THE LATEST in the aches, pains & eligibility departments (noting that our big annual collegiate recruiting feature, Where They Are Going, appears at the front of this edition):
Benjamin Azamati, the Ghanian Olympian (9.90 PR) who anchored the winning Div. II 4×1 for West Texas A&M, has signed with Asics and is skipping his last 2 years of collegiate eligibility.
Ben Broeders, 5th in the World Indoor vault last year for Belgium, will now train with Mondo Duplantis and be coached by the Greg and Helena Duplantis. “It’s not that I’m suddenly going to start jumping like Mondo,” he says. “We’re going to look for what will help me move forward in the last percentages.”
Hurdler Christina Clemons is the latest recipient of a USATF Foundation maternity grant. She revealed that she competed at the Nationals, making the semis, while she was 8 weeks pregnant, before canceling the rest of her season.
Brazil’s Daniel do Nascimento collapsed after making a daring breakaway in the NYC Marathon. He reassured fans, “I am fine! I was promptly attended to by the medical team of the race and you can rest assured that I am recovered. Unfortunately, there are days that things don’t go as we plan and would like.”
Alexa Efraimson has announced her retirement at age 25. The onetime wunderkind had turned pro in high school, running 4:03.39 that season, a mark that remained her PR. She U.S. Ranked 3 times, making No. 8 in ’16. “Before this season, I wasn’t expecting it to be my last,” she says. “I started the season with the same drive I always did, especially after a rough 2021 season. I was disciplined, excited, and training was going well! Racing was a little bit of a roller coaster, but I eventually came to a point in the season and realized ‘I’m not enjoying this.’ I had no fight or fire in races.”
Olympic sprint champ Marcell Jacobs says he is looking at training in Abu Dhabi this winter.:“After 6 years in Tenerife, I feel the need to change.” He says he will compete indoors and in as much of the Diamond League as possible. “But I don’t want to take any risks. In the last two years I got injured in May and it can’t happen again.”
Kenya’s Viola Jeptoo placed 5th in the NYC Marathon, then spent an hour in the ICU due to dehydration.
Noah Kibet, the World Indoor 800 runner-up, will be joining the Union Athletic Club to train with Donavan Brazier.
Kenneth Kiprop, who won the Prague and Lisbon half-marathons this year (PR 58:35), earned himself a 5-year ban after testing positive for methasterone, an anabolic/androgenic steroid. The drug’s nickname is “Superdrol.”
Former WR holder Renaud Lavillenie won’t be vaulting with poles until mid-December because of a hamstring injury. The problem has been percolating since early summer. He still plans to compete indoors.
Hassan Mead has reportedly retired at age 33. An Olympic and World finalist at 5000, he was a 7-time U.S. Ranker at that distance, plus he also ranked twice at 10K.
Distance runner Teshome Mekonen has been a U.S. citizen since August; his longtime wife was born in New York City to Ethiopian parents. The 60:02 half marathoner, now 27, will not be eligible to represent the U.S. internationally until he gets clearance from WA. He last represented Ethiopia at the ’16 World Half-Marathon, where he finished 11th.
Burundi’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo has been winning on the WA cross country circuit. He has recently been given Spanish citizenship but has not gone through the WA process for transfer of allegiance yet. The winner of the Monaco 3000 this year in 7:25.93, he doesn’t appear to have competed for Burundi since his DNF in the 10,000 at Doha ’19.
For years 800 WR holder David Rudisha has been talking about a comeback, but now he says coaching looks like a reality (see Last Lap).
10-time Swiss 800 champ Selina Rutz-Büchel has retired at 31. She was unable to come back from childbirth due to the effects of long COVID: “Since the birth I have made several attempts to start training again, which has overtaxed my body,” she says. “I realized that my current state of health does not allow training.”
Wherebouts problems have earned decathlete Garrett Scantling (see Last Lap) a 3-year ban.
Former triple jump world champ Teddy Tamgho has belatedly received a retroactive ban, his results from March 18, 2015 to March 17, 2016 being erased. That was a period in which he competed while under suspension for having three whereabouts failures. He hasn’t competed since ’19.
French hammer recordholder Alexandra Tavernier has had to stop training because of a tibial plateau fracture.
He may be 39 now, but Czechia’s ’13 javelin world champ Vítězslav Veselý isn’t planning a retirement yet, explaining, “I have no reason to stop, but will take everything very lightly, no pressure. Step by step, but will still be ready for some good throws.”
After losing virtually all of ’22 to injury, German javelin ace Johannes Vetter says his mission is clear: “The goal is to get through the winter training healthy. And if everything is in place in April or May, then there are no limits.”
Doping Suspensions…
5 years — Kenneth Kiprop (Kenya, distance);
3 years — Garrett Scantling (U.S., decathlon), Fernanda Maita (Venezuela, triple jump), Mahipal Singh (India, hammer), Manju Yadav (India, hammer);
2 years — Yelena Panova (Russia, discus). □