Can Paula Radcliffe win gold again? UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee said: "We have selected a small, but high-quality team for the road events for Berlin. "Paula Radcliffe and Mara Yamauchi are both proven performers on the international stage, whilst Johanna Jackson is an improving athlete with obvious 2012 potential. "As has been widely publicised, Paula has recently undergone an operation and is hoping to be fully fit for Berlin. "She is an athlete of huge calibre and she will know if she is in shape to be competitive at the World Championships. We are happy to back her all the way." Van Commenee stressed that the focus in Berlin will be on individual success with full teams set to be selected for the World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham on 11 October. more at the link from the BBC

(full AFP story at the link) ...Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie failed in an attempt to better his own world record for the one-hour run at the Hengelo Grand Prix on Monday. The 36-year-old clocked up 20km 822metres, falling short of his record of 21km 285m which he set in June 2007 in Ostrava, the Czech Republic. "The wind and rain obviously didn't make things easy," said Gebrselassie. "And even if the conditions were not optimal, I wasn't at 100 percent because of a small asthmatic problem."

Samuel Wanjiru pulled away over the final miles Sunday to become the first Kenyan to win an Olympic marathon.

Wanjiru stormed the 26.2-mile course through the Beijing streets in bright morning sunshine in an Olympic record of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds.

"In Kenya we have many medals," Wanjiru said, "but I'm glad I have this one."

Against all expectations a clear blue sky greeted the final day of the games.

The women's marathon was run in a light rain; air quality posed no problems for the runners.

Just the third marathon for the 21-year-old Wanjiru, who set the world half-marathon record at age 18, then broke it twice again last year.

Two-time world champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco took silver in 2:07:16. Ethiopian Tsegay Kebede bronze in 2:10:00. Ethiopian Deriba Merga led much of the race but faded badly for fourth.

Labels: hlaf marathon record olympic gold winner beijing wanjiru

1,000 participants are expected to take part in this year’s BMW Malta Marathon on Sunday 24 February. Organisers claim they have overwhelmed by the response from abroad this year – an increase of 63 per cent. Last year there were 399 foreigners taking part: this year, there are 650 making it a truly international marathon.

The 2007 World Half Marathon championship event will be take place in Udine, Italy on October 14; named "The World Road Running Championships" its is neither an Olympic distance or World Championships raced event. Given the fact that we at www.halfmarathon.com think the distance is more interesting, more adistance to aspire to racing hard over, and more of a real race than most people will ever see the Marathon as; that may all change one day. The classic half-marathon distance is being run on a spectator and camera friendly 7,000 meter criterium-loop which wends its way through the streets of Udine. There is now US$225,000 in prize money on offer in total which does not make it a true big money race in the sense of the London Marathon or other major city events but this still provides a great incentive to perform; the American womens team currently on form must be in with a chance of some of that. Each "national" team consists of five athletes; the top three athletes scores are combined to determine the winning nation.

Deena Kastor heads the USA team selected for the IAAF World Road Running Championships, Udine, Italy on 14 October 2007. Kastor, is the American record holder at 67:34, 2004 Olympic bronze marathon winner with the 2005 Chicago time of 2:21:25 and the 2006 London Marathon run where she set the current American record of 2:19:36. Kastor has won 2007 national championships at 15km and 10,000m. She will be joined by Katie McGregor, the 2007 USA 25km champion, Alicia (Craig) Shay, who recently won her first USA running circuit title at the USA 20km Championships in New Haven, Tara Storage, fourth at those same championships, and Desiree Davila, who was fifth. USATF

No distance site can ignore the supreme effort of Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie who took full advantage of a course that set him up for a great day and ideal conditions that were delivered to him to set a world record that was bound to be his one day at the Berlin Marathon. Gebrselassie stormed over Berlin's flat, fast course to in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 26 seconds. Kenyan Paul Tergat saw 29 seconds taken off his world record time which is a massive margin in human endurance racing terms. The pace roughs out at 4:45 miles. A marathon world record has now been set in Berlin six times, Tergat taking the previous record in 2003. In the womes race Gete Wami, also from Ethiopia, successfully defended her title in 2:23:17 and for those who are interested in putting it into half marathon perspective back to back at 1.11.47 is impressive too.