August 19, 2017 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For August 19, 2017

Quote Of The Day

“Sometimes I still find myself wondering if it actually happened.”

“When I looked up at the scoreboard right there at the end, I was just in complete shock. It seems too good to be true. It was just an absolutely amazing feeling.”

– Courtney Frerichs talking to her hometown paper about winning silver at Worlds.

A Look Back At 2017 Worlds

LRC Track Talk Post-Worlds 2017 Podcast We took a look back at the highs and lows of Worlds, wondered if Emma Coburn‘s gold was the result of white privilege and got excited for the rest of the DL season. Archive coming soon.

LRC The Grades Are In: USA Distance Runner Report Cards From The World Championships In London We rank everyone from A++ to D.

LRC The Five Races We Most Want To See After The World Championships, Including Jenny Simpson Vs. Emma Coburn In The Steeple The good news for track fans is they should see 4 of these matchups in the next 2 weeks. The Jenny vs. Emma one is the only one likely not to happen.

LRC What A Year Sam Kendricks Is Having And Hope You Didn’t Bet Big On The Favorites If you placed bets on the favorite at Worlds, you would have lost a lot.

Post Worlds Reaction – Ireland Didn’t Win Any Medals And Britain Only Won 2 Individual Medals

Pat Butcher Is Far From Impressed From Britain’s Success In Relays As He Thinks Relays Are A Joke “Athletics is an individual sport; one man or woman (more or less) against the rest, and the best one wins.” On that front, GBR was awful as Farah was the only Brit to medal individually.
Cathal Dennehy Says World Champs Were One Of Worst Ever For Ireland They only put one non-walker in the top 20 of any events.
Sonia O’Sullivan Is Very Upset That Ireland Didn’t Wear Green Warmups At Worlds – Say They Looked More Like The New Zealand All Blacks We agree.

Kiwi Coach Is Satisfied: NZ Coach Pleased With Worlds Performance: “I’d say it was six or seven out of ten.” The article also says the Robertson twins “probably” will be moving to the marathon.

(Russian) Doping News

Associated Press:Does US Medal Dominance At Worlds Reflect Doping Cleanup In Track? While American athletes have certainly been guilty of doping as well, for years the US has had way stricter anti-doping testing than other countries.
USADA Bans Former Long Jumper Marquise Goodwin For Not Providing His Whereabouts For Drug Testing Goodwin, a 49ers receiver, says he says he quit track for the NFL, but didn’t inform USADA.
Good Read:BBC:Olympic Medals – The Tricky Job Of Reallocating And Getting Them Back Between court cases, appeals and getting medals returned, medal reallocation is like pulling teeth.
Good Read:NY Times:Russians Compete At Worlds, But Not For Their Country The article gives props to the IAAF for being a “lone wolf” with the Russian ban and reminds you not to feel too much (or any) pity for the neutral Russians who had to compete without a country.
Five More Russian Track Athletes Banned By RUSADA They include two European distance medalist. It’s a second offense for steepler Lyubov Kharlamova, but for some reason she only got 2 years instead of life (she hasn’t competed in years, but we don’t want her coaching).
There Is A Crowdfunding Campaign Set Up To Support Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Rodchenkov is getting attention as the centerpiece of a new Netflix doping documentary Icarus, but we say he’s lucky not to be in prison, forget about getting crowdfunded support.
Russian Olympic Committee President Deems Worlds A Success As Russia Neutrals Finished 9th In The Medal Tables They won one gold and five silvers, which was actually more than they won at 2015 Worlds when they could field a full team.
Russian Federation Anti-Doping Coordinator Admits They’re Having Trouble Getting Athletes To Return Their Stripped Medals Of the ten track athletes ordered to return medals, only three have. Ironically, the three were athletes not even caught doping, but were on relay teams where a teammate was.
Dick Pound Warns IOC That Monetary Fines Are Not Enough Punishment For Russia After Sochi 2014 Doping Scandal There are calls for Russia to miss the 2018 Winter Olympics and Pound warns that athletes may sue for lost prize money if they don’t get part of the fines the IOC collects from Russia.

LetsJump.com

World Champ Luvo Manyonga Comes Up Way Short In Long Jump WR Attempt Manyonga cleared 8.46m, leaving Mike Powell‘s 8.95m WR (and even Manyonga’s own 8.65m PB) very safe.
Will Claye Beats Out Christian Taylor In Altitude Triple Jump Competition It was a good dual between the two rivals, but the WR attempt was a bust as Claye only jumped 17.42m (the WR is 18.29m).
*MB: Triple and long jump record attempt today
Good Read:Christian Taylor Talks About How The Greatest Challenge He’s Faced In His Career Was Switching His Take-Off Leg Due To Injury Taylor won Olympic gold taking off from his left leg, but then in 2013 switched to his right in an attempt to prolong his career.
BBC Article/Video Interview:Olympic LJ Champ Tianna Bartoletta Reveals The Personal Struggle She Has Been Going Through In The Lead-Up To Worlds Bartoletta has been going through a stressful divorce and was happy to come away with the bronze in London considering what she’s dealt with in her non-track life.
Video:Watch Mutaz Essa Barshim Literally Hurdle The High Jump Bar At Worlds Barshim used one of his early jumps to have some fun.
*MB: Mutaz Essa Barshim hurdles the high jump bar at 6’4″
Spanish Olympic HJ Champ Ruth Beita Receives International Fair Play Award Beitia was recognized for consoling her competitor Alesssia Trost of Italy, after she failed to qualify for the final at London Worlds.

Usain Bolt’s Legacy

Good Read:The Telegraph:Usain Bolt Returned To The London Stadium One Last Time To Make His Bow, But How Will The Sport Move On Without Him? Bolt gave one last goodbye to the crowd and was given a large chunk of the London track.
Usain Bolt Believes His Golden Legacy Remains Intact After Worlds Disappointment Bolt says even Muhammad Ali lost his last fight.
Bolt Says He Didn’t Care About The Delay Before The 4 X 100, But That Being Held In A Call Room Unable To Stay Warm Contributed To His Injury Bolt also said he was “fine” with going one more year after Rio because the fans wanted it.
Usain Bolt Says Losing Actually Proved His Legacy Which Is Showing Younger Generations That “Anything Is Possible”
The Guardian: Bolt Leaves Athletics Behind With Final Warning To Drug Cheats – Says There Should Be Lifetime Bans
IAAF: Now Retired, Bolt Excited About The Next Chapter Bolt says he “almost cried” when saying his final goodbye.

Hope You Are Recovered From Worlds – The Final Regular Season DL Is Sunday In Birmingham Schedule & Results TV & Streaming (10 – 12am ET)

LRC 2017 Birmingham Preview: American World Champ Medalists Emma Coburn, Courtney Frerichs, Jenny Simpson And Evan Jager Try To Stay Hot & Mo Farah Says Goodbye To His Fans Are you recovered from Worlds and ready to watch some more great track action? We hope so as Sunday’s meet in Birmingham is pretty darn interesting. America’s steeplechase heroines Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs will battle in a flat 3,000 as Jenny Simpson tries to qualify for the DL final in the 1,500. Plus Robby Andrews tries to bounce back from injury and will face Evan Jager in the mile. *Iaaf Preview *Athletics Weekly
*MB: Are you ready for some more track? Birmingham DL looks like fun – Simpson, Frerichs, Coburn, Murphy, Andrews, & more
*MB:Clayton Murphy Bombs In Sopot (1:48.71) – Pulls Out Of Birmingham DL

Thursday’s Action: Jakob Ingebrigtsen Returns To The Winner’s Circle – Runs 3:40 In Poland

HS News

Random But Interesting

Don’t African Governments Have More Important Things To Spend Money On? Uganda’s 10k Silver Medalist Joshua Cheptegei Asks For Govt. To Pay Athletes “I ask the government to fulfill what they promised with the monthly stipends to excelling athletes.”
Kenyan Coach Is Worried That Kenya Doesn’t Have Much Depth Behind Its Stars Well, if they’d prevent their best from emigrating to other countries, they’d have A LOT more depth. Think Chelimo, Jebet, etc. This quote was funny, “Even in men’s 10,000m. If the three guys wake up one day and say they will not run, we’ll be in a crisis.”
Nick Willis Hoping To Run 1,000 Miles In 10 Weeks This Winter For 1st Time – Run 5k At Commonwealths His previous 10 week high is 880.
Banned From IAAF Worlds, Russia Dominated Last Months Deaf Olympics With 21 Golds And 43 Total Medals
Ian Stewart Once Referred To The Decathlon As “Nine Mickey Mouse Events And A Slow 1,500 Metres”
Retired Japanese Marathoner Yumiko Hara, Who Was 6th At 2005 Worlds, Is Arrested For Shoplifting Give her credit for confessing after being busted.
*Coach Is Shocked – “She trained harder than anybody. She never missed training, and she was really f*cking serious.”

Distance News: Cancer Strikes US Distance Women

Good Read:Extensive Q&A With Comrades Marathon Champion Camille Herron The elite marathoner-turned-ultra-runner talks about her recent performances at Comrades, Western States as well as her overall career and transition to ultras.
Serena Burla Facing Cancer Again After 11th Place Marathon Finish At World Champs Burla is having surgery to remove a tumor in the same leg she had one taken out seven years ago.
Gabe Grunewald’s High School Hosting 1 Mile Benefit Run For Her On Saturday If you’re near Perham, Minnesota, you should come out and show your support.
Asbel Kiprop Says He’ll Shift To The 5,000 Next Year, But Won’t Give Up On The 1,500 All Together However, Kiprop says he’ll probably focus on the 5,000 at the Commonwealth Games.
World 800 Silver Medalist Adam Kszczot Highlights The Newest Members Of The IAAF Athletes’ Commission Other additions are former 100m champ Kim Collins, former World XC champ Benita Willis, LJer Ivana Spanovic and Olympic javelin champ Thomas Rohler.

British News

Coming In 2018:USA Vs. UK Dual Meet Announced For Next Year The short, “fan-friendly,” two-hour meet will have nine scored events.
*Alan Abrahamson Gives A Positive Analysis Of The New US Vs GB Dual Meet
*MB:USA vs. GB dual meet announced for July 21, 2018, in London
Online Trolls Hijack British Athlete National Lottery Witter Promotion Users created controversial usernames so that when the National Lottery account automatically sent a reply with an athlete photo and the username, the athletes were holding up the controversial slogans.
Michael Johnson Warns British Public Not To Get Carried Away With Relay Medal Burst Johnson: “Four thrilling relay medals. Only one individual medalist, Mo Farah. He’s retiring. £27m investment. I’d be concerned.”
MB: True/False: Malcolm Gladwell: Farah has been a contender in every race he has EVER entered in his prime
Laura Muir Will Skip 2018 Commonwealth Games To Focus On Her University Studies Muir is studying to become a veterinarian.
GB Women’s 4 X 100 Silver Medalist Team Recalls That They Didn’t Even Have A Team Entered For The 2012 Olympics Desiree Henry: “The fact that we are here right now, five years later, getting a medal in that same stadium where there was no female representation, I just think that’s amazing.”
GB’s Jo Pavey Will Try To Win Another European 10,000 Title Next Year At Age 44 “I actually felt younger this year than I did maybe in the last year or two, so I was looking forward to trying to put some good track performances in.”

Mo Farah Updates

The Evening Standard:Mo Farah Splits With “Right Hand Man” Barry Fudge After Falling Out Fudge, the head of UK’s distance program, has apparently been handling a lot of Farah’s training, but Farah is now reportedly working with British endurance coach David Harmer.
*MB: So Drama Queen Mohammed Farah splits with “Right Hand Man”?
Mo Farah’s Former Training Partner Was Filmed Buying EPO In ARD’s And The Sunday Times’ Investigation In Kenya Last Year Farah used to train in Kenya before he moved on to Ethiopia and apparent doper “Freddie” Lemishen Ngoyoni was his training partner for 2013 and 2014.
*MB:Nothing to see here…. Farah’s training partner caught buying EPO
Mo Farah Wants To Be Called Mohamed For His Road Career “My road name is Mohamed. I just feel like Mo is done. I need to forget about what I’ve achieved and what I’ve done.”
*MB:Mohamed Farah
*MB:Mo does not want to be know as Mo anymore – Mohammad say BBC
Good Read:Athletics Weekly Does Nice Analysis On How Mo Farah Lost His Last 5,000m Farah complained of Ethiopian team tactics, but Edris’ last 200, 400, 1,000 and 3,000 splits were just as good as anything Farah’s ever done when he won previous Worlds.
*LRC Analysis:How Did Muktar Edris Beat Mo Farah
The Telegraph: Mo Farah Reclaims The “Mobot” On Top Of The London Eye In Emotional Farewell The writer bashes Muktar Edris for having “the audacity” to celebrate with the “Mobot” after winning the 5000.

Falmouth Is This Weekend

Sunday: Defending Champs Return To 45th Running Of New Balance Falmouth Road Race – Falmouth Road Race Men’s field also has Leonard Korir, Cam Levins and Abdi Abdirahman while Chepkoech faces Mamitu Daska, Diane Nukuri, Natosha Rogers and Neely Gracey.
Toni Reavis catches up with the 1st winner He only found out about the race after picking up a hitch hiker. People under the age of 25, do you understand the term?
Saturday: Nick Willis Vs. Craig Engels To Headline Falmouth Elite Mile The field also includes Garrett Heath, Colby Alexander and Mason Ferlic while the women are lead by Nicole Sifuentes, Heather Kampf and Dominique Scott.
*Live Streaming On The Falmouth FB Page @ 5PM

Usain Bolt Is Mad Some People Didn’t Think He Was Really Injured At Worlds Since He Was Seen Clubbing For 3 Nights After Injury

Usain Bolt Tweets Out Pictures Of His Hamstring Tear To Silence Doubters Who “Sadly Questioned” If He Was Really Injured
Usain Bolt’s Hamstring Injury Will Force Him To Postpone His Dream Of Playing For Manchester United He was going to play for their Legends team on Sept. 2nd but needs 3 months of rehab.

One Last Look At The LJ And TJ WR Attempts In The Mountains

Sprint Stuff

Training Partners Keni Harrison (100H) And Kori Carter (400H) Say They Plan On Switching Events Next Year Next year is an “off” year so it’s the time to experiment and Harrison’s 400H PR from 2 years ago would have actually placed her 4th in London.
BBC:Sanya Richards-Ross “Healed” By Support After Abortion Revelation Richards-Ross also elaborated on her “everyone I know” comment from earlier saying, “I don’t intimately know a lot of women in this sport.”
Oscar Pistorius Allowed Out Of Prison To Attend Grandmother’s Funeral
Register-Guard:Top Female Sprinters Among 18 New Oregon Recruits

Some More Post-Worlds Analysis

Interesting:Meter-By-Meter Analysis – Why Did Usain Bolt Lose The 100? Never the best starter, Bolt was only in 6th place at the 10m mark.
*Track-Stats.com:Bolt Suffered From A Slow Start, But The Top End Speed Wasn’t There Either
Hop, Skip And Jump:Interesting Triple Jump Phase Review The best jumps for gold medalists Christian Taylor and Yuliamr Rojas had the shortest first phases (“hops”), but then made up for it with the longest final jump.
Which Countries Performed The Best At Worlds? If you scored it out like an NCAA meet, the US absolutely dominated with more than double the points of Kenya in second place. But Kenya had more than double the US’s points in distance events.
Mirror.co.uk: The Best Quotes From London 2017 We had the Usain Bolt quote as our QOD, but the others were new to us.
Athletics Weekly:Memorable Moments From London 2017
*AW Day-By-Day World Highlights