Athletics Africa Magazine

Meseret Defar capped her short but sterling indoor campaign with a 9:06.26** World best to highlight a thoroughly entertaining inaugural edition of the aptly named Meeting of World Record Holders meet in the Czech capital on Thursday. “My goal was to get three world records this season,” said Defar, who eight days ago broke the world indoor mark in the 5000m with a 14:24.37 run in Stockholm. “I only missed one, so that’s not bad.” Read more on Defar's 9:06.26 run in Prague .

Kenya‘s Luke Kibet and the Netherlands‘ Lornah Kiplagat won the men‘s and women‘s races respectively at the Glo Lagos International Half Marathon on Saturday. Kibet beat a strong men‘s field with a time of one hour seven minutes and 49 seconds, while Kiplagat also eased to victory in 1.16:23.

UTEP Freshman sprinter Endurance Abinuwa has been named Conference USA Female Athlete of the Week the league announced Tuesday. Abinuwa recorded C-USA bests in two events at the Texas A&M Invitational this last weekend. The Nigeria native ran a NCAA provisional and personal-best time of 53.70 in the 400-meter dash. She also anchored the Miners’ 4x400-meter relay team to a 3:43.03 time. The time is also a C-USA best this season. The honor is Abinuwa’s first and the first honor for a Miner in 2009.

World marathon record holder, Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia, is to make a star appearance at this year’s Glo Lagos International Half Marathon coming up on February 21, 2009. While in the country, the fastest long distance runner will pair up with three- time world Half Marathon record holder, Lornah Kiplagat of Netherlands to hold an educative and inspirational clinic for young upcoming athletes on the eve of the half Marathon in Lagos. The Ethiopian will also spare time to interact with the press on arrival at the airport. The duo of Gebreselassie and Kiplagat will lead an array of 44 international road runners to the Glo Lagos half marathon. Two former Lagos Half marathon Champions : Millicent Boadi of Ghana who won the Lagos International Half Marathon in 2005 and Dieudonne Disi from Rwanda who won the first Glo Lagos Half Marathon in 2007 have equally confirmed their participation in this year’s Lagos road race.