LRC In Amman Friday Update: The Course is "Brutal"Rojo has returned from the Friday morning course tour and it's certainly going to be a challenge. Kim Smith called it 'brutal.' A 200 meter uphill start followed by a narrow, sharp turn, followed by 600 metesr downhill. Then you gotta go back up and repeat several times. *Press Conference Update: Fernandez is in a boot but running. Check back later for more info. *Photos: The Course (and Fernandez running on it).
Rojo Interviews The US Team/Sees German Fernandez Running
The photo above (of German Fernandez running in Jordan) should put to rest all the fears that America's new wonderkid won't race at the World XC Champs on Saturday in Jordan. LetsRun.com's Rojo had dinner with the US team and has video interviews with two runners who have definitely seem their dreams become reality (Ed Moran and Julie Culley) and NCAA 5k champ (Bobby Curtis).
Rojo's Blog: Installment #4: "In America, Everyone Is Alone" LetsRun.com's Rojo chronicles his journeys in Jordan. We highly recommend his blog installment #1.
*Latest Photo Gallery US, Kenyan, Ethiopian, and Australian teams in training, plus some Dead Sea photos.
LRC In Amman Analyzing German Fernandez's Chances For A Medal: History Says He'll Have His Hands Full Rojo breaks down the junior field in great depth. 
While
the odds are stacked against Fernandez, Rojo reveals that Fernandez did catch a huge break as Ethiopia has decided to run a guy who almost certainly would be the favorite for the win in the men's senior race. Plus another 13:25 junior isn't running either!!! *Photos
On the boards: Junior World Cross Country Championships - Make Your Predictions for Our 3 Young Studs Here, & Gregson Too!
Surprise! German Fernandez Article In USA Today
Wejo Responds To Criticism Of Letsrun's Lisbon/Kara Goucher Coverage Plus a correction to our article.
Excellent Read
LRC Is In Amman Rojo: The Flight And Day 1 *Photos
Rojo's in the Middle East and already having a great time. In his first blog, he talks about wishing he were Canadian, getting pulled over by the cops, driving backwards on a highway, picking up a hitchhiker
and trying to talk Bobby Curtis out of taking a cab to Iraq.
Amman World XC Almost Here
*IAAF's World XC Men's Preview
*Women's Preview
*Top 6 Ugandan Men Named For Amman Team
*Kenyan Team Sendoff Features Words From Cross Country Legends Paul Tergat And John Ngugi
*Steph Twell Ready To Rock And Roll In Amman
*More On Star Moses Kipsiro And The Ugandan
XC Squad
Excited For World XC At LetsRun.com
*10 Years After Tergat Last Won Senior 12km XC Gold For Kenya, Teams Fly Out With High Hopes It's hard to believe a Kenyan man hasn't won the long course XC title since Paul Tergat.
*Don't Worry, The XC Course In Amman, Jordan Was Rerouted To Avoid An Ant Hill!
*2010 Cross-Country Worlds To Be Held In Poland And More Announcements From IAAF Meeting
*IAAF's World Cross-Country Page
LRC's The Week That Was We do our best to cover a busy week in track and field: Free training advice from Ryan Hall, Kara Goucher wins, why a toilet is a genius marketing move, 95-year-olds kicking butt, and a Japanese legend retires. Plus, water cooler talk from Canadian runners on the plane to Amman and more.
More World XC News
- Kenyan Teams Are Confident, Hoping For A Sweep At World XCs
- Kenya's Moses Mosop Is Healthy And Perhaps The Favorite At World XCs IAAF
- Stephanie Twell Hoping For Top 20 Finish At World XCs Telegraph Britain is already excited about the "next Radcliffe."
- Hilda Kibet Leading European Women's Charge At World XCs
- Tariku Bekele Out Of World XCs IAAF
- World XC Entries From IAAF For the first time since 1976, neither the defending men's or women's champ is racing.
World XC Video: Interviews With Some of America's Stars Who says "dreams don't become reality?" Ed Moran ran over 25 minutes for his first 5k, now he's representing America. Julie Culley gave up her dream to coach, now she's representing America. Plus an interview with NCAA 5k champ Bobby Curtis.
Kenyans Love XC: "We have been working on team tactics and we know how we will play around with the opposition in Amman." - Florence Kiplagat in a great article about her career, life, marriage and training.
Stanford Invite Heats Are Up Distance stuff is Friday night.
*Great Interview With American Mid-D Star And Brown Alum Anna Willard Her new coach Terrence Mahon thinks she has great potential in the steeple and 1,500m and we agree. It sounds like they are a great match.
*Brief Chat With Villanova's Indoor NCAA 5k Runner-Up Frances Koons
*Steve Hooker Talks About Returning To His Roots
Chambers Invited To Dutch Meet
*Quote From Dutch Meet Director On Dwain Chambers
WADA Says Soccer Heads Are Ignoring Reality Of Drugs In Sport
Fantastic Read On Living Legend Roger Bannister On His 80th Birthday
Good Interview With Irish Half Marathon National Record Holder And Providence Alum Martin Fagan *In case you missed it: Fagan And Carlson Will Head To Ireland Next Weekend To Race Tergat
Drug Related News
*FIFA - Soccer's International Governing Body - Wants Nothing To Do With New WADA Testing Rules Neither would the NFL or NBA or MLB. Soccer shouldn't be an Olympic sport anyway because they already have their Olympics - most know it as the World Cup.
*Van Commenee Insists Dwain Chambers Cut Ties With Victor Conte
*Chambers Signed To Run Relatively Small Meet In Uden, The Netherlands A LetsRun visitor provided the links and some other facts about the meet. The Dutch all-comers 100m record is 10.08 by Leroy
Burrell in 1994. The meet organizers felt Dwain had served his time and would add to their meet so he will receive the highest ever appearance fee at the small meet.
Update: Obama Plans To Stump For Chicago 2016 Word is Chicago 2016 is in trouble because it's all privately funded and with the economy currently in the tank, bettors are raising the odds versus the other government funded cities.
Most Of Japan's Berlin Marathon Team Members Have Been Named - See Their Profiles
News From Down Under
*Australian Federation Reverses Course, Will Send More Athletes To World Events, For Now They didn't send their 4 x 100m to the Olympics despite having qualified.
*Bad Luck: Aussie 4 x 400m Olympic Silver Winner Has Medal (And TV) Stolen While He Was Out What a disaster.
Recommended Read: Charles Van Commenee Continues Posing Handsomely And Talking Big
Sprint/Jumps/Throws/Multi News
*Usain Bolt Trails Only Tiger Woods In Poll Determining World's Greatest Sports Star Tiger Woods single-handedly lifted the popularity of golf around the world; why can't Usain Bolt do the same for track?
*UK's Jessica Ennis Thinks She Can Medal In Heptathlon In Berlin
*Walter Dix In Contract Dispute With ICON We hope this super talent gets everything straightened out.
*Powell Hopes To Emerge From Usain Bolt's Immense Shadow It's amazing that Asafa Powell is practically a nobody compared to Bolt despite holding 7 of the 12 fastest 100m times in recorded history.
*3 Jamaican Sprinters And Jumpers Made Especially Big Waves In The NCAA Indoor Season
*Gerd Kanter Bests World Indoor Discus World Record Mark Yeah, no one does the indoor discus, but any time you break a throwing record set by an East German, you deserve some publicity.