June 30, 2016 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For June 30, 2016

Quote Of The Day

“When you think about Olympic Trials, it’s all about dreams, making dreams happen. It’s not just a regular race around the world somewhere. These people are running with dreams in their eyes. They want to go out there and make it happen. That’s when people are the most deadly. They’d do whatever it takes to get across the line.”

– Justin Gatlin talking at the 2016 Olympic Trials pre-meet press conference.

Ethiopian 10k Trials

LRC Tirunesh Dibaba Loses A 10,000 For The First Time In Her Career – Almaz Ayana Is Now The Woman To Beat In Rio Dibaba had never lost a 10,000 in her life before tonight, having amassed a perfect 11-for-11 record. Ayana had never run a 10,000 before tonight but that inexperience didn’t stop Ayana from ending Dibaba’s win streak in dominant fashion. What does it mean for Molly Huddle?
*MB:Official Ethiopian 10,000 Live Discussion Thread

Embed from Getty Images

LRC Kenenisa Bekele’s 2016 Olympic Dreams Come To An End As The 2012 World Junior Champ Yigrem Wins Ethiopian 10,000 Trials Bekele wasn’t the only prominent DNF. Mo Farah slayer, Ibrahim Jeilan, also was a DNF.

Barcelona Discussion Thread: Genzebe DIbaba Taken Off Track In A Wheelchair After 5K DNF Dibaba went through 3K in 8:41 (14:29 pace) before dropping out. In other action, Ayanleh Souleiman ran 1:45 and the latest Dibaba sister, Anna, ran 4:23.

Week That Was

LRCThe Month That Was: WADA Head Craig Reedie Needs To Resign, Jama Aden Gets Busted, And Donavan Brazier Busts Out

We give our take on some of the top stories of the last month.

Oceania News

Peter Snell’s Auctioned Off Olympic Singlet Likely A Fake A New Zealand museum was going to pay $140,000 for it, but after examining it said it wasn’t the real deal.
Despite Missing Rio With Hamstring Tear, Sally Pearson Says Her Best Is Yet To Come The 29-year-old 2012 Olympic champ didn’t rule out being at the 2020 Games.
*MB: Sally Pearson out of Rio with hamstring tear

Previous Olympic Trials News

Recommended Read: Sub-4 Miler Liam Boylan-Pett Profiles Legendary Coach Frank “Gags” Gagliano, Who At 79 Says This Is His Final Olympic Trials As A Coach A great read about Gags the coach and person, with humorous stories and insights from many including Boylan-Pett, Kyle Merber and Vin Lananna.
Good Read:Register Guard: “Ben Blankenship Prefers To Lie Low Until It’s Time To Run For Rio”“Eugene is one of the best places to train, but I think at times it does become a fish bowl … It’s hard to find a place where the Trials isn’t the focus.”
Ato Boldon’s 3 Must-See Races At Olympic Trials They are all sprints and he thinks a WR could go down in one of them.
RR:DailyRelay:“An Oral History Of The 2008 Men’s 800m Olympic Trials Final”Andrew Wheating: “There’s never going to be a race in my life that will ever have the same meaning to me as that race does.”

Doping News

Recommended Watch:Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver Targets Doping Scandals Oliver gives a humorous recap of the current doping scandals plaguing professional sports and calls out Dennis Mitchell.
*USA Today:John Oliver Destroys Olympic Drug Testing Amid Doping Scandal
*MB:John Oliver’s HBO show just nailed Doping
American Academy Of Pediatrics Finds Increased Use Of PEDs Among Middle And High School Students The study included legal drugs as well, but found that 5% of high schoolers use HGH or steroids.
67 Russian Athletes Appeal To CAS Over Olympic Ban
Thermal Cameras Will Be Used At Tour De France To Detect “Technological Doping” Will help catch cheaters using hidden motors in their bikes.

Looking Ahead – Euro Champs Are Next Week

Jo Pavey And Greg Rutherford Lead 98-Strong GB Team For Next Week’s European Championships
Very Cool:There Will Be A “Run Off” For The Last UK Olympic 200 Spot Between Louisiana State’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake And Zharnel Hughes Both missed out on an auto spot at the GB Trials, but will have one more chance at Euro Champs.
July 15: Asbel Kiprop And Wayde Van Niekerk Added To Fields For Monaco DL
Rio State Governor Says Olympics Could Be “Big Failure” If Transport And Security Concerns Not Addressed There are concerns that the subway system won’t be finished for the Games.
400 Hurdler Thomas Barr WIll Lead 52-Strong Irish Team For Euro Champs

The World’s Countries Host Their National Championships

France:Renaud Lavillenie Clears 5.95m; Jimmy Vicaut Runs 9.88 Vicaut also won the 200. Two-time Olympic silver medalist Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad won a tactical steeplechase in 8:29.
*MB: Say it ain’t so – Teddy Tamgho breaks his leg again – will obviously miss Rio
Ireland: Thomas Barr’s And Mark English’s Highlights English won the 800 comfortably in 1:51.48 after returning from injury only 3-weeks ago while Barr won the 400H in 50.28.?
*Irish Examiner:“Mark English And Thomas Barr Daring To Dream”
Japan: Javelin Thrower Shohei Arai (84.54m) And 400 Hurdler Keisuke Nozawa (49.14) Highlight Medal Hopes Going To Rio In the 100m Aska Cambridge got an upset victory with 10.16 while NOPer Suguru Osako won the 5K/10K double (28:07/13:37).
*JRN Day 3 Recap:Chisato Fukushima Breaks 200m NR With 22.88
*Day 2:Anju Takamizawa Comes Back From Fall To Get Epic Steeple Win*Day 1 Recap
*Japan Announces Rio Olympic Team
Italy:World Indoor Champ Gianmarco Tamberi Clears 2.36m He took 3 unsuccessful attempts at 2.41m. Matteo Galvan broke the NR in the 400 (45.12) and Veronica Inglese won her 4th national 5,000 title in 15:22.
Poland:Throwers Highlight As Pawel Fajdek (Hammer), Anita Wlodarczyk (Hammer) And Piotr Malachowski (Discus) Set World Leads And Championship RecordsAngelika Cichocka won the 1,500/800 double with 4:08 and a laughably tactical 2:10.62.
Juniors: Junior Athletes Impress At Bauhaus Junioren Gala In Germany Aussie PVer Kurtis Marschall cleared 5.70m to secure a ticket to Rio.

2016 British Championships / Trials ResultsTV & Streaming

Laura Muir Has Impressive Front Run To Win 1,500 In 4:10 Over Laura WeightmanCharlie Grice beat out Chris O’Hare in the 1,500, Shelayna Oskan-Clarke got an upset win over Lynsey Sharp in the 800 and Steph Twell took the 5,000 over former steeplerEilish Mccolgan.
Adam Gemili Has “Best Feeling In The World” After Narrow Victory Over Danny Talbot In 200mZharnell Hughes only managed 4th while Dina Asher-Smith took the women’s 200 in 23.11 and Matthew Hudson-Smith won the 400m in a Euro-leading 44.88.
IAAF:Beating The Rain And Wind, 38 Claim Spots For Rio
BBC:Laura Muir, Chris O’Hare, Steph Twell And Lynsey Sharp Among The 12 Scots On GB Rio Squad
In Germany: Jessica Ennis-Hill Puts Up Big Score To Win In Her First Heptathlon Since 2015 Worlds Her 6,733 points in Ratigen is the second best in 2016 and 64 points more than what she scored when she won Worlds.
*IAAF Recap:Germany’s Arthur Abele Wins Men’s Decathlon
James Dasaolu Wins Historic 100 At British Champs 3 Brits broke 10.00 in the same race for the 1st time in history and two more ran 10.02. 38-year-old Dwain Chambers was 6th in 10.11.
British Athletics Recap Of Day 2 Of British Champs Sisters Tiffany Porter and Cindy Ofili went 1-2 in the hurdles, Tom Farrell booked a ticket to Rio as runner-up to Andrew Butchart in the 5,000.
Christine Ohuruogu Withdraws From British Championships With Virus She’s still expected to go to Rio.
Several Athletes At British Champs Complain That Britain May Break Up After Brexit You’d think they’d be for it as it would be way easier to make the Olympics for England than GB.
Jessica Ennis-Hill Did Well (3,990) On Day 1 Of Her 1st Multi Since Last Year’s Worlds Her total is 15 points less than what she scored in Beijing last year.

Doping News

Q&A With David Torrence About What He Found Suspect About Jama Aden’s Group
Ethiopia Reminds Everyone That Jama Aden Had No Relationship With Its Athletics Federation
WADA Suspends Accreditation Of Rio Anti-Doping Laboratory With Less Than Two Months Until Olympic Games It’s not a big deal, as for the Brazil World Cup, the doping samples can be shipped overseas, but it is embarrassing for the cash-strapped Brazil, which spent $60 million on training people and retrofitting the facility. *NY Times

Random

Amazing:Catching UpWith World Mountain Champion Annie Conway, Who Had Never Run Until 6 Years Ago
Analysts Are Bearish On Nike Stock, Which Is Already Down 16% This Year Don’t feel too bad for them, they are planning on increasing their sales from $30 billion to $50 billion by 2020.
Brazil Has Passed Laws Outlawing “Ambush Marketing” At The Olympics
2004 Olympic Hammer Champ Koji Murofushi, 41, Only Finishes 12th At Japanese Champs, Likely Will Re-Retire He had come out of retirement to seek a 5th Olympics.
Donavan Brazier, Edward Cheserek And Jarrion Lawson Are Men’s Finalists For 2016 Bowerman Award

US Distance News

Worth A Read:Drew Hunter Is Recovering From A Bout With Lyme Disease Hunter was dealing with the effects when he ran 3:58 at the Bowerman mile, but didn’t know he had Lyme. Might he go pro straight out of HS?
Luke Puskedra Shares Good News As His Baby Daughter Is In Remission From The Childhood Cancer Neuroblastoma She received two rounds of chemo, but now doesn’t need any additional treatment. Puskedra says he’ll race Chicago in the fall.

Junior / NCAA News: 2016 USATF Juniors Live Results Meet Home With Schedule, Entries And Other Info

DyeStat USATF Junior Champs Preview: 10 Storylines To Follow The girls 1,500 will be great with Alexa Efraimson, Kate Murphy and Christina Aragon.
12-Year-Old Grace Ping Runs Two Single-Age Group World Bests At 5,000m And 2 Miles Ping, who recently started being coached by Tom “Tinman” Schwartz (Drew Hunter‘s coach) ran 16:44 and 10:28.
Eight Medalists (Four Champions) From Last Year’s World Youth Champs Lead Kenyan Team For World Juniors They actually have several sprinters on the men’s side.
Chilean Thrower Natalia Duco Reminisces About Winning SP Gold At The 2008 World Junior Champs Duco went on to finish 9th at the 2012 Olympics.
Courtney Okolo, Keturah Orji And Raven Saunders Are Women’s Bowerman Award Finalists

The 2nd-Fastest Man In World History Is On The Comeback Trail

LRCThe Rebirth Of Yohan Blake

Last year, on the comeback trail after hamstring surgery, Yohan Blake, the second-fastest man in history, was running and losing "B" heats in Europe. Now, the man formerly known as "The Beast" is back in form, having exorcised his demons. "The nickname was holding me back. I keep on getting injured and it was related to the beasts in the Bible ... God didn't like it, so I had to change it."

The Latest Russian Doping Updates

IAAF Publishes Its “Exceptional Eligibility Guidelines” By Which Select Individual Russian Athletes Can Regain Eligibility
*Full PDF Document Many factors will be considered including past doping history, association with banned coaches and doctors and having testing outside of Russia.
Yelena Isinbayeva “Optimistic” Of Competing At Rio 2016 After IOC Decision Saying Russians Can Compete Under Their Own Flag
Russian Athletes To File Class Action With CAS Next Week The Russian Athletics Federation has hired a group of lawyers to work for them.
Alan Abrahmson Blogs Against The Russian Ban: “Guilt By Association Is Not Cool” Supporters of the ban might argue it’s not guilt by association, rather guilty until proven innocent.
Russia, Kazakhstan And Belarus Weightlifting Teams Could Be Banned From Rio The International Weightlifting Federation said it would ban any national federation that had three or more doping positives from 2008 and 2012 re-tests.
Vitaly Mutko Calls Weightlifting Ban A “Psychotic Episode”
CAS To Consider Russian Weightlifting Bans On July 6th

Distance / Mid-D News

Good Read:Even After Running 4:07, Kate Murphy Says She “Has A Lot More Left” And Can Go Faster With Competition The HS junior will line up at this weekend’s US Junior Champs before running the OT next week.
RRW:Mary Keitany Gets Back In Action at Mattoni Olomouc Half-Marathon on Saturday Keitany was named as a reserve for the Kenyan Rio marathon squad, but she revealed that the team might not be finalized yet with another decision coming July 1st.
David Rudisha Was Inspired By His Olympic Silver Medal Winning Father, But Is Having More Trouble With His Own Kids Rudisha admits that his daughter told her, “Dad, I don’t like running,” but she likes to imitate his drills and exercises so there is hope for her yet.
Runner’s World Looks At The Rise Of Sacral Stress Fractures Among Elite RunnersMolly Seidel, Ryan Vail, Kara Goucher, Emily Infeld and Tim Ritchie are some of pros who’ve been afflicted with this slow-healing injury.
Three Things You Didn’t Know About Jenny Simpson Simpson admits to hardly knowing her PRs and often accidentally giving stats in interviews that are incorrect.
Kenyan Junior Championships In The Books Some winning highlights included Kipyegon Bett‘s 1:44.4 and Rodgers Chumos‘ 28:26. *Results

LetsJump.com

Recommended Read:Bills WR Marquise Goodwin Doing Everything He Can To Be In Gold Medal Contention In Rio Even If It Means Risking His NFL Career Goodwin will miss pre-season training, is eating an organic and vegan diet to slim down for track and says it “confuses the hell out of him” why he can’t get a sponsor.
Yelena Isinbayeva Sets Pole Vault World Lead In Her First Competition Since 2013 She cleared 4.90m to win Russian Champs.
Sandi Morris Recovering Quickly From Breaking Her Wrist Last Month She’s been doing modified training avoiding using her left hand and still hopes to make the team for Rio.
2012 Olympic Long Jumper George Kitchens Arrested For “Committing Terroristic Threats And Acts” Kitchens barricaded himself in his home after threatening to harm himself and his family.

Trials Start Friday

LRC Forget About the Predictions – Who Are You Rooting For at the Trials? Wejo’s Got Kate Grace and Jordan McNamara One of the best things about the Trials is pulling for that special athlete you have a connection to. Forget about who you think is going to win, who are you rooting for?
Discuss:Who You Got? (Who Are You Rooting For?)

Recommended Read: Sports Illustrated Cover Story By Tim Layden: “An American Hero” 40 Years After Gold, Caitlyn Jenner Comfortable In Her Own Skin” A great read with insights and stories from the 1976 Jenner who won decathlon gold as a man and the 2016 Jenner who promotes gender rights as a transgender woman.
*MB: Apparently Bruce Jenner admitted to using PEDs in an 1988 interview

FloTrack Has Their Media Credentials For The Olympic Trials And Rio Revoked By The IOC Apparently they violated use rights by streaming parts of the marathon and wrestling Olympic Trials.
*MB:Flotrack denied credentials to the Olympic Trials

Russian Doping News

The IAAF Will Rule On Russian Athletes Applying For Ban Exemption By The End Of The Week European Athletics has said they would accept a late entry for whistle blower Yulia Stepanova if she is cleared to compete.
Yelena Isinbayeva Has Applied To The IAAF For Permission To Compete In Rio
Russia’s Former Boston Marathon Champ Lidiya Grigoryeva Gets 2.5 Year Ban For Doping The IAAF also annouced doping bans for Russian distance runners Alyona Kudashkina and Larisa Kleimenova and Morocco’s former African 1500 medalist Amine Laalou.

From The Message Board

MB: USADA’s investigation of Nike Oregon Project is ongoing – USADA has filed a lawsuit seeking to depose uncooperative Dr. Brown The NY Times has all of the details.
MB: Donovan Brazier signs with Nike
MB: Brazier and Murphy to NIKE Other college mid-d guys to recently go pro include Shaquille Walker and Brannon Kidder who joined Brooks Beasts Track Club.
MB:K. Bekele, Ayana to run 10000’s in Hengelo June 29th Meseret Defar as well.
MB: Do I need to change my summer training plan?
MB: Defending Olympic 100H champ Sally Pearson out of Rio with hamstring tear

NCAA Standouts Shaquille Walker And Brannon Kidder Join Brooks Beasts Track Club
*Walker Talks About The Decision To Forgo His Final Year In The NCAA

Caitlyn Jenner Sports Illustrated Cover Hits Newsstands Wednesday Jenner will appear on the cover wearing her gold medal 40 years after her 1976 decathlon Olympic win.

RIP Long Time Indiana University Coach Sam Bell During his time at IU, Bell lead the team to 22 Big Ten titles and 23 top-10 NCAA finishes.
*USATF Mourns Loss Of Hall Of Fame Coach Sam Bell

Recommended Read:Brenda Martinez Has Had To Overcome A Lot Of Setbacks To Become The World Beater And Olympic Medal Hopeful She Is Today Before getting Joe Vigil as her coach, Martinez was without a sponsor and rejected by multiple training groups. She and her husband struggled to make it financially and had to hop track fences at night to do workouts.

More From The Weekend

LRCTeam Eugene’s Eric Avila And Oregon’s Sam Prakel Move Up On Olympic Trials 1,500 Qualifying List With A “Last Minute” Last Chance Meet Avila won in 3:38.30 to Prakel’s 3:38.43 as both improved their place on the descending order list to make the OT.
RRW:Boston Marathon Champion Atsede Baysa Captivates Crowd With Memorable Song After running the BAA 10K, Baysa swapped running clothes for a gown and serenaded the crowd to honor women’s running pioneer Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb.
20-Year-Old Andrew Miller Becomes The Youngest Man Ever To Win The Western States Endurance Run 100 Mile RaceJim Walmsley had a huge lead and was on course record pace, but ran into some trouble getting swept up in the current at a river crossing and a taking a 3-mile wrong turn. Kaci Lickteig won the women’s race and finished 14th overall.
*MB: Western States Endurance 100 Discussion 2016

Russian Doping News

A Must Read:NY Times: “The Marriage That Led To The Russian Track Team’s Olympic Ban” A great article about how anti-doping officer Vitaly Stepanov and doping track star Yuliya Stepanova met, married, almost divorced, and then brought down Russian track and field.
Good Read:Toronto Globe And Mail Writers Says Banning Russia From Rio Is “Just The Start Hopefully”“In the cozy, see-no-evil business of global sports … this get-lost treatment is unprecedented.”
Russian Investigators Make Request To Question Former Moscow Lab Chief Grigory Rodchenkov To be clear, they are working a criminal case against Rodchenkov, not trying to fight Russian doping.

African Championships In The Books *Results

Caster Semenya Takes Two More Golds At African Championships In 800 And 4 X 400 She ran 1:58.20, more than 2 seconds clear of 2nd place.
IAAF Recap:Wayde Van Niekerk Dominates 200 In 20.02 Kenya’s Douglas Kipserem won the 5,000 in 13:13 over SA record holder Elroy Gelant (13:15).
Seb Coe Says Semenya Shouldn’t Be “Demonized” For Great Performances We agree; we blame CAS for overturning a rule that was a “workable compromise.”
Opinion Piece From Christopher Kelsall: “Caster Semenya Should Not Be Permitted To Compete In Rio”“It is an uncomfortable subject and seems unfair, but too bad.”

LRC Matthew Centrowitz And Brittney Reese Go #1 Overall In 1st-Ever Professional Track And Field Draft Track and field has entered the modern world.

Stumptown Twilight *Results

LRCJustyn Knight Outkicks Galen Rupp, Former NCAA Stars Greer, Fleet, Wheating, Soratos Come Up Short, Centro Is Back And Is Mary Cain As Well? Galen Rupp lost in the 5,000, beaten by Knight and Woody Kincaid. Centrowitz crushed everyone in the 1,500 as Andrew Wheating ran 3:40, Edward Cheserek 3:41 and Mary Cain 4:13. Becky Wade didn’t get the USA qualifier in the steeple.

LRC Mary Cain: “The reason I’m relaxed is I’m finally in a place where I see it’s going to happen again … I know it’s going to happen and I know it’s going to be better than 4:03.” Cain talks like she’s definitely on the way back.

LRC Andrew Wheating: “Eight years ago I was just a boy, now I’m a man taking a different approach.”

LRCVideos: Centro, Cain, Justyn Knight, Wheating, Quigley, Cuffe, Soratos And Kincaid Talk After Portland Stumptown Twilight Meet

What Are The Toughest National Teams To Make For Rio? USA women’s 100 hurdles tops the list with 37 women who have the Olympic qualifying standard. Kenya’s men’s marathon and Ethiopia’s women’s 5,000 squad also make the list.

Doping Updates

Kenyan President Signs Anti-Doping Measures Into Law To Avoid Olympic Ban
Banned Turkish 1,500 ~~Olympic Champ~~ Runner Asli Cakir Alptekin Wants Her Doping Ban Cut For Providing Evidence About The IAAF Blackmail Attempt Her appeal to try to “stop” her 8-year ban is on July 4th.
The Guardian Article On Russian/Kenyan Individual Application Process To Be Cleared For Rio

Random Road Race Stuff

Interesting Case:Marathon Investigator Derek Murphy Goes The Opposite Route And Helps A Marathoner Get Un-Disqualified From The London Marathon London organizers DQed the 18-year-old runner for missing a timing mat, but Murphy helped prove it was a chip malfunction.
Are Beer Mile Races Risking Lawsuits? Two competing beer mile series don’t penalize runners for not finishing their beers or even for skipping the drinks altogether.

WADA Head Craig Reedie Catching Flack

Handwritten Letter From WADA President Craig Reedie To Sergey Bubka Suggests Questionable Motivation To Expose Cheats Reedie is getting a lot of criticism after the note made him appear more concerned with “damage” to the sport’s image rather than fighting corruption.
The Independent: WADA Defends Craig Reedie After Secret Note Revealed A spokesperson said Reedie never meant to imply he “wouldn’t want doping issues to be exposed.”

Jama Aden Doping Updates

Judge Takes Jama Aden’s Passport And Requires Him To Return To Court In One Month(translated)
Ayanleh Souleiman Says Jama Aden Was Released “Free Of Charge”“My coach and fellow teammate were taken from us and we were saddened as the world turned against us. However, I can safely say that none of the athletes on the team had been doped …”
*MB:Jama Aden and athlete set free with no charges?
Qatar’s 1:43 800 Runner Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla Arrested In Connection With Jama Aden Balla was 5th at Portland World Indoors and 6th at Beijing Worlds last year.
*MB:First Aden athlete arrested
Ethiopian Federation Says Genzebe Dibaba Hasn’t Reported To Them Why She’s Been Pulling Out Of Meets They said she’d be on the team for Rio “if her results meet the minimum criteria.”

Jama Aden Gets Arrested

LRC Jama Aden Doping Raid Update: How Might The Raid Impact Mo Farah, The Dibabas And Nike?Today, we look at some of the connections between Aden and the sport’s biggest names like Genzebe Dibaba, Tirunesh Dibaba, Mo Farah, and Nike and wonder what type of impact, if any, the scandal will have on them. We also reveal for the first time in the English press that Mo Farah trained in Sansabell, Spain in 2014, a fact his agent didn’t even know, but claimed to be more than 100 miles away in France. Why?

LRC Everything You Need To Know About The Jama Aden Doping Raid That Took Place With Three Dibaba Sisters Being Present We give you the scoop on the biggest doping scandal in distance running’s history and the biggest non-country-related (i.e. Russia) doping scandal since BALCO. In the near future, we’ll have much more for you, including “What does this mean for Nike, Mo Farah and Alberto Salazar, who all have ties to Aden?”

Spanish Police Arrest Third Person Linked To Jama Aden Doping Ring A police spokesman wouldn’t give the name or their nationality.
MB: How will Aden bust affect performances at Rio?
MB: Charlie Grice – Not to be overlooked during all of this
MB: If David Torrence is 100% clean…
MB: Nick Willis Comments on Anti-Doping Raid
MB:Jama Aden Arrested After Police Raid Discovers EPO In His Hotel In Spain
MB:David Torrence essentially saying he snitched on Jama’s group

It’s Time To Put Your Game Faces On

LRC$200,016 LRC Running Warehouse Trials Prediction Contest Is Here!

The Olympic Trials are here. It's time to get down to business.

LRC US Olympic Trials Women’s 800: Prepare For Chaos In The Most Wide-Open Distance Event Of The TrialsAjee Wilson, Alysia Montano and Brenda Martinez have all starred on the international stage before. Will they make it to Rio? Not necessarily, as 12 Americans this year have run between 1:59.72 and 2:00.82.

LRC US Olympic Trials Men’s 800: Old (Nick Symmonds/Duane Solomon) Vs. New (Boris Berian, Clayton Murphy, Donavan Brazier) Over Two LapsThe 800 is full of lots of studly young talent in Boris Berian, Donavan Brazier and Clayton Murphy – average age 21. Will they arrive as Olympians or can the old studs like Duane Solomon and Nick Symmonds make one last stand?

Previous: LRC US Olympic Trials Men’s 10,000 Preview *LRCUS Olympic Trials Women’s 10,000 Preview: Molly Huddle, Then Who?

Nick Symmonds Has Rule 40 Protest Planned For The Olympic Trials Symmonds has called for athletes to wear black tape on their shoulder in solidarity and will offer tape/stickers to fans as well.
Triple NCAA Champ Jarrion Lawson Signs With Asics A source said it was the largest deal Asics has done for a male track athlete.
OT Press Conference Quotes From Justin Gatlin, Ashton Eaton, Allyson Felix

Doping Updates: USADA NOP Investigation Not Over

Jere Longman NY Times:USADA Files Court Action Against Infamous Thyroid Doctor, Jeffrey S. BrownUSADA wants to question Dr. Brown, an endocrinologist known for diagnosing hypothyroidism in track athletes, “as part of a continuing investigation” into NOP and Alberto Salazar.
*MB:NY Times: USADA seeking to depose Dr. Brown, hearing to be held July 11
Around Ten Russian Athletes Apply To IAAF To Be Allowed To Compete In Rio They have not been named, but likely include whistleblower Yulia Stepanova and Florida-based LJer Darya Klishina.
WADA Suspends Kazakhstan Anti-Doping Lab For 4 Months

News From Rio

Man Arrested For Attempting To Throw Bucket Of Water Over Rio 2016 Olympic Torch He apparently did it on a “dare” and bragged about it on Facebook.
IOC Official Unsure If Suspended Rio Anti-Doping Lab Will Be Ready In Time For The Games
Defending Champs United States Basketball Announce Their Rio 2016 Roster Roster includes Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant and New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony.
World Number One Golfer Jason Day Withdraws From Rio 2016 Over Zika Fears It’s not shaping up to be a triumphant return to the Games for Golf as now 2 of the top 4 will be missing.
InsideTheGames:A History Of Athletes’ Villages At The Olympics The practice of an Olympic “Village” didn’t start until the 1920s.

Sponsorship News – Going Pro

Clayton Murphy And NCAA 400 Champ Courtney Okolo Sign With Nike
*MB: Clayton Murphy to NIKE
Free Pro Runner Career Advice: Phoebe Wright Gives Some Great Career Advice For Any NCAA Athlete Thinking Of “Going Pro” Wright warns of the potential pitfalls and explains all the questions athletes should ask before signing with an agent/shoe company.
Good Read:The Guardian:“Boris Berian Earns Hero Status Off The Track By Winning Run-In With Nike” British journalist Sean Ingle praises Berian as “the maverick American” who faced down Nike. LRC gets mention.
MB:Donovan Brazier To New Balance?

BAA 10k *Results

LRCPure Brilliance - Shalane Flanagan Runs 30:52 To Break American Record And Dominate B.A.A. 10K In Her Final Race Before Rio

Flanagan is on fire, and so is training partner Amy Cragg, who set another PR, and Dathan Ritzenhein returned with a good run.
*RRW: Hometown Hero Shalane Flanagan Wins B.A.A. 10-K; Sets North American Record
*MB: Ritz 3rd in baa 10k in 28:12 … should he have done the Trials?
*MB: Shalane too fit too early?

2016 USA Juniors *Results / Streaming

Day 3:Michael Norman Runs Third-Fastest 200m In High School HIstory To Win In 20.15
MB:Alexa Efraimson run 2:07.4 to finish 1500 Efraimson won in 4:16.75 over Christina Aragon (4:18.07).
MB: Attention all Steve Magness haters, his 800 freshman just made the World Junior team
MB:Michael Normal 20.15!!!
IAAF Recap:Syndey McLaughlin, Candace Hill, Tia Jones And Michael Norman Impress
Day 2 Sammy Watson Runs 1st Career 2:02 And Wins 800, Kate Murphy Beat Katie Rainsberger In 3k Plus the boys 800 is in the books as well as 5,000.
Day 1 Recap: Fiona O’Keeffe (15:56), Candace Hill (11.09) Set Meet Records On Day 1 The HSer O’Keeffe beat Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer. Noah Lyles (10.08) won the men’s 100.
DyeStat’s List Of Who Made The US Team For 2016 World Juniors

Three Recommended Reads

Portland Tribune Writer Catches Up With Mary Cain, Galen Rupp And Edward Cheserek after Their Races In Portland Despite 5k loss, Galen Rupp is bullish about his future and says “training has gone really well – I’ll be ready to go.” Cain was very upbeat and reaps praise on John Henwood and Cheserek was full of “no comments.”
*MB: When asked if he’s returning to Oregon, Cheserek replies, “No comment on that one, too.”
Great Column By A Women’s Sports Writer Sir Craig and Coe Are Symptomatic Of A More Dangerous Problem: The Old-Boys’ Club
TrackTown USA Crunched For Cash Ahead Of 2016 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials They have a small budget gap, which doesn’t worry them too much for the Trials, which cost $10 million to put on.

Other Weekend Action / News Of Note

Joseph Ebuya’s Little Sister, Alice Aprot, Destroys The Field In 10,000 At African Champs She ran 30:26 and now looks like a big-time medal contender. Daily Nation On Aprot
*MB: Do we have a new gold medal favorite? Kenyan Alice Aprot rocks the African champs and wins in 30:26!!
IAAF Recap Of Saturday’s Action At African ChampsWayde van Niekerk ran 20.03 in the 200 semis and Semenya rolled in the 800 prelims.
Stanley Biwott (60:46) And Mary Keitany (68:43) Win Super-Hot Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon
Dutee Chand runs national record of 11.30 – qualifies for Rio
Teddy Tamgho Breaks His Leg Again – Won’t Compete In Rio
Jamaica’s Kemar Bailey-Cole Has The Zika Virus, But Still Plans On Running The Olympic Trials
67 Russians Apply For Exemptions To Ban From Rio Olympics

Looking Ahead

AP Looks At The Biggest Stories At The US Olympic Trials, Which Start Next WeekAllyson Felix‘s quest for the double, Jenn Suhr‘s last hurrah, Marquise Goodwin‘s quest for gold, Molly Huddle‘s quest for redemption and Boris Berian running for whomever he pleases all make the list.
What’s Next For 19-Year-Old Justyn Knight After His Best-Ever 5,000m?
TFN Predicts Jamaica Will Win 11 Athletics Medals In Rio

Previous African ChampNews

African Champs: Semenya Rocks 1,500, 19-Year-Old Baboloki Thebe Shows He’s Legit And Wins 400 In 44.69 Thebe had run 44.24 earlier in the year at altitude but was only 6th at the Birmingham DL in his DL debut.
Pre-Race: Semenya Is Doubling At African Champs To See If She’ll Double In Rio

Previous Interesting Reads

RR Abrahamson: Connecting The Olympics With Brexit And The Rise Of Donald Trump
Toni Reavis: Are America’s Best Athletes Actually In Track And Field? We highly doubt it.
Say It Ain’t So Track & Field News Projects The US Will Win Zero Medals 800-Marathon In Both Genders In Rio

Nike Raised The White Flag

LRC David 1, Goliath 0: Nike Has Dropped Its Lawsuit Against Boris Berian Berian is now free to run for whomever he pleases at the 2016 US Olympic Trials.
*Keflezighi Tells Bloomberg Berian’s “First Preference” Is To Now Sign With New Balance

*Out Of The Goodness Of Their Hearts? Nike Says It Dropped Their Lawsuit To “Eliminate The Distraction” For Boris Berian Ahead Of The Trials We’re sure eliminating all the bad publicity was among the considerations as well.
*The Oregonian:“Nike, Facing Skeptical Judge, Drops Endorsement Lawsuit Against Berian” This a day after Nike told the federal court it would suffer “irreparable harm” if Berian went to NB.
*Ken Goe’s Take On The Case Before Nike Dropped The Suit“I don’t understand … why Nike wants to force Berian to stay in the fold if he doesn’t want to be there. Let him go.”

More Late-Week Action *Meeting Madrid Results

Meeting De Madrid Recap:Amel Tuka Wins 800 In 1:45.23, Beating Antoine Gakeme (1:45.24) And Mo AmanRosemary Almanza won the women’s 800 in 2:00.22. Venezuela’s world indoor champ Yulimar Rojas set a TJ NR with 15.02m.
*HepsTrack:Cornell Alum Bruno Hortelano Breaks Spanish NR With 10.06 The Iran NR also went down as Hassan Taftian won in 10.04.
African Championships Day 1-2 Recap:Ivory Coast Sweeps 100m With Murielle Ahoure (10.78) And Ben Youssef Meite (9.95) Breaking The Tape Kenya’s Margaret Chelimo took the 5K in 15:05 while SA’s Stephen Mokoka ran 28:02 to beat Kenya’s Wilfred Kimitei by only .21. *Live Results

Olympic News – Rio And Beyond

NY Times:“LeBron James Opts For Summer Vacation Instead Of Summer Olympics” He said, “I could use the rest.”
USA Today:Zika Among Reasons Many American Tourists Are Skipping Rio Games Original estimates had about 200,000 Americans expected to travel to Rio, but that number is now closer to 100,000.
NY Times:“As The Olympics Near, Brazil And Rio Let The Bad Times Roll” Another “doom and gloom” piece about how bad things are in Rio as they suffer from issues with the economy, political corruption and Zika.
Kuwait Launches $1 Billion Lawsuit Against The IOC Excluding Them From The Olympics The IOC suspended Kuwait for “undue government interference.”
Rome 2024 Dismisses Claims Bid Is In Danger As Result Of Virginia Raggi’s Election As Mayor Well, it definitely doesn’t help your bid when your mayor says you can’t afford it.

A Lot Being Made Over Whether Russian Flag Will Be In Rio

WADA President Craig Reedie Backs IAAF In Disagreement With IOC Over Whether Russians Should Compete As “Neutral” Athletes In Rio The IAAF are keen for neutral participation primarily in order to find a way for Yulia Stepanova to compete.
USA Today Writer Accuses Thomas Bach Of Appeasing Vladmir Putin Because Of Russian Money
Nancy Armour: “The IOC Caved”
USA Today Podcast:“Weighing In On IOC’s Softened Stance Towards Russia”

Once A Doper …

2008 Olympic Race Walk Champ Alex Schwazer Fails Drug Test Just 6 Weeks After Returning From 3+ Year Ban This from the guy who got his girlfriend banned for helping him evade drug tests and broke down in apologetic tears after testing positive in 2012. Pathetic.
*Schwazer Claims He Was Sabotaged, But Aussie Jared Tallent Isn’t Buying It Schwazer returned from his doping ban to beat Tallent at the World Race Walking Team Champs last month.
*AP article

Mid-Distance Stuff

Boris Berian Defense Fund Launched Berian and his team are trying to raise $25,000 for his legal fees to defend the lawsuit filed by Nike. The hearing scheduled for today in federal court got pushed back until tomorrow. Being in federal court sucks and is expensive.
After Not Getting The 1,500 Olympic Standard, Clayton Murphy Will Focus On Making Rio In The 800 However, he says he plans on also running the 1,500 even if he makes the team in the 800.
Emma Coburn To Be In ESPN’s Body Issue Comes out July 6th.
*MB:Emma Coburn is going to be in the ESPN body issue.
Q&A:Evan Jager Confident But Not Cocky Heading Into The Olympic Trials The qualifying round will only be his second steeple of the year, but Jager “feels really good” about his fitness right now.
High School 400H Record Setter Sydney McLaughlin Beats Out Kate Murphy (4:07 1,500) And Mikey Brannigan For USATF Athlete Of The Week Brannigan broke the Paralympic American record in the 800 with a 1:52.44.

What Makes Asbel Kiprop So Good? We Try To Tell You

LRCA Week With The World's Best Miler: An Exclusive Look At Asbel Kiprop's Last Two Workouts Before The Pre Classic

The Pre Classic is this weekend and the Bowerman Mile is LOADED with Olympic champ Taoufik Makhloufi, all three medalists from Worlds last year, plus studs like Matthew Centrowitz, Silas Kiplagat and Ayanleh Souleiman. But the headliner is Asbel Kiprop, and our man on the ground in Kenya, Andy Arnold, says hand him the victory and world record later this summer after getting a behind-the-scenes look at his preparation for Pre.
*MB: The secrets of Asbel Kiprop revealed - Our man on the ground in Kenya says hand him the gold and WRecord