April 22, 2017 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For April 22, 2017

When You Are The GOAT, Winning Isn't Enough

“Times are very important. On the track I don’t see anyone out there looking like they can reach my marks at the moment. In the marathon, running two hours, 10 minutes and winning would not give you full happiness. Winning in two hours, four minutes would be a different feeling.

– Kenenisa Bekele talking before Sunday’s London Marathon.

Who will be the better mother/daughter combo: Katie/Lisa Rainsberger or Cheryl Bridges/Shalane Flanagan?
Kenenisa Bekele disses Mo Farah and Galen Rupp: "Times are very important,"
WADA does Q&A with Marathon WR holder Paula Radcliffe
Wow: Ken Goe says if you believe Alberto Salazar is a doper you must also believe USADA is inept
Heard it Here 1st!: Donovan Brazier won't handle the "Heats" @ 2017 Nats

2017 Virgin Money London Marathon Is Sunday (4:15 & 5:00am ET) TV & Streaming Tracking And Live Results

MB: Official 2017 London Marathon Live Discussion Thread

Bravo, This Field Is A Work Of Art LRC The Greatest Women’s Marathon Ever? London 2017 Is Absurdly Loaded; How Fast Will Mary Keitany Go? The London Marathon website has called this “the best elite women’s field ever assembled” and they may be right. This field is RIDICULOUSLY loaded. There are four sub-2:20 women and four more sub-2:22, including world champ Mare Dibaba, Chicago champ Florence Kiplagat and Berlin champ Aberu Kebede. Plus track studs Tirunesh Dibaba and Vivian Cheruiyot (who is making her debut).

LRC Americans Laura Thweatt And Kellyn Taylor Are Racing The 2017 London Marathon – How Fast Will They Go? The two 2:28 marathoners are looking for PRs in the UK.

LRC2017 London Marathon Men’s Preview: Kenenisa Bekele Takes On Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, Feyisa Lilesa, Abel Kirui & Rising Star Daniel Wanjiru In Another Stacked RaceEven without Eliud Kipchoge, the 2017 London race is LOADED as Bekele (Berlin), Ghebreslassie (NYC), Kirui (Chicago) & Wanjiru (Amsterdam) all won big fall marathons, while Lilesa took Olympic silver in Rio. Kenyan stud Bedan Karoki (’15 World XC/’16 World Half silver) is also making his debut.

Ethiopian Officials In London Embassy Hit Back At Feyisa Lelisa, Calling His Story A “Fairy Tale” “The blood is not flowing. These are, as usual, unsubstantiated claims, a way to romanticize what happened. (They are) using him for their own political agenda.”
43-Year-Old Jo Pavey Is Hoping To PR And Happy To Be Getting Her First World Championships Medal (10 Years After The Fact) Dopers have cost her a lot during her career.
Bekele: “I think I can improve my personal best, that would be perfect for me.”
Kenenisa Bekele: “Times are very important.” “In the marathon, running two hours, 10 minutes and winning would not give you full happiness.”
Telegraph Sport Writers Share Their Marathon Horror Stories Before 2017 London Marathon
Mary Keitany And Florence Kiplagat And Paula R All Want Doping Criminalized*MB: WADA does Q&A with Marathon WR holder Paula Radcliffe
48-Year-Old Guy Who Was A Chain Smoker 7 Years Ago Will Have Run All 6 WMM In The Last 18 Months When He Finishes London
Wheelchair Racer David Weir Looking For 7th London Marathon Victory, Hints He’s Not Likely To Retire He retired from track after a controversial Olympic showing.

Full Coverage in Our 2017 London Marathon Special Section

2017 World Relays Are Sat & Sunday Schedule, Entries & Results (7:30pm ET) TV & Streaming

MB: Official 2017 World Relays Live Discussion Thread

LRC 5 Things We’re Looking Forward To At the 2017 World Relays – And 2 Things That Need To Be Fixed We break down the 4 x 800s for you and wonder if Team USA can defend their two gold medals.

Recommended Read A Look At 5 Memorable European Relays (With Video) The videos are great as they include Christine Arron‘s unofficial 9.66 relay from 1998 and a clip of Lillian Board, who tragically died of cancer at age 22 in 1970.
Justin Gatlin Set To Shine In Usain Bolt’s Absence At World Relays Gatlin led Team USA to the win over Jamaica at the last World Relays in 2015.
New Relay Coach Orin Richburg Hoping To Change USA Men’s 4 X 100 Trend Of DNFs And DQs Even if he fails, at least he isn’t a past doper.
Carl Lewis Talks Relays: “The Key Is Simplicity” Lewis doesn’t come out and bash Dennis Mitchell (although he has before), but says he is more hopeful now that Orin Richburg is at the helm. “It’s great to have a coach now who understands a successful system, so that’s exciting for me to see.”
Andre De Grasse Is Thrilled To Be At World Relays And Says Key To Success Is Patience And Trust
Olympic Sprint Heroine Elaine Thompson Is Excited For Her 1st World Relays
Kenyan Women Say They Will Win 4 X 800 We don’t think so.
Seb Coe Speaks: “There’s Something We Can All Learn From Relays” Did you know Coe actually anchored GB’s 4 x 400 squad a couple of times at the championship level?

Was Last Week The Most Entertaining Week Of The Year?

LRC WTW: Is Katie Rainsberger The Second Coming Of Jordan Hasay? The Most Incredible Long Jump Ever? Comparing Josh Kerr To Drew Hunter There’s a lot of stuff we really found interesting in this one.

Brianna Rollins Gets Suspended

LRC Brianna Rollins, Olympic 100 Hurdles Champ, Is Banned For 1 Year For Not Being Available For Three Drug Tests Utterly idiotic and avoidable. She took the blame but her agency and USATF were noted in the arbitrators decision.
Discuss: Olympic 100H Champ Brianna Rollins Gets 12-Month Ban For 3 Whereabouts Violations

Non-London Sunday Road Action: WR Holder Jepkosgei & Sara Hall In Japan

Germany:Former Olympic And World Champ Stephen Kiprotich Faces Three 2:04 Ethiopians At The Hamburg Marathon Former Dubai winner Tsegaye Mekonnen (2:04:32), former London winner Tsegaye Kebede (2:04:38) and former world bronze medalist Tadesse Tola (2:04:49) headline with Kiprotich while 2:24-woman Jessica Augosto is the favorite on the women’s side.
Austria:Ethiopia’s Deribe Robi (2:05:21) Eyes A Sub-2:06 Time As He Leads A Field Of Ten Sub-2:10 Men At The Vienna City Marathon
*Ethiopia’s Defending Champ Meseret Mengistu (2:23:26) And Shuku Genemo (2:24:31) Lead Field For The Vienna City Marathon
Japan:Joyciline Jepkosgei Will Run Her First Post-World Record Race At The Gifu Seiryu Half She’ll face former world 10,000 bronze medalist Belaynesh Oljira as well as Sara Hall. The men’s race is led by Bernard Kipyego (59:10), who is up against a deep field that includes Yuki Kawauchi.
China: Defending Winner Mosinet Geremew Going For A Hatrick At The Yangzhou Jianzhen Half He faces a strong field with 11 sub-one hour men including Ethiopian NR holder Atsedu Tsegay (58:47), Asian record holder Abraham Cheroben (58:48) and and road 10K WR holder Leonard Patrick Komon. The women’s field is lead by Mary Wacera (66:29) and Genet Yalew (66:26).
Poland: Warsaw Marathon Preview: Three Sub-2:08 Men And Bahrain’s Merima Mohammed (2:23 PR From 2010) Headline
Poland: Jafred Kipchumba (2:05:48 From 2011) And Poland’s Agnieszka Mierzejewska (2:30:55) Favorites At Lodz Marathon In Poland

LRC Goes To Kenya

LRC My Trip To A Possible Doping Camp In Kenya: What I Saw When I Spent A Day With Olympic Champion Jemima Sumgong LRC founder Weldon Johnson was at Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong‘s training camp in Kenya a couple of weeks before her positive “A” sample doping test was announced.

Doping News

Top Kenyans Say They Are “Embarrassed” And “Ashamed” Of Jemima SumgongVivian Cheruiyot, Florence Kiplagat and Mary Keitany all spoke out against her at the London Marathon press conference.
Former UK Athletics Chief Medical Officer Chastised For “Inexcusable” Conduct When He Failed To Record Mo Farah’s L-Carnitine InjectionDr. Rob Chakraverty was questioned by UK MPs and said he had simply forgotten to record the treatment as he was busy and flying out the next day.
*The Independent article The doctor said the 13.5mL injection was well below the maximum 50mL allowed within 6-hours.
It Never Ends: Russia State Medical Agency Boasts That It Has New And Improved Alternatives To Meldonium The agency claimed it has found “several drugs which are not banned and work significantly better than meldonium.”
Five Russian Athletes Given 2-Year Doping Bans After Being Caught In 2012 Olympic And 2013 World Re-Tests Sprinter Antonina Krivoshapka will lose her 2013 400m bronze and 4×400, meaning the Team USA squad of Jessica Beard, Natasha Hastings, Ashley Spencer and Francena McCorory will be promoted to gold.
Five-Time Russian Olympic Gymnastics Medal Winner Denis Ablyazin Questioned As A “Witness” To Doping In Russian T&F

Olympic News

No, We’re Not Joking:E-Sports To Become Official Medal Sport At 2022 Asian Games Apparently playing video games is now a “sport.”
*USA Today:“E-Sports In Olympics Could Happen Before You Know It” “Crushing it at Call of Duty or Madden will soon get you a gold medal just like the swimmer who sets a world record in the 100-meter butterfly.”
Rio Organizers Still Owe $28 Million In Outstanding Payments For The Olympics

US News

USTFCCCA Previews This Weekend’s Big NCAA Meets*All NCAA Results
Great Read:Toni Reavis Remembers Tom Fleming Fleming always pushed the pace in races and cashed the first $25,000 check in pro running.
Ken Goe: “In the absence of any actionable evidence, maybe it’s reasonable to conclude he (Alberto Salazar) hasn’t cheated.”
*MB: Wow: Ken Goe says if you believe Alberto Salazar is a doper you must also believe USADA is inept
Toni Reavis Thinks All Of The Elites Of One Sex Should Go To Boston, The Other To London We’ve been saying this for years. Having the elite men and women finish within minutes of each other distracts the viewer.
A Look At The Rivalry Trophies College Teams Can Win In Track And Field A pretty entertaining read for sure.
Newton Running Reorganizes Itself And Comes Back To Life Without Its Flagship Store Good news, the company is no longer owned by private equity.
Non-Caffeine User Took Caffeine Pills For 30 Days To See If It Helped Her Running She felt a big impact initially but feels like her body got used to it and doesn’t recommend it.
Guy Ran 2017 Boston Marathon In 3:40 Barefoot And In A Caveman Suit
Raevyn Rogers May Be The NCAA Record Holder In The 800 But She’s Only #3 All Time At Oregon Oregon counts any time in an Oregon uniform whereas the NCAA doesn’t count summer times.
Who Should Light The 2024 Flame In LA? Venus And Serena?

Previous London Marathon News

RRW:American Elites Kellyn Taylor, Laura Thweatt Ready For London Debuts The 2:28 women both will run their first marathon in over a year as Taylor last raced at the Olympic Trials and Thweat hasn’t run a marathon since her debut at NYC 2015.
RRW:London Women Could Tackle All-Women’s World Record There was talk at the London press conference of Paula Radcliffe‘s 2:17:42 “all-women” WR as the pacemakers are targteing a 69-min. first half.
RRW:After Dubai Disappointment, Kenenisa Bekele Optimistic For London Marathon Bekele: “Every time I’m excited when I’m running marathon.”
Pre-London Interview With Former Two-Time World And Reigning Chicago Marathon Champ Abel Kirui Kirui says he’s going for the win and has done more speed than before Chicago to prepare for the faster course.
Q&A With Florence Kiplagat Ahead Of The London Marathon Kiplagat talks about how she only started running in her later teen years to get a US scholarship, but that never happened.
What British Celebrities Are Running The London Marathon? Most will probably go over the heads of non-Brits.

Sprint Stuff

Bahamas’ 2012 Olympic 4 X 400 Gold Medalist Chris Brown Shares His Tips For Sport And Life“Each race I say to myself ‘I have come too far now to give up or throw in the towel.’ I try to treat every competition like it is my last.”
One We Missed:Teenagers Liv Ryan And Matthew Rizzo Win Famous Stawell Gift Race In Australia The pair took home $40,000 in prize money for winning the historic race which gives athletes a handicap start based on previous performances.
2012 Olympic 100H Champ Sally Pearson Talks About The Challenge Of Making The Decision To Be Self-Coached She says she knows it was the right decision as she coached herself back from her latest injury to win the Australian Championships in April.
17-Year-Old Gong Luying Stars At Chinese Under-18 Championships Taking LJ Gold, 100m Silver And 4 X 100 Silver

RIP

NJ Running Legend And Two-Time NYC Marathon Champ Tom Fleming Dies While Coaching HS Track Meet The 2:12 marathoner won the NYC Marathon in 1973 and 1975 and finished second in Boston twice.
*MB: RIP: Tom Fleming -1973 and 1975 NYC Marathon champ – has passed away

Upcoming Action: World Relays Are This Weekend

$1.26 Million In Prize Money Up For Grabs At World Relays This Weekend $50,000 to the winning teams with bonuses for WRs.
Event-By-Event World Relays Previews
*World Relays Provisional Entry Lists
May 5: Olympic HJ Silver Medalist Mutaz Barshim Leads List Of Qatar Olympians And Rising Stars For Doha DL
May 27:Olympic Champ Omar McLeod And WR Holder Aries Merritt Lead Pre Classic 110H Field The field also includes Russia’s recently cleared to compete world champ Sergey Shubenkov, David Oliver and France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde.

NCAA News

Event-By-Event Top-10 Marks From The Weekend Top distance results not already mentioned include Elinor Purrier‘s 9:43 steeple win at Ocean State Invy and the 1:45.70 Eliud Rutto ran behind Clayton Murphy at Mt. SAC.
Future NCAA Championship Sites Announced Through 2022 XC and indoor will move around a lot while outdoor will stay in Eugene through at least 2021.
NCAA Events Returned To North Carolina After Repeal Of Transgender Bathroom Law
NCAA Athletes Of The Week Are Josh Kerr And Raevyn Rogers Rogers set the NCAA 800 record at 1:59.10 while Kerr put himself #6 all-time with 3:35.99.
Updated Women’s NCAA Rankings No changes to the top 5 as Oregon stays #1.
Updated Men’s Collegiate Rankings Top 5 remain unchanged with Florida ranked #1.

2017 Boston Marathon *Tracking And Live Results

LRC Updated Geoffrey Kirui Outduels Galen Rupp Over Final 5 Miles To Win 2017 Boston Marathon A great run by Kirui to put back a stiff challenge from American Galen Rupp.

LRC 7 Thoughts On Men’s Race In Boston: Galen Rupp More Than Leads The Way With Six Americans In Top 10A Kenyan may have won and a Japanese guy was 3rd, but Galen Rupp led the American invasion (these points are in our full race article above).

LRC Boston Winner Geoffrey Kirui Does “… 70% (of) the preparation of a real marathon runner.” Life isn’t always fair.

South African Champs

More News From Africa Athletics Kenya Warns Agents And Coaches That They Will Face Extra Scrutiny Due To Doping So AK blames the agents and coaches and the agents and coaches blame the doctors. We blame all of the above but most of all – the athletes. “Cheats will be exposed irrespective of their world status, their agents and coaches will be brought to book.”

Random / Interesting Other News

Sub-4 Miler And College Coach Patrick McGregor Breaks Record For Longest Streak Of Daily Sub-5:00 Miles McGregor ran a 4:12 mile to break his high school coach’s record with 105 straight days of sub-5 “mile-ing.” He plans on continuing into the foreseeable future “until the juice is no longer worth the squeeze.”
Video:Ever Wonder How Spectators At The Boston Marathon Cross The Street? It’s a much more complex process than you’d think.
Retired Pro Lauren Fleshman Is Pregnant, Expecting A Baby Girl In October
Tennessee Runner Saves Woman From Sinking Car Runner Gloria Davis dived into a pond to help the 86-year-old who was stuck in her sinking car.
Tokyo 2020 Adopting Scheme From London 2012 Encouraging People To Work Remotely To Reduce Traffic Congestion For The Olympics

African Distance News

El Guerrouj’s 2004 Olympic 1,500/5,000 Gold Makes List Of “Happy Endings In Sports” The 1,500m WR holder finally won Olympic gold in 2004 after falling on the final lap in 1996 and finishing a close runner-up in 2000.
Athletics Weekly Profile Olympic 5,000m Silver Medalist Hellen Obiri Obiri is a versatile athlete, having won major races at 1,500 through 5,000 (indoors and out) as well as XC.
Science Of Sport’s Ross Tucker Impressed With Boston Champ Geoffrey Kirui’s Muscle Definition Tucker wrote on Twitter that he had never seen an athlete with horizontal musculature in their quadriceps like that of Kirui’s.
Genzebe Dibaba’s 2,000m Indoor WR (5:23.75) Ratified By The IAAF

News From The UK

Sad News:GB’s 2008 Olympic High Jump Silver Medalist Germaine Mason Killed In Motorcycle Accident The 34-year-old was riding at the front of a convoy that included Usain Bolt when he lost control of his motorcycle (possibly trying to avoid a vehicle that had lost control).
*MB: 2008 Olympic HJ silver medallist Germaine Mason of GB/Jamaica is killed in motorcycle accident
Former Olympic 10K Bronze Medalist Brendan Foster To Retire As BBC Sport Commentator After London 2017
London 2017 World Championships Mascots Unveiled Hero the Hedgehog and Whizbee the Bee were created by a 9-year-old as part of a nation wide contest.
Jessica Ennis-Hill Receives Damehood At Buckingham Palace
Liverpool The First British City To Officially Launch Bid For 2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 CWG are up for grabs after Durban, South Africa was stripped of the event.

2017 Boston Marathon Rankings

LRC The Boston Marathon Report Cards Are Out – We Rate the Runners A Through (DN)FWe rank the top 10 and the Americans on their Boston performances. Someone pictured might have gotten an A+.

Good Read:Interview: Ato Boldon Gives His Advice On What It Takes To Go Pro Out Of High School Even though his athlete Khalifa St. Fort went pro successfully Boldon said that, “I think it’s almost never the right choice.”

Drug News

Jessica Ennis-Hill And Jo Pavey Will Receive Re-Awarded World Championship Medals At Special Ceremony At London 2017 Seb Coe was all for it as he said, “We can’t just say: ‘Sorry about that, but here you go – you’ve got your medal now, take it down to your local pub.’ They should be handed over in London.”
Doctor Who Treated Mo Farah With Controversial L-Carnitine Infusion Will Appear Before British MPs The doctor and BA endurance head Barry Fudge will be questioned about the infusion which was not properly logged as they try to determine if it broke any anti-doping rules.
US Pole Vaulter Derek Miles Gets His 2008 Olympic Bronze Medal At Special Ceremony In South Dakota Miles was moved up from 4th to 3rd after Ukraine’s Denys Yurchenko failed a doping re-test.

More Recent Sprint/Field Results

GB’s Danny Talbot Runs Wind-Assisted 19.86 To Win In Clermont Harry Aikines-Aryeetey won the 100 in a wind-aided 9.90.
IAAF Recap:Jamaicans Impress At Carifta Games Jamaica lead the medal standings with 39 gold, 28 silver and 19 bronze.

Boston Women

LRC Updated Edna Kiplagat Wins Boston And Possibly $500,000 As Jordan Hasay’s Debut Is A Huge Success, Desi 4th Kiplagat crushed it from 30k to the finish and got the big win as Hasay hit her debut out of the park.

Hasay_Jordan-BostonM17 LRC 4 Thoughts On Women’s Race In Boston – Kiplagat Hopefully “Doing It the Right Way,” Hasay’s Debut For Her Mom A Smashing Success, Plus Updates On Favorites Cherono And Linden These thoughts are in our full recap above but weren’t when initially published.

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.