Running News Daily
Top Ten Stories of the Week
8/15/2020
These are the top ten stories based on views over the last week.
The 2020 Rock and Roll Madrid Marathon has been cancelled due to COVID-19
The Madrid Marathon has become the latest sporting event to fall victim to the COVID-19 crisis, after race organizers confirmed on Monday that the marathon, which had originally been rescheduled from the end of April to November 15, has been canceled.
In an official statement, organizers said they had taken the decision after "considering the evolution of COVID-19 in the world and after looking at the possible alternatives."
The race, which last year attracted over 8,000 runners, had initially been due to be held on April 26, but was pushed back to November with Spain in lockdown. The statement added that the 2021 event would be held next September 26.
The cancelation of the Madrid Marathon comes a week after that of the Madrid Open tennis tournament, which had been rescheduled to be played from September 12 to 20 after first being postponed from May.
(08/10/20) Views: 159
Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele are set for London Marathon
The 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon will not feature a mass race and will be an elite-only event, with Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele set to be among those racing on an enclosed looped course in St James’s Park on October 4.
Meanwhile, organisers have also confirmed that next year’s edition will not take place in April but will be moved to October 3 “to give the best chance for the mass race to return in 2021”.
The 2020 event will see elite racing take place within a “secure biosphere”, which organisers describe as a contained safe environment like that of Formula 1 and football, and as recently announced by World Athletics the times recorded in London will be eligible for Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification.
While the men’s race is set to host the highly-anticipated clash between distance running greats Kipchoge and Bekele, world record-holder Brigid Kosgei has been announced for the women’s event, with David Weir and Manuela Schär set to lead the wheelchair fields.
Organisers are yet to announce the elite field sizes and how the races will be set off, including whether it will be by waves, but it has been confirmed that athletes will cross the same traditional finish line on The Mall after completing 19.8 laps of the St James’s Park course.
There will be no spectator access in order to maintain the biosphere, but BBC Sport plans to broadcast eight hours of coverage during the day.
UK Athletics had previously announced that next April’s London Marathon would be the GB Olympic trial race for the postponed Olympics in Tokyo but the national governing body will now work on new qualification plans following confirmation that the 2021 race has been moved from spring to autumn. Selection will still take place in 2021.
“It is a very fast course,” said event director Hugh Brasher, with London Marathon Events having experience of looped course racing as they were part of the organising team for the INEOS 1:59 Challenge event in Vienna last October, when Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier.
“The course is faster than the current London Marathon course. It is not the fastest course, it is not as fast as Vienna, but it is a quick course. What we want to do is provide an environment that really excites the athletes. There is a lot of technology out there at the moment with which to do that, and how we can invite people in, in virtual reality, how we can create an atmosphere.
“It is important that we try and show that the sport can still take place. Sport plays such an incredible part in British psychology and the London Marathon reflects that in a way that very few, in fact no other, sports do. What we talk about is that it is the only event where you are taking part at the same time as the gods of the sport.
“At least here the elite athletes will be in London, they will be going head-to-head, and they will be able to celebrate the competition together. To be able to say that those athletes are coming to London is enormously exciting for the sport, for them, and we hope it adds to the inspiration and the feeling that we really want people to have on October 4, people who are on their own journey of that 26.2 miles.”
(08/07/20) Views: 127Jessica Whittington
World and Olympic steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto tests Covid-19 positive
World and Olympic steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto’s bid to kick-start his season has suffered a major blow after he was ruled out of next week’s Monaco leg of the Diamond League after testing positive for Covid-19.
Kipruto revealed the setback to Nation Sport on Saturday, a day after completing his preparations for 3,000 metres steeplechase race at Monaco’s Stade Louis II where he had promised a sub eight-minute run.
Kipruto, 25, was among 15 Kenyan athletes who had been cleared to compete in the Monaco leg after getting special dispensation visas to travel to the Schengen area.
Kenya is among countries whose nationals have not been cleared to travel into European Union nations owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The athletes were, however, cleared to travel after Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed and Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei intervened on their behalf at the Embassy of France in Nairobi.
The athletes travelling to Monaco are, however, still required to undergo a Covid-19 test 72 hours before the trip.
The rest of the contingent is expected to travel to the principality on Monday.
Kipruto disclosed that he was tested on Thursday at Eldoret’s Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and the results turned out out positive.
"It's indeed sad that the test came back positive. I don't know where I got it because I have been following the guidelines set by the Ministry of Health," Kipruto told Nation Sport on Saturday.
He said that he was waiting for the officials from the hospital to give him the way forward on management of the condition.
"I am in contact with officials from the hospital and I'm waiting for them to give me the way forward. I don't feel anything (symptoms) for now," said Kipruto.
Kipruto was expected to line up in the steeplechase on Friday alongside compatriots Abraham Kibiwott and Vincent Kipchumba, a pacesetter.
He had told Nation Sport on Thursday that he was keen on building up speed with the world record in his specialty his ultimate goal.
“I have had enough time to train since March when all the races were cancelled owing to the coronavirus pandemic. I am happy I was invited for the Monaco race. I’m looking forward to the race which I want to run under eight minutes,” Kipruto had said on Thursday.
The world record is held by Kenya-born Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen (formerly known as Stephen Cherono) at seven minutes, 53.63 seconds.
“I will be using the race to gauge my performance as I prepare to lower the world record time which has been out of the country for a long time. If I’m the Olympic and World champion, what makes it hard for me to break the world record?” posed Kipruto on Thursday.
(08/08/20) Views: 61Bernard Rotich
Joshua Cheptegei will be eyeing the 5000 meters winner's prize in Monaco when he returns to the Diamond League this weekend
Unlike previous years, the Diamond League 2020 will not be a structured series of events leading to a final. Due to the coronavirus upheaval, only 11 instead of the planned 15 athletics meetings will take place this season.
There are all signs that Lady Luck will again smile at Cheptegei in the same European city-state where he broke 5km road world record early this year.Cheptegei, together with fellow world champion Halima Nakayi (1000m), Winnie Nannyondo (1000m), and Samuel Kisa (5000m) were flagged off by First Lady and Sports Minister Janet Museveni Saturday.
"Please take care to protect yourselves from COVID-19, remember that self-discipline is a big factor in the fight against this virus. God be with you," said Janet Museveni as she handed the athletes the national flag.
The Ugandans were, according to Monaco procedure, first subjected to a mandatory COVID-19 test.
Steeplechase star Conseslus Kipruto from Kenya failed the test and will accordingly miss the Monaco Diamond League event.The Ugandans left on a Uganda Airlines chartered flight to Nairobi on Saturday, then another to Monaco ahead of the August 14 event.
The race organizers of the Monaco event chartered the flights for the 10 Kenyan and four Ugandan athletes.The men's events in Monaco include 200m, 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m, 110m hurdles, 3,000m steeplechase, and pole vault, while women will compete in 100m, 400 m, 1,000m, 5,000m, triple jump and high jump.
Organizers also confirmed that top athletes including women's world record holder, triple jumper Yulimar Rojas from Venezuela, Dutch 1,500m world champion Sifan Hassan, 10,000m world champion Joshua Cheptegei and French hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde will partake of in the events.
On June 26th, the Diamond League canceled its meets in Paris, France, and Eugene, in the United States because of the current restrictions on mass gatherings and international travel due to the coronavirus menace the world over.
Due to the global outbreak of the fatal respiratory disease, the Diamond League season could not start as planned in Doha on April 17.
Meetings have since been canceled in London, Rabat (in Morocco), and Zürich (in Switzerland) which was originally scheduled to host the season finale in September - while other events on the calendar were postponed due to the pandemic.
(08/10/20) Views: 60James Bakama
Sara Hall Runs Impressive Half Marathon PR—Without the Hoopla
Her 1:08:18 puts her sixth on the list of U.S. performers.
In the Oregon woods, on a bike trail along the shore of Dorena Lake, 30 miles south of Eugene, elite athlete Sara Hall ran her first race in more than five months on the roads—just her, two male pacers, and two of her four daughters, Hana and Mia, following at a distance.
Hall, 37, finished the half marathon in 1:08:18, a personal record by 40 seconds and good for sixth-fastest American of all time. She averaged 5:12 pace.
It felt like a mirage. The race, called the Row River Half Marathon and staged by the organizers of the Eugene Marathon, began at 5:52 a.m., just as the sun was beginning to rise over the hills and the overnight fog was disappearing. The small pack of runners disappeared east along the bike path to a turnaround point, came back a little more than an hour later, and quickly left the area—an effort to avoid the heat of the day and to discourage any spectators in the COVID era.
It was a far cry from Hall’s last race, the Olympic Marathon Trials on February 29 in Atlanta, where close to 700 men and women started the event and 200,000 screaming fans crammed the streets with signs and cowbells. Hall, a 2:22 marathoner who thought she was in the best shape of her life and in a good position to make her first Olympic team, dropped out after the 22-mile mark.
Typically a frequent racer, Hall has had to live with the disappointment from the Trials for five months, with no opportunities to redeem herself after the pandemic shut down all races of note. Pro runners like her have been scrambling to find opportunities to test their fitness outside of their own training while keeping within guidelines for safe events during the pandemic.
“It felt surprisingly really good, yeah,” Hall said immediately after finishing. “I wasn’t sure how I’d feel out here. I’ve been pretty buried in training because there’s no races to freshen up for. So I just am, like, grinding for forever. And I was like hopefully my legs come around. To run a big PR like that without really a race atmosphere is really encouraging.”
Hall, who lives and trains at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona, says she’s more of a competitor than a time trialer. Without the adrenaline of a pack, she wasn’t sure if she’s be able to access all her energy. But she was.
“I tried to just keep telling myself the mantras that keep me going in training,” she said. “But it’s a little harder. When I ran my last half, it was in Houston in a pack of African runners, and I was just getting gritty and mixing it up with them. It’s definitely a different mode out here. But I’m super thankful to the guys that were helping me out through the race. That helped a lot.”
Hall was paced by Eric Finan of Eugene and Jared Carson of Portland, both of whom were also entered into the Trials.
Race director Ian Dobson, a U.S. Olympian in 2008 and friend of Ryan Hall and Sara Hall since their days at Stanford University, floated the idea of putting on a socially distant race to them a couple of months ago. All participants and staff had current negative COVID tests and provided information for contact tracing, should it be necessary. Everyone but the runners wore masks.
It was an opportunity for Hall to get a tuneup race in—she has a marathon coming up in the fall—and a chance for the events team of the Eugene Marathon to host a race, after their flagship event was canceled in April.
“We wanted to take this unique opportunity to have someone like Sara be part of the event,” Dobson said. “And we want to be part of the storytelling—what does success for the running community look like during the Coranvirus?”
He said he hopes that big races make a speedy return instead of morphing into one-off boutique events with five or fewer participants. “The mass participation road race is such a cool thing,” he said. “That’s the business we’re in; it’s what we want to do. That said, given the current reality, this is what we can do.”
The Row River course was USATF-certified and the race is in the process of being sanctioned by USATF, which would make Hall’s time eligible to appear on record lists. She and her family are staying in Eugene for another week or so for more sea level training, as she prepares for the next marathon.
“I feel over-the-moon excited,” she said of the upcoming race. “I think I’m going to be the happiest person on that starting line. I’ve put in so much training just on faith that there would be opportunities. And even though everything was just canceled canceled canceled, to be able to have an actual race—I just wanted to cry when I got in. The trials was a massive disappointment, and I really want to be able to turn the page on that and continue to build and improve.”
Although Hall can’t yet say what race that is, observers believe it is the London Marathon, which yesterday announced it will host an elite-only version of its race around a loop in St. James Park.
Hall’s daughter Hana, 20, finished the Row River Half in 1:20:03. Her daughter Mia, 16, who has only been running for a year, finished in 1:23:18.
(08/08/20) Views: 57Runner’s World
World Marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge wants Usain Bolt to visit Kenya
World Marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge has invited the fastest man on earth, Jamaican Usain Bolt to visit Kenya and witness the wildebeest migration, one of the wonders of the world.
“It’s good to invite my good friend Bolt to come and visit to see what is currently happening in Kenya now," Kipchoge said on Sunday during his tour of the Masai Mara Game Reserve.
“He is an all round guy, charming, a great sports ambassador to the world.”
Kipchoge said Bolt, who visited Kenya 11 years ago, is welcomed to come and find out how the baby cheetah he adopted in 2009 is doing.
“We have the big five- Lions, Leopards, Rhinos, elephants and buffaloes, which are some of the fastest animals in the world then we have the cheetah that is the fastest animal,” said Kipchoge.
“Bolt is the fastest and I will be glad to host him in Nairobi to witness over 2.5 million wildebeest migrating.”
While Bolt holds the 100m and 200m world records of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds, Kipchoge holds the world marathon record of 2:01.39.
Kipchoge, who has been named Kenya tourism ambassador, on Sunday ran with Kenya's game rangers and Masai Morans at the Masai Mara Game Reserve, Narok County.
Kipchoge, who raced over 10km in the wild said he used the race to pay tribute to the game rangers for their efforts in safeguarding the wildlife besides their conservation efforts.
The world Marathon record holder also commended the Morans and their Masai community for being on the forefront not only to preserve their culture that has been a major world attraction, but also the wildlife and environment.
Kipchoge, who has a passion for environment conservation and wildlife said, “I should have been in Japan to defend my Olympic title and I was ready for it, but Covid-19 happened.”
“It was a good run that I also wanted to use to bring hope to 47 million Kenyans. I want to tell them that we can’t go down completely and that we can still rise and go up together as a country through running,” said Kipchoge, who will be defending his London Marathon.
(08/10/20) Views: 55Ayumba Ayodi
CANCER SURVIVOR FULFILLS GOAL OF RUNNING 5K
To his friends and family, Mohawk Valley athlete Jason VenBenschoten of Westmoreland is a walking miracle.
WESTMORELAND, N.Y. - To his friends and family, Mohawk Valley athlete Jason VenBenschoten of Westmoreland is a walking miracle.
Jason suffered a brain hemorrhage due to a cancerous tumor back in 2018. He was in a coma for over a day that doctors thought he wouldn't come out of. When he did, Jason couldn't walk and had trouble with his vision.
Jason registered for this year's Boilermaker Road Race, but because he still struggles with running, Jason couldn't participate in the race virtually without his friends there to make sure he doesn't fall.
So this year he created his own fake (faux) Boilermaker that he called the "Fauxlermaker". Jason said throughout his road to recovery, he couldn't imagine being able to run as he did on Saturday.
"When I woke up from cancer I couldn't walk at all so and the fact that I'm running is a big deal for me," said VenBenschoten.
The 5K (3.1 miles) course began at Jason's house and ended at the 7 Hamlets Brewery in Westmoreland. At the finish line, Jason's friends and family watched as the group of 10 runners crossed the line. A Boilermaker representative was also there to greet him with an honorary 2020 Boilermaker hat and pin.
"It was awfully good of them to come out and give that to me. I never officially ran a race but now I have an official finish," said VenBenschoten.
His wife Bethany VenBenschoten also ran with him and said she couldn't be more proud after all that he's been through.
"Every day, every time he opens his eyes in the morning I'm proud because he went through some of the hardest things anyone would ever have to go through."VenBenschoten.
Jason ended with a time of 37 minutes beating his 45-minute goal. Jason plans on running the Boilermaker next year.
(08/09/20) Views: 52
No runner had ever run a mile in less than four minutes in the state of Colorado—until now.
In a certified intrasquad time trial on Monday, August 3, Olli Hoare and Joe Klecker, of the newly formed On Athletics Club, became the first two people to ever run a sub-four-minute mile in Colorado, finishing in 3:56:8 and 3:58:4, respectively. This time trial came after only a month of team workouts for the newest pro running group.
Klecker—a standout at the University of Colorado-Boulder, who took second at the 2019 NCAA cross country championships—was the first to sign with the team earlier this summer. On worked to set up the new group around Klecker, considering his input on where the team should be based, who should be the coach, and who else should be on the team.
“[On’s] commitment to this team and to developing top of the line footwear stands out,” Klecker told Runner’s World. “We’ve been going a month and they’ve already sent their product development team out to Boulder, we’ve been on video calls, and they’re listening to what we have to say about the product and team and implementing them. They just rolled out their first spike, and we used their new carbon shoe on the track [Monday night], not the one on the market so far.”
The group is coached by three-time Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein, who retired from pro running earlier this year. Ritzenhein moved his family from Michigan to Boulder, Colorado, to take on the coaching role.
(08/11/20) Views: 46Andrew Dawson
Eliud Kipchoge will use the Nike Vaporfly, the shoes he used during the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, to defend his London Marathon title
Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge will use the Nike Vaporfly Next % — the shoes he used during the Ineos 1:59 Challenge — to defend his London Marathon title on October 4.
At the same time, Kipchoge has welcomed Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele’s challenge at the London Marathon, but hastened to add that “every athlete who will compete in the race is a threat.”
“The shoes have not been banned hence I am looking forward to another great show on them as I seek my fourth victory on the course,” said Kipchoge during the launch of domestic tourism at the Serena Mara in the Maasai Mara, Narok County.
Kipchoge made history on October 12 last year when he became the first man to run a marathon (42 kilometres) in under two hours when he conquered the Ineos 159 Challenge in 1:59.41 using the new Nike Vapour Next % shoes.
Defending women’s London Marathon champion Brigid Kosgei also used similar shoe technology to set the women’s world marathon record in winning the Chicago Marathon in 2:14:04, just a day after Kipchoge’s Vienna exploits.
Then Bekele would come close to breaking Kipchoge’s world marathon record of 2:01:39 set by Kipchoge in Berlin in 2018 by three seconds when he won in Berlin in 2:01:last year. Nike's controversial Vaporfly range was the talk around the world with the feeling that it gave undue advantage to other runners owing to its sole technology. However, World Athletics — the global athletics governing body — said it will not ban the shoes but would instead institute tighter regulations around high-tech running shoes. Any new shoe technology developed after April 30 this year will have to be available on the open market for four months before an athlete can use it in competition.
World Athletics has also introduced an immediate indefinite ban on any shoes that have a sole thicker than 40 millimetres.
“Everybody is a threat, especially when you are on a running course. Personally, I don’t see everybody less or high,” said Kipchoge adding that the only threat or difference will be the unusual training and competition conditions. “I don’t know what everyone has been doing in training. For sure it will be a different race where it won’t have the usual large field and fans owing to Covid-19 regulations,” said Kipchoge, adding that it will feel good running in London, a course where he won in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Kipchoge said he has been training in Kaptagat, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, in isolation and in small groups but hopes that the government will reopen camps in the next week to enable them to train well.
“This is a non-contact sport and it’s my prayer that the government allows some camps to open,” said Kipchoge, who has occupied himself in reading books. He has also attended over 100 zoom meetings in the last four months from across the world.
(08/11/20) Views: 45Ayumba Ayodi
Africa Cross Country junior champion Nicholas Kimeli to chase best time in Monaco Diamond League
Africa Cross Country junior champion Nicholas Kimeli will be chasing a new personal best over 5,000m when he parades at this weekend's Monaco Diamond League meeting.
Kimeli, who will be marshalling forces with Africa junior 5,000m silver medalist Jacob Krop, will also be chasing his maiden win in the series since he made his debut in 2018.
The two-time Maria Soti cross country winner, who has a personal best of time 12:57.20 set in 2019 at the Helglo Track, said the series will be part of his training ahead of the postponed Olympic Games.
“This pandemic has taken us off our expectations for the season. However, I will do my best to ensure that I get good results in Monaco, hoping to register my maiden win,” said the Ndalat Gaa cross country winner.
He said he is still not sure what to expect after training alone for long in adherence to government protocols in curbing the spread of coronavirus.
“Since there were no open stadia for speed work, I used to do long runs and fartlek under coach Patrick Sang,” he said.
“My running system will also be determined by weather conditions, which is very crucial for any athlete. I hope it will favour Kenyan runners in Europe.”
Kimeli was part of the World Athletics Championships, held in Doha, Qatar, competing in 5,000m where he finished fifth in the final.
(08/12/20) Views: 45Emmanuel Sabuni
