LetsRun.com

This Weekend

David Oliver, Nick Symmonds, Erin Donohue And Maggie Vessey Running DecaNation Meet On Saturday In France The European track season is not quite over, as shown by this meet and the Willis-Webb showdown yesterday.
*Nick Symmonds Likes Shark Fishing This has absolutely nothing to do with him running this weekend.

Alan Webb's & Nick Willis' Comebacks Continue - Notturna Di Milano Meeting *Results *Webb/Willis Race Video *IAAF Recap *Milan Photo Gallery

Nick Willis Runs 3:35.17 To Win As Alan Webb Runs 3:36.21 To Finish 5th! Fans of Alan Webb are starting to get excited as his comeback is officially on, as he ran just .35 slower than he did in 2008 when he flamed out in the Olympic year.
Want A Rematch? You've Got It!!! Lagat, Manzano, Webb And Willis To Clash On September 26th At Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile In a day and age when people say there aren't any rivalries or races worth watching, this one looks like a real dandy.

Caster Semenya Runs 1:58.16 - The Fastest Time Of Her Comeback

*IAAF Recap Unheralded 20-year-old Ethiopian Almirew Yenew (a 13:16 and 7:46 guy) of Ethiopia crushed the field in the 3k, running 7:28.82. Asbel Kiprop basically quit over the final laps for the second race in a row.

*Milan Photos

News From Kenya & The Commonwealth

• Kenyan Team For World Half Marathon Champs On October 9th Is Named
• Execution Date For 50 Cows That Will Be Slaughtered In Honor Of Rudisha's World Record Set For Sept. 17th
• Kenya Defends Rudisha's Commonwealth Withdrawal
• Commonwealth Games Stadiums Are Built - Dengue Fever Fear Still Alive Officials are telling people that they only have a .0082% chance of getting the disease.

Sponsored Post

CLIF SHOT® ROKS™: Protein Bites For Recovery We at letsrun.com have always personally loved Clif Bars and the Clif Bar story. It's a company, independent to this day, started by a dude who on a 175-mile bike ride said, "I can make something better" and he did. Clif Bar's CLIF SHOT® line is all about delivery great-tasting, scientifically-backed, all-natural and organic sports nutrition to performance athletes. CLIF SHOT® BLOKS™, CLIF SHOT® Energy Gel and the newest CLIF SHOT ROKS provide athletes with the essential nutrition for their training and racing needs. Read more about this all-natural recovery product and a little more about the incredible Clif Bar Story (the founder started shaking when he was about to sell his company for $120 million and instead kept it private).

The Week That Was/Truth Stranger Than Fiction

LRC Week In Review Mark Twain once said that truth is stranger than fiction and last week, in terms of Chris Lukezic and Caster Semenya, that certainly proved to be the case. In terms of men's and women's 1,500s, the truth of the world's best two milers getting clobbered at the Continental Cup may seem to be stranger than fiction but we tell you why in reality, upsets should be expected as they are the name of the game in tactical 1,500s. All of that plus talk of Arthur Lydiard, Peter Snell, Bernard Lagat, Sean Quigley, Justin Gatlin and gene doping.

Usain Bolt's Book Gets Rave Review For Its Marital Advice

ING NYC News

Top Americans Antonio Vega, Tim Nelson, Blake Russell + Canadian Simon Bairu To Take Part In 2010 ING New York City Marathon Nelson is a 27:31 guy (faster than Alan Culpepper's PR) making his debut. American marathoning has come a long way when that doesn't get much notice. The women are competing for a $150,000 US only prize pool with no Deena Kastor.
Good Read: Nice Brief Chat With "Little Meb" (Simon Bairu)

Distance Tidbits

• Frenchman Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad Talks About Being 1 Second Away From European Steeplechase Record (8:01.18)
• Mo Farah To Postpone His Ramadan Fast During 2012 Olympics

Not A Surprise
South African Olympic Committee's Report Accuses Athletics President Leonard Chuene Of "Gross Misconduct" In Caster Semenya Affair
*South African Committee Snubs South African Parliament

Labor Day Road Action *Va Beach Recap *New Haven Recap

Sean Quigley And Magdalena Lewy Boulet Win US Titles At Stratton Faxon New Haven 20k Sean Quigley got his first US title and $8,000 in his first race over 15k as he triumphed over Mo Trafeh. Olympian Magdalena Lewy Boulet won the women's title over unheralded Stephanie Rothstein.
*More Coverage
*On The Boards: Deep field at New Haven 20k on Monday. Predictions?

Off The Road: Team USA Men Finish 2nd At World Mountain Running Champs

Off The Beaten Path: Michael Wardian Comes Up 52 Seconds Short Of $15,000 At Kauai Marathon

Previous: Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach:
Songoka (KEN) And Ogi (JPN) Win Coolest Rock 'n' Roll Va Beach In History Cool temps in the mid-60s were a gift to runners. 2009 Philly champ and Employee #1 vanquisher John Crews was the top American male in 9th (66:23) as he prepares for Baltimore in October.

More: *Linet Masai Wins Hyde Park 5k In 15:06 With Twell At 15:32, Pavey 15:53

Just [Don't] Do It

USAIN BOLT THREATENS TO PULL A JORDAN AND BECOME PRO SOCCER PLAYER
*Telegraph: Usain Bolt Wants To Play Pro Soccer After 4 More Years Of Running
*Bolt's Book Is Out: Excerpt - Bolt: "If there were medals for partying I'd have won them all."

Another Quality Photo: Arkansas Top 5 Cross Line Hand-In-Hand: One-Page Recap Of Opening Weekend NCAA XC Results USTFCCCA put together this page which allows you to see what Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Arkansas and others were up to in this weekend's opening glorified practices races.

A Look Back/Forward

• Kipketer Says Rudisha May Be Able To Go Sub-1:40 Rudisha is running the Continental Cup on Sunday.
• David Rudisha The Star Of 2012? The article also talks about James Templeton, Rudisha's agent, discovering Rudisha in 2005.
• Kenyan Editorial: Diamond League Needs Rethinking

Marathon News

• London And Chicago Champ Shobukhova To Face Mikitenko In Chicago To Likely Decide World Marathon Majors Title NY has Geb but Chicago did a great job with its fields on both the men's and women's fields.
• 2:04:48 Man Patrick Makau Headlines 2010 Berlin Marathon

"Niggles" And Successful Year Cause Mo Farah To Pull Out Of Commonwealth Games The concept of getting slaughtered by Kenyans probably didn't help things either.

NCAA XC Is Here

LRC 2010 NCAA Cross-Country Pre-Season Polls: Stanford And Villanova On Top It should be a great year on the XC fields across America, as a lot of teams on both the men's and women's teams think they can contend in Terre Haute. On the men's side, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Oregon and NAU all have a ton of guys back. Villanova is a stronger #1 on the women's side, but the UW Huskies will want to have something to say about that along with LRC fan #2 Oregon.
*Stanford XC Hoping To Return To Top paloaltoonline.com
*Wisconsin Looking For Its 15th Straight Year In Top 10 At NCAA XCs madison.com
*USTFCCCA Pre-Season Coaches Polls Released Stanford and Villanova #1, as in the LRC polls.

50 Years Ago - The Sport Was Changed Forever - Lydiard's Boys Won Double Gold For Tiny New Zealand

• Peter Snell & Murray Halberg Remember How They Changed The Sport Forever 50 Years Ago Thanks to their hard work and Arthur Lydiard, distance training was changed forever as high mileage came into play.
• Lydiard Had Special Knack For Getting Best Out Of Athletes Not only did he revolutionize training, he also was good psychologically.
• Snell & Halberg Remember 50 Years Later
• Snell Recalls Rome 800 Gold As His Finest Moment *Old School Race Video *Modernized Video
• Mindful Of His Mortality, Snell Stays In Dallas, TX On Historic Day

Marathon/Half Marathon News

Next Weekend In Philly Ryan Hall Vs. Gebre Gebremariam Vs. Abderrahim Goumri Gebremariam, the 2009 World XC champ, has been tearing up the roads in 2010, winning everything in sight. Hall, however, has the best half PR of the group.

Desiree Davila Talks About Her Preparations For Chicago She's running Chicago instead of NY, which also is the US champs, and could give her a $40,000 payday (Shalane Flanagan, however, is running NY).

Athens Marathon Celebrating Its 2,500th Anniversary This Year

Bolt/Powell Gossip/News

• Usain Bolt Off to Australia, He'll Begin Training Again October 4th, His Coach is Building Him a Grass Hill to Train On
• Asafa Powell Says Partying is Out of the Question Right Now, Reveals He is Engaged to a Miss Universe Runner-Up We can't believe we didn't know about the Miss Universe connection. For more info on his fiancee click here.

Drug News

IAAF To Reject Slap-On-Wrist Punishment For Shelly-Ann Fraser They're reportedly recommending a 6-month suspension. Considering she hasn't competed this summer, we don't see the difference.

Mottram On The Comeback Trail

One We Missed From The Weekend: Craig Mottram Beats Sub-28 Guy Chris Thompson In Britain In Road 10k Mottram, however, is not on the Australian Commonwealth team despite the fact he's rounding into form at the perfect time.

Recommended Read Meet Joe & Jim Rosa The twins from New Jersey are two of the best high schoolers in the country. Brad Hudson thinks Joe Rosa's Holmdel course record equates to the 13:30s for 5,000 as a junior in HS.

Looking Ahead To The Fall Marathons

• European Champ And LRC Favorite Viktor Röthlin Added To New York Field
• Former Boston Champ Dire Tune's Comeback To Marathon Will Be In Frankfurt On October 31st She ran six marathons in 2008 and 2009 but none so far this year.

Doug Logan's Fate Still Not Decided

Doug Logan Tells Reuters His Job Security Will Be 'Sole Topic' of This Week's Board Meeting
*King Carl Backs Doug Logan "I love Doug Logan. He's the best thing they ever could've done for the sport. But the reality is, when you have a dysfunctional organization, you can see the difficulty people can have turning it around. If the volunteers would get out of the way, let Doug do his thing, let his vision push forward, it would happen. But we have a dysfunctional organization and it's hard to get anything done." - Carl Lewis. We thought Logan's fate was supposed to be determined by mid-August but the USATF meeting this weekend in Vegas should determine his future.

Random/Interesting Links

• Teddy Tamgho To Be Coached By Cuba's Ivan Pedroso
• Preview Of This Weekend's National University Track Championships In Japan Believe it or not, sprinter Shota Iizuka is rightfully the star attraction.

Rudisha With Some Bold Words

• David Rudisha Dismisses Kaki As A Threat: "I feel no threat. There is nobody in the current crop of athletes I have run with who can challenge it."
• Rudisha's Welcome Trumps That Of Kenyan National Soccer Team
• David Rudisha Credits His Mother's Running Genes In Addition To His Dad (His Dad Won An Olympic 4 X 400 Silver)

Female Sprint News

• Olympic And World 100m Champ Shelly-Ann Fraser Escapes 2-Year Ban For Oxycodone Positive The world saw very little of arguably the top 2 female sprinters in the world (Fraser - drug problem) and Veronica Campbell-Brown (top time in 100 and 200 this year but rarely raced this year because of $$$).
• Veronica Campbell Brown Looks Back Briefly At 2010

A Look At Some Foreign Stars

• 2009 World XC Champion Florence Kiplagat's Debut At Half Marathon Is A Good One (67:40) Kiplagat's track season had been going badly (14:52 SB), but she now is the 26th-fastest in history at the half. Three men broke 1 hour.
• David Rudisha To Be Crowned Masai Leader Today link fixed He'll be the first person from his village honored in such a way.
• A Look At Sammy Tangui - David Rudisha's Pacemaker The guy is probably the richest 1:49 guy on the planet.
• Q&A With France's 8:02 Steepler Bouabdellah Tahri
• From Sickly Child To World Silver Medallist In Steeple, It's Been Quite A Ride For Russia's Yuliya Zarudneva
• Justin Gatlin Runs 10.15 And Loses But Beats Dwain Chambers Gatlin has the same time as 2009 US Champ Mike Rodgers. Rodgers however has only broken 10.00 once this year.
• A Look At All Of Gatlin's 2010 races Gatlin's race yesterday was the equivalent of 10.14 with no wind or altitude.

Triple Gold Medallist Swimmer Loses Jaguar Endorsement Deal For Twitting Homophobic Slur

From Across The Pond

• Recommended Read: After a quarter of a century, Koch remains untouchable This article from the Independent talks about how all the women's WRs from 100m to 800m were set in the 1980s, including a 47.60 400m and a 1:53.28 800m.
• RR: BBC's Tom Fordyce Gives His 2010 Year End Awards From performer of the year to best young performer to flop of the year, he's got you covered.
• New British Star Dai Greene Only .06 From 18-Year-Old British Record In 400m Hurdles He shocked Bershawn Jackson at the Continental Cup.

Continental Cup Saturday-Sunday *Results *Event-By-Event Reports *Photos *Day 1 Photos

Day2 LRC Distance Recap: Incredible Lagat Wins 5k/3k Double As Rudisha Dominates

Discussion: *Lagat GOLD in 3k
*Who also has never heard of Ecuadoran Bayron Piedra?
*NANCY LANGAT IS A CHEATER
Bernard Lagat, 6 years older than the next-oldest competitor in the field and doubling back after a 51-second closing lap on Saturday, again benefitted from incredibly slow pacing as he doubled his weekly earnings to $60k to highlight day 2 from Croatia. Other big winners included a super-excited Blanka Vlašić and a bored unchallenged David Rudisha. Big losers included the Americas, who fell in the team standings to Europe and Nancy Langat, who seemed to attempt a take down of the leader as she fell with 10m to go in the women's 1,500.
More Day 2: *Blanka Vlašić Thrilled With Meet Record Performance In Front Of Family And Hometown Crowd IAAF article
*Lagat, Rudisha And Vlašić Win Big And Team Europe Wins The Team Battle In Croatia IAAF recap

Day 1 Recap Of Continental Cup: Lagat Wins, Kiprop Fizzles Bernard Lagat and Asbel Kiprop both showed us from different extremes why the Continental Cup should be on every athlete's schedule because it gives them an experience they rarely get - championship running without rabbits. Lagat is a master without rabbits and he blasted a 51-second last lap to win the 5,000m title. Kiprop, after leading the first 2 laps, got boxed in with 400m to go and then basically quit the last 200m. He may have the Olympic gold but was only 4th at Worlds (a half-second mistake kills you in a tactical race). American Leo Manzano was boxed in as well, but kept fighting and finished 3rd. In the women's 3k, Meseret Defar blasted a 58.38 final lap for the win and Shannon Rowbury went sub-60 for 3rd. In other action, Jeremy Wariner ran fast again (44.22), Christophe Lemaitre won the 100m and Christian Cantwell the shot with Dwight Phillips in the long jump.
*Brief LRC Recap Of Men's 1,500m: Kiprop Fizzles, Manzano Finishes 3rd
*51-Second Last Lap Brings Lagat $30,000 And Continental 5k Title
*1,500m Event Report
*Brit David Greene Goes Sub-48 To Shock Bershawn Jackson In 400m Hurdles
*Christophe Lemaitre Wins Continental 100m, Mark Lewis Francis 3rd

Nick Willis 1:46.89, Alan Webb 1:48.34, Andrew Ellerton 1:46.77 In Italy The comebacks of the stud milers continue.

Recommended Read  Legends Sing Praise Of Roy Griak - Minnesota's XC Coach Of 33 Years This story is full of great anecdotes and is a must-read for any coach in the sport.

12:54/59:37 Guy Dejene Berhanu Died By Suicide Berhanu was liked by many in the sport. *LRC Mboard Talk