September 22, 2015 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For September 22, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“Many of your words were never spoken. You simply did. You led your life in a way that exemplified what it meant to be a star athlete, a scholar, a loving friend, a fighter, a tougher than nails woman that let nothing stand in your way. And for that, we admire your character and spirit. We need more like you. For now, we’re simply lucky and blessed to have had you.”

“Your spirit will certainly carry on in all of us. Those of us who have had the opportunity to share in your triumphs, victories, upsets, let downs, and all else in between will carry you in our hearts forever.”

– Team USA Minnesota runner Jon Peterson writing in a blog post about former UC Davis All-American Sarah Sumpter, who yesterday lost her five-year battle with cancer. You can read about Sumpter’s inspirational fight against cancer and running comeback after surgery here.
*MB:25 year old former CA state champ and UC Davis standout Sarah Sumpter loses battle with cancer

Terrible News

Recommended Read:RIP: Tribute To Former UC Davis All-American Sarah “Stump” Sumpter, Who Lost Her 5-Year Battle With Cancer Sumpter’s story was extremely inspirational as even after she was diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent surgery, she fought back to have an impressive collegiate career including multiple conference titles and All-American finish. After college, she was still training to qualify for the 2016 Marathon OT.
*MB:25 year old former CA state champ and UC Davis standout Sarah Sumpter loses battle with cancer
Blog Post By Team USA Minnesota Runner Jon Peterson“You simply did. You led Your life in a way that exemplified what it meant to be a star athlete, a scholar, a loving friend, a fighter, a tougher than nails woman that let nothing stand in your way.”
8:32 US Steepler Cameron Bean Is Killed By Car While RunningThe ZAP Fitness member was hit while on a run Saturday. The driver of the car who crossed traffic to hit Cameron from behind said the sun was in her eyes and she didn’t see him.

Advice From The Pros

Are You Injured? Here’s Some Good Advice From UK Steepler Eilish McColgan: “Six Things Nobody Tells You About Injury And Rehab” Injury might be physical, but the side effects are largely mental.
Words Of Wisdom From Four-Time World LJ Champ Dwight Phillips No big secrets here: hard work and discipline. Phillips: “I could do the same workouts as a 400m runner but then I would bound, lift weights and then go to the pool with an hour work out. I would do that every single day for nearly 14 years.”
Good Read:“The Winning Mindset”: Former UK 400m Record Holder Derek Redmond Explains How He Prepared Mentally For Championships In the off-season, he would write the world rankings on postcards and stick them all around his house, even under the sun visor of his car, so he could always see them.

Non-Running Stuff

German Broadcaster ARD And The Sunday Times Report That European Soccer Study Could Show High Level Of Steroid Use A study conducted by 12 European anti-doping labs found that 7.7% of players tested showed “conspicuous levels of testosterone.” This is up from the 1.3% found in older studies.
Europe’s Soccer Governing Body UEFA Denies Doping Problem At a glance it sounds like the study doesn’t really prove much, but UEFA loses a lot of credibility when they cite lack of failed drug tests as proof that “doping in [soccer] is extremely rare.”
US Snowboarder Justin Reiter Suing The IOC For Axing His Event From The Olympics He is arguing that the IOC violated its own rules, which prohibit changing an Olympic schedule within three years of the Winter Olympics.

Sprinters In The News

Usain Bolt Leaves Night Club Without Paying $15,000 Bar Tab; Comes Back To Settle Up The Next Day
Parole Review For Oscar Pistorius Postponed For Two Weeks Pistorius is hoping to be released from prison on house arrest.
Track And Field News Takes An In-Depth Look At Ronnie Ash’s Controversial DQ From Worlds Ash was DQed in the heats for a false start, but looking at the start “wave graphs” it’s possible he could have advanced to the semis had Team USA filed an appeal.
Jamaican Women Have Accumulated Over 200 Sub-11-Second 100s The first was Merlene Ottey 30 years ago. The USA has more with about 300.

UK Athletics Clears Alberto Salazar – Or Does It?

After Review, UK Athletics Gives Mo Farah All Clear To Continue Relationship With Coach Alberto Salazar But UK Athletics Refuses To Support Salazar Or Say If It Still Employs Him “(USADA has) asked us not to give any further details of our review until their work has concluded. We respect their request and are, of course, giving them our fullest support and co-operation.” *Full UK Athletics Statement
Steve Magness “Disappointed But Not Surprised” At UK Athletics Statement This article sums it up well when it says in the end, USADA’s investigation, led by American lawyer Bill Bock and the former New York City police detective Victor Burgos, will be what matters.
BBC Reporter Mark Daly Doesn’t Understand What The Point Of UK’s Review Was

Women In The News

Genzebe Dibaba Says She’s Planning On Doing 1,500/3k Double At World Indoors But Won’t Double In Rio In Rio, the 5,000 heats are the same day as the 1,500 final. We think she’s so good the 5,000 heats wouldn’t deny her gold in the 1,500.
Lauren Fleshman Has Achilles Tendon Surgery And Is Thrilled – “I feel 100% confident I am on the right path to running pain free and fast again.”
Fiona Benson Thinks She’ll Ultimately Focus On The 1,500 As It’s Her Favorite
After Appearing In ESPN Body Magazine, US Olympic Hammer Thrower Amanda Bingson Is Now Starring In Plus-Size Photo Shoots

Odds & Ends

Wayde van Niekerk Actually Got A Big Airport Reception Upon Return Home The article on the irate Facebook poster got it wrong as Wayde was simply connecting flights at the first airport.
New Balance Opens New World Headquarters At Boston Landing*AP
Firm That Designed Initial Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium Pulls Out Of Redesign Contest As It Can’t Find A Construction Firm To Do It Cheaply
Study: A Single Ankle Sprain Can Haunt You For Life Not sure what you are supposed to do with that info.

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?

NCAA XC Previews – Men’s Top 10

LRC2015 Men’s Cross-Country Preview: #6 Oregon, #5 Villanova, #4 Wisconsin And #3 Syracuse Oregon’s roster is overflowing with talent but everyone beyond top man Edward Cheserek is a question mark. With a veteran squad led by Aussie Patrick Tiernan, ‘Nova will look to land on the podium for the first time in 23 years.

LRC2015 Men’s XC Preview: #10 Virginia, #9 Ole Miss, #8 Iona, #7 Oklahoma State Both OSU and Virginia underperformed at NCAAs last year but both will be back with a vengeance in 2015. The Cowboys could be dangerous with Craig Nowak (16th last year) and NCAA 1,500 champ Chad Noelle, while the Cavaliers are one of the deeper teams in America. The Rebels made a big step forward in making their first NCAA appearance, but they’ll be even better in 2015 with transfers MJ Erb and Ryan Manahan. Iona boasts another strong squad and will look for its 13th top-10 finish in the past 14 years.

MB: BREAKING: NAU’s Futsum Zienasellassie, #2 Returner from 2014 NCAA XC Champs, Will Redshirt This Fall
NC State’s Ryen Frazier And Indiana State’s John Mascari Are NCAA DI Athletes Of The Week Frazier won the adidas XC Challenge in Raleigh, destroying the CR with 16:06. Mascari won his fourth consecutive title at the Indiana Intercollegiate Championships.
Updated Regional Rankings: Two New Teams Top Latest DI Rankings Michigan and NC State women both move to the top of their respective regions.

NCAA XC *All Weekend Results

Arizona State Sweeps Tri-Meet Against Arizona And NAU Former 4:01 prep Bernie Montoya was 3rd in his first race in 10 months after being told he had a heart condition and couldn’t run anymore.
Erin Finn Leads Michigan To Victory At Vanderbilt’s Commodore Classic*Results
*Louisville Men Win Over Ohio State *Results
Notre Dame Sweeps National Catholic XC Champs 2-time Foot Locker champ Anna Rohrer won in her collegiate debut.
Wisconsin Women Win Iona Meet Of Champions As Freshman Shaelyn Sorensen Takes The Individual Title
Wisconsin Men Get The Win At Iona MOC Arkansas’ Frankline Tonui and Christian Heymsfield went 1-2 in the individual race.
*MB: What the hell is up with Van Cortlandt Park? Iona and Arkansas race there – Only 1 guy breaks 26
MB: Ryen Frazier goes 16:06 in College XC Debut!!
Track: FSU Brings In Big Jamaican Recruiting Class They bring in multiple winners of Jamaica’s famous Boys and Girls Champs.

More Weekend Road Results

Parker Stinson And Brianne Nelson Win Cow Harbor 10K*Results
Kenya’s Shadrack Kemboi Wins Cape Town Marathon In 2:11:41 Former Olympic 5,000 silver medalist Isabella Ochichi got the first marathon victory of her career as she took the women’s race in 2:30:20.
William Kaptein (28:34) And Lebo Dinah Phalula (34:12) Win Cape Town 10K Titles
41-Year-Old Mariko Kiplagat Kipchumba Wins Beijing Marathon In 2:11:00, Beating Out 2:04 Man Berhanu Shiferaw Betelhem Moges won the women’s race in 2:27:31. Interestingly, China’s World champion and 20K walk WR holder Liu Hong competed and ran 2:51:23 for 9th.
Double Gold For Uganda At World Mountain Running Championships As Fred Musobo And Stella Chesang Are Victorious Team USA was lead by Joseph Gray (5th) and Kimber Mattox (6th). USA’s Allie Ostrander won the junior women’s race.
*MB: Allie Ostrander World Mountain Running Champ
*Hosts GB Take Home 7 Medals*Full Results
Japan’s Hisanori Kitajima (2:12:44) And Kenya’s Miriam Wangari ( 2:34:37) Win Sydney Marathon

Hard To Believe, But It’s True

LRC Investigates Defying His Drug Ban, Banned Doper Continues To Coach At UVA – Gets Honored By Coaches Association As Regional Coach Of The Year A person serving a doping ban is supposed to be forbidden from all track and field activity during that ban. Any athlete working with him or her is subject to their own ban. Yet in Charlottesville, VA, banned Olympian Martin Maric has been coaching collegians for more than year. Amazingly, the coaches association thought it was a good idea to honor him as the regional coach of the year.
*MB: UVA Coach Serving Doping Suspension

More Drug News: David Epstein: Average Guys Who Just Want To Have Bigger Muscles Drive The Steroid Business

Women’s Sprints

Lolo Jones Makes Brief Bobsled Return To Finish 3rd At US Push Championships After Only 1 Day Of Training For now, her focus is Rio 2016, but she will probably go back to bobsled after that.
IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With World 400H Silver Medalist And NCAA Champ Shamier Little The Texas A&M athlete says her greatest indulgence is cookies and that she could eat … six a day. She feels bad about six cookies? We don’t think she should be so hard on herself.
Sri Lanka Sprinter Achala Dias Gets 4-Year Doping Ban For Steroids

Budapest Going The Way Of Boston?Majority Of Hungarians Want Referendum On 2024 Olympic Bid 41% of those surveyed are actually opposed to bidding.

Sunday Road Action

RRWMolly Huddle Takes Down Shalane Flanagan, David Torrence Outkicks Ritz And Huling To Win US 5K Champs Huddle beat out Shalane Flanagan by 5 seconds as Dan Huling came in 3 seconds behind Torrence with Dathan Ritzenhein and Sam Chelanga 3rd and 4th. More to come. *Discuss
Netherlands: Edwin Kiptoo Wins Dam tot Damloop 10 Miler In 45:19 (4:31 Pace) Dominating Over A Great Field Including Yenew Alamirew And Wilson Kipsang 12:48 man Alamirew was 3rd while Kipsang was 7th and Kiptoo actually set a 10K PR with his split of 27:54. Joyce Chepkirui won the women’s race in 51:34, beating Jackline Chepngeno by 4 seconds. *Full Results
Finland: 17-Year-Old Finnish Girl Runs 2:33:24 Marathon It was Alisa Vainio‘s marathon debut and she ran the sixth-best time in Finnish history. She would also qualify for the 2016 Olympics, but she’s too young.
*MB:Look out Alana Hadley!
Colombia: Ethiopia’s Belaynesh Oljira Wins Carrera de la Mujer 10K USA’s Janet Cherobon-Bawcom was 4th.
Russia: Pre-Race Favorites Albina Mayorova Of Russia And Laban Moiben Of Kenya Win Siberian Marathon Moiben ran 2:34:14 and Mayorova 2:18:18 in what was described as “freezing” temperatures. However, the reported 8 degrees Celsius (46.4 Fahrenheit) starting temperature should be considered almost ideal.
Some Last Minute Track Results: South Africa’s Willem Coertzen And Hungary’s Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas Win Decastar Multi-Event Meeting Zsivoczky-Farkas won after Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Nadine Broersen both DNFed with injury. Russia’s Ilya Shkurenev and Latvia’s Laura Ikauniece-Admidina won the overall IAAF combined events challenge series. *Results
*Katarina Johnson-Thompson And Oleksiy Kasyanov Have Narrow Leads After Day 1

Sad News

34-Year-Old American Woman Dies In Montreal Marathon After Having A Heart Attack A 40-year-old man also had a heart attack near the finish line and was taken to the hospital in critical condition. About 20 runners required medical care during the race and 16 were hospitalized. It wasn’t a super-hot day as Weather Underground says the high was 70 degrees.

Marathon Men

Meb Keflezighi Going For The US Masters Half Marathon Record At Next Weekend’s Rock ‘N’ Roll San Jose Half The current mark is 63:23 by Mbarak Hussein from 2005. Meb ran 62:29 at the RNR San Diego Half after turning 40, but the point-to-point downhill course was ineligible for records.
Kenyan Doper Matthew Kisorio Fighting To Redeem His Image By Making A Kenyan National Team He tried to make the Kenyan squads for World XC and World Champs, but failed. Now he wants to try to make it in the marathon for the Olympics and is shooting for the 2:06 range when he runs his 3rd career marathon this fall.

USADA Responds To Mayweather Accusations

LA Times:USADA Delivers 25-Page Rebuttal To Writer’s Article Accusing Them Of Catching Floyd Mayweather Cheating But Looking The Other Way And Giving Him A Retroactive TUE USADA and Travis Tygart vehemently deny the accusations made by award-winning boxing reporter Thomas Hauser saying that he made numerous false accusations without doing any fact checking.
Full 25-Page Detailed USADA Rebuttal They powerfully address Hauser’s allegations one-by-one.
*Hauser’s Response To USADA Rebuttal He says that that “USADA has yet to explain the medical justification” for not treating Mayweather’s dehydration with “several glasses of water.”
*Previously:The Most Disturbing Doping Allegation Ever? USADA Caught Mayweather Before His Big Fight But Let Him Fight Anyway

LRC Women’s Pre-Season Rankings

LRC 2015 Women’s XC Preview: #1 New Mexico And #2 Colorado Colorado adds a ton of reinforcements, including redshirts Carrie Verdon and Melanie Nun and stud freshmen Brianna Schwartz and Dani Jones. However, none of those additions can match New Mexico’s acquisition of Courtney Frerichs (13th last year for UMKC) and Scot Rhona Auckland. Auckland was top 20 at 2015 World XC in the pro race and could put the Lobos over the top in their quest for the program’s first national title.
*#3 Stanford And #4 Georgetown
*#5 Oregon And #6 Iowa State
*#7 Providence And #8 Michigan State
*#9 Michigan And #10 Arkansas

Legends In The News

Former Arkansas Razorback Great Niall O’Shaughnessy Passes Away At 59 He ran 3:55i way back in 1977. John McDonnell: “He truly was the ultimate teammate and one of the finest I have ever coached. He helped start the winning tradition at Arkansas.”
*Recommended Read: Former 2-Time World Indoor 3k Champ Frank O’Mara’s Tribute To Irish Mile Legend O’Shaughnessy O’Shaughnessy walked away from the sport and declined a spot in the 1980 Olympics to focus on engineering.
*MB: RIP – Niall O’Shaughnessy
Free History Lesson Checking In With The Chairman Of The Boards – The Legendary Miler, Now Graceful Ambassador For The Sport – Eamonn Coghlan What a career. So many Millrose victories, the first sub-3:50 indoors, the first world title at 5,000 and the first sub-40 by a 40-year-old.
Columnist Is Mad Stadium Is Being Named After Usain Bolt In Jamaica “Why is there such an unholy haste to name things after athletes who are still competing and are not even 30 years old as yet?”