Tokyo Olympic Preview

Running events begin this week in Tokyo for the Olympics. This week we are preparing you to enjoy Olympic running more than ever.  

Updated world records.

3 new world records in Track and Field at the Olympics:

• Sydney McLaughlin, 400m hurdles
• Karsten Warholm (Norway), 400m hurdles
• Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela), triple jump

*Allyson Felix now has most medals in track and field at 11 total

 Women’s 800m

• Athing Mu wins the USA 800m gold
  • First USA gold in 800m in 53 YEAR (1968)
  • American record time (over Ajee’ Wilson’s 1:55.61)
• First medal at all in 33 years
• Only have won 3 medals EVER
• The show is about teenagers. 19 years olds and Keely Hodgkinson .
• No one could really challenge Mu in the final stretch
• Raevyn Rogers stormed the final 100m to cease the Olympic bronze

1 Athing Mu 1:55.21 USA

2 Keely Hodgkinson 1:55.88 GBR

3 Raevyn Rogers 1:56.81 USA

4 Jemma Reekie 1:56.90 GBR

5 Chunyu Wang 1:57.00 CHN

Men’s 800m

• Peter Bol took it out
• Korir took the lead on the corner
• Kenya went 1-2
• Korir revived his Olympic showing here after false starting out of the 400m prelims

1 Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir 1:45.06 KEN

2 Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich 1:45.23 KEN

3 Patryk Dobek 1:45.39 POL

4 Peter Bol 1:45.92 AUS 

5 Adrian Ben 1:45.96 ESP

…

9 Clayton Murphy 1:46.53 USA

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase

• Courtney took it hard with about 2 laps to go
• Looked like she was burying the field
• BUT Chemutai stayed just close enough and reeled her back in the last lap

1 Peruth Chemutai 9:01.45 UGA

2 Courtney Frerichs 9:04.79 USA 

3 Hyvin Kiyeng 9:05.39 KEN

4 Mekides Abebe 9:06.16 ETH

5 Gesa Felicitas Krause 9:14.00 GER

…

12 Valerie Constien 9:31.61 USA

Emma Coburn DQ USA

Men’s 5000m

• Paul Chelimo stayed in the hunt the entire and pushed off the track
• Mo Ahmed was back in around 5th when they took the final corner and hauled passing Chelimo on the inside
• Chelimo exerts so hard he dives across the line earning bronze.
• Paul Chelimo is the first American to win two medals in the men’s 5000m

1 Joshua Cheptegei 12:58.15 UGA

2 Mohammed Ahmed 12:58.61 CAN

3 Paul Chelimo 12:59.05 USA

4 Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli  12:59.17 KEN

5 Jacob Kiplimo 13:02.40 UGA 

9 Grant Fisher 13:08.40 USA

14 William Kincaid  13:17.20 USA

Women’s 1500m 

(WATCH IT HERE)

• Gabby Stafford takes it out
• Faith Kipyegon flips the script on Sifan Hassan and makes her lead, sitting on her shoulder
• Laura Muir earns British Record and storms down Sifan Hassan in the final stretch
• Faith Kipyegon is the defending champion after taking an entire year off of racing after giving birth to her first child. 

1 Faith Kipyegon 3:53.11 KEN

2 Laura Muir 3:54.50 GBR 

3 Sifan Hassan 3:55.86 NED

4 Freweyni Gebreezibeher 3:57.60 ETH

5 Gabriela Debues-Stafford 3:58.93 CAN

…

10 Elinor Purrier St. Pierre  4:01.75 USA

12 Cory Ann McGee 4:05.50 USA

Women’s Marathon 

(Runners World)

• 88 started the race
• 46 women within two seconds of each other through 10K in 2:33 marathon pace.
• down to 25 by the 15K
• 13 by 20K
• halfway in 1:15:14, the pack was down to 10, including Seidel and Kipyego.
• 29th kilometer, when Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya, the 2019 world champion who set the half marathon world record in April, fell off the lead pack. She wound up dropping out after about 20 miles. 
• With 9k to go there were only 5 (Seidel and Salpeter doing most of the work.)
• Kosgei took it with 5000m to go Salpeter tried to go with Kosgei and Jepchirchir but it was too much and when Molly passed her she started walking.
• With a push just past the 40-kilometer mark, two-time world half marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya won the women’s Olympic Marathon in 2:27:20.
• Molly yelling YES at the finish
• Seidel’s bronze is the first Olympic marathon medal for an American woman since Deena Kastor won bronze in Athens in 2004.

1 Peres Jepchirchir 2:27:20 KEN

2 Brigid Kosgei 2:27:36 KEN

3 Molly Seidel 2:27:46 USA 

4 Roza Dereje 2:28:38 ETH

5 Volha Mazuronak 2:29:06 BLR

…

17 Sally Kipyego 2:32:53

Aliphine Tuliamuk DNF

Women’s 10000m

• Helen Obiri and Letesenbet Gidey led the race.
• With 8 laps Sifan is in third
• Sifan is the first woman to win 3 distance medals and second to get the 5000m and 10000m golds. Genzebe Dibaba won the gold and the bronze at the 2015 world championships and that’s the closest we’ve come to seeing this kind of dominance. 

1 Sifan Hassan 29:55.320 NED 

2 Kalkidan Gezahegne 29:56.180 BRN 

3 Letesenbet Gidey 30:01.720 ETH 

4 Hellen Obiri  30:24.270 KEN

5 Francine Niyonsaba 30:41.930 BDI

…

10 Emily Sisson 31:09.580 USA

12 Karissa Schweizer 31:19.960 USA 

13 Alicia Monson 31:21.360 USA 

Men’s 1500m 

(WATCH IT HERE)

• Abel Kipsang broke the Olympic record in his semifinal
  • 3:31.65 to best Noah Ngeny’s 3:32.07 from 2000
• At 400m, Timothy Cheruiyot took the lead.
  • Controlled the rest of the race.
• Jakob Ingebrigtsen rounded the final turn and took Cheruiyot down.
  • It almost looked like Cheruiyot was pacing Jakob
• After the race Cheruiyot gave Jakob a bracelet and the two embraced. 
• At bell lap Mcsweyn of Australia looked like a pretty solid third, but the field was hunting behind him with Abel Kipsang and Josh Kerr passing on the final turn. 
• Third place may have been the most surprising. The 23-year-old Scot’s bronze was his first major medal, and Britain’s first in the event since 1988.
• Kerr Challenged Cheruiyot and was just out leaned by Cheruiyot.
• Jakob and his brothers are coached by their dad
• Sifan ran a similar final 100m split as Jakob in the 1500m of 13.7 whereas Jakob was 13.5

1 Jakob Ingebrigtsen 3:28.32 NOR

2 Timothy Cheruiyot 3:29.01 KEN

3 Josh Kerr 3:29.05 GBR

4 Abel Kipsang 3:29.56 KEN

5 Adel Mechaal 3:30.77 ESP

…

6 Cole Hocker 3:31.40 USA

• Faster than the previous Olympic record
• PR’d in every heat
• Improved 4 secs

11 Oliver Hoare 3:35.79 AUS

Men’s Marathon

• 105 men started the race, 76 finished
• Eliud Kipchoge defended his title
  • 36 years old
  • 3rd man in Olympic History to have back-to-back marathon victories.
  • Won by the biggest margin since Frank Shorter’s victory in 1972
    • winning margin of 1:20
  • Eliud’s second half of his race was 1:03:35.
  • 30K and 35K in 14:28
  • Shared a fist bump with  Brazilian Daniel Do Nascimento during the race.
• Top 3 train together.

1 Eliud Kipchoge  2:08:38 KEN

2 Abdi Nageeye 2:09:58 NED (Nagahee)

3 Bashir Abdi 2:10:02 BEL

4 Lawrence Cherono  2:10:02 KEN

5 Ayad Lamdassemn 2:10:16 ESP

…

8 Galen Rupp 2:11:41 

29 Jacob Riley 2:16:26 

41 Abdi Abdirahman 2:18:27

• While we’ve had so many displays of great sportsmanship at the Olympic Games, there may have been a disappointing one in the men’s marathon. French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni appeared to deliberately knock over an entire row of water bottles at one of the hydration stations on the Olympic marathon course in Sapporo before grabbing the last one for himself. (Thanks to Todd Buckingham for sending along this news.)

Closing

As you know, we’ve been working hard to help runners thrive, whether it’s the podcast, articles published at atozrunning.com, books we’re currently working on, or even the social media, but for anyone who needs the extra thing, hands-on support to help you through this current stage, our coaching services are now expanded:

• 3 avenues of supporting runners
• Coaching for those who want the full package
• Training Plans personally built for you for those who don’t want to dive fully into coaching
• And we’ve now added the option to schedule a single consultation for those who just need an extra set of eyes or ears on their training or current questions or obstacles

Definitely something there for you, so check it out on AtoZrunning.com/coaching.

Interested in a training plan and/or coaching? We offer personalized support to help you achieve your goals!

KEEP LISTENING