Sometimes experience can be overrated.

Shalane Flanagan, 26, recently attempted her first competitive 10,000-meter run, during the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University. Her first try became the best-ever 10K run by an American woman, as Flanagan won the event in a U.S. record time of 30:34.49. Deena Kastor held the old mark, of 30:50.32.

Flanagan is no novice runner, of course. She set the U.S. mark in the 5000 meters in 2007 (14:44.80) and finished eighth in that event at the 2007 World Championships. She also holds the indoor U.S. mark in the 3000 meters (8:33.25).

As is often the case in record-breaking distance runs, Flanagan’s impressive 10K debut was aided by the fast pace set by New Zealand’s Kim Smith. Smith was no mere pacemaker, as she remained in contention until the final 200 meters and finished second in 30:35.54, breaking the Oceania mark of 30:37.68 held by Benita Johnson of Australia.

Flanagan is expected to focus on the 5000 meters in the Beijing Olympics, but her 10K performance - the best in the world to date in 2008 – gives her some intriguing options less than two months before the U.S. Olympic Trials.

American runners faced off against their counterparts from 11 other nations at the recent Penn Relays. The USA vs. the World challenge finished in a draw, as U.S. teams won three of the six events.

The World teams included athletes from Jamaica, Kenya, Russia, Great Britain, Canada, Bahamas, Dutch Antilles, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Trinidad & Tobago and the Dominican Republic.

The event began with a Jamaican team winning the women’s sprint medley relay. Kerron Stewart and Aleen Bailey ran the 200-meter legs for the winners. Sonita Sutherland ran the 400-meter leg and Kenia Sinclair maintained Jamaica’s lead in the final, 800-meter leg. The Caribbean All-Stars were second, followed by the USA Red quartet of Ebonie Floyd, Hasani Roseby, Tiffany Ross Williams and Hazel Clark, in 3:41.08.

The U.S. enjoyed a 1-2 finish in the women’s 4 x 100-meter relay, as Lauryn Williams, Miki Barber, Lisa Barber and Allyson Felix won in 42.57 seconds, edging the USA Blue squad of Muna Lee, Torri Edwards, Carmelita Jeter and Sanya Richards, which finished in 42.64. Felix, the two-time world 100-meter champ, came from behind in the final leg to edge Richards, the 2006 IAAF World Athlete of the Year, at the tape.

A handoff mishap cost the U.S. in the men’s 4 x 100. USA Red leadoff runner Leroy Dixon bumped another competitor just before Dixon passed the baton to teammate Wallace Spearmon. The delayed handoff helped open the door for another Jamaican victory as Marvin Anderson, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter and Dwight Thomas won in 39.03, followed by the USA Blue quartet of John Capel, Xavier Carter, Michael Rodgers and Shawn Crawford in second in 39.14. USA Red finished fourth in 39.38.

The U.S. then won both 4 x 400 relays. On the women’s side, reigning World 4 x 400 gold medalist Mary Wineberg, Felix, Natasha Hastings and Richards set a Penn Relays record of 3:22.16. Jamaica took second in 3:27.96 with USA Blue third in 3:27.98.

The U.S. men gained another 1-2 sweep in their 4 x 400 as the impressive Blue quartet of LaShawn Merritt (the 2007 World 400-meter silver medalist), Spearmon (two-time World 200-meter medalist), Darold Williamson (a two-time World 4 x 400 gold medalist) and two-time World 400-meter champion Jeremy Wariner won in 2:59.71. The USA Blue team (Carter, Bershawn Jackson, Kerron Clement and Angelo Taylor) was second in 3:01.12.

The Kenyans closed the event with a victory in the men’s distance medley relay. Boaz Cheboiywo, Thomas Musembi, Jackson Kivuna and Josephat Kithii prevailed in 9:29.79. The USA Red team of Kevin Hicks, Andrew Rock, Chris Lukezic and Sean O'Brien placed second in 9:30.66.

Many future Olympians displayed their talents at the recent Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. The meet featured premier athletes who should compete for medals in Beijing this August, along with younger hopefuls whose dreams of Olympic glory will have to wait until at least 2012.

Among the meet’s top performers was World Indoor hurdles champion LoLo Jones, who won her fourth consecutive Drake Relays 100-meter hurdles title in a time of 12.74 seconds. Jones broke her own meet record and almost equaled her 2008 world-leading time of 12.72. Jones was named the outstanding women’s performer for the meet.

Other highlights among the “special” events included two-time World Indoor champion Christian Cantwell’s record-breaking sixth Drake Relays shot put championship. His best effort of 68 feet, 6 inches (20.88 meters) beat Dorian Scott (66-8/20.34) and 2007 World Outdoor champ Reese Hoffa (66-8/20.32).

Anwar Moore won his second straight title in the men's 110 hurdles (13.14 seconds) while Emily Brown set a Drake Stadium record in the women's 3000-meter steeplechase (9:45.38).

A collegian, Georgia sophomore Chris Hill, was named the meet’s outstanding male performer. He won the university-college division javelin throw with a toss measuring 268-1 (81.72 meters). Hill’s effort was not only the best throw by a U.S. college performer this year, but was the second best throw by any American in 2008.

Among the younger crowd, Jarred Herring, a senior at Burlington High School, and Davenport North High School senior A.G. Bradford were named the outstanding high school boys' and girls' performers, respectively.

Herring won the 100-meter dash (10.69) and ran the anchor legs on Burlington's winning 4 x 100 (43.07) and 4 x 200 (1:29.93) relay teams.

Bradford became just the fourth athlete in Drake Relays history to capture titles in both the high school girls 100 (14.24) and 400 (1:01.01) hurdles. Additionally, she placed second in the high school girls high jump (5-9) and ran the anchor leg on Burlington's sprint medley relay squad, which placed third in 1:49.84.

As expected, Deena Kastor won the U.S. Olympic women's marathon trials in Boston Sunday, but only after fighting off a strong challenge from Magdalena Lewy Boulet. Lewy Boulet led by almost two minutes at the 14-mile mark, but Kastor rallied to win in a time of 2:29:35. Lewy Boulet was second (2:30:19) and Blake Russell third (2:32:40). All three earned spots on the U.S. Olympic team.

After running in second place for most of the race, Kastor, the U.S. women's marathon record-holder, caught Lewy Boulet with less than three miles remaining and pulled away to earn her first Olympic Trials victory. Kastor placed second in 2004 and went on to earn an Olympic bronze medal.

Both Russell and Lewy Boulet narrowly missed gaining Olympic berths in 2004, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, at the marathon Trials.

This year’s runner-ups included Zoila Gomez in fourth (2:33:53) and Tera Moody in fifth (2:33:54).

The lone U.S. women’s marathon gold medalist, 1984 champion Joan Benoit Samuelson, finished in 90th place (2:49:08) Sunday at age 50, setting an American record for the women’s 50-54 age group.

The International Olympic Committee’s executive board recently disqualified the U.S. 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams from the 2000 Olympic Games, stripping the former team of its bronze medal and the latter squad of its gold medal.

The relay teams were disqualified because of team member Marion Jones’ admitted use of steroids prior to the Sydney Games. She had previously been stripped of the three gold and two bronze medals she’d won in 2000, including her two relay medals. She returned her medals to the IOC last year.

Now the IOC wants Jones’ relay teammates to return their medals as well. The U.S. Olympic Committee is already on record stating that the relay results were tainted and that all relay members should return their medals. Team members have hired an attorney and are expected to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The questions here are difficult. Should the honest American runners be punished for the sins of their teammate? Of course not. At the same time, if the U.S. relay teams retain their positions, wouldn’t that punish their defeated opponents, runners who, as far as we know, did abide by the rules?

The problem is, there’s no way to know what the relay results would’ve been had Jones not run. She was clearly the fastest Olympic women’s sprinter in 2000, having won the 100- and 200-meter races. But relays have other variables besides pure speed, most notably the efficiency of the baton passes.

The IOC should, therefore, take a page from its own book and raise up America’s 2000 competitors without stripping the honest Americans of their medals. In 1982, when the IOC decided that Jim Thorpe was unfairly stripped of his 1912 decathlon gold medal, the organization made him co-champion with Hugo Wieslander, rather than dropping the Swede to second place, even though Thorpe defeated Wieslander by almost 700 points.

Likewise, the IOC should make Jamaica the co-champion in the 4 x 400 for 2000 and award its team members with gold medals. In the 4 x 100, the fourth-place French team should be awarded bronze medals. The non-cheating U.S. relay team members should then be permitted to retain their medals.

The U.S. women’s Olympic marathon team will be selected Sunday (April 20). The Olympic Team Trial is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. in Boston, one day prior to the Boston Marathon.

U.S. marathon record-holder Deena Kastor, 34, is the favorite. Kastor set the U.S. mark while winning the London Marathon in 2006, with a time of 2:19:36. She was second in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2004 and earned a bronze medal in Athens. The only other U.S. Olympic women’s marathon medalist, Joan (Benoit) Samuelson, won the initial Olympic marathon in 1984 and will also participate in Sunday’s Trials, though she is not among the favorites.

Colleen De Reuck, who won the 2004 Trials, will not compete Sunday due to injury.

The top three finishers Sunday will earn berths on the U.S. team, provided they have met – or will meet by July 23 – the Olympic qualifying standard time of 2:37.

More than 100 competitors will compete in Sunday’s Trials. Other performers to watch Sunday include the top five American finishers from the 2007 World Championships: Ann Alyanak, who finished 31st in Osaka, plus Zoila Gomez (35th), Dana Coons (38th), Mary Akor (42nd) and Samia Akbar (49th). Kastor competed in the 10,000-meter run at the World Championships, finishing sixth.

Sunday’s event will be webcast live on NBCSports.com/marathon, beginning at 8 a.m. MSNBC will broadcast a one-hour highlights show on April 27 beginning at noon.

Cross country is not an Olympic event, but results from the recent World Cross Country Championships (WCCC) could foreshadow this year’s Olympic distance running competition.

In 2004, World Cross Country results were particularly predictive on the men’s side. Five of the six medalists in the Olympic 5000- and 10,000-meter races placed in the top six in the World Cross Country long race held that year.

Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele won both the long and short cross country titles in 2004, then proceeded to take the gold in the Olympic 10,000 plus the silver in the 5000. Sileshi Sihine was third in the cross country and second in the Olympic 10,000. Eliud Kipchoge took fourth in the WCCC and placed third in the 5000, while Zersenay Tadese was sixth in the cross country and grabbed the bronze in the 10,000 in Athens.

On the women’s side, both the silver and bronze medal winners in the 5000 and 10,000 in Athens placed in the top five of either the long or short race at the Cross Country Championships.

This year, Bekele prevailed again at the WCCC, serving notice that he’ll again be among the favorites in the distance races in Beijing. Fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, the 5000-meter bronze medal winner in Athens, was the women’s WCCC champ this year.

How does a 14.05-second 60-meter dash sound? Not impressed? How about a long jump of 6-feet, 11-inches, or a pole vault of 3-7 ¼? Still not impressed? How about accomplishing these feats when you’re 80 years old?

That’s what Los Angeles resident Johnnye Valien did at the 2008 World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships, held March 17-22 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. American competitors won 91 medals at the event, including Valien’s three gold medals.

American multiple winners on the men’s side included Val Barnwell in the 50-year-old 60- and 200-meter events. In the 55-year-old category, Bill Collins won the 60, 200 and 400 while Nolan Shaheed broke the tape in the 800 and 1500. Among 70-year-olds, Robert Lida won the 60 and 200 while Mack Stewart captured the 400 and 800.

Phil Raschker (women’s 60-year-old) won an amazing six gold medals, taking the 60, 200, 60 hurdles, high jump, long jump and triple jump events. Renee Henderson (40) won the 60 and 200, Kathryn Martin (55) was impressive in distance events, winning the 800, 1500, 3000 and the 8-kilometer cross country, Marie Louise-Michelsohn (65) won the 400 and 800 while Jeanne Daprano (70) also won the 400 and 800.

Many of us will be lucky if we can walk, let alone run or jump, around a track at age 70 or 80. Congratulations to all the Masters champions.

Arizona State scored a rare double by winning both the men’s and women’s Division I team titles at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, held in Fayetteville, Ark. Since the women’s championships began in 1983 only LSU – in 2004 – had won both the men’s and women’s D-I crowns in the same season.

ASU’s women won their second consecutive indoor championship. The school also won the D-I outdoor title last year. Arizona State scored 51 points and was led by Jacquelyn Johnson, who won her third consecutive indoor heptathlon championship. Johnson came from behind to edge Michigan’s Bettie Wade in the final event, the 800 meters. Johnson's 4,496 points broke the previous NCAA record of 4,439 points set by Austra Skuyte of Kansas State in 2002.

Arizona State’s men scored 44 points, edging runner-up Florida State by three points. ASU’s Kyle Alcorn took the lead with two laps remaining to win the 3000 meters (8:00.02). ASU then held off Florida State in the meet’s final event, the 4 x 400-meter relay. The Sun Devils finished third in that event while FSU settled for sixth.

In Division II, St. Augustine's cruised to its second consecutive men’s title and its 11th national championship overall with 68 points. The D-II meet was held at Minnesota State.

Joe Kindred won the high jump for St. Augustine’s, clearing 2.12 meters (6-feet, 11.5 inches). He was also second in the long jump. St. Augustine’s quartet of Alvin Miles, Antonia Abney, Chris Cox and Randy Curry won the 4 x 400 relay in 3:12.67.

Lincoln’s Wilbert Walker was the meet’s lone dual-winner, taking both the long jump (7.69 meters) and triple jump (16.39) competitions.

On the women’s side, Adams State won its first-ever D-II championship, beating St. Augustine’s 55-48. Adams State posted a consistent effort, gaining 19 All-American performances. Adams State’s distance medley team of Sofia Monroe, Drew Houston, Laura Knapp and Tanya Gaurmer gave the school its lone victory, in 11:39.81.

St. Augustine’s Barbara Pierre won both the 60-meter (7.41) and 200-meter (24.37) events. Illinois Wesleyan was a also a first-time team champion, capturing the women’s Division III title at the Ohio Northern University Sports Center in Ada, Ohio.

Wesleyan’s Rachel Anderson won the 400-meter dash in 55.66. She also anchored the school’s 4 x 400 relay team, which broke the tape in 3:52.21. The other members of the victorious quartet were Ali McCoy, Mackenzie Clemens and Brooke Halcott.

Wisconsin-LaCrosse won its 15th men’s D-III championship and its seventh in the last eight years. Wisconsin-LaCrosse’s winners included Bobby Riley, who captured the shot put with a toss measuring 16.94 meters (55-feet, 7-inches), plus the 4 x 400 relay team of Alex Rooker, Dylan Randolph, Jon Doble and David Kolbe, which posted a winning time of 3:19.67.

Peter Kosgei of Hamilton won both the 800 (1:51.97) and the mile (4:11.17).

When China made its bid to play host to the 2008 Olympics, opposition mainly centered around the lack of human rights in the Communist-governed nation. Additionally, some athletes, particularly in the NBA, have protested China’s role as a key financial supporter of Sudan, in light of the genocide occurring in Sudan’s Darfur region.

In the track and field community, however, a non-political concern has surfaced recently – the quality of Beijing’s air.

In 2005, satellite data showed the world’s largest amount of nitrogen dioxide above Beijing and northeast China, according to the European Space Agency. High quantities of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mainly by heavy industry and motor vehicles, can cause lung damage.

On March 10 of this year, Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie announced that he would not compete in the marathon in Beijing. Gebrselassie set a world marathon record last year with a time of 2:04:26.

"The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42 kilometers in my current condition,” said Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma. Gebrselassie added that Beijing’s air pollution "would be a hazard to athletes, seriously affecting their performances.”

Belgian tennis player Justine Henin, the 2004 singles gold medalist and another asthma sufferer, has previously stated that she would not compete in Beijing due to the city’s pollution. Official Olympic committees are officially downplaying any problems with China’s air quality, while Chinese Olympic organizers state that steps will be taken to improve Beijing’s air prior to the Games, including limitations on automobile use. Clearly, however, future Olympic site selections must take air quality into account.

It’s unfortunate that a runner of Gebrselassie’s caliber must choose between protecting his health and competing in what is now his best event. He still hopes to compete in a much shorter Olympic race, however, stating that he will attempt to qualify for Ethiopia’s team in the 10,000 meters, an event Gebrselassie, 34, won in 2000 and 2004.