By LetsRun.com - After a holiday break, we resume with our "The Week That Was" column that recaps the major happenings in the running world the previous week. As the track and field world returns to action from a holiday breather many of the headlines this week were off the track.
The Week That Was: Dec 31 - Jan 6, 2008 - Week 1` of 2008 Political Unrest Leads To Violence In Kenya
The escalating violence and instability in Kenya dominated the headlines in the first week of 2008 as the new year got off to a inauspicious start in the cradle of distance running. On December 27, Kenya held its presidential elections and incumbent Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner. Since then, it's become apparent the vote-count was very much flawed and the outrage over the unfair elections has broken down in many areas into near tribal warfare.
Disturbingly, the violence was at its worse in the Rift Valley. The Rift Valley is where the most notorious violent
incident occurred, as a mob of mostly Kalenjin (almost all of the famous runners from Kenya are Kalenjin) barricaded and then torched a church with approximately 200 Kikuyu in it, resulting in 50 people being burned alive, just outside of the training mecca of Eldoret.
So far over 400 people have reportedly lost their lives in the violence. Things have started to get better and it looks like Kibaki and his defeated rival will meet this week to talk about possible solutions. Nothing short of power sharing or perhaps a new election seems likely to diffuse the situation.
Justin Gatlin Doping Suspension Justin Gatlin was given a 4 year doping suspension by a 2-1 arbitration ruling released on January 1st. Gatlin wanted less and USADA wanted to ban him for 8 years. Gatlin says he was "robbed" and will appeal the decision. We have some sympathy that Gatlin's previous drug suspension for using ADD medicine while in college counted on his record, but don't have a whole lot of sympathy because Gatlin's main defense this time around was that he was sabotaged by his masseuse. Less you forget, Gatlin was coached by Trevor Graham who has been linked to more than a handful of doped athletes. Gatlin and others need realize you are often judged by the company you keep.
NYC Marathon Coordinator Vic Navarra Passes
More sad news started the year as the coordinator for the ING NYC Marathon for nearly 25 years, Vic Navarra, passed away after a two-year battle with cancer. A retired fire fighter, Navarra volunteered for duty on 9/11 and was beloved by many both in the sport and outside of it. Nearly 500 people paid their respects to Navarra at his funeral.
18 Year Old Sensation? Moving on to actual running news, in terms of performance, there was one result that clearly stood out as the LetsRun.com Performance of the Week. 18 Year Old Zhang Yingying ran a 2:22:38 junior world record to win the Xiamen International Marathon.A 2:22 for any women is very, very good. It would have made Yingying the 4th fastest in all of 2007. A 2:22 by an 18 year old is unreal. A 2:22 by a Chinese woman at the start of an Olympic year in which the Olympics are China is scary.
In the process of winning and setting the world junior record, Yingying also secured China's final Olympic marathon spot, giving China 3 serious medal contenders for the Olympics The two other marathoners already on the team are Zhou Chunxiu and Zhu Xiaolin. Chunxiu enters 2008 after a stellar 2007 as she ran the fastest time of the year in 2007 to win London in April before nabbing a silver at the world championships. Xiaolin was 4th at the world champs.
It'll be interesting to see how long Yingying's career lasts. Prior to her 2:22, she was best known for the following triple that she did in a matter of days in later October/early November. A 2:27 marathon on Oct. 21 followed up by a personal best 15:06 5k on Oct. 31st which in turn was followed up by a 31:17.30 pb in the 10k on Nov. 2nd. That triple must not have taken much out of her as she ran the 2:22 less than 3 months later.
Hakone Ekiden The New Year also brought the most prestigious Japanese Ekiden of the year - the Hakone Ekiden. To put this race in perspective for our Western visitors, it's probably best described as being their equivalent of the NCAA cross country championships, but an NCAA XC Championship that people actually care about. For the Hakone Ekiden is way, way bigger of a deal. It's a two day relay race that is broadcast live both days on national television. (Brett Larner has an excellent piece that explained the significance of the race to us, even though we already had some understanding of the Japanese Ekiden scene (Rojo and Wejo went to Japan a combined 4 times to run in Ekidens. Read one of Wejo's accounts here.))
The 2008 Hakone Ekiden was won by Komazawa University. However, the race will most likely be remembered twenty years from now for being the Ekiden where three teams DNF'd for the first time ever. In Japan, not finishing is a big no-no as honor is on the line and honor is very much valued in Japanese society.
As a result, in Japan, you'd never have a Georgetown situation like you did at this year's NCAAs where three Hoyas quit in the middle of the race (one got back into it). And if you did, they'd never be allowed to score in the team competition. But in Japan, given the fact that they run Ekidens, it only takes a single individual DNFing to result in the whole team not finishing. This year, for whatever reason, there were guys staggering around all over the course and three teams ended up with DNFs.
But unlike in America, no one can say they didn't give it their all to finish. Take a look at the video below and try telling us the runner's not giving it his all.
We're not sure if that's what we'd like to see at NCAAs but it's certainly better than what you get in America where Olympians save themselves for Zurich and guys jog it in at NCAAs.
Talk about a pure guts race. Move over Pre - let's watch a Japanese Ekiden.
And the Hakone Ekiden in Japan even overshadows the Japanese Corporate Ekiden Championships (the New Year's Ekiden) which featured Samuel Wanjiru and was won by Konica Minolta.
New Year's Eve Races- Robert Cheruiyot Still Doing It
Robert Getting His WMM Majors Check
There are a slew of San Silvestre races throughout the world on December 31st, but the biggest is the one in São Paulo. And the men's winner was none other than the incredible Robert Cheruiyot (Alice Timbilil won the women's). Cheruiyot won the first World Marathon Majors title despite nearly killing himself by slipping on the finishing mat at Chicago in 2006. Despite having horribly bad migraines and other health problems from the fall (when Cheruiyot was in NY for the NY Half marathon this past August nearly a full year after his fall, he went down to the DC area after the race to see more brain specialisits), Cheruiyot has not let it affect his running. He won the Boston Marathon this past spring and appears on his way to hopefully representing Kenyan at this year's Olympics. Just about every time we get we try and remind people of his incredible rags to riches life. (If you're unfamiliar with his story, on how he was homeless at one point and another time basically an indentured servant, click here for an excellent profile from the Boston Globe).
European XC Action
The week featured a lot of high powered professional cross country action in Europe. Edwin Soi edged Sergiy Lebid and Kate Reed dominated in at the Campaccio EAA Cross Country in Italy. In Belfast,Moses Kipsiro and Hayley Yelling were the victors as Kenyan Linet Masai was forced to miss the race due to the unrest in Kenya.
However, the highlight of the week came in Spain in the54th Cross Internacional Zornotza. Ethiopian Tariku Bekele handed Kenyan Joseph Ebuya his first loss of the winter cross country season. Ebuya didn't go down without a fight as he lost by a scant one second. In the process, Bekele also avenged his narrow loss to sub 27 10ker Micah Kogo from last year. Kogo was 4th - 38 seconds back. Bekele also became the first Ethiopian champion of the race since 1992 (we incorrectly reported as did the IAAF that he was the 16th straight Ethiopian champion which clearly makes no sense since Kogo won last year).
Vivian Cheruiyot easily won the women's race.
Odds & Ends We're not sure if you saw the New York Times article last week appropriately entitled, "But First, Doctor, What Was Your Marathon Time?" which analyzed whether hard-core athletes, particularly runners benefit from seeing doctors who themselves are active or were at least ex-jocks. We certainly think it helps a great deal to be seeing a doctor who understands how important one's passion is to them. Far too often runners are told to "not run" or pick up a new sport as if all sports are interchangeable.
We've certainly experienced this and think it's ridiculous. If an Olympian went in this spring, no way a doctor would tell him to pick another sport. How about treating less accomplished but seriously dedicated athletes in a similar fashion if that's what they want?
Is it any wonder, we've always preferred physical therapists and podiatrists to doctors?
