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David Monti Takes A Look At Morgan Uceny's Rise To The Top Of The 1,500 Ranks The daughter of a brick-layer and bus driver knows a thing or two about hard work. She gives a lot of credit to her training partner Anna Pierce for her rise as well as her coach.

Ryan Hall Teleconference Highlights
Ryan Hall Sees BOA Chicago Marathon To Olympic Trials 14-Week Gap As Ideal Hall also sounds like he's tired of being the rabbit: "In Boston I functioned as the pacemaker."

Rojo Gets Props In A Brief Chat With Sage Canaday What other college coach would let his athlete run a marathon in college and run the Trials the week before he qualified for NCAAs in cross? Canaday has now gone on to 2:16:52 and to write a book Running With The Hansons.

News From Europe

• Disciplinary Hearing For Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi Benabbad To Take Place On August 4
• Good Idea: 700+ European Jrs. Go To Anti-Doping Program Where A Lottery Was Held To Send Them To European Champs Last Year People need to be taught at an early age that winning at all costs is not what sports is about. Winning fairly is.
• Finland: Former Oregon Runner Zoe Buckman Wins in Europe in 4:06.06 - Just .06 From 'B' Standard That's a big 2.51 pb. Craig Miller was 2nd in the men's 1500 in 3:40.09. *Finland Results

World Champs Are 30 Days Away

• Koreans Start 30 Day Countdown To World's The article claims that at the last world championship there were 8 billion tv viewers. We don't believe it. There are only 6.75 billion people on the earth.
  
• 132 Food Inspectors To Be On Hand in Daegu To Make Sure Food Isn't Tainted Apparently food poisoning is common in the summer in parts of Asia. Last week, a Chinese court sentence people for selling pork tainted with a poisonous chemical.
  

Ryan To Run Chicago

Ryan Hall To Run Chicago Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune has broken the news that Hall will run this year's Bank of America Chicago Marathon and take on Boston runner-up Moses Mosop. Three months later, Ryan will run the Olympic Marathon Trials. The appearance fee of Ryan is so high that the Chicago/Trials double makes a lot of cents sense.
*Lornah Kiplagat To Run Amsterdam Marathon In October

Worlds Are Coming Soon ... And LRC Will Be There

• US 5,000 Champ Molly Huddle Hasn't Run In A Month Due To Plantar Fasciitis- Will Still Try To Run Worlds
• Ethiopia Releases Provisional Daegu Worlds Team Rupp's medal chances seem to be going up by the minute, as this article makes it sound like Bekele is still struggling. 5,000m - Men: Dejen Gebremeskel, Tariku Bekele, Abera Kuma, Yenew Alamirew. Women: Meseret Defar, Sentayehu Ejigu, Genzebe Dibaba. 10,000m - Men: Imane Merga, Sileshi Sihine, Ibrahim Jeilan (and Kenenisa Bekele, if he's ready). Women: Meselech Melkamu, Belaynesh Oljira, Tigist Kiros.
• Russia's World Championships Team Is Announced Two marathoners with the same name, Aleksey Sokolov, will race.
• Philips Idowu Says He Doesn't Even Know Where His Medals Are, But That's Okay Because He Knows He'll Win More

Not Your Normal Boring Reads

• Alberto Probably Is Calling BMW On Thursday
  Bryan Clay & Sanya Richards-Ross But Not Galen Rupp To Be Helped By BMW's Tech Gadgets BMW will help 10 athletes that are part of its BMW's Performance Team by using "the stereo-vision technology that the company tests in its automobile safety systems" on athletes.
• Recommended Read US 100m Hurdles Champ Kellie Wells Is Not Afraid To Admit She Was Sexually Abused As A Child - Wants To Help Others Sexually abused for a long time before being raped as a 16-year-old by her stepfather, Wells is adamant about not hiding her past, as too many people sweep similar stories under the rug and the abuse conditions. She's hopes her track success allows her to form a foundation to help abused families. "People don't listen to the girl in fifth or sixth place who is not making teams. They listen to the person who is successful, and if I'm successful it means I can share my story with girls and boys and women who will look up to me. Your past doesn't have to dictate your future, and that's an important thing I want to stress to people. Just because something bad happened to you, that doesn't mean that is who you are."
• AJ May Be Leaving Oregon, But At Least He's Being Replaced By A Kid With Personality
  Lukas V Talks About His Dream Date & Much, Much More "Anything would be perfect with the girl of my dreams but if I had to choose I would make her a really nice dinner, then we would go out to a concert (either John Mayer or Dave Matthews Band) that's at a beautiful park where afterwards we would walk around in the dark holding hands while eating ice cream. Once we have nothing more to say to each other we would just gaze at the stars and end up kissing. We would have to be in the moment to know where things go on from there ..."
• Today's Sign Of The Apocalypse: Kenyan Paper Profiles Racewalker
• WSJ Feature Says British Track & Field Team Is Terrible Meanwhile, the people at Athletics Weekly, whose job it is to cover the sport for a living, are saying Britain is currently enjoying a second "golden era."'
• Meet The Mother & Daughter Sprint Combo Of Irina And Olga Lenskiy Both are at the top of their events in Israel at the same time. Mom at age 40, though, was able to beat her daughter at her specialty of 100m by the slimmest of margins - .01.

Geoffrey Mutai Wins In Castelbuono He ran 29:05 to finish over a minute ahead of NYC Marathon champ Gebre Gebremariam in 2nd (30:13) and Mathew Kisorio 3rd (30:14). London Marathon champ Emmanuel Mutai finished sixth in 30:48 and Ryan Hall was supposed to race this, but his blog says he's currently in Switzerland.
*Highlights Video
*Top 10 Results

Upcoming: Gebre Gebremariam Returning To Defend Title At Beach To Beacon 10k Sam Chelanga will also be in the field. US marathon record holder Deena Kastor and twice Olympic silver medallist Catherine Ndereba in women's field.

World Champs News

• Preview Of UK World Champs Trials This Weekend
• Nickson Chepseba Looking To Prove The Team Selectors Wrong After Being Dropped From The Kenyan World Champs Squad Apparently Chepseba only learned he was replaced on the WC 1,500 team by Daniel Komen when he read the news in the media. Article also mentions Chepseba's unusual transition to the 1,500, as he was originally a volleyball player, then a 10k runner, and then moved down to the 15.
• Jake Robertson & Adriean Blincoe Makes New Zealand's World Champs Team In The 5k

Stockholm Diamond League Is Friday

Provisional Entry Lists For Stockholm DL The women's 5k will have a good match-up between OTC's Sally Kipyego, Vivian Cheruiyot, Shalane Flanagan, and Viola Kibiwot. In the men's 1,500, Silas Kiplagat, Asbel Kiprop and Nick Willis vs. US runners Russell Brown, Andrew Wheating, Lopez Lomong, Will Leer, Leo Manzano and David Torrence. The women's 800 has Caster Semenya, Morgan Uceny and Kenia Sinclair. 3k steeple: Paul Koech (guy Brimin Kipruto needs to thank for almost getting him the WR) headlines field that includes US's Dan Huling and Kyle Alcorn.
*Carmelita Jeter Wants To Break Stadium Record At Stockholm The record is 10.90 set by Irina Privalova in 1994 and if she breaks it, she'll win a 1-carat diamond worth $10,000.

NCAA:
*HEPS XC Champs Moved From VCP To Princeton Due to the ongoing construction, Heps will be held at somewhere other than Van Cortlandt Park for just the 3rd time in the 72-year history of the meet.
*NCAA Now Requiring Schools To Monitor Social Media There is a company that will "flag" all rostered athletes' names so that the athletic department can follow them and be notified about what they say.

London News

• UK's Olympic 400m Champ Christine Ohuruogu Was Originally The "Poster Girl" For The London Olympics She was replaced by heptathlete Jessica Ennis after she received a 1-year ban for missing three drug tests.
• Today: BBC To Run Program About Top UK Olympic Moments That "Stopped The Nation"
• UK Says They Are On Target To Get 4th Place In 2012 Medal Tally
• London Program Encourages People To Run Home After Work By Carrying Their Bags For Them
• London Stadium Debate Still Going On And Could Stop London From Winning 2017 World Champs Bid
• Two-Thirds Of UK Parents Admit That Olympics Have Failed To Inspire Children

Post-Monaco Diamond League-Related News

• Chris Solinsky Tweets About DNF & Admits He Should Have Finished Race "Tough Pill to swallow! Should gotten back on to at least get A standard 4 next year, but emotions (angry) took over. Back 2 Amy & training."
• Italian Dinner Parties & Natural Ice Baths Have Contribued To Nick Willis Getting In Medal Shape Willis trains, lives and races smarter than just about everyone.
• Galen Rupp Did Workout After Falling In Monaco
• Nesta Carter Thought He Had Beaten Bolt "I thought I had him. But in the last 20m I messed up right there."
• Prior To Monaco, Bolt Said He Wants Asafa's Start "If I could take one thing from any one athlete, it would be Asafa (Powell's) start. I would be unstoppable that day. If I could start as fast as Asafa can start, it's all over."
• After Getting Kicked In Calf In Paris On July 8th, Kenia Sinclair Resumed Training On July 21 Sinclair had been enjoying a great 2011, as she beat Morgan Uceny in NYC at 1,500 after rocking the SMR at Penn.

Previous Post-Monaco News

• Bernard Lagat Says He Has Mixed Emotions About His Monaco Race, Calls Mo Farah The Clear Favorite For Worlds And Even Compares Him To Kenenisa Bekele "All of us are going over there as the underdog ... I like being in the position where I can say, 'He's the guy and we're going to go after it.' For once, everyone won't be going in hunting Bernard Lagat."
  *Lagat Interview: Talks About Making Sure He Goes For His Drug Test Includes links to other interviews with Nick Symmonds, Morgan Uceny, Mo Farah and others.
• Good Interview With Nick Willis Post-Monaco 1,500 PR Talks about the "burden of his silver medal" and jokes about helping to break up the fist fight "to get on TV."
• French 1,500m Runners Suspended Over Monaco Brawl And Also Lose Their Appearance Fees Could even endanger their chances of competing at the World Championships.
  *Some Better Quotes From The Fighting Frenchman Mekhissi-Benabbad: "I thought it was all a bit of a laugh, I approached him and he gave me a little headbutt, after which I responded. It's normal." Baala's comments were a bit angrier.
• Bolt Says He's Not Worried After Close Call To Nesta Carter In Monaco And maybe he doesn't need to be, as Carter didn't make the Jamaican team for Daegu. Just shows the depth of the Jamaican 100m team.
  *Watch Great Slow Motion Replay Of Bolt Just BARELY Winning
• 400m Winner Amantle Montsho Plays Down Her Status As WCs Favorite She's won 4 straight DL races, but she's right to still be worried as she only has the 2nd fastest time in the year and Allyson Felix still might do the 200/400 double.

DN Galan Stockholm Diamond League Is Friday *Timetable

LRC DN Galan Preview: Merritt Returns, Asbel Kiprop & Silas Kiplagat Clash, And A Great Women's 800 And 5,000 Usain Bolt will race the clock in the 200, but the big story of the meet may be the return to action from his ExtenZe male-enhancement related drug ban for LaShawn Merritt. In the men's 1,500, Kenya's the world's best in Asbel Kiprop and Silas Kiplagat will duel in a race that contains a ton of Americans. 10 women who have run 1:58 this year will clash in the women's 800, including US champ Alysia Montano and Caster Semenya, as well as the women who was the top middle-distance runner on the year before getting injured - Kenia Sinclair. In the women's 5,000, 2011 Kenyan champ Sylvia Kibet will try to hand the best women's distance runner in the world in 2011, Vivian Cheruiyot, her first loss of the season on the track in a race that will feature another American record attempt by Shalane Flanagan. Plus Paul Kipsiele Koech and two Americans in the steeple. We break it all down for you - even the B heats that feature Nate Brannen, Molly Beckwith and Will Leer.
Thursday Shot Put: On Comeback Trail From Feb. Surgery, Cantwell (21.70) Wins Shot Put In City Centre He'll try to defend his world title next month. Valerie Adams (20.57) won the women's.
*IAAF Preview: Bolt Wants 1st Victory in Stockholm and MJ's Stadium Record (19.77)The Robles vs. Oliver hurdle matchup is off as Robles is injured. *AP Preview: Bolt Wants To Win - Merritt Returns *BBC Preview
*Despite Struggling So Far in Comeback, Yelena Isinbayeva Declares, “I am still the best vaulter in the world… nothing has changed” We'll find out on Friday if that's true as the women's pv is great and features the world indoor champ as well as the outdoor world leader plus Isinbayeva.*
*High-Class Women's 800m On Tap In Stockholm

Athletics Kenya Grows A Brain
Athletics Kenya Now is Letting World Championship Team Members Race In Europe AK Head: “We have noticed that our athletes have become more professional in how they are competing and are using these races to maintain their form. This is very good for our country and that is why we allowed them to enter these events."

2011 Aviva World Trials Take Place This Weekend in Britain *Meet Website

• 6 Events To Watch At This Weekend's UK Trials Mo Farah's 9th straight 5000 victor is a mere formality.
• Athletics Weekly Event By Event Preview of Women's Champs Hard to believe that no British women have A or B standard in 5,000 or 10,000. Thankfully, Worknesh Kidane, who in 2003 won World Cross gold, will race New Zealand’s Kim Smith and Japan’s Tomoka Inadomi in the 10,000.
• Athletics Weekly Event By Event Preview of Men's Champs Lots of foreign men will make the men's 10,000 more interesting.
• Top Two British LJers Chris Tomlinson and Greg Rutherford To Miss Trials With LJ They'll both go to world's unless two others get the A.
• After Giving Up On Heptathlon Because She Could Never Run 800m, 19-Yr-Old Holly Bleasdal Is Now 4th in World in PV
  

News Coming Out Of Europe

• Mo Farah's Moving Up To The Marathon ... after 2012, he says. "I think 2012 will probably be my last track season, Ill probably move up to the marathon from 2013 onwards."
• Even Though She's Doubling At Worlds, Allyson Felix May Run Just 200m At London Olympics
• Czech Republic's Decathlon WR Holder Roman Sebrle Will Compete At French Champs, Which Start Thursday The 36-year-old needs 8,000 points to qualify for WCs. We say - let him compete regardless.
• We 100% Agree: Michael Stow, the head of science and medicine at UK Anti-Doping, said he does not believe that substances such as cocaine and ecstasy should be treated in the same way as performance-enhancing drugs.

Injuries, Injuries

• Battling Injury Problems, Irish 400m Record Holder (44.77) David Gillick Calls It A Season - Sacks Tyson Gay's Coach Interesting to note that Tyson Gay isn't the only Lance Brauman-coached athlete struggling with injuries. He's going back to his old Irish coach.
• Olympic Medallist At 400H, Tasha Danvers, To Miss Rest Of Season With Injury

Week In Review

LRC Week That Was: American Men's Medal Chances In Daegu With less than a month until Worlds, in our weekly look at the world of track and field we look at the American men's distance medal chances in Daegu. And while our beloved Menjo won't be in Daegu, he is in the news. Plus we've got some football talk from Florida coach Will Muschamp, a Brit celebrating July 4th, and Alberto on old school and new school training.

US News

• Recommended Read Many Elite US Distance Runners Live In Flagstaff Beneath The Poverty Level Trying To Chase Their Dreams
• Q&A With UC Irvine's Charles Jock, Who Is The 3rd Man On The US's World Champs 800 Team
• Interview With Lukas Verzbicas About His Transition From Running Back To The Triathlon
• Athletics Weekly Maps Out Allyson Felix's World Champs Race Schedule With relays, she could face up to 10 races in nine days.
• Marion Jones Leads Top 10 List Of Most "Shocking" Athletes Caught Doping

Professor Attributes Jamaica's Wealth Of Fast Sprinters To A Diet Of "Yam And Bananas"

Russian Vera Sokolova's 20K Race Walking WR Ratified By The IAAF In related news, Guinness World Records ratifies records for largest tonsils removed and most nails filed in 8 hours.

The Olympics Are 1 Year Away *NBC Video

• WP: China, Russia And Many Others Hope To Chip Away At USA's Olympic Dominance
• Seb Coe: London Olympics To Be "Toughest Ever" On Doping
• Illegal Betting, Match Fixing As Dangerous As Doping, Says IOC Chief
• All The Planning In The World Won't Save London Games From UK's Rainy Weather
  
  UK:
• UK "Rolling Out The Red Carpet" For IAAF President Lamine Diack In Lobbying Effort To Host 2017 World Champs Never underestimate the power of kissing up.
• Mo Farah Says That He Will Move Up To The Marathon After 2012
• Study Done On UK Olympians Reveals That You Have A Better Chance Of Winning An Olympic Medal Based On Your First Name Study concludes that your best chance of winning is if your name is John or Katherine because those are the names most common to UK Olympic medallists. This is probably true and it has nothing to do with the fact that those are popular British names.
• UK Coach Van Commenee Says "Nervous Athletes Are Just Not Prepared" And Are "Unprofessional"
  *Are Van Commenee's Coaching Tactics Brilliant Or Bullying? "Elite athletes have the ability to focus on their own business, no matter what sort of noise of people are around - also, no matter what sort of relationship they have with their parents, their fiancée or their head coach. They are focused, in this case, on jumping far. The rest is not relevant."
• At This Rate There May Not Be Any British Athletes At The Opening Ceremony
  *Seb Coe Says Athletes Should Be "Free To Choose" Whether Or Not To Attend

US News

• It's Official: Allyson Felix Doing The 200/400 Double At World Champs She is seeking to make history twice, as no one has ever won the 200/400 double world titles and she is seeking an unprecedented 4th straight title in the 200.
• Video Interview With Ryan Hall: Talks About His Training And Racing Since Boston Says he's enjoying the freedom of being self-coached, as he's on the Europe circuit with Sara and training-wise he's really learned to listen to his body rather than "be a slave to a schedule."
• Carl Lewis Was Part Of "Project 30" Report Group that was formed after a disappointing 2008 Olympics to assess the issues and problems in US track and field so that they could be corrected and help the US hit the goal of 30 medals in 2012. He said a big issue lies with the relays and that "we're talking about 30 medals and we still haven't figured out how to pass the baton."
• Coaches Try To Increase Interest In The Sport By Holding Pole Vault Competition On The Beach Rory Quiller won the men's elite class with 17.6 ft., while Jess Mira won for the women in 11.6 ft. The event was held in Lake George, NY.

International News/Results

• After Pulling Out Of Lucerne DL With Hand Injury Yelena Isinbayeva Says She Is Fine To Compete She will still compete in Stockholm this Friday. Article also mentions that Russia Athletics did not make her compete at their national championships to gain selection to WC team as most nations do.
• Kenyan Marathon Coach David Letting Replaced By Abraham Kiplimo Ahead Of WCs
• Finnish Savo Games: Colombia’s Catherine Ibarqueno's 14.59m TJ Highlights Meet Australia's Youcef Abdi won the steeple in 8:16.41.
• German Champs Day 2: Christina Obergföll Dominates Jav With MR Of 68.86m

Last Updates From Junior Meets:

Pan Am: IAAF Recap: US Dominates With 53 Medals
*US Wins 4 More Golds On Final Day Of Pan Am Juniors: Immanuel Hutchinson Wins 800 In 1:49.04
*Recap Of Jamaica's Performances

Euro Juniors: IAAF Recap: Angelica Bengtsson Breaks Yelena Isinbayenva's Pole Vault Meet Record With 4.57m

Top Weekend Action

Russian Champs: Two Russians Led By Yekaterina Martynova Run 4:01 In 1,500 IAAF Martynova's 4:01.68 was nearly a 3-second PR. Two men ran 3:36 in the 1,500.
*Day 3 Russian Champs Recap World record holder and 2008 Olympic steeple champion Gulnara Galkina-Samitova, who is on the way back after maternity leave, was 4th in 9:32.07.
*Athletics Weekly Of Entire Russian Champs Drug chat Anastasiya Kapachinskaya ran 49.35.

World Military Games: Recap - Kenyans Excel A couple of real Kenyan studs showed up, including Mark Kiptoo, who was 4th at the Kenyan trials in the 5,000, and Lausanne 5k winner Vincent Chepkok. They both ran 13:06.

Barcelona: IAAF Recap: Spain's Kevin López Wins 800 In 1:44.49 As US's Tyler Mulder Gets 3rd In 1:44.83 Stuff many people missed in the results included Zerseney Tadese's 5+ second win in the 5000 in 12:59 as well as Leo Manzano 1:45.52, Lopez Lomong 3:33.59, Russell Brown 3:36.34, and Adrian Blincoe with A standard of 13:18.27. Yesterday, we mentioned Ben Bruce 8:19 Steeple, AJ Acosta 3:38 1,500m B Win, Ohuruogo 51.49, Hannah England 4:01 1,500, Geena Gall 2:01.

Pan Ams Jrs: *Results
Day 3 Recap - More Domination Of Weak Distance Events By US Athletes
Day 2 Recap Parker Stinson got gold in the 10,000.
Day 1 Recap US Results: Omar Kaddurah Wins 1,500m With 56 Last Lap
*DyeStat Coverage *Milesplit Coverage

European Juniors: 2011 Meet Concludes
*Ireland's Ciara Mageean Wins Silver After 1,500 After Trying To Win From Front
*Fairy Tale Ending - Host Estonia Wins One Medal - Gold - On Last Throw Of Javelin

German Champs: Day 1 Recap

Science Of Sport Guys Making News

• Recommended Read: Ross Tucker - Our Friend From The Science Of Sport Blog - Summarizes The Belief That Oscar P Has Huge Advantages www.iol.co.za
• Science Of Sport Guys Get NYTimes Column: "A Doping-Free Tour de France?" Performances have apparently returned to pre-EPO and pre-1989 levels.

*wind aided.