Bernard Lagat was relaxing in the dinner area of the Great City Games in Newcastle this evening. Lagat is one of my favorite athletes, and besides that, he is just a plain nice guy. One of the smartest tacticians in the sport, Lagat still loves to race and heaps praise on his competitors. 

Bernard Lagat, 2012 London Olympics, photo by PhotoRun.net

The Bupa CityGames is an event that celebrates the revitalization of Newcastle and Gateshead, England. Bernard Lagat will be running the mile here, like Jenny Simpson, the World Champion from 2011. With races from 100 meters to 200 meters, a mile and two mile as well as a long jump and pole vault, the event brings a vitality to the city center. I hope some day we see these events in the US! 

Jenny Simpson, 2012 London Olympics, photo by PhotoRun.net

Jenny Simpson did not have the Olympics she wanted. Jenny wowed the track world in 2011 with her 1,500m victory in Daegu. To do that two years in a row is a tough task and this year was just not her year. Jenny Simpson has taken on the mantle of being America’s premier 1,500m runner well, even in rough years. Her ability to speak about her sport, her sponsors and why she loves running has added to the our sport. Truth is, we have some magnificent athletes in this sport and if one listens to their stories, they would appreciate how much athletes like Simpson and Lagat add to the sport. 

Both Bernard Lagat and Jenny Simpson will be finishing their seasons in the NYRR Fifth Avenue Mile. The Fifth Avenue Mile is the grand daddy of all the road miles and some of the greatest runners in the world have raced there. Mary Wittenberg and her elite field developer, David Monte, love to put together fun fields for this race within a series of races. Besides the elite miles, there are several thousand regular humans who run the mile before and after the elite fields. 

KANTER WINS ON HOME SOIL

KOSE (EST, Sep 13): Diamond Race winner Gerd Kanter won the special discus Ergo World Games on home soil with 64.62. Second Dutch Eric Cadee 63.79 ahead of another olympic medalist Ehsan Hadadi of Iran 61.58 and Poland´s Piotr Malachowski 61.27. Australian record holder Ben Harradine was 9th 59.32 and top Russian Bogdan Pishchalnikov 12th 56.01. In team competition Europe with Erik Cadee and German Daniel Stahl got 124.04 over Estonia I (Kanter, Tammert) 123.60 and Poland (Malachowski, Urbanek) 121.81. In the accompanying shot put Ukrainian Andrei Borodkin achieved 19.29 m.

ROTHLIN FOR EURO 2014

ZURICH (SUI): European marathon champion Viktor Rothlin will continue in his running career. The 37-years old runner confirmed that at a press conference. His main goal is the European Championships Marathon 2014 where he will compete in home country and as the title defender. The course was presented at the same media conference.

UHL BACK TO AMES

AMES (USA): Race Results Weekly informs that coming off of a successful season where she made her first USA Olympic team and lowered her 10 000 m personal best to 31:12.80, Lisa Uhl has decided to make a big change. She is leaving the Oregon Track Club Elite program in Portland under coach Jerry Schumacher and is returning to Ames, Iowa, where she will rejoin her former Iowa State University coach Corey Ihmels. Uhl, 25, who grew up in Fort Dodge, about an hour’s drive from Ames, will train under Ihmels and also work for him as a volunteer assistant coach. „I think a lot of people make changes after an Olympic year, and I think it’s a good time to risk if you think you need to change something,” Uhl said speaking on her mobile phone to Race Results Weekly from Portland last night. „I think I’ve felt like I’ve needed to make a change for a little bit now, but I wanted to makes sure I gave Jerry and Shalane (Flanagan) and the rest of the group a significant amount of time to make sure that it just wasn’t me being homesick, and to make sure it’s the right change and the right move because it’s a big change and a big decision.” About next season she said: „I’m probably going to do some indoor meets, focus on getting a little more pop in my legs. Maybe U.S. Indoors, then focus on probably the five/ten double at USA’s in Des Moines, which is going to be great having it so close to home.”

TOP NAMES FOR 5TH AVENUE MILE

NEW YORK (USA): American and British athletes have recorded a combined 35 victories at the Fifth Avenue Mile since the event was founded by the New York Road Runners in 1981. That strong American-British tradition will continue at this years’ race on Saturday, September 22, based on the athlete line-up the Road Runners released. On the U.S. side, defending champions Bernard Lagat and Jenny Simpson have committed to the race, along with Olympic silver medalist Leo Manzano, and his Olympic 1500-meter teammates Matthew Centrowitz and Shannon Rowbury. Both Lagat and Simpson prevailed in last year’s race in exciting sprint finishes in front of large crowds who lined what is normally one of Manhattan’s busiest streets. Four women from the United Kingdom–all of them 2012 Olympians–will lead the British charge for victory, led by 2011 IAAF World Championships silver medalist Hannah England. England will be joined on the British squad by Olympic steeplechasers Barbara Parker and Eilish McColgan (daughter of 1991 ING New York City Marathon champion Liz McColgan), and distance runner Julia Bleasdale who finished eighth in the Olympic Games in both the 5000m and 10,000m. In all, the invited field of about 35 athletes boasts 14 Olympians from four different nations, including two medalists (Lagat and Manzano); there are also five World Championships medalists (Centrowitz, England, Lagat, Rowbury, and Simpson). Writes Race Results Weekly.

OTHER NEWS

HARARE (ZIM): Newsday.co.zw informs that world long jump medalist Ngoni Makusha is set to resume training in November as he continues his rehabilitation from an Achilles injury he suffered in May. According to Makusha’s coach, Kenneth Harnden, the 100m and long jump sensation is recovering well after undergoing surgery and is expected to start training soon.

NAIROBI (KEN): Two-year ban on 2012 Boston Marathon runner-up Jemima Jelagat Sumgong for a positive drug test result has been lifted by the International Association Athletics Federations (IAAF) and Athletics Kenya (AK), according to allAfrica.com. It had been determined by Athletics Kenya that Sumgong, whose name appears in some results as Sumong Jemima Jelagat, produced a urine sample containing the banned substance prednisolone at the Boston Marathon. She had received a letter from Athletics Kenya stating „your ineligibility will be two years from June 11, 2012 to the same date in 2014. But Sumgong and her agent, Federico Rosa, appealed to the IAAF, which determined that she’d received a local injection for a diagnosed hip injury. Such an injection (directly into the injured area) is apparently not prohibited. „The ban had threatened my career but now I am relieved and happy that I will now resume my training starting next week,” a relieved Sumgong has said. According to allAfrica.com, she’s planning to do the Philadelphia Marathon on November 18.

LONDON (GBR): Latest blog by Pat Butcher atwww.globerunner.org – Rio de Janeiro 2016.

TUCSON (USA): Olympic silver medalist with 203 Brigetta Barrett is not only a top athletes but also a great singer. Local Arizona media are writing that she sang the national anthem before the Diamondbacks game against the Dodgers at Chase field. Barrett is originally from New York, and she was honored to perform the song on 9/11. The Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers 1-0.

RESULTS

CHENNAI (IND, Sep 12-13): At Indian Championships high jumper Jithin C. Thomas took the proceedings to the greater heights as he tried to obliterate the national record by attempting to clear 2.26m. Although he fails to clear that height in all his three try-outs, he had the satisfaction of setting a meet record in 2.22m. 20+ meters shot putter Om Prakash Singh achieved 17.81 and was beaten to third by Jasdeep Singh 18.14. Kumaravel Premkumar, the only Indian medallist in this year’s Asian Indoor championships at Hangzhou (China), proved his mettle once again by beating the long jump field which include Ankit Sharma and Mohd. Arshad. Premkumar brought the second gold for Tamil Nadu this evening with a giant leap of 772. The men’s 200m dash saw Dharambir won the event by a huge margin in 21.00. International Tintu Luka comfortably won the women’s 800m in 2:04.69. Writes Murali Krishnan.

BRNO (CZE, Sep 11): German long jump Nils Winter had his last meet of the career in Czech Republic and was third with 744 (+0.8). Winner home jumper Stepan Wagner 781 (+0.2) ahead of experienced Jamaican James Beckford (759, 0.0).