Jenny Barringer, the senior University of Colorado distance standout and American record-holder in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, broke a 9-year-old course record Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Shootout in her final home cross country meet as a Buff.
She ran 19 minutes, 25 seconds for the 5.8-kilometer course, surging to the lead moments after the start and taking down Kara Goucher’s previous record of 19:38, set in 2000.
“I really hope this sets the tempo for the whole rest of the year,” Barringer said. “It’s really a joy that I got to do it in front of so many friends and family here from Boulder.”
CU senior Kenyon Neuman won the men’s 8K race in 24:51.
Shaw third in strongest man event.
It’s official. Brian Shaw is the strongest man in America.
Now for the one that got away: Shaw finished third in the World’s Strongest Man competition, which concluded Saturday in Malta.
Shaw, a Fort Lupton resident, won the Boat Pull earlier in the competition to move into third place before the finals. And that’s where he stayed, as Lithuanian Zydrunas Savickas won his first title and Poland’s Mariusz Pudzianowski, a five-time WSM winner, finished second.
Shaw, 27, is one of the youngest elite-level competitors in the strongman industry. But he told The Post several weeks ago that he hoped to win his first WSM title in 2009. He came close, but couldn’t overcome Savickas and Pudzianowski.
“It was a hard fight till the finish,” Shaw said in an e-mail. “This was the most talented World’s Strongest Man final ever, and I placed third behind two of the most decorated strongmen to ever walk the planet. This means that I’m now the top American in the sport and without a doubt top three in the world.”
Shaw’s goal is to win multiple WSM competitions, and he should have several more chances. He is a relative newcomer to the sport, having begun formal competition in 2005. Generally, a strongman’s prime years are in his early 30s.
At 6-feet-8, 390 pounds, Shaw is the biggest performer in the strongman game. While he won’t return to Colorado with a WSM belt, he did outperform every other American in the competition.
Jim Armstrong, The Denver Post
Moore just off Mid-Amateur lead.
Janet Moore of Greenwood Village is in a three-way tie for sixth place, three strokes back, after the first round of stroke-play qualifying at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club in Ocala, Fla.
