The TrackTown Summer Series Championship Is In NYC On Thursday *Schedule, Entries, Results *TV Information (9-11pm ET On ESPN)

LRCThread for Those Watching Meet on ESPN (Meet is on a 1 hour delay)
LRCThread for Those Not Watching on TV & Wanting Live Results & Spoilers

LRC 2017 TrackTown Summer Series New York Preview: Robby Andrews Goes For Standard Again; Paul Chelimo, Emma Coburn, Drew Windle Heading Distance Fields The TrackTown Summer Series championship is Thursday in New York at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island. It will be broadcast on ESPN from 9-11 pm ET. Will Robby Andrews, Craig Engels or Cristian Soratos get the 1,500 standard? Which team – the New York Empire, Philadelphia Force, Portland Pulse or San Francisco Surge – will win the title and give their athletes $1,000.

• Projected Team Scores And Event-By-Event Results Via TFN
• Nick Symmonds Says He Was Selected As A GM Because He Can “Tweet And Drink Beer”
• Allyson Felix Says TrackTown Summer Series Final Will Be “Kind Of Like A Party” “We just want to expose people to a more entertaining side of track and field, so it’s going to be a lot of fun, kind of like a party,” says Felix who is only operating as a GM and not racing in the meet.
• Q&A With Felix “I think sometimes it can be overwhelming to turn on the TV and see a track meet. The way that this is broken down, you can immediately look for a team that is associated with someone that you like; I think that’s a great thing.”
• MB: TrackTown Summer Series Championship is Thursday in NYC (and on ESPN) – Official Discussion Thread
• MB: Anyone want to trade a TrackTown Summer Series t-shirt? The poster hates his or her Philadelphia Force shirt.

More Depressing News / That Latest On The Intersex Debate

• Important/Recommended Read Ross Tucker Doesn’t Think The Latest Study On Testosterone & Performance Will Be Enough For CAS To Reinstall The Hormone Therapy Requirements For Intersex Athletes “If I were a betting man, I’d say that CAS will dismiss their appeal and that the status quo will remain, much as I wish it would change,” says Tucker, who points out that CAS is looking for proof that testosterone is responsible for the entire 10-12% male/female difference in performance not the 4% that Semenya has improved since going off hormone therapy.
• Dutee Chand Agrees With Tucker “Dutee also does not believe that this (research) paper satisfies the high bar that was set for the IAAF by CAS.”

A Victory For Women’s Sports?

• IAAF:Leveling The Playing Field In Female Sport: New Research Published In The British Journal Of Sports Medicine Supports Hyperandrogenism RegulationsThe study found that female athletes with high testosterone levels can have a 1.8% to 4.5% competitive advantage. The IAAF will use this new research in their CAS case to reinstate the suspended hyperandrogenism rules.
• The Guardian:“Caster Semenya Could Be Forced To Undertake Hormone Therapy For Future Olympics” Unfortunately the regulations wouldn’t be reinstated in time for 2017 Worlds.
• Joanna Harper:“Using Testosterone To Categorize Male And Female Athletes Isn’t Perfect, But It’s The Best Solution We Have” Harper, a gender-in-sport expert who has written for LRC, evaluates the new study and what it means for hyperandrogenic athletes.

European News

• Darren Campbell And Goldie Sayers Claim British Athletics Is “Killing The Sport” They criticized British Athletics for letting all the top athletes skip the meet which created terrible attendance numbers.
• Birmingham 2022 Promises Full Stadiums For Commonwealth Games After Low Crowds At UK Athletics Trials TV commentator Tim Hutchings called the lack of attendance “disgraceful” and criticized top stars for not competing.
• Weekend Euro Round-Up:Lea Sprunger Smashes 27-Year-Old Swiss 400 Record With 51.09 On Sunday At the Belgian National Championships, the Borlee brothers went 1-3, separated by .59.
• French Olympic Silver Medalist Discus Thrower Melina Robert-Michon Talks About The Challenge Of Coming Back After Giving Birth To Her Daughter She trained up until she was 8 months pregnant and started up again two months after giving birth, but still struggled to get back to her top form and couldn’t even lift the bar without any weight on it her first gym session back.
• IAAF Approves Application For Russian Racewalker Klavdiia Afanaseva To Compete As A Neutral Athlete That brings the total of Russians eligible to compete to 25.
• BBC:GB’s David King Expects More After Sealing 110H World Spot King said he doesn’t “want to be one of these athletes that just go out at the heats.”
• IAAF:Former Greek Olympic Committee President Minos Kyriakou Has Died

Saturday Paris Diamond League *Results

LRC  Paris Recap: Sifan Hassan Beats Faith Kipyegon, Ronald Kwemoi And Omar McLeod Lose For First Time, Nijel Amos Is Back?  The World Championships picture may be getting a little bit clearer after Paris and Sifan Hassan may be your new favorite. Get up to speed on everything in Paris.

• Paris Discussion: Live Paris Diamond League Thread
• Kwemoi not so impressive in Paris Edris outkicked him for win in 3,000.
• Is Ben MF True the stockiest elite distance runner of all time? True took lead in 3,000 and got 6th in 7:35.
• Can a sprint expert explain all the false starts in Paris?

Drug News: Some Ajee Wilson Follow-Ups

• Bicycling.com: Don’t Believe That Story That Says EPO Doesn’t Help Athletes
• Deadspin:“The Curious Case Of Ajee Wilson’s Positive Drug Test” Wilson’s positive test for Zeranol generated a lot of questions. If this substance is so commonly used with livestock, why aren’t there more positive tests and why is Zeranol (an estrogen) even on the banned list in the first place? Sarah Barker tries to answer some of these questions.
• Athletics Illustrated:Ajee Wilson’s Positive Test; Something Other Than Beef Smells Rancid HereChristopher Kelsall takes a much more skeptical look at Wilson’s failed test and feels that USADA’s/Wilson’s story “doesn’t pass the smell test.”
• WADA Revokes Accreditation Of Two Drug-Testing Laboratories In South Africa And Kazakhstan

More British News

• Good Read:Legendary BBC Commentator (And Runner) Brendan Foster Is Retiring From Announcing: “I’ve loved it, but you have to get out at the right time.” Foster talks about some of his favorite memories from his 37 years of commentating. He also talks about how it’s “bloody horrible commentating on people who you know have doped and you can’t say.”

• BBC:How Annie Conway Went From A Weekend Fun Runner To A World Champion Conway picked up running in her late 20s to stay in shape with her husband, but 8 years later she was the World Long Distance Mountain Running Champion.
• UK Athletics Chairman Ed Warner Calls For UK Sport To Be Scrapped Warner claims governing bodies have been “thrown off a cliff” by UK sport after 11 sports were left without lottery funding for the 2020 Olympic cycle.
• Images Released Of What Stadium Would Look Like if Birmingham Awarded 2022 Commonwealth Games

Distance News: Steve Spence’s Streak Survives

• 55-Year-Old Former US Olympian Steve Spence Runs 4:55 To Extend His Streak Of Sub-5 Minute Miles To 42 Years “I try to keep it fun, but it’s starting to become a little stressful because of the expectations I have of myself. Each year it gets a little harder. I have to train more. A few years ago, I could just go out and do it.”
  *MB:BREAKING! Steve Spence runs 4:55 and continues his sub5 steak to 42 years.
• Good Read:IAAF Profile: Yuki Kawauchi Is Running His 70th Career Marathon On Sunday At The Gold Coast Marathon Kawauchi with his prolific racing and full-time job “defies categorization” as a normal elite runner.
• UK’s Laura Muir Still Wants To Do 1,500/5,000 Double At World Champs Despite Foot Injury BA performance director Neil Black was quoted saying that she had “a one percent” chance of doubling up in London, but Muir tweeted in response, “Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”
• Recommended Read:Daily Mail Profile On Laura Muir, Who Says She Rather Have Gone For The Win In Rio And Lose A Medal Than Play It Safe And Finish Third Muir is very blue collar compared to some athletes as she says she talks about how hardly takes any supplements and hates using pain killers and said she tried a sports psychologist, but it wasn’t for her.
  *MB:Laura Muir shades Jenny Simpson (Olympics)
• The Guardian:Mo Farah Vows To Stick With Alberto Salazar But Also Eyes Return To UK Farah denied previous reports that he was leaving Salazar when he moves up to the marathon, but he has apparently been looking at houses in the UK.