2021 Outdoors

[LuckySpikes]

Bit of a cock-up at the Urban Trail de Lille 5km. As Berihu Aregawi crossed the line the guy on the PA went crazy, proclaiming a new WR (inside Cheptegei's 12:51 WR). The on-screen clock had shown about 12:48 - I don't know if that was synced with the race timing (I couldn't see a clock at the finish). And Aregawi celebrated like he'd broken the record too. But ... ...

When the official results came through, he'd actually missed the record and was credited with 12:52, one second outside the record!

In the Women's race, there was something of a return to prominence for Dawit Seyaum, beating Norah Jeruto & Mamo Meskerem in winning in 14:39.

[LuckySpikes]

Hmm ... Further to the above post, WA are calling Dawit Seyaum's 14:41 run a World Record in a mixed race. However, the WR for a women's-only 5km is Senbere Teferi's recent 14:29.

I'm not against WA spreading the bonus money around. But, given that it's deemed to be advantageous for women to run in a mixed race, surely in cases like this the Women's-only WR should be the only (absolute) WR until someone goes faster in a mixed race. What do you think?

[trickstat]

Yes it does make little sense. If DAS ran a open graded 100m with a mixed field (most likely otherwise all male) and she ran, say, 10.99, nobody would be calling it any kind of record. I suppose the one disadvantage Seyaum might have had is that she may have had to start behind the line with faster men in front but that wouldn't account for 12 seconds,

[LuckySpikes]

I've really been enjoying the new World Cross Country Tour so far. The TV/streaming coverage has been excellent, there's been good racing and lots of athletes racing regularly and developing some rivalries.

For the Spanish meetings, of which there is 6 more to come this season *, the streaming on Spain's sports streaming service, LaLigaSportsTV, is easy to watch with no geo-blocking. You just need to login - registration is free & dead easy or you can login with your Google or Facebook login. It's also a great service for various Spanish championships (Race Walking, XC, 10,000m etc) and, of course, loads of other sports.

Having had a squizz at the provisional startlists for this Sunday's Gold meeting, the Cross Atapuerca, it's absolutely loaded - by far the strongest fields of the Tour so far (next week's Cross de Italica in Sevilla is always very strong too).

The Men's race features 7 of the Top 20 from the 2019 World XC Championships. Aron Kifle & Birhanu Balew are amongst those making their season's debut on the World XC Tour.

The Women's field is very strong, including Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, Norah Jeruto, Cellephine Chespol, Fantu Worku, World U20 Champ Beatrice Chebet & Nadia Battocletti.

Both races have a number of other very good international athletes competing as well. Hopefully, they all turn up on the start line! The meeting is usually live on YouTube so it's very easy to watch.

Worth noting, World Athletics have now started including World XC Tour results on Athlete's profiles. Previously they only included results for World or Area XC Championships. About 5 years ago I emailed them asking them to do this so I'd like to think I had something to do with their decision (though probably not!)

* The World Tour is very Spanish-heavy. Though many of those meetings are very historic I think that World Athletics need to do something about the geographic balance of the Tour for future years.

[LuckySpikes]

18 year-old Seira Fuwa ran 31:29 for the 10km final leg at the East Japan Women's Ekiden. Not the fireworks of 2 weeks ago but I guess she won't be mind-blowingly amazing all the time! Starting 38s behind the leader she did enough to win the race (by 23s) for her team. It seems like she laid off a really fast pace for the middle 5km (or maybe she was struggling a bit?) but she finished really strongly at a smidge under 3 minute per kilometre pace for the last 2.5km.

Big surprise at the Cross Internacional de Atapuerca with Rahel Daniel Ghebreneyohannes (ERI) winning a 4 woman sprint finish and beating all the big names. Interesting to see if she can back it up - I don't know yet if there'll be a re-match at the Cross de Italica this Sunday.

[LuckySpikes]

...

Big surprise at the Cross Internacional de Atapuerca with Rahel Daniel Ghebreneyohannes (ERI) winning a 4 woman sprint finish and beating all the big names. Interesting to see if she can back it up - I don't know yet if there'll be a re-match at the Cross de Italica this Sunday.

The Women's race at Sunday's Cross de Itálica near Sevilla looks loaded and it seems it will feature Rahel Daniel and the rest of the top 4 from Atapuerca - Margaret Chelimo, Norah Jeruto & Beatrice Chebet - as well as Yasemin Can, no doubt gearing up to try and win a 5th European Cross Country title in 3 weeks' time.

[LuckySpikes]

WORLD RECORD!!!

At the Lisbon Half Marathon Jacob Kiplimo took 1 second off the record, running 57:31. Extremely impressive, given that after 5km he had no-one for company and there were no pacemakers.

Tsehay Gemechu won the Women's race in a touch over 66 minutes. Jess Piasecki had been on 66:40 pace (!) at 8km but faded. I don't know her time yet.

I had totally missed that Piasecki ran 31:19 at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k four weeks ago (#4 UK all-time). Fast times also there for Charlotte Arter 31:30 and Jess Judd 31:38.

[LuckySpikes]

69:44 for Jess Piasecki in 8th place. A PB nevertheless but I think she might have expected to go somewhere around 68:30. Her very fast early pace probably didn't help.

[LuckySpikes]

At yesterday's Manchester Road Race in Connecticut, probably the only 4.748 mile road race in the world, Weini Kelati destroyed Buze Diriba's 23:57 course record with 22:55. That's 30:00 pace for 10km. Sarah Inglis was 4th in 24:06, just behind Edna Kiplagat, and Amy-Eloise Markovc ran 24:53.

Weini Kelati was the 2019 NCAA XC and 10,000m champion. Originally from Eritrea she's now a US citizen.

Ben Flanagan (CAN) won the men's race in 21:23, seven seconds outside Edward Cheserek's CR.

[philipo]

Now that the finalists for Women's athlete of the year have been selected, being Hassan, Kipyegon, McClaughlin, Rojas, and ETH, who do posters think should be first and second.?

[LuckySpikes]

Now that the finalists for Women's athlete of the year have been selected, being Hassan, Kipyegon, McClaughlin, Rojas, and ETH, who do posters think should be first and second.?

It has to be between Rojas & Thompson-Herah I think. Rojas was undefeated (except for one of those DL final round things) whereas ETH took a couple of defeats so I'll go with Rojas then ETH.

[philipo]

It has to be between Rojas & Thompson-Herah I think. Rojas was undefeated (except for one of those DL final round things) whereas ETH took a couple of defeats so I'll go with Rojas then ETH.

And ignore the greatest double and near triple in OG history and a WR earlier over 10k by Hassan. Far superior to Rojas who, frankly, is a terrible exponenent of the technique TJ but at 6 feet 4 inches has a slight advantage over the others!!One event , R excels in, not 3 events..

[trickstat]

Distance WRs at the moment seem to have quite a short shelf-life. Rojas broke a record that was 26 years old.

[LuckySpikes]

And ignore the greatest double and near triple in OG history and a WR earlier over 10k by Hassan. Far superior to Rojas who, frankly, is a terrible exponenent of the technique TJ but at 6 feet 4 inches has a slight advantage over the others!!One event , R excels in, not 3 events..

Sorry, I don't trust Hassan (I also said it a couple of years ago on this forum).

[LoveSprints1]

It has to be between Rojas & Thompson-Herah I think. Rojas was undefeated (except for one of those DL final round things) whereas ETH took a couple of defeats so I'll go with Rojas then ETH.

Elaine or Sydney. Elaine is the rightful world record holder in the 100m and 200m. Sydney's performance was up right up there with Warholm's IMO. She competed sparingly over 400mH but to become the first woman to go sub 52 at the US trials then take another half a second off that in the Olympic final was absolutely amazing. Not sure why she is not being talked about more on this forum.

Rojas's technique makes me wince, but cannot take away from what she has achieved and let's hope she can sort out her second phase and become the first woman over 16m in 2022. Faith Kipyegon also had a sublime season. Would love to see her given the respect she deserves. As Laura Muir said of Faith after the 1500m OLY final:"She's the greatest of all time. She doesn't get enough credit. She's won everything there is. I've got a lot of respect for her and I'm very, very happy to see her winning gold and I'm honoured to be behind her in that race."

[LuckySpikes]

Elaine or Sydney. Elaine is the rightful world record holder in the 100m and 200m. Sydney's performance was up right up there with Warholm's IMO. She competed sparingly over 400mH but to become the first woman to go sub 52 at the US trials then take another half a second off that in the Olympic final was absolutely amazing. Not sure why she is not being talked about more on this forum.

Rojas's technique makes me wince, but cannot take away from what she has achieved and let's hope she can sort out her second phase and become the first woman over 16m in 2022. Faith Kipyegon also had a sublime season. Would love to see her given the respect she deserves. As Laura Muir said of Faith after the 1500m OLY final:"She's the greatest of all time. She doesn't get enough credit. She's won everything there is. I've got a lot of respect for her and I'm very, very happy to see her winning gold and I'm honoured to be behind her in that race."

For me, McLaughlin didn't race enough at her best event. You can't build an "AOY season" on just 3 finals if the other contenders are so strong.

Yes, Faith Kipyegon had a season for the ages in the 1500 - four times sub-3:54 this year, which obviously is unprecedented.

[treadwater1]

Perhaps it’s just me but I’m not too concerned about McLaughlin (or anyone else in a similar position) competing sparingly, it shouldn’t affect their AOY credentials, in 10 years time the majority won’t remember whether she did or didn’t win X number of diamond league races, the WRs will be prominent in the memory and should have a huge bearing on the outcome. In all honesty I’d be happy for either McLaughlin or Rojas to win, Rojas puts a huge tick in that box when it comes to personality and a love for competition. It’s stunning that someone who’s completed the double double is only good enough for third this year, we’ve been spoilt

Ive been leaning towards Warholm for much of the year but I’m starting to swing back towards Crouser. Warholm taking down a very tough record was impressive but Crouser eclipsed what is largely seen as a doped WR, which stood for longer than Kevin Youngs

[philipo]

For me, McLaughlin didn't race enough at her best event. You can't build an "AOY season" on just 3 finals if the other contenders are so strong.

Yes, Faith Kipyegon had a season for the ages in the 1500 - four times sub-3:54 this year, which obviously is unprecedented.

the question of Hassan being possibly tainted is a dangerous game merely because she was part of the nutter Salazar group, but she has not been found remotely guilty of doping and,in any event, the fact of being one of the athletes of the Oregon Projec tleading to a doping suspicion is too harsh . Is our multi gold medals champion Mo Farah equally guilty... too much smell of LetsRun for me.