January 31, 2015 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For January 31, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“The world record will go.”

– Legendary coach Frank Gagliano talking about the men’s distance medley relay world record. An American team of Matt Centrowitz, Mike Berry, Erik Sowinski and Pat Casey is favored to get the record today at the Armory Track Invitational as track and field returns to live national TV on NBCSN from 4:30-6:30pm Eastern. Centro joked at the press conference with Mike Berry about the opening leg: “How big of a lead would you like to have?”

Reminder:Armory Invite Live National TV 4:30-6:30 Eastern On NBCSN
*Live Thread*Notes From Friday’s Press Conference*Preview

Pro Indoor Track Heats Up This Weekend – Armory Track InviteEntries 2015 Camel City Elite RacesSchedule, Streaming And Television Info Live Results

LRC Shannon Rowbury Runs 4:22.69 In Women’s Mile, Becomes 5th-Fastest Performer Ever Jenny Simpson, you may be world #1, but you’d better be training hard as Rowbury is on fire to start 2015.

MB: He’s Back !?! Brandon Johnson destroys field, sets meet record at Camel City Elite in 1st indoor race since 2012 Johnson won by nearly 1.5 seconds over 2 of the top 5 guys from the US in 2014.

ATI Press Conference LRCPress Conference Wisdom: Gags Says The DMR WR Is Going Down, Galen Rupp’s Double Is Off, Mary Cain Isn’t A 1,500/5,000 runner (For Now) And More At the presser on Friday where Matt Centrowitz stole the show with a slew of great jokes, we learned A LOT, including why Galen Rupp and Mary Cain have switched events, that for Mary Cain running is #1 and school #2, that Bernard Lagat is in shape and more. *MB: Galen Rupp’s double is off- Rupp will run 2 mile only at Armory. Lots of info from press conference.
*Cam Levins: “I’m as fit as I’ve ever been.”

Meet Previews: LRC Armory Track Invite Preview: A Loaded Women’s 800, Galen Rupp 2 Mile & A DMR World Record Attempt

LRC Camel City Elite Preview: Leo Manzano, Will Leer & Shannon Rowbury Headline

Pre-Meet News For Camel City And Armory Track Invite

LRC Brandon Johnson Discusses His Injury-Plagued 2014, His New Coach Joaquim Cruz, And His Goals For 2015 Johnson was the talk of US track in 2013 but was nowhere to be seen in 2014 as a shift from 50 to 60 mpw to 80 to 90 mpw backfired. Before his season opener at the Camel City Elite Meet in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Saturday, Johnson talks about what it’s like to room with Dathan Ritzenhein, his coaching change to an Olympic gold medalist and how his training has been going “awesome.”

*MB:Is mileage overrated? Brandon Johnson ran 1:43 on 50-60 mpw, 1:46 on 80 to 90?

LRC Leo Manzano Speaks About His Recent Altitude Stint And Plans For His Indoor SeasonManzano will open 2015 in the mile against Will Leer, Matt Elliott, Riley Masters and others.

NBC Sports Q&A With Galen Rupp On Mo Farah, Marathons, & Getting Drug Tested At A Truck Stop

Q&A With Cory Leslie Ahead Of This Weekend’s Camel City Mile Where He’ll Face Leo Manzano And Will Leer Women’s mile has Shannon Rowbury, Morgan Uceny and Heather Kampf.
David Oliver And Jason Richardson Will Race 60H
$40,000 In Prize Money Up For Grabs At Camel City

Political News

Did They Seriously Think The IOC Would Go For This?Saudi Arabia Suggests Joint Olympic Bid With Men And Women Competing In Different Countries Men would compete in Saudi Arabia with women in Bahrain. IOC president Thomas Bach quickly shot down this suggestion.
Interesting:InsideTheGames: “A Tale Of Two Elections” Writer analyzes the Seb Coe vs. Sergey Bubka election and compares track and field leadership to soccer.
Sergei Bubka Troubled By Ukraine Conflict As He Seeks IAAF Presidency The Druzhba Arena where last year Renaud Lavillenie broke the pole vault WR and Bubka holds his annual PV Stars meet was actually looted and burned down by rebels. The meet has been cancelled for this year.

Our Weekly Recap Is Back

LRC WTW: Is 2015 The Beginning Of The End For Bernard Lagat Or The Beginning Of A Truly Special Year? Shannon Rowbury, Cas Loxsom And Moses Mosop Off To Good Starts; One Japanese Marathoner Is Better Than The Entire USA (Again) What do Emma Coburn and Cas Loxsom have in common? Who makes more? Sprinters or distance runners? Meet the new NCAA leader in the 800 from Los Angeles. All of that, plus a distance race that crushed the NCAA football television game in TV ratings?

News From Russia

Talk About Sending The Wrong Message:Russian Athletics President Valentin Balakhnichev Says He Will Fight Any Attempts To Strip Banned Racewalkers Of London 2012 Medals With the storm of accusations facing Russian athletics, is now the time to fight on behalf of their doped up athletes? Last week, five racewalkers were banned and had results from 2009 onward annulled, but not the Olympics.
Russian Athletics Federation To Sue German ARD TV Channel Over Doping Scandal They claim that some of the German narration in the documentary “did not match the real words” the Russian athletes were speaking.
Get Out Before They Kick You Out?2004 Olympic 800 Champion Yuri Borzakovsky Retiring He’ll run his last race Sunday at the Russian Winter meeting in Moscow.

News From Down Under

Australian National 10,000 Champ Brett Robinson Wins Briggs Athletics Classic 5,000 In 13:43.13 Over David McNeill And Ben St. Lawrence Former NCAA champ McNeill was 13:45.56) and St. Lawrence 13:52.51. *Full Meet Video*Results
Nick Willis Will Race Against Zane and Jake Robertson And Augustine Choge Over 5,000 On February 26th In New Zealand Willis: “I’m pretty nervous because there’s a lot of pride on the line. It’s just like when you’re playing table tennis with your mates in the garage next to your house, you want to make sure that you don’t lose to anybody.” He also will compete in the NZ Speedgolf Open on Feb. 21st.

US Marathon Champs Are In March

Elite Field Announced For 2015 USATF Marathon Championships At The LA Marathon Men’s field has Ryan Hall, Shadrack Biwott, Matt Llano, 61:30 half marathoner Scotty Bauhs (debut) and ultra-marathoners Sage Canaday and Max King. Women’s side led by Janet Bawcom, Brianne Nelson and Sara Hall in her debut.
Hall Excited To Make Her Debut: “I’ve fallen in love with the marathon distance just watching so many of Ryan’s races. He makes it look like so much fun out there.” Her coach Steve Magness talks about her impressive range as last year she was competing well over distances from the mile to the half. He says even during marathon training she’s still been able to bang out 29-second 200s on the track.
*MB: Sara Hall Running LA
Matt Llano: “There’s a big learning curve with a race that long, and even though I received advice from some of the world’s top marathoners before Chicago … … there’s something to be said for lessons that resonate better through experience.”
LA Marathon CEO Tracey Russell: “This is shaping up to be one of the most competitive fields in the history of the [LA] marathon.”

We’re Sick Of Putting This Up Top – There Are 2 Great US Pro Meets Today

Interesting: Kelly-Ann Baptiste (Caught Up In Tyson Gay Drug Scandal) Has Ban Overturned But Decision Won’t be Released The only reason it should be confidential is if a bigger drug case is being used with her evidence.

Friday’s Top Action

Penn State: Georgetown Wins Penn State DMR In 9:28.22The all underclassmen team crushed the old school record of 9:31.19.
Armory Track Invitational Day 1 Recap With Tweets And Images For the high school action, click here. Day 1 full results here.
Razorback Invitational Results Oklahoma State ran 9:30.65 to beat Stanford in the DMR.
Washington Husky Invite Meet Results The Bowerman TC team of Evan Jager, Lopez Lomong, Andy Bayer and Ryan Hill only ran 9:42.66. They probably lost all the time on the 400.

Weekend Action Got Started Early In Germany

Six World-Leading Marks Highlight Thursday Night PSD Bank Meeting In DusseldorfNixson Chepseba won the 3,000 in 7:44.72 over Paul Kipsiele Koech, Poland’s Adam Kszczot won the 800 in 1:46.48 over countryman Marcin Lewandowski (1:46.74), German Arne Gabius won the 5,000m in an indoor NR of 13:27.53, and Switzerland’s Selina Buchel won the 800m in 2:01.87. In the 1,500, Bethwel Birgen won in 3:40.58 while Silas Kiplagat was last in 3:49.97. *Full Results
*Kszczot Will Try To Become The First In Almost 50 Years To Win Three Consecutive Euro Indoor 800 Titles The 2015 championships are in Prague March 6-8.

Friday’s Random But Interesting

Matthew McConaughey To Star In Movie Adaptation Of Christopher McDougall’s Best-Selling Book “Born To Run” McConaughey reportedly has some experience with running in triathlons.
*MB: Born to Run – Two movies, one with Matthew McConaughey
Runner Gets Creative Applying For A Job At Strava, Spelling “HIRE ME” Over An 8.1-Mile Run Other popular “Strava art” has included a Thanksgiving turkey, a marriage proposal, a San Francisco Giants logo, and a “big bike.”
RunnersWorld Model Nikki Delventhal Loses Mud Race On TV Show “The Bachelor,” Goes Home Early She considers herself a “mud run enthusiast” but blamed the large wedding dress she wore on losing the race.
RW’s Superbowl Runoff: Which Is The Better “Running City”? Boston Or Seattle? They give Boston the edge although Seattle is a better place to actually run.

More Upcoming Action

Friday/Saturday: MB:BU Terrier Heat Sheets
Preview Of Hunter Track Clasic In Australia: Jeff Riseley In The 1,500
Bring Back The Mile 2015 Tour Events AnnouncedJack Bolas and Heather Kampf won the inaugural Tour titles in 2014.
*BBTM “Pick The Winner” Contest Starts Saturday Get a chance to win free running gear.
*BBTM Campaign Now 3 Years Old
Feb. 8: Yuki Kawauchi Headlines February 8th Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon He’ll face a decent field that includes Tomoya Adachi (2:09:59) and Shuji Yoshikawa (61:58 half).
Feb. 14: Olympic Gold Medal Winner Jenn Suhr Will Add To NYRR Millrose Games’ Rich Pole Vault Tradition
Mar. 28: IAAF Release Official World XC Champs Bulletin With Tons Of Meet Info

Doping News

Athletics Kenya Official Barnaba Korir Questions Why The Eight Recently-Banned Athletes Were Allowed To Compete For A Year Or More After Testing Positive One of the banned runners is Flomena Chepchirchir, who ran 2:23:00. Korir: “Some of these athletes were found positive nearly two years ago and AK have been sitting on the reports from IAAF. How could they wait for two years to act? These are old casualties and I am sure AK still have some others they are sitting on.”
Athletics Illustrated Opinion Piece: “To The IAAF: Ban Russia Now”Christopher Kelsall: “Russia is no longer innocent until proven guilty. Currently there are at least 68 Russian athletes serving suspensions for doping related infractions, this is far and away the most in the world and is offensive to the fair play credo of the sport.”
Former 400H World Champ Dai Greene Says He Thinks Recently-Banned Welsh Duo “Were Very Hard Done By”Rhys Williams and Gareth Warburton both got short bans after taking an allegedly contaminated supplement.
WADA Head David Howman Says Doping Is A Public Health Issue, Not Just A Problem In Elite Sport “Too many people are taking too many substances they don’t even know … As a society we would be shocked at the amount of stuff that our children are taking.”
New Anti-Doping Agency Of Kenya Will Will Get Assistance From China And Norway’s Anti-Doping Agencies

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce And Nesta Carter Opening Their Seasons Saturday At The Queen’s/Grace Jackson Meet In Jamaica

Random But Interesting

Nike And Design Firm Form Idea For An “Athlete’s Plane” The currently hypothetical aircraft would have massage tables, beds, spacious bathrooms and, more than likely, an astronomically high price ticket.
Study Finds Pre-Run Ibuprofen Won’t Improve Performance It was found that ibuprofen didn’t help with performance for runners who were sore as they actually performed relatively worse in a treadmill test to exhaustion.

Upcoming XC Action

Three-Time Winner Dathan Ritzenhein Racing 2015 US XC Champs On February 7th In Boulder Ritz last ran in 2013 when he was 2nd, 6 seconds behind Chris Derrick.

LetsRun.com’s 2014 Awards – We Need Your Vote

LRC Meb Or Galen? Vote For LetsRun.com’s 2014 Award It’s time to vote. Vote and tell us who are the male and female runners of the year for the World, US, and NCAA. Plus vote for the “best record-breaking performance,” the “race of the year,” the “moment of the year” and “unusual moment of the year.”

Friday’s Big News

Rita Jeptoo Gets 2-Year Drug Ban, Will Lose $500,000 WMM Bonus Her ban will go through the 2015 World Championships and 2016 Olympics.
*MB: Justice: Rita Jeptoo gets 2 year ban from Atheltics Kenya

More Upcoming

Saturday: Karlsruhe Meeting Preview: PV WR Holder Renaud Lavillenie Faces German World Champ Raphael Holzdeppe Distance action includes Euro champ Sifan Hassan in the 1,500 and Paul Kipsiele Koech in the 3,000. Ryan Whiting vs. Christian Cantwell in the SP.
Feb. 7: 10 More Stars Added To Fields For New Balance Indoor Grand PrixAsafa Powell, Nick Willis, Sally Kipyego and Dejen Gebremeskel added to the meet that already includes Bernard Lagat, Jenny Simpson and Mary Cain.

Boston Strong

Image Of Man Shoveling Off Boston Marathon Finish Line During Blizzard Goes Viral There was a city-wide search via social media to find the man, identified as bar tender and runner Chris Laudani. Laudani said, “I think it’s cool that a ton of people have gotten behind the idea and support the idea that the finish line isn’t just a strip of paint in the road …”
Boston Herald Article On The “Boston Shoveler” Laudani: “I liked it better when it was just a mystery man who could have been anybody.”
One Of The Initial Articles Trying To Find The “Boston Shoveler”

Pole Vault Legend Sergey Bubka Officially Running For IAAF Presidency Against Seb Coe He and Coe are currently vice presidents in the IAAF. In 2013 Bubka made an unsuccessful run for the IOC presidency.

Kenyan Updates: Another 8 Drug Bans

IAAF Bans Eight More Kenyans For Doping~~No big names, mostly B-list marathoners.~~ The best result we could find was Emily Chepkorir‘s 2:32:31 from the Nairobi Marathon in 2011Flomena Chepchirchir‘s 2:23:00 from Frankfurt 2013.
David Rudisha Says His “Training Is Going On Well Without Any Problems” He’ll open his season at the Melbourne World Challenge on March 21. “I am currently doing my hill work speed and fat-leg training in search of endurance. With time, I’ll switch to track for speed work.”
Don’t Worry About Asbel Kiprop’s XC DNF Last Weekend Kiprop dropped out of the 10K Discovery Kenya XC race, but said the race was just for training.
Doper Matthew Kisorio Focused On Making Kenyan World XC Team And Trying To Win A Medal He was 4th at the 2011 race.
Kenyan Secretary For Sports, Hassan Wario, Announces Formation Of The Kenya Anti-Doping Council

European Stuff

Poland’s Kamila Licwinko Clears World-Leading 2.00m HJ At German Jumps Meet She tied her own NR while Spain’s Ruth Beitia cleared 1.96m to set a national masters record. Russia’s Aleksandr Gripich won the PV in 5.70m.
Irish Miler Ciarán Ó Lionáird Blogs About His Early Years Of Training, Giving Some Insight Into The Irish Club System He offers a bunch of sample workouts and training weeks as well as overall training philosophy.
Former London Marathon Race Director David Bedford “A Little Surprised” About The Lack Of Drug Testing At UK Road Races Drug testing is expensive. We’d rather see anti-doping authorities go after top athletes than people winning sub-elite races. That said, some races could surely afford to pay for it themselves.
EA Recap Of Lotto Crosscup In Belgium, Which Had A Belgian Winner For The First Time In 14 YearsLouise Carton won the women’s race while Ethiopian Tasama Dame won the men’s.
Czech Republic’s Eliska Klucinova Sets Big PR To Win Pentathlon At Combined Events Meet In The Netherlands At the same meet world heptathlon bronze medalist Dafne Schippers opened her season with a 7.20m 60m and Czech athlete Adam Sebastian Helcelet won the heptathlon.
Final Entries Confirmed For February 1st European Club Championships: Spain’s Two-Time Euro Champ Alemayehu Bezabeh Leads Field

Other Elite Distance News

IAAF “Personal Bests” Interview With Nick Willis Read about Willis’ greatest achievement, best piece of coaching advice and why his favorite sports team means he is a “glutton for suffering.”
Daily Emerald: Internal Competition Drives Oregon’s Distance Men Parker Stinson: “If you have an off day, it’s really hard. It’s already a really competitive practice.”
Brooks Beasts Sign Dorian Ulrey And Matt Hillenbrand
*MB: Dorian Ulrey to the Brooks Beasts

Random But Interesting

10 Runners Complete 7 Marathons On 7 Continents In 7 Days The “World Marathon Challenge” has an entry fee of $36,000. The fastest marathon of the week was 3:17:11.
The History Of Indoor Track: When And Where Was The First Indoor Meet? The day: November 7th, 1863. The place: Ashburnham Hall in West London. The first meet had just four running events and a TJ.
How Far Do Top Male Tennis Players Run In A Match? It varies by playing style as David Ferrer recently ran ~10,000m over three rounds while Novak Djokovic only covered somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000m through three rounds.
Runner And Frequent RunnersWorld Model Nikki Delventhal A Contestant On TV Show “The Bachelor” Apparently there is a wedding dress mud run that she’s expected to do well in.
Boston 2024 Calling On City’s Wealthy To Donate Towards Olympic Campaign The group of doners is known as the “Founders 100” with entry starting at $50,000. They’re hoping to raise $75 million.