KIMbia Athletics

Last Wednesday night, @SimonBairu‘s twitter feed read: “8 National titles in Cross Country/Road Racing and 0 on the track-hopefully I end the curse tomorrow in the 5k!”  It took until about 4k into the race, but Bairu was able to capture that elusive track title at the Canadian Athletics Championships in Toronto on Thursday.

Simon initially wanted to go after the World Championships ‘A’ standard in the race to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin later this summer, but the humidity made that all but impossible.  Battling with Canadian Olympic team member, Eric Gillis, for the first half of the race, Simon pulled away over the last three laps and finished in 13:39, with a comforatble lead over the second place Gillis, who came home in 13:49.

With Matt Tegenkamp capturing the USATF 5k title last Friday, Simon’s 5k Championship makes KIMbia athletes 2 for 2 in the event in North American countries that are north of Mexico, a feat heretofore unheard of for a single agency. (This fact is unconfirmed. But probably true.)

Simon plans to forgo a trip to Europe in hopes of chasing the ‘A’ standard. Instead, he will stay in Portland to concentrate on making his marathon debut this fall.

KIMbia — and Coach Jerry Schumacher — saw three more athletes join Tim Nelson (10,000m) on the American team for this summer’s World Championships, with Matt Tegenkamp claiming his first outdoor National Title in 13:20.  Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky (13:20) and Evan Jager (13:22) earned a decisive sweep in the Men’s 5000m, by running brilliant tactical races at Hayward Field, blitzing the final lap in 53 seconds.  Sean Quigley had his best showing at an outdoor national championship, hanging with the lead pack to the bell and ultimately finishing 7th, while Brent Vaughn took 9th. Watch the race in it’s entirety below, and check back for more the rest of this week! Read the full article

• In Eugene – dinner at McMenamins, where Sean Quigley made an appearance, too. KIMbia hits the track mañana in the 10k! #

Chris Solinsky was interviewed by Peter Gambaccini of RunnersWorld.com for the magazine’s Brief Chat series. Therein, Chris discusses last summer’s disappointing 5th-place finish at the Trials, as well as his outstanding opener this year at Mt. Sac and the benefits of relocating to Portland: Read the full article

Sean Quigley journeyed north to compete in the 5000 at the Toronto for the Festival of Excellence, where he took 4th in 13:43 on a rainy night.  Filling the first three spots were top-shelf talents Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Qatar), Dathan Ritzenhein (USA), and Haron Lagat (Kenya), in what was generally a rather slow affair. Click here for full results from the June 11th race.

Next up for Sean are the USATF National Championships where he is qualified for both the 5000m and 10,000m.

Though the final times weren’t scorching, Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp ran a fair pace, then proceeded to kick down some of the world’s top middle distance runners in Sunday’s Prefontaine Classic 3k — a great early-season result for the Wisconsin alums.  Solinsky took 3rd behind double World Champions Bernard Lagat and Saif Saaeed Shaheen, despite being in the midst of what he called “a heavy training phase getting ready primarily for the US championships and World Championships.” Read the full article

As members of the Oregon Track Club, Wisconsin transplants Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and Evan Jager get to call Hayward Field their home away from home. And after turning in terrific performances at Sunday’s Prefontaine Classic, the trio seems to feel plenty comfortable there, showing great form in their final tune-ups before the US Outdoor Championships.

In a strong Men’s 3000 field, Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp stayed just off a hot early pace, which had been aimed at the 7:30 barrier.  When things slowed with a kilometer to go, Solinsky and Teg closed a small gap and attached themselves to the back of a lead pack consisting of six world-class athletes.  With 200 meters remaining, Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen made a bid for the win, and the pair of KIMbia athletes responded.  While Tegenkamp got caught in some traffic, Solinsky stepped wide and positioned himself well, as the lead pack entered the homestretch.  When the field spread itself across multiple lanes with 100m to go, Teg found some space and the pair blasted toward home.

When the dust settled, Solinsky and Tegenkamp had left former World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist Eliud Kipchoge in their wake, along with 2008 Olympians Alistair Cragg and Moses Ndiema Masai, earning 3rd and 4th place, respectively.  Solinsky came within inches of successfully running down 2-time World Champion Saif Saaeed Shaheen, as well as a new PB, with his 7:37.05 clocking landing just .15 shy of the 7:36.90 PB from 2007 — a time, it bears mentioning, that was run in mid-July of that season. Tegenkamp finished in 7:37.32 — a few ticks off of his PB, but a good early-season performance against a field of this caliber.  To wit: Kipchoge entered the race as the 2009 world leader at 7:28, and, after Sunday, Solinsky and Tegenkamp were the 8th and 9th fastest performers in the world, this year.

In the Bowerman Mile, 20-year-old Evan Jager ran a man’s race, setting a big PB of 3:54.35, shaving a second from his previous best equivalent performance, and taking 7th in a very good field — right on the heels of the top American finisher in the race.  With Bernard Lagat holding a free pass to this season’s World Championships as the defending 1500m champion, all three American spots are up for grabs, and with his race at Pre, Jager has put himself on the short list of  contenders to make it to Berlin. Read the full article

Things are beginning to heat up, beginning with appearances by Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky, Brent Vaughn and Evan Jager at the loaded Pre Classic this weekend.  And also, just in time for summer, KIMbia Athletics is happy to introduce a new lineup of featured content that will be published here at kimbia.net and will take you inside the lives of our athletes like never before.  The centerpiece of our revised line-up will be a new, monthly effort to spotlight a member of Team KIMbia in an in-depth feature story that digs far deeper than your average race recap, and is accompanied by a broadcast-style video that brings the written story to life, visually.

Additionally, we will begin a pair of alternating, bi-weekly columns.  One week you can get your own questions answered by some of the fastest folks in the business in our Athlete Q & A.  The next, we take you inside the agony and the ecstasy of racing with Race Reflections, in which our athletes will download the experience surrounding a particular meaningful race in their career.  Whether you are training at a high level, just starting in the sport, or simply love to follow athletics, these columns will have nuggets of insight for everyone.

Above all, the modus operandi here at KIMbia has been to use kimbia.net as bridge between the public and the athletes you see on the track, on the TV, or in race results.  We will do our best to engage your passion with interesting personalities, stories, and content, and we hope you will, in turn, engage us with your comments, questions and suggestions. Here at KIMbia, the customer service hotline is always open. We hope you will use it, and join with us in making our great sport even greater.

First up,  we will have reactions from the Pre Classic and a new contest for you, starting next week! So check back Monday!