March 17, 2019 Homepage Archive

Weekend Road Action

Vivian Cheruiyot (66:34) Breaks Lisbon CR, Mosinet Geremew (59:37) Wins STACKED Men’s Race 6 men broke 60:00 & 14 broke 61 in Lisbon.

LRC Surprise Win For #1163 Belay Tilahun, Domination for World Record Holder Joyciline Jepkosgei At United Airlines NYC Half Tilahun wasn’t invited to the elite field in NYC. That didn’t stop him from showing up and winning $20,000. Paul Chelimo was 3rd in his half-marathon debut. WR holder Jepkosgei dominated women’s field. Plus comments from Emma Bates 4th, Jared Ward 4th, and Des Linden5th on new proposed USATF Olympic qualifying.
NYC Half: MB: 2019 NYC 1/2: Paul Chelimo predictions and Official Discussion Thread
MB: Holy smoly: A non-elite just won the United Airlines NYC Half
*Full results

LRC Paul Chelimo Wants to Do 5,000/10,000m Double at Worlds, Speaks Out Against Olympic Qualifying Changes Chelimo finished 3rd at the NYC Half in 62:19 in his half-marathon debut. He hasn’t run a track 10,000 since 2011.

More Weekend Results

Assorted Distance News

Kenya Taking Extra Steps To Make Sure Its World XC Team Is Drug Free, Two-Time Defending Champ G. Kamworor Says This Is The Strongest Kenyan Team He’s Ever Been On “I have been in the national team for the past four editions and for sure this is the strongest team ever.”
Good Profile:ESPNW: When She Started Her Pro Career, Kenyan Joan Chelimo Survived By Selling Charcoal And Making $1 Per Day; Now She’s A 65:04 Half Marathoner
List Of All Kenyan Athletes’ Agents For 2019
Sam Charlton And India Pentland Win English Schools Cross-Country Titles Charlton completed his hat trick of titles as he previously won the English National gold at Inter-Counties titles.
Fab Five: A Look At 5 Great World XC Courses From Franklin Park in Boston to Marrakesh, Morocco.

Recommended Read:GB’s Former Olympic 1,500/800 Champ Kelly Holmes Speaks Openly About Her Struggles With Depression It wasn’t the point of the article, but we were happy to see Holmes defend women’s sport and tennis legend Martina Navratilova: “We’re just standing up for girls and women who physically have less bone density, muscular structure and lung capacity, and we haven’t got the testosterone.”
RR #2: DyeStat:“The Indelible Duel – An Oral History Of Franklyn Sanchez Vs. Andy Powell In The 1999 Massachusetts All-State Indoor 2-Mile” Powell, Sanchez, their coaches and others look back at this thrilling race where Sanchez got a shock underdog victory over Powell with an 8:49.60 to 8:50.29.
Bryce Hoppel Is Still Soaking Up Thrill Of Winning NCAA 800 National Title: “I am hungry for more.” Little-known fact, his sister won a D2 basketball title.
Sondre Moen Happy To Be Healthy, Looking For 2nd-Fastest Half Marathon Ever On Sunday
Joan Benoit Samuelson Says She Is Running Boston This Year – Hoping To Run Within 40 Minutes Of Her Time From 40 Years Ago
World U20 5,000 Champ Beatrice Chebet Says His XC Season “Has Been Fantastic” And Is Eyeing Elusive Women’s World Junior XC Gold A Kenyan woman hasn’t won World Junior XC gold since 2013.

LetsSprint.com

Fred Kerley On How He Was Raised By His Aunt With 13 Kids All Under One Roof Kerley writes, “Without her, I don’t know what my life would be right now. I don’t know where I would be at … She’s the woman who changed my life, who made my life. She will always be my strength.”
Usain Bolt Gets Involved In Electric Scooter Company In NYC Bolt’s new environmentally friendly scooter is called the Bolt Mobility scooter.
Good Read:Polish Sprinter Anna Kielbasinska Talks About How She Almost Quit The Sport Because Of Being Self-Conscious About Losing Her Hair Kielbasinska has an auto-immune disease which causes hair loss and had her struggling to focus on just training and competing.
The Ato Boldon-Coached High School National Indoor 60m Champ Brianna Williams Is Mostly Done With High School Racing She won’t race for her high school again except maybe a relay as she is focused on trying to qualify for Jamaica’s team for Doha Worlds.
IAAF: “The ‘Tortu Effect’ – Young Sprinter’s Rise Lifting Hopes For Italy’s Sprint Relay Ambitions” Last year Italian 20-year-old Filippo Tortu became the first Italian to break the 10-second barrier. Now his breakthrough has spread hope with Italy dreaming of a top-10 relay team at World Relay Champs.

The IAAF Knows People Have LOTS Of Questions About The New Olympic Qualifying Rules

LRC Find Out Who Would Have Qualified Under The IAAF’s New World Rankings If Worlds Were Held Last Year, Plus The IAAF Answers Our Questions On Olympic Changes The IAAF is very much aware that people have lots of questions about the new Olympic qualifying system so they have shared with us the spreadsheet they gave to the member federations showing you who would get into Worlds based on the new rules.

Japan And The US Olympic Trials Need To Be Given Gold Status NowEven A Marathon Superstar Country Like Japan May Have Top-3 Finishers At Tts Trials Lacking The Olympic Qualifying Standard The issue is the Japanese Trials were purposely put in a hot city to try to mimic the Olympic conditions. So someone like Suguru Osako who just DNFed Tokyo may not be ranked high enough.
Commonwealth Games Marathon Medalist Robbie Simpson Fears Some Brits Won’t Even Try For The 2:11:30 Standard As It’s So Fast, And Points Out The World Rankings Totally Undervalue Runs In Hot Weather Simpson’s bronze at the CGs isn’t worth really anything in the new ranking system as he’s ranked just #1,285 in the world.
British team to IAAF World Relays named As if killing off the 5000 and perhaps the US Olympic marathon trials wasn’t enough, the IAAF has wiped out all distance races from the world relays as well.

The Beauty Of US Olympic Marathon Trials Is In Jeopardy

LRCRich Kenah, Head Of Atlanta Track Club (Host Of Olympic Marathon Trials) On New Olympic Qualifying: “(I hope they) reconsider the damage this will do to the Olympic movement.” Kenah is worried the simplicity and dream of the US Marathon Trials will be lost by the new qualifying system. The new qualifying system treats the US Trials equal to the national marathon champs of Andorra.

The Sport Is Changing, But For The Better?

LRCDid The IAAF Just Kill Off Some Of The Significance Of The Olympic Trials? IAAF Announces New Qualifying System & Entry Standards For 2020 Olympics We’re not opposed to change but we have a lot of questions about the qualification system that will be used for the 2020 Olympics. For example, the men’s marathon standard is now 2:11:30 – what does that mean for the US Trials?
*MB: New 2020 Olympic Standards Posted – They Are WAY Tougher – Will US Olympic Trials take a hit

MB: BREAKING: IAAF Guts The Diamond League? Bans 5,000 And Reduces TV Times From 2 Hours To 90 MinutesIf changing the Olympic qualifying wasn’t enough change for you, the IAAF has doubled down and totally altered the Diamond League starting in 2020. The longest event allowed will be the 3,000.

Rundown Of Decisions And Changes Made At IAAF Council Meeting
IAAF Release On 2020 Diamond League ChangesSeb Coe stated, “Change is never easy but should, wherever possible, be done from a position of strength which is what we have done.”
IAAF Release On New Olympic Qualification System And Entry Standards

Unbelievably Stupid

Absolutely StunningLRC Our Worst Fears Realized: USATF WILL NOT Honor Top-Three Finish At The US Olympic Trials Unless You Have The Standard This is one of the darkest days in history for US distance fans. We emailed USATF to make sure they would be honoring the IAAF world rankings so those top 3 at the Olympic Trials could go to the Olympics – they told us they would not. That means Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo wouldn’t have made the 2016 team, nor would Jared Ward and five others, including Bernard Lagat, who won the most thrilling race at the Trials. Some US Olympic Trials races may now be totally meaningless.
*MB: Breaking: An Absolute Travesty! USATF WILL NOT honor top 3 finish at US Olympic Trials unless you have the standard!!!

Pushback Against The IAAF’s Recent Changes Is Growing

Fantastic Read Sports Examiner: IAAF’s New Ranking System Is Biased Against US, Jamaican, Ethiopians And Kenyans – “Can we be surprised that the group who developed this process is from Europe, and not from the U.S. or Africa?” “It’s insulting to value the NCAA Championships sprints and hurdles events – some of the best in the world each year – the same as second and third-tier events like the Mediterranean Games or Pan-Arab Games. Are you kidding?“
Recommended Read #2 Toni Reavis Thinks Distance Running Should Leave The IAAF “If ever there was a time for the sport of long-distance running to say adios to their governing body, now might be exactly the right time.”
Capital Sports: The IAAF Is Out Of Control – They’ve Also Cancelled The 10,000 And 5,000 At World Juniors And The Meet Will Be Held In Kenya If you are from East Africa and think they hate you, we understand why you think that.

Big $ Half Marathon

LRC Chaos Reigns At Inaugural Bahrain Night Half Marathon: Jemal Yimer Costs Himself $75K By Stopping Early As Elites Dodge Cars & Pedestrians BIG MONEY was on the line and BIG CHAOS resulted in Bahrain today.
*MB: Inaugural Bahrain HM Live Thread

Track News

Carmelita Jeter To Get Honorary Doctorate From Her Alma Mater
Six Lessons From The 2019 IAAF World Indoor Tour From Larry Eder – The Only Journalist To Go To All Six Meets
Ashland Men Won NCAA D2 By 1 Point And By .01, And Did So Without Their Head Coach Being At The Meet Repeat after us: The coach is like the jockey in a horse race.

The Indoor Season In Review

Yomif Kejelcha Is T&F News’ Men’s Indoor Athlete Of The Year Kejelcha won a tight race for the honor with Samuel Tefera. Tefera won their one head-to-head meeting all season, but according to conversions, Kejelcha’s mile time was better than Tefera’s 1,500.
Russian HJer Mariya Lasitskene Is T&F News’ Women’s Indoor Athlete Of The Year They almost chose Laura Muir, but gave it to Lasitskene, who won 9 out of 10 meets this season with a SB of 2.04m.
IAAF:Eight Things We Learned From The 2019 Indoor Season The men’s 1,500, Laura Muir, Grant Holloway and Japanese HJer Naoto Tobe are some of the highlights they discuss.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen And Polish Sprinter Ewa Swoboda Are European Athletes Of The Month For February

Road News

Steeplechase legend Ezekiel Kemboi will make his marathon debut in Hamburg on April 28th The men’s race also includes Olympic marathon champ Stephen Kiprotich and double world champ Abel Kirui. The women’s race will serve as the marathon debut for half marathon WR holder Joyciline Jepkosgei.
*MB: Ezekiel Kemboi says his career accomplishments to “equal to winning a World Cup” in soccer
2019 Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon on April 6th will be loaded and field includes American Amy Cragg 9 sub-60 men will compete and 5 sub-68 women. The race will be streamed live.
*IAAF:Stephen Kiprop (58:42) And Fancy Chemutai (64:52) Lead Fast Fields For The Prague Half
Japanese Athletics Federation passes rule allowing doctors to stop runners in distress from continuing
*MB: Even Japan is getting soft? Japanese pass rule allowing docs to stop runners in distress even if runners want to continue

The Backlash Continues

Haile Gebrselassie Slams IAAF Diamond League Changes “It is a sad decision that will disproportionately affect Ethiopia and Kenya, as well as East Africa as a whole.”
Athletics Kenya Protests Diamond League Changes AK president Jackson Tuwei said, “Long distance races on track is where Africa’s strength is … This is not a good show for athletics.”
FastRunning.com: “Cut Short: IAAF Revamp Leaves Distance Running Fans In The Cold” The writer makes a good point when he notes that Seb Coe says they want to make the DL “more relevant to the world our fans live in today” but are cutting the distance recreational runners do the most.

Tweets By letsrundotcom

The Diamond League Initially Wanted To Kill ALL Distance Races

LRC Q&A Prefontaine Classic Director Tom Jordan On New Diamond League Format: Original Proposal Was To Drop All Races Longer Than The Mile The Pre Classic meet director answers our questions about the Diamond League and Olympic qualifying changes.
*MB: Tom Jordan tells AP Pre Classic will still focus on distances: “We are certainly going to play to our base and that is middle and long distance plus virtually every event,”

LRC Distance Runners And Fans Around The Globe React Negatively To Diamond League Cutting The 5,000 It wasn’t hard to find a lot of people expressing their disapproval, but we did find one person who is “not against” the move – former Diamond League 5,000 winner Lauren Fleshman.

LRC Podcast The Death Of The 5,000m, New Olympic Track Qualifying Procedures, Grant Holloway Machine, NCAA Indoors, The Future Of The Diamond League – LetsRun.com Track Talk We have a funeral for the 5,000m on the show. *Discuss

Previous Distance News

LRC Paul Chelimo Pushes Back Against Recent IAAF Decisions & Explains Why He’s Making His Half Marathon Debut In New York This Weekend Paul Chelimo isn’t a fan of the IAAF killing off the 5,000 in the Diamond League: “I don’t know if they’re trying to kill distance running or what.” And it may cause him to move up to 26.2 sooner than he expected: “I know I’m going to be a great marathoner.”
*MB: Paul Chelimo on IAAF rule changes: “I don’t know if they’re trying to kill distance running or what.”

Geoffrey Kamworor Confirms He Isn’t Quitting The Track Any Time Soon He said he hasn’t decided yet between the 5,000 and 10,000 at Worlds.
BBC Catches Up With Athing Mu After Her #2 All-Time 600m: “When I was taking a picture next to the timer, I actually cried.” Mu is the second-youngest of seven siblings and all her siblings have run track.
Where Are They Now?Podcast Interview With Former Steeplechase Olympian Anthony FamigliettiCarrie Tollefson gets an update from Famiglietti (who is being coached by Alan Webb to go sub-4 as a 40-year-old) on his running and owning his own business as well as some inspirational stories from his life.
Olympia, Washington To Rename Park After Joan Benoit Samuelson Marathon Park was the site of the start and finish lines for the first women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984 (which Samuelson won).
Daniel Rudisha’s Funeral Will Be On MondayDavid Rudisha‘s father will be laid to rest at his home in Oltanki village.
A Missed Result: Akira Aizawa Wins Japan National University Men’s Half Marathon Championships He won in 61:45 in a close race where third was 61:52.

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The Death of the 5,000m, New Olympic Track Qualifying Procedures, Grant Holloway Machine, NCAA Indoors, the Future of the Diamond League -LetsRun.com Track Talk

Uproar And A Little Support For Recent IAAF Decisions

MB:Ethiopian Athletics Federation Formerly Protests IAAF Decision To Eliminate Distance Running From Track
Ken Goe:“Why Not Streamline The Diamond League Meets?” Goe doesn’t think stripping the 5,000 from the DL is “necessarily a bad thing” because casual fans have trouble following it and it doesn’t “translate well to television.”
Ken Goe:“The IAAF Shouldn’t Mess With The US Olympic Trials”
InsideTheGames’ Mike Rowbottom: IAAF Shapes Its Future – And Yes, Naturally, Not Everyone Is Happy
Kenyans And Ethiopians Unite In Outrage By IAAF’s Decision To Wipe Out 5,000, Wonder If 5k And 10k Will Be Eliminated From The Olympics
Recommended ReadAthletics Illustrated:Mass Confusion Around 2020 Tokyo Olympic Standards And IAAF’s Decision To Kill Off The 5,000 Article includes quotes from Paula Radcliffe, who isn’t happy about the 5,000, and Nic Bideau.

One Final Look At NCAAs

LRC 5 Final Thoughts from 2019 NCAA Indoors: Grant Holloway Is Ready for His Closeup, You Don’t Need to Train Indoors to Win Indoors, & Florida’s Other Sprint Phenom And how about some love for USC’s Caryl Smith Gilbert and NAU’s Mike Smith?

Our Weekly Recap

LRC Week That Was By The Numbers: New Champs Erika Kemp, Julia Rizk & Geordie Beamish, Canada Vs. The USA, And Mo Farah Says He’s Ready For London This week we let the stats do the work for us and they reveal that Canada is 97.49% the equal of the US. Plus learn about the NCAA virgins that won the miles.

Women’s Distance News

Kara Goucher Making Her Trail Racing Debut At The Leadville Trail Marathon This June Goucher says she is enjoying not worry about times or constantly checking her watch, but admits that she is a “surface diva” and needs to get used to trail running again.
*MB: Kara Goucher to run Leadville!!!
Recommended Read: A Little Older And A Lot Wiser, Kate Murphy Slows Down Murphy, who ran 4:07 for 1,500 at age 16, is technically retired at the University of Oregon but she hasn’t entirely given up on the dream.
*MB: Kate Murphy story in RunWashington.
Where Are They Now?Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Julia Lucas Lucas was part of the famous battle for the last Olympic spot in the 5,000 at the 2012 Trials. Here she shares what she learned from just missing out on the Olympic dream and talks about where life has taken her since.
*LRC Archives: The Women’s 5,000 Final – The Olympic Trials At Its Absolute Best
Carrie Tollefson Interview With Ajee Wilson They discuss what it was like to go professional at such a young age and how apparently she never takes an “ugly race pic.”