Abbott World Marathon Majors to include elite wheelchair athletes
 
Expanding to include elite wheelchair athletes for the first time, the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM) will crown a male and female champion and will award each $50,000 at the end of the 12-month period, which features six iconic, global races to determine the scoring.
 
The new series is set to begin at the 2016 Boston Marathon, which in 1975 became the first major U.S. road race to recognise wheelchair participation. Tokyo, Virgin Money London, BMW Berlin, the Bank of America Chicago and the TCS New York Marathons round out the remaining five AWMM qualifying races.
 
AWMM Wheelchair Series X will begin at the April 2016 Boston Marathon and end upon completion of the April 2017 Boston Marathon. Each subsequent series will begin and end at the next AWMM race on the calendar.
 
Paralympic Games and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships races, when scheduled, will also count as part of the series. Scoring will follow existing AWMM rules with the only difference being the number of races that count for the title. In Series without World Championships or Paralympic Games it will be the best four of seven races to score. In years with either of those events, it will be the best five of eight races to score.
 
IPC Athletics rules and regulations will govern the races and all athletes must be registered or licensed with IPC Athletics. 
 
Click here for more information on the About Abbott World Marathon Majors.
 
Click here for more information on About IPC Athletics.
 
IAU World 24 Hour Championships
 
TORINO -- American women shined at the IAU World 24 Hour Championships on April 11, as Kaitlin Nagy and Traci Falbo claimed gold and silver individual medals, and Maggie Guterl’s fourth-place performance helped the U.S. women to an overall team title after the three charted 360 laps for 720.05 combined kilometers.
 
Nagy earned the best finish among female competitors, claiming the title with 122 laps completed for a total distance of 244.5km at an average pace of 5:52/kilometer. Falbo’s second place came after 120 laps and 239.74 km at a 6:00/km pace, and Guterl was fourth with 118 laps and a 6:06/km pace over her 235.81 km.
 
Two U.S. men finished in the top 10 with Rich Riopel finishing eighth after completing 128 laps for 256.74 km and Lewis Harvey finishing ninth with 127 laps and 255.47 km. American men finished fourth overall among all teams.
 
Click here for complete results.
 
Herron sets new record at USATF 100 km Championships
 
Setting an American record and the Mad City course record at USATF 100 km Championships in Madison, Wisconsin, Camille Herron won the women's title and finished in fourth place overall on April 11.
 
Herron’s finish of 7:26:24 improved the previous Mad City course record of 7:46:33 set by Devon Crosby-Helms in 2011. Herron’s impressive finish was also faster than the top 2014 World Championships time of 7:30:48, making her the fastest U.S. female finisher at the 100 km distance and surpassing the previous standard of  7:33:13 set by the legendary Ann Trason at the Edmund Fitzgerald 100K  in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1989.
 
On the men’s side, 50 km competitor Geoff Burns finished in 3:00:57 to set a new course record. The previous record of 3:03:10 was set by Zach Bitter in 2012.
 
Also setting a record was Bill Dodson’s 100 km time of 15:05:47, which broke the previous American M80-84 age-group record (17:39:46) by more than two hours.
 
Click here for results.