Week in Review: BYU coming on strong
Men's and women's teams top national polls after wins in Big 12 cross country champs
For the first time this season, the BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams are both atop their respective polls in the national rankings that were released on Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The BYU men jumped from second to first after defeating top-ranked and defending NCAA champion Oklahoma State for the Big 12 Conference title on Nov. 1 and the BYU women maintained their No. 1 ranking with a victory over second-place and No. 4 West Virginia in the meet that was held at Cottonwood Creek Golf Club in Waco, Texas.
The BYU men, paced by the third-place finish of senior Casey Clinger, had five of the top 12 finishers while scoring a 41-52 victory over Oklahoma State in a contest in which No. 4-ranked Iowa State placed third with 62 points, followed by No. 30 Texas Tech with 101 and No. 24 Colorado with 122.
Oklahoma State received first- and sixth-place finishes from Kenyan sophomores Brian Musau and Denis Kipngetich, but the Cowboys could not match BYU’s depth as the Cougars’ No. 6 runner placed 15th, which was three places ahead of Oklahoma State’s No 4 scorer.
“Our whole hope coming into the Big 12 Championships was to make it a good race,” BYU coach Ed Eyestone said in a byucougars.com post. “We knew Oklahoma State and I think we did a good job of putting pressure on them early. For a while we had a lot of orange in front of us, but my guys didn’t give up. They took heart. We are going to celebrate and enjoy this.”
Oklahoma State, which had defeated three-time defending champion Northern Arizona, 49-71, for the NCAA title last year, is known for the bright orange singlets that its runners wear. But the Cowboys lacked the depth to repel a BYU squad that had an impressive time gap of 27.9 seconds between its No 1 and 5 scorers.
Oklahoma State freshman Laban Kipkemboi led a large lead pack through the first three kilometers of the men’s race in 8:20.4 and the front group was still comprised of more than a dozen runners when Kipkemboi came through 5,000 meters in 14:09.9. Kipkemboi was running in second place when teammate Musau led a seven-runner pack through 5.9 kilometers in 16:40.6.
Musau, who placed eighth in the NCAA championships last year, was three-plus seconds clear of second-place Clinger when he passed the seven-kilometer mark in 19:21.1 and he won his second consecutive conference title when he finished with a time of 22:07.0 over the 8,000-meter course.
Freshman Solomon Kipchoge of Texas Tech placed second in 22:08.5, followed by Clinger in 22:09.2, freshman Robin Kwemoi Bera of Iowa State in 22:16.7, and Ernest Cheruiyot of Texas Tech in 22:25.8.
Kipngetich, fourth in the NCAA meet last year, placed sixth in 22:29.2 and he was followed by the BYU tandem of sophomore James Corrigan in 22:29.7 and senior Joey Nokes in 22:30.2.
The final two scoring runners for BYU were senior Creed Thompson and junior Lucas Bons, who were each credited with times of 22:37.1 while finishing in 11th and 12th place, respectively.
“We knew it was going to be a battle out there with Oklahoma State and Iowa State,” Bons said. “Our goals were just to pack up, be tough and let the results take care of themselves. We had some guys coming into this race dealing with some rough circumstances, but they still stuck it out and finished hard for the team. I’m super pleased with my race and our team’s race, but now we’ve just got to be humble and hungry for the next three weeks until the national championship.”
In contrast to its men’s team, the BYU women entered their race as solid favorites and they backed it up by putting five runners among the top 13 finishers in a 41-60 victory over second-place West Virginia.
Utah, the No. 6-ranked team in the nation, placed third with 86 points, followed by No. 18 Oklahoma State with 103, and Texas Tech with 155.
Canadian senior Kelli McCabe and Kenyan freshman Joy Naukot placed first and third for West Virginia, but BYU had four runners ahead of the Mountaineers’ No. 3 finisher in 12th place and six runners ahead of West Virginia’s No. 4 scorer in 20th.
Naukot, a freshman, and McCabe, a senior, were running 1-2, just ahead of Arizona State freshman Judy Chepkoech when Naukot came through the three-kilometer mark in 9:30.8. But McCabe was five seconds up on second-place Naukot when she passed the 5,000-meter mark in 15:58.2.
Closing strong, McCabe nearly tripled her advantage during the final kilometer of the race as her winning time of 19:02.6 over the 6,000-meter course was well ahead of sophomore Juliet Cherubet of Texas Tech, who placed second in 19:16.9. She was followed by Naukot in 19:18.1 and Chepkoech in 19:32.6.
After the first four finishers, a BYU trio of senior Lexy Halladay-Lowry, junior Riley Chamberlain, and sophomore Taylor Rohatinsky placed fifth, six, and seventh, respectively, with times of 19:50.5, 19:54.3, and 19:55.3.
BYU junior Carmen Alder was the Cougars’ No. 4 finisher in 10th place in 19:58.8 and senior teammate Destiny Everett followed in 13th in 19:59.6 as the gap between BYU’s No. 1 and 5 runners was a miniscule 9.1 seconds.
The victory gave BYU six consecutive conference titles, with the last two coming in the Big 12 after the first four were in the West Coast Conference. Overall, the Cougars have won 25 conference titles in women’s cross country.
“The mindset today was to embrace the imperfect,” BYU coach Diljeet Taylor said in a byucougars.com post. “The race isn’t going to feel great, but just stick to the race plan and fight for each over. That is what they did. They found their battles within the race and really fought.”
Impressive winning streaks: Senior Bob Liking of Wisconsin won a record-tying fourth consecutive individual title while leading the Badgers to their seventh win in a row in the Big Ten Conference Cross Country Championships in Savoy, Illinois, on Nov. 1.
Liking clocked 22:47.3 over the 8,000-meter course as No. 9-ranked Wisconsin totaled 46 points to defeat No. 18 Washington and No. 25 Oregon, who each totaled 58 points before Washington was awarded second place on the tiebreaker.
The victory made Liking one of four runners to have won four Big Ten titles during their careers.
The others were Craig Virgin of Illinois, Bob Kennedy of Indiana, and Kevin Sullivan of Michigan.
Liking was part of a lead pack of three dozen or so runners after the first 3,000 meters of the race, but he, as well as Indiana senior Skylar Stidam and UCLA junior Michael Mireles, were more than three seconds in front of the chase group when Liking came through five kilometers in 14:20.0.
He began to take charge of the race shortly after that and was nine seconds up on second-place Mireles after 6,000 meters and had a 12-second advantage after 7,000.
Although Mireles reduced some of his deficit in the last kilometer of the race, he was still nearly eight seconds behind Liking when he crossed the finish line in 22:55.0, followed by Washington senior Nathan Green in 22:56.9.
The Oregon duo of freshman Simeon Birnbaum and senior Elliott Cook finished fourth and fifth with times of 22:57.2 and 22:57.6, respectively.
Wisconsin’s Christian de Vaal finished seventh in 22:58.9 and fellow freshman Matan Ivri placed 10th in 22:59.7 for the Badgers, who won the program’s 55th conference title with their victory.
“I’m very honored to be added to that list,” Liking said in a uwbadgers.com post after becoming a four-time individual champion. “I was pretty nervous for this one because I did not want to blow up, get three and not get the fourth.
“I knew my guys were behind me and if I blew up, they were going to replace me. I’m so excited, I’m so excited to see how this group grows.”
In the women’s race, No. 17 Oregon scored a decisive 33-60 victory over No. 2 Washington, followed by No. 11 Wisconsin with 133 points.
Seniors Silan Ayyildfiz and Maddy Elmore placed first and second for Oregon with times of 19:13.6 and 19:14.6, respectively. They were followed by junior Ali Weimer of Minnesota in 19:25.0 and freshman Rachel Forsyth of Michigan State in 19:26.2.
Oregon, which is in its initial season in the Big Ten Conference along with former Pacific 12 schools Washington, UCLA, and USC, had five finishers in the top 12 as junior Mia Barnett finished seventh in 19:35.9, senior Klaudia Kazimierska placed 11th in 19:41.4, and senior Anika Thompson was 12th in 19:41.6.
“We picked winning this championship, specifically, as a main goal and focus this season,” Oregon assistant coach Shalane Flanagan said in a goducks.com post. “Coming into the Big Ten, we wanted to make sure we were contributing to an already great conference.
“Nine weeks ago, we sat in Park City, Utah, and they told me they wanted to win this meet and we wanted to be a contender at nationals. I believed them and I’m here to facilitate. They’re very driven and I’m just here to support what they want to do and their goals.”
Clean sweep I: Northern Arizona won both individual titles and both team championships in the Big Sky Conference cross country meet at Riverside Golf Course in Pocatello, Idaho, on Nov. 1.
David Mullarkey and Colin Sahlman placed 1-2 in the men’s race to lead No. 8-ranked Northern Arizona to 25-49 victory over second-place Montana State. Weber State finished third in 68 points.
Mullarkey, a senior from Great Britain, clocked 23:06.6 over the 8,000-meter course while becoming the ninth NAU runner in a row to have won the men’s individual title in the conference championships.
Junior Sahlman crossed the finish line in 23:14.2 for the Lumberjacks and he was followed by senior Ben Perrin of Montana State in third in 23:14.9.
Three of the next six finishers were from NAU as senior Santiago Prosser placed fifth in 23:29.6, and freshmen Ford Washburn and Manny Perez finished eighth and ninth, respectively, with times of 23:43.5 and 23:48.4. The Lumberjacks also had the 10th-place finisher in sophomore Justin Keyes, who timed 23:50.2 for a squad that gave NAU its 32nd conference championship.
Northern Arizona swept the top six places in the women’s race as seniors Ali Upshaw and Elise Stearns placed first and second in the Lumberjacks’ 15-54 victory over second-place Montana State. Weber State finished third with 78 points.
Upshaw clocked 16:10.4 over the 5,000-meter course and two-time defending champion Stearns timed 16:27.4 while running her first race since the conference indoor track and field championships in February.
Northern Arizona’s Nos. 3-5 runners were junior Anna Fenske, who finished third in 16:46.1, freshman Ava Mitchell, fourth in 16:46.3, and senior Alexis Kebbe, fifth in 16:53.2.
The team title was the sixth in a row for Northern Arizona, which has won 26 conference championships overall.
Clean sweep II: NCAA title contenders Habtom Samuel and Pamela Kosgei of New Mexico posted runaway victories in leading the Lobos’ men’s and women’s teams to titles in the Mountain West Cross Country Championships in Colorado Springs on Nov. 1.
Samuel, an Eritrean who was the runner-up to Graham Blanks of Harvard in last year’s NCAA meet, clocked 23:20.7 over the 8,000-meter course at the Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Golf Course to lead No. 6-ranked New Mexico to a sweep of the top five places in a 15-70 victory over No. 23-ranked Colorado State. Wyoming, the No. 20-ranked team in the nation by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll, placed third with 80 points.
It was the second victory in three races this season for Samuel, who broke away from freshman teammates Vincent Chirchir and Collins Kiprotich in the fifth kilometer of the race.
That Kenyan duo finished second and third, respectively, with times of 23:41.5 and 23:52.6 for a New Mexico team that had a gap of 55.9 seconds between its Nos. 1 and 5 runners.
Kosgei, whose sister Brigid Kosgei had set a then-world record of 2 hours 14 minutes 4 seconds in the women’s marathon in 2019, timed 19:36.2 over the 6,000-meter course in the women’s race to finish well ahead of second-place Yasmin Marghini of Boise State, who ran 20:23.0.
Those two were part of a six-runner lead pack after the first two kilometers of the race, but Kenyan Kosgei had a seven-second advantage over Marghini after four kilometers before adding 40 seconds to that gap during the last third of the race.
Boise State also received a third-place finish from Kaiya Robertson with a time of 20:24.7, but the Broncos could not match the depth of No. 8-ranked New Mexico as the Lobos had six of the top 12 finishers in a 32-54 victory. Colorado State placed third with 79 points.
The victory was the third of the season without a loss for Kosgei, who had previously won the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Sept. 28 and the Pre-Nationals meet in Verona, Wisconsin, on Oct. 19.
Arkansas and Alabama split titles: Individual champions Patrick Kiprop of Arkansas and Doris Lemngole of Alabama led their respective men’s and women’s teams to first-place finishes in the Southeastern Conference Cross Country Championships in Bryan-College Station, Texas, on Nov. 1.
Kiprop, a senior from Kenya, keyed a 1-3-5 finish for No. 3-ranked Arkansas as the Razorbacks turned back No. 11 Alabama, 38-52, for the men’s team title. Mississippi placed third with 122 points.
It was the fourth team title in five years for Arkansas, which has won 29 conference championships overall.
Kiprop, who finished seventh in last year’s NCAA championships, and fellow senior Victor Kiprop — no relation — of Alabama had broken away from the field by the time they passed through the 4.2-kilometer mark. But Patrick Kiprop was three seconds up on Victor Kiprop when he went through 5.6 kilometers and he was ahead by nearly 12 seconds at seven kilometers.
His final time of 21:57.1 over the 8,000-meter layout at the Watts Cross Country Course left him well clear of second-place Victor Kiprop in 22:07.2, with Arkansas teammate Kirami Yego finishing third in 22:15.9.
“I had to do what I had to do,” Patrick Kiprop said in a post-race interview. “Going fast from the start was what I had to do today.”
Lemngole, a sophomore, won the women’s race with an 18:20.3 clocking over the 6,000-meter course while leading No. 7-ranked Alabama to a 72-103 victory over No. 16 Tennessee. Florida, which entered the meet as the No. 14-ranked team in the nation, placed third with 122 points.
Lemngole and fellow Kenyan Hilda Olemomoi had finished second and fourth for Alabama in the NCAA championships last year, but they are rivals this season as Olemomoi has transferred to Florida.
Those two were part of a six-runner lead pack after the first 2.8 kilometers of the race on the Watts Cross Country Course, but the lead group was down to Lemngole, Olemomoi, Paityn Noe of Arkansas, and Brenda Tuwei of Alabama by 4.1 kilometers.
Lemngole was just ahead of Olelomoi when she passed five kilometers in 15:31.2, but she pulled away from her former teammate during the last kilometer of the race as her 18:20.3 clocking left her nearly five seconds in front of Olemomoi’s second-place time of 18:25.0.
Noe finished third in 18:37.6 for Arkansas.
Win streak comes to an end: The North Carolina State women’s cross country team saw its run of consecutive team titles end at eight in the Atlantic Coast Conference championships in Cary, North Carolina, Nov. 1.
The Wolfpack had won its third consecutive NCAA title with a 123-124 victory over Northern Arizona last year, but No. 5-ranked Notre Dame won its first ACC title when it totaled 115 points to the 121 of No. 15 Stanford and No. 19 North Carolina. Stanford finished second in the team standings based on the tiebreaker.
Sophomores Grace Hartman and Hannah Gapes finished first and third for No. 10-ranked NC State, but the Wolfpack finished fifth in the team standings with 160 points as its No. 4 and 5 runners placed 59th and 68th, respectively.
Hartman and Gapes were part of a large lead pack for the first two kilometers of the race, but the battle for first place was down to Hartman and freshman Silvia Jelego of Clemson when that duo came through the 3.1-kilometer mark. However, Hartman took control of the race during the next 1,600 meters as she had a lead of more than six seconds when she came through 4.7 kilometers in 15:12.6 on her way to a time of 19:15.1 over the 6,000-meter layout at Wake Med Cross Country Course.
Jelego placed second in 19:22.6, followed by Gapes in 19:26.5.
Senior Siona Chisholm paced first-place Notre Dame with a sixth-place finish in 19:42.3 and freshman Mary Bonner Dalton was the team’s No. 2 finisher in 22nd place in 20:13.8. The Fighting Irish’s next three finishers placed 26th, 30th, and 31st as Notre Dame had five runners ahead of the No. 4 finishers for both Stanford and North Carolina.
In the men’s meet, junior Gary Martin of Virginia won the individual title and No. 7-ranked Wake Forest won the team championship with a 60-69 victory over No. 5 Stanford. North Carolina, the No. 13-ranked team in the nation, placed third with 80 points, with No. 10 Notre Dame finishing sixth with 127.
North Carolina seniors Ethan Strand and Parker Wolfe were running 1-2 when a large lead pack came through 3.8 kilometers, but the front group was down to those two and Martin when they passed five kilometers.
Martin and Wolfe were running stride for stride at the 6.5-kilometer mark, with Strand nearly two seconds back of them. But Martin, a 1,500-meter specialist in track, won the race by nearly eight seconds when he timed 22:17.6 over the 8,000-meter course.
Strand was second in 22:25.5, followed by Nuttycombe Invitational champion Wolfe in 22:29.8.
Senior Luke Tewalt and freshman JoJo Jourdon paced Wake Forest by finishing seventh in 22:39.0 and eighth in 22:40.1, respectively. The team’s Nos. 3-5 runners placed 14th, 15th, and 16th place.
Defending national champion rolls: Senior Graham Blanks of Harvard won the men’s individual title by more than 30 seconds in the Heptagonal Ivy League Cross Country Championships in Princeton, New Jersey, on Nov. 2.
Blanks, who capped an unbeaten junior season with a victory in the NCAA championships last year, basically led the men’s race from start to finish. He was at the front of a three-runner lead pack after the first 2.7 kilometers and he was 1.3 seconds ahead of second-place Dylan Throop of Penn at 3.5 kilometers.
His lead had grown to nearly 10 seconds at 5.1 kilometers and it had more than tripled when he crossed the finish line with a time of 22:14.6 over the 8,000-meter Princeton Cross Country Course.
Throop placed second in 22:46.4, followed by fellow senior Talha Syed of Columbia in 22:57.5.
Harvard also received a fourth-place finish from senior Ben Rosa, who ran 22:59.8, but No. 22-ranked Princeton won the team title with 51 points after placing five runners among the top 14 finishers.
Harvard, the No. 15-ranked team in the national poll, placed second with 62 points, followed by Cornell with 76.
“We thought as a team, we had a better shot if the race would be fast,” Blanks said in a thecrimson.com post. “So after two minutes, I kind of just took the lead. And then from there, I just tried to wind it up, and by about three miles I was running alone and then, I just kind of finished it in.”
Princeton also won the women’s title as the Tigers totaled 40 points to the 53 of second-place Harvard and the 104 of third-place Yale.
Phoebe Anderson of Columbia and Great Britain won the individual title with a time of 19:52.7 over the 6,000-meter course.
Mena Scatchard, a fellow senior and Brit, placed second for Princeton in 20:04.7 and sophomore teammate Anna McNatt finished third in 20:17.1 for the Tigers.
Fourth time is the charm: Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands bounced back from a disappointing performance in the Olympic Games in Paris in August when he won the men’s division of the New York City Marathon on Sunday.
After having finished fifth, third, and fourth in three previous races in New York City, the 35-year-old Nageeye won the 53rd edition of the race on Sunday with a time of 2:07:39 after breaking away from Evans Chebet of Kenya just seconds after the race clock had hit the 2:06:00 mark
Nageeye had won a silver medal in the 2021 Olympic Games when the men’s marathon was held in Japanese city of Sapporo because the temperatures there were lower than in Tokyo, but he had failed to finish in the World Athletics Championships in 2022 and ’23, as well as in the Olympics.
His DNF, an acronym for did not finish, in the French capital had been particularly disappointing for him because he had set a Dutch record of 2:04:45 in winning the Rotterdam Marathon in the Netherlands in April.
“The Olympics was very tough for me, very disappoint race,” he told ESPN’s Lewis Johnson in a post-race interview. “And soon I went back to training. I was like, ‘You know what? It happens, don’t worry… It’s okay, think about it.’ But I have to do my training. I have to come back. I have to go to New York. I have to be there, at least podium, but my goal is to win.”
Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia was the favorite in the men’s race after winning the Olympic title in Paris and setting a course record of 2:04:58 in New York City last year, but he ended up finishing fourth.
Nageeye and Tola were part of large lead packs that went through 10 kilometers in 31:27, 20 kilometers in 1:02:17 and the halfway mark in 1:05:33 on a challenging layout that consists of several uphill and downhill sections.
Albert Korir of Kenya, the 2021 race winner, led a 14-runner lead group through 25 kilometers in 1:17:48. But 2022 champion Chebet was in the lead when he came through 30 kilometers in 1:31:57 while leading a tightly-bunched pack that also included Nageeye, Tola, and Korir, as well as Kenyans Geoffrey Kamworor and Wesley Kiptoo.
Kiptoo began to fall off the back of that group two kilometers later and the leading trio was comprised of Chebet, Nageeye, and Kamworor when Chebet passed 35 kilometers in 1:46:20.
Tola was four seconds off the lead, with Korir another three seconds behind him.
Nageeye looked superb at that point in the race as his facial expression was very relaxed in comparison to Chebet and Kamworor, the race champion in 2017 and ’19.
It wasn’t long before the battle for first was between Nageeye and Chebet as they were 14 seconds ahead of third-place Tola when they passed 40 kilometers in 2:01:10.
Nageeye and Chebet would run very close to one another through the 2:06:00 mark, but Nageeye began to draw away from the Kenyan a few seconds later.
His lead became large enough that he was able to wave and blow kisses to the crowd during the final stages of the race before pumping his right arm in celebration shortly after crossing the finish line in 2:07:39.
Chebet finished in 2:07:45, followed by Korir in 2:08:00. Tola timed 2:08:12 in fourth place and he was followed by Kamworor in 2:08:50.
Nageeye told Johnson of ESPN that he could not believe how good he felt during the race, stating that he was fresh enough at 40 kilometers that he could have raced another 10 kilometers.
He said that “even from the start, you can see I was so focused.”
He then added that any time someone tried to make a move in the front pack, he was right behind them, thinking, “You’re not going anywhere. It’s my race today.”
He concluded that “when you do things perfect, it looks simple. But hard work was behind it.”
First victory a big one: Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya won the women’s division of the New York City Marathon on Sunday after having finished third, fourth, second, and sixth in her four previous races at the 42.195-kilometers/26 mile 385-yard distance.
The 33-year-old Chepkirui clocked 2:24:35 after opening up a gap on defending champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya just after the 2:23:00 mark.
Although Chepkirui was the fastest entry in the women’s race with her personal best of 2:17:29 that she ran while finishing third in the Valencia Marathon in Spain in 2022, Obiri was the favorite after winning her second consecutive Boston Marathon title in April and finishing third in the Olympic Games in Paris in August, despite having what many considered to be an off race by her standards.
After Obiri led a pack of 20 women through 10 kilometers in 35:24, Chepkirui was in the lead when she clocked 1:10:05 at 20 kilometers, 1:13:59 at the halfway mark, and 1:27:55 at 25 kilometers.
The lead pack was down to 10 when Chepkirui passed 30 kilometers in 1:44:47, but it had been reduced to five when Chepkirui led Obiri, Ethiopian Senbere Teferi, Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot, and Bahranian Eunice Chumba past the 35-kilometer mark in 2:01:23.
The Kenyan trio of Chepkirui, Obiri, and Cheruiyot was in the clear three minutes later and they ran together for another 10-plus minutes. However, Chepkirui and Obiri were two seconds up on Cheruiyot when they passed 40 kilometers in 2:17:47 and they would continue to pull away from their 41-year-old compatriot for the remainder of the race.
Most people would have predicted an Obiri victory at that point in the contest as the former two-time winner of the 5,000 meters in the World Athletics Championships had outkicked her closest pursuers in her two Boston Marathon victories and her New York City triumph last year. But Chepkirui stayed ahead of her for the remainder of the race.
Obiri looked to be struggling a bit at the 2:22:00 mark and just over a minute later, she could not respond when Chepkirui stepped on the accelerator while on her way to a 14-second margin of victory.
While Obiri finished second in 2:24:49, Cheruiyot placed third in 2:25:21. She was followed by Chumba in fourth in 2:05:58 and Fabienne Schlumpf of Switzerland in fifth in 2:26:31.
“This means a lot to me,” Chepkirui told Lewis Johnson of ESPN after her victory. “It means my training has been good and I’m so happy.”
She added that she had to dig deep to get away from Obiri.
“Towards the last one mile, it was really hard, but I pushed myself to the limit, and I’m so happy.”
End of the road: Jenny Simpson of the U.S., the 2011 World champion in the women’s 1,500 meters, finished 18th in the New York City Marathon on Sunday in what was expected to be the final race of her professional career.
The 38-year-old Simpson clocked 2:31:54 in her third marathon of the year, as well as her career.
In her first marathon, she dropped out of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Orlando, Florida, in February before finishing 18th in the Boston Marathon in April with a time of 2:31:39.
Simpson had taken up racing on the roads in the latter part of 2021 after she had finished 10th in the 1,500 in the U.S. Olympic Trials in June of that year.
In addition to winning the World title in the 1,500 in 2011, Simpson won silver medals in the 1,500 in the 2013 and ’17 global championships and a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
She was ranked among the top eight 1,500-meter runners in the world by Track & Field News every year from 2011-18. Included in that stretch was a No. 1 ranking in 2014, a No. 2 ranking in 2013, and a No. 3 ranking in 2011.
And then there were seven: The Sydney Marathon was officially added to the list of World Marathon Majors on Sunday.
The race began in 2001 while being contested over the same course that was used in the Olympic Games in 2000.
The next edition of the Sydney Marathon is scheduled for August 31, 2025, which will make it the fourth of the seven World Marathon Majors to be held next year.
Tokyo will be the first on March 2, followed by Boston on April 21 and London on April 27.
After the Sydney Marathon at the end of August, the final three World Marathon Majors will take place in Berlin on Sept. 21, in Chicago on Oct. 12, and in New York City on Nov. 2.
The list hits 32: Distance runners Agnes Ngetich of Kenya and Tsigie Gebreselama of Ethiopia were announced as the most recent signees with Grand Slam Track last week.
Ngetich set a world record of 28:46 in the women’s 10k road run in Valencia, Spain, in January when her time crushed the previous best of 29:14 and she produced the second fastest women’s half marathon ever in the same city on Oct. 27 when she clocked 1:03:04. She also finished fifth in the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, in March in a race in which Kenyan runners swept the top five places.
Prior to all of the above, she placed sixth in the 10,000 in last year’s World Athletics Championships.
Gebreselama had a career-best year in 2024 as she set personal bests of 14:18.76 in the 5,000 meters, 29:48.34 in the 10,000, and 1:05:14 in the half marathon. She also placed 10th in the 10,000 in the Olympic Games in Paris in August.
Ngetich and Gebreselama, who will compete in the women’s long distances category of Grand Slam Track, bring the number of athletes who have signed contracts with the fledgling professional league to 32.
Those 32 performers combined to win five gold medals, eight silver, and eight bronze in individual events in the Olympic Games.
GST, which is the brain-child of four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, is designed to pit the top track performers in the world against one another in four meets — referred to as slams — each season.
The inaugural meet is scheduled to take place next April, with the other three slams expected to be held during the summer. The dates and sites have yet to be announced, but Grand Slam Track has stated that one of the meets will be in Los Angeles, one will be in another American city, and the other two will be held in “international” cities.
GST will consist strictly of track events and will pit performers against one other in the following men’s and women’s categories: short sprints (100/200), long sprints (200/400), short hurdles (100 or 110 hurdles/100), long hurdles (400 hurdles/400), short distances (800/1,500), and long distances (3,000/5,000).
Each slam will be held over the course of a weekend, with each competitor running in the two events in their designated category to determine an overall champion for that meet. The winner will be awarded $100,000 in prize money, with the runner-up receiving $50,000 and the third-place finisher winning $30,000.
The remaining prize money for the fourth- through eighth-place finishers will be awarded on a $25,000-$20,000-$15,000-$12,500-$10,000 basis.
You can click here for more details about Grand Slam Track.
For the record: I owe Abbigail Errington of South Pasadena High School in California and fellow Golden Stater Chiara Dailey of La Jolla an apology.
In a Week in Review column from Nov. 2, I wrote that Braelyn Combe of Santiago High in Corona and Katja Dunayevich of Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego had turned in the two fastest girls’ time during the Mt. San Antonio College Cross Country Invitational in Walnut from Oct. 25-26.
In fact, the two quickest girls’ times came in the Division 3-4-5 Team Sweepstakes race on Oct. 25 when senior Errington finished first in 16:57 and junior Dailey placed second in 17:06 over the newly reconfigured course that is now three miles in length.
My apologies to Errington and Dailey for not reporting those facts correctly the first time. I will strive to do better in the future.
On the performance enhancing drug front: Tsehay Gemuchu of Ethiopia, a runner with a personal best of 2:16:56 in the women’s marathon, has been suspended for four years for suspected blood doping, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced last week.
Gemechu, 25, had finished fourth in the 5,000 meters in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, before representing Ethiopia in the 10,000 in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and in the marathon in last year’s global championships in Budapest, Hungary.
She had been disqualified for a lane violation in the 10,000 in Tokyo and she dropped out of the marathon in Budapest.
The AIU news release was linked to a decision from World Athletics’ Disciplinary Tribunal in which the panel determined that “multiple abnormalities” were detected in blood samples collected from Tsehay from October 24, 2018 until May 20, 2023.
Based on those abnormalities, the Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that Tsehay should be suspended for four years. The start date for the suspension was retroactively dated to November 30 of last year, when Gemechu was first suspended on a provisional basis.
The ruling also stated that all of Gemechu’s performances achieved from March 22, 2020, through November 30, 2023, should be disqualified. That means that her 2:16:56 clocking in the 2023 Tokyo Marathon, as well as a time of 30:19.29 in the 10,000 meters from 2021, can no longer count as her personal bests.