Fukuoka Marathon Coming Sunday - Headlined By Tsegaye Kebede
2008 Fukuoka champion and course record-setter Tsegaye Kebede (2:06:10) is one of the top marathoners in the world who very few fans know anything about. Scorching Japan-based Kenyan Mekubo Mogusu has run under an hour in the half-marathon and makes his marathon debut, but can he compete with the speedy yet patient Kebede?
To the world's best runners, Fukuoka is a holy site of marathoning. If you go to their awesome English language website you can see a list of all 62 past champions, a list that includes Barry Magee (NZL), Derek Clayton (AUS), Frank Shorter (USA, 4x Champ), Toshihiko Seko (JPN, 4x Champ), Lee Bong-Ju (KOR), Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) and Sammy Wanjiru (KEN).
Want To Watch Fukuoka Live (Yes, Even us Americans) and Read The Best Preview On the Web? Check Out JapanRunningNews.com
IAAF Previews Fukuoka
2010 Virgin London Marathon Announces Stellar Elite Fields
Reigning London and World Marathon Major champions Sammy Wanjiru and Irina Mikitenko will defend their titles in what looks to be again the world's toughest marathon fields. Two top challengers on the women's side are '09 Bank of America Chicago
winner Liliya Shobukhova of Russia and '09 world champ Bai Xue of China along with a ton of either aging or rising stars. On the men's side, it's a stacked deck with world champ Abel Kirui (left), half Marathon sensation Zersenay Tadese, Kenyan record holder Duncan Kibet and once-unbeatable Martin Lel. Top Americans at this point are Deena Kastor, returning to the course where she set her 2:19 American record in 2006, and Abdi Abdirahman.
Thursday Press Releases - Barringer Signs With Agent Ray Flynn
Jenny Barringer Signs With Flynn Sports Management The bigger announcement in the release is the American and NCAA record holder's intention to stay in Boulder with Colorado coach Mark Wetmore as her coach.
Colleen De Reuck Named USATF Masters Runner Of 2009 De Reuck had a time-warping year for a 45-year-old. She led most of the way in the Boston Marathon before finishing 8th, won a US title for the road 20k, and ran a 2:32 marathon at Twin Cities.
Inaugural Eugene Women's Half Marathon Directed By Olympian
Nicole Teter According to the press release and Teter, it appears the mission of this female-only race is to pamper the entrant as much as possible with "schwag" and perhaps free pedicures. Ladies, mark your calendars for Labor Day weekend 2010.
Important Financial Force Jim Elias Steps Down From USATF Post Elias brought the books in order at USATF.
And The Biggest News Of All ... New York City Half Marathon Moves To Spring
LetsRun.com's The Week That Was Last week was a hodgepodge type of week in the running world but thankfully we have you covered. Our observations are short and all over the place, but nearly all running fans will have at least something that interests them. We talk about a wide range of characters including Sammy Wanjiru, Günther Weidlinger, Angela Bizzarri, Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Alberto Salazar, German Fernandez, Ryan Vail, Tim Montgomery, Caster Semenya, Aisling Cuffe, Lukas Verzbikas, Joe Rosa and others.
More News On Sammy Wanjiru
- Savas Sports Supplement Co. Terminates Wanjiru Sponsorship Deal Fortunately for Sammy, he made at least a million in appearance fees and winners' checks last year.
- Article On Sammy Wanjiru And His Quest To Become Greatest Marathoner Ever Wanjiru, still 23 years old, in some experts' minds might already be the greatest marathoner in history. But as far as world stature, he is still way behind the great one, the Emperor Haile Gebrselassie.
Michael Johnson Blabs From Jamaica *Link Fixed
*Link Fixed Michael Johnson Says Bolt Should Shoot For Simultaneous 100, 200, 400 WRs; Says He Would Easily Beat Wariner (MJ Is Wariner's Agent)
Former 200m and current 400m world record holder MJ is in Jamaica with BBC producers to make a Usain Bolt documentary. Easy for him to say - MJ pronounces Bolt could beat Americans LaShawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner at 400m this year without much training.
*More On Usain Bolt: Swedish And IAAF Doping Expert, Former High Jump Great Arne Ljungvist Says Usain Bolt Is Absolutely Clean
Johnson Joins Chorus In Saying USA Track And Field Is On Major Decline
Johnson did stop short of calling track and field "dead" in America, probably an astute decision given US athletes won more medals than any other country in '08 and '09. And how about this for proof of track's immense popularity in the US? Turkey Trot Participation Surged Again In 2009
Brief Chat With Philadelphia Marathon Champion, NC State Alum John Crews
Crews, 25, has run 3 marathons and won all 3, including his latest, a negative-split PR 2:17 win in Philly to become the first American winner since Cornellian Brian Clas in 2000. LetsRun's Employee #1 finished 7 minutes behind Crews in 2nd.
UNC Miling Star Brie Felnagle On Her Return - Video Interview
Former NCAA 1,500m champion, American record-holding DMR anchor and 4th-placer at NCAA cross-country Brie Felnagle fell off the radar last spring when she skipped the NCAA outdoor track season. She tells FloTrack she took time away due to burnout and is excited for her final outdoor season coming
up.
Profile Of Australian Nikki Chapple Chapple had the best race of her career on Sunday when she won the Great Australian 15km.
Concise Recap Of Latest Pro XC Contests In Europe
Monday's Top 4 Distance Reads
1. Recommended Read: Brett Larner Answers LetsRun.com Message Board User - Compares US And Japan 18-22 y/o Distance Runners
JapanRunningNews' Brett Larner started a thread after 2009 Pre-Nationals comparing the NCAA runners to the comparably-aged Japanese runners who ran the Hakone Ekiden 20k trial. After receiving a lot of response from the LRC message boards who felt the honor and ability of American college runners was being questioned, Larner dug deeper to find stats on the best American and Japanese performances from 5,000m to the marathon by runners aged 18-22.
2. HS Junior Aisling Cuffe Runs To Tremendous 45-Second Win At Foot Locker Northeast
Perhaps more amazing than the margin of victory was the margin of the new course record. Cuffe lowered the CR 21 seconds despite a wicked windy day with reported 40mph gusts.
3. Interview With UVA's Catherine White
White transferred to her home-state school last year from Arkansas and finished 4th at this year's NCAA championships. Find out interesting facts such as how White planned on spending her Thanksgiving break and how slow she planned to jog her local 5k Turkey Trot.
4. 2010's Athens Marathon Will Be The 2,500th Anniversary Of The Legendary Pheiddipides' Terminal Run From Marathon To Athens
The tough Athens Marathon course will be open to about 10,000 entrants for its October 31, 2010 race, Pat Butcher reports.
Same Day In The Global Press - The True Journey Vs. The Shortcut
- Positive Thoughts Key To Top Athletes' Success This article is about the spiritual quest of the athlete and turning to positive thoughts to overcome challenges.
- Spanish Anti Doping Raids Find - To Nobody's Surprise - Many Top Cyclists/Athletes Possess EPO This article focuses on a race-walker Olympic medalist who decided to cheat, like many others, to gain superficial success.
Watch Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) Live, Saturday 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific At This Link
*3-second LRC Preview:
1. Predictions for 2009: The best running prediction site in the world - Tullyrunners.com - says FM women win and the boys meet is too close to call as half the teams literally could win.
2. We want to see how much New Jersey junior Joe Rosa (4th last year as a soph, 14:56 at Holmdel) wins by.
3. The meet website is incredible.
*2008 NXN Results Chelsey Sveinsson (only running FL finals this year) and Reed Connor (left, now at Wisconsin) took individual titles in '08 and Fayetteville-Manlius girls won the team title while Joe Newton's York boys finished 2nd in the male race.
LetsRun.com: Interesting Argument In UK Over Britain's European Cross Country Spots
An LRC reader from GBR wrote us an email about the selection process for Great Britain's Euro XC team. We share the email with you and use it as proof that the best way to select championship team members is by selecting based on their performance in a single qualifier rather than having subjective bids.
You Can Vote For the US Sports Academy's 2009 Athlete of the Year 4 female tracksters and Usain Bolt made the final 12 voting. It's interesting to see who the finalists are as Linet Masai, a chubby Argentinian golfer and Santonio Holmes are on the same ballot. Or you could vote for an inspiring athlete from another sport such as NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson.
State of the Sport - Thumbs Up or Down?
- USATF CEO Doug Logan Gives Part 1 of his Annual "State of the Sport" Address
- Association of Athletics Managers Meets To Discuss Diamond League Changes The new IAAF Diamond League series is going to be one of the biggest changes in 2010 for fans of and players in elite track and field.
- Kelly Holmes Wins Vote For Britain's Favorite Female Athlete over Paula Radcliffe
- Singapore Marathon Runners Promised Cash On Time This Time That's always nice.
Three Running-Related Articles
- IOC President Jacques Rogge Says Momentum Is With Drug Testers Catching Rashid Ramzi was a huge step in the right direction and a big boost for WADA and the IOC.
- Brief Chat With Villanova Women's Coach Gina Procaccio Former running standout Gina Procaccio, who returns 4 of the 'Nova top 5 next year, talks about recruiting second-tier runners and her excitement at 2 women coaches in the top 2 at NCAAs (Karen Harvey's FSU team was 2nd).
- NY Times Looks At Current Research Examining How To Prevent Stress Fractures Free LRC Summary: Shortening your stride and running efficiently can help. So can being a balanced, strong enough athlete. Some of you, however, are just screwed.
America - 30,000 Troops To Afghanistan? Who Cares, Let's Hear More About Tiger!
Tiger Jokes And Prop Bets
"What's the difference between and car and a golf ball? Tiger can drive a golf ball 400 yards."
Other Athletes React To Tiger-Gate
"We made ourselves too accessible to you. It backfires on the athlete.
We don't get to write a story about y'all. An athlete makes a mistake,
everybody wants to write about it. It's a one-way street, like it has
always been." - NFL All-Pro linebacker Joey Porter commenting on the Tiger Woods saga.
Tiger Issues A More Juicy Statement
In this latest statement immediately distributed all over the internet, Tiger admits to transgressions and pleads for privacy.
Lesson In Honesty: Ron Artest Admits To Drinking Hennessey At Halftime
Not at all humorous NBA league spokesman comment: "We have no comment and we hope Ron has a successful season."
Important, Non-Humorous World Running News
- Orwellian Search Is On For British Paralympians The hard-working British are attempting to build a dominant force of paralympians for the 2012 Games in London.
- Athletics Kenya Is Suspending All Kenyan Road Races Genius organizational committee Athletics Kenya have decided that all road races in Kenya will be banned because there are too many.
- Shirtless, Tatooed, Name-Calling Jogger Basically Run Out of New Hampshire Town By Police A savvy letsrun.com reader sent us this gem. Which one of your college teammates will someday have this happen to him?
Patrick Konchellah Dies At Age 44
The younger brother of 2x world champion Billy Konchellah and uncle to world champion Yusuf Saad Kamel, Patrick Konchellah was a Commonwealth Games 800m champion and finished 4th at the 1997 World Championships. As brother Billy pointed out, "The guy was a great athlete and ran faster than I did (1:42.98 personal best) and the country has lost one of its most gifted runners."
Autopsies For Three Deaths In Detroit Half Marathon Deem Natural Heart Failure Probable Cause
British 800m Runner Marilyn Okoro Gives Thoughtful Quotes On Caster Semenya
Okoro talks about what it was like to witness the Caster Semenya uproar unfold as the women prepared to enter the track for the Berlin WC 800m final.
Comedian Robin Williams Makes Joke About Rio's Tactics In Winning 2016 Olympic Bid - Sparks City's Ire News stations are replaying the clip in Rio de Janeiro and getting people riled up.
2 Days After Global Tim Montgomery Story ... Marion Jones Is Playing Basketball
Marion Jones Is Out Of Prison And Training For The WNBA
London Times Columnist Tells The Story Of Arranging The Prison Interview With Tim Montgomery
Another good read that follows two excellent stories on Montgomery (see below).
Previously: From World's Fastest Man To Prison - Two Of The Most Interesting Reads You'll Find All Year
Recommended Read Tim Montgomery Talks About His Relationship With Marion Jones
Montgomery pulls no punches in describing the real Marion Jones (not the cute, crying Marion Jones on Oprah). Really a fascinating read.
Recommended Read Tim Montgomery Talks About Why He Cheated, Life In Jail, His Regrets And Lessons
Montgomery describes dealing heroin and crack on the streets as a kid, being completely jealous of Maurice Greene (who he then claims was using drugs), and the rough stuff he went through as he moved from prison to prison.
Halls Gave Away Their NY Prize Money To Their New Charity
USATF Give 2009 Visa Humanitarian Award To Ryan And Sara Hall
Drugs And Sport
Pharmaceutical Company GlaxoSmithKline Will Pay £10 Million To Build/Operate Drug Testing Facility For London 2012
Some drug testing advocates are hailing the investment, but some are questioning what concessions might be made to the company after such a large gift.
100% Good Doping News: WADA Ready To Unveil Athlete Biological Passport Program On Global Scale
Tiger Woods Not Coming Clean
"Wild Thing" John Daly Urges Tiger Woods To Tell The Truth
Imagined conversation: "Tiger, and I'm speaking from experience here ..." - John Daly
Recommended Watch: Tiger Pulls Out of His Own Tournament
A great segment from Bob Ley's Outside the Lines compares Tiger, his fling and the cover-up to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Also a former GQ mag writer talks about the last extensive sit-down interview with Tiger (10 years ago) and why Woods' PR people won't let reporters close to him anymore.
Best Race Of The Year? Maggie Vessey At Pre
LRC: The NCAAs That Were The Week That Was focuses on one thing for the most part, as last week the world of US distance running was dominated by one thing: NCAA cross-country. We break it all down for you and tell you who flopped (a ton of teams/individuals), who excelled (very few), and what to expect in 2010. Along the way, we talk about mid-d runners Andrew Wheating and Dorian Ulrey, give major props to Gina Procaccio and to the one team that seemingly did well on Monday (Villanova) and tell you why close to 75% of women All-Americans and 60% of men All-Americans had better start getting nervous.
Amazing Day-After Interview With Jenny Barringer
2009 NCAA D1 XC Championship Results
*Men's Team Results
*Men's Individual Results
*Women's Team Results
*Women's Individual Results
D2: *DII Men Complete Results
*DII Women Complete Results
D3: *WTeam *WIndiv
*MTeam *MIndiv
NAIA: Results
Vin Lananna Post-NCAAs
NCAA Champ Angela Bizzarri
Usain Bolt's ESPN Commercial Released
New LRC Readers' Book Reviews
From Last To First, A Race Like No Other, And See Dane Run From Last To First is the autobiography on English marathon record holder Charlie Spedding, A Race Like No Other is NY Times Writer Liz Robbins' take on the NYC Marathon, and See Dane Run recounts a guy who ran a marathon a week for a year.
Recommended Reads - You Can Buy The Books Online
One for the Mind: Running Within
One for the Soul: Best Efforts