Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i AW - Athletics Weekly Magazine

OCTOBER 2024 Change is always in the air at this time of year. As the leaves turn, the nights lengthen and the temperature drops, we’re moving into a period of transition and adjustment, of doing things a little bit differently. It feels like something similar is happening in the world of athletics, too. For example, the past few weeks have seen regular news updates on the growing number of athletes signing up for Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track events that are looking to shake up the established order of things in the coming year. While the Diamond League meetings have once again produced moments of undoubted brilliance in 2024, they are still unmistakably a series of excellent individual events that don’t really hang together comfortably as one entity. It’s still…

I’m so glad that Mondo Duplantis and Karsten Warholm saw it through, stepped out of their comfort zones and raced each other in front of the watching world over 100m last month. I was all for it and I think these one-off exhibitions are just fabulous for athletics - they’re such a great shop window. As soon as the two of them started trading banter about it over social media last year you hoped this idea would come to fruition. I think it gets more eyes on the sport, it gets people talking and, fundamentally, it’s fun. The athletes love it because it’s different, it mixes things up and I think everyone enjoys seeing people out of their normal environment. Back in 2003, I took part in the relaunched version…

Warm sunshine, firm ground and a complete absence of mud are not the sort of conditions you would usually associate with the English National Cross Country Championships - but that was precisely the scenario that faced the competitors in a 2024 edition with a difference. The event had initially been scheduled to take place on February 24 at Weston Park in Shropshire but was ultimately postponed due to heavy rain that left the course and car parks flooded. Eamonn Martin, the man behind this year’s event, was determined to make sure the show still went on. With the rescheduling coming right at the end of the track season and right before the 2024-25 cross-country events get going, it was heartening to see the quality of the races remained high as…

Pembroke leads from the front Successfully defending your Paralympic title is one thing. Breaking the world record twice on die way to doing it is quite another, but that’s exactly what Dan Pembroke managed in the men’s F13 javelin competition. The joint British team captain first surpassed the previous best of 71.01m, set by Uzbekistan’s Aleksandr Svechnikov in 2017, with a throw of 71.15m. The 33-year-old then shattered his own mark with a remarkable 74.49m effort to retain his title after his 69.52m victory in Tokyo. Pembroke’s throw was the third best by any British javelin thrower this year. Debrunner’s high five Catherine Debrunner finished Paris 2024 as the most successful Para athletics athlete of the Games, leaving the French capital with no fewer than five gold medals. IAs well…

Georgia Bell lay on her back on the purple Stade de France track, staring into the Parisian night. All around her was the bedlam of a packed stadium that was rocking in the immediate aftermath of an Olympic final but, for a few minutes, she needed to find stillness. Breath was difficult to come by and exhaustion had taken over. It was precisely how she had hoped to feel. “I couldn’t get up,” she recalls. “I really wanted it to be [that] I gave it absolutely everything and really pushed myself harder than I ever had. No matter what the result was, I wouldn’t look back and be like: ‘Could I have tried a bit more? Could I have dug a bit deeper?’ “I pulled absolutely everything out of me…

Q: “As the track season finishes and we move into autumn/winter training, what extra work would you encourage a middle-distance runner to take on now that will put them in a better position for next year?” Ian McDermott I would encourage all runners to make strength and conditioning a regular part of their routine. This is the most important time of the year when it comes to strength and conditioning because it’s the only time when you are going to be able to make big gains and have an impact in that area. During the season it’s all maintenance and just ticking over in the gym because the running takes priority at that stage. Now, though, is when you can start working on making yourself as robust as possible and…

ROAD SHOES ON on.com CLOUDSURFER NEXT £140 This new offering from On removes the usual Speedboard and uses the brand’s Helion foam in a CloudTec Phase design - angled clouds allow the foam to compress and rebound as the foot rolls from heelstrike to toe-off. The result is a smooth-riding everyday trainer that offers good cushioning and a soft, smooth ride. The upper has a simple design, too, inspired by On’s latest competition shoes and featuring the usual high-quality construction that holds the foot securely in place. There’s good outsole coverage for traction on a variety of surfaces, making this a workhorse for everyday training that should prove durable and cover many happy miles. INOV8 inov8.com ROADFLY £100 Returning to the road-running market, INOV8 have kept it simple with their…

63:13 After a summer track season that had ended just two days earlier with victory in the Diamond League 1500m final in Brussels, Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s audacious half marathon debut in Copenhagen on September 16 fell apart after 10km. Passing that point with the leaders in 27:27, he pulled up sharply, grimacing in pain with the effort. Soon after he resumed running and rumbled home in 63:13. Up ahead, victory went to Sabastian Sawe as the Kenyan out-sprinted Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo to win in 58:05. A humbled Ingebrigtsen said: “I think 21km is definitely too long. I’m definitely not going to try [a half-marathon] again for a couple of years. It was fun but tough.” 3:44.3 In September 1981, Sydney Maree finished fifth in the World Cup 1500m in Rome before…

MY GREATEST RACE JACK GREEN Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, April 12, 2018, 400m hurdles, fourth, 49.18 The Commonwealth Games were early in 2018 because of being on the Gold Coast. The year before, I was in the best shape that I’d ever been in and, quite frankly, I thought I was in shape to win the World Championships. However, in the heats in London, I destroyed a hurdle and that took that opportunity away. I still wasn’t funded, still training on my own, but I had a little bit of a vendetta against the Commonwealth Games because that was the only championships I’d never competed in and I really wanted to perform well and prove something to myself. I used what money I’d saved up to go out about two months…

With the London 2012 Games having set the bar incredibly high, the momentum made by the Paralympic movement slowed in Rio eight years ago and then with the challenges of Covid in Tokyo. That trend was halted in Paris as the public responded with some healthy attendances at the Stade de France as more than 40 world records were set in para athletics. Over the following 10 pages, we look back at the Games, starting with an athlete who savoured her golden moment. Medals table Great Britain medallists Gold Men’s 1500m T20: Ben Sandilands Men’s Javelin Throw F13: Daniel Pembroke Women’s 100m T34: Hannah Cockroft Women’s 800m T34: Hannah Cockroft Women’s 100m T53: Sammi Kinghorn Women’s Shot Put F20: Sabrina Fortune Silver Men’s 100m T52: Marcus Perrineau-Daley Men’s Shot Put…

“This weekly event is for all runners of every discipline who want to measure their performance improvements over a period of time. A fun event open to all runners.” So read the flyer for the inaugural “Bushy Park Time Trial”, a 5km event to be staged in that particular corner of south London on October 2, 2004. An injured runner and member of the Stragglers Running Club and Ranelagh Harriers by the name of Paul Sinton-Hewitt had decided to set it up, not just as a way to help and connect his fellow runners but also to maintain his own ties with the sport he loved. One of the people to turn up for that event was a man called Andrew Lane. “I used to live in Teddington, a mile…

Matthew Hudson-Smith spent a lot of the early part of this year “looking up to the sky” and questioning his life choices. Tested repeatedly by coach Gary Evans at their Florida base, the 29-year-old is not too proud to admit how painful he found the winter training process this time around. “It has been absolutely ridiculous,” he laughs, darkly. “Some of the sessions have been brutal, where you’re thinking: ‘Why am I doing this?’. I remember February in particular. We train on the grass a lot but February is the stage in-between the grass and the track, and it’s when he [Gary] speeds everything up. It’s just lactic-based acceleration. “Monday is horrific, so no-one talks. Tuesday, everyone starts talking again because it’s mainly blocks. Wednesday is a day off -…

This has not been the 2024 Melissa Courtney-Bryant had dreamt of. A soleus tear at the end of December interrupted preparations for her indoor season, yet she still managed to run a 3000m PB of 8:37.74 in Boston. Norovirus in May had a horrible impact on her build-up to the UK Athletics Championships and Olympic trials, yet amid the disappointment of non-selection she bounced back with a win at the FBK Games in Hengelo; two sub-four minute 1500m performances in Diamond League meetings in Poland and Brussels; a British record over 2000m (5:26.08) at the Diamond League in Monaco; and a fine fourth place at the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile in New York (4:19.9). If the 31-year-old was the definition of a motivational quote, it would be that tough…

OCTOBER 5 • ERRA National Men’s 6-stage and Women’s 4-stage Road Relays plus YA Road Relays Sutton Coldfield Englishroadrunningassociation.co.uk OCTOBER 6 • Principality Cardiff Half Marathon cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk • AJ Bell Great Scottish Run Glasgow greatrun.org • Standard Chartered Jersey Marathon St Helier jersey-marathon.com • Isle of Wight Marathon Cowes rydeharriers.co.uk • MBNA Chester Marathon & Metric Marathon chestermarathon.com • EDP Lisbon Marathon running-portugal.com OCTOBER 13 • Bank of America Chicago Marathon chicagomarathon.com • Runkara International Half Marathon Ankara dazspor.com • Run Bournemouth 2024 runbournemouth.com • Manchester Half Marathon manchesterhalfmarathon.com • Leeds Abbey Dash 10km ageuk.org.uk • Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Marathon bucharest-marathon.com OCTOBER 19 • AJ Bell Great South Run Portsmouth greatrun.org • Lindsays scottishathletics National Cross Country Relay Championships Cumbernauld scottishathletics.org.uk OCTOBER 20 • TCS Amsterdam Marathon tcsamsterdammarathon.eeu • TCS…

The walk between the newspaper offices at which I used to work and Commonwealth House in central Glasgow was a short one. A little over 10 years ago, it was a route I became very accustomed to covering as the Commonwealth Games-related press conferences and athlete interview opportunities flooded in. Repeatedly making that journey before - and particularly during - Glasgow 2014 afforded the opportunity to really see a place noticeably transforming for the better. There are times when major sporting occasions can take place and yet barely make a dent in the host city’s consciousness. This wasn’t one of those times. The afterglow of the London 2012 Olympics was still incredibly bright and the viewing public wanted another chance to throw themselves into another multi-sport festival. They didn’t need…

If you’re ever in doubt about the future of athletics, this event is always the perfect antidote. For many, this year’s World Under-20 Championships might have slipped by without a second glance, sandwiched as it was amid major one-day meetings at a point in the season when many athletes - and fans - were running on fumes. But this year’s edition, held in Lima, Peru in the last week of August, once again showed that the sport’s future is in safe hands as the Paris Olympics fade from view and attention turns to Tokyo 2025 and Los Angeles 2028. Before we get to the positives, let’s get one negative out of the way: the crowds were non-existent. For most of the week, the only people in the stands were athletes,…

As we strode out into the stadium for what I knew would be my last track race of the season, Rovereto’s surrounding mountains cloaking us in their indigo shadow, floodlights twinkling under a September sunset, I did not yet know that it was to be my final race of the season entirely. I had envisaged shaving perhaps a couple more seconds off my 3000m PB to round things off nicely, and I felt pretty confident that I had all the tools I needed to fight well for the win. My nose had been to the grindstone for five long weeks, and it was time to harvest the fruits of my labour, not only tonight, but again in three days’ time when I would defend my first ever British title, the…

“My dad wouldn’t have cared what I grew up to do but I know that when I was on that start line in Paris, he saw my smile and knew I loved doing this After a tragic forklift accident on her family farm left her paralysed from the waist down at the age of 14, Sammi Kinghorn feared she would be confined to her bed forever. Sport helped to banish those fears, however, and the 28-yearold has now been able to share a Paralympic gold medal with her nearest and dearest. It was in December of 2010 that Kinghorn’s life changed completely. Her father, Neil, had been clearing heavy snow and, unaware his daughter had climbed on to his forklift - “I suppose I thought it would be funny. There…

PICTURE SPECIAL DIAMOND LEAGUE The two-day Diamond League final in Brussels on September 13-14 brought the outdoor track and field season to a close. Meeting records from Faith Kipyegon (3:54.75,1500m), Beatrice Chebet (14:09.82, 5000m), Mondo Duplantis (6.11m, pole vault), Leonardo Fabbri (22.98m, shot put) and Matt Denny (69.96m, discus) contributed to it being ranked as the second-best Diamond League Final in history. In total, 11 world records were set on the track and in the field over the summer, with seven of those records falling at Diamond League meetings. 2024 Diamond League Champions Men 100m: Ackeem Blake JAM 200m: Kenny Bednarek USA 400m: Charlie Dobson GBR 800m: Emmanuel Wanyonyi KEN 1500m: Jakob Ingebrigtsen NOR 5000m: Berihu Aregawi ETH 3000m Steeplechase: Amos Serem KEN 110m Hurdles: Sasha Zhoya FRA 400m Hurdles: Alison…

Since winning the world 1500m title in 2022, Jake Wightman’s body has repeatedly betrayed him. A serious foot injury wrecked his 2023 season before a calf niggle kept him out of this year’s UK Championships, followed by a hamstring strain ruling him out of the Paris Olympics completely. As the 30-year-old enters the twilight of his career, was it almost the last straw when it comes to pursuing his middle-distance running dreams? “I can’t tell you how disappointing it was,” he says. “I did a session over 4×400m [on the eve of the Games, where he was set to race 800m] that was by far the best I’d ever done and I thought I was going to go to the Olympics and do really well. It was cruel because I…

Martyn Rooney is keen to point out that he doesn’t see himself as a coach, rather more of a team manager. Someone who guides here, offers a nugget of information or sage advice there. He also mentions repeatedly during his chat with AW just how fortunate he is to be working with the depth of talent available to him as UK Athletics’ lead for the 4×400m relay, from Futures level right up to the senior team and the very cream of the British crop. Yet, during the Paris Olympics, his name came up regularly among athletes who were only too happy to mention how much of a role the 37-year-old had played in putting them in medal-winning contention. Whatever his input, he is steering the ship towards success. Bronze in…

What about technology? If endurance sport is about pushing our limits and learning something along the way, do things like the new generation of ‘super shoes’ augment or diminish this? In a history of sporting culture that ranges from Athens to the Apaches and Aztecs, the historian Allen Guttmann argues that sport has gradually transformed from having ritual qualities towards being primarily about the worship of the record. As he puts it: “Once the Gods have vanished from Mount Olympus or from Dante’s paradise, we can no longer run to appease them or to save our souls, but we can set a new record. It is a uniquely modern form of immortality.” As sports modernised, they came to emphasise the importance of institutionalisation, rationalisation and, crucially, comparison between countries and…

1 Where and when was the first Diamond League meeting staged? 2 How many Diamond League meetings were staged in 2024? a) 10 b) 13 c) 15 3 What was special about the women’s 10,000m at the Prefontaine Meeting in Eugene? 4 Where did Faith Kipyegon break her 1500m world record earlier this year? 5 Another world record fell at the same meeting thanks to Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women’s high jump, but what height did she clear? 6 Can you name the men’s 100m and women’s 200m winners at the London Athletics Meet? 7 Who completed the British top three in the women’s 800m behind Keely Hodgkinson in London? 8 Which Briton finished 2024 as the Diamond League champion in the men’s 400m? 9 Grant Holloway set a 110m…

While Eilish McColgan continues her return to racing after lengthy struggles with injury, a look through the AW archive reveals that, 30 years ago, her mother Liz was experiencing something very similar. The issue of October 19,1994 centred around the then 10,000m world champion’s comeback appearance at the Great Midland Run. She had been out for 18 months and, in an interview with Paul Larkins, revealed she had spent the princely sum of around £10,000 in the process of attempting to rid herself of injury issues. McColgan had endured two knee operations and had even been told by her surgeon that she would never run again. Stubborn determination was one of the trademark of the Scot’s career, though, and she refused to give in. “There were a lot of times…