Latest Track and field News

Feel-good parkruns have raced past their humble beginnings and now draw millions for fitness and fun

Oct. 03, 2024 03:49 AM EDT

LONDON (AP) — On a weekend morning in the fall of 2004, 13 runners lined up in a London park for an informal race — unaware they were taking the first steps in what would become a global movement. Paul Sinton-Hewitt had simple ambitions: to provide a free, weekly 5-kilometer...

Women's only track meet in NYC features Olympic champs, musicians and lucrative prize money

Sep. 25, 2024 13:59 PM EDT

A New York City track meet Thursday night will be unlike any other, featuring lucrative prize money, big-name entertainers, silver crowns for the winners instead of gold medals and an all-female field. Chalk up another win for women’s sports. Recently crowned Olympic...

St. Lucia's first Olympic medalist returns home to cheers and calypso

Sep. 24, 2024 18:34 PM EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — As the first St. Lucian to win an Olympic medal, sprinter Julien Alfred already has poems, paintings and even a calypso song dedicated to her. On Tuesday, officials announced that Sept. 27 would be Julien Alfred Day, as the 23-year-old known as...

Edwin Moses documentary '13 Steps' shows how clearing the hurdles was the easy part for a track icon

Sep. 18, 2024 10:18 AM EDT

Not long after Edwin Moses figured out how to attack the solution to track's ultimate math problem, he transformed himself into the best hurdler in history. That, in turn, gave the engineer-turned-Olympic champion the platform to go after more difficult issues that, even today, more...

Boston Marathon lowers qualifying times for most prospective runners for 2026 race

Sep. 17, 2024 10:16 AM EDT

BOSTON (AP) — Runners hoping to qualify for the 2026 Boston Marathon are going to have to pick up the pace. The Boston Athletic Association has updated its qualifying times for the world's oldest annual marathon, asking most prospective competitors to run a 26.2-mile race five...

Ugandan Olympic athlete who died after her partner set her on fire gets a military funeral

Sep. 14, 2024 15:11 PM EDT

BUKWO, Uganda (AP) — Thousands of mourners in Uganda paid their respects 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...

France investigating disappearances of 2 Congolese Paralympic athletes

Sep. 12, 2024 22:16 PM EDT

PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday. Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept....

Paralympic Games end with a Parisian electro-dance party after 2 world records on final day

Sep. 08, 2024 17:09 PM EDT

PARIS (AP) — The Paralympic Games ended Sunday with two world records and a spectacular light show during a closing ceremony dominated by French electronic music Jean-Michel Jarre got the party underway at the Stade de France, coaxing dance moves from athletes, volunteers and...

Hunter Woodhall wins Paralympic sprint title to join his wife as a gold medalist

Sep. 06, 2024 17:44 PM EDT

PARIS (AP) — One month after Tara Davis-Woodhall's Olympic title in the long jump, her husband Hunter Woodhall, a double amputee, won his own Paralympic gold medal Friday at the Stade de France. Davis-Woodhall’s rush into the stands for a celebratory hug from her husband became a...

Paris wants to honor late Ugandan Olympian Cheptegei by naming sports venue after her

Sep. 06, 2024 11:59 AM EDT

PARIS (AP) — The city of Paris wants to honor the late Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei by naming a sports venue after her. The proposal was announced by city mayor Anne Hidalgo on Friday and will be discussed by city officials in October. Cheptegei died on...