LetsRun.com

Week That Was

LRC USA The Best 1,500m Country In The World? Tokyo Gets The Olympics, Ben True Keeps Kicking Butt, Caster Semenya Is Back, Tegenkamp Playing It Conservative, And Lance Armstrong The focus on the track and field world was the Diamond League finale in Brussels. We ignore Brussels in our WTW and talk about everything else. If you want Brussels talk, we've still got you covered here.

Marathon News

• Ryan Hall Blogs About His Observations After His First Few Days In Kenya "I would say that the biggest lesson I have learned from my first few days here in Kenya is the importance of training with others. ... I will be much more proactive in seeking out training partners and groups to train with, even if it means starting my own."
• Podcast With Jason Hartman Talking About His Prep For The NYC Marathon And Competitor Group Cutting Elite Athlete Funding
• Boston Marathon Registration Now Open
• The Soweto Marathon In South Africa Has Been Cancelled With Organizers Blaming Athletics SA As Their Infighting Lost Them Sponsors

Sunday NFL Track Action

The Historically Super-Fast Rieti Was Sunday:
*Rieti: Ben True Impresses In 3k (2nd To Soi, Beats Ndiku), Dix 9.99, Semenya Sub-2:00, Kiplagat, Cronje, Willis, Torrence Run Fast In 1,500 (Results) Walter Dix went sub-10 for the first time in 2013, Caster Semenya went sub-2:00 for the 1st time in 2013, the men's 1,500m had the first 9 set seasonal bests or PRs, led by Silas Kiplagat, a national record by Johan Cronje of S. Africa and faster times by Nick Willis and David Torrence, and (most impressively) Ben True finishing 2nd to Edwin Soi at 3,000m.
*IAAF Full Meet Recap
*Semenya After Her 1:58.92: "That's awesome. The race went according to plan."
*Jamaican Observer: 4 Jamaicans Win In Rieti
MB: Ben True 7:36.59, Emily Infeld 8:41.43

Minnesota: Ben Blankenship And Gabriele Anderson Shatter Course Records At Minnesota Mile Blankenship ran 3:52.7 to win over defending champ Craig Miller (3:53.1); Nate Brannen was 5th (3:55.0) and Matt Elliot 8th (3:58.6). For the women Anderson ran 4:21.3 to win over Heather Kampf (4:27.1); Jamie Cheever was 6th (4:43.0).
*Team USA Minnesota Article With Quotes From Anderson
*Bring Back The Mile Article

Other Sunday Results

• Kenyans Daniel Chebii (27:35) And Josephine Jepkoech (32:00) Win Prague Road 10k; Emily Chebet Loses Chebii won a close race over Ethiopia's Kinde Atanaw and just missed Philemon Limo's CR by one second. Jepkoech was the surprise winner over World XC Champ Emily Chebet (32:01) with GB's Gemma Steel in 3rd (32:08).
• Kenya's Kiplimo Kimutai And Alice Chelangay Win Buenos Aires Half Marathon In 1:02:51 And 1:13:20
• Germany's Eleni Gebrehiwot Wins Muenster Marathon In Horrible, Rainy Conditions, Taking 5 Minutes Off The CR With 2:29:13 It was a 3-minute PR for Gebrehiwot. Kenya's Evans Kipkorir Taiget won the men's race in 2:15:56.
• 2011 RAK Half Marathon Champion Leonard Kipkoech Runs 44:31 To Win Jaramogi Oginga Odinga 15K In Kenya Pascalia Chepkorir won for the women in 51:27.94.
• World Mountain Running Champs - *Results: Finland Dominates (PDF)
  *IAAF Recap Of World Mountain Running Champs USA’s 2011 champion Max King was a DNF.
  *Race Report Via Storify
  *Start Lists (Excel) *Race Preview (Translated)
• Kenya's Shadrack Kemboi And South Africa's Mapaseka Makhanya Win Gauteng Marathon In 2:14:02 And 2:37:06
• Chinese National Games Begin With Asian PV Record Of 4.65 By Li Ling

Potential Mary Cain XC Rival Out For Season: 2012 Foot Locker Girls Champ Anna Rohrer Has Broken Bone In Foot And Is Out For The Year Rohrer, who had opened her season with an incredible 16:52, will be missed.
MB: 2012 Footlocker Champ Anna Roher: Out For The Season

Post-Brussels News

• Bolt's #1 Goal For 2014? To Stay Injury-Free "I know I have to be more focused on staying in shape. ... The older you get the harder it is to come back from injury."
• Renaud Lavillenie's 5.96m Win Was One Of 7 European Victories In Brussels DL Finale

Kenyan Daniel Kitonyi Wins 5,000 And 10,000 At Japan's 82nd National University Track And Field Championships

2013 Belgacom Memorial Van Damme *Full Results *Event-By-Event Results *IAAF Full Recap *Athletics Weekly Full Recap *Race Videos

*Watch Brussels Race Videos Without Knowing Results

LRC Men's 5,000: Yenew Alamirew Outkicks Bernard Lagat To Win Men's 5,000 And Diamond League Title As 4 US Men Break 13:10 The American record holders at 1,500/5,000, steeplechase and 10,000 came to play on Friday and were with the leaders at the bell and Galen Rupp had the lead. How did it turn out? Well, Adam Goucher is no longer in the US top 10 and Abdi Abdirahman is no longer in the US top 20. *Video Highlights
MB: Four Americans, one 38 years old, just ran sub 13:09. And you still think thyroid and TUEs are not being abused?
MB: The Future Has Arrived, Jager Almost Beats Ruppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MB: Jager 13:02!
MB: Cheers to Bernard Lagat
MB: What has Rupp done recently to make you believe he can break 13?

LRC Ajee Wilson Coems Up Short In World Junior 1k Record Assault In Brussels Wilson was beaten soundly by American Morgan Uceny.

LRC Women's Steeplechase: Milcah Chemos Wins And Confirms She's The World's Best In 2013 Chemos had the lead, then gave it up at the last water jump, but rallied to emphatically state she's the World #1 and win the $50,000 as the DL champion as well.

Brussels On The Message Board:
MB: Official 2013 Brussels DL Discussion Thread
MB: Why doesn't Mo Farah race in fast non championship races

2013 Worlds Special Section

News From The Top Distance Runner And Sprinter In The Sport

• Usain Bolt Ignored Coach Glen Mills' Advice To Give Up Sex And Going To Parties "If I had followed Coach's advice though, I would have driven myself insane. I knew that every now and then I had to live fast."
• Bolt reveals he wanted to quit his sprinting career after being booed by his home fans for pulling out of a race back in when he was only 19  "By the time I'd reached the sidelines, everybody in the bleachers was cat-calling me. Man they looked annoyed. Some people were even shouting, cussing ...'What the hell is this?' I thought, feeling sick - seriously sick."
• Good Read: Mo Farah Responds To Drug Talk Saying He Is "100 Percent Clean" And He Never Goes "Outside The System" In this article Farah talks about getting tested, about leaving his family for so long his daughter didn't recognize him and maybe eventually taking a shot at Kenenisa Bekele's 5k/10k WRs.
• Video: Mo Farah 'confident' as he takes on Kenenisa Bekele And Haile Gebrselassie At The Great North Run Half-Marathon This Weekend
• European Athletics: Mo Farah Has Reached A Crossroad In His Career - Stay On Track Or Go To The Roads (Marathon)

Random US News

• Friday: 3:57 Miler Jack Bolas Attempting To Become The First Person To Run A Sub-4 Minute Mile On Alaskan Soil
• Parents And Athletes Protest Virginia High School's Decision To Bar Cross Country Runners From Running On The Roads The school is probably being overprotective, but if the kids are running on trails instead of pavement then they're better off in the long run as far as injury prevention goes.
• Nebraska's Trevor Vidlak And William And Mary's Elaina Balouris Are USTFCCCA XC Athletes Of The Week

International News

• Turkish Prime Minister Calls IOC Rejection Unfair "Both Tokyo and Madrid have hosted the games before; Istanbul hasn't. It hasn't been fair."
  
• After Adjusting For Wind, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's 10.72 In Brussels Was Actually Equal To Her Best 100m Ever Adjusted for wind and altitude it converted to a 10.70.
  
• Welsh 60-Year Old Martin Rees Sets Age-Group 10k WR At 32:48

IOC News: Billy Mills Gets His Wish

• Tokyo Will Host 2020 Olympics They beat out Istanbul in the final after Istanbul edged Madrid in a tie breaker in the semifinals.
• Alan Abrahamson: Here's How Tokyo Won Abrahamson gives you the details of Tokyo's successful bid. Why did they win? Well, they are the "safe bet" and it didn't hurt they have $4.5 billion sitting in the bank waiting to be spent on the Olympics and a Japanese athlete has never tested positive for a PED at the Olympics.
  *Video: Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The US
  *InsideTheGames: How Tokyo 2020 Won Its Olympics And Paralympic Bid Despite Fukushima
  *Seb Coe Writes In The Telegraph: "Tokyo 2020 organising committee must get out of the blocks quickly if they want a successful Games."
  *NY Times: Madrid And Istanbul Respond Differently To Rejection By Olympics There was great sadness in Madrid, while many in Istanbul celebrated.
  *Middle East Press: Syrian War Hurt Istanbul's Olympic Bid
  *NY Times: For 2020 Olympics, I.O.C. Picks Tokyo, Considered Safe Choice
  *Pre-Decision News: Hersh: IOC hotel lobby walls have ears but rarely hear the truth
  *Message Board: It's Never Too Soon To Start Speculating: MB: Tokyo 2020: Who are the US Medal Prospects?
  
  
• Wrestling Wins IOC Vote For 2020 Olympic Games As expected, wrestling defeated baseball/softball and squash for a spot in the 2020 Summer Games as expected.
  *USA Today: Wrestling Will Get Makeover Before Rio Olympics
  *NY Times: Wrestling, With Revamped Rules, Returns To Summer Games New York Times
  *USA Today Columnist: Welcome back wrestling, sorry softball He points out how he feels the IOC is hypocritical at times and says, "As the saying goes, the last amateurs left in Olympic sports are the people running them."
  
  
• Thomas Bach's "Favorite" Status To Become The Next IOC President Could Be Hurt By Claims That He Cheated Back When He Was An Olympic Champion Fencer
• IOC President Jacques Rogge: Olympians To Be Warned Not to Protest Anti-Gay Law in Sochi 2014
• Sochi Organizing Committee President Asks IOC To Help "stop complaints and speculations" On Anti-Gay Law Issue

Marathon News

• Makau Says His Training Has Been Going Well As He Gets Ready For WR Attempt "I have not been in the best of forms in recent marathon races but my training has been going well for the last three months."
• Boston Marathon Registration Begins Monday - Will Include Extra 9,000 Spots To Accommodate Those Who Couldn't Finish This Year

2013 Belgacom Memorial Van Damme *Full Results *Event-By-Event Results *IAAF Full Recap *Athletics Weekly Full Recap

LRC Men's 800: Mo Aman Saves The Best For Last, Nick Symmonds 1:43.03 Mo Aman was spectacular and leaves Brussels $50,000 richer and with a new world lead and a spot in the all-time top 10. Nick Symmonds was pretty darn good as well - as he ran 1:43.03 to grab second and take home the 2013 USA top mark. *Race Video
MB: Symmonds 1:43.03!!!

LRC Women's 1,500: What A Disappointment: Aregawi Wins, Jenny Simpson And Five Others Fall Talk about a disappointment. The field was loaded and claimed it wanted to run fast. Then the gun went off and no one went with the rabbits. It only got worse from there as Jenny Simpson ended up doing her best Morgan Uceny impersonation. *Race Video
MB: DOWN GOES SIMPSON! DOWN GOES SIMPSON!

IAAF Full Brussels Recap: Fraser-Pryce's 10.72 (-.3 m/s) leads Jamaican sprint triple in Brussels (Bolt 9.80 & Weir 19.87).
*Athletics Weekly Full Meet Recap - Aman Smashes 800 World Lead
*Bolt Wins Again - Says This Wasn't His Best Season He was pretty darn dominant.
*USATF List US Performances: Dawn Harper And Ryan Whiting Win Natasha Hastings had a big upset win in the 400 over Amantle Montsho and Christine Ohuruogu.
*French TJer Teddy Tamgho Only Goes 17.30 In Brussels But Still Wants To Eventually Get Johnathan Edwards' WR
*Bolt: "I've been smiling ever since I got to the stadium because it's my last one and I'm just happy to be done. I'm looking forward to chilling with friends ..."
*Bolt Says Years Of Sprinting Starting To Take Toll "The older you get the harder it is to come back from injury. I gotta stay injury-free during the season that's the main factor."
*Bolt On Commonwealth Games: "I would love to go, I would love to get a Commonwealth gold medal to say I have got a Commonwealth gold medal." He's not committing though; it will be Coach Glen Mills' call.