Week That Was

LRC  Another Look At NCAA XC, Joshua Cheptegei Sets World Record On A Course Named “Seven Hills,” 2 Great Finishes In China This week had it all across the globe. The NCAA XC champs lived up to the hype in the snow in Madison, Joshua Cheptegei delivered in the Netherlands, and there were 2 great finishes in China.

African Distance News

• Cynthia Jerop (2:39:16) And Jackson Kemboi (2:20:27) Win Kaas Marathon In Kenya Former half-marathon WR holder Peres Jepchirchir made her marathon debut in 3rd (2:46:15) in her comeback from pregnancy.
• Peres Jepchirchir Wants To Reclaim Her World Half-Marathon Record Jepchirchir only held the record for a month at 65:06 before Joyciline Jepkosgei broke it.
• Olympic Steeplechase Champ Conseslus Kipruto Wants To Run World XC On the steeplechase, Kipruto says that he wants to try and challenge the WR in 2019 or at least break the 8-minute barrier (his PB is 8:00.12).
• Did The IAAF “Snub” Caster Semenya In Their Female Athlete Of The Year Award? That’s the headline from South Africa anyway.

Doping News

• GB Sprinter Nigel Levine Gets 4-Year Doping Ban Levine was one of the sprinters hoping to make ea comeback after getting in a motorcycle crash.
  *Reuters Article Levine claims that he took a contaminated supplement, but UK Anti-Doping noted that on his doping control form Levine answered “none” for that question.
• WADA President Craig Reedie Says He’s Confident Russia Will Meet The End-Of-The-Year Deadline To Hand Over Data From The Moscow Lab Reedie said, “I find it very hard to believe that the guarantees made to us by the Russian authorities – that they won’t deliver.” Right, because Russia has an excellent track record of cooperating.
• IAAF Says Russian Athletics Federation Will Have To Pay Out $2.76 Million
• UK Government Report Claims That Russian Military Intelligence Service Is Behind The Fancy Bear Hacks
• Seven Russians Get 4-Year Doping Bans Included four track athletes.
• The Guardian: “Let Us Simplify This For Sir Craig Reedie: WADA Is not Doing Its Job”
• WADA Bans Stockholm Lab From Carrying Out A Specific Test For Six Months WADA says it’s to “ensure continued high quality sample analysis.”
• WADA Declares Nigeria Non-Compliant, Revokes Bogotá Lab Accreditation
• WADA Forming Expert Group To Work At Moscow Lab Russia has been told they need to allow access by December 31st or their ban will be reimposed.

More NCAA News

• Denver Post’s Women’s NCAA Recap The last time Colorado won both the individual and team title was 2000. Jones post-race said, “That whole last stretch – I just felt four years flashing by. It took my breath away. I’ll never forget it.”
• Denver Post‘s Men’s NCAA Recap On beating their #8 ranking with a 4th place finish, CU’s #3 man Ryan Forsyth said, “We knew what the ranking was. We didn’t believe it was accurate.”
• Track And Field News: Morgan McDonald And The Bader Tradition Post-race, McDonald said, “It is crazy to think back to my 16-year-old self and see such long-time goals come to fruition.”
• T&F News: Dani Jones And The Colorado Mindset Jones said despite being from Arizona, she was happy with the cold/snowy conditions as she’s been in Colorado for 3 years.
• USTFCCCA: True Team Efforts Led Colorado, NAU, North Central And WashU To D1/D3 National Titles
• MileSplit: NCAA DI Champs By The Numbers Grant Fisher‘s 2nd place finish gave Stanford an unfortunate stat. They now have five runner-up finishes without getting an individual champion.
• This Weekend Made 8 Straight Top 20 Finishes For The Arkansas Women
• RRW: Dani Jones, Morgan McDonald Sprint to NCAA Cross-Country Titles
• List Of All D1 XC All-Americans
• Field Announced For NCAA D2 XC Champs
  *Division II Regional Weekend Recap
• List Of D3 All-Americans

Non-DI College News *Results: D2 Regionals *D3 Champs *NAIA Champs

• Division II Regional Weekend Preview
• DIII NCAA XC Men’s Preview: North Central Goes For No. 19 *Meet Home
• DIII NCAA XC Women’s Preview: Hopkins Hones In On Dynasty
• Oklahoma City Men, Oregon Tech Women Capture NAIA Cross-Country National Titles

Week That Was

LRC Kellyn Taylor PRs, Ruth Chepngetich Makes History, Edward Cheserek Is Back, An Impressive Run In Japan, And Will Someone Die In Tokyo 2020? We span the globe and look back at a week where a 2:18 was run in Istanbul.

WADA / Doping News

• Emma Coburn Speaks Up On Looming WADA Presidential Election Coburn has backed reformist Linda Helleland to succeed Craig Reedie when his term ends November 2019. She also spoke against Helleland’s rival, Witold Banka, who Coburn feels “does not have his finger on the pulse of mainstream athlete and public opinion.” *Coburn’s Full Opinion Piece
• RUSADA Worried They Won’t Meet The WADA Deadline To Allow Access To The Moscow Laboratory They shouldn’t be worried though. We’re sure WADA will just move the goalposts for them if they miss it.
• African Union Propose Age Limit For WADA President Which Would Prevent Linda Helleland From Standing For Election They are calling for WADA presidential candidates to be at least 45 years old in a move interpreted as an attempt to block 41-year-old Helleland.
• WADA Presidential Candidate Witold Banka Calls For Linda Helleland To Stand Down As WADA Vice President He claims it gives her an unfair advantage, but Helleland has responded calling his statements “offensive.”
• The Independent: UKADA Agency Calls For WADA Reform After Russia Controversy

NCAA XC Regionals Are This Weekend *All Results

• Official: NCAA DI Cross-Country Championships Fields Set – Teams/Individual Qualifiers
• USTFCCCA Division 1 Regional Weekend Recap
• MB: Official 2018 NCAA D1 XC Regional Discussion Thread – Who Is Going To The Big Dance? Follow this thread all day long on Friday as we should have the field within minutes of the final region going final.
• LRC Here Is Your Projected 2018 NCAA Men‘s Cross-Country Field The Bradley Braves are dancing for the first time ever. The field will also include Purdue and Wyoming, both of whom last made NCAAs in 1986, but not pre-season #6 Alabama.
• LRC Here Is Your Projected 2018 NCAA Women’s Cross-Country Field The field will include first-time NCAA participants Oregon State and Southern Utah but not pre-season #10 Utah State or #11 Providence.
• FloTrack: 15 Athletes Who Will Miss NCAAs Despite Being All-American Material
• D3: Field Announced For NCAA Division III Cross-Country Championships
  *Division III Weekend Regional Recap

50 Years Ago – Bob Beamon Shocked The World

LRC Feature A Leap For The Ages: Bob Beamon’s 29-Foot Long Jump Turns 50 A half century later, there’s still only one way to describe the men’s long jump at the 1968 Olympics: Beamonesque. We take an in-depth look at one of the greatest singular accomplishments in sports history. Beamon improved the WR by 6.59% – that’s the equivalent of someone in 2018 lowering the marathon WR to 1:53:28 or the 100-meter record to 8.95.
*MB: 50 years ago, Bob Beamon made history. Where does his performance rank on list of greatest singular sports performances? 

LRC Why Is The Long Jump World Record So Hard To Break? Mike Powell‘s WR has stood for 27 years and the #2 mark from Bob Beamon celebrates its 50th anniversary today. What explains their longevity? Are the best athletes in the NFL? Are the runways too soft? Is there a mental block?

• BBC Video Looking Back On Bob Beamon’s WR The 3-minute video includes some cool old footage.
• IAAF: The Perfect Jump – Bob Beamon’s 8.90m Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary The IAAF pays tribute to Beamon’s historic jump which broke the WR by a “staggering 55 centimeters.”
• Mark Cullen’s Updated Story Of The 2014 Dedication Of The 1968 Olympic Trials Site/Training Center