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Athletics Kenya Trying To Embarrass Assert Itself link fixed below

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.

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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

• Rupp, With His 3.9 GPA, Named Scholar Athlete Of The Year
• Kara Goucher Running Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon In Chicago On Aug. 2

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.

Ramzi Says He's Innocent And Bahrain Says They'll Support His Appeal

Photos From Rome Golden League

World Youth Games Finish *Results *More Coverage At Nationalscholastic.org
*Texan Prezel Hardy Of 10.08w Fame As Sophomore Wins World Youth 100m
*American Youth Shot Putter Wins Gold In Record 70'
*American Brit Jodie Williams Completes 100/200 Double As Kenyans Rule Final Day By Absolutely Dominating Distance Competition Youths run 3:37 for 1,500 and 2:01 for 800. Impressive. The Kenyans got more golds and silvers than the US. We got a lot of emails by Brits claiming Jodie Williams as one of their own. Sorry for the mistake.
*Grenadian Kirani James Completes 200/400 Double He's tall and lanky, let the Usain Bolt comparisons begin.
*15-Year-Old Kenyan Wins 3k In 7:51 But Says Education Is Important To Him
*Ireland's Ciara Mageean Run 2:03 For Silver
*A Look at How Jamaica's Team Fared

3rd Golden League Meet, Golden Gala Rome *Results *Photos From Rome Golden League

LRC Recap Tyson Gay 9.77 Over Asafa Powell 9.88, Kerron Stewart 10.75, Maggie Vessey Golden League Win, Christin Wurth-Thomas 3:59.98, Dorian Ulrey "A" Standard It was a great day for the 100m sprinters and for American female distance runners. Tyson Gay blitzed a 9.77 =AR to get the win over Asafa Powell, while Kerron Stewart ran 10.75 on the women's side. In the distance races, Christin Wurth held on to become the 2nd American sub-4:00 in 2009 (and 3rd ever without a drug conviction). 800m sensation Maggie Vessey stunned the women's 800m runners with a come-from-behind win, her second major victory in 2009. On the men's side, Arkansas stud Dorian Ulrey got a near 5-second PR to run 3:35.23 and get the World Championships "A" standard. In other action, Dwight Phillips jumped a long way in the long jump and Kenenisa Bekele and Yelena Isinbayeva stayed alive in the Golden League chase.

*Bahraini Maryam Jamal Excited By Her Fitness After 3:56 1,500 In Rome Imagine how good the Ethiopian team would be if Jamal still ran for her native country. They'd rank 1-2 in the women's 1,500m.
*Dorian Ulrey Completes US Trio For Berlin Kids, watch what you put on Facebook - this article features comments from Ulrey's Facebook page.
*Post-Race Interviews

LRC Rome Threads: *Young Aussie Riseley 3:32.93 in Rome!!!!
*Maggie Vessey making some noise in the 800 ... could do great at Worlds
*dorian ulrey does it!
*2nd in 3:59.98 1500 in ROME!!! - holy Wurth-Thomas
*Phillips winning jump
*Dorian Ulrey in Golden Gala

This Week

• Nick Symmonds' European Campaign Begins In Lucerne Tonight
• Pistorius Trying To Get 45.95 Worlds Qualifier In Lucerne
• Preview Of European Men's Under-23 Champs
• Preview Of European Women's Under-23 Champs

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.

Walter Dix And Agent Settle Contract Dispute

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

• Tyson Gay To Run 200 In London, Not Face Bolt Rumor on the street is USATF boss Doug Logan has the whole US 4 x 100 team running for free as well and some are worried what it means for the future. Athletes/agents feel free to email us on this to make our job easier.
• Will USOC TV Channel Kill Chicago's Olympic Chances? We seriously doubt it. As for there being a 2nd cable channel for Olympic sports, it seems like a good thing. Just as competition drives up prices for athletes, competition for sports is good as well. Although the USOC channel thinks it will get access to all the Olympic Trials for free, which does not seem to be the best solution.
• Kerron Stewart, Bekele, Sanya Richards And Isinbayeva Left In Golden League $1 Million Jackpot Chase With 3 Events To Go
• New Zealand Olympian Starts Escort Agency To Fund His 2012 Training

UK News:

• So True: New British Sprint Star Simeon Williamson: "You can be the European No. 1 and still No. 12 in the world." Times of London
• Brit Star Stephanie Twell To Run For Scotland, Not England
• Hepthathlete Jessica Ennis Is Britain's Best Chance For Gold At World Champs
• Jessica Ennis May Also Do Hurdles at World Champs

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?

Carl Lewis Throws More Mud At Usain Bolt

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
*Simeon WIlliamson Smokes Dwain Chambers By Running 10.05 To 10.22 Into Headwind
*Chambers Defeat At 100m Raises Questions It certainly won't help his appearance fees if he ever gets into a meet.
*WChamps Gold Hopefuls Philips Idowu And Jessica Ennis Perform Well
*Interesting Read: A Look At How European Under-23 Champs From 2003 Did As Pros
Recommended Read: European #1 200m Man Started Track After Being Spotted Chasing A Bus In 2006! After the bus-chasing incident, England's Jeffrey Lawal-Balogun was convinced to come out to track practice and coaches had him run a 150m. He smoked everyone despite wearing trainers and never having trained before. Now he has a 20.38 200m PR.
*Mark Lewis-Francis Glad To Be Back Running Again As Dwain Chambers Leads 100m Qualifiers
*UK Athletics Fighting Sponsor Battle With Athletes In Money Crunch

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.

Meseret Defar 29:59 10k Super-impressive effort. The "worst" runner on Ethiopia's 10k team at will be a 30:11 10ker.

LRC: "The Only Thing More Boring Than Track? Field." Our sport, with Usain Bolt's stunning 19.59 in the rain, made SportsCenter this week and a lot of you weren't happy because the highlight was accompanied with the quote above. The quote was from former University of Missouri track and field captain and Sportscenter anchor John Anderson. The problem was, many of you thought it was from SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt (SVP) and you directed your ire at him. In the end, SVP sent us a nice email clarifying things and even mentioned it on his radio show. We clean things up and discuss how boring our sport is.

Merritt vs. Wariner In Athens Monday Along With Kiprop In The 800m Finally, the best 400m runners in the world will actually race one another, joined by FSU and Belgium star Jonathan Borlee, the 2009 NCAA champ. With several of the world's best half-milers injured, Asbel Kiprop might be able to pull off the 1500m/800m double in Berlin if he wanted to.

Oregon All-Comers Meet: Stephen Pifer Runs 3:38.06

Tim Layden Of Sports Illustrated Lists His Top 10 Track And Field Moments Usain Bolt is only #7, so #s 6 - 1 must be amazing.

World Games For Young People

*Kenyan Distance And Sprints Have Highlights At World Youths
*Japanese Women Sweep Half Marathon Medals At World University Games

Recommended Read: Fam On His Win-Win 5k Defeat At The USA Champs Anthony Famiglietti focuses on the process, not the result.

Recommended Read: Amazing Story Of Ultra Runner Diane Van Deren An excellent story from the New York Times on a woman whose brain surgery both strengthened and weakened her.

Brief Chat With Alberto Salazar's Newest Charge Dathan Ritzenhein Ritzenhein and family are moving again, this time to Portland to be with Salazar, where he will be focusing on the 10,000m World Championships in the short term. Quite a good read.

Rupp Named ESPN The Magazine's All-Academic NCAA Athlete Of The Year His 3.89 GPA in business administration at Oregon made him the best academic/athletic combination in the NCAA.