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[trackside2012-blog]

Farah's amazing double

Watching the Olympic 5000m final on TV didn't really do justice to the atmosphere inside the stadium when compared to live footage from the stadium. The noise generated by the crowd shook this person's camera and it also distorted the Omega photo-finish print-out!

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Yokohama Marathon route and course profile

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Pavey in confident mood for Yokohama – preview

Jo Pavey feels her preparations for Sunday's Yokohama Marathon have been her best to date and while the 39-year-old doesn't have a specific time-goal in mind, Pavey is confident she can improve her 2:28:24 PB which she set on her debut in London last year.

While her preparations in the build-up to the London and New York Marathons were blighted by stress fractures, Pavey's enjoyed a largely uninterrupted spell of training this autumn and her performances on the roads confirm she's reaping the benefits of this. Pavey posted a 69:20 half-marathon in the Great North Run which compares favourably to her time of 70:49 last year and this was followed up with a 53:00 10-mile sharpener for victory at the Great South Run.

Unlike the notoriously undulating New York course which Pavey ran on last year, the profile of the Yokohama Marathon is very flat which was one of the key factors that swayed her towards choosing this race for her autumn marathon. The organisers have also arranged some high-calibre pacemakers, including sub-2:25 competitor Maria Konovalova, which should greatly benefit those in the elite-field looking for a PB or a quick time.

Pavey admits she's still on a learning-curve as far as her marathon career is concerned and the differences in time-zones has meant she's had to adapt her preparations accordingly by travelling to her race destination two weeks in advance. In terms of pacing too, Pavey might opt for a more conservative start as she was operating at low-to-mid 2:20-pace in the opening stages of her debut before fading in the second half. Even though the end-product was faster than her time in New York, Pavey is capable of a much faster marathon.

2012 has very much been Pavey's resurgent year and she now has her sights set on making her fifth Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. A marathon PB would cap off one of her best seasons to date and her first marathon podium finish from this race isn't out of the question either. Here's a look at some of her main rivals on Sunday and see here for full elite-field. 

Five potential winners

1 Lydia Cheromei

The Kenyan veteran is by far the fastest marathoner at 2:21:30 but her form appears to be slightly on the slide since registering that very fast time in January. After an ambitious start in the Prague Marathon in May, Cheromei was forced to drop out in the final 10km. She was also the arguable pre-event favourite for last month's World Half-Marathon Championships but she finished fourth although her time of 69:13 was still respectable in testing conditions in Kavarna.

2 Remi Nakazato

Yokohama doubles up as one of the selection races for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and the competition among the Japanese is always of a ferocious standard. At 24, Nakazato is one of the rising stars of Japanese marathon-running and she will be looking to qualify for her second World Championships team after finishing tenth in Daegu 2011. Finishing second last year in 2:24:29 shows she enjoys the course too.

3 Jelena Prokopcuka

The Latvian is one of a handful of last-minute entrants in light of the cancellation of the New York Marathon. Prokopcuka has been in good form as she rolled back the years at the Great North Run by lowering her seven-year-old half-marathon PB to 68:09 to finish fourth. While most well-known for winning New York twice, she's also at home on the roads in Japan as she won the 2005 edition of the Osaka Marathon in a PB of 2:22:56. The only question is how much her preparations have been affected by having to alter her racing schedule so drastically.

4 Yukiko Akaba

Akaba is a rarity in Japanese marathon-running circles as she juggles motherhood with racing at an elite level. 2011 was her best season to date as she started her year with victory in Osaka in 2:26:29 before finishing sixth in London in a PB of 2:24:09. Akaba then took fifth at the World Championships and was only 21 seconds away from the bronze medal but perhaps running three high-level marathons in such a short space left Akaba a bit depleted for her spring marathon this year as her 2:26:08 performance in Nagoya proved insufficient for Olympic selection.

5 Mai Ito

Ito has been a consistent performer in the past eighteen months with a runner-up finish in Osaka last year and fifth in Nagoya this year in a PB of 2:25:26. She was also in the top-ten at the World Half-Marathon Championships.

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The dirtiest race of the past decade?

While lacking the grandeur of the infamous 100m final from the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, the 2006 European Championships 1500m final could be a contender for one of the dirtiest high-profile races, at least in recent times. There have been subsequently no less than eight doping violations among the first nine finishers and many of them have been caught up in some of the most controversial doping cases of the past decade.  

European Championships 1500m results:

Tatyana Tomashova 3:56.91 PB – the two-time world champion was one of seven Russian athletes busted on the eve of the Beijing Olympics for long-term tampering with doping control. In a case with strong connotations of organised doping, Tomashova was suspended for two years and nine months and all of her results from April 2007 were annulled. While her European title still stands, her doping record irreparably blotches all of her past achievements. Now 37, Tomashova returned to competition last summer and finished fourth in the Olympic 1500m final this year.

Yuliya Fomenko 3:57.61 – the Russian, who improved from 4:04.58 to 3:58.68 in 2005, was also implicated in the pre-Beijing doping scandal.

Daniela Yordanova 3:59.37 – Bulgaria won three medals at the 2006 European Championships through Vania Stambolova, Venelina Veneva-Mateeva and Yordanova. All of them subsequently tested positive.

Yelena Soboleva 4:00.36 – Soboleva was arguably the highest profile of the Russians to get caught up in the pre-Beijing scandal. Her early-season results included the world indoor title from Valencia where she broke the world 1500m record and as well as being favourite for her specialist event , Soboleva was considered the most likely challenger to Pamela Jelimo in the 800m on the basis of her now-voided sub-1:55 from the Russian Championships. She returned last summer and just missed a place on the Russian 1500m team for London by one spot.

Lidia Chojecka 4:01.43

Corina Dumbravean 4:02.24 PB – the Romanian served a two-year ban in 2007 and notched up her second doping sanction in the space of three years when she refused to submit a sample for doping control in 2010. She's banned for life.

Nataliya Tobias 4:02.71 – Tobias' doping sample from last year's World Championships where she finished ninth was retested. It was found to contain traces of testosterone.

Iryna Lishchynska – while she's never tested positive, Lishchynska shares the same coach as Tobias, who also happens to be Iryna's husband Igor Lishchynskyy.

Hind Dehiba 4:05.46 – the infamous Frenchwoman was busted when the police arrested her at Charles de Gaulle airport after her luggage was found to contain human growth hormones. She served a two-year ban and returned better than ever in 2009.

Tetyana Holovchenko 4:05.53

Helen Clitheroe 4:09.73

Maria Martins 4:13.62

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World marathon record-holder...for a decade!

In a season which had already included her second world cross-country title, victory in the London Marathon in the second fastest time ever as well as titles on the track at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, Paula Radcliffe capped off her annus mirabilis with a world record in the Chicago Marathon of 2:17:18 on 13 October 2002. Saturday marks the tenth year of her record which is a time only since bettered by Radcliffe herself. 

2002 Chicago Marathon results:

Paula Radcliffe 2:17:18 WR

Catherine Ndereba 2:19:26

Yoko Shibui 2:21:22

Svetlana Zakharova 2:21:31

Madina Biktagirova 2:25:20

Deena Kastor 2:26:53

Kayoko Obata 2:28:15

Nuta Olaru 2:31:37

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Chicago tidbits

*Tsegaye Kebede became the first non-Kenyan winner of a World Marathon Majors race since team-mate Gebregziabher Gebremariam won the New York Marathon in 2010.

*Kebede broke the nine-year Kenyan dominance of this race by becoming the first non-Kenyan winner of this race since Khalid Khannouchi a decade ago. Kebede also became the first ever Ethiopian winner of this race.

*Likewise, Atsede Baysa broke the long-standing Russian dominance which stretches back to 2008. She became just the second Ethiopian winner after Berhane Adere triumphed in 2006 and 2007.

*This was the first time since 2001 (Ben Kimondiu 2:08:52, Catherine Ndereba 2:18:47 for Kenya) that both winners came from the same country.

*Tilahun Regassa’s 2:05:27 debut was the fourth fastest marathon debut ever. The fastest are Moses Mosop (2:03:06), Dennis Kimetto (2:04:16) and Ayele Abshero (2:04:23).

*Dathan Ritzenhein moved to No.3 on the US all-time rankings after running 2:07:47.

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My World Half-Marathon Championships report for Athletics Weekly, published on October 6.

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Chicago Marathon - formcharts, stats and facts

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Adere's amazing comeback

Adriana Nelson's (nee Pirtea) marathon debut didn't go entirely to plan as the Bucharest-born runner collapsed through exhaustion at 37km on her first go at the distance in her homeland of Romania. She vowed never to run the distance again but subsequent results, including a top-ten finish at the World Half-Marathon Championships in 2005, suggested she was always going to perform better at the longer distances than on the track.

Pirtea was lured back to the marathon in 2007 and the Romanian was on the verge of making an unlikely winning return to the distance. In sweltering conditions which wrecked havoc with the pre-event formcharts, Pirtea found herself in the lead at 36km and her advantage had stretched to more than 30 seconds at 40km over Berhane Adere, who was wallowing in the hottest Chicago Marathon since the late 1970s.

While Adere is renowned for her redoubtable finishing speed, the commentators calling the race on US television saw it as a foregone conclusion and Pirtea was even confident enough to hi-five the crowds lining the roads. Coming into the final 385-yards, Pirtea still had close to a 20-second lead although Adere was now starting her revival.

Adere, who looked broken by the conditions at 35km, now resembled a cheetah pouncing on her prey as she employed her track speed to devastating effect. She was closing on Pirtea with every stride and the Ethiopian, whose CV includes a world indoor 3000m title in 2003, came through to defend her crown in the final 80m ahead of Pirtea, who couldn't respond once she realised her victory was in jeopardy.

"Probably that was my mistake, I didn't check,” Pirtea understated after the race. “I never looked behind. I thought if somebody was coming, everybody would be screaming that somebody was there."

Pirtea, who is now an American citizen, admits she still gets asked constantly about that race. Her reply in an interview with runcolo.com at the start of the year was candidly self-deprecating. ''Thanks for reminding me. I was almost at the point of forgetting about it!”

She later said she did look back in the closing stages although she couldn't spot Adere, who had to swerve wide past some of the stragglers in the men's race.

Even though she took a lot of positives from the race, the over-riding emotion was bittersweet. ''Finishing in second place among the amazing athletes who competed that day, I was more than happy, so I can’t say I 100% regret anything. But of course it still haunts my dreams sometimes.''

2007 Chicago Marathon – results

Berhane Adere 2:33:49

Adriana Nelson (nee Pirtea) 2:33:52

Kate O'Neill 2:36:15

Liz Yelling 2:37:14

Benita Willis 2:38:30

Nuta Olaru 2:39:04

Paige Higgins 2:40:14

Yolanda Fernandez 2:45:23

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World Half-Marathon Champs form-guide

After a two year hiatus, the 20th edition of this now bi-annual race takes place in the small Black Sea resort of Kavarna in Bulgaria. While a lot of the world's leading distance runners are either enjoying a break after the track season or preparing for autumn marathons, many top athletes from the track and roads will still be targeting this championships where former champions include Haile Gebrselassie, Paul Tergat, Paula Radcliffe and Mary Keitany.

The lack of head-to-head competition makes it difficult to make a wholly accurate form-guide but here's a look at some of the leading contenders. 

Dark-horse

Elvan Abeylegesse is due to compete although her form is an unknown commodity having barely raced since giving birth to her daughter last July. She's only known to have raced once this year which resulted in an inauspicious 16:21.96 for 5000m. However, this race was nearly five months ago so we can expect the Turk to be in much better form now. If Abeylegesse is anywhere near the form which took her to the fastest ever debut of 67:07 in 2010, she will be a threat to the medals.

Brit-watch

The Brits will almost certainly be the first European team to finish, mainly because the only other country with a team are the host notion and one of their trio has only narrowly broken 90-minutes for the half-marathon! Gemma Steel and Caryl Jones arrive fresh from PBs of 70:46 and 71:18 respectively from the Great North Run while Susan Partridge has sub-72 in Bath earlier this year. They have an outside chance of a bronze medal in the team race if they all perform to the best of their ability.

Dark-horse

Japan have sent a strong team which includes 21-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki, who made a 60:53 winning debut in March. While an individual medal might prove a bit of a stretch, the Japanese team looks most likely to challenge the hegemonic dominance of the East Africans in the team competition.

Brit-watch

The men's race will once again be devoid of British participation. According to UKA, the men who met the selection criteria were not available for selection. 

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Stats, facts and figures

World Half-Marathon Championships

*Most medalled athletes only includes athletes who were one of the first three counters in the team race

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Makau vs. Kipsang vs. Mutai - split comparisons

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Why Geoffrey Mutai will break the world marathon record

*If an athlete has serious aspirations of targeting the world marathon record, Berlin is THE course to do it. The last four world records (see video) have all been set on the streets of the German capital so it can quite plausibly claim to be the fastest course on the world marathon circuit.

*While it's quite easy to forget, Mutai is still (albeit unofficially) the fastest marathoner in history. He won Boston last year with 2:03:02 although it couldn't be ratified for record purposes due to the course profile even though it's not considered as one of the fastest big-city marathons.

*New York is the slowest of the major marathons due to its undulating nature but Mutai still ran an astonishing 2:05:06 (this would have been a world record at the turn of the millennium) last year to break the course record by 2:37. Mutai's winning time made New York's course-record the seventh fastest and the most impressive aspect of his run was his 28:57 split from 30-40km which contains most of the toughest climbs in Central Park. As a rule of thumb, a time set in New York is worth at least two minutes more on a faster course and using this as a (rough) guideline, Mutai's projected time is comfortably below the current world record.

*Makau had the company of Haile Gebrselassie until 27-28km last year and Mutai probably won't have the road to himself after the halfway point either. The field also contains sub-2:05 athlete Jonathan Maiyo and Dennis Kimetto, who won the Berlin half-marathon in 59:14 and set a world 25km record also in Berlin of 1:11:18 in May. The latter, who is making his marathon debut, is also Mutai's training partner and he could assist with his world record bid if the pace starts to drop.

*While it is due to be a bit more breezy than the elite athletes might have hoped for, conditions are still favourable. Temperatures aren't due to surpass 16C and no rain is forecast either.

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Tirunesh Dibaba made a successful transition to the half-marathon by winning on her debut at the Great North Run in 67:35. The two-time Olympic 10,000m champion called upon her dependable superior track pace to defeat world marathon champion Edna Kiplagat from Kenya and team-mate Tiki Gelana. Dibaba intends to move to the marathon very soon and she is likely to come across both athletes over the full distance so this victory augurs well for when she makes her debut which might be in London next year.

Official results

Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 67:35

Edna Kiplagat (KEN) 67:41

Tiki Gelana (ETH) 67:48

Jelena Prokopcuka (LAT) 68:09

Jo Pavey (GBR) 69:20

Rene Kalmer (RSA) 70:13

Gemma Steel (GBR) 70:46

Caryl Jones (GBR) 71:18

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Svetlana Ulmasova produced a tremendous sprint finish to win the second running of the 3000m at the 1978 European Championships which she went on to defend in Athens in 1982. Silver medallist Natalia Marasescu from Romania later became infamous for being one of the select group of Eastern Bloc athletes to fail a drug test although the former world 5000m record-holder was reinstated in time for the 1980 Olympics although she made little impression, finishing ninth in the 1500m final. Grete Waitz, rather like Paula Radcliffe, lacked the raw speed to win major track titles as demonstrated in this race but the Norwegian legend was soon to find her niche on the roads. She won her first of nine New York Marathon titles later in the year in a world record time of 2:32:30 before winning her last title a decade later in 1988. By then, the world of marathon-running had moved on the record had been lowered by Ingrid Kristiansen (tenth in this race in 9:02.87) to 2:21:06.

Svetlana Ulmasova (URS) - 8:33.16

Natallia Marasescu (ROU) - 8:33.53

Grete Waitz (NOR) - 8:34.33

Maricica Puica (ROU) - 8:40.90

Giana Romanova (URS) - 8:45.70

Cornelia Burki (SUI) - 8:46.13

   10. Ingrid Kristiansen (NOR) - 9:02.87

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Dibaba set for Great North Run half-marathon debut

Tirunesh Dibaba's half-marathon debut will be her first step in racing terms in her progression towards the marathon which she's looking to tackle for the first time next year. The two-time Olympic 10,000m champion faces the marathon champion from London and team-mate Tiki Gelana, who ran a sub-2:19 national record in Rotterdam in April as well as world champion Edna Kiplagat from Kenya, who is looking to rebound from a disappointing Olympic campaign.

Dibaba is likely to face both of these athletes at some point in her marathon career so Dibaba's debut tomorrow will have the extra value of facing some of her potential future opposition as well as testing out the distance.

Even though the Newcastle to South-Shields course is notorious for its undulating profile, fast times have been recorded in both the men's and women's races. Paula Radcliffe set a world-best of 65:40 in 2003 (can't be ratified as a world record due to the overall downhill nature) and Kara Goucher became the world's fastest debutante when she ran 66:57 to defeat Radcliffe in 2007.

Conditions shouldn't be too bad for tomorrow's race and if Dibaba is motivated for a fast time like she was when she made her 15km debut in 2009, Goucher's world's fastest debut time should be within her grasp. The roll-of-honour shows track exponents generally perform well on this course and Dibaba has the advantage of fresher legs as Gelana and Kiplagat could still be feeling some of the effects of racing over the marathon distance five weeks ago.

Tiru's record on the roads

April 7 2002 – At 16, Dibaba finished second in the Carlsbad 5000 in 15:19 behind Deena Kastor, who set a US record of 14:54. The teenager still finished ahead of luminaries including Werknesh Kidane, Sonia O'Sullivan and long-time domestic rival Meseret Defar.

October 6 2002 – second again over 5km in Syracuse, New York in 15:44 behind Eyerusalem Kuma (15:38).

April 13 2003 – a fortnight after winning the world junior cross-country title in Lausanne, Dibaba proved competitive against the highest level of senior competition finishing third in Carlsbad in 15:00 behind soon-to-be world 10,000m champion Berhane Adere (14:54) and Isabella Ochichi (14:56).

April 3 2005 – Dibaba finally prevailed in her third appearance in the Carlsbad 5000 winning in an African record of 14:51 which has since been beaten.

November 15 2009 – Dibaba missed the majority of the track season because of injury but she finished with a flourish on her 15km debut in Nijmegen (see video) after a four year hiatus. Dibaba debuted with 46:28 to break Kayoko Fukushi's world record by 27 seconds. The most impressive aspect of Dibaba's record was the manner in which she set the record as she ran the final 5km almost one-minute faster than the first!

Dibaba's splits – 15:58, 31:23 (15:25), 46:28 (15:05)

December 31 2011 – another injury-plagued season concluded with a venture onto the roads as she won her 10km debut in Madrid. Instead of going for a fast time, Dibaba relied on her legendary sprint finish to win in 31:30 ahead of 1500m specialist Gelete Burka.

April 1 2012 – Dibaba was the comfortable winner in Carlsbad for the second time in 15:01.

Past results

2011 – 1. Lucy Kabuu (KEN) 67:06, 2. Jessica Augusto (POR) 69:27, 3. Marisa Barros (POR) 70:29

2010 – 1. Berhane Adere (ETH) 68:49, 2. Dulce Felix (POR) 69:01, 3. Marisa Barros (POR) 69:09

2009 – 1. Jessica Augusto (POR) 69:08, 2. Berhane Adere (ETH) 69:42, 3. Dulce Felix (POR) 69:48

2008 – 1. Gete Wami (ETH) 68:51, 2. Magdaline Mukunzi (KEN) 68:52, 3. Jo Pavey (GBR) 68:53

2007 – 1. Kara Goucher (USA) 66:57, 2. Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 67:53, 3. Aniko Kalovics (HUN) 70:17

2006 – 1. Berhane Adere (ETH) 70:03, 2. Benita Willis (AUS) 70:17, 3. Susan Chepkemei (KEN) 70:22

2005 – 1. Derartu Tulu (ETH) 67:33, 2. Werknesh Kidane (ETH) 68:09, 3. Jelena Prokopcuka (LAT) 68:11

2004 – 1. Benita Willis (AUS) 67:55, 2. Edith Masai (KEN) 68:27, 3. Susan Chepkemei (KEN) 68:32

2003 – 1. Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 65:40, 2. Berhane Adere (ETH) 67:32, 3. Susan Chepkemei (KEN) 67:51

2002 – 1. Sonia O'Sullivan (IRL) 67:19, 2. Susie Power (AUS) 67:56, 3. Joyce Chepchumba (KEN) 68:34

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Ilke Wyludda broke her major championships duck with gold in the discus at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and aged 43, she returns to the Olympic fray albeit in a slightly different manner to when she was in her hey-day in the 1990s.

Wyludda's international career started almost three decades ago under the flag of the former GDR when she won the inaugural world junior title in 1986. She dominated senior competition at the turn of the decade amassing 41 successive wins from 1989 to 1991 but it wasn't until reunification when she achieved her first global title in 1996 after a succession of near misses at the highest level of elite competition.

The latter stages of Wyludda's career were blighted by knee injuries and she retired from competition after the 2000 Olympics aged 31 which is when most discus throwers reach their prime.

Wyludda's injuries forced her to undergo a succession of operations in the late 1990s and she needed further surgery on her knee and lower leg after retiring from the sport after finishing seventh in Sydney.

She went under the knife again in 2010 although this time, the operation led to complications as the wound became infected which then led to septicemia. To put it bluntly, Wyludda had to choose between losing her limb or losing her life.

Her lower limb was amputated from just above the knee but despite an already busy lifestyle balancing long hours working as a full-time doctor and writing a doctoral thesis in pain therapy, Wyludda was lured back to the competitive arena after a twelve year hiatus with the Paralympic Games very much in mind.

"It's always better if you have a goal in life." Wyludda acknowledged.

"However much you cry, you are not going to get your limb back. You cannot stand in the past but keep living with new aims because life is a gift."

Wyludda started training seriously again at the start of the year and she currently trains five times a week under the tutelage of Gerhard Boettcher, who coached Wyludda for much of her senior career. She made a tentative return in a disability competition in the UAE where she threw 6.20m in the F57/58 shot put.

However, the distance was immaterial for an athlete who was still a novice in this sort of competition: "It was important for me to watch above all. The whole competition is a lot different from what I was formerly accustomed to."

The main obstacle Wyludda noted was how the power in disability competition has to come entirely from the upper-body when most of the power in able-bodied discus is generated from the lower legs.

Wyludda has overcome the changes in bodily dynamics and technique and has gradually found the form which will see her contend for a podium finish in both the F57/58 shot put and discus. She improved her shot put PB from 6.20m to 9.95m and she recorded a 29.12m discus which would have won bronze four years ago.

What a triumph over adversity it would be if Wyludda was to win a medal in London.

Wyludda's London schedule

Sep 4, 19:00 – F57/58 discus final

Sep 8, 10:03 – F57/58 shot final

Assunta Legnante compiled a solid career in able-bodied shot put competitions with the highlight being a gold medal from the 2007 European Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

Throughout the entirety of her career though, Legnante had to contend with congenital glaucoma in both eyes, a vision problem which she's had since birth which forced her to miss a number of competitions, namely the 2004 Olympic Games.

Her vision became increasingly problematic in 2009. She was driving to a meeting in Padova and it got to the stage where she could no longer see through her right eye which had generally given her more reliable vision through wearing lenses.

For the next three years, Legnante admitted she didn't partake in any sports as a number of doctors from a variety of hospitals tried to solve the blindness and once she was sure it wouldn't be resolved, Legnante immediately contemplated participation at the Paralympics and was put in touch with the President of Paralympic Sports Luca Pancalli.

Within weeks of training, Legnante set a world record in the F11 shot put of 13.27m. Since then, Legnante has improved enormously to 15.89m which makes her by far and away the leading aspirant for the title in London.

Legnante also plans to compete in the F11/F12 discus.

Legnante's London schedule

Sep 1, 11:45 – F11/12 discus final

Sep 5, 10:00 – F11/12 shot final