WTW: Hillary Bor Wins Big $$, Paul Chelimo and Leonard Korir Blow Up, and Have We Found Katelyn Tuohy 2.0?
The Week That Was in Running, March 27 – April 2, 2023
By Robert Johnson
April 4, 2023
Each week, we try to make the sport more fun to follow by putting the prior week’s action in perspective for you. Past editions of our Week That Was weekly recap can be found here. Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us, or post in our forum.
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Hillary Bor Wins Big $$$$ Despite Not Winning The Race
Hillary Bor. Photo by Jane Monti.
US steeplechaser Hillary Bor had a very lucrative Sunday: at the 50th Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile, he won $59,000. Bor racked up a $50,000 American record bonus even though he didn’t win the race or run the fastest 10-mile in US history or even the fastest 10-miler of his life.
Bor’s time was 46:11, but the race’s website clearly stated beforehand that a $50,000 bonus pool would go to any male American who broke 45:54.
So what the hell happened?
Well, Galen Rupp split 45:54 for 10 miles in a pop-up 60:22 half marathon in Oregon during COVID in October 2020. Cherry Blossom organizers assumed when they created the website that Rupp’s mark would be accepted as an American record, but the paperwork was never approved. As a result, the official AR before Sunday was Greg Meyer’s 46:13, which he ran at Cherry Blossom 40 years ago, just 22 days before he won the Boston Marathon in 2:09:00.
The Americans racing in DC on Sunday knew ahead of time that 46:13 was the time to beat as it was talked about in the technical meeting. Bor, who ran 46:06 for 10 miles last year in Minnesota on a downhill, record-ineligible course, beat Meyer’s time by two seconds in extremely windy conditions at Cherry Blossom. He lost the race to 21-year-old Ethiopian Tsegay Kidanu, who won the Publix Atlanta Half Marathon in February and has a 59:52 half pb (27:16 track pb), who ran 46:08 but received just $8,000 even though he ran three seconds faster than Bor.
In the women’s race, Uganda’s Sarah Chelangat, 21, won comfortably in 52:04 but Sara Hall took home the US title in 52:37, just one second up on Nell Rojas (52:38) as Emma Grace Hurley (52:41) and Molly Grabill (52:42) were also in the hunt.
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Four-time Boston and NYC Marathon winner Bill Rodgers is still going strong at age 75. He completed the race in 1:36:30.
More: Hillary Bor appeared on our Track Talk podcast this week.
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Paul Chelimo Blows Up / Eilish McColgan Blows Up The British Record In Berlin
On Sunday at the 2023 Generali Berlin Half Marathon, two-time Olympic 5000 medallist Paul Chelimo made his debut for his new sponsor, Kiprun. Prior to the race, Chelimo’s agent Riad Ouled told LetsRun.com that Chelimo was in good shape and could break 60:00. Instead, he ran 62:22.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Chelimo went out fast — 13:56 for the first 5k and 28:13 for the first 10k (Ryan Hall averaged 14:09 per 5k in his 59:43 AR) and then totally blew up.
Paul Chelimo’s 62:22 at the Berlin Half by the numbers
4:29.1 – pace per mile that Paul Chelimo ran his first 5k (he ran it in 13:56, that’s 58:48 half marathon pace)
4:35.8 – pace per mile that Paul Chelimo ran his 2nd 5k (he ran it in 14:17, that’s 60:16 half marathon pace)
4:53.9 – pace per mile that Paul Chelimo ran his 3rd 5k (he ran it in 15:13, that’s 64:12 half marathon pace)
4:59.8 – pace per mile that Paul Chelimo ran his final 6.0975 km (he ran it in 18:56, that’s 65:31 half marathon pace)
The men’s race was won by Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe in 59:00. The 28-year-old Sawe, who was 7th at World XC this year, has now run five half marathons in his life, all since the start of 2022, and the slowest he’s ever run is 59:23. He’s run 59:02, 58:02, 59:23, 58:58, and 59:00, giving him a lifetime average of 58:53.
In the women’s race, Eilish McColgan showed she’s still in the shape of her life as she followed up her 30:00.86 British 10,000 record with a 65:43 British record in the half, a 43-second improvement on her previous British record of 66:26 (Paula Radcliffe ran a 65:40 on the aided Great North Run course in 2003).
The concern for McColgan, who is scheduled to make her marathon debut in London on April 23, isn’t her fitness — it’s her health. She had previously scratched from the United Airlines NYC Half on March 19 due to injury concerns and in Berlin she was seen clutching her leg in the final km.
“I felt my hamstring tighten badly around one kilometer to go. Fingers crossed it’s just cramp, but thanks for all the lovely messages!” said McColgan on Instagram after the race.
View this post on Instagram
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Smart Pacing Pays Off in Paris
At the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris, there was a three-way sprint finish for the women’s title.
In the end, Helah Kiprop, the 37-year-old Kenyan who earned 2015 WC silver in the marathon, was your winner in 2:23:19. She got the win by running smart. At halfway (71:11), she was 36 seconds behind the leaders (70:35) and at 25k, she was more than a minute back (1:06). But the leaders faded big-time from their 2:21-low pacing after 25k and by 35k, she was in the lead group.
In the men’s race, 59:39 half marathon man Gizealew Abeje Ayana of Ethiopia, just 20, got the upset win in his debut in 2:07:15 over 2:03:45 man Guye Adola, 32, who ran 2:07:35.
But the big story from an American standpoint was that Leonard Korir, who was 4th in the Olympic Trials in 2020, was in the race. Korir, who has a 2:07:56 pb, went for a pb as he ran his first 10k in 29:44 (2:05:27 pace) before hitting halfway in 63:19, but he blew up and finished 7th in 2:09:31. The 36-year-old Korir is still very much in the Olympic hunt as only five Americans have broken 2:09:30 since the start of 2021 and most of them didn’t blow up in doing so.
The 5 Sub-2:09:30 US Men Since 2021
- 2:06:35 Galen Rupp – 2021 Chicago
- 2:08:52 Scott Fauble – 2022 Boston
- 2:09:07 Elkanah Kibet 2022 Boston
- 2:08:16 Conner Mantz – 2022 Chicago
- 2:09:28 Zachery Panning – 2022 Chicago
MB: American Leonard Korir goes out out on 2:05 pace, fades to 2:09:32 in Paris
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Stat of the Week
21 – number of times that Abel Kirui has broken 2:10 in the marathon, the most in history. The 40-year-old, two-time world champion did it again over the weekend in placing 12th in Daegu in 2:09:45.
The winner in Daegu was 22-year-old Milkesa Mengesha of Ethiopia, who earned his first marathon victory in 2:06:49 after running 2:05:29 in his debut in Valencia. Mengesha, the 2019 World U20 XC champ who sports a 5000 ob of 12:58 and made the Olympic final, moved up quickly to the marathon after not making Worlds on the track last year.
2019 Padua and Xichang Marathons winner Ayantu Abera won the women’s race (2:25:44).
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It Pays to Stick Around After College
An industry insider was telling us that the visa situation for foreign athletes looking to race in the US still hasn’t been solved since it became a big problem during COVID. As a result, some of the winning times for big paydays in the US are slow and many of the races are being won by former collegians who just stayed in the country.
Case in point: the men’s winning time at the Carlsbad 5000 over the weekend, which paid $5,000, was just 13:50 (2019 NCAA XC champ Edwin Kurgat). That’s a race that had a 13:00 winning time way back in 2000. The men’s winning time at the Cooper River Bridge Run 10k, which paid out $10,000, was just 29:02 (former Campbell star Athanas Kioko).’
Update: The elite athlete coordinator for the Cooper River Bridge Run read this and reached out, writing:
The winning times from our race (Cooper River Bridge Run) were severely impacted by the wind – 18 mph with gusts at 26 mph at race start. The course is point-to-point, and most of it was into the wind, including about 2.5 miles up on a very high bridge over the harbor where the runners are very exposed to the wind. I would estimate that the times were 60-75 seconds slower than usual. So, I’m not sure it’s fair to say the winning time was just 29:02.
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Jessica Hull and Callum Davies Pull Off Doubles at Australian Champs
In the table below, you will see who won the mid-d and distance events at the 2023 Chemist Warehouse Australian Open and Under 20 Track & Field Championships.
| Event | Women | Men |
| 800 | Catriona Bisset 1:58.32 WL | Riley McGown 1:47.67 |
| 1500 | Jessica Hull 4:04.19 WL | Callum Davies 3:37.92 |
| Steeple | Cara Feain-Ryan 9:43.64 | Ben Buckingham 8:40.52 |
| 5000 | Jessica Hull 15:05.87 WL | Callum Davies 13:52.82 |
| 10,000 | N/A (held earlier in year) | N/A (held earlier in year) |
As you can see, Jessica Hull was the biggest winner of all as she put up outdoor world leaders in both the 1500 and 5000. On the men’s side, Callum Davies won the two events but he barely edged 16-year-old Cam Myers in the 1500 by just 0.10.
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Katelyn Tuohy 2.0?
Actually, in the long term, the biggest winner at the Australian Champs might have been Stanford University. What?
Well Amy Bunnage, who just turned 18 on March 22 and will be attending Stanford next year, continued to excel. She won the U20 3000 in 9:00.33 and U20 5000 in a 15:31.96 pb. She might have also won the 1500 but fell in that and ended up last. But it was won in 4:19.17, and Bunnage has a 1500 pb of 4:14, a time which she ran when she was 16 — which was also Katelyn Tuohy‘s pb as a 16-year-old.
Check out how Bunnage’s pbs compare to Katelyn Tuohy when both turned 18.
| PRs on their 18th birthday | ||
| Amy Bunnage | Katelyn Tuohy | |
| 800 | 2:07.5 | 2:09.43 |
| 1500 | 4:14.62 | 4:14.45 |
| 3000 | 8:51.90 | 9:01.81 |
Stanford is going to have quite the freshman class this fall as Bunnage will join NXN/USA junior champ Irene Riggs on the team. And they’re bringing in Lex and Leo Young on the men’s side.
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Speaking of freshmen, two of the more prominent freshmen in the country made their outdoor 5000 debuts at the Stanford Invitational over the weekend. NAU’s Colin Sahlman, the #1 HS XC runner last year who also ran 3:56 in the mile, debuted in 13:42.98 to place 14th in a race won by Ole Miss grad student Anthony Camerieri in 13:48.58. Camerieri, who had the fastest anchor leg in the DMR at NCAA indoors, helping Ole Miss to 2nd place, has knocked more than 20 seconds off his outdoor PB that he ran for Miami of Ohio (13:48.58).
For the women, BYU’s Jenna Hutchins, who like Sahlman was a RunningLane cross country champ in high school (in 15:58, which turned heads as the first sub-16 in US HS girls’ history), ran 15:35.73 to place 4th in a big improvement over the 15:57.96 she ran indoors.
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Random thought that has been bothering me ever since I realized it over the weekend. Can someone please explain to me why the governing body in Australia is called Athletics Australia yet they use the words “track & field” for their championships?
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Fast Sprint Times at Texas Relays
(The rest of the WTW was written by Jonathan Gault except for the Bryce Hoppel part)
Kentucky’s Masai Russell, who set the collegiate record for the 60m hurdles indoors (only to see it broken by Arkansas’ Ackera Nugent at NCAAs), wasted no time rewriting the collegiate record book outdoors as she ran 12.36 in her first 100m hurdle final of the year at the Texas Relays on Saturday. That took .03 off Brianna McNeal’s collegiate record from 2013. And, in a neat connection, she set it on the same straightaway on which Grant Holloway set his 110m hurdles NCAA record in 2019.
Setting a collegiate record is a very good sign. When McNeal and Holloway set theirs, both ended the season as world champion – though there’s still more than four months to go until Worlds in Budapest.
The University of Texas also had a huge weekend as their women’s relay squads set collegiate records in the 4×100 (42.00), 4×200 (1:28.05), and sprint medley (3:36.10) with Kevona Davis and superstar Julien Alfred running legs on all three teams. Alfred even ran a leg on Texas’ 4×400 (which finished 3rd), which meant she ran five races in two days all told (including the 4×100 prelims on Friday).
42.00 wasn’t the fastest 4×100 time of the meet, however, as there was a pro section that featured almost all of America’s top 100m women. The “USA Gold” team of Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini, and Aleia Hobbs took the win in 41.75; Jefferson, Steiner, and Prandini were all part of the team that took gold in last year’s World Championship final in Eugene. They beat out the “USA Stars” team of Javianne Oliver, TeeTee Terry, Teahna Daniels, and Sha’Carri Richardson (42.10) and the “USA Red” team of Mikiah Brisco, Brittany Brown, Morolake Akinosun, and Gabby Thomas (42.12).
Deepest Collegiate 4×400 Ever
The race of the meet at the Texas Relays was without a doubt the men’s 4×400, which saw three collegiate teams break 3:00.00 in the same race for the first time. If you haven’t seen it, please take three minutes to watch it below. You won’t regret it.
What you just saw is the Georgia quartet of Elija Godwin, Matthew Boling, Caleb Cavanaugh, and Will Sumner run 2:58.82 to move to #2 on the all-time NCAA list, behind only Florida’s 2:58.53 collegiate record from last year. Alabama (2:59.15) is now #5 all-time and UCLA #7. NCAAs could be even better when it is held on the same track in two months’ time as this race didn’t even include the NCAA indoor champions, Arkansas.
We have a bunch of thoughts on the race:
- When is the last time you’ve seen a team go from 3rd to 1st to 3rd over the final 250m of a 4×400?
- In the days since the race, there’s been a lot of debate about what Boling ran on the 2nd leg since the results do not list an official split (best we could tell, he was somewhere in the 43.6-43.8 range, but it was tough to tell because it’s a three-turn stagger). But how about Alabama’s second leg, Tarsis Orogot? Orogot, who was 4th in the 200 at 2021 World U20s for Uganda, handed off just behind Boling, even though he actually ran extra distance – he ran all of the first turn in lane 6 even though Alabama was supposed to be in lane 5.
- How cool is it that Georgia’s 4×400 squad features four guys who specialize in four different events? Godwin is a pure 400 runner – he was the NCAA champion indoors – Boling is the NCAA indoor 200m champion, Sumner is the SEC 800m champion, and Cavanaugh was an NCAA qualifier in the 400 hurdles last year. They’re going to be a really fun team to follow this season – between Godwin, Boling, and the freshman phenom Sumner, they have some serious star power.
MB: Georgia – 2:58.82 @ Texas Relays (Godwin 44.4, Boling 43.8(?), Cavanaugh 45.4, and Sumner 44.8)
DII guy takes down Bryce Hoppel in 800
It’s not every day that you see college freshmen take down a guy who was 4th at Worlds but that’s what happened in the men’s 800 at the Texas Relays. There, DII’s Angelo States’s Oussama El Bouchayby, a 24-year-old freshman from Morocco, got the win in a new pb and world-leading time of 1:45.31 as adidas’ Bryce Hoppel was second in 1:45.59. El Bouchayby entered Angelo State with a pb of 1:48.31 that dated to 2021 but he ran 1:46.78 to win the NCAA DII indoor crown.
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Stars Are Born at 2023 Champs in Jamaica
The Jamaican high school championships – known simply as Champs – is one of the most famous meets in the world and the 2023 edition will go down as one of the best ever as the Jamaican high school and U20 records were broken on both the men’s and women’s side.
In the boys’ 100, Kingston College’s Bouwahjgie Nkrumie ran 9.99 to become the first Jamaican high schooler under 10. In the process, he took .03 off his own Jamaican U20 record and moved to #3 on the world U20 all-time list behind Botswana’s World U20 champ Letsile Tebogo (9.91) and Trayvon Bromell (9.97). Nkrumie, who turned 19 on February 16, is a year older than a typical US high school senior but is still the third-youngest man in history to break 10, again behind only Tebogo and Bromell.
Jamaica has not medalled in the men’s 100 since Usain Bolt retired in 2017, but between Nkrumie, Oblique Seville (4th at Worlds last year at 21), and Ackeem Blake (9.93 at age 20 last year), the future is bright.
In the women’s 100, the present and future is bright in Jamaica. Alana Reid of Hydel High was the star at Champs as she ran 10.92 to chop .21 of a second off the meet record set by Veronica Campbell-Brown in 2001. Reid’s time also took .03 off the Jamaican U20 record set by Tina Clayton to win gold in last year’s World U20 final.
Reid is now #5 on the world all-time U20 list and has a good shot to move up with all of this summer and next to improve (she does not turn 20 until January 2025). Two of the women above her are East Germans from the 1970s and 1980s, but the two names at the top of the list are quite interesting.
All-time women’s U20 100m list
- 10.75 Sha’Carri Richardson, USA 2019
- 10.83 Tamari Davis, USA 2022
- 10.88 Marlies Oelsner, East Germany 1977
- 10.89 Katrin Krabbe, East Germany 1988
- 5. 10.92 Alana Reid, Jamaica 2023
Just a reminder of how big a talent Sha’Carri Richardson, who just turned 23, still is.
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Wayde van Niekerk ran the 400 at the South African Champs over the weekend for the first time since 2016. He ran his fastest time since he blew out his knee in October 2017 at a charity rugby match, as he won in 44.17. Now, that time was achieved in Potchefstroom, at an altitude of 1350 meters, which is worth 0.31 of a second according to Jonas Mureika’s calculator.
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Recommended Reads
- Did you see our April Fool’s homepage? Check it out here.
- Lynn Bjorklund’s high school 3000 record of 9:08.6 stood for 41 years, but she never raced on the track again In this interesting profile, Marc Bloom catches up with the former teen phenom.
To see our favorite reads from other weeks, go here.
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