July 29, 2017 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For July 29, 2017

Quote Of The Day

“When I was younger my coach, Wolfgang Heinig, said it is very important to have a big motivation to keep going in the sport.

He said, it does not matter if that motivation is money, whether that motivation is to be able to build a house or that your motivation is simply to enjoy success but whatever it is, it has to be a big motivation. It needs to be big enough to motivate you to suffer in training and reach your goal. He told me this when I was a teenager and I was very inspired.”

– World steeplechase medalist Gesa Krause talking to Spikes about the importance of motivation.

Friday Night Track Action

MB Robby Andrews runs 1:50 in 800 time trial at Princeton

Catch Up With Team GB

GB Sprinter Adam Gemili Angry That He Was Forced To Run Through Injury At The British Trials Gemili claims selectors said he had to race if he wanted to go to Worlds, but he wasn’t ready as he was dealing with a hamstring injury. He will go in the 4 x 100, but not the 200m, his preferred event.
*The Telegraph Article
Jessica Ennis-Hill Gives An Inside Look At “Super Saturday” From London 2012 The day started at 5AM after 5 hours sleep and ended at 2AM reading social media congratulatory messages.
BBC:Six Athletes To Watch Out For From Team GBMo Farah and Laura Muir are GB’s distance medal hopes.

High School / College News

New York’s Lanae-Tava Thomas Sets US Under-18 And Junior Class Long Jump Record With 6.68m At USATF Junior Olympics
15-Year-Old French Long Jumper Heather Arneton Goes Pro With Under Armour Arneton has the under-15 LJ record at 6.57m.
*MB: Under Armour signs a 15-year old track star to pro contract
Ireland Gets Some More Young Sprinting Success As Rhasidat Adeleke Wins 200m Silver At The European Youth Olympic Festival
One For The High School Coaches:15 Questions With Great Oak High School Coach Doug Soles Great Oak is 2nd in the pre-season boys and girls national XC polls.
Texas A&M Men And Georgia Women Are Scholar Teams Of The Year To win this award your team must finish highly at NCAAs and have a 3.00 cumulative team GPA.

Other News

Runner’s World:How Do You Compare To This Survey Of Runners? Believe it or not there are some truly masochistic runners (10%) who chose winter as their favorite season.
Carrie Tollefson Podcast Q&A With Gabe Grunewald’s Husband, Justin Grunewald Justin, a marathoner and doctor, talks about how he met his wife, her battle with cancer, and his own racing goals.
Sad News:Runner In Atlanta Passes Away After Being Struck By Police Car

Week That Was

LRC Monaco Madness Makes Jager The Worlds Favorite?, Eilish McColgan Is Faster Than Her Mom, Sammy Watson, Shalane Flanagan, Morgan McDonald Keep Rolling Jager, Ajee Wilson, and Emmanuel Korir turned heads in Monaco, but quietly Sammy Watson, Shalane Flanagan and Morgan McDonald kept on impressing.

LA 2024 Or $2028???

LA Mayor Says 2024/2028 Olympic Decision Could Come Next Week And LA Will Likely Be 2028Eric Garcetti: “Twenty-twenty-four is not probably most likely to happen, even though the Olympics would be smart to pick us for 2024. … That said, they are making it financially – and we are negotiating this – so attractive we would be stupid not to take 2028.”

Pre-Worlds African News – Say It Ain’t So, Kenny B

Ethiopia Announces Worlds Team: Kenenisa Bekele Will Not Race The Marathon Bekele was quoted saying, “I’m not fit enough to compete at the event.” Other interesting roster notes are that Genzebe Dibaba is doing the 1,500/5K double and Olympic champ/WR holder Almaz Ayana is doing the 5K/10K double despite not having raced all year. Tirunesh Dibaba is also in the 10K.
*MB:Kenenisa Bekele OUT of 2017 World Championships marathon
Kenya’s World 400H Champ Nicholas Bett Won’t Defend His Title Bett has withdrawn with a stress fracture in his right leg.
Passport/Visa Problems Delayed Eunice Sum From Showing Up At Pre-Worlds Kenyan Training Camp This also kept her from racing the Monaco Diamond League meet.
Edna Kiplagat Explains The Difference Between Time Trial And Championship Racing “For championships, you need a steady mind on the competition. You don’t strive so much for fast times and that’s why any athlete can win it.”
Kenyan Editorial:“Cut The Circus, Give Michael Saruni His 800m Ticket To London!” AK has created some controversy by not choosing UTEP’s Saruni for the team despite him finishing 3rd at the Kenyan Trials.
*Saruni Showed Up At Kenyan Camp As No One Informed Him He’d Been Cut Saruni had to find out from the media that he was off the team despite David Rudisha saying it should have been himself or Ferguson Rotich.
Kenyan Men’s Marathon Team “Oozes Confidence” Ahead Of Worlds Despite The Fact That None Of Them Have Competed At A Global Championship
Eliud Kipchoge Confident In Kenya’s World Marathoners “With combined efforts they are likely to sweep the first three places.”
Nigeria Names Blessing Okagbare And 11 Others To London 2017 Team

Sprint Stuff

IAAF:Wayde Van Niekerk And Isaac Makwala 400m Rivalry Can Light Up Post-Usain Bolt Athletics World They had a great dual in Monaco, but Makwala is only a month younger than Bolt, so any rivalry might not be a long lasting one.
We Hope They Didn’t Get Their Hopes Up: Jamaica “Drops” Three Athletes From World Team After “Inadvertently” Naming Them Apparently they accidentally named three alternates to the team.
GB Sprinter Richard Kilty Almost Almost Lost His Finger After Getting It Jammed In A Door This is why he had to pull out of the GB 4 x 100 squad for Worlds.
Newest Team Captain Eilidh Doyle Gains Inspiration From Past GB Captains Christine Ohuruogu And Dai Greene The GB captain always gives a team speech before Worlds.
Sprinter Leon Reid Fails In Bid To Run For Ireland At Worlds Reid applied over a year ago to switch from the UK to Ireland, but his application was stalled by the IAAF freeze on allegiance changes.

The World’s Countries Prepare – 11 Days Until London 2017

Caster Semenya Will Run The 800/1,500 Double At Worlds Last year Semenya ran a 4:01 PR to win African Champs.
*South African Editorial:“Athletics SA Is Hobbling, Not Helping Our Sport” 38 athletes hit the World qualifying standard, but Athletics SA is only sending 18.
Greg Rutherford Won’t Defend His World Title As He Fails To Recover From His Ankle Injury “I am truly gutted. That stadium is such a special place for me, I am so devastated that I won’t be competing in front of the best fans in the world, in the stadium that changed my life.”
4 X 100 Relay Team Member Richard Kilty Will Also Miss Worlds After Breaking A Finger On His Changeover Hand
Four Reigning World Champions And Eight 2016 Olympic Gold Medalists Lead USA Roster Of 132 For Worlds
Russia Sending 19 Athletes To Worlds Despite Doping Ban Surprisingly, the Russian Athletics Federation director said they filed paperwork for whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, but she wasn’t accepted as she doesn’t have the standard.
Usain Bolt, Elaine Thompson Headline Jamaica’s 56-Member Worlds Team
UK’s Marc Scott Qualifies For Worlds In The 5,000 At The Last Minute With A 13:22.37 At Heusden The standard is 13:22.60 and Andy Vernon came agonizingly close with 13:22.65.
GB Adds 5 More Athletes To World Squad This included long jumpers Shara Proctor and Jazmin Sawyers after they received descending order invites from the IAAF.
Australia Names Squad Of 48 For Worlds

Post-World Para Champs

Pan Am U20s and Euro U-20s Pan Am Results Euro Results

Pan Ams: US Team Of Zachary Schinnick, Josephus Lyles, Brian Herron And Sean Hooper Sets New U20 4 X 400 World Record Of 3:00.30 On Final Day Of Pan Am Juniors The previous record was 3:01.09.
*Jordan Geist Was Sensational In The Shot As He Set A New US Junior Record Of 72 feet, 3 Inches (22.02m).
*Jamaica’s Christopher Taylor Won The 200 In 20.38 Only Usain Bolt (20.13) has run faster at Pan Am Jrs.

Euros:IAAF Final Day Recap
*MB: After blaming loss in 1,500 after fall due to a “pile of idiots,” Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins the steeple & 5,000 double .
*Germany’s Nicklas Kaul breaks the world U20 decathlon record (8415) at Euro U20 Champs
*Germany’s Women’s 4 X 100 Also Broke The World Record Held By The US With A 43.27. Britain’s Jemma Reekie (4:13) crushed everyone in the 1,500.
*Great Britain Equals Its Best-Ever Medal Haul At European U20s (19 medals) But Germany Wins Medal Table

Q&A With Emily Infeld, Who Reveals Her Toughest Workout Is 2 Sets Of Mile, Mile, 800, 800, 4 X 400 We’re disappointed to learn her favorite athlete is Lebron James.

July 24 – Happy Founders Day

3 Years To Go – July 24, 2020 Is When The 2020 Olympics Will Begin They are celebrating with a 1000km relay which Olympic marathon champ Naoko Takahashi ran in.
New National Stadium Is Under Construction In Japan

2017 London Worlds Start Next Friday

TFN’s 2017 World Championships Medal Picks For Men
TFN’s 2017 World Championships Medal Picks For Women
Attendance Records Will Be Broken: More Than 660,000 Tickets Have Already Been Sold For 2017 IAAF World Championships The London organizers are on top of their game. Their best work was figuring out a way to 100% eliminate the morning sessions. Now journalists will get to actually enjoy themselves.
Who Needs Journalists? Microsoft And IAAF Announce They Have Invented A SPIKES Bot On Skype That Will Start Working Next Week
After Meeting Anti-Doping Deadline, Kenya Finalizes Its World Championships Team Michael Saruni has been left at home with the bogus excuse of “his form is wanting” and reigning 400H champ Nicholas Bett is out with injury.
Justin Gatlin Believes Usain Bolt Could Make A Comeback After Retirement So do we.
Katharina Heinig, Daughter Of 1988 Olympic Marathon Bronze Medalist Katrin Dörre-Heinig, Will Be Making Her WC Debut In London Katharina’s PR is 2:28:34.
3-Minute Video Highlights Of All The IAAF Diamond League Meets So Far
On Her 51st Birthday, Sally Gunnell Remembers Her 1993 400H World Title And WR
Mo Farah Will Keep Racing After Worlds: Mo Farah Will End His Track Career In $50,000 DL Finale In Zurich On August 24

The Gender Debate In Sport Isn’t Going Anywhere

PBS:Should Testosterone Be Regulated In Women’s Events? A deeper look at the IAAF’s recent study shows why it probably won’t be enough to convince CAS to reinstate the currently suspended hyperandrogenism rules.
Athletics Illustrated:“Caster Semenya’s Apparent Defiance; Could It Serve A Greater Purpose?”Chris Kelsall wonders if Semenya is “angry at the world or starting to enjoy drawing attention to herself” after she announces Worlds 800/1,500 double.
Outside Magazine:“The Controversy Around Caster Semenya Explained” The problem is CAS requirement is far too great as they want the IAAF to prove hyperandrogenic females have an advantage as great as men, which they don’t.

Running Form Analysis

Interesting:Running Form Analyst Jae Gruenke Takes A Deeper Look At The Recent NY Times Article On Usain Bolt’s Unusually Asymmetrical Stride Gruenke says that the asymmetry found in Bolt is actually extremely common in distance runners, including all-time greats like Eliud Kipchoge.
IAAF:Largest Ever Biomechanics Research Project In Athletics To Be Undertaken At London 2017 A team of 41 people will use high speed cameras and video to analyze athlete biomechanics across 17 events (including the steeplechase, 10,000 and marathon).

Upcoming Action

Friday:Ben Blankenship, Kyle Merber, Colby Alexander Lead Competitive Field For GNC Live Well Liberty Mile In Pittsburgh The women’s race is led by Heather Kampf, who faces Stephanie Garcia, Lauren Johnson, Emily Lipari and Hannah Fields.
*Bring Back The Mile Prediction Contest Win a free pair of shoes and other “swag.”
Saturday: Sam Chelanga And Aliphine Tuliamuk Lead Fields For USATF 7 Mile Champs At The Bix 7 Chelanga faces USATF Running Circuit leader Leonard Korir while the women’s field includes Neely Gracey, Sara Hall, Marielle Hall, Tara Welling and Becky Wade.
August 20:Dafne Schippers And Mutaz Barshim Join Fields For Birmingham Diamond League The meet will also be Mo Farah‘s last track race on British soil.

Doping News

Dafne Schippers:“I hate when people see my skin and say I’m a drugs cheat, acne doesn’t mean I dope.” Schippers also says her relationship with Jamaican rival Elaine Thompson is “very bad.”
Jessica Ennis-Hill And The USA Women’s 4 X 400 Squad Among Those Who Will Receive Re-Allocated Medals At London WorldsKara Goucher and Jo Pavey will also receive their silver and bronze medals from the 2007 Worlds 10,000 after they originally finished 3rd and 4th.
*NY Times Article With Quote From Kara Goucher
Russian Athletes Going To Worlds As Neutrals Will Still Be Paid By The Russian Government The “neutrals” can also win IAAF prize money for their placing at the championships, but the Russian national anthem will not be played if they win.
Russian Sports Minister Hoping Russia Reinstated To The IAAF Before 2018

Distance News

Recommended Read:Nick Symmonds Blogs: “What’s Wrong with Pro Track and Field + How to Fix It” Symmonds says, “Professional track and field is broken … and I have some ideas.” Symmonds looks to horse racing and says track needs three things: food, alcohol and gambling. Then he gives his idea for an event in Las Vegas.
MB:Pierre Ambroise Bosse calls out Mo Farah on French TV show Bosse: “[Farah] has never convinced me. I have doubts.”
Interesting:Runner’s Tribe: Tactics, Salazar & Gold – The Training Of Matthew Centrowitz A compilation of quotes and stats from Centro that gives a picture of his overall training.
25 Athletes Get $25K Grant From USATF Distance runners who got payed were Paul Chelimo, Drew Windle, Hillary Bor and Charlene Lipsey.

LetsJump.com

Injury Keeps US’s National And NCAA Triple Jump Champ Keturah Orji Out Of Worlds She says she withdrew due to “some lingering pains from USAs.”
Recommended Read:NY Times: Margareet Bergmann Lambert, Jewish Athlete Excluded From Berlin Olympics, Dies At 103 Lambert was a gold medal contender for Germany at the 1936 Games, but was excluded because she was Jewish. She eventually immigrated to the US and won the US high jump and shot put titles in 1937.
Good Listen:Pre-Worlds Podcast With US Long Jump Champion Jarrion Lawson
IAAF Inside Athletics:Ato Boldon Video Interview With Olympic And Two-Time World Long Jump Champion Tianna Bartoletta

Mile News

Heather Kampf (4:30) And Jake Edwards (4:00) Repeat As Ryan Shay Mile Winners Edwards beat out Canadian Olympian Nate Brannen by .59 of a second.
Friday:Ben Blankenship, Kyle Merber, Colby Alexander Lead Competitive Field For GNC Live Well Liberty Mile In Pittsburgh The women’s race is led by Heather Kampf, who faces Stephanie Garcia, Lauren Johnson, Emily Lipari and Hannah Fields.
Next Friday: Sir Walter Miler “Meet The Competitor” Series: 5 Things About Me With Craig Engels Engels says, “I have never had a cup of coffee in my life.”
*More: Heather Kampf*Stephanie Brown*Izaic Yorks*Sara Sutherland*More … (We recommend these quick, interesting/funny reads.)
The Telegraph:Steve Cram’s Top 10 Tips For Running A Fast Mile Cram says to focus on the third lap since that’s when most people get it wrong.

Chaos In Kenya

Jesse Owens History

Irish And Polish Champs Were This Weekend

Ireland’s Track National Championships Were Last Weekend – And Their 4 WC Team Members All Won As Would Be Expected Mark English and Ciara Mageean won the 800s as Brian Gregan cruised a 45.74 400.
Ireland Only Qualified 4 Athletes For Worlds On The Track They have 8 more if you count the race walks/marathon and Cathal Dennehy says they need to appoint a full-time director of coaching as they are abysmal in the field events.
Ireland’s Thomas Barr – Their First Olympic Sprint Finalist In 84 Years (4th In 400H) – Is Recognizable All Throughout Ireland “The months following the Olympics, however, were anything but normal, Barr stepping off the plane to find he was recognisable everywhere he went. Nights out turned into endless selfie sessions with strangers, and Barr got to experience both sides of overnight fame.”
Polish Champs: Anita Wlodarczyk throws 80.79 WL “I have been waiting for an 80-metre throw since May, This was my eighth national title, so I wanted to get a distance starting with eight here.” There were some interesting results in the women’s 800 and men’s 1,500, where Adam Kszczot beat Marcin Lewandowski in a race where Lewandowski may have let him win.

Saturday: *Heusden Results

Emily Infeld Your Lone US Distance Medallist from Beijing MB: 2017 Heusden Results – Infeld becomes 15th US women to break 15:00, Quigley runs huge 1500 pb, Efraimson just misses, True 13:10 and much more Tons of US WC team members ran, including Kate Grace (2:03), Ryan Hill and Eric Jenkins (3:37), Colleen Quigley (4:03), Hassan Mead (13:11), and Emily Infeld (14:56). Non-WC times from Americans included Alexa Efraimson at 4:04, Shalane Flanagan at 14:58 and Ben True at 13:10.

Wisco’s Morgan McDonald Ran 13:15 To Become Fastest Badger Undergrad In History Solinsky ran 13:12 right after graduation. McDonald didn’t run NCAA indoors (injured) or outdoors this year (no qualifying time as his only individual race was a tactical Big 10 final).
Other Meets: Tom Walsh Nails 22m To Send Ryan Crouser A Warning Shot For Worlds Walsh: “I’m going to win it, no doubt about that.”

Mid-D News

Jenny Simpson Looking Forward To “Getting Some Personal Redemption” At The London Olympic Stadium She went out in the semis at the 2012 London Games, but is hoping to be on the podium for London 2017.
Tips For Track And Life From Germany’s World Steeplechase Bronze Medalist Gesa Krause (link fixed) Krause likes to travel with family and says she’s been to around 50 countries. She says when on vacation, “I try not to worry about money and just enjoy the experience.”

Doping Updates

Unnamed Bahamas Athlete Reportedly Tests Positive For A Banned Steroid Apparently it’s one of the Bahamas World team members, so keep an eye out for a withdrawal “due to injury” before Worlds.
August 2: IAAF To Hear Report On Russia’s Progress Towards Reinstatement Prior To London 2017
WADA President Craig Reedie Says Russia Is Making Progress, But They Still Have To Admit To Their Doping Past Reedie: “One of the conditions for renewed compliance is actually an admission that there was a problem and hopefully some declaration of contrition … So the Russian authorities are aware of that and we encourage them to do something about that …”

Latest Worlds Team Naming News

MB: Ethiopian steepler Chala Beyo gets screwed over by federation and left of WC team – Punches coach and gets banned for 2 years Beyo was third at the Ethiopian Trials and is the third-fastest Ethiopian on the year but was left off their Worlds team.
UTEP’s Michael Saruni Back In Kenya Pre-Worlds Training Camp After Getting Kicked Out For Three Days Saruni doesn’t know what event he’s running, but one report said he would run in the 4 x 400 after being cut from the 800 squad.
*Kenyan Journalist Says The “Bright Side” Of The AK Selection Controversy Is That Kenya Has So Many Good 800 Runners To Choose From He writes, “After all, it doesn’t really matter who wins the 800m title … as long as he is Kenyan,” but we think the athletes, whose livelihood depends on running, would disagree.
MB:16-Year-Old Sub-4 Miler Jakob Ingebrigsten Added To Norway Team In The Steeplechase He ran 8:26 in his debut earlier this month and then won European U20 Champs.
The Bahamas Names 21-Member Team For London
Eliud Kipchoge Says Kenya’s Marathon Squad Will Sweep All The Medals In London
IAAF Extends Invitations To Four Additional USATF Throwers Who Didn’t Have The Standard They include Olympic hammer throwers Rudy Winkler and Kibwe Johnson.
Former Villanova All-American Jordan Williamsz Among 14 More Australians Added To Worlds Squad 14 more got in thanks to the IAAF invitations to fill the fields.
*6 Villanovans Going To London
Hammer Throwers Anita Wlodarczyk And Pawel Fajdek Lead Poland Team For Worlds Reigning 800m silver medalist Adam Kszczot also returns.
Six More GB Athletes Get IAAF Invites To Worlds

Random But Interesting

Good Read: 45-Year-Old Man Living Out Of His Car While Running A Marathon In All 59 US National ParksBill Sycalik lived and worked in NYC, but left to pursue life and nature. Sycalik said, “Two things can happen in New York – you can either be fed by the energy or it can feed on you. I was not in a good space. … After that, I just decided that it [the stress] wasn’t worth it and life was too short.”
Are Your Tattoos Affecting Your Performance? A new study shows that it’s possible the amount and saltiness of sweat changes after skin has been dyed.
Men’s Fitness:“The Worst Sports For Your Knees, According To Science” New research found that elite runners, soccer players and weight lifters are 3-7 times more likely to suffer from osteoarthritis in their knees than elites in other sports. However, other studies have said running is actually good for your knees.

Free Entertainment To Get You Through Hump Day

Quiz:Can You Name Every Men’s 100m World Champion? It’s not as hard as you might think. *Hint 1: There have been 15 winners, but you’ll only need to know 9 names. *Hint 2: The photo.
Amusing Videos:From Jesse Owens To Michael Phelps – The Odd History Of Man Vs. Animal Owens raced a horse in Cuba in 1936 during halftime of a soccer game.