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CONTENTS
- Reshuffle of health care charities, all Boston Marathon beneficiaries
- Mexico City Marathon follow-up: 11,000 cheaters were fake news
- Road Race Management Race Directors' Meeting approaches
- World and national records spree at Prefontaine Classic/Diamond League finale
- Agnes Ngetich: two road WRs in one
- Berlin Marathon live TV broadcast info
- Yellowstone-area grizzly euthanized after killing runner, breaking into home
- Pioneering timing system Ubidium's deliveries to commence
- Tail end of Portland Marathon embezzlement, tax evasion charge: former president Lester Smith pleads guilty, no prison time
- Sage Steele sounds off on transgender athletes
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Known for being home to insurance giants John Hancock and Liberty Mutual, Boston is also a powerhouse of health service organizations, several of which receive hefty charity donations from the Boston Marathon. //Illustration | Dreamstime.com// | |
The Boston Globe put it this way: "Dana-Farber blindsided Brigham and Women's [Hospital]. The blowback will be strong." Whoa! The story features the breakup between the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the wedding of Dana Farber with Beth Israel Lahey--all three heavy hitters in the Boston Metropolitan area hotbed of health care. . . and all three are major charity recipients of the Boston Marathon, to the tune of $10M in 2023. That's $7.5M to first place Dana-Farber, $2.0M to third place Brigham and Women's Hospital, and $0.6M to eighth place Beth Israel Lahey Health. They account for a quarter of the total $40M raised for all of the 269 charities supported by the Boston Marathon in 2023.
Today, Dana-Farber performs outpatient care at the institute, but patients are admitted for inpatient care at Brigham and Women's Hospital, connected to the Dana-Farber institute by a bridge. Under the new arrangement joining Dana-Farber with Beth Israel, the institute will move into a new free-standing inpatient hospital to be located on Beth Israel's Longwood Medical Area campus.
| Reports of Mexico City Marathon Disqualifications Revised Downward by a Factor of Six | Zocalo Square in Mexico City, site of the Mexico Marathon finish. Prior to the colonial period, it was the main ceremonial center of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. //Photo: Izanbar | Dreamstime.com// | |
A week after the August 27 Mexico City Marathon, headlines from sources ranging from Spanish newspaper Marca to the New York Post screamed that 11,000 runners out of a field of 30,000 had been disqualified from the race for cheating.
The report was long on outrage but short on facts, according to the marathon's official communications coordinator, Carlos Ochoa Aranda. In an email on September 14 to Road Race Management, Ochoa Aranda reported that 21,504 started the race and 19,697 "qualified as finalists of the full route." The difference of 1,807 would be the maximum disqualified for cheating, i.e. those who crossed the finish line without running the entire course. Other non-finishers (DNFs) may simply have walked off without crossing the finish line.
Since the marathon suffered mass disqualifications in the race in the past (6,000 in 2017 and 3,000 in 2018), it's likely that they did not catch all the cheaters this year, but even so the idea of 11,000 cheaters appears to be a sensationalist distortion.
Ochoa Aranda added, "We regret that some media outlets have disseminated information without verifying it and without having sources of information, which negatively affects the runners who made a valuable effort. Therefore, the erroneous information spread in the media regarding participants in the Telcel 2023 Mexico City Marathon is flatly denied."
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The 38th annual Road Race Management Race Directors' Meeting and Trade Exhibit will take place in Hollywood, FL, December 11 - 13 (Mon-Wed). The country’s foremost race directors' gathering offers sessions on critical topics for running event directors and officials along with networking opportunities and a chance to shop for equipment and service needs at the Trade Exhibit.
The full program and schedule for the meeting are available at https://www.rrm.com/act/rdm/rdm.asp
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Left: Gudaf Tsegay sets world record in 5000m; right: Yared Nuguse sets American record in mile, a split second behind Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen. //Photos: Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly; used with permission.// | |
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The Prefontaine Classic (Sep 16-17) and Diamond League season finale in Eugene was packed with eight national records from six different countries, including three American records (all records pending ratification). The most spectacular was Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay's women's world record 14:00.21 in the 5000m, which lopped five seconds off the previous mark. Tsegay's performance was rivaled by Yared Nuguse's 3:43.97 in the mile, bettering Alan Webb's 16-year-old American men's record by nearly three seconds. Nuguse finished half a stride behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen, whose 3:43.73 set a Norwegian national record. Ingebrigtsen's mark was the third fastest mile of all time, and Nuguse's the fourth.
It's hard to rank the remaining NR's in quality, but let's start with reigning world champion Winfred Mutile Yavi's 8:50.66 in the women's steeplechase, which is a Bahraini (and Asian) record and #2 all-time. Besides Nuguse, two other Americans set national records: Athing Mu in winning the women's 800m in 1:54.97, and Grant Fisher in taking bronze in the men's 3000m in 7:25.47. (Ingebrigtsen--surprise!--won the 3000 in 7:23.63, nabbing another Norwegian record and third-fastest in history.) To round out the national records, Marco Arop set a Canadian men's 800m record, running 1:42.85 in losing to Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonkyi by five-hundredths of a second. (Wanyonkyi became the 2023 world leader while setting a meet record.)
We're including in our records tally the world record set by Sweden's Mondo Duplantis, whose 6.23 meters in the pole vault surpassed his own world and national record by one centimeter. We know that this is technically a field event, but the Prefontaine Classic is a track & field meet, and the record was Duplantis's seventh in a row, making it extra big.
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Agnes Ngetich enjoys the thrill of victory followed by the surprise of setting two women's- only world road records in the Brasov Running Festival 10K. //Photo: Brasov Running Festival.// | |
A week before a flood of national track and field records swept through the Prefontaine Classic, Kenyan Agnes Ngetich nailed two women's-only world road records in one race at Romania's Brasov Running Festival 10K. Ngetich tore through 5K in a world record 14:25 en route to winning the 10K in a world record 29:24. Ngetich expressed amazement at taking a world record, since her objective was merely to better the course record 30:07.
In February, Ngetich won a bronze medal in the World Cross Country Championships.
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Start of the Chicago Marathon. //Photo: Phil Stewart// | |
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The Bank of American Chicago Marathon is celebrating a 40-year partnership with MarathoFoto, one of the world's preeminent race photography companies.
Over the years, MarathonFoto has evolved alongside the marathon, embracing technological advancements to provide participants with an unforgettable visual record of their achievements. From traditional film photography to state-of-the-art digital imaging, MarathonFoto has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation. Said MarathonFoto President Brad Kroll, "From the determined first-time runners to the seasoned athletes breaking personal records, MarathonFoto's mission has always been to inspire and celebrate athletes on their marathon journey."
MarathonFoto will stage more than 120 photographers at 15 strategically positioned locations along the 26.2-mile course and at the finish line in Grant Park.
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IN OTHER RUNNING (AND SPORTS) NEWS
BMW Berlin Marathon announces TV live broadcast on Sep 24. To follow the BMW Berlin Marathon check out the broadcast list.
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Rogue grizzly bear who killed trail runner Amie Adamson near Yellowstone Park in July was euthanized in early September after breaking into a home in search of food. In 2020, the bear had injured another person. Her cub is being held at a wildlife rehabilitation center pending transfer to a zoo. The estimated grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone area has risen from 136 in 1975 to a peak of 1,063 in 2021. Yellowstone Park averages about one bear attack per year. | |
Groundbreaking timing system Ubidium from RACE RESULT is soon to be delivered to its first customers worldwide. The system has "a remarkably compact and lightweight design" in comparison with other timing devices. RACE RESULT CEO Soenke Petersen says that "the small form factor and high-quality display make timing with Ubidium a whole new experience." | |
Former Portland Marathon president Lester Smith pled guilty to tax evasion, following on from an embezzlement scheme unearthed in 2018 siphoning $1.2 million from Portland Marathon, Inc. for Smith's personal use. Smith, age 83 and ailing, was spared prison time for the tax evasion charge. | |
Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele spoke out against transgender athletes competing in women's sport. She charged that people in sports leadership who fail to "give an honest answer" should be ashamed. Steele's views, whatever their merits, are colored by politics, she having been suspended by ESPN over comments she made about former President Barack Obama and the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. Steele left ESPN in August. | |
For the latest-breaking news on road, track, and trail every day, check out Road Race Management's home page at https://www.rrm.com/ | |
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In conjunction with the celebration of 40 years of publishing Road Race Management Newsletter, the company launched a newly-reconfigured version of its Longest Serving Race Director Rankings. The listing, which debuted in 2019, will now allow any race director who has directed the same race for five years or more to be included by completing this easy-to-use form. The listings are searchable by a number of different criteria including race distance, country, state, and gender. Biographical data and photos of the directors will be listed if supplied.
Emails for updating listings for 2022 were sent out around December 20. If you did not receive yours, please email [email protected]. Emails for 2023 director listings will go out in December 2023.
Many of the updates have now been submitted through midyear of 2022. Click here to see the current rankings.
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