The Integrity Of The Sport Is At Stake – Mike Rossi Is A Marathon Cheat And Should Have Been DQed From The 2014 Lehigh Valley Marathon

LRC Investigates Lehigh Valley Got It Wrong: The Evidence Is Conclusive: Mike Rossi – The Viral Boston Marathon Dad – Is A Marathon Cheat And Should Never Have Been On The Starting Line In Boston In April, Mike Rossi gained international fame for his snarky response to a letter from his kids’ principal scolding him for taking them out of school for several days to watch Boston. A LetsRun.com investigation has revealed that Rossi’s principal was correct, the kids should never have been in Boston as the evidence is conclusive – their father didn’t legitimately qualify for the 2015 Boston Marathon. How confident are we that Rossi cut the course when he “ran” his 3:11:45 BQ qualifier at Lehigh Valley? Extremely. We’ll pay Mike Rossi $10,000 if he qualifies again in the next 12 months – and the qualifying time is 13+ minutes slower – 3:25.
*MB: Did Mike Rossi (viral marathon dad) cheat his way into Boston? 

Distance News

• Jenny Simpson Says She Was Inspired By Deen Kastor And Shalane Flanagan When She Watched Them Winning Medals Now she’s focused on winning another medal of her own at Beijing 2015.
• Sunday: Jeffrey Eggleston, Fernando Cabada And Bobby Mack Headline This Sunday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon Women’s race is lead by Lindsey Scherf and Maegan Krifchin.
• Vivian Cheruiyot Working Hard To Reclaim A World Title In Beijing In 2011, she won the 5,000/10,000 double, but isn’t sure which event she’ll focus on for 2015.
• RunnersTribe Looks At Some Of The Top Australian Running Books Top of the list is “The Unforgiving Minute” by Ron Clarke.

More Sprint Stuff

• South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk Excited To Break 20-Seconds In The 200, But Says The Focus Is Still On The 400 “Every year since I started running the 200m I’ve crossed the line hoping that the clock shows 19.”
• Justin Gatlin Thinks Usain Bolt’s 9.58 WR Is Obtainable “I always believe that, if one man can do it (run a record time), then another can do it, it opens up the door and that’s how humans have been for years and decades.”
• Kenyan 400 Hurdler Maureen Chelagat Hoping To Break Streak Of Poor Championship Performances In Beijing 2015 First though, she still has to get the qualifying time as she’s only ran 52.2 and needs 52.0.
• Gatlin Knows He Can Never Count Out Bolt: “He is a gamer, he’s a showman, he’ll rise to the occasion when it’s time to do so. All that other stuff is not pressure for him.”

Coaching News In The US And Russia: Lananna Gets 2016 Gig

• This Is Seriously Just Happening Now?Russia Suspends Top Racewalking Coach Viktor Chegin, Who Has Had At Least 20 Athletes Banned For Doping We assumed this would have happened back in the winter when all the Russian drug scandal news was coming out and the IAAF started investigating him. The fact that Russia has allowed him to continue coaching athletes all this time is a disgrace.
• USATF: Vin Lananna And Southern Illinois Head Coach Connie Price-Smith Named Team USA Head Coaches For 2016 Olympic Games
  *Vin Lananna: “There is no higher stage, so I’m excited about it.”

Our Weekly Recap Is Back

WTW Nike Is Correct – Actions Speak Louder Than Words In Regards To Doping, Meet The Family That Soon Will Have Three Sub-4 Milers, We Say Goodbye To A Coaching Legend And Hello To African 43-Second 400 Runners, And Is Scott Jurek’s New WR “Soft”? After a summer hiatus, The Week That Was is back. We do our best to avoid talk of the Nike Oregon Project doping investigation but can’t help but criticize Nike and Mo Farah‘s reaction to it. All of that plus praise for Genzebe Dibaba, Alexa Efraimson, Kerri Gallagher, Eric Jenkins, Lopez Lomong and Amel Tuka.

News From The UK

• Tiffany Porter Excited To Compete Alongside Her Sister At Worlds As Cindy Ofili Finished 2nd Behind Her At British Champs Apparently eight years ago when her sister wasn’t even a full-time track athlete, Porter said, “The day my baby sister beats me is the day I retire from track and field.” … Now she might have to eat her words.
  *Video Interview With The Two Sisters After Their 1-2 Finish At British Champs
• Jessica Ennis Competing In 100H, 200 And LJ At Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games It will be her first DL meet since returning from pregnancy.
  *Ennis Will Use London DL Meet To Decide On Whether Or Not To Do Beijing 2015
• Is Zharnel Hughes The Next “Great British Hope” Having won the 200 at British Champs, the Anguilla-born sprinter could be their best medal hope in the short sprints at Worlds.
• Isobel Pooley Credits Mental Strength To Go From A Terrible 17th Place At Euro Indoors To Tying The British Record With 1.97m On indoors she says, “I was so physically capable but mentally crippled.”

Other Distance Stuff

• Recommended Read:14-Year-Old Amaris Tyynismaa Has Used Running To Almost “Cure” Her Tourette Syndrome In the process, she’s become one of the country’s top young runners, running times that could have qualified her for Foot Locker finals as an 8th grader.
• Pippa Middleton (Younger Sister Of The Duchess Of Cambridge) Completes Her First Marathon With 3:56:33 In Kenya She placed 7th in the woman’s race, the first non-African.
  *MB:Pippa “The Booty” Middleton goes to Kenya, runs Marathon, destroys field of local runners
• College Humor Sketch Makes Fun Of Runners:“If People Talked About Other Hobbies Like They Talk About Running”
• Upcoming: Gabriele Grunewald, Jordan McNamara To Defend GNC Live Well Liberty Mile Titles On July 31st

Kenyan National Champs Are In The Books *Distance Results

• World XC Champ Geoffrey Kamworor Follows Up His First Round 13:13 5,000 With A 13:14 To Win Over World Bronze Medalist Isaiah Koech (13:23) Other big name winners included Asbel Kiprop (1:45.4) beating Olympic bronze medalist Timothy Kitum in the 800 by .1  and Vivian Cheruiyot in the 1,500 (4:09.88).
  *MB: It’s official: Geoffrey Kamworor ran 13:13 in heats, 13:14 in final of Kenyan 5k champ at ALTITUDE
• Four National Sprint Records Go Down, Led By Mike Mokamba’s 10.23 This got Mokamba the Worlds “B” standard. Joyce Sakari broke her own 400 NR with 51.14.
• Commonwealth Champ Joyce Chepkirui Wins 10,000 In 32:08.00 She just beat former world youth 3,000m champion Jackline Chepngeno (32:08.18).
• Asbel Kiprop Says He’s Only “70 Percent In Shape” But Is Hoping For A Fast 1,500 Time At Next Week’s Monaco Diamond League Meet
• David Rudisha Says He Is Progressing And In Much Better Shape Than Last Year Coach Brother Colm O’Connell says Rudisha is still on the upswing and getting closer to his best with each race.

World University Games *Results

• BYU’s Shaquille Walker Wins World University Games 800 Title In 1:49.05 He’s the first US man to win the WUG 800 since 1979.
  *Irish 800 Man Mark English Disappoints, Finishing 8th In 1:50
• Final Day IAAF Report:Pavel Shalin Wins LJ To Bring Russia’s Gold Medal Tally To 12 Japan’s Yusuke Ogura (1:04:41) and China’s Zhang Yingying (1:15:06) win half marathon titles.
• Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Zyabkina Becomes First Woman Since 1987 Win Sprint Double At WUG Russia’s Ekaterina Sokolenko set a MR and 9-second PR to win the steeplechase in 9:25.77.
• Saturday Report: Germany’s Anna Maiwald Takes Heptathlon Title Germany got several wins as Martin Grau won the steeple in 8:31.55.
• Jamaica’s National Champ Danielle Williams Wins 100H At World University Games, Beating Russia’s Nina Marozova And Australia’s Michelle Jenneke NZ’s Kate Angela Petty won the 800 in 1:59.06 over Jamaica’s Simoya Campbell (1:59.26).
• South Africa’s Justine Palframan Wins 400m Gold At World University Games In 51.27

New Zealand Puts Their Support Behind Seb Coe For IAAF President

Distance Works: SPIKES Talks To South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk After His Breakout 400 Performance From Paris DL, Where He Won In 43.96 Interestingly, he says he does repeats of 800m to 1,000m, although he describes them as “a drag and torture.”

2015 Lausanne DL*Full Results *TV & Streaming *2014 Coverage

FULL RESULTS

Men’s Recap: LRC Mo Farah Dominates & Nijel Amos (1:43.27) Takes Down David Rudisha Running in his first race since the NOP doping investigation became public, Mo Farah celebrated his win as if he’d won a World title while Nijel Amos won a big battle in the men’s 800 but limped off the track injured. Justin Gatlin won the awesome men’s 100 battle over Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell.
*MB: More Mo Farah – Andy Vernon drama – Farah tells Vernon to “F*** off” after Lausanne win 

Update: LRC After Fall In Lausanne, Caleb Ndiku Has To Go To Hospital, Receives 3 Staples And Will Miss Some Training, Still Hoping To Race In Monaco

Women’s Recap:LRCJenny Simpson And Emma Coburn Have To Settle For 3rd As Sifan Hassan (4:02.36) & Virginia Nyambura (9:16.99) Grab Wins In 1,500, Steeple Hassan was far and away the best over the final 100 as she won over Faith Kipyegon (4:03.38) while Simpson was third in 4:03.54. Nyambura won for the third time in four DL races with Coburn running 9:20.67 for third. Switzerland’s Selina Büchel won the non-DL 800 (2:01.68) while Dawn Harper-Nelson (12.55 100H) and Allyson Felix (22.09 200) also grabbed wins.

Outside Coverage: 

• BBC: Mo Farah “Answers Critics” With 5,000m Win
• Keshorn Walcott With Monster Throw At DL Lausanne 90.16m (295′ 9″)
  
• IAAF: Christian Taylor Topples Pichardo With 18.06 PR
• Gatlin Happy With 100m Win: “I had a traditional fast start, tried to dominate through the middle and carried on through to the finish line and that’s what I did.”
• Zharnel Hughes Wins 200m In 20.13 PR
• Chicherova Is Back On Top In Women’s HJ With World-Leading 2.03m

Lausanne On The Message Board:

• Official 2015 Lausanne Diamond League Live Discussion Thread 
• CENTRO!!!
• Lausanne – big let-down in distance races for American fans
• Gatlin 9.75 Lausanne is Bolt even going to show up for worlds?

Full Coverage In Our 2015 Lausanne DL Special Section

Upcoming: Bolt Will Be Back At It In London

• London DL: Usain Bolt Announced For Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games 100m In London Olympic Stadium On July 24th Other big names competing include Mo Farah, David Rudisha, Mutaz Essa Barshim, Jessica Ennis and Greg Rutherford.
• Raleigh, NC: Olympians And Past Champions Headline 2015 Sir Walter Miler Fields On August 7th Women’s field has Morgan Uceny, Erin Donohue and Emily Lipari. Men’s lead by Cory Leslie, Craig Forys, Ford Palmer.
• Cali, Colombia: Q&A With 15-Year-Old 2:04.27 800 Runner Sammy Watson Ahead Of Next Week’s World Youth Champs
  *IAAF Release Statistics EBook For Next Week’s World Youth Championships In Cali, Columbia

Other News Of Note

• WADA Head Craig Reedie: “This relates to the new prohibited association rule, in which athletes could face a sanction if they mix with a coach, doctor, agent or other entourage member that was – or would have been – banned for a doping violation in the past six years.” He also explains why synthetic hormone isn’t banned.
• Jenn Suhr, Andre De Grasse And Pedro Pablo Pichardo Are Among 10 “Athletes To Watch” For All Sports At Pan Am Games According To Reuters
• UK Tax Authorities Give Usain Bolt A Tax Exemption If He Competes In London, So He May Compete There On July 24-25 If Healthy

Excellent Guest Column

LRC Dealing With Depression: How I Got Past Suicidal Thoughts While Running In College For a while, life didn’t feel real to Nico Composto – it existed entirely in his head. Might a fall from the 12th floor window make all the pain go away? Thankfully, Composto realized that suicide wasn’t the answer. He shares his powerful story of how he overcame suicidal thoughts out of a desire to help others.