February 2009 Track and Field Articles

By David Monti(c) 2009 Race Results weekly, all rights reservedNEW YORK (27-Feb) -- Running in a small invitational college meet at the Armory Track & Field Center in Upper Manhattan, New Zealander Kim Smith rolled to the second-fastest 5000m in the world this year: 14:39.89.  Shattering her own national record by more than ten seconds, she is now #4 all-time at the distance indoors, displacing Romania's Gabriela Szabo."It was a PB for me so I'm really excited," said the 27 year-old athlete who finished ninth in the Beijing Olympics at the 10,000m.  "I wanted to post a time before World… more »

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Wichita State Shocker Kellyn Johnson, a transfer student from Cloud County Community College, has finished 26th in 5000-meter run at NCAA Nationals. The senior has run 4:42 and 9:22 already this indoor season and hopes to pop at time that will get her to the NCAA Indoor Meet. She also looks for big personal bests come outdoor season.   What did you do today at practice? Today we kind of did a little interval work. Not much though, because we have conference this weekend. It… more »

Runners can get themselves into really interesting situations and Seattle Pacific’s Jane Larson is no different. “Crazy things always seem to happen to me when I run, [but] maybe I put myself in these situations” she exclaims.  According to Larson, “I happen to injure myself a lot on runs. In high school I crawled across the finish line at the end of the 3200 at state. I got hit with a soccer ball in the stomach while finishing an XC race. In college I ran into a yucca plant in CA and got a hole in my leg. [And once],… more »

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Colorado Buffalo senior Kenyon Neuman has already logged himself a provisional qualifier for the National Championships in the 3K, with a time of 8:02.42 and an auto in the 5K with his 13:41 this past weekend. Let's see how he does to finish up this indoor season. You just ran 13:41 indoors. How'd that feel? It felt pretty good. I was happy with it. I was expecting to run something fairly fast, but it was a nice PR and it was a really good day.… more »

INDIANAPOLIS - USA Track & Field on Wednesday announced its newly constituted Board of Directors. Among what will be 15 members of the board are respected business executives, National Track & Field Hall of Famers, attorneys, officials, coaches and Olympic athletes. The new board includes National Track & Field Hall of Famer and sports consultant Willie Banks; National Track & Field Hall of Famer and the first acting President of USATF's predecessor organization, The Athletics Congress (TAC), Dr. Evie Dennis; former world-class athlete and business executive Steve Holman; USATF official and youth track and field activistKim Haines; businesswoman and former USATF women's long-distance running… more »

In the limited formal journalism education I have (a few classes in high school), I was always taught that the first few sentences in an article should answer the important questions everyone could have given the headline....the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. However given that I am considered by FloTrack to be a columnist, I felt it more important to begin with a brief explanation about the absence of my article from the site on Mondays when most of you were used to reading it. I struggled with how to go about writing an article on track, because simply posting marks that… more »

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This Valentine’s Day, many runners spent it with their one true love, track and field. There was plenty action (watch it here on flotrack!) with some amazing qualifying performances. I have tried to cover as many meets as possible. If there is anything I have missed, and I am sure that I did, go ahead and leave a comment with the times. Also, if there are any meets next weekend that you think should be included in my next article, let me know. Air Force Invitational –Abilene Christian’s Wanda Hutson won the women’s 60 meter dash with an automatic qualifying… more »

(C) Copyright - 2009 - Christopher Kelsall Maurice (‘Morris’) Tarrant of Victoria, BC holds or has held 48 Canadian age-group road and track records spanning distances from 3,000m to the half marathon. He turns 80 in less than a year from now (January 4th 2010) and will continue to tear apart the Canadian record books.  At 75 years of age Maurice ran the Bazan Bay 5k in Sidney, (just outside of Victoria) finishing with a time that when calculated on the WAVA age-grade calculator works out to 14:17, which neither past winners Dave Milne, Graham Hood, Scott Simpson, Jim Finlayson… more »

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Shane Knoll, a Michigan State junior, recently broke onto the national scene with his convincing 3 minute, 57.36 second Meyo Mile victory. The Spartan has goals this indoor season of dropping a fast 800 and 3,000, as well as mixing it up in the mile at the National Championships. So, are you still riding the wave? A little bit. I've calmed down a little.   What was it like when… more »

Massaging Towards Recovery By Danny Mackey M.S.               Hard training is only half of the equation to success, we need to recover. Just look back to the 38 year old Constantina Tomescu-Dita talking about one of her secrets to success after winning the Olympic Marathon Gold this year: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/sep/22/sandrock-marathoners-coach-reflects-gold-medal-str/.    Constantina speaks about sleeping, but there are other treatments athletes' can use to shorten the recovery time.  Sports massages are one of the luxuries that we only hear elites receiving to aid in recovery.   When you read “the day in the life of a so-and-so Olympian” a massage is often… more »

This weekend was full of excitement in the running world, ranging from USA Cross Country Championships to the New Balance Collegiate Invitational.  I will highlight some of the DII performances, but as usual if there is any performance I have missed, please comment. Also, if there are any meets next weekend that you think should be included in my next article, let me know. USA Cross Country Championships- Shippensburg’s Neely Spence won the junior women’s 6k race with time of 20:43. New Balance Collegiate Invitational- In the women’s mile, Spence’s Shippensburg teammate, Abigail Huber, ran a solid race, running a… more »

INDIANAPOLIS - The Project 30 Task Force on Monday, February 9, issued its final report, analyzing Team USAPerformance in Beijing and charting a course for programmatic change to maximize Team USA performance in Olympic and World Championship competition. Central to its recommendations is the hiring of a General Manager to oversee all matters pertaining to athlete development and performance, including High Performance, Elite Athlete Services, Team USA Management, Team USA Staff management, National Championships, Sport Science application and Sports Medicine, Youth Development and Anti-Doping programs. Additional recommendations include targeting development of technical events to achieve 30 clean medals in London 2012, shortening the Olympic Trials, terminating the… more »

Nicole Schappert finished the mile last weekend at the Penn State National Invitational sandwiched between her two teammates. Each running better than 4:44 in the mile. With this provisional-qualifying time, she looks to book her ticket to indoor nationals in the mile as well as on Villanova's DMR team.   <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> How would you say your training is going right now? My training is going really well. Easing into track season we kind took it slowly, but now were into the area where we're running a… more »

Feb 4, 2009 Reported by: Bart van Aalst Dutch websites announced Ryan Hall to race Haile Gebrselassie in The Hague, on the same course where Wanjiru set the 1/2 marathon world record.  Race is on March 14, 2009. Announcement is on www.fortiscpcloop.nl (they only mention some results, dates and the fact that Hall is racing Haile) - Bart van Aalst   HAILE GEBRSELASSIE STARTS IN 35TH FORTIS CITY-PIER-CITY RUN The organizers of the Fortis City-Pier-City Run today announced the start of Haile Gebrselassie in the 35th edition of the event in The Hague on Saturday March 14th.The world record holder marathon travels with a special mission to… more »

UMass-Lowell’s Ruben Sanca has come a long way. He clocked a 14:05.46 on January 24, coming in third at Boston’s Terrier Invitational.  This time makes him one of the top contenders in the men’s indoor 5k for DII Nationals. It was only last year, on that very same track, that Sanca was actually lapped.  This bit of revenge, he says, is probably the highlight of his running career: “Running my high school mile PR 3 times during that race is something I will never forget. It was a 42 second improvement on that same track that I was lapped a… more »