Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i AW - Athletics Weekly Magazine

Conversations with Katharine Merry are never dull. I was recently talking to our resident AW columnist about the late Steve Prefontaine, the man who adorns the cover of this issue, to get her thoughts on an athlete who made a lasting impression on his sport during his all too brief time in it. She came up with a really interesting thought. Katharine has worked at the Prefontaine Classic meeting in Eugene every year since 2009 and knows well just how revered he is in that corner of the world. The Prefontaine story is a remarkable one and, in these pages, we speak to some of the people who knew him best to unpick the reasons why, 50 years after his passing, so much fuss is still made about him and…

It feels like spring is truly here at last and I've noticed a couple of main themes to the early stages of the outdoor athletics season so far this year – the arrival of new events on the calendar and money. The most high-profile of those events has been the launch of Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track. There was much fanfare and hype around it so I was very intrigued to see it actually getting off the ground in Kingston at the beginning of April and how it would all work. In the end, I'd give it a B+. It was a decent first stab and there were some really good parts to it. I like the fundamentals of it. The scoring system and having athletes across two events is…

Sharon Lokedi and John Korir of Kenya were crowned 2025 Boston Marathon champions on April 21. Lokedi surged clear of defending women's champion Hellen Obiri in the final kilometre, whereas Korir dramatically recovered from a fall at the start of the race to take the men's victory in the 129th staging of the event. Once he got back into his stride, Korir was a class apart, making a strong move at 32km to establish a sizeable lead within a matter of seconds. Cruising home, he clocked 2:04:45 as American Conner Mantz was just run out of the podium places as Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania edged out Cyprian Kotut of Kenya for second and third places – with both runners clocking 2:05:04 – as Mantz clocked 2:05:08. This Boston victory has…

Gout Gout has really done it now. Whenever a young athlete bursts on to the scene with a glimpse of their potential, allied to the excitement is an instinctive urge not to put too much pressure on shoulders perhaps not yet equipped to carry the burden of expectation. History has taught us, with the numerous examples of phenoms who have burnt out well before they really had the chance to catch fire, not to get too carried away too soon. All the signs, however, indicate that this 17-year-old is different. Very different. Not only is he setting the world alight with his extraordinary running and captivating style, but crucially he is also capturing the public's imagination. Crowds flocked to last month's Australian Championships in Perth, while the Maurie Plant Meet…

I am from Jamaica [now living and training is USA] and as the first Grand Slam was on home soil, I wanted to go and represent Jamaica. There was big money on the line, too – we don't usually make that amount of money in one weekend – so that was definitely a good incentive! My experience of the event was positive – exciting, fun, different. It was something new, something that I haven't done before. I didn't really know what to expect going into it, but I think it really is a very interesting concept and the organisers really took care of us athletes. They really made sure that everything was well thought out and planned for us, and I appreciated that. People asked me if it was like…

One of the greatest memorials to Prefontaine is the annual staging of the Prefontaine Classic, which has become one of the great athletics meetings and a key fixture on the Diamond League calendar that attracts the finest athletes from around the globe. The event began life in 1973 as the Hayward Restoration Meet, staged by Bill Bowerman and the Oregon Track Club to do exactly what the name suggests and raise funds to redevelop areas of Hayward Field. Prefontaine raced in that inaugural meeting, and at its follow-up one year later, but in 1975 it had been due to be renamed the Bowerman Classic. The star athlete passed away just over a week before it was due to take place though and, on June 7, the first Prefontaine Classic went…

“A good, old-fashioned wallow in nostalgia,” my editor mused, as we pondered how best to set the scene for the 50th anniversary of the Götzis Hypomeeting at the end of May. “The roll of honour. Some pointers on how influential it's been through the years. Can you do 1500 words?” Some writing and gorgeous wallowing on 100 days of world-class athletics? Count me in. Celebrating the history Götzis is, without doubt, the finest track and field meeting anywhere in the world. The pages of this, and many other, athletics publications are rich with gushing praise of the gold standard set year after year by the organisers. The fan experience, the athlete experience, the media experience, the coach experience. Simple athletics, done beautifully. The Götzis Hypomeeting has taken place every year…

AGE: 25 COACHES: MO SAATARA Clichés are often overused, conveniently retrofitted for purpose. At the end of the day. It is what it is. Timewill tell. But, sometimes, everything really does happen for a reason. British hammer champion Anna Purchase moved from the UK to the USA as a teenager, first to study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, then later transferring to the University of California, Berkeley to be coached by Mo Saatara. “I like to believe there's some sort of energy out there in the universe that points you in the right direction,” says the 25-year-old who failed to respond to an initial approach from Saatara and UC Berkeley straight from high school (“I was naïve of the process and the coaching levels,” she says), only to get there…

MAY 2-4 • Grand Slam Track Miami grandslamtrack.com MAY 3-5 • BUCS Athletics Outdoor Championships Manchester bucs.org.uk MAY 3 • Wanda Diamond League meeting Shanghai/Keqiao diamondleague.com • England Masters 10 mile championships Mallory Park englandathletics.org MAY 4 • Moy Park Belfast City Marathon belfastcitymarathon.com • AJ Bell Great Birmingham Run greatrun.org MAY 5 • Bannister Miles Oxford bannistermiles.org.uk • Blackheath and Bromley Harriers AC Spring Open London bandbhac.org.uk MAY 7 • BMC Gold Standard Races Birmingham britishmilersclub.com MAY 10 • Belfast Irish Milers Meet athleticsni.org MAY 10-11 • World Athletics Relays Guangzhou worldathletics.org • Surrey Track and Field Championships Kingston surreyathletics.uk • Greater Manchester Championships Trafford traffordac.co.uk MAY 11 • Geneva Marathon genraligenevemarathon.com • Copenhagen Marathon copenhagenmarathon.dk • AJ Bell Great Bristol Run greatrun.org MAY 14 • BMC Gold Standard…

Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi caused an upset at the Grand Slam Track meeting in Kingston when he beat all three Paris 1500m medallists in their specialist event on April 5. The Kenyan took a surprise victory in 3:35.18, with Yared Nuguse and Cole Hocker of the United States finishing second and third in 3:35.36 and 3:35.52 respectively as Britain's Neil Gourley and Josh Kerr were fourth and fifth in 3:35.60 and 3:35.61. Katharine Merry: p12-13…

Rated as an outside bet due to an Achilles injury the previous year, the Dutch athlete chose the perfect time to reach a career peak, a ferocious finish propelling her to gold. The welcome home to the Netherlands brought an unexpected bump in the road, though Coming out of 1991, I knew I had to be patient during that next year and not try to rush things, but I also had to qualify for Barcelona. There were plenty of good races in Europe, but they were more technical. I knew I needed to get the qualifying standard so I had to plan, going to a race in France where I knew it would be fast, just to get it out of the way. It was all about my training, because…

To start on a bit of a morbid note, one of the darker facts of life that drives me to live and to conpete the way that I do is that none of us can ever know when it's going to be our last day. I was reminded of this when I stumbled across a quote from Toni Morrison's Trauma, Survival and Finding Meaning interview this week. In it, she says: “We are already born, we are going to die, so you have to do something interesting that you respect in-between […] Sometimes you don't survive whole, you just survive in part. But the grandeur of life is that attempt. It's not about that solution, it is about being as fearless as one can, and behaving as beautifully as one…

RISING STARS GOUT GOUT AGE: 17 EVENTS: 100M AND 200M The Queenslander is rapidly becoming one of the most talked about athletes in the world, having broken Peter Norman's longstanding Australian 200m record, won world U20 silver last year and picked up his first senior national 200m title last month. LACHLAN KENNEDY AGE: 21 EVENTS: 100M AND 200M The former rugby player who competed in Australia's Olympic 4x100m relay team last summer was only just pipped to the world indoor 60m title by Britain's Jeremiah Azu, clocking an Australian indoor record of 6.50 on his way to silver. LEAH O'BRIEN AGE: 17 EVENTS: 100M AND 200M The West Australian teenager won the national U18s girls 100m in 11.14, breaking Raelene Boyle's Australian junior record that was set at the 1968…

HOKA CLIFTON 10 Hoka.com £140.00 The 10th edition of the Clifton, Hoka's most popular shoe sees a major development in the way of cushioning, with the new version upping the rearfoot allowance to provide an 8mm drop. The CM-EVA midsole foam remains the same, there's just 3mm more of it in the back of the shoe, which should make it more suitable for a wide range of runners, in particular heel strikers, where the extra depth will better soak up the initial impact. Elsewhere, the new upper uses a neatly engineered mesh that wraps around the foot snugly and securely. Overall, it's a good update and the increased heel drop makes for a plush, forgiving ride that's perfect for daily training. ADIDAS SUPERNOVA RISE 2 Adidas.co.uk £130.00 This no-nonsense model offers good…

1 By what nickname is Eugene also known as? 2 Which sport was Hayward Field originally built for? 3 How many times has the stadium hosted the US Track and Field Olympic trials? a) 8 b) 10 c) 12 4 Which athlete won World Championships gold in the men's 100m at Hayward Field in 2022? 5 Which two athletes set world records in their respective events at those championships? 6 Which former University of Oregon student had his decathlon world record broken by Kevin Mayer of France? 7 Which current Olympic 1500m silver medallist is a graduate of the University of Oregon? 8 Josh Kerr beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the Bowerman Mile as last year's Prefontaine Classic, but can you name the athlete that finished third? 9 Which world record did Beatrice Chebet shatter at that same meeting? 10…

75.56m April was a particularly eventful month for the throwing community, with one of the most remarkable discus competitions in history taking place at the Oklahoma Throws Series in Ramona on April 13. There was a controversial post-script to proceedings, however. With its gusty conditions and favourable tailwinds, the meeting is a regular date in the calendar for the world's best throwers and has become somewhat of a pilgrimage in recent years. Mykolas Alekna certainly loves to throw there, the Lithuanian shattering his own discus world record by more than a metre, with a best throw of 75.56m. The Olympic silver medallist had broken Jürgen Schult's 74.08m with 74.35m at the same event last year. This time round, he bettered his distance not once but twice, recording marks of 75.56m…

In 2009, Jodie Williams etched her name into the record books by setting a British under-17 indoor 400m mark of 54.95. At the time, the athlete who would eventually succeed her at the top of the list hadn't even been born. Fast forward to Birmingham in February of this year, and 15-year-old Darcy Coslett rewrote history. At the British Indoor Championships, the young Welsh sprinter stunned spectators by running 54.50 in her heat. She finished second behind her role model, Amber Anning, and advanced to her first ever senior semi-final. The Welsh Indoor 400m under-20 champion continued to impress the following day, too, as she also made the 200m semi-finals with 24.61. With her 16th birthday fast approaching the Llanelli athlete is still wrapping her head around what she has…

Sometimes new kids on the block catch more attention than those who've been around for a while,” says Petr Stastny. As he chats with AW in mid-April, the CEO of the Wanda Diamond League is considering the recent arrival of fresh events to the athletics calendar and their potential impact. None has arrived with greater fanfare than Grand Slam Track, a series created by Michael Johnson largely in response to what the former Olympic 200m and 400m champion believes is missing from what the Diamond League offers – namely more head-to-head match-ups and a more coherent structure. There are other fresh faces too, such as the Athlos meeting which will be staged for a second time in New York this autumn, while world record-holder Ryan Crouser is in the early…

“I thought you might ask me that,” says Linda Prefontaine, a knowing laugh transmitting its way down the phone line. We are talking about her late brother and the question towhich she is referring is one that has been posed repeatedly for decades now: just what is it about Steve Prefontaine that has left such a lasting impression? May 30 will mark 50 years since America's front-running, moustachioed all-action athletics hero lost his life after crashing his butterscotch-colouredMG sports car – bought with his first paycheque from what would become the sporting behemoth that is Nike – on the way home fromaparty in Eugene, Oregon. He was just 24 years old. His presence can still be felt strongly in the town. A plaque now sits at the crash site on…

When Asha Philip first emerged onto the senior global stagemore than a decade ago, shewas thankful to the likes of Christine Ohuruogu and Jeanette Kwakye for taking her under their wings and helping her become accustomed to the cauldron of professional athletics. Now, as the senior stateswoman of the British sprinting set-up, it is her turn to do the same for the next generation. Of the seven-strong British women's 4x100m squad for this month's World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, three were still in primary school and another just a year into secondary school when Philip won her first senior international title at the 2014 European Championships. While that quartet were busy in education, Philip was steadily accumulating medals: two Olympic, three world, six European and three Commonwealth. Aged 34, she…

After a whirlwind few months, Charlie Wheeler takes time to reflect. “I don't want to say it's a long time coming but I feel like I'm validating my position in the sport a little bit more,” he says. Buoyed by his recent progress but aware of the work that still needs to be done, the 26-year-old is philosophical about his current standing. At January's Valencia 10km, he ran 27:42 and went under Mo Farah's British record by one second, with Rory Leonard setting a national mark of 27:38. Although placing himself second on the UK 10km all-time list, that run still saw him finish 19th in Valencia and almost a minute behind Sweden's Andreas Almgren, who set a European 10km record with 26:53. “It's weird thinking: ‘Oh, you're under the…

Tebogo's powerful message The recent AW story in which Letsile Tebogo stated that he would most likely have become a criminal, had it not been for athletics (athleticsweekly.com, April 2) is just another reminder of how powerful a force sport can be. There are so many examples of how it can transform people's lives and the Olympic 200m champion acknowledging what it has done for him – and his friends – hammers that message home even harder. I just wish that message could get through to more people in positions of power and at government level – and that they would recognise the need to divert more resources to the grassroots clubs, organisations and volunteers who are trying to make a difference. Peter Francis A light in the darkness Well…