Quote Of The Day:

"I've trained hard, I'm ready. That is the only formula."

-  800-meter world record holder David Rudisha responding to a question as to whether or not he changed his training for the 2011 World Championships, which begin on Friday night.
 At the end of day 1, which occurs on Saturday morning in the US, there will be a potentially epic women's 10,000 final.

Recaps: 2011 World Championships: *LRC Schedule For US Fans *Results *LRC Videos From Daegu *TV Sched. For US *IAAF Event-By-Event Previews *Stats

LRC Recap Now Up
Saturday's Action Underway: Edna Kiplagat Survives Fall, Leads Kenya to 1-2-3 Sweep in Marathon to Start Worlds
Kiplagat has shot to the top of the world marathon ranks in the last two years (New York champ last year, 2:20 for 3rd in London) and she backed it up with an impressive win despite falling in the final 10km. Priscah Jeptoo was second and Sharon Cherop third. Tera Moody just months removed from 3 surgeries was the first American (interview here) in 17th and Kathy Newberry 30th (interview here).
*Post Race Comments from Kiplagat
On the boards: women's marathon play by play

Men's 800:
In other action, Nick Symmonds (interview here) won his heat and Khadevis Robinson (interview here) advanced in round 1 of the 800 (mb recap) and Emma Coburn advanced in the steeple (mb recap).
OTB: 800 Heats     *Women's Steeple

Only on LetsRun:
Sarbi the Mascot Techno Street Dance Routine With Some Korean Babes Women He's not a match for Berlino.

Non-Distance News From Worlds

Thursday's Big News: Asafa Powell Out Of Worlds All we can say is this sucks, but thank goodness the sport has Usain Bolt. Change/Enter your picks in our $200,011 Worlds Contest here. *Message board thread on Powell here.
*NY Times: Last Man Running: Bolt's Top 4 Rivals Are All Out Bolt's top 4 challengers based on wind-legal times - Rodgers, Gay, Mullings and Powell - are all out.
*Walter Dix - Hey Don't Forget About Me, I'm Planning On Winning Triple Gold
*Last Man Standing? Yohan Blake Thinks He Could Beat Bolt
*Usain Bolt Denies He Has Achilles Injury & Says He's Ready
*Bolt Says Powell's Withdrawal Is "Really Sad" What's sad is that earlier in the week Powell said there was a 99% he'd win Worlds. Track needs a commissioner so he can be fined for lying to the press.

Other Non-Distance News

LRC Message Boards Having An Impact For A Cleaner Sport Chris Solinsky Volunteers For Blood Profiling Pool You can read his tweet here. We've always said allowing people on the boards to speculate on doping in the sport ultimately leads to a cleaner sport (it puts pressure on authorities, sponsors, and athletes to clean up the sport and/or show it is clean with better tests) and this proves it.
Distance News:

*
Japanese Distance Fans Are Pumped For World's As They Two Japanese Based Kenyans and 1 Japanese Based Ethiopian Will Run World's 10,000 An interesting read for sure as it also talks about a Japanese thrower's love of Sammy Wanjiru.
*An In-Depth Look At the Japanese Men's Marathon Team The team is pretty darn good with 4 sub-2:10 guys. Only 2 US men have done that the last two years and neither is in Daegu.
*If Only US Journalists Were So Polite: After 24 Hour-Plus Journey, Kenyan Journalists Don't Harass Kenyan Team On Day 1 In Daegu
*Still Sick, Shy Or Just Being Coy? Uganda's Moses Kipsiro Has Been Quiet Before Worlds And Some Think He May Still Be Suffering From Typhoid And Malaria His wife says he might go not go to Worlds but others think he's just being coy.

LRC The LetsRun.com Focused 2011 World Track & Field Championships Schedule Watching Daegu is gonna be confusing, as Daegu is 13 hours ahead of New York (16 hours ahead of the West Coast), so we have altered the schedule to present it to you in "American" time so you can start planning in case you want to get up really early to watch a final live.

Distance News From Worlds
*Morgan Uceny Runs 2:34 1k In Practice With 55-Second Last Lap
*An In Depth Look At Japanese Long Distance Track Runners At Worlds
*Despite Stress Fracture in Femur, Kara Goucher Is Optimistic For Worlds The articles says Goucher had taken zero days off from running since a week after giving birth. We call that foolish.
*ESPN W: Currently Injured, Distance Runner Molly Huddle Takes Long View
*Kenyans Arrive In Daegu And Say Village Is Better Than Last Two Olympic Villages

Previous WChamps News

Men's 10,000m: Farah, Bekele, Rupp Just Days Away
Mo Farah Wary Of Brilliant Bekele
Farah riding 10 straight wins, Bekele undefeated lifetime at the distance.

UK Telegraph: Mo Farah On Brink Of Double Gold In Daegu He'll face the double gauntlet of Bekele and Lagat.

Bekele's Manager Says He Is "Training Well"

Boards:
Galen Rupp will leave Daegu with a medal
*MB: Game On: Kenenisa Is Going Try To Defend His Title
The 10,000 and 100 are both this upcoming weekend. 100m news below the PowerBar advertorial.

More Worlds First Weekend

Men's 100m: Can Bolt Find The Magic?
Asafa Powell Says It Is Time To Step Out Of Bolt's Shadow
*Bolt Predicting Title Defense ... as long as he gets a good start.

Korean Press: Bolt Enjoying Rock Star Status In Daegu Earlier: *Usain Bolt Gets Record For Jamaican With "Most Fans On Facebook"

TrackFocus On Mullings And Masking Agents

Weekend News From The MBoard: CHRIS SOLINSKY OUT OF WORLDS The 10,000 American record holder's disappointing 2011 season just got a whole lot more disappointing as he announced (via twitter) that he's pulled out of the World Championships with a hamstring injury. A year after running 26:59, Solinsky has endured mainly heartache in 2011 as he dropped out of the 10,000 at Pre, a 5,000 in Monaco and is now a DNS at Worlds.

With Bryan Clay Out, Can Ashton Eaton Bring Home US Decathlon Gold?

Curtis Anderson On Eaton, Jesse Williams And Many Other Oregon-Based Americans At 23, indoor heptathlon WR holder Ashton Eaton is considered the gold favorite in the decathlon. Story reveals Eaton discovered flaw in his HJ technique from old Dick Fosbury vids. He then went out and nailed 2-inch PR at 6'10".

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

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

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.

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?

Previews: 2011 World Championships: *LRC Schedule For US Fans *Results *Live Results (if link to left doesn't work) *LRC Videos From Daegu *TV Sched. For US *IAAF Event-By-Event Previews *Stats

Day 1 Preview: Sat. 8 am ET: LRC Epic Women's 10,000 Preview (8 am ET Sat) The 10,000 in 2009 is one that will long be remembered for its bizarre finish but the one in 2011 could truly be one for the ages. Meseret Defar and Vivian Cheruiyot are both undefeated on the year in track so someone's win streak will definitely end but they'll also face the top two from 2009 (Masai and Melkamu) plus Shalane Flanagan and Sally Kipyego.
*4 Kenyan Women Pumped For 10,000 Final
*Assuming She Doesn't Get Sick (As She Often Does), Meseret Defar Is Feeling Good As She Gets Ready For 5k/10k

Day 2 Previews: Sat. 9:45 pm ET: LRC Day 1 - Quick Preview Of Women's 1500 - Will Jamal Three-Peat? (& Can Uceny Medal?) Jamal goes for the 3-peat as American Morgan Uceny goes for the top 3. Those two and the Russian champ will all run in the same heat on Saturday night.

Sun. 6:30 am ET:
LRC Men's 10,000 Preview The greatest 10,000 runner to ever live will Kenenisa Bekele returns and will try to do the unthinkable - remain undefeated at 10,000 after two years away from track racing. Galen Rupp will also attempt to do the unthinkable - become the first American to ever medal at 10,000 at world's, to break up the African's 30 for 30 streak. Plus Sihine, Tadese and a suspect Kenyan squad and of course the top distance runner in the world right now Mo Farah.

Other Distance News

*Bernard Lagat: "I'm an old man but I'm still running fast."
*Mo Farah Is Full Of Respect For Bekele: "Kenenisa Bekele is like the Usain Bolt of distance running." Bekele's agent had this nugget of info about the great one. "He is quite fit but it is difficult to say what will happen, because he has not raced."

Non World Championship News

Life After Death: Woman Claiming to Be Sammy Wanjiru's Wife Gives Birth

More Distance News:

LRC $200,011 World Championships Prediction Contest Powered By PUMA *IAAF Event-By-Event Previews *TFN's WC Picks For Every Event

Our world-famous prediction contest is back and better than ever as it's up a week early. Pick the top 3 perfectly correctly in 35 events and win $200,011. Win the contest without being perfect and win 4 pairs of PUMA Faas 550s plus a $150 gift certificate. Don't know anything about the meet? Never fear - we've got a table for you that makes picking so easy that an 8th grade soccer player won one time. Now we know some of you think that our "perfect ballot" prize is a gimmick, but we really want to give away a ton of cash, so we've added in a $10,000 prize if you can just pick the 800 through 10,000 correctly for a single sex. *Enter Here

LRC Week That Was As we get ready for Worlds, we wonder if Kara Goucher's injury was preventable, wonder why anyone would talk trash about Kenenisa Bekele and mourn the passing of a rare US-born Boston marathon champ. Along the way, we give you quotes from Blanka Vlasic and Emil Zatopek before addressing Chris Solinsky doping allegations.

Non-Distance News From Worlds:

Administrative News

Non-Distance News
*Seb Coe Feels Current Generation Of British Athletes Is Finally Free Of Burden Of "Golden" Generation "I spent three days there just sitting with the team and it occurred to me that this is really the first generation that has been able to get rid of the albatross of the so-called golden era."
*Doomsday Scenario To Ponder: Could The US Men Leave Daegu Without A Single Gold? The answer is yes, but it's very unlikely.
*We Hate The Racewalk But ... This Is Close To Being A Recommended Read
Portugese Racewalker Competing In Record 11th Straight World Championships
*Bolt: People Shouldn't Expect World Records But They Shouldn't Forget I'm Undefeated On The Year "I think it will be the same as Berlin. Some people ran well in the early season, but it is the championships that count."
*23 Years After Hosting Olympics, Things Have Developed As Planned For Korea, Which Is Viewed As A Legit Hoster Of Major Sporting Events
*USA Today Does Big Profile On Allyson Felix's Quest For 200/400 Fame
*Dwain Chambers' Olympic Ban Could Possibly Be Lifted If LaShawn Merritt's Gets Lifted
*Out - In - Out: World HJ Champ Yaroslav Rybakov Will Not Defend His Title After All Due To Injury
*Daegu Worlds Is 1st To Feaure Just 3 Rounds Of 100m And 200m Unless you don't have a qualifying time, and then you'll run a preliminary round. IAAF: "We are trying to make the programme more compact, more exciting."
*Christine Ohuruogu Is Upbeat Despite Recent Struggles

Bureaucratic News

Dumb, Dumber And Racist Quotes

Want To Know The Truth About Oscar P? Read This:
Recommended Read: The Scientific Interpretation Of The Oscar Pistorius Research

More On "Johnny The Younger"
*Amby Burfoot's MB Thread

Recommended Read: Boston Globe: John J. Kelley, 80; Marathon champ carried hopes of the nation Kelley lived in a day and age when foreigners were dominating the Boston marathon, but he always showed up and gave it his best (he finished 2nd 5 times) and one magical day he emerged as the winner. He should be an inspiration to all modern day US marathoner hopes like Ryan Hall, as foreigners won Boston 11 years in a row before his win in 1957 and 10 years in a row after it.
New England Runner: Tribute To The Renaissance Man Kelley
The New London Day (Local Paper): John Kelley, running legend, dies at 80
NY Times: John J. Kelley, Marathon Champion, Dies At 80

And Then There Were 3
Budapest Pulls Out Early ... 3 Remain In Contention For 2017 Worlds
London, Barcelona and Doha remain.

Sprinters Steal The Headlines

Track Town USA, Move Over. Should We Call China "Track Country" And Make It The Permanent Host Of The Olympics?
IAAF Recap Of Incredibly Successful World University Games - More Than 30,000 People Showed Up Every Night To Watch In terms of the action, the big story was the return of Olympic and world champion Nelson Evora in the triple jump. He got the gold in his first competition in 2 years since having screws inserted into his tibia.

Random Road Action From Last Weekend
*Wejo Rejoice:
Weldon Wins America's Finest City Half Marathon
*Katie McGregor Runs 75:00 To Win Half Marathon In Minnesota
*Looking Ahead? Want To See The Famed Wildebeest Migration And Run A Marathon At The Same Time? Try The Kenya Airways Masai Mara Marathon

Daegu: Controversy And Intrigue

Daegu: Additions And Subtractions

Daegu: Team Stars & Stripes Ready

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

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."

Truly Bizarre: Identity Theft Victim Or Perpetrator?

Letsvault.com

Daegu, Daegu, Daegu

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

World University Games *Schedule/Results *Photos

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

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

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

Universal Sports Back To Top