Running USA wire 67, August 12, 2012

Running USA wire 67, August 12, 2012
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In this edition:
Farah Achieves Olympic Distance Double
Kiprotich Pulls Upset in Men's Olympic Marathon
Biwott, Wangari Win 40th Falmouth Road Race
Torrence, Martinez Take Falmouth Mile Titles

UPCOMING EVENTS

Join Running USA today and have your event listed here, as well as on www.RunningUSA.org

Inaugural GNC Live Well Liberty Mile, Pittsburgh, PA, Aug 17
Celebration of Running 5K, Orlando, FL, August 18
Madison Mini-Marathon, Madison, WI, August 18
Pikes Peak Ascent, Manitou Springs, CO, August 18
Run for the Fallen Maine 65K, Portland, ME, August 19
Rock 'n' Roll Providence 1/2 Marathon, Providence, RI, Aug 19
Race for Research, Denver, CO, August 19
Pikes Peak Marathon, Manitou Springs, CO, August 19
35th America's Finest City Half-Marathon, San Diego, CA, Aug 19
Toronto Women's 5K / 10K, Toronto, CAN, August 25
Gender Defender 5K, Quantico, VA, August 25
Patrick Henry Half-Marathon, Ashland, VA, August 25
Continental Divide Trail Race, Laurel Springs, NC, August 25
USA 10K Trail Championships
Crim Festival of Races, Flint, MI, August 25
Challenge Arthritis 5K, St. Paul, MN, August 25
Seattle Marathon 10K, Seattle, WA, August 25
La Sportiva 10K @10,000 Feet & 5K, Vail, CO, August 26
Eugene Women's Half Marathon, Eugene, OR, August 26





Farah Achieves Olympic Distance Double

Lagat 4th in 5000m final at London 2012

From USATF



LONDON - (August 11, 2012) - With a win in Saturday's Olympic 5000 meters, Mo Farah of Great Britain stole the show with the 5000 / 10,000m double victory, while a quick-closing Bernard Lagat (Tucson, Ariz.) was tripped up in his attempt to win his third career Olympic medal. Regaining his composure in the last 20 meters, Lagat moved into fourth to finish in 13:42.99 with gold medalist Farah producing a 3:59 last mile and a final clocking of 13:41.66 to an ecstatic Olympic Stadium crowd of 80,000.



"I was very confident. I was just trying to go as I hard as I could. It would have been better to have been on the podium. The fourth spot is tough, but I have been the most blessed person in my career," said Lagat, 37, who is also a multi-World Championships medalist.



The 3.1 mile race unfolded with a slow opening 3000 meters that found Lopez Lomong (Beaverton, Ore.) leading a loping pack. The pace began to pick up when eventual silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia moved into the lead. Despite the faster pace, the pack remained dense and congested.



Twice a medalist at 1500m (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004), Lagat came off the curve positioned fifth, and while he managed to stayed upright, the clip with Kenyan Isiah Koech tripped up Lagat long enough to keep him out of the medals. Lagat regained his composure in the final meters of the race to move into fourth. Galen Rupp (Portland, Ore.) moved into the lead 600 meters out, but was unable to answer as Farah and the rest of the pack pulled ahead, leaving the 2012 Olympic 10,000m silver medalist seventh in 13:45.04. Lomong finished 10th in 13:48.19.



Olympic Games
London, GBR, Saturday, August 11, 2012



Men's 5000m
1) Mo Farah (GBR), 13:41.66, Gold
2) Dejen Gebremeskel (ETH), 13:41.98, Silver
3) Thomas Longosiwa (KEN), 13:42.36, Bronze
4) Bernard Lagat (USA), 13:42.99
5) Isiah Koech (KEN), 13:43.83
6) Abdalaati Iguider (MAR), 13:44.19
7) Galen Rupp (USA), 13:45.04
8) Juan Luis Barrios (MEX), 13:45.30
9) Hayle Ibrahimov (AZE), 13:45.37
10) Lopez Lomong (USA), 13:48.19



Full results and more at: www.iaaf.org/mini/oly12/Results/ResultsByDate.aspx






Kiprotich Pulls Upset in Men's Olympic Marathon

Keflezighi finishes 4th in final London Olympics 2012 track & field event

By USATF



LONDON - (August 12, 2012) - Eight years after his Olympic silver, Meb Keflezighi (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) returned to the Olympic Marathon at the age of 37 to finish fourth in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 6 seconds under hot and humid conditions Sunday morning on the streets of London.



On a tour of London landmarks with huge crowds lining the multi-loop 8 mile course, Stephen Kiprotich, 23, of Uganda brought home his country's first medal of the London Games and only their third athletics medal all-time as he won gold in 2:08:01, the third fastest Olympic Marathon time ever. He was followed by two-time world champion Abel Kirui in 2:08:27 and Wilson Kipsang in 2:09:37, both of Kenya.



It was an unfortunate day for Ryan Hall (Flagstaff, Ariz.) and Abdi Abdirahman (Tucson, Ariz.) who succumbed to injuries mid-way through the race and stepped off the course around 18K. Hall withdrew after the first large loop and moments later Abdirahman also called it a day. Abdirahman ran with the lead pack for the first 5K before fading to 29th at the 15K mark. Hall found himself running in no-mans-land by the 10K split where he stood in 38th place before fading back to 50th place at 15K.



The 26.2 mile race began to develop in earnest at the 12K mark when Kipsang made a decisive move to the front, and quickly developed a 16-second lead over the chase pack. Kipsang held onto the lead for 14K before Kirui and Kiprotich reeled him in.



With three runners chasing the lead pack individually, Keflezighi was able to run with a pack of eight men who were just two minutes behind the lead at the 30K mark. Over the next 5K, Keflezighi increased his pace, pulled away from the chase pack and set his sights on picking off the lone athletes separating him from the podium. During the final two miles of the race, Keflezighi passed both Marilson dos Santos of Brazil and Kentaro Nakamoto of Japan to secure his fourth place finish.



"Coming here I told my wife, 'I have a feeling I'm going to finish fourth.' Did I want to finish fourth - no. But at the World or Olympic Games I'll take it, especially considering that I did not make the Olympics [in 2008]. In 2004, to be a silver medalist, I know how that feels, so I congratulate those people who finished first, second and third.



Everybody works hard to accomplish such a thing and I am very proud of myself and our country to finish fourth. It's not where you want to be sometimes, but fourth place at my last Olympics - I'll take it anytime," said Keflezighi, a three-time Olympian.



Keflezighi's performance is the best place by an American since his 2004 silver medal in 2:11:29 and the second fastest Olympic Marathon time by an American behind Frank Shorter's 2:10:46 silver medal performance at Montreal 1976.



Olympic Games
London, GBR, Sunday, August 12, 2012



Men's Marathon
1) Stephen Kiprotich (UGA), 2:08:01, Gold
2) Abel Kirui (KEN), 2:08:27, Silver
3) Wilson Kipsang (KEN), 2:09:37, Bronze
4) Meb Keflezighi (USA), 2:11:06
5) Marilson dos Santos (BRA), 2:11:10
6) Kentaro Nakamoto (JPN), 2:11:16
7) Cuthbert Nyasango (ZIM), 2:12:08
8) Paulo Roberto Paula (BRA), 2:12:17
9) Henryk Szost (POL), 2:12:28
10) Ruggero Pertile (ITA), 2:12:45
Abdi Abdirahman (USA), DNF - injury
Ryan Hall (USA), DNF - injury



Full results and more at: www.iaaf.org/mini/oly12/Results/ResultsByDate.aspx



Team USA produces impressive London 2012 Olympic Games



With its medal tally of 29 medals in London, Team USA scored its biggest Olympic medal collection since the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona - a Games held in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Bloc.



2012 was an Olympics of historic significance for the U.S. team. It dominated track & field competition, in medals and points scoring, with USA, Russia and Jamaica going 1-2-3 in both measures. In medal tally, Team USA finished with 29 medals (9 gold, 13 silver, 7 bronze), including two distance silver medals (1500m - Leo Manzano and 10,000m - Galen Rupp), with Russia second with 18 (8 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze) and Jamaica was third with 12 medals - 4 each of gold, silver and bronze.



In the placing tables, which score 1st through 10th place, Team USA dominated with 304 points. Russia was second with 177 and Jamaica third with 107. Of significant note is that in addition to its 20 medals, Team USA scored nine fourth-place finishes.



Visit USATF.org for more information.






Biwott, Wangari Win Falmouth Road Race

10,612 finishers under muggy conditions at 40th edition of Cape Cod summer classic

By Jim Gerweck, Running USA wire



FALMOUTH, Mass. - (August 12, 2012) - In its 40-year history, humidity has been an almost omnipresent constant of the Falmouth Road Race. This year was no exception, although few expected the volume, intensity and liquid nature of the moisture for this annual New England rite of the summer racing season.



Heavy rains pounded the western part of Cape Cod in the pre-dawn hours before the Sunday morning race, putting a few sections of the course under several feet of water.

"No way we could have held the race," said Dave McGillivray, in his first year of directing the event that was conceived as a run between two Cape watering holes by Tommy Leonard 40 years ago. "The runners would have been up to their knees, and the wheelchair racers would have drowned."



Fortunately, McGillivray was able to muster up a few submersible pumps to push the water off the course, and after a 15-minute delay, 11,000-plus runners set off on the 7-mile trek from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights.



While the moisture was no longer coming down from the skies, it was surely rising up from the ground, making for typical sticky conditions in spite of a wind that alternated at times between behind, from the side, or in the face of the runners. That resulted in a relatively dawdling 4:40-ish pace through three miles, and a huge lead pack of some 15 runners, which included defending champion Lucas Rotich.



Just past that point the pretenders began to separate from the contenders as the pace dropped each succeeding mile to 4:33, 4:28 and 4:26. That whittled the pack down to eight, six and finally three, consisting of Kenyans Rotich, Stephen Kipsogei-Kibet and Stanley Biwott, and Biwott, 26, the 2012 Paris Marathon champion who won TD Beach to Beacon 10K last week, made the first move, just past the 10K mark before the final climb before the screaming downhill to the finish. Rotich, however, was not about to give up his title that easily, and mounted one last furious charge, coming within an eyelash of catching Biwott at the finish as Biwott hit the finish line in 31 minutes, 59 seconds - 22 seconds slower than Rotich's time from last year. Rotich followed in 32:01 with Kipkosgei-Kibet nine seconds back.



Utah's Luke Puskedra, sporting a throwback version jersey of his University of Oregon alma mater, was the top American in 11th at 33:14.



"I was confident in my speed at the finish," said Biwott. "But I knew I could not relax, because my colleague's speed was also very good."



Biwott's next big challenge will come in November, when he matches his speed with some of the world's best marathoners on the streets of New York in that city's marathon.



The women's side of the race was almost a mirror image of the men, with a large pack going through relaxed splits in the 5:20 per mile range. In that group were 2010 champ Wude Ayalew of Ethiopia and Kenyans Emily Chebet and Margaret Wangari. The latter, after finishing fourth in her country's Olympic Trials in the 1500m, ventured to America to try her hand on the roads, and came into Falmouth on a hot streak, having won Iowa's Quad-City Times Bix 7 and the Maine TD Beach to Beacon 10K in the preceding two weeks.



By the time the women leaders reached five miles it was just the aforementioned trio left together.



"I was thinking I might have a chance to win this race," said the 26-year-old Wangari. "Then one of the other women [Ayalew] pushed at six miles, and I was able to stay with her, so that gave me even more confidence. Once I got to the top of the last hill and could see the finish line at the bottom, I knew I could win because my sprint is very good from training for the 1500."



Her countrywoman Chebet was equally quick over the final stretch, just nipping Ayalew at the line by one second, just three seconds off Wangari's winning time of 36:54.



Stephanie Rothstein, who has raced sparingly but well on the roads this spring and summer since the Olympic Marathon Trials in January, posted another strong performance as the top American woman in 37:24, good for sixth overall.



"I've been trying to get in some good blocks of training between races," she said. In spite of living in one of least humid parts of the country, Flagstaff, Arizona, Rothstein's strong run in the soupy Falmouth conditions gave her encouragement to point for an unusual late season marathon: Honolulu.



"You'd think coming from Flagstaff I wouldn't do well in humidity, but I do," she continued, noting that her sixth place in the New York Road Runners Mini Marathon 10K came in similar conditions. Rothstein's next race will be at the New Haven, CT Labor Day 20K USA Championship, where she's likely to encounter more humid weather.

Although hopefully, not as intense nor as liquid.



The top Masters (40 and older) at Falmouth were Kevin Castille, 40, from Nicholasville, Kentucky and Irina Permitina, 42, of Russia, who clocked 33:42 and 38:04, respectively.



40th New Balance Falmouth Road Race
Falmouth, MA, Sunday, August 12, 2012



MEN
1) Stanley Biwott (KEN), 31:59, $10,000
2) Lucas Rotich (KEN), 32:01, $7500
3) Stephen Kipkosgei-Kibet (KEN), 32:10, $3500
4) Kiplimo Kumatai (KEN), 32:21, $2500
5) Silas Kipruto (KEN), 32:30, $1500
6) Allan Kiprono (KEN), 32:32, $1000
7) Gebretsadik Abraha (ETH), 32:53, $800
8) Harbert Okuti (UGA), 33:04, $600
9) Sammy Chelanga (KEN), 33:08, $500
10) Lani Rutto (KEN), 33:09, $400


Top U.S.
11) Luke Puskedra (USA / UT), 33:14



MASTERS MEN (40+)
1) Kevin Castille, 40, USA / KY, 33:42, $2000
2) Vladmir Tontchinski, 45, Belgium, 36:37, $1000
3) Dennis Simonaitis, 50, USA / UT, 37:13, $750



SENIOR MAN (50+)
1) Simonaitis, see above, $500



WOMEN
1) Margaret Wangari (KEN), 36:54, $10,000
2) Emily Chebet (KEN), 36:57, $7500
3) Wude Ayalew (ETH), 36:58, $3500
4) Rita Jeptoo (KEN), 37:08, $2500
5) Lineth Chepkurui (KEN), 37:16, $1500
6) Stephanie Rothstein (USA / AZ), 37:24, $1000
7) Pauline Njeri Kahenya (KEN), 37:30, $800
8) Renee Baillie (USA / CO), 37:43, $600
9) Jelliah Tinega (KEN), 37:43, $500
10) Alice Kimutai (KEN), 37:50, $400



MASTERS WOMEN (40+)
1) Irina Permitina, 42, Russia, 38:04, $2000
2) Catherine Ndereba, 40, Kenya, 38:41, $1000
3) Sheri Piers, 41, USA / ME, 39:55, $750



SENIOR WOMAN (50+)
1) Joan Benoit Samuelson, 55, ME, 43:44, $500

Full results and more at: www.falmouthroadrace.com





Torrence, Martinez Take Falmouth Mile Titles

Martinez and Anderson run #1 and #2 fastest women's Mile times of the year

By Jim Gerweck, Running USA wire



FALMOUTH, Mass. - (August 11, 2012) - Last year's Falmouth Mile, a track precursor to the larger, older 7-mile road race, proved to be one of the deepest ever run on American soil, with the top 10 men dipping under the magical 4-minute mark.



It would have been hard to equal that performance again, and indeed, swirling, humid winds threw an additional impediment into the mix. Nonetheless, this year's edition on Saturday evening came close, with David Torrence leading five other men under 4, turning in a creditable 3:55.79 victory.



"I was a little nervous warming up," said Torrence, 26, who finished sixth at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials 1500 meters earlier this summer. "I've just finished a hard block of training, and my legs felt kind of dead. Until we got on the line I wasn't sure how they'd respond."



After zipping through the two opening laps in 58 seconds apiece, the pace slowed through the three-quarter mark before defending champion and event record holder Jordan McNamara took over at the bell. "The wind was really tough on the backstretch," he said. "I was just waiting for the 200 mark to make my move, when the wind would be behind us."



That slackening of pace allowed Torrence to close a gap of several meters that had opened in the first three laps. "I was making all these mini surges to get close," recounted the three-time USA Mile road champion.



As the leaders hit the homestretch, Torrence, an Oakland, Calif. resident, unleashed a finishing sprint McNamara and the others couldn't match, finishing 0.28 ahead of McNamara, with Garrett Heath another 0.14 behind in third.



"This gives me a lot of confidence," said the winner, who pocketed $3000. "I've always heard about Falmouth, the great tradition of the road race, and I wanted to be part of the legend. Now I'm going to regroup and head to Europe for the second season and try to nail down some PRs, and then finish up with the Fifth Avenue Mile."



The women's field was equally loaded, to the extent that the schedule was swapped to allow them to run last, as the grand finale of the evening of miles that included high school and wheelchair divisions as well. Brenda Martinez, who placed 12th at the Trials 1500, took advantage of the spotlight to notch a huge PR, her 4:26.76 victory lopping a huge margin off her previous best of 4:32.29.



"Wow, I'm really excited," she said afterward. "Right after the Trials I was having some bad leg problems, but I had some active release treatments that really worked me over, but cleared things up. I've been feeling good in workouts, and I think the rest actually helped me. I sort of had a plan going in, but with the wind swirling I figured I'd just kind of feel how things went."



Martinez, last year's runner-up, went to the front with 500 to go, and quickly opened a 10-meter lead over Gabrielle Anderson. While the gap was cut by more than half, Martinez won comfortably by just over a second as runner-up Anderson also PRed and dipped under 4:30 with her 4:27.94. Their Mile times are the #1 and #2 fastest of the year for women.



"This sets me up really well to go to Europe and try to establish myself as an elite runner," said Martinez, who graduated from UC Riverside two years ago and has been living and training in Big Bear, Ryan Hall's hometown, since.



"I don't have a group to train with," she said. "I do most of my runs by myself, although there are some guys I can do some of the harder workouts with." Martinez is coached by her boyfriend, a set-up she said works better than it might sound. "We're able to separate the boyfriend-girlfriend, coach-athlete relationship pretty well."



In the men's wheelchair race, Krige Schabort zipped to a 3:21.01 victory. The time is the fastest recorded by a wheelchair racer on the track, but since the Falmouth High School oval lacks a curb won't be recognized as a world record.



17th Falmouth Mile
Falmouth, MA, Saturday, August 11, 2012



MEN
1) David Torrence (CA), 3:55.79, $3000
2) Jordan McNamara (OR), 3:56.07, $1500
3) Garrett Heath (CA), 3:56.21, $1000
4) Craig Miller (WI), 3:56.51, $750
5) Jeff See (OH), 3:58.57
6) Cory Leslie (OH), 3:59.17



WOMEN
1) Brenda Martinez (CA), 4:26.76, $3000
2) Gabriele Anderson (MN), 4:27.94, $1500
3) Chelsea Reilly (CA), 4:30.18, $1000
4) Sarah Bowman (TN), 4:31.40, $750
5) Ashley Miller (NE), 4:39.51
6) Aisha Praight (IL), 4:50.61



Results and more at: www.falmouthroadrace.com





Contact Information


Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director, ryan@runningusa.org, (805) 696-6232




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