Fast Women: Peres Jepchirchir, Beatrice Chebet win world titles
Julia Paternain comes up big when it counts, and a great run for Susanna Sullivan.
Issue 372, sponsored by Bakline
World championships thoughts so far
It was no surprise to see Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa and Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir leading the way late in the marathon. And it was fun that it came down to an all-out sprint on the track at the end. I honestly thought Assefa might have the edge, because she’s a 1:59 800m runner. But if you look at their finishing speed in past marathons, it’s less surprising that Jepchirchir was able to access a gear that Assefa could not. Jepchichir won, 2:24:43 to 2:24:45, in very hot and humid conditions. Kenya was issued a yellow card for handing fluids to their athletes outside of the designated zone, but the results will stand. It’s not cool that they weren’t following the rules, but it also would have been extremely unfortunate for the race to be decided that way. Jepchirchir said afterward that she’s hoping to race one more marathon this year, but she hadn’t determined which one yet. (Marathon results | Marathon highlights)
Uruguay’s Julia Paternain earned bronze in the marathon in 2:27:23 and if my brain was working better (more on that below), I would have a lot to say about the significance of that. Prior to this, she has made it into this newsletter only twice. In March, when she ran 2:27:09 in her marathon debut at the McKirdy Micro Road to Tokyo Marathon, I wrote, “It looks like the longer distances are going to be her thing.” And in July, she finished third at the Bix 7. She didn’t come close to hitting the world championships standard, but she got into the race via her world ranking. Between 2018 and 2023, Paternain ran collegiately for Penn State and the University of Arkansas, with best times of 16:00 for 5,000m and 33:22 for 10,000m. She now lives in Flagstaff and is coached by Jack Polerecky of McKirdy Trained. I hope her performance gives a lot of collegiate runners hope. Earning a medal was not on her radar at all, which probably helped her run a patient race. And she didn’t realize she was in third until after she crossed the finish line. For more, this is a good article, or you can get a lot of the same information in video form.
Finishing just outside the medals can be bittersweet, but Susanna Sullivan ran an incredible race to take fourth in the marathon in 2:28:17. She led most of the first 28K, opening up a significant lead at times. While taking off early in a marathon can sometimes be seen as reckless, I think it was a wise and calculated move on her part. Doing her own thing allowed her to run a steady pace, rather than getting caught up in a bunch of pace changes. And when Assefa and Jepchirchir did make their move, it looked like they did so at a pace that was tough for everyone in the field to handle. Sullivan’s strength is her endurance, and she ran the race in a way that played to her strengths. Sullivan said she knew the chase pack was coming. (Thanks to some U-turns, she got to see them, too.) She mentally prepared herself to stay strong when they went by, and she really pulled it off. Her finish is the best by an American woman in the world championships marathon since Amy Cragg earned bronze in 2017.
Jess McClain also ran a strong race and finished eighth in 2:29:20. Sullivan and McClain did their post-race interview together, and I appreciated that FloTrack’s recording of it included the part where McClain said at the beginning, “I feel like I just partied at a college frat party and I need all of this to come up.” (I assume she was referring to all of the fuel she took in during the race.) Erika Kemp ran alongside her U.S. teammates for a bit in the beginning, but she let the lead pack go early on. And by halfway, she was already struggling. She finished 52nd in 2:50:35.
Anyone who has watched Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet race recently saw her kick coming in the 10,000m final. And that includes Italy’s Nadia Battocletti, who was ready and covered it impressively well. At no point did I think she was going to beat Chebet, but Battocletti gave her more of a challenge than I would have expected. Chebet won in 30:37.61, and Battocletti finished only 0.62 seconds behind her. (Granted it wasn’t a championship race, but back in June, Chebet beat Battocletti by nearly 20 seconds in a 5,000m.) Though Battocletti is the reigning Olympic silver medalist in this event, her silver medal here surprised me a bit. There were four women—Chebet, Battocletti, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, and Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich—racing for three medals in the end. And Battocletti was the one with the least impressive resume so far this year. But she’s a good championship racer and that’s why they run the race. Tsegay earned bronze, which was a solid result for her. She is a better tactician in the longer races (compared to the mile/1500m), but it was clear coming in that she was unlikely to have the type of kick she would need to win. (10,000m results | 10,000m highlights)
Also in the 10,000m, I was particularly impressed by Japan’s Ririka Hironaka, who finished sixth in front of a home crowd, and Australia’s Lauren Ryan, who finished ninth. Elise Cranny, Emily Infeld, and Taylor Roe finished 12th, 14th, and 18th, respectively. I imagine all of them were hoping for more, and that was apparent in Cranny’s post-race comments. (I appreciate the role Infeld played in that interview.)
Most of the serious medal contenders advanced to the 1500m final, though I was surprised to see Great Britain’s Laura Muir go out in the first round and Australia’s Linden Hall get eliminated in the semifinals. Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu had a rough semifinal, but she managed to advance. She was leading about 200m into the race when she was clipped from behind and went down. The pace was conservative enough that she was able to get back in it and finish third, but it was a high-stress way to move on. Nikki Hiltz and Sinclaire Johnson both looked good in advancing to Tuesday’s final, which is 9:05 a.m. ET in the U.S. Emily Mackay had a bit of a rough first round, but managed to make it to the semifinal. But in the semis, she never quite looked like herself. She finished 10th in 4:12.80, and her meet is over. (1500m results, so far)
One of the bigger developments in the 1500m came in the days leading up to the meet when the AIU announced that they were appealing the Ethiopian Anti-Doping Authority’s decision to clear Diribe Welteji of a violation. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that she was ineligible to compete at worlds. It sounds like she refused to take an out-of-competition test on May 21. NBC has a brief summary here, but at this point, we have very few details. Welteji was fourth in the 1500m at the Paris Olympics, and earned silver at the 2023 world championships and 2025 world indoor championships. She hasn’t raced since the Prefontaine Classic, but she would have been one of the medal favorites in Tokyo.
The steeplechase prelims, which took place late last night in my time zone, were relatively uneventful. All three Americans—Lexy Halladay-Lowry, Angelina Napoleon, and Kaylee Mitchell—looked good and advanced to the final. I was sorry to see Great Britain’s Sarah Tait appear to get injured early in her race and have to drop out. Kenya’s Doris Lemngole, who runs for Alabama, is through to the final, but her countrywoman Pamela Kosgei, who runs for the University of New Mexico, did not advance. (Steeplechase results)
The logistics in Tokyo sound a little more challenging than usual with athletes having to take a bus to the track in advance of sitting around in the call room. And not getting rattled by that is part of the game. Nikki Hiltz briefly discussed it in this interview. “I was just joking with Sophie O’Sullivan on the way over,” they said. “We were like, ‘Should we make a TikTok?’” (Yes, definitely.) I loved the Instagram story they posted after the first round with Faith Kipyegon, Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, Linden Hall, Jessica Hull, and Susan Ejore. It was a photo of all of them on the bus, with the caption, “Survived and advanced with all of my besties.”
If you’re struggling with where to watch the world championships on TV in the U.S., NBC’s TV schedule is available here.
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Other News
ZAP Endurance announced last week that 2025 will be the final year for the ZAP Endurance team, running vacations, and foundation. “This decision was not made lightly,” they wrote in an email. “The running landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, bringing exciting new opportunities but also significant challenges.” Reebok sponsored the team for 14 years, then On took over from 2019 to 2021. But since then the team has not had the support of a shoe sponsor. ZAP has had a meaningful impact on the sport over the past 25 years, and I’m sorry to see them go. They currently have eight elite athletes on their roster, including three women: Amanda Vestri, Tristin Colley, and Annmarie Tuxbury. I appreciated Colley and Vestri’s touching posts about their time with the team, and it will be interesting to see where they end up after this.
I thought this Guardian article about Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson was a good read, and you can form your own opinion about whether the Himalayan salt lamp or the full-time physiotherapist played a larger role in salvaging her season.
I listened to Keira D’Amato’s book, Don’t Call It a Comeback, last week. I thought it was really good, and it will inspire a lot of people. I’ve heard her tell parts of her story more times than I can count, but this filled in some interesting and entertaining details. I especially liked hearing about the people who were part of her journey when she was working her way back into the sport, like local runners she was intimidated to run with and such. It made me wonder what they think of her now. I imagine she’ll be hitting the podcast circuit in the coming weeks and months, but I enjoyed her appearance on My First Marathon last week.
Just when it looked like Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands might have a relatively light fall racing schedule by her standards, New York Road Runners announced that she has joined the New York City Marathon field. She was on NYRR’s podcast, Set the Pace, with Eliud Kipchoge last week. They join just before the 24-minute mark.
Sierre-Zinal and OCC champ Joyline Chepngeno is banned for two years
The AIU announced on Tuesday that Joyline Chepngeno has been banned for two years after testing positive for triamcinolone acetonide after her win at Sierre-Zinal on August 9. She went on to win OCC, becoming the first Kenyan to win one of the major races at UTMB, on August 28.
Four days after that, she was notified of her positive test. And on September 8, Chepngeno told the AIU that she received an injection to treat knee pain in July, but she wasn’t aware that it was prohibited. The AIU said that because they do not have any evidence that Chepngeno intentionally doped, they only gave her a two-year ban, instead of a four-year ban. I take this to mean that they found her explanation to be plausible and rewarded her for owning up to it.
In 2022, the AIU pointed out that in a two-year period, 10 Kenyan runners tested positive for triamcinolone acetonide, a substance which few other countries were using to cheat. Among them was Mark Kangogo, who won Sierre-Zinal in 2022 but was later disqualified. Like Chepngeno, Kangogo was coached by Switzerland’s Julien Lyon.
Salomon, Chepngeno’s sponsor, quickly announced that they have dropped her. Sierre-Zinal adjusted their results, suspended Lyon, banned his team, Milimani Runners, from the race, and requested that Lyon pay them back for costs associated with the team’s participation in the event. Chepngeno’s DQ elevated Kenya’s Caroline Kimutai, also a member of the now-banned team, to the top spot. UTMB has adjusted their results, with China’s Miao Yao now listed as the OCC champion.
It’s been interesting to watch the trail running community grapple with issues that have long been present in road and track racing. And this case is notable because Chepngeno was a trailblazer in the sport.
Some of the comments I’ve seen this week have been awful, but there’s also been some good, nuanced discussion, like this episode of The Freetrail Podcast. I don’t think it proves anything either way as far as whether she’s telling the truth, but it is interesting that Chepngeno put out a statement on Friday, which isn’t something we see often.
Additional Results
Ethiopia’s Linkina Amebaw has run 29:40 for 10K, so it’s no surprise that she can run a fast half marathon, too. But until Sunday morning, her PR—at least according to World Athletics’ website— was 1:09:01. On a rainy morning, she improved that by 4:19 in winning the Copenhagen Half Marathon in an impressive 1:04:44. Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi took second in 1:05:00, which appears to be a 3+ minute PR. Fiona O’Keeffe finished eighth in 1:08:35, Natosha Rogers was ninth in 1:08:42, and Keira D’Amato was 12th in 1:09:07. They all set out at more aggressive paces, especially O’Keeffe, who went through 5K in 15:24 and 10K in 31:23, so I imagine they were hoping to run something a bit faster. (Results)
Riley Brady won the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile. More about that from iRunFar.
I was impressed to see that Makena Morley won the vertical kilometer at The Rut. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
I should have promoted this episode on social media by now, but I haven’t had it in me. (But listen to it, it’s good!) I really enjoyed hearing from Helen Schlachtenhaufen on the Fast People podcast last week and learning more of her story. This was the first detailed update I’ve heard since her awful fall at USAs. I can’t keep thinking about the financial ramifications. Having to miss races after USAs made it harder to run the races that might help her get a contract down the line, and on top of that, she likely needs dental work now as a result of the fall.
Heather MacLean’s appearance on the Ali on the Run Show was a good listen. It was interesting to hear MacLean say that she reached out to her new coach, Juli Benson, after listening to Chris Miltenberg talk about Benson’s ability to help athletes believe in themselves on a podcast. I know some people have been hoping for some dirt on the changes in New Balance Boston’s roster this year. You won’t get that here, but I appreciated everything she had to say about making a big move this year.
I also appreciated getting some of the details in Josette Andrews’ appearance on the Ali on the Run Show and appreciated Ali Feller getting the detail that Andrews injured her toe wiping out in the kitchen just before she left for the USATF Outdoor Championships. That’s related to the fact that Andrews knew her cat was sick heading into her race at USAs. Her husband didn’t tell her the cat had died until after her race. (Andrews was also on Hurdle last week.)
I’m thrilled she’s doing what’s right for her, but I’ve missed Lauren Fleshman’s voice in the sport, so it was really nice to hear from her on What’s the Rusch. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been thinking about the ways in which our relationship with running changes over time, and that theme was present in this conversation. It was interesting to hear her talk about the role running plays in her life now and where else she’s putting her energy. She discussed some of the reasons she has stepped back from social media, and she said she’s hoping to get a master’s in social work and she’ll be applying to grad schools this fall.
If you’re ever questioning how much of a difference one person (who also happens to be a runner) can make, you might enjoy Carolina Rubio-MacWright’s appearance on The Trail Network Podcast.
On Road to the Trials, Dakotah Popehn said she was very disappointed with her 1:07:42 half marathon PR at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon last month because she really thought she could run around 1:06:30. But she also said the course was hillier and windier than she was expecting.
Additional Episodes: Allyson Felix on Welcome to the Party, hosted by Abby Wambach, Billie Jean King, and Julie Foudy (she comes on around the 20-minute mark) | Emily Mackay on I’ll Have Another | Maddie Alm on The Lane 9 Podcast | Germany’s Lotti Brinks on Women of Distance | Makenna Myler on Her Y
A disclaimer
You know how sometimes a championship rolls around and the timing just isn’t right for an athlete? They might line up sick or injured and give the race a shot, but in their heart, they know it’s unlikely to go well. I feel a bit like that at the moment. One of the most important events of the year is finally here, and I’m not quite up to covering it.
I usually try to avoid making this newsletter about me, but this week, it’s hard to avoid. Last week, something (unclear to me) happened, and since then my brain hasn’t been working quite as well as it normally does. I feel like I’m 90 percent there. Like I think what I’m writing makes sense. But the missing 10 percent includes many of the skills I draw on to do a thorough job with this newsletter.
It’s the part of my brain that is good at starting the day with 50 tabs open, looking up 100 tiny details, and figuring out how to condense and organize it all. Or the part that might be capable of hunting down the footage of the women’s marathon that I missed because I was watching on Peacock and don’t have cable and NO ONE TOLD US THAT THE “WOMEN’S MARATHON” STREAM ON PEACOCK MEANT THAT THEY WERE GOING TO INTERRUPT THE RACE JUST AS IT GOT EXCITING TO SHOW THE MEN’S 1500M HEATS. Apparently CNBC was the way to go there. Usually it’s the other way around. But I digress.
Yes, I have had this checked by medical professionals (my CT scan was fine). But I don’t know what’s going on yet. Please do not worry about me. I am working on it. (Though if anyone knows of an excellent neurologist in the Newton/Wellesley/Natick/Needham area, please let me know. Boston feels impossibly far away at the moment.)
Maybe you don’t see the difference between this and the way I would normally cover a major event, but I do. Decision making, problem solving, and the strangest minor tasks feel really hard right now. So if you get the sense that I’m not giving certain things the same attention that I normally would, you’re right. And that’s on purpose. I’m hoping that by taking it a little easier right now, it’ll help in the long run. And honestly, I got a lot more done today than I thought was possible at the moment.
For whatever reason, posting on Bluesky does feel quite manageable to me right now. So I’ve been trying to do more of that during worlds. So if you want more frequent updates from me, you don’t need an account to read my posts.
Thanks again to Bakline for sponsoring this newsletter! I hope you are all taking care of yourselves as well, and that you have the best week possible.
Alison
I hope you get the answers you’re looking for and feel better soon! Your work amplifies this sport so much so even at 90% you’re making such an impact!
Alison, I’m sorry your brain is on the fritz! I hope you can get some rest and recovery in and you find yourself back on top in short order. I know I speak for a lot of folks when I say that we’re all sending you good wishes and a quick resolution.