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IAAF Doha Super GP Is Friday & It Features Some Super Matchups Led By 3k!
WATCH LIVE On Universalsports.com: Friday May 8, 11:00 a.m. ET

Try This Link if you're not seeing the Doha meet.

*Start Lists/Results Steph Twell in 1,500. *Timetable Men's 800 at 12:15, w1,500 12:25, men's 3k at 1:55. Doha is 7 hours ahead of NYC.
The meet features a super flat 3k with steepler WRholder Saif Shaheen's return against Eliud Kipchoge, the silver medallist at both Olympics and WChamps, as well as Olympic steeple silver medallist Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbar of France and Olympic 5k bronzer Edwin Soi, plus David Rudisha vs. Asbel Kiprop at 800m, and Felix/Williams/Sanders in the women's 400.
*Focus Is On Shaheen & Men's 3k in Doha
*Saif Shaheen: "I never got any money" to come to Qatar Not sure if we believe him but the world record holder in the steeple says he switched allegience to Qatar from Kenya as it's a more open society.
*Shaheen Returns To Action Aiming To Return To Top Form 
*Extensive IAAF Preview Of The First Major International Outdoor Meet Of 2009: Doha
*Double Olympic Jav Champ Andreas Thorkildsen Calls For Lifetime Bans For Drug Cheats
*Lots Of Carribean Medallists, Led By Kerron Stewart, Will Compete
*Allyson Felix Hoping To Remain Unbeaten In Doha - But She'll Have Her Hands Full  The 400 also includes Beijing 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams and Worlds silver medallist Nicola Sanders.
*Heading Into Doha, 100m Bronze Medallist Lolo Jones Pleased With Season-Opening Form She opened with a sub-13.00 for the 1st time at Kansas relays.

Osaka GP is Saturday: *Start Lists/Results
*Sprint Action To Be Big As Jeremy Wariner & Kerron Clement To Compete Clement will have his hands full with Kenji Narisako and Olympic bronze medallist David Neville will race against Wariner.

adidas Track Classic Is Next Weekend In LA: HSers Jordan Hasay and Reggie Wyatt To Run!!

World Championship Marathon News: Paula and Kara To Run!

Kara Goucher Decides To Run Berlin WC Marathon Post-Boston word was Kara Goucher was going to try to start a family with husband Adam - keeping her out of running for a while - but this Track and Field News exclusive says she now plans otherwise.
Paula To Run Berlin WC Marathon Kara will have company as Paula Radcliffe will make her return from foot surgery to remove a bunion. Paula is really fired up about getting back to training and racing on a healthy body, even saying she can break her world record.
*Paula Says She Still Can Break Her World Record
*Radcliffe's Marathon Announcement All Over The British Press

Interesting Articles On Doping

*Good News, Bad News Heading Into the Giro d'Italia One of the contestants has already been booted but cycling fans seem to be excited about gradually ridding the sport of cheats.
*Long, Interesting Read On The Dilemma Caught Dopers Face
*USA Today On Freezing Blood Samples To Test Later Having your samples frozen to be tested later seems like a great deterrent and it's taking place more and more commonly.

Tergat Running Berlin Big 25 This Weekend

USA 25km Champs Are Coming Up May 9th's race in Michigan will feature a bunch of Team USA Minnesota runners.

Patrick Ivuti, Other Stud Marathoners To Battle In Prague Marathon Sunday

Big Meets Will Start Experimenting With Video Technology For The Horizontal Jumps

PAC 10 Schools Dealing With Falling Endowments - Slashing Staff And Programs

Athletes Still Pushing For Cross-Country In the Winter Olympics

New Book Born To Run That Bill Rodgers Calls "Nonstop Fun To Read" Is Out Today There is a book signing Tuesday night in NY and Thursday in Boston. It was written by LRC fan Chris McDougal. *MB Thread On Book Here

Oregon News

*Agent Ray Flynn, Part Of The World Record Irish 4 x Mile From 1985, Wishes The Ducks Luck
*Galen Rupp Focused On Not Only The 4 x Mile But Also Another Team NCAA Title
*Eugene's Register Guard On Matt Centro's Welcome At Practice And The Upcoming 4 x Mile

Remarkable Stories From This Weekend's Marathons In Pittsburgh And Cincinnati

*Cop Jumps In Moving Vehicle To Stop It From Plowing Over Marathon Runners
*Man Taken To The Hospital Near The End Of His Marathon Drives Back And Finishes

Top Performers Getting Notice

*USATF Follows Rojo In Naming Chris Derrick Their Athlete Of The Week Derrick was Rojo's collegiate athlete of the week while Tim Nelson was his performer of the meet with his 10k World "A" Standard Performance.
*LaShawn Merritt Is USA Today's Olympic Athlete Of The Week

LetsRun.com's The Week That Was In between being disappointed with the likes of Rashid Ramzi and the Big East Conference and ADs in general that don't give a crap about track, we survey the week that was in running and give praise for a guy that was third in a B heat of a 5k and even more praise to a guy that no one seems to be talking about. We also pause to remember a departed legend, wonder if Usain Bolt's partying is finally catching up to him, look back at Ritz and Meb at London and wonder if marathoning in the US this decade is truly better than last decade.

Great Northwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Track And Field Championships Cancelled Due To Swine Flu Case On Campus One athlete who wrote to us claimed the meet will not be rescheduled. These are the same teams affected by the regional cross-country meet last fall that had to be restarted after taking a wrong turn (the race with Scotty Bauhs).

Shannon Rowbury, David Torrence Win US Medtronic Road Miles 4:00 for Torrence got him $14,000 as they apparently gave him the $10k sub 4 bonus. Somehow Rowbury didn't break 4:28 (4:34) so not 10k for her. Race videos on the right of our homepage with more coverage at Flotrack.

HS XC Runner Gets Front Page USA Today Feature!!!
Meet HS Decathlon Record Holder Curtis Beach The guy is an freak in that he comes to the decathlon from a mid-d background. He almost ran at NTN last fall. USA Today made a big deal of the fact that he's going to Duke. "In the end, it was a clear first choice even though on the surface it looks terrible because historically they haven't been a great track program."

Recommended Read: Universal Sports: Talking Worlds With Kara Goucher Goucher talks about her decision not to run London, wanting a "do-over for Boston," and her decision to put off starting her family life for another 4 months. Goucher: "My initial reaction was that I wanted a do-over for Boston, basically. I had to make sure I was making this choice not as a do-over because that was the wrong reason to do it. I started to think about running a championship marathon, which is very different than New York or Boston, going to run a flat course, and going to represent the U.S., which is something I love to do."

A Brief Chat With Chanelle Price The OT finalist as a HSer seems ready to go after a rocky start (stress fracture) to college.

Japanese Marathon WChamp Team Announced Their best medal hope is Atsushi Sato, who finished DFL at the Olympics but ahead of Ritz & Meb in London.

Sprint News

*Usain Bolt To Put On Spikes On Friday For 1st Time Since Accident - Manchester Street Race People Are Optimistic He Can Compete Next Week
*Michael Johnson: Bolt Will Find This Season Much Harder We agree. Getting to the top is the easy part. Staying there is tough.
*Marlon Devonish Back In Street Race For some idiot reason, he pulled out last week to focus on the track. A 10.11 guy should relish the opportunity to get paid and race Bolt in such a fun environment.
*Veronica Campbell-Brown To Doug Logan: Show Me The Money Money will be a big factor if US vs. Jamaica takes place.
*Robles Has Been Training In Ecuador
*Liu Xiang To Travel To Quake Region & "Run" For Students

USA Road Mile Champs Are Tonight

$10,000 On Line For Sub-4 or Sub 4:28 The field is led by Shannon Rowbury and Sara Hall for the women. The men's field features Rankin, Curtis, Jon Brown and Darren Brown.
*Rowbury and Fam Rankin Headline USATF Road Mile Thursday

2009's First Sub-27:00s Happened In Japan

*Ken Nakamura's Recap Of A Record-Setting Meet In Japan
*More On The Shizuoka International Meet Where 2 Kenyans Broke 27:00 - From Brett Larner

Interesting Marathon News

*Recommended Read:  A Brief Chat With Pittsburgh Marathon Champion Kristin Price
*Great Story: Eugene Marathon Champion Brought A Buddy To Rabbit And He Ran 2:18
*Professor In Korea Who Offered Improved Grades To Students Who Ran Marathon Sued Successfully For $40Gs After One Student Dies This goes under the header: "We couldn't make this one up."

Brits Rejoice While Kiwis ... Olympic Champion Valerie Vili Considering Switching Nationalities To Great Britain Her father is British. Funds seem to be the main issue ... it's sad an Olympic champion has this problem.

The Daily Bolt Report

*Toronto Meet Organizers Paying Big For Bolt, Banking On Him Being Healthy And Ready To Compete
*Bolt To Resume Training This Week

Lots Of Female Athletes In The News

*Star Heptathlete Dobrynskya On Her Preparations For The Outdoor Season
*Olympic Silver Winner Kerron Stewart Running Well After Improving Her Start

Remarkable Quotes From May 6, 2009

1. "We won three golds in 2008, but the funding still isn't that flash." - Valerie Vili, who is considering switching her allegiance to Great Britain to secure more funding.

2. "We just decided it was what I needed for my professional career. So I submitted my name to USATF and I have been selected so I'm doing it. I'm going to run the marathon in Berlin." - Kara Goucher, who will be running Berlin.

3. "I remember going to Font-Romeu for the first time and it opened my eyes to how hard athletes from other countries were working. You train in a group and you have that support network. We definitely need to do more of it. We have to build up the squad system." - Paula Radcliffe, who also says she can break her world record still.

4. "You know what? I don't know. I think any place can be [a good place to train]. Everybody talks about how 'you need to go to altitude, you need to go here, you need to go there,' and quite personally, I think it's where you're comfortable at. I feel really comfortable here in my job. Everyone at work and my boss is so supportive of my running. We have a nice national forest to run in, with trails and softer surfaces. There are sidewalks to run on. I mean, I can't complain. The weather I love, 'cause I like the warm weather. It's ideal for me, maybe not for someone else." - Kristin Price, winner of the Pittsburgh Marathon this weekend, in a great interview with Runner's World.

5. “Your endurance gets stronger as you get older. Maybe you need an extra day’s recovery in between hard sessions but I think mental toughness and maturity comes to the fore a bit, and your heart’s more in it.” - Paula Radcliffe on the same day she announced she will run the Berlin World Championships marathon.

Track's Main Man Usain Bolt In The News

*Usain Bolt Has Stitches Removed
*Interesting Read On Bolt's Earning Power Some are criticizing Bolt for not capitalizing enough on his fame.
*Former Sprint Greats Predict Bolt's 2009 Season And Rivals

Upcoming Races Taking Shape

*Fam And Rowbury Headline USATF 1-Mile Road Championships Thursday In Minnesota
*Amazing Lineup To Race Healthy Kidney 10k In NYC On May 16th Great field including Tadesse Tola (ETH), Patrick Makau (KEN), "Fam" (USA), Martin Fagan (IRL), Marilson Gomes Dos Santos (BRA) and Adrien Blincoe (NZL).
*Great Early Season Distance Match-ups To Be Held At adidas Track Classic
*Full Field Announced For May 30th Freihofer's Run For Women
*Morocco Lines Up Jelimo And Others For May 23rd Meet

Good Read Joe Battaglia On The Toll The Economy Is Taking On Track Athletes USA's Darvis Patton got dropped by adidas not long after the Olympics despite making the Olympic 100m final.