KIMbia Athletics

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.