Corruption / Doping News

• France Seeking The Arrest OF Two Russian Former Track Officials French judges have issued arrest warrants for former Russian Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev and former head distance coach Alexei Melnikov as part of investigation of doping cover-up scandal. *BBC Article
  *InsideTheGames: It’s Unlikely French Authorities Will Ever Actually Arrest Balakhnichev Or Melnikov Like Papa Massata Diack, these two are unlikely to ever travel somewhere where France has jurisdiction to arrest them.
• Never Too Early For An Olympic Scandal: Japan Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda Resigns Following Bribery Allegations He is also leaving his role as an IOC member over the allegations he authorized bribes used to secure Tokyo’s successful bid for the 2020 Games. Payments made have been linked to Papa Massata Diack. *2nd Article
• At Least 21 Athletes Suspected Of Blood Doping After Being Linked To German Doctor Arrested In A Doping Raid Last Month The athletes and sports haven’t been named.

Unbelievably Stupid

Absolutely Stunning LRC 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.

Non-Distance News

• 10% Of Olympic Gold Medalists Come From Countries That Don’t Even Have Anti-Doping Agencies “It is not a fair environment.”
• French Feminist Groups Asks For Hijab To Be Banned Fom Paris 2024, Nike-Sponsored American Fencer Fights Back: “I’ll be in my Nike pro hijab every damn day.” Never let a good opportunity to market go to waste.
• 19-Year-Old Christopher Taylor Runs 45.99 At Digicel Grand Prix Final
• Zharnel Hughes 10.20 (-1.3 m/s), Asafa Powell 10.35 (-1.1 m/s) Win 100m Heats At GC Foster Classic
• Carl Lewis Tells TMZ He Could Have Run The 40-Yard Dash In Under 4.0 Seconds Nope, Christian Coleman only did it in 4.12.
• Double Olympic Javelin Medallist Keshorn Walcot Says His Main Goal In 2019 Is “To Be Healthy” Keshorn, 25, won Olympic gold at 19 in 2012.

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 Now Even 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

LRC Rich 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?

LRC Did 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 Minutes If 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 Changes Seb 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