December 08, 2016 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For December 08, 2016

Tears Of Joy

“I thought a miracle had happened. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him cry tears that weren’t unhappy.”

– Yuki Kawauchi‘s mother, Mika Kawauchi, talking about her son’s race and post-race reaction at the Fukuoka Marathon where Kawauchi overcame a bad calf injury to finish 3rd as the top Japanese man in 2:09:11.

Tiernan = National Champ X 2 *Results

Patrick Tiernan Becomes Australian National 10,000 Champion, Debuting In 27:59 At The Zatopek 10,000 In the women’s race, New Zealand’s Camille Buscomb got a shock win as Aussie favorite Eloise Wellings struggled in 4th.
*MB:TIERNAN- 27:59

Today’s Doping News

What?!?!Yelena Isinbayeva Appointed As The Head Of RUSADA Well, she already has the “deny and blame foreign politics” attitude down. This appointment means she will withdraw from the election to become president of the Russian Athletics Federation (that vote is happening tomorrow).
IOC Extends Doping Sanctions On Russia As Richard McLaren’s Second Report Set To Be Released Tomorrow Our reaction: What sanctions? The IOC didn’t ban Russian athletes from competing and aren’t enforcing the order not to hold major events in Russia. *2nd article
Usain Bolt Shocked By Jamaica’s “Ridiculous” Abstention From IAAF Reform Vote JAAA President Warren Blake actually defended the decision saying, “A lot of people have criticized us for not voting but I would say to the people go and look at the constitution and exactly what the changes were.”
IAAF Extend Provisional Bans Of Nick Davies And Two Other Officials While Investigation Continues Davies, his wife, Jane Boulter-Davies and Pierre-Yves Garnier were banned this summer for allegations that they took money to delay naming Russian drug cheats.
IOC Medical Director Predicts “Many More Positives” From London 2012 Retests 101 athletes have been caught from the 2008/2012 re-tests and the London 2012 testing will continue up until 2020.

Kawauchi Corner

Yuki Kawauchi’s Mother Says The Fukuoka Marathon Was The First Time She’d Seen Her Son “Cry Tears That Weren’t Unhappy” If you missed it, Kawauchi overcame a bad calf injury to finish 3rd as the top Japanese man in 2:09:11.
New JAAF Leader Praises Kawauchi’s Aggressiveness And Says “It’d Be Oke If He’s Chosen [For The London 2017 Team]”
No Rest For The Weary: Yuki Kawauchi Will Race Again On December 18th At The Hofu Yomiuri Marathon

Week That Was

LRCDo We Have A New High School XC Legend? – Plus We Love The Fukuoka Marathon, A Trail Running Update And Yes, Ryan Hall Returns To Racing Your weekly read to get up to date on the running world.

Doping Updates

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90 US Track Athletes Sign Petition Calling On WADA To Adopt Reforms The reforms call for an end to the conflicts of interest that exist such as WADA president Craig Reedie, who is also an IOC member. We guess we were ahead of the game when we called for Reedie’s resignation this summer.
*Sign The Petition Asking For Reedie’s Resignation
Good Read:ESPN: “U.S. athletes push for action on doping issues.” New USATF Athlete Advisory Committee chair Jeff Porter said he was “hopeful and optimistic” that athletes wouldn’t need to boycott events, but that they “are prepared to.”
Whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova To Receive Anti-Doping Award In Germany On Monday
US Athletes Considering Boycotting The Bobsled And Skeleton World Championships In Sochi, Russia Next Year They want the event moved outside of Russia with one skeleton racer saying, “There’s politics and money and sponsors involved, but this is an opportunity to come out in favor of clean sport. And they’ve missed that opportunity.”*2nd Article
Head Of IOC Investigation Into Russian Doping Guy Canivet Steps Down And Resigns As Vice Chairman Of The IOC Ethics Commission An IOC spokesperson said he stepped down for “strong personal reasons.”

2016 NXN Live Webcast Results

MB: Official 2016 NXN Discussion Thread

LRC Total Domination: Brie Oakley And Fayetteville-Manlius Dominate 2016 Nike Cross Nationals (NXN)Brie Oakley may be America’s newest female distance star.
*MB: OAKLEY Got Her Gun!!

LRC Casey Clinger Repeats As Nike Cross National Champion But His American Fork Team Is Upset By Bozeman In Team Battle For the first time ever, a boy repeated as NXN champ. Clinger is the individual champ once again but his dream of a perfect day that included both individual and team titles was denied.

RRWBrie Oakley, Casey Clinger Run Away With Individual Titles At NXN Championships

2016 NXN By The Numbers What 8 states have never sent a team? What team has been the most?

NXN Talk On The Message Board

New IAAF Reforms / Sponsorship: Goodbye Adidas, Hello Asics

95% Vote In Favor Of New IAAF Reforms
IAAF Announce New Partnership With Asics
Adidas Ends IAAF Sponsorship Three Years Early Sources say the deal was worth $8 million a year for the IAAF.
BBC:Seb Coe’s Reforms To Tackle Corruption And Doping Changes include a new integrity unit and term three 4-year term limits for all council members.
*InsideTheGames Article
MB:IAAF/Coe reforms pass 182-10, dissenters and abstainers outed on big screen Speaking on why the vote was public rather than secret, Coe said, “Because we have moved into the world of transparency.”
Usain Bolt Praises Seb Coe’s Reform Efforts “He is making some bold moves.”
Seb Coe:“These reforms are fundamentally about standing tall for the clean athletes. The clean athletes have to know we are in their corner.” Apparently 43 leads were received in the first 48 hours the new online doping portal was open.
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Before The IAAF Vote: “The time for change is now … It’s now or never.”

Pre-Sunday Road News

Former WR Holder Patrick Makau Going For His Third Consecutive Title At The Fukuoka Marathon Makau will face fellow Kenyan James Kwambai (2:04:27) and Ethiopia’s Yemane Tsegay (2:04:48).
Yuki Kawauchi Determined to Run Fukuoka Despite “Everyone Telling [Him] Not To” Kawauchi has been dealing with a calf injury and could only jog his tune-up half. He says this will be his last attempt to make a Japanese national team.
Recommended Read:37-Year-Old Reid Coolsaet Running Out Of Opportunities To Get The Canadian NR, But He’ll Take Another Shot In Fukuoka The record is 2:10:09 from 1975 and Coolsaet has run 2:10:28.
Coolsaet Has Dealt With Injuries And Hasn’t “Had Many Indications In Training That [He’s] Ready For A PB” In the past Coolsaet has “rolled the dice” or been “dead set on going out on record pace,” but says he’s not going to force it in this one.

Singapore: Former Champions Kenneth Mungara (2:09:00) And Kennedy Kiptoo Lilan (2:11:36) Will Clash In The Singapore MarathonRebecca Kangogo Chesir (2:25:22) and Peninah Arusei (2:27:17) lead the women’s field.

Vin Wins

knight-lananna-usa09 It’s Official: Vin Lananna Is New USATF President As Jackie Joyner-Kersee Withdraws Candidacy Good luck to our new president.
Discuss: JJK DNF, drops out – Vin Lanana new USATF president!

USATF 2016

Vin Lananna Campaign Pins

LRC Everything You Need To Know From The 2016 USATF Convention Wejo attended his first USATF convention that saw the coronation of Vin Lananna and reports everything you need to know.

Foot Locker CC Is Saturday

LRCBoys’ Preview: Sam Worley, Noah Affolder & Finn Gessner Headline A Wide-Open Race The nation’s top runner (Casey Clinger) may have been at NXN, but Foot Locker is still loaded. Four of the top six boys from NXN will be there, plus undefeated FL NE champ Noah Affolder (Carlisle, PA) and Finn Gessner of Madison, WI (11th at ’15 FL finals), which makes for a deep, unpredictable race.

LRCGirls’ Preview: Sophomore Standout Claudia Lane Will Duel Senior Nevada Mareno For The Title Lane obliterated the field at FL West by 35 seconds but the Stanford-bound Mareno (4:43/10:00) is the top returner (3rd in ’15) and is undefeated on the season. Who will come out on top in San Diego?

Euro XC Champs Are Sunday In Chia, Italy

Rio 5,000 6th Placer Andrew Butchart Named Captain For GB Euro XC Team Butchart was quoted talking about “just how important the XC season is,” but will he and the Brits keep that attitude when World XC rolls around? We hope so.
Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Will Look To Regain Her Euro XC Title And Gain A Place In The Record Books By Becoming The First 3-Time Winner This race will also put her tied with Sonia O’Sullivan as representing Ireland internationally the most times (34).
Gemma Steel Heads British Women’s Hopes
European Athletics Women’s U20 Preview
*Men’s U23 Preview
Schedule*Final Entries*Media Guide
More Coverage At European-Athletics.org

News From Kenya

Olympic Champions Eliud Kipchoge And Vivian Cheruiyot Named Kenyan Athletes Of The Year Two-time World marathon champ Abel Kirui won the “Comeback of the Year” award after he won his first marathon since 2011 at the Chicago Marathon. *Discuss
Olympic Champ Vivian Cheruiyot Says She Will Not Defend Her World 10,000 Title In London Next Year As She Turns Her Focus To The Roads She’ll run her second half-marathon in February and a full marathon debut sometime later on.
After Almost 2 Years Of Injury, Kenya’s Former World Steeple Champ Milcah Chemos Announces She Will Switch To The 5K/10K Chemos had to have back surgery, which is why she didn’t want to go back to the steeple barriers.

Assorted Distance News

World Indoor 1,500m Champ Sifan Hassan To Be Coached By Alberto Salazar Her agent, Jos Hermens, said, “They are very enthusiastic, especially because they see how much Sifan can improve; I think it is the most professional training group in the world.”
*MB:Ethiopian runner Sifan Hassan joins the shady coach Alberto Salazar
Ryan Hall Talks About His 18th Place Finish At The XTERRA Trail World Championships And More On His Post-Retirement Transformation Hall says he’d “have a better chance at winning American Ninja Warrior than” the XTERRA race right now.
*MB:Ryan Hall looks huge at xterra
MB:Andy Bayer leaving BTC. Moving back to IN He’ll be reuniting with his college coach, IU’s Ron Helmer.
Apparently Indoor Season Has Started:Event-By-Event Top 10 Collegiate Marks From The Weekend As you would expect, there wasn’t a ton of distance action, but that didn’t stop NCAA XC champ Karissa Schweizer setting a big 20-second PR with 15:37 at the BU Season Opener.
*NCAA Athletes Of The Week Are Karissa Schweizer And Minnesota’s Multi-Eventer Luca Wieland Wieland, the former NCAA champ, set a heptathlon PR with 6,089 points.
Interesting:What Is The Fastest Mile In History For Each Month? You know that Hicham El Guerrouj has the WR at 3:43.13 (in July), but you probably didn’t realize Alan Webb has the fastest mile ever run in April (3:51.71).
Good Read:Lionel Sanders Sets World Ironman Record With A 2:42:3 Marathon Split Sanders started dying in the marathon, but picked up the pace almost 40 seconds per mile in the last 5K to crush the overall Ironman record.
Shalane Flanagan’s 30:52 She Ran To Win The BAA 10K Ratified As The American Record

NCAA News

Good Read:Michigan State’s Rachele Schulist Blogs About Dealing With Eating Disorders Schulist says she was not healthy in 2014 and paid for it with a 2015 stress fracture. A much happier and healthier Schulist wants other women to know that they don’t need to worry about conforming to particular body proportions in order to succeed.
Good Read:Q&A With NCAA XC Champ Patrick Tiernan In addition to NCAAs and the Olympics, Tiernan talks about the start of his athletic career when he tried a ton of different sports including lawn bowling.
PC Police Strike Again? Or Harassment? Harvard Men’s XC Team Put On “Athletic Probation” For Making “Crude And Sexualized” Documents About The Women’s Team This is the fallout from what came out last month, although it’s not clear what “athletic probation” means.
*MB:Harvard Cross Country Team Busted for Sexual Messages
ESPN’s John Anderson To Host The 2016 Bowerman Award Presentation December 16 At 7pm ET This year’s finalists are Donavan Brazier, Edward Cheserek, Jarrion Lawson for the men, and Courtney Okolo, Keturah Orji and Raven Saunders for the women.

Weekend Distance Action

Joseph Gray Wins Xterra Trail World Championships Over Nick Arciniaga And Chad Hall (Ryan’s Brother) Former winner Patrick Smyth was in the hunt, but was DQed for a wrong turn. Ryan Hall ran and was 18th, finishing more than 5 minutes behind the women’s winner, Polina Carlson. *Discuss
Yemane Tsegay (2:08:48) Wins Fukuoka In A Close Race With Former WR Holder Patrick Makau (2:08:57); “Miracle Worker” Yuki Kawauchi Gets 3rd (2:09:11) Tsegay pulled away from Makau in the final mile as Kawauchi beat his calf injury to stake his claim for a spot on Japan’s 2017 World squad. Canada’s Reid Coolsaet might have outdone his own expectations, but came up short in his Canadian record attempt by 46 seconds.
*IAAF Recap*Discuss
CIM: Kenya’s Nelson Oyugi (2:11:40) And Sarah Kiptoo (2:31:19) Win California International Marathon Americans performed well as former CIM winner Daniel Tapia was 3rd (2:12:27) and Stephanie Bruce was runner-up (2:32:36). 2007 Foot Locker champion Ashley Brasovan ran a huge marathon PR to get 6th in 2:41:35.
*MB:Daniel Tapia 2:12:28! CIM!*Results
Felix Kiptoo Kirwa And Rebecca Kangogo Chesir Continue Kenyan Dominance At Singapore Marathon In hot and humid conditions Kirwa won in 2:17 as Chesir ran 2:43. *Results
Zach Miller And Ida Nilsson Win Competitive Races At North Face 50 Mile Olympian Magdalena Lewy-Boulet was second for the women. *Discuss

Marathon News

Recommended Read:Former Inmate Writes About Becoming A Runner While In Prison And “Running Boston” On A Treadmill Prison logistics, shoes without shoelaces and a treadmill that wouldn’t stay on for longer than an hour at a time were just a few of the obstacles Keith Giroux had to overcome.
*MB:RunnersWorld Celebrates Sex Offender Running on a Treadmill
Good Read: Dennis Young:“Everyone Says That They Want To Avoid A Repeat Of The 2016 Marathon Trials” From lack of water, poor medical support and a late start time in hot conditions, a lot went wrong at the 2016 Trials and Young concludes “it was probably the local organizing committee’s fault.”
MB:2020 USA Olympic Marathon Team Trials Window / Standards Word is that the standards you’ll need a 2:19 or 1:04 for men and a 2:45 and 1:13 for women to qualify.

IAAF AOY

Usain Bolt And Almaz Ayana Crowned 2016 IAAF World Athletes Of The YearBolt won the award for a record 6th time. Other winners included Andre De Grasse as the male rising star and Harry Marra (who coaches the Eatons) won the coaching achievement award.

Usain Bolt Says He Wishes He “Got Serious” When He Was Younger As He Feels He Could Have “Done A Lot More In My Career” Bolt was quoted as saying, “Maybe if I’d started younger I’d have had four Olympics.” However, he did have 4 Olympics (he didn’t make the 200 final in 2004), so maybe he meant 4 golds.

USA: Matt Centrowitz And Michelle Carter Were Named USATF Athletes Of The Year

2017 London Worlds Will Be Here Before You Know It

LRC IAAF Announces 2017 World Championships Entry Standards – Which Ones Got Easier And Which Ones Got Harder? Find out what the pros will have to run, jump or throw if they want to compete in London next summer. Also why is the IAAF sexist?

Event News: Big Change To 2017 Diamond League Format

IAAF Make Major Changes To 2017 Diamond League Adopting A Championship-Style Model With The Overall Winner Decided In The Last Event Rather Than Based On Season Points Athletes will earn points throughout the season to qualify for the final event where the overall DL title and a $50,000 first place prize will be on the line.
*Social Media Reactions To Diamond League Changes It’s on the DL website so of course there won’t be any negative posts.
Aarhus, Denmark Will Host The 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships They won over the only other city to bid, Hammamet, Tunisia.
Hosting Updates From London 2017 Local Organizing Committee

More British News: UK Athletics Facing Sex Assault Scandal

UKA Athletics Facing Scandal And Potential Lawsuit As They’re Accused Of Covering-Up Sexual Abuse Against A 16-Year-Old By One Of Its Past Coaches Former Olympic coach Darrell Bunn (who at one time coached Jessicca Ennis-Hill and Denise Lewis) was convicted of “indecent assault and child abduction” in 2014. But it has emerged that he had originally been reported to UKA by another athlete back in 2003, yet continued to coach.
UK Former 4 X 1,500 World Record Holder Aubrey Harris Accused Of Sexual Abuse Of A Minor Who Years Later Has Claimed Harris “Raped Me Over 50 Times”Roy Messenger claims he suffered 3 years of abuse by Harris between the ages of 9 and 12. Harris died in the 1980s, so when Messenger first went to the police years later, they told him nothing could be done.
Government Bails Out UK Sport With $38 Million Cash Injection The money is to make up for the loss in income caused by a slump in people playing the National Lottery.
Mo Farah Beats Usain Bolt In Athletics Weekly “Readers Choice Awards”Elaine Thompson was voted female AOY while Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill were crowned the top Brits.

UK Distance News

Eilish McColgan Granted National Lottery Funding After Appeal British Athletics performance director Neil Black that the Olympic 5,000m finalist presented a “very strong case for her inclusion.”
Over The Weekend, Eilish McColgan Set A 22-Second PR To Win The Percy Pud 10K In 32:30
Telegraph Writer Reviews New Mo Farah Documentary: “No Easy Mile Paints Pleasant Picture But Avoids Any Questions”
*Movie Trailer
Laura Muir Going After British 1,000m Record At The Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix In FebruaryKelly Holmes has the indoor record (2:32.96) and the overall record (2:32.55) and Muir even mentioned the possibility of the WR (2:30.94 by Maria Mutola).
Olympic Marathon 9th Placer Callum Hawkins First Named To UK 2017 World Team
Mo Farah To Compete At Birmingham Indoor GP Farah broke the two-mile world record at this meet in 2015.

Olympic News

LA 2024 Reveal “Low Risk” $5 Billion Budget A lot more reasonable than the $20 billion set by Tokyo 2020.
IOC Warns Tokyo 2020 Their $20 Billion Budget Risks Giving Future Candidate Cities The “Wrong Impression” About Olympic Costs
Dick Pound Tells International Society Of Olympic Historians Gathering That IOC Lost “Moral Authority” Over Russia Pound again said the IOC should have followed the IAAF’s example and banned all of Russia from Rio.
Kenyan Deputy Chef De Mission Ben Ekumbo Awarded Bail After Arrested For Hoarding Stolen Kits Ekumbo has apparently claimed the cash was deposited in his bank account without his knowledge … and the kits just triple jumped their way into his apartment right?
After Scandal, Kenya’s Parliament Calls For A Full Audit Of Spending At Rio 2016
IOC Call Rio 2016 The “Most Perfect Imperfect Games” And Release Stats That Are Supposedly Evidence Of Its “Success” 82% of spectators said their experience was better than expected and rated their enjoyment as 9.5 out of 10.

High School / Junior-Themed News

Good Listen:Podcast Interview With 1975 World Junior XC Champion Bobby Thomas Thomas talks about how he went from a non-recruited high school athlete to the World junior champ.
DyeStat Q&A With 1999 Foot Locker Champion Jan Tsang Chang was a surprise champ from Hawaii who reportedly only ran 20 miles a week. She talks about her journey to Foot Locker and running career afterwards.
After Almost Not Being Allowed To Race, 8th Grader Grace Ping Was 6th At NXN Ping: “I probably wanted to get more like top three, but I’m happy with my race. … I was really excited that I got to compete.”

Random, But Interesting

Beer Mile WR Holder Corey Bellemore Signs With Adidas Bellmore only has a 4:01.99 mile PR, but can run 4:34.25 while drinking 4 beers.
Interesting Debate:“Hardest Thing To Do In Sports” Podcast Two tracksters (one a US Pan Am Games decathlete) do a bracket match-up to rank sporting achievements such as a sub-4 mile, dunking and tackling a running back.
Ever Wonder How Fast A Racewalker Runs? Canadian Racewalker Wins A Half MarathonEvan Dunfee (who was 4th in Rio) ran 1:10:44 for the win at Fall Classic Half Marathon in Vancouver.
They’re Getting Closer To Implementing An Electronic Insole Judging System For Racewalking Will this put an end to threads like this? The video that ends race walking?
Runner Problems:19 Ways To Get Rid Of Shoe Odor This isn’t running specific, but probably some tips runners can use. But don’t take their advice on putting your shoes in the dryer or freezer.

Is There A Demand For Lighted Running Shorts / Pants With A GPS Enabled Panic Alarm In Them?

LRCQ&A With Tim Polanowski – Inventor Of At Night Athletic After nearly plowing into another runner one night, Polanowski has invented a pair of running shorts that come with built-in LED lights that can be turned on / off and a GPS enabled panic alarm.
*MB: What do you think of these super high-tech, lighted shorts with alarm that are on Kickstarter? Q&A with co-founder

USATF Annual Meeting Has Started

USATF Agrees To 8-Year Deal With NBC 8 years? Why not just make it for 26?
*USATF Release The deal will reduce USATF’s production costs as NBC will take on at least 18 hours of live coverage including USA Champs and the Pre Classic.
Max Siegel Gives USATF “State Of The Sport” Address Siegel broke down how US athletes earned almost $7 million from USATF cumulatively and how many athletes there were at each income level (from many at $25,000 to only one over $100,000).
*MB:Max Siegel asked USATF delegates to cheer $7M spent on 700 athletes, when $1.8M was salary for 1 CEO.
Convention Resolution Submitted In Reaction To USATF Lawsuit Against USATF Youth Committee Activist David Greifinger has called for the USATF CEO and Board to “respect the due process rights of its members.”
*MB:USATF & Max Siegel Continue Their Powergrab – This Time Against The Youth
Results Of USATF Athletes Advistory Committee Elections Jeff Porter is the chair, Lauren Fleshman are on the USATF board and Will Leer and Phoebe Wright are the 800-1,500m representatives.
USATF Annual Meeting Kicks Of In Orlando, FloridaStephanie Hightower gave her last address as USATF president.
Register-Guard Article From Before Jackie Joyner-Kersee Conceded To Vin Lananna On Joyner-Kersee, Lananna said, “I think she’s a great person, a fantastic person. We’re friends, and I think she’s a great ambassador for the sport.” A little bit different tone than the US presidential election.