LetsRun.com

LetsRun.com Jinx?

Usain Bolt Out for Rest of Season With Back Injury Just when we started to think of the publicity a Bolt-Gay rematch in Brussels was going to get, it was announced Bolt is out for the rest of the season. For the rest of 2010, track and field in the US will be relegated to obscurity and tape delay broadcasts on obscure stations. In case you can't tell, we're bummed.
*Discuss Bolt's injury

Aviva London DL Friday-Saturday *Start Lists

Aviva London Start Lists This is a great meet every year and a rare 2-day meet. Tyson Gay vs. Asafa Powell in the 100m, plus a do-over of the men's 800m in Stockholm (Andrew Wheating and Nick Symmonds).

*Allyson Felix Going For 200-400 Double In London This Weekend

*Dayron Robles Pulls Out Of London Meet, Will Race Next In Brussels August 27

*Unbeaten Junior Phenom Jodie Williams Getting Advice From Allyson Felix

*Blanka Vlašić Mistakenly Reported To Be In Porno Film She's got another rematch with Chaunte Lowe on Friday.

IAAF Council Meeting

• After Budget Cuts, IAAF Still $9 Million In The Hole In 2010 That is seriously supposed to be good news. They have a lot of financial reserves, so a $9 million deficit is supposedly okay.
• More Info On IAAF Council Meeting
• Kavarna, Bulgaria, To Host 2012 World Half Marathon Champs

Stockholm And Bolt Vs. Gay *Full Results *Photos *LRC $20,010 Prediction Contest Scores

Tyson Gay Crushes Usain Bolt The top 100m man in the world on Friday night was clearly Tyson Gay. He got a good start and had no problem defeating Usain Bolt in Stockholm. Hopefully, the loss to Bolt is a jolt to the sport's publicity and makes the rematch that much bigger (Bolt's loss even got a mention on the Best Sports Radio Station in the country).
*IAAF Recap *Reuters Recap *AP Recap
*Video Of Gay-Bolt *Post-Race BBC Interview Of Gay *More Stockholm Video
*Bolt: "I have always said I am not unbeatable ... This is not one of those seasons when I am fully working hard."
*British Paper Explains Terrible Tax Laws Which Will Prevent Bolt-Gay Rematch Next Week
On The Boards: *TYSON GAY 9.83!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LRC Stockholm Distance Recap: Chris Solinsky Runs 12:55.53 As Galen Rupp Drops Out, Nancy Langat Wins Again, Chaos In Men's 800m World 10,000m leader Chris Solinsky ran another incredible race, this time a PR despite an erratic early pace. Galen Rupp was with Solinsky until the final 1,000m when he got knocked down. In the men's 800m, Abubaker Kaki suffered his second loss of the year (he dropped out too) as US wonderkid Andrew Wheating was well beaten (but he's got an excuse - he was caught up in the Kaki mess). The American women, two of whom have broken 4:00, disappointed in the women's 1,500m, as Nancy Langat showed she's the top 1,500m runner in the world despite never having broken 4:00.
*Stockholm Distance Video *RR: Solinsky Post-Race: "I've Just Got To Finish."

Stockholm Distance On The Boards: Stockholm 5000m thread.
*Solinksy Training
*Solinsky proves not to be a one trick pony
*The Legend Of Solinsky Stars With This Photo
*Wheating Runs 1:46 for 2nd last in Stockholm!!!!!

The Only Must-Read In The Industry

LRC Week In Review: German Fernandez vs. Alan Webb vs. Leo Manzano Sure, it's the dog days of summer, but we devote much of our weekly recap a guy who hasn't raced in months - German Fernandez - and compare him to Webb and Manzano. Plus, we've got the African and European champs and a LetsRun.com mention in Sports Illustrated.

Good News

• Paul Doyle, Asafa Powell's Agent, Survives Plane Crash In Virginia His wife, former Irish sprinter Karen Shinkins, survived as well.
• More On Crash Landing With Photo Of Plane www.ajc.com

Injury News

• Kara Goucher Back Running After Foot Surgery During Pregnancy She has surgery on her big toe. More on the surgery here.
• Terrence Trammell's 2010 Season Ends Due To Knee Ailment

From Over The Weekend

Deriba Merga Dominates Bogota Half Marathon As WR Holder Tadese Drops Out The race belonged to the 2009 Boston champ from the get-go.

Kenya Thrilled By Turnout At African Champs And Hopes To Host Other Meets In Future

African Champs *Results

Kenya Elated: Kenya Exceeds All Expectations With 25 Medals At African Champs Ten golds, including five in a 2-hour period on the final day, helped the host nation dominate the medal count. Nigeria was second with 18 medals.

Sunday: New Tactics, Same Result: Kiprop = The Best In The World The Olympic champ Asbel Kiprop showed that he is still the best in the world as he used yo-yo tactics to dispatch a slew of talented challengers on Sunday. Instead of putting himself too far back as he did at last year's World Champs, Kiprop hammered to the front and towed the field through 53.65 before backing off and hammering things home in 54.38 as Silas Kiplagat failed to medal. Former USA Today writer Dick Patrick reports from Kenya.
*IAAF Recap Of Final Day Of African Champs In addition to the 1,500m, there was the 5k final, which Kenya swept. Vincent Yato appeared to have the gold but slipped on the infield grass in the final 10 meters, letting Edwin Soi get the win. Another sold-out crowd at the Champs surprised Kenyan officials.

Saturday: Ethiopia Finally Wins Gold As Tirunesh Dibaba Remains Undefeated At 10k Thanks to a final lap of 61, the Olympic champ had no problems with world champ and hometown favorite Linet Masai, who finished 3rd.

Van Commenee Gives His Own Take On Euros, His Demanding Stance As Boss And The Goals For The Future

Final Day Of Europeans: Nuria Fernández Gets 1,500m Gold Before Home Crowd, Abeylegesse Gets Silver In 5k Fernández, 4th at Worlds last year, got gold before the Spanish crowd and Abeylegesse, winner of the 10k, was beaten by countrywoman Bekele in the 5k.

Monday's Distance News

• Lisa Koll To OTC Portland
• Michael Rimmer Reinstated Into 2nd Place In Men's 800m At Stockholm The Americans Wheating and Symmonds will get a rematch this weekend versus Rimmer and Kaki in London.
• After Foot Surgery, Evan Jager Is Focused On 2011 2009 was the year of young phenoms Jager and Fernandez. 2010 was not.
• Nick Willis To Run This Weekend's Falmouth Mile Willis, the Olympic silver medallist, has missed most of 2010 after knee surgery but now is getting ready for the Commonwealth Games in October.

Update On Armstrong Probe: Long Profile On Jeff Novitzky (The Chief Investigator), Nike Admits To Being Contacted By Investigators Armstrong's lawyer questions whether this is a waste of taxpayer dollars. We don't think so since millions of kids look up to athletes.

Sunday's Action *Luzern Results *Gatlin Results

Luzern: Nesta Carter Defeats Walter Dix 9.86 To 9.88, USA's Morgan Uceny Runs 1:58.67 The runs were PRs for Dix and Uceny. Uceny went sub-2:00 for the first time in her last 800m and then was the top American in Stockholm in the 1,500m before this race. Last year's 800m star Maggie Vessey only managed a 2:02.
Discussion Of Uceny's 1:58.67!
*Results

Estonia: Justin Gatlin Comeback Race #2 A Win In 10.17 Photo and recap. Adam Nelson won the shot put.

Updated Post-Stockholm News *LRC Stockholm Recap *New Stockholm Photo Gallery

• Mark Kiptoo, Who Beat Solinsky In Stockholm, Is 34 And Started Running 5 Years Ago In case you were away this past weekend, Chris Solinsky ran 12:55 in Stockholm for 5k! We suggest you click here to read up on/watch Solinsky's 12:55 run in Stockholm.
• Bolt From The Blue But Bolt Is Still King Of Sprint World
• Juan van Deventer Came Up Short In Bid To Get South African 5,000 Record The former Olympic finalist thinks he'll get it (13:14) soon.

Sprint News

• A Look At The Great Young Sprinter Of 10 Years Ago - Mark Lewis Francis
• A Look At The Great Young (And White) Sprinter Of Today - Chrisitain Lemaitre

Beach To Beacon *Results *Photos

2009 World Cross Champ Gebre Gebremariam Comes From Behind To Win in 27:40 As Lineth Chepkuri Crushes Women's CR (30:59) Martin Lel ran 28:38 and was 7th as Khalid Khannouchi ran 33:10. Arkansas grad Shawn Forrest also impressed as he led early and got the attention of Joan Benoit, who said he one day may be a strong marathoner.
*Top American Ben True Is Giving Up On OTC - Moving Back East To NH
*Libbie Hickman Recalls Near Miss From 10 Years Ago She reached the tape first but the finish line was just past it.

Worth Reading/Remembering

• WADA To Crack Down On Cycling (UCI) For Possible Drug Coverups Apparently cycling isn't cracking down when they find cheats and five guilty riders have been allowed to compete in the last year alone.
• *Jonathan Edwards' TJ Record Turns 15 On Sunday
  *Recommended Read On Comeback Trail, Olympic TJ Champ Christian Olsson Remembers Edwards' Record Jump

Thursday's Top News

• Christian Cantwell Wins Downtown Stockholm City Shot Put As you can see from the video of Cantwell's bomb, the shot put for the DN Galan Diamond League meet in Stockholm was held in the city center with rock music. Hopefully a few more people will become fans of the sport. Results And Video
• After European Gold, Heptathlete Jessica Ennis Calls It A Season

Random/Somewhat Interesting News

• Dathan Ritzenhein And Haile G To Battle In Great Run (Half Marathon) In Sept Prior To Doing It Again In NYC
• Doping Way Up In India As Country Gets Ready For Commonwealth Games It's more than doubled since 2007.
• Joan Benoit Happy As Beach To Beacon Turns 13 Khalid Khannouchi is running.
• Interesting Read: NY Times: Half Of ACL Surgeries May Be Unnecessary If you are poor and don't have health insurance, we agree. Otherwise, have the surgery.
• Caster Semenya's Coach Urges Patience
• Glowing Profiles Of Tyrant Van Commenee Keep Coming In
• Walter Dix Wins 100m In Nova Scotia
• IAAF To Develop High Altitude Training Center In Uganda

Justin Gatlin's Comeback

Gatlin Runs 10.24 To Win First Comeback Race It's supposedly equilvalent to 10.21 without a headwind. Gatlin wanted to believe he could run 10.00 but he's probably a 10.10 guy right now at best.
*Discussion Of Gatlin's Comeback

Recommended Read: Sports Illustrated: From Heaven To Hell And Back Amazingly, Gatlin seems to be fine financially as he's still driving a Maserati.

Random News

• LeMaitre Has A Long Way To Go To Catch Bolt Or Gay The white dude is only 20.
• 50-Year-Old Merlene Ottey Wants To Qualify For 2012 Olympics
• TD Banknorth Beach To Beacon This Weekend Two all time greats, Khalid Khannouchi and Catherine Ndereba, will be there. They may not want to admit it, but their best days are behind them. Martin Lel is running this year.

2010 Europeans *Results

More Euro Recaps: Christian Reif Breaks 24-Year-Old CR To Win Long Jump The German won a tight battle in which 6 men went over 8 meters and it took 27 feet (8.23m) to win a medal.
*French Steeplers Make It Look Easy With 1-2 Finish Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad outsprinted Bob Tahri for gold with a CR of 8:07.87.
*1972 Munich Sprint King Valeriy Borzov Says Lemaitre Still Isn't In The League Of Bolt And Gay Times are much tougher than in Borzov's era, when the Soviet ran 10.07 and 20.00 to win both Olympic sprints. It takes a 9.6 to be a gold medal threat these days.
Brits Enjoy Success And Look Ahead To London: Hard-Liner Van Commenee Doesn't Tolerate Excuses He's been called "The Volcano" and "the hardest coach in Britain," but the tough stance and refusal to accept failure has been putting British athletics back on the map, including 6 golds, 7 silvers and 6 bronzes at Euros, the best UK medal haul in history.