KIMbia Athletics

As many American track fans caught their breath on a weekend falling between college conference and regional championship weekends, and professional track meets on each coast, KIMbia athletes still found themselves plenty busy in competition at several excellent, if less widely-covered, events.

With many KIMbia athletes making their States-side homes in Boulder, it was fitting to have so many of them run before the hometown crowd.  Each year, following an all-comers citizens’ race, the pros take to Boulder’s streets in a race scored by national affiliation, and, this year Millicent Gathoni — the defending champion — and Jane Gayunki led the Kenyan team, finishing 5th and 8th, respectively. In the men’s competition, KIMbia was represented on Team Kenya, Team USA, Team Commonwealth, and Team Colorado, with John Yuda our first finisher, notching a 3rd-place finish for Team Commonwealth.  Boulder-resident James Carney followed Yuda and was the first American finisher in 4th place. Other Top 10 finishes came from Gilbert Okari (6th) and Charles Munyeki (7th), both competing for Kenya.  Locally-based Jason Hartmann took 12th as a member of Team Colorado, and Fasil Bizuneh would represent Team USA in 15th. Read the full article

Capping off a fantastic weekend for KIMbia, John Yuda and Lineth Chepkurui captured the men’s and women’s titles in the Lilac Bloomsday Run Sunday morning.  This year was the 33rd running of the historic 12k Bloomsday Race, through the streets of Spokane, Washington.

This is the first major road championship for Yuda since his win in the 2005 BUPA Great South Run.  Yuda had appeared very fit in training and, after finishing 7th in his last major race — the Dong-A marathon back in October 2008 — Sunday’s result is an extremely positive sign validating his return to form. Unofficially, his winning time was 34:36.

For Chepkurui, on the other hand, Sunday was another fantastic result in what has already been an amazing 2009.  This was her second straight Bloomsday title after winning in Spokane last year.  Already in 2009, Lineth has won the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, finished 4th in the IAAF World Cross Country Championship, and most recently, won the Crescent City Classic 10k in early April. Her unofficial time of 38:35 — as reported by the Spokane Spokesman-Review — would be just 4 seconds shy of the course record.

Initial report from The Spokesman-Review here. 
Full results here.
To see all KIMbia results… Read the full article

Fittest Female Athlete in the World is a short-list discussion and Lineth Chepkurui surely belongs among the candidates.  On the heels of a 4th-place finish at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and a dominating victory at the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile, Chepkurui showed her fine form once again on Saturday, winning the 2009 Cresecent City Classic 10k in New Orleans, with a time of 32:24.   The native of Bomet, Kenya only opened the decisive 3-second margin in the final stretch, claiming a narrow victory over countrywoman and defending champion Genoviva Kigen.

After a week playing travel ping-pong from Kenya to Boulder to Louisiana, fellow KIMbia teammate Millicent Gathoni clocked 34:09 to place 12th.

[ Results ]

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

Millicent Gathoni and John Korir produced a double KIMbia victory at last night’s New Balance Moonlight Run in New Milford, Connecticut. John led the top seven men under 14:00 for the 5K, running 13:51 to win by a second over teammate Luke Kipkosgei.

Millicent’s race was nowhere near as close–she ran 15:48 to win by 29 seconds. Her time established a women’s course record, one year after our Tom Nyariki set the men’s course record of 13:36.

Results are here. We’ll back tomorrow with a report from the Prefontaine Classic, where Matt Tegenkamp will run the mile and Chris Solinsky will tackle the 2-mile. And then, of course, our Madison Project video series will resume on Monday.

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.

Millicent Gathoni kept the women’s Bolder Boulder title in the KIMbia family for another year, taking the Memorial Day 10K in 32:49. She battled Ethiopia’s Amane Gobena for most of the race before pulling away for a 4-second victory. Her victory also helped Millicent lead the Kenyan women to a second-place finish in the international team competition behind a strong Romanian contingent. Returning to action after last month’s Olympic Marathon Trials, Elva Dryer ran 34:39 and was the second American behind Deena Kastor.

Running as part of the British Commonwealth team, John Yuda placed fourth in 28:48, one place and 9 seconds ahead of John Korir, who was the top finisher on the Kenyan men’s squad. Charles Munyeki was eighth in 29:12. Ethiopia won the men’s team title, followed by Kenya and the Commonwealth.