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Salwa Eid Naser Cleared

LRC Analysis Why Was Salwa Eid Naser Cleared? Everything You Need to Know About Her Whereabouts Case On 4 different occasions in a 365-day span, drug testers were unable to test Salwa Eid Naser, the third-fastest woman in history at 400, and yet she’s been cleared to compete. Find out why here.

AIU: “This was a case very much on the borderline and we hope the athlete will learn from the experience and heed the AIU’s warnings.” The AIU revealed that Naser has a history of struggling to update her location and actually has to have a third party do it for her.

An Important Look Into A Key Part Of The Anti-Doping Movement

LRC 2020 Has Been The Year Of Whereabouts Failures. Why? (Unlocked for all readers) Nine athletes – including recent world champions Christian Coleman, Salwa Eid Naser and Elijah Manangoi – have been suspended for whereabouts failures in 2020, compared to two in all of 2018 and 2019 combined. What’s going on?

More Weekend Distance Action

Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal Breaks Norwegian 10k Record With 30:32 At The Hytteplanmila 10k; Jakob Ingebrigtsen And Kilian Jornet Bomb She destroyed her own national record of 31:25 which she set at this same race in 2017. Zerei Mezngi won the men’s race in 28:20 as Filip Ingebrigsten was back in 6th (29:03), ultra runner Kilian Jornet ran 29:59 and Jakob Ingebrigsten jogged it in in 35:05.
*MB: Famed ultramarathon star Kilian Jornet debuts on the road…. Only runs 29:59 10k
Hagos Gebrhiwet Gets Comfortable Win At The Corsa dei Castelli 10k In Italy With 29:49
Japan Weekend Track Recap: Akira Aizawa Wins Miyazaki Time Trials 10,000m In 27:55.78
Sekisui Kagaku Wins Second-Straight Princess Ekiden This was the first major road race held on public roads in Japan since the coronavirus pandemic began.
DyeStat’s Colorado High School XC State Meet Recap In their preview, DyeStat called this meet the deepest girls state championship race in the country.

The 2020 Version Of NCAAs XCs Is This Weekend For The Men *All NCAA Results

LRC NAU Men (42) Edge BYU (50) And Oklahoma State (51) In Biggest NCAA XC Meet Of The Year Today’s OSU Invitational featured the top three teams from last year’s NCAAs plus hosts Oklahoma State. It lived up to the hype. Luis Grijalva got the individual win.

BYU Women Dominate OSU Invitational Whittni Orton won the individual race to lead BYU to a 40 point victory over Southern Utah.
NAU Recap With Quotes From Mike Smith
Texas Men And Women Arturo Barrios XC Invitational Texas dominated the team competition lead by individual wins from Haftu Knight (23:52) and Beth Ramos (20:23).
MB: BYU vs. NAU This Weekend!
MB: Nico Young won’t be racing for NAU this weekend

News From Japan

18-Year-Old Ryuji Miura Breaks Suguru Osako Japanese U20 Half Marathon Record To Lead Juntendo University To Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Win Miura ran 61:41, beating Osako’s record by 6 seconds. Joseph Razini Lemeteki had the fastest time of the day with 60:13.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga Wants To “Make Sure” The Tokyo Olympics Happen Next Year Suga said, “I hope to revive inbound tourism by somehow surviving this coronavirus pandemic. Unless we balance measures against the novel coronavirus infections and the economy, Japan itself will not be able to keep up.”
Tokyo 2020 Baseball Stadium Has Plans To Be Near Or At Full 34,000 Spectator Capacity In Three-Day Coronavirus Trial At End Of Month
2021 Kagoshima Marathon In Japan Canceled The March 7th race has now been cancelled two years in a row.

Jump News

Recommended Read An In-Depth Look At The Legendary Long Jump Duel Between Carl Lewis And Mike Powell At The 1991 Worlds Where Powell Broke The WR
British Indoor LJ Champ Dan Bramble Quits Amazon Job After Gymshark Surprises Him With Big £8,875 Donation After noticing his post on twitter about working at amazon, gymshark shocked him with a $10,000+ gift.
Two-Time NCAA/Three-Time US TJ Champ Omar Craddock Wants An Olympic Medal In 2021 And Thinks TJers Should Be Mic’d Up “You would hear a lot of funny entertainment, some crazy things.”

Pre-Race World Half News

LRC Joshua Cheptegei Calls Out Mo Farah For Skipping World Half Marathon Championships “It’s quite really ridiculous that [Mo Farah’s] not in the field.”
*MB: Cheptegei calls out Mo Farah for skipping World Half We think the trash talk is good for the sport. What do you think?

Pre-Race Press Conference: RRW: All Eyes Are On Joshua Cheptegei At Saturday’s World Athletics Half-Marathon Championships
Jepchirchir is also confident “I’m feeling good and I’m ready for the race,” said the women’s-only WR holder.
Full Press Conference Video Replay

General Track Stuff

Karsten Warholm: Why Nobody Is Going To Be The Next Usain Bolt “I think everybody’s got to find their own way, Usain Bolt was huge so it’s an honor just being compared to him but for me it’s always been about developing.”
Some Jamaican Coaches Are Concerned About Possible World Athletics Rule Changes In Jumping Events At Major Championships They are worried about a rule change which would let World Athletics apply the “final three” long jump format from the Diamond League to a major championship.
GB’s World 200m Champion Dina Asher-Smith Says She’s Used The Japanese Philosophy, Kaizen To Improve In Track Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning “change for the better” or “continuous improvement.”
NBC Sports’ Event-By-Event Men’s 2020 Rankings

LRC It’s Here: The 1:59:40 GOAT Shirt Get the premium shirt that signals and celebrates greatness. Order today.

A New Fall Classic

LRC Michigan Pro Ekiden Preview: HOKA NAZ Elite Favored In Clash Of US Pro Squads Six of the country’s top distance training groups will gather in Michigan on Friday for a six-person, mixed-gender ekiden. NAZ Elite’s Tyler Day and Kellyn Taylor headline the entries. *Discussion: Official Michigan Pro Ekiden Prediction Thread

Jamaican News

Statue Of Usain Bolt To Be Erected In His Hometown
1976 Olympic 200m Champ Donald Quarrie Running For The Jamaican Federation Presidency Quarrie, a former JAAA vice president, will challenge long-time General Secretary Garth Gayle for the job. The vote will happen at the end of November.

Other Distance News Of Note

California Woman Runs 5:25 Mile While 9 Months Pregnant Apparently Makenna Myler made a $100 bet with her husband that she could still break an 8 minute mile at 9 months pregnant. Her PR is 4:43.81. *Instagram Video
AW: Shocked GB Distance Runner Jake Smith Talks Tears And Triumph After Top World Half Time Smith is now 3rd on the UK all-time list after running 60:31 for 18th place. He PR’d by about a minute and a half, set a 10k PR along the way and cried when he met Seb Coe post-race.
Bernard Lagat Says Track And Field Is “Not Doing Enough” On Social Justice; Want Olympic Protest Rules Changed But Lagat pointed out the exact problem with political demonstrations at the Olympics. Who decides which groups are allowed to protest? Lagat: “Because if we open it for everything, what will stop someone from raising a Nazi salute?”
MB: Video Interview With Olympic Marathon Trials Runner-Up Jake Riley This is a lengthy two-part interview totaling about an hour and a half.
Canadian Running Magazine: Are Staged Events The Future Of Track World Records?

News From The UK

Interesting Read: Creating The Bubble, Cutting-Edge Technology, Flexible Thinking – How The 2020 London Marathon Became The Only Major City Marathon Since COVID-19 A secret hotel location, staff locked in for the week, “Bump” devices with alarms if people get too close, a lot went into making a socially-distanced London happen.
British Olympic Trials Tentatively Scheduled For June 26-27 In Manchester The 10,000m trials are June 5 and the marathon trials March 26 in London.
Hugh Robertson Re-Elected As British Olympic Committee Chair

Long Distance News

Full Fields Released For The Top US Marathon Of 2020 – December 20th’s The Marathon Project Fields Sara Hall leads the way for the women. Could she possibly break 2:20? *Video
Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell Expects WR To Fall At This Year’s Big’s Backyard Ultra, Which Starts Saturday At 6:35 AM ET 14 people will be competing in Tennessee but many more will be competing at satellite competitions around the globe. How many times can you run a 4.166667-mile trail loop once every hour? *Watch It Live For Free At 6:35 AM ET
Shura Kitata Says He Was Thrilled When He Saw The Rain In London “When I saw the rain I was excited because I had been training in heavy rain season in Ethiopia. One day I went to train in Sodere, a place outside the capital, and it rained so much that the town flooded and the coach had to come to my rescue.”
Everything You Need To Know About Next Wednesday’s Michigan Pro Ekiden The Hansons, NAZ Elite, ATC, BTC and more will all be there.
Allie Ostrander Joins Seattle Pacific As Volunteer Coach
Japanese Are Breathing Easier As Everything Is A Go For Hakone Ekiden Qualifier This Saturday With so many events cancelled in Japan, some were fearful it’s #1 sporting event would also be canned but it looks like the Hakone Ekiden will go on.
The First Major Ekiden To Be Held On Public Streets During The Coronavirus Era Is This Weekend – Princess Ekiden Preview

Important Administrative News

IOC Assures Many Sports Federations That The 2021 Olympics Will Start As Planned On July 23rd “We are very confident that the games in Tokyo next year will take place.”
2022 Commonwealth Games Organizers Condense Track Schedule So Stars Will Show Up 3 Days After Worlds
UK Sport Announces “Big Shift” For Olympics Moving Forward Funding will primarily be based on medal potential in the next 12 years, not just 4 and the goal is not to be a cut-throat. “We will aim to support the development of the person as well as the performer.”
LRC NCAA Names Hosts Of All NCAA Championships Through 2025 – 2026 Some new hosts are on the list as Missouri will host the NCAA XC Champs for the 1st time ever in 2025 and UVA will host for the first time since 1987 in 2023. Norfolk State and Virginia Beach, VA will also host NCAA indoors for the 1st time in 2025.
*MB: UVA to host NCAA D1 cross country national meet
*MB: NCAAs at Hayward Field 2024-2027
NCAA Extends Extra Year Of Eligibility To Winter Sports Athletes

Previous World Half Champs News

RRW: 7 Women, 2 Men Over The Age Of 40 Will Compete At World Half
Engaged Kentucky Grads Luis Orta And Hiruni Wijayaratne Will Be Running For Ecuador And Sri Lanka At World Half
Ultramarathoner Tom Evans Of The UK Is Stepping Down In Distance To Run World Half This Year In the past, he’s finished third at the World Trail champs as well as Western States.

Coach Patrick Makau (Former Marathon WR Holder) Confident Team Kenya Will Dominate At World Half Champs Makau commented on a few individuals and said the team as a whole is “aware and preparing psychologically” for the possible colder weather.
Daily Nation: Confident Kenya Squad Off To World Half Champs Some positive words from the athletes who flew out of Eldoret on Tuesday.
World Athletics: How World Half Organizers Have Adapted To Ensure Event Can Go Ahead In 2020 With COVID, a lot of races just get cancelled, but organizers put in a lot of effort to make sure the rescheduled World Half Champs could go ahead.
World Half Marathon Champs Course, Scoring And Prize Money Details $30,000 for the individual win and $15,000 to the top team (team scoring based on aggregate time of top 3 athletes).

Technology Debate

InsideTheGames: Should Track World Records Undergo A Javelin-Like Reset Because Of New Shoe Technology? An interesting history lesson about the rule changes behind the javelin WR and questions over whether the new shoe tech is of similar significance.
Sports Scientist Yannis Pitsiladis Shoe Technology Is Undermining The Integrity Of The Sport “…The level of improvement can also vary significantly from one athlete to the next. So while one athlete might get a four or six per cent improvement, another might only get one per cent or none at all. Which means it is leading to distorted results.”
Joshua Cheptegei’s Agent Jos Hermens Defends Use Of New Tech In Breaking World Records “It’s not like we stand on the track, put on the lights and we break a world record. The athletes just have to run. We have to get our sport more interesting.”
Independent: “Joshua Cheptegei, Nike And The Rise Of Technology In Running” GB middle distance runner Jake Wightman said, “So if you go in with the mindset that it’s unfair, you’re already putting yourself at a disadvantage. I think it’s different on the roads, but I don’t think in my events it makes that big of an impact.”

NCAA News

Good News For Women’s Sports: Franklin Pierce University Forced To Rescind Transgender Policy As Violation Of Title IX After Biological Male Cece Telfer Wins Women’s NCAA Title The president of the Concerned Women for America organization says this decision by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights was a “warning shot to the NCAA.”
*LRC Archives: What No One Is Telling You: An Athlete Who Ran NCAA Track As A Man For 3 Years Just Won An NCAA Women’s Title
Ken Goe: Time To Make Hayward Field The Permanent Home Of The NCAA DI Outdoor Track Championships Goe argues that the cons (gives Oregon an advantage, difficult travel for most of the country), are outweighed by the positives gained from the new Hayward Field facility and the passionate Oregon fans.
Boise State Selling Their Indoor Track for $350,000 So far there isn’t much interest in the portable track.

2020 World Half *Results ***Men’s Preview *Women’s Preview ***Course Map *TV/Streaming

LRC Jacob Kiplimo UPSETS Joshua Cheptegei, Wins 2020 World Half Marathon Champions In 58:49 Wow. Joshua Cheptegei was viewed as the new GOAT, now he may not even be the best guy in his country. Is Cheptegei-Kiplimo the new Federer-Nadal? Plus 5 More thoughts on Jacob Kiplimo’s win at the 2020 World Half.

LRC Peres Jepchirchir Sets Women’s-Only World Record Of 65:16 To Win 2020 World Half Marathon Championships Jepchirchir joins Tegla Loroupe, Paula Radcliffe and Lornah Kiplagat, as the only women with two World Half titles. Plus who is the German that won the silver?

World Athletics: After Second Global Title And Third World Record, Peres Jepchirchir Cements Place In History As Half-Marathon All-Time Great
World Athletics: Jacob Kiplimo Makes History For Uganda At World Half Champs
RRW: Peres Jepchirchir & Jacob Kiplimo Take World Half-Marathon Titles In Fast Races
MB: Official 2020 World Half Marathon Championships Live Discussion Thread
MB: Jacob MF Kiplimo The man who recently ran the fastest 3000 in 13-years may have better endurance than the 5,000 and 10,000 WR holder.
MB: Josh Cheptegei should not have run World Half|
MB: Alphaflys a bust?
MB: Cheptegei calls out Mo Farah for skipping World Half: “It’s quite really ridiculous that he’s not in the field.”
MB: Kandie Man to upset Cheptegei for win today.

Women’s Pro News

NY Times: Lauren Fleshman Making Sure The All-Female Running Group She Coaches Doesn’t Suffer With Weight Issues Like She Did Fleshman says she never reached her full potential in part because she was trying to be too thin. “If the scale moved in the wrong direction, it would haunt me.”
AW: Pacing The London Marathon For 17 Miles Was A Great Step To Eilish McColgan’s Marathon Career “I obviously was a little scared. … I said … I’ll try and get to 15km, but I ended up running to just over 17 miles. … It’s the furthest I’ve ever run in my life!”
Jordan Gray, The American Record Holder In The Women’s Decathlon, Is Fighting To Get The Women’s Decathlon At The Olympics The article is painting this as an equality issue, but is it? The issue is there isn’t a big campaign to trade the heptathlon for the decathlon. As Gray points out, the top multi-event women don’t want a change out of self-interest.
*The Guardian Article From 2018: “Women’s Decathlon: Overdue Game-Changer Or Heptathlon Killer?”