August 05, 2017 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For August 05, 2017

Down Goes The King

**2017 IAAF London Worlds *Schedule / Results** TV & Streaming Prediction Contest LRC Post-Race Interviews LRC Previews: M800 W800 M1,500 W1,500 MSteeple WSteeple W10k WMar *MMar

Saturday:MB:Official 2017 Worlds Day 2 Discussion Thread

Justin Gatlin & Christian Coleman Beat Usain Bolt
*DOWN GOES BOLT! / Justin Gatlin- The Champion track deserves
*“Dear London: Boo your f***ing self” – Justin Gatlin
*What happens when Mo Farah or Usain Bolt gets beat at Worlds?
*World Championships 100m: University of Tennessee Dominates
*Usain Bolt Has Just Lost His First 100m Worlds SemiFinal Ever, Will He Lose the Final?

LRC Flash Almaz Ayana Laps Nearly The Entire Field To Win Gold In The Women’s 10,000 In One of The Finest Displays in Women’s Distance Running History The Chinese level of distance running is now the reality.
*MB: Molly Huddle on the Ethiopians: “I feel like they get away with a lot”
*MB: Almaz Ayana – guts and glory

Jenny Makes Final: We just found out why Jenny Simpson Fist Pumped at End of 1500m Semi Post-race interviews

LRC 800m Round 1: Donavan Brazier Runs Like a Pro as All 3 Americans Advance, Emmanuel Korir Confirms He’s Gone Pro All 3 Americans (Donavan Brazier, Drew Windle and Isaiah Harris) advanced with Brazier’s show coming untied.

LRC 400 Round Qualifying: All 3 Americans Advance, But Makwala Says “We want to take the 400 to Africa, to make it (an) African race.”

LRCPost-Race Interviews From 2017 IAAF World Championships In Athletics / Track and Field

Full Coverage In Our 2017 London Special Section

More Worlds Non-Distance

Sprints/Jumps: Other notable news was Olympic champ Jeff Henderson not qualifying in the long jump but saying he’ll be back in 2018, Jenn Suhr no-heighting in pole vault, former NCAA 100m champ Christian Coleman looking good in round 1 of 100 and saying he wants to win (and beat Bolt), and Justin Gatlin getting booed but saying he’s fine with the that. And Usain Bolt being Usain Bolt.

Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and All 3 Americans Move On In 100
Usain Bolt Blames Starting Blocks For “Very Bad” First Round “I think these are the worst blocks I’ve ever experienced and it was just not a smooth start.”
*Short Video Interview With Bolt
Good Read:The Telegraph:“Nafi Thiam On Winning Rio Heptathlon Gold With An Injured Arm And Her Unique World Champs Prep” Even after Olympic gold, Thiam still competes at local meets, trains at her local track and has had the same coach since age-14.
The Guardian:“Impending End Of Usain Bolt’s Supremacy Raises Alarm About What Comes Next”
GB Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson: “The worst things have happened. Now I’m ready to make new memories” Johnson-Thompson has shown potential over the years, but hasn’t put it together at a major championship.
BBC Video Interview With Russian Long Jumper Darya Klishina Klishina says “it doesn’t matter about the flag” since everyone knows she’s from Russia anyway.
China’s Olympic TJ Bronze Medalist Dong Bin Pulls Out Of Worlds With Injury
Jenn Suhr No-Heights In Pole Vault Qualifying Round
Olympic Champ Jeff Henderson And Marguis Dendy Fail To Make LJ Final
Martin Bingisser’s World Champs Women’s Hammer PreviewAnita Wlodarczyk is the obvious favorite; US’s Gwen Berry is the top challenger.
Track And Field News’ 2017 World Champs Top 10 Men’s Predictions
Track And Field News’ 2017 World Champs Top 10 Women’s Predictions
The Oregonian:A Look At The Long List Of Oregon Athletes At Worlds
*Register Guard article
Irish Examiner:“Usain Bolt: Man Who Saved His Sport Saying Goodbye”
Day 1 Team USA Quotes
IAAF Full Day 1 Recap

LRC Betting Odds For 2017 IAAF London World Championships In Track And Field / Athletics What American man has the best odds (60%) for gold in a mid-d/distance event? What woman has the best odds at just 9%?

Non-Worlds Distance News

Recommended Read:The Allegiance Switching Problem In Track And Field Is Much More Serious Than You Think Ethiopian runner Lily Abdullayev says athletes are “treated like sporting slaves” and talks about how corrupt coaches and officials stole prize money and tricked her into taking dangerous drugs when she switched to Azerbaijan.
NCAA Champions And All-Americans Marc Scott, Henry Wynne, MJ Erb And Josh Thompson Sign With KIMbia Athletics Scott and Thompson joined the Bowerman TC, Wynne the Brooks Beasts and Erb a Saucony team coached by Tim Broe.
MB:15-Year-Old Brandon Miller Runs 1:49.87 Freshman Class Record To Win AAU Junior Olympics 800m Miller led wire-to-wire to win by over 5 seconds. *Meet Results
NPR Interview With Sports Writer Kate Fagan, Author Of New Book On UPenn Suicide Victim Madison Holleran Fagan’s new book is titled, “What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles And Tragic Death Of An All-American Teen.”
*MB:Madison Holleran Story
AP:Man Running Across US For Charity Struck By Hit-And-Run Driver In OhioNicholas Ashill was flown to Columbus hospital and is in “fair condition.”
Not Your Every Day Headline:RW: Recovered From Paralysis, A Runner, His Surgeon And The Driver Who Hit Him Reunite For A Half Marathon

More Non-Worlds News

Oscar Pistorius Taken To Hospital With Chest Pains Pistorius is currently serving a 6-year jail sentence, but his case is not completely over as prosecutors are appealing for more jail time.
DyeStat Video Interview With Mt. SAC Coach On Winning The Bid For The 2020 Olympic Trials
Kayla David Earns USATF Athlete Of The Week Award After Record-Breaking Performance At Junior Olympics Davis became the fastest 13-year-old girl in history by winning the 400m in 52.54.

Previous Outside Worlds Coverage

The Guardian:Good Profile On Laura Muir, Whose London 2012 Memories Involve Watching On TV After Spending Hours Each Morning Milking Cows Muir talks about studying to be a vet, using her first prize money to buy a cage for her pet rats and her favorite movie (Seabiscuit).
Athletics Weekly:Laura Muir Talks About Bouncing Back From The Stress Fracture In Her Foot At The Start Of The Summer Season
The Telegraph:“Laura Muir Wants A Happy Ending To Her Script Of Underdog Endeavor At London 2017”
What Are The Most Predictable Men’s Races At Worlds According To The Bookies?Wayde van Niekerk in the 400 is as close to a sure thing as you get while the 400H is the most up in the air.
Women’s Race Predictions Surprisingly, the bookies are more confident about Elaine Thompson in the 100 than Caster Semenya in the 800. The 1,500 is the hardest to call.
Track Slam:Another Fun London 2017 Prediction Contest The goal is to have the longest streak of picking the correct winner.
The Queen Turns Down Invitation To Attend Worlds There won’t be any sky diving queens this time in London.
Which Europeans Have The Best Chance For Gold In London?
Thomas Barr (400H) And Rob Heffernan Lead Irish Charge At Worlds
Video Highlights From Usain Bolt’s Pre-World Press Conference
The Telegraph:10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Usain Bolt Did Bolt really start sprinting to win a free lunch?
The Telegraph:10 Athletes To Watch At Worlds
London 2017 Day 1 Start Lists Now Available
IAAF London 2017 Statistics Handbook
IAAF Reaches Multi-Year Deal With European Broadcasting Union And ESPN For Europe And Africa Broadcasting Rights
IAAF Event-By-Event Previews

The Wait Is Over

LRC $200,017 LRC Running Warehouse LetsRun.com Worlds Prediction Contest Is Here! The World Champs start Friday. It’s time to get down to business and enter our prediction contest. Easy to do even if you know very little about Worlds.

Alan Webb’s 2007 Season 10 Years Later

LRC The Summer Of Webb: An Inside Look At Alan Webb’s Magical 2007 Season For a few months in 2007, American Alan Webb was the world’s best miler. Ten years later, we take a look back at Webb’s magical summer.

Webb MB Talk:
*LRC Feature: 10 years ago, Alan Webb was the greatest miler on the planet. An inside look at Webb’s magical summer.
*How did Alan Webb inspire you? post your stories
*10 Years later and Centro is STILL SLOWER then Webb??????!!!!!!!
*I don’t think Webb Would Have Feared El G
*Alan Webb confirms sex is critical for running
*Greatest American Distance Runners: 1) Billy Mills, 2) Alan Webb. 3) ? 4) ? 5) ?
*“Summer of Webb” 2007- What a Joke!
*Willis’ 3:29.66 = 3:46.22 mile. Sorry Alan.

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).

Day 1 At Worlds

LRC Unbeatable: The Amazing Mo Farah Wins The 10,000 At 2017 Worlds, Earns 10th Global Gold In “Toughest Race” Of His Life He almost had to PR to do it as the Africans threw it at him but Farah held them off in 26:49.51

LRC Joshua Cheptegei Is Primed To Succeed Gebrselassie, Bekele And Farah As The World’s Next Great 10,000-Meter Runner The Ugandan turned heads first at World XC and now looks to be Farah’s successor.

Women’s 1,500 Heats: LRC All 3 Americans (Including Sara Vaughn With A PR) And 4 Brits Move On In The Best Opening Round Women’s 1,500 In History The women brought it today as 17 of the top 20 seeds moved on.

London MBoard Talk

Sir Walter Miler

MB:Drew Hunter 3:57 FTW @ Sir Walter Miler Hunter beat out Craig Engels by .45 with Izaic Yorks third. Amanda Eccleston won the women’s race in 4:31.72 over Stephanie Garcia(4:31.87). *Results *Meet Website

Craig Engels Is Cutting His Mullet For Charity He’s raised $1,865 of his $2,000 goal. Follow the haircut live on Engels’ Instagram account.

Upcoming Distance Action

Saturday:Ben True Vs. Stephen Sambu And Mary Keitany Vs. Shalane Flanagan And Jordan Hasay Highlight Beach To Beacon 10K The men’s field also includes Cam Levins, Abdi Abdirahman, Tariku Bekele while the women have Meseret Defar, Joyce Chepkirui and Wude Ayalew.
August 13:Garrett Heath Leads Field For 2017 Lodi Mile In California
*Leah O’Connor Leads Women’s Race
September 17: Galen Rupp To Race Rock ‘N’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon Rupp will use the race as a tuneup for Chicago.
October 29:NAZ Elite Athletes Matt Llano, Scott Smith And Scott Fauble To Run The Frankfurt Marathon

Olympic News

Don’t Quit Your Day Job:The Telegraph: Former British Olympic Badminton Silver Medalist Issues Public Cry For Help As She Admits She Can’t Find A Job Or Pay The BillsGail Emms says she lacks the credentials to find regular employment (she has a sports science degree) and has to sell belongings on eBay to pay the bills.
Kenya Facing Olympic Ban After Government Refuse To Back Plan To Allow NOCK Elections To Take Place Things just wouldn’t feel right if Kenya wasn’t on the brink of being banned for something.
*Premature Celebrations:NOCK Elecction Set To Finally Go Ahead After Legal Objection Dropped
Public Poll Says LA 2028 Has 83% Support
IPC President Hopes LA 2028 Will Help Paralympic Movement Grow In The US Paris and LA have both hosted the Olympic twice, but neither has ever hosted a Paralympics.
Tokyo 2020 Opens Mascot Design Competition To Public Come on Japan, we know you can do better than 2012’s “walking alien penis creatures.”
The Netherlands Not Currently Planning 2032 Olympic Bid We’ve barely decided the 2024/2028 hosts and already talk is on to 2032.
IOC Payments To LA 2028 To Start By January 1, 2018 THe IOC will send quarterly installments of of $9 million.
Kobe Bryant Stars In LA 2028 Promotional Video
French President Meets With Thomas Bach After LA 2028 Announcement

Doping Updates

The Telegraph:Furious Backlash Forces Athletics Chiefs To Abandon Plans To Scrap Pre-2005 WRs There is a new proposal to scrap WRs that came before 1991, when out-of-competition testing started. The new cutoff would scrap the records of FloJo (100/200), Marita Koch (400) and Jarmila Kratochvilova (800).
*Paula Radcliffe Relieved Her Record Is Safe, But Still Opposed To New 1991 Proposal She would rather see records individually investigated.
WADA Says Russia Must Fulfill At Least 12 More Criteria Before They Can Be Ruled Compliant Among the criteria is that the Russian government must publicly accept the findings of the McLaren investigation.
Russia Warns That They Will Not Give In To WADA Demand To Publicly Accept McLaren Report Findings One official stated, “We have repeatedly said that it contains certain controversial positions and provisions … Undoubtedly, no one is going to accept this report.”
Russia Bans Six More Athletes On Eve Of Appeal To Have IAAF Suspension Lifted Among the banned is steepler Lyubov Kharlamova, who will have all her results since July 2010 (including a Euro silver medal) annulled.
CBC:Should Track And Field Erase Its Record Book? Infamous BALCO scandal drug expert Victor Conte actually supported the record reset.

Previous 2017 Worlds News

Despite Lackluster Season, Asbel Kiprop Assures That He Is “In Good Condition To Defend” His Title Kiprop added that “I have learnt my lessons from last year” and he’d be ready for the tactical final.
AP: Stage Set For Trey Hardee After Ashton Eaton’s Retirement Hardee, who says he’s never retired despite what Wikipedia tells you, jokes that he is “the bread in the Ashton sandwich.”
AP: No Anthem Or Colors, But Russians Are Back At Worlds World 110H champ Sergey Shubenkov complained that he wouldn’t be able to wear his “beautiful, awesome uniform” and that the rules “seem tough and a bit ridiculous.”
Jamaica’s Defending 100H Danielle Williams Says She Doesn’t Get The Respect She Deserves True, the Americans get all the hype, but Williams is only 6th fastest in the world this year. Will she have another clutch performance at Worlds?
Crisis Averted: Jenn Suhr Almost Didn’t Have Her Poles For Worlds She tweeted at United after they were never put on the plane to London and United responded saying they have been located and returned to her.
Christian Coleman Says If He Makes The Final And Lines Up With Usain Bolt He’ll “Be Sure To Take In The Situation And Remember The Moment”
Steve Cram’s 10 Stars To Watch At London 2017 Evan Jager makes the list.
IAAF Offering Worlds Live Stream (Not In USA)

One Last Pre-Worlds Presser With Usain Bolt

Good For A Quote:Usain Bolt Says He’s “Fully Confident” At His Final Pre-Championship Press Conference Bolt talks about dealing with the loss of his friend earlier this season, how he may get into acting and do some action movies after retirement and how he never wants anyone to break his WRs.
Canada 24 News:“Usain Bolt Displeased With Andre De Grasse’s ‘Disrespect” Bolt is quoted as saying “I’m not going down that road (predicting who will take his place after retirement). The last guy I said was going to be great disrespected me.”
Bolt Asked What Happens If He Loses:“I can’t believe you’re asking me that. We won’t have that problem, don’t worry about it.” Talking about Andre De Grasse, Bolt’s tone was apparently “on the frosty side of Siberian” as he described their relationship as “I see him around … I don’t have his phone number or anything.”
Bolt Warns Fellow Athletes: Stop Doping Or The Sport Will Die
*The Telegraph Article
Bolt Says He’s Told Wayde Van Niekerk To “Open Up His Personality A Little Bit”
The Telegraph:How Much Is Usain Bolt Worth And Where Does His Money Come From? The British writer jokes that “Bolt is to the average athlete what Bill Gates is to my 17-year-old self with a summer job.”
Usain Bolt: The World’s Fastest Man’s Best Quotes

Rudisha Out Of Worlds

LRCDavid Rudisha Pulls Out Of Worlds With Injury The greatest race at the 2012 London Olympics was the men’s 800 final, won in a world record by David Rudisha. The fans won’t get a repeat this year as Rudisha is out with injury. Michael Saruni of UTEP was not entered as an alternate so no word officially if he can’t run yet.
*Rudisha: “I have accepted my fate with a very heavy heart.” Rudisha says he damaged his quad while “trying to engage in more speed.”
*Discuss: Rudisha announces a no show at London 2017 – quad injury.

LetsSprint.com – Outside Worlds Coverage

AP:Usain Bolt And Mo Farah Headline The First Day Of Worlds
The Guardian:“Usain Bolt Expected To Provide Fireworks At Worlds”
Will Wayde Van Niekerk’s Double Bid Steal Some Of Usain Bolt’s Thunder?
AP:“Look Out For The New Usain! Will It Be Pronounced Wayde?”
The Independent:“Wayde Van Niekerk In No Rush To Inherit Bolt’s Star-Studded Crown” Van Niekerk: “I’m not after recognition … That’s not something which motivates me.”
Justin Gatlin Feeling Like He’s “Back To The Old Justin” Who Won Gold In 2004 And 2005
Chijindu Ujah interview: “I believe I can beat anyone, even Usain Bolt.”
The Guardian:CJ Ujah In The Mood To Rain On Usain Bolt’s Retirement Parade We hate to break the British media’s hearts, but Ujah is more likely not to make the final than to beat Bolt for gold.
Sir Bolt?There Are Calls In The UK For Usain Bolt To Be Knighted
Sally Pearson Says Any Color Medal Will Do
Athletics Weekly Profile: Olympic 400H Champ Dalilah Muhammad Is On Top Of The World
BBC Video:GB 4 X 100 Team Talk Reality TV, Pizza, Rubber Ducks
Seb Coe Says Usain Bolt “Is A Genius” Like Muhammad Ali “We shouldn’t be sitting there saying you are suddenly going to find another Usain Bolt any more than just boxing suddenly found another Muhammad Ali.”
The Guardian Infographic On The Career And Domination Of Usain Bolt

Major Doping News: Hajo Seppelt Goes To Ethiopia

Recommended Read: The Guardian:Inside The Doping Hotspot Of Ethiopia: Dodgy Testing And EPO Over The Counter A joint investigation by The Guardian and German broadcaster ARD looks into how easy it is to get EPO in Ethiopia, the disorganization of Ethiopia anti-doping and gets a former Berlin Marathon winner (who is still active) to admit to EPO/HGH use.
MB: Unidentified Female Berlin Marathon Champ Admits To EPO And HGH Use The athlete caught on tape wasn’t named, but has to be either Aberu Kebede (2016 and 2012 Berlin champ), Tirifi Tsegaye (2014), or Atsede Habtamu (2009).
ARD:How To Sell Africa’s Sports Heroes The article is in German, but you can watch an English version of the 30-minute broadcast here.
Ukrainian Sprinters Olesya Povkh And Olha Zemlyak Register The First Failed Drug Tests Of World Champs Povkh (a former Olympic and Worlds relay medalist) was entered in the 100 and 4 x 100 while Zemlyak was in the 400 and 4 x 400.
Russia Apologize For Doping Scandal But IAAF Vote Overwhelmingly To Keep Ban In Place Many were surprised by the sincerity of Russian Athletics president Dmitry Shlyakhtin‘s apology speech, but only 21 of the 166 federations voted to reinstate them.
*Hey Jamaica, What Gives?Jamaica Was Among The 21 Countries To Vote In Favor Of Reinstating Russia This after Jamaica was one of the only countries not to support Seb Coe‘s IAAF reform package eight months ago.
*Seb Coe Praises “Candid” Russian Apology
Suspicious Betting Activity Joins Doping As Target For Athletics Integrity Unit Anything tennis can do, we can do better.
Jenny Simpson Urges IAAF To Reduce Wait For Athletes Receiving Medals Stripped From Doping Cheats “It is difficult to watch an award ceremony that is 10 years worth of correcting. You can be retired and long gone and then finally be given what you deserve.”
Jamaican 4 X 400 World Champ Bronze Medalist Riker Hylton Cleared Of Doping Charges After He Was Accused Of Evading An Anti-Doping Test The anti-doping panel wasn’t “comfortably satisfied that Hylton was in fact notified (by JADCO).”

IAAF Admin Stuff

Brendan Foster Awarded IAAF Golden Order Of Merit For His Contributions To The Sport
Highlights From 51st IAAF Congress In LondonSeb Coe: “As a miler, I’ve always looked at things in four parts. Two years into a four-year term – the half-way point – is a good time to take stock.”
Full Video From IAAF Council Meeting Press Conference IAAF officials including Seb Coe discuss issues including the continuation of Russia’s ban.

Andre De Grasse Pulls Out Of Worlds A message board poster said this would happen yesterday and people were irate we wouldn’t take the rumor down. Guess what? It’s true … well, half true as the poster said he was still doing the 200.
*De Grasse:“The entire year this 100m race in London was my focus. I am really in the best shape of my life and was looking forward to competing against the best in the world.”

NCAA Award Updates

NCAA 10K And 5K Champions Marc Scott And Grant Fisher Among The Men’s DI Scholar Athletes Of The Year
Karissa Schweizer And Allie Ostrander Among Women’s DI Scholar Athletes Of The Year
USTFCCCA Announces Coaches Hall Of Fame Class Of 2017 List includes Allyson Felix‘s coach Bob Kersee.

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.