Week in Review: Nuguse strikes again
Former Notre Dame standout sets American record in men's mile in Millrose Games
Fifteen days after his American record in the men’s 3,000 meters was overshadowed by the national-record performance of countryman Woody Kincaid in the 5,000, Yared Nuguse turned in an even-better effort in the 115th edition of the Millrose Games in New York City on Saturday.
Nuguse, 23, unleashed an impressive finishing kick at the Nike Track & Field Center at The Armory to win the Wanamaker Mile with a time of 3 minutes 47.38 seconds. It was the second-fastest indoor time in history behind the 3:47.01 world record set by Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha in 2019.
The time crushed the previous U.S. record of 3:49.89 set by Bernard Lagat in 2005 and gave Nuguse a sizeable margin of victory over second-place Neil Gourley of Great Britain, whose 3:49.46 clocking moved him to sixth on the all-time world performer list and to second on the all-time European list.
Commonwealth Games champion Olli Hoare of Australia tied his own national record of 3:50.83 while finishing third, and he was followed by Sam Tanner of New Zealand, who ran a personal best of 3:51.70, and Mario Garcia Romo of Spain, who set a national record of 3:51.79.
“In the last part, I gave it everything I had, and I was able to close with something crazy, and I got it,” Nuguse said in a post on the Watch Athletics site. “I am always excited to see what else I can do next.”
Nuguse, the son of parents who emigrated to the U.S. from the Tigray region of Ethiopia, won the 2019 NCAA title in the 1,500 meters as a University of Notre Dame sophomore and placed second in the 2021 championships before finishing third in that year’s U.S. Olympic Trials.
Although a quadriceps injury prevented him from competing in the Games in Tokyo, he ran a then-collegiate record of 7:38.13 in the indoor 3,000 meters last year. However, he placed a disappointing ninth in that event in the NCAA Indoor Championships last March after previously running a lackluster – by his standards – anchor leg on a Fighting Irish’s distance medley relay team that finished second.
His final collegiate outdoor season was cut short by quadricep and hamstring issues, but he bounced back to lower his personal best to 3:33.26 in the 1,500 while winning a meet in Padova, Italy last September.
Nuguse was running professionally for the Boulder, Colorado-based On Athletics Club by that point and his improvement has continued under the guidance of coach Dathan Ritzenhein, a former American record-holder in the 5,000 and a three-time Olympian who finished 9th in the marathon in the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Ritzenhein, or Ritz as he is affectionately known, was one of the first people to congratulate Nuguse after he had run an American record and yearly world-leading time of 7:28.24 to win the 3,000 in the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic on Jan. 27. And Nuguse credits Ritzenhein and his OAC training mates for pushing him to new heights.
“I didn’t really complete any of the goals I really wanted to [since the Olympic Trials],” he was quoted as saying in a Feb. 11 post on Forbes.com. “Coming into [last] summer and [last] fall and going into a pro lifestyle, I was really excited to get back out there and be the person I know I am. . . I think it’s been a great transition so far.”
Following the pace setting of Erik Sowinski in the Millrose Games, Nuguse was in fourth place when he came through the first quarter-mile in 56.58 seconds and the half-mile in 1:53.84.
The OAC trio of Garcia Romo, Hoare, and Nuguse was running 1-2-3 when the Spaniard came through 1,000 meters in 2:22.55, But Nuguse had the lead ahead of Hoare, Gourley, and Garcia Romo when he came through the three-quarter mile mark in 2:53.15.
He picked up the pace after that and blew the race open over the final lap on the 200-meter track as he clocked 25.94 seconds from the 1,400- to 1,600-meter mark – compared to Gourley’s 27.27 and Hoare’s 28.66 – and 54.23 for the final quarter-mile.
“Definitely the 3:47,” he said in the Forbes.com post when asked which of his American records he held in higher regard. “I always just love the mile more. The 3K’s fun, but the mile, 1,500, they’re definitely where my heart’s at.”
Long time coming: Nuguse is only the second American in the past 41 years to have come so close to the world record in the men’s mile.
The first was Steve Scott, a UC Irvine graduate who set a U.S. record of 3:47.69 in the outdoor mile in 1982 when the world record of 3:47.33 was held by Sebastian Coe of Great Britain.
John Walker of New Zealand and Ray Flynn of Ireland placed second and third in that race with times of 3:49.08 and 3:49.77, which still stand as the national records of their respective countries.
Furthermore, Flynn witnessed Nuguse’s record run first hand on Saturday as he has been the meet director of the Millrose Games since 2012.
Another American record: Like Yared Nuguse in the men’s mile, Alicia Monson was intent on setting a U.S. record when she toed the starting line for the women’s 3,000 meters in the Millrose Games on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Monson, who also competes for OAC, had run a personal best of 4:23.55 in the mile in winning the Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge at the Nike Track & Field Center at The Armory on Jan. 28. And the 3,000 is regarded as a stronger event for her, and one in which she had run a personal best of 8:26.81 in finishing a hundredth of a second behind first-place Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi in a meet in Lausanne, Switzerland last summer.
With Danielle Aragon handling the early pacesetting duties, Monson came through the 400 in 66.36, the 800 in 2:14.25, and the kilometer in 2:48.80.
Monson took over the lead after Aragon dropped out of the race and came through two kilometers in 5:39.86 after running the previous 1,000 meters in 2:51.06.
Monson was just ahead of fellow American Elise Cranny and Elly Henes at that point in the race, but she began to gradually pull away as Whittni Morgan and North Carolina State University sophomore Katelyn Tuohy closed in on them.
Morgan was about a second and half behind Monson with 400 meters left in the race, but Monson more than tripled her advantage over the final two laps as her 64.59 split brought her home in 8:25.05 to lower the previous American record of 8:25.70 set by Karissa Schweizer in 2020.
The time was the fastest in the world this year and moved Monson to sixth on the all-time performer list behind five Ethiopians.
Morgan finished second in 8:30.13 to become the fifth fastest American in history and NCAA cross-country champion Tuohy placed third in 8:35.20 to move to eighth on the all-time U.S. list with a time that crushed the previous collegiate record of 8:41.60 set by Schweizer during her senior year at Missouri in 2018.
Nine of the top 10 finishers in the race set personal bests with Mexico’s Laura Galvan (seventh in 8:40.45) also setting a national record.
“We’ve been looking at this for a couple of months now,” Monson told Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports. “And it feels so good to actually come in and pull it off. It’s so great. It’s such a great environment. I loved it.”
Three for three: Abby Steiner concluded a brief, but productive indoor season with an American record in the women’s 300 meters in the Millrose Games.
It was Steiner’s third victory in three races this season, but it did not come easily as Brittany Brown of the U.S. led the five-sprinter field through the first 100 meters in 11.68 seconds and had an even larger margin when she came through 200 in 22.82.
Steiner, who was in second place when she came through 200 meters in 23.06, began to make up ground on Brown shortly after that and most of her final margin of victory came in the final 50 meters of the race when Brown tied up badly.
Steiner’s 35.54 clocking broke the previous U.S. record of 35.71 set by Quanera Hayes in 2017 and was the third fastest in history behind the 35.45 world best first set by Irina Privalova of Russia in 1993 and tied by Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas in 2018.
Brown placed second in 36.13, followed by Leah Anderson of Jamaica in a personal best of 36.68.
Steiner, who ran 51.70 and 50.59 for 400 meters in her two previous races this year, wrote in an Instagram post that Saturday’s race concluded her indoor season and she was looking forward to getting ready for the outdoor campaign. Her post read as follows:
“300m American Record to wrap up my indoor season @millrosegames 💫⭐️
Back to work to get ready for outdoors. Excited for what’s ahead (and to run some shorter distances soon)!”
On the way back: The effects of a case of COVID-19 had contributed to a less than stellar finish to Ryan Crouser’s 2022 season, but the defending World and two-time defending Olympic champion in the men’s shot put easily won the event in the Millrose Games.
The 30-year-old American had a put of 22.50 meters (73 feet 10 inches) on his first effort before improving that mark to 22.58 (74-1) in the second round. He fouled on his third and fourth efforts before registering a put of 21.98 (72-1 ½) on his fifth attempt, followed by another foul on his sixth.
His 22.58 effort was a yearly world leader and tied for the seventh longest indoor put in history. It also gave the 6-foot-7 (2.01 meters) Crouser seven of the eight longest puts in history, topped by his world record of 22.82 (74-10½) set in 2021.
Joe Kovacs, silver medalist in the Olympic Games and World Championships, placed second at 21.34 (70-0¼), followed by fellow American Tripp Piperi at 20.65 (67-9).
Don’t forget about me: Christian Coleman showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with in the 60-meter dash when he won the event in 6.47 seconds in the Millrose Games.
The runner-up in the World Indoor Championships last year, Coleman finished well ahead of second-place Noah Lyles (6.53), who was running the race under protest after he had been previously disqualified for a false start when he visibly flinched in the starting blocks.
Lyles’ false start occurred after officials had called the field out of their blocks after prep standout Nyckoles Harbor of Archbishop Carroll in Washington, D.C. signaled he was not properly set.
Coleman, who has one of the quickest starts in the world, never gave anyone a chance when the race was finally run. He was clearly ahead of everyone after the first 10 meters and he had an advantage of 11 hundredths of a second over Lyles at the 30- and 40-meter marks.
Although Lyles made up ground on Coleman over the final 20 meters of the race, the two-time World champion in the 200 never came close to threatening him for the victory a week after nipping Trayvon Bromell at the line in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.
“You got to be professional at all moments,” Coleman said when Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports asked him how he dealt with being called out of the blocks, followed by Lyles’ false start. “Try to stay composed, stay relaxed, and stay locked in. Just execute the race.”
World leader for Kenyan teen: After gaining a lot of experience at the international level last year, Noah Kibet of Kenya ran like a seasoned veteran in winning the men’s 800 meters in the Millrose Games.
The 18-year-old Kibet was in third place when pace setter CJ Jones came through 200 meters in 24.72 seconds and past 400 in 50.69. American Isaiah Harris moved into the lead after Jones dropped out and led the field through the 600-meter mark in 1:17.80, with Kibet in second place at 1:18.07.
He stayed behind Harris through the first turn of the last lap before picking up the pace down the backstretch and taking the lead shortly before the start of the final curve. He widened his lead over Harris from there on and crossed the finish line in a personal best of 1:44.98 which was the fastest time in the world this year and well ahead of Harris’ career best of 1:45.64. Clayton Murphy of the U.S. finished third in 1:46.83.
It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for Kibet as he won the silver medal in the World Indoor Championships as a 17-year-old last March and advanced to the semifinals of the World outdoor meet last July.
Boling over the opposition: Femke Bol of the Netherlands became the fourth woman in history to run under 50 seconds in the 400 meters indoors when she ran 49.96 in a meet in Metz, France on Saturday.
The 22-year-old Bol, who had opened her season with a world best of 1:05.63 in the 500 in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix the previous Saturday, also ran a national record of 22.87 to win the 200 later in the meet.
“I’m really happy about the 400,” she said in a post-race interview posted online. “It’s the first race. I did a [500], but a [400] is different so I’m really happy with the way I executed the race. It’s the start of a special piece of the season.”
Starting in lane six, Bol ran the first lap of the 200-meter track in 23.93 before finishing with a time that bettered her previous national record of 50.30 from last year and gave her a large margin of victory over Shalene Mawdsley of Ireland (51.91).
She was pushed more in the 200 than in the 400, but still defeated Anna Kielbasinska of Poland by three tenths of a second.
The world record of 49.59 in the women’s indoor 400 was set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia in 1982, nearly 11 years before the country peacefully split into the separate countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
Bol crazy: Femke Bol has achieved quite of bit during her young career, but there is at least one fan of hers who thinks she is going accomplish some absolutely incredible things before her career is over.
Following her 49.96 clocking in the 400 on Saturday, this fan posted a comment online that said Bol “is the only woman alive” who can set world records in the indoor 400, the outdoor 400, and “run sub-50” in the 400 hurdles. In addition, the post said she could run a 46.75 split on the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay.
As mentioned in the previous note, the world record in the indoor 400 is 49.59. The world record in the outdoor 400 is 47.60 and the world record in the 400 hurdles is 50.68. In addition, the website alltime-athletics.com lists 47.6 – or 47.70 if you prefer a fully-automatic clocking – as the fastest-ever relay split in the women’s 1,600 relay.
Matter of time?: Gudaf Tsegay dominates the all-time world indoor list in the women’s 1,500 meters with four of the six fastest times ever run. But the 25-year-old Ethiopian is still looking for a performance in the indoor mile that rivals what she has accomplished over the shorter distance.
The fact that the 1,500 is run much more frequently than the mile no doubt plays a part in Tsegay’s conundrum. Yet the fact remains that her world record of 3:53.09 in the 1,500, which converts to a mile in 4:11.74, is vastly superior to her best of 4:16.67 in the mile.
Tsegay produced the latter time in the Orlen Copernicus Cup in Torun, Poland last Wednesday when she made a well-publicized attempt at breaking the world record of 4:13.31 set by countrywoman Genzebe Dibaba in 2016.
The defending World indoor champion in the 1,500 and outdoor champion in the 5,000 followed a pace setter through 400 meters in 61.1 seconds and past 800 in 2:07.21. She was then well clear of the field after the pace setter dropped out and came through 1,200 meters in 3:11.26 and past 1,500 in 3:59.48.
Her final time was the second fastest ever run, but it left her nearly three and a half seconds short of Dibaba’s best.
“I was hoping for the world record today, but athletics is like that,” Tsegay said in a post on the World Athletics site. “You can feel you are in great shape in training, but you don’t always do what you wanted in competition. I still hope the world record will be mine one day!”
Coming back to earth: When you open the season with a world best, it can be easy to feel let down with your performance in the following meet.
Such was the case with Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, who ran the second fastest indoor 800-meter race of her life in the Copernicus Cup, but expressed frustration with her yearly world-leading time of 1:57.87.
Her performance came 11 days after she had lowered the world best in the 600 to 1:23.41.
“It was good to get a decent first 800 meters of the season but to be honest, I am a bit disappointed with the time,” the 20-year-old Hodgkinson said in a post on the World Athletics site. “I just did not commit enough early in the race, but I will try to run fast in a few weeks. If everything goes perfectly, maybe I can come close to the world record, but it is a tough mark to beat.”
The world indoor record of 1:55.82 was set by Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia in 2002.
The Copernicus Cup race was billed as a rematch between Hodgkinson and Mary Moraa of Kenya, but it did not live up to its billing as Moraa finished a distant fourth in her first-ever indoor race.
Hodgkinson had won the silver medal ahead of bronze medalist Moraa in the World Championships last July, but Moraa had defeated Hodgkinson for the Commonwealth Games title in August, as well as in two other races last season.
Perhaps out of concern for Moraa and her strong finishing kick, Hodgkinson was well back of the pace setter and second place Noelie Yarigo of Benin when the first 400 meters was passed in 57.09. But she was right on Yarigo’s shoulder when the 37-year-old runner came through 600 meters in 1:28.34 and she moved past her just before the final turn and pulled away to a comfortable margin of victory.
Yarigo was ecstatic with her time of 1:58.48 as it bettered the national record of 1:59.29 she had run four days earlier. Anita Horvat of Slovenia finished third in 2:01.42, followed by Moraa in 2:01.51.
More like himself: After opening the season on Feb. 2 with a ho-hum effort of 8.12 (26-7¾) in the long jump, Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece topped that mark three times while winning the event in the Copernicus Cup.
The 24-year-old Olympic champion produced his best mark of 8.40 (27-6¾) in the second round, but he also had jumps of 8.27 (27-1¾) in the fifth round and 8.24 (27-0½) in the third.
The 8.40 was the third best indoor jump of his career, following leaps of 8.55 (28-0¾) and 8.51 (27-11) that he produced in winning the World Indoor Championships last year.
World indoor silver medalist Thobias Montler of Sweden placed second in the Copernicus Cup with a best of 8.17 (26-9¾).
Quick turnaround: Trayvon Bromell of the U.S. bounced back from a disappointing performance in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on Feb. 4 with the fastest 60-meter race of his life in the Tiger Paw Invitational at the Clemson University Indoor Complex last Friday.
The bronze medalist in the men’s 100 meters in the World Championships last summer, Bromell clocked 6.42 seconds to easily turn back second-place Marcellus Moore of the University of Texas (6.56) and move into a three-way tie for sixth on the all-time performer list.
Bromell, 27, had preceded his runaway victory in the final by earlier winning his first-round heat in 6.54 and his semifinal in 6.46.
The latter time trimmed a hundredth of a second off his previous best of 6.47 that he had run in winning the World Indoor Championships in 2016.
Noah Lyles had grabbed plenty of headlines when he ran a personal best of 6.51 to nip Bromell by two-thousandths of a second in the New Balance meet, but Bromell’s post-race comments to Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports made it clear he was not happy with his performance that day.
“I’m kind of disappointed in my race,” he said. “I think I could have done better. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to take it on the chin and keep going.”
In a post on Instagram over the weekend, Bromell wrote: “Came to Clemson to clean up some mistakes. Glad we got some things worked out.
NewPB✅
WL✅
Top10AllTime✅”
Huge performances from unheralded pair: Amos Bartelsmeyer of Germany narrowly held off Moroccan and University of South Carolina sophomore Anass Essayi in a thrilling finish in the men’s mile in the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Saturday. The pair ran personal bests of 3:50.45 and 3:50.46 to win the first section of a meet in which there were 31 heats in the event and 52 sub-four miles.
The 28-year-old Bartelsmeyer and the 21-year-old Essayi briefly moved to 12th and 13th on the all-time indoor performer list with their times at the Boston University Track and Tennis Center. But each of them dropped two spots about 80 minutes later when Yared Nuguse of the U.S. and Neil Gourley of Great Britain ran 3:47.38 – the second-fastest time in history – and 3:49.46 to finish first and second in the Millrose Games at the Armory in New York City.
Pacesetter Luciano Fiore brought the 12-runner field in Boston through 800 meters in 1:54.04 before dropping out of the race about 100 meters later. American Christian Noble, fresh off a 3,000-meter best of 7:42.55 the previous week, moved into the lead after that and clocked 2:24.1 with three laps left in the race and 2:53.0 with two laps remaining.
The capacity crowd was wholly behind Noble at that point as he is a member of the Boston-based New Balance club. But Bartelsmeyer and Essayi were not far behind him and they swept past Noble entering the home straightaway for the second-to-last time.
Bartelsmeyer opened up a lead of four to five meters over Essayi midway down the backstretch, but the defending Southeastern Conference champion in the 1,500 began to make up ground on the German approaching the final turn and just missed catching him at the finish line.
Essayi was such a relative unknown that FloTrack commentator Phil Grove never mentioned his name until after the race. And though Bartelsmeyer had run a personal best of 13:17.71 in the 5,000 on the same Boston track in December, his national-record mile time was stunning when you consider he was coming off a dismal outdoor season during which he had bests of 3:45.35 in the 1,500 and 4:05.00 in the mile.
Although Essayi shocked many, including yours truly, with a performance that moved him to second on the all-time Moroccan and collegiate performer lists, he had run 3:34.58 in the 1,500 in 2021, as well as 7:41.93 in the 3,000 on Jan. 28.
Banner day: Two 800-meter races that took place roughly 1,000 miles and nine and a half hours apart on Friday resulted in the second-, third-, and fourth-fastest indoor times in collegiate women’s history.
The first race occurred at approximately 11:25 a.m. Eastern time when sophomore Michaela Rose of LSU ran a school record of 2:00.18 to win the first section of the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational.
The second took place around 8:40 p.m. Eastern time when Stanford freshmen Roisin Willis and Juliette Whittaker ran 1:59.95 and 2:00.32, to place first and second in the invitational women’s race of the Badger Windy City Invitational at the Gately Indoor Track and Field Complex in Chicago.
Rose, who briefly took over second on the all-time collegiate list with her performance, led her race from the first few strides onward as she came through 200 meters 28.17 seconds, 400 in 58.24, and 600 in 1:28.14.
Sophia Gorriaran, a 17-year-old senior at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, was in second place after the first two laps of the 200-meter oval, but University of Florida senior Imogen Barrett had overtaken her with a lap remaining.
Rose was approximately 12 meters clear of her closest pursuer with 300 meters left in the race, but her advantage began to shrink over the last lap and she took a concerned glance over her left shoulder with about 70 meters remaining. Behind her, Gorriagan sped past Barrett in the final home straightaway to finish second in 2:01:16 with the Australian crossing the line in a personal best of 2:01.23.
Like Rose, Willis and Whittaker posted their efforts without the aid of a pace setter.
Willis, gold medalist in the World Athletics U20 (under 20) Championships in Cali, Colombia last August, led the field through the 200- and 400-meter marks in 28.03 and 59.26 with U20 bronze medalist Whittaker at 28.42 and 59.45.
Whittaker had the lead at 600 meters in 1:30.74, but Willis (1:31.00) battled back in the last lap to record the second-fastest time in collegiate history – pushing Rose to third – with Whittaker taking over fourth.
Athing Mu, defending Olympic and World champion in the 800, set the collegiate indoor record of 1:58.40 during her freshman – and only – season at Texas A&M in 2021.
Making her mark: Jorinde van Klinken has wasted little time making a big impression at the University of Oregon after transferring from Arizona State.
After setting school records in the women’s shot put in her first two indoor meets for the Ducks, the Dutchwoman set a collegiate record of 19.57 (64-2½) in the Don Kirby Elite Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Saturday.
The defending NCAA indoor champion had puts of 17.89 (58-8½), 18.87 (61-11), and 18.99 (62-3¾) on her first three attempts before fouling on her fourth effort. She then unleashed her 19.57 effort in the fifth round that added a centimeter to the previous collegiate record of 19.56 (64-2¼) set by Raven Saunders of Mississippi in the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships.
The record put crushed van Klinken’s previous best of 19.08 (62-7¼) and tightened her hold on second on the all-time Netherlands performer list.
Jessica Schilder, bronze medalist in the World indoor and outdoor championships last year, holds the Dutch record at 19.72 (64-8½).
Two-liners: Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine cleared a yearly world-leading height of 2.07 (6-7½) in the women’s high jump in a meet in Metz, France on Saturday. The defending World indoor champion missed three times at 2.07(6-9½), which would have added a centimeter to the Ukrainian record of 2.06 (6-9) which she set in 2021. . . . . Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland remained unbeaten in the women’s 60-meter hurdles when she ran 7.79 seconds to win the event in the Copernicus Cup in Torun, Poland last Wednesday. She previously ran 7.78 and 7.84 in winning races in Lodz, Poland on Feb. 4 and in Dusseldorf, Germany on Jan. 29. . . . . Katie Moon of the U.S. cleared a yearly world-leading height of 4.83 (15-10) to win the women’s pole vault in the Millrose Games on Saturday. That was a big improvement over her season-opening meet when the defending Olympic and World champion finished fifth at 4.45 (14-7¼). . . . . Aleia Hobbs of the U.S. posted her third consecutive victory of the season in the women’s 60 meters when she ran 7.04 in the Millrose Games. She had run 6.98 – fastest in the world this year – and 7.02 in her previous victories. . . . . Tarsis Orogot of the University of Alabama ran the fastest time in the world this year in the men’s 200 meters when he clocked a Ugandan record of 20.20 in the Don Kirby Elite Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Friday. The Crimson Tide sophomore placed fifth in the NCAA Championships last year, but was eliminated in the semifinals of the World Championships. . . . . Favour Ofili of LSU and Nigeria posted the fastest time in the world this year when she won the women’s 200 meters in 22.36 in the two-day Tyson Invitational on Saturday. The time was an African record and the third-fastest in collegiate history behind marks of 22.09 and 22.16 that Abby Steiner ran for Kentucky last year. . . . . The University of Arkansas put on an impressive display of depth in the women’s 400 meters in the Tyson Invitational on Friday by placing seven runners among the top eight finishers. Junior Rosey Effiong and sophomore Britton Wilson paced the Razorbacks with first- and second-place efforts of 51.02 and 51.14 as Arkansas had seven finishers run 52.76 or faster. . . . . Ethiopians Abdisa Tola and Dera Dida won the men’s and women’s divisions of the Dubai Marathon in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday with times of 2:05:42 and 2:21:11, respectively. Tola is a younger brother of World champion Tamirat Tola and Dida is the wife of the older Tola. . . . . Jimmy Gressier of France set a European record of 13:12 for 5,000 meters on the roads when he won the men’s division of the MonacoRun on Sunday. The previous best of 13:14 was set by Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy last year.
Injury sidelines dos Santos: The Brazilian Olympic Committee announced – via Twitter – last Wednesday that World 400-meter intermediate hurdle champion Alison dos Santos had sustained a knee (meniscus) injury that will require surgery.
It is expected that his recovery from the surgery will prevent the 6-foot-7 (2.01 meters) dos Santos from having a chance to defend his title when the World Championships are held in Budapest, Hungary from August 19-27.
The 22-year-old dos Santos is coming off of a brilliant season in which he ran the third-fastest time in history (46.29) in winning the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon last July. He also ran the seventh- (46.80) and equal 12th-fastest (46.98) times ever during a season in which he became the first man in history to run faster than 47 seconds three times and under 48 seconds 10 times.
The Olympic bronze medalist also finished second – behind pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis of Sweden– in the voting for the 2022 male athlete of the year by Track & Field News.
No indoor season for Mu?: Athing Mu’s indoor season appears to have ended before she ran a single race as the defending Olympic and World champion in the women’s 800 meters withdrew from the Millrose Games five days before the meet was held.
Mu, who had been scheduled to run the 600 in the meet in New York City, wrote in a Feb. 6 tweet: “My team and I have made the decision to no longer compete at the Millrose Games this weekend. Instead, we are focusing on gearing up to be at my optimum for the outdoor season, especially, the upcoming World Championships. Wishing everyone participating the best of luck.”
The 20-year-old Mu was the top-ranked women’s 800 runner in the world in both 2021 and ’22 by Track & Field News.
After setting collegiate records of 49.57 in the 400 and 1:57.73 in the 800 during her freshman – and only – outdoor season at Texas A&M in 2021, Mu won the 800 in the U.S. Olympic Trials before setting U.S. records of 1:55.21 and 1:55.04, respectively, in winning the Olympic Games and Prefontaine Classic.
She ran a yearly world-leading time of 1:56.30 in winning the World title last year.
On the performance-enhancing drug front: Divine Odururu of Nigeria has been notified by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) that he has been provisionally suspended by the organization, which is seeking a six-year ban against him.
In a press release dated February 9, the AIU stated that the sprinter is under investigation for potential Anti-Doping Rules Violations “for possession (Rule 2.6 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules; ADR) and/or use or attempted use of multiple Prohibited Substances (Rule 2.2 ADR).”
Odururu, 26, was a three-time NCAA champion for Texas Tech University and a semifinalist in the men’s 200 meters in the Olympic Games in 2021.
He posted his personal bests of 9.86 seconds in the 100 meters and 19.73 in the 200 in winning those events in the 2019 NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas. He ranks third on the all-time Africa performer list in the 200 and is tied for fourth in the 100.
The provisional suspension came about because the AIU has obtained evidence that makes it confident Odururu is “Athlete 2” referred to in a criminal charge brought against therapist Eric Lira by the United States Department of Justice under the Rodchenkov Act.
Lira is alleged to have supplied performance-enhancing drugs to athletes before they competed in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
According to the press release, the complaint against Lira provides specific information regarding persons identified as “Athlete 1” and “Athlete 2”. In February of 2022, a sole arbitrator of the AIU Disciplinary Tribunal concluded that they were “comfortably satisfied” that “Athlete 1” was Oduduru’s Nigerian teammate, Blessing Okagbare, and later banned her from the sport for ten years, which was increased to an 11-year ban in June 2022 following further charges brought by the AIU.