world record

.. are laid out and analysed on Ross Tucker and Johnathan Dugas's excellent Science of Sport website.

"And with that, Gebrselassie finally got the marathon right. It is harsh to say that, but he himself admitted in a press conference that he felt his previous marathons were not yet perfect.

Oscar Pistorius is a 20-year old South African Paralympic runner known as “The Fastest Thing on No Legs”. After having both of his legs amputated below the knee when he was only 11-months old, Oscar has exemplified the astounding spirit of these challenged athletes. Oscar is sponsored by Ossur and with the aid of their Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetics, Oscar has ran his his way to multiple Paralympic gold medals and set world records in the 100, 200 and 400m events. He has also gone on to break his own to consider the issue. As the IOC struggles to make decision, Oscar has kept his heworld records 19 times in a single year and has successfully competed against able-bodied runners.

The Henry Rono comeback story has taken an interesting twist, as Masters world mile record-holder Nolan Shaheed (he of jazz trumpet fame), has as good as challenged the Kenyan maestro to a showdown.

"I am glad to hear that you are endeavoring to set the record in the mile", writes Shaheed on Henry's letsrun.com thread. "As you know it's my endeavor too. It would be great for us to go for the record in the same race at the same meet at the same time. Maybe there is a race promoter out there who would be interested."

I would LOVE to get in that race!

The unlikely running champion who inspired Roger Bannister and many other greats, Sydney Wooderson, MBE, died over the holiday period aged 91.

Wooderson, who stood 5ft 6 and weighed under 9 stone, was born in 1914 and ran 4:30 for the mile when still a schoolboy, going on to set a world mile record of 4:6.4 in 1938, and world records at 800m and 880 yards in a career spoilt by injury and war.

Steven Downes writes in the Independent:

"If someone were to point out Sydney Wooderson to you on the running track and tell you he was the athlete who had run a mile more quickly than any other human being, you just wouldn't believe it.