LetsRun.com

The World Championships Start Friday In US Market *Timetable

• We 100% Agree!!! Paul Kipsiele Koech Slams Athletics Kenya For Leaving Him Off World Championships Team Only stupidity or a bribe would leave off a guy who has run 7:57 this year and leads the Diamond League for a guy with an 8:22 PR.
• We 100% Agree!!! Men's 110 Hurdles Is One Of Best Events Of Championships
• Reuters' 5 Greatest World Championships Moments
• Kenyan Journalist Is Upset He Hasn't Seen A Single Picture Of David Rudisha In Daegu Meanwhile, he's pumped about Kenyan women's marathon chances on Friday night in a race that will be run in 70-degree temps with 80% humidity.
• Kenyan Women Hoping To Use Teamwork To Sweep Marathon Medals
• An In-Depth Look At The Japanese Marathon Team They've managed to medal at 8 of the last 10 World Champs.
• Herald Sun: Craig Mottram Leaves For Deagu Wondering If He Can Get Back To Top Form "I missed the routine of training and I missed the feeling of being fit."
• Meet The Irish World Championships Team
• Morocco Sending Mid-D Heavy Squad As They Have No 5k Or 10k
• Meet The Ethiopian Team
• Jeanette Kwakye Is Hoping To Be GBR's 1st Medallist At 100m

LRC $200,011 World Championships Prediction Contest Powered By PUMA *IAAF Event-By-Event Previews *TFN's WC Picks For Every Event

Our world-famous prediction contest is back and better than ever as it's up a week early. Pick the top 3 perfectly correctly in 35 events and win $200,011. Win the contest without being perfect and win 4 pairs of PUMA Faas 550s plus a $150 gift certificate. Don't know anything about the meet? Never fear - we've got a table for you that makes picking so easy that an 8th grade soccer player won one time. Now we know some of you think that our "perfect ballot" prize is a gimmick, but we really want to give away a ton of cash, so we've added in a $10,000 prize if you can just pick the 800 through 10,000 correctly for a single sex. *Enter Here

Men's 10,000m: Farah, Bekele, Rupp Just Days Away
Mo Farah Wary Of Brilliant Bekele Farah riding 10 straight wins, Bekele undefeated lifetime at the distance.

UK Telegraph: Mo Farah On Brink Of Double Gold In Daegu He'll face the double gauntlet of Bekele and Lagat.

Bekele's Manager Says He Is "Training Well"

Boards: Galen Rupp will leave Daegu with a medal
*MB: Game On: Kenenisa Is Going Try To Defend His Title
The 10,000 and 100 are both this upcoming weekend. 100m news below the PowerBar advertorial.

More Worlds First Weekend

Men's 100m: Can Bolt Find The Magic?
Asafa Powell Says It Is Time To Step Out Of Bolt's Shadow *Bolt Predicting Title Defense ... as long as he gets a good start.

Korean Press: Bolt Enjoying Rock Star Status In Daegu Earlier: *Usain Bolt Gets Record For Jamaican With "Most Fans On Facebook"

TrackFocus On Mullings And Masking Agents

Weekend News From The MBoard: CHRIS SOLINSKY OUT OF WORLDS The 10,000 American record holder's disappointing 2011 season just got a whole lot more disappointing as he announced (via twitter) that he's pulled out of the World Championships with a hamstring injury. A year after running 26:59, Solinsky has endured mainly heartache in 2011 as he dropped out of the 10,000 at Pre, a 5,000 in Monaco and is now a DNS at Worlds.

With Bryan Clay Out, Can Ashton Eaton Bring Home US Decathlon Gold?

Curtis Anderson On Eaton, Jesse Williams And Many Other Oregon-Based Americans At 23, indoor heptathlon WR holder Ashton Eaton is considered the gold favorite in the decathlon. Story reveals Eaton discovered flaw in his HJ technique from old Dick Fosbury vids. He then went out and nailed 2-inch PR at 6'10".

2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Is October 9th

• Good Things In 3s? 33-Year-Old Liliya Shobukhova Will Be Looking To Be 1st Person To Win 3 Straight Chicago Titles This Fall If she does, she'll pick up another $500,000 WMM bonus.
• RRW On Liliya Shobukhova "There is no secret in my training ... I always try to run the second half faster than the first half. Even if it is very hard to run, I try to run the second half two to three seconds (per kilometer) faster than the first."

Football/Track Stars In The News

• Jeff Demps Talks About His Decision To Turn Down $$ To Return To Football The article says he turned down "millions." We are almost certain that's not true.
• From Late July: It's Official: Jeff Demps Postponing Pro Track Career For 1 More Year Of Football
• VTech TJumper David Wilson Has Amassed 2,096 All-Purpose Yards And Scored 15 Touchdowns In Part-Time Duty Over Last 2 Years

Woman Writes In New York Times About Being Passed By A Cow In A Half Marathon Over racing will certainly produce some bad performances.

London Bids For 2017 World Champs

• London 2012 To Repeat In 2017?
• British Sports Minister Believes Hosting In 2017 Would Be "Pefect Legacy" For 2012 Games

Reid Coolsaet Needs Sub-2:15 And Top 3 Showing At Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon On Oct. 16th To Make Olympic Team

More World Champs Updates

• Prize Money Breakdown For Daegu Top 8 pay out with $60,000 to the winner and an extra $100,000 for a world record.
• Things Aren't Looking Good For Caster Semenya According to the article, the defending champ is not getting on well with her coach, has been late to practices/just "doing her own thing" and is overweight and slow. Also says the real reason she skipped World University Games was because lack of prize money.
• Where Has World 1,500 Champ Yusuf Kamel Been? He has only competed once this year (1:46.89 800 in July). The article doesn't mention any injury, just makes it sound like he didn't feel like training hard.
• David Rudisha Tech Savvy In these pictures it's hard to say whether he's sponsored by Adidas or Apple.
• A Brief Chat With Jenny Simpson Ahead Of Worlds She said she's learned a lot about good 1,500m racing tactics from watching Morgan Uceny.
• Poland's Pawel Wojciechowski Sets NR And World Lead With 5.91m In Pole Vault
• Kenyan Teammates Linet Masai And Vivian Cheruiyot Will Battle It Out In Worlds 10 *2nd Article On Masai
• The US Has Had Only One HJ World Champ, But As The World Leader Going Into Daegu, Jesse Williams Could Be The Second
• Olympic 1,500 Champ Nancy Jebet Langat: "I need a World Championships gold medal in my title collections."
• Belgium, Bulgaria, Israel, Moldova, Portugal, Slovenia And Switzerland Name Their Teams
• Kenya's 4 X 4 Team Looking To Break Their Medal Drought
• Allyson Felix's Pre-Worlds Diary: Says She Thinks The Universal Blood Testing Is A Great Idea

Athletes Feeling The Anticipation Ahead Of World Champs

• Brief Chat With Shalane Flanagan "I don't know if I'd even consider myself a master at the 10,000. Each race is so different. And that's how I approach even the World Championships right now, just kind of with an open mind. There is literally every kind of race."
• Some Comments From Matt Centrowitz, Andrew Wheating, And HJer Jesse Williams Ahead Of WCs Centrowitz definitely seems physically and mentally ready to go. Wheating, on the other hand, has lowered his expectations some after having to end his European circuit early with a hamstring problem.
• Nick Willis Analyzes His Competition At Worlds In His Blog He also says his last bit of training has gone great.
• Ever Wonder How Runners Even Get Into Racewalking In The First Place? By Accident, Of Course In her school days, Kenya's Grace Wanjiru was a 5,000 specialist. But at one meet she showed up late and missed the 5k, so did the race walk instead because it was the only event left. Now she has the African 20k walk record and is going to Worlds.
• IAAF Walks Through The Career And Beginnings Of Mo Farah From An Eight-Year-Old Star To Current World Beater Farah: "I've always been confident, but once you start winning, it really whets your appetite for more."
• Jenny Barringer Simpson Says She's In About As Good A Spot As She Can Be "Sometimes I think the job of someone in the position I'm in is just relaxing and saying, 'OK, I have to stop looking for more things.' Sometimes the pursuit of the perfect situation never ends for people. Sometimes you need to say, 'OK, I found it, now let's make it work.'" She also says she misses the steeplechase and hints that could be her focus next year for the 2012 Olympics.
• With No Title To Defend, Rudisha Not Feeling Pressure
• Delilah DiCrescenzo's Injury Is A 2nd Chance For Stephanie Garcia Garcia was in 3rd with 200 to go at USAs, but fell in the last water pit.
  *Columbia's DiCrescenzo Out Of Worlds, But The Ivy League Will Still Have 5 Alums In Daegu
• Q&A With Germany's 9:35 Junior Steeplechaser Gesa Felicitas Krause, Who Won Euro Junior Champs
  Other World Champs News:
• Lead Scientist Hugh Herr, Who Helped Oscar Pistorius Win His Case With The CAS, Has His Say However, his main evidence is the lack of evidence against Pistorious; he doesn't even defend his own study. Does make a good point, though, that Michael Johnson wouldn't be running the 400 near 30 seconds if he was a double amputee, so Pistorious' legs probably aren't a 10-12 second advantage as some have said.
  *Pistorius Popular In Korea Despite Controversy Over Participation
• Germany Names Their World Champs Roster Led by their discus world champ Robert Harting and hammer WR holder Betty Heidler.

It's Official (Sort Of): Steve Mullings Left Off Jamaica Team For Worlds But Jamaican officials left themselves an out by saying "... if the matter is resolved in his favour, there is a provision where he (Mullings) can be re-instated at a later date." The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission disciplinary panel for Mullings is next Monday, August 22, only 5 days before Worlds start.
*Jamaica Names The Rest Of Their Team

Week That Was

LRC Week That Was In our weekly recap, LetsRun urges everyone to calm down on the anti-doping front so mass hysteria doesn't turn the Mike Rodgers and Steve Mullings cases into a repeat of the Salem witch trials; then we wonder if history will repeat itself again at the 2011 Worlds if Kenenisa Bekele tries to do what Haile G couldn't do in 2001; we then introduce you to the score of America's 3:55 milers on the year and tell you how lucky Gabe Jennings was to be born in 1979 and not 1989. We end the weekly recap by turning our famed analysis to the sprint world. All of that plus an old-fashioned lesson in sportsmanship and lots of talk about New Balance Falmouth.

From Sunday: Thorpe Cup: German Men Win Decathlon, US Women Win The Heptathlon On the men's side Ashton Eaton, Trey Hardee, and Bryan Clay all competed. Eaton did especially well, running 10.26 in the 100m to come within .04 seconds of the 100m decathlon WR. *Full Results

Update: Mike Rodgers Waiting On A Hearing And "B" Sample Test To Find Out If He's Eligible For Worlds Penalties for a positive test for stimulants can range from a warning to a suspension of several months. His agent wants to emphasize that he tested positive for a stimulant, and not "steroids or anything of that nature."

New Balance Falmouth *Full Results *Mile Results *Mile Photos *Men's Mile Video *Women's Mile Video

*American Lewy Boulet Wins Falmouth While Kenyan Lucas Rotich Gets Men's Title With the overall and American, win she "double-dipped" and pocketed 20 thousand. US steeplechaser Brian Olinger was 4th overall and 1st American on the men's side as Abdi Abdirahman was 5th and Ben True was 6th.
*Jordan McNamara Wins Falmouth Mile In 3:54.89, Leads Ten Sub-Four Jeff See was 2nd (3:55.24) as AJ Acosta was 3rd (3:55.30). Will Leer was back in 8th (3:58.41). McNamara won $3,000 for his victory ($2,000 for the win plus $1,000 for breaking four minutes).
*Falmouth Prize Money Draws Big USA Field, But May Impact Strategy With so much American-only prize money on the line, the fear is it could turn into two separate races, one between Americans and one with everyone else ahead. Isn't that ususally the case? The 1st and 2nd place Americans will make more than last year, but 3rd place gets the same in American-only money.

World Championships-Related News

• Ireland Sending 4 "B" Athletes To Worlds
• Kenya's Jackson Mumbua Kivuva Says He Wants To Win In Daegu Up against a stellar field including David Rudisha, most likely he will be disappointed.
• World Championships Marathoner Akaba Gives A Report On Training On Boulder's Famed Magnolia Road Are you under the age of 25 and don't know about Magnolia Road? Then clearly you haven't read Running With The Buffaloes.
• Mac Or PC? David Rudisha ... is a tech-savvy Mac guy who has an ipad and does facebook and twitter. We sure as hell hope he also does letsrun.com.
• Jamaican 110H Record Holder Dwight Thomas Is Buoyed By Outpouring Of Support He's Received Since His Father Was Chopped And Shot To Death His father was a very quiet man and his tragic death is still a mystery.
• AP: Sebastian Coe Discusses Games Image After Riots In London
• Meet "The sexiest Russian female athlete of the year." 20-year-old European indoor LJ champ Darya Klishina is being hyped as a future star.
• It's Official: Christian Taylor And Will Claye Turn Pro

The Legendary Joe Newton (Elmhurst York High School, IL) Admits Getting Softer The Older He Gets "The big thing now is I am just listening more. You do that as you mature as a coach."

San Diego Runner Jon Tumilson Was One of 22 Navy Seals Killed When Helicopter Was Shot Down In Afghanistan A memorial run will be held for him on San Diego on Tuesday.

Wanna Be A Pro Runner?

• Minnesota Star Tribune Takes A Look At How To Take A Stab At A Pro Running Career The Team USA Minnesota people put on a camp, the RunPro Camp, last month trying to help aspiring pros learn how to live a life of poverty pursue their dreams. "Even if you're not one of the superstars of our sport, you have a certain amount of limelight and stardom. To be out there and pursue your dreams is not a reality for a lot of people. It's fantastic to do something you love every day."
• RunPro Camp Seen As Success By Participants
• How RunPro Came Together, Hopes For A Sequel

Team USA Is Final

Team USA Announced For World Championships And Bryan Clay And Lauren Fleshman Are On It The good news that results from USATF having bureaucrats like John Chaplin with dictator-like powers is they don't have to follow their own rules and as a result Lauren Fleshman, America's top 5,000m runner right now, is now on the team, as the rumors of Desiree Davila giving up her spot were true. USATF rules state only 4 runners can chase times but thankfully that stupid rule was somehow ignored.

Lots Of Nike Oregon Athletes On Team USA

World Championships News

• Distance-Related News: Kenyan Govt. Making Unprecedented $upport Of World Championships Team 300,000 shillings, which is a little more than $3,000, goes to gold medallist. If you make the final, you get a little more than $100. Yet somehow, the govt is spening more than $285,000 overall. Quite frankly, we think their govt. should spend nothing.
• Asbel Kiprop Says Anything But Gold In 1,500 Will Be Disappointment For Kenya - Says Kenyans Fear Only Laalou And Bernard Lagat Asbel, Bernard Lagat isn't even in the event, but Andy Wheating is and he has a better PR than you do.
• World Championships Silver Medallist Yoshimi Ozaki Runs 50km In Boulder And Is Feeling Good About Her Chances "I can see the scenario where I surge away."
• Namibia Names Its Team Of 2 For Daegu - 800-Meter Man Is Called Olympic Medal Hopeful Daniel Nghipandulwa has only run 1:46.

Dumb, Dumber And Racist Quotes

• Dumb: Rex Ryan Kenyan Coach Talks Big As Team Leaves For Korea We hope Kenenisa Bekele puts this idiotic comment on the wall. "Bekele this time will not be a threat to us, that one I am sure about because he has not been active for over three months."
• Dumber: Asafa Powell Dismisses The Greatest 100m In History "I should have beaten Usain in Rome. I gave that race away ... I think I have a great chance, a 99 per cent chance of winning."
• Racist?: NJ GOP Lawman Resigns Because His Wife Replied To Routine Carl Lewis Campaign Email With "Racist" Email Her email read in part: "Imagine having dark skin and name recognition and the nerve to think that equaled knowing something about politics.''

Want To Know The Truth About Oscar P? Read This:
Recommended Read: The Scientific Interpretation Of The Oscar Pistorius Research

More On "Johnny The Younger"
*Amby Burfoot's MB Thread

Recommended Read: Boston Globe: John J. Kelley, 80; Marathon champ carried hopes of the nation Kelley lived in a day and age when foreigners were dominating the Boston marathon, but he always showed up and gave it his best (he finished 2nd 5 times) and one magical day he emerged as the winner. He should be an inspiration to all modern day US marathoner hopes like Ryan Hall, as foreigners won Boston 11 years in a row before his win in 1957 and 10 years in a row after it.
New England Runner: Tribute To The Renaissance Man Kelley
The New London Day (Local Paper): John Kelley, running legend, dies at 80
NY Times: John J. Kelley, Marathon Champion, Dies at 80

And Then There Were 3
Budapest Pulls Out Early ... 3 Remain In Contention For 2017 Worlds London, Barcelona and Doha remain.

Sprinters Steal The Headlines

• Steve Mullings Hearing Postponed Until October
• Steve Mullings Didn't Go To Jamaica For Hearing - He Sent Someone From His Management Team Instead
• Do You Have No Morals And Want To Know How To Use A Masking Agent Like Furosemide? Track Focus Tells You How To Dope
• Free Dwain Chambers!!! Dwain Chambers Welcomes Drug Testing Of Every Athlete Chambers is the one drug cheat who seems to really have repented and really seems to get what is good for sport - more testing. "For my part I would welcome more frequent and rigorous testing in championships and off season and after I learnt my lesson I hoped that alot more athletes would." Meanwhile, while the repentant Dwain Chambers will be banned from the Olympics, the denier Justin Gatlin will be allowed to compete. That being said, Gatlin is starting to grow on us ... a little bit.
• Gatlin: Back From Suicidal Thoughts During His 4 Year Drug Ban, Justin Gatlin Is Dreaming Big Once Again "I got to the point where I said, 'I don't care anymore.' I was depressed about life, period. There were times I felt,'Who would miss me if I ran this car off the road right now?'"
• Dwain Chambers Expects Usian Bolt To Eventually Break His Own 9.58 Record But Says Bolt's A Beatable Favorite This Year
• AP: Despite Recent Struggles, Bolt Confident He'll Leave Daegu With 3 Golds

Track Town USA, Move Over. Should We Call China "Track Country" And Make It The Permanent Host Of The Olympics?
IAAF Recap Of Incredibly Successful World University Games - More Than 30,000 People Showed Up Every Night To Watch In terms of the action, the big story was the return of Olympic and world champion Nelson Evora in the triple jump. He got the gold in his first competition in 2 years since having screws inserted into his tibia.

Random Road Action From Last Weekend
*Wejo Rejoice: Weldon Wins America's Finest City Half Marathon
*Katie McGregor Runs 75:00 To Win Half Marathon In Minnesota
*Looking Ahead? Want To See The Famed Wildebeest Migration And Run A Marathon At The Same Time? Try The Kenya Airways Masai Mara Marathon

Daegu: Controversy And Intrigue

• Daegu Organizers Build Lavish Athlete Village For WCs, First Time In IAAF History If they've taken their cues from Athens, they'll have latex dispensers installed on every floor.
• Russian Coach Talks About 100+ WC Athletes Training In Vladivostok Camp Even Isinbayeva is attending.
• Semenya Dedicating Upcoming Performance To Mentor Mandela
• Caster Semenya's PR Team Dismisses Reports Of Rift With Coach And Rumors Of Her Being Overweight
• Ironic: Telegraph Writes Sympathetic Oscar P Piece Entitled "Built For Speed" His legs are indeed built for speed and shouldn't be allowed to compete. Oscar P. disagrees and doesn't like getting flak from people like LRC as well as other disabled athletes: "It's pretty frustrating that I'm getting criticised from all quarters." *Oscar P: I'm Done Talking About My Legs
• Steve Mullings Mystified *B Sample Comes Back Positive - Lifetime Ban Next?
• Michael Rodgers Accepts His Provisional Suspsension & Withdraws From Daegu - Trell Kimmons Replaces Him
• Caution - Intellect Required: Irish Times: Hard to Sprint Past the Elephant in the Room Brian O'Connor: Athletics you see is the sport you should like, as distinct from the ones you actually do. It is athletic endeavour at its purest ... an aesthetic representation of humanity’s impulse to push the limits of physical capability. And I can’t believe any of it.
• Amazing News! Every Single Athlete To Be Blood Tested At World Championships *BBC Article On Blood Testing - It'll Be Interesting To See Who Now Pulls Out We agree and all pullouts need to be heavily scrutinized. Back in 2000, we determined Regina Jacobs was on drugs when she pulled out.

Daegu: Additions And Subtractions

• New: Bumbalough Named To 5,000m Squad To Replace Solinsky
• Kenya's New 10k Guy Trains In Japan Paul Tanui's Japanese Coach And Some Fans Will Take Ferry (& Bus) To Watch Him Compete In Daegu Which He Considers To Be A Dream Come True Tanui was added to the team after Wilson Kiprop was taken off with an injury. Don't think just because he didn't "earn" his way onto the team that he can't be a factor. Remember, in cross-country, he was added to the team as a coach's selection and got the silver at Worlds.
• Bryan Clay Withdraws From Worlds With Tendonitis In Knee
• HJ Fans (And Men) Rejoice: Blanka Vlasic WILL Compete At Worlds A day ago, she determined she was too injured to compete, but we love why she changed her mind: "I will either win or fall on my sword. The most important thing is to have no regrets when I end my career one day; I just can't sit in front of the television (in the final) on September 3 and wait for someone else to win the event."

Daegu: Team Stars & Stripes Ready

• AP Sports Writer Pat Graham Profiles US Newest Mid-D Star Morgan Uceny She learned a lot from working for her dad, who was a bricklayer: "Working for (my dad) taught me to pay attention to the details and that complaining won't get you anywhere. It's a very demanding occupation.''
• High Jumper Jesse Williams: "I will be the favourite and I like that." If he wins, it will be America's 2nd winner in history and first since 1991.
• Recommended Read: A Brief Chat With Jenny Simpson, Who Is Hopeful That Things Are Turning Around
• Defending Champ Sanya Richards-Ross Peaking At The Right Time 49.66 on August 6 is #2 on the world list.

Delilah (Almost) Goes To Worlds: Episode 8: Delilah Races In Lucerne (Sponsored)

In this episode, Delilah DiCrescenzo of "Hey There, Delilah" fame races to a 3rd place finish in the 3rd best time of her career before getting injured and having to pull out of Worlds. The injury will be addressed in the next episode early next week. *Episode 1: Delilah Makes Worlds *Ep. 2: Training In NYC *Ep. 3: Legendary Coach Gags *Ep. 4: Fast And Fashionable *Ep. 5: In The Spotlight, In The World *Ep. 6: Delilah Goes To Europe *Ep. 7: European Living. More @Puma Running On Facebook

WADA Head Says At Least 10% Of Athletes Are Cheats "Statistically the numbers of people being caught is between one to two per cent, that's the numbers of positives against the number of tests. But the number of people doping are in the double digits."

Truly Bizarre: Identity Theft Victim Or Perpetrator?

• Colorado Asst. Track Coach And World Championships Team Member At 200m, Jeremy Dodson, Arrested For Felony Identity Theft Dodson was one of the biggest surprises at the US champs. LRC MB Talk On Dodson Two Days Ago: Denver Post Writes Glowing Profile Of Dodson
• Dodson's Case Goes National - The Guy Also Is In Law School At Colorado
• Dodson's Attorney: Hold On Here; In Reality, Dodson's ID Was Stolen And Used By Someone Else *Statement From Dodson's Agent "We'll have more clarity on Friday, August 26, 2011 on whether he can travel to Daegu. Quick resolution doesn't appear likely. However, his ultimate exoneration does."
• Recommended Read: Police Fire Back - He's Been Under Investigation Since 2009 If you read this article, it seems that he's likely in big trouble, as at one point he was found walking in an empty house dressed "in black and wearing masks and gloves." Plus police say stolen credit cards were used to buy an HDTV and ipod touch that were sent to Dodson's address.

Letsvault.com

• 1984 Olympic Pole Vault Champ Pierre Quinon Commits Suicide At Age 49 *IAAF: Pierre Quinon Has Died
• Poland's Pawel Wojciechowski Produces World Leader And National Record Of 5.91m In Poland
• Defending Champ Hooker - All I Want To Do Is "Jump Well"

Daegu Daegu Daegu

• Before Departing For Worlds, Kenyans Get Presented With Kenyan Flag By President Who Then Asks For A Private Meeting With David Rudisha
  *LRC MB: I Hope Some of You Are Sitting Down When You Read This - David Rudisha Drank A Coca-Cola Today
• 18-Year-Old Kirani James Likely Will Be Grenada's 1st Ever Olympic Medallist Next Year If he doesn't medal, it will be an upset in our minds.
• Super-Agent Jos Hermens Has 75 Athletes Competing In Daegu
• Hard To Believe: As Recently As 1999, Kenyan Men Got 4 X 400 Silver They are supposedly pursuing another medal this year.
• AP Profile Of US Hurdler David Oliver, Who Brings Football Mentality To Hurdles How about this hurdling advice which he got before his 1st hurdles race in HS - take eight steps out of the blocks, three steps in between hurdles and, other than that, just run fast.
• Jenny Meadows Is Confident Heading Into Daegu London will be her last Olympics.
• Louisville's Matt Hughes Is In Deagu Getting Ready To Run Steeple For Canada

250,000 People Need Food In Southern Ethiopia

Hurt Hamstrings

*World High Jump Champ Blanka Vlasic May Miss Worlds With Hamstring Injury Sounds legit as she article is very specific about scans revealing a "partial rupture." She will announce Friday whether or not she's going to compete.
*Defending 800m World Champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi Withdraws From Worlds With Hamstring Injury

On Doping:
*Jamaica's Observer Puts Out Cartoon Poking Fun At Jamaican Dopers Didn't get a good reaction from one Jamaican reader.
*CAS To Come To A Decision On LaShawn Merritt's Case By End Of Next Month After this, Britain's Olympic drug ban policy may be under legal threat even though they say they won't change their minds.
*Neil Wilson: "Suspension Not Enough, Just Jail The Dopers"
*2 Drug Cases Pending From World Masters Champs

Some US News
*After Winning Falmouth, Magdalena Lewy Boulet Is USATF Athlete Of The Week She says that after the first mile, she thought she was in the 2nd pack and didn't realize she was with the leaders.
*America's Finest City Half Marathon Elite Field Announced One in the elite field is Christian Hesch, who was the 10th man sub-4 in the Falmouth Mile. He followed his first sub-4 with a 34:11 in the Falmouth 7.1 Mile race, and now a week later is doing a half marathon. Definitely a busy week of racing.
*10 Questions With NJ HS Star Edward Cheserek He says in his free time he likes to watch "great Kenyan runner" Bernard Lagat on TV.
*Abdi Says He's "Back" After Finishing 5th Place (2nd American) At Falmouth He says his focus right now is training for the Olympic Trials for next year.

The Pre-World Champs Injuries Keep Piling Up And The Message Board Conspiracy Theories Begin

• World Half Marathon Champ Wilson Kiprop Has Dropped Out Of Worlds With Pulled Hamstring His place has been taken by Paul Tanui, who was 2nd at World XC and was 5th at the Kenyan Trials. Interestingly, Kiprop says that he pulled out because he didn't want to hurt the team, but might still race All Africa Games if he "recovers quickly."
• Germany's Junior Javelin World Champ Till Woeschler Out Of Worlds With Elbow Injury

US News

• Josh McDougal Hired As Liberty Assistant Coach He is now an official coach, but has already been part of the staff for the last 4 years, first as a graduate assistant and then as a volunteer.
• LaShawn Merritt's Olympic Eligibility Case Scheduled For Arbitration On Wednesday Dwain Chambers and the BOA will definitely be watching the results of this case, as the UK imposes a lifetime Olympic ban on drug cheats.
• NJ Still Says It Won't Certify Carl Lewis As Candidate For State Senate
• Dathan Ritzenhein Recovering From Post-Operative Wound Infection
• Ashton Eaton Owes His New HJ PR To Watching YouTube Videos Of Olympic Champ Dick Fosbury From The 1968 Olympics Article also mentions that Eaton and Oregon's two-time NCAA heptathlon champ Brianne Theisen are officially engaged. Theisen is a Canadian Olympic hopeful, but will return to Oregon for her senior year.
• Texas & North Florida To Host NCAA Regionals (Or Preliminary Round) In 2012

Other International Stuff
*The Olympic Park Was Meant To Be A Target Of London Rioters, But Was Saved By Police Monitoring Of Twitter
*French Pole Vaulter Renaud Lavillenie Wins "Berlin Flies" Competition Between US, Russian, Germany & France Was "to mark 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall." They'd probably prefer to mark its deconstruction, but it would be a lot harder to hold the meet in November.

World University Games/World Champs News

IAAF Preview: NCAA And US Champ Jeshua Anderson Headlines World University Games
*Blog From Aussie 1,500m Runner Brenton Rowe, Who Is At WUG

US Injuries:
*World Indoors 400m Gold Medallist Debbie Dunn Withdraws From Worlds With An "Unspecified Injury" It has also been announced that steeplechaser Delilah DiCrescenzo (3rd at USAs) is out with an injury and replaced by NCAA runner-up Stephanie Garcia.

Getting Ready For Worlds:
*Japan's Yuki Kawauchi Says If He Finishes In The Top 8 At World Champs, He Will Reward Himself With A Cup Of Coffee
*World Indoor 1,500m Champ Deresse Mekonnen Hopeful Going Into Worlds Despite Early Season Injury
*Silas Kiplagat Benefits From The Coaching Of 3-Time World Steeplechase Champ Moses Kiptanui AK training camps are smartening up and actually letting the athletes still be coached by their own coaches/do their own training.
*Polish Champs Recap And Polish Daegu Squad Released Some noteworthy mid-d and distance performances included Adam Kszczot (1:44.30), Marcin Lewandowski (1:44.61), Lukasz Parszczynski (8:15.47 SC) and Renata Plis (4:04.57 w1,500m).
*Norwegian Champs: World & Olympic Jav Champ Andreas Thorkildsen Reaffirms Himself As Heavy Worlds Favorite With 90.61m Heave
*Estonia Is Sending 9 To Daegu

Looking Ahead To After Worlds
*4 Days After Worlds, Weltklasse Zürich Will Host 18 Events & 17 Will Include The World Leader In That Event
*Preliminary Weltklasse Entries Highlights from an American distance perspective include Leo Manzano in the 1,500, Morgan Uceny (and Montano) in the women's 800, another AR attempt by Shalane Flanagan in the 5,000 (which also tentatively includes Bizzarri, Fleshman, Goucher and Hastings), and Bruce/Nelson in the men's steeple.
*Strenuous Worlds Schedule Causes Bolt To Pull Out of Weltklasse, Which is 4 Days After Worlds

Weekend Results

• Richard Thompson Clocks 9.85 Trinidad & Tobago NR, Tying Him For 4th On The 2011 World List He broke Ato Boldon's record of 9.86. This run ties him for 4th-fastest this year and 9th-fastest ever. *MB thread here.
• Columbia's Caterine Ibargüen Ties WL And Breaks NR With 14.99m In TJ
• USATF Recap Of Thrope Cup Day 1(Team Throwing Multi-Competition): Germany Has Slight Lead On US
• IAAF Recaps Finland's Vattenfall Elite Games: Jukka Keskisalo Wins Steeple In 8:29.38

US News

• After Stress Reaction Slows Her Down, Kara Goucher Still Hopeful Going Into Worlds, But Concedes She Might Not Be The One Pushing The Pace This blog post really gives a glimpse into the advantages of the technology the Oregon Project uses. Kara says she didn't lose much fitness, as she was still able to train on their "Alter-G" and underwater treadmills.
• Campaign Trail A Rough Run For Carl Lewis Still facing obstacles to stay on the ballot and criticisms about refusing to take a stance on major issues.
• No SEC Invite For Texas A&M There were rumors that Texas A&M would move to SEC, but a meeting of league officials led to the agreement that things would stay as it is for now. There is still a good chance this move will happen in the near future. *MB: The New SEC has 16 teams, ACC to follow
• 2:14 Marathoner Nate Jenkins Blogging About How Even The Best Runners Have Their Bad Days
• Lukas Verzbicas Tops DyeStat's "Most Outstanding Performers" List For Boys Distances

Another Drug Bust

• US's Mike Rodgers Tests Positive For Banned Stimulant His agent claims he drank an energy drink which contained the stimulant. Rodgers was the 3rd man on the World Champs 100m team after Walter Dix and Justin Gatlin.
• UK Athletes Blast Steve Mullings After Caught In Doping Violation And they showed no sympathy.
• Steve Mullings Says He Is "Confident His Name Will Be Cleared" Even if it was (which seems unlikely considering his past), it is unlikely that it will be in time for him to run in Daegu. The final list is due Monday, but his B sample won't be tested until Tuesday. This means that Nesta Carter would get his 100m spot.

The Most Ridiculous "Plastic Brit" Yet Come 2012, Yamile Aldama will run for her third country in three Olympic Games.

Liam Adams Wins Close Race At Australia's City2Surf 14k

Good News Surgeon Says Lolo Jones' Operation Went Perfectly

Ridiculous 18-Year-Old Skier Urinates On 11-Year-Old Girl During JetBlue Flight; Kicked Off US Ski Team Apparently he was drunk and didn't realize he wasn't in the bathroom.

Drug Corner

"Will be interesting to see if athletes withdraw from Daegu with illness or injury due to IAAF introducing all athletes to blood testing." - Former 400m bronze medallist Katharine Merry writing about the universal  blood testing in Daegu. We hope some cheats get out but think the bigger implications will be down the road because the blood test in Daegu is to establish the baseline to catch the cheats in the future. Related On The Boards: Deagu "Drop Outs" Thread

Details On Steve Mullings

• Telegraph: "It is understood that the greater sensitivity of drug testing equipment to detect the masking agent furosemide, was behind Mullings' positive." Now it's important for people to realize that sometimes people testing positive for furosemide get off scot free, as was the case last month with some Brazilian swimmers.
• Jamaica Anti-doping Commission (JADCO) On Mullings: No Comment