November 09, 2017 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For November 09, 2017

Quote Of The Day

“Since I started running, I have lived one day at a time in four-year increments. Those four years are set on the Olympic cycles. The 2020 games will most likely be my last cycle in the sport unless, of course, it makes sense for me to stay. My Oklahoma coach, Martin Smith, once told us, ‘Running does not owe you anything.’ My last four years can definitely attest to that. … I touched some success on the track and on the roads, but overall, I felt mediocre in both. Therefore, in this final cycle of my training, I want the marathon to be my hedgehog … The marathon is an animal of a race and truly anything can happen within 26.2 miles. I have witnessed sub-13:00 minute 5,000 meter athletes crumble at the distance, and then seen men who have run 13:40 make marathon teams. It doesn’t necessarily matter what you have run on the track, and that is what intrigues me most about competing in the marathon.”

– Former Oklahoma University runner and school record holder George Alex talking about making his marathon debut at next month’s USATF Marathon Championships hosted by the CIM.

LRC’s Tribute To Meb

LRCMeb Memories: The LetsRun Staff Share Their Favorite Personal Moments From The Amazing Career Of Meb Keflezighi Between our race previews and our on-site coverage of Shalane Flanagan‘s shocking victory in NYC, we never found the time to give Keflezighi a fitting sendoff. Here, we take a moment to share our favorite memories of one of the greatest distance runners in American history.
Discuss: Remembering Meb: What was your favorite moment his career?

Looking Ahead To Winter Distance Racing

December 3:Marathon Veterans Ready To Duel At USA Marathon Championships At CIMNick Arciniaga, Janet Cherobon-Bawcom, Fernando Cabada, Patrick Rizzo, Craig Leon and Daniel Tapia lead the fields.
*UO Alum Parker Stinson, Katie Matthews And 62:54 Man George Alex Among Those Making Their Marathon Debuts At USA Champs Includes a nice Q&A with Alex and Matthews.
December 3:Former Olympic And World Champ Stephen Kiprotich, Bedan Karoki (3rd in London – 2:07:41), Defending Champ Yemane Tsegay (2:04:48) Headline Fukuoka International Marathon Elite Field Other notable names are recent 59:48 half runner Sondre Moen (Norway), Yuki Kawauchi and Jake Robertson and NOP’s Suguru Osako making their marathon debuts.
February 3:Paul Chelimo, Edward Cheserek, Craig Engels And Melissa Bishop Among Those Competing At The Camel City Elite Indoor Meet

Sprint Stuff

Former World Champ And Second-Fastest Woman In History Carmelita Jeter Retires Jeter hadn’t raced since 2016, but won 4 x 100 silver at the World Relays in 2015.
*LRC Archives:What Are Carmelita Jeter And Jason Richardson Doing With Mark Block?
Video Interview:Lolo Jones Now Thinks Of Herself More As A Bobsledder Than A Hurdler Jones says she’s gained 25 pounds since she last raced on the (indoor) track in 2016.
Controversial Lifetime Movie On Oscar Pistorius Will Come Out On November 18 Pistorius’ brother Carl said in a statement: “The ‘film’ was made with blatant disregard of both the Steenkamp and Pistorius families … Neither Oscar, the defence or the family were involved in the production of this ‘film’ in any way.” *Watch The Trailer Here
Multis: Podcast Interview With Two-Time US Olympic High Jumper And Heptathlete Sharon Day-Monroe Day-Monroe was the US heptathlon champ in 2011, 2013 and 2014. The 32-year-old talks about her future plans after she initially considered retiring after 2017 Worlds.
BBC Video:Meet Britain’s Fastest 10-Year-Old SprinterSavannah Morgan is the younger step-sister of Commonwealth Games sprinter Corinne Humphreys.
NBC Wins Three Awards For Rio 2016 Coverage Including “Best Athlete Profile” For Their Segment On Wayde Van Niekerk

(Mostly Russian) Doping News

Is This The IOC’s Idea Of Cracking Down On Russia?IOC Considering Banning Russia’s National Anthem From 2018 Winter Games The IOC are also considering barring Russians from the opening ceremonies and a fine. Anything to avoid actually banning them from the Games altogether.
*NY Times Article
IAAF Task Force Chairman Rune Andersen Gives Positive Report After Most Recent Talks With Russia’s Track Federation “They are making progress. They are meeting more and more of the criteria that the Council has set for them to be reinstated.”
Thomas Bach Accuses Critics Of Olympic Movement Of Ignorance And Aggression“We live in a world where people are more and more thinking in silos of their own opinion. People are not ready for a dialogue anymore.” … Maybe he should practice what he preaches?
InsideTheGames‘Nick Butler:“Olympic ‘family’ are losing their favourite thing – control – when dealing with Russian doping.” Butler criticizes Thomas Bach for lashing out at IOC critics and trying to control all “the agenda, the message and the decisions.”
Daily Mail:Three British Athletes Caught Up In Kenya Drug Scandal After Charged Doctor Says They Bought EPO The names haven’t been revealed although the Daily Mail says they know their identities.
*MB:Doping rife in Kenya with little testing
Kremlin Says Absence Of Russia At Winter Olympics Would Be A “Big Blow” To The Games

2017 Athletes Of The Year

IAAF Athlete Of The Year Finalists Announced; Winner Will Be Revealed November 24th The three men’s finalists are Mo Farah, Wayde van Niekerk and Mutaz Essa Barshim (HJ) and the women are Almaz Ayana, Katerina Stefanidi (PV) and Nafissatou Thiam (heptathlon).
Eliud Kipchoge And Mary Keitany Up For AIMS Best Marathon Runner Award Hat Trick Kipchoge and Keitany are up against World champions Geoffrey Kirui and Rose Chelimo for the award.

Irish Distance News

Recommended Read: Nice Profile On Ireland’s National 3,000m Record Holder (7:30.36) And Former NYC Marathon 6th Placer Mark Carroll Carroll, now the coach at Drake University, talks about how he once passed on a very lucrative offer to pace a world record attempt because he suspected (and it was later confirmed) the athlete was dirty.
Irish Record Setter Cathal Dennehy Writes First-Hand Account Of Running The Beer Mile Dennehy ran 5:25.2 in the race Corey Bellemore ran a new 4:33.6 WR. “The first beer, like all first beers, went down easy. The regret always comes later.”
*2nd Article From Dennehy, More On The Beer Mile In General

More NYC Coverage

RRW:Abdi Abdirahman, 40, Eyes NYC Marathon Podium For Second Straight Year Talking about retirement, Abdi is taking it one year at a time, but says he’ll still run 60-70 miles a week even after he hangs them up.
Coach Bob Larsen On Meb:“Because of his age and everything he’s accomplished, he owes us nothing. … It’d be great if it’s a memorable one, but we’ll settle for anything going across that line.”
Shalane Flanagan:“If I need to break a leg in the race to win, I will just do anything I possibly can to put myself in position.”
AP:After Truck Attack, NYC Circles The Wagons Around Marathon

More LRC Exclusives

Mary Cain after an xc race last October (photo by Chris Lotsbom for Race Results Weekly) LRCNot Done Yet: Mary Cain Has Been Injured In 2017, Planning On Racing Again in 2018 Cain hasn’t raced or been heard from in almost exactly one year, but LRC has learned she’s planning on racing in 2018. The question now becomes, “How good will she be when she returns?” *Discuss

WTW Flanagan’s Close In NY Was Historically Fast, Jenny Simpson’s Roommate Gets 5th In NY And More What a week. In our weekly recap, we take one last week at the 2017 NYC Marathon and also have an update on new American citizen Sally Kipyego.

Another High School Star Chooses The NCAA

Pole Vault Star Armand Duplantis Signs With LSU Mondo’s father Greg Duplantis, mother Helena, and brother Antoine all went to LSU.

Sign Of Respect Or A Cheap Money Grab?

Stadium In Kenya May Be Renamed After The Late Sammy Wanjiru Officials hope that renaming the stadium will attract sponsors who will help renovate the aging facility.

Doping News

Jemima Sumgong Tried To Get A Reduced Ban After Admitting To EPO Use WADA will offer a reduced 2-year ban to athletes who immediately admit to their doping, but Sumgong did not do that at all. She had a whole court case trying to blame a hospital that says they never even treated her.
Good Riddance:US Track Coach Kenta Bell Accepts Lifetime Ban For Encouraging And Administering The Doping Of At Least Six Athletes Bell, the coach of the Thinking Feet TC, also tried to cover up an athlete’s positive test, provided false info to USADA and has a previous doping violation from when he was an athlete himself.
How Convenient:Internal Russian Investigation Tries To Put The Sole Blame On Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov For Doping Scandal They claim they found no proof of the institutional doping laid out in the McLaren report.
*Russia Wants US To Extradite Whistleblower Rodchenkov This is unlikely to happen, though, as Rodchenkov is in a witness protection program. Russia and the US have no extradition treaty.
Shot Put Queen Valerie Adams Could Have Her Winning Streak Of 56 Meets Extended To 95 This thanks to a possible extra backdated ban of disgraced Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk.
GPS Technology Among Ideas To Improve Anti-Doping Suggested At iNADO Symposium There were also calls for convicted drugs cheats to be barred from the medals podium, prize money and setting records … essentially a lifetime ban.
Russia Loses Two More 2014 Winter Olympic Medals After Two Cross Country Skiers Found Guilty Of Doping

International Distance News

World 5,000 Champ Hellen Obiri Stepping Up To The 10,000 For The 2018 Commonwealth Games Obiri, a former 1,500 runner, has never run 10,000m. She also wants to go for the 5,000m WR next year, held by Tirunesh Dibaba at 14:11.15.
Sunday:2:09 Man Dominic Ruto Kipngetich Takes On Defending Champ Edwin Kiptoo At The Beirut Marathon
Callum Hawkins Named Scottish Athlete Of The Year After Setting The National Half Record At 60:00 And Placing 4th In The Marathon At Worlds In 2:10:17 Hawkins’ father and coach won the coach of the year award.
Brits Eilish McColgan And Sam Stabler Win Leeds Abbey Dash 10K

Olympic Corruption And Sexual Assault

British Athletics Suspends Javelin Coach Over Allegations Of Inappropriate Relationship With A Female AthleteDavid Parker is accused of having a relationship with a female student athlete at the university where he coaches.
IOC Member Apologizes After Accused Of Two Sexual Harassment Cases A journalist accused Alex Gilady of exposing himself to her 25 years ago and telling her to “talk to” his penis.
Namibia’s Former Four-Time Olympic Silver Medalist Frankie Fredericks Suspended BY IOC Following Money Laundering And Corruption Charges He is accused of accepting a bribe of $299,300 from Pappa Massita Diack when Rio won the vote to host the 2016 Olympics.
NY Times:Powerful Sheikh Linked To Sports Corruption Case Resurfaces In Prague Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait had been out of the public eye since he was named in a sports bribery and corruption investigation, but showed up with a seat right next to Thomas Bach at this Olympic meeting.
IOC Unveil New Toolkit To Protect Athletes From Harassment And Abuse The 103-page document aims to give advice to organizations and athletes on dealing with abuse.

2017 TCS New York City Marathon *Tracking & Results

MB: Official 2017 NYC Marathon Discussion Thread

LRCThe Day After: Shalane Flanagan Talks About Never Looking Back During Race, Turning Down Colbert Report Flanagan’s got a big decision to make- retire or run Boston one final time. Geoffrey Kamworor has to decide – defend his world XC title or run a spring marathon.

LRC The Running World Reacts To Shalane Flanagan’s Historic NYC Marathon Victory See how Flanagan’s fellow pros – from Desi Linden to Jenny Simpson to Jordan Hasay – reacted to her historic win.

LRC Final Shalane Flanagan Wins 2017 New York City Marathon – 1st American Winner In 40 Years The 40-year American women’s drought is over as Shalane Flanagan was fantastic in Central Park.