August 2009 Track and Field Articles

Relive the all the action from the 2009 Summer, including the IAAF World Championships, with archived race videos from Universal Sports: IAAF World Championships | Flo Coverage (8/15-23) US Championships (6/25-29  Flo Coverage)   Brussels Golden League (9/4) Zurich Golden League | Flo Coverage (8/28) Stockholm Super Grand Prix (7/31) Monaco Super Grand Prix (7/28) | Flo Coverage London Grand Prix Day 1 - Day 2 (7/24-7/25) | Flo Coverage Paris Golden League (7/17) | Flo Coverage Rome Golden League (7/10) | Flo Coverage Lausanne Super Grand Prix (7/7) | Flo Coverage Oslo Golden League (7/3) | Flo Coverage Berlin Golden League (6/14) Prefontaine Classic (6/8) | Flo Coverage Reebok Grand Prix (5/30) | Flo Coverage more »

INDIANAPOLIS - Dathan Ritzenhein set an American record in the men's 5,000 meters and Sanya Richards continued her quest to win her third Golden League crown Friday at the Weltklasse Zurich, the fifth leg of the AF Golden League 2009. Thirteen years after Bob Kennedy set the American record of 12:58.21 in the 5,000 meters at the Weltklasse Zurich meeting , 2008 Olympic marathoner Dathan Ritzenhein smashed that record by almost 2 seconds finishing third in 12 minutes 56.27 seconds. It was an almost 20 second personal best for Ritzenhein, which makes him the second-fastest non-African in history and only the… more »

Northern Arizona University junior Astrid Leutert, a Switzerland native, made a huge improvement at the NCAA Division I Cross Country meet last year, taking 43rd compared to her previous year's 149th -place finish over the 6,000-meter course. She improved her time from 21 minutes, 53.4 seconds to 20:44.6 . Let's see how she and her Lumberjacks do this season! How was your 2008-2009 season? It was an up and down year. The cross season went really well for me and I had been healthy and stayed injury-free through the fall. I improved a lot compared to the previous year and… more »

The World Championships are over and the international track season is drawing to a close. As quickly as Usain Bolt runs 100 meters the cross country season is upon us. Summer training has ended and many miles have been run. So now it is time for the racing to begin but let’s look back at what happened last year before looking forwards at what might happen in Evansville, Indiana. Last year’s DII XC Nationals was raced in Slippery Rock, Penn. The temperatures were freezing and there was slow on the ground. These conditions made for a slick course that a… 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 } --> Villanova Wildcat sophomore Bogdana Mimic, a Serbian native, took 67th last year individually at the NCAA Cross Country Championships as her team took sixth. She ran 20 minutes, 57 seconds over the 6,000-meter course. Bodgana hooked us up with her answers via email (from Serbia). Check it out and follow closely on Flotrack this cross country season to see how she and her teammates do. How was your 2008-2009 season?… more »

Love running? how about some coding, and Accept it, you know you want a Flotrack T-shirt, think you are a Web developer Super Hero come down to austin, where the real magic happens. Flotrack is looking for a talented UI Designer, someone that lives and breathes PHP, AJAX, CSS and Javascript.  We expect you to be good at MVC Frameworks like Yii or Codeignitor, strong OOP skills, J-Query and some serious knowledge of MYSQL, and a willingness to learn new stuff.  and yeah, you will be working on a small team because you know how good you are.  Please send… more »

© Copyright – 2009 – Christopher Kelsall I remember watching Ryan Hall race the 2008 Beijing Olympic Marathon and thinking to myself that he seemed to be putting in a great effort and really just hanging on to the pace. He was not demonstrating that mystique he exuded in past races, like during his previous efforts in the New York and London marathons. He went out hard that day in Beijing, in very warm conditions – the type of race that apparently does not suit him.He recently told Peter Gambaccini during his Runner’s World online interview:“It wasn't the most enjoyable… more »

Nine years ago, a New Mexico native elementary school runner laced up a pair of Nike training shoes for his first cross country race in 3rd grade.  Throughout middle school, Coach Jim Ciccarello challenged the curly-brown-haired distance specialist to compete in every event from 100m to 3,000m.  And by 8th grade, Curtis Beach had found the decathlon. It was a dream come true for the Albuquerque Academy phenom to get the National High School Record in the decathlon, since he had planned to do so back when he was a freshman.  A master at wearing many hats, Beach not only… more »

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Portland sophomore Alfred Kipchumba took 18th overall at last year's NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. He ran 13 minutes, 45.56 seconds in the 5,000-meter run this past track season off of running 20-30 miles a week and took 12th overall at the NCAA Championships. This summer he's bumping his mileage up. Let's see how that works out for him this cross country season! Overall, how was your 2008 cross country season? I was proud during the cross country season because I got such a… more »

Television & Webcast Schedule (from USATF and Universal Sports) Date Time Network Broadcast Type Aug. 15 4:05 a.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 15 11:35 a.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 15 1:00 p.m. ET NBC TV Aug. 16 4:05 a.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 16 12:05 p.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 16 2:00 p.m. ET NBC TV Aug. 17 11:45 a.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 17 1:00 p.m. ET Versus TV Aug. 18 4:05 a.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 18 11:45 a.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 18 1:00 p.m. ET Versus TV Aug. 19 4:05 a.m. ET universalsports.com webcast Aug. 19 12:05… more »

At the end of June the US Outdoor Track and Field Championships were held in Eugene.  Athletes set their sights on a 9-day period in August, the World Championships.  Here's a look back at the US sprinters and what they did to get to Berlin: 100 metres With Tyson Gay only running one round, the show was left to Michael Rodgers.  Rodgers who had previously been known for his indoor races, came through this outdoor season with some of the best marks in the world running (best legal time of 9.94).  2008 Olympian Darvis Patton punched his ticket for the… more »

 BERLIN - The IAAF Congress on Wednesday approved a new rule that will disqualify athletes the first time they false start in any given race. The rule will take effect January 1, 2010. The rule will replace the current false-start policy of the first false-start being charged to the entire field, with only subsequent false-starts resulting in disqualification. Implementation is set for 2010 in order to enable athletes to become accustomed to the rule well ahead of the 2011 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Speaking in support of the rule change, IAAF President Lamine Diack pointed to the NCAA's… more »

© Copyright – 2009 – Christopher Kelsall  As the saying goes, nice guys finish last. Twenty-nine year old Scott Simpson is an athlete and physiotherapist, plying both trades in Victoria, British Columbia. Originally from Sackville, New Brunswick, Simpson is one of the nice guys in our sport, but sometimes he finishes first. He is, at least on the outside, the epitome of sedate when flicking his ankles striding-out during his warm-up, in and out of the race corral. Thrice this year, I found myself warming-up, passing Scott back and forth. Moments before the gun sounds, I like to go up… more »

This is a press release that I recieved from John Godina and I wanted to share it. This is some pretty exciting news for US throwers. For our sport to grow we need smart people to figure out creative ways to train and make a living. Check out the release below and congrats to John Godina and the World Throws Center!   The John Godina World Throws Center is proud to announce what we feel is the most important step forward for the world of throws training...ever.We are now working with Athletes' Performance to provide the greatest training and development environment ever… more »

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Iowa State's Hillary Bor, an Eldoret, Kenya native, has been ripping up the NCAA distance scene since his freshman year. This past outdoors season, Bor took second in the NCAA 3,000-meter steeplechase, running 8 minutes 35.12 seconds behind BYU's Kyle Perry. Last season he took fourth (8:36.84). He's also got a finish 56th-place finish in cross country. With another big cross country season ahead of us, let's see how Bor does. How much running are you doing right now? Right now I'm not doing very… more »

The FloNetwork just got funkier. Jet horns, based out of Stockholm Sweden, is the first band to join the FloNetwork. Jon Von Letscher leads the band, and was a former runner and teammate of Mark's at The University of Texas, class of '06. Jon started Jet horns with new members and old members from his former band Honey Claws, played frequently on Flotrack.   Jet horns FloNetwork   more »

Flotrack is psyched to announce the addition of the first Running Store on the FloNetwork. Rogue Equipment, is based out of Austin TX, and only a few blocks away from the HQ of Flotrack. Ruth England and current UT Women's XC coach Steve Sisson, head up the team at Rogue, which is also owned by local Austin fitness entrepreneur Craig Staley (Craig is also the manager of Lance Armstrong's Bike Shop: Mellow Johnny's).  We believe that specialty running stores are at the core of the running community, and we hope to bring the same technology Flotrack has to a running… more »

© - Copyright - 2009 - Christopher Kelsall Athletes who train by the Arthur Lydiard method most often perform well over a vast range of distances and enjoy long, prosperous running careers. The method has proven effective when applied properly, so much so that now Lydiard athletes come to expect the promise of versatility and longevity.   Twenty-two year old Lindsay Allen is in the early days of her post-collegiate career, she joined the elite world when she ran the 10th fastest steeple time in US history during her first full Lydiard cycle. She did this under the tutelage of… more »