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When one runs fast, one get’s invitations. Mike Rodgers, who ran 9.96 last weekend, has three 100 meter races lined up in May and early June!.

And a correction on my pieces on Grete Waitz: Grete won New York nine times, but did not win Boston on her only time racing there, which was, unusual for Grete a dnf. I will be posting a fine piece by George Hirsch, founding publisher of Runner magazine and RW publisher for nearly two decades, on his memories of Grete, which recently ran in the New York Times, this evening.

And people can not stop the conversations on the Boston Marathon, which was history making…

Also have a couple of Pat Butcher pieces and two pieces on minimalist running coming up as well, so stay tuned this week. RBR will be at the Payton Jordan Invite on May 1, at Stanford, CA.
Hope to see many of you there!

STRACHAN CLOCKS 22.93 AT AGE OF
17

MONTEGO BAY (JAM, Apr 24): Jamaica ruled during second day of
40th Carifta Games in 4×100 m relays taking all four gold medals. U19 girls
even improved the meet record to 44.08 when Bahamas were disqualified. U17
girls were timed with 45.75 and boys winners achieved 40.92 and 39.75. Bahamian
sprinting talent Anthonique Strachan (17) in heats of 200 m equaled the meet
record 22.93 (+1.1). Current world star Veronica Campbell-Brown got also 22.93
at this event back in 2001. Also to note the 72.04 javelin meet record (senior
implement) and national junior mark for Keshorn Walcott (18) of Trinidad.

GOOD FEMALE THROWS

ZHAOQING (CHN, Apr 23-24): Second best marks of the season in women
throws at National Grand Prix meet in China. World shot put medalist Gong
Lijiao achieved 19.86 and olympic finalist Li Yanfeng 64.48 in discus. Wu Jian
improved in men discus to 63.54. Liu Chunhua got 60.65 in women javelin. In
jumps Asian Games silver winner Su Xionfeng leaped to 817 (-0.2) in long jump
and Dong Bin to 16.86 (+1.0) in triple jump. Informs Tilastopaja.

MERGA AND DIBABA

YANGZHEN (CHN, Apr 24): Ethiopian favorite Deribe Merga won the Jianzhou
Half-Marathon in 1:01:10. Kenyans did not achieve the podium. Second was South
African Steven Mokoka (1:01:42) and third Wirimai Juwawo of Zimbabwe
(1:01:47). Best Kenyan Jonathan Maiyo was fourth (1:02:28). 21-years old
Ethiopian Mare Dibaba dipped for fifth time in her career under 1:10, on Sunday
with 1:09:41. Kenyan Susan Tanui was second (1:11:07).

OTHER RESULTS

COLUMBUS (USA,
Apr 24): New personal best for Moncton
silver winner Casimir Loxsom at 800
m with 1:46.45 winning the Owens Track Classic. He
missed the meet record of legendary Paul Ereng 1:46.41 from 1990 by 0.04. Jeff
Porter won the hurdles in 13.60 (+2.0) and in US hammer duel Kibwe Johnson
(75.74) beat AG Kruger (74.98).

ALBI (FRA, Apr 24): Women winner at 33rd Albi Marathon Kenyan Immaculate
Chemutai achieved 2:47:18 and was 8th best overall. Just behind her Russian
Elena Tikhonova in 2:48:25.

TAICANG (CHN, Apr 23-24): In junior 10 km at Chinese walk weekend
Xin Jiaxing posted 42:08 personal best. In junior 30 km on Sunday Chen
Zongliang achieved 2:10:49. In the national 50 km on Sunday Cui Zhide was
the best 3:48:19. But he was of course walking together with the IAAF Challenge
competitors.

ISTANBUL (TUR, Apr 24): Cenk Turan clocked 9:36 to win
the run at the highest building in Europe. The
Saphire of Istanbul is 263 m
with 56 floors and 1354 stairs. Yegane Guley was the best woman after 14:02.

BURSA (TUR, Apr 24): Kenyan Sammy Tum won the 15 km of  Bursa
in 44:10 ahead of home runner Ali Haydar (44:48). In women race Ummu Kiraz
clocked 50:02 over Russian Tatyana Belkina (51:42).

AVILES (ESP, Apr 24): Barcelona
1500 m
bronze medalist Manuel Olmedo won the 26th road mile in Aviles. In women race the number one place
for Isabel Macias.

OTHER NEWS

CASABLANCA (MAR): Malta Independent writes that Hudson Group through a
joint venture with their Algerian partners has joined forces with Olympic
medallist and businessman Hicham El Guerrouj to take over the distribution of
Nike in Morocco. The contract with sportswear giants Nike was signed recently
in Casablanca.
Hudson Group already has distribution management rights for Libya and Algeria for the Nike brand. The
joint venture was also recently awarded distribution management rights for
Converse for the entire Maghreb region.

DAKAR (SEN): Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA)
has received three bids with interest to stage the 2012 Africa Athletics
Championships. Cameroon, Morocco and Djibouti
are interested after Nairobi
hosted the event in 2010. CAA will decide in May this year.

OXFORD (USA): US Indoor champion Mike
Rodgers who posted 9.96 over the weekend plans as next three strong races at
the 100 m.
First he will run against Caribbean opponents at Jamaica Invitational on May 7 in Kingston. That will be followed by Asian Tour
running in Daegu on May 12 (IAAF World Challenge) and Shanghai on May 15. At the Chinese Samsung
Diamond League leg he will compete against Jamaican star Asafa Powell who is
yet to debut at the 100 m
in this year.

STATS

ADLER (RUS): Sergey Makarov with his latest javelin world lead is now
having 18 consecutive years (since 1994) with a result over 82 meters. Writes Phil
Minshull. Jan Zelezny also had 18 years over 82 since 1987, but missed 1991 and
1998.

SAD NEWS

REIMS (FRA): French Federation website informs about
the death of former French long jump record holder Nadine Fourcade at age of 48
after a long ilness. She was European 1986 finalist in Stuttgart and achieved the national mark of 679 in 1985.

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