Madalina Florea (adidas/CSS Sighisoara) of our adidas-Boulder Wave Romania Development project won the women’s 5,000m in Bucharest this weekend in a 16-second PB of 16:20.97. The win and the time gain her qualification for this summer’s IAAF World Junior Championships, which will be held in Barcelona from July 10th – 15th. Anca Maria Bunea (adidas/CSS Medias/CS Unire) of our program took 2nd place in a 16:27.92 PB, while Ionela Dinca (adidas/CSU Craiova) won the 10,000m in an 18-second PB of 36:11.32.
News Archive
Three Boulder Wave Athletes on Colorado Teams for Bolder-Boulder 10K
Team Colorado men after absorbing all the info at this morning's Bolder-Boulder technical meeting: (l to r) Kenyon Neuman, Jeremy Freed, Patrick Rizzo
Three Boulder Wave athletes are set to race tomorrow’s Bolder-Boulder 10K International Team Challenge as members of the men’s and women’s Colorado teams. Patrick Rizzo (Mizuno) and Kenyon Neuman (Nike) will be joined by 2011 Bolder Boulder citizens’ champ Jeremy Freed on the men’s Team Colorado. Last Sunday, Patrick set a course record at the Colfax Half-Marathon and last month he was the pacemaker for the men’s 2:11 group at the Virgin London Marathon, and says he and his teammates are ready to move Team Colorado up a place from last year’s 3rd place team finish behind Team USA. Kenyon is focusing on his track running this Spring, and will go after the 13:33.00 US National Championships “A” qualifying standard at the Portland Track Festival on June 9th.
Adriana Nelson racing at the 2011 Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon (Photo courtesy of PhotoRun, Inc. All rights reserved)
On the women’s side, Adriana Nelson (ASICS) will be joined on the women’s Team Colorado by 2006 Bolder Boulder champion Sara Slattery and Wendy Thomas. As is Kenyon, Adriana is focusing on qualifying for the USA national track championships. At the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational last month, Adriana ran a new 10,000m PB, and just missed the 10,000m automatic “A” qualifying standard of 32:45.00 by three seconds. She will be running the 10,000m at the Portland meet on June 9th.
Patrick, Kenyon, and Adriana are all coached by Brad Hudson.
Yoshimi Ozaki, Freya Murray finish 3rd, 5th at Bupa London 10,000
In this morning’s Bupa London 10,000 road race, 2009 world championships marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Daiichi Life Insurance/adidas) took 3rd place in 33:18, while Freya Murray (adidas) took 5th in 33:25. Yoshimi will represent Japan in the women’s Olympic marathon on August 5th, and is over in London as part of a delegation of Japanese athletes and coaches checking out the Olympic Marathon course, which covers much of the same ground as this morning’s race. Freya, who had a sterling marathon debut of 2:28:10 at the Virgin London Marathon last month, was invited by race director Dave Bedford last week to come down to London this weekend for the race and take a look at the Olympic course. After her marathon recovery, Freya has been focusing on building speed for the British track championships. She will run the European Cup 10,000m in Bilbao, Spain, next Sunday, June 3rd.
Tagged 000, 000m, Bupa London 10, European Cup 10, Freya Murray, Yoshimi Ozaki
Irvette van Blerk Wins in Italy!
Irvette van Blerk (Nedbank/adidas) won the 40th edition of Italy’s Scalata al Castella 5K in Arezzo, Italy, this evening, completing the six-lap course in 16:25 for a 32-second victory.
Team Japan Women Ready to Challenge for Top 3 at Bolder-Boulder 10K
Team Japan at today's Bolder-Boulder welcome luncheon at the Millennium Hotel in Boulder: (l to r) Eri Okubo, Yuko Watanabe, Kayoko Fukushi
With most attention in the International Team Challenge women’s race at Monday Bolder-Boulder 10K focused on an expected battle among the USA, Ethiopian, and Kenyan teams, the Japanese women are looking to put themsleves in the mix and make it to the Top 3 podium. Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal/adidas) heads up the team, with a stellar resume that includes the Asian record in the half-marathon (67:26), the Japanese record at 5,000m (14:53.22), a 30:51.81 PB for 10,000m, and a 3rd place finish at last year’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon (2:24:38). Kayoko will be doubling at the 5/10 in next months’ Japan national championships/Olympic Trials. Eri Okubo (Second Wind AC/Mizuno) has been rocketing up the charts the past 12 months – at the 2011 Berlin Marathon in September she improved her marathon PB from 2:35:24 to 2:28:49 for 9th place, and then in February jumped another big step with 2:26:08 for 4th place at the Tokyo Marathon. Last weekend Eri was 3rd at the Gifu Seiryu Half-Marathon, a race won by Boulder Wave athlete Rene Kalmer (Nedbank/adidas). The third member on Team Japan is Yuko Watanabe, who finished 11th at last year’s Bolder-Boulder, followed a month later by a 32:27.89 PB.
At Bolder-Boulder, the big prize money is in the Team Challenge. While money extends to the top 10 finishers, including $3,000 for the victory, the team prizes begin at $15,000 for 1st, $10,000 for 2nd, and $7,000 for 3rd.
The International Team Challenge women’s start is at 11:00 a.m. Monday, with the men going off 11 monutes later. The race winds through Boulder’s streets before finishing at the University of Colorado’s Folsom Field, where many of the estimated 54,000 runners from the citizens’ race will be on hand for the elite finish and the day’s Memorial Day services.
Eri Okubo and Kayoko Fukushi are represented by Boulder Wave. There other athletes rerpesented by Boulder Wave … Adriana Nelson (ASICS), Patrick Rizzo (Mizuno), Kenyon Neuman… will run for the Colorado teams (article tomorrow). Also Nuta Olaru (ASICS) and Lidia Simon (ASICS) will run in the citizens’ race, which begins at 7:00 a.m.
Edna Kiplagat Interview with Xinhua: ‘No secret to success’
Edna Kiplagat en route to her 2:19:50 second-place finish at the Virgin London Marathon last month (Photo courtesy of PhotoRun, Inc. All rights reserved)
The Xinhua News Service has posted an interview with World Champion Edna Kiplagat (Nike) and countrywoman Mary Keitany on the possibility for a Kenyan gold medal in the women’s marathon this summer in London. In it, Edna dismisses any notion that Kenyan athletes are somehow gifted or their accomplishments are any easier to attain than those of any other athlete:
“Kiplagat says there is no secret to success other than training hard and motivation, self-esteem and discipline.
‘Many people have come up with theories that Kenyans run better because of a special gene in us. I don’ t know what gene they are talking about because we have reached where we are as a result of hard work. If such genes existed then I presume there is one among Brazilian footballers.'”
Colorado Running magazine: Exclusive Athlete Interview with Kenyon Neuman
Kenyon Neuman (Nike) chats up Amanda Hodges of Colorado Running. Click here.
Tagged Amanda Hodges, Kenyon Neuman
Lee Merrien Named to UK Olympic Men’s Marathon Team!
Press Release issued by Boulder Wave five minutes ago… Lee Merrien Named to UK Olympic Men’s Marathon Team! April 27, 2012 The British Olympic Association has today formally named Lee Merrien to the UK Olympic team in the men’s marathon for this summer’s London Olympic Games. Merrien was at first left off Team GB when …
Tagged Lee Merrien
New “Select Lee Merrien” Facebook page gains 2,400 ‘likes’ in less than 24 hours
Boulder Wave released the following press release five minutes ago: Grassroots Support Growing for Lee Merrien to be Named to UK Olympic Men’s Marathon Team April 25, 2012 A fan of British marathon runner Lee Merrien has created an impromptu Facebook page called “Select Lee Merrien” to support the selection of Merrien to the British …
The Case for Lee Merrien for Olympic Selection
Lee Merrien and his wife at Sunday night's farewell party in London
In Sunday’s Virgin London Marathon, Lee Merrien (ASICS) took his marathon down another notch, improving from 2:14:27 to 2:13:41, thereby winning the Jim Peters Award (photo above) as the top British finisher for a second consecutive year. Despite now being well clear of the Olympic “A” standard of 2:15:00, Lee was left off the team by UK Athletics in their team announcement on Monday. There has been some commotion in the UK this week over the Federation’s selection standard of 2:12:00 for UK Men; as one knowledgable guest at the Tower Hotel in London pointed out earlier this week, the marathon and race walking events are the only ones for which UK Athletics decided to set qualification standards higher than those set by the IAAF.
The website Ethical Athletics posted strong support for Lee on their site yesterday in an article simply titled, “The Case for Lee Merrien.” Please read the comments and add your support for Lee’s cause.
Tagged Ethical Athletics, Jim Peters Award, Lee Merrien
