Commonwealth Games
- Commonwealth Games In Jeopardy It's unlikely, but a bunch of countries or pseudo-countries could pull out.
- Former 800m World Champ Janeth Jepkosgei Pulls Out Of Commonwealths
- Welsh Team Delays Leaving For Commonwealths
- Delhi Police Dismiss Security "Sting" Report
- Ugandan Athletes To Leave For Commonwealth Games Last To Get Full Benefits Of Altitude Training
- Two Rwandan's Dropped From Commonwealth Games Team After Not Showing Up To Training Camp
We Mentioned These In The Week That Was
- Ryan Hall Blog About His Run In Philly (scroll down) Too focused on running 4:40s.
- Ritz Talks About His Great North Run Got in a little trouble trying to run 59:30.
Doug Logan Doesn't Go Quietly
- New: Mary Wittenberg Not Interested in USATF Job
- Doug Logan Absolutely Rips USATF In Running Times Interview Logan says that he actually raised revenues 30% in 2010 and he was fired because amateurs wanted to keep power. "For too many people in the sport, it is more important that they control it rather than it be good or prosperous." Logan also blasts the amateurish way he was fired and says he was notified he was canned while one USATF staffer texted on his PDA.
- Did Brooks Johnson Take Down Doug Logan? Johnson was thrown under the bus by Logan when Logan started at USATF and it looks like Johnson has evened the score. Johnson blogged the following about Logan: "I am telling you he will NOT last the term ... This guy has a massive ego and he is going to make mistakes that equal the magnitude of that ego. When he does, I am going to nail his ass because there is a mandate in federal legislation that demands accountability and transparency of organizations like USATF." *LRC MB: Brooks Johnson Has Some Words For Doug Logan And Vice Versa
- Doug Logan Absolutely Rips USATF Board Of Directors In New York Times For Being Amateurish *LRC MB: Doug Logan on the USATF Board of Directors
Week In Review
LRC Week That Was: Haile G, Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, Shalane Flanagan, Andrew Wheating, Bernard Lagat's Brother And 79-Year-Old Chris Chataway It was a busy week on the roads and the board rooms (Doug Logan's sacking) and we give you our insight. Is something wrong with Ryan Hall? How amazing is Haile G?
The Son Of Teachers, World Record Holder David Rudisha Once Thought He'd Be A Geography Teacher
More Weekend Action
- Performance Of The Weekend? Chris Chataway Runs Great North Run In 1:51:09 (8:29 Pace) At Age 79 He paced Roger Bannister to his historic first sub-4 and is still going at it. He's Ed Whitlock's age and could probably beat both Rojo and Wejo.
- Netherlands: Hilda Kibet (51:30) Defeats Lornah Kiplagat (52:03) At Dam Tot Dam Loop 10-Miler 19-year-old John Mwangangi won the men's in 45:26.
- DC: Catherine The Great Wins Inaugural Woodrow Wilson Half Marathon
- Brazil: Fabiana Murer Vaults 4.70 At Brazilian Champs, Marílson dos Santos Runs 28:44.59 10k
- Hawaii: Nate Brannen Wins Maui Mile In 4:15 For $500
- Nate Brannen Runs Maui Half In 1:12
Great North Run And CityGames *Mile-By-Mile Splits For Leaders *Elite Photos
Haile G Remains Undefeated As Adere Repeats! *LRC Thread On Race Haile G still has got the goods as he put on a great show and crushed the field in poor conditions in England. He remained undefeated in 2010 and won by almost 2 minutes in 59:33 as American Dathan Ritzenhein was
4th in 62:34.
*Everyone In Britain Would Love To See Haile Win Olympic Marathon In 2012
More From Britain: Craig Mottram & Hannah England Win Distance Races At Great North CityGames Craig Mottram won the 2-mile by 1 second in 8:31. *LRC MB: Mottram wins 2 mile over Birms...Bads...Thompson...and No Farah
*In Commonwealths Tune-Up, England Beats Australia 5-4 At Great North CityGames
*Special Portable Track Makes CityGames Possible
Former NAIA Star Aaron Rono (3:58.18) & Carmen Douma-Hussar (4:35.60) Win Grandma's Minnesota Mile *Minnesota native Garrett Heath and Amy Mortimer were the runners-up.
Commonwealth Games-Related News
- Craig Mottram Enjoying Showing Selectors That Snubbed Him For Commonwealth Games They Made A Big Mistake Mottram also talks about his poor performance in Beijing and says he just put way too much pressure on himself by making it the end all and be all.
- Indian Slum Demolished And Visitor Cries: "'You will play games while we will die."
Recommended Read 10 Years After Speeding To Olympic 100-Meter Glory, Marion Jones Is Now Teaching Others (And Herself) To Slow Down Before Making Big Decisions Australia's Daily Telegraph has written a very long piece on Jones, who is busy giving speaches to schools and writing a book due out Oct. 24th.
Inspiring Read Former World Jr. Champion (And Galen Rupp's Workout Partner) Julius Achon Is Helping Children One At A Time In War-Savaged Uganda
Minnesota Native Garrett Heath Hoping To Win Grandma's Minnesota Mile *Race Website
Commonwealths Are Approaching
- Originally Hoping For Double (800/1,500) Commonwealths Glory, Nick Willis Says Repeating As 1,500 Champ Is Big Enough Of A Challenge
- John Walker Urges New Zealand's Athletes To Ignore Terrorism Fears And Go & Compete In India Walker raced Steve Ovett in front of 65,000 in 1990.
- The $port Has Changed Forever
None Of Jamaica's 6 Sub-10 Guys Will Run 100m At Commonwealths
Recommended Reads About 1,500 Men
- Andrew Wheating Gets Props & Talks Big In Sports Illustrated For the youngsters that have never purchased a magazine in their life, there are few bigger honors in US sports than a Sports Illustrated feature. In this one, Wheating, who is known for running from the back, says he's not afraid to try to try to run on David Rudisha's shoulder in a world record attempt.
- A Brief Chat With Nick Willis Willis talks about his comeback, his feelings on drug cheat Rashid Ramzi and even Alan Webb being a third wheel.
- Alberto Salazar Talks In Depth About Alan Webb's Comeback Apparently, Five Guys burgers and beers are out as Webb has lost 8 pounds. Prior to his 3:36, Webb was discouraged as he struggled to run 10 200s in 27.5.
More 1,500 Talk
*Nick Willis Talks Up His Chances For Commonwealth Games On New Zealand Radio
*Steve Cram (The Socialist?) Gives Interview On How To Manage Money The headline claims he's a socialist but if you read the piece, he's far from it.
*As Commonwealth Games Approach, Australian Columnist Wonders "What Happened To Australia's Mid-D Depth?" Lots of people at the start of the year, but now many are injured.
We Guess A Dane Having The WR Was The Equivalent Of Stolen Livestock
*Thousands Greet David Rudisha As The Warrior Returns Home "Whenever a moran goes to war, the way Rudisha did, he is given such a reception on his return, especially if he successfully seized back the stolen livestock."
*Rudisha's Prized Gift Is A Framed Photo Of His Father Being Celebrated For Returning With Olympic Silver In 1968
Doug Logan In The News
LRC: Why Doug Logan Is Out At USATF And Where It Goes From Here LetsRun.com co-founder Weldon Johnson offers his analysis of the Logan dismissal. The outsider likely had zero built-in allies in USATF, which even USATF admits is an organization that is inherently "dysfunctional" in its setup. And when an outsider, not an insider, over-promises and possibly
under-delivers, he's immediately
thrown to the curb as no one's got his back. Regardless, the key thing to focus on is not why he's gone but what type of person does USATF hire to replace him and how do we prevent history from repeating itself as it appears the initial search process was poorly done.
More Logan:
*Phil Hersh: How The Logan-Hightower Relationship Went From Kiss-Kiss To Kiss-Off In The Last Year
*Logan Replacement Likely To Come From Within Sport
*SI Claims Logan Secured $10 Million-A-Year Deal With Nike If that's the case, they couldn't be too far off their $12 million goal for sponsorship for 2010.
Random Interesting Distance-Related Links
- Ryan Gregson Talks About His Navicular Stress Fracture He thinks too much training caused it. "I am a boy who's been trying to keep up with the men."
- 15-Year-Old Japanese Runner Break 30-Year-Old Jr. High 2,000 Meter Record His time of 5:34 equates to about 4:21 in the mile.
- A Look At The Kiwi Connection To Western State Steve Willis, brother of Nick, talks about how a ton of Kiwis have made the trek to Western State. The Internet apparently has killed the connection as the Kiwis are going all over now.
- A Brief Chat With US 20k Runner-Up Stephanie Rothstein The former Brad Hudson-coached runner is now with Greg McMillan. She almost quit the sport but now is going to the World Championships in the half marathon along with her boyfriend Ben Bruce.
- $12,500 On Line At Grandma's Minnesota Mile Minnesota natives Garrett Heath and Will Leer headline the field.
- Craig Mottram Talks About His Comeback
Good News
Dick Patrick Wins NYRR George Hirsch Journalism Award
Week In Review
LRC Week In Review: Webb, Lukas V, Nelson, Ritz, Culpepper And Miss Universe Runner-Up This week, we start things off by telling you how hard it is for Americans to medal in this day and age of African domination by showing you there is more Kenyan talent entered in an obscure marathon in the Netherlands than has ever existed in the US. We then give unsolicited coaching advice to Alan Webb and Asbel Kiprop, give props to American Tim Nelson and compare him to Dathan Ritzenhein and Alan Culpepper, talk about triathlon stars of the past and present, and finally introduce you to Asafa Powell's future wife - the runner-up at the Miss Universe pageant. All of that and we introduce you to a new star of the sport.
Bye Bye, Doug - We Hardly Knew Ya ...
Doug Logan Out At USATF Logan, who less than two years ago was a unanimous pick by the search committee to be USATF CEO, was canned by the USATF board on Monday. We're shocked he was fired, especially considering
USATF may owe him a $1$2 million severance. It'll be interesting to see why the board fired Logan. Logan's biggest problem (besides the dysfunctional organization that faces every CEO of USATF) may have been promising way too much. We thought the whole "Project 30" report was a waste of time about a non-existent problem. Nonetheless,
we gave Logan props for letting the
Olympic Trials go to the highest bidder. We want to see what the board says on this one. If you'd like to comment on Logan's firing on or off the record, email us or post in our forums in the threads below:
More: Washington Post: Logan Vowed To Clean House And Now He's The One Shown The Door
NY Times: Steph Hightower Says It's Halftime Between Olympics And Time To Make Changes
Reuters: Board President Steph Hightower Admits She Didn't Vote For Or Against Doug Logan When He Was Hired How a board member could not have enough info is ridiculous - either for them personally or the search process in general.
Chicago Tribune: Next Guy Had Better Be At Least $2 Million Better Than Logan
On The Boards: USA Track & Field dumps CEO Logan *Farewell Doug Logan, we hardly knew ya... *Deena Kastor Comments
Lukas V Update
Doping News
- Authorities on Alert for Possible EPO Substitute
- Katerina Thanou And Costas Kenteris Trial For Making False Statement To Authorities Postponed
International News
- IAAF Won't Consider London For 2015 Worlds Unless Government Guarantees Bid
- Capetown Missed Internal Deadline But Wants To Bid For 2020 Olympics They'd seem to have a much better chance to win than Durban.
Most Read Running Story Of The Week
Front Page Of Wall Street Journal: Men Who Run Women's Only Races Technically, most of the races aren't women's only. Some even invite men, like the Nike Women's Half Marathon, but then when a dude won it he was heckled.
Fifth Avenue Mile This Sunday ... Watch Live On LetsRun.com (Pros at 12:50pm Eastern) *Men's Bios *Women's Bios
- Recommended Read: Bernard Lagat's 4-Year-Old Son Is Tired Of Dad Losing Races But he's being taught early how to lower expectations for Americans on the world scene, as after Lagat got the AR but lost, he said, "Daddy lost but you're still good in the country, right, Daddy?"
- Brief Chat With Shannon Rowbury
- Good Brief Chat With Nick Willis Webb hung out and trained with Willis some in Italy and was worried about being the 3rd wheel on a trip with Nick and his wife Sienna.
- Previous: Olympians Lagat Vs. Manzano Vs. Webb Vs. Willis At Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile
- Lebow's Fifth Avenue Mile Dream Still Alive At 30
Commonwealth Games Start In 11 Days
- Three Days Before Teams Arrive, Dorms Are Described As Being "Unfit For Human Habitation" Plus A Foot Bridge At The Main Stadium Collapsed, Injuring 23 Workers *Long Article In Irish Paper On Situation
- Kenya's Team Captain Ezekiel Kemboi Stuns Pre-Commonwealth Games Meeting By Demanding That Athletes Be Told Now How Much Money They'll Be Given For Food
- Thumbs Down: Australia's World Discus Champion Dani Samuels Withdraws From Games Due To Security Fears "For a couple of weeks I've struggled to sleep, felt ill, haven't been able to train properly."
- Security Fears Cause Ohuruogu are out with injuries.
- We Agree: British Sports Manager Says It Will Be A "Tragedy" If Teams Don't Go To Commonwealths
- Australian Officials Not So Confident - "High Risk" Of Terrorism
- Australian Officials - 80% Chance Of Terrorism
- Valerie Adams Very Excited About Things Heading Into Games
Some Runners Aren't Happy That Competitor Group/Corporate Entities Are Taking Over Running Events
World Marathon Majors Being Sunday In Berlin
Mzungofire.blogspot.comMzungo.org Has Lots Of Berlin Info Patrick Makau and Geoffrety Mutai lead the way. The field includes seven sub-2:07 guys and three sub-2:06s are also in the field.- Top 5 Men *Top 5 Women
- Dick Fosbury Leading Effort To Bring Back Track To Orgon State And It Looks Like It's Going To Be A Done Deal Soon
Max King & Lauren Fleshman Win 2010 XTERRA Trail Run National Championship
Marathons For The Masses
- Gallowalker: "It takes more mental fortitude than continual running." We disagree and have never understood why some Gallowalkers have to try and make themselves superior to runners.
- Meb Going On A Run With Subway's Jared Fogle
- SI's Peter King Running A Half Marathon October 2nd He said he'd run an ultra-marathon if the Bengals signed TO. Well, they did and King is (sort of) paying up.
British News
- It's London Vs. Beijing For 2015 Worlds The bigwigs of course have to tour the sites to make sure everything is okay even though London is hosting the 2012 Olympics.
- Interesting Read With Charles van Commenee, Head UK Athletics Coach
Philly Half & US 5k
Philly: LRC Matthew Kisorio Slays Gebre Gebremariam As Ryan Hall Struggles 5k man Matthew Kisorio showed that Gebremariam is beatable after all, but it takes a 4:24 3rd mile to do it. Ryan Hall was never a factor and struggled mightily (63:55) as Brett Gotcher (62:50) was the top American, but he was beaten by former NCAA runners Simon
Bairu, Alistair
Cragg, Wesley
Korir and Shawn Forrest.
Pre-Race: Hall Very Confident: "I wasn't totally in top-notch shape last year, but I think I'm in better shape this year."
LRC Meseret Defar Wins As Shalane Flanagan Runs 68:36 2004 Olympic 5,000-meter champ Meseret Defar's move up to the half marathon was a successful one as she defeated the hottest road racer on the planet in a sprint finish to get the win as Shalane Flanagan became the 4th-fastest American in history.
More: Defar Wins As Heat Bothers Flanagan
Pre-Race: *defar VS flanagan....who ya got?
Providence/USA 5k: LRC Molly Huddle And Robert Cheseret Win 5k Titles American record holder Molly Huddle got a comfortable win on the women's side but on the men's side, it was newly-naturalized US citizen Robert Cheseret who got a surprise win. Don't know Cheseret? He's Bernard Lagat's brother as well as the guy who was able to beat Dathan Ritzenhein
for the NCAA title even though he fell down in the middle of the race.
A Brief Chat With Shannon Rowbury The 1,500 star will end her season in New York on Sunday.
Weird: Pro Meet In Kawasaki Japan Has No Distance Races You'd think given the Japanese love of distance running that would be the highlight. Instead, it was highlighted by Christian Lemaitre in the 100m.
Random Links
- The Wall Street Journal Looks At New York's Oldest Marathon - Yonkers The race is the 2nd-oldest in the US and once was a big event in the US.
- 99-Year-Old Wins Triple Gold At Japanese Masters Champs
Sprint News
- Tyson Gay Satisfied With 2010 Season
- Usain Bolt Not Excited About Restarting Training On October 4th
- Usain Bolt Wants To Retire On Top Whether he thinks he'll still be on top in 2016 will likely determine how long he sprints.
- Usain Bolt Show Continues In Melbourne
Villanova And The Ducks Go To Washington
- Villanova XC Also Goes To The White House The Wildcat women's team keeps getting overlooked.
- Oregon Women's Team Meets President Obama They were a part of a group of NCAA champions in the "lesser" sports visiting the White House.
- Jordan Hasay Blogs About The Visit
- More Presidential News: Allyson Felix Having Her First Presidential Council Meeting On Physical Fitness And Then Is Off To Bahamas
Drug Cheats Rejoice
104 Baseball Cheats Can Breathe Easier Tonight As Court Rules Government Illegally Seized Records Of Their Positive Drug Tests
Underdogs Rejoice Man With 15th-Best PR Wins Japanese University 5,000 Title
Drug News
Former University Of Iowa NCAA Standout Racheal Marchand Tests Positive For EPO Marchand was fifth at the NCAA XC champs in 2008 and quit her job this past year to train full-time for the 2012 Olympics for Puerto Rico. We and everyone else are bit late on this story, but this message board thread is all over it.
*Racheal Marchand Wins XC Race, Refuses To Talk To Reporter, Her Mom Blasts Reporter In Comments Section
*Flashback: Racheal Marchand Quits Her Job As A Drug Rep To Train Full Time For 2012 Games
On The Boards: Former NCAA standout EPO busted
Jamaican Editorial On Drugs Says Don't Go The Way Of USA "One recalls that not so long ago, Jamaicans would scoff at the
achievements of American athletes within the context of their pervasive
use of performance-enhancing drugs. While this has indeed been verified
over time, we have to safeguard against a similar tarnishing of our yet
favourable international sporting image, in the face of these mounting
drug-related incidents."
Sprint/Field News
- Double Doesn't Look Too Difficult For Allyson Felix Schedule-Wise In Daegu
- Usain Bolt With Advice On Life: "I think it's important to live life, and to enjoy life. You can't stress about things because stressing doesn't change problems."
- Walter Dix's Agent (His Brother) Looks Back On Walter's 2010 Season
- Breaux Greer May Be Back
Brendan Foster Reflects About The Great Run's 30 Years Of Greatness Haile G will make his great run in the 30th year. The race is the world's largest half marathon and Europe's most popular race.
Sprint News
- Gatorade Bolt Lemon Ice Now Available Get on a plane and get to Australia, as it's only available there.
- Allyson Felix Contemplating 200/400 Double At Next Year's Worlds Felix: "[The Diamond League] definitely was difficult, but I don't think it was anywhere near to what the next couple of years will be (like)."
Rock N Roll Marathon People - Please Read This
One Of New Zealand's Most Popular Road Races Only Costs Just $15
It also only has 400 people and is 66km long but we like it.
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 fiancée 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
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.