Week in Review: Big winds aid huge throws
Alekna sets discus world record in meet in Oklahoma with "perfect conditions"
There is no such thing in track and field as a wind-aided mark in the discus. But you could make the case for the creation of such a category based on the results of the men’s and women’s events in the fifth Oklahoma Throws Series meet of the season in Ramona, Oklahoma, last weekend.
Competing at a facility called Millikan Field at Throw Town, a slew of world- and national-class discus throwers bettered their personal bests, many by large margins, while competing in what a World Athletics post described as “perfect conditions.”
The personal bests set by 21-year-old Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania and 32-year-old Cuban defector Yaime Perez grabbed the most attention for good reason.
Alekna’s top throw of 74.35 meters (243 feet 11 inches) in the men’s meet broke the world record of 74.08 (243-0) set by Jurgen Schult of East Germany in 1986 and crushed his pre-meet best of 71.39 (234-2) that he had set in the Brutus Hamilton Invitational in Berkeley, California, eight days earlier.
It also gave him the Alekna family record, as his father, Virgilijus, had a best of 73.88 (242-5) during an illustrious career in which he won two Olympic and two World Championship titles and was ranked as the top discus thrower in the world an unprecedented seven times by Track & Field News.
Perez’ leading mark of 73.09 (239-9) in the women’s competition moved her to 10th on the all-time performer list and was the longest in the world since 1989. It was also 3.7 meters farther than her pre-meet best of 69.39 (227-8) set in 2019, the year she won the World title.
For a detailed report about Mykolas Alekna’s world record in the men’s discus, click here. If you would like to read a feature about the 19-year-old Alekna during his freshman year at UC Berkeley in 2022, click here.
When it comes to “perfect conditions,” World Athletics was referring to a scenario in which a substantial wind blows from a specific direction in such a way that it can cause a discus — whether it’s the 1-kilogram (2.2 pounds) women’s implement or the 2-kilogram (4.4 pounds) men’s one — to stay aloft longer than normal, thus increasing the distance of a throw.
If that is difficult to comprehend, imagine when you throw a plastic disc, or Frisbee, as it is often called in the U.S. When that ultra-light implement is thrown at just the right angle into a slight breeze, it will travel farther than if there was no wind at all.
The same thing goes for a discus, except the breezes need to be much stronger due to the weight of the implement/s being thrown.
The winds were strong enough in Ramona last weekend that Track & Field News prefaced the results from the men’s discus with the notation “strong right-quarter wind.”
In addition to Perez, seven of the next nine finishers in the women’s meet notched personal bests, with the average improvement being 2.48 meters, or roughly 8 feet 1 inch.
In the men’s meet, six of the top 10 finishers recorded personal bests, with the average improvement being 1.88 meters (6-2).
With the conditions being so ideal, I found myself wondering if many of the throwers who set a personal best in the meet will ever top those marks. Or will they end their careers with a Throw Town personal best and a non-Throw Town personal best?
However, Mohamad Saatara, the throws coach at UC Berkeley, where Alekna is using a redshirt year so he can focus on training for the Olympic Games in Paris in August, is confident the young Lithuanian will top his 74.35 (243-11) throw in the future.
One reason why is Alekna’s youth. Saatara points out he is still a youngster in an event in which many competitors do not peak until their early 30s and some throw at a very high level until they are in their late 30s.
“He’s very young,” Saatara said by phone on Sunday night. “The discus is an experienced man’s game. You need a lot of experience under your belt to get really good at it and he’s still gaining that experience.”
Impressive numbers: Even if their marks were produced in perfect conditions, it’s still fun to look at the superb series that Mykolas Alekna and Yaime Perez put together in the men’s and women’s discus, respectively, in the fifth Oklahoma Throws Series meet of the season in Ramona, Oklahoma, last weekend.
Alekna, the silver- and bronze-medalist in the last two World Athletics Championships, threw 72.21 (236-11) on his first throw on Sunday, followed by marks of 70.32 (230-8) in the second round and a 72.89 (239-1) in the third. He then had a throw of 70.51 (231-4) in the fourth round, a world record of 74.35 (243-11) in the fifth, and a 70.50 (231-3) effort in the sixth to conclude a series in which the average of his six throws was s scintillating 71.80 (235-7).
Perez, the 2019 World champion, fouled in the first and sixth rounds on Saturday. But she had efforts of 71.96 (236-1), 73.09 (239-9), 69.13 (226-9), and 71.50 (234-7) in rounds two through five. The average of her four fair throws was 71.42 (234-4), with the 73.09 mark the farthest in the world since 1989.
An orange bolt out of the blue: A lot of star power was present in the sprints and hurdles in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational at Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, Florida, last Saturday, but no one turned in a better performance than senior Jacious Sears of the University of Tennessee.
While Noah Lyles, the defending World champion in the men’s 100 and 200, won the Olympic development 100 in 10.01 seconds, and Grant Holloway, the three-time defending World champion in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles, took the Olympic development title in that event with a 13.21 clocking, Sears ran 10.77 to win the university women’s 100.
Her time, which came in her first individual race of her outdoor season, crushed her previous best of 10.96 from last year and gave her a massive margin of victory over second-place Kalia Jackson of Georgia, who ran 11.10. It was also the fastest time in the world this year and moved her to second on the all-time collegiate performer list.
The collegiate record of 10.75 was set by Sha’Carri Richardson in the 2019 NCAA final during her freshman — and only — season at LSU before she turned professional.
Sears’ time — which was aided by a breeze of 1.6 meters-per-second — furthermore moved her into a three-way tie for 15th on the all-time world performer list and to seventh on the all-time U.S. list.
“My coaches, they believe in me. That’s what I love so much about them,” a beaming Sears said in a Citius Mag interview when she was asked if she was surprised with her performance. “They encourage me and tell me I’m going to run these times.”
Sears, who placed third in the 100 and fourth in the 200 in last year’s NCAA championships, had run on Tennessee 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams in the University of Central Florida Black and Gold Invitational on March 16 and in the Battle on the Bayou meet at LSU two weeks later. But her clocking on Saturday was stunning as it was nearly two tenths of a second faster than the 10.94 effort that American Tamari Davis recorded in posting the fastest time among six sections in the Olympic development division.
When asked if her performance had changed her thinking when it pertained to her goals for the rest of the season, she again praised her coaches.
“My coaches have always encouraged me and told me the goals they have for me,” she said. “And they made me believe more in myself. The goals are the same.”
Huge improvement continues: University of Arkansas freshman Kaylyn Brown continued her rapid rise in the women’s 200 and 400 meters in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last weekend.
Brown first lowered her personal best to 22.77 seconds in the 200 while finishing third in the second of six heats of the invitational division on Friday.
She then ran the third leg on a Razorback 4 x 100 relay team that won its section of that event in 43.13 on Saturday afternoon before winning the invitational 400 in a yearly outdoor world-leading time of 49.95, and running the second leg on a 4 x 400 relay team that posted the fastest time in the university division with a 3:26.10 clocking.
Her time in the 200, which was run into a breeze of 1.8 meters-per-second, bettered her best previous best of 23.01 from the indoor season. But her clocking in the 400 was the real stunner as it was nearly a nine-tenths of a second faster than her 50.83 best from indoors and moved her to seventh on the all-time collegiate performer list.
It also came in a depth-laden collegiate race in which Aaliyah Butler of Georgia finished second in 50.05, followed by Arkansas teammates Amber Anning and Nickisha Pryce at 50.08 and 50.13, respectively.
South Carolina freshman JaMeesia Ford lowered her personal to 50.81, but finished a distant fifth.
The times by Butler, Anning, and Pryce moved them to 10th, 12th, and 14th on the all-time collegiate performer list, with NCAA indoor champion Anning also moving to seventh on the all-time Great Britain list.
Brown had run 53.11 in the 400 as a junior at Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2022 before clocking 23.77 in the 200 and 53.84 in the 400 as a senior last year.
Notable double: Nia Ali of the U.S. posted a yearly world-leading time of 12.44 seconds in the women’s 100-meter hurdles before running a personal best of 11.21 in the 100 in winning her heat in that event in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Saturday.
The 35-year-old Ali defeated a strong field in the Olympic development division of the 100 hurdles as Americans Tonea Marshall and Christina Clemons placed second and third, respectively, with times of 12.45 and 12.51.
They were followed by Jamaicans Ackera Nugent and Danielle Williams at 12.52 and 12.57.
Williams was a surprise winner of the 100 hurdles in last year’s World Championships after winning her first global title in 2015. Compatriot Nugent finished fifth in the World Championships after winning the NCAA title while running for the University of Arkansas.
Ali, the 2019 World champion, had run 12.43 or faster in five consecutive races entering last year’s World Championships, but she placed eighth in the final in 12.78.
She had lowered her personal best to 12.30 in her final race before the World Championships when she won the Herculis Diamond League meet in Monaco.
Notable double II: Rachel Glenn of the University of Arkansas, who had tied the collegiate record in the women’s high jump when she cleared 2.00 (6-6¾) in winning the NCAA indoor title in March, turned in a pair of noteworthy performances at the one-lap distance in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last weekend.
The Razorback sophomore first ran 54.91 seconds while finishing second in the first heat of the invitational 400 hurdles on Friday before turning in a 50.87 third leg on an Arkansas team that won the open division of the 1,600 relay in 3:26.10.
Glenn’s time in the 400 hurdles crushed her previous best of 56.23 from 2022 and it left her a scant five hundredths of a second behind defending NCAA champion Savannah Sutherland of Michigan, whose 54.86 clocking was the fastest in the world this year.
Starting strong: Courtney Lindsey’s first race of the season in the men’s 200 meters resulted in a yearly world-leading time of 19.88 seconds in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Friday.
The 25-year-old Lindsey, who had won the 100 and placed second in the 200 in the NCAA championships as a senior at Texas Tech University last year, posted the second-fastest time of his career in an Olympic development race in which he finished well ahead of second-place Joseph Fahnbulleh of Liberia (20.06) and Zhenye Xie of China (20.15).
Lindsey set his personal best of 19.85 when he finished third in last year’s USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships. That performance earned him a spot on the U.S. team that competed in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, where he narrowly missed advancing to the final.
On Friday, he got off to good start while running in lane seven and had a clear lead over the field as he entered the final straightaway. Fahnbulleh closed well as he often does, but he was also well back, as he often is, when he started his late charge.
Lindsey had opened the season six days earlier when he competed in the 100 in the Miramar Invitational at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar, Florida, but a headwind of 1.2 meters-per-second had limited him to a 10.32 clocking in his qualifying heat of that meet, and a negative 2.4 breeze hindered him further when he won the second final in 10.28.
It will be interesting to see if Lindsey, or anyone else for that matter, can break up the Big Three of American 200-meter sprinting when the U.S. Olympic Team Trials are held in Eugene, Oregon, from June 21-30.
During the past three seasons, Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek, and Erriyon Knighton have each been on the U.S. national team in the 200. Together, they have combined to win seven of a possible nine medals in the men’s 200 in the last three global title meets.
Bednarek, Lyles, and Knighton finished 2-3-4 in the 200 in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 before Lyles, Bednarek, and Knighton placed 1-2-3 in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in 2022, and Lyles, Knighton, and Bednarek finished 1-2-5 in the global title meet in Budapest, Hungary, last year.
Narrow victory: Noah Lyles of the U.S., the defending World champion in the men’s 100 and 200 meters, was victorious in his first individual race of the outdoor season when he ran 10.01 seconds in the first heat of the Olympic development 100 in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Saturday.
Lyles, the three-time defending World champion in the 200, finished five thousandths of a second in front of compatriot Kenny Bednarek, who was credited with the same time as Lyles. American Kyree King finished third in 10.02 and Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown placed fourth in 10.04 in the race that was aided by a wind of 1.7 meters-per-second.
The 26-year-old Lyles had been scheduled to run the anchor leg for a 4 x 100 relay team in the Florida Relays on March 30, but he and third-leg runner Kendal Williams had failed to connect on the final pass of a race that was won by a Gainesville Elite quartet in 37.67, the fastest time in the world this year.
The Gainesville Elite team was comprised of Americans Grant Holloway, Pjai Austin, and Erriyon Knighton, and Liberian Joseph Fahnbulleh.
Brandon Carnes and two-time World 60 champion Christian Coleman had run the first two legs for the USA Red team of which Williams and Lyles were members.
In regards to his 100-meter victory last Saturday, Lyles’ Instagram post read as follows: And with that the Olympic year has begun
Solid opener: Grant Holloway of the U.S., the three-time defending World champion in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles, opened his outdoor season with a yearly world-leading time of 13.21 seconds in winning the second section of the Olympic development division in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Saturday.
The 26-year-old Holloway’s time, which was run into a breeze of 1.4 meters-per-second, was the fastest in the world this year and left him well clear of Americans Dylan Beard in second place (13.33) and Jamal Britt in third (13.62). Holloway had clocked a wind-aided 13.10 in his qualifying heat earlier in the day.
Holloway, the silver medalist in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, is coming off a short, but superb, indoor season during which he won his second World title in the 60 high hurdles and lowered his world record to 7.27 in the event.
Moving up the lists: Chris Robinson of the University of Alabama, the defending NCAA champion in the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles, ran a personal best and yearly world-leading time of 47.95 seconds in the first section of the university division event in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Friday.
The Crimson Tide senior defeated a high-quality collegiate field that included Tennessee senior Clement Ducos, who finished second in 48.26, and Baylor junior Nathaniel Ezekiel, who placed third in 48.29.
Robinson, who had run personal bests of 45.62 in the 400, 1:16.71 in the 600, and 1:49.52 in the 800 during indoor season, moved to sixth on the all-time collegiate performer list with his 47.95 clocking while becoming the 25th American to break the 48-second barrier, as well as the 60th man in history to have accomplished that feat.
Ducos moved to fifth on the all-time French performer list with his 48.26 clocking and Eziekiel’s 48.29 effort bettered his previous Nigerian record of 48.42 set in 2022.
Three and counting: Parker Valby of the University of Florida set her third collegiate record in a little more than four months when she ran 30:50.43 seconds to win the invitational race of the women’s 10,000 meters in the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University in California on Thursday (April 11) of last week.
Running at night in ideal conditions, the Gator junior had lapped everyone in the field by 8,000 meters and she lapped some of her fellow competitors two times by the end of the race.
Her time, which came in her first 10,000-meter race on the track, crushed the previous collegiate record of 31:18.07 set by Lisa Koll of Iowa State in 2010. It also moved her to 11th on the all-time U.S. performer list and came in her first race since she had run a personal best of 8:41.50 to win the 3,000 in the NCAA indoor championships on March 9 to complete a 5,000-3,000 double. That double began with a collegiate indoor record of 14:52.79 in the 5,000 the previous night.
Valby had two pacesetters for the first 1,600 meters of the race, which she covered in an unofficial 5:00.0, and Calli Thackery of Great Britain led her past 5,000 meters in 15:31.0. But she was essentially on her own after that as Thackery dropped out.
The lack of a pacesetter did not appear to bother Valby as she ran the next kilometer in 3:01.0 to come through 6,000 meters in 18:32.0. She then passed 7,000 meters in 21:35.6 following a kilometer split of 3:03.6.
Although she slowed to 3:07.2 for the eighth kilometer and 3:07.4 for the ninth, she looked to be running well within herself and she covered the last 1,000 meters in about 3:00.2 and the second half of the race in roughly 15:19.5.
The next two finishers behind Valby were Jenna Hutchins of BYU in 32:52.01 and Florance Uwajeneza of West Texas A&M in 32:52.54.
Valby’s first collegiate record had come two weeks after she had won the NCAA cross country title when she ran 14:56.11 to win the 5,000 in the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at the BU Track & Tennis Center on Dec. 2.
“It’s been a fantastic year and every time she gets on the track she puts it all out there,” Florida distance coach Will Palmer said about Valby in an interview on runnerspace.com. “I’m excited she gets to keep doing this at this level.”
Knocking on the door: For the second time in the last two seasons, Michaela Rose of LSU ran the second-fastest outdoor time in collegiate history in the women’s 800 meters in Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University last Friday.
The Tiger junior won the invitational race in 1:58.37 while finishing well in front of Americans Anna Camp Bennett and Dani Jones, who finished second and third in 2:01.14 and 2:01.49.
Stanford sophomore Juliette Whittaker, who had outkicked Rose for the NCAA indoor title in March, placed fifth in 2:01.57.
Rose’s time lowered her previous best of 1:59.08 that she ran in last year’s Clay Invitational and it drew her closer to the collegiate record of 1:57.73 that Athing Mu set as a Texas A&M freshman in 2021 before she turned professional.
Rose has now run under two minutes a combined seven times in the 800 during her collegiate career, with four of those times coming outdoors and three indoors.
Productive homecoming: Colin Sahlman of Northern Arizona University ran several superb races in meets at Azusa Pacific University during his prep career at Newbury Park High School in Southern California, and he turned in another memorable performance at Cougar Stadium last Saturday when he won the first invitational race of the men’s 1,500 meters in 3:33.96 in the Bryan Clay Invitational.
Competing in a steady rain, Sahlman moved into the lead with about 225 meters left in the race, repelled the charge of defending NCAA champion Nathan Green of Washington around the final curve, and then pulled away from him during the last 80 meters of the contest.
Sahlman’s time crushed his official best of 3:38.30 that he ran in the Clay Invitational last year and it was the second-fastest clocking in collegiate history behind the 3:33.74 best that Eliud Kipsang of Alabama and Kenya ran in the Clay meet in two years ago.
Green’s 3:34.79 clocking in second place moved him to fourth on the all-time collegiate list. He was followed by 2019 World Championship finalist Craig Engels in 3:35.46. Fouad Messaoudi of Oklahoma State finished fourth in 3:36.08 after he had taken the lead after the last pacesetter dropped out just after the 1,200-meter mark.
Washington teammates Luke Houser and Joe Waskom, who had combined to win three of the past four NCAA indoor or outdoor titles in the 1,500 meters or mile, finished ninth and 10th, respectively, in 3:42.12 and 3:43.48.
Saturday’s race marked the second time this year that Sahlman has crushed a previous personal best. The first came in January when his 3:53.17 clocking in an indoor mile bettered his personal best of 3:56.24 that he had run outdoors during his senior year in high school.
“I think indoors was definitely a big leap forward for me,” he said in an interview on runnerspace.com. “And then training has just been super consistent. I haven’t been too injured. I’ve had one or two little things, but I’ve gotten over them quickly. And if you get over them quickly, it doesn’t really affect you much.”
Two liners: Tarsis Orogot, a senior at the University of Alabama, lowered his Ugandan record to 19.90 seconds in the men’s 200 meters when he posted the fastest time in the university division of the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational at Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, Florida, last Friday. Orogot, who placed fifth in last year’s NCAA championships, lowered his previous national record of 19.94 while running the second-fastest time in the world this year. . . . . Christopher Morales Williams, a sophomore at the University of Georgia, broke 45 seconds for the first time during his career in an outdoor 400-meter race when he ran 44.91 in winning the university division of the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Saturday. The Canadian had posted the fastest indoor time in history when he clocked 44.49 in the SEC championships in February, but World Athletics did not consider it for world record ratification because the starting blocks in use at the meet were not the type that the governing body requires for record purposes. . . . . Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, the two-time defending Olympic champion in the women’s 400, opened her season with a 49.59-second third leg on a 1,600 relay team that ran a yearly world-leading time of 3:23.83 in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Saturday. Miller-Uibo won the 2022 World title in the 400, but she was eliminated in a first-round heat of last year’s World Championships after previously giving birth to her first child in April. . . . . Abby Steiner of the U.S. had a productive outing in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Saturday when she won the second heat of the women’s Olympic development 100 in 11.05, ran the second leg on a USA Red 400 relay team that placed first in a yearly world-leading time of 41.94 and ran a 50.69-second third leg on another USA Red squad that placed second in the 1,600 relay in 3:24.09. It was the second outdoor meet of the season for Steiner, who had won the 200 in 21.77 in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in 2022, but ended her season early last year so she could undergo surgery to remove a bone spur on his left heel that was causing pain in her Achilles tendon. . . . . Britton Wilson of the U.S. won her Olympic development heat of the women’s 400 with time of 50.74 in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational last Saturday. It was the second 400 victory of the season for Wilson, who had lowered the collegiate record to 49.13 last May — while running for the University of Arkansas — but concluded her season at the World Athletics Championships in August when she finished eighth in 53.87 in a first-round heat when a shine injury flared up. . . . . DeAnna Price of the U.S., the 2019 World champion in the women’s hammer throw, opened her season with a yearly world-leading mark of 76.57 meters (251 feet 2 inches) in the Gary Wieneke Memorial meet in Champaign, Illinois, last Saturday. The bronze medalist in last year’s World Championships had two other fair throws of 73.83 (242-2) and 73.80 (242-1).
Quick strike: Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands waited until there were less than three minutes left in the men’s race of the Rotterdam Marathon on Sunday before he took control of the contest. But when he made his move, it was decisive and left no doubt that he was going to cross the finish line in first place ahead of Amedework Walelegn of Ethiopia.
The silver medalist in the Olympic Games in 2021, Nageeye delighted Dutch fans by not only winning his second Rotterdam title in three years, but by also lowering his national record to 2 hours 4 minutes 45 seconds.
Walelegn finished second in a personal best of 2:04:50, followed by compatriot Birhanu Legese in 2:05:16. Kenyans Kenneth Kipkemoi and Enoch Onchari placed fourth and fifth, respectively, with times of 2:05:43 and 2:06:07.
The 35-year-old Nageeye, who had set the previous Dutch record of 2:04:56 in winning Rotterdam in 2022, was part of a large lead pack on Sunday that followed a trio of pacesetters through 10 kilometers in 29:07 and 20 kilometers in 58:32.
The front group consisted of nine runners, not counting the pacesetters, at that point, but it was down to six when the last pacesetter came through 30 kilometers in 1:28:09 before dropping out of the race.
It had become a four-man race when Nageeye, Walelegn, Birhanu, and Kipkemoi passed 35 kilometers in 1:42:54. However, Kipkemoi began to drop back at 37 kilometers and Legese, the fastest entrant in the field with a best of 2:02:48 from 2019, started to let go shortly before the 40-kilometer mark.
Walelegn was slightly ahead of Nageeye when he passed through 40 kilometers in 1:58:12, but the Dutch runner looked far more relaxed that the grimacing Ethiopian.
Roughly 800 meters later, the pair approached a point on the course when a man stood off to the side of the road holding a Netherlands flag that had black lettering on it reading Abdi.
Nageeye acknowledged the fan by pumping his right fist in his direction and not long after that, he stepped on the accelerator at the two-hour and two-minute mark of the race.
Walelegn was on his way to cutting 37 seconds off his previous best of 2:05:27 that he set in winning the Seoul Marathon in South Korea in March of last year, but he was unable to respond to Nageeye’s move and finished five seconds behind him.
Prior to the start of the race, a minute of silence was held in memory of Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum, who was killed in a car crash on Feb. 11 that also took the life of his coach, Gervais Hakizimana.
The 24-year-old Kiptum had lowered the world record in the marathon to 2:00:35 in Chicago last October and he was planning to take a shot at breaking 2 hours in Rotterdam before he died in the accident in which the car he was driving veered off the road and hit a tree.
Winning return: Ashete Bekere of Ethiopia won the women’s division of the Rotterdam Marathon for the second time in her career on Sunday after breaking away from the lead pack 28 kilometers into the race.
The 36-year-old Bekere clocked 2:19:30 to finish well ahead of second-place Viola Kibiwot of Kenya in 2:20:57.
Kibiwot was followed by compatriots Seely Chepyego at 2:22:46, Emily Chebet at 2:24:49, and Pascalia Jepkogei at 2:24:56.
Bekere’s victory snapped a seven-race winless streak during which she had placed second once, third twice, fourth twice, and sixth once. She had also dropped out of the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, during that stretch.
Bekere, compatriot Sisay Meseret Gola, Kibiwot, and Chepyego comprised a four-runner lead pack that came through the first 10 kilometers in 32:42 on Sunday. They were still running together when they passed 20 kilometers in 1:05:11, the halfway mark in 1:08:47, and 25 kilometers in 1:21:23.
Their projected finish time was 2:17:22 at that point in the race, but the pace began to slow during the next five kilometers. Nonetheless, Bekere had an eight-second lead when she came through 30 kilometers in 1:37:48 and her advantage had grown substantially larger when she passed the 35-kilometer-mark in 1:54:25 after running the previous 5k segment in 16:37.
Bekere began to slow noticeably after that as she came through 40 kilometers in 2:11:52 after running the previous five kilometers in 17:27. But her previous lead had been large enough that her victory was never in doubt as she won her first marathon since a first-place finish in Berlin in September of 2019.
That win had followed victories in Valencia in December of 2018 and in Rotterdam in April of 2019.
No Rojas in Paris: Yulimar Rojas of Venzuela, the world-record-holder and defending Olympic champion in the women’s triple jump, announced on social media last Friday that she had suffered an injury to her left Achilles tendon in training and would be unable to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris in August.
The post did not say when she suffered the injury, or if it had required surgery, but several other online sites have since reported that she did have surgery.
In addition to being the defending Olympic champion, the 28-year-old Rojas is the four-time defending World Athletics champion in the event, and she had won World indoor titles in 2016, ’18, and ’22 before bypassing this year’s meet in Glasgow, Scotland, in March.
Rojas, who also won a silver medal in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, set the world outdoor record of 15.67 (51-5) in winning the Olympic title in Tokyo in 2021 and she raised the indoor record to 15.74 (51-7¾) in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2022.
She was the No. 1-ranked women’s triple jumper in the world by Track & Field News for the 2017, ’19, ’21, ’22, and ’23 seasons. There were no rankings for the 2020 season as the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of many meets that year.
Long time coming: World Athletics announced last week that it will award $50,000 in prize money to each winner of the 48 track and field events in the Olympic Games in Paris in August.
Although some national federations and sponsors have awarded athletes financial bonuses for winning medals in the Olympic Games for decades, this will be the first time since the modern Games began in 1896 that a sport’s governing body will award money to gold medalists.
When it comes to the six relay events, the $50,000 prize will be divided between the members of each winning team.
There are plans to award money to the silver and bronze medalists, as well, when the Olympics are held in Los Angeles in 2028.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, winner of the men’s 1,500 meters in the Olympic Games in 1980 and ’84, said the $2.4 million in prize money will come from part of the funds that the organization receives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) every four years to reward athletes.
In a post on theguardian.com, Coe said the awarding of prize money reflected his view that the world has changed from several decades ago and track and field athletes should receive direct financial compensation for winning a gold medal in the Olympic Games.
“It’s really important that where possible we create a sport that is financially viable for our competitors,” he said. “This is the beginning of that.”
He also said that “If I thought athletes were only competing because there was a financial pot at the end of the day, then I might take a very different view – but they are not. I think this gives them a little bit more skin in the game.”