Des Linden 50k World record
In her first competitive ultra-race, Des Linden broke the 50km world ‘best’ by a whopping 7 minutes. The 37 year old, former Boston Marathon champion, finished the run in an outstanding 2:59:54 to become the first woman to run under 3 hours for 50km.
Just as remarkable as the time itself was the wonderfully consistent pacing that she maintained throughout the race, sticking at 5:46 to 5:47 per mile the entire time. Paced by marathoner Charlie Lawrence, Linden passed the marathon mark in 2:31:12 and from then on it was a matter of just finishing because she was well inside the world record time with 5 miles to go.
Des, who ran in the Brooks Hyperion Elite 3, due for release in early 2022, said of her achievement, “I hope the 50k does become more popular…We want to see progress. We want to see recognition. We got a little bit of pushback on hyping this event. That’s the point. Let’s get people excited. I hope that people got excited and I hope the record does move forward and the 50k does get more eyeballs on it and is run more often.”
Goose vs WesFly
WesFly, despite their well publicised dislike of Tinman elite, they always had a soft spot for Jordan Gusman (Goose), I mean, how could you not? However, after a recent argument on an Instagram post of ours, this friendship seems to have diminished.
We have upped the quality of our youtube videos, so once you’re done reading this, feel free to go watch :)
NN Mission marathon
Kipchoge is back! After his defeat in London back in 2020, Kipchoge needed to bounce back with a bang. That’s exactly what he did. Executing a perfect race, dropping most of the field almost instantly and then pulling away from 2nd with 10K to go. Kipchoge eased to a finishing time of 2:04:30 - Click to watch our recap of his race.
On the women’s side, Katharina Steinrueck (Germany) won in a time of 2:25:59. Followed by Sara Moreira (Portugal) in 2:26:42 and Rabea Schoeneborn (Germany) 2:27:03.
Tom Schwartz leaves Tinman Elite
In a huge breaking story, rumours have been circulating throughout the running community, perpetuated by Lets Run, that Coach Tom Schwartz has parted company with Tinman Elite. A mere 60 days out from the Olympic Trials, this looks and feels like a huge decision. Whilst it is the case that some of the Tinman members have not performed to the level many of us expected so far this year, their praise of Coach Schwartz, even during interviews with Trackstaa, has always been effusive and he’s been Drew Hunter’s coach for a long time. Perhaps even more interesting are the reports that Coach Tom has demanded that Tinman ditch their ‘Tinman Elite’ name allegedly citing that the name originates from his involvement. Whilst changing coaches in the professional running world is a common occurrence, we can only hope that this split does not lead to any acrimony between Coach Tom and the rest of the Tinman members. Questions will no doubt now be asked about the extent of Joan and Marc Hunter’s involvement with the Tinman coaching set-up after it was Joan Hunter who essentially confirmed Coach Tom’s departure. Meanwhile, Cory Leslie who was brought in as Assistant Coach and Tinman Director last year will continue to run the day-to-day coaching until a more permanent solution is identified. Keep an eye on Trackstaa as this story develops over the coming days.
Bekele out of the Ethopian marathon trials
We aren’t 100% sure of the entire story here, but claims have come out that the second fastest marathon runner in history, Kenenisa Bekele will not be competing in nation's marathon trials. This is shortly after the sad passing of his father. Stay tuned so we can hopefully share an official story soon.
Christian Coleman not making Olympics
Despite his ban being reduced on the basis that there was no evidence that Coleman was actually a dirty athlete. The Court of Arbitration for Sport nonetheless upheld Coleman’s ban on the basis of whereabouts failures and, consequently, he will not be eligible to compete at this year’s Olympics, which means he’ll have to wait until 2024 to win the one title he is still missing. This leaves the 100m field wide open, can 39 year-old Justin Gatlin somehow get Gold? Maybe he’s just coming into form after he took the win at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in Gainesville, Florida in 9.98 (+1.4m/s wind). Or will a new generation athlete step up?
Athing Mu Middle distance sensation
I have no words for this. Athing Mu ran the U20 world record for the 800m indoors (1:58.40) in March. She has now just ran 1:57.73 outdoors. Not bad for a 18 year old.
3000m EKU Steeplechase won’t count after distance was wrong
Details have emerged over the last day or so that the recent 3000m steeplechase race at East Kentucky University (EKU) on 17th April, which saw four athletes run under 8:32.00, to qualify for the US Olympic Trials, has since been invalidated as an official race owing to the steeplechase start line being incorrectly placed on EKU’s new track. The race saw professional and collegiate athletes from across the country travel to EKU and many will now turn their attention to ‘Trials of Miles Racing’ meet in Kansas City next week. Craig Nowak, currently training without even a coach, never mind a sponsor, will probably be most disappointed after running the race of his life which included a 14 second PR and Olympic Trials standard.
USATF Road Mile Championships
Eric Avila took victory in the USATF Road Mile Championships, holding off a late kick from Craig Engels to win in 3:58.96. Engels the current USA 1500m champion, took second in 3:59.24 and the 2016 800m Olympic Bronze medalist, Clayton Murphy took third in 3:59.52. The early stages looked set to result in a shock win from Tinman Elite member Jeff Thies, who set a blistering initial pace, going through the first quarter in 54.7 and 800m in 1:55.2. Go hard or go home. It didn’t quite end how it started though, with an exhausted Jeff finishing 10th in 4:06.67.
In the women’s race, Rachel Schneider ran a personal best of 4:30.26, finishing the final 400m in 64.8 seconds. Nike athlete, Shannon Osika took second in 4:31.27.