http://therunning.com/alabama.php State Feed en-us PHP/5.2.6 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8218 Forget Tyson Gay, forget Reese Hoffa, forget Lauryn Williams, forget Mary Lou Retton. Actually, no, don’t forget Mary Lou Retton. After Gay, Hoffa and Williams failed to deliver the first gold medal of these Olympics for the United States, the job fell to little-known Stephanie Brown Trafton. Or was it Trafton Brown, reporters ill prepared for an upset in the women’s Discus were asking. 2008-08-19 10:34:17 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8217 High hurdles seem to be cursed here in Beijing, the latest casualty being US champion and world season leader Lolo Jones who, reminiscent of a certain Gail Devers in Barcelona 1992, crashed into hurdle 9 while well ahead of the rest of the field. 2008-08-19 10:32:02 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8216 It is one thing trying to follow in the footsteps of Haile Gebrselassie as arguably the greatest distance runner of all time but another entirely seeking to do it with matching personality. Kenenisa Bekele, Gebrselassie's fellow Ethiopian, took a big step forward in both endeavours last night. 2008-08-17 23:19:35 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8215 When the gun went off to get the men's 10k underway, we at LetsRun.com felt like we were watching a heat at Mt. SAC or Stanford, as a ridiculous 39 runners toed the line. But the packed Bird's Nest crowd made us remember that this was indeed the Olympic 10k final. 2008-08-17 23:18:13 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8214 Jamaican Usain Bolt left his rivals trailing to win gold in the Olympic 100m final with a new world record. 2008-08-16 22:43:52 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8213 Comedian, nonconformist, diplomat, World record breaker - all in one night. The extraordinary Olympic performance of Usain Bolt here yesterday evening extended far beyond his stunning 9.69 in the men's 100m 2008-08-16 22:43:35 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8212 Constantina Tomescu Dita took a big gamble. And it paid off. Breaking from a large pack just before the mid way point, the 38-year-old Romanian forged off on her own to claim a dominating victory in the seventh women's Olympic Marathon. 2008-08-16 22:43:02 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8211 Any doubts that weather conditions in Beijing would prove uncomfortable for distance runners were swept away on the first evening of athletics in the Bird's Nest national stadium. 2008-08-16 10:09:01 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8210 In a series of three brutally competitive 800m semi-finals, the key protagonists survived to move on to Monday evening’s final. 2008-08-16 10:06:04 http://therunning.com/comments.php?article_id=8209 Usain Bolt obliterated the Olympic field and his existing World record of 9.72 sec in the final of the 100m tonight in the Bird's Nest stadium in a 9.69 display of such audacious confidence that 91,000 people stood stunned for many minutes after witnessing THE greatest sporting spectacle of these Games so far. 2008-08-16 10:04:47