July 17, 2017 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For July 17, 2017

Quote Of The Day

“What I couldn’t get over was how small of a decision that I made will change the rest of my life. … ‘Something like this ain’t about to happen to me over what I did. There’s no fuckin’ way. It just ain’t how life is.'”

– Former high school high jump star Eric Thompson talking about how a five dollar bump of cocaine as a high school senior derailed his track career and completely changed his future.

Rabat DL Was Sunday *Full Results

LRC Recap: Nijel Amos, Andre De Grasse, Elaine Thompson, Ryan Crouser Keep Rolling, Conseslus Kipruto Goes Out Injured, and The Moroccans ImpressOnly one more DL meet remains before Worlds.

*IAAF: Elaine Thompson And Shaunae Miller-Uibo Impress In Rabat Thompson won her 14th straight 100m race with 10.87 while Miller-Uibo ran 49.80.
*IAAF:Ryan Crouser Dominates In Rabat With 22.21m (Third Best Of His Career)
*AW:Brit CJ Ujah Wins 100m In 9.98
*European-Athletics:Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova Rounding Into Form With London Approaching She ran a SB of 54.22 to get her first 400H win of the year.

US Masters Champs *Results

Seven American Age Group Records Set On Final Day Of USATF Masters Championships
*101-Year-Old Julia Hawkins Sets 100m WR With 40.12 At USATF Masters Champs

History Was Made Friday In Madrid *Compiled Results

Isaac Makwala Runs 19.77 And 43.92 In Madrid – 1st Person EVER To Go Sub-20/Sub-44 On Same Day! *IAAF
Compiled Results US results of notes included Erik Sowinski‘s 1:45.01 and Chrishuna Williams‘ 2:00.03 in the 800s and Bershawn Jackson‘s 48.82.

US News

Toni Reavis Is Glad That Sports Radio In Dallas Is Mocking The TrackTown Summer Series He says it’s better than not being noticed at all.
A Look At How Kenya’s Sarah Mwangi, Who Has Never Been To The US, Got A Full Ride To UTEP An interesting read for sure.
More Press For Craig Engels: Q&A/Podcast With Citius Mag He’s hoping to bring in Budweiser as a secondary sponsor.
A Record 149,000 People In The US Ran A Mile Race In 2016 Is it because the mile is popular or Americans have been too lazy to run a 5k/10k?
Team USA Ready For Pan Am Juniors, Which Start Next Friday
Former Oregon/Penn Assistant Jamie Cook Hired As Navy’s Director Of Track And Field
Running Etiquette: How To Interact With Pedestrians Without Being A Jerk
NY Times Profiles The Only Black Professional Triathlete In The World
NY Times: Running Camps For Adults Are Growing More Popular, Especially With Women
Canadian News
Brandon McBride Is Feeling Great: “I am as fit as I’ve ever been.”
In Case You Missed It, Athletics Illustrated Recaps The 2017 Canadian Champs

A New Nominee For The Positive Doping Test Hall Of Fame?

LRC “Frequent And Passionate” Kissing, Moxylong, And An Indian Chemist: Gil Roberts’ Doping Case Is the Strangest One Of 2017 Over the years, there have been some entertaining stories that have been used to get people off (or at least try) from positive doping tests – from a gay man making out with a female Craigslist encounter to five bottles of beer and sex at least four times with the wife. We’ve got a new doozy for you.
*MB: “Frequent and Passionate” Kissing Results in US 400 Man Gil Roberts Avoiding Doping Suspension

NCAA News

It’s Official: Chris Solinsky Is The New Florida Distance Coach
*MB: The new distance coach at Florida will be…. Chris Solinsky
Recruiting “Dos And Don’ts” Advice From Former Columbia University Coach Willy Wood Apparently some recruits have accidentally sent Wood an email addressed to a rival coach expressing interest in a rival school. Yeah, don’t do that.
Police Investigating The Death Of Johns Hopkins Sprinter Police found Abigail Bastien‘s body near campus, but said there were no obvious signs of foul play.

The Week That Was

LRCWTW: Women Vs. Men, The Boilermaker Turns 40, Konstanze Klosterhalfen Is Only 20, & Jakob Ingebrigtsen Is Younger Than LetsRun.com

We span the globe to get you up to speed on what's been happening in the track and field world the last two weeks.

Sprint / Field Event News

Oregon’s Deajah Stevens Announces She Is Going Pro Early The nine-time All-American will pass on her final year of eligibility, but will stay in Eugene next year to finish her degree. No word yet on an agent or shoe company. *Discuss
Ashton Eaton Steals The Show Finishing 17th At Prineville’s Splash ‘N’ Dash Quadrathlon Race Eaton didn’t know he was even competing in the swim/bike/kayak/run event until a few days before as his wife and HS coach had signed him up under the pseudonym “Cash Money” without telling him.
Tips For Sport And Life From Lithuania’s Euro Indoor HJ Champ Arine Palsyte She says, “Don’t fall asleep during the good times. Because while you are celebrating, your rivals are working hard to reach their goals.”
The Bahamas’ Olympic 400m Champ Shaunae Miller-Uibo Says Her Favorite Track Memory Is From When She Was 10 Years Old At the Caribbean Union of Teachers Games Miller-Uibo won the 100, 200, was second in the 400 and LJ and second-to-last in the softball throw.
IAAF:With Late Round Heroics In London, Barbora Spotakova Shows She’s Still Very Much A Contender The two-time Olympic champ and WR holder had a few big losses to her younger compatriot Sara Kolak, who beat her to gold in Rio, but in London Spotakova got some revenge with her biggest throw since 2012.
Belgium’s World Discus Silver Medalist Philip Milanov Talks About The Challenge Of Being Both A World Class Athlete And A University Student Milanov says his studies as in digital arts and entertainment “is like a hobby” that keeps him relaxed, but can also be “intense” and time consuming.

Mid-Week Action – Results: Lucerne, SwitzerlandMorton Games Ireland

Friday In Spain:Olympic Champ Ruth Beitia And Olympic Silver Medalist Orlando Ortega Highlight Meeting De Madrid Distance action is highlighted by Erik Sowinski and Mo Amanin the 800 and Ethiopia’s 2008 world indoor 1,500m champ Gelete Burka vs. Azmera Gebru (14:57 5K best) over 3,000m.

Morton Games:Alexa Efraimson Gets Her First International 1,500 Win As Robert Domanic’s Fine 2017 Continues Ole Miss’s Domanic won in 3:55 as Drew Hunter ran 3:56. Efraimson won in 4:06.73.
Discussion:2017 Morton Games Is Today, July 12 (Hunter, Efraimson, Merber, etc) – Live Discussion Thread

Lucerne: World Bronze Medalist Amel Tuka Wins In 1:46.74 Over Erik Sowinski And Matt Centrowitz Sowinski was 2nd (1:47.06) while Centro was a distant 7th (1:49.12). Ethiopia’s Azmera Gebru won the 3,000 in 8:52 with Aisha Praught 3rd (8:53), Emily Infeld 5th (8:55) and Courtney Freichs 6th (8:56). In non-distance action, Germany’s Johanes Vetter threw the second best javelin mark of all-time with 94.44m while Sharika Nelvis ran (12.67) to beat Sally Pearson in the hurdles and Devon Allen won the men’s race in 13.31.
*800 Race Video
*MB:Nijel Amos Runs 45.55 PB
*MB:JULY 11 800m: Eric S. 1:47.0 and Matthew C. 1:49.12 WTH???

Sunday:Rabat DL Provisional Entry Lists

Sad News

RIP:USATF Hall Of Fame Coach Jim Bush Has Died At 90 Years Old Bush guided UCLA to five NCAA track titles and coached 30 Olympians.
*USTFCCCA Tribute
UAE Paralympic Athlete Abdullah Hayayei Dies After A Metal Discus Cage Fell On Him

LetsJump.com

Recommended Read:Vice Sports: “The Five-Buck Bump Of Cocaine That Destroyed An Olympic Dream”Eric Thompson was a HJ prodigy with a full-ride to Arkansas and an Olympic dream, but five dollars of cocaine and some bad luck completely changed his life.
Recommended Read #2:Former High Jumper Jamie Nieto Is Fighting Back From Paralysis To Walk On His Wedding Day Another nice article and video on Nieto, this time from The Sacramento Bee.
*Previously: Jamie Nieto Trying To Defy The Doctors To Be Ready To Walk For His July Wedding Nieto suffered a spinal cord injury when doing a backflip in 2016.
Friday:Charlotte Street Pole Vault Is On Friday; Sandi Morris Highlights If you’re going to be near Charlotte, NC on Friday you should check it out.
RIP:New Mexico Mourns The Passing Of 1965 Long And Triple Jump NCAA Champ Clarence Robinson
Former Ivy League Triple Jump Champ Nadia Chika Eke Appeals To Ghana For Financial Support She won the 2016 African Champs for Ghana and wants to be able to travel to more meets.

Doping / Corruption

USA Today:“Feds Don’t Want Lance Armstrong To Say ‘Everybody Was Doing It'” The US Justice Department is trying to prevent Armstrong from “putting the entire sport of cycling on trial,” by discussing the history of drugs in the sport.
IAAF Council Member Frankie Fredericks Provisionally Suspended Pending Ethics Investigation He allegedly received payments from Papa Massata Diack days before voting on the 2016 Olympics. *IAAF Statement

Big Pub For Sydney M

Crossover Star: Sydney McLaughlin Is On The Cover Of Sports Illustrated The amount of money she’s going to make when she goes pro will be insane.

Speaking Of Covers: Kirby Lee Is A Track And Field Legend Behind The Camera

The Olympic Channel Has Launched In The US

LRC USA Olympic TV Channel Launched In The US On Saturday Learn what will be on it. It’s a partnership between the USOC, IOC, and NBC which will have archival Olympic footage, original programming and some live events that otherwise might not have been on TV.
Peter Ueberroth Isn’t Gloating Even Though He Tried To Start An Olympic Channel In 2009
Where Does The IOC Spend Its Money? Read This To Find Out

Previous WU18 And EuropeanU23 Championship News

IAAF Day 3: Kenya’s George Manangoi Crushes 1,500 Field, Jamaica’s De’Jour Russell Wins 110H In 13.04, Cuba’s Jordan Diaz Wins TJ With Ridiculous 17.30m Diaz is now 7th in the world in 2017 and he’s just 16. Video Of Jump
Winner Of Boys 1,500 At World U18s Is The Younger Brother Of 2015 WC Silver Medalist Elijah Manangoi
Antonio Watson Wins WU18 Title In 46.59
Spikes Recaps The 1st Half Of The World U18 Championships
With Ethiopia Favored, It Looks Like Kenya May Lose Boys 800 Final For First Time Since 2009
IAAF Day 2 Recap: Thrilling LJ Showdown Highlights As Cuba Goes 1-2 Maikel Y. Vidal won with a world U18 lead of 7.88m.
Day 2 Morning Recap Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega led the way with 7:55.

Europeans: 21-Year-Old Ojie Edoburun (GBR) Sprints To European U23 100m Title In 10.14
Ireland’s/Villanova’s Penn Relays Hero Síofra Cléirigh-Buttner Is Ready For European U23s We still can’t believe she didn’t make the NCAA final as we thought she’d contend for the title.

Distance News

Interesting Read:Cam Levins Opens Up About Doping Allegations, His Decision To Leave NOP And His Relationship With Alberto Salazar Levins had a “pretty good” relationship with Salazar, although not as personal as he has with his former college coach Eric Houle. Levins said the doping allegations were tough, but weren’t why he left the and he has “the utmost faith” that his former teammates are clean.
Drew Windle Has Been Mirroring Dave Wottle’s And Nick Symmonds’ Come-From-Behind Racing Style However, Windle clarifies that’s not his “trademark style or anything,” just what has worked for him lately.
2008 Olympian Amy Begley Finishes Second In W30-39 800m At USATF Masters Championships Begley ran 2:36.79, finishing behind Lisa Edwards (2:35.57). Another highlight: 92-year-old Mary Norckauer, who is running 12 events. She won the W90 800 in 7:31 and still has 11 events to go. *Live Results
Scottish Runner Saves Drowning Woman Who Fell Off Bridge, Then Finishes Run A bystander said, “She could easily have died if he hadn’t taken action. Afterwards, he just put his hat on and jogged off … as if nothing had happened.”
Podcast Q&A: Carrie Tollefson Interviews Former US Marathon Great Dick Beardsley Beardsley talks about his struggle with addiction, his passion for the sport, and moving back to Minnesota to open a bed and breakfast.

Upcoming Distance Action

August 20: Mo Farah’s Last Track Race Will Be At The Birmingham Diamond League “I’m really looking forward to what will be my final track race … I’m sure it will be a day I remember for the rest of my life.”
July 28:Heather Kampf And Ben Blankenship Will Defend Their Titles At the GNC Live Well Liberty Mile Blankenship faces Kyle Merber while Kampf is up against Katie Mackey and Emily Lipari.
August 4:Deepest Women’s Field Yet Announced For 2017 Sir Walter MilerStephanie Garcia, Heather Kampf, Emily Lipari, Nicole Tully, Katie Mackey and more.
August 10:Deep American Fields Set For West Chester Mile And 800 The men’s race has Leo Manzano, Garrett Heath, Cristian Soratos, Kyle Merber and more while the women are lead by Katie Mackey, Emily Lipari, Lauren Johnson and Amanda Eccleston.
September 10:Mary Keitany And Mo Farah Vs. Dathan Ritenhein Headline At Great North Run Half Marathon

Track And Field In The Real World

LRCSports Radio In Dallas Talks Track And Field: "I think the WNBA is laughing at these guys."

The good news is track and field got discussed on the radio as one of the hosts saw The Freeze race at the TrackTown Summer Series meet on TV. The bad news is they ridiculed the idea track could be popular anywhere and the concept of a track league in the US.

US Marathon News: Ritz To Brooks

RRWThree-Time Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein Has Joined The Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project Since 180 days had passed since Ritz’s Nike contract expired, he was free to sign and he chose to go with Brooks.
*MB:Breaking: Dathan Ritzenhein has joined the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project

2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials Standards Announced The marathon standards stay at 2:19 and 2:45, but the half marks are quicker at 64:00 and 73:00 (dropped from 65:00 and 75:00 in 2016).
*MB:USATF Announces 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon qualifying standards

Evaluating The Sport

Is Scrapping The Pre-2005 World Records A Good Idea? An Interesting Discussion Between Kara Goucher And Several Sports Writers The general consensus was that the new proposed criteria for WRs is good, but most are against scrapping the old marks.
Ross Tucker Doesn’t Think The New Testosterone Study Will Be Enough For CAS To Reinstate The IAAF’s Hyperandrogenism Policy He thinks CAS will argue that the advantage hyperandrogenic women have is the same as other genetic differences (such as height in basketball), but Tucker points out that there aren’t different categories for height, while there are for sex.
Toni Reavis Gives Props To The London Diamond League Coverage He also proposes an interesting idea to deal with the false start issue and TV – don’t re-start the race. Just let it run and DQ the false starting athlete after the race.
Coaching Tip:“Why It’s Not Good For A Coach To Go All Braveheart In The Dressing Room”
The Telegraph:“More People Than Ever Are Running, But Fewer Bother Taking Notice Of Elite Athletics”(You can access one free premium article a week with an account.)

2017 USAs Prediction Contest

LRC Who Won Our 2017 Running Warehouse USAs Prediction Contest? A Pro, An Olympic Trials Qualifier, A 3:40 1,500m Runner And An All-State High School Runner See who the kings and queens of LetsRun.com are. Our contest winners this time are by far the most impressive group running-wise in the history of contest winners on LRC.

World Under-18 Champs Continue In Kenya & European U-23 Champs in Poland U18 ResultsEvent-By-Event RecapsLive Streaming Info (Blocked In USA) European U-23 Results*U-23 Live Stream

Sunday:

World U18:Double Delight For Kenya On Final Day Of World U18 Champs Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega highlighted with a 7:47 victory in the 3,000 while Kenya got wins from Leonard Kipkemboi Bett (5:32) in the 2K steeple and Jackline Wambui (2:01.46) in the 800.
*MB:Ethiopia finally found the successor to Kenenisa & Haile – His name Selemon Barega
Predictable: Kenya Boys Go 1-2 In 2k Steeple The winning time at altitude – 5:32.52.
SPIKES:South Africa’s Breyton Poole Proves You Don’t Have To Be Tall To Be A Champion High Jumper (At Least At The Youth Level) The 5-foot 7-inch Poole cleared 2.24m to prove the doubters wrong. Reminiscences of Franklin Jacobs.
European U23: Konstanze Klosterhalfen Storms To Dominant 1,500m Gold With 4:10.30 She ran her last 800 in 2:01 to win by over 3 seconds. Turkey’s Yasemin Can broke the meet record with 15:01 to complete the 5,000/10,000 double.

Saturday:

World U18:Day 4 Recap: 50,000+ Attend World Youth Day 4 But Ethiopia Shines It’s a shame the US and so many others skipped out as most athletes will never run in front of 50,000.
President Of Kenya Insisted Tickets Be Free And The Fans Responded
Ethiopians Lemlem Hailu And Sindu Girma Overcome Raucous Crowd And Go 1-2 In Girls 1,500
Ethiopia Goes 1-2 As Boys Medalists Run 1:47
Shaunae Miller-Uibo’s Little Brother Got 5th In HJ With 6’11” Clearance
European U23: Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir Gets Silver In 800 As Belgium’s Renee Eykens Wins Gold At Euro U-23s

Interesting Reads

Recommended ReadMeet Sonja Robinson – Mikey Brannigan’s Personal Coach, Teacher And Advocate – Who Keeps Him On Track, Sleeps On His Couch And Is Only Paid $300 A Month Brannigan is going for the 800, 1,500 and 5,000 triple at the Paralympic Worlds which have started.
Think You Want To Own A Running Store? Q&A With Kris Hartner, Naperville Running Company Owner
World Juniors Has Been Great But Kenyan Journalist Remembers The Greatest Meet Ever Held In Kenya – The Jomo Kenyatta Memorial Pro Meet Stars showed up in droves, from the world’s fastest man Steve Williams to Don Quarrie, Edwin Moses, Henry Rono, Alberto Salazar and Rudy Chapa.
Walter Dix So Loves Track And Field He’s Now Competing For Free At USATF Masters Champs Dix, who has run 9.88 and 19.51, was 7th at USAs in the 200 this year. “I love track and field. It’s a part of me,” Dix said. “This is just something I always want to be a part of. This is here for people who love track and field. At 31 years old, why would I not run this race?”

News From Japan / Nike Oregon Project News

Nike Oregon Project’s Suguru Osako Runs 27:46 – Just Misses 27:45 Standard – Won’t Be Going To Worlds In the women’s 5,000, 16-year-old Shuri Ogasawara, who ran 15:23 at the Japanese champs, missed the 15:22 standard. The Japanese will have a male runner in the distances as a steepler ran 8:29.
2014 Youth Olympic 3,000 Champ Nozomi Takamatsu, 19, Returns To Japan After Less Than A Year At Nike Oregon Project “It didn’t go well over there. I’m not the type of person who gets depressed, but sometimes I cried and cried. There were times that I thought about quitting athletics.”
*MB: Yet another Salazar fail? 2014 Youth Olympic gold medallist has quit the NOP and returned to Japan
18-Year-Old Hyuga Endo Breaks 3,000m Junior National Record With 7:54 Clocking
Did You Know? Japan Has Only Had 12 Men In History Run Sub-10.10 And 4 Have Done It This Year

Sprints And Jumps

Greg Rutherford’s partner gives birth to his 2nd son – Rex Gregory Mowgli
US Sprinters Clean Up In Lignano, Italy:Phyllis Francis Breaks MR With 50.86 In The 400 As Josephus Lyles Won The Men’s Race In A 45.42 PR Nijel Amos set another 400 best with 45.55 while English Gardner (11.21) and Isiah Young (10.18) won the 100s.
Interesting Read:Olympic Champ Tianna Bartoletta Explains How “It Takes Money To Make Money” As An Elite Track Athlete You might not have considered how much money you have to spend traveling around the world as an elite athlete, but there are probably some dirt poor Kenyans making a living from running who would disagree with her overall conclusion.
Good Read:Be Inspired: British Sprinter James Ellington Targets Shock Return At The 2018 Commonwealth Games After His January Motorcycle Crash Doctors told the 31-year-old he’d be in a wheelchair for 6 weeks, but he was walking in two and now is walking without a limp and wants to start jogging soon.
Tips For Track And Life From Olympic HJ Champ Derek Drouin Drouin’s dating advice: “Spend less time talking about yourself and more about the other person.”

Olympic / Paralympic News

The Guardian:“London Pushes In Right Direction For Paralympic Athletes But Destination Is Some Way Off” The author drives us and anyone who knows a thing about track crazy by using the fact that a Para athlete ran faster than Matt Centrowitz in Rio as an argument for why the Paralympics should be getting more support/attention.
The Olympic Channel Makes Its TV Debut On Saturday Starting on August 28th, the channel will replay the primetime of all 8 original broadcasts of the 1992 Dream Team.
Former Brazilian President Responsible For Rio Olympic Bid Success Found Guilty Of Accepting Bribes Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will get nine-and-a-half years in prison.

Interesting Distance News

A Lot Of Cheserek Updates From The Register Guard:Healthy Edward Cheserek Seeks Citizenship And A Shoe Contract Cheserek is healthy and working with his agent to get his US citizenship, but the process could take up to 5 years and Cheserek says he’s not interested in competing for Kenya or joining the WCAP program.
*MB:Edward Cheserek Is Working On His US Citizenship, But It May Take 5+ Years
Good Read:Nick Symmonds Writes Letter To His 14-Year-Old Self Symmonds admits to a “secret” that he hated running when he was younger, but says now its “found a way into [his] heart.”
Asbel Kiprop Moving Up To The 5,000 After This Year Kiprop is quoted saying he’s never “done the 5K in my career,” but tilastopaja.org says he ran 13:47 in Kenya last year. He says he wants to do the 1,500/5,000 double at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
Former NFL Wide Receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson’s Daughter Is An 800 Runner The 12-year-old ran 2:14.80 to win the AAU National Club Championships yesterday. She also has a 56.48 PB in the 400 and doubled back in the AAU 1,500 to win in 4:47. *Results
*Chad Johnson Donates $2,200 To Help Baltimore Youth Team Get To USATF Junior Olympic*GoFundMe Page