February 23, 2014 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For February 23, 2014

An Embarrassing Day 1 For Alberto Salazar

“[Grunewald’s] still going up against [Nike, Salazar, and Hasay] right now. … Once the jury upheld the decision, [USATF] released the results. They told us everything was over, and we were about ready to head out. Now it seems like the Nike guys are hovering around, trying to keep the committee there.”

and

“It was like a volcano that was just building up to erupt, and we saw the complete eruption and the meltdown. To be perfectly honest, it was just bad for the sport, the way the whole thing was conducted.”

– Coaches Dennis Barker and Lee Troop talking about controversies involving Alberto Salazar after both the women’s and men’s 3k at a crazy first day 1 of USAs as reported by Jon Gugala on RunBlogRun. The women’s 3k still doesn’t have a winner after a protest was filed by Salazar, who after the men’s 3k had to be physically prevented from going after fellow Nike coach Jerry Schumacher.

USA Indoor Champs – Men’s Coverage Schedule/Heat Sheets/Results TV Info (Universal 2pm Sun., NBCSN 3:30 pm ET) Full 2014 USA Indoor Coverage

LRCMen’s 800: Erik Sowinski Dominates As Robby Andrews Grabs Second But Nick Symmonds Is Going To Poland

LRCMen’s 3,000: Bernard Lagat Proves Age Is Just A Number As He Puts On A Clinic For Galen Rupp And Ryan Hill In The Last Lap To Win In AlbuquerqueWhat was probably the most anticipated race of the meet did not disappoint as it came down to a 3-way battle at the end with Lagat blowing everyone away and Rupp grabbing the last Worlds spot over Hill. As good as Lagat was, the post-race battle between two the two star Nike coaches may have been even more riveting.
*LRC Men’s 3K Interviews: The Genius Behind Bernard Lagat’s Tactics, Galen Rupp Talks About Being In 3rd With A Lap To Go And Andrew Bumbalough Explains The Hot Early Pace

LRC Nike Coaches Alberto Salazar And Jerry Schumacher Have Heated Exchange, Have To Be Separated After Men’s 3,000 At 2014 USA Indoors The two Nike coaches’ frosty relationship hit a new high (or low) on Saturday.

Run Blog Run:Eyewitness Account Of Salazar Trying To Go After Schumacher: “It was like a volcano that was just building up to erupt, and we saw the complete eruption and the meltdown.” Three-time Olympian Lee Troop saw the whole thing unfold and says Salazar was way out of line: “To be perfectly honest, it was just bad for the sport, the way the whole thing was conducted. It looked poor; it was bad; I think a lot of people are going to be walking away with a really bad taste in their mouth. It’s just not right on so many levels.”
*MB:Post-Race Day 1 USA Indoor Drama: Nike Coaches Alberto Salazar And Jerry Schumacher Have To Be Physically Restrained

LRCMen’s 800 Prelims: Favorites Get Through To Set Up Mouth-Watering Final With Symmonds, Rutt, Andrew, Mulder, Wieczorek, Sowinski In case you missed out, our 800 event preview is here.

Message Board Chatter:

3k: Lagat Kills Rupp And Hill:Daddy Still Can Kick!!! Lagat Thrashes The Youngsters Hill And Rupp
Is Lagat getting better with age?
800s: Favorites Advance:Robby Andrews Is Back!
OFFICIAL 2014 USA Indoor Championships Thread

LRC 1,500: How Do You Possibly Handicap This Stacked Men's Field? Look For Cain And Moser To Repeat 1-2 Finish From Last Year In Women's

The men’s race could be a classic.
*MB:Super stacked men’s 1500 at 2014 USAs – Rupp, Manzano, Lomong, Leer, Hill, Torrence, Heath – Who you got?

Friday Was Start Of Men’s/Women’s Multis: Sharon Day-Monroe Breaks American Pentathlon Record At US Indoors (4805) It is a NR by 52 points and her third-straight title. *Quotes From Day 1*Day 1 USATF Recap
Riley Masters Moved To “A” Heat
Potential Controversy In Albuquerque Already?LRCA Simple, Common-Sense Solution To The Potential 1,500 Controversy At The 2014 USA Indoor Track And Field Championships
Want Pre-Race Coverage? Go To Our 2014 USA Indoor Event Page

3 Great Reads With Past And Present Stars

Explosive Interview With Former Mile Indoor Record Holder Eamonn Coghlan

Recommended Read:Deadspin.com: How I Broke The Indoor Mile Record: An Interview With A “Freak” – Eamonn Coghlan
*MB: Eamonn Coghlan implies that El G was dirty in interview “I think the indoor mile record should fall. It’s soft. It was set in 1997. … I mean, El Guerrouj holds both the indoor and outdoor mile [3:43] records. If El G could do it … of course, they’re testing more now. You can read between the lines on that.”
*MB: Deadspin Interview with Eamonn Coghlan
Q&A With 17-Time World Record Holder Ron Clarke, Who says “Idiots” At IOC Cost Him 5-10 Years Of His Life By Making Him Run 1964 Olympic 10,000 At Altitude He also says his first love was Australian football but a bent finger prevented him from pursuing that sport.
Great Read:Worlds 1,500 Medalist Johan Cronje Takes You Year-By-Year Through A Decade Of Failure The former prodigy who was 5th at World Youths and Juniors back in the day struggled mightily before hitting it big in 2013 after missing out on both 2008 and 2012 Olympics. If at first you don’t succeed!!!

More US Distance News

Bernard Lagat To Race 2014 Carlsbad 5,000 On March 30th Lagat will go for the American road record of 13:24 set by Marc Davis in 1996.
In Addition To Winning US Jr. XC Champs By 51 Seconds, Elise Cranny Also Competed In The Colorado High School Swimming Championships She competed in one race on Friday before US XC and then left immediately after the race on Saturday to compete in 3 relays for her team, helping them finish 5th in both the 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay. *Day 1 Swimming Results*Day 2 (Finals)
Eugene Marathon Increases Prize Money And Support To Help US Runners Hit Olympic Trials StandardIan Dobson is the elite athlete coordinator and 2:13 man Craig Leon will pace a group through 30k at 2:15 (OT “A” standard) pace.
Another Study Shows It’s Not Bad For You To Run A Lot Or Race Marathons The study looked at the hearts of runners from the 2012 Boston Marathon.
NASCAR Champ Jimmie Johnson Runs Daytona Beach Half Marathon In 1:28:16

Start Your Day With Some Track History

SpikesMag Takes A Walk Through History: 13 Magic Moments From Past world Indoors Watch some cool videos including Haile Gebrselassie win the 1,500/3,000 double in 1999.
The IAAF Looks Back At The Elite Track History Of The Bahamas As They Get Ready To Host The First World Relay Championships They’ve won 16 gold medals (all sprints and jumps) at global championships since 1995.

SpikesMag Shares The Ten Reasons They Think Renaud Lavillenie Was Able To Break The Pole Vault WR Last Weekend They share some interesting facts about Lavillenie.

Oregon Women Move Back To The Top Of NCAA Polls As Last Week’s Number 1 Texas Moves Down To 5th Arkansas men stay on top.

Best Rabbit Of All Time? Haile G Will Pace London Marathon

Haile Gebrselassie Will Be A Pacemaker For The 2014 London Marathon The plan is for him to take the field through 30k on world record pace (around 1:28). It was also announced that Dubai Marathon champion, 18-year-old Tsegaye Mekonnen (2:04:32) has been added to the field.
Alberto Stretti Interview With Haile Gebrselassie On Rabbitting London Geb: “When we start the race, I will be the one to lead. But don’t forget how old I am!”
Haile G Says Mo Farah Should Forget The Marathon And Stick To The Track
MB Thread

Millrose Photo Gallery

2014 USA Cross-Country Photo Gallery

USA Indoor Champs – Women’s Coverage *Schedule/Heat Sheets/Results TV Info (Universal 2pm Sun., NBCSN 3:30pm ET)*****Full 2014 USA Indoor Coverage

W3k:LRCGabe Grunewald Blows Away The Field Over The Last Lap & Wins Her First US National Championship – Or Does She? – Status Of Alberto Salazar’s DQ Protest Still UnknownOn the track, there was no doubt who was the best over the final 200 – cancer survivor Gabe Grunewald – as Shannon Rowbury got 2nd. But Alberto Salazar has filed a protest to get Jordan Hasay on the Worlds team and much of the sport is up in arms as USATF once again still hasn’t made up their minds. We believe filing the protest was ridiculous – akin to getting blitzed by 10 in the fourth quarter of a B-Ball game and then complaining about a foul at the start of the 4th.
*Decide For Yourself: LRCRace Video Of Alleged Foul
*Sara Vaughn Speaks on Indoor Championship’s Athlete Atmosphere, 3000m controversy Vaughn: “I don’t know if I would call it intimidation, but there’s definitely hesitation [to speak out]. You have to think how stirring things up might you affect you getting into a future race or a future sponsorship deal.”

LRCWomen’s 800 Prelims: Wilson, Beckwith And Price Go Wire-To-WireThe big three looked great here setting up what should be a hard-fought final on Sunday. If you missed our preview, it’s here.

MB Chatter:

Tokyo – A World Major – Is In The Books *Full Tokyo Coverage

Dickson Chumba (2:05:42) And Tirfi Tsegaye (2:22:23) Set Tokyo Marathon CRs As Five Japanese Men Break 2:10 The race was fantastic as both the men’s and women’s races were decided after 40k.
*MB:2014 Tokyo Thread

Asian XC Champs:Non-Asian Born Runners Dominate Asian Cross-Country Champs They took the top 5 spots in the men’s race and four in the women’s.

NCAA Conference Champs Start This Weekend *All NCAA Coverage

RRWGeorgetown Women Set DMR Big East Meet Record On Day 1 Of Big East Championships – Villanova Leads Men And Women Team Competition
RRW: Armory Conference Championships Preview – Big East, MAAC, America East
Big East:*Meet Home/Schedule*Heat Sheets
NAU All-American Matt McElroy Commentating Live Stream For NAU Last Chance Meet Friday Starts at 5:30PM ET.
LSU Twilight:*Meet Home*Schedule
ND Alex Wilson:Isaac Wood’s 5 Races To WatchEmma Bates tries to get a 3k time for NCAAs.
Nebraska Tune-Up: *Meet Info*Schedule*Heat Sheets

Gasparilla Is Back!!!

LRC$30,000 In American Prize Money On Line At Publix Gasparilla Half Marathon This Weekend The money has attracted a lot of studs Shadrack Biwott, Abdi, Cabada, Vail, Jen Rhines, Adriana Nelson, etc.
Toni Reavis Is Pumped Gasparilla Distance Classic Is Featuring Prize Money For 1st Time Since 1997 – “Coming Around Again”

More Action This Weekend

2014 Worlds Best 10k Preview – Race Is Sunday And 4-Time Winner Sammy Kitwara Won’t Be There To DefendJoyce Chepkirui will try to defend her women’s title. When in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago, we saw adds for this race on television.
Steve Vernon Looking For Record 8th Medal At English XC Champs This Weekend
Preview Of 2014 Saucony English National XC Championships

US Distance / Sponsor News

Nick Symmonds Wrote A Book And Reveals All Including Recreational Drug Use, Issues With USATF/Nike And “Sex On The Circuit” Symmonds: “The primary goal is just telling the story and saying the things publicly that I’ve maybe told people over a beer in the past. … I don’t pull punches, and there are going to be some punches thrown in this book.”
*MB: Symmonds details hookups in book
Kara Goucher Still A Free Agent And Shopping Around For Potential New Sponsor She said it’s down to 5 companies.”I’m becoming less and less concerned with dollar figure and more and more concerned with if they are someone that fits into my belief system.”
Lukas Verzbicas Signs With New Balance His first competition under the new sponsor will be the Clermont Pan American Cup on March 1.
Bernard Lagat Named USATF Athlete Of The Week For Taking Down 33-Year-Old US 2,000m Record Lagat ran 4:54.74.

Lauryn Williams Makes Olympic History In Sochi *LRC Sochi 2014 News Section

Lauryn Williams Makes Olympic History In Sochi By Becoming The First Track Gold Medalist To Medal At The Winter Games She and driver Elana Meyers took home the silver medal behind a team from Canada. Williams becomes just the fourth person in history to win medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The team of former shot putter Aja Evans and Cornell All-American heptathlete Jamie Greubel got the bronze.
*RW Article
USA Today: Lolo Jones Misses Medal But Celebrates With Teammates Jones and her sled partner finished 11th.
Canada’s Gold Medal Winning Bobsled Team Including Former Sprinter Heather Moyse She competed for the University of Waterloo and is still 3rd all-time on their 60m list.
Lauryn Williams Has No Idea Where She Put Her Olympic Medals She has two medals from track, but isn’t sure where they are and says, “I think they’re at my mom’s house.”

1st Day

Tracksters Dominated 1st Day Of Women’s Bobsled

Sled Powered By Lauryn Williams Leads Bobsled After Day 1 And Is Poised For Gold As Former Cornell Heptathlon Star Jamie Greubel Sits In Third
Williams Poised To Make History
Meet The “Blonde Dragon” – Cornell Heptathlon School Record Holder Jamie Greubel She almost made the 2010 Games as a pusher; now she’s a driver.
Greubel’s Sled Is Pushed By Former Illinois Track Star Aja Evans Evans is quite an athlete. Top five in the NCAA shot put, she also ran 7.63 for 60m.
Another Profile Of Former Cornell Heptathlon Star Jamie Greubel
Usain Bolt Says He’s Going To Try Out For 2018 Winter Games (As A Joke, We Think)

Other Olympics / Winter-Related News

Interesting:A Look At Some Of The Worst Winter And Summer Olympians In History Includes a thrower from the very first modern Olympics.
Another Japan Road Race Snowed Out:Fukaya City Half Marathon Cancelled Due To Impossibility Of Clearing Course

Distance News

Ken Goe Profiles Brooks Beasts TC In OregonianBrooks Steps Up To Challenge Nike’s Hold On Northwest’s Elite Running Scene
Recommended Read: Renato Canova Reveals All Of The Key Workouts For Florence Kiplagat During The Last Month, Leading Uo To Her 13.1 WRecord How about 3k (9:20), 2 x 2k (6:07), 5 x 1k (sub-3:00)? Very impressive. Canova adds more insight by discussing the workout on the message board. Canova post #1. Canova post #2.
Day 2 Of Russian Champs: Anna Shchagina Wins 800 In PR Of 2:01.29, Kseniya Ryzhov Improves 400m World Lead To 51.03 Schagina may be the Russian woman to watch this winter as she’s expected to double back in the 1,500. Stepan Poistogov, the husband of Olympic 800m bronze medallist Yekaterina Poistogova, won the men’s 800 in a 1:46.53 PR. *Day 1 Recap
Justice Is Served 12 Years Later: Since Eddy H Admitted To EPO Usage, Dave Olds Was Given Medal For 2002 USA Masters XC Title In Boulder
Daily Relay’s Collegiate Weekend Recap
The Opposite Of Going Pro: Japan’s 2:24:28 Marathoner Remi Nakazato Quits Daihatsu Team To Become Amateur
Looking For Warm Weather/A Vacation? Go To The Bahamas For The Inaugural World Relays Champs May 24-5 – Tickets Now On Sale

USA Indoor Meet Will Take Place This Weekend – Who Has The Worlds Qualifiers? *Full 2014 USA Indoor Coverage

LRCList Of American Athletes With Qualifying Standard For 2014 USA World Indoors In Poland The USA team for World Indoors will be named this weekend as no chasing of qualifiers is allowed. Who has the qualifying time? Who doesn’t? *Entries

RRWMemories Of Special Double Victory From 2013 Give Will Leer Extra Inspiration For 2014 USA Indoor Meet

World Indoors Are In 2.5 Weeks

GB And NI Team For 2014 World Indoors Is Announced – Former NCAA Stars Lee Emanuel, Chris O’Hare Make Cut In 1,500
Iona’s Kate Avery Is Snubbed Because She Didn’t Send An Email Avery didn’t know there was even a chance she’d be considered but now she’s out on a technicality as she didn’t email to ask for permission to skip the UK Trials. Instead, GBR will only send one woman.
Going, Going, Gone:Britain’s Best Hope For World Indoors Is Out – James Dasaolu Pulls Out Of 60m With Hamstring Injury
Dasaolu got injured in Birmingham over the weekend.
Fresh Off A 45.76, Brit Nigel Levine Is Dreaming Of A Medal
6,000 Flock To See World Indoor’s ERGO Arena Be Officially Opened

UK News

GB Distance Runner Andy Vernon Hoping To Make The 3,000 Final At World Indoor Champs In Poland
UK Sprinter Richard Kilty Benefits From James Dasaolu’s Injury Kilty took Dasaolu’s world indoor team spot in the 60m.
Multi-Event Star Katarina Johnson-Thompson Will Compete In LJ At World Indoors She missed going in the pentathlon as she was sick and didn’t compete in a full event, but was still selected for the UK team in the LJ as she won the British Indoor Champs.
UK’s Former 400H World Champ Dai Greene Trying To Get Back On Top This Summer After Disappointing 2 Years He wants to start by regaining his European Outdoor title and then will represent Wales at the Commonwealth Games.
Russia: Russia Names 37-Strong Team For World Indoor Champs

International Distance News

Paula Radcliffe Talks About Mo Farah’s Marathon Debut And Her Own Career Radcliffe: “They do not know how they are going to cope and react in the last 10K and how their body is going to hold together. Even Mo himself will not know that.”
IAAF Final Day Recap Russian Indoor Champs: Svetlana Karamasheva Comes Back From 800 Bronze To Win 1,500 Gold She won over Natalya Aristarkhova and 800m champ Anna Shchagina. Valentin Smirnov won the men’s race in 3:41.65, missing the Worlds standard (he said he was tired from 300+ mile weeks???), Alla Kulyatina won the women’s 5k (15:30.52), and in the men’s race twins Anatoliy Rybakov and Evgeniy Rybakov went 1-2 in 13:44.21 and 13:44.70.
Elite Field Announced For April 5th Prague Half Marathon Women: 1:07:03 woman Joyce Chepkirui leads, 2-time World XC champ Emily Chebet, Worknesh Debele (1:07:49) , 2011 NYC Marathon champ Firehiwot Dado. Men are led by Atsedu Tsegay (58:47), 2012 New York Half Marathon winner Peter Kirui and 2011 Prague winner Philemon Limo.
Former Half Marathon WR Holder Tegla Loroupe And 2-Time World Champion Catherine Ndereba To Run Alongside Kenyan President’s Wife In First Lady’s Half Marathon

African Bureaucracy At Its Finest

Kenya Govt. Report Alleges Divide Between Athletics Kenya And Olympic Committee Led To Disappointing 2012 Games – Athletics Kenya Head Threatens To Sue Paper For Reporting It
Kenyans Report Says That Nike Handing Out Special Warmup Suits To Medal Winners Negatively Impacted Team Morale In 2012
Report Also Rips Double Medalist Vivian Cheruiyot For Demanding Her Husband Be Accomodated In The Olympic Village Memo to Kenya: She won two medals.
More Administrative News:Swiss Anti-Doping Expert Says Brazilians Face Stiff Task In Trying To Get Anti-Doping Lab Up And Running For 2016 Games Brazil is so bad at anti-doping that the 2014 World Cup drug testing is being sent to Switzerland.

Non-Distance News

Over The Weekend, Kelly Proper Won A Record-Breaking 16th Irish Indoor Title She won both the 200 and LJ. The crazy thing is she’s still only 25 years young.
Jacko Gill Gets New Agent And Coach As He Tries To Make Transition From Junior To Senior Star

NYRR Millrose Games ResultsFull Millrose Coverage *New Photo Gallery

LRCAlan Webb Retires From Track And Field

Webb, the American mile record holder, talks about his career after running one last mile in the place where he first broke 4:00.

LRC Millrose Men's Recap: Bernard Lagat Amazes Yet Again, Will Leer Stuns The Wanamaker Mile Field And A Frenchman Breaks The American Record

The men’s mid-d and distance action was pretty spectacular at the 2014 NYRR Millrose Games. We tell you all about it. Here’s an intro – imagine breaking a 33-year-old American record and finishing 5th.

LRC Women's Recap: Teens Mary Cain And Ajee Wilson Win As Does Kim Conley

Mary Cain won the mile, Ajee' Wilson the 800 and Kim Conley the 3,000.

More Millrose Coverage Here, Click Here For Photo Gallery

The Moment You’ve All Been Waiting For: The Results For Our “Dirty” Or “Clean” Doping Polls

LRCWorld Record Holders “Dirty” Or “Clean” Doping Poll Results Without further ado, we present to you the results of our world record doping poll. LRCThe “Dirty” Or “Clean” Doping Polls: Why Did We Do Them? Many of you get it. You voted and gave us some very interesting demographic data. We think you’ll find the data very interesting. Some of you don’t get it and have said so. Here we address some of your concerns.
*Blogger Reflects On LetsRun’s “Clean Or Dirty Polls” And Says It Has Helped Promote Belief In A Clean Sport He writes, “The most surprising aspect of the data to me was the percentage of voters who thought that athletes were clean. … This data is surprising because I thought that as a community we were more cynical than the numbers show.”
*MB:LetsRun “Clean or Dirty” Poll Discussion Thread
*MB:Wait a minute! Over 40% of letsrun visitors DON’T think El G was doped up?