a new wheelchair for a neighbour – and once a year, all the donors vote on what cause they want their money to go to.

What’s next?

Although he hasn’t quite got to the finish line of Run Britain, Butter says it’s in his nature to have the next adventure planned. This wasn’t even the first choice of trip; he was supposed to be running north to south through New Zealand, but the pandemic forced a change of plan. Also in the works is a circumnavigation of Iceland and a journey through Malawi, visiting 196 Foundation projects. And he is exploring the idea of a north-to-south trip through Japan.

‘I'm yet to put my finger on why I love to put myself through so much pain,’ he says. ‘But I do, and this trip is brutal. ‘It’s something that I'm never going to forget.’

Top athletes Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi left off Namibian Olympic team over high natural testosterone levels

Two of the world’s top female 400m runners have been discretely scratched from their country’s Olympic team after medical tests indicated they have high natural testosterone levels. Namibia’s Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, both 18 years old, will not be allowed to compete in the 400m in Tokyo this summer.

Mboma is currently ranked number one in the world at the 400m, after she ran won the 400m at the Irena Szewinska Memorial/Byrdgoszcz cup in Poland on June 30 in a world-leading time of 48.54. Masilingi ran 49.53 at a meet in Zambia in April, which still stands as the third-fastest time run this year.

Both women have been found to have naturally high levels of testosterone, but are not DSD athletes and both have XX chromosomes. Still, their hormone levels have rendered them ineligible to compete in any distance ranging from the 400m to the mile. This is the same rule that prevents DSD athletes like South Africa’s Caster Semenya, Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui from competing in the 800m at the elite level.

The Namibian Athletic Committee has said in a statement that neither athlete was aware they had this condition, and the country’s athletic federation has said both women will now focus their full attention on the 200m.

Since they were introduced in 2018, the World Athletics testosterone regulations have been hotly debated in the world of elite sports, and Semenya has appealed the decision in several courts. The two-time Olympic 800m champion has lost two appeals, but is currently waiting on a third hearing. For now, however, the rule stands, and all athletes affected by the rule will be forced to compete in different events.

Ex-New York marathon champ Geoffrey Kamworor to compete in Hengelo ahead of Tokyo Olympics

Former New York marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor will compete and train in Hengelo, Netherlands as part of his preparations for the Tokyo Olympics Games.

Kenya's head athletics coach Julius Kirwa said on Monday in Nairobi that the former World Cross Country champion will head to the Dutch city from Wednesday to compete in selected races over the 3,000m distance.

The coach said it was critical for Kamworor to gauge himself in short distance races to test his speed prowess ahead of the Olympics, which starts on July 23.

"Kamworor is heading to Hengelo for training and to compete. He will step down from his traditional 10,000m distance to 3,000m so as to gauge his speed. We want him to test himself and see where he is on the scale," Kirwa told Xinhua in Nairobi.

Kenya will line up former World Cross Country champion Kamworor, Rodgers Kwemoi and Weldon Kipkurui Langat in the 10,000m race at the Olympics hopeful to regain the elusive gold medal.

Kenya last won gold in the 10,000m race back in 1968 through Naftali Temu in Mexico City.

But Kirwa is optimistic, the new team, which is a blend of youth and experienced athletes will weather the storm from Ethiopia, Uganda and America challenge.

"We have a blend of young and ambitious prodigies, who will complement Kamworor to learn and exploit his experience in the Tokyo Olympics," Kirwa added.

The coach noted that in a normal cycle, athletes mature and wither, form comes and goes, momentum shifts and stars periodically align.

However, he feels that Kenya has the right blend of stars to alter the matrix and break the jinx to clinch the gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Reigning champion Mo Farah of England will not defend his title in Tokyo as he failed to make the team.

However, Kirwa has pointed out world 10km record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda as a main hurdle in Kenya quest to win gold.

"Cheptegei is a strong candidate, but we will work on a strategy to fix him. I believe in my team and Kamworor is eager to do well because this might be his last track competition before he turns his focus fully on the marathon," he said.

Kamworor, who skipped the World Championships in Doha in 2019 to focus on reclaiming his title at the New York marathon, said the allure of having an Olympic gold medal dangle down his neck is too strong to ignore.

"I have had several challenges in the past one year. Our mentor Eliud Kipchoge challenged me to make the team so that we can go to Tokyo together," Kamworor told reporters in Nairobi.

At the Rio Games, Kenya won 13 medals - six gold, six silver and one bronze - all in athletics.

Kenyan´s Timothy Cheruiyot bounces back in Sweden after missing out on Tokyo Olympics

World 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot put behind the disappointment of missing a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics when he clocked 3:32.30 his speciality at the Stockholm Diamond League on Sunday evening. 

Cheruiyot crossed the finish line ahead of Spaniard Ignacio Fontes (3:33.27) and countryman Ronald Kwemoi (3:33.53) in second and third respectively. 

The win in the Swedish capital continues the rich vein of form for the Bomet-born runner whose disappointing fourth-place finish at the national trials for the Tokyo Olympics remains the only blot to a sensational season so far.

In late-May, he set a world lead of 3:30.48 at the Doha Diamond League during the men's 1500m. 

Another Kenyan, Ferguson Rotich, lay down a marker for the Olympics when he set a season lead of 1:43:84 in the men's 800m to finish first ahead of Canadian Marco Arop (1:44:00) and Briton Elliot Gilles (1:44:05) in second and third. 

The world 800m bronze medalist recovered from a slow start to stamp his authority on the race and carry on from his impressive performance at the Doha Diamond League where he timed 1:44.45 to finish second behind compatriot, Commonwealth 800m champion Wycliffe Kinyamal. 

In the women's 3000m steeplechase, former world champion Hyvin Kiyeng added momentum to her bid for an Olympic gold when she clocked  9:04.34 to finish first ahead of German Gesa Felicitas Krause (9:09.13) and countrywoman — and record holder — Beatrice Chepkoech (9:10.52) in second and third. 

Other Kenyans, Purity Kirui (9:16.91) and Rosefline Chepngetich (9:22.30) finished in fourth and sixth respectively. 

The exploits on Sunday followed those of Nicholas Kimeli, Jacop Krop and world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri who posted excellent results at the Oslo Diamond League on Friday. 

Krop and Kimeli timed 7:30.07 and 7:31.33 respectively to finish second and third behind winner Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia who timed 7:26.25. 

Another Kenyan — and Olympics debutant — Charles Simotwo finished fourth in the men's 1500m, clocking 3:49.40. 

New British record for Tokyo Olympics-bound Eilish McColgan after smashing Paula Radcliffe's 5km time

Eilish McColgan received a pre-Tokyo boost by setting a new British standard in 5km by taking more than half a second off Paula Radcliffe’s 17-year-old record.

Earlier this week McColgan was selected for this year’s Team GB heading to Japanwhich will place her among Scotland’s select band of female athletes to compete in three Olympics.

And she capped a memorable few days by making mum Liz, also a three-time Olympian, a ‘proud mama and proud coach’ with her performance in Norway.

The 30-year-old finished fourth in the Diamond League meeting in Oslo, but stripped 18 seconds off her own best time following Kenya's Hellen Obiri and Ethipoians Fantu Worku and Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi home.

Her 14:28.55 time bettered Radcliffe’s existing record of 14:29.11 which was set at the Spar European Cup in Bydgoszcz, Poland 17 years ago.

Fellow Scottish runner and British record holder in the 1500m, Laura Muir, tweeted: “@EilishMccolgan!! New 5000m British Record Holder!! Amazing!!”

Mum Liz, who also coaches her eldest daughter, added: “Oh my days we knew it was on

McColgan senior won Olympic silver in Seoul 1988 for the 10km, and was fifth in Barcelona four years later. She ran the marathon in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics. Eilish, born midway between the Seoul and Barcelona games, will compete in the 5km in Tokyo having raced the 3km steeplechase at London in 2012 and 5km in Rio four years later. She will double up with the 10km later that week.

Her selection this year, sets her alongside Lee McConnell and her mum as female athletes qualifying for participation in three Olympic Games. Steph Twell’s selection in the marathon also adds her name to the illustrious group.

Earlier this week Eilish wrote: “Officially selected for my THIRD Olympic Games! It still sounds a little surreal, but I'm super proud to represent Team GB once more in what will be my third different individual event. From the Steeplechase in 2012 to the 5,000m in 2016 and now the 5/10K double in 2021.”

McColgan set her previous best time of 14:46 – a Scottish record – in Doha in 2019. The run in Norway now places the Dundee Hawkhill Harrier fifth on the European all-time list.

New generation of Kenyan steeplechase stars emerges

Simon Koech from South Rift and Central Rift's Jackline Chepkoech will lead Kenya's assault in men and women's 3,000m steeplechase during the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in August in Nairobi.

Koech clocked eight minutes and 18.43 seconds to win the men's race, beating Amos Serem of Central Rift to second place in 8:20.26.

Koech and Serem now have now been bestowed with the honour of going to try and recapture the steeplechase title Kenya relinquished during the 2018 Tampere Championships.

"I am really impressed and I thank God since I have been waiting for this opportunity since last year," said Koech, who hails from Bureti, Kericho County but  trains in Silibwet, Bomet County under veteran coach John Kimetto.

"I am going for nothing but gold so as to emulate my training mate Leonard Bett and the likes of Ezekiel Kemboi and Conseslus Kipruto," said Koech.

Serem is glad to represent Kenya for the first time.

"I used a lot of energy during the heats but I now known what to do...we all learn from mistakes," said Serem, who trains in Kaptagat, Elgeyo Marakwet.

"Kenyan trials are always tough and challenging hence you must be good to make the team. I thank God," added Serem.

Chepkoech timed 9:32.99 to edge out Faith Cherotich from South Rift to second in 9:33.02 with both earning places in Team Kenya.

They will be eying to succeed fellow countrywoman Celliphine Chespol, who won in 2016 Bydgozszc and 2018 Tampere.

"I still continued with my preparations despite the cancellation of the Africa Cross Championships in March in Togo," said Chepkoech. "It's never enough in terms of preparations."

Star-studded field 2021, announced for Antrim Coast Half Marathon

With over 100 runners in the International elite race, over 400 in the sub-elite and with record numbers entering the mass race, this year’s Antrim Coast Half Marathon will be arguably one of the best half marathons in Europe, and one of the greatest ever in the United Kingdom.

The men’s race has seven men confirmed who have run under the 60-minute barrier.

Headlining the African contingent will be Jemal Yimer – winner of the Valencia Half Marathon in 2018. The current 6th fastest man of all time, Ethiopian record holder and ranked second in the world for the last two years, with a PB of 58:32 will be looking to better his own personal best on the super-fast route.

Joining Yimer will be fellow countryman Tesfahun Akalnew, the 21-year-old sensation, with a personal best time of 59:22 from the New Delhi Half Marathon will also look to better his time at this year’s event.

Shadrack Kimining, one of three Kenyans confirmed in this year’s race, twice breaking 60 minutes last year, placing third in Houston and running a PB in New Delhi with a time of 59:27 is also a confirmed starter.

Abrar Osman the Eritrean Olympic finalist and bronze medallist is looking to better his personal best of 59.47 set at the Lisbon International Half Marathon. A former winner of the African Games, he was seventh in the World Half Marathon championships in Cardiff in 2016.

Kenya’s latest star Daniel Mateiko, part of the postponed 2021 Kenyan World Cross Country team will be competing in his first ever half marathon after his world-class 10,00m debut in Hengelo last month, recording a time of 27:03, the fastest ever debut 10,000m.

With hopefully one global superstar still to announce, the British challenge will come from last year’s second place finisher, two-time European record holder and second fastest Briton all-time over 10,000m Marc Scott, looking to break the 60-minute barrier for the first time, returning fresh from the 5000m/10,000m double at the Tokyo Olympics.

British Olympian and Berlin Marathon fifth placer Scott Overall will also return to this year’s race.

The Irish contingent in the men’s race will be headlined by four Olympian’s young and old.

Belfast native Paul Pollock, post Tokyo Olympics will be looking to better his 62:09 and reclaim his Northern Ireland record broken at last year’s race by Stephen Scullion.

The women’s race will be headlined by Ethiopian sensation and third fastest ever Yalemzerf Yehualaw targeting the World Record on the super-fast course, a feat only ever achieved by Khalid Kannouchi and Paula Radcliffe in the UK, on both occasions set at the London Marathon.

After posting personal bests earlier in the year over the half marathon distance in Istanbul, with a time of 64:40 and running her first ever 5,000m in Paris last month, in a sensational debut of 14:53 her preparation has been perfect for an assault on the women’s world record.

Ethiopian stablemate Tsehay Gemechu will arrive fresh from her assault at the Olympic 10,000m in Tokyo, where she will be looking to better her two fourth place in the World Championships and sixth in the World Cross Country.

Gemechu will attack her own personal best of 66 min 0 sec, which she set winning the New Delhi Half Marathon in 2019.

Two-time World Half Marathon medallist Mary Ngugi is also confirmed and will look to get back to her form of 2016 which saw her take the silver medal at the World Half marathon championships in Cardiff, before targeting one of the major city marathons in October.

The British contingent will be headlined by last year’s fourth placer Becky Briggs, Tracey Barlow, and Ellie Davis with Irish distance stars Ann Marie McGlynn and Marie McCambridge also confirmed to start.

Last year’s winner Lily Partridge has had to pull out of defending her title due to an operation on her ankle, but has confirmed she will still make the journey to the province to support on the day.

Eliud Kipchoge will be attempting to become only the third man to win back-to-back Olympic marathon gold medals

Eliud Kipchoge will be a man on a mission on  August 8, 2021 when the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games men's marathon takes place in Sapporo.

No defending Olympic champion has won a second straight marathon gold medal since Waldemar Cierpinski did so at Moscow 1980 as the reigning champion from 1976.

Now, more than 40 years later, Kenya's Kipchoge will attempt to become just the third person, after Cierpinski and Ethiopian legend Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964) to win back-to-back Olympic marathon titles.

The effort will come nearly two years after becoming the first man to run a marathon distance under two hours, when he completed the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in 1:59:40.

That particular achievement will be celebrated in August with the release of a new documentary, titled Kipchoge: The Last Milestone.

Eliud Kipchoge 1:59 documentary

The trailer for the Kenyan's new film has just been released, with Kipchoge writing on social media: "I hope by watching this film you will also feel inspired to run."

In the trailer, the 38-year-old says: "In the journey of life, there [are] ups and downs. In marathon, there [are] a lot of challenges, ups and downs. There is pain in training, pain in running, and joy at the end of the marathon."

The documentary will tell the story of how Kipchoge prepared for the monumental task.

Ridley Scott Creative Group, the documentary's producers, said in a statement that the film offers "unprecedented access to Eliud […] ahead of his attempt to achieve the seemingly impossible," including "footage from his home in Kenya, interviews with those closest to him, details of the daily rituals of his life and the dynamics within his team and community."

Kipchoge's training routine and how Covid affected it

The Kenyan has always been one who prefers training in a group.

He once said: "You cannot train alone and expect to run a fast time. There is a formula: 100% of me is nothing compared to 1% of the whole team."

However, the Covid-19 pandemic changed that. Suddenly, Kipchoge was forced to run alone on his training sessions due to lockdown restrictions.

"It was really hard to go training and not mix with people to fight the virus," he said in March ahead of the NN Mission Marathon, originally scheduled for Hamburg before being moved to Twente Airport, the Netherlands.

"I am happy to have since resumed training with the team, but we continue to make sure we do so safely within the protocols because the virus is still with us.

"Life has been hard but that is the way of the world – we need to get through it but I think we are on the right track to a brighter future.

"Life cannot stop, it does not stop for a single second. But what everyone should know is, the pandemic is just one of life’s challenges. Marathons are just like life, there are ups and downs every kilometre. Every mile there is a challenge.

"We should all be prepared to accommodate challenges in life but above all enjoy and embrace the challenges."

Kipchoge was vaccinated against Covid-19 at the end of April.

What next for Kipchoge? The star's future plans

The immediate future for Kipchoge consists of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic marathon in Sapporo, but beyond that, the 38-year-old has a "bucket list" of items he wants to check off.

Speaking recently to the Flotrack podcast, Kipchoge revealed that he wants to have competed in every World Marathon Major.

Kipchoge has competed in the Olympic Games, World Championships, London, Berlin, and Chicago Marathons, leaving him with the Boston, New York, and Tokyo Marathons.

He also admitted that he would like to run even longer distances, beyond the marathon's 42.195km.

"I would love to try 80km, 60km. I need to go to California and hike for six hours," he told Flotrack.

No Olympics for Kenenisa Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele’s manager Jos Hermens has responded to an enquiry by confirming that Bekele will not compete in the Tokyo Olympic Games Marathon to be held in Sapporo on August 8.

The highly-anticipated duel between him and defending champion and world record holder Eliud Kipchoge will not take place. The Kenyan is the hot favorite for the Gold medal.

Bekele missed the Ethiopian Olympic elimination race over 35 km on  May 1, but there was still a possibility that the Ethiopian Olympic Committee would nominate the 39-year-old for an Olympic place.

A year after Kipchoge set his world record in the 2018 Berlin Marathon Bekele all but equalled it, running only two seconds slower. Sisay Lemma is likely to be the runner who fills the selection spot.

Bekele will now be able to prepare for an autumn marathon. All six races of the big-money “World Marathon Majors” series are currently planned to be run between September 26 and November 7.

World Athletics report says runners are positive people

We know running is good for our physical and mental health, but now runners can add one more positive outcome to that list: it makes us more positive people. According to a recent World Athletics consumer research study, runners show greater confidence in associating themselves with positive personality traits, like being warm and friendly.

World Athletics and Neilson Sports collected online interviews from over 8,000 people across 10 countries (Australia, Colombia, France, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, UK, USA), including approximately 500 non-runners and 500 runners from each country. Across all 10 countries, 40 per cent of respondents considered themselves to be runners, with 30 per cent of those people running at least once a week. When compared with those who used to run but have stopped, and with those who have never run, runners were more likely to consider themselves to be warm and friendly, easy-going, family-oriented and optimistic.

Gender equality in running

Something that sets running apart from many other sports is that it appears recreational running has an equal participation split between men and women. The WA study found that out of all the runners who were interviewed, 53 per cent were men and 47 per cent were women. This was true whether they compared males and females who ran a few times a month or those who ran every day.

COVID upped our numbers

Thanks to the closure of gyms and other recreational facilities, thousands more people have taken to the roads and trails for exercise. According to the study, 13 per cent of all runners started in the last year, and every single one of them plans to continue running, even after the pandemic is over. Many of those who were already running before the pandemic but have since increased their mileage also plan to continue running with more frequency once the pandemic is over.

Other reasons to run

The #1 reason participants choose to lace up their sneakers is for their health, but other important factors are that they can go at their own pace, they don’t need a lot of equipment to get started and it helps them to de-stress. In fact, 73 per cent of participants agreed that running is just as good for their minds as it is for their bodies.

Finally, while we all love running, it appears that runners between the ages of 25 and 34 are the most passionate about the sport, with 50 per cent of them agreeing that running is a part of who they are.

The trailer for 'Kipchoge: The Last Milestone' is officially out

Eliud Kipchoge has no doubt been one of the most exciting and inspirational athletes of our time, and he has easily had the most successful marathon career in history. When he broke two hours in the marathon in 2019, running 1:59:40 at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, he broke down a barrier, accomplishing something that many thought was not possible. Fans now get to relive that experience again through the his upcoming film, Kipchoge: The Last Milestone. The official trailer has finally been released, and it will make you want to jump out of your chair and head out for a run.

he movie follows Kipchoge as he trains to break two hours, from his training grounds in Kenya to the high-tech facilities in Europe, and finally to Vienna, where he attempts to break one of the last true milestones in sport. Of course, while the sub-2 marathon has been one of his greatest accomplishments in the sport so far, his career is far from over. Most recently, he won the NN Mission Marathon in the Netherland in 2:04:30, and he will still be the man to beat at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

While the movie is set to come out this year, the actual release date has not yet been disclosed. For now, we will just have to watch (and rewatch and rewatch) the trailer in anticipation of one of the most exciting running films to be released in years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiI7eUX6o8U

Kenya's Olympic marathon contender Ruth Chepngetich has had a remarkable year

Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich has had to cope with the restrictions on training and racing brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic but managed to smash the half-marathon world record.

When the 26-year-old Chepngetich was getting ready for the Istanbul Half Marathon in April she was just focused on running a good, confident race but she ended up obliterating the world record by 29 seconds and fulfilling a dream.

"I was thinking about 'world record, world record,' I can (now) say... in Istanbul, I broke the world record," Chepngetich told Reuters in an interview. read more

Following her impressive victory in Turkey, the 2019 world marathon champion set up camp in Ngong, an hour from Kenya's capital Nairobi to get ready for the Tokyo Olympics.

Among her competitors in the marathon will be compatriot and world record holder Brigid Kosgei.

Chepngetich understands that her own strong performances have turned up the pressure.

"I say I should focus at these Games because everybody now has an eye on me," she said. "I think when somebody is on a high level, there is a lot of pressure there."

But Chepngetich said all she can do is focus on herself and what she needs to do to bring a medal back home.

"I am preparing my mind for the Olympics, I am focusing for that Olympics," she said.

DIFFICULT YEAR

The past year has not been easy for Chepngetich.

As COVID-19 ground the world to a halt, with restrictions in place to stop the virus spreading bringing sport to a standtill, Chepngetich had to change her training approach, running with a small group as few races were available to test her progress.

"Athletics for me is my life, I don't have any other jobs," she said.

When races resumed in the autumn of 2020, it took her time to get back to full throttle.

Chepngetich finished third in the London marathon, which was won by Kosgei, where she also picked up an injury that she attributed partly to her long layoff.

"I relaxed and I came back to train with full force, because I was confirmed in London. So I forced my body until I got the hamstring injury," she said.

Chepngetich came second in New Delhi in November and in a 10km race in Madrid a month later.

"I was not 100% because of COVID (restrictions that limited practice and racing)," Chepngetich said.

But those races built up her momentum and when she arrived in Istanbul Chepngetich was able to fly.

"Last year's races made me more active than before, and that's why I ran well in Istanbul."

The soft-spoken Chepngetich grew up in Kericho County in eastern Kenya, born to parents who keep poultry and grow maize. She is the only athlete in the family of five and caught the running bug early at about nine years old, she said.

When she was around 16 running became more than just a hobby. She followed the exploits of compatriots Hellen Obiri, the Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist and 5,000 metres world champion in 2017 and 2019, and Faith Chepngetich, the 1,500m gold medallist at the Rio Games, and wanted to emulate them.

"I was admiring them (and promised myself) that one day I will be like them," she said.

When Chepngetich completed secondary school in 2015, she turned to athletics full-time and began training with older athletes in Kericho where a local coach gave her training tips.

That same year she competed in one of her first professional races in Nairobi, a 10km run where she came third.

A few months later, in Morocco, in her first competition abroad, she finished third again in a half-marathon.

The performances were encouraging and in 2017 wins in Adana, Paris, Milan and Istanbul and improving times gave her more confidence that she could be a professional athlete. Later that year, she won her first marathon race in Istanbul.

"That marathon gave me more confidence that I could do more," she said.

Since then Chepngetich has elevated her performances to become world marathon champion in 2019 and world record holder in the half-marathon with her scintillating performance in Istanbul and will be among the favourites for gold in Tokyo.

Despite all the challenges brought about by the pandemic, Cheptengish remains upbeat about her prospects and said she will continue to "think positive to race a beautiful race".

Reporting by Omar Mohammed; Editing by Ken Ferris

Middle-distance stars added to Monaco line-up

Four more world champions have been added to the fields for Meeting Herculis EBS as the middle-distance events once again look set to provide the highlights at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco on 9 July.

World champion Sifan Hassan and Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon will renew their rivalry in the 1500m. Their head-to-head record, which Kipyegon currently leads at 7-6, dates back to 2014 and includes three World Championship finals, one Olympic final and nine Diamond League meetings.

This will be the first time they have clashed in Monaco, though, and it follows on from their recent encounter in Florence, where Hassan finished just ahead of her rival, clocking 3:53.63 to Kipyegon’s Kenyan record of 3:53.91.

Timothy Cheruiyot’s winning streak may have recently come to an end at the Kenyan Olympic Trials, but the world champion feels at home in Monaco. The 25-year-old has won there for the past three years, producing the two fastest times of his career.

He’ll take on Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Monaco. Although Cheruiyot has won all 11 of their clashes to date, Ingebrigtsen has consistently been the Kenyan’s biggest challenger on the circuit in recent years. He will also be buoyed by his recent European 5000m record of 12:48.45, set in Florence.

World champion Beatrice Chepkoech will return to the scene of her world steeplechase record and will take on USA’s 2017 world champion Emma Coburn. World 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi will contest her specialist event and will face France’s two-time European silver medallist Renelle Lamote.

Other additions to the field include European champion Miltiadis Tentoglou in the men’s long jump and world silver medallist Amel Tuka in the men’s 800m.

After setting a personal best of 2:02:37 to win the Milano Marathon in May, Titus Ekiru believes he can run under two hours

 Titus Ekiru believes he can run under two hours at the upcoming Chicago and London marathons. 

The 2019 African Games half marathon champion led a 1-2-3 Kenyan finish as he set a new course record, ahead of Reuben Kipyego (2:03:55) and Barnabas Kiptum (2:04:17) in second and third respectively. 

"I've been working hard in training to improve on the weak aspects of my performance. So far, so good; I believe that running under two hours is possible with the way my training has worked out so far. We are discussing with the management to explore the possibility of running at the Chicago and London marathons, among other races in the future," Ekiru said.

If he achieves this target, he would become the second man to ever run a marathon under two hours after marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge timed 1:59:40 during the INEOS Challenge in Vienna, Austria. 

Ekiru admitted that he had dreamt of representing the country at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics until these hopes were dashed when Athletics Kenya named Eliud Kipchoge, Lawrence Cherono, Vincent Kipchumba and Abel Kirui as Kenya's representatives in the road races. 

"It was my desire and hope that I would have been selected to compete in the marathon. Now that the team has been named, there's nothing much to do but to focus on the future. I can't compete in the 10,000m because I have not been specialising in it for a while," he said. 

Geoffrey Kamworor ran the fastest time for 10000m in history at altitude

The 10000m race at the Kenyan Olympic Trials was one amazing event.  The Kenyan Tokyo Olympic Trials happening June 17 to June 19 were  moved from the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret, to Moi International Sports Centre (MISC), Kasarani. Kasarani is located approximately 10 kilometres outside of Nairobi.

Athletics Kenya (AK) announced via press release that the changes are needed to test systems and requirements in readiness for the World Athletics Under-20 Championships which are planned for Aug. 17 to Aug. 22.

Geoffrey Kamworor clocked 27:01 for 10000m in the Kenyan Olympic Trials today.  No one has run faster at altitude.  

"I'm really happy to have qualified for the Olympics by running the fastest time in history in altitude. Now, we’re building on towards the bigger goal ahead," says Geoffrey Kamworor. 

The altitude at the stadium is 1865 meters or 6118 feet.  

Rodgers Kwemoi was second in a very fast 27:05.51 and Weldon Kipkirui Langat was third clocking 27:24.73.  Ronex lead from the start but dropped out at 7k.  

Geoffrey and Kwemoi were behind, when Geoffrey decided to break, Kwemoi resisted but with two laps to go Geoffrey made his big break and widen the gap winning by just over four seconds.  

Well known Kenyan coach Joseph K Ngure joins the Kenyan Athletics Training Academy

Joseph K. Ngure has joined the Kenyan Athletics Training Academy staff as Director of Education and Race Director.  

"He comes with lots of experience," says Bob Anderson (pictured with Joseph) managing director of the Academy in Thika.   "He is a senior coach and AK certified official.  He has been a school teacher and most recently was the head coach at Run2gether.  He also brought Mountain Running to Kenya."

The Kenyan Athletics Training Academy is a unique facility offering training, education and for those living there an excellent meal plan and a pleasant atmosphere so athletes can focus on their running.

The staff and staff-athletes at the Academy welcome other athletes interested in improving, setting new PR's and hopefully winning races.  The top athlete currently training at the Academy is Joel Maina, a 1:00:40 half marathoner.

The cost for a shared room is just 10k KES per week for a Kenyan Citizen.  Or just $29US per night for non-citizens.  Private rooms are also available.   

"I met Joseph during our trip in January 2020 to Kenya," says Bob Anderson.  "I found him to be very personable and knowledgeable. He was working as head coach for the Run2gether camp at the time."

Joseph left Run2gether earlier this year and contacted Bob Anderson about wanting to join his staff at the unique new project he had going in Thika.

Joseph took the job and says: “I have been involved in athletics on different levels and have learnt a lot.  With the evolution and the dynamism in the sport, new approaches and professionalism need to be injected in order to move to the next level.

“I will work with the staff at our Kenyan Athletics Training Academy  and offer expertise in competition organisaton, lias with grassroots and national federations to make sure the objectives of the Academy are achieved.”

Several unique and standard races are being planned along with time trials. 

Joseph continued, “With the state-of-the-art facility in Thika new talents in the neighboring regions and elite runners will get wholestic training in preparation for local and international competitions 

"I wish to lay strong tradition and culture of discipline, team work and integrity in accordance with World Athletics, Athletics Keny and AIU.   More so inject the spirit of sportsmanship and respect to the sport and to the individual.”

The Academy is unofficially open now and the official opening date is September 1.  A grand opening along with a race is being planned.  

Rengeruk and Obiri claim Tokyo 5000m places at Kenyan Championships

Lilian Kasait Rengeruk and Hellen Obiri secured their Tokyo Olympic Games places by finishing in the top two of a women's 5000m final which saw four women dip under 15 minutes at the Kenyan Championships in Nairobi on Thursday (17).

On the first day of action at the Kasarani Stadium, the session got under way with Rengeruk running 14:52.18 for victory as a total of seven athletes finished under the Olympic qualifying standard of 15:10.00.

A group of eight had remained together until the pack approached the final lap, when five athletes – led by Rengeruk and Obiri – started to move away. Rengeruk picked up the pace with Obiri in pursuit, but the 2017 world cross country bronze medallist managed to hold off two-time world 5000m champion Obiri down the home straight. Obiri finished second in 14:52.51.

Two-time world 10,000m bronze medallist Agnes Tirop was just behind them, clocking 14:53.91, and world 5000m silver medallist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi also went sub-15:00 with 14:58.61 to finish fourth. World U20 champion Beatrice Chebet was fifth in 15:01.86.

“I didn’t expect to win. I thank God for victory and good health,” Rengeruk told Athletics Kenya. “The race was tactical. I didn’t have many races (in the lead-up) but my preparation was uninterrupted. My wish is to work as a team in Tokyo to ensure we deliver podium finishes.”

Joining her in Japan will be Obiri, who made her half marathon debut with a 1:04:51 performance in Istanbul in April and in Nairobi explained how she may switch her focus to road races after this year.

“I’m satisfied with my second place finish, what matters most was to finish in the top two,” she said. “I will go back and work hard in training to ensure I do well in Tokyo.”

Kipyegon wins 1500m

Faith Kipyegon remains on track for an Olympic title defence as she comfortably won the 1500m trials race in 4:02.10, with African champion Winny Chebet also claiming a team place thanks to her runner-up finish and Edinah Jebitok placing third.

Faith Kipyegon on her way to 1500m victory at the Kenyan Championships (© AFP / Getty Images)

“My focus is to defend my Olympic title in Tokyo,” said Kipyegon, also the 2017 world gold medallist. “It was a really good race here, which I really wanted to win. I know I will meet many good athletes in Tokyo but I have prepared really well.”

The men’s 100m saw Ferdinand Omanyala improve on the Kenyan record with a time of 10.02 (1.5m/s), with Mark Otieno second in 10.05 to also achieve the Olympic qualifying time.

Sifan Hassan will turn her attention to the mile in Gateshead

Sifan Hassan will test her speed once again when she races the mile at the Muller British Grand Prix – a Wanda Diamond League meeting – at Gateshead International Stadium on 13 July.

The world 1500m and 10,000m champion holds the world mile record with 4:12.33 and last weekend set a world record for 10,000m with 29:06.82 at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Hengelo, although it survived only two days before being beaten by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia.

The Dutch athlete is clearly in form to challenge her world mile record if conditions are good in Gateshead. In addition to her 10,000m world record in Hengelo, she beat Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya and European champion Laura Muir of Britain over 1500m at the Diamond League in Florence on Thursday night, clocking 3:53.63.

“I’ve raced several times in the past at events in the UK – at the Anniversary Games in London, meetings in Birmingham and Glasgow and of course the 2017 World Championships and 2018 World Indoor Championships. There is always a warm welcome, a great atmosphere and the fans have good knowledge of the sport,” said Hassan.

“Running over one mile in Gateshead on 13 July gives me a chance to test my speed ahead of the Olympic Games. Maybe I can run a good time too although much will depend on the weather. Hopefully it will be warmer and drier than it was for the Diamond League in Gateshead last month!”

Gateshead staged the first Wanda Diamond League event of 2021 after it was moved from Rabat in Morocco to the North East of England and now the same venue will host the seventh Diamond League of the season after it was moved from its original home of London.

Sebastian Coe's monumental 800 meters

June 10, 1981 remains a red-letter day in the long history of 800m running, for it was in Florence late that night that Sebastian Coe lowered his own world record from 1:42.33 to 1:41.73. Every world record is special, marking as it does an advance on anything previously achieved, but Coe's run was extra-special. That time would not be bettered for 16 long years, itself a record in the annals of the men's 800m event.

When strongly-built Alberto Juantorena won the 1976 Olympic title in a world record 1:43.50 it was widely thought that here was the man to revolutionize two-lap running. And yet, for all his speed (44.26 400m) and power, the Cuban succeeded only in clipping another few hundredths off the record with 1:43.44 at the 1977 Universiade. Instead it was the slight figure of Coe who has gone down in history as the athlete who, like Germany's Rudolf Harbig in 1939 and New Zealand's Peter Snell in 1962, pushed back the frontiers of 800m performance.

It was in 1979 that Britain's Coe established himself as one of the all-time greats of middle distance running when in the space of 41 days he shattered three world records. He started with 1:42.33 in Oslo on July 5, and was as shocked as everyone else by his time. After clocking his fastest 400m of 46.87 at the AAA Championships he returned to Oslo for the star-studded Dubai Golden Mile on July 17. Despite being practically a novice at the distance with a best time of 3:57.67, he moved into the lead shortly before the three-quarter mark (2:53.4) and then proceeded to cover the final quarter in 55.6. He had run 3:48.95, again astonished when told he had broken New Zealander John Walker's world record of 3:49.4. As he related later: "When I looked back twice in the final straight it was fear, it was panic, not pain, that I was feeling. I certainly wasn't in the slightest distress at the finish."

Record number three came about in Zurich on  August 15. The target this time was the 3:32.16 1500m by Tanzania's Filbert Bayi. Elated by the knowledge that he had never been faster, having been timed at 45.5 for a 400m relay leg 10 days earlier, Coe shot off at a potentially suicidal pace by clinging to the pacemaker, sweeping through the opening 200m in 25.9 and 400m in 54.3. Before 800m (1:53.19) had been covered, Coe was on his own, nearly 20m ahead of the field. Instead of easing back on the third lap he covered that in 56.3 for 2:49.5 at 1200m and at the finish – almost five seconds clear – his time was a hard earned 3:32.03.

Coe's athletic immortality was sealed in 1980 when he triumphed in the Olympic 1500m in Moscow to make up for his 'disastrous' run in the 800m (a mere silver medal behind Steve Ovett) after adding to his portfolio of world records by covering 1000m in 2:13.40 in his first ever race at the distance.

And so to 1981. With no major title to aim for, the emphasis was on achieving spectacular 'one-off' performances. Asked how he had prepared during the winter, Coe replied: "My training mileage is slightly down but there's been more accent on speedwork. I'm going back to basics, trying to improve my 400m speed." That approach hadn't diminished his endurance, though, for he opened his indoor season by winning the UK 3000m title in a personal best of 7:55.2. Two weeks later he smashed the world indoor 800m record with 1:46.0. "I knew I was fit, but not that fit," he enthused.

A 46.9 400m and 46.3 relay leg on May 4 confirmed his speed was at a high level, and before his fateful appearance in Florence he won the Yorkshire county 800m title on May 17, in 1:46.5, an invitation 800m at Crystal Palace on  June 3, in 1:44.06 followed two hours later with a 45.8 relay split from virtually a standing start, and as a final tune-up a 46.6 relay leg at Gateshead on 7 June. He traveled to Florence not expecting anything too special ... around 1:43/1:44.

His 800m race in Florence got under way after 11pm. Kenya's 19-year-old Billy Konchellah, then a 45.38 400m performer who would go on to become world 800m champion in 1987 and 1991, acted as pacemaker. In his slipstream Coe reached 200m in 24.5 and 400m in 49.7 and was perfectly set up for a super-fast time. Sensing Konchellah was about to flag, Coe forged ahead by 450m and after 200m splits of 24.5 and 25.2 he covered the next half-lap in a daring 25.3 for a remarkable 600m time of 1:15.0 – precisely 1:40 pace for the full distance. Inevitably he slowed towards the end but still managed a final 200m of a little under 26.7.

Coe's immediate post-race response: "I'm very happy about the result, but it was terrible waiting the 10 minutes for the official result. It's getting under 1:42 that is the great thing for me. It was as hard a race as I have run for a long time. In the last 30 meters I was beginning to tie up but apart from that there was no problem."

Coe went through that 1981 season undefeated, collecting further world records at 1000m (2:12.18) and mile (3:48.53 and 3:47.33). Other glittering performances would follow, notably a second Olympic 1500m triumph in 1984, but as a testimony to the quality of that 800m exploit in Florence note that even now, 40 years on, only two men have gone faster: David Rudisha of Kenya and Wilson Kipketer of Denmark.

Marathon great Wakiihuri ecstatic after receiving award from Japan

The Seoul Olympics marathon silver medalist was conferred “the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays” for cementing international relations between Japan and Kenya through athletics and music.

In Summary

•Wakiihuri was the first Kenyan athlete to participate in Japan and paved the way for mass exodus of talented runners to the Asian country

•The order is the highest one conferred to individuals who have helped cement international relations between Japan and other countries

•Japanese ambassador to Kenya says Wakiihuri's arrival in Japan and training with talented Japanese runners has uplifted athletics standards in the country

Seoul Olympics marathon silver medalist Douglas Wakiihuri was all smiles after he was conferred “the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays”  by the Japanese government during a ceremony at the Japanese Embassy on Friday. 

The decoration was given in recognition of Wakiihuri's contribution to Japan-Kenya bilateral relations through athletics by paving the way for a steady exodus of talented Kenyan athletes to the Asian country. 

“I was passed a tasuki (sash), a sign of responsibility from Japanese people to continue running in the race of life. This decoration is not only for me but for all of you who cheered for me all through the race. As I stand on the podium today, I extend my sincere gratitude for His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, the Government of Japan, Ambassador Horie, those who present here today and all the people who have supported me to date,” Wakiihuri said. 

The order is the highest award conferred to individuals by the Japanese government and generally recognises those who have contributed to cementing international relations between Japan and other countries as well as promoting Japanese culture in their respective fields and talents. 

While conferring the award — on behalf of the Emperor of Japan — Japanese ambassador to Kenya Horie Ryoichi thanked the 1990 New York Marathon winner for uplifting the standards of Japanese athletics by opening up the country to other talented runners from Kenya. 

"Being the first Kenyan to run in Japan, it has now become common practice to see foreign athletes training with young Japanese athletes who go on to become world’s leading marathon runners. This practice, till today, has provided a lot of stimuli and dreams for Japanese youngsters. Moreover, after his retirement, Mr. Wakiihuri has been positively engaging in boosting the bilateral cultural relationship between Japan and Kenya and extending cooperative support on various occasions, such as the organisation of the Nairobi Sotokoto Marathon," Ryoichi said. 

He also praised Wakiihuri for his exceptional singing talent and incorporating elements of Japanese culture in his songs. 

Also present at the ceremony were Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, Olympics Kenya acting secretary general Francis Mutuku and Athletics Kenya president Jack Tuwei. 

Ryoichi said Japan is looking forward to welcoming Team Kenya for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and wished them success in the quadrennial games — although he asked Kenyan runners to take it easy on their Japanese counterparts. 

Sara Hall wins New York Mini 10k in Central Park

Sara Hall completed the New York Mini 10K with the fastest time by an American in the history of the women-only event. 

Sara Hall won her second consecutive title at the Mastercard New York Mini 10K on Saturday, finishing the Central Park race in 31 minutes, 33 seconds. It was the fastest time by an American in the 49-year history of the women-only event.

Hall broke away from her nearest challengers late, holding off the Kenyan duo of Violah Cheptoo by six seconds and Monicah Ngige by 26.

“It feels so good to be back out here racing in New York City and have a real road race,” Hall said. “I’ve been looking forward to this so much. This is the momentum I needed for Olympic trials in two weeks.”

Lindsay Flanagan (32:09), U.S. Olympic marathoner Molly Seidel (32:13), and former New York City Marathon champion Edna Kiplagat (32:20) completed the top six.

Susannah Scaroni won her third straight event title in the wheelchair division, finishing in 22:44. Scaroni sprinted out early and cruised to victory ahead of flying to the U.S. Paralympic trials.

Five-time New York City Marathon champion Tatyana McFadden (25:22) was second for the third consecutive time and Yen Hoang (26:11), a college teammate of Scaroni and McFadden at Illinois, rounded out the podium.

There were about 3,000 runners in the field, the first regularly scheduled New York Road Runners race since the pandemic began.

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon thinking about a Tokyo double

Fresh from breaking her own 1,5000m Kenyan record at Florence Diamond League, in Italy, on Thursday, Faith Chepng’etich is spoilt for choice on which races to run at the Tokyo Olympic Games beckon.

Chepng’etich, who is the reigning Olympics 1,500m champion, has the liberty of either defending her title or going for 800m honours at the Tokyo Games due on July 23 to August 8 at the Japanese capital.

Pundits are also floating another idea of the world 1,500m silver medallist doubling up in 1,500m and 800m in Tokyo.

Incidentally, Kenya won its maiden medal from the Olympics through Wilson Kiprugut at the 1964 Tokyo Games in the 800m.

“It poses something to think about and I am yet to decide,” said Chepng’etich when asked whether she will consider doing a double in Tokyo.

Chepng’etich cruised to a Kenya record time of three minutes and 53.91 seconds to finish second behind Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands in Florence. 

“It was a good race and it gives me a hint on where to work on with my coach,” said Chepng’etich, who had attained the Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard with a winning time of  1:58.26 at the Doha Diamond League on May 28.

Hassan, who had freshly set a short-lived new world record in 10,000m at her home country, clocked a world lead and meet record 3:53.63 in what was a replica of the 1,500m final at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.

It was at the world event where Chepng’etich claimed a national record of 3:54.22 in 1,500m after settling for silver as Hassan won in a European and Netherlands record of 3:51.95.

Running both the 1,500 and 800m will be tricky for any athlete.

The 800m heats will be held July 30 followed by the semi-finals the following day and the final on August 3. The 1,500m heats will be staged on August 2 followed by the semis on August 4 and final on August 6.

Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto eyes perfect debut in Diamond League

Olympic 3,000m Steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto will compete for the first time this year in Thursday's Florence Diamond League in Italy.

The third leg of this season's Diamond League will see less Kenyan athletes in action with many preparing for the Olympic Games national trials slated for June 17-19 at Kasarani.

Kipruto will battle world bronze medalist Soufiane El Bakkali from Morocco, Ethiopia’s Takele Tadese, his compatriot Wilberforce Kones, Uganda’s Albert Chemutai among others in the 3,000m Steeplechase race.

The Kenyan started training late after a long break that was caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which saw the suspension of sporting events.

Speaking to Nation Sport via phone, Kipruto revealed that he will run to see if he is fit ahead of next month's Tokyo Olympic Games, which he has already qualified for.

“I started training recently and my preparations are not perfect, but I will be running today (Thursday) just to see where I need to improve ahead of the Olympics Games. I’m using the 3,000m race to improve on my speed,” said Kipruto, who has been training in Mosoriot, Nandi County. 

After the Florence meet, Kipruot will head back home to prepare for the Olympic national trials where he hopes to defend his title over the distance.

Another Kenyan in action Thursday night is Olympic 1,500m race Faith Chepng'etich, who line up in her specialty as she seeks to improve her performance ahead of the trials next week.

She will renew hostilties with her rival Dutch’s Sifan Hassan, Great Britain’s Lura Muir, Ethiopia’s Hailu Lemlem, Winnie Nanyondo from Uganda, among others.

Faith is in form this season, having clocked a best of 1:58.26 in the 800m at the Doha Diamond League meet last month.

Robert Kiprop will be the sole Kenyan in the 5,000m race, which has favorite Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, Ethiopia’s Edris Muktar, siblings Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Henrik Ingebrigtsen from Norway among others.

Organizers hope up to 35,000 can run this September 2021, Berlin Marathon

Organizers hope that up to 35,000 runners can take part in the Berlin marathon this September as part of a pilot project as Germany eases Covid-19 restrictions.

In a joint press conference Monday, Berlin's senate and marathon organizers outlined plans to first hold two test events, a 10km race in July and a half marathon in August.

Providing all goes well and the rate of infection remains low, the Berlin marathon would take place on September 26.

Runners would either have to prove they are fully innoculated or undergo a PCR test as part of a hygiene programme still to be approved by Berlin's health authority.

"There is no certainty that the Berlin Marathon can take place, but the probability is there," said Berlin senator Andreas Geise.

"If the incidence rates continue to fall, approval of the pilot project is conceivable."

A maximum field of 35,000 would be 10,000 down on the 45,000 who took part in the 2019 Berlin marathon, the last one before the 2020 race was cancelled due to the pandemic.

The official world record for the men's marathon was set in Berlin in 2018 when Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge ran the 42.195kms (26.2mi) in two hours, 1:39 minutes.

The top three fastest race times for the men's marathon have all been run in Berlin.

Sifan Hassan breaks the world 10,000m record in Hengelo

There was little about Sifan Hassan’s run at the FBK Games in Hengelo on Sunday (6) that gave the impression she was being patient. Eyes firmly fixed on the track ahead, her arms pumping and legs turning with incredible consistency, she looked like a person who had places to be – and fast.

But, at the same time, she seemed calm and in control. Despite traveling at a pace of 2:55 per kilometer for the majority of her 10,000m, there was no fluster or signs of the tiredness that she later revealed had gripped her in the early stages. Hassan was flowing towards the finish line, where – 29 minutes and six seconds after she started – her world record ambition would be realised. Inside, the Dutch 28-year-old was giving herself a stern talking to.

“Having travelled from America, I had jet lag and I felt terrible at the beginning,” Hassan revealed. “Everything felt heavy, but I just tried to hang on to the lights. Sometimes I accidentally passed them, and I thought ‘no, calm down! Be patient.’”

The lights she describes formed part of the Wavelight technology used at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadion during the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in the Dutch city, programmed to highlight the pace needed to improve the world 10,000m record of 29:17.45 which had been set by Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

The blue lights showed world record tempo, while the green indicated the speed of Hassan’s own European record of 29:36.67 run on the same track eight months earlier. Ultimately, the double world champion’s patience paid off, as she waited until the final kilometre to move away from those bulbs. Then it was Hassan’s turn to light the way.

After kilometres of 2:56.12 and 2:56.07 behind pacemakers, Hassan ran splits of 2:55.72, 2:55.42, 2:55.42, 2:55.69, 2:55.93, 2:55.48 and 2:55.20 before upping the tempo and completing the final 1000m in 2:45.77.

As she reached her destination, the clock read 29:06.82 – a time more than 10 seconds faster than Ayana’s world record mark. What makes the performance all the more remarkable is how it forms part of a CV which also boats world records for the mile (4:12.33), women-only road 5km (14:44) and one-hour event (18,930m), plus European records in the 1500m (3:51.95), 3000m (8:18.49), 5000m (14:22.12) and half-marathon (1:05:15).

And then there’s the fact that Hassan feels she can go even quicker still.

“I know I am in shape to go under 29 minutes,” said the Tim Rowberry-coached runner, who has trained in Kenya and Utah, USA, in recent months. “But my coach said ‘no, we train for under 29 so you can run 29:17’. Yesterday I had confidence, I was like ‘I want to go 29:10’ but he said he wanted me to go exactly with the pace.”

Having started her season with a 14:35.34 5000m and then run 2:01.54 for 800m in May, she added: “I am not the sort of person who always runs a fast time in my first race. I know my training has been amazing, but I didn’t know how it would be in my competition. When I got to the last mile or the last 1500m I thought ‘okay you can do this, you can hold it’.”

The path for that performance had been paved in Hengelo last year. “I was scared in October,” she explained. “I was tired in the last couple of laps.

“I learned a lot from that race. That race taught me to hold myself back. I was telling myself that I have time to go under 29 minutes, I am just young – now I should just get the world record.

“Patience,” she added. “I learned patience.”

Her manager Jos Hermens, himself a world record-breaker, also believes that quicker times are to come.

There will be zero marathon runners from India at the Tokyo Olympics

Marathon races in the Olympic Games have been a permanent fixture in the men's roster since the inaugural Athens Games of 1896, while the women's event was first held 88 years later in Los Angeles. Ethiopian athletes have enjoyed the most successful in Olympic marathons, with men winning four golds; two of which came from Abebe Bikila in 1960 and 1964, who was the first athlete to win back-to-back golds (the only other athlete to win two golds in the marathon was East Germany's Waldemar Cierpinski in 1976 and 1980), and Ethiopian women have won two golds.

The Olympic records are 2:06:32 for men, set by Kenya's Samuel Wanjiru in 2008; and for women, it's 2:23:07 seconds, set by Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia in 2012.

India's history at the marathon dates back to 1928 when Phadeppa (Pavananjey) Dareppa Chaugule became India's first Olympic marathon runner. He represented India in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, and finished 19th with a timing of 2 hours 50 minutes 45.2 seconds. He hails from the town of Belgaum (Now Belagavi) in Karnataka.

With the passage of time, many Indian marathon runners have taken part in the Olympics, with the 2016 Rio Olympics, having the highest number of five athletes - Thonakal Gopi, Kheta Ram, Nitendra Singh Rawat among the men, O.P. Jaisha and Kavita Raut among women. However, five years down the line nobody from India will be qualifying for Tokyo Olympics in the marathon.

Why did Indian athletes fail to qualify in marathons for Tokyo Olympics? To understand the reason one has to know the qualification process for the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics. The athletes in marathons (both men and women) can qualify by either entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. The qualifying standard is 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women, while the qualifying period was originally from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 31 May 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 January 2019 to 1 December 2018.

With so many runners qualifying by meeting the entry standard, there was no scope left for an athlete through the world ranking. Indian athletes' hopes were shattered mostly because of the coronavirus wreaking havoc without allowing the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to conduct marathons at regular intervals since 2020. Though the date was extended to 31 May 2021, India hosted fewer marathons, and also the potential challengers for Tokyo Olympics took part in a few of them hoping to qualify through the marathons hosted in 2021. With the second wave of coronavirus hitting India hard again, many of the marathons got cancelled and as a result, India's best marathon hopefuls could not meet the qualifying standard. Among the men, the hopefuls were Nitender Singh Rawat, Srinu Bugatha and Rashpal Singh.

While Rawat attained a personal best of 2:15:52, Bugatha and Rashpal could attain 2:14:59 and 2:18:57 during the qualification period. Among women, Sudha Singh had a PB of 2:34:56, Jyoti Gawate a 2:45:48 and Swati Gadhwe 2:58:10. With nobody being able to meet the mark, India will have to go to the Tokyo Olympics without a marathoner.

Scottish middle-distance runner Josh Kerr runs fastest-ever 1,500m on U.S. soil at Stumptown Twilight

The Stumptown Twilight meet in Portland, Oregon on Thursday night saw several stellar performances, but it was Scottish middle-distance runner Josh Kerr who stole the show. The 23-year-old won the men’s 1,500m, blowing away the field by more than four seconds and crossing the line in 3:31.55. His time breaks the previous American soil record of 3:32.34, set by Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain in 2006.

His result is also the fastest time in Europe this season, and is the second-fastest 1,500m time this year in the world behind Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot, who ran 3:30.48 in Doha on May 28. This is a new personal best for Kerr, who set his previous PB of 3:32.52 at World’s in Doha in 2019, where he placed 6th overall.

While Kerr originally hails from Edinburgh, Scotland, he competed for the University of New Mexico Lobos, where he set the men’s 1,500m NCAA record of 3:35.01 in 2017 (his record has since been broken by Notre Dame runner Yared Nuguse). The Olympic standard in the men’s 1,500m is 3:35.00, and considering he is currently the fastest athlete in Europe at the distance, Kerr has likely solidified his spot on Great Britain’s team headed to Tokyo this summer.

World record-holders ready to clash in Hengelo

Five world champions, four Olympic gold medallists and two world record-holders are set to compete at the FBK Games – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Hengelo on Sunday (6).

Pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis will be raring to go after his 23-meet winning streak came to an end at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead at the end of last month. Battling tough conditions, the 21-year-old from Sweden gave the bar a slight nudge on his final attempt at 5.80m – what would have been a winning height – and it came down, meaning victory went to two-time world champion Sam Kendricks.

Kendricks won’t be in Hengelo, but Duplantis will have one eye on the US vaulter’s meeting record and Dutch all-comers’ record of 5.91m.

Olympic champion Thiago Braz and Dutch vaulter Menno Vloon, who set a national indoor record of 5.96m earlier this year, are also in the line-up.

Double world champion Sifan Hassan will return to the track on which she set a European 10,000m record of 29:36.67 last year and will again contest the 25-lap discpline. The Dutch distance runner has tested her form over a range of distances this year, clocking 8:33.62 for 3000m indoors, followed by 14:35.34 for 5000m and 2:01.54 for 800m outdoors.

Kenya’s Daisy Cherotich, New Zealand’s world finalist Camille Buscomb and Canada’s Andrea Seccafien will all be hoping to emerge from the race with lifetime bests.

World 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi will open her 2021 campaign over her specialist distance. The Ugandan middle-distance runner takes on a quartet of Britons – Laura Muir, Kelly Hodgkinson, Jemma Reekie and Adelle Tracey – as well as Norway’s Hedda Hynne and France’s Renelle Lamote.

In the men’s event, indoor sensation Elliot Giles lines up for his first outdoor 800m of the year, taking on fellow Brits Max Burgin – who set a European U20 record of 1:44.14 in Ostrava last month – and Daniel Rowden. Tony van Diepen, one of the Netherlands’ top performers at the World Athletics Relays Silesia 21, is also in the field.

Recent Montreuil winner Abel Kipsang goes in the men’s 1500m where he’ll take on Uganda’s Ronald Musagala and Britain’s sub-3:30 performer Jake Wightman.

Asher-Smith, Kerley and McLeod set to produce sprint highlights

Although she has raced there only once before, world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith has fond memories of racing in Hengelo.

It is where, as a teenager back in 2015, she set her first senior national record over 100m, clocking 11.02. Six years on from that performance, and having bagged many more records and medals, the world 200m champion will be hoping for a sub-11-second clocking to improve on the 11.35 season’s best she recorded when winning in Gateshead, running in heavy rain and into a -3.1m/s headwind.

Nigeria’s world and Olympic medallist Blessing Okagbare, who has a season’s best of 10.90, and two-time world 200m champion Dafne Schippers are also in the line-up.

World 4x400m champion Fred Kerley has so far this year produced his most impressive performances at 100m, clocking 9.91 and 9.96 in recent weeks. In Hengelo, however, he’ll step back up to his specialist 400m discipline and will aim to improve on the 44.60 season’s best he recorded in Doha last week.

Three former champions return to highlight 2021 Grandma's Marathon field

Kongin, Kiptoo, and Myers Could Join Prestigious Group of Repeat Winners at Duluth Race, former champions are expected to be on the starting line for the 2021 Grandma’s Marathon and will have the chance to join some very rare company if they can add another victory to their running resume.

Defending men’s champion Boniface Kongin is slated to return after outdueling the field in 2019, running a 2:11:56 to beat out four-time champion Elisha Barno and event record holder Dominic Ondoro. Kongin ran much of that 2019 race in record pace, but he was slowed in the final 10K as he dealt with severe cramping.

Not only will the Kenya native try to become the first back-to-back men’s winner at Grandma’s Marathon since Barno won the first two of his four titles in 2015-16, he would be just the seventh man to win multiple Grandma’s Marathons titles.

Sarah Kiptoo is also expected to return this year, and she will be trying to join Mary Akor (2007-09) and Lorraine Moller (1979-81) as the only three-time women’s winners of Grandma’s Marathon. The Kenya native won titles in 2013 and 2016 and also finished third in 2014 and 2015. She finished 10th the last time out on this course in 2019, finishing with a time of 2:38:46.

Kiptoo’s 2013 winning time of 2:26:32 was then an event record and only recently broken when Kellyn Taylor ran a 2:24:28 in 2018.

2014 champion Pasca Myers is also expected to compete in the women’s elite field, and she will be trying to become just the eighth woman to win at least two Grandma’s Marathon titles. She also ran here in 2019, finishing in eighth place with a time of 2:36:13.

With a reduced field for the 2021 Grandma’s Marathon, there are 29 men and 29 women expected to be in the elite field on Saturday, June. 19. The 45th annual Grandma’s Marathon is scheduled to start at 7:45 a.m. and can be followed live on our radio and TV partners, The Northland FAN 106.5 FM and WDIO-TV.

For more information, please call our office at (218) 727-0947 or visit grandmasmarathon.com.

Beatrice Chebet from Kenya sets meet record in France

World Under-20 5,000m champion Beatrice Chebet continued to cement her status at senior level with a meet record victory in the women's 5,000m race at the Montreuil International Track and Field Meeting in France on Tuesday.

Chebet, who days earlier stormed to victory in Doha, won in Montreuil in 14 minutes and 52.06 seconds to edge out Kalimantan Gezahegne from Bahrain in 14:52.92.

Chebet’s compatriot, former Africa 5,000m champion, Sheila Chepkirui settled for second place in 14:54.06, followed by Burundian Francine Nyonsaba, who ran within the Tokyo Olympics qualifying time and a personal best of 14:54.38.

Chebet, who is also the reigning World Cross Country Under-20 champion, had on May 28 shocked a strong  field that included defending champion Hellen Obiri, who is also the World 5,000m champion, to win the 3,000m race at the Doha Diamond League.

Chebet clocked a personal best and world lead of 8:27.49 for her maiden Diamond League victory.

Also to glide to a meet record victory at Montreuil was Abel Kipsang of Kenya, winning the men's 1,500m in a personal best of 3:33.99 after.

Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba, who changed events due to testosterone rule, runs Olympic qualifier

She ran a time of 14 minutes 54.38, which is also a new national record, as she finished fourth in the race to easily better the Olympic qualifying time of 15:10.00.

It was just her second race over the distance having just missed out on the qualifying standard when she ran 15:12.08 at a meeting in Spain last month.

"A challenge is not a barrier. It's an opportunity to do better. Heading to Tokyo with a great qualifying time," she posted on Twitter.

The race was won by Kenya's Beatrice Chebet, who finished just over two seconds ahead of Niyonsaba.

The 28-year-old, who won silver over 800m at the 2016 Games in Rio, has decided to move up to the long distance event rather than taking testosterone-reducing drugs.

Under the latest World Athletics regulations Niyonsaba is classified as having 'Differences of Sexual Development' - or 'DSD' - and so is not allowed to compete in events between 400m and a mile without taking testosterone-reducing drugs.

At the same meeting on the outskirts of Paris Burkina Faso's Hugues Fabrice Zango continued his good form with another win on the triple jump with a leap of 17.67 metres.

Ivory Coast's Marie Josee Ta Lou won the women's 100m in a time of 11.06 seconds just ahead of The Gambia's Gina Bass in 11.30.

Ta Lou's compatriot Arthur Cisse was victorious in the men's event clocking a time of 10.11 seconds.

Kenya's Abel Kipsang was the other African winner on the night in the men's 1500m as he finished ahead of compatriot Charles Simotwo, with Morocco's Brahim Kaazouzi in third place.

On Friday South Africa's Caster Semenya, Niyonsaba's great rival over 800m and another athlete classified as DSD, finished outside the qualifying mark for the 5,000m.

The 30-year-old finished in 15 minutes 32.15 seconds at meeting in Durban - 22.15secs outside the qualifying time.

It was her second bid to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Women’s world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei says she is fit and healthy again as she eyes Olympics

Brigid Kosgei says she is firmly focused on adding Olympic gold to her medal collection after fully recovering from a slight leg injury. 

The 26-year old tested herself at last month’s Istanbul Half Marathon where she clocked 1:16:01 to finish a disappointing fifth, in a race won by compatriot and fellow Olympics-bound, world marathon champion Ruth Chepng’etich in a world record time of 1:04:02.

"I had some minor injury when I competed in Istanbul but now I’m back fully fit and I will concentrate all my training at Kapsait until departure to Olympics,” she said. 

The marathoner said an Olympic gold would be a dream-come-true for her having spent most of her childhood and teenage years wishing for an opportunity to represent Kenya at the quadrennial event. 

“While I was in Standard Eight, I watched the Olympic Games on television and I told myself ‘one day I’d also like to represent Kenya too. My home (Kapsowar) was quite a distance from school (10 kilometers) and I never wanted to be late that’s why I used to run quite a bit,’” she said in an earlier interview.

Kosgei has been hard at work in training, going through her paces at her Kapsait Training Camp in Elgeyo Marakwet under the watchful eye of her coach, former Honolulu Marathon champion Eric Kimaiyo. 

Hers is a holistic training regime, which must take into account Kosgei's diet that hasn't changed much even in the build-up to Tokyo. 

“My diet is the same and I haven’t changed anything. My body feels good and I want to push it to the limits and see how it responds on race day. We are mixing endurance and speed work with long runs," she said. 

Kosgei, who is managed by the Italy-based Rosa Associati stable, has also been training in sunny conditions to ensure she acclimatises to the hot Japanese weather when she graces the Olympics.

She has responded perfectly to a recovery regimen that included sessions with Italian physiotherapist Sebastiano Erbi who spent some time monitoring her progress. 

"The weather in Kapsait is good. Even when it rains, we still train, and even when it's cold, we also train; we are used to any weather condition here. We are also aware of the heat in Japan and that’s why we have some sessions at 4 pm when the sun is still out", Kosgei explains. 

At times, the training group — which includes pacemakers — drive for close to two hours to Iten to access quality track sessions at the Lornah Kiplagat Academy and Stadium.

Kosgei has signed up with Stanbic Bank Kenya as ambassador in the bank’s new brand campaign dubbed "It Can Be."

The “It Can Be” campaign seeks to empower young men and women to achieve their big dreams with the world marathon record holder being used as an ambassador to motivate them.

Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei misses 3K WR in Ostrava

All eyes were on Joshua Cheptegei ahead of Wednesday’s Ostrava Golden Spike meet in the Czech Republic, as the 24-year-old Ugandan was looking to break the 3,000m world record. Cheptegei ended up running to a disappointing finish, falling well short of the record, but the meet was far from uneventful, as several other athletes posted remarkable times. Among these impressive performances were runs from teenaged Brits Max Burgin and Keely Hodgkinson in the men’s and women’s 800m races and an amazing showing from Cheptegei’s compatriot Jacob Kiplimo in the 10,000m. 

Cheptegei falls short 

Cheptegei had an incredible 2020 season that saw him run three world records (5K, 5,000m and 10,000m) in four races. He had already raced twice in 2021 ahead of Wednesday’s meet, and he was itching to add another record to his resume, so he targeted Kenyan Daniel Komen‘s 3,000m mark of 7:20.67, which has been the time to beat for 24 years.

Before the run, Cheptegei’s agent, Jurrie van der Velden, told LetsRun.com that this record could be the toughest one Cheptegei has tried to beat, and after he finished 13 seconds behind Komen’s time on Wednesday, that appears to be true. Cheptegei opened the race on world record pace, and he passed through the first 1,600m in 3:55. He proceeded to slow considerably in the following few laps, though, and crossed the line far off the world record. 

British domination 

Young Brits won both 800m races. Hodgkinson’s win wasn’t too much of a surprise, as she has had a tremendous season so far. The 18-year-old opened her season in Austria in January with a U20 indoor 800m world record of 1:59.03 (which American Athing Mu lowered a month later with a 1:58.40 run in Arkansas), and she followed that up with a win in the women’s 800m at the European Indoor Championships. On Wednesday, she broke two minutes for the first time outdoors, winning the women’s race in Ostrava in 1:58.89, which is a new U20 European record. 

The men’s 800m was the first race of the season for Burgin, but he ran extremely well and took the win in 1:44.14. Like Hodgkinson, Burgin (who turns 19 on Thursday) now owns the U20 European 800m record, and his result in the Czech Republic is a new world-leading time for 2021. Both Hodginson’s and Burgin’s times are under the Olympic 800m standards. 

Kiplimo crushes the 10,000m 

With all of the attention on Cheptegei, Kiplimo managed to fly under the radar until his race. Then, lining up in the men’s 10,000m, the 20-year-old flew away from the rest of the field, and 25 laps later, he stopped the clock in 26:33.93. This is a new world-leading time, it crushed the second-place finisher (who crossed the line in 27:07.49) and it shattered Kiplimo’s previous PB of 27:26.68 by close to a full minute. Before the race, Kiplimo said he was hoping to break 27 minutes, and he accomplished this goal with ease. His result now puts him at seventh-best in history at the distance. 

Canadian sprints 

Canadian sprinters Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown were both in action in Ostrava. De Grasse raced the 100m, and he crossed the line in 10.17 seconds. He finished in third place behind American Fred Kerley (9.96) and Justin Gatlin (10.08). Brown also finished in third place, although he raced the 200m. Brown ran 20.40 seconds, and he finished behind Kenny Bednarek of the U.S. (19.93) and Kerley (20.27). Both De Grasse and Brown are set to race at the Gateshead Diamond League on Sunday in the U.K.

The athletes' NN Running Team is organizing a global online mass run and Kipchoge, Bekele and Cheptegei are set to participate

Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge is set to take part in an online virtual mass run this weekend (22-23 May) along with some 30,000 members of the public who have signed up.

Organised by the Kenyan's Dutch-based NN Running Team, the event - dubbed MA RA TH ON - is being held for the second time. In 2020, some 106,000 registrations were accepted, with participants clocking a distance far enough to run around the world 28 times.

"I am really excited for this coming Saturday and Sunday as the world is running as one," Kipchoge said in quotes reported by the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation.

"It’s not about running fast, it’s not about winning, but it’s all about participating."

The event sees teams of four around the world run just over 10.5 kilometers each, for a total of the marathon distance 42.195 km.

Each runner runs alone, and records their activity on the Strava application. Additionally, ten teams will each have an NN Running Team athlete compete alongside them.

Among the elite athletes competing are Kipchoge, his fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor, Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, and 5 km and 10 km world record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda.

"I am very happy that we organize this event again. It has given all the participating athletes a huge motivation in a difficult year," Kamworor said according to the KBC.

Kipchoge's last event was the NN Marathon in Enschede, Netherlands, in April, which he won in 2:04:30.

Kamworor finished second in the Istanbul Half Marathon in 59:38 in April; Bekele won a half marathon in London (1:00:22) at the start of March; while Cheptegei's last outing was a third place finish in a 1500m race at the Ugandan Athletics Federation Trials in April.

Kenya's 2017 World Under-18 400m hurdles silver medalist Moitalel Mpoke has qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The 20-year-old Mpoke clocked 48.89 seconds to win his 400m hurdles on Saturday during the South Eastern Conference Outdoor Championships at the E.B Cushing Stadium, Texas, United States.

Mpoke met the Olympic qualifying standard by 0.01 seconds to also improve his personal best within three weeks by 0.72 seconds.

Following his win, Mpoke became the first athlete in the history of Texas University  to run a sub 49 seconds in the 400m hurdles breaking a 34-year-old record of 49.05, which was previously held by Craig Calk.

Mpoke becomes third athlete from Kenya to qualify for Tokyo Olympic Games in sprint events after Hellen Syombua and Emmanuel Korir all in 400m.

However, Korir, who is a  specialist in 800m qualified for Tokyo Olympics when he doubled up in 400m and 800m at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships.

Surprisingly, Korir reached the semi-finals in 800m but stormed the final of the 400m to finish sixth. He run an Olympic qualifying standard time of 44.37 seconds in the semis.

Syombua qualified during the 2019 African Games trials running 51.09 seconds to also set a new 400m national record.

So far 51 Kenyan athletes have attained the Olympic qualifying standards ahead of the national trials set for June 17 to 19 at Kipchoge Keino Stadium, Eldoret.

However, the number includes eight athletes named in the final men and women's marathon team.