What a busy weekend for runners and track athletes near and far! We’ve already featured Sarah Haskins, Tirunesh Dibaba and the strong area contingent at the Hospital Hill Run in Kansas City. Unless we want to get stuck forever in the past, we need to pick up the pace here and move on.

First, the Prefontaine Classic:

• Brad Walker established himself as an Olympic favorite in the pole vault, setting an American record of 6.04 meters _ 19 feet, 9.75 inches for the metrically challenged.
• Maria Mutola won her 16th race at a Pre Classic, taking the 800 meters in 1 minute, 59.24 seconds and breaking into tears.
• Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia came close to breaking his own world record in the 10,000 meters, finishing in 26:25.97, short of the 26:17.51 he ran in 2005.

For a complete rundown, check the story and results.

Second, Sergey Morozov set a world record in the 20K race walk, winning the Russian National Championships in 1:16:43 Sunday in Saransk, Russia.

Morozov broke the record of 1:17:16 set last year by Vladimir Kanaykin, who finished second Sunday in 1:16:53.

Third, the New York Mini 10K, one of the most prestigious women’s only races in the world. Hilda Kibet of the Netherlands led fellow Olympians Madai Perez of Mexico and Deena Kastor of the United States across the line in Central Park. Kibet pulled away in the last mile of the 6.2-mile race, winning $10,000 for finishing in 32:43. Perez finished six seconds behind Kibet in 32:49, and Kastor took third in 33:14.

Finally, the results from the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon show that 9-year-old Austin Hindman of St. Albans became the youngest competitor in history to finish the race, emerging from the 1.5-mile swim, 18-mile bike and 8-mile run in 4 hours 5 minutes. The results also indicate that he and his father, Jeff, emerged from the water together and rode the bike course side by side. The official results show no finishing time for Jeff, though it shows he finished 1,606th overall.

Jeff sent an e-mail to clarify. He reports that Austin nearly got swallowed by a wave, choked in the process and eventually got on a boat.

They hopped off about 75 yards from the shore, “assumed we were DQ’d, but the crowd didn’t know it so they were cheering him on.”

Austin wanted to finish, so they got on their bikes and rode together. “We ran out together, and as I mentioned, he kicks my butt on the run…I told him to go and lost him in the crowd ahead of my very quickly.”

After losing him, Jeff hitched a ride near the line. He said he ran with Austin “to the finish shoot together…I peeled off at the beginning of the shoot and let him run in alone since I had bailed on the run and didn’t want my chip to register.”

The two already are talking about competing again next year.

St. Louisan Jillian Petersen had a much better day, finishing 11th in the women’s pro division, 2:26:41.