If you enjoy going out for dinner with a set menu so you don’t have to decide what to eat, well, you’re in luck with Issue 30 here. Pull up a chair at the restaurant ‘Lé Blue Line’ and relax as we’re serving a dégustation menu of all the running events across the world in the past fortnight so you don’t have trawl through the dark web for facts and figures. The Australian Athletics Championships is our entree, we then move on to four different marathons from all around the globe that are finished off with half a glass of Gifu before a Diamond League dessert is the cherry on top. Enjoy and please leave a review on Yelp.
FTK
The story of Rambo refusing to interview with Elise and I was real. I thought it was great composure from Rambo moments after winning his 3rd National 5,000m title to roll that one on us.
Joel and The Balanced Runner are edging closer to solving the riddle that is Joel Tobin-White and believe the issue is technique related. The sickness he developed in #94 lingered into #95’s training week but the sweet little prince is still optimistic of lining up at the next race he has pencilled in.
Brett continued his heat training block mixed in with some rain-training work at the Tan in his Tuesday session in the week of #94. His MRI scan showed his head’s a bit up the wazoo but he’s managing that and his troublesome tightness before he races this Sunday at Gifu.
Spiked Up
The Nationals recap episode exposed Sarah’s suspected tonsillitis she raced with and how she still managed to race. Kudos to Jordy for ‘talking her off the ledge’ using an unusual tactic of talking about vomiting…
Rose’s win also warmed the hearts of many listeners and set herself up for an exciting Diamond League race on Sunday. I hope Izzi Batt-Doyle brought her into the Qantas lounge again on their way over!
Sarah’s sub 4 minute 1500m on Diamond League debut in Xiamen provided us with another highlight to the year already and a bonus race recap.
Chasing Paris UK
In a series that started in Kenya, had a marathon in Spain, a training holiday in Portugal and finished with the London Marathon; Marc, Phil and Matt wrapped up the final episode of CP UK recapping Marc’s London experience and discussing Emile Cairess and Mahamed Mahamed’s fantastic runs. ‘I didn’t ever have my sights set on 2:07 dead… my goal for the day, 2:08:10, knowing if I did do that on the day wasn’t going to be anywhere near enough to make that Olympic team which maybe makes the heartbreak a little sweeter’ rationalised Marc who will now be aiming for the 5,000m at Paris while Phil is training in St.Moritz before he joins in for some work with Renato Canova’s athletes.
Hot Takes
The pair collectively smiled at Kenenisa Bekele’s race in London as they covered off some of the topics in the past fortnight. The answer to Riley’s Edna Kiplagat stats questions, according to my research, ‘Edna Kiplagat has been on 11 World Marathon Major podiums only missing Berlin from her collection (4th in ‘18), but Mary Keitany has the record with 12 podiums (and 7 victories!) with those results coming JUST from London and New York.’
Since Nationals ended almost a fortnight ago I’ve had my recap of events just sitting in the slow cooker, letting the juices caramelise and it’s finally time to wheel them out in the tried and true method of the traffic light review.
GREEN (highlights):
Luke Boyes winning the Men’s 800m event in 1:44.73 (PB) was my race of the meet. After talking to Luke following his heat win on Friday I had that feeling that this young man (he’s 20) was on one. He’d been progressing through the course of the season and his voice still had the energy in him, even after running 800m, that he was keen for more in the final domestic meet. When he led out in the final, basically saying to Peter Bol and Peyton Craig catch me if you can, he wasn’t going to be dying wondering… Bol and Craig took up the challenge with Bol literally ripping two blokes out of the way with 250m to go to snatch the lead momentarily. Boyes, who ‘felt so horrible throughout the race’ started treadmilling but then came home to pass Bol and win, only costing himself an Olympic Qualifier with his celebratory fist bump. In his defence, Luke said ‘I feel like the timing was off, I’m disappointed I didn’t get the qual’ but the result does give him confidence to aim for the standard after he finishes catching up on his uni commitments. The only other contender for distance event of the meet was the Women’s 800m but because Boyes was on the lead for the first lap I thought this was just a teeny bit more special.
With Peyton Craig, a Queenslander, only just turning 19 and finishing in third it means we could be looking at Boyes, a New South Welshman, against Craig in a pseudo State-of-Origin 800m battle for the next ten years. It’s now 3-2 in Craig’s favour. Also, given FTK’s role in delivering content to raise the profile of these athletes it’s worth noting that the unsponsored Boyes received the most ‘likes’ on his ‘Champion’ photo on FTK’s page so if you’re the head of a big multi-national brand looking for an unsponsored pale red-head as the face of your next campaign, Luke Boyes is your man!
Claudia Hollingsworth’s season. Undefeated across the whole summer and delivered on the big stage once again by winning the Women’s 800m in a PB time of 1:58.40 (2nd fastest Australian all-time). How’s that for your 19th birthday? Will we ever see anything like her season again? Maybe the only negative thing is we still haven’t seen her really challenged in a race this season by someone like Jess Hull in a 1500m. Granted, she is a couple of seconds off Jess and Linden Hall’s standard in the longer middle-distance event but she does have a few more years of aerobic base building to do before we can really pressure her to convert her 800m speed into a 3:55. Her reaction to winning and interviews post race and post official Olympic selection all continue to give off very endearing vibes. If anyone ever spoils her demeanour or she loses that aura, I will be ordering a full investigation and buying as much On product as possible so they can fund whatever she needs to continue her greatness!
Getting it done when it Matters is important. Matthew Clarke’s confidence was the worst some friends had ever seen given his Adelaide DNF and fall in Sydney and in his own words he thought his results heading in ‘were pretty average’. His win at Nationals was therefore unexpected to say the least, helped a little bit by the unfortunate demise of Ed Trippas. The home crowd rushing to congratulate him post race must’ve certainly made up for the disappointment in February when he disappeared without a trace at the same venue. The other Matt, Matthew Ramsden, on the other hand wasn’t going terribly, he did run 13:17 at the Maurie Plant meet, but given his post race comments about the MTC group getting behind him to support him he must’ve had a few dark and lonely days up at Falls. To sneak through in a similar fashion to his Zatopek 3000m win in December just shows that even if Rambo spends a bit of time in the oven, he’s never in there for a millisecond or two longer than he needs to be.
Lastly, the 101st Australian Athletics Championships had to be up there with the most hyped and well-attended by our current champions, who are some of the best ever. On top of that, the crowd figures were above the expectations of Athletics Australia showing that if you give Adelaide a chance to host an event, it usually does pretty well (just look at the evidence of Gather Round, Liv Golf, the day-night Cricket test match and the Grand Prix before Melbourne stole it).
RED (lowlights):
Every athletics event suffers the same problem and I’ve now realised that trying to solve it is futile. So, when I say I was disappointed that there was no Torrie Lewis in the 100m, no Abbey Caldwell or Claudia Hollingsworth in the 1500m, no Jess Hull, Stewy or Olli Hoare in the 5,000m and Ed Trippas got injured mid-race, I am not asking for a solution. If you’ve seen White Men Can’t Jump, you’ll understand that all I’m looking for is a bit of sympathy when I complain about this problem. Fortunately, when Elise and I did ask Abbey and Claudia about pulling out they too were sympathetic about wanting to do both, it’s just really hard ok! And it’s really hard for us too, ok!
It wasn’t a great meet for Australian Record Holders or experienced athletes with probably only Jessica Hull’s performance in the Women’s 1500m flying the flag for big dogs to get the job done (maybe harsh on Rose to not call her a big dog). The worst performance of them all given his terrific form heading in was Jack Rayner. 6th place in a time of 13:41 as a result of probably not forcing the pace enough earlier in the race. He wasn’t happy with his race as well and given his laid-back persona, will this missed opportunity spur him on to an improved Northern hemisphere season after 2023’s disappointment up north?
Considering that the selection policy lists ‘top two’ finishes as a part of the criteria for a nomination to the Olympic team, is there anyone missing from the top two that should be particularly nervous? Catriona Bisset is probably in a battle with Bendere Oboya for the 3rd 800m spot but given Catriona’s international pedigree and phenomenal 2023 she’s still probably in the box seat. Linden Hall, as our NR holder, was maybe safe in the Women’s 1500m as you’d think Claudia Hollingsworth and Abbey Caldwell are well advised to just focus on the 800m at the Olympics however the Xiamen results of Georgia Griffith and Sarah Billings throw a little bit of spice into the mix. Izzi Batt-Doyle minimised her losses in the 5,000m by placing fourth in a slow tactical race earning more points than fringe contenders Holly Campbell, Jenny Blundell & Leanne Pompeani. If Jess Hull opts to race the 1500m only at Paris then Izzi’s still positioned well in the Women’s 5,000m behind Lauren Ryan and Rose Davies.
The Men’s side isn’t as straightforward. Peyton Craig finished third in the 800m but has work to do to claim that third spot off Joseph Deng given Peyton probably won’t have the same overseas opportunities as Deng might. Stewy and Cam Myers were 4th and 5th respectively. If Jesse Hunt gets the time, which seems inevitable, that’ll mean the top five all have a case. With Adam Spencer’s victory all but assuring he’ll get a spot it means a scenario where one of Olli, Stewy and Cam may miss out. In the 5,000m it’s even worse with Jack Rayner’s 6th and Ky Robinson’s 5th making their cases more difficult and Stewy not even contesting the 5,000m creates further unknown. It might be harsh to make a call already a few months out from the July announcement but there’s a world where Olli Hoare, Adam Spencer and either Cam Myers or Jesse Hunt race the 1500m and Stewy, Jack and Rambo race the 5,000m. Oh-uh, looks like someone has a case of MTC-Bias-itis, what about Morgan McDonald’s second place finish and 13:07 PB, he has to get a spot?! Luckily the Australian selectors will be practised with tight calls by the time they get to July.
AMBER (not sure about this, further explanation or exploration required):
The crowd and fan engagement was terrific. Athletes post event were very polite when getting harassed by ten year olds wanting the clothes off their back and Elise wanting a photo with them. Perhaps in future this whole charade could be a bit more legitimised with an ‘autograph station’ or something of the like out the back with the food trucks. It gives athletes time to congratulate their fellow competitors, do their drug testing, cool downs, send a quick message to Mum & Dad, and then move out to the post-event fan zone in their own time and give the fans an even more engaged interaction.
On this hypothetical ‘post-event fan zone’ with a twilight finish on each night the National Champs is prime for a 7-9pm ‘Concert in the Carpark’ right? When all the athletics fans are streaming out thinking ‘how bloody good was that’ don’t let them wander off to their cars, get them to mingle around, engage in more athletics chit chat, and sing along to some B-grade Aussie artist looking to fill their touring calendar now major festivals are no longer a thing. Don’t worry about doing it on the infield like at Zatopek, there’s too many logistics with that, just put a few bollards around a carpark or two, turn the speakers up to 11 and get a few blokes with bagpipes to bring the band in on the back of a ute á la AC/DC style. Joel Tobin-White if you’re reading this, organising a music event might be the only way we get you to attend Nationals.
The success of these championships owes a huge part to the calibre of athletes that participated. Without the caveat of Olympic Selection next year it’s very likely we won’t get the same quality. Unless we incentivise them with something else. Strike a deal with the top athletes to say ‘hey, you there with your 50k followers on Instagram, if you come back to race in Australia and bring a few thousand of your followers with you, we’ll give you a $5,000 appearance fee… but only if you bring the fans with you’. Give the athletes some buy-in to the success seeing as they’re the ones who make the sport what it is.
From the slow-cooked entree we now move onto the main course, the Marathon results and previews from all around the world.
In Boston, Hellen Obiri went back-to-back in a time of 2:22:37, only moving into the lead with a mile to go. A full recap is available here, written by the person who gave top-American Emma Bates a celebratory beer as she finished in 2:27:14 and which now seems to be a growing trend (‘doing a Bates’) according to Emma Bates’ instagram. Bates had been working her way back from injury since she tore her plantar at the Chicago Marathon in 2023. For her to successfully rehab, train and then place as the top American for the second year running would’ve made that beer taste very, very good.
On the men’s side of things, Sisay Lemma used the downhills to go out at 2:00:06 pace in the first half and stayed in the lead the whole way to record a winning time of 2:06:17. The top male American was CJ Albertson who placed seventh with a 2:09:53 PB. It feels right that CJ was the top American at Boston, he’s their Yuki Kawauchi and has run Boston three times previously (even leading the race in 2021) so to crack a sub 2:10 on arguably the toughest World Marathon Major course is well deserved.
A week later the London Marathon rolled around and it was a mixed bag from an FTK perspective. Our boy, Marc Scott, went out at Olympic qualifier pace in his debut marathon in front of a home crowd. With Emile Cairess, also a local, up the road and looking a certainty to gain one of the two remaining spots it was between Marc and other Brit, Mahamed Mahamed, who was going in off the back of a 2:08:43 at Valencia in December, to fight it out for the third remaining spot and join Phil Seseman on the team. Unfortunately, Marc began to slow after 30k’s while Mahamed and Emile did not. The pack of elite African’s at the front was headlined by 2022 Marathon World Champion Tamirat Tola but like most major’s, it blew up as the finish drew closer. Left standing was Kenyan Alexander Mutiso (2:04:01) and Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele (2:04:15) before Cairess, an occasional training partner of Phil who’s coached by Renato Canova, eventually ended up 3rd with Mahamed placing 4th. Fantastic results for the two Brits. Kenny B has had a hot/cold marathon career but now pleasingly seems to be turning the corner with his second straight Masters World Record setting run following his 2:04 in Valencia.
The ladies race at London topped that effort from Kenny B and the Brits (sounds like an 80’s band) with Peres Jepchirchir leading home WR holder Tigst Assefa by only 8 seconds to run a new Women’s Only record of 2:16:16 taking off 45 seconds from Mary Keitany’s 2017 London winning efforts. This record adds to Jepchirchir’s already lengthy resume including the women’s only half marathon record, former half marathon world record, 2021 Olympic Marathon Champ, 3-time World Half-Champ and 3-time Major Marathon champ. So if you’re a Tigst Assefa fan I wouldn’t stress too much that the yet-to-be-ratified-WR holder was beaten, again, there was only 8 seconds the difference. The top four in London also finished within 20 seconds of each other but did not include fancy names such as Brigid Kosgei (5th) or Ruth Chepngetich (9th) or one of my favourite runners Yalamzerf Yehualaw (8th and famous for the windmilling arms at the Budapest World Championships).
Staying in Europe but heading away from results we have our Australian friends on tour in Hamburg! Andy Buchanan, is showing Ryan Gregson, Liam Adams, Ed Goddard and Ellie Pashley the sights in the German city as he prepares to run his third marathon there. Last time Andy took 2 minutes off his PB to run 2:10:20 and if he does that again he’ll be oh so close to the Olympic qualifier. Grego, recent co-host on FTK of course, is on his second start line of the year after his Fukuoka half marathon earlier in the year. Liam is coming off World XC and Ed has been over in Europe for almost a month now following that Paris Asics 10km race where he ran 29:35. Sadly, Ed has caught some sickness this week so whether he’s even on the start line is unknown.
Lastly, but most importantly in my view, Ellie Pashley is having another crack at joining the queue to the Olympic team. She described her changes to training post her DNF at Osaka on this Inside Running episode, which summarised for you, sounded like she was focused on making things a bit simpler and taking the pressure off this time around. The last time Ellie took the pressure off was around the 2023 World XC in Bathurst where she ended up being the highest placed Australian finisher. If I were her 2:26:21 PB from 2019 I’d be nervous.
Speaking of nerves and providing a great segue, I reckon the Ballarat Race Director would be a little nervous this morning! The event has gone from not existing to drawing Thomas Do Canto onto the start line in the marathon along with Gemma Maini and the full Mango Boys squad in the half. TDC was aiming as high as possible before sickness derailed his Osaka opportunity. Will he aim for sub 2:10 again? Or even sub 2:08:10? And has Reece Edwards’s new regime supported by Brett Robinson found him some extra speed as he builds towards Gold Coast? His current World Athletics listed half PB is 63:38 from 2021. The Mile, 5km and 10km events all feature prize money as well so if you’re not in Ballarat this weekend it’s worth keeping an eye on the results there.
Speaking of results (the segue king has done it again!) a quick update of the Road to Paris rankings for the marathon shows that Liam Adams is still within the quota even after London’s results. Liam sits in 73rd position, one behind CJ Albertson from the US. Is he running Hamburg because he’s worried it’s not enough of a buffer or is he doing his best to ensure another Australian doesn’t swoop in at the last second in front of him? Will Leonard Korir be thanking CJ Albertson for unlocking the third spot for Team USA? On the Women’s side their field at Paris will now increase to 87 (7 spots more than anticipated) as it did in Tokyo/Sapporo when the same problem of too many women under the standard happened. To mimic the depth of the Men’s field (currently 70 qualified via the standard) in the Women’s would require a qualifying time of 2:25:54, almost one whole minute quicker than what is now. No Australian’s would’ve been cut if that was the case though, further evidence of how freaking good we have got it this cycle.
Into the dessert section of this Issue and the 2024 Diamond League opened up in Xiamen last weekend. Sarah Billings' sub 4 minute 1500m (3:59.59) reminded me of when Adam Spencer also found himself on a DL start line at the last minute last year and subsequently dropped 5 seconds off his own 1500m PB (listen back to FTK Episode #64 for the full story). Just in front of Sarah, also dipping under the 4 minute barrier for the first time was training partner Georgia Griffith (3:59.04). Griffo had previously run a pair of 4:00:something’s in 2022 indicating she could go sub 4 in the right race but given her 2023 form (which she discussed on Spiked Up episode #02) there may have been doubts if she’d ever make it back to that standard. Not any more!
Stewy McSweyn was the next distance running highlight at Xiamen, logging his second fastest 5,000m time ever (13:05.18) and fastest time since his 2nd September 2022 PB in the event (12:56). Yes it was 0.18s off the qualifier which was a bit sad, but it was almost twenty seconds faster than any of his three 5,000m’s last year. If you want to relive all the action, head to Youtube or read AA’s wrap-up.
Although Xiamen was very exciting, the future always holds more excitement than the past so keep your eyes peeled on the Wanda Diamond League channel on Youtube for the Suzhou/Shanghai’s meet tomorrow night. Cara Feain-Ryan is going again in the 3000m SC, Cal Davies is pacing Stewy, Morgan McDonald, Rambo, Rayner, Irishmen (and friend of Spiked Up) Brian Fay and 12:43 man Selemon Barega in another 5,000m and most intriguingly, the first event of interest in the night at 8:29pm AEST time, is the Women’s 5,000m. ‘Sub4 Sarah’ is pacing Izzi Batt-Doyle, Rose Davies, Lauren Ryan and Maudie Skyring along with Letesenbet Gidey who’s PB (14:06) is over thirty seconds faster than anyone else in the field. This is the first of three DL’s in a row featuring a Women’s 5,000m but obviously the Aussie girls would love to notch the 14:52 qualifier as soon as possible. Izzi, Rose and Lauren are all a bit closer than Maudie to that time however let’s not forget that Maudie ran 8:42.96 at the National 3,000m Champs this year which is equivalent, on World Athletics points, to a 14:59 5,000m.
After China, the Diamond League moves to Doha (May 10th) which will feature a Men’s 1500m and 3000m SC and a Women’s 5,000m, 1500m and 800m.
This was actually in last fortnight’s news window but it appeared too close to the deadline. I’m talking about the World Athletics announcement to pay $50,000 to Gold medal winners at the 2024 Olympics and payouts to Silver and Bronze medallists at LA 2028. Matt Seddon, speaking on Chasing Paris UK, thought they’d done themselves in a bit by alerting everyone to the fact that the best athletes on the planet are only getting $50,000 at the Olympics. He’s got a point. We can all jump on World Athletics back and say they should get more for their 4 years worth of training and competition to be successful at the pinnacle. Orrrrr, we can gang up with the other sporting federations to ask the IOC what they do with all the ticket and advertising money the Olympics generates.
In other money related news (*don’t tell me there’s another segue*) Michael Johnson's partnership with Winners Alliance has raised more than $30 million in financing a new fan focused track and field league. Winners Alliance is the for-profit arm of the now 5 year old Professional Tennis Players Association, a body that itself was created to represent tennis players similar to how a union represents it’s workers in order to create more equitable outcomes for all tennis players, not just the top elites who take home a lot of the prize money… (oh, so maybe like sharing the $50,000 for a Gold medal might be a better idea for the longevity of the sport). If Johnson’s new league gets off the ground it would put ‘athletes front and centre’ and potentially lead to improved prize money and endorsement deals.
At Run the Tan last weekend Lauren Ryan finished in 1st place in the Women’s race in a time of 11:34 (2nd fastest time ever, only three seconds behind Jess Hull’s CR). Andrew Coscoran won the men’s race, adding the cheque to his Box Hill 1000m win and his Zatopek win on Australian soil. Not a bad little summer for Cosi then eh? Well, it could’ve been better if he hadn’t momentarily stopped before the finish line on Sunday, his eventual time of 10:28 was two seconds off the Top 10.
For the trail brethren and sistren, the Golden Trail World Series kicked off last weekend in Kobe, Japan. Kenyan Patrick Kipngeno (who has a 62 minute half to his name) won the men’s race and Maude Mathys the ladies after raging favourites Sophia Laukli and two-time World Champion Grayson Murphy (both of the US) were late DNS’s. The Kobe course was 21.6km’s long with 2062m of elevation gain and has a sweet highlights video or this longer one too featuring third place Elhousine Elazzaoui. Trail running videos make for great background watching IMO as opposed to road race highlights. This weekend the series moves to China at the Four Sisters Mountain Trail with 22km and 1530m of vert.
That’s not all for the trail brethren and sistren though, this weekend also features the first UTMB ‘Major’ of 2024 at the Canyons Endurance Run in California. Finish Top 10 and you earn a spot in the respective OCC, CCC, UTMB races for 2025’s finals. Australia's Anna McKenna and Steph Auston are on the start list for the 100km while Australian based Kiwi Juliette Soule is in the 50km (along with Molly Seidel!). A lot of the top runners will also be using this race as a last chance opportunity to earn a Golden Ticket for the Western States Endurance Run in late June, where, oh no he didn’t, oh yes I did, I’ve segued again, into the fact that news dropped this week that Jim Walmsley will be aiming for the Western States/UTMB double this year for the first time since 2021.
Finally, in doping news, the revelation that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive to trimetazidine (TMZ) was not a good look for WADA in the lead-up to the Olympics. The short of it is all 23 swimmers tested positive but weren’t banned as an investigation found they received the banned drug (which is a metabolic modulator, increasing endurance by increasing the efficiency of the heart) through a contaminated source from a hotel they all stayed at. The dodgy part to it is this all occurred before the Tokyo Olympics and it took a two year investigation by a German news outlet to expose it all aaaaaaannnd TMZ is the same drug that China’s Sun Yang tested positive for and was banned for in 2014. So it may not be running news but the fact that WADA gave 23 athletes a pass for having a banned drug in their system must ring alarm bells for how WADA conduct their operations…
Today is Ryan Gregson’s birthday and he is turning 34 years old! That’s a lot of candles!
A fortnight ago Cam Myers was asked who his favourite Australian athlete was and he nominated Ryan Gregson. Brett Robinson might even say the same. To celebrate the former AR holder in the 1500m’s birthday this fortnight’s fact is that Ryan Gregson has represented Australia in 19 different international competitions across his Junior and Senior careers. The first of those was the 2006 World Mountain Running competition where Grego placed 24th in the Junior Mountain Run event as a 15 year old. That’s almost 20 years ago! What were you doing at 15 years old?!
April 27th: Suzhou/Shanghai Diamond League. Program. Youtube will again have coverage with the Women’s 5,000m starting at 8:29 AEST.
April 28th: Ballarat Marathon. I hope Steve Moneghetti is riding in the back of a ute yelling encouragement at race favourite Thomas Do Canto all race long. Start time is 8am AEST.
April 28th: Gifu Half Marathon. The invited athletes include Brett Robinson and Gen Gregson, 58:56 man Stephen Kissa and 66:07 woman Dolphine Nyaboke Omare who is going for a 3-peat! I hope that Archer Gregson hasn’t been channeling this energy in what is a big weekend for the Gregsons. Start time is 10am AEST. DM Sam McEntee for a livestream link (he figured it out for Fukuoka!)
April 28th: Hamburg Marathon. Suspected live stream link. Start list and start time of 5:30pm AEST.
May 5th: Sydney Marathon Run Club x FTK. Register here.
May 10th: Doha Diamond League. Program.
May 10th: Judgement day for the Marathon selectors. Expect an official announcement later in May after time for appeals has been allowed for.
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