Archived Homepage For August 24, 2015
Archived Homepage For August 24, 2015

2015 Beijing Worlds *Schedule & Results *TV & Streaming*Entries*LRC Prediction Contest *LRC Previews: *M800 *W800 *M1,500 *W1,500 *MSteeple *WSteeple*M5k (Coming) *W5k (Coming) *M10k*W10k *IAAF Event-By-Event Recaps

Day 3 Is Underway

Live: MB: Official Day 3 Live Discussion Thread: Molly Huddle and Evan Jager go for medals – can they do it?

Screenshot (104)LRC History In The Steeplechase: The US Will Send Three Women To The Final For The First Time Ever It was a great morning for the US women in the steeple as two years after sending zero to the final, Team USA will be sending three to the final for the first time ever.
*MB:Steeple Talk

*Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce And US’s Tori Bowie Both Run 10.88 In First Round Of Women’s 100
*IAAF:Five Expected Highlights On Worlds Day 3 Women’s 100, men’s steeple, women’s 10K, men’s pole vault and women’s TJ.

Day 2

boltvideoLRC He Is The Greatest: The Incomparable Usain Bolt Wins 5th Global 100 Title As Justin Gatlin Can’t Keep It Together In Final MetersBolt barely made the final after stumbling in the semis but he showed the resilience that makes him the Greatest of All Time by running 9.79 in the final to edge Gatlin by .01. Gatlin led most of the way but he couldn’t hold his form once Bolt caught him in the final 10 meters and had to settle for silver. The battle for bronze between college stars De Grasse and Bromell was even closer.

Video Of Men’s 100m Final: Usain Bolt Defeats Justin Gatlin 9.79 To 9.80 (Or Did Gatlin Give It Away)? You can rewatch it and decide. Full coverage from Sunday coming. US visitors only.

Shocking Developments In Men’s 800 LRC Three Thoughts After Men’s 800 Semis – Amos And Aman Go Home Early, David Rudisha Most Certainly Stays And The Amazing Year Of Clayton Murphy Comes To An End What a stunner. Two of Rudisha’s biggest rivals won’t be in the final as one was DQed and one got outleaned at the line. We talk about that and the end of an amazing year for Clayton Murphy.
*After Season Of His Life, Clayton Murphy Gets Some Attention From Grantland.com Their headline: “Running Man: Clayton Murphy on Junk Food, Passports, and Replacing Nick Symmonds”
*MB: US distance runner gets some pub on Grantland.com – You’ll never guess who

Simpson Diamond Leagues WinnerLRC Three Thoughts After Women’s 1,500 Semis – A Medal Of Any Color Won’t Be Easy For Simpson Or Rowbury; Kerri Gallagher And Lauren Johnson Should Be Proud; And The African-Born Runners Have Been Foolish Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury both auto qualified to Tuesday’s final but they are going to have their hands full as the African-born runners are looking great.

Day 2 On The Boards: Official Day 2 Live Discussion Thread – The King Isn’t Dead. Usain Bolt FTW!!!
*SUCK IT GATLIN
*Shock: Nijel Amos OUT of 800m Final (didn’t qualify) as is Mo Aman (DQd) Shock results in the 800 as Amos and Aman both fail to make the final.
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Amos doesn’t go through and Aman should be disqualified 
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Mo Aman disqualified
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So Johnson-Thompson can’t medal since she fouled 3 times in LJ and so she’s jogging the 800? Give me a break.
*Gatlin says F*CK YOU HATERS, runs 9.77 in semi final
*Bingtian Su 9.99! First Chinese man sub-10!!!
*Men’s 400 Meter at Beijing doped to the gills – two guys run 43 in 1st round
*Mo Farah’s PB’s at age 22 

paddpowerPre-Race: LRC It’s Official: Justin Gatlin, Not Usain Bolt, The Favorite In 100m Final Sportsbooks and LRC nation agree Justin Gatlin is the favorite in tonight’s 100m final. Race at 9:15am Eastern. Tape delay on NBC.
*Official Sunday/ 100m Final Thread

Beijing 100m / 400m News

More Distance News

Doping Updates

 The Answer To Doping Is Not Legalizing It 

2015 Beijing Worlds – Get Your Picks In

LRC$200,015 LRC Running Warehouse Worlds Prediction Contest Is Here!

Worlds start Friday night in Beijing and our world famous prediction contest always makes Worlds way more interesting. Plus, thanks to Running Warehouse, Saucony and Molly Huddle, we've got some cool Saucony/Molly Huddle-themed prizes. 

1,103 Days Later But Well Worth The Wait

MB:Turkey’s Asli Cakir Alptekin Stripped Of 2012 Olympic Gold In 1,500 For Doping (link fixed) Alptekin’s victory didn’t pass the “smell test.” Thankfully, after her initial DQ was overturned by the Turks, she’s agreed to accept an 8-year ban and forfeit her 2012 gold medal. That’s the good news. The bad news … the new Olympic champ is fellow Turk Gamze Bulut, who had never broken 4:18 prior to 2012 and hasn’t broken 4:07 since 2012.

2015 New Balance Falmouth *Results

LRC Stephen Sambu (32:17) & Diane Nukuri (36:47) Streak To Titles At 43rd Falmouth Road Race Americans Abdi Abdirahman, Chris Derrick and Meb Keflezighi all had the lead at one point in the men’s race but the top Americans were Sara Hall (2nd) and Sam Chelanga (4th). Derrick ended up getting trounced but thinks he’s ready to PR at 5,000. Keflezighi reveals he recently was forced to walk home in the middle of a 12-mile training run. And American marathoners, it’s time to get nervous as Chelanga reveals he may run the Trials. Post-race interviews with Americans Keflezighi, Chelanga, Derrick, and Hall.
*RRW:Stephen Sambu Is Big Winner At Falmouth; Wins Race, Countdown Bonus

 Falmouth Pre-Race News 

Zane Branson Is Laid To Rest In Kenya

Make Sure Your Parents Walk

A Brisk Walk May Be All It Takes To Improve Our Ability To Think As We Age Old people who walked for 225 minutes a week were only a little smarter than those who did it for 75.

Worlds Didn’t Use To Almost Always Be Held In Asia (3 Out Of Last 5)

Journalist Takes A Trip Down Memory Lane And Recaps The 1st World Champs Held In Asia – Tokyo 1991 The track exceeded IAAF standards for hardness and was therefore great for sprinters.

Welcome To America (Officially)

LRCFour-Time NCAA Champion Sam Chelanga Became A U.S. Citizen On Friday

Chelanga, who has a 27:08 10,000 PR (a time surpassed by only two Americans in history), was sworn in as a citizen on Aug. 14 in Arizona.
*MB:Breaking: Sam Chelanga was sworn in as a US citizen today in Arizona

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? 

The World Celebrates Bolt Over Gatlin

Non-Worlds Weekend Action

Post-Coe Election News: Coe Under Fire For Relationship With Nike

More Worlds *Day 1 AM Video Interviews  *Men’s 10k Video Highlights

Screenshot (28)LRC Recap: Everything You Need To Know About The Saturday AM Session At WorldsEvan Jager survived a huge, huge scare on a very good morning session from the Americans as Clayton Murphy filled in admirably for Nick Symmonds to keep his dream 2015 going. All 4 Americans advanced in the women’s 1,500m, as did druggie Tatyana Tomashova, which got some comment from Jenny Simpson.

LRCDay 1 AM Video Interviews 

Worlds Previews

Saturday Morning 8:50am ET – LRC2015 Worlds Men’s 10,000 Preview: Can Geoffrey Kamworor (Or Anyone) Stop Mo Farah? Can Galen Rupp Medal?This year, in the span of 118 days, Mo Farah ran 59:32 for 13.1 and 3:28 for 1,500. How does that combination of strength and speed possibly lose? World XC champ Geoffrey Kamworor hopes he has the answer – be in shape to run 27:11 for 10,000 at 5,500 feet of altitude. *Discuss

Monday Morning 8:35am ET:LRC 2015 Worlds Women’s 10,000 Preview: Can Anyone Stop Vivian Cheruiyot From Returning To The Winner’s Circle And Winning A 4th Track Gold? Will Molly Huddle Medal? An American man has never medaled in the 10,000 at Worlds but Molly Huddle has a real shot at joining Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan as a global medalist. Vivian Cheruiyot is back from maternity leave and seems like a near lock for gold given Tirunesh Dibaba‘s absence.

LetsRun Previews: *M800 *W800 *M1,500 *W1,500 *MSteeple *WSteeple *M5,000 (Coming) *W5,000 (Coming) *M10k *W10k *MMarathon *WMarathon (Coming)

IAAF:Event-By-Event Previews
*Men:*100*200*400*110H*400H *HJ*PV*LJ*TJ*SP*Discus*Javelin*Hammer*Decathlon
*Women:*100*200*400*100H*400H *HJ*PV*LJ*TJ*SP *Discus*Javelin*Hammer*Heptathlon

 Oscar P Is Not Free 

Oscar Pistorius To Remain In Prison After South African Justice Department Rules Early Release As “Premature” His parole has been postponed until after his case is reviewed since he could end up with a longer sentence.

The Sam Chelanga Story

LRCThe Accidental Runner: Sam Chelanga's Amazing Journey From Poverty In Rural Kenya To American Citizen And US Olympic Favorite

Sam Chelanga always vowed he'd bring change to his totally impoverished village where his mother died when he was young. At age 20, he was told by marathon world record holder Paul Tergat he should become a runner if he wanted to go to college. Chelanga's first thought was no way. "I went home and I had made up my mind. This dream of helping people, trying to get a higher education, it's too much. It's hurting me," said Chelanga, but in the end, he gave it a try and now a 27:08 collegiate record, 4 NCAA titles and favorite status for the 2016 US Olympic team are his reality - as is clean drinking water for his village.

The Lauren Johnson Story

LRCThe Lauren Johnson Story: From Over 2:20 For 800 In HS To The U.S. World Championships Team At 1,500 Johnson grew up in Indiana playing basketball and didn’t take running seriously until her senior year of college. Now she’s heading to Worlds.

LRC Reacts To The Sunday Times Doping Investigation

LRCLetsRun.com’s Thoughts On The Sunday Times Doping Investigation – Including Kenyan Medalists May Be CLEANER Than Other Countries We’ve had a couple of weeks to digest the Sunday Times doping data and we share our thoughts, mainly trying to give some perspective.

LRCThree Things That Need To Be Done To Immediately Improve The Anti-Doping Fight The Sunday Times exposé has shown us there needs to bea lot more transparency in the anti-doping fight.

LRCThe Good, The Bad And The Interesting From The Sunday Times Doping In Athletics Data A good read if you actually haven’t read the Sunday Times series as we try to summarize the numbers, including the longer the distance the more cheats, and New Zealand is as clean as snow.

It’s Sunday And The Sunday Times Has Another Front Page IAAF Doping Allegation

The article is on the front page of the paper todaySunday TimesIAAF Blocked Publication Of Paper In Scientific Journal Saying 1/3 Of Competitors At 2011 World Champs Took An Anonymous Survey Where They Said They Doped We’re not sure how it can be scientific when you ask people “have you doped” and tell them it is totally anonymous. At the same time, the IAAF should let the survey come out.

Recommended Read: Best Recap of Situation Appears In The New York Times

IAAF Denies: “The IAAF has never vetoed publication of this article. … The IAAF understands that the article in question was submitted for publication (in a scientific paper) but it was rejected.” The study, which was funded by WADA, was one where competitors in Daegu submitted anonymous surveys about whether they were a doper or not. The IAAF says this isn’t a new allegation as it was aired by ARD in 2013.
*BBC Recap

 More Doping News 

2015 Worlds Start Next Saturday – Distance News *Entries Released

Death Threat At USAs Unveiled

LRCPolice Report: Nike Global Director Of Athletics John Capriotti Threatened To Kill Brooks Beasts Head Coach And Former Nike Employee Danny Mackey At 2015 USAs At USAs, it was stated that people had been threatened at the meet but the details were missing – until now. LetsRun.com has obtained a police report stating that Nike’s John Capriotti threatened the life of the Brooks Beasts coach Danny Mackey. Witnesses interviewed by LetsRun.com support Mackey’s claim.
*MB: Nike’s Global Director of Athletics John Capriotti Threatened To Kill Brooks Beasts Head Coach Danny Mackey At 2015 USAs

2015 Beijing Worlds Saturday Action

Saturday Photo Gallery (224 Photos)
Mo Farah Wins Worlds 2015

Screenshot (52)Day 1 In The Books: LRC Kenyan Team Tactics Not Enough To Stop The Invincible Mo Farah In Men’s 10,000 – Farah Wins 6th Global Track Title At last, the Kenyans gave the fans what they wanted – a relentless assault onMo Farah. In the end, it didn’t matter as Farah overcame the spirited team challenge to win 27:01 as Kenya was rewarded with the 2-3-4 placings. Galen Rupp ran the 4th-fastest time (27:08) in American history to finish 5th. *Video highlights
*MB: Official 2015 Worlds Men’s 10,000 Discussion Thread
*MB: Mo Farah – What a talent!!! 
*Independent On Farah’s Win

Screenshot (34)Saturday Morning:LRC 2015 Worlds Marathon: Stars Fizzle As 19-Year-Old Ghirmay Ghebrselassie Wins Eritrea’s First Gold, A 2:16 Guy Goes For It, And The Top 10 DON’T KNOW WHERE THE FINISH IS A 2:16 marathoner broke away from the world’s best, but he could not hang on as Eritrea got its first Worlds gold ever as the top 10 did not know where the finish was. *AP Recap Of 1st Session: After A Big Surprise In Marathon, Rudisha, Ennis-Hill Restore Normalcy At World Championships
*RRW: 19-Year-Old Ghirmay Ghebreslassie Surprises As Youngest-Ever World Marathon Champ

More IAAF / IOC Political Stuff

Gatlin Is NOT A 2-Time Cheat

Gatlin_JustinR-Doha15LRC Everything You Need To Know About Justin Gatlin’s Drug Positives Before His Showdown With Bolt, Including His Dad Got A Gun And Wanted To Kill Trevor Graham In a LetsRun first, we show some sympathy for Justin Gatlin, reveal how his dad intended to kill Trevor Graham when he heard his son tested positive (as part of an April Fool’s Prank), and how Gatlin’s own agent didn’t buy the Chris Whetstine sabotage story. Plus, we go on the the record and say Gatlin should never have been banned 4 years.

Legal Stuff

 More IAAF Politics 

Pre-Worlds Distance News

Administrative News

Book Reviews

LRC Book Review Of Once a Runner Prequel Racing the Rain By John L. Parker, Jr. – “It works and has the potential to draw a new audience into Once a Runner.” Racing the Rain isn’t about Quenton Cassidy‘s development as a runner, but rather his development into a runner. The novel opens by introducing a second-grade Cassidy and concludes with the miler moving into his familiar room in Southeastern University’s Doobey Hall. In between, Parker’s sharp prose richly describes what it was like to grow up a middle-class baby boomer on Florida’s Gold Coast.

LRC Book Review: How to Race the Mile By Jeff Hollobaugh – “A terrific resource for younger runners.” And “… also a great read for even the expert fan.” We recommend the book, which is a comprehensive look at the mile from the 19th century to the present and is full of rich race histories.