Congrats to Gavin Sherry for breaking Donn Cabral's VCP course record to win the NE and to Sahil Dodda, from the alma mater of the Brojos, who got second in the South. *Dyestat
Where Your Dreams Become Reality
Their top 4 went out in 4:32. In the end, Colin Sahlman ran 14:26 as their 5th man was 7th in 15:11. *MilesplitCA
HS XC Chatter
- CA State Meet Saturday — How many Newbury Park boys can break the Woodward Park course record: 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4?
- Fastest Footlocker/Eastbay regional all time???
- Eastbay Northeast Regional – Gavin Sherry New CR for 5k course
- Xc scoring: any tactical considerations??
- Newbury Park article behind a paywall
- CIF State Championship – Flotrack/Milesplit is just a finish line stream?
- 17 year old runs 1:53 for 800m in first high school race
- CIF State Meet on Saturday. Who’s going? What’s your goal?
Gobble Gobble
Kelati was incredible as she broke the course record by more than a minute and only was 1:31 behind the men's winner Ben Flanagan, who himself won by 12 seconds.
*MB: Weini Kelati SMASHES Manchester Road Race (Ben Flanagan as well) .
On The Boards
Thanksgiving Special
Orton and Mantz joined the LRC crew for a special edition of the Friday 15 LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast. Listen in player above or here on your favorite podcast app.
Distance News
- Good Read: What Makes Newbury Park Cross Country So Dominant? Hint: It Starts With The Coach A lot of interesting insights into Newbury Park's training under coach Sean Brosnan who says they only run around 60 miles a week and tells a story about how he purposely made the team run mile repeats that were 3-seconds long. "There’s rumors we run 90 miles a week. I’d never do that with high school kids.”
- Bashir Abdi Writes About What It Was Like To Win An Olympic Medal Alongside His Training Partner And Close Friend, Abdi Nageeye In the final three-way sprint for the two minor medals, Nageeye looked back and encouraged Abdi to follow him to beat Kenya's Lawrence Cherono. Abdi says, "I will always admire his selfless act as it could have lost him the silver medal, but in those moments he was thinking of sharing the podium with a friend. We are always brothers in arms, but in Sapporo he was the captain."
- Opinion Piece On Why You Shouldn't Donate Money To Shelby Houlihan's GoFundMe He argues that Nike or the BTC should be footing her legal bill.
Abu Marathon
(link fixed) Four other men broke 2:09. Korir was the only woman under 2:25 but four total broke 2:30.
Recommended Read
Nike employee Jeff Johnson thinks she could have been as good as Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Canadian XC Champs are Saturday - Race preview Streaming info is here.
Administrative News of Note
- World Athletics publishes report detailing that female athletes were abused online much more than men during Tokyo 2021 The good news is only 14.2% of athletes received any online abuse but 70% of those abused were women and they received 87% of all abuse. 89% of racist abuse was targeted at US athletes, despite them representing only 23% of the study set.
- 2022 Diamond League Track and Field Schedule Released The Pre Classic will be May 28th.
- US is "encouraged" by reforms approved by WADA but stops short of confirming country will pay WADA remaining dues The US still owes WADA $1.3 million (£976,000/€1.2 million) of its $2.9 million (£2.2 million/€2.6 million) contribution.
- WADA Athlete Committee expanded from 12 to 20 athletes and its chair will automatically become part of the Executive Committee amid an attempt from the global watchdog to increase athlete representation.
- UK Athletics rehire their former events director Cherry Alexander in a surprise U-turn She worked at UK Athletics for 30 years before being canned by Joanna Coates.
Three Important Stories - All For Different Reasons
Lawyers are EXPENSIVE and she is looking to raise $300,000 as she also wants to hire a private investigator. *Donate
*MB: Shelby Houlihan Sets Up a Gofundme and Website
- Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie and Feyisa Lilesa are both quoted as saying they are ready to go to front lines to fight Tigrayan rebels Haile was quoted on state television saying, "I am ready to do whatever is required of me, including going to the front line."
*MB: Haile Gebrselassie and Feyisa Lilesa are prepared to fight on the front line of Ethiopian war! - All three men in Ahmaud Arbery case are found guilty of murder
USATF In Crisis (Again)
Even though it was voted down last year, the USATF board once again trying to take away all power away from USATF members at its annual convention which takes place next week. The same amendments that were voted down last year are back once again. "If these changes pass, the membership of USATF will no longer have a meaningful voice in the organization," writes Becca Peter.
*Last year's editorial
- Titus Ekiru confident of record-breaking run at Friday's Adnoc Abu Dhabi Marathon “The objective in Abu Dhabi is to beat my personal best and I am aiming for record time of 2:02:00.” *Race preview *Full Start list
- Architects behind new Hayward Field reveal how they designed the stadium "On a whirlwind six-day trip, the architects visited 12 stadiums in nine countries" in Europe to get ideas.
- Here are the top 25 track and field photos of the year
Kenyan Distance News
- David Rudisha Hints At Comeback After Successful Surgery To Remove Implant On His Ankle He hasn't raced since the summer of 2017.
- World Athletics Q&A With Geoffrey Kamworor On His Recovery After Being Hit By A Motorcycle Last Year, His Outlook Ahead Of The Valencia Marathon And Having A Marathon PB That Is 10-Years Old He also talks about his favorite marathon, whether he prefers WMM or championship wins and who he thinks is the GOAT.
- World Athletics Q&A With Legendary Coach Patrick Sang "Being a coach is like being an artist. You see with your eyes the overall picture and the potential of an athlete."
Post NCAAs Analysis
We take one final deep look at the 2021 NCAA XC meet. What percent of athletes improved from March? Who improved the most to grab All-American honors? What conference is the best in the land? Who is the most improved team in the land? And much more.
- SC 2021 NCAA Full Spreadsheet Comparing 2021 NCAA XC Meets We compare where everyone finished in the two NCAA xc meets this year.
More Distance News
- No Cutoff Time For The 2022 Boston Marathon - Everyone Who Hit A Qualifying Time Will Be Admitted This is the first time this has happened since 2013; likely because there were so many less opportunities to run a qualifying race due to COVID cancellations.
- Emil Zátopek Biopic In The Running For International Feature Oscar
- Bernard Lagat Talks About His Workd With Forming The World Athletics Safeguarding Policy He said the purpose is to protect athletes from abuse, exploitation, and harassment.
- Mike Chesire (2:13:27) And Leslie Sexton (2:28:33) Win Philadelphia Marathon
Sprint Stuff
- Italy's Olympic 100m Champ Lamont Marcell Jacobs Challenges Usain Bolt To A Charity Capture The Flag Game Jacobs posted at Bolt on social media "You also said you're sure you'd win (the Olympic 100m), so I'm up for the challenge! How about starting with a charity capture the flag? You bring your team and I'll bring mine!"
- World Athletics Ratifies Sean Burrell's World U20 400H Record (47.85) And Christine Mboma's World U20 200m Record (21.81)
- Retired GB Sprinter Lee McConnell Welcomes New Pregnancy Guidance For Britain's Olympic Athletes After Her Career Was Halted By Childbirth She said she didn't have any income a month after having her baby back in 2013.
*UK Sport Changes Maternity Policy To Pay Elite Athletes Nine Months Postpartum
China Controversies
- Seb Coe Thinks Diplomatic Boycott Of Beijing Would Be A “Meaningless And Damaging Gesture” "Even [with] entrenched systems, you run the very real risk of destroying international sport, which is there and will be there long after these conditions change."
- UK Government Also Reportedly Considering A Diplomatic Boycott Of Beijing 2022 Canada may too.
- IOC President Thomas Bach Has Video Call With Chinese Tennis Star Peng Shuai After Her Sexual Assault Allegations She hadn't been seen since November 2nd when she made the allegations, but the IOC says they are now reassured of her safety. The Women's Tennis Association is less convinced.
*InsideTheGames: "WTA Says Bach's Video Call With Peng Fails To Address Concerns, IOC Accused Of "Complete Disregard" For sexual Abuse Allegation"
International XC News
- Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera And Kenya's Norah Jeruto Win Cross de Italica Kwizera each only won by a second over runner-ups World U20 3000m champ Tadese Worku and World 5000m silver medalist Margaret Chelimo.
- Cringey? France’s Jimmy Gressier Gives "Flamboyant" Celebration As He Wins France’s Jimmy Gressier XC Race Gressier pretended to collapse and crawl across the finish line. Includes video.
- AW Extensive Weekly Round-Up: 5000m Olympian Andy Butchart Wins Scottish East District Cross-Country League
- Ethiopian Born Tonosa Hiko And Olympic Steeplechaser Michelle Finn Win Irish XC Champs
- Irish Euro XC Team Named; Includes Two-Time Champ Fionnuala McCormack McCormack has the record for most appearances at Euro XC Champs; this will be her 17th.
- AW Preview: British European XC Trials Are Saturday Andy Butchart, Jess Judd and Charlotte Arter lead the entries.
End-Of-Year Awards
- Finalists Announced For 2021 World Athletics Male Athlete of The Year Award Ryan Crouser, Joshua Cheptegei, Mondo Duplantis, Eliud Kipchoge and Karsten Warholm are the five finalists.
- Finalists Announced For 2021 World Athletics Female Athlete Of The Year Award Sifan Hassan, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Faith Kipyegon, Sydney McLaughlin, Yulimar Rojas are the five finalists.
- Digital Exhibit - 2021 World Athletics Photograph Of The Year Shortlisted Images Here are the 25 images that were shortlisted for the award. We liked some of these better than the three finalists.
Recruiting News
- T&F News New Recruits Round-Up T&F News is tracking the top recruits for the class of 2021 and where they are going.
- Top Men’s Recruits For The 2021–22 Collegiate School Year
- Top Women’s Recruits For The 2021–22 Collegiate School Year
BTC Updates
- Emily Infeld's Stalker Declared Unfit To Stand Trial, Charges Could Eventually Be Dismissed A judge ordered that Craig Donnelly be hospitalized and receive mental health treatment. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2016.
- Canadian Olympians Lucia Stafford And Andrea Seccafien Join Bowerman Track Club Stafford made the 1500m semi-finals in Tokyo while Seccafien went in the 5000 and 10,000.
Mantz won a thrilling duel to the finish as NAU has won 5 of the last 6.
NC State led throughout the race and Orton was too good the final half mile.
Best of Jon Gault
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