Birmingham, UK - Kenenisa Bekele is aiming for his third World record at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena when he tops the bill for Saturday's Aviva Grand Prix, the eighth of nine IAAF Indoor Permit meetings in 2010.
The Ethiopian has set World records in the 5000m and 2000m - along with a World best for Two-miles - in this stadium over the last six years, but this time he is targeting one of the toughest of the lot - Daniel Komen's 3000m mark of 7:24.90 set back in 1998. Bekele won his only World indoor title at this distance in 2006 and his personal best from 2007 is the third quickest ever behind Komen and Haile Gebrselassie, but at 7:30.51 that is nearly six seconds short of his goal.
By Ken Goe
The Oregonian
February 17, 2010, 6:50AM
Shalane Flanagan, who had a dominating performance in last weekend's USA Cross Country Championships, is planning to compete in the world championships next month Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The Oregon Track Club Elite/Portland runner had not committed to the world championships until recently.
"We didn't know for sure," said Jerry Schumacher, Flanagan's coach. "We've been taking it one race at a time, building as we go, and taking time to make the right decision."
New York, USA - Andy Baddeley of Great Britain and Erin Donohue of the USA ran to solid victories in the mile at the 15th New Balance Games at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York on Saturday (23).
Baddeley, the 2008 winner of Oslo's Dream Mile, clocked 3:55.64, an indoor personal best for the 27-year-old. Donohue clocked 4:28.92, also an indoor career best.
In the men's race, Baddeley sat slightly off the pace as the pack rounded 400 metres in 59.2 and 800 in 1:59.5. From there, the Briton turned up the pace to finish in 3:55.64 with fellow countrymen Ricky Stevenson and training partner Mark Draper close behind in 3:56.31 and 3:56.80, respectively.
Dubai, UAE - Haile Gebrselassie won the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon for the third time in a row this morning, clocking 2:06:09, and again raking in $250,000, the richest prize in marathoning.
But a back problem, which required intensive pre-race physiotherapy, ruled out a World record attempt from the start, and when two of his lesser known compatriots - Chala Dechase and Eshetu Wendimu - caught him in the final stages of the race, it looked like a massive upset was on the cards.
But the experience of close to 20 years of record breaking pulled Gebre through to his eighth victory in eleven completed marathons, with an average time of 2:05:40, easily the most consistently excellent marathoner in history, all capped...
