March 21, 2017 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For March 21, 2017

Quote Of The Day

“I was pretty upset when I heard about it. It’s very sensitive because I know people that I care about involved in the development of those shoes, the research of the shoe. So it’s a very complicated and sensitive issue for me. I just think if technology determined our Olympic team, then that’s a problem. So we’re just going to have to see what other people think. But that definitely opened up some old wounds. … At the end of the day, if technology is affecting races and what times people are running, if that is found to be an unfair advantage, then that’s an issue.”

– Kara Goucher voicing her concerns over Nike’s new shoes designed as part of their sub-2 hour marathon project which Shalane Flanagan, Amy Cragg and Galen Rupp wore an early version of at the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials.

*Ed Caesar In Wired:“Nike’s Controversial New Shoes Made Me Run Faster”

Our Weekly Recap – The Week That Was

LRC WTW: Noah Droddy and Emily Sisson Rock NYC, The Slow Twins Rise Up, Ed Whitlock Dies and The US Olympians Doing Boston And A Disgraceful Hitler Analogy We break down some great half-marathon action from across the globe, wonder when some mid-20s Americans will make their marathon debuts and say goodbye to a legend.

Championship Hosting Updates

Prevailing Opinion Is That If The IOC Decides To Award The 2024 And 2028 Games Simultaneously, Then LA Will Have To Wait Until 2028 Paris has claimed that the land reserved for the Olympic Village won’t be available in 2028.
InsideTheGames:“LA 2024 Take Swipe At Paris 2024 By Promising To Promote French Language At 2024 Games”
The 2019 Pan American Games Could Be Moved From Peru Due To Current Intense Flooding Many have called for the money allocated for the Games to be used to help flood recovery.
Turkish President Claims Country Deserves To Host Olympic Games Losing the 2020 Games to Tokyo was their 5th failed bid attempt.
LA Mayor Says Los Angeles Marathon A Sign Of How Fan Friendly 2024 Olympics Could Be
Four Australian Cities Interested In Hosting 2022 Commonwealth Games

News From Boston

No Boston Olympics Campaigners To Publish Book On How They Torpedoed Boston’s 2024 Bid The book (available in April) is called No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch.
Play On Boston Marathon Bombing Being Presented By The Boston Theater Company Through March 26th Rather than the event itself, “Finish Line” focuses on the people affected by the bombing.

NCAA Early Outdoor News

USC Star Kendall Ellis Runs World-Leading 22.79 200m At Trojan Invy
MB:Sub-4 High Schooler Michael Slagowski Leaves Penn State For the time being Slagowski is going back home to work with his high school coach.
*LRC Archives:Idaho’s Michael Slagowski Becomes the 9th US High Schooler And 4th In Last Year To Go Sub-4 In The Mile
High School: MB:HSer Cooper Teare 14:13 at Texas Distance Festival Nine boys ran 14:38 or faster.
Texas A&M Sprinter Aaliyah Brown Breaks 19-Year-Old Meet Record At Castillo Invitational Brown won the 100m in 11.26.
Ex-Oregon Duck Shot Putter Brittany Mann Continuing Her Career At USC Mann finished her degree at Oregon and transferred to USC for grad school. She opened up her outdoor season with a 53-foot, 3-inch victory at the Trojan Invy (#6 all-time at USC).
Texas’ Haley Crouser Starts Off Outdoor Season Strong With Javelin Meet Record (168 Feet, 8 Inches) At UTSA Invy
Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend

Sprint Stuff

Good Read: Did You Know That GB’s 2-Time Euro Indoor 60m Champion Richard Kilty Actually Retired Back In 2012? He was so heart broken to miss the 2012 Games with an injury that he quit the sport for 5 months, but came back because he “didn’t want to be the sort of person who had regrets.”
Usain Bolt Says He Might Shed A Tear During His Last Race In Jamaica Even Though He’s “Not An Emotional Person”
Records Go Down At South African Regional Championship Meet As Olympic LJ Silver Medalist Luvo Manyonga Breaks African Record With 8.62m The world U18 400H and South African junior 100m records also went down as Sokwakhana Zazini ran 48.84 and Gift Leotlela ran 10.12.
South African History Is Made As Two Athleties Break 10 Seconds In The Same Race For The First TimeAkani Simbine and Thando Roto ran 9.92 and 9.95 seconds with Roto becoming the 5th South African to go under the 10-second barrier.

Hosting Updates

Olympic Columnist Alan Abrahamson Analyzes And Decodes Recent IOC Jargon, Explains Why LA Is The Only Choice That Makes Sense For 2024 Abrahamson also touches on the idea of a double bid and concludes with, “If Paris wants 2028, that’s altogether another matter. Some good lawyers can work that out.”
LA Marathon Using Snapchat To Showcase Social Media Innovations LA 2024 Could Bring
Sydney Set To Join Race To Host 2022 Commonwealth Games

**NZ Nationals FreeStream NZ Schedule, Start Lists, Results *Preview**

Day 2: Joseph Millar Completes 100/200 Double In Style With National Record (20.37) – Upstages Walsh & McCartney At NZ Champs
NZ Champs: New King Reigns As Stu Farquhar Vacates Javelin Throne Farquhar is basically retired after Rio but he still threw hoping to win national title #17.
Day 1 Of NZ Champs:Joseph Millar Runs Fastest 100m By Kiwi (10.18) On New Zealand Soil To Win 100m

Random But Maybe Worth A Click

Jailed transgender who was convicted of attempted murder of a UK Athletics official thought UK Athletics was ‘trying to kill her’ She was irate that they wanted her to take a blood test to prove her testosterone wasn’t giving her an unfair advantage.
JAAF Announces Marathon Teams for London World Championships – Yuki Kawauchi makes the cut
IOC creates working group to study Olympic bidding – Many think this means Paris and LA might get a big

WTW

LRCThe LetsRun.com Awards: Who Were The Biggest Winners Of The Winter Season? + How Important Is It To Be A NCAA Star If You Want To Be An Olympian?

This week we take a look back at the whole 2016-2017 winter campaign and hand out awards. In the end, we bow down and praise Woody Kincaid, Brie Oakley, Mondo Duplantis, Laura Muir, Derek Thompson, Charlene Lipsey and Sam Chelanga. Then we analyze how important it is to be a total stud in college if you want to make the US Olympic team. All of that and much more.

2016 Was A Record Year For Us In Terms Of Traffic – Thanks For Visiting

An Inside Look At How LRC Operates How a Ragtag Crew Of Almost Journalists Created Running’s Most Controversial Website Author Charles Bethea embedded himself with us during the US Olympic trials and got a behind-the-scenes look at how we operate. His article in Outside magazine includes some really nice quotes from Tim Layden, “… their best quality is that they don’t give a shit about offending people,” and Nick Willis, “It gave me a ton of inspiration. LetsRun is one of the primary reasons high-quality coaching and training have improved in America.”
*MB: Long Article on Letsrun… in Outside Magazine

Enjoyed The Article Above?Then Check This Article On LRC’s Founding From Marathon And Beyond In 2009The LetsRun Phenomenon

LetsRun.com Goes To World XC Africa

LRC Photos of Eliud Kipchoge Working Out in Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite Shoes On our way to Uganda for the World XC champs, we made a detour to spend the day with the world’s greatest marathoner, Eliud Kipchoge.

MB: Breaking: Science of Sport calls for Nike Vaporfly Elite to be banned Perhaps that’s what Nike wanted – free publicty.
MB: LetsRun.com has landed in Kenya

International Distance News

Injured Dennis Kimetto Not Ready To Call It A Career Yet Kimetto withdrew from this year’s Boston Marathon with injury and hasn’t raced since 2015 Worlds, but says, “I am not giving up. I am not taking it easy … One step back, two steps in front.”
Jake And Zane Robertson Are The First Twins To Ever Go Sub-60 In The Half
China Will Select Two Amateur Runners For Their 2020 Olympic Marathon Squad The amateurs will still have to run faster than the 2:19/2:45 IAAF standards, but what does this mean exactly? Will China really choose a 2:18 runner over a 2:14 runner because the 2:14 runner gets paid (probably marginally)? If so, that’s ridiculous.
Andy Vernon (63:08) And Charlotte Purdue (72:15) Win Reading Half In The UK Vernon won over fellow Brits Chris Thompson (63:39) and Dewi Griffiths (63:54) while Purdue beat Gemma Steel by over a minute.

NYC Half Watch NYC Replay On WATCHESPNNYC Results, Tracking, Splits

RRW Full Recap Molly Huddle (68:19) And Feyisa Lelisa (60:04) Win 2017 NYC Half In Sprint Finishes As Emily Sisson (68:21) And Chris Derrick (61:12) Move Into US Top 10 All-Time (Updated) Sisson’s debut was great as she’s one of the 5 fastest US women ever now and she’s only run it once.
*LRCMolly Huddle, Emily Sisson, Feyisa Lelisa, Callum Hawkins, Chris Derrick And Diane Nukuri Talk After 2017 NYC Half Marathon Sisson aced her debut: “It actually didn’t feel that different than just training together, just like doing a tempo run, but a harder tempo run and longer.”
*MB: Official 2017 United Airlines NYC Half Live Discussion Thread

Full coverage in our 2017 NYC Half Special Section.

Drug News

Russian Distance Runner And WADA Informant Andrey Dmitriev Flees Russia Out Of Safety Concerns Dmitriev featured in the January ARD documentary claiming many banned Russian coaches are still active.
New Mobile App Will Help Athletes Identify Banned Drugs In Products
International Ski Federation President Apologizes For Comparing Russian Olympic Ban To The Holocaust On top of being offensive, his analogy was just absurd.
Institute Of National Anti-Doping Organisations (iNADO) Criticizes IOC Anti-Doping Reform Proposals The iNADO head called out the IOC for failing to establish criteria for excluding countries from the Olympics for state-sponsored doping (ie Russia).
InsideTheGames:“Is Soccer Still Too Complacent When It Comes To Doping?” In a word, yes.

US News

LRC RIP: Dr. Norbert Sander – 1974 New York City Marathon Champion And Long-Time Armory President CEO – Has Died Unexpectedly At Age 74
*RRW: Armory Foundation Founder Dr. Norbert Sander Has Died Unexpectedly At 74 He was instrumental in getting the controversial decision to move the Millrose Games to The Armory.
RRW Charlene “The Savage” Lipsey Is Really Happy She Moved To Derek Thompson’s Group Ajee Wilson has nicknamed her “The Savage” as she’s ultra-competitive.
*MB: Amazing: Charlene Lipsey and Ajee Wilson both trained all winter outdoors in Philly
The Armory’s NYC Indoor Marathon Is Next Weekend – These Are The Men That Will Battle For the WR The race can be watched live for free. The record is 2:21:56.

Caster Semenya / South African News

The 2017 Boston Marathon Will Be Here Before You Know It And Galen Rupp Will Be There

Doping / Cheating News

Doctor Who Gave Mo Farah Controversial L-Carnitine Infusion Called To Give Evidence In Doping Hearing The doctor and UKA head endurance coach Barry Fudge are to appear before the the Culture, Media and Sport committee next month.
+1 For China:China Says They Will Ban Amateur Marathon Cheats (Course Cutters And Bib Swappers) For Life This after it was found that a man died of a heart attack during a December road race while running under someone else’s name.
UK Athletics Review Claims Paralympic Track And Field Classification System Is “Open To Abuse” Athletes can take advantage of the system by exaggerating how bad their condition actually is.
BBC Poll Reveals “Concerning” Level Of Doping In Amateur Sport BBC’s investigation revealed that more than a third of amateur athletes know someone who has doped.
*Surprising Stat: UK Anti-Doping Says Of The 52 GB Athletes And Coaches Serving Bans, 62% Are Amateurs
RUSADA Appoints Acting Director General As Hunt Continues For Permanent Choice Tatyana Chirkina was formerly the RUSADA accountant. This is a different position than Yelena Isinbayeva who is the RUSADA Supervisory Board chair.

More Sunday Distance Action

Lisbon Steals The Spotlight:Jake Robertson Wins Lisbon In 60:00And he’s only the second-fastest twin in the family as his brother Zane has run 59:47.
*IAAF:Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba Wins Women’s Race In 69:43
*MB: Awesome documentary on the ROBERTSON BROTHERS ahead of Lisbon HM today
LA: Kenya’s Elisha Barno Shakes Off Queezy Stomach To Win Los Angelse Marathon In 2:11:52 Kenyan Hellen Jepkurgat won the women’s race in 2:34:23. *Results
Amos Kipruto Knocks More Than Two Minutes Off His PR To Win Close Race At Seoul Marathon Kipruto ran 2:05:54 to beat Felix Kipchirchir by 9 seconds. The women’s race was also a nail biter with Kenya’s Margaret Agai running 2:25:52 to finish 5 seconds in front of Ethiopia’s Ashete Bekele Dido.
Isaac Kipkoech Runs Fast Half At Altitude To Win Red Cross Half-Marathon In Kenya With 60:52 Esther Chesang (70:58) won the women’s race.
Ethiopia’s Afewerk Mesfin Wins Thrilling Dual With Keneya’s Julius Tuwei To Win The Chongqing Marathon Mesfin ran 2:09:49 to set the CR and win by only 3 seconds. Rael Nguriatukei Kiyara won the women’s race easily in 2:26:22.
Ben Sathre (49:59), Andrea Rediger (57:24) Win Hot Dash 10 Mile Crowns In Minneapolis
Hillary Maiyo (62:55) Defends His Title At The Gydnia Half Marathon Morocco’s Fatiha Benchatki (72:23) won the women’s race.
Hilary Kipkosgei Yego (2:17:02) And Munkhzaya Bayartsogt (2:38:08) Win New Taipei City Marathon
Khahisa Mhlanga And Ben Dijkstra Win English Schools Cross-Country Titles

International Distance News

Japan Selects Marathon Team For 2017 Worlds The team includes Yuki Kawauchi and Yuka Ando, who ran the fastest debut by a Japanese woman (2:21:36).
One Small Kenyan Village Has 6 Of The 28 Members On Kenya’s World XC Team The athletes from the village of Keringet, which means “a hole” in the local language, include Olympic 1,500 champ Faith Kipyegon.
Kenya Escapes Threat Of Ban After Promising To Adopt A New Constitution Later This Month And we’re sure this will be the end of it because of course Kenyan officials never miss deadlines.
Mo Farah Wins 2017 British Ethnic Diversity Sports Award

Pre-NYC Half News

*Men’s Preview *Women’s Preview
RRW With Weather Fluctuating, Tactics Could Change At NYC Half The temperature is expected to be 33F at race time.
RRW Emily Sisson Is Pumped For Her Half Marathon Debut At Sunday’s United Airlines NYC Half Marathon
RRW Callum Hawkins – Former Butler Bulldog – Hopes To Battle For Win At United NYC Half Marathon

The World’s Hardest Foot Race To Win – 2017 World XC – Is Just Around The Corner

REPEAT? Geoffrey Kamworor Says He’s In Much Better Shape Than At Kenyan Trials – Thinks He Can Defend Title He says he was back at the Kenyan Trials as he only started training in December as he was trying to get over a nagging injury.
Leonard Patrick Komon Guarantees Kenyan Victory: “We will win. I believe it will be an easy run and we assure Kenyans of a win.” Six days after Worlds, he’ll race Galen Rupp in a half marathon in Prague.
Is This The Secret To Kenya’s World XC Success?Kenya Has Had Its Training Camp At Kigari Teachers Training College Every Year Since 1986 Some think the special terrain makes it ideal for XC.
WADA Has Conducted Two Different Unannounced Tests At Kenyan Camp
Kenya’s Junior Men Say They Are Ready To Dominate World XC But Many Of Them Want Individual Gold World Youth 3,000m champion Richard Kimunyan won the Trials but world jr steeple champ Amos Kirui (5th at Trials) says he’s the one to beat.
Have Fans, Will Travel Athletics Kenya Will Send 8 Buses Full Of Fans To Uganda Some of them are going from Nairobi, which is a 20-hour bus ride when you throw in stops. The LRC staff is flying in from Nairobi.

More News From Kenya IOC Drops Funding Of Kenya’s National Olympic Committee Until They Adopt A New Constitution And New Officers

Jamaican News

Controversy In Jamaica: High School Officials Stand By Decision To Let Ugandan Distance Runner Compete At “Champs” EvenThough He Failed 2 Of 3 Eligibility CriteriaAryamanya Rodgers is expected to dominate the distance races and some parents are so irate they walked to the ISSA offices and handed in the winner’s trophy before the competition is even held.
Calabar Boycotts Champs Launch The Champs start March 28.

Upcoming Meets In Jamaica

LaShawn Merritt Will Face Andre De Grasse At 200m At Jamaica’s IAAF World Challenge Meeting On May 20th The women’s fields are loaded as it included 100H WR holder Kendra Harrison and double Olympic champ Elaine Thompson.
Van Niekerk Will Evidently Be In Jamaica Awhile As He, David Rudisha, Mo Farah And Usain Bolt Will Race At JN Racers Grand Prix On June 10th We guess the big names are showing up as it’s Bolt’s going away party.

Doping News With A Slightly Positive Angle To Them

Roger Bannister Says Track & Field’s Rampant Doping Brings Him “Extreme Sadness” – Hopes USADA And WADA Can Kill It Off So Track Can Have A Revival “It pains me a lot, but I still believe there is something very healthy underneath the whole of this activity and I long to see this brought into ascendancy again.”
Proof Positive That Not All Dopers Are Bad People – Particularly When They Grow Up In A State Where Everyone Was Doing It 1991 World 100 & 200 Champ Katrin Krabbe Now Helping Terminally Ill In A Hospice Her official title is “dying companion” which she rejects wholeheartedly, “Dying companion? I am a companion for living!”

Centro Sr.’s Book Gets Some Publicity

Matt Centro’s Sr Gets Q&A In Washington Post About His Biography And His Son’s Olympic 1,500m Gold

LRC Exclusive LetsRun.com Exclusive: Read Chapter Two Of Matt Centrowitz’s New Book “Like Father, Like Son” LetsRun.com doesn’t beat around the bush. Neither does Matt Centrowitz. He’s so confident you’ll like his book, he’s letting you read a whole chapter for free. Purchase the book now and come back at the end of February and participate in the first ever LetsRun.com Virtual Book Club.