So... It's Not Genetics?

"A decade ago, when Pitsiladis began to study elite athletes, his medical students would ask why East Africans dominate distance running, to which he would reflexively respond that their secret is in their genes. 'But after 10 years of work,' he says, 'I have to say that this is a socioeconomic phenomenon we're looking at.' "

- Quote from a Sports Illustrated article from former Columbia 800 runner David Epstein about genetics in sport that says Ethiopians and Kenyans couldn't be more different genetically and that a random medical student can have more "sprinting genes" than Asafa Powell or Usain Bolt.

Recommended Read #1: Mike Hurst - A Personal Perspective On Coach Charlie Francis A great read from a friend of Francis titled: "End of good run for flawed coach".

Haile G, Tyson Gay To Race In Manchester

Haile Gebrselassie Racing BUPA Great Manchester Run This Sunday Though he isn't racing anyone of his caliber, Gebrselassie says this race will help him determine whether to run his fall marathon in Berlin or Chicago.

LRC Special: Photos From Haile's New Resort, Tsegaye Kebede's Crib, and Addis National Stadium

*Great CityGames Features Tyson Gay, Jessica Ennis In Street Race
*Both Events Streamed Live

Recommended Read #2: Former Ivy 800m Runner Writes Great Piece On Genetics and Speed For SI.com Nature or nurture? Genetics or environment? What are the genticists finding out about specific genes and how they relate to sprinting?

Fastest Man Who Ever Lived (MJ) Talks About Making Documentary With Fastest Man Who Ever Lived (Bolt)

HS Girls Track Coach Gets Pole Vaulter DQ'd For Bracelet - Making His Team Conference Champs
*Boards:
Another idiotic HS rule

The Power Conferences Take Place This Weekend *Conference Results Central

SEC Starts Thursday *Live Results
*Florida Hoping To Win Both Titles It would be a triple crown for the Gator women.
*Arkansas Men Hoping To Upset Florida
Big 12 *Schedule *LIVE Results *LIVE Blog
PAC-10 *Live Results
Will It Be A Rout or A Close Meet? *Vin Lananna Is Forecasting A Very, Very Tight Team Battle
*Oregonian's Ken Goe Says Oregon Will Win Easily But TFN Says It Will Be Tight
Big 10 *Schedule/Results

LetsRun.com's The Week That Was In Running This week we put an end to the Rupp-Solinsky controversy, analyze the continual decline of Jeremy Wariner, announce the return of Walter Dix, tell you why Usain Bolt is clean, fall in love with the 25 kilometer distance, and amazingly discover that hGH actually helps performance. All that plus Haile Gebrselassie puts an end to the barefoot running craze and a great race video from Australia.

Maybe Track Is Getting Popular In The US

Chris Solinksy's Run (And LetsRun.com) Gets A 3 Line Mention In A Mainstream Sports Blog Look out, NFL. Proof of the soaring popularity of track and field (see Washington Post article below). The story on a high school track team losing it's league championship because of a pole vaulter wearing a friendship bracelet got a full story. Seriously, we want to give a shout out to the LetsRun.com fan who fought hard to get Solinsky a little press.

LetsRun.com In Washington Post

Washington Post: "Track's Popularity Soars Despite Lack Of US Star Power" LetsRun's co-founder Wejo is quoted and Rojo is mentioned as Amy Shipley of the Washington Post examines the positive state of track in America. We like the article but (despite our rapidly rising numbers) aren't sure the sport is soaring in popularity, considering the average person on the street couldn't name a single US track star. We're glad however to see the sport in a positive light (but never thought the sport was down in the dumps) and think the article is proof the sport's execs need to get the sport on network television or ESPN more often.

Random News

Merlene Ottey - Now 50 - Plans To Compete For Slovenia At Euros California-based former world-leading sprinter (with a checkered drug history) will compete into her 6th decade of existence in Barcelona this summer.

Video: James Mbugua Wins Mombasa Marathon In 2:08, Lowers Record By 6 Minutes 2:08 in Mombasa sounds amazing to us.

Jeremy Wariner - The Star Who Got Hosed?

IAAF Golden League Neville Breaks Wariner's 5-Year 400m Win Streak! Well, not technically, but look at these stats: Before Olympic bronze medalist David Neville beat him in Puerto Rico this weekend, and taking out confirmed drug cheat LaShawn Merritt, who beat him 6 times, Jeremy Wariner had not lost a 400m since September of 2005 (he did DNF twice, but other than that, 51 consecutive wins). We give a shout out to Wariner, who - since his senior year at Baylor in 2004 - raced the 400m 91 times and, ignoring Merritt, won 82 times, including 2 Olympics and 3 World Championships (plus 5 relay golds).

California Teens Find Javelin, Throw It, Impale Innocent Bystander

German Hurdle Olympian Busted For Roids

7 Americans Begin Appeal To Reclaim 2000 Oly Relay Medals Stripped Because Of Marion Jones

NY Times Mother's Day Special

Kara Goucher 4 Months Pregnant And Training With Pregnant Paula Radcliffe Things are going well when your pregnancy is announced in the NY Times. Radcliffe and Goucher are due on the same day.

Conference Champs - The HEPS *Results, Recaps

Cornell v Kentucky Cornell Men Nab Record 8th Straight Outdoor Heps Underdogs heading to Princeton's home track, the Big Red men took home another title to keep the streak alive. The Cornell women also got back on the winning track after their streak was broken in 2009. Props to Hepstrack.com and Brett Hoover, who provided phenomenal coverage of the meet, and the Princeton students at Fauxtrack, who streamed it live via ustream.tv. They proved everything (except World Cross-Country), including our beloved Heps, can be streamed online these days for free.

Walter Dix Is Back

Walter Dix Is Back: Runs 9.98 And 19.89 And apparently the whole meet was run in 90 minutes. If anyone knows anything about this, let us know, but a big Thumbs Up to FSU for trying to make an entertaining track meet for fans.
On The Boards: Dix @ FSU Twilight

US 25k Champs *Top Results

Andrew Carlson, Katie McGregor Win US Titles Carlson was the US 15k champ in 2008 and is back running well again, although the 25k champs is an easier championship to win.
*More Coverage
*Message Board Thread

Diamond League Starts Friday *Entries/Results

IAAF Melbourne Track Classic Doha Launches Diamond League Friday Distance highlights include phenom David Rudisha vs. Asbel Kiprop and world champ Mulaudzi in the 800, great men's steeplechase, Joseph Ebuya in the 3000 or 5000 (depending on the temp.) and Burka/Jamal in women's 1500.
*Diamond League - How It Works
*9:30pm on Universal TV for US viewers.

Sprint News - Ohuruogu vs. Felix In Doha 400

Road Mile in Minneapolis - Torrence's Roll Continues

Anna Pierce and David Torrence Win US 1 Mile Road Champs Torrence ran around the streets with an American flag and black socks after he took it to the field in the last 200m as Lopez Lomong was left in 6th. Sarah Bowman came up to pass race leader Christin Wurth-Thomas for 2nd but nobody could match Pierce.
*Board:
1 mile road championship thread

Road Races - East vs. West Coast

Ben Johnson's Coach Charlie Francis Dies After 5-Year Battle With Cancer People under the age of 30 probably don't realize just how absolutely shocking Ben Johnson's positive test was way back in 1988. Back then, even though tons were doping, no one was testing positive. Kind of reminds us of the current NFL. *AP Obituary *LRC MBoard On Francis

It's Official

Alan Webb Marrying Julia Rudd October 15 Congrats to Alan and Julia. Of course you can discuss what this means for his running career here. Or maybe you already knew about the nuptials because there was a thread on our message boards in September saying the same thing.

Drugs, Drugs And More Drugs

A Match Made In Oregon :)

Great North Run Good Read: Brief Chat With Paula Radcliffe's New BFF Kara Goucher Kara talks about training with her new mentor Paula, using the Alter-G to train with a growing baby, Alberto's searching for expert advice on health effects of training while pregnant, and her plans next year that include the Boston Marathon and Oly Trials.

Pregnant Paula And Kara To Run NYC Mini Together The high-profile duo are working with Mary Wittenberg to make an appearance at the Mini 10k as runners (i.e., not racers).

Not A Joke Headline: "Goucher and Radcliffe to give birth on the same day"

IAAF, USADA, ASA News

IAAF President Lamine Diack visits London 2012 Olympic ParkFor Better Or Worse, Lamine Diack Elects To Run Again Joe Battaglia says that new blood in the form of IAAF VP's Sergey Bubka or Lord Seb Coe might be better for cash-strapped IAAF rather than 78-year-old Senegalese Diack, who struggles to speak the English language.

*USADA Loses Case, Depressed American Hammer Thrower Gets Drug Ban Reduced Judge decides illegal substances taken while very depressed are pardonable.

*Embattled ASA Getting Back On Its Feet Athletics South Africa's stock is rising with some new corporate investments after a disastrous '09.

*IAAF Obituary:
Longtime Japanese Track And Field Contributor Teruji Kogake Passes Away

Zürich Weltklasse Begins Announcing Big Name Star Entrants Translated: "Bolt (200m) and some other people will run Zürich."

The Next 2:04 Marathoner And The Only Woman On Earth Capable Of Challenging Paula's 2:15 WR

Recommended Read: The Story Of New Teenage Marathoning Star Eliud Kiptanui Documents say he's not even 20 years old. He was supposed to run his marathon 3 weeks ago. Prague's marathon course is tough and parts of it go over cobblestones. His family is so poor he had to drop out of school ... but he just won 75,000 Euros, ran 2:05 and crushed the WC 4th-placer and now hopes to fund his siblings' schooling after just his 2nd marathon.

Keitany And Coach Talk About Finally Running The Marathon Near the WR at the half marathon and now the 25k WR holder, Mary Keitany is the only woman road racer out there who seems to be within light years of Paula Radcliffe in her prime.

*Boards: MARY KEITANY: can she take down Paula's Legendary 2:15:25 WR

Kosgei And Keitany: New 25k WRs In BIG Berlin

WRs For Sammy Kosgei And Mary Keitany At BIG Berlin 25 According to the McMillan Calculator, Keitany's time of 1:19:53 is equivalent to a sub-2:20 marathon and a half marathon of 1:06:22, which would be a WR.

LRC
Photos Of World Records Set At BIG Berlin 25k

On The Boards:
MARY KEITANY: can she take down Paula's Legendary 2:15:25 WR

Oregon Twilight Mile