2022 Outdoors

[Occasional Hope]

I thought athletics generally got a bit shortchanged in the coverage of the year.

No one in a team sport should be in the main category.

[jjimbojames]

Jake Wightman top 6 in SPOTY - vote to open soon. Tough to see past a win for Beth Mead if the football community votes for their own

[Occasional Hope]

Still shows some good stamina for Josh.

[LuckySpikes]

It appears Josh Kerr ran a 1:03:45 Half Marathon last week. That's some serious range!

According to LetsRun it's net downhill by 217m though.

I should make a correction to my post a couple of days ago. Sara Benfares is now German and so her 31:46 is not a French U23 record. The commentator had me confused because he said "Record espoirs" (espoirs = U23) and mentioned Manon Trapp in the same sentence. Then shortly after the race Benfares provided an interview in fluent French.
She and her two running sisters transferred from French to German citizenship earlier this year. I think they may have had dual citizenship.

[Runner88]

And going for a 3000m indoors in the new year which I’m looking forward to

[MysteryBrick]

It appears Josh Kerr ran a 1:03:45 Half Marathon last week. That's some serious range!

[LuckySpikes]

At the 50th edition of the big Corrida de Houilles 10km in France this afternoon ...

Men's
1 Telahun Bekele 27:29 - If I'd known he was competing I would have included him in my LSL teaser notes (on Facebook he was listed instead as Haile Bekele, a name I didn't recognise)
2 Vincent Kibet 27:30
3 Dominic Lobalu (SSD) 27:32
...
6 Jonas Glans (SWE) 27:57 - Swedish NR; Formerly known as Jonas Leandersson (I've no idea why he switched names)
7 Nils Voigt (GER) 28:03
8 Morhad Amdouni 28:06
9 Efrem Gidey (IRL) 28:13
...
19 Phil Sesemann 28:51

Women's
1 Mercy Cherono 30:55
2 Mestawat Truneh 31:45
3 Sara Benfares (FRA) 31:45 - A French U23 record, taking down Manon Trapp's 32:07. Trapp was due to race here as were Alina Reh & Hanna Klein but probably they haven't recovered from Euro Cross yet
4 Steph Twell 32:14 - Encouraging for her after a rough couple of years. Her best performance since a 68:55 Half Marathon in Jan 2020 (and she's raced over 20 times this year)
...
9 Elle Twentyman (GBR) 33:28
10 Hannah Viner (GBR) 33:30

[LuckySpikes]

At this morning's Distance Challenge in Kyoto (Conti Tour Challenger meeting) the last 2 laps of the Men's 5000 'A' race were pretty wild - watch it at https://youtu.be/Qjf7LqIKknU?t=12767 (link timestamped to start with 2 laps to go).

In the preceding Women's 5000 'A' race 19yo Judy Jepngetich won in 14:50.20 (a 6s PB). Tanaka 5th in 15:06 & Hironaka 6th in 15:17. From the early pace - 2:57 & 3:00 - it seems like it was set up as a Japanese record attempt (Hironaka's 14:52.84) but neither of them had much left in the closing stages.

The Women's 10,000 'A' race field was hit by several big-name withdrawals but was still quite deep:
1 Rino Goshima 31.22.38 (12s outside her PB; halfway in 15:39)
2 Momoka Kawaguchi 31:57.81 PB (a 14s PB)
3 Wakana Itsuki 31:58.59 PB (I'm really chuffed for Itsuki dipping under 32 for the first time - previous PB 32:04 - she's a real trooper)
4 Yuka Takashima 31:59.60 (34yo; 2015 WCh & 2016 Rio representative with a 31:33 PB)
5 Hina Yanagitani 32:01.25 PB (a 30s PB for this 22yo)
6 Naruha Sato 32:03.48 (11s outside her PB)

In the 'B' race Natsuki Sekiya (31:50 PB) produced a gutsy effort to win in 32:51.14, her fastest time for 3 years and an encouraging sign that she can get her career back on track. At 25yo she has time on her side.

Keita Yoshida (24yo) won the Men's 10,000 from a (by Japanese standards) very sparse field of 8 athletes, running an 11s PB in 28:13:34 (halfway in 14:00).

[Aussiestatman]

and unless Etagegne has changed countries, no NR, Ethiopian

[Aussiestatman]

My thoughts all along on the Gidey debut was to just see how exhausted Gidey was after her WR half. It was always going to be a process to master this classic distance, IMO

[LuckySpikes]

In Valencia Letesenbet Gidey ran the fastest marathon debut ever but was beaten by a woman who had a 2:20:48 PB beforehand! There were National Records galore in the Women's race.

1 Amane Beriso (ETH) 2:14:58 NR (# 3 A-T)
2 Gidey 2:16:49
3 Sheila Chepkirui 2:17:29 (debut)
4 Tadu Teshome (ETH) 2:17:36 PB (also known as Tadu Nare if you watch the streams of the Women's Grand Prix 10k series in South Africa)
...
8 Etagegne Woldu (ERI) 2:20:03 NR
10 Majida Maayouf (MAR) 2:21:01 NR
12 Sinead Diver (AUS) 2:21:34 NR (Over 45 WR)
13 Bojana Bjeljac (CRO) 2:23:39 NR
14 Giovanna Epis (ITA) 2:23:54 PB (just 10s outside Straneo's NR)
18 Natasha Cockram 2:26:14 (Welsh record ! # 6 UK A-T)
19 Marta Galimany (ESP) 2:26:22 NR

Men's race
1 Kelvin Kiptum 2:01:53 (# 3 A-T; fastest debut ever; 60:15 second half !)
2 Gabriel Geay (TAN) 2:03:00 NR (improving own NR by 1:55)
3 Alexander Mutiso (KEN) 2:03:29 (debut for the 57:59 HM athlete)
4 Tamirat Tola 2:03:40
Ten Men sub-2:06
...
13 Nicolas Navarro (FRA) 2:07:01 PB

In Fukuoka Rob de Castella's Aussie NR has finally been broken - Brett Robinson running 2:07:31.

[LuckySpikes]

I have seen a lot of people guess Gidey's debut time in Valencia this Sunday. If the women and men start together, I say Gidey will be between the current PB's of Derek Hawkins and Alex Milne. It's just a question of which end of that gap will she be the nearest to?

Who?? I had to look him up on WA - for anyone else wondering his PB is 2:17:53.

I'll say Gidey runs 2:14:50. Marathons are hard to absolutely nail first time! (Yes, the men & women start together).

[Aussiestatman]

I have seen a lot of people guess Gidey's debut time in Valencia this Sunday. If the women and men start together, I say Gidey will be between the current PB's of Derek Hawkins and Alex Milne. It's just a question of which end of that gap will she be the nearest to?

[LuckySpikes]

Sadly, Selina Büchel has retired from athletics citing long COVID (she was first infected in April 2021).

She was twice the European Indoor 800m Champion in 2015 & 2017 and twice finished Top 6 at the World Indoors. She had an outdoor PB of 1:57.95.

https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/two-time-european-800m-champion-retires-from-running-citing-long-covid/

[LuckySpikes]

At the JTBC Seoul Marathon (as distinct from the other Seoul Marathon in March) ...

In his second marathon Amedework Walelegn, the 2019 bronze medalist in the World Half Marathon, won in 2:07:01, taking 47s off his PB.

There was no international field in the Women's race but Doyeon Kim won in 2:27:31, her fastest marathon since her national record 2:25:41 in 2019.