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Saturday's Action: Cottbus: *Results

Cottbus Recap: Tyson Gay Rests, US Women Run 8th Fastest 4 x 100 (41.58), US Men 37.85 That pretty much is it in terms of track action until next week's World Champs which start on Saturday.
*Cottbus Results (Jenny Barringer 2:02.56 PR, US Women 41.58, US Men 37.85)

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LRC CIGNA Falmouth Road Race Preview Read about the elite entrants in one of America's most famous and popular summer road races. Former race competitors Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter will be on hand as Meb K will mix it up with the big dogs, including Ed Muge, on the classic 7-plus miles course. Sunday: Race Results Know Your Running History: Falmouth History
*After 2 Straight Seconds, Meb Hoping To Be First US Falmouth Winner Since 1988 www.capecodonline.com

Sprint News

• Scientists Econometrists Say 100m Can Be Run In 9.51 Seconds
• Asafa Powell Skipping Jamaica's Pre World's Training Camp
• Drug Cheat Katerina Thanou Rejects IOC Offer To Get 2000 Olympic Gold Medal  A new rule needs to be put on the books. Once convicted of a drug crime, everything you did before that is wiped off the books. Why assume the person was clean then?
• World And Olympic 400m Champ Christine Ohuruogu Speaks Out Against Critics In Advance Of 2009 Worlds She has left with 2 golds the last 2 years without running fast before the global champs.
• World 400m Champ Yulia Pechenkina Out Of Worlds With Sinusitis
• Lee McConnell Only Running 4 x 400 At Worlds

New Sensations

• 54.31 For Vessey In Final Berlin Race Tuneup Back and forth on flights from Europe, 54 isn't half bad.
• Video Interview With Cal's James Brewer After His 3:54.8 At Crystal Palace His first time under 4:00 in the mile was a 3:54.

Good News

• Meb K Blogs On Overcoming Heartbreak And Hip-Break Over The Past 2 Years Keflezighi fractured his hip while running the Olympic Trials Marathon last year and it has been a long road coming back. He'll race Falmouth on Sunday.
• Beloved Bucknell Coach Art Gulden Leads 2009 Inductees Into USTFCCCA Hall Of Fame Talk to any Bucknell alum who ran under Coach Gulden and you'll quickly realize how important this man was in many people's lives.
• Link To An Amazing Indie Film Called "My Run" You can watch the trailer and read the story of a man who, after the death of his wife left him alone with three boys, was determined to run 75 marathons in 75 days to reach the Atlanta Olympics.
• 75,000 To Run Sydney's 14k City To Surf, World's Largest Fun Run 75,000 people running to the beach in Sydney. Sounds like a good party.

Fast Girls Have Fast Times

*Bridget Franek Article Tells Us More About America's Lesser-Known Steepler At Worlds Jenny Barringer will grab all the headlines for the steeple, but the fact that Lady Lion Bridget Franek will be donning a USA jersey in Berlin is pretty remarkable. Barringer's blog for FloTrack is here.
*Brief Chat With Catherine Ndereba
*Runner's World On Tera Moody And Her Insomnia This article comes from the September Runner's World and it really is an amazing story about one of America's best female distance runners and her sleep disorder.

Oregon Isn't Listening To LetsRun.com
Oregon Bidding To Host NCAAs From 2013 To 2017 No one puts on a meet like Eugene but having every big meet there is going to kill Eugene enthusiasm's for track. The only positive will be it will help Oregon's recruiting.

Lots Of Interesting WChamp News From Kenya

This Excites Us
Asbel Kiprop To Try 1,500/800 Double At Worlds The favorite in the 1,500 is the world #2 at 800. He'll be looking to be the 1st clean guy to do it in a long time. *MBoard: Kiprop To Double
*Kenya Putting Women's 10k Hopes On Talented Linet Masai 4th at the Olympics last year in a new junior world record of 30:26, she's a real talent, but she'll have her hands full with the Ethiopians.
*Motivated By Last Year's Flameout, The Winner Of Kenya's 1,500 Meters Each Of Last Two Years Is Looking For Redempton Irene Jelagat did horribly in Beijing.
*Athletics Kenya Is Confident Prior To Worlds

Looking At Many Countries' Entries For Berlin

*Belgium: Relays Are Focus
*Uganda: Moses Kipsiro Leads Distance-Dominated Squad *Team Will Wear Puma Gear
*Spain: 51 To Go. Of 3 returning medallists, two were race walkers.
*USA: Talented Sprint/Hurdlers Lead Way *Double Osaka World Champions Gay And Lagat Lead USA Delegation To Berlin
*Japan: Sends 57 Best bet for a medal is in the race walk.
*Morocco: Two-Tme Marathon Champ Jaouad Gharib Leads Way
*India: Only 6 Go
*Cuba: TJer Yargelis Savigne And Dayron Robles Lead Squad

Jogger & Bucknell Grad Killed By Falling Tree Limb In Philadelphia

Our Next-Best Quotes Of The Day

1. "Our cultural values uphold high discipline, which counts more than the talent." William Mutwol on why his small Kenyan village has produced most of Kenya's great steeplechasers.

2. "Bolt gets to the track and his work is done. The others are psyched out. Well, that won't work on me. I've been through worse and come out." The indefatigably honest Dwain Chambers.

3. "It was my first time at such a big event and the occasion overwhelmed me. I was shocked by my own performance since I did not expect it to be that bad. Training with Asbel encouraged me to go on and aim to be the best because he is very focused to be at the top." Irene Jelagat, the Kenyan trials champion at 1,500m in 2008 and 2009 on failing in Beijing and training with Asbel Kiprop.

Ty$on Gay and U$ain Bolt Likely To Race In Zürich And Bru$$els After Worlds Maybe they'll split the events on purpose in Berlin to build some more drama.

Get PUMPED For Worlds With Some Excellent Articles From Around The World

KENYA
*Beautiful Story Of A Kenyan VILLAGE That Has Produced Most Of Their Steeplechase Greats If we're reading this correctly, all four of Kenya's male steeplechasers live within a 5km radius of the center of this village.

ENTRIES & WITHDRAWALS
*Former High Hurdles World Champ Doucouré Withdraws From Berlin With Injury Does anybody want to race Dayron Robles?
*British Squad Decimated By Injuries At Olympic Medalist Germaine Mason Pulls Out Sounds like Paula Radcliffe may sadly be the next to go to the injured list.
*Morocco Sending Great Marathon Duo Of Gharib And Goumri To Berlin Gharib is the man in World Championships and Olympic marathons.

UPDATES ON THE WORLD'S BEST
*Semenya Says: "I'm Feeling Good, Man."
*GBR 400m Runner Martyn Rooney Is One Of The Fastest White Boys On The Planet When His Hammy Cooperates Rooney was the 5th-fastest 400m man in the world last year. He talks about his shades, his controversial showboating in Beijing, and his hopes of pulling it together for Berlin.

Freshman NCAA Champ German Fernandez Gets Some Tougher Competition
*3:54 British Miler James Brewer To Run For Cal Berkeley Next Year Brewer clocked the 3:54 at Crystal Palace a few weeks ago. Quite the land for Tony Sandoval and Cal.
*James Brewer Added To GBR's 1,500m Worlds Team Thanks To 3:54 Mile Conversion

Kara The Favorite?

London Marathon Champ Irina Mikitenko Out Of Worlds Mikitenko was the heavy favorite (assuming Paula doesn't run), but the death of her father prevented her from training properly.

#1 Reason Alan Webb Should Keep Running The Mile

Asbel Kiprop Trying To Get Kenya Its First World Championship 1,500m Gold Medal Hard to believe, but a Kenyan or an Ethiopian has never won a World Championships medal at 1,500m.

More Worlds Distance News

• 2007 World 800m Champ Alfred Yego May Have Only Won One Race All Year, But His 2 World Medals Show He Knows How To Peak When It Counts
• Alistair Cragg Now Part Of Terrence Mahon Group Ready For Worlds Cragg ran 8:37 and 13:16 early in the year but has struggled of late.
• Daniel Rono Hoping Kenyan Team That Includes Robert Cheruiyot Does Well At World Champs In Marathon
• Unheralded 2:26 Marathoner Julia Mumbi Muraga Trying To Surprise At Worlds

Hype-tathlon - Ennis And Dobrynska Set For Exciting Showdown

*Natalya Dobrynska Blogs For IAAF We think her blog is usually pretty good.
*Another Good Jessica Ennis Article From The UK As the Great Britain team keeps losing their stars to injury, the pressure seems to mount on 5'4" heptathlete Jessica Ennis to live up to her World #1 spot.

Newest Endurance-Enhancing Craze Set To Begin: Go Buy Beetroot Juice! Actually, we're going to the health food store right now. Right after Taco Bell.

China May Not Get A Single Medal In Berlin Injuries to former world medalists Liu Xiang and Zhou Chunxiu severely limit China's chances at medaling. Many Chinese youngsters will get their first shot at Worlds.

Drugs Under Rugs

*BBC Sports And Discovery Special On DDR Doping In 1980s We've heard that the average American does 12 minutes of actual work a day, or something like that. So you should have plenty of time to listen to this BBC World special.
*Mike Hurst Reminds Us To Take A Second Look At Jamaican Scandal And History The first helpful analysis we've seen of the drug fiasco down in Jamaica. Sure, it looks like it's no big deal, but so did BALCO at first.
*Random Drug Tests In Brazil Nab At Least 6 For EPO And Other Drugs There are 44 in the camp. We're presuming they didn't test everyone. So 6 positives speaks volumes.
*Marion Jones' Film Producer Feels For The Fallen Star He wrote and directed Boyz in da Hood.
*NBA Gets In The Mix With First High Profile Suspension! We heard guys on the radio saying they never thought NBA players would be taking 'roids.

Update: Alan Webb & Razcko Are Finished - Webb's Now Moving To Oregon To Be With Salazar The marriage between Alan Webb and Scott Razcko reached heights never seen before in American history. However, it was apparent to all but them that it was time to move on. Now they have seen the light and Webb will be making a move to Oregon to train with Al Sal. *Washington Times Broke The Story
*On the boards: Webb Heading To Oregon "If he had peaked a month later in 2007, he'd almost certainly have a medal right now, possibly even a gold one."

1st Of "Jamaican Five" Is Cleared - Or Is She?

Sherri-Ann Brooks Walks - She's Cleared On B Sample Technicality
*2nd Jamaican Paper Says Sheri-Ann Brooks May Not Be Cleared
*Wires Report That Sheri-Ann Brooks Is Cleared Due To Irregularity With B Sample

25 Years Ago: The LA Olympics

A Legend Continues To Run: Joan Benoit Samuleson - Still Going Strong 25 Years After LA She'll be running ING NYC this fall. A definite recommended read.
*Oregon's Joaquim Cruz Upset Seb Coe With WRecord To Win 800m Olympic Gold (translated from Portuguese) Cruz thinks today's athletes focus too much on money: "Today I understand that many athletes prioritize the financial part and forget to compete. O atleta precisa demonstrar essa vontade de melhorar a cada dia. The athlete needs to demonstrate this desire to improve each day."
*LA Olympics Were 25 Years Ago: Relive them Here
 5 Years Ago
*Kelly Holmes Earned Double 800/1,500 Gold

Random News From Some Of The World's Top Non-Africans

Former Stanford Runner Lindsay Allen Floursing Under Lydiard (And Greg McMillan) Training lots of runners seem to get lost after college but the braniacs from Stanford and the Ivies seem to often flourish.
*Ireland's 800 Man David Campbell Is Trying To Get Over Disappointment of Missing Worlds Despite Running 1:45.59 By Competing At 1k This Weekend
*Jenny Barringer Blogging From Europe She'll run an 800 on Saturday.
*Irina Mikitenko Can Wrap Up 2nd Straight WMM Title With Victory In Berlin
*Susan Kuijken Named ACC Scholar Athlete Of Year

Recommended Read: Great Article On Dwain Chambers Dwain Chambers is one of the few former cheaters on the planet to come clean and do something productive and he's being blackballed while dozens of lying, hypocritical former cheats (and National Associations, and doctors) prosper all over the world.

LRC Exclusive: Employee #1 Kills Negative Thought With Ethiopian-Inspired Super-Workout With a little help from Ed Moses and his 17-year-old world-traveling friend, Employee #1 put a positive spin on sports and drug use thanks to an energizing summer workout.

Un Believable Drug News

*Brazilian Doctors Take The Blame For Shooting Up Olympic Track Athletes With EPO Without Their Knowledge Russia. Brazil. US. East Germany. Spain. China. Wall Street. "We are the world!"
*Drug Case In Jamaica Gets More Muddled As Reports Now Say They Are Confused About The Drug Taken These people don't seem to know what they're doing.
*Pat Butcher On The US Drug Cover Up In 1984 Learn from the past or we're doomed to repeat it. Or, you can be like USATF and say, "what past?"
*An Interview With Edwin Moses Concerning Honor In Sports Moses is right. You can either get depressed thinking about all the people who cheat, or get inspired by the guys and gals who have some honor.