THE LATEST in the aches, pains & eligibility departments (our big annual recruiting feature, Where They Are Going, is featured elsewhere in this issue):
Canada’s Moh Ahmed has left Jerry Schumacher and is now working with Mike Smith in Flagstaff.
Vivian Cheruiyot dropped out of the New York Marathon with an Achilles injury.
Olympian Elise Cranny has moved her training base to England and will be in Manchester with the M11 Track Club.
Movin’ on up? Track star Grant Fisher says we might see him in a half-marathon next year: “I haven’t quite decided definitively if that’s going to happen or not, but it’s something I have my eye on because I’d like to try my hand at the roads at some point. I don’t want to wait until my track career is completely over to then crawl onto the roads and see what happens.”
The winner of the ’21 Olympic shot, China’s Lijiao Gong has retired at age 36. She also won WC golds in ’17 and ’19 and was No. 1 in the World Rankings 4 times.
Aussie Olympian and Wisconsin alum Morgan McDonald has left Dathan Ritzenhein’s On AC, saying, “For now I am still here grinding it out in Boulder, just doing things a little different.”
Reigning Olympic javelin champ Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan says he is still far from 100% following his July calf surgery.
A member of Team USA’s world cross team last year, Abby Nichols has left NAZ Elite and is now with the Union AC.
Ackera Nugent of Jamaica has moved her training base from Fayetteville back home, where she will be working with Glen Mills’ Racers TC.
After a rough outing in the NYC Marathon, Canada’s reigning Pan-Am 1500 champ Charles Philibert-Thiboutot has announced his retirement.
British long jumper Jazmin Sawyers has canceled her plans to try the pentathlon this winter after straining her calf while working on the high jump.
Molly Seidel dropped out of New York at mile 18 with knee pain.
Chinese 100 recordholder Bingtian Su has retired at 36.
Joseph Taylor, who ran 44.98 for Duke last year as a frosh, has switched his nationality to Ghana as of August (and has also transferred to Florida).
Jamaican speedster Elaine Thompson-Herah, who hasn’t raced since June ’24, has returned to training with coach Reynaldo Walcott at the Elite Performance TC.
Aliphine Tuliamuk had a son the day of the New York Marathon, having gone into labor while watching the race.
Our collegiate AOY indoor and out for Florida in ’24, CR setter Parker Valby returned to racing with a 5K road appearance in New York. She missed 9 months of competition because of a broken navicular bone. She started training again in September.
Dutch heptathlete Anouk Vetter, silver medalist at the ’21 Olympics, has retired at age 32.
Doping Bans…
4 years — Esther Gitahi (Kenya, distance);
3 years — Kartick Kumar (India, distances);
2 years, 9 months — Marvin Bracy-Williams (U.S., sprints). □
