February 23, 2015 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For February 23, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“He needs so much counseling. Losing a child is so hard but we are going to continuously advise him not to give up on life.”

– Ugandan Athletics VP Lawrence Kavuma talking last month about Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich, whose 19-month-old daughter died. Kiprotich definitely did not give up on life and showed the true Olympic spirit Sunday morning in Japan, as he battled back to pass Dickson Chumba just before the finish for second place at the Tokyo Marathon. Kiprotich flashed his smile and put his arms out in celebration.

Week That Was

LRC Tsegaye Kebede Vs. The USA, Don’t Positive Split The Marathon, Worlds Is Coming, An Improved World Marathon Majors, NCAA Men Vs. NCAA Women And More We recap the week in running.

Seb Coe Doesn’t Think Track Is Too Dependent On Usain Bolt And Hopes He Stays Involved Even After He Retires “Are we overdependent on Bolt? It would be a bit like saying to the boxing community in the ’60s and ’70s that they are over reliant on Muhammad Ali.”

GB Olympic LJ Champ Greg Rutherford Says He Doesn’t Want His Son To Compete In Doping-Tainted Track And Field Other professional sports aren’t any better; track and field just actually tests. Rutherford was pretty negative as he said, “You might as well throw the sport to the dogs.”

Preview Of March 1st Napa Valley Marathon

Jamaican (Doping) Stuff

Journalist Says Inviting Asafa Powell To Compete At Ireland’s Athlone Grand Prix “Sent Out The Wrong Message” She is of course talking about Powell’s 6-month drug ban last year. That was the headline anyway, but she spends most of the article talking about the Mo Farah – Andy Vernon Twitter battle.
WADA President Craig Reedie And Seb Coe In Jamaica For Anti-Doping Inspection / Check-Up
Jamaica Backs Seb Coe For IAAF President

USATF Angers Even More Of Its Members

Genzebe Dibaba Does It Again Full XL Galan Results WR Race Video

LRC Genzebe Dibaba Smashes Indoor 5,000 WR By Over 5 Seconds With 14:18.86 In Stockholm Dibaba now holds indoor WRs at 1,500, 3,000, 2 miles and 5,000 thanks to a stupendous performance, during which she hit 2 miles faster than Jenny Simpson‘s AR. *Video
*MB:Genzebe Dibaba Smashes 5000 WR – Runs 14:18.86!!
*IAAF Recap Sifan Hassan and Homiyu Tesfaye ran world-leading 1,500 times of 4:00.46 and 3:34:13; Qatar’s Musaeb Balla ran a WL 1:45.13 and Qatari teen Abadalleleh Haroun ran 45.13; plus a 6.99 WL in the LJ.

IAAF Recap Of Russian Champs: Anzhelika Sidorova Clears World-Leading 4.76mYelena Korobkina won the 3,000m (8:50.39) and 5,000 (15:47.09) but the times were modest in most events (2:02 in w800).

TMZ-Type News For A Former And Current Track Star

News From Over The Pond

Athlone GP In Ireland: Mutaz Essa Barshim Breaks His Own Asian Indoor HJ Record With 2.41m He made 3 attempts at a would-be WR of 2.44m, but missed. Ben Blankenship dominated the mile with 3:56.75, the first person to go sub-4 indoors on Irish soil. Erik Sowinski won the 800 (1:47.42). Asafa Powell was a DNS in the 60, while Tianna Bartoletta beat Carmelita Jeter in the women’s 60. *Local Recap*Results
Not Only In The USA:Track Fans Angered As Irish TV Cuts Away Halfway Through The Men’s Mile At AIT Grand Prix
Andy Vernon Talks About His Twitter War With Mo Farah; Calls Farah “Arrogant” “I put in a jab but he put in a haymaker below the belt and it sparked off from there.”
Ken Goe Wonders If Someone Else Was Operating Farah’s Account During His Twitter War With Vernon
GB Heptathlete Kelly Sotherton’s Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Stolen

Could You Beat The Mars Rover In A Marathon?

NASA’s Mars Rover Will Soon Finish A Marathon The robot’s mission on Mars was only supposed to last 93 days and 600m, but 11 years later it’s still going.

A Boring Tuesday Got A Little More Interesting Thanks To Twitter

LRC Andy Vernon Calls Out Mo Farah On Twitter: “I would just rather watch a race than the Mo Show.” Is Farah dodging the competition (again)? Vernon believes so and says the 2-mile field for this Saturday’s Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham (of which he is not a part) isn’t strong enough. Farah responded by saying, “Taylor Swift can probably run faster than you!”
*MB: Mo Farah and Andy Vernon go at it in Twitter
*AW Article

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

Spice Up Your Winter – Photo Of The Year Contest

LRC The Story Behind The Alaskan Flip-Off: The 2013 LRC Photo Of The Year

LRC What’s Your 2014 Running Photo Of The Year? Have you taken a photo or seen a photo that could be the running photo of the year (2014 until now)*. Submit or tweet your entries to us. Winner and/or person who tells us of winner wins $100.

The World Marathon Majors Are Underway – 2015 Tokyo In The Books *Results

Chumba running away from everyone but Negesse

LRCTokyo 2015: Negesse And Dibaba Get First Major Wins, Stephen Kiprotich = Hero In 2nd, Japanese Twitter Erupts, Lauren Kleppin Risks It All Ethiopians Endeshaw Negesse and Birhane Dibaba got the major marathon season underway with their first major wins as Stephen Kiprotich showed the Olympic spirit in second, Tariku Bekele bombed in his debut, Japanese twitter went nuts over the marathon, and Lauren Kleppin took a shot at greatness but bombed. *IAAF Recap

*MB: Official 2015 Tokyo Marathon Thread
*Full Coverage

More Weekend Distance Highlights

Dathan Ritzenhein, Jen Rhines Pick Up Wins And $8,000 At Publix Gasparilla Half Marathon 1:03:16 for Ritz with a comfortable win over Abdi. 1:12:34 for a 4-second win by Rhines over Neely Spence Gracey. Discuss Here
*Toni Reavis Article *Earliest Race Of Ritz’s Career
Team USA Wins Three Of Four Team Titles At Inaugural 2015 APA Pan American Cross-Country CupMaksim Korolev was the only individual champ for the US. Justyn Knight won the juniors for Canada. *IAAF
Cool Race: 600m WR Attempt In Canada Is A Bust The 6-man race was won by 400 Olympic silver medalist Leguelin Santos in 1:16.01 (the record is 1:15.12 by Germany’s Nico Motchebon from 1999). Brooks Beasts’ Mark Wieczorek was 2nd (1:17.04) and former 400H world champ Dai Greene 3rd (1:17:59).
Adelaide Track Classic: Jeff Riseley Wins 800 In 1:46.52 Over Aussie NR Holder Alex Rowe Riseley will race Rowe and David Rudisha over 800 next month and said he wanted to prove he shouldn’t be discounted. On the women’s side, Zoe Buckman won th,e 3000 in 8:56.
Moldolva’s Roman Prodius And Poland’s Dominika Nowakowska Win Almond Blossom XC Race In Portugal It was the first time since 1995 that a European runner won both the men’s and women’s races.
Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono (2:09:40) And Portugal’s Filomena Costa (2:28:01) Win Sevilla Marathon

Euro National Championships

Day 2 Highlights From Several European Indoor National Champs: Renaud Lavillenie Clears 6.01m In France, Breaking Sergey Bubka’s Stadium Record Lavillenie also made 3 unsuccessful attempts at a would-be new WR of 6.18m. Other highlights: Sara Moreira 8:56 3,000 win in Portugal, Giulia Viola 8:56 3,000 win in Italy, Zuzana Hejnova 52.76 in the 400m, Kafetien Gomis 8.18m LJ world lead, Czech sprinter Pawel Maslak WLing 45.27 in the 400, Ruth Beitia won a record 14th Spanish indoor HJ title (1.95m).
Day 1 Highlights In Belarus, Svetlana Kudelich set a NR to win the 3,000m in 8:55.94. Poland’s Kamila Licwinko cleared a NR and WLing 2.02m HJ. Christophe Lemaitre won the 60m in France.

Abdi Abdirahman Talks About Going To Africa For The First Time Since He Left As A 5-Year-Old He trained with Mo Farah and says, “It was mind blowing to see the speed and intensity and mileage that Mo did there in Ethiopia.”

Mo Farah's WR OTB

MB: Mo Farah gets his first World Record – 8:03.40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MB: Why does NOP not focus on outdoor records as much?
MB: Jordan Hasay PBs (8:50.21) but gets smoked in last lap in 3k
MB: Lagat will BEAT Farah in Birmingham 2-mile
MB: Mo Farah finally going for a world record?
MB: Birmingham Grand Prix Thread

More News Of Note

Q&A With Mo Aman About Joining The OTC “I am at a crossroads in my career and the Olympics are right around the corner again. … I have heard so much about Coach Mark Rowland and how passionate he is about the sport and his athletes that I wanted to see for myself.”
Australia > UK:Australia Sending 4 Full Teams To World XC
Kenyan Press Still Raving About Austin Marathon Crawler – Hyvon Ngetich – Her Awesome Willpower Is What History Is Made Of
Amy Acuff, NCAA HJ Record Holder, Has Developed A Coaching App For All Events – Ianalyze Side-by-side video comparisons and the ability to calculate velocities is included.
Vin Lananna Says Eugene Might Bid For 2021 Worlds, Talks About New NCAA Outdoor Format
Result Of Kenya’s Jr. Athletics Trials – Athletics Kenya Names 28 For Africa Junior Championships In Addis Ababa
Former CU Sprinter Joe Morris Has Relocated To Portland His PRs are 10.24, 20.77 and 47.17.
Jamaican Discus Thrower Traves Smikle Banned For 2 Years
Kenya Will Hold Its First All-Female Half Marathon On March 8th

News From Kenya

Great Read:Renato Canova Says Florence Kiplagat’s WR Was A Surprise Even For Him Last year, her #1 goal was the 13.1 WR with London Marathon 2nd. This year, the goal was the 15km WR but London is the goal as she needs to figure out if she should focus on marathon or 10,000 for 2016.

Doping News

2:26:00 Kenyan Marathon Runner Julia Mumbi Muragagiven Two-Year EPO Doping Ban The 29-year-old was the Japanese 800 and 1,500 HS champ in 2002 and 2003. *MB: More proof Kenyans doesn’t benefit from EPO doping
Seb Coe Says IAAF Will Not “Dance On Grave” Of Russia Despite Doping Crisis, Won’t Ban Whole Country From Competition We almost want to see the ban to change the culture, but imagine if the USA was banned for Lance, Barry and Marion – the non-dopers would be outraged.
*MB: Coe Already Whitewashing Russian Doping Scandal

More Coe News

Seb Coe Campaigning Hard For IAAF Head, Bubka Laying Low, Nowhere To Be Seen

News From Kenya: AK To Be Disbanded?

Athletics Kenya To Be Dissolved With Paul Tergat As The New Head? A source has said that Kenyan Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario will dissolve AK and put in place “an interim committee comprising former athletes and professionals.”
Top Kenyan Stars Urge Hassan Wario To Disband Top AK OfficialsWilson Kipsangand former Boston Marathon champ Moses Tanui lead the charge. *2nd Article
Emily Chebet’s Manager ~~Makes Excuses~~ Explains Why The Two-Time World XC Champ Failed To Make The Kenyan Team They say it was a combination of allergies, hot weather and an “extremely long wait” in the pre-starting area.
Kenyan National XC Champ Bedan Karoki Determined To Perform For His Country At World XC Champs After Skipping African XC Last Year

More US Pro News

Lolo Jones Elaborates On Her Opposition To The Movie “Fifty Shades Of Grey” “I just wish every woman knew she is worth more.”
“Words Of Wisdom” From US 400 Runner Michael Tinsley “Tackle mental weakness, don’t take talent for granted and party less.”
Brycen Spratling Named USATF Athlete Of The Week For Breaking 500 WR At Millrose
Schedule Set For 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships; Tickets Go On Sale Friday

More T&F Drama / Gossip

Olympian And Former TJ WR Holder Willie Banks Calls USATF Board Vote “Totally Unforgivable” Banks was a member of the board for 6 years until October. He said, “I have always tried to listen to the constituency before I voted. In this case I believe I would have voted for Bob Hersh.” *MB Thread
Lolo Jones Slams “Fifty Shades Of Grey” “Funny how some people think there’s nothing wrong with 50 shades of Grey. God didn’t create sex for that purpose. Watch another movie.”
Mary Cain Withdraws From The 1,500 At Saturday’s Birmingham Indoor GP For Health Reasons
MB: Nick Symmonds Announces That He’ll Be On Season 7 of American Ninja Warrior It’s an obstacle game show and filming is just two days (March 13 and 14).
*Sporting News: “The Bachelor ship has sailed.” Symmonds says he’s most focused on 2015 Worlds.

NCAA Action *All NCAA Results

Weekend Highlights: Two Of The Fastest Weekend DMRs Go To Virginia Tech And Duke (9:28/9:29 Converted) Wisconsin’s Michael Lihrman set a new DI record in the weight throw with 24.87m (the overall record is by DII’s Kibwe Johnson). Missouri’s Kearsten Peoples threw 22.84m to put herself 7th on the all-time NCAA weight throw list.
Albany Men Win Their 10th Consecutive America East Indoor Conference Title*Albany Women Win Their 3rd Straight Indoor Title
Navy Men, Bucknell Women Win Patriot League
Ken Goe: Don’t Bank On Another Oregon Sweep At NCAA Indoor Champs
MB: Solinsky wins 3,000 meters at Virginia Tech
Results: Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invy Baylor women (10:58.52) and Arkansas men (9:28.37) win DMRs. Becca Addison ran 4:30.70 to win the women’s mile over Canada’s Nicole Sifuentes and Rachel Johnson won the 3,000 (9:07.09).
Last Weekend: Shawn Barber Breaks NCAA PV Record For Second Week In A Row With 5.90m (19-4.5)*Distance Highlights*Top 10 By Event
High School: Video: Lexi Weeks Sets HS National Record In PV With 14-3.5 (4.35m)

Poor Kawauchi

Yuki Kawauchi May Take Break From Running After Calf Injury Slows Him To 1:13:36 Half Marathon Finish He was actually heckled by some spectators who shouted “Too slow!” and “Slacker!”

More Mo Farah

Farah Might Delay Move Back To The Marathon Until After 2017 London World Championships
Farah Talks About Doping Scandals On BBC Radio: “We’ve come a long way and are moving forward.” Farah added, “How can we get other countries to apply the same rules as us, how can we be fair?”
Despite WR, The Priority Is Still On Titles For Farah He said he hasn’t ruled out going for Bekele’s WRs at 5,000/10,000, but Beijing Worlds are his focus.
Farah Returns To London Olympic Stadium To Celebrate Launch Of 2015 Anniversary Games DL Meet Track will return to the Olympic stadium July 24-25.

NOP And OTC Distance News

Good Read:Cam Levins Feeling Positive About A Breakthrough 2015 Despite Millrose Setback Levins reveals that he was dealing with an illness before Millrose, where he ran a sub-par 5,000. Those who question his double at the ATI should remember his epic quadruples from college.
*LRC MB Archives: Salazar completely WASTES Levin’s AMAZING fitness on pointless DOUBLES *Cam Levins: performance of the week?? *Cam Levins quadruples again!
Q&A With Irish Miler Ciarán Ó Lionaird O’Lionard isn’t a big fan of running for running’s sake. “It is just a job I think more than anything now. A lot of the time you are just running the pace you need to run that day for work. … I don’t think I would be running if I wasn’t competing. … I am more of a competitor I would say, than a runner.”

Previous Farah / Vernon Controversy News

Mo Farah Admits He Doesn’t Like Andy Vernon Because Vernon Said Farah’s “Not European” Apparently Farah heard Vernon say Vernon should have been given gold after finishing 2nd at Europeans to the African-born, American-living Farah.

Column: Mo Farah’s Spat With Andy Vernon Is Just Another Clash Of The Egos
British Website Slams Farah For Being A Hypocrite – 10 Months Ago, He Was Ripping Firms For Not Paying Taxes, Now He’s Trying To Become A Tax Exile In Portland The title of the article is harsh: “From lefty hero to tax exile in 10 short months.”

Week That Was

LRC NCAA Sub-4 Mile Mania, Montana State > Oregon, Colorado Gets Its 2nd Sub-4 Miler (Ever), Florence Kiplagat Nearly Goes 1:04, Drones Film Races, And Break Up With Your Girlfriend To Run Faster … We break down the last week in track and field and apply Isaac Newton‘s “What goes up must comes down” to running and take one final look at the 2015 NYRR Millrose Games. We devote a lot of time to breaking down the greatest day in sub-4 history and discover that Georgetown has 4 sub-4 guys this year, Colorado has had 2 (ever), but everyone should bow down to Montana State.