January 25, 2018 Homepage Archive

2018 Dubai Marathon – The Richest Prize In Our Sport Gets Awarded Tonight (9pm ET) Live Stream Dubai Historical Stats *Results/ Tracking/ Live Leaderboard

Live Now: Official 2018 Dubai Marathon Discussion Thread – Who you got?

LRC 2018 Dubai Marathon Women’s Preview: Former Champs Worknesh Degefa & Aselefech Mergia Battle World Champs Medalists Mare Dibaba & Senbere Teferi (Debut) The women’s race in Dubai this year race boasts two sub-2:20 women and a total of six who have run under 2:23 as well as super-talented debutantes Gelete Burka (10k silver at 2015 Worlds) and 22-year-old Senbere Teferi (5k silver at 2015 Worlds, 14:29 PR).

LRC 2018 Dubai Marathon Men’s Preview: Tamirat Tola Aims To Become First Man To Repeat Since Haile G In 2010 The Olympic bronze medalist at 10,000 is back to defend his crown but he’ll face five other sub-2:07 guys in the field plus four really interesting debutants: Yenew Alamirew (12:48/27:19 track PRs), Birhanu Legese (59:20 to win New Delhi Half Marathon in November), Leul Gebresilase (59:18 HM), and Fikadu Haftu (59:22).

Field Event News

Two-Time NCAA Decathlon Champion Lindon Victor Talks About The High And Lows From His Career High was setting the NCAA record, the low happened at 2017 Worlds.
World Champ And WR Holder Barbora Spotakova To Miss The 2018 Season As She Is Expecting Her Second Child Spotakova says she still plans to return for the 2020 Olympics.
February 3:Germany’s World Javelin Champ Johannes Vetter Will Open His Season In Offenburg He’ll face his domestic rival and Olympic champ Thomas Rohler.
Teen Start Kate O’Connor Breaks Irish Pentathlon Record With A Score Of 4,108

The 2018 Winter Olympics Start February 9th

22 North Koreans To Compete At Pyeongchang 2018 They will compete in hockey, figure skating, short-track speed skating, cross country skiing and alpine skiing.
IOC Approves Joint Korean Team For Opening Ceremony And Women’s Hockey This despite objections from the South Korean coach who feels it will damage her players.
Good Read:InsideTheGames’ Nick Butler: “Thomas Bach Shouldn’t Start Clearing A Place In His Trophy Cabinet For The Nobel Peace Prize Quite Yet” Butler writes that Bach’s opening remarks on the unified Korean team on at a recent press conference “produced a collective wave of nausea” in the media room.
NY Times:Protesters In Seoul Burn Image Of Kim Jong-un During North Koreans’ Visit
North Koreans Face Protest During Pyeongchang 2018 Visit
North Korea To Hold Military Demonstration The Day Before The 2018 Winter Games Opening Ceremony
USA Today:Neither North Nor South Korea Want Defections During The Olympics South Korea normally encourages North Koreans to defect, but wants to avoid confrontation during such a sensitive time.
Exploratory Committee Claims Future Winter Olympics In Salt Lake City Could Cost Less Than 2002 Costs will be reduced because many of the 2002 venues have been well maintained.
Former Pyeongchang 2018 Minister Jailed For Two Years She was jailed for her part in the blacklisting of artists critical of the former president’s government.
USOC CEO Scott Blackmun May Miss Winter Olympics After Being Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer

LetsJump.com

From The Weekend: Keturah Orji Breaks NCAA And American Triple Jump Record With 14.32m
Getting Started Early:There’s Going To Be A Documentary On High School Pole Vault Star Mondo Duplantis This is a 4-minute clip from the Reno National PV Summit two weekends ago.
February 3:Olympic Champ Tianna Bartoletta And Euro Champ Ivana Spanovic Will Clash At The Karlsruhe Indoor Meet
Sergey Bubka Warns Against Changes That May Put Athletes At Risk Last year the IAAF changed time given to athletes to make an attempt in the PV from 60 seconds to 30 to speed up the meet, but Bubka and Renaud Lavillenie have argued it’s not safe for athletes.
Greg Rutherford Withdraws From 2018 Commonwealth Games Rutherford says he has recovered from the ankle injury which kept him out of London Worlds, but wants to “ease back into competition.”

Fast High School Action – Tuohy Runs 15:37!

Katelyn Tuohy Runs 15:37 To Smash The High School 5,000m RecordThe previous indoor mark was 15:55 by Brie Oakley and Tuohy’s time is also faster than Mary Cain‘s 15:45 outdoor record.
*MB:Katelyn Tuohy – 15:37 High School Record
Fresh Off Her Great Edinburgh Win, Kelsey Chmiel Wins New Balance Games Mile In 4:48.94 Chmiel then doubled back to anchor the Saratoga DMR team to a win/meet record (11:59) with a 4:48.75 leg.
Brian Herron Runs 32.64 To Break National High School 300m Record The previous record holder (Tyrese Cooper) was actually in the race and finished 3rd (33.12).
Bullis High School Girls Break World Junior 4 X 200 Record With 1:35.40
Lanae-Tava Thomas Breaks NY High School Long Jump Record And #2 All-Time With 21-8 (6.60m)

International Distance Results

Uganda’s World 10,000 Silver Medalist Joshua Cheptegei And Kenya’s Former World XC Champ Agnes Tirop Prevail At Seville XC Meet Tirop beat a field that included world 5,000 champ Hellen Obiri (3rd place) and steeplechase WR holder Ruth Jebet (4th).
Amane Gobena (2:25:49) And Solomon Deksisa (2:09:34) Win Mumbai Maraton
Ethiopia’s Gulume Tollesa Defended Her Title With A CR 2:29:37 At The Hong Kong Marathon 44-year-old Kenneth Mungara won over opponents half his age to win in 2:13:39.
IAAF Weekend XC Round-Up:Kenya’s 9:03 Steepler Norah Tanui Wins Rovereto XC Meet By Over A Minute Ethiopia’s Telahun Bekele won the men’s race. Meanwhile in Kenya, Joan Chelimo won over 66:25 half runner Valary Jemeli at the Elgeyo-Marakwet XC Champs. Benard Kimeli won the men’s race.
Belgium’s Soufiane Bouchikhi Beats Out GB’s Andy Vernon To Win At Home At The Easykit Cross Cup
South African XC Champs: Thabang Mosiako and Kesa Molotsane Win

Administrative News

Plan Your Winter/Set Your DVRs Now 2018 USATF Indoor Championship Series TV Broadcast Schedule Released – Millrose Leads Way With 2 Hours Live On NBC

USATF’s Annual President’s Report To The Board Of Directors This is the first report of the Vin Lananna era.
Kenya Paper Writes About How No Big Name Stars Are Doing Commonwealth Marathon Tim Hutchings has a GREAT solution – ax the marathon and run a half marathon. Big stars like Kipchoge could do it in their buildup for London.
So Much For Punishment – Russia To Have Nearly As Many Athletes At 2018 Winter Games As In 2014 When They Hosted The Games

Get Excited – Indoor Track Is Back In A BIG Way *All Collegiate Results

LRC Weekend Preview: Clayton Murphy Vs. Robby Andrews; Ajee Wilson Vs. Charlene Lipsey; An AR Attempt In The 3K; & The Return Of The LetsRun.com Singlet Oh, baby. We hope you are ready. Indoor track is BACK in a BIG WAY with action all over the US. In Boston, American Shadrack Kipchirchir wants to run the low 7:30s in the same race where the LRC singlet will be looking for a big PR. In NY, Ajee Wilson and Charlene Lipsey go for the AR and Robby Andrews and Clayton Murphy clash over 800. In Seattle, these big names will be racing – Galen Rupp, Yomif Kejelcha, Shalane Flanagan, and Sifan Hassan. Plus marathoners Scott Smith & Aaron Braun chase sub-4:00.

Ajee Wilson, Charlene Lipsey, Kate Grace, Craig Engels, Clayton Murphy, Robby Andrews Among The Distance Runners Highlighting The Dr. Sander Invitational’s Armory Challenge Murphy vs. Andrews and Erik Sowinski over 800 should be a great race. *Pro Fields*Live Results*Schedule
NXN Runner-Up Brodey Hasty Going For Sub-4 At The Dr. Sander Invy On Saturday He’ll be in the pro race with Craig Engels, Brannon Kidder and Pat Casey. Hasty has a PB of 4:01.75.
Olympic Champions Renaud Lavillenie, Thiago Braz, Robert Harting And Tiana Bartoletta Highlight Fields For Berlin ISTAF Indoor

More Distance News

Good Read:IAAF Profile: Determined Sondre Nordstad Moen Plots His Own Path To Success After his breakthrough 2017, Moen wants to become the first European to win the World Half Champs in the last 22 years.
RW Q&A With Amy Cragg Ahead Of The Tokyo Marathon Cragg has been working on her speed so she can break her almost 4-year-old 2:27:03 marathon PR on the flat/fast Tokyo course.
Former Olympic And World Marathon Champ Stephen Kiprotich To Skip 2018 Commonwealth Games To Focus On The Hamburg Marathon
Wales Names Team Of 21 Athletes For 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Leading the distance events is Dewi Griffiths in the 5K/10K.

Russian Doping Updates

IAAF Clears 18 Russians To Compete As Neutrals At The World Indoor Championships These 18 were already cleared last year, but the IAAF just renewed permission. *IAAF Statement
CAS Starting Hearing Appeals For 39 Russian Athletes DQed From Sochi 2014 And Banned From All Future Games The hearings are expected to continue through Friday or Saturday with a final decision coming between the 29th and February 2nd.
RusAF Ask IAAF To Speed Up Neutral Status Requests
Two Russian Figure Skaters Barred From Winter Games Also, five Russian men’s hockey players.
Russian Short Track Skater Viktor Ahn To Miss 2018 Games
MB:Grigory Rodchenkov: Russian whistleblower suspected British cheats
The Guardian‘s Sean Ingle:“Maria Sharapova’s Reception A Reminder Of Indifference To Doping” He should watch Justin Gatlin‘s reception and say that there is complete indifference.
Russian Olympic Committee Ask IOC For Explanation Behind Skating Bans We guess they’re looking for something more complex than “They’re dopers.”
NY Times: How Many Russian Athletes Will Get To Compete In The Winter Olympics?

Distance Updates

Good Read:SPIKES Profile Catching Up With Former NCAA Indoor Mile Champ Kaela Edwards, Who Is Now Part Of Emma Coburn’s Group In Boulder Edwards talks about how she visited Boulder and stayed in Coburn and Joe Bosshard‘s house when she hadn’t even met them before.
Former NCAA Champ And Jamaican Olympian Natoya Goule Ran A World-Leading 1:59.86 At The Clemson Invite Goule crushed her 2:01.64 indoor PR, although she has previously broken 2:00 outdoors.
MB:Emma Coburn runs fastest mile ever in Colorado – 4:38.08 at 7,771 feet no less!
February 3:Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir Shooting To Break Her Own National 800m Record At The RIG Games In Iceland At this meet last year, Hinriksdottir set a national indoor 800m record of 2:01.18.

Post-Weekend NCAA News

Florida’s Grant Holloway And Georgia’s Keturah Orji Are NCAA DI Athletes Of The Week Orji broke the NCAA and American TJ record (14.32m) while Holloway ran the 3rd-fastest 60H in NCAA history (7.49).
Florida Men Stay A Dominant #1 In The First Regular Season National Rankings Georgia and Texas A&M are 2-3.
The Oregon Women Top The First Regular Season NCAA Rankings Arkansas and Georgia are ranked 2-3.
Register-Guard:Ducks Have Plenty Of Options For Dr. Sander Relay Meet At The Armory This Weekend Last year the Oregon women broke the NCAA DMR record at this meet while the men ran an NCAA-leading time.
Event-By-Event Top-10 Marks Of The Collegiate Weekend

European Sprint Stuff

Recommended Read:GB 4 X 100 Gold Medalist Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake Doesn’t Want To Dwell On 2017 Success As He Moves On To A New Season “As much as what happened in the summer was nice, I want to forget about it now … I don’t want to just dwell on an accomplishment. I want to achieve more.”
GB’s World 4 X 100 Silver Medalist Dina Asher-Smith Writes About Her Work-Life Balance And The Sacrifices She Makes As A Pro Athlete Asher-Smith says she’s in bed by 10:30 and uses food as fuel “rather than pleasure.” She adds, “I don’t do cheat days and I don’t drink.”
Euro Weekend Sprint Round-Up:Germany’s Gina Luckenkemper Opens Her Season With A 7.11 PR To Tie The 60m World Lead

Mid-D And Distance News / Advice

Oh, Baby, It’s On!Kenenisa Bekele Added To 2018 London Marathon Field, Meaning We’ll Get Bekele Vs. Kipchoge And Farah At 2018 London

Following Centro’s Lead, Nick Willis Is Also Skipping World Indoors To Race In Australia
Good Read A 1,600-Word Look At How Kiwi Matt Baxter Has Thrived At NAU The NCAA runner-up in XC was a 14:10 man before he went to NAU.
70-Minute Meb K Podcast – Meb Talks About Life After Retirement And Looks Back At His Career Highlights
IAAF Visits Eugene And Is Assured Hayward Field Renovation Will Be Done In Time For Worlds The article says the new plans for the track will come out in April.
If Austin, TX Hosts The 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, It Will Be Held The Day Before The Austin Marathon
Free Training Advice: Mastering The Threshold Run By Sub-2:14 Marathoner Mark Tucker
Runner’s World: The 10 Best Onion Stories About Running Some might mistake RW for an Onion production itself.

High School Coaching Legends

LRC 10 Things I Learned From The Best High School Cross-Country And Track Coaches In America LetsRun.com’s Wejo flew to Boulder to hear from the high school top XC coaches in America Joan Hunter (#1 team), Dan Iverson (#2 team), Jonathan Dalby (#3 team) and John O’Malley (Foot Locker champ). What did he learn? A lot.
Discussion: “I attended a clinic with the top high school cross coaches in the country: ask me anything.”

Sprint Stuff

WOW! British Sprinter Zharnel Hughes Victim Of Attempted Robbery At Gunpoint In Jamaica When the gunman demanded Hughes’ phone, Hughes turned and ran while the gunman shot at him. Even after all the excitement, Hughes still competed his training session for the day at the UWI track.
*LRC Archives: Meet Zharnel Hughes: The 18-Year-Old Has A Shot At Taking Down Yohan Blake’s 10.21 And Usain Bolt’s 20.25 “Champs” Records
Oregon’s Three-Time NCAA Champ Ariana Washington Postpones A Pro Career To Stay With The Ducks Washington says it was a tough decision and she sought advice from boyfriend Clayton Murphy, who left Akron early to go pro.
Good Read:The Guardian:“Double First: The Twin GB Sprinters With The Tokyo Olympics In Their Sights” The twin sisters used to be dancers/volleyball players, but after only five years in the sport, Cheriece and Shannon Hylton are eyeing the GB Olympic team.
Omar McLeod Was Motivated By A Schoolgirl’s Slur After winning World gold McLeod said, “Every time I remember that girl who told me I was a cruff (Jamaican word for someone who is worthless), I pushed myself more.”
Spain’s Oscar Husillos Looking For A Euro Medal After Opening His Season By Breaking The Spanish Indoor 300 And 400 Records

More Upcoming Distance Action

April 22: Tirunesh Dibaba Will Return To The 2018 London Marathon Dibaba was runner-up last year with 2:17:56, making her the third fastest all-time. Marathon debut record holder Guye Adola (2:03:46) and Stanley Biwott (2:03:51) were announced for the men’s race.
February 4:RRW: Norway’s European Marathon Record Holder Sondre Nordstad Moen To Run Napoli City Half Marathon The 59:48 man is using the race as a tune-up for March’s World Half Champs.
February 8:Genzebe Dibaba And World Silver Medalist Adam Kszczot Will Highlight The Madrid Indoor Meeting Dibaba is in the 1,500 against former world indoor silver medalist Axumawit Embaye and Poland’s European champ Angelika Cichocka. Kszczot is in the 800 against former world champ Mohamed Aman.
Can XC Be Edgy? The IAAF Says It Wants To Move Cross-Country In A “More Extreme, Edgier” Direction To Attract New Audiences It’s anyone’s guess what that actually means. Does the IAAF even know?

Upcoming Road Action

February 25:Wilson Kipsang Will Defend His Title And Meseret Defar Will Make Her Marathon Debut At Tokyo 2018 Kipsang faces Dickson Chumba and former Dubai winners Tesfaye Abera and Tsegaye Mekonnen while the women’s race has 2015 world silver medalist Helah Kiprop, Berlin runner-up Ruti Aga, Paris Marathon champ Purity Rionoripo and USA’s world bronze medalist Amy Cragg.
*This Article Says Kipsang Will Be Going For The WR In Tokyo Last year Kipsang won in an Asian all-comers’ record of 2:03:58.
April: The London Marathon Is Announcing An Athlete Each Day This Week: Yesterday Was 2016 Runner-Up Stanley Biwott

It Was A Record-Setting Friday In Terms Of US Action *All US Indoor Track Results

LRC Spoiler Alert: Christian Coleman’s 6.37 60m Mark Most Definitely Won’t Count As A World Record The IAAF rules are VERY clear – start reaction times must be recorded for a world record in any event 400m or less.

Usain Who? MB: CHRISTIAN MF COLEMAN – COLEMAN OPENS 2018 WITH 6.37 WR!!! Coleman, who beat Bolt in London, opens 2018 with a stunner.
*Christian Coleman’s Coach Tim Hall: “I’m in disbelief. This was his season opener. It was totally unexpected.”
*Christian Coleman Had To Drive Two Hours Away To Meet Drug Testers So He Could Give A Urine Sample At A Rest Stop Even still, Coleman’s run might not be ratified as the WR as the IAAF requires electronic startling blocks which weren’t used.

MB: UTEP’S Michael Saruni Runs 1:14.79 600m WR Technically the 600m distance is a world’s best.

MB: ERIN FINN – NEW SCHOOL RECORD – 8:58
Texas Tech’s Vincent Crisp Runs Fastest 600-Yard Time In Collegiate History – 68.16 – The old record of 68.26 (Arkansas’ Roddie Haley) had stood since 1987.
Florida Star Grant Holloway Runs 7.49 60H To Move To #3 Collegian All-Time Omar McLeod is the collegiate record holder at 7.45.
Texas Tech’s Divine Oduduru Runs 20.49 200 On Their Scorching-Fast New Track

More Distance Updates

MB:Matt Centrowitz Still With The Oregon Project, But Now Based On East Coast Centro says Alberto Salazar is still his coach, but he’s living in the DC/Maryland area with Centro Sr. administering a lot of his workouts.
February 9:Deepest Field Ever Set For 2018 RAK Half Marathon With Fifteen Sub-60 MenBedan Karoki returns to defend his title against 27:09 10K man Guye Adola, two-time Boston champ Lelisa Desisa and World Indoors bronze medalist Augustine Choge.
Athletics Weekly:Laura Muir Says She Has “More To Give Over 5,000m” In what was just her second 5,000 final, she finished 6th in a 14:52 PR at Worlds.

Sprint / Field Event News

Justin Gatlin Chooses A New Coach – And He’s 84 Years Young! Brooks Johnson
Elaine Thompson Still Has No Idea What Happened In 100m Final Where She Was Just 5th It’s hard to explain as the double Olympic champ won all of her 100s in 2017 except for Worlds.
European LJ Record Holder Sebastian Bayer Retires At Age 31 Due to injury, he’s barely competed since 2014 but is best known for his Beamonesque performance in 2013 when he went from 8.17 to 8.71 in a single competition. He’s still the #2 jumper indoors thanks to this.
Sergey Bubka Is Really Impressed By Armand Duplantis “He was 17 and he jumped over 5.90. This is really amazing.”

The World’s Biggest XC Fan

LRC Meet Mr. Cross-Country, The Sport’s Biggest Fan Cross-country’s biggest fan, Michael Mahon, resides in Massachusetts, where for the past 33 years he has traveled to over 1,747 career meets, bag of cans in tow. And he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
*Michael Mahon – Mr. Cross-Country – Share Your Favorite Story Here