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Herculis Monaco Super GP

LRC: Maggie Vessey Stuns Herself & The World With 1:57.84 World Leader The woman who has entertained us all summer long did it again on Tuesday in Monaco with a breathtaking performance. Abubaker Kaki grabbed a big victory in the men's 800, as Nick Symmonds broke 1:44 for the first time. In women's action, one woman got the barrier she wanted as Christin Wurth-Thomas broke 2:00 for the first time, but Anna Willard failed to go sub-4:00 in the 1,500, where Maryam Yusuf Jamal stamped herself as the emphatic favorite for Worlds with a convincing win over Gelete Burka.

Lots Of Teams Finalized For World Champs

Canada - A Bad Place For Women To Live Canada To Send 31 To Berlin But Zero Mid-D Or Distance Runners On The Track Yes, zero women, but Nate Brannen does make the cut.
*French Team Finalized
*Ethiopia They still haven't made up their minds about the women's 10k.
UK Almost Twice As Good As Canada Brits To Send 60 To Berlin *Florida State's NCAA Champ Hannah England Is Left Off Team Even Though She Beat Steph Twell on Saturday *Dwain Chambers To Double *Charles van Commenee Worries About Brittle GB Squad/Wants 5 Medals *van Commenee: Brit Sprinters Aren't "Lazy" We just use the word "slow."

Even At Age 51, Mary Slaney Lacks Closure & Wishes She Could Still Compete

Swimming Is Officially A Joke: Because of the new suits, the average age of a women's world record is less than a year. For track, it's 8-plus years.

LRC Ethiopian Update

LRC: Strong Ethiopian Marathon Teams Announced - Suspense Builds As To Who Will Make Women's 10k Team Our Ethiopian correspondent Teferi Debebe reports that Ethiopia's 10k team on the women's side is not set and that the Federation may leave off a 30:11.87 runner. Unbelievable. Plus an update on the men's marathon team and a photo from training.

Rachid Ramzi Went Before IOC Doping Panel Trying to get off on what appears to be a technicality.

LRC: Aviva London Day 2 Recap We've got every event and every result recapped for you. Tyson Gay got a win, but injury worries surfaced afterwards. Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake led Jamaica to a ridiculous 37.46 clocking in the 4 x 100m. In the distances, Tirunesh Dibaba returned with a 14:33, while America dominated the 1,500m and mile, as the men went 1-2-3 and Anna Willard took down Rowbury in a fun 1,500m. Read our recaps for our take on the results.
*20.00 Win For Tyson Gay (Injury Fears Confirmed Post-Race)
*Bolt And Jamaicans Run 4th Fastest 4 x 100 In Britain
*Despite Hamstring Injury, Tyson Gay Bullish On Berlin

LRC Day 1Recap: Bolt Kicks Off Aviva 2009 With 9.91 Blowout
*Bolt Wins 100m In A Canter 9.91 blowout into a blowing wind.
*Isinbayeva Ends 6-Year Win Streak In Crystal Palace
*Aviva London Day 1 Results We think our readers crashed the Aviva London site.

Doping News:

2.5 Years Later, South African Gert Thys Cleared By CAS For Doping Violation This is the ugly side of anti-doping - although his name has been cleared, the last 2.5 years of his career have been ruined.

Victor Conte Suspicious Of Jamaican Success

Yoko Shibui Tunes Up For World Champs With Win At San Francisco Marathon She's been training in Flagstaff and her running San Francisco was a huge gift to the race organizers. Shibui said, "I think if I was in top condition, like I will be in a month, I would have run with the lead man today." Former Stanford star Julia (Stamps) Mallon was 2nd on the women's side.

British News:

• Seb Coe Says Britain Needs To Be Realistic About Medal Chances In 2012
• 4th At Olympics In 1500m, Britian's Lisa Dobriskey Says She's 85% Now Hopes To Be 100% By Worlds

Yohan Blake Gets The Bad News: It's You! Teenage sensation Yohan Blake, second in the Aviva 100m to Bolt on Friday, learned later that day that he was one of the 5 Jamaicans to have tested positive for a "minor substance" at the Jamaican champs.

Bolt Disappointed To Hear Of Jamaican Positives "It's sad for the sport because the sport was getting on so well, I was trying to bring it back." - Usain Bolt

"Who wants to think what they want will. We can't stop them from saying but we're willing to be tested every day and every minute of the day because we are just training and we've got nothing to hide. You only worry when you've got something to hide." - Bolt's coach Glen Mills.
Not Good ... 5 Jamaican Sprinters Have Tested Positive Now the word is "it's not a big deal," as the competitors tested positive for something in a supplement they bought at the trials. Uhhh, okay.
*Good Article On Jamaican Positives From UK
*LRC Message Board Thread

Recommended Reads

*Catching Up With Japanese 5k/1,500 Double Winner Yuichiro "Big Mouth" Ueno The guy who has a "long-standing reputation for talking big and blowing up even bigger" has finally come through in a big way and is headed to Berlin after pulling off the 1st 5k/1,500 double in 24 years. In the future, he wants the marathon world record.
*A Brief Chat With 3:35 1,500-Meter Runner Dorian Ulrey The guy is a stud. He found out he was going to Rome on Tuesday, got there Wednesday and PRed by 4 seconds on Friday.

News From Kenya, Where The Berlin Training Camps Have Opened

Paul Kipsiele Koech Was Stunned To Be Named To Kenya's World Champs Team It's not every day that a guy who runs 8:37 at the Trials makes a World Championships team for any country in the steeple, let alone Kenya.
*After Bronzes In 2007 And 2008 In Steeple, Richard Mateelong Hopes For Gold In 2009
*After "Tying" For Bronze Last Year, Micah Kogo And Moses Masai Hoping For Better In 10k This Year

LRC: Week That Was Of course we cover the great action at the Kenyan Champs, tell you about Kenyan stupidity, and recap the action in London where American star Anna Willard continued her fine 2009. We also give you a history lesson and go back just 2 years ago this week, when Alan Webb was on top of the running world. Plus, we've got R&R (Rupp and Ritz), free advice for race directors, and American 800m runners Symmonds and Krummenacker covered.

Weekend Action We Didn't Feature On Monday

Russian Champs: *Anna Alminova Runs 3:58.38 (First Sub-4) And 1:57.86 At Russian Champs Just after a lot of their top women got busted for drugs, Alminova rises to the top.
*Russian Champs Results

Barcelona: Marta Dominguez Runs World-Leading 9:09.39 Steeple

France: Mehdi Baala Wins French Champs, Will Not Go To Worlds Unless He Runs 3:36 Today In Monaco

Brassachaat: Brenda Martinez And Heidi Dahl Go 2:00.8 In Brassachaat

Kenyan Trials/News

Olympic Champ Pamela Jelimo Nipped By Janeth Jepkosgei, Asbel Kiprop Celebrates 80m Before The Finish Again, Olympic 800m Champ Wilfred Bungei Not Named To Squad The marquée matchup was 2008 Olympic Champ Pamela Jelimo versus 2007 World Champ in the women's 800. Jelimo showed flashes of her dominant 2008 form, only to falter down the stretch and be nipped at the line by Jepkosgei. Winning or making Worlds teams is never certain in talent-rich Kenya, especially at the altitude of Naroibi. Many of the stars fell on Saturday, including Jelimo and Olympic 1,500m champ Nancy Lagat, but Olympic 1,500m champ Asbel Kiprop showed he's the cream of the crop, as he had time to celebrate once again 80m from the finish (while a guy is right next to him).
*Video Highlights From 2009 Kenyan Track And Field Trials

Julius Kirwa Not To Coach Kenyan Team At Worlds As He Has To Go To Military Training

Recommended Read: Pamela Jelimo Feature Article In British Newspaper She is very humble, very rich, and living very modestly.

Bix 7

Meb And Molly Huddle Win US Titles The veteran Meb dominated, gapping Fam and the rest by 30 seconds.

Alberto Contador's Manager Is Upset Contador And Not Armstrong Won The Tour Classless.

LRC's Take On Ryan Hall's NYC Marathon Teleconference LetsRun.com Co-founder Rojo asks America's top marathoner how he recovered from Boston and how his training is going. We try to give you a bit of analysis as Hall continues to prepare to win his second straight marathon in the Big Apple.

LetsRun.com Exclusive From Kenya - Sylvia Kibet: Kenya's Forgotten Lady More on this weekend's Kenyan Trials below ...
*Kenyan Trials Steeplechase Preview

Russian Alminova Sets World Best 800m Time In Russian Trials 1:57 for Alminova just a few days after many of her former teammates were banned for almost 3 years.

Kaki Is Back! Wins Rainy 1000m In 2:20 - Karlstad, Sweden It's good to see Kaki back from what looked like a bad injury a few weeks back.

Ryan Gregson Berlin-Bound As Australia Tags Him For World 1,500m Team