February 06, 2015 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For February 06, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“I’d like to say challenge for the gold medal in 10,000, but that’s too soon to say. I would really like to challenge for a gold medal in either event and definitely drop some serious times.”

– Zane Robertson talking to LetsRun.com about his goals for 2015. Robertson shocked the world with a 59:47 half marathon last weekend in Japan.

T&F’s New Kiwi Star?

LRC Q&A Zane Robertson Discusses His 59:47 Shocker, His 10,000 Plans And Why He Knew Hayle Lemi Was Going To Win Dubai LRC caught up with Robertson, who’s got big plans for 2015, on Thursday morning after his spectacular half marathon debut in Japan.

Usain Bolt’s Season Is About To Begin – Let’s Hope He Races More Than In 2014

Usain Bolt Will Open His Season Next Week On Valentine’s Day In Jamaica

Stars Demand To Know More About Rita Jeptoo Case

Olympic Champs Wilfred Bungei And John Ngugi Demand AK To Tell Us More About Jeptoo’s Doping: “If Jeptoo is guilty as we are told, was she acting alone? She was interviewed with her husband, manager and coach. Are they also culpable or not?”
Coach Brother Colm O’Connell: “I think AK should reveal who aided Rita Jeptoo into doping or, if not, tell us the doctor who treated her.” “… It’s time we stepped out of the doping shadow and tell exactly who were involved in the doping issue before it gets out of hand.”

Administrative News

Sergey Bubka Vows Not To Cut Any Track Events If He’s IAAF Head
2014 IAAF Yearbook “365” Now Available Online For FreeThe 128-page publication looks back at 2014 and can be viewed for free here. Or purchase a hard copy for $20.
IOC President Thomas Bach Has Met With Boston 2024 Chairman John Fish During A Visit To USOC Headquarters, Says US Has Lots Of Work To Do

Drugs: Sadly, Russian Kids Doping Doesn’t Surprise Us

Get Them While Their Young:Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko SaysThat Russian Children Athletes Are Doping While Still At School He says many youth coaches get paid large bonuses when their young athletes win.
Jamaica On The Verge Of Introducing Blood Testing For Its Athletes Currently, JADCO only uses urine samples to test athletes.

LRCPros React To Patriots' Thrilling Victory Over Seahawks In Super Bowl XLIX

Sunday was the best and worst of times for many top runners. Reaction from the likes of Usain Bolt, Shalane Flanagan, Andrew Wheating, Kyle Merber, Trevor Dunbar, Riley Masters, LaShawn Merritt, Heather Kampf, Nick Symmonds, Tom Farrell, Brianna Rollins and more.

Women’s Distance News

Brenda Martinez Says She Wants To Run A Marathon After The 2016 Olympics She says she’s “a little obsessed by it” and even though she’s an 800/1,500 runner, she’s doing a decent amount of strength work like 14-mile runs at 6-minute pace and 80-mile weeks.
Paula Radcliffe Thankful Just To Be Back Running Again As She Prepares For The London Marathon “It will be emotional for lots of reasons … for all of the times that I couldn’t do it and I think as well for the fact that I couldn’t run at all. I never thought I could be back here.”
IAAF “Personal Bests” Q&A With Ethiopia’s World 5,000 Bronze Medalist Almaz Ayana She says Tirunesh Dibaba is her idol.

Armory Invite Photo Gallery

LRC25 Years Ago Today: The Greatest Race You’ve Never Heard Of – The 1990 Commonwealth Games 5,000m Final

LRC Remembering LRCer Van TownsendThe running world lost one of its bright lights this week with the death of Van Townsend.
*MB: RIP Van Townsend: Share Your Respects Here

A Great Sat. For US Fans 2015 USA XC Champs In Boulder Schedule, Results, Streaming (Live USATF 2:15pm ET) 2015 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix In Boston Schedule, Start Lists, Results, Streaming (Live NBCSN 6-8:30pm ET)

LRC 2015 NBIGP Press Conference: Jenny Simpson, Bernard Lagat, Matthew Centrowitz And More Speak Before Tomorrow’s Races The pros were full of wisdom. Are you ready for Bernard Lagat‘s 10,000 debut? Did you know Joe Flacco is better than Tom Brady? All of that and more.
*RRW Jenny Simpson: “I’m in great shape, I’m as fit and as healthy as I’ve ever been this time of year.”
*RRW Like Bill Belichick, Emma Coburn is focused ahead on her next race, not looking back hampered by distractions

LRC 2015 NBIGP Preview: Action Everywhere – American Record Attempts In W 2-Mile And M 1k, A WR Attempt In W DMR, Plus A Loaded Men’s 3k Oh, baby is this one loaded. Season debuts for Bernard Lagat, Emma Coburn and Jenny Simpson. A three-way slugfest for the 1,000m AR between Centrowitz, Sowinski and Loxsom. A world record attempt in the women’s DMR. Other stars like Mary Cain, Nick Willis and Lawi Lalang. Saturday’s meet in Boston is going to be good.
*IAAF Preview
*New Balance Will Still Pay Emma Coburn Her AR Bonus Even Though Her Steeple Mark Isn’t The AR holder

LRC 2015 USA XC Men’s Preview: Chris Derrick Looks For 3-Peat, Dathan Ritzenhein Looks For Revenge In Loaded Men’s Field 8 years ago, with World XC spots on the line, the action in Boulder was legendary as all of the Colorado greats – Culpepper, Goucher, Torres and Ritz – battled. What’s in store in 2015? Chris Derrick goes for the three-peat but he’ll have plenty of competition in the form of Ben True, Dathan Ritzenhein, Maksim Korolev, Ryan Vail and Garrett Heath.

LRC 2015 USA XC Championships Women’s Preview: With Big Names Absent, Title Is There For The Taking With Abbey D’Agostino out due to injury, the biggest name in the field is 2012 champ Sara Hall. Katie Mackey and Laura Thweatt have good shots to make the team; U.S. Half Marathon Champs runner-up Brianne Nelson (70:16) will also run.

Collegiate Action

*Results/Schedules For This Weekend’s NCAA Meets

Syracuse’s Superstar In The Making And True Frosh Justyn Knight’s 3:59.51 Indoor Mile Was A Canadian Jr. Record Teammate Martin Hehir also broke 4 in the race.

Week That Was

WTWZane Robertson = Ryan Hall, Alberto Salazar= Bill Belichick, Mo Farah = His Twin Brother, Will Claye ≠ Canadian

Zane Robertson and Ryan Hall are way more similar than you thought, Alberto Salazar is track’s Bill Belichick, Will Claye is not Canadian but good for the sport, the Russians are really good at doping, plus the tweet of the week, fast races on a flat track and more.

LRC Wayback Machine: Interview From Ryan Hall Before His Senior Year Of High School He talks about doing 20 milers and 10-mile tempos.

Today’s Top Distance News

Recommended Read:In-Depth Piece On 2-Time Foot Locker Champ Anna Rohrer, Who Returned From Foot Surgery Her Junior Year To Get Glory As A Senior*MB Thread
Bend, Oregon Chosen As Site For 2016 And 2017 USATF Cross-Country Championships The course will be similar to the one used for the 2013 Club XC Championships.
*LRC Archives:Not Rupp Certified: NOP Not Racing At Club Nats – Course Too Tough
Athletics Weekly Weekly Round-Up: Brit Jenny Meadows Ran A World-Leading 1:59.21 800 In Vienna It was the quickest indoor 800 since 2012.
*Meadows Wins Mid-Week 800 At Copernicus Cup She ran her second sub-2 in 4 days with 1:59.85.
*Adam Kszczot Won Men’s 800 In 1:47.05
New Danish Study Says That Too Much Running Is “As Bad As No Exercise At All” People who jogged more than three times a week or at a place of more than 7mph were as likely to die as those who did no exercise.
*MB: New Study: High Mileage may be unhealthy as being Sedentary in Older Adults
*MB:Danish study shows most of you will die the same time as a couch potato

Kenyan Controversy

Retired And Current Athletes Calling For A Boycott Of The Kenyan National XC Championships If The Government Doesn’t Remove AK President Isaiah Kiplagat From Office PAAK National Organising Secretary Julius Ndegwa: “We are giving an ultimatum to all branch chairmen to hold their teams until AK met our conditions. I’m asking the CEO, Isaac Mwangi, not to pay for any venue because there will be no event on that day.”

Next Weekend: Stacked Fields For Wanamaker Mile

2015 Wanamaker Mile:Bernard Lagat Will Go For 9th Title Against Past Champions Will Leer And Matt Centrowitz; Mary Cain Will Defend Against Shannon Rowbury Lagat will also face Nick Willis, Leo Manzano, Edward Cheserek, Lawi Lalang and more. *Discuss

Doping

IAAF Says That The Doping Bans Of Russians Yuliya Zaripova And Tatyana Chernova Are “Illustrations Of The Robustness Of The IAAF Anti-Doping Program” The IAAF says they won’t comment on the sanctions until they receive the full decision from RUSADA.
Infographic By The The Huffington Post: All The Olympic Athletes Who Lost Medals For Doping Since 1968 Doesn’t include the most recently banned like Russian steepler Zaripova.
Other Sports Publicly Try To Find Doping Loopholes:South Korean Top Officials Actually Met To Discuss A Strategy To Help Their Top Swimmer Avoid A Doping Suspension That Will Keep Him Out Of Rio 2016

LRCGet Your Butt To Boulder, Colorado For The USA XC Afterparty One Month From Today

Steve and Sara Slattery are hosting the party and want runners, non-runners, and LRCers to be there.

Bizarre

Philly Man Trying To Fly To Half Marathon, Detained By TSA, Thrown In Jail For 23 Hours Because He Had Powerbars And A Running Watch Apparently PowerBars resemble a bomb that can be detonated by a watch. Surveillance footage showed the TSA’s allegation that he threatened an agent was false.
Rojo Is Happy:Princeton Tiger Mascot Destroyed Other Mascot From Tri-State Area In 60m Dash At Armory Last Weekend
64 Riot Police To Run Tokyo Marathon With Surveillance Cameras And Pepper Spray In Counter-Terrorism Operation
*MB:Would US cops be fit enough to do this?

Interesting Reads

Photocrop:Lauren Fleshman Is Irate That New USATF Commercial Crops Out The Logos Of All Non-Nike Athletes Ignoring that key point, the ad is well done. *MB: USATF Commercial #YoureWelcome
It’s Official: Bruce Jenner’s Mother Confirms He’s Transitioning To A Woman – “(I’m) more proud of him now than … when he put that gold medal around his neck.”*Discuss
*Washington Post: The Forgotten History Of Bruce Jenner: How The 1970s All-American Hero Ended Up Here
*WP: Civilities: When It Comes To Transgender Etiquette, Choose To Be Kind
Words Of Wisdom: Q&A With Nijel AmosAmos says he doubted himself until this year’s Pre Classic when Taoufik Makhloufi came up to him and told him he’s the future. He also says his mind was weak at 2011 World Youths.
Nick Willis Ready To Battle This Weekend At NBIGP: “I’m planning to run negative splits and be ready for anything.” It’s worth noting that the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix – not Millrose – is the only IAAF permit meet in the US this winter.
Cathal Dennehy Gives Galen Rupp An “F” For His 2-Mile Last Week An F for a rust buster is a bit harsh.
Northport (N.Y.) High’s Mikey Brannigan Is SI’s Feb. High School Athlete Of The Month – He Gets Huge Profile As A Result

Mutaz Essa Barshim Becomes 8th Man To Jump 2.40m In Banska Bystrica His outdoor PR is 2.43m.

Video Of The Week:Watch 38-Year-Old Kim Collins Run 6.48 WL From Last Weekend

Sub-2 Hour Project Holds Its 1st Meeting – Haile G/Jos Hermens Attend

News From Africa

Looking Ahead

2015 Beijing Worlds Are Less Than 200 Days Away – Liu Xiang’s Chances Of Competing “Seem To Be Very Limited” Due To Injuries
Preview Of Next Week’s XL Galan Meet In Sweden Featuring Genzebe Dibaba’s WR Attempt She’s far from the only big name to be competing.
Justin Gatlin And Asafa Powell Will Clash At 100m At Jamaica International Invitational In Kingston May 9th Many top female stars like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Allyson Felix will be competing as well.

NCAA News *All College Weekend Results

Great Podcast Q&A With Mark Wetmore Hear about his track aspirations for this year and how Colorado is going to start attracting more sprinters, throwers and jumpers. Also why he stopped coaching Jenny Simpson when she graduated.
Weekend Collegiate Highlights: Texas A&M Men’s 4 X x400 Finish Just .03 Short Of Their 3:03.20 Collegiate Record Leah O’Connor ran a 4:34.28 mile at the Michigan-Michigan State dual. Florida’s Najee Glass just missed the collegiate all-time top 10 with a 45.34 400 to win at Arkansas. DII Hjer Erika Kinsey set a collegiate lead with a 1.90m (6-2¾) clearance.
Arkansas PVer Sani Morris And Florida Sprinter Najee Glass NCAA Athletes Of The Week Morris jumped the all-time best non-altitude jump by a collegiate with 4.65m.
Ken Goe Asks “Where Should We Expect Edward Cheserek to Race In 2015?” Goe talks to Oregon coach Robert Johnson about riding the line between what’s best for the athletes/team and the Hayward fans. Team priorities could keep Cheserek from racing much at home.
Updated DI Rankings: Oregon Men And Florida Women Stay #1 Top 6 men’s teams stayed the same while Arkansas moved from 5th to 3rd on the women’s side.
Top 10 NCAA Marks From Each Event From The Weekend
Podcast Q&A With Recent NCAA Pole Vault Record Holder Demi Payne If you didn’t know, Payne is a mother and took a year off from competing in college to have her baby.
Podcast Q&A With Recent Wisconsin’s Michael Lihrman, Who Recently Broke The NCAA Weight Throw Record

Third Season Of IAAF Inside Athletics Starts With Ato Boldon Interviewing Qatar HJer Mutaz Essa Barshim

London 2012 Olympic Park Updates

NYT: In London, An Olympic Park Anchors A Resurgence For everyone who thinks the Olympics are huge waste of money leaving only “white elephants,” go to London where the leftovers have sparked a revitalization.
London Mayor Appoints VINCI Stadium, Operator Of Stade de France, To Manage The Former Olympic Stadium

More Weekend XC Results

Defending Champ Genet Yalew And “Relative Unknown” Tamirat Tola Win Ethiopian World XC Trials Tola won over an extremely deep field that included former world XC champ Imane Merga, track studs Hagos Gebrehiwet and Yenew Almirew, and world marathon bronze medalist Tadesse Tola.
Turkey Cleans Up At European Club Championships As Their Teams Win Women’s Senior And Both Junior Races A team from Spain won the men’s team title as France’s Othmane El Goumri got the individual win. Turkey’s Irene Cheptai won the women’s race. *Results