Quote Of The Day

"I have had the majority of my professional success in the steeple but have been working so much this year on my 800 and 1,500 fitness. I am very excited about the 1,500 right now and think I have a shot to do very well at Worlds ... (In) the steeple I didn't feel as confident in my ability to place top 3."

- Anna Willard, talking about why she decided to run the 1,500 at Worlds instead of the steeple. She, Christin Wurth-Thomas and Shannon Rowbury will all be looking to become just the 3rd American (and 1st not later convicted of a doping offense) to ever medal in the 1,500.

Drug Update

One Jamaican Paper Says All Jamaicans Cleared Of Doping Allegations LRC told you back on July 27th that "we think it's going to be a non-story" and yet again it looks like we were right.
*Officially The Results May Come Out Monday
*Interesting Read:
Performance analysis: A weapon against doping?

Falmouth

*Men: Teen  Phenom Tilahun Regassa Dominates The 19-year old who put on a show at Bolder Boulder did it again in Falmouth. He ran a 4:22 1st mile and the others let him go thinking it was a rookie mistake. By 3 miles, Regassa was already celebrating. American Meb Keflezighi was 5th.
*Women: Manitu Daska Wins Women's as Rebbeca Donahghue is surprise 2nd
*Race Preview:
Meb Wanted To Win
*Falmouth Miles:
2009 Falmouth Mile Recap: Erin Donohue And Will Leer Win

Primarily Sprint Related World Championship News

Tyson Gay: "You have got to run 9.59 to beat (Bolt) ... I have the mechanics. I have the coaching. It's all there."
*Lamine Diack: Bolt Can Become An Icon Like Jesse Owens
*Lee Evans Not Promising Miracles For Nigeria But We're Sure He's Happy To Be Coaching In Africa Where There is Real Freedom Not "Fake Freedom" Like In America The fake freedom quote comes from his Wikipedia page.
*Allyson Felix Confident Heading Into Berlin
*Women Offer Weakened British Squad Best Chances For Berlin Success Injuries have ravaged the Brits.
*Kenyan Sprinter Excited To Be Going To Worlds The 400 meter runner will be going outside of Africa for the first time. She made the squad after another sprinter tested positive.
*400h World Record Holder Yuliya Pechonkina Pulls Out With Sinusitis She missed the Olympics for the same reason last year.

Saturday's Action: Cottbus: *Results

Cottbus Recap: Tyson Gay Rests, US Women Run 8th Fastest 4 x 100 (41.58), US Men 37.85 That pretty much is it in terms of track action until next week's World Champs which start on Saturday.
*Cottbus Results (Jenny Barringer 2:02.56 PR, US Women 41.58, US Men 37.85)

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Sprint News

New Sensations

Good News

Fast Girls Have Fast Times

*Bridget Franek Article Tells Us More About America's Lesser-Known Steepler At Worlds Jenny Barringer will grab all the headlines for the steeple, but the fact that Lady Lion Bridget Franek will be donning a USA jersey in Berlin is pretty remarkable. Barringer's blog for FloTrack is here.
*Brief Chat With Catherine Ndereba
*Runner's World On Tera Moody And Her Insomnia This article comes from the September Runner's World and it really is an amazing story about one of America's best female distance runners and her sleep disorder.

Oregon Isn't Listening To LetsRun.com
Oregon Bidding To Host NCAAs From 2013 To 2017 No one puts on a meet like Eugene but having every big meet there is going to kill Eugene enthusiasm's for track. The only positive will be it will help Oregon's recruiting.

Lots Of Interesting WChamp News From Kenya

This Excites Us
Asbel Kiprop To Try 1,500/800 Double At Worlds
The favorite in the 1,500 is the world #2 at 800. He'll be looking to be the 1st clean guy to do it in a long time. *MBoard: Kiprop To Double
*Kenya Putting Women's 10k Hopes On Talented Linet Masai 4th at the Olympics last year in a new junior world record of 30:26, she's a real talent, but she'll have her hands full with the Ethiopians.
*Motivated By Last Year's Flameout, The Winner Of Kenya's 1,500 Meters Each Of Last Two Years Is Looking For Redempton Irene Jelagat did horribly in Beijing.
*Athletics Kenya Is Confident Prior To Worlds

Looking At Many Countries' Entries For Berlin

*Belgium: Relays Are Focus
*Uganda: Moses Kipsiro Leads Distance-Dominated Squad *Team Will Wear Puma Gear
*Spain: 51 To Go. Of 3 returning medallists, two were race walkers.
*USA: Talented Sprint/Hurdlers Lead Way *Double Osaka World Champions Gay And Lagat Lead USA Delegation To Berlin
*Japan: Sends 57 Best bet for a medal is in the race walk.
*Morocco: Two-Tme Marathon Champ Jaouad Gharib Leads Way
*India: Only 6 Go
*Cuba: TJer Yargelis Savigne And Dayron Robles Lead Squad

Jogger & Bucknell Grad Killed By Falling Tree Limb In Philadelphia

A MUST READ!! Luz Long & Jesse Owens Showed In Berlin What Humanity (And Sports) Can Be The German Long died in the war, but not before he wrote a letter urging someone to introduce his son to Owens. His son and Owens' granddaughter will hand out medals in 2009.

1st Set Of Provisional Entries For Berlin Are Out

Distance-Related World Championship Profiles

Recommend Read: With Russian Drug Cheats On Sidelines For Worlds, Britain's Lisa Dobriskey Has Chance To Medal "Ah, the dark clouds of the Russian drug cheats coming in from the middle distance."
*Anna Willard Excited To Be Focused On 1,500 At Worlds
*After Falling In Beijing, Spain's Marta Domínguez Enters Worlds As World Leader In Steeple She is a 2-time silver medallist at 5k.
*
Ezekiel Kemboi Is Tired Of Silver At Worlds The 2004 Olympic champ has been the runner-up the last 3 times at Worlds. After running a PR of 7:58 in May, his 2009 season has been less than stellar and he may struggle just to medal. He's the one that famously said he wouldn't return to Kenya if he didn't win gold last year.

Wanna Have Diner With Ryan Hall & Deena Kastor Next Sunday? Bid here.

Kara The Favorite?

London Marathon Champ Irina Mikitenko Out Of Worlds Mikitenko was the heavy favorite (assuming Paula doesn't run), but the death of her father prevented her from training properly.

#1 Reason Alan Webb Should Keep Running The Mile

Asbel Kiprop Trying To Get Kenya Its First World Championship 1,500m Gold Medal Hard to believe, but a Kenyan or an Ethiopian has never won a World Championships gold medal at 1,500m.

More Worlds Distance News

Hype-tathlon - Ennis And Dobrynska Set For Exciting Showdown

*Natalya Dobrynska Blogs For IAAF We think her blog is usually pretty good.
*Another Good Jessica Ennis Article From The UK As the Great Britain team keeps losing their stars to injury, the pressure seems to mount on 5'4" heptathlete Jessica Ennis to live up to her World #1 spot.

Newest Endurance-Enhancing Craze Set To Begin: Go Buy Beetroot Juice! Actually, we're going to the health food store right now. Right after Taco Bell.

China May Not Get A Single Medal In Berlin Injuries to former world medalists Liu Xiang and Zhou Chunxiu severely limit China's chances at medaling. Many Chinese youngsters will get their first shot at Worlds.

Drugs Under Rugs

*BBC Sports And Discovery Special On DDR Doping In 1980s We've heard that the average American does 12 minutes of actual work a day, or something like that. So you should have plenty of time to listen to this BBC World special.
*Mike Hurst Reminds Us To Take A Second Look At Jamaican Scandal And History The first helpful analysis we've seen of the drug fiasco down in Jamaica. Sure, it looks like it's no big deal, but so did BALCO at first.
*Random Drug Tests In Brazil Nab At Least 6 For EPO And Other Drugs There are 44 in the camp. We're presuming they didn't test everyone. So 6 positives speaks volumes.
*Marion Jones' Film Producer Feels For The Fallen Star He wrote and directed Boyz in da Hood.
*NBA Gets In The Mix With First High Profile Suspension! We heard guys on the radio saying they never thought NBA players would be taking 'roids.

Update: Alan Webb & Razcko Are Finished - Webb's Now Moving To Oregon To Be With Salazar The marriage between Alan Webb and Scott Razcko reached heights never seen before in American history. However, it was apparent to all but them that it was time to move on. Now they have seen the light and Webb will be making a move to Oregon to train with Al Sal. *Washington Times Broke The Story
*On the boards: Webb Heading To Oregon
"If he had peaked a month later in 2007, he'd almost certainly have a medal right now, possibly even a gold one."

1st Of "Jamaican Five" Is Cleared - Or Is She?

Sherri-Ann Brooks Walks - She's Cleared On B Sample Technicality
*2nd Jamaican Paper Says Sheri-Ann Brooks May Not Be Cleared
*Wires Report That Sheri-Ann Brooks Is Cleared Due To Irregularity With B Sample

25 Years Ago: The LA Olympics

A Legend Continues To Run: Joan Benoit Samuleson - Still Going Strong 25 Years After LA She'll be running ING NYC this fall. A definite recommended read.
*Oregon's Joaquim Cruz Upset Seb Coe With WRecord To Win 800m Olympic Gold (translated from Portuguese) Cruz thinks today's athletes focus too much on money: "Today I understand that many athletes prioritize the financial part and forget to compete. O atleta precisa demonstrar essa vontade de melhorar a cada dia. The athlete needs to demonstrate this desire to improve each day."
*LA Olympics Were 25 Years Ago: Relive them Here
 5 Years Ago
*Kelly Holmes Earned Double 800/1,500 Gold

Random News From Some Of The World's Top Non-Africans

Former Stanford Runner Lindsay Allen Floursing Under Lydiard (And Greg McMillan) Training lots of runners seem to get lost after college but the braniacs from Stanford and the Ivies seem to often flourish.
*Ireland's 800 Man David Campbell Is Trying To Get Over Disappointment of Missing Worlds Despite Running 1:45.59 By Competing At 1k This Weekend
*Jenny Barringer Blogging From Europe She'll run an 800 on Saturday.
*Irina Mikitenko Can Wrap Up 2nd Straight WMM Title With Victory In Berlin
*Susan Kuijken Named ACC Scholar Athlete Of Year

Kipketer's WR 1:41.11

SCHUMANN/LEICHTATHLETIK: OLYMPISCHE SPIELE SYDNEY 2000 LRC: The Week That Was This week's version of The Week That Was is officially dedicated to the 800 meters and Maggie Vessey. We look at 800 greats past, present and possibly future as we say goodbye to one legend and introduce another. Along the way, we also give you proof as to why German Fernandez shouldn't contemplate going pro and try to avoid ignoring Lopez Lomong. We also give out free of charge the LetsRun.com Proposal To Save All Sports.

From Wisconsin To Worlds Episode 2 - Watch Solinsky, Teg And Jager Race In Europe

Men's 800m Race From Osaka Worlds

Maggie Vessey 1:57.84!

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