KIMbia Athletics

• Linet Chepkurui 4th in Kenyan world XC trials. Under the rules set out before the meet, this should qualify her for worlds next month. #

• Charles Munyeki 6th in RAK Half Marathon in United Arab Emirates in 1:00:11. That’s Charles’ second-fastest time ever. #

• Elva Dryer wins 3M Austin Half Marathon in 1:15:38. #

• James Carney wins Double Bridge Run 15 in Pensacola, Florida in 43:31. It was his first race since November’s DNF at the NYC Marathon. #

• Fasil Bizuneh 3rd in the All American 10K in Edinburgh, Texas. 29:23 behind Eric Chirchir (29:12) and Alene Reta (29:14). #

In what can fairly be called the top performance of his career to date, Tim Nelson placed second at Saturday’s national cross country championships in Derwood, Maryland. Sprinting like made over the final few hundred meters of the muddy, hilly 12K course, Tim almost ran down Meb Keflezighi. Both were timed in 36:06.

Tim was part of the four-men chase pack that trailed Meb by 9-10 seconds from the second of the six 2K loops. On the last lap, the chase pack of Tim, Ed Moran, Jorge Torres and Bobby Curtis briefly cut Keflezighi’s lead to 5 seconds, but then the gap reopened. Tim said that he was then racing for second.

“I was just focusing on beating those guys. Ed took a spill with about 800 to go,” Tim said immediately after the race. “Then Jorge fell off. With maybe 600 to go I was sitting on Bobby Curtis to make my move on him. I had kind of conceded the win to Meb. When I made my move on Bobby, I saw that Meb was looking back. I thought, ‘I can go for it.’ He looked back like 10 times. Every time he did, I kicked it up to another gear. I didn’t have enough room there at the end.”

So far, Tim and his coach, Jerry Schumacher, haven’t decided if he’ll run the world championships next month in Amman, Jordan. Tim’s main goal for the spring is to get the World Championships “A” standard in the 10,000m and to make the American team for that August meet in Berlin.

Results are here. Photos are here.