WTW: Galen Rupp Bombs, Ben True Shines, Meet America’s 13-Year-Old Phenom, The Return of Chris Derrick and Much More

The Week That Was In Running – November 21 – 27, 2016

by LetsRun.com
November 29, 2016

Past editions of The Week That Was can be found here. Questions or comments? Please email us or post them on our fan forum.

At the high school level, 3 of the 4 Foot Locker qualifying races as well as a slew of Nike Cross Regional qualifiers were held last week but we’ll hold off on talking about those until later in the week when our Nike Cross Nationals preview comes out.

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Stat of the Week I

16:36 – new age-13 female US and world record for 5k that now belongs to Grace Ping. Ping ran the time — which is only seven seconds off the male age-13 WR — at San Jose’s Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. Ping will race again this week at NXN.

The old world record was 16:43 and belonged to Japan’s Yui Fukuda, who is 21 now and has a 15:37 track pb. The old US record was 16:49 and belonged to Jordan Hasay. Hasay, now 25, has a 15:28 5000 track pb.

Ping wasn’t the only one running in Silicon Valley as the race had $15,000 in prize money which attracted some names as shown by the top 10 results below. The race served as the pro road race debut for Drew Hunter, who was 11th overall in 13:56. Both Hunter and Ping are coached by the same man — Tom “Tinman” Schwartz.

More: Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: American Morgan Pearson Takes Down Quality Field
*MB: Drew Hunter: 13:56 today
*MB: Morgan Pearson 13:32 @ Silicon 5km
*MB: Alexi Pappas ran under USA at Silicon Valley TT
*MB: 13 year Grace Ping 16:36 age record

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Stat of the Week II 

74.3 – percent of finishers (107/144) that ran 50:00 or better at Japan’s Kosa 10 Mile – the world’s deepest 10-mile race. The race was won for the third straight year by Kenya’s Jeremiah Karemi Thuku in 46:19. The 22-year-old, who sports a 27:28 10,000 pb, runs for Toyota Kyushu.

More: Japan Running News Race Recap
*Full Results

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Stat of the Week III

6 – number of different 10,000m heats that had a winning time under 28:50 at the Hachioji Long Distance Trials in Japan. All told, 71 of the 129 men in the seven total heats broke 29:00 (if we were in charge of the meet, there is no way we’d run more than four heats; we might only do three).

The fastest of those 71 men was a man with a 3:28 1500 pb. Yes, that’s that’s right. The man who is tied for 9th fastest in world history at 1500 – Ronald Kwemoi with his 3:28.81 1500 pb – won the race in 27:33.94 over James Mwangi (27:38.24) and Chris Derrick (27:38.69).

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Chris Derrick rocking it at 2015 USA XC

Before you say, “That’s ridiculous. How can a 1,500 guy have that type of range?” please realize that Kwemoi is tied for 9th on the all-time world 1500 list with Mo Farah. Farah is way higher up the 1500 all-time list than he is at 5000 (31st at 12:53.11, 10th is 12:48.77) and 10,000 (16th at 26:46.57, 10th is 26:38.76).

Kwemoi entered the final lap in third with a four- to five-meter gap between him and Mwangi and Derrick but had no problems blowing them away over the final lap which we are guessing was about 57. You can watch the last lap below but the camera is focused on the first Japanese runner. The video cited in Derrick’s tweet shows the leaders but is taken from the side of track opposite the finish line.

https://youtu.be/Ys363rG5LGQ?t=28m28s

Can't believe my big move with a K to go wasn't enough to intimidate a 3:28 guy. https://t.co/Y2ICCkQKif

— Chris Derrick (@CDerrickRun) November 26, 2016

Derrick wasn’t the only American in the field. His Nike Bowerman Track Club teammate Andrew Bumbalough, who missed the domestic track season this year  due to injury, ran 28:09.35. It’s great that the 26-year-old Derrick, who has struggled with an Achilles issue in recent years, is healthy enough to be racing right now.

Here’s some unsolicited advice for Derrick: if the Achilles is bothering you still next year, have surgery the day after your track season ends. Get healthy in 2018 if you have to as you’ve got to make the Olympics. A guy who runs 27:31 at age 21 and 13:08 at age 22 should at a minimum end up on a US Olympic team.

Take a look at the chart below. We first compare Derrick’s 5000 PR at age 22 with the 5000 pb of the American-born men who have broken 13:00.

And here is how Derrick’s 10,000 pb at age 21 compared to the five fastest men in US history.

More: MB: Chris Derrick runs 27:38.69 in Japan, Race is dominated by 3:28 man Ronald Kwemoi in 27:33!

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Stat of the Week IV / Putting Paula Radcliffe’s Marathon World Record in Perspective

2:15:08 – winning time at the Japanese National Women’s Corporate Ekiden Championships (36th) last weekend, an event where six runners combined to run the marathon distance. Paula Radcliffe, of course, famously covered the entire 42.195-km marathon distance in 2:15:25 in London in 2003.

The race was won by Japan Post Group, a team that is in just its third year of existence but which features Rio Olympians Ayuko Suzuki and Hanami Sekine.

【クイーンズ駅伝】

?優勝　日本郵政！ 2:15.08

初優勝おめでとーーー?＼(^o^)／? pic.twitter.com/xUMfHknCFO

— NOBUKI (@nobu_777__tf) November 27, 2016

More: Double Olympian-Powered Japan Post Wins First National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Title

“He had an [asthma] episode today. He took precautions, staying inside and wearing the mask, but cold dry air is the worst.”

–Alberto Salazar talking to Race Results Weekly about why two-time Olympic medallist Galen Rupp was only 10th at the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving.

On the women’s side, the field was full of quality as well as American Emily Sisson‘s fine year on the roads continued as she won, beating the likes of Edna Kiplagat and Jordan Hasay.

In Manchester, the winning times for both the men and women were faster this year as compared to last (21:31 vs 21:34; 24:08 vs. 24:19) as were the times for 10th place (21:55 vs. 22:18; 25:30 vs 25:32). When we were at the NCAA cross country championships before Manchester, some media members were speculating why the Manchester fields were so good this year.

Some thought it was perhaps because USATF’s 12 km championships no longer exists (The event was quietly removed from the calendar. USATF deserves credit for trying to cash in on owning its own race, but the event failed to catch on so it was canceled after a three-year run). We asked Manchester elite athlete coordinator James Harvey – who used to coach Irish Olympian/13:03 man (and now Auburn coach) Mark Carroll – if he had any ideas as to why so many good athletes were in the field.

His response showed us that he’s doing a great job in his second year as elite athlete coordinator for the race. He’s turned the hilly nature of the race and its odd distance (4.748 miles) into positives as shown by his email back to us.

As a person who has coached world class athletes who raced major championships, I was fully aware how many elites approach the Fall conditioning period.

After taking a break and returning to training elite athletes need a check mark to see how preparation is developing. The Manchester Road Race is perfectly placed in the calendar to test fitness over a non-traditional distance where times only relate to historical times run on the course. It is the perfect race to see which areas need attention and which areas are progressing well. Training can be tweaked accordingly.

This is how I presented the event to the athletes, coaches and managers.

Manchester is also a wonderful event for atmosphere and hospitality. Athletes feed off this and respond accordingly. The quality of this year’s race is the type of quality I will try to achieve as we move forward.

Best wishes,

Jim Harvey.

One last thing about Manchester. Mary Cain dropped out of the race with a knee injury. Harvey said that the injury doesn’t appear to be a serious one as he wrote, “Mary Cain’s injury is a minor one, she tweaked her knee on the very steep downhill section but there should be no real carry over and she should recover well. She stopped as a precaution as she was unsure how serious it was.”

More: LRC Ben True Wins Sprint Finish Over Leonard Korir, Galen Rupp 10th, Emily Sisson Dominates Video of finish and top results.
*MB: Official Manchester Road Race Discussion Thread
*RRW: Ben True, Emily Sisson Win 80th Manchester Road Race
*Hartford Courant: Salazar Says Rupp Did Poorly As ” Cold dry air is the worst.”

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There Is One Positive Associated With The Fact That Usain Bolt Will Retire Soon

Check out the opening two paragaphs of an AP article from last week.

Poor communication among police, private security and other personnel contributed to a mass panic that erupted at a New York City airport when loud cheers for Usain Bolt somehow led to a false report of gunshots, according to a review by a team of top security officials.

Passengers at Kennedy Airport ran for the exits on Aug. 14 after cheering at a terminal bar during the Olympics was mistaken for something sinister. Panic spread to two other terminals when news of a gunman spread on social media, and police responded by drawing their weapons.

More: Review of airport panic: Bolt spurred it, cops made it worse

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Video of The Week

Since LetsRun.com was founded in 2000, A LOT of race cheats have been busted over the years. However, we’re not sure if one has ever been caught on video – until now.

Last week, a visitor to the messageboard posted an incredible video of an indoor high school race where a competitor successfully cheated in an indoor 800. How is that possible? Well the guy (#11, red singlet, dark hair) ran the first 500 with the leaders then hopped on the infield at the 1:15 mark. He then slowly worked his way around the turn before hopping back in the race at the 1:53 mark before finishing in 2:05 – without a DQ.

Check it out for yourself at the following link on RunnerSpace.

More: MB: High school runner caught cheating again

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Recommended Reads

To read our favorite reads from previous weeks, go here.

• Matt Centrowitz Says He’s Going After The US Mile And 1,500 Records; Plans To Do Some 5Ks Next Year Centro talks about his athletic start in soccer, wanting to “enjoy the moment” now that he’s Olympic champ and shares a 6 x 400 workout where he averaged 51.3.
  *MB: Centro Says He is Running 105 miles per Week
• The Chronicle Of Higher Education: “The Myth Of The Sports Scholarship”
• Profile On NYC Marathon Champ Ghirmay Ghebreslassie Most pros plan their weddings for the off season, but Ghebreslassie kissed his wedding ring as he won in NYC as he had just got married a month earlier. Even crazier, he had only known his wife for a few months.
• NY Times Obituary For Legendary Texas Coach Stan Huntsman In 2007 when Ohio University (where Huntsman got his master’s) cut their track program, Huntsman was so angry he mailed back his degree and had the school remove his plaque from their athletic hall of fame.
  *USTFCCCA Tribute In his career, Huntsman produced 41 N.C.A.A. individual champions and 201 all-Americans.
  *MB: Former “UT” Track Coach Stan Huntsmann Has Died
• Chaos takes place in Kenya as Olympic association meeting is stormed by professional athletes association holding signs calling Kip Keino a criminal
• Runner’s World Speaks With Oregon’s 5th Woman Maggie Schmaedick, Who Beat Out Michigan’s Jaimie Phelan By A Tenth Of A Second To Win Oregon The Team Title

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Before We Leave, We’ll Briefly Kill Your Post-Holiday Happy Mood

There was lots of doping news last week that we really don’t feel like getting into as last week was a big holiday week (Thanksgiving) in the US. We guess we’ll say two things.

1) It amazes us that the Russians were willing to pay a crazy amount of money (€2.2 million) to cover up four positives from racewalkers. We guess in reality, you are trying to protect the entire lid of the state-sponsored doping program from being blown open.

2) Nothing new really came out in the German ARD report except for the fact that it’s clear to us that ultimately criminal convictions will be handed out. When you reportedly find more than $90,000 in cash in the home of the former head of anti-doping for the IAAF, you have some explaining to do.

French prosecutors say police search found 87,000 euros ($93,000) in cash in house of #IAAF former head of anti-doping, Gabriel Dolle.

— Gerald Imray (@GeraldImrayAP) November 12, 2015

New Report By ARD And French Newspaper Le Monde Shows IAAF-Russian Doping Cover-Ups And Extortion Was Even Larger Than Thought In addition to Liliya Shobukhova, five other Russian athletes were blackmailed by the IAAF to cover up doping with huge sums of money getting shifted around behind the scenes by IAAF officials. Apparently, Shobukhova dropping out of the 2012 Olympics was planned in advance so she didn’t have to get a medal revoked.
*MB: Le Monde and ARD Detail How IAAF Heads Blackmailed Russians for Millions of $ to Coverup Positives

• Craig Reedie Voted In For 2nd Term As WADA President We would have preferred he resigned.
• NY Times: “Olympic History Rewritten: New Doping Tests Topple The Podium” So far, 75 athletes, 40 of them medalists, from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics have been caught doping.
• Doping Charges Dropped Against Rita Jeptoo’s Former Agent Federico Rosa; Prosecutors Continue To Investigate, Could Re-Charge In Future Rosa was in high spirits as he said, “There is no witnesses. There is nothing against me. There is no case. This is one of the best days of my life.” *2nd Article

• Travis Tygart Says Athletes Have Good Reason To Be Irate With The Lack Of Progess In Anti-Doping Fight “Look at the Rio IO report – 4,000 athletes out of the 11,000 that were in Rio had no tests prior to the Rio Olympics? Our athletes are saying, ‘What on earth is going on here?’ How is that possible? 1,900 of them in high-risk sports? No tests before getting to Rio? It’s incredible.”

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Quotes Of The Day And Last Week’s Home Pages

To see the actual quotes of the day from last week or last week’s home page or any home page, go to our archive page.

Past editions of The Week That Was can be found here. Questions or comments? Please email us or post them in our running fan forum.