Quote Of The Day

"What can I do? I'm going to go in front of the panel and say I never took the drug. But I don't have the proof to say, 'OK, it was vitamins' ..."

- Jamaican sprint star Steve Mullings talking after his "B" sample came back positive and he now faces a possible lifetime ban from the sport of track and field.

Big Sprint/Drug News

World University Games *Schedule/Results *Watch Live Here *Photos (Note: The time in China is 12 hours ahead of EST (NY)) (Cas Loxsom Runs at 7:35 am Saturday morning, Ryan Martin at 7:45 am)

2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Is October 9th

Football/Track Stars In The News

Woman Writes In New York Times About Being Passed By A Cow In A Half Marathon Over racing will certainly produce some bad performances.

London Bids For 2017 World Champs

Reid Coolsaet Needs Sub-2:15 And Top 3 Showing At Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon On Oct. 16th To Make Olympic Team

More World Champs Updates

Everyone Is Wondering The Same Thing: What Kind Of Shape Is Bekele In?

Kenenisa Bekele's Manager Says He Is Definitely Running Worlds 10k And That He Is "Training Well" He has never lost a 10k on the track, but he also hasn't raced since Jan. 2010 and hasn't raced on the track since Sept. 2009. As defending champ, Bekele could do both the 10k and 5k, which his manager says he might depending on how the 10k goes. *MB: Game On: Kenenisa Is Going Try To Defend His Title

Athletes Feeling The Anticipation Ahead Of World Champs

It's Official (Sort Of): Steve Mullings Left Off Jamaica Team For Worlds But Jamaican officials left themselves an out by saying "... if the matter is resolved in his favour, there is a provision where he (Mullings) can be re-instated at a later date." The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission disciplinary panel for Mullings is next Monday, August 22, only 5 days before Worlds start.
*Jamaica Names The Rest Of Their Team

Week That Was

LRC Week That Was In our weekly recap, LetsRun urges everyone to calm down on the anti-doping front so mass hysteria doesn't turn the Mike Rodgers and Steve Mullings cases into a repeat of the Salem witch trials; then we wonder if history will repeat itself again at the 2011 Worlds if Kenenisa Bekele tries to do what Haile G couldn't do in 2001; we then introduce you to the score of America's 3:55 milers on the year and tell you how lucky Gabe Jennings was to be born in 1979 and not 1989. We end the weekly recap by turning our famed analysis to the sprint world. All of that plus an old-fashioned lesson in sportsmanship and lots of talk about New Balance Falmouth.

From Sunday: Thorpe Cup: German Men Win Decathlon, US Women Win The Heptathlon On the men's side Ashton Eaton, Trey Hardee, and Bryan Clay all competed. Eaton did especially well, running 10.26 in the 100m to come within .04 seconds of the 100m decathlon WR. *Full Results

Usain Bolt Gets Record For Jamaican With "Most Fans On Facebook"

Update: Mike Rodgers Waiting On A Hearing And "B" Sample Test To Find Out If He's Eligible For Worlds Penalties for a positive test for stimulants can range from a warning to a suspension of several months. His agent wants to emphasize that he tested positive for a stimulant, and not "steroids or anything of that nature."

New Balance Falmouth *Full Results *Mile Results *Mile Photos *Men's Mile Video *Women's Mile Video

*American Lewy Boulet Wins Falmouth While Kenyan Lucas Rotich Gets Men's Title With the overall and American, win she "double-dipped" and pocketed 20 thousand. US steeplechaser Brian Olinger was 4th overall and 1st American on the men's side as Abdi Abdirahman was 5th and Ben True was 6th.
*
Jordan McNamara Wins Falmouth Mile In 3:54.89, Leads Ten Sub-Four Jeff See was 2nd (3:55.24) as AJ Acosta was 3rd (3:55.30). Will Leer was back in 8th (3:58.41). McNamara won $3,000 for his victory ($2,000 for the win plus $1,000 for breaking four minutes).
*Falmouth Prize Money Draws Big USA Field, But May Impact Strategy With so much American-only prize money on the line, the fear is it could turn into two separate races, one between Americans and one with everyone else ahead. Isn't that ususally the case? The 1st and 2nd place Americans will make more than last year, but 3rd place gets the same in American-only money.

Falmouth Pre-Race News

Boston Globe: "Falmouth's Essence Remains The Same" But some things have changed. How about this: "When Bill Rodgers first won this seaside ramble in 1974 he lost money on the deal. He won a Waring blender but had his car towed." Good read.

Today:
Will Leer To Try To Defend New Balance Falmouth Title Versus Ciaran O'Lionaird, AJ Acosta And Jordan McNamara

Previous:
Micah Kogo And Wude Ayalew Headline 2011 New Balance Falmouth Road Race Kogo won TD Bank Beach to Beacon last weekend and is the favorite. There is $10,000 on the line for the winners and $10,000 on the line for first American.

World Championships-Related News

The Legendary Joe Newton (Elmhurst York High School, IL) Admits Getting Softer The Older He Gets "The big thing now is I am just listening more. You do that as you mature as a coach."

San Diego Runner Jon Tumilson Was One of 22 Navy Seals Killed When Helicopter Was Shot Down In Afghanistan A memorial run will be held for him on San Diego on Tuesday.

Wanna Be A Pro Runner?

Team USA Is Final

Team USA Announced For World Championships And Bryan Clay And Lauren Fleshman Are On It The good news that results from USATF having bureaucrats like John Chaplin with dictator-like powers is they don't have to follow their own rules and as a result Lauren Fleshman, America's top 5,000m runner right now, is now on the team, as the rumors of Desiree Davila giving up her spot were true. USATF rules state only 4 runners can chase times but thankfully that stupid rule was somehow ignored.

Lots Of Nike Oregon Athletes On Team USA

World Championships News

Truly Bizarre: Identity Theft Victim Or Perpetrator?

The World Championships Start Next Saturday

WADA Head Says At Least 10% Of Athletes Are Cheats "Statistically the numbers of people being caught is between one to two per cent, that's the numbers of positives against the number of tests. But the number of people doping are in the double digits."

Delilah (Almost) Goes To Worlds: Episode 8: Delilah Races In Lucerne (Sponsored)


In this episode, Delilah DiCrescenzo of "Hey There, Delilah" fame races to a 3rd place finish in the 3rd best time of her career before getting injured and having to pull out of Worlds. The injury will be addressed in the next episode early next week. *Episode 1: Delilah Makes Worlds *Ep. 2: Training In NYC *Ep. 3: Legendary Coach Gags *Ep. 4: Fast And Fashionable *Ep 5: In The Spotlight, In The World *Ep 6: Delilah Goes To Europe *Ep 7: European Living. More @Puma Running On Facebook

Letsvault.com

NY Times: Cross Training May Not Help You Get Faster But Weight Training Might "You can maintain your cardiovascular capacity by cross-training, but it is extremely difficult to maintain your performance when you rely on cross-training. This is because you are violating the principle of the specificity of training."

250,000 People Need Food In Southern Ethiopia

Hurt Hamstrings

*World High Jump Champ Blanka Vlasic May Miss Worlds With Hamstring Injury Sounds legit as she article is very specific about scans revealing a "partial rupture." She will announce Friday whether or not she's going to compete.
*Defending 800m World Champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi Withdraws From Worlds With Hamstring Injury

On Doping:
*Jamaica's Observer Puts Out Cartoon Poking Fun At Jamaican Dopers Didn't get a good reaction from one Jamaican reader.
*
CAS To Come To A Decision On LaShawn Merritt's Case By End Of Next Month After this, Britain's Olympic drug ban policy may be under legal threat even though they say they won't change their minds.
*Neil Wilson: "Suspension Not Enough, Just Jail The Dopers"
*
2 Drug Cases Pending From World Masters Champs

Some US News
*
After Winning Falmouth, Magdalena Lewy Boulet Is USATF Athlete Of The Week She says that after the first mile, she thought she was in the 2nd pack and didn't realize she was with the leaders.
*America's Finest City Half Marathon Elite Field Announced One in the elite field is Christian Hesch, who was the 10th man sub-4 in the Falmouth Mile. He followed his first sub-4 with a 34:11 in the Falmouth 7.1 Mile race, and now a week later is doing a half marathon. Definitely a busy week of racing.
*10 Questions With NJ HS Star Edward Cheserek He says in his free time he likes to watch "great Kenyan runner" Bernard Lagat on TV.
*Abdi Says He's "Back" After Finishing 5th Place (2nd American) At Falmouth He says his focus right now is training for the Olympic Trials for next year.

The Pre-World Champs Injuries Keep Piling Up And The Message Board Conspiracy Theories Begin

US News

Other International Stuff
*
The Olympic Park Was Meant To Be A Target Of London Rioters, But Was Saved By Police Monitoring Of Twitter
*French Pole Vaulter Renaud Lavillenie Wins "Berlin Flies" Competition Between US, Russian, Germany & France Was "to mark 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall." They'd probably prefer to mark its deconstruction, but it would be a lot harder to hold the meet in November.

World University Games/World Champs News

IAAF Preview: NCAA And US Champ Jeshua Anderson Headlines World University Games
*
Blog From Aussie 1,500m Runner Brenton Rowe, Who Is At WUG

US Injuries:
*
World Indoors 400m Gold Medallist Debbie Dunn Withdraws From Worlds With An "Unspecified Injury" It has also been announced that steeplechaser Delilah DiCrescenzo (3rd at USAs) is out with an injury and replaced by NCAA runner-up Stephanie Garcia.

Getting Ready For Worlds:

*Japan's Yuki Kawauchi Says If He Finishes In The Top 8 At World Champs, He Will Reward Himself With A Cup Of Coffee
*World Indoor 1,500m Champ Deresse Mekonnen Hopeful Going Into Worlds Despite Early Season Injury
*Silas Kiplagat Benefits From The Coaching Of 3-Time World Steeplechase Champ Moses Kiptanui AK training camps are smartening up and actually letting the athletes still be coached by their own coaches/do their own training.
*Polish Champs Recap And Polish Daegu Squad Released Some noteworthy mid-d and distance performances included Adam Kszczot (1:44.30), Marcin Lewandowski (1:44.61), Lukasz Parszczynski (8:15.47 SC) and Renata Plis (4:04.57 w1,500m).
*Norwegian Champs: World & Olympic Jav Champ Andreas Thorkildsen Reaffirms Himself As Heavy Worlds Favorite With 90.61m Heave
*Estonia Is Sending 9 To Daegu

Looking Ahead To After Worlds
*
4 Days After Worlds, Weltklasse Zürich Will Host 18 Events & 17 Will Include The World Leader In That Event
*Preliminary Weltklasse Entries Highlights from an American distance perspective include Leo Manzano in the 1,500, Morgan Uceny (and Montano) in the women's 800, another AR attempt by Shalane Flanagan in the 5,000 (which also tentatively includes Bizzarri, Fleshman, Goucher and Hastings), and Bruce/Nelson in the men's steeple.
*Strenuous Worlds Schedule Causes Bolt To Pull Out of Weltklasse, Which is 4 Days After Worlds

Weekend Results

US News

Another Drug Bust

The Most Ridiculous "Plastic Brit" Yet Come 2012, Yamile Aldama will run for her third country in three Olympic Games.

Liam Adams Wins Close Race At Australia's City2Surf 14k

Good News Surgeon Says Lolo Jones' Operation Went Perfectly

Ridiculous 18-Year-Old Skier Urinates On 11-Year-Old Girl During JetBlue Flight; Kicked Off US Ski Team Apparently he was drunk and didn't realize he wasn't in the bathroom.

Drug Corner

"Will be interesting to see if athletes withdraw from Daegu with illness or injury due to IAAF introducing all athletes to blood testing." - Former 400m bronze medallist Katharine Merry writing about the universal  blood testing in Daegu. We hope some cheats get out but think the bigger implications will be down the road because the blood test in Daegu is to establish the baseline to catch the cheats in the future. Related On The Boards: Deagu "Drop Outs" Thread

Details On Steve Mullings

The Olympics

*Look Who's Talking China Scolds West, Says London May Not Be Fit To Host Olympics After Riots Great comment from one reader: "It takes an oppressive police force, underaged athletes and serious air pollution to host a successful Olympics. Thanks for the feedback, China - Crash Fu."
*South Africa Will Not Bid For 2020 Olympics But say, "We will certainly go for 2024." So without SA, that leaves Istanbul, Madrid, Rome and Tokyo as the confirmed bidders, with Doha still deciding whether or not to bid.

Looking Way Ahead Post-Worlds

*Milcah Chemos Going For Steeplechase WR At Final Diamond League Meet In Brussels, Belgium Sept. 16th IAAF It will be Sept. 16th in Brussels, Belgium. Her PR is 9:08.57 and the WR is 8:58.81 set by Gulnara Samitova-Galkina at the 2008 Olympics. Chemos also says that she thinks Kenya can sweep the steeplechase at World Champs.

Our Sport's History Is A Selling Point

Last Lap Or Full Race Of Manzano's Mile Victory In London (More London Coverage Here, UK Visitors Here)

Rudisha Vs. Kaki Lives Up To The Hype (More London Coverage Here, UK Visitors Click Here)

Lauren Fleshman Runs Away From The Field

NCAA Star Kirani James Gets World Leader In 400 In London (More London Coverage Here)

Paula Speaks On Berlin (Story Here)

Poll: Vote Online For The Bowerman Award As of now, Washington State's Jeshua Anderson is winning for the men and Texas A&M's Jessica Beard for the women.

Monaco Photos

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

LRC Contest Recap - The Greatness Of You

LRC USA Nationals Contest Recap As usual we had a couple of ringers come out on top in our contest. Our winner is in the elite of the elite of LetsRun.com, as not only has he been to watch the World Championships and Olympic Trials, he has a @runner.org email address, and a real-life wife. Our runner-up was a state champion in high school and has started a post-collegiate group in Utah.

A Must-Watch (We're Not Sure How We Missed This) - Sammy Wanjiru's Mom Theatens Others With A Machete 2 Weeks Ago (More Here)

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

Boston *Recap Analysis: *JK On The Wind *Wejo On Desiree *Rojo *London And Boston *Video Highlights

Women's World XC In Photos

Men's World XC In Photos

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

Great Deals

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