South Africa - Bold Statement From Respected Scientist

World Leading Sports Scientist Tim Noakes Speaks Out In Defense Of Semenya, ASA If anyone has an educated, unbiased grip on the Caster Semenya story it's Tim Noakes, the South African-based co-founder of the IOC's Olympic Science Academy and of the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town. In no uncertain terms, Noakes explains why he believes unequivocally that Caster should be allowed to run and the case is more about protecting image rather than a reality.

*Turmoil In South African Athletics As Hendrick Ramaala Resigns In Protest Of ASA Election Holdup

More From Great Event In Manchester City

Athletics - Great CityGames Manchester Tommie Smith Thinks Gay Can Beat Bolt At 100m Gay almost ran as fast for the first 150m of the 200m as Bolt did last year when he set a straight 150m WR.
*Boards: Did Gay really run 8.72 from 50m-150m??

Surprise: GBR's Andy Turner (Who?) Beats Trammell In 110 Hurdles, Batman/Sanchez/Brathwaite In 200 Hurdles

Full Recap Of Manchester City Games We love the execution of this meet and hope they listen to 200m winner Allyson Felix and bring the event to NYC or L.A. (except nobody would go if it was in L.A.).

Finally: Track On TV!

Princess: Watch Sanya Richards-Ross $600,000 Wedding On WEtv Mon Late Nite You knew "track on tv" was a hoax.

*Photo Of $10,000 Richards-Ross Wedding Cake

Pauper:
IAAF's Lamine Diack Announces Plan For Million$ In Cuts Some are calling for Diack to give up the leadership role of the supposedly imperiled IAAF.

Manchester - Tyson Gay Makes Strong Statement

Tyson Gay 19.41 200 Tommie Smith (former straight 200m WR holder) was on hand to congratulate Tyson Gay, who ran 9.88 for the first 100 and 8.72 from 50-150m on the straight track.
Hot On The Boards: Tyson Gay 19.41 straight 200m in the UK

Athletics - Bupa Great Manchester Run Press Conference Haile Struggles But Wins BUPA Manchester 10k Haile's previous bests at Manchester were 27:25 (2005) and 27:39 (2009). Worknesh Kidane (2003 World XC champ) won the women's race and is the wife of Healthy Kidney and Central Park record setter (and World XC champ) Gebre Gebremariam.

An Avatar warms up for running the 99th Annual Bay to Breakers race in San FranciscoChepkurui Sets Another World 12k Record At SF's Wild Bay To Breakers Lineth Chepkurui is having a road racing season to remember: 30:45 10k Crescent City, 51:51 Cherry Blossom 10-mile, 38:10 WR Lilac Bloomsday 12k, 38:07 WR Bay To Breakers 12k. Sammy Kitwara got a very narrow win in a much slower men's race (yes, that is an avatar in the photo above).

Healthy Kidney 10k *Results *LRC Photos

Healthy Kidney 10k: Gebre Gebremariam Wins In 27:39, Breaks Central Park Course Record And Pockets $27,500
Gebre Gebremariam
was last year's World Cross champ, so the tough NYC course was no problem for him. Khalid Khannouchi ran 30:31 and was one spot ahead of former NCAA champ Bobby Curtis, who ran 27:33 2 weeks ago and perhaps was just doing this as a tempo run.


*Amateur Reporter Gives Interesting Insight Into Healthy Kidney Runners Kamais, Birmingham and Co. 2nd-place Kamais is a Kenyan who trains himself, Birmingham's shoeless 1,200 at Penn set him back 1 week.
*Message Board Thread On Race
*Khalid Khannouchi Returns

Sprinters Upping The Ante

Bolt Expects Very Fast Time Wednesday In South Korea Asafa Powell opens with 9.75, Tyson Gay runs 200m straight today in GBR after early-season 400 success, Usain Bolt has already run 19.56 (and 8.79 unofficial relay split at Penn) ... are we going to see the most unbelievable year for sprinting in the history of the sport?

 Great Read: Reporter Looks At Motivation Of Jamaican Youths Running To Escape Poverty

High School Freshman In Korea Runs 15:38 5,000m A national record as well. Pretty damn impressive.

Recommended Read: Former Ivy 800m Runner Writes Great Piece On Genetics And Speed For SI.com Nature or nurture? Genetics or environment? What are the genticists finding out about specific genes and how they relate to sprinting?

Fastest Man Who Ever Lived (MJ) Talks About Making Documentary With Fastest Man Who Ever Lived (Bolt)

HS Girls Track Coach Gets Pole Vaulter DQed For Bracelet - Making His Team Conference Champs
*Boards:
Another idiotic HS rule

LetsRun.com's The Week That Was In Running This week we put an end to the Rupp-Solinsky controversy, analyze the continual decline of Jeremy Wariner, announce the return of Walter Dix, tell you why Usain Bolt is clean, fall in love with the 25 kilometer distance, and amazingly discover that hGH actually helps performance. All that plus Haile Gebrselassie puts an end to the barefoot running craze and a great race video from Australia.

Maybe Track Is Getting Popular In The US

Chris Solinksy's Run (And LetsRun.com) Gets A 3 Line Mention In A Mainstream Sports Blog Look out, NFL. Proof of the soaring popularity of track and field (see Washington Post article below). The story on a high school track team losing it's league championship because of a pole vaulter wearing a friendship bracelet got a full story. Seriously, we want to give a shout out to the LetsRun.com fan who fought hard to get Solinsky a little press.

LetsRun.com In Washington Post

Washington Post: "Track's Popularity Soars Despite Lack Of US Star Power" LetsRun's co-founder Wejo is quoted and Rojo is mentioned as Amy Shipley of the Washington Post examines the positive state of track in America. We like the article but (despite our rapidly rising numbers) aren't sure the sport is soaring in popularity, considering the average person on the street couldn't name a single US track star. We're glad however to see the sport in a positive light (but never thought the sport was down in the dumps) and think the article is proof the sport's execs need to get the sport on network television or ESPN more often.

Marion Jones Graces New Type Of Court

 Tulsa Shock guard Jones cheers her team from the bench against the Minnesota Lynx during their WNBA basketball game in Tulsa Benchwarmer Marion Jones Packs Tulsa Arena Tulsa Shock fans were out in droves for their team's season opener with disgraced track and field phenom Marion Jones. Jones barely got off the bench and only scratched the scorecard with one personal foul.

Coach: Marion Jones' Teammates So Nervous They Were Airballing Layups Don't expect this headline on the next WNBA commercial.

History Lessons

File photo of athletics coach Francis of Canada talking with sprinter Johnson during a workout in Toronto Ben Johnson Says The Time Has Come To Speak The Truth - Will Appear At NYC Symposium, Release Book

Recommended: Mike Hurst - A Personal Perspective On Coach Charlie Francis A great read from a friend of Francis titled "End of good run for flawed coach."

Short Piece On Marathon WR-Setter Derek Clayton This short bio was sent to us by a reader. It's amazing to look back 40, 50 years to see what guys were doing in that era.

Random News - Ultras, Dallas, Clever Thieves And Shaheen In Kenya

Conference Champ Ducks Deliver *Conference Results Central

Duck Women Absolutely Crush It (215 Points!), Manly Eaton And Acosta Propel Duck Men
*Final Results
*Ken Goe PAC-10 Recaps Nicole Blood, Chris Derrick win 5k/10k double. Ashton Eaton wins decathlon, 110 Hurdles, LJ, 2nd in 100, runs leg on 4 x 1 ... Acosta scores in 1,500 (3:41), steeple (8:52), 5k (13:46) to give Ducks close win over USC.

Boards: *
AJ Acosta - 13:46.87 - 3rd place in 5,000 !!! 19 Points at Pac Tens!!! WHAT A STUD!!!
*
Wheating Wins, Primm chokes to 4th...
*
Upset > Zoe Buckman beats Katie Follet by 5/100ths to Take Pace Ten 1500m Title

Big 12
Lisa Koll 15:22!
*
LIVE Results *LIVE Blog
Nebraska 1st, Oklahoma 2nd, US #1 Texas A&M men 3rd. No problem for A&M women, who win handily.

Big 10
*
Final Results Big Ten Nailbiters! Gophers Grab Men's, PSU Lady Lions Take Women's Big Ten Titles. Minnesota had 3 scorers run 1:49 in 800, Angela Bizzarri wins 1,500 by 0.01 and 5,000 in 16:12, Wisco men 1-2 in 1,500, Franek scores 10, 5, 6 in Steeple, 1,500, 5k.

SEC Florida Men, LSU Women On Winning Track - Arkansas Men Getting Trounced
*Razorback Alain Bailey Leaps 27'5" To Win Epic LJ
*
Final Results

IC4A A first: GMU frosh Chris Carrington runs 1:48.96 and misses the final thanks to strong 800 prelims.
*IC4A/ECAC Results

LRC Photo Gallery

LRC Photos Tell Story Of Doha Diamond League Opener Who has time to look up every result? See our photos and find out who won every event in Doha.

LRC Special:
Photos From Haile's New Resort, Tsegaye Kebede's Crib And Addis National Stadium

*LRC Photos Of Khalid Khannouchi, Gebre Gebremariam Healthy Kidney 10k

Diamond League Kicks Off In Style *Results *Recaps *Photos

Asafa Powell of Jamaica competes during the Men's 100m final event at the IAAF Diamond League in Doha Blazing Times In Doha From 100m To 5,000 Asafa Powell impressed the crowd with a 9.75w in the first round. Distance times were fast as well - 12:51s for Eliud Kipchoge and Vincent Chepkok while David Rudisha and Asbel Kiprop ran 1:43s in the 800. Olympic champion Nancy Langat won the women's 1,500 in 4:01 to announce her return to the top. World champion Joseph Ebuya struggled home in 13:33 9th in the 5,000.

Asafa Powell Impresses, Allyson Felix Cruises In Opening Diamond League Meet Asafa Powell ran 9.81 in the 2nd round despite a terrible start.

Doha On The Boards: RUDISHA VS KAKI
Two 12:51's in Doha! Think there might be a new PED out there? At least someone noticed the 12:51. If an American ran this time, it's all anyone would talk about for a month. Instead, Kipchoge did it in 88-degree heat.
*Is this the year that Kipchoge cracks 1240..or at least sets a PR???
*Joseph Ebuya is not very good We don't care what he ran in Doha. He's the World XC champ. We're surprised he ran the race, but wish Universal Sports had even acknowledged him being on the starting line.
*Asafa Powell wind-aided 9.81

Upcoming

Road Mile In Minneapolis - Torrence's Roll Continues

Anna Pierce And David Torrence Win US 1 Mile Road Champs Torrence ran around the streets with an American flag and black socks after he took it to the field in the last 200m as Lopez Lomong was left in 6th. Sarah Bowman came up to pass race leader Christin Wurth-Thomas for 2nd, but nobody could match Pierce.
*Boards:
1 mile road championship thread

HBOs Real Sports Examines Barefoot Running In Next Episode Bryant Gumbel's show airs on Tuesday and will include an interview with Born to Run author Christopher McDougall.

21-Year-Old Jamaican Quarter Miler Female Tested Positive At World Indoors Jamaican athletics leaders are playing dumb as "promising" young sprinter Bobby-Gaye Wilkins returns A and B positives for unknown substance.

Sad News

Robert Yin, Grinell College Pole Vaulter, Dies From Injuries Sustained Vaulting Our thoughts go out to his family, friends, teammates, and competitors.

The Best Meet In The US This Past Weekend You Didn't Hear About

Georgia Tech Results Kelly-Ann Baptiste, 11.14 Trenier Moser (Clement) 2:01.60, Wallace Spearmon 20.38.

Tyson Gay Runs 19.41 In Manchester City Games

Asafa Powell 9.81 In Doha