Ethopia’s Haile Gebrselassie sucessfully defended his Berlin Marathon title yesterday, September 28, 2008. He set a new world marathon record of 2:03:59. Gebrselassie, 35, won Olympic Gold in the marathon at the 1996 Atlanta and the 2000 Sydney Games. He made the Beijing team, but withdrew from the marathon. Gebrselassie, an asthma sufferer, was concerned about the city’s air pollution adversely affecting his health.
(photo © Newscom)

The track and field events of the XXIX Olympiad concluded on Saturday. Here are the results:

The American women took the Gold Medal in the women’s 4×400m relay, with anchor Sanya Richards passing Russian, Anastasia Kapachinskaya in the final meters. The Russian women took the Silver Medal and the Jamaican team earned the Bronze. In addition to Richards, the US team included Allyson Felix, Monique Henderson, and Mary Weinberg.

Nancy Langat of Kenya took the Gold Medal in the women’s 1500m event, followed by Iryna Lishchynskia and Nataliya Tobias of Ukraine for the Silver and Bronze Medals, respectively. American Shannon Rowbury finished …read more

There was plenty of action in the track and field events over at the Bird’s Nest, including the sweep of the women’s 100m event by the Jamaican women. Below are the other results of the day:

Stephanie Brown Trafton won the Gold Medal in the women’s discus throw, followed by Yarelys Barrios of Cuba and Olena Antonova of Ukraine.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase event, Russia’s Gulnava Galkina-Samitova earned the Gold Medal with a world record timeof 8:58.81. Kenya’s Eunice Jepkoir received the Silver Medal and Russia’s Ekaterina Volkova earned the Bronze.

Francoise Mbango Etone of the African nation of Cameroon won the …read more

The track and field events (properly the Athletes events) began today in Beijing at the Bird’s Nest Stadium. One of the first races was the women’s 10,000m contest.
Two-time world champion, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopa won the Gold Medal with a new Olympic time of 29:54.66. She was followed by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey for the Silver Medal.
Shalane Flanagan of the United States earned the Bronze Medal with a new American record time of 30:22.22. Hers is only the second medal ever awarded to an American in that event.
(photo © Newscom)

Ethiopian long-distance runner, Abebe Bikila was a late addition in the Olympic marathon event at the 1960 Games in Rome. His team-issued shoes were uncomfortable so he decided to run the 26-mile race barefoot–and he won it, making him the first East African to win an Olympic medal. Bikila went on to repeat as the Gold Medalist at the 1964 Games (this time with shoes). Below are the highlights of his 1960 run:

Craig Mottram is a distance runner and Australia’s golden boy in athletics. And if there’s something that that country is known for, it’s their arrogance in their respective sports. So, when I read that Mottram claimed to be the best man-on-man middle distance runner, and to quote, “One-on-one I’m better than all of them,” he said — I wasn’t a bit surprised.
I’ve got to say that he has every right to say such things since he did upstage Kenenisa Bekele in the 3,000m World Cup to defend his title. I already told you who Bekele is, right? So, that on …read more

Kenenisa Bekele is known for his ability to quickly accelerate at the end of a long distance race. Most of his wins were noted with him taking the final lap, from 100m to 400m, in record speed that can be synonymous to amazing raw showing of passion.
The Ethiopian distance runner have set a number of records in his events over the years.

World Records as of August 2005
* 5,000 m indoor world record 12:49.60 (Birmingham, England, on February 20, 2004)
* 5,000 m world record 12:37.35 (Hengelo, Netherlands, on May 31, 2004) from compatriot Haile Gebrselassie at 12:39.36 …read more