Mark Coogan tells LRC that he's "75% sure" Elle Purrier is going to do the 1500 at the US Olympic Trials. While it's a real shame World Athletics and/or USATF won't make the double more doable, the women's 1500 is going to be incredible
Looks Like Purrier Is Going To The 1500
Des Joins the Ultra Ranks
Linden averaged 5:47 for just over 31 miles to break the previous record by over seven minutes.
On The Boards
Negative News
The NCAA did not go so far as to say it would pull currently scheduled events from states like Arkansas which recently passed a law banning transgender athletes from competing in sports according to their identity.
- MB: 2001 NCAA xc champ Boaz Cheboiywo faces drunken driving charges in fatal crash Cheboiywo caused a multi-vehicle crash when he crossed the centerline and hit an oncoming SUV and a passenger car.
Non-Distance News
- Irish Hurdler Thomas Barr Is Afraid We're "Going To Lose A Lot Of The Younger Generation" Because Of COVID Lockdowns Young Irish athletes are now facing a second straight summer with few competitive opportunities.
- World Athletics Profile On Recent Aussie Pole Vault Record (4.82m) Setter Nina Kennedy Kennedy says the lockdowns were a "blessing in disguise" for her as it let her "reflect" on her career and decide she wanted to be more than a 4.60m vaulter.
- WA Profile: Australian Discus Thrower Dani Stevens Enjoying Impressive Comeback After Multiple Injuries Leading Up To 2020 Surgery At one point the injuries were bad enough she thought she "might not be able to throw again."
- Dutch Team Of 24 Selected For World Relay Champs Olympic 200m silver medalist Dafne Schippers headlines the squad.
- Japan Names Team Of 23 For World Relay Champs
Anti-Doping News
- Pandemic Lockdowns Have Been A "Logistical Nightmare" For Drug Testers Lockdowns halted drug testing for a period of time and even when it resumed, it has been a lot more difficult with COVID restrictions.
- US Promises To "Aggressively" Enforce The New Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov says the law will be a "game changer."
- Michael Johnson Talks About Anti-Doping, Russia And Wanting Minimum 4-Year Bans For First-Time Dopers
Sprint Stuff
Van Niekerk is joining Noah Lyles' training group in Florida, but has been waiting for approval for weeks to actually travel to the US. His new coach, Lance Brauman says van Niekerk isn't "where he needs to be" for 400m and that's why he's been having him race 200m.
- Usain Bolt Is Still Working Hard Pursuing A Music Career, Despite Challenges Bolt: "We are already thinking about winning Grammys; when you come into music you want to aim high."
- Runner's World Q&A With Allyson Felix Felix says she's going to do both the 200m and 400m at the Trials and that she's feeling the best she has since coming back after giving birth.
NCAA News
BYU's 2nd runner (15th at NCAAs) Aubrey Frentheway: "I think it honestly helped a lot, for me, to have that taken because then, when I got the opportunity again, I knew how important it was."
- LSU, Southern California And Texas Remain 1-3 In Updated Women's NCAA Rankings Texas A&M moved up to #4.
- LSU Passes BYU To Top Men's NCAA Rankings Florida and Southern California stay ranked 3-4.
- Drake Relays Attracting Good Collegiate Fields
Random News
- T&F News' Men's 2020 Olympic Medal Predictions The only US distance medal they predict is 800m gold for Donavan Brazier.
- T&F News' Women's 2020 Olympic Medal Predictions They predict Ajee Wilson will win 800m gold and Emma Coburn steeple bronze.
- Mariko Yugeta Betters Her Own 60+ World Marathon Record She ran 2:52:01 to break her previous mark of 2:52:13.
- New Study Finds Listening To Music Pre-Workout Can Boost Your Performance
Some More Post-Weekend Results
- AW Weekly Round-Up At the Ethiopian national champs, Berihu Aregawi won the 10,000m in 28:20.2 with Olympic medalist Hagos Gebrhiwet (28:22.3) runner-up and world silver medalist Yomif Kejelcha (28:23.7) in 4th. Getnet Wale won the men's 5000m in 13:34.4 and Lemlem Halu won the women's 1500m in 4:05.1.
- Tony Bowman Breaks UK M85 200m Record With 36.67 He took 4-seconds off the previous record.
- Event-By-Event Top-10 NCAA Marks From Last Week
LRC Podcast
The LRC crew debated on this week's podcast at what distance a women's world record holder would beat Walmsley.
World Relays Are May 1-2
- Athletics Kenya Names Strong Team For World Relays The team includes former NCAA champ and 1:42 man Emmanuel Korir, world 800m bronze medalist Ferguson Rotich and Commonwealth 800m champ Wycliffe Kinyamal.
- Hosts Poland Name 44-Strong Team For World Relays They're including a team for every event.
- Britain Names Squad For World Relays; No Big Stars They're sending a men's and women's 4x400 and a mixed 4x400.
Tokyo 2020 News
- Poll Finds 39.2% Of Japanese Public Wants Tokyo 2020 Cancelled The headline was 72% want the games cancelled or postponed, but that's meaningless as games can't be postponed at this point.
- Tokyo 2020 Expected To Use Hotel As Isolation Facility During Olympics
Tsegay is in sick shape
Deep Marathon In Italy
Ethiopia's Abdi Fufa Nigassa was runner-up in 2:05:57 as nine athletes went sub-2:07 and a crazy 20 went sub-2:09. Tanui's time broke the women's Italian all-comers' record.
America's Sprint Squad Looking Great
Grant Holloway (13.04, +2.2 wind) and Ajee' Wilson (2:00.57 win over Natoya Goule) looked great, but Matthew Centrowitz (6th, 1:50.97) and Robby Andrews (5th, 3:46.89) struggled.
- MB: Time to panic? Centro runs 1:50.97 800!!!
- MB: Centro is... not DONE.
- MB: Centro 800m tomorrow
- MB: Michael Sanuri 3:45 1500M At Mirimar Today
- MB: Kenneth Bednarek 19.65
- MB: Justin Gatlin is back and racing in florida? Is he cheating, or does the sun never set on this man's career?
- MB: Sha'Carri Richardson 10.72 WIND LEGAL
College / HS Results
- NCAA Weekend Round-Up: Alabama's Eliud Kipsang Moves To #7 On The All-Time Collegiate 1500m List With 3:36.00 Other all-time top marks included Karel Tilga in the decathlon (#2 with 8484 points) and Ruth Usoro in the TJ (#2 with 14.50m).
- Japan Weekend Track Round-Up: Keita Sato Breaks 1500m Under-18 National Record With 3:40.36 Kazuki Kawamura won the race in a Japanese all-time top ten at 3:38.83.
- DyeStat Recap: Oregon's Sprint XC Season Ends With "Culmination Day" - Cameron Stein (14:32) And Anika Thompson (17:57) Win Individual Races
- Meet Recap: 2020 NAIA Cross Country Championships
Distance News
- Ben Bruce Embracing His Shift From Pro Runner To Pro Pacer For NAZ Elite NAZ coach Ben Rosario says Bruce has a "knack" for pacing: “If you tell him to run five minutes and 30 seconds for a mile for 10 miles, he’ll be on within a second either way for all 10 miles."
- MB: Jakob Ingebrigtsen just got engaged
- Q&A With Elle Purrier Purrier talks about missing being home on the farm in Vermont when she's away training and racing.
- Emma Coburn Talks To People.com About COVID And The Olympics Coburn: "I knew to just control what I can control and really just, day to day, focus on my training, and that got me through."
Can COVID Just Go Away Now?
- Oslo Diamond League Postponed Due To Covid-19 It was set for two months from now on June 10th, but organizers said it is "impossible to arrange a normal meeting on the planned date" based on Norway's coronavirus reopening plan.
- Australia Withdraws From The World Relays Due To COVID-19 Concerns They said the decision was made because of concerns over the COVID situation in Poland and government quarantine requirements for when athletes return
- Tighter Restrictions Will Be Implemented In Tokyo To Curb New COVID Cases
Distance News
Led by the #1 entrant Eliud Kipchoge.
- Outside: What Makes a Pro Runner Valuable to a Brand? Martin Fritz Huber writes, "Race performance still matters more than social media. For now."
- US HS Outdoor Nationals is set for June 30-July 3 but there is no title sponsor and no location as of yet The meet formerly known as the New Balance Nationals Outdoor has a date.
The Latest Distance News
Let's hope he and Hobbs Kessler race each other at some point this spring.
- Track and Field News catches up with Rachel Schneider whether she'll do the 1,500/10k or 5k/10k double at the Olympic Trials Let's hope she gets some super spikes at 31:09 in old spikes is impressive. She also reveals that she's now engaged to her coach Mike Smith of NAU. *Discuss
- 2:06:35 marathoner Kyohei Hosoya of Japan has gotten faster by following the LetsRun.com training plan - slowing down on his easy days
- Oslo Diamond League won't be held on June 10th due to Covid, date is now TBD
Inspirational Women In The News
Before that she won an NCAA title for Iowa State.
- Charlotte Purdue feels 'thrown under a bus' after Olympics snub and feels it was made based on inaccurate information Notes from the meeting say someone said she was only running 30 minutes a day but she says that's not true.
- Learn about Patti Catalano Dillon - who started her career as a smoking 2:53 marathoner after 6 monhts of running - but twice broke the AR in the marathon and ran 2:27
- Nia Ali will give birth to her and Andre DeGrasse's 2nd child in May and will presumably miss the Olympics Andre DeGrasse will skip the World Athletics Relays as a result as well
- LAURA MUIR: I want to inspire the next generation of runners
- 70-year old British woman runs 3:29:01 marathon
In Case The Trials Are Cancelled - We Tell You Who Should Make The US Olympic Team
With 11 weeks to go until the US Olympic Trials, LRC co-founders Robert and Weldon Johnson and LRC staff writer Jonathan Gault make their picks for who will represent Team USA in Tokyo in every distance event.
*MB: U.S.A. Olympic Team Picks 800 to10,000 -- who ya got?
Best of Jon Gault
Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
LetsRun Classics
‒Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson responding to the NCAA's statement saying that it wouldn't hold NCAA championships in states that "discriminate" against transgender athletes. Arkansas recently passed a law banning biological men from competing in women's sports.