3:40 PM EST Friday

Who is the best in the world? “Technically, I think it’s Tyson Gay.”

- UK 100m champion Simeon Williamson. Gay's 9.77 world leading time will be tested by Usain Bolt as "Bolt Mania" strikes Paris on Friday.

Paris Golden League / "Bolt Mania" Is Here *Preview *Entries/Meet Website *Meet Will Be Shown Live on Internet at 1:50 pm EST in US *5pm Taped on Universal Sports TV

Bolt Mania Hits Paris At 3:40pm, Lagat vs Bekele 3:05pm 2007 5k World Champ Bernard Lagat was added to the 3k field - will he ruin Bekele's Golden Jackpot Dream? Lagat is coming off a 3:32 1500 and Bekele a 12:53 5000m. This will be their first ever meeting at 3000m. Watch it all here starting at 1:50pm EST.
100m News
*Usain Bolt Ready To Put On Show in 100m In Paris
*UK's Simeon Williamson Coming Into His Own After British 100m Triumph, Races Bolt Friday
*Bolt Mania Has Struck Paris As Fans Eagerly Awaits Usain's 100m Performance
*Bolt Says His 19.59 Came Without Him Having Started Serious 200m Training
Distance News
*Women's 800 in Paris To Feature Americans Maggie Vessey, Hazel Clark, Anna Willard and Shannon Rowbury
*Frenchman Mekhissi Going For Sub-8 In Steeple In Paris He'll be rabbited perfectly at 8:00 pace and says he's confident he'll do it.
400m News
*Recommended Read: Jeremy Wariner To Run Paris 400m Great update on Jeremy Wariner from the IAAF as he readies for his first significant race in a long while.
*A Look At Sanya Richards And Jeremy Wariner Len Johnson of Runner's Tribe takes a look at two of the fastest quarter-milers in history.
*Ohuruogu Withdraws With Tight Hamstring The Olympic champion has no momentum in the 400m as Sanya Richards is light years ahead of her right now.
*HJ Loses Some Luster As Ariane Friedrich Withdraws The 24-year old German beat Vlasic in Berlin.

Looking Ahead
*Gay/Powell To Race Next Friday in Stockholm
*Asafa Powell & Usain Bolt To Race On July 24th (LRC Founders' Day)

21-Yr Old, 4:08 1,500 Meter Runner Nikki Hamblin Switching Nationality From GBR to NZL

Kara Goucher To Use Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Chicago on August 2nd As Final Prep For Worlds

Liu Xiang Now Training In Spikes

New World Jr Shot Put Record Set

Jordan McNamara Going For Sub 4 Thursday In Eugene link fixed

Athletics Kenya Conotinues To To Embarrass Assert Itself

1 Day Later: Agent Volker Wagner is Banned And As A Result Luke Kibet Can't Run in London Grand Prix

Athletics Kenya Drop Sammy Kitwara From Worlds Team For Running Peachtree 10k The Kenyan Federation runs itself like the US Federation did in the 1960s. In Kenya, or the US for that matter, it is crazy for an administrator to pretend they know better than the athlete and his coach what is best for the athlete's career. In today's era of professionalism, federations should have almost no power to tell athletes where to run. In case you've never heard of Kitwara, click here, he is having a breakout 2009 and the official LRC Best Runner You've Never Heard Of.
*Message Board Thread On Kitwara's Dropping

Gregory Konchellah Will Not Run For Kenyan Federation After They Get Upset He Entered European Meet This Past Week Without Their Permission The Kenyan brass seem to tip their hat on this one. Konchellah was trying to give up his Bahrain passport for a Kenyan one. Somehow the Kenyans act like because the guy entered a meet in Europe and they couldn't perhaps shake him down for some money that his days as a Kenyan are over.

LRC Report #2 From Ethiopia: Sihine Optimistic For 10k As Ethiopian Federation Is Excited About Chances For 1,500 & Steeple Success In 2009 Recently, the Ethiopians have ruled the 5k and 10k. In 2009, they are hoping to rule the 1,500 as well and maybe even add some hardware in the steeple.

Alberto's Crew

Athens *Results

Athens Recap: LaShawn Merritt Runs 44.54 (Wariner A No-Show), Asbel Kiprop Runs 1:43.48 As 3 Break 1:44, Yargelis Savigne Triple Jumps 15 Meters, Jamal Sub-4 Again The 2nd sub-1:44 clocking of the year for Kiprop. This meet was hyped as a Wariner-Merritt showdown at 400 but Wariner ran at an obscure Italian meet the day before, only clocking 45.74.
Message board thread mocking Wariner's 45.74 Americans Erin Donohue (4:05.21) and Sarah Bowman (4:05.67) both set PRs.

Weekend Road Action We Didn't Report Monday

Utica: Men: Ridouane Harroufi Sits Back, Then Wins Utica Boilermaker
Women: Alice Timbilili Wins Women's Race At Utica Boilermaker
*5 Injured In Crash Near Boilermaker Finish Line

Crazy 8s 8k: 19-Year-Old Simon Cheprot Wins Crazy 8s 8k in 22:21 - His 2nd Big 8km Win Of The Summer Cheprot had also won a July 4th 8k In Iowa.

Arizona: Rotterdam Marathon Star Duncan Kibet Wins 10 Miler In US Kibet is the guy who came out of nowhere to run 2:04:27 and win Rotterdam in one of the most exciting marathons ever. An LRC viewer wanted to point out that the article implies that Kibet's coach is drug cheat Eddy Hellebuyck. We're not too surprised Kibet's agent is Eddy's wife Shawn (Eddy and Shawn helped Kibet's brother, Oregon star Shadrack Kiptoo in high school), but we believe Kibet's coach is Claudio Berardelli.

Arkansas Alums Are Stunned By Dick Booth's Firing World Record holder Mike Powell Former Arkansas great Mike Conley says he's "speechless," while two-time Olympian Melvin Lister said, "How do you fire one of the greatest coaches ever to coach the sport?" Booth himself said, "I was thinking how can a 27-year career end in a five-minute conversation? But that was it. I have to put it behind me and get busy finding a job for next year." More: Dick Booth Let Go At Arkansas *Message Board Thread

New Zealand Olympian Resorts To Prostitution To Raise Funds For 2012 He's the head pimp for a new brothel in NZ.

LetsRun.com Goes Global LRC's Ethiopian Correspondent: Double Olympic Champ Tirunesh Dibaba Back In Training - Optimistic About Chances In Berlin Yes, that's right. We now have an Ethiopian correspondent who periodically is going to give us insight on the stars from Ethiopia. In his first piece, he catches up with Dibaba at practice and also sees Sihine, Defar and others. Article + photos.

Elites In The News

UNC Announces Peter Watson As New XC Head Coach Watson was coaching Auburn's team before the move to Chapel Hill. LRC Boards: *UNC Officially Announces New Coach

Liege: *Results *US Women's 5k Team Set as Julie Culley Gets B Standard Culley is going to Berlin as Bizarri has called it a season. In other action, Lopez Lomong ran 1:46 and C. Smith 1:47. Geena Gall came up short in the 800 in her quest for a sub 2:00 (Gall doesn't need the sub 2:00 to go to worlds but if she does get it, it means there is no chance Vessey goes) as she loses to Brenda Martinez.

Lucerne *Results  (link fixed) *Nick Symmonds Struggles in Men's 800 - 4th in 1:46.60 In the women's 1,500 Lisa Dobriskey ran 4:08 to win 1,500 over Morgan Uceny, second in 4:09. *Oscar P Runs 47.07

Penny wise, pound foolish?
Walter Dix Finally Resolves His Dispute With Agent Kimberly Holland How much money did Dix miss out on as a result of this dispute? We imagine a ton.

Embarrassing
NY Times Investigates: Many College Athletes Left With Huge Medical Bills As Colleges Drop The Ball

Duncan Kibet Talks Big About Getting The WR In Berlin "I will stand a high chance of attaining the feat (sub 2:03:59) if Haile Gebrselassie goes for the world record....Whether I win or not, I need the time and Haile is my only challenger."

Administrative News Boredom
*2010-2012 USA Indoors To Be in Albuquerque
*Poor Ticket Sales For World Champs Lead IAAF To Start Advertising Campaign
*IAAF To Have Feeder Events For Diamond League
*BBC Takes UK Athletics To Court

This Week

IAAF Golden League LRC Week In Review We've got it all covered: American female distance runners kicking butt in Europe, the most beautiful race we've ever seen Usain Bolt run, Tyson Gay running a pretty damn good race of his own, the track and field world still bleeding itself to death by focusing on times, and even some compassion as we give props for guys nearly getting DFL (Dorian Ulrey) and running in all-comers meets (Khadevis Robinson). Plus career advice and more.

OSU Athletic Director Impressed With German Fernandez Call him the greatest distance runner since Jim Ryun.

Morocco:

Bernard Lagat Gets 3:32.56 1,500m Win In Morocco Looks like he's rounding into form at the right time. Saif Shaheen fell in the meet, his status is unknown.

Financial News

UK News:

Recommended Reads:
1) A Great Q&A With LJ WR Holder Mike Powell Powell thinks it's possible his WR could fall this year but he hopes it doesn't.
2) Q&A With The Fastest Non-African Miler In The World - Jeff Riseley (link fixed)
3) Jamaican Hurdling Star Isa Phillips Is Taking Long, Meticulously-Planned Road To Success

Chick Hislop, Please Don't Click On This Link
Photo Of The Day: Think You Need Good Form To Be Good At The Steeple?

UK Champs *Results *Live Video (UK Visitors Only)

*Maybe 1,500 Fans Show Up To See English Champs Day 2 The women's 1,500 was exciting as Steph Twell built up a big lead on Hannah England and Charlene Thomas only to be walked down by ...
*Exhausted Dwain Chambers Pulls Out Of 200m After Getting Beaten In 100m