World Athletics released the documentary 'RUN - The Athlete Refugee Team Story', directed by Richard Bullock and 93 minutes long, telling the story of the Athlete Refugee Team from its formal beginnings in early 2017 through the Covid-19 pandemic's interruption of preparations for the Tokyo Olympic Games. The film focuses on the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation training camp in Ngong, Kenya, following the athletes from the inaugural Refugee Olympic Team in Rio to Tokyo, where seven were ultimately chosen to compete in athletics.
Swiss marathon record-holder Tadesse Abraham came to Switzerland as a refugee from Eritrea and was forced to stop running for three or four months in a refugee camp, winning the Winterthur Half Marathon (1:07:34) on his return in 2004. He gained Swiss citizenship in 2014, set the Swiss marathon national record of 2:06:40 for fourth at the Seoul Marathon in 2016, and placed seventh in the Rio Olympic marathon the same year. He now serves as a Human Safety Net ambassador, helping refugee runners integrate.
Eritrean refugee marathoner Tachlowini Gabriyesos has been selected for the Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Games. On 14 March he became the first refugee athlete to break an Olympic qualifying mark, running 2:10:55 at the Hahula Galilee Marathon, his second race at the distance, under the 2:11:30 standard. He fled Eritrea at 12, reached Israel via Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and the Sinai Desert, and has missed international races due to visa problems.
South Sudanese-born 800m runner Rose Nathike Lokonyen will represent the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo. She carried the flag for the first Refugee Olympic Team at Rio 2016, where she ran 2:16.64 in her 800m heat. She lowered her PB to 2:13.39 at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and now trains six days a week, hoping to improve her time in Tokyo.
Francisco Belo, Fanny Roos and Ama Pipi were among the athletes who broke meeting records at the Kladno hází a Kladenské Memoriály, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting, held in Kladno on Tuesday (15).
Dorian Keletela, a 22-year-old sprinter of Congolese origin, has been named to the IOC Refugee Olympic Team and will compete in the men's 100m in Tokyo. He was the first member of the World Athletics Athlete Refugee Team to compete at the European Indoor Championships, running 6.91 in his 60m heat in March, and clocked 10.55 for 100m in May. He says his goal is a personal best and that he wants to show the world that refugees are strong and capable.
1500m runner Anjelina Nadai Lohalith has been selected for the Refugee Olympic Team and will compete at her second Olympics. She fled her war-torn village in South Sudan at age nine and reached the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where her parents have now arrived, and she is about to reunite with family she has not seen for years. She ran 4:47.38 at Rio 2016 and lowered her best to 4:33.54 in 2018.
China's Zheng Ninali won the heptathlon at the World Athletics Challenge – Combined Events meeting in Arona, Spain, scoring 6358 to add more than 200 points to her PB. Czech Jiri Sykora took the decathlon with 8122, one point above his 2016 PB, leading a Czech 1-2 ahead of Adam Sebastian Helcelet. Zheng said she finished 62 points short of the Olympic standard.
World 1500m and 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan will race the mile at the Muller British Grand Prix, a Wanda Diamond League meeting, at Gateshead International Stadium on 13 July. She holds the world mile record at 4:12.33 and last weekend set a 10,000m world record of 29:06.82 in Hengelo, which lasted two days before Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia beat it.
At the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence, 20-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 5000m in 12:48.45, taking 13.5 seconds off his personal best, setting a European record and breaking 13 minutes for the first time.
At the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Marseille, France, Abel Kipsang won the men's 1500m in 3:32.68, smashing the meeting record, with the top nine all inside the 3:35.00 Olympic qualifying standard. Collins Kipruto took the men's 800m in a personal-best 1:43.95, and Jemma Reekie won the women's 800m in 1:58.41, also setting a meeting record.
The 2021 Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence can be watched through World Athletics' official channels, with broadcast platforms varying by region. World Athletics has published the list of rights-holding broadcasters by country and territory; some areas will show only highlights, others will broadcast live, and viewers should check local listings to confirm.
At the Wanda Diamond League press conference in Florence, world champions said their rivals motivate them most. Sifan Hassan welcomed Letesenbet Gidey's 29:01.03 10,000m world record, calling the rivalry good for the sport. Joshua Cheptegei targets 12:40 or better in the 5000m; Dina Asher-Smith praised Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's 10.63.
The International Olympic Committee announced a 29-member Refugee Olympic Team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, including seven athletes in athletics, the largest squad by sport. Rose Nathike Lokonyen, the team's flag-bearer at the 2016 Rio Games, will compete in the 800m, and Anjelina Nadai Lohalith in the 1500m. Tachlowini Gabriyesos clocked 2:10:55 to become the first refugee athlete to better an Olympic qualifying standard.
World Athletics previews the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence. Dutch world champion Sifan Hassan, who lowered the 10,000m world record to 29:06.82c in Hengelo on Sunday (pending ratification), steps down to the 1500m, where Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon and European champion Laura Muir await. Uganda's world 5000m record-breaker Joshua Cheptegei heads a stacked 5000m field.
Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan ran 29:06.82 in the women's 10,000m at the FBK Games in Hengelo, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, breaking the world record of 29:17.45 set by Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana at the 2016 Rio Olympics by more than 10 seconds.
Trayvon Bromell ran a world-leading 9.77 (1.5m/s) at the NACAC New Life Invitational in Miramar, Florida, moving to seventh on the world 100m all-time list and becoming the ninth man under 9.80. Marvin Bracy was second in a personal best 9.85. In Nashville, Sydney McLaughlin opened her 400m hurdles season with a world-leading 52.83.
Dutch middle-distance star Sifan Hassan will target the women's 10,000m world record at the FBK Games in Hengelo on June 6, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, after running a European record of 29:36.67 at the same venue last October. Swedish pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis aims for Sam Kendricks' 2019 meeting record of 5.91m after his first loss in 23 competitions in Gateshead.
Five world champions, four Olympic gold medalists and two world record-holders will compete at the FBK Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Hengelo on Sunday (6). Pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis returns after his 23-meet winning streak ended in Gateshead, targeting the 5.91m meeting record; Sifan Hassan returns to the track where she set the 29:36.67 European 10,000m record last year, racing the 10,000m again.
Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare became the first woman to run under 11 seconds for 100m on Slovak soil, winning at the P-T-S Meeting – a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver competition – in Samorin on Wednesday (2). She clocked 10.98 (-0.1m/s), winning by almost half a second from Ireland’s Ciara Neville (11.47).
At the inaugural Battle of the Teams World Athletics Label Road Race in Prague, Kenya's Purity Rionoripo won the women's race in 2:20:14 and Benson Kipruto took the men's race in 2:10:16. Despite Rionoripo's individual victory, Team Birell won the team title with 7152 points ahead of Team Volkswagen's 6887.
World 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith will fine-tune her Olympic preparations by racing the 200m in Gateshead on 13 July, when the Wanda Diamond League returns to the North East of England for the Muller British Grand Prix. The event was originally due at the London Stadium but moved to Gateshead because of the pandemic; 2,000 spectators attended the May opener, and organizers hope more fans can safely return.
At the Doha Diamond League on May 28, Kenya's Norah Jeruto won the women's 3000m steeplechase in 9:00.67, the fastest time in the world this year. USA's 400m hurdles star Rai Benjamin won in 47.38, breaking the meeting record of 47.57 set by Abderrahman Samba in 2018. Six women cleared 4.74m or higher in the pole vault, only the second time in history.
World champion Yulimar Rojas, who bounded out to a world-leading 15.43m last week, returns to Doha on Friday for the second Wanda Diamond League meeting of 2021. The women's triple jump, pole vault and discus all feature the full complement of 2019 World Championships podium finishers, while Katie Nageotte, with a world-leading 4.93m PB, may start as the pole vault favorite.
At the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence, the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, on 10 June, double world champion Sifan Hassan and Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon will go head-to-head over 1500m, the distance at which Hassan set the meeting record of 3:56.22 in 2017. Two-time world high jump champion Mutaz Barshim and Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi are also confirmed for the event, which will allow 1000 spectators.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area 10,000m Relay Super League's Guangzhou stop was held on March 28 at Tianhe Sports Center, the first event of the 2021 Super League. It featured a university group 4×3000m relay and an open group 4×10000m relay. Dapeng Team 1 won the open group in 2:18:54, and the Jiji Fu Jiji team won the university group in 46:09. Starting in 2021, the league will be held annually across Guangdong Province, with stops also covering Greater Bay Area cities such as Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Zhuhai.
On the afternoon of December 23, at the Hebei Olympic Sports Center track and field hall, an anti-doping painting activity themed "Clean Sport, Say No to Doping" was held. More than 130 coaches and athletes took part in creating the artwork, with track and field athletes jointly painting on a 25-meter-long scroll, using clever ideas and every stroke to express their understanding of clean sport.
The Zhejiang Provincial Athletics Association's 2020 mid-year standing committee work meeting was held in Xiangshan. At the meeting, it was stated that due to the impact of the pandemic, the long-prepared 9th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships has been canceled, losing an opportunity to preview the 2021 Hangzhou Asian Athletics Championships. In the first half of the year, the provincial association successfully hosted the "Zhejiang Athletics Association Cup" online running race, the first online running race held nationwide in the name of a provincial-level association or above for the general public. In the second half of the year, three things will be done: building brand events, promoting designated events, and cultivating and discovering track and field talent, and absorbing four units and group members.
The Runblogger author switched to remote teaching during SARS-CoV-2 lockdowns, with all track practices, meets, and soccer games canceled and 4-5 straight weekends at home. He, his wife, and three kids began running daily; his 16-year-old sprinter/jumper son ran 8 miles for a mileage PR, and his 14-year-old daughter uses her daily run as an escape from online homework. He misses students and coaching but cherishes family time, unsure how to feel.