Category Archives: Athletics

Records fall as Sifan Hassan and Hailemaryam Kiros win Sydney Marathon

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  • Dutch star and Ethiopian run fastest times on Australian soil

  • Kenyan running great Eliud Kipchoge finishes ninth

The Dutch multi-distance phenomenon Sifan Hassan has set a race record to claim victory in the first running of the Sydney Marathon as a World Majors Series event.

Hassan clocked a women’s winning time of two hours 18 minutes and 22 seconds as Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge fell short of the podium in the men’s category on Sunday.

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World Athletics Championships: London’s 2029 bid gets Starmer backing

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  • UK government will give £35m to help push for event

  • Previous successes leave city in strong position for bid

London is in prime position to stage the 2029 World Athletics Championships after finally securing a substantial government funding commitment for the bid.

It is understood the UK government has agreed to give £35m to help bid for the championships, which would be the first to be staged in London since 2017, with the mayor’s office expected to commit about £10m.

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Gout Gout wins again in Monaco as Jess Hull and Peter Bol break national records

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  • 17-year-old dazzles in under-23 200m at Diamond League meet

  • Bol fourth in fast 800m final that sees world record fall

The remarkable Gout Gout story speeds on with the Australian producing another blistering performance to further his European track education in Monaco.

Guesting in an invitational 200 metres at the prestigious Diamond League meeting at the Stade Louis II in the principality during his school holidays on Friday, the teenage phenomenon raced away to another striking win in 20.10 seconds into a headwind.

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Caster Semenya calls for athletes’ rights to be put first as court rules in her favour

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ECHR rules South African runner did not have fair trial on need to lower testosterone levels to compete in women’s sport

The South African runner Caster Semenya has called for athletes’ rights to be better protected after Europe’s top human rights court ruled that she had not been given a fair trial when she contested a policy that required her to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete in women’s sport.

The decision, handed down on Thursday by the European court of human rights, was the latest twist in the two-time Olympic gold medallist’s extraordinary legal battle.

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Gout Gout breaks his own 200m national record in latest stunning run

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  • 17-year-old lays down time of 20.02s on senior European debut

  • Cam Myers, 19, and Peter Bol also shine on strong night for Australia

The records keep falling for Gout Gout after the 17-year-old sprint sensation announced himself on the senior international stage with a new Australian benchmark of 20.02s over 200m at the Ostrava Golden Spike meet in the Czech Republic.

Gout remains on course to go sub-20s as he bettered his own national record in a field stacked with high-quality sprinters, chasing down and then roaring past Reynier Mena over the final 20m to cross the line 0.17s ahead of the Cuban, with Briton Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake third.

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Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s father found guilty of hitting his daughter but cleared of abusing Olympic champion

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  • Gjert Ingebrigtsen acquitted of Jakob charges due to ‘reasonable doubt’

  • Handed suspended 15-day sentence and fined for abuse of Ingrid

The father of the double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has been found guilty of hitting the Norwegian runner’s younger sister, Ingrid, with a wet towel, and handed a 15-day suspended sentence.

However, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, who coached his Jakob to 1500m gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021 before an acrimonious split a year later, was acquitted of charges of physical and verbal abuse against Jakob after a court in Norway found there was “reasonable doubt” about the accusations.

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US sprinter Fred Kerley arrested for allegedly punching former girlfriend

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  • Olympic medallist not running at Grand Slam Track
  • The 29-year-old charged with ‘battery-touch or strike’

Fred Kerley, twice an Olympic 100m medallist, has been arrested for allegedly punching the hurdler and his former girlfriend Alaysha Johnson in the face, and the American sprinter will not compete in the Grand Slam Track event in Miami this weekend.

The alleged incident occurred on Thursday at a hotel where Johnson, who is listed as a competitor in the Miami event, had an appointment with her conditioning coach when she told police she ran into Kerley.

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China pits humanoid robots against humans in half-marathon for first time

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Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing

Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21km course.

The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidVP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 1.2m, others as tall as 1.8m. One company boasted that its robot looked almost human, with feminine features and the ability to wink and smile. Some firms tested their robots for weeks before the race. Beijing officials have described the event as more akin to motor racing, given the need for engineering and navigation teams.

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Gout Gout lights up the track in Brisbane with world-leading 200m time

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  • Sprint sensation clocks 20.05 secs in U20 heat at state championships
  • Australian breaks 20-second barrier in final with wind-assisted 19.98s

Sprint sensation Gout Gout, Australia’s fastest man over 200m, has lit up the track with a world-leading run during the Queensland Athletics championships on Sunday.

Gout first blitzed the field in the under-20 heats to cross the line in 20.05s for the fastest 200m recorded across the globe in all ages in 2025. The 17-year-old smashed the previous best 20.13s clocked by Zimbabwe’s Makanakaishe Charamba in Texas last month but better was still to come in the final in Brisbane.

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Thousands attend funeral of runner Rebecca Cheptegei who was set on fire by partner

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Mourners in Uganda pay respects to Olympic athlete whose death prompted renewed calls for more protection for women in sport

Thousands of mourners in Uganda paid their respects on Saturday to Rebecca Cheptegei, the Olympic athlete who died last week in Kenya after her partner set her on fire. The military funeral took place in a remote town near the Kenyan border.

Military officers played a prominent role in the funeral because Cheptegei held the rank of sergeant in Uganda’s army, said military spokesperson Brig Felix Kulayigye, adding that she deserved a “gun salute that befits her rank”.

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Former partner accused of killing Rebecca Cheptegei dies from burns

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  • Hospital confirms Dickson Ndiema Marangach’s death
  • Cheptegei died four days after being set on fire

Dickson Ndiema Marangach, the former partner of the Uganda runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who had been accused of killing her by dousing her in petrol and setting her on fire, died on Monday from burns sustained during the attack.

Cheptegei, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in the 1 September attack and died four days later. Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 7.50pm local time on Monday, said Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya, where Cheptegei was also treated and died. “He died from his injuries, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at told Reuters.

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Rebecca Cheptegei’s family demand justice after death of runner set on fire by former partner

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  • Olympian sustained 80% burns during attack in Kenya
  • Police say former boyfriend attacked her amid dispute

The family of a Ugandan athlete who died in Kenya after allegedly being set on fire by her former boyfriend has called for justice and legal action against the culprit.

“I have a lot of grief because I’ve lost my daughter. I seek your help so that this person who has killed my daughter can be prosecuted,” Joseph Cheptegei, the father of Rebecca Cheptegei, told reporters at the hospital where she died.

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Alpine skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark competes in pole vault at age of 68

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  • Stenmark took part in world masters championship
  • Swede cleared three metres at event in Gothenburg

Alpine skiing great Ingemar Stenmark is still wowing audiences with his skill between the poles at the age of 68 – but this time, it’s in pole vault.

The Swedish sporting legend, who won two Winter Olympic golds in his career, took part in the world masters athletics championship, clearing three metres to wild applause from the crowd.

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Jubilation in Caribbean at St Lucia’s and Dominica’s first Olympic medals

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Sprinter Julian Alfred and triple jumper Thea LaFond both win gold on Saturday

There was jubilation in the Caribbean on Sunday after St Lucian sprinter Julian Alfred and Dominican triple jumper Thea LaFond secured their countries’ first ever medals, both golds.

From entering the Games as a little-known competitor, Julian Alfred demonstrated immense athletics prowess by winning the women’s 100-metre finals on Saturday, in 10.72sec.

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‘I could have run faster’: Cathy Freeman expresses regret over gold medal race at Sydney Olympics

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Olympian says women’s 400 metres would have reached a whole new level if her main rival Marie-José Pérec had competed in the final

In an extraordinary confession, Olympic legend Cathy Freeman says she never completely fulfilled her potential as an athlete.

Reflecting on her remarkable career as the Paris games approach, Freeman said she could have run even faster in her career-defining 400-metres final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

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New York City Marathon: Tola sets men’s course record as Obiri takes women’s crown

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  • Ethiopian eclipses previous best by eight seconds
  • Obiri won Boston Marathon earlier this year

Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia set a course record to win the New York City Marathon men’s race on Sunday while Hellen Obiri of Kenya pulled away in the final 400 meters to take the women’s title.

Tola finished in 2hr 4min 58sec, topping the 2:05:06 set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011. Tola pulled away from his compatriot Jemal Yimer when the pair were heading towards the Bronx at mile 20. By the time he headed back into Manhattan a mile later he was up by 19sec and chasing Mutai’s mark.

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Chinese censors block ‘Tiananmen’ image of athletes hugging

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Picture of athletes’ ‘6/4’ race numbers erased in perceived reference to 1989 massacre

A photograph of two Chinese athletes hugging after a race has been censored on Chinese social media because the women’s race numbers inadvertently formed a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Lin Yuwei and Wu Yanni, China’s entrants in the women’s 100m hurdles final, embraced after the race at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. Lin won gold in the race with a time of 12.74 seconds. A photograph of the two women in profile showed Lin’s lane number, 6, next to Wu’s lane number, 4.

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Ironman swimming race in Ireland in which two died did not have approval

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Ivan van Chittenden and Brendan Wall were competing in event that Triathlon Ireland did not sanction owing to bad weather

An Ironman swimming race in which two competitors died was not sanctioned by the governing body for triathlons in Ireland due to concerns about “adverse conditions”.

Triathlon Ireland said it had not sanctioned the Ironman Cork event in Youghal because of the weather.

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Peter Bol exonerated six months after ‘false positive’ drug test as anti-doping body closes investigation

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  • Sport Integrity Australia drops investigation into Australian
  • Middle distance runner says news is ‘a dream come true’

Peter Bol has been “exonerated” and can now turn his full focus to the upcoming world athletics championships after Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) dropped its anti-doping investigation into the middle-distance star.

It ends a saga dating back to mid-January when the 29-year-old Australian was provisionally suspended after recording an elevated level of synthetic erythropoietin (EPO).

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