KIMbia Athletics

Charles Munyeki eked out a 2-second win over Gilbert Okari in this morning’s BAA Half Marathon in Boston. Charles ran 1:02:46 to claim his first victory at a major American road race. One week after winning the San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, Gilbert ran 1:02:48.

Charles and Gilbert finished almost a minute ahead of third-place finisher Karim Elmabchour of Morocco. In fourth place was 39-years-young James Koskei. James ran 1:04:48.

Jane Gakunyi ran 25 seconds faster than last weekend in San Jose to place fourth in 1:12:32.

All four of today’s half marathoners will now return home to Kenya to rest, recover and recoup for the spring road race season.

Boston results are here.

Gilbert handled with aplomb a high-class field at this morning’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in San Jose, Calif. He ran 1:01:46 to top Moroccan road ace Ridouane Harroufi, who won several major U.S. races in the spring, by 11 seconds.

Gilbert was joined in San Jose by several KIMbia teammates. Charles Munyeki continued his recent strong running with a fifth-place finish in 1:02:15. The seemingly ageless James Koskei was eighth in 1:03:02. In the women’s race, Jane Gakunyi was fifth in 1:12:57, and Kathy Butler took seventh in 1:14:52.

Gilbert and Munyeki will go the (half) distance again next Sunday at the BAA Half Marathon in Boston.

San Jose results are available here.

A brief but busy day on East Coast roads for KIMbia on this last Sunday of summer.

First up, the CVS 5K in Providence, Rhode Island. In his road 5K debut, Matt Tegenkamp went through the mile in 4:23 with road veteran Luke Kipkosgei right with him. Matt gained a slight edge by the two-mile mark, but fellow U.S. Olympian Anthony Famiglietti, who was familiar with the course from having raced it before, reeled Matt back in, then surged away for the win on the race’s one major hill in the last half mile. Fam ran 13:41, with Matt second in 13:49 and Luke third in 13:57.

Jane Gakunyi took third in the women’s race in 15:51 behind Olympic bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan (15:28) and Ireland’s Mary Cullen (15:45).

A few hours later, Chris Solinsky tore down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue with a bunch of miler specialists, and placed fifth in 3:54.1. Olympic bronze medalist Nick Willis (3:50.5) edged out Bernard Lagat to win by a tenth of a second.

Providence results | NYC results

Lots of KIMbia folks in action over what for non-professional American runners is a holiday weekend.

First up, on Sunday Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky race 3,000m in Gateshead, England. You can watch the meet live online here, starting at 9:55 a.m. Eastern time.

On Monday, Elva Dryer, James Carney and Fasil Bizuneh will contend for the national 20K title in New Haven, Conn. Elva and James were second in last year’s race. Running Times will have live coverage here.

The same day, (much) further south, Jane Gakunyi, Richard Kiplagat and Luke Kipkosgei will race half as far at the U.S. 10K Classic in Atlanta, Ga. Luke and Richard were second and fourth, respectively, in last year’s race.

A women’s victory and the top three spots on the men’s side of yesterday’s Bellin Run highlighted the last spring appearances of many of our road racers. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Millicent Gathoni notched another dominating win, taking the Bellin Run 10K in 32:51, more than 2 minutes ahead of 2007 Chicago Marathon runner-up Adriana Pirtea. On the men’s side, John Yuda and John Korir both recorded times of 28:47, with Yuda getting the nod for the victory. Charles Munyeki completed the KIMbia sweep by placing third in 29:20.

At the Steamboat Classic in Peoria, Illinois yesterday, Luke Kipkosgei finished his spring season in fine form, running 18:18 for the 4-mile race to finish second, just one second behind Ridouane Harroufi. Richard Kiplagat took fourth in the strong field by running 18:20. Elva Dryer took fifth in 20:44, and Jane Gakunyi was one place and 2 seconds behind Elva.

Johns Yuda and Korir, Luke, Charles, Millicent and Jane will return home later this week. Some of them, as well as KIMbia stalwarts like Gilbert Okari, will return later in the summer for the height of the U.S. road season.

Bellin Run 10 results | Steamboat Classic 4-mile results

No victories to report, but some solid performances this weekend, most recently James Getanda’s 4th-place finish at this morning’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego. James ran 2:11:50. He was part of the lead pack at halfway (1:04:07). Simon Wangai emerged from that pack to win in 2:10:07. Results and splits are available at the race’s site.

Yesterday, at the Freihofer’s Run for Women in Albany, New York, Jane Gakunyi and Millicent Gathoni doubled back from Monday’s Bolder Boulder 10K, which Millicent won. Jane was 4th in Albany in 16:02, one second and one place ahead of Millicent. Kathy Butler was 10th in 16:38. Australia’s Benita Johnson won her third straight title. Top ten are here.

You may have heard that Simon Bairu ran a massive PR and an Olympic “A” standard last night in Belgium. Unfortunately, while it is true that Simon ran 27:30.90, that time is for 24 laps, which is when Simon stopped. Our initial reports are that the 10,000m was a bit chaotic–more than 30 men were in the field–and that both runners and officials misjudged the lap count. We’ll post updates as we receive them.

Meanwhile, be sure to join us tomorrow for the launch of our Madison Project video series. We’ll have new video every weekday leading up to Matt Tegenkamp’s and Chris Solinsky’s bid to make the Olympic 5,000m team at the end of the month.