Welcome back to The Blue Line - your fortnightly hit of running news and views.
Before we jump into the issue, we want to thank everyone for getting behind Issue 01. As we grow we’re looking forward to bringing you even more high quality content, and taking on the big media companies - we’re talking sudoku puzzles, form guides (hint: just bet on Jack Rayner), and even a gossip section - featuring the steamy long run pics Joel Tobin-White doesn’t want you to see 😱.
We’ve got some great stuff for you this issue - it’s literally just down there 👇🏼 - you can just scroll down and read it. Go on. Treat yourself.
Also, we’ve got Aussie sprinter Nana Owusu-Afriyie stopping by for Win of the Week. If you haven’t figured it out yet, Win of the Week is here to balance out the bad karma of Brett and Joel’s Instagram segment ⚖️.
by Elise Beacom
As the dust settles on the New York Marathon and the podium getters spend their prize money, we take a look at the best of the rest. Let’s get to know some of our top ten male and female finishers from last Sunday’s iconic race.
In her debut marathon appearance, Hellen Obiri 🇰🇪 was the talk of the town before the race. The Kenyan track star recently moved to the US to train with the On Athletics Club under coach Dathan Ritzenhein. Dathan called Hellen “an all-time talent” on the Citius Mag podcast and had said the team would be “disappointed if she’s not on the podium.” Hellen finished in 6th place, while another debutante stole the show (Sharon Lokedi).
Japan’s Suguru Osako 🇯🇵 (5th place male) briefly retired from the marathon following the Tokyo Olympics, succumbing to the pressure of performing at a high level in a country that LOVES its running. ‘Sugar’ has had a lucrative career so far, breaking the Japanese national record in the marathon twice, earning him about AU$1million a pop! Hear his coach Pete Julian speak to LetsRun.com about Suguru’s decision to come out of retirement.
Australian Jessica Stenson 🇦🇺 continues to reign supreme for her consistency over 42.2km. Of her 10 best marathons, less than six minutes separates her fastest from her slowest. Jess came 9th in NY – achieving her goal of a top 10 finish – and presented her brother Jack with his debut finisher medal.
It was a Cinderella story for American Nell Rojas 🇺🇸 who came 10th at NY, her first marathon as a Nike athlete. Nell ran Boston in plain ‘civilian’ race kit earlier this year, having broken a sponsorship deal with Adidas because the shoes didn’t agree with her. Nell shared her whole NY Marathon build on Sweat Elite check it out here.
Fellow American Scott Fauble 🇺🇸 broke the “nothing new on race day” rule after signing a deal with Nike the night before the race. Scott grabbed an Uber to pick up his race shoes from the Nike store and the rest of his outfit arrived at 10pm. It all went fine because he finished 9th.
by Chris James
The rise of Athing Mu has been nothing short of meteoric - in 2020 she was named ‘National High School Indoor Athlete of the Year’ by Track and Field News, in what has since become her least impressive accolade.
In 2021 Mu did what everyone knew she could do, by winning gold in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics. She added a second gold as part of the stacked USA team in the 4x400m relay.
In 2022 she won gold at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon in the 800m. In fact, she hasn’t lost an outdoor 800m since September 2019 - when she was just 17 years old.
Mu has a big Nike deal, 145k followers on Instagram, catwalk appearances (yasss queen) and many other exciting things going on in her life. But she’s in the news this week for announcing a coaching change, opting to join Bobby Kersee and his group in LA. So what, people change coaches all the time, right? Not a big deal? Well…maybe.
Bobby Kersee is the current coach of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (and coached Allyson Felix), also a gold medalist. Kersee has coached gold medalists at 100m, 200m, 400m, and the 100m and 400m hurdles.
Sounds like a good coach. There is, however, a cloud of controversy that hangs over Bob Kersee, and it dates back to the late 80’s and his relationship with Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo-Jo). There have been several allegations levelled against Kersee and his athletes (including his wife, 6 time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner Kersee), and you can read some of them here, and here.
The first link above, to an article on honestsport.com, talks about the historical claims against Kersee while acknowledging that recently he has avoided controversy. I found the below paragraph telling -
“Only one of his athletes has failed a doping test this millennium; Dawn Harper-Nelson in 2017. His last athletes to do so before then were Andre Phillips, the 1988 Seoul Olympic 400m hurdles champion, and Greg Foster, a three-time World Championship winning hurdler, who both tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine over thirty years ago.”
Can’t argue with that, I guess.
Note: The Blue Line and the wider Grattan House network make no accusations or suggestions of wrongdoing by Mu or Kersee.
by Fraser Darcy
Every time we see elite athletes on the big stage it’s easy to think they’re all robots who eat, sleep, train, repeat. Our job here at The Blue Line is to shine a light on athletes who are doing big things away from competition - whether that’s Brett inflating his biceps, Joel slingin’ wine 🍷, or something else all together.
Today, we’re putting the spotlight on hurdle queen, Liz Clay. When she’s not winning national titles or going to the Olympics, Liz runs her own graphic design business. It started in 2019, creating mock logos on her living room floor, to now producing content for Athletics Victoria and the upcoming Zatopek and Victorian 5000m Championships events.
A quick look at her website, would have you thinking Liz has been in the design game for a decade, even though when she first started she admits she “was completely average at graphic design and had no portfolio or even a real skill set.” The progression of LC Studios can probably be attributed to the fact that Liz believes the process of being a graphic designer mirrors being an athlete.
“You work really hard on something, you get a type of feedback (positive/negative, external or internal), you keep working, get more feedback and eventually you complete the job and get rewarded ($ and sense of accomplishment).”
After talking with Liz it was pretty clear that she’s passionate about helping her clients with whatever brand or design work they need, no matter who the client is, but the athletics related work and seeing projects go from nothing to full-scale is what most excites her.
So, if you’re ever on the couch thinking how you can do more to support elite athletes in addition to just chucking them another like on IG, consider giving some of your business to LC Studios if you’re in need of some graphic design work. How cool would you be if your graphic designer was also an Olympic hurdler? Not as cool as Liz Clay but pretty close maybe.
Plus, next time you see Liz fanging it down the track you’ll now know that she’s probably the best damn hurdler/graphic designer combo going ‘round.
by Fraser Darcy
First it was Julian Spence taking down Andy Kromar’s long standing Bogong 2 Hotham Record back in 2017, and now it’s Reece Edwards and Ben St Lawrence collecting the top prizes at the recent Ultra Trail Australia (UTA) for the 100 and 50 km races respectively. Are these outliers or are we starting to see what we’ve always suspected would happen, that once road runners get a good sniff 👃🏻 of the trails they’ll be cleaning up the mostly non-existent prize pools and serving trail runners some big ol’ humble pie? 🥧
Well, some ‘trail’ running races, like the recent UTA course, are more road than trail at times, playing right into the hands of the roadies - so the recent results can be a little skewed. Trail runners who pride themselves on their superior technical ability, capacity to absorb food for over 15 hours and general comfort in extreme climates in the bush don’t get a chance to use these skills to their advantage against roadies in short races on fire tracks.
If we take a peek at overseas ultra’s like Hardrock and UTMB where the likes of Kilian Jornet 🇪🇸, Courtney Dauwalter 🇺🇸 and Francois D’Haene 🇫🇷 have reigned supreme for years, despite a few attempts from high level former college track stars, we see that trail runners are still keeping their heads slightly above water despite the rising tide of roadies coming for them.
But trail running specific skills are much easier to learn compared to years of honing your VO2 max and running economy on the roads. It seems then that it’s only a matter of time before former road runners and track stars start taking over all forms of trail running events around the world, with Jim Walmsley and Grayson Murphy already leading the charge.
Should trail running be concerned about the Great Migration of roadies taking over? Or is it just the next evolution of the sport?
Well, if my economics teacher taught me anything it was that increased competition results in better outcomes for consumers, so, bring it on I say! As long as the best runner on the day wins the race, fans should be welcoming as many people as possible to sign up for races.
Road runner or trail runner, we’re all f****** runners and it shouldn’t matter what you call yourself, we’re in the (*checks notes*) 21st century now, labels don’t matter right? The dream scenario in this matter is to have a showdown between the two current GOATs of each discipline, Eliud Kipchoge and Kilian Jornet, that plays to each of their strengths equally. Maybe something 100 km long, in the alps, no bottle man or pacer for Eliud and no poles allowed for Kilian. Now that would be a race worth streaming...
My win(ner) of the week is Australian Race Walker and Commonwealth Games champion, Jemima Montag.
Jemima has many accolades on the track including being a Gold medalist of the 20km race walk at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Montag also came sixth in the final of the Women's 20 km walk in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in a time of 1:30.39.
Off the track Jemima was recently selected amongst a group of 25 athletes around the world as an IOC Young Leader for 2021-2024. The IOC Young Leader program supports leaders to build a sport-based social business that addresses a pressing local issue in their community and links to the Sustainable Development Goals.
With the help of the IOC, Jemima has created a program called “Play On” - enabling better environments for girls in sport. Jemima noticed a gap in sports participation in girls - girls are 2 times more likely to drop out of sports than boys. With this in mind Jemima created a framework to help increase the participation of girls in sport.
Jemima looks at all aspects that may affect participation in sports for girls by focusing on issues such as female athlete health, body image, nutrition, and inclusivity.
I was lucky enough to go to the Play On launch event over the weekend and it was amazing to see the hard work Jemima has put in over the past two years to create an environment for girls to feel confident at all levels to participate in sports.
This is a win for all girls that aspire to be just like Jemima or any of their sporting role models, that there are programs and support in place to create a safe place for all girls and females to participate in.
Congratulations on your launch, Jemima.