April 01, 2018 Homepage Archive

Did you see our April Fool’s Homepage? (link fixed) All of the tech glitches have been fixed and the links are now working.

Stanford Invitational *Stream / Results

LRC Gwen Jorgensen Wins Stanford 10,000m In 31:55, Easily Defeating NCAA 3,000/5,000 Champion Schweizer

Nijel Amos 1:44.65 Season Opener At Stanford Drew Hunter doubled back from the 1,500 yesterday with 1:49.73 for 5th.
Nick Miller Breaks British Hammer Record At Stanford With World-Leading 78.29m Brianna Rollins highlighted the sprints with a meet record 12.62 in the 100H while Olympic 400H champ Dalilah Muhammad won the 400 in 52.72.
Stanford MB Talk: Official 2018 Stanford Invite discussion thread & play by play
Why wasn’t Justyn Knight in the 10000m at Stanford?
Carrie Dimoff (31:57) – a 34-year old Princeton alum whom you’ve never heard of – just beat Schwiezer (32:00) and almost beat Jorgensen (31:55) at 10k The mother of two ran 31:57 to Jorgensen’s 31:55 as Schweizer ran 32:00 (#8 all-time in the NCAA).
Allie Ostrander Gets An Almost Three Second PB To Dominate Steeplechase In 9:38 The time puts her #8 on the collegiate all-time list.
Alabama’s Vincent Kiprop Beats Out Lopez Lomong To Win 10,000 In 28:19
Drew Hunter Runs 3:39 Hunter was 2nd. Peter Callahan won in 3:38.
Gwen Jorgenson 10km Prediction Thread
Stanford Invite Preview Former Olympic silver medalist Nijel Amos highlights the 800.

Post-World Half News Of Note

Geoffrey Kamworor Returns To Kenya With No Fanfare At Eldoret Airport, Says Focus Now Is 2018 Diamond League Circuit There was no big celebration which didn’t disappoint Kamworor. His 8-month-old son was very happy to see dad and play with his gold medal.
*Kamworor Says Defending NYC Title Is How He Wants To End The Year
Cam Levins Is Thrilled With His PR At World Half And With His Health “I’m really pleased with the race. My foot finally felt perfect the last few weeks; I was able to train both hard and consistently. I’m really excited to see what I can do in the next month before I start track season.”
The Alfonso Trinidad Foundation, Sponsors Of The World Half Marathon, Put In Extra $50,000 Purely For Testing More Athletes

Interesting Reads From Europe

Recommended Read: Meet The Two Women Behind Wafel Sports Management Who Are Succeeding As Agents In A Male-Dominated Profession The two met as 9-year-olds on the same athletics club and now represent Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam and others. Check out their website here.
London Marathon Event Director Hugh Brasher Talks About How The Race Is Always Looking To Improve This is a really interesting article. Did you know that his mother was the 1957 French Open tennis champ? Or that the London Marathon will pass the £1 billion mark in terms of funds raised for charity in 2019?
Even Though She Hasn’t Been Running Well Lately, The UK’s Hannah England Has Been Making A Lot Of Contributions In Athletics The 2011 WC silver medalist at 1,500 and former FSU star recently formed the Birmingham Athletics Academy (@BhamAthAcademy) offering weekly athletics sessions for kids.

Junior News

Meet The 15-Year-Old – Romaine Beckford – Who Won Both The Class 2 Discus Aand HJ At Jamaica’s Champs
Edwin Allen High’s Kevona Davis Pulls Out Of Carifta Games Squad With Hamstring Injury Davis was fantastic at the recent Boys and Girls Champs recording times of 11.16 seconds for the 100m and 22.72 over 200m.
Jaryd Clifford – Who Soon Will Be The First Para-Athlete To Compete At An IAAF World U20 Championship Thanks To His Recent 3:45 WR – Blogs About His History In The Sport He started off his career with a last place finish in a cross-country race.

Mid-Week Action In Australia *Brisbane Results

Luke Mathews (3:37.16) Takes Down Kyle Merber (3:37.49) In Brisbane, Zharnel Hughes Smokes 20.23 Into -1.6 m/s Wind You can watch both races by clicking on the link.
Yohan Blake And Elaine Thompson Won Their 100m Heats But Neither Ran Fast As They Were Running Into A Headwind

Previous CG News

Elaine Thompson Will Only Race 200 Meters at Commonwealth Games
MB: The Commonwealth Games start next week does anyone care! We certainly do.
Kenyan President Hosts Gathering For Departing Commonwealth Games, Realizes They Are All Sullen As They Haven’t Been Given Any Meal Money He ordered them to be paid their allowances. Elijah Manangoi chimed in that many athletes dating to 2012 haven’t received their Olympic bonuses.
Star Actor Russell Crowe Says Australia Desperately Needs Sally Pearson At CGs And Tweets, “We need you Sally. Hero’s are hard to find around these parts these days …” Pearson is battling an Achilles injury.

International News

IAAF: How World Half Champ Netsanet Gudeta Went From Dubai Disappointment To Victory In Valencia After a DNF in Dubai, neither Gudeta or her manager were at all expecting a gold medal or WR run in Spain.
Three Time Canadian 1,500 Olympian Nate Brannen Has Retired From The Track After 20 Years In The Sport Brannen isn’t completely done running though as he plans on training for the marathon.
IAAF Story Behind The Picture: Getty Images Photographer Reflects On GB’s Kelly Holmes Winning 800m Gold At The 2004 Games Interestingly, Stu Forster explains how the iconic image would likely be used completely differently with the background cropped out if it had been taken today.

Sprints And Jumps

This Time It Counts!Christian Coleman’s 6.34 World Record For 60m Ratified By The IAAF
Pre Classic 110H Will Be Most Loaded One Ever With McLeod, Merritt, Allen, Shubenkov And Others
Video:Usain Bolt Jokes (?) That He’ll Try To Get The Footage Of His Soccer Trial To Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho Bolt isn’t joking about trying to make it in soccer, though, as he sounds very sincere in his interview.

British MPs Have Threatened To Reopen Inquiry Into Seb Coe’s “Very Murky” $17 Million Deal During The 2012 Olympics There are conflict of interest concerns as Coe’s company “made a fortune at the Olympics” while Coe was the chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee.

US Winter Olympians And Paralympians Visiting The White House Next Month

NCAA & US Action Texas Relays Stream / ResultsFlorida Relays Stream / ResultsRaleigh Relays Stream / ResultsOther NCAA Results

Recommended Read: Sydney McLaughlin Talks About The Transition To College Running, Decision Not To Go Pro McLaughlin says the training workload has been “much more intense”, she isn’t homesick, and she’s “been to zero parties.”
MB: Sydney McLaughlin 50.07 at Florida relays! She’s now #2 in the history of the NCAA and US Juniors.
Sydney McLaughlin Opens Outdoor Season With 22.39 PR At Florida Relays That’s #4 all-time on the world junior list and .29 faster than she ran indoors but .01 slower than what Gabby Thomas‘ indoor CR.
*IAAF Article McLaughlin’s 22.39 is the fastest time in the world by an U20 athlete since Allyson Felix‘s 22.19 at the 2004 Olympics.
Tori Franklin Moves To #2 All-Time American Triple Jumper With 14.48m At Texas Relays Franklin now only sits behind Olympic 4th placer Keturah Orji‘s 14.71m.
High Schooler Caitlin Collier Is USATF Athlete Of The Week After She Ran 2:04.87 To Win The 800 By Almost 9 Seconds At Florida State Relays It was an impressive double for Collier as she also won the 1600 in 4:47.61.
MB: Christian Taylor runs 45.48 at Florida Relays + Bershawn “Batman” Jackson isn’t retired afterall
MB:Leo Manzano- 1:52 800m at Texas Relays
Texas Relays: What, Who To Watch On Friday And Saturday
2018 Cardinal Invite, Texas Relays, Raleigh Relays And Florida Relays Streaming Info & Results
USATF Unveils Outdoor Broadcast Schedule The Pre Classic, USA Outdoors and 5th Avenue Mile will all be on regular NBC.
TFN’s Six Big Things To Watch This Weekend

Olympic News

Paris 2024 At Risk Of Running $616 Million Over Budget
The Sydney Olympic Stadium Won’t Be Torn Down After All It was previously reported that it would be torn down, but now it will be renovated instead to save $500 million.
Austrian Olympic Committee Confirm Bid For 2026 Winter Olympics
Norway Rules Out Bid For 2026 Winter Olympics

Previous US/NCAA Track News

The Trial Of Ex-Arizona Throws Coach Craig Carter Has Begun The article has all of the salacious details on how the coach threatened to kill himself and an athlete he coached after she ended their sexual relationship.
How Penn State Thrower David Lucas Won An Indoor National Title In His Third-Best Event (Weight Throw)
Local Writer Raves About Mel Rosen’s Impact On The Auburn Community He “was one of those teachers who was seriously interested in getting to know and help others.”
Is Mt. SAC Defying A Court Order To Stop All Construction On The 2020 Olympic Trials Stadium? A local group says their video proves the answer is yes.

2018 Diamond League Will Be In Full Swing Soon

Jenny Simpson Will Run The 3,000 In Doha Against Hellen Obiri – Will Mary Slaney’s AR From 1985 Finally Be Broken? The women’s 100 with Schippers and Thompson also should be good.
Olympic 400m Champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo And World 200m Champion Dafne Schippers Will Face Off At The Shanghai IAAF Diamond League On May 12
Rumor Is That Justin Gatlin Got Between $25,000 To $42,000 To Do That 150-Meter Race In South Africa SA LJ star Luvo Manyonga didn’t compete as he was upset about his appearance fee but somehow forgot to tell his parents who showed up anyway. If you haven’t see the video of Gatlin’s 150m loss, it’s worth a watch.

Random Ethiopian News

Previous NCAA News

Unreal Coming Into The Year, NAU’s Ashley Taylor Had A 2:10 PR And Had Never Made NCAAs, But She Just Fnished 4th At NCAAs And Ran 2:03 The redshirt junior who used to focus on the 400H has had an incredible year.
Triathlon Website Predicts Gwen Jorgensen Will Run 31:20-31:30 This Weekend At Stanford How she is doing this just months after giving birth is beyond our imagination.
Claudia Lane Back On Track After Getting Flu, Will Run First 3,200 Of Year At Stanford
Mondo Duplantis Cleared To Compete Elite Men’s Pole Vault At Texas Relays His participation was up in the air for a week as the Louisiana HS Athletic Association was threatening to take away his eligibility if he did.
Interesting Read: Florida 4 X 400 Leadoff Kunle Fasasi Came To UF Sight Unseen From Nigeria To Take His Scholarship “The day that Kunle Fasasi believes he’s one of the best 400-meter runners in the world,” coach Holloway said. “Watch out.”
Mutaz Essa Barshim Admits He Almost Came To The NCAA

Interesting International Reads

Yomij Kejelcha Credits Govt. Bringing Back Return Of Land Bonuses For His Gold Medal
Former GB Olympic Sprinter Craig Pickering Is Now Head Of Sports Science At DNAFit That Does DNA Tests On Athletes To Tell Them How To Train Better He claims they even know which athletes are jittery after consuming caffeine due to genetics.
Recommended Read:39-Year-Old Carles Castillejo Was The Star of the World Half Champs Media Wise in Spain As He Started Back With The Masses, But Passed Most Of The Field To Finish 29th In 62:06 The pure joy on his face when he crossed the line is what garnered him nationwide tv time. Castillejo was originally supposed to be on the Spanish squad, but was booted when they realized they could only enter five, not six. This was unfortunate for them as Castillejo would have been their top man and brought the team from 6th to 8th.
*Q&A With Castillejo translated from Spanish
RR #2: Switzerland’s 22-Year-Old World Half 8th Placer Julien Wanders Has Spent Most Of The Last Three Years Living And Training In Kenya At just 18 years old, Wanders decided to skip going to college to go pursue running full-time in Kenya. On what he’s learned there, he says Europeans “are not training hard enough and thinking too much about recovery.”

Previous Commonwealth Games News

Three Time Commonwealth Games Champ Moses Kipsiro Dropped From Uganda Team The Uganda federation wanted him to defend his title in the 10,000, but Kipsiro was only interested in the marathon and they felt they had better options at that distance.
Caster Semenya To Carry South African Flag At Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony It will be the third time Semenya has carried SA’s flag at an Opening or Closing ceremony.
Sally Pearson Battling Achilles Problem Ahead Of Commonwealth Games Pearson has been battling the injury for the past few weeks and skipped her tune-up race in Brisbane.
South Africa’s 100m World Leader Carina Horn Withdraws From Commonwealth Games With Injury
Sally Pearson And Paralympic Wheel Chair Racer Kurt Fearnley Named Team Co-Captains For Commonwealth Games

RIP News

Good Read: RunBlogRun:RunBlogRun: USA 1996 Olympic Marathoner Keith Brantly Remembers His Coach Dr. David Martin Brantly tells how Martin began coaching him in 1985 and to his surprise laid out a 16-year plan that would ultimately get him to the Olympics.
NY Times Tribute To Hall Of Fame Coach Mel Rosen, Who Passed At 90 Years Old Rosen coached at Auburn University for 36 years and served as the head coach for Team USA at the 1987 World Championships and 1992 Olympics Games.
*USATF Mourns Coach Mel Rosen
RIP Britain’s Oldest Olympian Bill Lucas The 1948 Olympic 5,000 runner passed at age 101.

Upcoming

Sunday: Daegu Marathon Set For Pamela Rotich-Winnie Jepkorir Rematch Last year Rotich beat out Jepkorir by just 4 seconds with a PR of 2:27:48. 59:27 half runner Vincent Rono, Abraham Kiptum (2:05:26) and Peter Some (2:05:38) lead the men’s field.
May 4: Elaine Thompson Vs. Dafne Schippers Set For Doha Diamond League Here is a list of some of their best previous DL duels.
May 12:14 World And Olympic Champions Set For Shanghai DL Distance action will include David Rudisha in the 800 and last year’s DL winner Timothy Cheruiyot in the 1,500.

Commonwealth Games Start Next Week

Kenneth Mungara Is Ready For Commonwealth Games Marathon At Age 44 The Master WR holder in the marathon and former barber didn’t pick start racing until he was age 32 when he came to the realization he could beat the pros in his barber shop.
Caster Semenya Is Confident She’s An Improved 1,500 Runner In 2018 As Compared To 2017 And Is Eyeing Double Gold At CGs “I’ve run a 4:10 and a 4:02 on my own, taking the lead from the start, which shows I have improved.”
Eva Cherono Is Excited To Represent Kenya For 1st Time At Senior Level In CG 5k The other members of the team are much more experienced – 2017 World champion Hellen Obiri and 2015 All African Games champion Margaret Chelimo.
Lynsey Sharp: “I will relish Commonwealth Games atmosphere.” 4 years ago, she had an incredible CGs as she won silver after spending the night in the hospital.
Trackalerts Has The Inside Scoop On Why Sprinter Simone Facey Pulled Out Of The CGs Her proposed 30-hour travel time was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. She also was falsely told she’d be running the 100 and 4 x 100 so she had been training for the 100 only to realize they entered her in the 200.
Even Though 2011 World 400H Champ Dai Greene Hasn’t Been To A Global Champs Since 2012, It “Never Occurred To Me To Pack It In” Greene has had a slew of surgeries to try to make up for a botched hernia surgery.
Might Luvo Manyonga Break The LJ WR In The CG Final On April 11th? He’s hoping to history’s first 9-meter jumper.

News From Japan

After Getting Guinness WR Certificate For Most Career Dub-2:20 Marathons (78), Yuki Kawauchi Says He Wants To Do More Than 100
Two Japanese HS Stars Say They’ll Join A Club Team After Graduation, Won’t Run Collegiately Or For Corporate Team They reason is simple, they want to focus on the track. “Corporate leaguers and university runners seem like they’re focused on ekidens, so we’ve chosen a way that’ll give us more freedom to run track.”

Previous US News

Time To Stop The Silent Coup? Ken Goe: Wouldn’t It Make Sense For USATF To Reinstate Vin Lananna? We loved this line. “If there is more to the USATF board’s move against Lananna than a struggle for control at the top, the board should explain. If not, it’s time to reinstate him and get to work.”
Working For Nike Has Its Benefits Cal Poly Dedicates Steve Miller And John Capriotti Athletics Complex The two donated a lot thanks to the Nike money they’ve earned over the years.
NYTimes: Do Higher Testosterone Levels Increase Your energy And Libido? They say “probably not” assuming your levels are in the normal range.
NYT: It Doesn’t Matter How You Get Your 30 Minutes Of exercise Per Day If you want to do 15 episodes of 2 minutes each, it still benefits you.
Brave Like Gabe: Q&A With Gabriele Grunewald – Athletebiz Grunewald reveals that an immunotherapy clinical trial “didn’t work quite as well as my doctor hoped” but her most recent scan in January was encouraging.
Recommended Read US Pole Vault Champ Katie Nageotte Credits Her Big Breakthrough To Moving To Be Coached By Former US Vaulter Brad Walker Nageotte was a shock winner at USAs as she made her first international team and went on to finish 5th at World Indoors. She says a large part of it is Walker helping change her mental approach to vaulting.

Week That Was

WTWHow Does Kamworor Stack Up Versus Bekele And Farah? ESPN Overrates Allyson Felix, Bernard Lagat Isn't The Fastest Masters Half Marathoner

All of the above plus we debate whether Laura Muir is a 10k runner.

Drug News

WADA Considering Changing Its Name To Generate More Funding WADA wants to expand it’s brand to be more about fighting drugs in society, not just sport. They hope they can reinvest in their scientific research budget which has taken an 80% cut over the last 10-years.
InsideTheGames’ Nick Butler Hits The Nail On The Head:“Cheating Still Goes On In Sport Because Rewards Often Outweigh The Risks” $$$ … need we say more?
The Guardian Opinion Piece: “My Dad Used Performance Enhancing Drugs – It Nearly Killed Him” A British woman explains how her dad’s PED and cocaine abuse as a professional powerlifter almost cost him his life and wrecked havoc on their family. We enjoyed the piece except for the end when she says the drugs didn’t really help him much.
Cycling:Chris Froome Could Be Banned From This Year’s Tour De France If His Ongoing Drug Case Hasn’t Been Resolved