Week in Review: Running to win serves her well
Obiri's victory in New York City Marathon follows first-place finish in Boston in April
There might come a day in the future when Hellen Obiri of Kenya toes the starting line of a marathon with a goal of running a particularly fast time for the grueling 42.2-kilometer (26.2 mile) distance. Perhaps that will happen when becoming one of the quickest female marathon runners in history will be required to cement her distance-running legacy.
But for the time being, simply running to win is paying big dividends for the 33-year-old Kenyan who resides in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband and their daughter while training under the tutelage of coach Dathan Ritzenhein of The On Athletics Club.
The latest evidence of that beneficial strategy came in the New York City Marathon on Sunday, when Obiri used a big surge with a little more than 400 meters left in the race to break away from Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia and become the first woman since Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen in 1989 to win the Boston and New York City marathons in the same year.
Click here to read my detailed report about Sunday’s New York City Marathon.
Kristiansen is an historically significant runner who is the only woman to have set worlds records or world bests in the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, and marathon during her career.
She was the first woman to break 14 minutes 40 seconds in the 5,000, 31 minutes in the 10,000, and 2 hours and 22 minutes in the marathon. She also won the first women’s 10,000-meter race contested in the World Athletics Championships — in 1987 — and was a three-time medalist in the World Cross Country Championships, winning a gold medal in the 1988 meet.
Obiri, who won her first World Championship medal — a bronze in the 1,500 — in 2013, has no world records to her name. But she is known as a supreme competitor who won World titles in the 5,000 on the track in 2017 and ’19, a World title in cross country in 2019, and silver medals in the 5,000 in the Olympic Games in 2016 and ’21.
She also won a silver medal in the women’s 10,000 — behind Gidey — in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, last year before turning her attention to the marathon.
Her first foray in the event did not go as well as she had hoped, given her track credentials and a best of 1:04:22 in the half marathon, as she finished sixth in 2:25:49 in New York City last year.
However, she ran a personal best of 2:21:38 to win the Boston Marathon in April before winning a particularly tactical race in 2:27:23 on Sunday.
Although her time was the slowest winning mark in the female division of the New York City Marathon since 2010, Obiri defeated a field that included Gidey (2:27:29) in second place, defending champion Sharon Lokedi of Kenya (2:27:33) in third, former world-record holder Brigid Kosgei of Kenya (2:27:45) in fourth, and Mary Ngugi of Kenya (2:27:53) in fifth.
Gidey holds the world record in the 10,000 at 29:01.03 and in the half marathon at 1:02:52, and ran 2:16:49 while finishing second in her debut marathon in Valencia, Spain, last December. Kosgei had set a then-world record of 2:14:04 in the Chicago Marathon in 2019. And yet it was Obiri who outran everyone at the end of a race in which she clocked 4:52 over the final mile that included some uphill grades.
A similar scene had unfolded at the end of the Boston Marathon in April when Obiri outdueled Amane Beriso of Ethiopia and Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel, women with personal bests of 2:14:58 and 2:17:45, during the final mile of that race.
“It’s my honor to be here for the second time,” Obiri said in a World Athletics post on Sunday. “My debut here was terrible for me. Sometimes you learn from your mistakes, so I did a lot of mistakes last year and I said I want to try to do my best.
“It was exciting to me to see Gidey was there. I said, This is like track again, like the World Championships in 2022.”
Looking forward: It will be interesting to see who ends up representing Kenya and Ethiopia in the women’s marathon in the Olympic Games in Paris next summer.
Both countries possess superb depth in the event, but the bottom line is they will each be limited to three entries.
Although Hellen Obiri’s personal best of 2:21:38 pales in comparison to many of the world’s elite marathoners, she defeated a slew of heavy hitters in winning the Boston Marathon in April and the New York City Marathon on Sunday. It would seem likely that she will be named to the Kenyan team, assuming she is healthy.
Peres Jepchirchir withdrew from the New York City Marathon on Saturday due to a calf injury, but the Kenyan is the defending Olympic champion and won her third consecutive title in the half marathon in the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, on Oct. 1.
Brigid Kosgei holds the Kenyan record with her 2:14:04 clocking that was a world record when she ran it in Chicago in 2019 and she was the silver medalist in the Olympic Games in 2021. But she dropped out of the London Marathon very early in the race — after trying to compete with an injured hamstring — and was the third Kenyan finisher in the New York City Marathon on Sunday behind Obiri and Sharon Lokedi.
Ruth Chepngetich will be another strong candidate to be selected to the Kenyan team. She ran 2:14:18 in winning the Chicago Marathon last year before running 2:18:08 to win the Nagoya Marathon in Japan in March and 2:15:37 in finishing second in last month’s Chicago Marathon that was won by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands in 2:13:44, the second-fastest women’s time in history.
When it comes to selecting the Ethiopian team, Tigest Assefa would appear to be a slam dunk pick as she lowered the world record to a stunning 2:11:53 in the Berlin Marathon in September after running 2:15:37 in winning the same race last year.
Amane Beriso would seem to be the next logical choice as she ran 2:14:58 to win the Valencia Marathon in Spain last December before finishing second to Obiri in the Boston Marathon in April and winning the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August.
Gotytom Gebreslase ran a personal best of 2:18:11 in winning the 2022 World title In Eugene, Oregon, before finishing third in the New York City Marathon last November, 10th in the Boston Marathon in April, and second behind countrywoman Beriso in the World Championships in Budapest.
Letesenbet Gidey, the world-record holder in the women’s 10,000 and the half marathon, could also be a candidate for the Ethiopian team in the women’s marathon after running 2:16:49 to finish second behind Beriso in her marathon debut in Valencia last year and finishing second to Obiri in New York City on Sunday.
However, she has been very committed to the 10,000 in previous global title meets. She placed second in the event in Budapest after winning the gold medal in Eugene last year, placing third in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, and finishing second in the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, in 2019.
Yalemzerf Yehualaw of Ethiopia ran 2:17:23 and 2:17:26 in winning the first two marathons of her career in Hamburg, Germany, and London last year. But her stock dropped some this year when she finished fifth in the London Marathon in April and in the World Championships in Budapest when the warm and humid conditions really took a toll on her.
Big save: Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia bailed out the race directors of the New York City Marathon in a big way on Sunday when he set a course record of 2:04:58 while winning the men’s race.
The men’s professional field had suffered a trio of significant losses last month when Kenyans Evans Chebet and Geoffrey Kamworor, and Ethiopian Mosinet Geremew had scratched from the race. However, Tola had been added to the field at roughly the same time.
Chebet had won consecutive titles in the Boston Marathon and was the defending New York City Marathon champion.
Kamworor had won New York City Marathon titles in 2017 and ’19 and lowered his personal best to 2:04:23 while finishing second in the London Marathon in April.
Geremew was the silver medalist in the 2019 and ’22 World Athletics Championships and his personal best of 2:02:55 — which he ran while finishing second in the London Marathon in 2019 — makes him the fifth fastest marathon runner in history.
The 32-year-old Tola appeared to be headed to a third-place finish in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August. But he dropped out late in the race due to stomach issues.
Had he finished that race, I doubt he would have run in the New York City Marathon only 10 weeks later. But as it was, the 2022 World champion came through the halfway mark in 1:02:45 after the lead pack had come through the first 10 kilometers in a sluggish 30:39.
Tola then passed 25 kilometers in 1:14:15 and 30 kilometers in 1:28:22 after running the previous five kilometers in 14:07.
Ethiopian countryman Jemal Yimer was the only runner keeping pace with Tola at that point in the race and he started to lose ground to Tola shortly after, trailing him by 45 seconds when Tola came through 35 kilometers in 1:42:51.
Tola’s projected finish time was 2:04:00 at that point, but the New York City course is not as flat as those in London, Berlin, and Chicago, to name a few, and Tola slowed to a 15:17 split from the 35- to 40-kilometer marks after clocking 14:29 from 30 to 35 kilometers.
Nonetheless, he had a lead of nearly two minutes over second-place Albert Korir of Kenya at that point and he padded his advantage by another second in the final 2.2 kilometers of the race while lowering the previous course record of 2:05:06 that had been set by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya in 2011.
Korir finished second in a personal best of 2:06:57, followed by Shura Kitata of Ethiopia in third in 2:07:11, Olympic silver medalist Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands in fourth in 2:10:21, and Koen Naert of Belgium in fifth in 2:10:25.
“I am happy to win the New York City Marathon for the first time,” Tola said in a World Athletics post after finishing fourth in the race in 2018 and ’19. “It’s the third time for me to participate, after two times finishing fourth. Now, I’m happy.”
He also said in a post-race interview on ESPN2 that winning his first title in a World Marathon Majors race “is very, very, very important for me.”
Solid debut: Edward Cheserek of Kenya had a decent — but not great — race in the New York City Marathon on Sunday when he finished eighth in the men’s contest with a time of 2:11:07.
Cheserek, who had won an unprecedented 15 individual NCAA titles while running for the University of Oregon from 2013-17, had lowered his personal best in the half marathon to 59:11 in winning a race in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sept. 17. But his marathon debut did not go as well as some had expected.
He was amongst a large lead pack when he came through the 5-kilometer mark in 15:29 and the 10k mark in 30:39. But he was seven seconds behind a lead group of five runners when he came through 15 kilometers in 45:11 and he was 33 seconds out of the lead when he passed 20 kilometers in 1:00:07.
He then ran the next 10 kilometers in 30:57 and the segment from 30-40 kilometers in 32:48 as the undulating course took a toll on him.
His struggles were particularly evident when you compare his split for the first half of the race — which was 1:03:30 — with his split for the second half — which was 1:07:37.
Nonetheless, the 29-year-old Cheserek expressed satisfaction with his performance in an Instagram post on Tuesday that read as follows: Over the weekend I had an opportunity to debut my first Marathon at the @nycmarathon. Happy with Eighth place with time of 2:11.07 PB hopefully I will get another chance to try it again soon. Thanks to the race organizers and everyone at @nyrr for putting on such a great event! Already looking forward to next year’s event! I will be more prepared and ready to go🏃🏿♂️
Not his day: Hopes were high for Cam Levins of Canada when he started the men’s race of the New York City Marathon on Sunday, but he dropped out of the race near the 20-kilometer mark of the 42.2-kilometer (26.2 mile) contest.
After finishing fourth in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and lowering the North American record to 2:05:36 in placing fifth in the Tokyo Marathon in March, Levins appeared to many to have a chance at becoming the first Canadian to win a New York City title.
He was amongst the lead pack when he came through 5 kilometers in 15:29 and 10 kilometers in 30:39. But he began to fall back of the lead group around 13 kilometers as the leaders were in the process of running the third five-kilometer segment of the race in 14:24.
In a social media post a few hours later, Levins wrote that he was “not injured or anything just felt real crummy from the start and things didn’t improve. Will take some time to rest and reevaluate training then get back and be better!”
Hot streak continues: Plenty of elite performers exhibited some rustiness while competing in the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, last week. However, Ethan Katzberg of Canada was not one of them.
The 21-year-old Canuck won the men’s hammer throw with a meet record of 80.96 meters (265 feet 7 inches) on Saturday while producing the second-best series of his career.
Katzberg, who had set a national record of 81.25 (266-7) in winning the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, had not competed since that meet. But the competitive layoff did not affect his performance adversely as he had four throws of 80 meters (262-5) or more in Santiago.
After throwing a meet record of 80.02 (262-6) in the first round, Katzberg fouled on his second attempt before throwing 78.31 (256-11) on his third. He then improved the meet record to 80.92 (265-6) in the fourth round and 80.96 (265-7) in the fifth before closing with a throw of 80.00 (262-5) to cap his series.
All five of his fair throws would have been good enough to win the gold medal as Americans Daniel Haugh and Rudy Winkler finished second and third with bests of 77.62 (254-8) and 76.65 (251-5), respectively.
Katzberg had thrown a then-personal best of 78.73 (258-3) in winning the Canadian Championships on July 29. But he crushed that mark with a national-record throw of 81.18 (266-4) in the qualifying round of the World Championships on August 19 before bettering that effort in the final the following day when his 81.25 (266-7) heave on his fifth throw raised his national record and made him the first Canadian to win a gold medal in a throwing event in the global title meet.
Counting his one throw in the qualifying round of the World Championships, Katzberg threw 80 meters or more on nine of his 13 throws in his final two meets of the 2023 season.
“I came in and just wanted to have a good first throw. Going over 80 metres on my first throw was a good confidence booster and continuing to do that was very exciting for me,” Katzberg said in a post on The Canadian Press site. “Santiago was an amazing competition. The people here love their track and field. They were supporting everyone and that made it really special.”
Big-name athletes rack up victories: In addition to Ethan Katzberg of Canada in the men’s hammer throw, six other medalists from the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August won events in the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, last week.
World Championships silver medalists Lazaro Martinez of Cuba, Sarah Mitton of Canada, and Flor Dennis Ruiz of Colombia won the men’s triple jump, women’s shot put, and women’s javelin, respectively, with bests of 17.19 (56-4¾), 19.19 (62-11½), and 63.10 (207-0).
World Championships bronze medalists Leyanis Perez of Cuba and DeAnna Price of the U.S. won the women’s triple jump and hammer throw, respectively, with bests of 14.75 (48-4 ¾) and 72.34 (237-4).
Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won the 200 in 22.74 in Santiago after running a national record of 48.76 to win the 400 in the World Championships.
Kimberley Garcia of Peru, who had finished second in the women’s 35-kilometer walk in Budapest, won the 20k walk in Santiago on Oct. 29. However, her time of 1:12:26, which would have obliterated the world record of 1:23:49, was later annulled after it was determined that the course had been measured incorrectly. Some of the competitors reportedly estimated that it was about three kilometers (nearly two miles) short of the 20k distance.
Rough finish: Brooke Andersen of the U.S. had been one of the top performing female track and field athletes on the planet, in any event, entering the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August. But she was eliminated in the qualifying round of that meet and she did not record a fair throw while competing in wet and blustery conditions in the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 1.
The 2022 World champion had moved to third on the all-time world performer list in May when she won the USA Track & Field Throws Festival in Tucson, Arizona, with a best of 80.17 (263-0). In addition, she had won nine of 10 meets entering the World Championships and had the eight longest throws in the world this year.
However, she fouled on her first two throws of the qualifying round in Budapest before her 67.72 (222-2) effort on her third — and final — attempt left her in 25th place overall in the meet in which the top 12 throwers advanced to the final.
She later posted on social media that she had been dealing with a “very painful shoulder issue” that had limited her training since the “beginning/middle of June.”
Another race, another fast course: Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, who lowered the world record in the men’s marathon to 2:00:35 in winning the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 8, is scheduled to run in the Rotterdam Marathon in the Netherlands on April 14 of next year.
The organizers of the Rotterdam race confirmed Kiptum’s participation last Friday.
It will be the fourth marathon race of the undefeated Kiptum’s career as the 23-year-old runner clocked 2:01:52 in his marathon debut in Valencia, Spain, last December before he ran 2:01:25, then the second-fastest time in history, in London in April.
He then cut 50 seconds off that performance with his effort in Chicago that lowered the previous world record of 2:01:09 set by countryman Eliud Kipchoge in the Berlin Marathon last year.
Although the Rotterdam Marathon does not have the esteem of the six World Marathon Majors annually held in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City, it is a fast and flat course which was the site of men’s world bests of 2:07:12 by Carlos Lopes of Portugal in 1985 and 2:06:50 by Belayneh Dinsamo of Ethiopia in 1988.
For those who are wondering, the Rotterdam Marathon will be held just under 17 weeks before the men’s marathon is scheduled to be contested in the Olympic Games in Paris on August 10.
Based on what he has accomplished so far in his short — but brilliant — career at the marathon distance, Kiptum would be expected to be a member of the Kenyan OIympic team. But nothing has been finalized at this juncture as the athletics competition of the Games will not start until August 1 of next year.
Award finalists: Roshawn Clarke of Jamaica, Erriyon Knighton of the U.S., and Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya are the three finalists for World Athletics’ 2023 Men’s Rising Star Award, which is designed to recognize the top male U20 (under 20) performer in the world for the 2023 season.
Clarke, 19, set a Jamaican and world U20 record of 47.34 seconds in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles when he placed second in a semifinal of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August before finishing fourth in the final.
The 47.34 clocking moved him to 16th on the all-time world performer list and bettered the previous national record of 47.60 set by Winthrop Graham in 1993. It also broke the U20 world record of 47.85 that was first set by Sean Burrell of LSU in the 2021 NCAA Championships and then tied by Clarke in July when he won the Jamaican Championships.
Knighton, 19, had a season best of 19.72 in the 200 and placed second in that event in the World Championships after finishing fourth in the Olympics in 2021 and third in the 2022 World Championships.
Knighton’s season best, which he ran in winning the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in July, was the third-fastest U20 time in history. He also posted marks of 19.75, 19.77, 19.87, and 19.89 to give him the top 13 U20 times ever run.
Wanyonyi, 19, won the silver medal in the 800 in the World Championships in Budapest before lowering his personal best to 1:42.80 in winning the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in September.
That time was the fastest in the world this year and moved him to fifth on the all-time world U20 performer list.
Award finalists II: Faith Cherotich of Kenya, Medina Eisa of Ethiopia, and Angelina Topic of Serbia are the three finalists for World Athletics’ 2023 Women’s Rising Star Award, which is designed to recognize the top female U20 (under 20) performer in the world for the 2023 season.
Cherotich, 19, won the bronze medal in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August and lowered her personal best to 8:59.65 while finishing third in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in September.
That time made her the second-fastest U20 runner in history in the event and it moved her to 11th on the all-time world senior performer list.
Eisa, 18, placed second in the women’s U20 race of the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, in February before later finishing sixth in the 5,000 in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
She also ran the two fastest U20 times in history in the 5,000 with marks of 14:16:54 and 14:28.94, with the former performance moving her to 12th on the all-time performer list.
Topic, 18, placed seventh in the high jump in the World Championships and she twice cleared a Serbian record of 1.97 (6-5½) in the event. Her first clearance came in June when she was 17 and her second occurred in September when she was 18.
Her national record ranks ninth on the all-time U20 performer list.
Provisional suspension dismissed: Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan, who won the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, has had her provisional suspension for an anti-doping violation dismissed by a disciplinary tribunal, meaning the Kenyan-born runner is eligible to compete in the 2024 Olympics Games in Paris next summer.
Jeruto had set a meet record of 8:53.02, then the third-fastest time in history, in winning the steeplechase in last year’s World Championships. But the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had written in a Twitter post in April that she had been provisionally suspended for the “use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP).”
ABP is an acronym that stands for Athlete Biological Passport, which can show discrepancies that indicate an individual is using prohibited substances.
The AIU had argued that a set of blood samples taken from Jeruto in 2020 and ’21 had indicated that she had lost blood due to it being extracted from her system in conjunction with a banned strategy in which that blood is processed and then injected back into the athlete’s system. The increased amount of blood can improve the athlete’s endurance because the oxygen-carrying capacity of their blood has been increased.
The AIU had also argued that other blood samples had indicated that Jeruto had taken Erythropoietin, commonly referred to as EPO, a banned substance that can increase the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, and thus improve an athlete’s endurance.
Jeruto, 28, had contended that she suffers from ulcers that flare up when she feels stressed and have led to her being hospitalized previously. A medical expert testifying on her behalf stated that bleeding from those ulcers could explain why some of her samples indicated she had lost blood. The expert also testified there was no indication she had received any transfusions.
Her defense team also argued that the discrepancies in the blood samples taken from Jeruto in late 2020 could be due to the effects of her having contracted COVID-19, rather than her receiving EPO. Based on that argument, the disciplinary tribunal said there was “sufficient doubt in this part of the case” and “it would be unfair to convict (Jeruto).”
The AIU stated last Friday that it would review the decision before deciding on whether it wanted to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
With Jeruto ineligible to compete in this year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, Winfred Yavi of Bahrain, another Kenyan-born runner, won the steeplechase title with a time of 8:54.29. She then won the Prefontaine Classic in September with a time of 8:50.66, the No. 2 mark in history behind the 8:44.32 world record set by Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya in 2018.
Provisional suspension handed down: Zerfe Wondemagegn of Ethiopia, who finished fourth in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after testing positive for Erythropoietin, commonly referred to as EPO.
The banned substance helps increase the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, which can improve a runner’s endurance.
Wondemagegn, 21, ran 9:05.51 in the final of the World Championships after lowering her personal best to 9:04.61 while finishing third in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea Diamond League meet in Florence, Italy, in June.