KIMbia Athletics

Held annually at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR, the Nike Mile gives employees a chance to compete on a unique track which was actually built through a stand of trees on the southeast corner of the campus.  Considering that Nike presently “employs” the American record holder in the mile, among many others, the fast section of this event is, well, quite fast.  Brent Vaughn continued his card of early-season under-distance races and acquitted himself well, putting himself right in the thick of the lead pack at 1200m, and ultimately taking 4th place with a 4:01.57 clocking — a PB for the full mile.

As many American track fans caught their breath on a weekend falling between college conference and regional championship weekends, and professional track meets on each coast, KIMbia athletes still found themselves plenty busy in competition at several excellent, if less widely-covered, events.

With many KIMbia athletes making their States-side homes in Boulder, it was fitting to have so many of them run before the hometown crowd.  Each year, following an all-comers citizens’ race, the pros take to Boulder’s streets in a race scored by national affiliation, and, this year Millicent Gathoni — the defending champion — and Jane Gayunki led the Kenyan team, finishing 5th and 8th, respectively. In the men’s competition, KIMbia was represented on Team Kenya, Team USA, Team Commonwealth, and Team Colorado, with John Yuda our first finisher, notching a 3rd-place finish for Team Commonwealth.  Boulder-resident James Carney followed Yuda and was the first American finisher in 4th place. Other Top 10 finishes came from Gilbert Okari (6th) and Charles Munyeki (7th), both competing for Kenya.  Locally-based Jason Hartmann took 12th as a member of Team Colorado, and Fasil Bizuneh would represent Team USA in 15th. Read the full article

KIMbia’s youngest American athlete, Evan Jager, continued a strong early season of competition Saturday with a personal best of 3:40.60 in the 1500.  Jager finished 8th  in a strong international field that included three Olympians at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson, CA.  Following his 13:29 5000m PR of a few weeks ago in Stanford, Jager has started his 2009 campaign brilliantly. 

After spending a year at the University of Wisconsin in 2007-’08, Jager decided to forego his college eligibility last year and turn professional, following his coach, Jerry Schumacher, to Portland.  He currently resides in Portland as part of the Oregon Track Club.

 In road racing news, Lineth Chepkurui narrowly missed out on her fourth huge road race win of the year and John Yuda finished third in an impressive field at the infamous Bay to Breakers 12k in San Francisco, CA.  Chepkurui finished second in 38:35, losing to Teyba Erkesso of Kenya by just 6 seconds.  Lineth defeated third place American and Olympic Bronze Medallist Deena Kastor by 29 seconds.

On the opposite coast, KIMbia’s Boaz Cheboiywo finished third clocking a time of 28:31 at the New York Road Runners Healthy Kidney 10k in Central Park.  Tadese Tola, the Healthy Kidney champion, smashed the Central Park 10k course record in 27:48.

Sean was interviewed as part of a RunnersWorld.com piece covering the Puma Street Meet in Boston a couple weekends ago, and talked about how he discovered the sport of running. Read the full article

You rang and, now, he answers. Tim Nelson is a former Foot Locker finalist, a multiple-time All-American at Wisconsin, and just the 14th American to break 27:40 in the 10k.  The California native and former Badger takes on your questions, below. Read the full article

Last Saturday at Stanford, a cadre of KIMbia athletes hit the track running, tallying two personal bests, six USATF qualifying marks, and one each of the IAAF “A” and “B” standards — in what were season-opening races for most.  Matt Tegenkamp, second in the 5k to Olympian Alistair Cragg, said, “It took couple of laps to get comfortable in the crowd but after that I felt right at home. [...] There is still a lot of work to be done but it is a great start and probably a better effort than a straight time trial. ” Remember, Teg’s 13:22 (IAAF “B”) comes in his first race since a winter spent rehabilitating a lower leg injury, and is his fastest 5000 since 2007…

Tim Nelson‘s sterling 10k also deserves a closer look. Read the full article

Tim Nelson is possibly the hottest American distance runner at the moment, taking Olympians Anthony Famiglietti and Meb Keflezighi to the line at the USATF 15k and Cross Country Championships respectively, and claiming runner-up honors in each.  Then, Saturday evening, he ran a fat PB of 27:36 in the Kim McDonald 10k at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invite, winning the event, getting the precious World Champs “A” Standard, and making him one of the fastest Americans ever at the distance.

So: what has spurred this hot streak?  Change in diet? Change of scenery? Something so unsexy as lots of hard work and mileage paying off?  The ball is in your court, folks.  Leave your questions in the comments below and we will be back with Tim’s answers on Friday!

Capping off a fantastic weekend for KIMbia, John Yuda and Lineth Chepkurui captured the men’s and women’s titles in the Lilac Bloomsday Run Sunday morning.  This year was the 33rd running of the historic 12k Bloomsday Race, through the streets of Spokane, Washington.

This is the first major road championship for Yuda since his win in the 2005 BUPA Great South Run.  Yuda had appeared very fit in training and, after finishing 7th in his last major race — the Dong-A marathon back in October 2008 — Sunday’s result is an extremely positive sign validating his return to form. Unofficially, his winning time was 34:36.

For Chepkurui, on the other hand, Sunday was another fantastic result in what has already been an amazing 2009.  This was her second straight Bloomsday title after winning in Spokane last year.  Already in 2009, Lineth has won the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, finished 4th in the IAAF World Cross Country Championship, and most recently, won the Crescent City Classic 10k in early April. Her unofficial time of 38:35 — as reported by the Spokane Spokesman-Review — would be just 4 seconds shy of the course record.

Initial report from The Spokesman-Review here. 
Full results here.
To see all KIMbia results… Read the full article

The Nelly Train rolls on.  After pushing Olympians to the limit at the US Cross Country and 15k Championships earlier this year, Tim Nelson cut a huge swatch from his former 10k PB of 28:05, running a terrific 27:36.99 to earn an automatic World Championships Qualifying Standard and win the Kim McDonald 10k out at Stanford.  Fellow former Badger Simon Bairu took 2nd in 27:50.76 — just .05 slower than his PB — and James Carney was 5th in that same section, running 28:23.  On the women’s side, Rebecca Donaghue ran 33:08.97 to win the race and cut almost half a minute from her previous best on the track. Fitting to have two winners and two more Top-5 showings from KIMbia athletes in the 10k races bearing Kim McDonald’s name…

Pace in the top flight of the Men’s 5k sagged midrace, scuttling any hopes of achieving World Champs standards, but KIMbia athletes remained competitive.  Matt Tegenkamp and Olympian Alistair Cragg met the line in quick succession — with Teg 2-tenths behind, 2nd in the race and a 13:22 to his name.  Boaz Cheboiywo manged 7th in the same section, finishing in 13:30.  Evan Jager acquitted himself well in his professional debut at the distance, running 13:29.65 which was good for 2nd in the 2nd section.

Finally, in the Men’s 1500, Brent Vaughn was 5th in the 2nd section, clocking 3:43.89 — just 2-tenths shy of his PB — while Michelle Sikes continued a whirlwind tour of American competition with a 6th place finish in the 5000, hitting the line in 15:56.

Full results here; to see KIMbia-only results…. Read the full article