Running News Daily

Ekiru and Gebrekidan break Italian all-comers’ records in Milan

Kenya’s Titus Ekiru and Ethiopia’s Hiwot Gebrekidan recorded world-leading times of 2:02:57 and 2:19:35 to break the Italian all-comers’ records at the Generali Milano Marathon, a World Athletics Label road race, on Sunday (16).

It was Ekiru’s second victory in Milan, having won in 2019 in 2:04:46, the previous Italian all-comers’ record. Gebrekidan, meanwhile, was competing in Italy for the first time and was rewarded with a four-minute PB.

This year’s race, held in ideal 13C temperatures, was staged on a 7.5km circuit in front of the Castello Sforzesco in the heart of Milan.

In the men’s race, the leading pack of 10 athletes set a consistent pace in the first half, passing 5km in 14:47, 10km in 29:28 and 15km in 44:13. Leading South African runner Stephen Mokoka, acting as a pacemaker in Milan, reached the half-way mark in 1:01:48.

Ekiru started to push the pace after 30km, covering the next five-kilometre segment in 14:11 and the following one in 14:34. He maintained that pace to the end and, having covered the second half in 1:01:09, went on to cross the finish line in 2:02:57.

The 29-year-old now moves to fifth on the world all-time list, level with former world record-holder Dennis Kimetto.

The first five men finished inside the previous Italian all-comers’ record. Reuben Kipyego finished second in 2:03:55 ahead of Barnabas Kiptum (2:04:17), 2018 Milan Marathon winner Seifu Tura from Ethiopia (2:04:29), Leul Gebrselassie from Ethiopia (2:04:31), and Gabriel Gerald Geay, who set a Tanzanian record of 2:04:55.

“At 20 km I felt in very good shape and I tried to push the pace,” said Ekiru, the 2019 African Games half marathon champion. “I feel emotional. Maybe I can run 2:01 in the future.”

Unlike the men’s contest, the women’s race was a one-runner affair with Gebrekidan making a break in the early stages.

After covering the first 5km in 16:43 as part of a leading pack, the 26-year-old Ethiopian made a break and went through the half-way point inside 70 minutes with a lead of 20 seconds, hinting at a finishing time inside 2:20.

By the time she reached 30km in 1:38:28, Gebrekidan’s lead over Kenya’s Racheal Mutgaa had grown to 84 seconds. Gebrekidan’s pace dropped only slightly in the second half and she held on to win in 2:19:35, breaking the previous world-leading time and Italian all-comers’ record of2:20:08 set by Kenya’s Angela Tanui in Siena last month.

"I trained very well and I prepared for this race at the Istanbul Half Marathon," said Gebrekidan, whose previous PB of 2:23:50 was set at the 2019 Guangzhou Marathon. "I will celebrate this win with my family."

Mutgaa went on to finish second in 2:22:50 ahead of Bahrain’s Eunice Chumba (2:23:10). With the first seven women finishing inside 2:25, it was the deepest ever women’s marathon held in Italy.

Athlete refugees now eyeing Tokyo berths, after a year of pandemic setbacks and challenges

The postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games looked one step closer to reality in recent days with the staging of the athletics test events, the half marathon in Sapporo on Wednesday (5) and the Ready Steady Tokyo Athletics Meeting at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday (9). Athletes from around the world were tuning in to catch a glimpse of the courses, the facilities and the track they're hoping to compete on when the Games kick off in July, including two clusters of the Athlete Refugee Team from their bases in Tel Aviv and Ngong, Kenya.

One of them was Tachlowini Gabriyesos, a distance runner who trains with the Alley Runners club in Tel Aviv who achieved a major milestone at the Hahula Galilee Marathon on 14 March. Contesting the distance for just the second time, the 23-year-old Eritrean native clocked 2:10:55 to become the first refugee athlete to better an Olympic qualifying standard for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

"This (past) year was different because of the pandemic, but most of my training was as planned," said Gabriyesos, who has steadily moved up in distance over the past two seasons. He competed in the 5000m for the Athlete Refugee Team at the 2019 World Championships in Doha but in 2020 found a better fit with longer distances.

He was slated to compete at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, last October, but was unable to obtain a visa. So instead, two months later he improved his half marathon lifetime best to 1:02:21 in the prelude to his marathon breakthrough.

"I think I'm in better shape than I was last year, but physically and mentally it was hard to train with the pandemic restrictions."

Focusing on Tokyo has helped.

"The Olympics is my dream as a professional athlete and it would be a great honour to be part of the Refugee Olympic Team," he said. "I want to show others that everything is possible and they shouldn't give up."

Lokoro targeting second Olympic appearance

The International Olympic Committee will announce the composition of its second Refugee Olympic Team (this year competing as EOR, its French acronym) in early June. While the selection process is complex, quality of performance will play a key role. Paulo Amotun Lokoro, a refugee from South Sudan and a member of the inaugural team in Rio, is hoping to make the cut again.

But unlike Gabriyesos, who has largely managed to navigate the pandemic restrictions over the past year, Lokoro, who is based at the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation training camp in Ngong, wasn't as fortunate. The camp was forced to close during the first lockdown in Kenya in April of last year, forcing Lokoro to return to the Kakuma Refugee Camp where, training-wise, he found himself alone. He returned to Ngong in December and resumed training only to be forced into another lockdown situation in the beginning of March.

"It has been frustrating, we haven't had enough time to train," Lokoro said. "And during this lockdown the government has discouraged us from training in public and as a team, so we were training individually."

Lokoro finished 11th in his 1500m heat in Rio, clocking 4:03.96. He's improved steadily since, currently boasting a 3:44.10 lifetime best set in 2019. He also competed in Doha, but, suffering with a hamstring injury, didn't advance from the heats.

"In 2019 I was well prepared," he said. "My shape is different now, but we still hope to catch up before Tokyo."

World Athletics provides ongoing support

Since the IOC put the refugee athletes on the international stage in Rio five years ago, World Athletics has entered an Athlete Refugee Team (ART) in almost every major championship: the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships, the 2018 World Cross Country Championships, the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Relays and the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships. The African and European area federations have opened entry to refugee athletes based on their continents. Those competitive opportunities, coupled with generous scholarships from the IOC and ongoing training and logistical support from World Athletics, has made a difference.

Otmane Nait Hammou, a refugee from Morocco who is based in Sweden, made his Athlete Refugee Team debut at the 2018 World Cross Country Championships, competed in the steeplechase in Doha and more recently at the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia where he finished 67th, clocking 1:03:28 in his competitive debut over the distance and beating some of the world’s finest half-marathoners in the process. He's hoping for a spot on the steeplechase start line in Tokyo.

"World Athletics' support to compete at three World Championships did play a big role to keep me feeling hungry and motivated," he said. "With the solidarity support from the International Olympic Committee and my sponsors ON Running and Maurten and my French club ES Sartrouville, it has really made a difference.

"Honestly, it was really hard to keep motivated without having short term goals (during the pandemic), but you can't give up when it comes to the Olympic Games."

"We have been facing a lot of challenges, but at least we have been able to train individually," said Rose Nathike Lokonyen, a refugee from South Sudan who was the team's flag-bearer in Rio.

Before the pandemic hit, 5000m hopeful Ukuk Utho'o Bul said: "We were all training well, it was an Olympic year and we were preparing well. But when the pandemic came the camp closed so we all had to go back to where we came from. When we are training as a team there is a motivation. You always move forward, you motivate yourself. Then I was in a different place. I was alone and training alone. But we are trying our best."

In Lisbon, Dorian Keletela, a refugee from Congo, is aiming to be the first sprinter selected for the Refugee Olympic Team. Keletela, who competed in the 60m at the European Indoor Championships in March, has a 10.46 career best from 2020. He's hoping to compete at the European U23 Championships later this summer as well.

Obiri and Gidey ready for 3000m showdown in Doha

Two-time world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri and world record holder Letesenbet Gidey will resume their rivalry when they line up over 3000m at the Wanda Doha Diamond League on Friday 28 May.

Obiri, the world cross-country champion, set a Kenyan 3000m record of 8:20.68 in Doha in 2014. She also won over the same distance at the Doha Diamond League in 2019 and 2020.

Gidey smashed the world 5000m record in Valencia last year, clocking 14:06.62. Although Obiri leads their career head-to-head record at 9-5, Gidey has finished ahead of Obiri twice in Doha: at the 2018 Diamond League meeting and at the 2019 World Championships over 10,000m.

“I’m happy to start my season in Doha,” said Gidey, who in 2019 broke Obiri’s African 3000m record with 8:20.27. “It will be my first race as a world record-holder and I feel excited to see where I am in terms of condition. It will be a very important stepping stone towards the Olympic Games later in the season.”

Obiri, who defeated Gidey in their most recent clash over 5000m at the 2020 Monaco Diamond League, said: “After my half marathon debut in April (she ran 1:04:51 in Istanbul) I’m looking forward to getting back on the track, especially at the Doha Diamond League meeting where I will be going for my fourth 3000m win. I ran the Kenyan record there in 2014 (8:20) and the second-fastest 3000m in my career there last September (8:22).    

“Doha is also the place where I won my last world title in 2019, but this year it is all about the Olympic Games as that is the only major gold medal that I’m missing and I’m working hard to change that this year. The 3000m and 5000m races are very competitive at the moment and I expect we will see some fast times in the next few months and in Tokyo.”

The 2021 Wanda Diamond League comprises 14 meetings – starting with Gateshead (replacing Rabat as the first host city on this year’s circuit) on Sunday 23 May – leading to a single final across two days in Zurich at the end of the season. Each meeting will be broadcast globally in a live two-hour programme.

The 2021 calendar remains subject to change depending on the global health situation in the coming months.

World Marathon champ Ruth Chepng'etich eyes stellar Olympics show

Last month, Chepng'etich tore the field apart to win the Instanbul Half Marathon in one hour, four minutes and one second (1:04:02), smashing the previous world record held by Ethiopian Ababel Yeshaneh by 29 seconds. 

Speaking Thursday at the Athletics Kenya offices, Nairobi after receiving the LG/Sports Journalist Association of Kenya (SJAK) Sports Personality of the Month Award for April, Chepng'etich is confident of a good outing at the Summer Games.

"I resumed training last week with focus on Olympics and so far I'm doing great. I really don't want to look at who I will be competing against, but I'm focusing on myself. With hardwork, discipline and dedication, everything is possible.It's always such a great feeling when your efforts are recognised. This award is timely and a great motivation ahead of the Olympics," a visibly jubilant Chepng'etich said.

The 26-year-old received a state-of-the-art LG Artificial Intelligence (AI) DD washing machine worth Sh92,000.

Veteeran coach Julius Kirwa said that he was closely following Chepng'etich's training program and remained optimistic of good results in Tokyo.

Chepng’etich beat Equator Rally winner Carl "Flash" Tundo, Eliud Kipchoge, who won the NN Mission Marathon in Enschede, Holland in 2:04.30 and Kenya Ports Authority Libero Sam Juma to the award.

Other nominees were Meldine Sande, who led Kenya Prisons women's volleyball team to third position at the African Clubs Championship in Tunisia and rugby star Daniel Taabu, who scored 7 tries for Kenya Sevens at the Emirates Invitational in Dubai.

Chepng’etich joins the growing list of sportsmen and women to have won the coveted title this season.

Other winners are tennis superstar Angela Okutoyi (January), basketballer Tylor Okari Ongwae of Kenya Moran's (February) and boxer Elly Ajowi (March).

LG Electronics Corporate Communications manager Maureen Kemunto noted that the company is proud to be a part of an initiative which rewards excellence.

"Our partnership with SJAK goes a long way in bolstering athletes talent and empowering them to be the backbone of sports in the country. Being an Olympic year, sports personalities are giving their all to uphold higher standards hence the need to motivate their efforts"

SJAK President Chris Mbaisi, on his part, thanked LG Electronics for their unswerving support, saying the partnership continues to make a gigantic difference in the promotion of sporting activities across the country.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe expects Tokyo Olympics to go ahead after test event in Japan

The World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, says he understands the nervousness in Japan over hosting an Olympics during a pandemic – but believes the Games will go ahead safely after attending a half marathon test event in Sapporo on Wednesday.

Japan is battling a resurgence in coronavirus infections and opinion polls consistently find the majority of the public is opposed to the Games, which are due to open on 23 July.

Those concerns have been exacerbated by a slow vaccine rollout, with much of the country also under a state of emergency, and Coe said he recognised that many Japanese people had concerns.

“We take that nervousness very, very seriously,” he said. “We have Covid protocols that have been tried and tested, and I’ve witnessed them here. We take very seriously the health and wellbeing of local communities.”

“But the challenges are big. I don’t believe any Olympic Games has been delivered under more difficult circumstances. These Games have an overlay of complexity that is beyond most comprehension.”

There was a muted atmosphere during the test event as security guards stood with signs around their necks asking people to “please refrain from watching the race” to prevent infections.

However, a few onlookers ignored their pleas and clapped as Kenya’s Hillary Kipkoech won the men’s race in 1hr 46sec and Japan’s Mao Ichiyama won the women’s race in 1hr 8min 28sec.

Tokyo 2020’s deputy executive director of games operations, Yasuo Mori, said no one had tested positive for Covid-19, with the 69 athletes made to stay in hotels with no contact with the public.

Organizers will decide next month whether fans can attend events, but supporters from abroad have already been banned. However, Coe said that even if there were no crowds in stadiums “the Games will still take place and the competition will still be extremely good”.

Coe, who was head of the 2012 London Olympics, said it was “really important that when the world looks to coming out of Covid that it can see optimism.

“ The Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games will be totemic of that optimism and hope going forward. So it is important that the Games are delivered successfully and they’re delivered safely.”

Tokyo is officially spending £11.1bn to hold the Olympics, but some estimates say it is twice that much. The IOC is pushing on with the Games, partly because 73% of its income is from selling broadcast rights.

Japan’s Mao Ichiyama and Kenya’s Hillary Kipkoech storm to half marathon PBs at Olympic test event in Sapporo

Japan’s Mao Ichiyama and Kenya’s Hillary Kipkoech cruised to half marathon PBs on the grounds of Hokkaido University in Sapporo on Wednesday, at the official test event for the Tokyo Olympics road races.

The course is similar to the first half of the marathon route that will be used for this year’s Olympic Games, and the race attracted a small elite field comprising some of Japan’s leading marathon contenders along with a handful of international athletes who were keen to get a feel for the streets of Sapporo.

Ichiyama, who booked her spot on Japan’s Olympic marathon team after winning in Nagoya at the end of 2020, fellow Olympic team member Ayuko Suzuki and team reserve Matsuda Mizuki set off at a swift pace alongside three male pace makers, passing through the first 5km in 16:10.

Their pace eased slightly approaching the half-way point, having reached 10km in 32:39, but they picked it up again at the start of the second half and covered the next five-kilometer section in 15:48.

Suzuki stuck with her compatriots until the final few kilometers and, unable to match their pace, started to drift behind. With about two kilometers to go, Ichiyama opened up a gap of about 25 meters on Mizuki and still looked extremely comfortable. The gap didn’t grow significantly in the closing stages, but Ichiyama did just enough to keep her opponent at bay.

Ichiyama crossed the line in a PB of 1:08:28 with Mizuki following close behind in 1:08:32. Suzuki finished third in 1:08:53.

Honami Maeda, who won Japan’s Marathon Grand Championship race in 2019 to secure her Olympic spot, ran solo for much of the race, in between the lead trio and the main chase pack. She was overtaken by Germany’s Katharina Steinruck in the final kilometer as Steinruck finished fourth in 1:10:43, seven seconds ahead of Maeda.

Kipkoech, who clocked a world-leading 27:35 for 10km just 11 days prior, broke away from the rest of the men’s field just before the half-way point. He passed through 5km in 14:35 as part of the lead pack but then opened up some distance a few kilometres later, reaching 10km in 28:59 with a four-second lead over fellow Kenyan Simon Kariuki.

By the time Kipkoech reached 15km in 42:49, his lead over Kariuki had grown to 12 seconds, while the main chase pack was a further 44 seconds adrift.

Kipkoech went on to win in a personal best of 1:00:46 with Kariuki taking second place in 1:01:11. Shin Kimura was the top Japanese finisher, placing third in 1:01:46. Olympic team member Yuma Hattori, opting not to race flat-out and to use the event as a dress rehearsal, finished 24th in 1:02:59.

Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon was a success

Thousands of people, some from across the world, flocked to Lincoln on Sunday for the 44th annual Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon.

The race went on in-person this year after it went virtual due to COVID in 2019, making this event extra special.

"Today is outstanding," Ryan Regnier, the Marathon Director said. "I just think the community, the runners, the city, we just needed this event."

The Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon was one of only a handful of other races that are happening this year despite the pandemic. Because of that, this event grabbed international attention.

Dominic Korir, who won 1st place in the Half Marathon, and Iveen Chepkemoi, the female 1st place Half Marathon winner, made the trip to Lincoln all the way from Kenya. Alex Ekesa, the male winner of the Marathon, also traveled all the way from Kenya, while Lincoln native Amy Dulng was the first female to cross the finish line in the Marathon.

"Feels good to win it, I grew up here, so it's exciting to be able to win it today," Dulng said.

But not everyone there was running because it's their passion. For Chris Maxwell of South Dakota, this race meant much more.

"Two years ago I was laying in Madonna Rehab Hospital completely paralyzed, having my wife and mom have to blink for me," Maxwell said. "I had a friend come down and they were going to run this race and they encouraged me and I encouraged them and about three months ago I said, what the heck, lets do a victory lap."

Maxwell was diagnosed with Gullain-Barre Syndrome several years ago, fighting for his life. But now, a miracle, Maxwell ran the Half Marathon Sunday with the biggest smile on his face.

Thousands of people, some from across the world, flocked to Lincoln on Sunday for the 44th annual Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon.

The race went on in-person this year after it went virtual due to COVID in 2019, making this event extra special.

“Today is outstanding,” Ryan Regnier, the Marathon Director said. “I just think the community, the runners, the city, we just needed this event.”

The Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon was one of only a handful of other races that are happening this year despite the pandemic. Because of that, this event grabbed international attention.

Dominic Korir, who won 1st place in the Half Marathon, and Iveen Chepkemoi, the female 1st place Half Marathon winner, made the trip to Lincoln all the way from Kenya. Alex Ekesa, the male winner of the Marathon, also traveled all the way from Kenya, while Lincoln native Amy Dulng was the first female to cross the finish line in the Marathon.

“Feels good to win it, I grew up here, so it’s exciting to be able to win it today,” Dulng said.

But not everyone there was running because it’s their passion. For Chris Maxwell of South Dakota, this race meant much more.

“Two years ago I was laying in Madonna Rehab Hospital completely paralyzed, having my wife and mom have to blink for me,” Maxwell said. “I had a friend come down and they were going to run this race and they encouraged me and I encouraged them and about three months ago I said, what the heck, lets do a victory lap.”

Maxwell was diagnosed with Gullain-Barre Syndrome several years ago, fighting for his life. But now, a miracle, Maxwell ran the Half Marathon Sunday with the biggest smile on his face.

The 44th annual Lincoln marathon and half in-person races were a success

Thousands of people, some from across the world, flocked to Lincoln on Sunday for the 44th annual Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon.

The race went on in-person this year after it went virtual due to COVID in 2019, making this event extra special.

“Today is outstanding,” Ryan Regnier, the Marathon Director said. “I just think the community, the runners, the city, we just needed this event.”

The Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon was one of only a handful of other races that are happening this year despite the pandemic. Because of that, this event grabbed international attention.

Dominic Korir, who won 1st place in the Half Marathon, and Iveen Chepkemoi, the female 1st place Half Marathon winner, made the trip to Lincoln all the way from Kenya. Alex Ekesa, the male winner of the Marathon, also traveled all the way from Kenya, while Lincoln native Amy Dulng was the first female to cross the finish line in the Marathon.

“Feels good to win it, I grew up here, so it’s exciting to be able to win it today,” Dulng said.

But not everyone there was running because it’s their passion. For Chris Maxwell of South Dakota, this race meant much more.

“Two years ago I was laying in Madonna Rehab Hospital completely paralyzed, having my wife and mom have to blink for me,” Maxwell said. “I had a friend come down and they were going to run this race and they encouraged me and I encouraged them and about three months ago I said, what the heck, lets do a victory lap.”

Maxwell was diagnosed with Gullain-Barre Syndrome several years ago, fighting for his life. But now, a miracle, Maxwell ran the Half Marathon Sunday with the biggest smile on his face.

Hosts Poland crowned first winners of World Athletics Relays Silesia 21

There was success for the host nation Poland on an action-packed first evening of competition at the World Athletics Relays Silesia 21, with Joanna Jozwik and Patryk Dobek teaming up to win the 2x2x400m.

It was the first of two finals at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow on Saturday (1), with Germany winning the shuttle hurdles relay ­and a whole host of competitive 4x100m and 4x400m heats taking place.

Tactical victory on home soil

With two athletes taking it in turns to run their two 400m legs, the 2x2x400m is an event which favours the middle-distance athletes rather than sprinters but in Dobek the host nation had a bit of both. Previously better known as a 400m hurdler, the 27-year-old has stepped up to the 800m this year in superb style, winning the European indoor title in just his fourth competition at the distance.

In Silesia he was joined by his European Indoors teammate Jozwik, who claimed 800m silver in Torun, and together they powered to victory on home soil, clocking 3:40.92.

After a conservative start, Kenya were narrowly ahead after the first lap, with Naomi Korir handing the baton to Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich and Jozwik passing on to Dobek, who had helped Poland to a fourth-place finish in this event at the last edition of the World Athletics Relays in Yokohama in 2019.

Slovenia is only fielding one team in Silesia and they made their presence felt in this event, with Anita Horvat and Zan Rudolf challenging Kenya on the third and final legs. Kenya had the stronger finish, however, and it saw them secure second place in 3:41.79 as Slovenia were third in 3:41.95.

Germany holds off strong Polish challenge in shuttle hurdles

All-round stronger starts and composure under pressure helped Germany to victory in the mixed shuttle hurdles relay, the final event of the night.

Monika Zapalska began well to give Germany a slight lead on the first leg. Poland’s Zuzanna Hulisz made up a bit of ground on Zapalska towards the end of her leg, but Germany’s Erik Balnuweit got off to a swift start on the second leg, opening up another metre on Poland.

Krzysztof Kiljan maintained Poland’s second-place position on the second leg as the top two teams continued to pull away from Kenya in third. The positions stayed the same on the third leg with Anne Weigold holding on to the lead for Germany as Poland’s Klaudia Wojtunik tried to give chase.

Poland saved their strongest runner, Damian Czykier, for the final leg. At first it seemed as though Gregor Traber’s lead was unassailable, but Czykier closed well in the final stages. He clattered the final barrier, though, and so was unable to catch the German before the finish.

Germany won in 56.53 with Poland taking second in 56.68. Kenya took third in 59.89.

All to race for in qualifying events

Competition was fierce in the heats for the championship events, with qualification for the Tokyo Olympic Games and World Athletics Championships Oregon22 up for grabs.

The women’s 4x400m heats were up first and hosts Poland secured a strong start as they won the event’s opening race, clocking 3:28.11.

Cuba’s quartet of Zurian Hechavarria, Rose Mary Almanza, Lisneidy Veitia and Roxana Gomez went quickest overall, leading from gun to tape to win the second heat in 3:27.90 ahead of the Netherlands with 3:28.40. It was a busy night for European indoor 400m champion Femke Bol as before lining up for the mixed 4x400m, she opened her campaign with a 49.81 anchor split for the Dutch women’s team – the fastest overall in the first round.

Like the Netherlands and Poland, who won this event in Yokohama in 2019, Belgium and Great Britain had already qualified for Tokyo as 2019 World Athletics Championships finalists. They all also made the final in Silesia where they will be joined by Germany, Italy and France on Sunday.

Belgium qualified third quickest for the final with 3:28.27, ahead of Great Britain’s 3:28.83.

There was joy for the Dutch men’s 4x400m team too as Jochem Dobber, Liemarvin Bonevacia, Ramsey Angela and Tony van Diepen combined to clock 3:03.03 and win the second heat, leading the list of qualifiers. But Poland didn’t share in the success of their female teammates as they missed out on the final by just one place. Their run did, however, gain them a spot at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

In that third heat, which was won by Botswana in 3:04.03, Italy’s Vladimir Aceti surged past Karol Zalewski – who was part of Poland's world indoor record-breaking team at the 2018 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham – with a split of 45.36 to finish second in 3:04.81 and pip the hosts for that place in the final.

The Japanese team ensured that they will also be heading for a home Olympics as Rikuya Ito, Kentaro Sato, Kazuma Higuchi and Kaito Kawabata clocked 3:03.31 to win the first heat.

Colombia’s Anthony Zambrano, the world 400m silver medallist, eased over the finish line in 3:04.64 to comfortably anchor his team to second place and a spot in the final along with South Africa, Belgium and France.

As expected, the mixed 4x400m heats provided some thrilling action, with Italy’s Edoardo Scotti, Giancarla Trevisan, Alice Mangione and Davide Re storming to a second heat win of 3:16.52 to lead the first round ahead of heat three winners Brazil with 3:16.53 and the Dominican Republic with 3:16.67.

Ireland, Belgium, Great Britain, Netherlands and Spain will be joining them in the final but Colombia and Poland will miss out after placing third and fourth in that high-quality second heat.

Colombia’s 3:17.61 was faster than the Netherlands’ winning time of 3:18.04 in the first heat, but they were run out of an all-important top two qualifying spot.

In that Netherlands team, Bol ran 50.72 after her earlier 49.81 in the women’s event.

Narrow margins in 4x100m

Things were tight at the top and bottom of the list of teams to qualify for the men’s 4x100m final, with just 0.001 separating Italy from Brazil to lead the first round and the exact same small margin between Denmark and Ukraine at the bottom, to see Ukraine just miss out.

European indoor 60m champion Marcell Jacobs and Italian record-holder Filippo Tortu both ran storming legs along with Eseosa Fostine Desalu and Davide Manenti to clock 38.45 in winning heat three ahead of South Africa, anchored by African champion Akani Simbine, while 2019 winners Brazil, anchored again by Paulo André Camilo de Oliveira, won heat two in a time just a thousandth slower.

Denmark ran a national record of 39.06 in that race to finish fourth behind Germany and Japan to secure their spot in the final, while the first heat was won by the Netherlands in 38.79 ahead of Ghana.

A strong team of Jamile Samuel, Dafne Schippers, Nadine Visser and Marije Van Hunenstijn led the qualifiers in the women's event to book their place in the final, as well as the major championships in Tokyo and Oregon. Together they clocked 43.28 to win the second heat ahead of Poland.

Just as the Danish team had the race of their lives in the men's event, so too did Ecuador in the women's and the quartet ran a national record of 43.86 in third to advance on time. Brazil was disqualified for a lane violation after originally winning the first heat ahead of Italy with 44.02, while heat three was won by France in 43.51.

They will be joined in the final by Switzerland and Japan.

Competition resumes on Sunday at 19:20 local time with the mixed 4x400m final.

New Salazar documentary questions reasons for his 2019 suspension

Nike’s Big Bet, the new documentary about former Nike Oregon Project head coach Alberto Salazar by Canadian filmmaker Paul Kemp, seeks to shed light on the practices that resulted in Salazar’s shocking ban from coaching in the middle of the 2019 IAAF World Championships. Many athletes, scientists and journalists appear in the film, including Canadian Running columnist Alex Hutchinson and writer Malcolm Gladwell, distance running’s most famous superfan.

Most of them defend Salazar as someone who used extreme technology like underwater treadmills, altitude houses and cryotherapy to get the best possible results from his athletes, and who may inadvertently have crossed the line occasionally, but who should not be regarded as a cheater. (Neither Salazar nor any Nike spokesperson participated in the film. Salazar’s case is currently under appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.)

Salazar became synonymous with Nike’s reputation for an uncompromising commitment to winning. He won three consecutive New York City Marathons in the early 1980s, as well as the 1982 Boston Marathon, and set several American records on the track during his running career.

He famously pushed his body to extremes, even avoiding drinking water during marathons to avoid gaining any extra weight, and was administered last rites after collapsing at the finish line of the 1987 Falmouth Road Race.

Salazar was hired to head the Nike Oregon Project in 2001, the goal of the NOP being to reinstate American athletes as the best in the world after the influx of Kenyans and Ethiopians who dominated international distance running in the 1990s. It took a few years, but eventually Salazar became the most powerful coach in running, with an athlete list that included some of the world’s most successful runners: Mo Farah, Galen Rupp, Matt Centrowitz, Dathan Ritzenhein, Kara Goucher, Jordan Hasay, Cam Levins, Shannon Rowbury, Mary Cain, Donovan Brazier, Sifan Hassan and Konstanze Klosterhalfen.

Goucher left the NOP in 2011, disillusioned by what she saw as unethical practices involving unnecessary prescriptions and experimentation on athletes, and went to USADA in 2012. An investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency followed on the heels of a damning BBC Panorama special in 2015, and picked up steam in 2017.

When Salazar’s suspension was announced during the World Championships in 2019, he had been found guilty of multiple illegal doping practices, including injecting athletes with more than the legal limit of L-carnitine (a naturally-occurring amino acid believed to enhance performance) and trafficking in testosterone – but none of his athletes were implicated. (Salazar admitted to experimenting with testosterone cream to find out how much would trigger a positive test, but claimed he was trying to avoid sabotage by competitors.)

That Salazar pushed his athletes as hard in training as he had once pushed himself is not disputed; neither is the fact that no Salazar athlete has ever failed a drug test. Gladwell, in particular, insists that Salazar’s methods are not those of someone who is trying to take shortcuts to victory – that people who use performance-enhancing drugs are looking for ways to avoid extremes in training.

That assertion doesn’t necessarily hold water when you consider that drugs like EPO (which, it should be noted, Salazar was never suspected of using with his athletes) allow for faster recovery, which lets athletes train harder – or that the most famous cheater of all, Lance Armstrong, trained as hard as anyone. (Armstrong, too, avoided testing positive for many years, and also continued to enjoy Nike’s support after his fall from grace.)

Goucher, Ritzenhein, Levins and original NOP member Ben Andrews are the only former Salazar athletes who appear on camera, and Goucher’s is the only female voice in the entire film. It was her testimony, along with that of former Nike athlete and NOP coach Steve Magness, that led to the lengthy USADA investigation and ban.

Among other things, she claims she was pressured to take a thyroid medication she didn’t need, to help her lose weight. (The film reports that these medications were prescribed by team doctor Jeffrey Brown, but barely mentions that Brown, too, was implicated in the investigation and received the same four-year suspension as Salazar.) Ritzenhein initially declines to comment on the L-carnitine infusions, considering Salazar’s appeal is ongoing, but then states he thinks the sanctions are appropriate. Farah, as we know, vehemently denied ever having used it, then reversed himself.

It’s unfortunate that neither Cain, who had once been the U.S.’s most promising young athlete, nor Magness appear on camera. A few weeks after the suspension, Cain, who had left the NOP under mysterious circumstances in 2015, opened up about her experience with Salazar, whom she said had publicly shamed her for being too heavy, and dismissed her concerns when she told him she was depressed and harming herself. Cain’s experience is acknowledged in the film, and there’s some criticism of Salazar’s approach, but Gladwell chalks it up to a poor fit, rather than holding him accountable.

Cain’s story was part of an ongoing reckoning with the kind of borderline-abusive practices that were once common in elite sport, but that are now recognized as harmful, and from which athletes should be protected.

Gladwell asserts that coaches like Salazar have always pushed the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable or legal in the quest to be the best, and that the alternative is, essentially, to abandon elite sport. It’s an unfortunate conclusion, and one that will no doubt be challenged by many advocates of clean sport.

Canada wants athletes vaccinated ahead of Olympics

In the wake of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) second playbook announcement on Wednesday, top officials from Athletics Canada (AC) are calling for all athletes competing in this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games to be vaccinated before heading to Tokyo.

In an interview with CBC Sports, Athletics Canada CEO David Bedford called it a matter of “national interest” to have all athletes and support staff heading to Japan fully vaccinated before leaving the country. He argued that if the government is already expecting most Canadians to be vaccinated by July 1, it only makes sense that we would prioritize these people, who are heading into what he called a “potential petri dish.”

“We’re not asking for something that isn’t happening all over the world. Even Kenya has vaccinated their athletes,” he added. “I would love to see the government come out and say this is in the national interest, these athletes represent all of us, so let’s get this taken care of so everyone is safe and healthy.”

The recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Japan has many people concerned that the Olympics could turn into a public health disaster, despite the protocols officials will be taking to ensure participant safety. Many countries, including Australia, have already announced they will be vaccinating their athletes ahead of the Games, but David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, maintains the organization’s original stance that athletes will not be given priority vaccinations.

“We maintain that Canada’s front-line workers and most vulnerable populations should be the priority for vaccinations,” he said. “With the growing numbers of vaccines available to Canadians, we are hopeful that athletes will have access to them prior to Tokyo, which would provide an additional layer of protection to the significant countermeasures that have been put in place.”

The biggest takeaway from Wednesday’s playbook announcement was increased testing, which mandates that athletes must provide two negative COVID-19 tests prior to boarding the plane for Tokyo. While this may help curb the spread of infection somewhat, many are concerned that the incubation period of the virus could render these tests useless. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch explained to the CBC that if an athlete is exposed to the virus, it could be two to five days before they start shedding it. This means they could have two negative tests before leaving Canada, but still test positive upon arrival in Tokyo. He added that vaccinating athletes isn’t a perfect solution, but it is a key way to ensure all 15,000 athletes competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games stay safe.

“Vaccinations for all athletes,” he said. “We’re in the vaccine era. It’s not foolproof, but again this is serious. The variants of concern are more transmissible.”

The Olympics are set to begin on July 23, and as of now, the IOC has maintained they will take place no matter what.

How COVID-19 has changed the Face of Running

Behind the scenes of ASICS’ “BE(AT) Your Personal Best” event.

It’s 8:00 am in the French woodland area of Morton, Domaine du Bois aux Daims, on April 24. Situated almost 300 miles from the country’s capital, a select group of Europe’s top runners, including Julien Wanders and Sondre Nordstad Moen, ponder at the start line of ASICS’ “(BE)AT Your Personal Best”, with some preparing for their first taste of competitive running in almost a year.

Lanyard-wearing event organizers disguised behind heavy-duty facemasks scurry around frantically with walkie-talkies and clipboards in hand, as a select few press and photographers scout out the best view points along the course. 

While, from the outside, it might look like any other pre-race meet, the events past year have made things a lot more complex.

Of course a return to a resemblance of normal doesn’t come without its barriers. Following a number of elite-only events like last year’s London Marathon, a handful of behind-closed-doors championships have taken place across the world, many of which have resulted subsequent positive COVID tests. Such is the worry, more recently with the Tokyo Olympicsjust a few months away, both the Jamaican and U.S. relay teams joined a host of others in withdrawing from the upcoming World Relay Championships.

(Photos by Anne-Sophie Soudoplatoff)

This trial and error approach to the now-successful return of athletics has created many barriers to overcome for an event to go ahead which can be both time-consuming and costly — something of an issue to a sport renowned for its severe underfunding in a vast majority of countries. Such barriers, though, for ASICS(TOKYO:7936.T +0.68%) are seen more as a hurdle — and one they’re keen to clear.

Taking place just West of Paris, in the heart of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, ASICS created a biosecure bubble within a Center Parcs location. Alongside negative COVID tests prior to travelling, upon arrival and before departure, each athlete resided alone in separate accommodation, with food and drink delivered to their doors.

For ASICS itself, the event was more than just another race. Three months in the making (a relatively short lead time in this field), the occasion marked the brand’s return to hosting live events and the follow-up to the launch of its new METASPEED Sky sneaker — ASICS’ answer to the “super shoe”. Equipped with a full-length carbon plate and a design that intends to improve its users overall performance, “(BE)AT Your Personal Best” was not only a test of the runners’ current condition in an Olympic year — but a test run of the sneaker itself too.

The 2.5km course saw runners head out along a wide asphalt path, before looping around a roundabout and back to the start. With near-on idyllic running conditions (a slight breeze, but nothing to be considered a headwind) and months of planning and testing behind them, the scene was finally set.

Pre-event much of the talk was about the current the European 10km and half marathon record-holder Julien Wanders’ planned attempt at attacking the 5km record too, but a bout of pneumonia two weeks prior saw him fall off the pace just over halfway. Instead it was Kenya’s Boniface Kibiwott who grabbed a personal best, winning in 13:24, followed by France’s Felix Bour (13:34) and Etienne Daguinos (13:36) who ran a new French under-23 record.

In the men’s 10km, pacer Hillary Kipkoech cruised to victory to set a new world-lead at 27:35, with Spain’s Jorge Blanco (28:27) and Sondre Nordstad Moen (28:35) almost a minute behind, while Sarah Lahti broke the Swedish women’s 5km record. Rounding things out was Mekdes Woldu who achieved a personal best in the women’s 10km with 31:47, finishing almost 2 minutes in front of Austria’s Julia Mayer (33:35).

In total, 24 of the 34 runners achieved personal best times in Domaine du Bois aux Daims, with one world leading time. And while these numbers and personal accolades are important — as well as the clear quality the METASPEED Sky brings — the real success story of ASICS’ “(BE)AT Your Personal Best” is a glimpse into the world of running’s new normal. 

Whether these restrictions stay in place for years to come or they’re simply a temporary measure, its success bodes well for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and how things might operate on a much larger scale – and suggests that the pandemic won’t keep sport down for long.

Eliud Kipchoge leads athletes in getting Covid-19 vaccination

Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge was among Kenyan athletes who received their Covid-19 vaccination at Kenyatta University Referral Hospital on Monday.

Also to receive their AstraZeneca jab were Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Chepngétich, Geoffrey Kamworor, the former World Half marathon champion and record holder and 2019 National Cross Country champion, Amos Kirui.

“The only other way we can conquer this pandemic is getting vaccinated, “said Kipchoge, who had just arrived from the Netherlands where he won the NN Mission in 2:04:30 on April 18.

“Taking the vaccination is also one way of helping us prepare for the Tokyo Olympics well since that Covid-19 vaccination certificate could in days to come be the ticket for the Games,” said Kipchoge, the marathon world record holder.

Cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohammed oversaw the launch of the vaccination exercise for Team Kenya for the Olympic Games at Kasarani on April 8. 

Amina said her ministry in collaboration with their health counterparts and Nairobi Metropolitan Services had secured 3,500 Covid-19 vaccines for Team Kenya going for the Tokyo Olympic Games and other teams for international assignments.

Amina disclosed that it’s their target to inoculate a total of 3,500 athletes, coaches, officials and athlete handlers across the country not only for Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games but other events.

Those who have benefited from the vaccine are all personnel working on Safari Rally, World Athletics Under-20 Championships in athletics, World Athletics Continental Tour’s Kip Keino Classic and the 2021 Rugby Africa U20 Barthes Trophy.

Others are Sports Kenya, the Kenya Academy of Sports, Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya, Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund and all Ministry of Sports frontline staffers.

Kipchoge now focuses on Olympics after comeback win in Twente

World men's marathon record holder, Eliud Kipchoge has set his sights on a second Olympic gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics after a win at the NN Mission Marathon in Enschede in the Netherlands. 

Kipchoge was competing for the first time after a disappointing eighth-place finish at the London Marathon in October last year. 

"This was a real test and quite the preparation ahead of Tokyo. The focus is now on the Olympics. I will consult with the coach and technical team to see what next in preparing for Tokyo," Kipchoge said. 

The Olympics marathon champion clocked 2:04:30 to finish first ahead of training partner, Jonathan Korir, who timed second in 2:06:40 with Eritrean Goitom Kifle ,  third in 2:08:00. 

Kipchoge said he is feeling confident and relieved following the win after ear problems and a hamstring complication denied him a third London Marathon at last year's event in which Ethiopia Shura Kitata clinched first place. 

"Yes indeed, it is mission accomplished. For the organisers to hold this event successfully under the current circumstances, it is a great achievement and I  thank them for that. The conditions were good although it was a bit windy. However, there were other athletes who ran under the same condition and so I can't complain too much about that. I do not always want to complain," he said. 

Kipchoge is part of the four-man team named by Athletics Kenya to lead the country's charge for a podium finish at the Olympics. 

Other members of the team include Boston Marathon champion Lawrence Cherono, Vincent Kipchumba and world marathon bronze medalist Amos Kipruto. 

Virtual Lewa Safari Marathon Is Back

Dubbed one of the top 10 marathons on the planet by Runner’s World, and supported by the likes of HRH The Duke of Cambridge, Deborah Meaden and Eliud Kipchoge, the Lewa Safari Marathon is one of Kenya’s major sporting events. 

The annual race usually takes place in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, which means participants get the opportunity to run through one of Africa’s most spectacular protected areas, sharing the trails with several with some of Kenya’s most iconic and critically endangered wildlife: Grevy’s Zebra, Lions, Elephants and Giraffes. This year, however, it’s going virtual…

Held in partnership with Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation charity, Tusk, the unique marathon has raised millions of dollars to fund wildlife conservation and community development in Kenya over the last 21 years.

From recovering Kenya’s black rhino population from the brink of extinction, protecting the world’s critically endangered Grevy’s zebra, and providing healthcare, water and improved infrastructure for communities, to supporting Lewa education programmes, the funds this marathon raises are invaluable to thousands across the country. 

However, these projects now face perhaps their greatest challenge to date: mounting a recovery plan in the face of a social and economic crises, which could last for many years to come.

So, in an attempt to help rebuild Kenya’s most vulnerable communities and wildlife, this year’s Lewa Safari Marathon is going virtual on the 26th of June. Lewa and their co-organisers are encouraging runners everywhere to lace up their shoes and join the challenge. Whether it’s 5km, 10km, 21km or even 42km, each stride is a step in the right direction. Entry is free, but all runners are encouraged to donate whatever they can.

“The Lewa Safari Marathon is no longer just an event in people’s dairy, it’s an event in their hearts. It has become part of our culture,” says John Kinoti, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy’s Community Development Manager. “Even though this year we are separated physically, we are still connected emotionally. The Virtual Lewa Safari Marathon is about continuing to transmit this culture of togetherness and inclusion, and help to transform lives.” 

Last year, HRH Duke of Cambridge – Tusk’s Royal Patron – took on the virtual challenge. He said: “This is not a race. There is no stopwatch. This is our way of showing Africa’s conservation community that we’re all in this together.”

Marathon world record holder, Eliud Kipchoge EGH, is also a great advocate of the Lewa Safari Marathon and will once again be running this year: “To me, a running world is a happy world,” says Eliud. “Last year, you joined me in a global running movement to support the guardians of wildlife and our natural heritage. This year, we have another opportunity to rally around my Kenyan brothers and sisters as they continue to feel the negative effects of the pandemic. Please join me on the 26th of June, wherever you are in the world, to run The Virtual Lewa Safari Marathon.“

Kipchoge clocks world-leading 2:04:30 in Enschede

Eliud Kipchoge waited until the final 30 minutes of the NN Mission Marathon to make his winning move as the Kenyan great kicked on to win the World Athletics Label road race in 2:04:30 at Twente Airport in Enschede on Sunday (18).

The Olympic champion had little to prove; his place on Kenya’s team for Tokyo had already been confirmed, as has his status as one of the all-time greats. But following a rare defeat at the London Marathon last year, the world record-holder was keen to produce a confidence-boosting performance ahead of the Olympic Games.

He did exactly that on Sunday, despite having to contend with some late changes to the race plans as the event had originally been set for 11 April in Hamburg.

Unlike many of Kipchoge’s previous marathon races, today’s event was never intended as an opportunity to chase record times. Nevertheless, the pace was swift as a lead group of four reached 15km in 43:46, just outside 2:03 pace.

After going through half way in 1:01:43, with Kipchoge running alongside pacemakers Philemon Kacheran and Jonathan Korir, the pace settled in the second half with each five-kilometre segment being covered in just outside 14:50.

By the time Kipchoge and the pacing duo reached 30km in 1:28:10, the chase pack was more than two minutes adrift but still on course for Olympic qualifying times. Shortly after, with 1:35 on the clock, Kipchoge left his pacemakers behind.

His tempo didn’t actually increase in the closing stages, but he maintained his sub-three-minute kilometre pace, which brought him to the finish line in a world-leading 2:04:30.

Korir held on for second place in 2:06:40 with Eritrea’s Goitom Kifle coming through to take third in 2:08:07. A little further behind, Uganda’s 2012 Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich placed fifth in 2:09:04.

“Mission accomplished,” said Kipchoge. “The conditions were really good, a bit windy, but I had no complaints. The race was perfect. This was the real test towards Tokyo. It’s good to have a marathon a few months before the Olympics to test my fitness.”

The leading contenders in the women’s race were paced by a small group of men, reaching 10km in 34:39 and half way in 1:12:58. Kenya’s Gladys Chesir, Sweden’s Hanna Lindholm and German duo Laura Hottenrott and Katharina Steinruck were all still in contention at this point, but Lindholm started to fade as they embarked on the second half.

Chesir was next to drop back, doing so after about 90 minutes of running, leaving Steinruck and Hottenrott as the lead duo. Steinruck (nee Heinig) began to edge ahead of her domestic rival in the final seven kilometres and the race was finally decided.

Steinruck reached the finish line in 2:25:59, elevating her to sixth on the German all-time list, just three places and 84 seconds adrift of her mother, Katrin Dorre-Heinig, the 1988 Olympic bronze medallist.

Portugal’s Sara Moreira finished strongly to take second place in 2:26:42 with Germany’s Rabea Schoneborn placing third in 2:27:03.

Eliud Kipchoge looks forward to ‘beautiful race’ at NN Mission Marathon

Twente Airport in the Netherlands on Sunday will see the Kenyan stretch his legs over 26.2 miles ahead of the defence of his Olympic title in Tokyo

Over the years the Twente Airport near the city of Enschede in the eastern Netherlands has been used by famous airplanes such as the Hawker Hunter and Gloster Meteor. But on Sunday (April 18) the world marathon record-holder Eliud Kipchoge will take to the runway in the NN Mission Marathon.

The airport course was chosen after the original venue of Hamburg was ruled out due to the pandemic. It will be Kipchoge’s first race since he finished a disappointing eighth in the London Marathon in October and he is looking forward to getting back to winning ways.

“Sunday, personally, I will be running a very beautiful race,” he said in a pre-race press conference. “I call it beautiful because we are in need and tough times during the pandemic.

“I want to run a beautiful race to show the world that actually we are on a huge, huge transition towards a great future.”

Kipchoge, 36, will tackle an eight-lap, spectator-free course and his rivals include 2012 Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda, who has a PB of 2:06:33.

Laban Korir of Kenya is also in the field and has a best of 2:05:54, while Filex Chemonges holds the Ugandan record with 2:05:12.

In addition, Augustine Choge, the 2006 Commonwealth 5000m champion, is hoping to complete his first marathon after DNF’ing in Chicago in 2018.

In total around 50 athletes from 20 different countries will be attempting to gain the Olympic qualifying standards of 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women in an event organisers have dubbed ‘the fastest way to Tokyo’.

In the women’s race, former New York Marathon podium finisher Sara Moreira of Portugal takes on Kenyan Gladys Chesir. Moreira’s PB of 2:24:49 is slightly quicker than Chesir’s, although the fastest woman in the race is Mexican Madai Perez, who has a best of 2:22:59 but is now aged 41.

The race begins 8.30am (local time) and is due to be shown on the BBC website for fans in UK and Ireland.

So, can Kipchoge return to his best form? Was his defeat in London part of a decline or merely a blip? His sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna unfolded in autumn 2019 but in London five months ago he finished eighth in 2:06:49 in a race won by Shura Kitata. Later he blamed an ear blockage for his under-par run.

World marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge travels to Netherlands for NN Marathon

World marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge will compete in the NN Mission Marathon in Dutch city of Enschede on Sunday.

“NN Mission Marathon will go ahead as planned on April 18 and will be moved from Hamburg to Enschede, The Netherlands, on the specially designed course on Twente Airport which will be closed for general audience,”  race organisers said yesterday in a statement.

The race which was initially planned for April 11, was pushed forward by a week due to Covid-19 restrictions in Hamburg.

And on Tuesday, Kenyan competitors started their journey to Nairobi from Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County via road due to Covid-19 restrictions which have forced suspension of local flights. In Nairobi, the athletes boarded the KLM Airlines flight and were expected in Enschede at 7.00am.

Another group of pacemakers will leave Kenya on Thursday for Enschede.

Kipchoge will be joined by up to 70 elite athletes who are seeking to qualify for the 2020 Olympics Games. The notable athletes include 2012 Olympics Games marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich from Uganda, his training mates Laban Korir and Jonathan Korir, Uganda’s Filex Chemonges,  and Ethiopia’s Tadese Abraham.

Kiprotich, who used to train with Kipchoge at the Global Sports Communication camp in Kaptagat but has since changed his training to Kapchorua in Uganda, said his focus is to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

“The virus has really demoralised many athletes because even if they train, where are they going to compete? I have trained well and my focus now is to qualify for the Olympics Games and join my compatriot Fred Musoba who has already qualified,” revealed Kiprotich.

Gerda Steyn sets South African marathon record in Siena, Italy

Eighty runners lined up in Siena, Italy, on Sunday morning to race the Xiamen Marathon, an elite-only event that marked one of the final opportunities to qualify for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Kenyans Eric Kiptanui and Angela Tanui took the wins in PBs of 2:05:47 and 2:20:08, and South Africa’s Gerda Steyn set a national marathon record of 2:25:28. In his first race in more than a year, Canada’s Reid Coolsaet finished well off the Olympic standard of 2:11:30, crossing the line in 2:16:38.

Kiptanui won the race by 10 seconds, edging out Ethiopia’s Abdi Fufa for first place. He bettered his PB by 30 seconds, improving on a 2:06:17 showing from his marathon debut in Dubai in 2020. His result is the second-fastest ever run on Italian soil, a minute off the all-comers record set by his fellow Kenyan Titus Ekiru at a race in Milan in 2019, which he won in 2:04:46. 

While Kiptanui fell short of the Italian all-comers record, Tanui did not, and her 2:20:08 winning time lowered the mark of 2:22:25, which Kenya’s Vivian Kiplagat also set in Milan in 2019. Unlike in the men’s race, which was relatively close, the women’s race saw a big gap between first and second place, with Tanui crossing the line more than two and a half minutes ahead of the next-closest runner. On top of setting the Italian all-comers record, Tanui also lowered her own PB by a whopping five minutes. 

In recent years, Steyn has proven to be one of the best runners in South African history. She set the Comrades Marathon up-run course record in 2019, becoming the first woman to break six hours in the storied event with her 5:58:53 winning time. That same year, she ran to an 11th-place finish at the New York City Marathon (a race less than half the distance of the 87K Comrades Marathon), running 2:27:48.

In 2020, Steyn ran to a seventh-place finish at the elite-only London Marathon, where she posted a new PB of 2:26:51, which was the second-fastest marathon result in South African history. This year, she was set to run the NN Mission Marathon, but her plans changed when the event was pushed from April 11 to April 18 and moved from Germany to the Netherlands. 

Fortunately, the Xiamen Marathon accepted her on short notice, and she ran a new South African marathon record of 2:25:28. She looked to have great chances of being named to the South African team headed to the Tokyo Olympics before Sunday’s race, but with her result in Italy, she has likely officially booked her ticket to the Summer Games. 

Tanui breaks Italian all-comers' record in Siena

Kenya’s Angela Tanui and Eric Kiptanui claimed victory at the Xiamen Marathon and Tuscany Camp Global Elite Race in Siena on Sunday (11), with Tanui breaking the Italian all-comers' record with 2:20:08 at the specially-organised elite-only event.

Held as an opportunity for athletes to achieve qualifying marks for the Olympic Games in Tokyo – with co-operation from the Italian Athletics Federation, World Athletics and the Xiamen Marathon, which was unable to welcome overseas entrants to race this weekend due to pandemic restrictions – the event saw athletes race on a roughly 5km loop course around the roads of the Siena-Ampugnano Airport.

Despite the rain and wind, 2018 Venice Marathon winner Tanui took more than five minutes off her PB to improve the Italian all-comers' best which had previously been Vivian Kiplagat’s 2:22:25 set in Milan in 2019.

Kiptanui achieved the second-quickest men’s time ever run on Italian soil, clocking 2:05:47 to improve on his previous best of 2:06:17 run in Dubai in 2020. Only Titus Ekiru with 2:04:46, also run in Milan in 2019, has gone quicker for the distance in Italy.

A group of 13 athletes featured in the lead women’s group which passed 4850m in 16:24 and the pack remained 12 strong by 14,910m, passed in 50:18.

Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa, Gebiyanesh Gedamu and Haven Hailu Desse were among those to the fore along with Tanui at halfway, with the 22,470m mark passed by that lead group in 1:15:19.

By 30km a group of four athletes was breaking away, with Tanui joined by her fellow Kenyans Gladys Chepkirui and Delvine Meringor, plus Gedamu. Tanui made a break and continued to move ahead over the final 10km, eventually winning by more than two-and-a-half minutes from her compatriot Purity Changwony, who came through to finish second in a PB of 2:22:46. Gedamu was third in 2:23:23 and Desse fourth in 2:23:52 as the top six went sub-2:25.

South Africa’s Gerda Steyn improved her PB to 2:25:28 in ninth, while 2013 world silver medallist Valeria Straneo was the top Italian in 20th and finished a minute outside the Olympic qualifying time with 2:30:33.

In the men’s race, a large group of 37 athletes went through 4850m in 14:23 and 26 were together at halfway, with 22,470m passed in 1:06:42.

The leaders hit 30km in 1:29:38 before Kiptanui and Ethiopia's Abdi Fufa Nigassa made a move with less than 5km remaining.

Kiptanui – the 2020 Dubai Marathon runner-up – kicked ahead to win by 10 seconds from Nigassa with 2:05:57, as Morocco’s Othmane El Goumri improved his PB to 2:06:18 in third. Yohanes Ghebregergis of Eritrea finished fourth in 2:06:28 and Ethiopia’s Wami Kebede Tulu fifth in 2:06:32 as nine athletes finished inside 2:07 and 20 went sub-2:09.

Germany’s Richard Ringer took more than two minutes off his PB with 2:08:49 to finish 17th, while Italy’s Stefano La Rosa was 30th in 2:11:42, just 12 seconds outside of the Olympic qualifying mark.

Kenyan Emmanuel Naibei wins Lagos City Marathon

Naibei ensured Kenya’s dominance when he won the race in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 37 seconds, beating a field of 300 athletes in the Nigerian capital on Saturday.

Naibei, who finished second at the 2019 Guangzhou Marathon where he set his current Personal Best time of 2:08:27, edged out the Ethiopian duo of  Deresa Geleta and Demiso Gudeta who finished second and third respectively, for victory.

Naibei walked home with the winner's purse of US$ 30,000 (Sh3.2 million) while Geleta and Gudeta went home with $20,000 (Sh2.1 million) and $15,000 (Sh1.6 million) respectively.

This was the fourth time a Kenyan is winning the men’s race in Lagos.

Last year, Kenya’s David Barmasai Tumo won the fifth edition of the marathon in a course record time of 2:10:22 as Sharon Cherop went for the women’s crown in a course record time of 2:31:40, dethroning Ethiopian Meseret Dinke.

However, Dinke was on top of her game this time around to reclaim the title in 2:32:16, beating Kenya’s Celestine Jepchirchir to second place.

Third place went to Desta Muluneh from Ethiopia.

Briton Hutchings calls for records reset for high-tech shoes era

World Athletics should introduce a new set of records for times set by athletes wearing high-tech footwear, said British Olympian Tim Hutchings, as debate continues over whether the shoes give runners an unfair advantage.

Footwear developed by Nike played a role in two of the biggest distance-running achievements of 2019, with Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna and Brigid Kosgei’s record-breaking run at the Chicago Marathon bringing the Vaporfly shoes into the spotlight.

While World Athletics banned the shoes from professional sport last year, Nike has launched a new version of its Alphafly footwear that complies with new rules introduced by the governing body.

"People from many quarters are saying stop fussing about the shoes. Just move on and enjoy the racing. To which I'd respond, I've always enjoyed the racing and will continue to," Hutchings told The Times here.

“But I want to enjoy and respect times as well, not just cast aside that element. A reset would enable this. The shoes are here to stay, sadly the genie is out of the bottle.”

Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich shaved 29 seconds off the world half marathon record on Sunday and British triathlete Beth Potter is awaiting ratification of a world record time from a low-key 5km road race a day earlier.

Both athletes wore high-tech footwear made by different manufacturers.

“Let folk race and record new era personal bests,” said Hutchings, who finished fourth in the 5,000m at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

“A date needs to be identified retrospectively, then everyone would respect times in the right context. Athletes deserve that.”

NN Running has announced its elite field for Mission Marathon

Set to run in the Netherlands on April 18, Eliud Kipchoge will headline the race of about 60 athletes.

The fields for the NN Mission Marathon have been released, and the world finally knows who will toe the start line with Eliud Kipchoge. The races are set to be run in Enschede, the Netherlands, on April 18, and fields of 23 women and 35 men will line up to compete. Kipchoge is the clear favourite for the win, but second place in the men’s race and first place in the women’s are both anybody’s to claim, which will make for a couple of exciting and dramatic competitions.

The men’s race

In the men’s race, the pre-race seed times aren’t even close, and there’s really no debate as to who is most likely to win. Kipchoge owns the world record in the marathon with his PB of 2:01:39, and he has also run an unofficial record of 1:59:40. While many of the other runners racing the NN Mission Marathon are looking to qualify for the Tokyo Games or prove that they deserve to be chosen for their national Olympic teams, Kipchoge has a simpler and less stressful reason to run: he needs to bounce back from his poor race at the London Marathon last fall.

He’s still a heavy favourite heading into the Tokyo Games, but his poor 2:06:49 showing in October proved that he is human, and for the first time in years, his competitors might seriously believe they have a chance to beat him. A great race in the Netherlands can boost Kipchoge’s confidence while also knocking down that of his rivals ahead of the Olympics.

The next fastest PB in the men’s field belongs to Felix Chemonges, who owns the Ugandan national marathon record of 2:05:12 (which he ran at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2019). Chemonges hasn’t raced since March 2020, though, and his last result was a sub-par 2:10:08 run at the Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan.

Only one other man in the field, Kenya’s Laban Korir, has run a sub-2:06 marathon in his career, and his 2:05:54 PB puts him at third-best in the men’s race. Out of the 35 men set to race the NN Mission Marathon, 17 have run faster than the Olympic standard of 2:11:30, and 11 runners from that group have broken 2:10.

It’d be safe to bet on Kipchoge for the overall win in the Netherlands, but with so many other runners hovering around the same seed times, the battle for second and third place — plus the mad dash to cross the finish before the clock hits 2:11:30 — will produce must-watch coverage.

The women’s race has the potential to be much more competitive than the men’s when it comes to the overall win. Mexican marathon record holder Madai Perez has the fastest PB of any of the women in the field. The only thing is that she ran her national record of 2:22:59 all the way back in 2006, and the last time she broke 2:30 came in Chicago in 2017, when she ran 2:24:44. She certainly could take the win in the Netherlands, but her seed time is a bit misleading considering how long ago she ran it.

Next up are Jessica Augusto and Sara Moreira, a couple of Portuguese runners. Augusto owns a PB of 2:24:25, just ahead of Moreira’s career best of 2:24:49. Both of these women have posted tremendous times in the past, but neither has completed a marathon in recent years. Augusto’s last finish came in 2017, and she has one DNF since then.

Moreira has had an even worse few years, and her last finish came in 2015. Since then, she has DNFed three times, including in the marathon at the Rio Olympics. In 2015, though, she placed second at the Prague Marathon and fourth at the New York City Marathon. The next athlete on the start list is Kenya’s Gladys Chesir, who has a PB of 2:24:51, but like her Portuguese competitors, she hasn’t completed a marathon in years, and her last official finish was in 2017.

In total, nine of the 23 women in the field have beaten the Olympic standard of 2:29:30, with several others knocking at the door of sub-2:30 results. Like the men’s race, the women’s run should be an exciting affair, and it’s an event no running fan will want to miss.

Kibiwott Kandie´s training camp routine is three times a day

The first run is at 6am, and I might do 20km at a good pace. At 10am, I’ll do another 8km, plus some exercises. In the afternoon, around 4pm, I’ll usually do an easy 10km.

That’s my routine during training camp, in Ngong or Iten, and while it may seem like a lot, I've been covering long distances ever since I was a kid.

I grew up in Baringo County, western Kenya. My mother was a farmer, my father worked for the Ministry of Water, and when I was young I spent my days on my feet. Maybe it was chasing goats or cows around the farm or in the local forest, or maybe it was going to and from school, which was 7km away. I’d make that journey four times a day, coming back in the middle to take lunch at home. I’d run a bit, walk a bit, run a bit, walk a bit.

I started doing cross country races while at school, and I wasn't successful in the beginning. But I told myself, one day, I have to win.

As a kid, I used to set myself the goal to run from here to there, and I'd get great satisfaction when I’d be able to do it. That was where the habit started, how I first learned to love athletics.

Growing up, a name I heard all the time was Paul Tergat. He was from an area not far from me so my goal was to grow up and be like him.

I finished school in 2015 and, at that point, my parents told me to go for higher education, but my mind was made up. I wanted to run full-time, and I convinced them to allow me to give it a go.  For the last four years I’ve also been working with the military, a job that supports life as a high-level athlete.

My first coach was John Korir, who’s based in Ngong, but since last year I’ve spent a lot of time in Iten, training with coach Joseph Cheromei. On a normal week, I'll do 170-180km.

When things started to shut down last year due to the pandemic, I accepted what was happening, that this was nature and we couldn’t blame anyone. I kept training, but not as hard. I did my morning run as normal, and once in a while I did speed work, but I eased back and didn’t do the usual three times a day.

I told myself, be patient, sometime soon everything will be well and sports will be back.

That happened last autumn, and my big goal then was the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland. My training had been really good so my aim was to win gold, but in the race I quickly realised many others were very strong, too, so I changed it to getting a medal.

My big goal is to make the Kenyan team over 10,000m for the Tokyo Olympics, and everything will be focused on that until the summer.

Looking beyond that, my mind is already starting to think about the marathon. It will be a big challenge, trying to move up to double the distance, but I’d like to prepare for one in the autumn and see how good I can be.

Long-term, that's my big goal in this sport. I want to do what Paul Tergat did, and make history in the marathon.

NN Mission Marathon has confirmed Netherlands as new location

The NN Running Team announced on Tuesday that the NN Mission Marathon has been relocated to Enschede, the Netherlands. The race, which organizers postponed on March 31, will take place on April 18, one week later than it was originally set to be run.

The event will feature about 70 athletes, including marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, who will be looking to use the race as a chance to test his fitness ahead of this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

The original plan for the NN Mission Marathon was announced in February, and organizers hoped to hold it in Hamburg. That plan fell apart in late March, when COVID-19 restrictions changed in Germany, ultimately making it impossible to hold any race in Hamburg in the coming weeks. 

The NN Running Team announced the postponement and relocation of the Mission Marathon just over a week before the race date of April 11. The event was only pushed one week, which didn’t give event organizers much time to find a new host city for the race.

It turns out that they needed less than a week to do so, though, as the NN Running Team announced the official change of venue on Tuesday. The race will now take place at Twente Airport, which is about 12K outside of Enschede. 

The NN Running Team’s postponement announcement likely created a lot of stress for many of the runners set to race the Mission Marathon. The event, after all, was organized specifically for athletes looking to hit Olympic standard in the marathon ahead of the Tokyo Games. With so few racing opportunities on the calendar, this could be the last chance for a lot of athletes to qualify for Tokyo, and when the race was rescheduled, these runners probably began to scramble as they searched for a backup event in case the postponement turned into an outright cancellation. 

Kipchoge is already a lock for the Kenyan Olympic team, and he will be one of the favorites to win gold in the marathon this summer. Even so, he, too, probably breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that the race can officially go ahead in the Netherlands, as there is still a lot riding on this race for him.

He doesn’t need to perform well to guarantee his ticket to Tokyo, but a good run at the Mission Marathon can silence any doubters who think he is past his prime. 

Luckily for Kipchoge and the many Olympic hopefuls slated to run the Mission Marathon, the race is good to go in its new home in the Netherlands. It will be can’t-miss action on April 18, and seeing as there is so much on the line for these athletes, dramatic runs can certainly be expected. 

British Olympian Tim Hutchings calls for records reset in hi-tech shoes era

World Athletics should introduce a new set of records for times set by athletes wearing high-tech footwear, said British Olympian Tim Hutchings, as debate continues over whether the shoes give runners an unfair advantage. 

Footwear developed by Nike played a role in two of the biggest distance-running achievements of 2019, with Eliud Kipchoge's sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna and Brigid Kosgei's record-breaking run at the Chicago Marathon bringing the Vaporfly shoes into the spotlight. 

While World Athletics banned the shoes from professional sport last year, Nike has launched a new version of its Alphafly footwear that complies with new rules introduced by the governing body. 

"People from many quarters are saying stop fussing about the shoes. Just move on and enjoy the racing. To which I'd respond, I've always enjoyed the racing and will continue to," Hutchings told The Times. 

"But I want to enjoy and respect times as well, not just cast aside that element. A reset would enable this. The shoes are here to stay, sadly the genie is out of the bottle." 

Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich shaved 29 seconds off the world half marathon record on Sunday and British triathlete Beth Potter is awaiting ratification of a world record time from a low-key 5km road race a day earlier. 

Both athletes wore high-tech footwear made by different manufacturers. 

"Let folk race and record new era personal bests," said Hutchings, who finished fourth in the 5,000m at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. 

"A date needs to be identified retrospectively, then everyone would respect times in the right context. Athletes deserve that." 

2016 Scotland’s Olympian Beth Potter breaks 5K world record with 14:41 run in Great Britain

Scottish runner-turned-triathlete Beth Potter beat the 5K road world record on Saturday at a race in Barrowford, U.K., about an hour north of Manchester, where she ran an amazing 14:41. Organizers of the race, which is called the Podium 5K, say their course is the fastest in Great Britain, and Potter’s run certainly bolsters that claim.

Potter bettered the previous world record of 14:43 (which Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech set in Monaco in February) by two seconds. 

According to fastrunning.com, Potter missed the start of the women’s race, but she was luckily permitted to run in the ‘B’ wave of the men’s event. While missing the start of a race is a nightmare that haunts all runners, this actually might have helped Potter, as she had other 14:40-range athletes to run with who could push her right to the finish.

She very well could have beaten the record had she run with the women’s field, but having constant competition no doubt helped her mentally. When Potter crossed the finish line, she was visibly surprised to see the clock.

Potter’s time beat Chepkoech’s world record by two seconds and Paula Radcliffe‘s British 5K record of 14:51 by 10 seconds. She also smashed her own 5K PB of 15:24 — a time she ran at the same race in Barrowford last year. 

It is important to note that, while Potter bettered the world record (a result that World Athletics reported is unlikely to be ratified), one woman has run a road 5K faster. In September 2017, Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei ran a 14:32 5K split en route to the 10K world record at a race in Prague. At the time, though, World Athletics (then IAAF) did not recognize the 5K as a world record event, and even though Jepkosgei’s run is the fastest in history, it’s not the official world record. 

In no way does this diminish Potter’s result, and regardless of whether her run is ratified as the world record, she officially owns one of the fastest 5K runs in history. 

ASICS Metaspeed 

Not only did Potter’s record support the claim made by race organizers that their course is the fastest in the U.K., but it is also great for ASICS, her main sponsor, as she wore the company’s new shoe — the Metaspeed Sky — in her win.

The Metaspeed is the latest carbon-plated shoe from ASICS, and it’s the company’s response to Nike in the “super shoe” race. ASICS only just released the Metaspeed at the end of March, but Potter has already delivered the shoe’s first world record. 

Turning to triathlon 

Potter represented Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics and 2017 world championships in the 10,000m. She is also a former 10,000m British champion. According to Athletics Weekly, when she struggled to find sponsors in running, Potter decided to switch sports and focus her attention on triathlon instead of the track. 

World half-marathon record falls to Ruth Chepngetich in Istanbul

Istanbul race promised fast times due to red-hot line up and it delivered despite damp conditions

Ruth Chepngetich took almost half a minute off the women’s world half-marathon record in Istanbul on Sunday (April 4).

The Kenyan, who won the world marathon title in the heat and humidity of Doha in 2019, clocked 64:02 for the 13.1-mile distance as she smashed the 64:31 mark held by Ababel Yeshaneh of Ethiopia.

The 26-year-old is certainly familiar with the roads of Istanbul. She has now won the city’s half-marathon three times and in 2018 she ran 2:18:35 to win the Istanbul Marathon.

Yeshaneh’s world record was set at the RAK Half in February last year. That race was called off this year due to the coronavirus, which effectively meant many of the leading entrants competed in Istanbul instead.

Racing less than 24 hours after Beth Potter ran the fastest ever 5km on the roads at the Podium 5km in Lancashire, Chepngetich drew away from a strong field in Istanbul in damp and cool conditions.

The event featured a mass participation field and also inline skaters and saw the runners tackling the distance on the banks of the Bosphorus on a wet morning in Turkey.

Not only was Chepngetich’s time a world record, too, but it was quicker than the fastest-ever half-marathon set on the roads – the 64:28 by Brigid Kosgei on a Great North Run course that is disallowed for record purposes.

Runner-up Yalemrzew Yehualaf clocked 64:40 to go No.3 on the world all-time lists while Hellen Obiri, the world cross-country champion, clocked 64:51 on her debut, making this the first time three women had broken the 65-minute barrier in the same race.

Joan Chelimo Melly was fourth in 65:09 and world marathon record-holder Kosgei fifth in 66:01 as the top seven broke 67 minutes.

The eagerly-anticipated men’s race head to head between Kibiwott Kandie beats Geoffrey Kamworor, meanwhile, saw Kandie take the win by three seconds in 59:35 as he gradually drew away from his rival in the closing stages.

The runners were well outside Kandie’s men’s world record of 57:32 but Kandie’s time was a course record and the top five men broke the one-hour mark.

World Records in danger at Istanbul Half Marathon Sunday

Super-strong fields tackle 13.1 miles in Turkish city on Sunday with Hellen Obiri, Brigid Kosgei, Peres Jepchirchir, Kibiwott Kandie and Geoffrey Kamworor among the entries

World records could fall at the Istanbul Half Marathon on Sunday (April 4) due to the red-hot line-ups that have been assembled.

The women’s race features marathon world record-holder Brigid Kosgei, world half-marathon gold medallist Peres Jepchirchir and world cross-country and 5000m champion Hellen Obiri.

Whereas the men’s race sees world half-marathon record-holder Kibiwott Kandie against former world record-holder Geoffrey Kamworor.

Obiri makes her half-marathon debut and she could hardly have picked a tougher first race.

In addition to Kosgei and Jepchirchir, the Kenyan faces world marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich, plus Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw, Melat Kejeta of Germany and Yasemin Can of Turkey.

All eyes will be on Kandie and Kamworor in the men’s race but watch out too for Ethiopia’s Amdework Walelegn and Uganda’s Stephen Kissa plus Turkey’s Kaan Kigen Ozbilen.

Kandie and Kamworor were due to have a much-anticipated showdown at the RAK Half on February 19 but it was called off due to the pandemic.

If conditions are good Kandie’s world record of 57:32 – which was set in Valencia in December – will be under threat, whereas the women’s world record of 64:31 held by Ababel Yeshaneh is also in danger.

The races start 10am local time on Sunday April 4.

All Sport activities suspended in Kenya as Government aims to tackle COVID-19 spike

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has suspended all sporting activities in the country as part of efforts to control the spread of COVID-19.

Kenyatta confirmed a raft of new measures yesterday during a televised address, amid a spike in cases.

The Kenya President said the county had 4,380 confirmed COVID-19 cases on January 20, but that the figure had surged to 15,916 on March 22.

He warned that Kenya was facing a third wave of COVID-19, with the rate of infection having risen from 2.6 per cent in January up to around 22 per cent now.

Kenyatta announced new lockdown measures with a particular focus on high-risks areas, including the capital city Nairobi, as well as Kajiado, Machakos, Nakuru and Kiambu.

The new measures included the suspension of all sporting activities and in-person schooling in the country.

Kenyatta added that people over the age of 58 would be prioritised during the first stage of COVID-19 vaccinations in the country.

"Whereas the foregoing measures will have adverse effects on the economy and constrain our usual way of life, the measures are temporary and necessary to contain the spread of the disease and therefore stop further loss of lives," Kenyatta said.

"I am convinced that the cost of not acting now would be far greater."

The suspension of sporting activities in Kenya could have a major impact on athletes preparing for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It is unclear whether the Kenyan Government could issue exemptions for athletes preparing for the Games.

Kenya Rugby Union chairman Oduor Gangla has confirmed the organisation has suspended its Kenya Cup league due to the restrictions.

Kenya's men's and women's rugby sevens teams, however, are not based in the country at this time.

The teams are set to take part in the Emirates Invitational 7s event in Dubai, which will take place in April and serve as a warm-up event for teams competing at Tokyo 2020.

Double world indoor 800m champion Collins Kipruto thinks the new Covid-19 measures will negatively affect athletes preparations for international events

Kipruto says the new Covid-19 measures requiring athletes to train individually will negatively affect their preparations for local and international events. 

Kipruto said training in a group prepares athletes psychologically and provides them with a hint of what to expect in a competitive setting. 

"We usually prefer training together because we can motivate one another and push ourselves to give the best. By training in a group, you are able to gauge your level of fitness and performance vis-a-vis your training partners. You are also able to fine tune your tactics in readiness for the competition," Kipruto said. 

Kipruto, who is currently hard at work in Nyahururu, revealed he has had to adapt his training regime due to the present circumstances. 

"The positive thing about the current situation is that the camp has not been closed down so we are able to continue training. There are not many of us in Nyahururu, which makes it easier for us to adhere to the measures. I am in good shape and mentally ready for the upcoming competitions. I hope these new restrictions won't last long so we can get some competition under our belts," he said. 

On Sunday, Athletics Kenya postponed all upcoming athletics events in the country and directed all athletes to train individually rather than in groups to maintain physical distancing. 

This was after President Uhuru Kenyatta suspended all sports activities countrywide as part of new, tough restrictions to mitigate the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kenyan Abel Kirui eyes Mumbai Marathon title in May

Two-time world marathon champion Abel Kirui has landed an invite for the  Mumbai Marathon set for May 30 in India.

The assistant superintendent of police based in Mombasa, said said he is ready to make his debut in Mumbai, where he will be up against other bigwigs. 

Speaking at his Global Sports Communication training camp in Kaptagat, Kirui said he started his Marathon journey in Asia, specifically Singapore Marathon where he finished third in 2:15:2 and wants to improve on that.

“Now I still have about two months to prepare and as an athlete, I will be fighting for the title and nothing less. I expect a crowded field by considering my training, i believe I am up to the challenge,” said Kirui, who finished third at the 2007 Vienna City Marathon in 2:10:41 before winning the title the following year in 2:07:38. 

The 39-year-old first won the world title in 2009 in Berlin, Germany before  defending it in 2011 Daegu, South Korea. Kirui won silver at the 2012 Olympic Games in London . 

The former Chicago Marathon champion said he will be keen to lower his personal best of 2:05:04, which he set in 2009 Rotterdam Marathon. “ I always run well under warm weather conditions, which I expect in Mumbai City,” he added.

Tsehay Gemechu and Nibret Melak claimed a double win for Ethiopia at the Cinque Mulini, the second leg of the World Athletics Cross Country Permit series

Gemechu and Melak secure Ethiopian double at Cinque Mulini, it was Gemechu’s second high-profile victory in as many weeks, following her triumph last weekend at the Campaccio meeting.

The Cinque Mulini, meaning 'five mills' in Italian, boasts one of the most iconic cross-country courses in the world. Back in the 1930s, the course passed through five mills along the Olona river. The race has had to adapt over time and it is now held on a two-kilometre loop which passes through the Cozzi and Meraviglia water mills.

In 2019 the Cinque Mulini was awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque.

Gemechu, fellow Ethiopian Alemitu Tariku and Kenya’s Sheila Chelangat and Beatrice Chebet pulled away from Burundi’s Francine Niyomukunzi in the early stages and completed the first lap in 6:45.

Chebet, Gemechu and Chelangat stepped up the pace on the second lap, opening up an 11-second gap on Tariku. Chelangat was the next to drift back, leaving Chebet and Gemechu to battle it out on the final lap.

Chebet led for most of the final lap, but Gemechu launched her kick in the final straight to take a three-second win in 18:53.

“I feel good,” said Gemechu, the fourth-place finisher in the 5000m at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019. “It was a great race for me. I am happy that I won my second consecutive race. I will now return to Ethiopia to prepare for my next race over 10,000m in Hengelo.”

Melak took the honours in the 10.2km men’s race in 28:57, holding off last year’s Cinque Mulini winner Leonard Bett Kipkemoi by one second and two-time world 5000m champion Muktar Edris by two seconds in a close sprint.

Bett led a nine-man lead group that included Melak, Edris, Uganda’s Samuel Kibet and Hosea Kiplangat, Italian marathon record-holder Eyob Faniel, Marouan Razine, Yohannes Chiappinelli and Oscar Chelimo.

The lead pack was whittled down to seven runners during the second lap as Bett took the initiative, going through the second lap mark in 12:14, closely followed by Melak, Kibet, Edris, Kiplangat, Chiappinelli and Chelimo.

The pace increased on the fourth lap when Melak, Bett, Kiplangat, Edris broke away from Kibet with the leading quartet going through 8km in 23:30.

In a dramatic final sprint, Melak edged ahead of Bett to win by one second in 28:57. Edris, who won the Cinque Mulini in 2013 and 2015, finished third in 28:59, sharing the same time as Chelimo.

It was Melak’s second consecutive podium finish in the Cross Country Permit series, following his runner-up spot at the Campaccio in San Giorgio su Legnano last week.

The 21-year-old has a 5000m PB of 13:07.27, set as an U20 athlete in 2018, but it’s cross country where he excels. Earlier this year he successfully defended his senior men’s title at the Jan Meda Cross Country, which doubles as the Ethiopian Championships.

“It was a very competitive race,” said Melak. “I expected that the battle for the win would be very close, as I ran against great athletes. Cross country is the perfect build-up to the track season.”

The most remarkable line-up has been announced for Istanbul Half Marathon

Organizers of the N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon have announced the most remarkable line-up in the history of this World Athletics Elite Label road race, to be held on 4 April.

Having staged a successful edition under intense measures against Covid-19 in September last year, the event is now set to host a limited number of 4000 participants on its traditional date of the first Sunday of April.

The race will see the long-awaited clash of the reigning and former world record-holders over the distance. Kibiwott Kandie of Kenya, now the world’s fastest half-marathon runner, improved the time set by his compatriot Geoffrey Kamworor in Valencia in December, bringing down the world record to 57:32 from 58:01. Kamworor, who has three World Athletics Half Marathon Championships gold medals under his belt, will be back on the roads following his recovery from surgery after he was hit by a motorcycle in June last year.

The two Kenyans will be joined by two sub-59 minute runners in Amedework Walelegn of Ethiopia, the Istanbul Half Marathon record-holder who won in 59:50 in 2018, and Uganda's Stephen Kissa, who made his debut over the distance in February 2020 and finished the year with a time of 58:56. Kenya’s Leonard Barsoton, sixth at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia last year, will also be one of the fastest athletes on the start line.

Home hopes in Istanbul will be led by Kaan Kigen Ozbilen, who holds the national record with 59:48. Aras Kaya, European cross country champion in 2019, will also be a strong contender in the event that incorporates the National Half Marathon Championships.

The women’s field is equally as strong. Kenya’s marathon world record-holder Brigid Kosgei and the women-only half-marathon world record-holder Peres Jepchirchir, plus the second fastest female half-marathon runner of all time Yalemzerf Yehualaw of Ethiopia, will head the line-up.

Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich, the race record-holder and the reigning world marathon champion, will be a co-favorite in the race along with Joan Chelimo Melly.

The European women-only record-holder Melat Kejeta from Germany will also be on the start line on 4 April. The home crowd expects Kejeta’s record to be challenged by Yasemin Can.

Kamworor, Kandie, Kosgei and Yehualaw had been among the athletes set to race at the Ras Al Khamimah Half Marathon in February before it was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Kiplimo set to star at Campaccio cross country

Reigning world half-marathon champion Jacob Kiplimo from Uganda will be in the spotlight at the 64th edition of the Campaccio in San Giorgio su Legnano when the first leg of the World Athletics Cross Country Permit series takes place on Sunday (21).

The popular Northern Italian cross-country race was originally scheduled for its traditional 6 January date, but it was postponed until the end of March due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. For the first time in its long history, the Campaccio will be held in spring.

Kiplimo won the world half-marathon title in Gdynia in 58:49 last October and ran the second-fastest time in history over the 21.1km distance with 57:37 in Valencia last December. The 20-year-old also set PBs on the track last year, clocking 7:26.64 in the 3000m in Rome and 12:48.63 in the 5000m in Ostrava. In 2019 he won the world cross-country silver medal in Aarhus. In the build-up to the Campaccio, Kiplimo dominated the men’s race at the Italian Cross Country Club Championships in Campi Bisenzio near Florence in rainy conditions.

Kiplimo will race against his younger brother Oscar Chelimo, who won the BOclassic 5km World Athletics Label road race in Bolzano last December. In 2018 Chelimo finished seventh in the 5000m at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere and won the 3000m at the Olympic Youth Games in Buenos Aires. One year later, the 19-year-old won the world under-20 cross-country bronze medal in Aarhus and finished fifth in the 5000m at the African Games in Rabat. 

Another Ugandan runner in the line-up is 2017 and 2018 world mountain running silver medallist Joel Ayeko.

Last year’s surprise Campaccio winner Mogos Tuemay will return to San Giorgio su Legnano to defend his title. The Ethiopian runner set his 10,000m PB in Hengelo in 2019 with 27:23.49 and finished 18th at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Aarhus in 2019.

The top Italian runner is Eyob Faniel, who broke Stefano Baldini’s national marathon record with 2:07:19 in Seville last year. Faniel improved Rachid Berradi’s long-standing Italian half-marathon record with 1:00:07 at the Tuscany Camp Half Marathon in Siena at the end of February. Faniel also won the 2019 BOclassic road race and equalled Daniele Meucci’s 10km national record with 28:08 at the San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid last December.

“I have always used cross-country competitions as preparation for the marathon,” said Faniel. “I finished ninth in 2017 and 10th in 2018 in my previous two appearances at the Campaccio. This year I am in different form, as I trained for shorter distances to prepare for the half-marathon. The turning point in my career was my win at the Boclassic in Bolzano in 2019.”

Faniel will battle for top place among Italian runners against Iliass Aouani, who won the national individual cross country title in Campi Bisenzio last week. Aouani, who graduated in engineering at the Syracuse University in New York, finished fourth at the 2019 World University Games in Naples in the 10,000m and equalled the national indoor mile record with 4:00.07 last year in Boston. 

Other Italian runners to watch out for are Yohanes Chiappinelli, who won the European bronze medal in the 3000m steeplechase in Berlin in 2018, plus 2017 European indoor 3000m finalist Yassin Bouih, 2019 world mountain running silver medallist Cesare Maestri and 2017 world mountain running gold medallist Francesco Puppi.

In the women’s race, Lilian Kasait Rengeruk from Kenya will be bidding to win the Campaccio title for the second time, three years after her triumph in 2018. Rengeruk won the world cross country bronze medal in 2017 and finished fifth in the 5000m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha with her PB of 14:36.05. 

Rengeruk will take on Winfred Mutile Yavi, who finished fourth in the 3000m steeplechase in Doha and won the past two editions of the Cinque Mulini Cross Country Permit race in San Vittore Olona in 2019 and 2020. Yavi clocked a world all-time best in the indoor 2000m steeplechase with 5:45.09 in Lievin last February. 

The line-up also features Ethiopia’s Tsehay Gemechu, who finished sixth at the 2019 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Aarhus. 

Nadia Battocletti leads the Italian contingent. Battocletti won two consecutive European under-20 cross-country gold medals and the European under-20 silver medal in the 5000m in 2019. The daughter of former Italian cross-country star Giuliano Battocletti finished sixth in last year’s edition of the Campaccio. She won her first national senior cross-country title in Campi Bisenzio last weekend after being sidelined by an injury problem at the end of January.

The other top Italian runners are Ludovica Cavalli, who won the Italian under-23 titles in the 1500m and 5000m last year and in the 3000m indoors in 2021, plus 3000m steeplechase specialist Martina Merlo (PB 9:41.06).

“Despite the restrictions due to the global pandemic, we managed to put together a world-class field. We are proud to announce that the special guest will be fresh European 60m champion Marcell Jacobs, who will offer his support for all athletes,” said Campaccio Technical Director Marcello Magnani.

Claudio Pastori, President of the local Unione Sportiva Sangiorgese, said: “We are determined to organise the Campaccio race this year. It is important to give a message of hope to the younger generation in this difficult period.”

Eliud Kipchoge ready for Hamburg Marathon redemption

Kenyan Olympic champion and marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, is hoping to return to the top of the podium at the NN Hamburg Marathon on April 11 to redeem his stature following his shock London defeat last year.

The distance running star will be featured at the elite-only marathon for those looking to secure an Olympic qualifying time after few chances to compete in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Kipchoge saw his 10-marathon winning streak ended at the 2020 London Marathon on Oct. 4 but has had the time to recover and build back up at his training camp in Kaptagat, Kenya.

He will be running in Germany to gauge his shape ahead of a planned Olympic title defense in the summer.

"My number one goal is to run a beautiful race in Hamburg. A beautiful race will give people hope. It is another step that we are on the right track to normality," Kipchoge who ran the standing 2:01:39 world record at the 2018 Berlin Marathon tweeted on Thursday.

According to his management, NN Running, the Rio 2016 gold winner is hoping to reignite his marathon supremacy at the city where he made a victorious debut over the distance in April 2013.

"Hamburg has a lot of memories for me, it was my first exposure to the marathon and I remember thinking I didn't know what would happen at 25km, 30km, 35km and 40km. That memory of 'will I hit the wall' is still there. It was the beginning of my life in the marathon," Kipchoge told the NN Running website on Wednesday.

The impressive 2:05:30 win at the 2013 Hamburg Marathon sparked off a career switch from track running that yielded 11 wins in 13 marathons started for the Kenyan.

Prior to London 2020 where he clocked 2:06:49 for eighth, Kipchoge's only other loss at the distance came at the 2013 Berlin race where he was beaten to second by compatriot Wilson Kipsang who ran a then world record of 2:02:32.

Kipsang has since been banned for four years for Whereabouts Rules violations.

"Winning there gave me confidence that I could run the marathon and it played a big role in my career. Now I am running Hamburg again in a very different situation. We have very few races globally and it is a good opportunity to test myself, run well and offer hope to the world," Kipchoge remarked.

On Oct. 12, 2019, he became the first man to cover the classic 42.192km marathon distance in under two hours at the specially arranged INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria where he stopped the timer at 1:59:40.

However, like every other sportsperson around the world, Kipchoge was affected by the pandemic, admitting to NN Running that life has been "very hard."

Forced for several months to stay within his compound because of restrictions on movement implemented by the Kenyan government to control the virus, it was not an easy period for the first man in history to run a sub-two-hour marathon.

He spent the lockdown months by organizing a food distribution drive in partnership with several local companies and individuals to feed other affected runners who have not been as fortunate as him.

"It was really hard to go training and not mix with people to fight the virus. 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," the three-time London marathon winner underscored.

After suffering an untimely ear blockage, Kipchoge suffered his first marathon defeat in seven years in London but insists he is in "great mental and physical shape" and is looking forward to competing on the streets of Hamburg.

Kenyan runner convicted of doping offense in criminal court

A female runner became the first athlete in Kenya to be convicted of a doping offense in a criminal court on Friday.

Distance runner Florence Jepkosgei Chepsoi, who finished second at the 2019 Jakarta Marathon, was sentenced to one year of community service after she was found guilty of presenting false documents and lying to the Kenyan anti-doping agency at a hearing.

She changed her plea to guilty having initially pleaded not guilty when she was first charged in court last year.

Kenya criminalized doping offenses in 2016 in the midst of a stream of drug scandals among its world-renowned distance runners. The East African nation updated its anti-doping laws late last year.

Chepsoi was initially charged with doping by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya in 2017 after testing positive for the banned steroid prednisolone at a race in China. When she appeared before a tribunal, she presented documents she claimed were from a hospital as part of her defense. ADAK found the documents were forgeries and Chepsoi had never been treated at the hospital, leading the anti-doping body to push for her to be prosecuted in a criminal court.

It’s rare for an athlete to face criminal charges for doping offenses, although Chepsoi is not the first worldwide.

Criminal prosecutors normally target people such as doctors and other support staff who facilitate doping in what they refer to as doping conspiracies rather than the athletes themselves. The World Anti-Doping Agency recommends athletes do not face criminal prosecution for doping.

The United States passed a law in December that criminalized doping conspiracies and allows U.S. prosecutors to go after doping schemes at international events in which Americans are involved as athletes, sponsors or broadcasters. The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act was named after Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow lab director who helped uncover state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes.

However, the Rodchenko Act makes clear that individual athletes are not subject to prosecution.

ADAK said more athletes would “face the law” for doping in the coming days. Four other Kenyan athletes are facing criminal charges for doping offenses.

Kenyan Florence Jepkosgei Chepsoi sentenced for forging documents

Kenyan long distance runner Florence Jepkosgei Chepsoi has received a one year community service sentence for faking documents as part of her defence on a doping charge, the Anti-Doping Association of Kenya (ADAK) announced.

She becomes the first Kenyan athlete to be found guilty in a criminal court.

The verdict was handed down after the trial in Eldoret following an investigation lasting a number of years.

The 36-year-old marathon runner was banned for two years in 2017 for using performance-boosting drug Prednisolone.

She was found guilty of providing false medical records from Eldoret's Uasin Gishu Hospital to support her defence case when she appeared before the Kenyan Sports Disputes Tribunal.

"The Uasin Gishu district hospital confirmed that those medical documents had been forged, and that the athlete had not been treated at the said hospital," ADAK said in a statement.

Over 60 Kenyan athletes have been suspended in the last five years for doping offences, including whereabout failures, a violation of the World Athletics anti-doping rules.

Kenya's 2016 Olympic women's marathon champion Jemima Sumgong is serving a lengthy ban after she was found to have falsified medical documents in an attempt to tamper with a positive test for EPO.

Sumgong, the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic marathon, tested positive for the blood-booster in an out-of-competition test five months after winning gold in Rio.

World records could be the order of the day at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon as Ethiopia star Yalemzerf Yehualaw confirms spot

World records could be the order of the day at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon with four-time Olympic gold medallist and defending champion Sir Mo Farah set to be joined by Ethiopian distance sensation and second fastest woman of all time Yalemzerf Yehualaw.

Elite race organiser James McIlroy - who himself reached the 800m semi-finals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics - has swooped to sign up Yehualaw for the August 29 showpiece and the athlete's agent has made clear that the opportunity to break the world record of 64 minutes 31 seconds on what is a very fast course is one of the main attractions drawing her there.

The 21-year-old boasts a PB of 64.46 and the Antrim Coast Half Marathon will be one of only four events she will contest this year and the first after the Tokyo Olympics.

Yehualaw's agent Daan van den Berg said: "Yalemzerf will only do two half marathons this year - Istanbul and the Antrim Coast Half - along with two 10,000m before the Olympic Games.

"The Antrim Coast coming three weeks after the Olympics is perfect timing, and we know if the Irish crowd get behind her she can break the world record as last year's race looked brilliant, with 35 out of 62 runners recording personal bests."

Yehualaw finished third at last year's World Championship after leading for most of the race before tripping on the finishing straight mat, and will be joined at the Larne event by Ethiopian team-mates Yitasyish Mekonnen and Tsehay Gemechu.

The African stars will be joined by early confirmed British internationals Jo Pavey, Sam Harrison, Tracy Barlow and Kirsty Longley.

The men's race will be one of the greatest half marathon fields ever assembled in the UK or Ireland. Race organisers have made no secret of attacking the 60-minute barrier and already have a strong international line-up, with four sub-60 runners already confirmed.

Making their first appearance ever in Ireland will be the African quartet of Tesfahun Akalnew (59.22), Victor Kiplangat (59.26), both from Uganda, Abrar Osman (59.47) of Eritrea and up and coming Kenyan Daniel Mateiko, all of whom will be attacking Sir Mo's course record 60.27 from last year.

It is hoped Sir Mo - coached by Larne-born Gary Lough, who is married to distance legend Paula Radcliffe - could be coming to Larne with Olympic gold number five tucked safely away after Tokyo.

Ruth Chepng'etich believes lack of foreign fans at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics will affect many athletes' performances

On Tuesday, Kyodo News Agency reported that the organisers are planning to lock out foreign supporters from the Games due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, leaving many to ponder what this will mean for the global show.

Chepng'etich said the presence of fans, especially Kenyans, is an added impetus for her — as well as other Kenyan athletes — especially when the going gets tough in the road races.

"Many times, your legs are weak and tired and that's when the fans come in. There are many races in which the sound of fans cheering me on and screaming my name has fueled me to give my all and repay them by crossing the finish line first. With the ban on foreign fans at Tokyo, am afraid that performances will be slightly impacted especially at vulnerable moments," Chepng'etich said. 

Chepng'etich hopes that training in solitude at her Ngong' base will however give her a psychological edge when she hits the Tokyo roads alongside other marathoners during July 23-August 8 event. 

"I have been training exclusively in Ngong' rather than my home area in Kericho due to the Covid restrictions and the need for quarantine. Regardless, I have put in a lot of work with a focus on securing an Olympic gold medal to add to my world marathon champion collection," she said. 

The fourth-fastest female marathoner has set her sights on breaking the world marathon record currently held by her Team Kenya teammate Brigid Kosgei. 

However, she concedes this will not be a walk in the park considering Kosgei has severally expressed her desire to reduce her record to 2:13.00. 

"The competition will not be easy; I am not expecting it to be considering the prestige that comes with competing in the Olympics. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for which all athletes have been preparing for many years. Therefore, I expect a tough competition not only from my able compatriots but also from other nations because every one will give their all," she said. 

Despite this sobering assessment, Chepng'etich is still bullish that the Kenyan quartet of Peres Jepchirchir, Vivian Cheruiyot, Kosgei and her can produce a 1-2-3-4 finish in Tokyo. 

Kenyan middle distance runner Nelly Jepkosgei banned after giving fake evidence for missed test

Jepkosgei has been banned for three years after accepting a charge of tampering with evidence, a violation of World Athletics’ anti-doping rules, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Tuesday.

Jepkosgei, who is ranked 27th in the world in the women’s 800m, missed a doping test on March 18 and offered fake evidence in the form of a forged document to explain the whereabouts failure, the AIU said in a statement

The 29-year-old had informed the AIU that she missed the test because she had been at Kapsabet County Referral Hospital, where her sister had been admitted after being involved in a serious car accident.

In June, Jepkosgei’s representative sent the AIU a copy of a discharge summary document from the hospital purporting to relate her sister, which stated she been admitted on March 18 and “remained there for some days”.

The AIU then asked Kenya’s anti-doping agency (ADAK) to verify Jepkosgei’s claim, but ADAK reported there were no police records of the car accident and that the hospital had no record of her sister being admitted. The Medical superintendent of Kapsabet County.

Kengo Suzuki still in state of shock after setting Japan marathon record

A day after his blistering run at the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Kengo Suzuki was still coming to grips with his status as a new Japanese national record holder on Monday.

Suzuki surprised even himself by setting the national men’s marathon record of 2 hours, 4 minutes, 56 seconds in Sunday’s race along the shores of Japan’s largest freshwater lake in Shiga Prefecture.

“It’s slowly sinking into my head that I actually set a new national record,” Suzuki said in an online press conference.

“(The race) has done more damage to my legs than I had imagined, so I’m going to take some time to rest before I move on to my next goal,” he said.

Suzuki’s win made him the first Japanese runner to complete a sub-2:05 marathon. He was among the more than 300 men lined up to run the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, one of the country’s most prominent races.

The unheralded Suzuki finished 12th in the same race last year, but this year he chopped more than five minutes off his previous personal best of 2:10:21, set in 2018.

Now the 25-year-old has set his sights on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“(I still lack) the physical toughness to endure high-intensity training and the mental toughness to fend off (other runners’) attempts to unsettle me,” he said. “It’s important that I work out consistently every day.”

The previous national record of 2:05:29 was set last March at the Tokyo Marathon by Suguru Osako, who secured qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge holds the official marathon world record of 2:01:39, which he set at the Berlin Marathon in 2018, as well as the unofficial world record of 1:59:40 from an event in Vienna, Austria, in 2019 held under several artificial conditions.

Suzuki believes himself capable of running a sub-2:04 marathon in the near future, provided he can steer clear of injury.

“I’m getting more comfortable with my marathon training program,” he said. “If I’m able to stay injury-free and I raise my fitness levels, then that time might just be reachable.”

Spectators at Sunday’s race were asked to refrain from cheering on the sidelines as a coronavirus countermeasure.

The event, first run in 1946 in Osaka, moved to Shiga in 1962. But top runners have recently been opting to run the Tokyo Marathon, held around the same time of the year and said to produce better records.

Toshihiko Seko, who booked his berth for the 1988 Seoul Olympics by winning that year’s Lake Biwa Marathon, said, “It was a fitting finale and wonderful. It was a history-changing race.”

Kibiwott Kandie shine at Athletics Kenya meet

World Half Marathon Kibiwott Kandie started his Olympic Games preparation on a high note by winning his first track competition at the opening leg of the Athletics Kenya (AK) track and field weekend meeting at Nyayo Stadium on Saturday.

Kandie’s interest in the men’s 10,000m event will give Kenya hope at an event; it last won a gold medal at the Olympics in Mexico in 1968 through Naftali Temu.

The fast-rising Kandie, 24 who picked running in 2013 while still a student at Cheberen Secondary School in Baringo County, calculated his move well to easily win the men’s 10,000m in 28:28.0 to put his Olympics dream on track. 

Gilbert Kimunyan, who led for much of the race, settled for the silver position in 28:37.7 ahead of Peter Mwaniki who clocked 28:38.7 in third place.

“Now that Africa Cross Country has been postponed to a later date, I thought it was wise for me to come and gauge myself in track because I’m keen on representing and winning a medal for Kenya in Tokyo,” said Kandie who finished second at the National Cross Country Championships two weeks ago. 

Kandie who made his breakthrough at the 2020 World Half Marathon in Gdynia, Poland before winning the 2020 Valencia Half Marathon, in a world record time of 57:32 believes teamwork in Tokyo will enable them to deliver the elusive gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo. 

The Xiamen Marathon has been granted World Athletics Elite Platinum Label

The Xiamen Marathon has been rated as a 2021 World Athletics Elite Platinum Label race, according to World Athletics' website.

The Xiamen Marathon gained the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label alongside the six world marathon majors (Boston Marathon, London Marathon, Berlin Marathon, Chicago Marathon, New York Marathon, and Tokyo Marathon), becoming the second race to win this label in China after the Shanghai Marathon.

The "World Athletics Elite Platinum Label", the highest level of the current 3-level race rating system, signifies the world's top race certification label.

The Xiamen Marathon has run successfully for 18 years since its inception in 2003. The result of 2:06:19 made by Kenyan Moses Mosop at the 2015 Xiamen Marathon stands not only as the race record for the Xiamen Marathon, but also as the best result for men in marathons in China to date.

"Xiamen Marathon has contributed significantly to the development of marathons in China over the past 19 years," said Ruan Dunliang, director of Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Sports.

"The 'Elite Platinum Standard' represents a high degree of recognition and also a new mission for Xiamen Marathon, symbolizing a new era for Xiamen Marathon.

"Future efforts will keep focusing on improving the professionalism and internationalization of Xiamen Marathon to bring a higher-quality race to marathon enthusiasts worldwide." 

Sally kipyego is focused on winning a medal in the Olympic marathon

After the 2020 Olympics were postponed last March because of Covid-19, US Olympic marathoner Sally Kipyego and her coach Mark Rowland decided to take a laid back approach to the rest of 2020 with the hope that Kipyego’s body would feel refreshed when she resumed training in earnest last fall. The time is coming, however, to return to competition.

Kipyego was scheduled to race last week for the first time since she made Team USA at the US Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2020. But the race she was planning on running, the RAK Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates, was cancelled. Instead, she has a 15K planned for March (Kipyego could not officially announce it, but the logical assumption is she means the USATF 15K champs in Jacksonville on March 20) and a 10,000 on the track in April, where she hopes to hit the qualifying standard for the 2022 Worlds in Eugene. After that, she will shift to marathon mode and focus on building up for the Olympics.

And Kipyego is dreaming big. And for good reason. Kipyego is the only member of the US women’s marathon squad with an Olympic medal, having earned a silver in the 10,000 in London in 2012 for her native Kenya, and believes she is capable of taking home another one this summer.

“I feel like if I get good consistent training — which I have been able to do the last one-and-a-half years — proper training, I think I’ll have a chance of medaling,” Kipyego says. “That is really the objective for this season for me, is to be able to medal.”

Some may think that is an ambitious goal for a 2:25 marathoner who was only third at the US Olympic Trials. After all, it has been over five years — when she was 5th in the 10,000 at the 2015 Worlds — since Kipyego has been competitive in a global championship. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

For one, Kipyego, who at 35 is two years younger than Sara Hall, feels she has yet to demonstrate her full potential at 26.2 miles, going so far as to say, “I haven’t really quite gotten a good marathon in.” Kipyego was second in the first marathon she finished, running 2:28:01 in New York in November 2016, but she was way back of winner Mary Keitany who ran 2:24:26. Shen then missed all of 2017 after giving birth to daughter Emma, and it took her longer than expected to get back to top form after her pregnancy.

It was not until the fall of 2019, when she ran 2:25:10 in Berlin, that the world began to catch a glimpse of the Kipyego of old, and she is confident in the training she has stacked together since then. But that still leaves a second problem: can Kipyego possibly get into medal shape given the current state of women’s marathoning? Of the seven fastest women in history, five have set their personal bests (all 2:17:45 or faster) since the start of 2019, led by Brigid Kosgei‘s 2:14:04 world record in Chicago.

“We’re talking about championships,” Kipyego says. “When it comes to championships, they’re not the same as major marathons, for example. You can still be competitive in a championship because you’re not running 2:14 or 2:12 marathon pace. If the race is being run at 2:20, most of us can be able to put themselves there. So I believe that if I can get — and I’m trying to get myself into — 2:20 or sub-2:20 shape going into Tokyo, and I think if I am in that kind of shape, my chances are pretty good at medaling.”

Kenya has banned its athletes from taking part in the Kilimanjaro Marathon in Tanzania this weekend, because of growing concerns over the spread of the pandemic in the host country

Athletics Kenya announced it would not permit its runners to participate in the event at the foothills of Africa's highest mountain "due to the global outbreak and spread of COVID-19".

But officials voiced more specific concerns about the spread of the disease in Tanzania, where the Government has been criticised for downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic and refusing to take tough measures against it.

"We have to protect our athletes," a senior official at Athletics Kenya told The Nation.

"If we allow them to compete in the Tanzania race, and they contract the virus, it will be easy to transmit it to other Kenyan runners back home."

Last week Tanzania’s President John Magufuli - who has insisted the disease can be defeated with prayer - conceded it was still circulating, revealing some of his aides and family members had contracted COVID-19 but had recovered.

World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week appealed to Tanzania to take "robust action" against the disease, after several travellers from the country tested positive.

On Monday (February 22) the United States issued a "do not travel" warning to Tanzania, due to the spread of the virus.

Kenyan male and female runners have enjoyed a clean sweep in the the last three editions of the Kilimanjaro race, which takes place in the northern town of Moshi near the border with Kenya.

Tanzania last gave case figures for coronavirus infections in April 2020, when it reported 509 cases.

Kenya's Olympics Marathon team has been named

The 2020 Valencia Marathon winners Peres Jepchirchir and Vincent Kipchumba have been included in Kenya’s marathon team for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Making the announcement Tuesday, Athletics Kenya senior vice president, Paul Mutwii, disclosed that Kenya will be represented by four athletes each in the men and women’s categories.

Jepchirchir, the World Half Marathon champion and Half Marathon World record holder, now joins World Marathon champion, Ruth Chepngétich, Marathon World record holder, Brigid Kosgei and multiple World champion and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic 5,000m gold medalist and 10,000m silver medalist, Vivian Cheruiyot.

Kipchumba will team up with Olympic Marathon champion, Eliud Kipchoge, World Marathon bronze medallist, Amos Kipruto and 2019 Boston Marathon winner Lawrence Cherono.

Four athletes, who were named as reserves in the original team that was named in January last year before the Tokyo Olympics were postponed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, have been dropped.

They are Valary Ayabei and Sally Chepyego in the women’s team and Titus Ekiru and Bedan Karoki in the men's side.

Asked why they have settled on four athletes in each team, Mutwii said: "It's a decision we have made and we are certain they will deliver outstanding victories."

The delayed Summer Olympics will be staged from July 23 to August 8, but while the track and field events will be held at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, the race walk and marathon events will be at Odori Park in Sapporo, 1,167.7km from the Japanese capital.

Kenya won both the men and women’s Olympics marathon titles with disgraced Jemimah Sumgong going for the women’s gold medal at the 2016 Olympics.Sumgong has since been banned for a doping offence.

Mutwii disclosed that they will liaise with the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) on how best to prepare the team.

“The athletes can continue training individually before we roll out soon,” said Mutwii, adding that NOC-K had instructed them to prepare sprinters for an early camp.

The North Face Just Dropped the First Carbon-Plated Trail Running Shoe

Controversial speed is coming to a mountain near you

I’ve tested out carbon-plated shoes from a variety of running brands over the last 12 months. A movement that began with Nike’s NEXT% line — which propelled Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge to a mind-boggling sub-two hour marathon back in late 2019 — has now firmly taken over the sport.

For the skeptics out there, these shoes are legit. There’s a reason the success of Nike’s shoe led to allegations of “gear doping,” new rules from the World Athletics body, and a call to arms for competitors like Adidas, ASICS and Saucony. The shoes generally combine tall, lightweight foam (which running journalist Amby Burfoot once compared to having extra leg muscles), with a carbon insert, meant to facilitate maximum energy retention — to “propel you froward” as the brand copywriters like to say.

After all that initial noise, they’re not only here to stay; they’re poised to take over other sub-sections of the sport. Yesterday, The North Face dropped a first look at its VECTIV series, the world of trail running’s first official carbon-plated running shoes.

I have zero complaints about my carbon-plated shoes. (Lately, I’ve been running in the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%s and the Saucony Endorphin Pros.) In a year without races, they’ve helped me to log some benchmark times I’m proud of. That said, those shoes are noticeably reliant on dry, clean surfaces. They like asphalt, they prefer track. Whenever either is slick from rain or snow, or — god forbid — roots or leaves get involved, they have a ton of trouble gripping the ground.

The North Face, a brand as synonymous with all-elements gear as any on the planet, has designed a carbon-plated shoe that can actually handle unforgiving trails. Most running brands have their athletes come in and test out prototypes on a treadmill; TNF trail runners logged up to 600 miles in a single pair, and much of them on punishing terrain. One runner ran 93 miles around Mt. Rainier in them this past summer.

The premier release in TNF’s line, the FLIGHT VECTIV, aims for stability and strength, like any other reliable trail running shoe. It has a high-grip outsole, while its mesh fibers are literally reinforced with Kevlar. But it’s built for speed. The shoes contain a 3D plate directly underneath the foot, alongside a rocker midsole. Ultrarunner Pau Capell described the shoes as a “downhill weapon.” Trail runners often have to slow down due to practical concerns, not for lack of spirit. These shoes are designed to let them fly.

And, crucially, to avoid injury while doing so. The maximalist foam included in carbon-plated shoes blunts the impact of runners logging so many miles. Ultrarunners are on another level entirely; they’re incessantly susceptible to stress fractures, plantar fasciitis, sprained ankles, cramps, and broken toes. But the VECTIV line — which also includes the INFINITE and the ENDURIS, two shoes less concerned with speed — promises 10% less “impact shock.” It could bring more newcomers to the sport, and keep around those who already love it.

Obiri eyeing double events at Tokyo Olympics

World 5000m champion Hellen Obiri is keen to compete in both 5,000m and 10,000m events at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

The 31-year-old has already vowed to go all out for her maiden Olympic gold, the only medal missing in her cabinet.

In what could be her final appearance at the Summer Games, Obiri who bagged a silver medal in 5,000m in Rio Games, said she is ready to contest in both races.

“Probably I am going to double in 5k and 10k if I will make the Kenyan team,” said Obiri after anchoring her Kenya Defence Forces mixed relay team to victory at the national cross country championships.

Obiri did both events at the 2019 World Championships in Doha winning the 5,000m race and finishing a distant fifth in 10,000m.

The Commonwealth Games champion will follow in the footsteps of her compatriot Vivian Cheruiyot who did the double in 2016 clinching a gold medal in 5,000m and a silver in 10,000m.

Despite making the team for Africa Cross Country Championships in the mixed relay category, Obiri said she will skip the continental showpiece slated for Lome, Togo on March 7 as she heightens her preparations for the Olympics.

At the same time, Obiri disclosed that she is set to kick start her track season at the Diamond League season opener in Rabat on May 23.

“Right now I am focused on the buildup towards the Olympics. I am looking forward to the Diamond League season where I intend to compete in 1,500m at the Rabat meeting,” she said.

The African champion was set to make her debut in the half marathon at the cancelled Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Half Marathon that was slated for Friday.