Quote Of The Day
"I do 25 to 30 races per year ...
I still love this sport. That never changes."
Multi-time Boston and New York marathon champ Bill Rodgers,
discussing his enjoyment of running and racing and looking back on the
evolution of the sport in America from the '70s running boom through the
rock-bottom '90s and the recent renaissance.
Russian Champs
Russian Champs Day 2: Yuriy Borzakovskiy Wins 5th National Title As Lyudmila Kolchanova Becomes Third Woman To Break 7 Meters In LJ In 2010 Borzakovskiy won a tactical 800 in 1:48.
Caster Semenya Returns To Action Today
- Semenya Begins Comeback In Low Key Meet In Finland The meet was hand-picked by her Finnish manager as it is a small race with a £500 first prize. Her coach thinks she's capable of 2:04 and it's said she's 3 to 4 weeks away from being a "crowd pleaser." Her coach says long term the goal is getting the world record at the 2012 Olympics.
- Semenya's Coach Confident In Long Term: "We will grab that gold medal" At Commonwealths
- In The Meantime, Semenya's Coach Downplays Expectations
For Comeback Race
Nick's Silver
Nick Willis Is Still Awaiting New Olympic Silver Medal The IOC had previously sent him a second-hand medal that was totally scratched. When New Zealand requested a new one, the IOC needed to have one made.
More Sprint News
LRC The Week That Was This week, celebrate the fact that the near 13-year-old wait for a 1:41 is over, as is the eternal wait for a white man to break 10-flat. We also tell you how Leo Manzano improved by 16 seconds in a week in the mile, we take a trip down memory lane and remember when Galen Rupp outkicked Chris Solinsky to win a 5k in 13:30 and then ponder what Rupp will run in the marathon now that he has his mentor Alberto Salazar beat at both 5k and 10k, we take a look at Alysia Johnson's first big European win and we rip Caremelita Jeter and praise Tyson Gay/rip Asafa Powell.
Defending European LJ Champ Andrew Howe Is Past Injuries And Ready To Repeat
Feds Circling In On Lance Armstrong Even If Media Outlets Don't Agree Exactly How
- NY Daily News: Subpoena For Documents But Not Witnesseses Issued By Federal Grand Jury
- NY Times: Grand Jury Subpoenas To Witnesses Have Been Released
European News
- Russian Championships Are Underway In Hot Weather Surprisingly, Yuriy Borzakovskiy has never won an outdoor European 800m title.
- Russian Team Will Be Strong For Euros
- Will Any World Records Fall In Barcelona? It doesn't seem likely, but the European Championships do have a history of WRs.
- Carolina Kluft Back From Injuries And Ready For Barcelona
- Ohuruogu Virtually Writing Off 2010 After Injury In Order To Be Fully Ready For 2011 Worlds
Study Finds Belly Buttons Are the Key To Different Races' Geographic Regions' Success In Various Sports Like they say, 97% of all statistics ... *2nd Story On Belly Buttons
More Action We Didn't Cover Monday
France:
Christophe
Lemaitre Follows Up 9.98 With 20.16 200m
Brasschat: Results: Molly Huddle 4:09 1,500m Win, Jeff See 3:40 Win, Shannon Rowbury 2:03 800m
Chris Solinsky remains the world leader at 10k, as the 10k was won in 27:30.
1:41.51!!!!!!!!!!
LRC 2010 KBC Nacht Recap: David Rudisha Runs 1:41.51 To Become 2nd-Fastest 800 Man In History!!! The Kenyan blitzed a 1:41.51 in the Belgium on Saturday night to become the fourth under the 1:42 barrier. You can watch the race video in our recap. In mid-d and distance action, Erin Donohue PRed in the
1,500 (4:03.91) as AJ Acosta backed up his 3:53 mile with a 3:36 1,500 and beat
Lopez Lomong in the
process. Plus, Tim Nelson ran well in the 5k (13:20) as Brian Olinger struggled in the steeple and Craig Mottram ran 13:36.
*Video Of Rudisha's 1:41.51
First White Man Breaks 10.00 France's Christophe Lemaitre became the first white man to break 10.00 as the lanky 20-year-old ran 9.98 on Thursday. We've got to give Reuters credit for mentioning his race in their headline. *Reuters Article *LRC MB: Lemaitre 9.98 *Full Speed Race Video Here *Funny Slo-Mo Video Here
Recommended Read: Great Article On Ron Warhurst's Vietnam Service
LRC The Week In Review Report Cards For The Americans At Pre This week, instead of recapping the winners and losers from the week as a whole, we focus on one thing exclusively - the 2010 Pre Classic. And given the fact that we have been swept over by World Cup fever, we have gone ahead and given every single American participant in a mid-d or distance event a letter grade for their performance, much like soccer websites rate players on a 0-to-10 scale after a match. Agents, parents and pros, no whining. We're not trying to be rude, we're just trying to make the sport interesting.
Paris Diamond League Friday *Latest Start List
$20,010 LRC Paris Prediction Contest The Bolt-Powell showdown is here and so is our Paris Diamond League Prediction Contest. A perfect ballot gets $20,010. If that's too hard, the winner
gets a true
one of a kind autographed Usain Bolt spike from Puma (who if you can't tell is advertising on LetsRun.com big time this week in conjunction of the launch of the Bolt collection). Get your picks in by 2 pm Friday.
Paris Start lists: Andrew Wheating's European debut in the 800m vs. KD, Nick Symmonds and Kaki. Plus all 3 American female finalists at 1,500m from Worlds last year, plus Molly Huddle and Lisa Koll in 5k, Jeremy Wariner, Allyson Felix.
Not to mention the white dude who broke 10.00 last week racing Bolt and Powell.
*Bolt Confident He Will Get World-Leading 100m Time In Paris Showdown With Powell
African Champs Are Coming Soon
- David Rudisha Returning To Kenya And Is Focused On Winning African Title, Not World Record It's not like Rudisha doesn't want the world record. He just says winning is his priority and adds, "Maybe after that when I return to Europe, then it is a possibility."
- Big Names To Compete At African Championships Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Tirunesh Dibaba and Tariku Bekele are among the super-elites to race in Nairobi.
More Sprint News
Tyson Gay Diary: "I can beat anyone and on any given day." Gay talks about the World Cup, beating Asafa Powell, losing to Walter Dix and even gives a thumbs up to Lebron for going to Miami. Gay is not running Paris.
UK Athletics Calls For Tax Changes After Bolt's Withdrawal
Britain's Stupid Tax Laws Cost Them Usain Bolt: He Pulls Out Of Matchup Versus Asafa Powell And Tyson Gay
Britain tries to tax endorsement income from athletes in addition to appearance fees. So Bolt could lose money while racing in London if the UK tries to tax say 1/8th of his endorsement income.
*Bolt To Get $250,000 To Run In Paris This Friday
*Usain Bolt Tax Issue Gets Mention In NY Times
Liege, Belgium Meet *Full Results
- IAAF Recap Of Liege: Erin Donohue Runs 1:59.99 In other action, Travis Padgett was upset in the men's 100 and Belal Mansoor Ali ran 1:45.83 in the 800 and there was a 7:38 3k.
- Message Board: Erin Donohue 1:59.99 Donohue claimed victory with the barrier-breaking PR.
- Alistair Cragg Runs 7:44 As Lopez Lomong DNFs In 3,000
Usain Bolt Heading To Australia In September To Party, Enjoy The Australian Women, DJ, Oversee A Race Between Footballers & See A Kangaroo Plus, he may get $1,000,000 from Gatorade regardless if he races the footballers. The dude likes to party. At Worlds last year, we left a party where Bolt was DJing and dancing with Asafa Powell with his shirt off at 3 am. Not sure if we posted this last year, but video of Bolt-Powell dancing here.
Random/Unimportant News
- Two Ducks Are Bowerman Award Finalists Andrew Wheating and Aston Eaton join ASU's Ryan Whiting as men's finalists.
- Haile G To Make Great North Run Debut In September
Good Idea
Pat Butcher: Should Saudi Arabia Be Barred From The Olympics Until They Permit Women To Compete? We think it's a good idea. Fortunately, much of the world was outraged when South Africa treated non-whites like crap 20 years ago. Somehow however, 20 years later it's okay to treat women as second class citizens.
Diamond League #8 (Of 14) Was Saturday - Gateshead - *Results *Live Gateshead Thread *New LRC Photos *More Photos
LRC Recap Gay Over Powell, Alysia Johnson Wins 800, Manzano Nipped By Kiprop Gateshead featured
the first showdown between any of the big 3 in the sprinting world and the matchup
did not disappoint, as Tyson Gay got a come-from-behind win. In the distance races, the Americans did well. Alysia Johnson won the 800 convincingly over a 1:58.4 runner
and Leo Manzano, who last week lost to Asbel Kiprop
by over 100m, was battling with him for the win. Ben Bruce set a PR, as did Galen Rupp (13:10) and Mo Farah. And we want to remind you a Brit ran 13:00 28 years ago.
More: Rusty Tyson Gay Defeats Asafa Powell Guardian
*New LRC Photos
Looking Back At Gateshead/Heusden
- Athletics Weekly Brief Recap Of Rushida's 1:41 His unofficial splits were 49.65 at 400 and 1:14.4 at 600.
- Idowu Winning Again After Consecutive Losses The world champion is back on track for European Champs.
- Friedrich Back From Injury - Jumps 2.02m In Heusden
- British Take On Gateshead Meet WC medalists Phillips Idowu (gold) and Lisa Dobriskey (silver) came out with victories, but Charles van Commenee says the team as a whole needs to step it up for Euro Champs.
Sadly, No One In The US Will Notice
Legend Allen Johnson Retires One of our favorites.
On The Boards: Thank You Allen Johnson