March 23, 2018 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For March 23, 2018

Quote Of The Day

“We made an offer to senior Russian officials in Pyeongchang to visit the Moscow laboratory together but it seems our offer has fallen on deaf ears. We have also written to the Russian Investigatory Committee four times to offer our help and we have not had a single response. The big losers here are Russian athletes. Their participation in future events will continue to be put in doubt and the rest of the world will not be convinced any meaningful change has taken place. Real action is needed. It’s time for this situation to change. If not, it will damage sport – every Russian victory will be doubted. … We want to welcome an independent and efficient Rusada back in from the cold – it’s just a pity that progress is so slow from the Russian authorities.”

– WADA president Craig Reedie talking about Russia’s continued lack of cooperation which keeps it from returning to full unrestricted international sports competition.

2018 World Half Champs Are Saturday TV & Streaming (12:05 And 12:30 PM ET) Entries

RRW At Age 43, Bernard Lagat Is Thrilled To Be Representing The USA Once Again At A World Championships Plus Lagat talks about whether he can break Haile Gebrselassie‘s 61:09 world masters record.

LRC Jordan Hasay Has Withdrawn From The 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships – Will She Run The 2018 Boston Marathon? Additionally, Kenya has two big scratches of their own. Neither the US or Kenya entered any alternates before the entry deadline and as a result both countries and will only have three competitors in the women’s team race where three score.
*MB: Confirmed: Jordan Hasay has withdrawn from the 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships – Will she run Boston?
*MB: Official 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Champs Discussion Thread.

LRC Women’s Preview: Kenyan Joyciline Jepkosgei Is The Woman To Beat Kenyans Fancy Chemutai (64:52, #2 all-time) and reigning bronze medalist Mary Wacera (66:29) were both late scratches so Kenya will only have 3 entrants, not 5.

LRCMen’s Preview: Geoffrey Kamworor Goes For Three-Peat Against The “King Of Valencia,” 58:44 Man Abraham Cheroben Can Kamworor add yet another gold medal to his collection or will Cheroben, who has run incredibly fast but never done anything internationally, back up his performances by winning in Valencia? 59:52 man Leonard Korir & 43-year-old Bernard Lagat highlight Team USA.

RRW:Spectacular Course Awaits World Half Marathon Athletes Interestingly, the race doesn’t start in the AM, but instead at 5PM local time.
$245,000 In Prize Money Up For Grabs At World Half Champs $30,000 to the men’s and women’s winner. $15,000 to the winning teams.
Charlotte Purdue Named GB World Half Team Captain
Local Organizing Committee Donates Extra $50,000 To The IAAF Athletics Integrity Unit To Test Athletes Competing At World Half Champs
Country-By-Country Broadcast Info For World Half Champs *These Countries Can Watch A Free Live Stream On The IAAF’s YouTube Channel Not available with a US IP address.

Week That Was

LRCWayde Van Who? Clarence Munyai Runs 19.69, Scott Fauble Interviews Himself, Americans Dominate NYC Half, And A Last Hurrah For Caster Semenya?

Clarence Munyai and Caster Semenya put on a show at the S. African Champs, the Americans did well at NYC Half, and a look back at some splits from World Indoors.

Non-Distance News

Christian Coleman Thinks He Can Become The Second-Fastest Man Of All Time This Year Coleman says he wants to get Tyson Gay‘s 9.69 American record, but admits Usain Bolt‘s 9.58 is out of reach.
Christian Coleman Confirms He’ll Return To London For The Anniversary Games On July 21-22
IAAF Inside Athletics:Ato Boldon Video Interview With Venezuela’s World Triple Jump Champion Yulimar Rojas
Renaud Lavillenie And Sam Kendricks Lead Stacked Pole Vault Field For Pre Classic In May Also Olympic champ Thiago Braz and Mondo Duplantis.
Loaded Men’s Javelin Field Announced For Pre Classic With German Duo World Champ Johannes Vetter And Olympic Champ Thomas Rohler

2020 Olympic Trials News

Judge Orders Mt. SAC To Halt Stadium Work, Potentially Putting The 2020 Olympic Trials At Risk The college and the city of Walnut are in a legal battle over whether the stadium reconstruction is complying with regulations protecting water quality. Mt. SAC is also dealing with a civil suit which is arguing the cost of the stadium shouldn’t be covered by public funds.
*Ken Goe’s Take And Comparison To Hayward’s Issues

Older Trials News We Missed
Atlanta Track Club Surprised USATF Selection Committee By Bringing In Meb To Endorse Their Bid For The 2020 Marathon Trials Meb likes the Olympic tradition of Atlanta, saying he still has a T-shirt a teammate brought him back from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and will be working with the ATC in the future. USATF will decide in April between Atlanta, Austin, Chattanooga and Orlando.

NYC Half Watch Replay On ESPN3Pro Results

LRC FinalBen True Outkicks Dathan Ritzenhein To Win 2018 NYC Half In His Half Marathon Debut, Buze Diriba Edges Emily Sisson For Women’s Title Ritz may not have gotten the win but he was happy with the result: “This was a great simulator for Boston for me. This was a perfect, perfect pre-race for that.”
*NYRR Release: Record-Breaking Day Features Ben True Becoming The First American Male Winner*RRW Recap
*MB:Official 2018 United Airlines NYC Half Live Discussion Thread
*MB: BEN MF TRUE

More NYC Action:Malcolm Richards (2:19:01) And Lindsey Scherf (2:40:55) Break Indoor Marathon World RecordsChris Zablocki, who had the men’s record, only managed a 2:29:13.
*MB:New indoor marathon world records set – 2:19:01 and 2:40:55

Weekend Road/XC Results

Wilson Erupe Loyannae Wins A Fourth Seoul Marathon Title In 2:06:57 It was a close race as 2nd through 5th were all in the 2:07 range. Damte Hiru won the women’s race in 2:24:08.
Yuki Kawauchi Wins New Taipei City Wan Jin Shi Marathon In 2:14:12 Kenya’s Rael Kyara Kguriatukei took the women’s race in 2:35:57, just one second ahead of her compatriot Chemtai Rionotueki.
Kenya’s Weldon Kirui (2:11:48) And Ethiopia’s Sule Utura Gedo (2:33:49) Triumph At LA Marathon*Results
Celliphine Chespol And Alfred Barkack Make It A Kenyan Double Win At African XC Champs Kenya also won both team titles.
Uganda’s Ben Somikwo (63:32) And Kenya’s Christine Oigo (1:13:54) Win Chilly Gdynia Half Marathon In Poland Somikwo won over Spain’s El Hassan Oubaddi by one second in a sprint finish.
Athletics Weekly:English Schools XC Champs Recap

Sprint Stuff

Andre De Grasse Pulls Out Of Next Month’s Commonwealth Games De Grasse said he is healthy, but not at 100% fitness and wants to focus on getting ready for outdoor season.
USA’s World Indoor 60m Bronze Medalist Ronnie Baker Talks About The High And Low Of His Career, Both Of Which Happened In 2017 Last year Baker won the 100m at Pre Classic, but strained his hamstring at USAs and didn’t make the final.
GB World 4 X 100 Silver Medalist Dina Asher-Smith Talks About Her Love For Sprinting Asher-Smith actually started off as a cross-country runner and finished 5th out of 300-400 runners in her first race.
USATF Domestic Relay Program Starts Next Weekend At The Prairie View Relays In Texas The program will help prepare potential USA relay runners for the USA vs. World race at Penn Relays.

Usain Bolt Had His Soccer Tryout

Usain Bolt Pleases 1400 Strong Crowd That Showed Up To Watch His Dortmund Soccer Tryout In Germany Bolt apparently made a couple of errors, but made up for it with a “terrific header into the corner of the net.”
Usain Bolt Says Soccer Tryout (With A Team Also Sponsored By Puma) Isn’t Just A Publicity Stunt: “I really want to try and make it professionally, to play at a high level.” Bolt gave himself a “seven out of ten” for his tryout and admitted he has to work on some things including his fitness. He’d like the team to sign him, but “wouldn’t want to play in a lesser league” for their reserve team.

Russian Doping Updates

WADA Says Russia Ignored Four Requests To Inspect Moscow’s Anti-Doping Lab WADA president Craig Reedie says Russia still needs to acknowledge its state-sponsored doping and allow the Moscow lab to be inspected.
Russian Sports Minister Claims Pyeongchang 2018 Doping Cases Are “Senseless”Pavel Kolobkov said he is “outraged” about the two Russians who failed drug tests at the Winter Games and that hr has “no explanation of how it could have happened at all.”
BBC:Craig Reedie Says Russian Participation At Major Events Still In Doubt

African Distance News

Can He Still Be Relevant?Marathon World Record Holder Dennis Kimetto Will Line Up For The Vienna City Marathon On April 22 Kimetto hasn’t finished a marathon since London 2016, where he was 9th in 2:11:44, but says he wants to break the Vienna CR of 2:05:41.
Reuters Headline Says Dennis Kimetto “Snubs London For Vienna” More likely London didn’t want to pay a big appearance fee to someone who DNFs most of his races since 2015.
Bedan Karoki Now Focused On Preparing For The London Marathon After Withdrawing From The World Half Champs With A Hamstring Injury
After Winning African XC Champs, Celliphine Chespol Targets A Commonwealth Games Title The world junior steeple champ wants to win a senior title to go along with it.
Joyciline Jepkosgei’s 64:52 World Half Marathon Record Ratified By The IAAF

Previous World Half News

Good Read: The Honor Of Representing His Nation Motivates Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer As He Prepares For The World Half Champs Yimer ran the fastest debut ever at RAK last month with 59:00. Even still, the World 10,000 5th placer says his future is on the track: “I am a man of the track. I feel like the track is where I breathe better. I can train there the whole day.”
IAAF Men’s Preview
IAAF Women’s Preview
Lornah Kiplagat Reflects On Her World Half Marathon Champs Hat Trick Between 2006 And 2008 “To win gold three times in a row at my favorite distance, I couldn’t ask for more and I’m honored to be part of history.”
Course And Scoring Details For The World Half Marathon Championships Each country can run 5 athletes with the top 3 scoring.
World Half Champs Statistics Handbook Available For Download Includes facts and figures including past individual and team medalists, stats on the youngest and oldest participants, national records and more.

Can Blake Fill Bolt’s Golden Shoes?

Usain Bolt Will Travel To The 2018 Commonwealth Games As A SpectatorYohan Blake revealed Bolt’s planned visit as he arrived yesterday in Brisbane, Australia on Sunday. Blake says that Botl told him before he left, “When I come to Australia, if you don’t win there is going to be problems.”

We Prefer The US Libel Laws

LRC Mo Farah Sued British Journalist Ben Bloom For Defamation; Parties Agreed To Five-Figure Settlement British journalists had better be careful what they write about Mo Farah. Farah sued journalist Ben Bloom for a tweet he wrote in 2017 criticizing Farah for not talking to the media before the 2017 IAAF World Championships.
*Discuss: Mo Farah Sues Ben Bloom

Distance News

Good Read:A UK Physiologist And Coach Talks About His Time In Kenya Working With Zane Robertson He runs through one of Robertson’s workouts as he prepares for the Commonwealth Games marathon and the heart rate data they took during and afterwards.
Heather Kampf Blogs About Recovering From Her Recent Injuries She had a sacral stress fracture last spring on her right side and then a sacral stress reaction on her left side in December which is giving her issues again now. No joke, “kampf” actually means “struggle” in German.
Alexi Pappas Was In Pyeongchang During The 2018 Winter Olympics For The Olympic Artist In Residence Program She blogs about the experience where she wrote, directed and starred in a series of short films.
Athletics Illustrated Book Review: “Endure: Mind, Body, And The Curiously Elastic Limits Of Human Performance” By Alex Hutchinson LRC’s Jon Gaultalso reviewed the book last month.
Northern Arizona Elite Sings Multi-Year Deal With Hoka One One

Bolt’s Soccer Dream Becomes Reality?

Usain Bolt Has His Soccer Tryout With German Club Dortmund On Friday It’s been debatable if Bolt was serious about this, but if he’s flying to Germany he must be, right? The tryout will be open to the public.
Instagram Video:Watch Usain Bolt Swap Track For Soccer As He Prepares For Charity Soccer Game Against Mo Farah We’re not going to lie, we’d like to have seen less of him stretching/drinking Gatorade and more of him actually play soccer. He does score a goal, though.

Problems In Kenya

Russian Athletes Suspect Fraud After “Fake IAAF Officers” Took Doping Samples In Kenya The Russians became suspicious as the “officers” showed their ID cards on a phone. Were these good samaritans just trying to make sure the Russians were clean?
Recommended Read:Kenya Standard Digital: “Athletes Race From Rags To Riches And Back To Rags” Kenyans use running to escape poverty and gain a fortune, but with no education on how to manage their wealth, many can end up right back where they started.
Athletics Kenya Cracking Down On Officials Accused Of Molesting Female Athletes They’ve changed the management of training camps, now having them run by schools rather than individuals.

News From Spain

Spain’s Antonio Abadia Breaks 13-Year-Old Spanish 10K Record With 27:47, Moving Him To 3rd Best European Of All-Time Running in his mother’s hometown, Abadia finished second at the Laredo 10k behind Ethiopia’s Amdework Walelegn (27:36).

Outdoor Track Is Here: Big Weekend For Semenya

Caster Semenya Completes 800/1,500 Double At SA Champs Semenya soloed 1:58.92 in the 800 heats and came back that day to win the 1,500 by 13 seconds in 4:10.68. She won the 800 final the next day in 1:57.80.
Clarence Munyai’s 19.69 National 200m Record Highlights South African Championships There was also a national record in the women’s 100 as Carina Horn sped to 11.03 in the semis. World long jump champ Luvo Manyonga lept 8.41m to beat world bronze medalist Ruswahl Samaai by 20 centimeters.
MB:Fred Kerly opens outdoor season with 20.41 200 (video)
MB:Unreal: Briana Williams – age 15 – just ran 11.13 wind legal for 100m!!
Matt Centrowitz Wins 1,500 In Australia In 3:37.96 Ahead Of Jeff Riseley (3:38.69) Behind them, 18-year-old Jaryd Clifford set a T-12 (vision impaired) paralympic record of 3:45.18. In the sprints, USA’s Devon Allen (10.26) and GB’s Dina Asher-Smith (11.24) took the 100m. Linden Hall won the women’s 3,000 in 8:53.
*MB:Matt Centro 3:37.96 down under!
*IAAF Recap