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LRC Week In Review LetsRun.com's Rojo is on vacation so Employee #1 and Wejo take a crack at recapping the week's action on their own. Without Rojo's guidance, they discuss the important issues of the day like ultra running, the paralympics, and human pscychology. But they do discuss what happens to junior miling phenoms, looking at the careers of Alex Kipchirchir and Alan Webb to give guidance to the latest sensation William Biwott Tanui, (aka WBT). Plus 12-year-old girls running 2:06, some training advice for everyone, Jordan Hasay, the Runner of the Week, and Ryan Hall's 4:41 mile with his dog. Plus we have an email from a race director to settle once and for all whether Usain Bolt is awesome or an ass.
LRC Boards: Video Of Tola DQ surfaces *video link Tadese Tola was DQ'd for actions in the final meters of the Peachtree Race on July 4th. See for yourself.
*
“Tola is not very efficient in his mechanics, so his arms were spinning left and right.” Hussein Makke, agent of Tadese Tola on why Tola hit a passing Boaz Cheboiywo in the final 20m of the Peachtree Road Race.
*Tadese
Tola Disputes Elbowing DQ - Watch Video For Yourself We think Cheboiywo definitely should have been awarded the place ahead of Tola, the DQ is a tougher decision. It's a harsh punishment to erase a hard 10k performance for a split-second decision in the final 5 seconds of the race, but you can't have people shoving each other around with thousands of dollars on the line so we agree with the DQ.
Weekend Action We Didn't Cover Yesterday
Russia: Yuriy Borzakovskiy Gets His 3rd Win In A Week At 800 In Russia Znamensky Brothers Meet
*Znamensky Brothers Memorial Results
Germany: Recap Of German Champs
*Results
Spain: Christy Wurth-Thomas 800 PR Yesterday (2:01:15)
More Weekend Results
Distance
Simon Vroemen's European Steeple Record Broken By Frenchman Boubdallah Tahri
*12-Year-Old American Girl Runs 2:06 800m At Youth Champs
*Men's Race Out In 13:38 For 5k At Sapporo Half Marathon
Though
no one broke an hour. *Brett Larner's Sapporo Recap
*Kenyan Marathon 1st-Timer Wins Gold Coast Marathon
Long Jumping Sensational This Year
*Mokoena
Has Fantastic Long Jump Series, Defeats Saladino In Madrid *IAAF Madrid Meet Results Godfrey Mokoena, from South Africa, not only defeated Irving Saladino but also set a new African record in the long jump.
*Indoor Sensation Sebastian Bayer Jumps 8.49, Missing German Record By 5 Centimeters
Sprints/Hurdles/Multi
- Challengers To Top Americans
*Jamaica's Isa Phillips Continues Superb Form In 400 Hurdles With 48.09
*Cuban Leonel Suarez Sets 2009 World's Best Decathlon Mark In CAC Games
Oslo Golden League *Results
LRC: Exciting Dream Mile Highlights Oslo's Bislett Games Ethiopian Deresse Mekonnen set a national record and Kenyan William Biwott Tanui set a new World junior record in the Dream Mile, upsetting Augustine Choge. On the day, most favorites such as Kenny B and Meseret Defar performed well, aside from Christine Ohuruogu
and a shaky Yelena Isinbaeva, who almost lost out on her Golden League jackpot bid. Other headlines included a meet record and world leader for Sanya Richards, another 3:37 for Ryan Gregson, and Asafa Powell missing out on his 50th career sub-10.00 clocking. But the biggest shock of the meet was an apparently serious injury to 800m sensation Abubaker Kaki as he tripped and fell hard.
*Ohuruogu
Runs Lackluster 51.19 In Oslo Olympic champ was never even in the race and finished 6th.
*Clyde Hart Pupil Sanya Richards On Fire In Golden League Further proof Clyde Hart is a genius. He's going to help Sanya win a lot of money this year.
*Kerron Stewart Passes 2nd Golden League Test She's 2 for 2 in the jackpot and has run under 11 a few times this year already.
*Canadian Hurdlers Come Up Short In Oslo
On The Boards *Are
the young Aussie Runners better than the Young Americans
*Are Ethiopians finally going to start taking mid-distances?
Video: Watch Meet On Demand *Post-Race Interviews
News From Brett Larner And Japan Running News
*Fatigue Cited As Wanjiru Pulls Out Of Sunday's Sapporro Half Marathon Whether this excuse is true or not, we're not surprised that Wanjiru is tired.
*Sub-1 Hour Runner Mogusu Headlines Sunday's Sapporro Half Marathon
*Women's
Marathoning Pioneer Nanae Nagata Passes Away At 53 This is a pretty good read.
Bolt Promising Hard Effort And Fast Time In 200m In Lausanne On July 7
Martyn Rooney Injured And Won't Qualify For Berlin British 400m running doesn't look as good after this weeked with Ohuruogu's performance and Rooney missing the UK Trials.
Top Eritrean Marathoner Yared Asmerom Selects Merhawi Keflezighi As His Agent
*Pat Butcher Can't Wait For Berlin's Sprint Clashes To Arrive
*Older "Butcher Blog" On Late-Bloomers Like Haron Keitany And Paul Evans If you haven't read about Paul Evans before, his is a great story.
*Science Of Sport On Oscar Pistorius' Case To Be Included With Able-Bodied Runners
*Heavy Duty Oscar Pistorius Research Analysis Science of Sport, one of our favorite reads, has been researching and posting on the Oscar Pistorius case for a year-and-a-half and we consider them the experts on the
subject.
More USATFs *Results Photos: *Day 4 Sunday *Day 3 (1,500, Steeple, 400, PV) *Day 2 (100, 5k) *Day 1 10k Photos *Video
- Sweep Of 5k Validates Schumacher's Move To Oregon It was capped with 20-year-old Evan Jager making the team.
- Tyson Gay Wins USA Today Track Athlete Of The Week Award So we guess the whole national championships were a joke if a guy who runs one round gets athlete of the week. How about scrapping the bye at the US Champs? The sport needs as much domestic fan interest as it can get.
- Patrick Smyth Joins Team USA Minnesota We got an email praising him this week, so we might as well give some of his accolades. He was 4th at NCAAs behind 3 of the greatest 10k runenrs in NCAA history (closing in 59), got 7th at USATFs, and broke Ryan Shay's school record along the way.
- Q&A With Doug Logan: He Wants Fewer Athletes At The Trials He gives a slap in the face to some of the lesser-known athletes at the Trials: "I would also say that what has come out of it is almost a desire to create an 'entitlement' trials." Last time we checked, someone who is top 30 in the country at something and dedicates four years of their life to a goal is far from entitled. No need to take a shot at hard-working athletes to justify shortening the Trials.
Injury News:
- Craig Mottram Still Hoping To Run At Worlds He switched coaches and agents and hasn't raced since November with an Achilles injury. His once bright career really has tumbled recently.
- Liu Xiang Will Begin Comeback In Low Key Meets; If Injury Recurs, He'll Hang Them Up
Previous USATF News:
Sprint Rivalries Heat Up As World Stars Soon To Clash
*Gay - Bolt [Powell] Rivalry Now Set For Berlin
*Bolt On Gay: My 100m Record Will Be Very Hard For Him Bolt says watch out for Asafa Powell as he continues to recover from the ankle injury. Powell ran sub-10.00 this weekend into a headwind. Usain also reminds Gay that his 9.75 was run with a serious tailwind.
*Bolt Says He Is Lacking In Overall Fitness But He Will Get Fitter August and the WCs are still several weeks away.
*Michael Rodgers Used To Sell Air Jordans Out Of His Car Trunk To Get By Now Nike sponsors him and he's the USA 100m champion.
*Down Goes Fraser! Well At Least Her 100m Time Shelly-Ann Fraser is sort of the Dawn Harper (who?) of Jamaica. She isn't a big star despite her 100m Olympic victory because the bigger story was The Bolt.
Gold For Kiprop, Ramzi B-Sample Positive
LRC Boards: Ramzi
B sample positive
Liza Hunter-Galvan Believed To Have Tested Positive Hunter-Galvan, 2-time Olympic marathoner for New Zealand, has been the star of the San Antonio running scene for many years. Turning 40 this year, she has won the San Antonio Marathon 6 times including her personal best 2:29:37 set in November 2008 at the age of 39.
*Hunter-Galvan Not Discussing Doping Reports - “I can't bring myself to look at anything.” - Hunter-Galvan on her disappointment with media reports of her possible positive test.
Lausanne GP Tuesday *Start Lists
Preview: Bolt vs. Crawford In 200, Powell vs. Rodgers In 100, Shelly-Ann Fraser vs. Carmelita Jeter In 100 A great meet is on tap as some of the top guys and gals in the world will square off head -to-head for the first time in 2009. Rivalries and races are what the sport needs. In the distance action, Lagat and Hazel Clark are running
800s, Christy Wurth-Thomas is in the 1,500 (hoping to crack 4:00), and the meet also has Dwight Phillips and Kerron Clement.
*Usain Bolt Ready For His First Serious Race Of The Season Hard to believe he's run 9.77 already and that isn't serious.
*Usain Bolt Q&A
Usain Bolt To Run 100 And Relay In London Weekend Of LetsRun.com Founders Day (July 24) The London Meet has big bucks and it shows. Bolt doesn't come cheaply.
Kenyan News
Sammy Kitwara's Agent In Trouble With Athletics Kenya For Letting Him Run Peachtree We praised Kitwara all weekend long and all it did was get him in trouble. Hard to blame the guy for going to run for a potential $50,000 payday. The good news is Kitwara ran and won $32,500. Now he can go back to Kenya and train for
Worlds. Since his agent can't work in Kenya anymore he should start a Sammy K Fan Club on LetsRun.com.
Moses Masai, Coming Off Ankle Injury And Narrow 4th Place At Kenyan Trials, Still Hoping To Be Named To Kenyan 10k Team We give the guy a mini thumbs down for this but it's hard to blame him for wanting to be on the Kenyan team. Come August he may have a great chance at Worlds.
Recommended Read: Interview With Shawn Forrest This is a great interview with a lot of good quotes. Forrest, 2-time NCAA 10,000m runner-up, talks about a key lesson in running: learning to run his easy days easy. Plus he says of Galen Rupp, "Rupp will probably go on to be the greatest distance runner to date for America." He also talks about being out on the track in Sydney when Haile Gebrselassie edged Paul Tergat in their epic 10,000m duel. Forrest and Sam Chelanga made the NCAA 10k with Rupp a race to remember by really trying everything in the book to take down the NCAA XC champ.
Sammy's Kitwara's 27:21 Smashes Peachtree Field *Update: Tola DQed *Kitwara And Chepkurui Pocket $32,000 Apiece *USA Results - Abdi Over Fam *Full Results Will Be Here
- Good Article On Kitwara From Kenya Article talks about Kitwara's narrow victory at the Kenyan trials, where 4 guys finished at 27:44. More on that race: Moses Masai, 4th In Kenyan 10,000, Going To Give 5,000m A Try For Berlin
- Tadese Tola DQed From Peachtree For Elbowing Boaz Cheboiywo With 30m Remaining He loses about $3k for a move in the last 10 seconds of the race.
- Sammy Kitwara Dominates Again In Super 27:21 Preliminary recap from Atlanta Journal Constitution says protest has been filed against 4th-placer Tadese Tola for unsportsmanlike conduct on the course. Full results expected this afternoon.
- LetsRun Thread With USA Results - Abdi Over Fam 28:11 To 28:15
- LRC Sammy Kitwara - The Best Runner You've Never Heard Of Educate yourself on the guy tearing up the roads and track in 2009. On Saturday, he's trying to boost his official earnings over $100,000 at Peachtree. Plus he won the Kenyan nationals and beat Gebrselassie.
- Tola Will Follow With Crazy 8's 8k In Tennessee One week after Peachtree, we'll see Tadese Tola in another relatively big money road race. This article made us think about Kingston TN's "Regional Eye Center" being really smart. This company has their name on the course record $10,000 bonus. The co. is really smart because the course record is also the world 8k record of 22:03 set by Peter Githuka in 1996, so they get to advertise with about 0.0005% chance of actually having to pay.
More Good Stuff From Runner's Tribe
*Interesting Opinion On Art Venegas Leaving UCLA Venegas is a legendary throws and strength coach who recently left the UCLA head position.
*Ten
Tips For Track On TV From Runner's Tribe
Robles Makes Return In Cuba, Going Sub-13.10 In Prelims World's dominant hurdler is back from injury. CAC Champs are being held in Castro-land.
NRR: Landon Donovan Rips LA Galaxy Teammate David Beckham In Book Ironically, David Beckham will now be the only reason anyone will actually spend $20 on a book by Landon Donovan.
Amazing 2008 Photos From Award-Winning Sports Photographer Tom Jenkins Paula Radcliffe, Usain Bolt, plus Christiano Ronaldo and a ridiculous rugby photo.
Also Saturday: Track From Madrid
*Good Story: Dwight Phillips Rewarded With New Deal From Nike Who Dropped Him Not Too Long Ago Last year Phillips missed the Olympic team and wanted to hang 'em up. But he got inspired by his coach and agent, lost 25 pounds and is now rivaling Irving Saladino as the world's best long jumper. And he's got a good contract now, to boot. He won't be in Madrid but Saladino
will.
*World's Best Long Jumper Irving Saladino To Headline July 4th Madrid Meet
*Spanish Distance Runners To Highlight Madrid Meet Saturday
USA Champs Version
LRC: Last Week's The Week That Was This week, our weekly recap looks exclusively at the 2009 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. We start
by saying, "I told you so" as we compare the success of these Trials to an Oregon basketball game. We then tell you where Alan Webb would have finished in the men's 1,500 final, take a look at all the big name pros that had flameouts and give Barack Obama some unsolicited advice. Plus, Rupp's Lexus, Barringer's bling and more. You can compare our Week That Was to the LRC message
board UNCENSORED version from Lickety Split.
*Watch The Dream Mile In Britain? Not These Days While the BBC interrupts the evening news for updates on Wimbledon and British tennis darling Andy Murray, the Bislett Games and Dream Mile were going to go un-broadcasted in England thanks to Setanta Sports going under in the UK.
*But Wait! Eurosport Saves The Day: Now dozens will watch the Bislett Games across Britain, as a deal has just been finished that allows Eurosport to pick up the slack and televise Golden League.
Catherine Ndereba To Run Bogota Half On August 3
Promotion: Submit Video Of Your Moves To Win Dance With Usain Bolt ON THE TRACK After His 100m At London's Crystal Palace This is hilarious.
Andrew Wheating Is Heading To Europe For A Mile And Some 800s We think this is a great idea to get him more experience.
British News
British Junior Phenom Stephanie Twell To Skip European Under-23s To Focus On Worlds
Olympic Bronze Medallist In Hurdles, Natasha Danvers, Out Of Worlds With Injury
After 10.40 100, Mark Lewis Francis Needs To Improve For Worlds
US Officially Names Coaches For Berlin World Champs No offense to the coaches, but we could coach the team and it would probably do as well. The coaches at a global championship largely are ceremonial. The coaching that matters most is the private coaching leading up to the Games and USATF is letting our top coaches go to Britain.
Educate Yourself On the New Star Sammy Kitwara (Story And Interview Here) Or Watch Below
Tegenkamp And Solinsky On The Sweep At Nationals And The Surprising Jager (Bigger Version Here)
Great Resource For Kids
Carol Goodrow's Kids Running Log Your kids run a half mile, fill out the paper log, mail it in and get a free bookmark via Carol and USATF. Plus, there are a couple of good books for kid runners which we reviewed here and here.
Final Week To Sign Up
LetsRun.com Summer Training 2009 Program Originally designed for high schoolers but we've opened it up to everyone.
One We Missed With USATFs Last Week
FSU's Susan Kuijken 4:05.86 World Qualifier In 1,500m - Post Race Interview Here
3 Interesting Articles From Philip Hersh, The Only Full-Time Newspaper Journalist From Outside Of Oregon At USATFs
- Evan Jager And Angela Bizzarri Set Sights On World Championships They're both in a similar boat, "I have no clue about all this."
- Lopez Lomong Making A Name For Himself On The Track
- After 2007 Nationals, Mike Rodgers Was Going To Quit The Sport, But Coach Who Tried To Recruit Him In College Convinced Him To Keep Training Now he's the 100m USATF champ. In 2007, he was getting a turkey leg and going to quit the sport but he bumped into coach Darryl Woodson at the food stand. Good story.
LRC Coverage At USATFs In Review:
Sunday:
Women Hazel Clark Gets National Title #5 As Maggie Vessey Leaves It Too Late, Barringer Cruises, Willard Makes 2nd World Champs Team
Men: Lomong Gets First, Symmonds Gets Another, Webb A No-Show
Saturday:
Women Rowbury Back Atop The US 1,500 Ranks
Men: Josh McAdams Gets His 2nd USATF Steeple Crown
Friday:
Women: Kara Goucher Gets 5,000 Crown
Men: Schumacher's Boys Go 1-2-3 In Men's 5k
Thursday:
Women: Amy Begley Shocks Shalane Flanagan
Men: Galen Rupp Wins USATF 10k Title