The Great Australian Run took place on the weekend, attracting in the realm of 4000 participants to the 15 kilometer fun run held in the city of Melbourne, Australia.

The race had some big-name draw-cards including Ethiopian distance king Haile Gebrselassie, Australia’s Craig Mottram and Kenyan Patrick Makau.

Gebrselassie, suffering from jet-lag, still managed to dominate his rivals, wining the inaugural event in 42 minutes and 40 seconds.

Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie burnt off his rivals for a commanding win in the Great Australian Run through the city streets here on Sunday.

Makau trailed in 35 seconds behind Gebrselassie to take second in 43:15, with well performed Australia athlete Collis Birmingham beating Olympian Craig Mottram for third placing in 43:35.

Kenya’s two-time world marathon champion Catherine Ndereba easily won the the women’s event in 50:43, Ndereba, 36, was second behind Romania’s Constantina Dita in this year’s Beijing Olympic marathon, but finished well ahead of sixth-placed Dita in the shorter event.

New Zealand’s Alice Mason was second in 51:27 and third-placed Lisa Weightman was the leading Australian in 51:31.

Click on the following link for a more thorough report on the Great Australian Run of 2008.

Technorati Tags: Craig Mottram, Haile Gebrselassie

WHAT do you get when you put together the greatest distance runner in history, a worthy challenger and a fast course?
According to Haile Gebrselassie, you’ll get a 15km world record. Organisers of the Great Australian Run have laid out a fast course through the streets for the November 30 event. Can the Ethiopian Marathon World Record holder pull it off? Point your browser to the link to Read more about The Great Australian Run of 2008.

Technorati Tags: Craig Mottram, Great Australian Run, Haile Gebrselassie, World Record

In the weeks following Haile Gebrselassie’s world record Marathon run of 2:03:59 in Berlin, speculation has been rife of a sub 2 hour marathon in our lifetime! With the dramatic drop in the Marathon world record over the last 10 years, sports promoters are naturally excited, but is a sub-2 marathon likely or even possible?

Sports scientist Ross Tucker, presents a more analytical look at the chances of one day seeing a sub-2 hour marathon run. He borrows a little from the history of the event and also the commercial aspects that might in some respects prevent great athletes from breaking the record. He then speculates on who might come through in our lifetimes.

The Key Points:

• Marathon running is in something of a golden era, 10 years ago the marathon world record stood at 2:06:50 and since then has dropped almost 3 minutes!
• When the next generation of endurance runners, the Tergat’s, the Gebrselassie’s, the Hissou’s, moved up to the marathon and the anticipated “overhauls” in the Marathon were proven correct
• Ross correlates what’s happening in the marathon with what happened over 5,000m and 10,000m on the track in the 1990’s - the 10,000m was lowered an incredible 30 seconds over a four year period when Gebrselassie, Hissou and Tergat were going at it! The point being that this kind of performance over 10,000m predicted what would eventually happen in the marathon, because the best predictor of Marathon performance is 10k time.
• While the drop in 10,000m world record was dramatic, it has recently plateaued, and come down less than 5 seconds since 1998 (thanks to Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia), a similar thing has happened in the 5,000m, which fell by a staggering 18 seconds in the four years up to 1998, then took another six years to fall just 2 seconds (Bekele again)
• This would indicate that while there has been a dramatic decrease in times in the marathon, it is unlikely to keep falling at the same rate.

So it seems a sub 2-hour Marathon is unlikely for a while yet and this is not even taking into account the commercial aspect of professional Marathon running - Ross has some thoughts as well as an opinion on the most likely candidates to lower the world record, it’s an interesting read.

Technorati Tags: 10000m, 5000m, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Marathon, Paul Tergat, Salah Hissou, World Record

Here is some news for you Aussies, the great Haile Gebrselassie, who just made history by slipping under 2:04 in the Berlin Marathon, will compete in Melbourne’s Great Australian Run on November 30th.

Starting in Albert Park the course will cover 15kms on Melbourne City roads, visiting some of it’s most famous landmarks, before returning to Albert Park for the finish. The event is to be televised internationally, so will be witnessed by millions around the globe being shown as part of the existing ‘Great Run’ series of programs.

The legendary endurance king will take on Australia’s Craig Mottram over the 15km event. The Ethiopian clocked 2:03:59 to win his third straight Berlin Marathon yesterday, beating the mark of 2:04:26 he set over the same flat course last year.

He also became the first runner to win the race three times.

Follow the link for full details on the the Great Australian Run.

Technorati Tags: Craig Mottram, Great Australian Run, Great Run Series, Haile Gebrselassie

The World Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international Cross country running. Held annually and organized by International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the International Cross Country Championships.

Cross country is an organized sport that originated from the Crick Run, that has been held every year since 1837 at Rugby School in England. By the early 19th century the sport was practiced in all private schools and it’s popularity continued to rise from there.

The World Cross Country Championships is among the most difficult races to win on the planet, simply because of the sheer volume of high caliber athletes participating in the same race. Some even rate it as more difficult to win than the Olympic Games. In fact Cross country became a part of the Olympic Games in 1912 until 1924 when it was dropped because many saw it as an inappropriate summer sport.

But many would like to see it reinstated including some of the greatest distance kings on the planet.

Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie and Kenya’s Paul Tergat made a request in a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The IOC has already referred the letter to the IAAF, since they are responsible for granting such a request.

I am a big fan of cross country running. It is always a treat to see so many top athletes battling it out over harder conditions. The tougher conditions also level the playing field for runners who possess less track speed, making the race more about strength and tactics than out-and-out leg speed.

I would love to see the request is granted, but I have my doubts it will meet with success. A recent request to have cross country running part of the winter Olympics - perhaps a more appropriate place for a cross country event - was turned down.

Cross country in the Olympics would likely not stack up to the World Titles as a lot of the high profile athletes would be running on the track or in the marathon. Still, it would pull in a different breed of endurance runner and that, I think would offer some great benefits to the sport.

Read the full article here.

Their letter can be viewed here.

Technorati Tags: Cross Country, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Olympics, Paul Tergat, Running

I always really enjoy reading the fantastic reports on the latest sporting achievements at The Science of Sport blog. Not only do the authors Jonathan and Ross provide top quality scientific comment and analysis of sports and sporting performance, but they truly love their sport! The enthusiasm and passion in which they deliver their pieces is truly refreshing and too rarely seen!

Reporting on Haile Gebrselassie’s 2:03:59 world record in Berlin, Ross has delivered some fine race commentary and analysis including a break-down of the 5k splits.

It’s interesting to note is that Kenyan James Kwambai, who has finished 2nd in the Boston Marathon to Robert Cheruiyot and achieved a solid fifth at November’s New York Marathon when rebounding from injury that had kept him out of last years Berlin Marathon, held onto this incredible pace until the 35k mark. Unfortunately for James, the 5k between 35k and 40k proved to be the fastest in the entire race which is incredible and testament to Gebrselassie’s finishing ability given that this mark is a point where marathoners have traditionally blown out.

While Gebrselassie praised pacemakers for their great pacing strategy, Ross remains critical:

I saw the initial reports are all proclaiming the great pacing, and I disagree. Last year stood out for its magnificent pacing effort, this year was spectacular because of those final 10km. Absolutely amazing.

And yes, maybe 15 seconds (at least) in the bank if the pacing is better…!

So despite a fantastic performance and a sub-2:04, maybe there is room for improvement yet in the distance king! Ross will deliver a further analysis of the race and a comparison with last year’s Berlin Marathon soon.

Follow the link for the full report on Gebreslassie’s WOLRD RECORD run.

Technorati Tags: Berlin Marathon 2008, Haile Gebrselassie, Marathon, Race, Running, World Record

This Sunday, Haile Gebrselassie will line up for the Berlin Marathon with one thought on his mind: Dropping his current world record of 2:04:26 even further!

In their excellent Science of Sport blog Jonathan and Ross write about the event:

You’ll recall that it was earlier this year that Geb announced that he would not run the Olympic Marathon because he did not want to “damage” his long term-health in the polluted Chinese capital - many were skeptical then, suggesting that the big pay-day of a Berlin World record was the real reason he didn’t run. And now, 6 months later, that potential pay-day has arrived.

A big pay-day indeed if he can pull it off! So Geb apparently missed the Olympic marathon for this, but what are his chances of pulling in a world’s best time? and could he even push under 2:04?

Gebrselassie set the current world record in Berlin and will go down as the only man in history to run world-beating marathons in two consecutive years if he can pull it off again and providing no one else runs faster. Another record within reach is combined total for two marathons in one year. The best is 4:11:34 when Khalid Khannouchi ran 2:05:38 (London) and 2:05:56 (Chicago) in 2002. Gebreselassie would need 2:06:40 or better to beat this.

His record was challenged at London last April when Martin Lel and Samuel Wanjiru covered 30 kilometers 27 seconds faster than Gebrselassie’s Berlin split, but the pace slowed down, Lel eventually winning in 2:05:15.

Since Berlin, Gebrselassie has run a marathon in Dubai, but took the pace out too hard clocking 61:27 at the half way mark, with led to the pace “blowing out” to 2:04:53.

So is another world record on the cards? With Gebrselassie you could never discount him! The Scientists of Sport predict he will most likely push too hard again and run 2:04:40. Of course perfect weather is always essential for any world beating performance over this distance.

Browse to the full article that gives a full analysis and prediction of Gebrselassie’s record attempt for this year’s 2008 Berlin marathon.

Technorati Tags: Berlin Marathon, Haile Gebrselassie, Marathon, World Record