Fast Women: One tough record falls, another one nearly does
Katie Schide, Winfred Yavi record impressive wins.
Issue 313
Winfred Yavi scares the steeplechase world record
Over the past year, women have broken all of the championship-distance outdoor world records from 1500m on up, except for the steeplechase. By comparison, the 8:44.32 steeplechase record Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech ran in 2018 is practically ancient. And until last week, no one had come within six seconds of it.
But during a thrilling race on Friday at the Rome Diamond League meet, Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi ran 8:44.39, just missing the world record by 0.07 seconds. “I looked at the time after the race and I went, ‘Oh, no!” Yavi said afterward. “I was really expecting that record… I am planning to have another go at it before the end of the season.”
Peruth Chemutai, who led Yavi for the first 6.5 laps, took second in a Ugandan record of 8:48.03, which moved her to third on the world all-time list. “I feel good and I am very happy,” she said after the race. “Yet, I came here for the world record and I missed it… The world record will be for next time. I kind of paced this race for Yavi. I knew that Yavi has this strong kick at the end… I guess I need to train more for the final 100m.”
Both Yavi and Chemutai were clearly targeting the world record, so I’m not sure why the wavelights were set to 8:52.76, the world lead at the time. And though the duo ran near world record pace throughout, it took the Peacock commentary team a while to figure out that the record was in danger.
Chemutai, the 2021 Olympic champion who won silver at the Paris Games, led through 1K in 2:54.3 and 2K in 5:49. Chemutai’s pace slowed early in the third kilometer, and Yavi didn’t go around her until 400m to go, but Yavi’s 65.8-second final lap put her back in world record range.
As you might recall from last week’s newsletter, Bahrain is currently facing doping-related sanctions and will be required to invest millions into anti-doping measures over the next four years. But Yavi has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
More than most Olympic champions in the women’s distances, Yavi seems to be going out of her way to build a following and engage with her fans. And it helps that her English is good. She has a YouTube channel and on TikTok, she’s encouraging fans to learn the #YaviDance, her celebration dance.
Yavi and Chemutai will likely have just one more shot at a world record this season, on September 14, at the Diamond League final in Brussels.
Faith Cherotich, the Paris Olympic bronze medalist, also took third here, running 8:57.65. And Val Constien, who had a tough Olympic final, bounced back really nicely to take fourth in 9:04.92, just 1.7 seconds off the massive PR she ran at the Olympic Trials.
I’m sure there were several factors that went into Constien’s improvement here. She said after the Games that she thinks she was still recovering from Covid in Paris. But it also helps that in Friday’s race, she hit 1K in 3:02.5, compared to 2:57.6 at the Games. Her 2K splits were similar—6:06.3 in Rome and 6:05.9 in Paris. But the slower start likely helped her finish strong on Friday.
Marwa Bouzayani had a fantastic race, setting a Tunisian record of 9:04.93, a 5.98-second PR, to take fifth. It was particularly satisfying to see after she ran a PR of 9:10.91 at the Olympic Games but missed making the final by 0.18 seconds.
Gabbi Jennings of Team Boss also had a strong performance, running 9:07.70, a 4.38-second PR, to take sixth in 9:07.70. Courtney Wayment, the other American in the field, finished ninth in 9:14.46. (Detailed results | Video highlights)
Katie Schide wins UTMB again, breaks Courtney Dauwalter’s course record
At the end of June, Katie Schide won the Western States 100 and missed Courtney Dauwalter’s course record by 17 minutes. Two months later, she one-upped herself, winning UTMB for the second time, and running 22:09:31 to break Dauwalter’s 2021 course record by 21 minutes. The 176K (109.36-mile) course includes about 32,000 feet of climbing.
Over the past five years, Dauwalter and Schide have owned UTMB. Dauwalter won it in 2019, 2021, and 2023, and Schide earned her wins in 2022 and 2024. (There was no 2020 race due to the pandemic.)
Schide, 32, revealed after the race that her goal was to become the first woman to break 22 hours on the course. She started off quickly but after the race told iRunFar she was just trying to match her 2022 splits early on. This year, those splits put her near the top men early on, but she said that was because the men started off more conservatively than they have in the past. Eventual men’s winner Vincent Bouillard of France said on the Freetrail Podcast that at one point, when he wasn’t feeling great, Schide passed him. (His winning time was 19:54:23, so she didn’t stay in front of him for long.)
Schide said in her iRunFar interview that she fought intense stomach cramps over the last two hours, but she held on to become the third woman to win the Western States-UTMB double in the same calendar year. (Nikki Kimball did it in 2007, and Dauwalter did it in 2023, with a win at the Hardrock 100 in the middle as well.) Just as she did at Western States, Schide finished 13th overall. Instead of racing this year, Dauwaulter cheered on the runners while wearing a duck costume.
New Zealand’s Ruth Croft finished second in 22:48:37, and Canada’s Marianne Hogan broke her finger mid-race but hung on to take third in 23:11:15. Sabrina Stanley of the U.S. finished seventh in 25:32:10.
South Africa’s Toni McCann won CCC (100.8K) in 11:57:59. Americans Heather Jackson (fifth, 12:50:55), Lotti Brinks (ninth, 13:25:13), and Emmiliese Von Avis (10th, 13:33:35) cracked the top 10. And China’s Miao Yao won OCC (57K) in 5:54:03. Dani Moreno (sixth, 6:06:59) was the lone American in the top 10. (UTMB video highlights | Results)
Despite setback, Liza Corso wins Paralympic 1500m bronze
In 2021, Liza Corso went into the Tokyo Paralympics ranked eighth in the T13 1500m. But racing against the fastest visually impaired athletes in the world, she had a breakthrough performance, PRing by 13 seconds to earn a silver medal in 4:30.67.
Over the past three years, Corso, 21, has improved significantly while running for Lipscomb University. She ran her 1500m PR of 4:19.54 last year. But at the same time, the T13 category has become even more competitive. Corso would face the defending Paralympic champion, Tigist Gezahagn Menigstu of Ethiopia and last year’s world champion, Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi of Morocco.
Not surprisingly, those three ended up in a last-lap duel for the medals, and Menigstu came out on top, winning gold in 4:22.39. El Idrissi took silver (4:22.98), and Corso won bronze with a season’s best of 4:23.45, running more than seven seconds faster than she did at the Tokyo Paralympics.
It was an impressive result, especially when you consider that Corso missed the collegiate indoor and outdoor seasons after developing a stress fracture in her tibia over the winter. But she built her way back and ran 4:26.60 to win the Paralympic Trials and earn her spot in Paris. Even more incredible, the day after her race, Corso revealed that she had run only eight miles in the past six weeks. Shortly after the Paralympic Trials, she was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her femur, and she wasn’t allowed to run during the six weeks leading up to the Games.
“I put my head down and got to work,” she wrote on Instagram. “I spent hours on the bike, literally sweating puddles, and swam many laps in the pool. To be completely honest, this was some of the hardest training I’ve done physically but also mentally. It was terrifying knowing that I was going to be racing on the biggest stage with barely any running beforehand.”
The fact that she ran her fastest time of the year and was less than four seconds off of her PR in Paris is incredible. (Results | The last 14 seconds of the race)
In other notable Paralympic results, Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner won the T54 5,000m in 10:43.62, and Susannah Scaroni was second in 10:45.18. In the 800m, the T53 and T54 athletes are separated, and Debrunner won the T53 800m in 1:41.04 and Switzerland’s Manuela Schär won the T54 800m in 1:42.36. Scaroni earned bronze in 1:43.42. (All Paralympic T&F results)
Addy Wiley’s excellent week
Just as she did last year, Addy Wiley is coming on strong at the end of the season. On Wednesday, she won the 800m at the Wieslaw Maniak Memorial in Szczecin, Poland, running 1:56.83, which moves her to fifth on the U.S. all-time list. No American woman has run faster this year. Wiley improved her personal best by 0.81 seconds and held off a late challenge from Susan Ejore, who finished second in a PR of 1:57.12. (Race replay | Results)
Three days later, Wiley set a pending American 1,000m record of 2:31.49 at Mityng Ambasadorów Białostockiego Sportu in Białystok, Poland, shaving 0.31 seconds off of the record that Regina Jacobs established in 1999, before Wiley was born. It’s a strong record, but it’s also a rarely-run distance, especially outdoors. Wiley, 21, had a rabbit through about 400m, but after that, she was on her own. (Race replay | Results)
At the Olympic Trials, Wiley was coming off of food poisoning and a hamstring strain, but now she seems to be back at full strength. I saw a fair number of comments about one doper taking another doper’s record on social media after Wiley’s run on Saturday, so it seems worth stating some facts.
Roughly four years after setting the 1,000m record, Jacobs tested positive for a designer steroid and was banned for four years, which ended her track & field career. Wiley has never failed a drug test. Her former coach, Nick Johnson, has been accused of giving his Huntington University runners banned substances. But he has not been sanctioned by any anti-doping agencies. He has, however, been banned by SafeSport. Wiley is now coached by Johnson’s wife, Lauren Johnson.
Other News and Links
Not long after last week’s newsletter went out, NAU confirmed that Mike Smith, their director of cross country and track & field, will step down at the end of the 2024–25 academic year to pursue professional coaching opportunities. According to Runner’s World’s Sarah Lorge Butler, he will be employed by Nike, but his current non-Nike athletes will be grandfathered in, and they can continue to be coached by him if they choose to do so. Lorge Butler did a really interesting Q&A with Smith last week where he talked about his decision, but he chose not to talk about his new pro group, because it sounds like the details are still being determined. And he didn’t say this, but NAU is an Adidas school, and I doubt they’d be thrilled about him discussing his opportunity to work with Nike while he still has 10 months left at the school.
Nia Akins had more to say about her recent struggles in an Instagram post last week.
Marisa Howard hoped to get in one more steeplechase, but she has ended her season. Dani Jones also hoped to last a little longer, but she has called it a season as well.
Grayson Murphy announced last week that for the sake of her mental health, she’s taking a break from social media. And she’s also taking a break from structured training and racing.
Emma Coburn is planning a return to racing soon. (She hasn’t provided any details yet.) And look, Alicia Monson can run!
The Boston Marathon announced last week that starting in 2025, anyone who wants to be considered an official finisher of the race needs to get to the finish line by 5:30 p.m. (Runner’s World) In the past, runners had six hours after the last runner crossed the starting line. But most runners had no way of knowing what exact time they had to beat. So while the new policy will give runners only a couple of extra minutes at best, the new policy is more clear, if nothing else. In a social media post last week, Liz Rock, who was affected by the cutoff time in 2024, wrote, “If they truly wanted to make a difference, they would have extended the marathon time (which would have made it more pace inclusive) by an hour, bringing it to seven hours. Shit, even adding half an hour to the six hour time would be beneficial.” And I can’t argue with any of that.
After a young boy inspired Dakotah Lindwurm late in the Paris Olympic Marathon (Runner’s World), she tracked him down and sent him some Olympic swag and Puma shoes.
Jane Hedengren, who is starting her senior year of high school, announced her commitment to BYU last week. This one isn’t shocking—she lives in Provo, her father ran for BYU, and her brother currently runs for the team. But she could have gone anywhere, and this will be a nice boost for an already strong team. Hedengren has run a 4:35.69 mile and 9:45.44 for 3200m.
Additional Results
Mary Moraa set a pending 600m world best of 1:21.63 at the ISTAF Berlin meet on Sunday, taking 0.14 seconds off the time that Caster Semenya ran in 2017. Shafiqua Maloney of St. Vincent and the Grenadines challenged Moraa before finishing second in 1:22.98. Yes, the 600m is rarely run outdoors, but according to the World Athletics scoring tables, Moraa’s 600m time is stronger than any of her other PRs, including her 800m time of 1:56.03. At the same meet, Germany’s Gesa Krause won the 2,000m steeplechase in 5:56.71. (Results | 600m replay)
Faith Kipyegon pulled off yet another 1500m win at Friday’s Rome Diamond League meet, winning in 3:52.89. Uganda’s Winnie Nanyondo rabbited the race, and her inexperience in such a role showed. She was supposed to take the race through 800m in 2:04.0, and she ran 2:04.15, but her pacing to get there (59.97/64.18) was erratic, which made a super fast race less likely. With 200m to go, Kipyegon still had Australia’s Jessica Hull and Ethiopians Freweyni Hailu and Birke Haylom right on her, but coming off the final turn, Kipyegon picked up the pace and won comfortably. Her last 200m was a 29.2. Hailu (second, 3:54.16) and Haylom (third, 3:54.79) kicked by Hull, who finished fourth in 3:54.98. “The world record was not for today, with the Olympics only two weeks ago,” Kipyegon said after the race. (Detailed results)
Kenya’s Sarah Moraa, cousin of world champion Mary Moraa, won the 800m at the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2:00.36. Australia’s Claudia Hollingsworth, who also raced at the Paris Olympic Games, earned silver (2:00.87). And Harvard sophomore Sophia Gorriaran won bronze (2:01.04). That was a strong showing for Gorriaran, especially when you consider the NCAA schedule and how it’s tough to be in top 800m fitness at the end of August. She ran only 0.39 seconds slower than her PR. Ethiopia swept the remainder of the mid-distance/distance titles. Sembo Almayew won the steeplechase (9:12.71), Medina Eisa won the 5,000m (14:39.71), Aleshigh Baweke won the flat 3,000m (8:50.32), and Saron Berhe won the 1500m (4:16.64). (Results)
Great Britain’s Eilish McColgan and Calli Hauger-Thackery went 1–2 at the Big Half in London. In her first half marathon back after knee surgery last year, McColgan ran 1:09:14, and Hauger-Thackery, the early leader, ran 1:09:35. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Birtukan Molla won the 5,000m at the Goldenes Ovala meet in Dresden, Germany, running 14:59.10 on a warm evening. Elly Henes led the U.S. runners in the field, taking third in 15:03.14. Josette Andrews placed fourth (15:07.75), Katelyn Tuohy was sixth (15:21.92), and Allie Buchalski finished seventh (15:39.49). Tuohy ran right behind pacer Sam Bush for the first 2K and then kept the pace going for a couple of laps. But with 5.5 laps to go, Molla made a big move and Tuohy struggled a bit from there. (Results) Hannah Steelman had planned to run this race, but she said on Instagram that she developed a small injury, so she has called it a season.
Micaela DeGenero won Thursday’s Monmouth Mile, in Lincroft, New Jersey, running 4:29.66. Kayley DeLay, who ran 4:30.07 13 days earlier at the Falmouth Mile, just missed breaking 4:30 again, taking second in 4:30.29. (Results)
Marissa Damink of the Netherlands won the New Balance KO Meile, a road mile in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 4:30.3. Spain’s Esther Guerrero finished second in 4:31.2 and Anna Camp Bennett took third in 4:32.8. (Results)
Last week, I told you that Ireland’s Anne Gilshinan set a 1500m world record of 4:59.45 in the 60–65 age group at the World Masters Athletics Championships. But Great Britain’s Clare Elms has already surpassed it, running 4:57.14 last week.
Podcast Highlights
On For the Kudos, it was interesting to hear Australia’s Georgia Griffith say that she’s pacing Thursday’s Zurich Diamond League 5,000m, and she thinks they’re trying to set up a world record attempt for Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet. Griffith is supposed to go through 3,000m in 8:25, and her personal best is 8:24. It’s not easy to find pacers who can run that fast. The current record is the 14:00.21 Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay ran last year.
Allie Ostrander offered up some good cross training advice on the latest episode of her podcast, Every Step of the Way, and she also made an appearance on Fitter, Faster, and Happier.
I loved hearing from Cindy (Sturm) Menard, who won the first NCAA DIII cross country championship for women back in 1981, on D3 Glory Days. Menard grew up in the same part of Massachusetts as I did, and she briefly attended my high school, so throughout my early running career, her name was everywhere in the record books. But I didn’t know anything about her, beyond the fact that she was fast, until listening to this episode.
Florida coach Will Palmer discussed coaching Parker Valby, among other things, on The Running Effect. He did not discuss last week’s news that Florida’s Parvej Khan has tested positive for EPO; the episode was likely recorded before the news came out.
During the Olympics, Good Game with Sarah Spain helped me keep up with the major non-T&F storylines. And now it’s serving the same role, helping me keep up with the Paralympics as well, starting with this episode with long jumper (and past Survivor contestant) Noelle Lambert.
Additional Episodes: Hansons-Brooks runner Olivia Pratt on Lactic Acid with Dom and Laura (sans Laura) | Up to Speed author Christine Yu on The Appetite | Brooks pro track and trail runner Anna Gibson on The Running Effect | NC State’s Leah Stephens discussed coming back from injury, after a strong cross country season last year, on Running in Circles.
This morning’s USATF 20K Championships, hosted by the New Haven Road Race, should be good. Keira D’Amato, Jess McClain, Rachel Smith, Annie Frisbie, Emma Grace Hurley, Carrie (Verdon) Ellwood, Makena Morley, and Lauren Hagans are among those entered. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like USATF TV will be showing this one live. But the results will be here.
This week’s newsletter doesn’t have a sponsor, other than all of you who so kindly provide support via Patreon and Venmo. But thanks to last month’s sponsor, SOAR Running, we’ll be giving away a pair of gift cards this week on Instagram, so make sure to watch for that.
I hope you all have a great week.
Alison