Sunday Times / Drug News

• It’s Sunday And Sunday Times Has Nothing On Paula Weird considering this tweet.
• Sunday Times Does Have Story From Head Of UK Anti-Doping Writing In Email: “We’ll do everything we can to ensure the focus is on the positive news. The last thing we want is a story like this detracting from the Rio countdown.” … in regards to the ARD/Sunday Times investigation. Wow.
• Mo Farah Not Considering Cutting Ties With Alberto Salazar UKA is expected to release the results of their review into their relationship with Salazar sometime soon.
• Paula Radcliffe Says Doping Claims Are Affecting Her Children “When your little girl is in tears, that’s been the hardest part.”
• Sean Ingle Of Guardian: “Paula Radcliffe facing her biggest and loneliest challenge yet.” A good read. Sean puts things in perspective.
• Paula: “Real cheats out there are laughing at the whole situation.”
• Runner’s Tribe’s Len Johnson Questions What Brit MP Jesse Norman Was Thinking When He Outed Radcliffe At The Parliamentary Meeting Johnson has a problem with Norman’s response afterwards as he didn’t take responsibility for his comments and claimed that he in no way outed Radcliffe.
• Today’s Sensational Daily Mail Headline: “Paula Radcliffe’s Ordeal Is Proof That High-Profile Athletics Is Now Being Destroyed” Includes an embedded video interview with Radcliffe.

Great North CityGames And Other Track Action *Great North City Games Full Results

• Asbel Kiprop Ends His Season On A High By Winning Great North CityGames Mile In 4:07.73 Ireland’s Mark English took victory in the 500 over Erik Sowinski while Mike Rodgers won the 100 in 10.11 over UK’s CJ Ujah and Kim Collins and Nickel Ashmeade took the 150m over Richard Kilty.
• Dafne Schippers Wraps Up Amazing Season With 100m Win In A Meet Record Of 11.01 Mercy Cherono won the 2-mile in 9:48 while Allyson Felix lost to Candyce McGrone in the 150m by .04 seconds.
• Tiffany Porter Beats Out US’s Jasmin Stowers In 100H
• Poland’s World Champ Pawel Fajdek Clinches IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge With Win In Rieti

Doping News

• Mo Farah Admits To Using Banned Drug Khat Months Prior To It Being Banned Back In 2003 It’s a stimulant which Farah describes as being like “drinking ten cups of coffee”.
• Russian Court Throws Out Two Lawsuits Against German TV Channel ARD Over Doping Documentary The lawsuits were filed by the Russian athletics federation and ex-president Valentin Balakhnichev. However, a separate case had two Russian journalists and their employers fined for printing articles based on interviews with whistle-blower Vitaly Stepanov. So much for freedom of the press.
• Justin Gatlin’s agent lashes back at British media – cites double standard regarding Linford Christie and Paula Radcliffe
• WADA Defends Paula Radcliffe Saying That Any Blood Values Prior To 2009 Could Never Be “Considered As Doping, Legally Or Otherwise”
• Mo Farah Speaks On Releasing His Blood Data: “I did it because I have nothing to hide.” “It wasn’t about me. It was about the Alberto Salazar allegations.”
• Good For Them: PRRO Circuit Adds Pre-Competition Drug Testing In Addition To Race-Day Testing At All It’s Events The circuit includes the World’s Best 10K, Cherry Blossom Ten Mile, Boilermaker 15K, Pittsburgh 10 Miler and Lilac Bloomsday 12K.
• Mo Farah And Greg Rutherford Back Paula Radcliffe They both speak on athletes being considered guilty without evidence.
• Sonia O’Sullivan Believes Paula Radcliffe Is Clean, But Thinks She Should Have Been “Quieter” About It “I think in a way she’s brought a lot of the attention on herself this week, probably more than was necessary and she probably could have let it go a bit quieter than she did.”
• Jo Pavey Released Her Blood Data, But Doesn’t Think Paula Radcliffe Or Others Should Be Pressured To Do The Same

More Weekend Action: 5th Avenue Mile Sunday

• Saturday: Greg Rutherford, Allyson Felix And Dafne Schippers Top Athletes Competing At The Great North CityGames
• Kenya’s Peris Jepchirchir And Daniel Chebii Lead Fields For Usti nad Labem Half Marathon
• Sunday: Mo Farah And Mary Keitany Defend Their Great North Run Titles Farah is up against Stephen Sambu, Mike Kigen, Stanley Biwott and Ryan Hall. Gemma Steel and Sara Hall are also in the women’s race.
• Some Good Matchups Set For Sunday’s Final IAAF World Challeng Meet in Reiti, Italy Taoufik Makhloufi vs Robert Biwott in the 1500, World champ Marina Arzamasova vs silver medalist Melissa Bishop, 1500 silver medalist Faith Kipyegon and Burundi’s Francine Nyonsaba in the 800 and Adam Kszcot vs Qatar’s Musaeb Abdulman Balla in the men’s 800.
• World 10,000 4th Placer Bedan Karoki And 26:51 Man Emmanuel Bett Lead A Slew Of Sub-Hour Men For Copenhagen Half Karoki has a PR of 59:23 and is actually talking about going for the world record. The women’s field is lead by Kenya’s Mercy Kibarus (68:18), France’s Christelle Daunay (68:34) and Purity Rionoripo (69:00).
• Gabriele Grunewald, Jack Bolas Headline Grandma’s Minnesota Mile

Some Of Paula’s Blood Values Come Out

LRC Wejo Speaks With Science Of Sport’s Ross Tucker: Paula Can Gain Credibility With More Transparency – Paula’s Explanations Are Plausible But More Info Is Needed – “You’re not dealing with Shobukhova … here!” Plus an explanation of off-scores and how single off-scores don’t mean that much.

3 Of Radcliffe’s Suspicious Blood Values Are Published By Sky News Two of her OFF scores were 109, which Sky News says is below a 111.7 altitude training level. The other – 114 – was taken immediately after a half marathon and Sky News says WADA now considers tests taken within 2 hours after a competition as invalid because exertion can affect the values.

*MB: Radcliffe blood values released

• Seb Coe On Radcliffe: “Everybody knows she is clean.”
• Seb Coe Warns Radcliffe Should Not Be Victim Of “McCarthyesque Witch-Hunt”
• Radcliffe’s Husband Wants WADA To “… come out and state there is no case to answer.”
• Telegraph: Paula Radcliffe’s Amazing Achievements Give Her The Right To Be Trusted

• Sir Roger Bannister’s Four-Minute Mile Shoes Sell For $400,000+ At Auction
  *MB: Roger Bannister’s sub-4 shoes get auctioned off…..Guess the price
• Mo Farah Appears On Piers Morgan’s British TV Show And Says PEDs Never Tempted Him And Never Will
• Richard Kilty Apologizes For Ripping Teammate After 4 X 100 Fiasco In Beijing

Collegiate News *Full NCAA XC Schedule / Results

• A Look At This Weekend’s NCAA XC Action (Pre-Season) None of it counts for NCAA qualifying purposes.
• Podcast With Indiana State’s John Mascari He was 8th at NCAAs last year in XC and has a 28:32 PR.
• After Long Break Spent Playing Soccer, A Refreshed Edward Cheserek Is Ready To Try To Become First Runner To Win 3rd Straight NCAA XC Crown Henry Rono likely would have won 4 in a row but he ran off course in year #3 and ended up being nearly last. Ches: “I really enjoy cross-country more than track. I think it feels good when you’re not running circles.”
• Preview And Start Lists For This Weekend’s Japanese National University Track And Field Championships Preview

Our Weekly Recap – The Week That Was

LRC WTW: The 2nd-Greatest Year In US 10,000 History, Molly Huddle And Jairus Birech Refuse To Feel Sorry For Themselves, LetsRun Hits The Road In Maine, And A 5th Olympic Team For Abdi? This week, we get struck with 10,000-meter fever, talk about the greatest mascot of the year and wonder if Abdi Abdirahman can do something no male US track athlete has ever done. Plus we ask for your help in making track and field more interesting: MB: Creative ways to make boring distance races exciting – let’s hear them. Post them now.

US News Of Note

Scott Jurek Agrees To Pay $500 Fine For Drinking Champagne After Breaking Appalachian Trail Record

Sprint News

• Bolt’s Coach Thinks 200 WR Is Possible In Rio – Says 100 WR Would Be Tougher
• Nigerian Federation Says Reports That Blessing Okagbare Has Been Banned From 2016 Olympics Are “Not True” Okagbare has refused to compete at the All-African Games competition, saying she has a hamstring injury. The injury caused her to skip the 200 at Worlds but she did run 10.98 in Zurich. *Initial Report Saying She Was Banned
• Profile Of Surprise Beijing 400H Silver Medalist Denis Kudryavtsev
• World 100H Champ Danielle Williams’ 3 Keys To Success

Distance News: Revealing Q&A With Suzy Favor Hamilton

• Recommended Read: Sports Illustrated Q&A With Suzy Favor Hamilton About Her Secret Life As A Las Vegas Escort Hamilton opens up on all things talking about her bipolar disorder, sex addiction, having a threesome with two men, her husband’s role and how she explains it all to her 9-year-old daughter.
  *Lengthy Excerpt From Suzy Favor Hamilton’s Memoir “Fast Girl,” Which Comes Out Next Week Interesting to say the least.
• Good Read: Ato Boldon Interviews Hicham El Guerrouj For IAAF Inside Athletics El Guerrouj talks about overtraining for the Sydney Olympics out of “fear.” winning double gold in Athens, and how he thinks Asbel Kiprop can get his 1,500 WR.
• 17-Year-Old Hyuga Endo Breaks Japanese 3,000m High School And Youth National Records In 8:01.95
• NCAA XC Has Started: First DI Athletes Of The Week Are Alabama’s Antibahs Kosgei And Air Force’s Hannah Everson Kosgei won the Brook Memphis Twilight Classic while Everson won the Colorado State Invy.
• Lawyers For Scott Jurek And Baxter State Park Meeting Today To Try To Discuss An Out-Of-Court Settlement Over Citations Jurek’s lawyers contend the park is unfairly trying to make an example of Jurek while the park takes issue with his well publicized champagne spraying celebration.

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

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?