Olympic Track & Field Action Has Started *Daily Schedule/Results *Complete T&F Schedule *Entry Lists *Watch Live
*IAAF Event-By-Event Olympic Previews *LRC Check Prediction Contest Scores/Change Picks

Allyson Felix Wins 200 Gold As USA Crushes It With 7 Medals & 3 Golds Brittney Reese also won gold as did Aries Merritt. The meet was "was slipping away" from the US when everything got turned around with a ton of medals. LaShinda Demus had to settle for silver despite running 52.77. *USATF Release on Historic Day
*After Coming Up Short 4 Years Ago, Allyson Felix and Brittney Reese Come Through For Gold in 200 and LJ in 2012  

110H: Aries Merritt Is On Fire - PRs at 12.82 as US Goes 1-2. Jason Richardson was a little disappointed he got silver.
Epstein: Merritt quest perfectionism pays off with gold medal in 110m hurdles
Reuters: After showing great promises as jr. world champ, Merritt arrives on center stage

LJ: After Four Straight World Titles, Brittney Reese Gets Long Sought After Olympic Gold
*Reese Celebrates with Mom Who Told Her To Turn Down Basketball Scholarship For College & Focus on Track


More Gold Coming Thursday?
Americans Sit 1-2 in Decathlon As Ahston Eaton Seems Poised For Gold He scored 67 less than he did on Day 1 in Eugene. Can he get the WR?

Tuesday:
A Great Read: LRC
Men's 1,500m Reaction, Leo Manzano Talks About His Medal, Matt Centrowitz His Near Miss, Makhloufi, Kiprop, Willis, More LRC gives you all the athlete reaction from the crazy men's 1,500m, which saw Leo Manzano take home the first US Olympic 1,500m medal since 1968. Leo says he felt awful but his prayer was answered; Centrowitz says he was running for gold and wouldn't change a thing; Asbel Kiprop praises Leo; Nick Willlis is amazed by Makhloufi's recovery but embarrassed by his own showing. What happened to the Kenyans? What about Nick Willis? What about Makhloufi's injury? *LRC Leo Photo Gallery

Race Recap: LRC 1,500 Final: Taoufik Makhloufi Dominates As Leo Manzano Surprises With Silver (updated) Makhloufi's last 300 was just way better than everyone else's, as anyone that tried to go with him paid a big price. Leo Manzano had the next-best last lap as he went from 10th to 2nd as Matt Centrowitz just missed a medal by .04. *IAAF Recap

*Deadspin: Algerian Runner Booted From Olympics For Quitting A Race Reinstated After Getting A Doctor's Note
*Taoufik Makhloufi: The Man Who Won Olympic Gold After Being Thrown Out For Not Trying An honest assesment of the DQ situation and questioning the rules around it.

News Off And Away From The Track

Monday

400 Final: 19-Year-Old Kirani James Wins Grenada's First Olympic Gold In The 400 Luguelin Santos took silver and Lalonde Gordon bronze. Kirani James is Mr. Clutch at age 19. Incredible.
*Grenada Prime Minister Declares National Holiday To Celebrate Kirani James' 400 Win
SI: US 400m Dynasty Comes To An End
*MB: Kirani James 43.94!!!!


RR:
Felix Sanchez Weeps Tears Of Joy And Dedicates 400H Win To His Grandmother, Who Passed Away After The First Prelim In Beijing 2008 He ran with a photo of him and his grandma tucked under his jersey and "Abuela" scrawled in black pen on the straps of his spikes. When he won, he honored his grandmother by kneeling in the middle of the track and kissing her photo.
*Yahoo Photos

LRC Taoufik Makhloufi (One Of The 1,500m Favorites) Kicked Out Of Olympic Track Meet Reinstated Makhloufi's performance in the 1,500m semifinal on Sunday was absolutely stunning but not as stunning as what happened 15 hours later. Less than 24 hours after the race, he was disqualified from the meet for not giving an honest effort in the 800m round 1 on Monday. After an appeal, he has now been reinstated. *Discuss

More 800: LRC The Americans React - Nick Symmonds & Duane Solomon Are Still Dreaming Of Medals As The 36-Year-Old Khadevis Robinson Fails To Make Final Yet Again KD has represented the US 9 times and has never made an outdoor final. We catch up with a disappointed Robinson as well as Duane Solomon and Nick Symmonds, who both won their heats and want to medal.

800 1st Round Race Recaps: LRC Duane Solomon Looks Like A 1:43.44 Guy As He Dominates His Heat As He And Nick Symmonds Advance To The Semis
*David Rudisha Rules Out Going For His Own WR At The Olympics

LRC Men's 1,500 Semis: After A Stunning, Stunning Win In Heat 1 - Do We Have A New Favorite? Algeria's Taoufik Makhloufi's win in heat 1 over reigning world and Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop came so quickly and was so dominant that former 1,500, mile and 2,000 world record holder Steve Cram couldn't believe what he was seeing. Is it too good to be true? Or is something wrong with Kiprop (and the others in his heat)? In the end, the major players all advanced, including two Americans, three Kenyans and Nick Willis. Is Andrew Wheating's season now done?
*
Kiprop: "I have a slight strain with my hamstring but there's nothing to worry about." *Discuss
*
Or Is It An Achilles?

Saturday

LRC Men's 10,000m: Mo Farah Gets It Done As Galen Rupp Gets Historic Silver Mo Farah powered home to win Britain's third track gold medal of the night and first long-distance gold in 104 years, as his training partner Galen Rupp got America's first men's flat long-distance track medal since 1964 with silver. The bronze went to Ethiopia's Tariku Bekele, as he held off his brother, Kenenisa.

More On Rupp's Historic Day:

Friday

LRC Women's 10,000m: Tirunesh Dibaba Makes The Case For Being The Greatest Ever The Tirunesh Dibaba/Vivian Cheruiyot dual did not live up to the hype, as Dibaba was simply stunning the final 500 meters, crushing the field to assert her claim to best female distance runner ever. Sally Kipyego got second, Vivian Cheruiyot third. Afterwards, Dibaba said she wants to run a marathon next year.
*MB: Dibaba!!? wtf *OFFICIAL WOMENS 10 000M THREAD

LRC 1,500 Round 1: The Favorites And All 3 Americans Advance But Not Without Some Intrigue Andrew Wheating has been doing more swimming than running, Nate Brannen has been just running, Nick Willis is/was planning for the final, Asbel Kiprop is trying to save energy, and Nixon Chepseba nearly fell. It doesn't matter. All of them are in the semifinal. LRC recap, analysis, and post-race athlete reaction.
*
Nick Willis Fitter Than When He Got Silver In Beijing He says he's been so excited it's been hard for him to sleep more than 6 hours a night.
*MB:
Chepseba has been reinstated to the 1500m *NBC snubs Wheating!!! *The Official Men's 1,500m Thread

Scientist Who Has Studied 100,000 Runners Says Don't Listen To Quacks - Running Is Good For You "It's important to not rush to any conclusions that 10 to 20 miles a week is the optimal dose."

Ryan Hall Talks To LetsRun.com

LRC Ryan Hall Hoping To Have "Best Stuff Ever" At 2012 London Olympic Marathon On Friday, LetsRun.com spent over 30 minutes talking with Ryan Hall. An optimistic Hall talked about his training has turned around, his goal for London, how he still thinks he's learning a ton, how he thinks his best marathon is ahead of him, and a whole lot more. We got Hall to give us the specifics of his training which has recently been changed to emphasize speed more often. Is he back at altitude? Hint: He gave the interview from the birthplace of LetsRun.com. How much mileage does he do? 20 x 1k? 10 miles of in and out 400s? *Discuss
*LRC  Help Pick Ryan Hall's Shoes For The Olympics Asics made 3 pairs of specially-designed shoes for Hall and he wants your input as to what he should wear.
*5,639-Word NY Times Front Page Sports Article On The Faith-Coached Ryan Hall Sara Hall: "The Bible is not going to tell you how to be a good runner ... I don't think Ryan is looking at the Bible for a formula, necessarily. There are certain things that God highlights for him that he applies to his training."

Amateur Hour II

Update: Nike Responds (Like We Thought They Would) "Gaining entry into the Nike box is an informal process and we plan to review our protocol for access for future events." *MB: Mark Block: Nike Responds

LRC Why Was A Man In The Midst Of A 10-Year Doping Ban Enjoying The 2012 US Olympic Track & Field Trials From The Nike Sky Box?
If you thought the days of looking the other way at doping were totally over, then you need to read this. Supposed former agent/coach Mark Block, who is in the midst of a 10-year doping ban, was seen by LetsRun.com njoying the Trials in the sky box of the #1 sponsor of both USATF and the Olympic Trials - Nike. All we can say is shameful. *MB: Discuss

2012 Monaco DL *Full Results

LRC: Evan Jager Breaks The American Steeplechase Record Evan Jager got the AR in just the 5th steeple of his life. Medalling at London isn't out of the question. Only a steeple recap above, but in other action, Asbel Kiprop made running 3:28.88 look easy as Nick Willis ran a 3:30.35 PR. And in the 800m Duane Solomon is now the fastest active American as he blitzed a 1:43.44 ahead of Nick Symmonds.
*Evan Jager Race Highlight Video
LRC Asbel Kiprop Reasserts Himself As The Olympic Favorite By Running A Sensational 3:28.88 The defending Olympic champ made a statement by running a 53.43 last lap with a 26-flat last 200 to mark himself as the London favorite. At the same time, Nick Willis marked himself as a medal contender with a stellar 3:30. Robby Andrews was a DNF and Centro and Manzano were DNSs. *Race Video
LRC
Duane Solomon Is Now The 5th-Fastest American Ever At 1:43.44 Americans, it's official - you can dream of your first 800 men's medal since 1992 after Duane Solomon and Nick Symmonds both ran in the 1:43s, but on this night, the hype justifiably belongs to Solomon, who had a massive PR. *MB: DUANE!!!
LRC The Rest Of The Meet: Alysia Montano, Jenny Simpson And Caster Semenya Disappoint In the women's 800, Semenya was awful throughout and Montano didn't look like a medal contender. In the 3k, Simpson was unable to break 70 on her final lap.

Australian Hurdler's Provocative Pre-Race Dance Generates Thousands Of YouTube Hits
*MB: Michelle Jenneke Warm Up Routine. Oh, My...

Olympic Track & Field Action Has Started *Daily Schedule/Results *Complete T&F Schedule *Entry Lists *Watch Live
*IAAF Event-By-Event Olympic Previews *LRC Check Prediction Contest Scores/Change Picks

Getting Ready For Thursday: LRC Friends And Family Preview Of Thursday's Track And Field Action At The 2012 Olympics Day 7 at the Olympics should be really good as legend Usain Bolt goes for gold #5 in the 200 and David Rudisha tries to become a legend with gold #1 in the 800. Can Ashton Eaton get the WR again? Can Christian Taylor go 18.00 m? Plus Caster Semenya and all the US 800 women. *IAAF Day 7 Preview

200 Showdown Highlights Thursday Action:
Epstein:
Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake prepare for 200-meter final showdown The 200 is both men's favorite.
Layden: Usain Bolt regains confidence, but Yohan Blake will challenge him in 200 meters final *SpeedEndurance.com: Why Yohan Blake will Beat Usain Bolt

Wednesday PM: LRC Women's 1,500 Semis: Jenny Simpson & Hannah England Go Home As Morgan Uceny And Shannon Rowbury Advance To Final Uceny and Rowbury automatically qualified for the final but the dream of an Olympic medal will have to wait for 4 more years for last year's gold and silver medallists. America's world champion Jenny Simpson finished last in her heat and then made no excuses afterwards. Rowbury gave credit to Leo Manzano for inspiring her.
*LRC: Cathing Up With Some Of The Leading Foreigners in the 1,500 We give you additional thoughts from Aregawi, Kostetskaya, Jamal, Weightman and Dobriskey.

Wednesday AM: LRC
M 5,000m Round 1, All 3 Americans Advance And Medal Chance Increase As Gebrhiwet Injured, Soi Out It's a new era. For the first time since 1932, America has three runners in the Olympc 5,000m final as Galen Rupp, Bernard Lagat and Lopez Lomong all made it. One of them, not the one you'd expect, talked about winning it. Their odds got better as Hagos Gebrhiwet revealed he is injured and Edwin Soi went out.

W800 1st Round: LRC
Race Recap: The Big Names That Start Including The Three Americans Advance As Sarah Attar Makes History The big names that took to the track all advanced, including the three Americans, including an injured Geena Gall and Alysia Montano, who had the fastest time of the day. But the day belonged to the two slowest runners of the day, one of whom was Pepperdine's and Saudi Arabia's Sarah Attar. Ethiopian star Fantu Magiso was a big-name DNS.

LRC Column/Editorial: Sarah Attar Makes Olympic Track And Field History For Saudi Arabia In 800m, But Is It Enough? Imagine the outrage if the South African delegation made its black athletes walk behind the whites and told them to not give interviews or mingle with whites."It's time for the IOC to stop supporting sexism. Gender discrimination should be treated no differently than racial discrimination. ... How about for a start, the Saudi women come out first at the closing ceremonies? Come out before anyone else enters the stadium, that would be a step in the right direction."

*LRC Meet Sarah Attar - Saudi Arabia's First Female Track & Field Athlete The woman who will make history in traditional Islamic attire at the Olympics is a Pepperdine sophomore who runs in shorts during the collegiate season. She's never run an 800 in college, but that's what she'll run in London.
*Alberto Salazar Says Mo Farah And Galen Rupp Are Feeling Recovered And Ready For 5k
*Allyson Felix Looking For Redemption In 200 As All 3 Americans Advance To The Final
*Usain Bolt And Yohan Blake Prepare For The 200 Showdown In What They Both Consider Their Best Event
*Assafa Powell Won't Compete In Jamaican 4 X 1 Due To Injury He's out for the rest of the season, but plans on being back in 2013.

Tuesday:

Monday

W Steeple: LRC World Champion Yuliya Zaripova Becomes Olympic Steeplechase Champion Zaripova was a deserving champion as she led from to start to finish, getting rid of her challengers with a blistering last lap. The US's Emma Coburn PRed to finish night as Bridget Franek struggled. *Discuss
*
Updated: Americans Emma Coburn And Bridget Franek React On Their First Olympic Final

W 1,500 1st Round: LRC Jenny Simpson Survives A Big Scare As Three Americans Advance And Genzebe Dibaba Goes Home
(link fixed) A letup at the line is what seemingly saved the reigning world champion Jenny Simpson from bombing out in the first round. The #4 seed Genzebe Dibaba did go home.
*MB: What was Jenny Simpson doing?

More Monday Results:

Sunday

M Steeple: LRC Ezekiel Kemboi Wins Second Olympic Steeplechase Title - Is He The Greatest Steeplechaser In History? Kemboi blitzed everyone in the last 300 and had time to finish out in lane eight once again before doing his now-patented victory dance. Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad took silver as he did in 2008 and Kenya's Abel Mutai won bronze. Defending champ Brimin Kipruto was tripped with 700 to go and heroically tried to rally, but ended up fifthEvan Jager and Donn Cabral were 6th and 8th.
*Ezekiel Kemboi Says His Track Career Is Over Now And He'll Be Switching To The Marathon

100 Final:
BOLT: Tim Layden: "In many ways, this one was better." (link fixed) If you ever thought there was a better short sprinter in the world think again. Usain Bolt delivered on the biggest stage once again in the gretest 100m final ever. All 8 men would have broken 10.00 but Asafa Powell, the man who has gone sub 10 more than anyone else in the world, pulled up before the finish.

LRC
Man Throws Beer Bottle That Nearly Hits Usain Bolt, Gets Beaten By Female Judo Champ
*Lightning Strikes Twice: Usain Bolt Defends His 100m Title With A 9.63 Olympic Record Yohan Blake was second and Justin Gatlin just outleaned Tyson Gay for 3rd. Ryan Bailey was 5th.
*MB: Bolt 9.64 OR!!!! *Justin Gatlin! UGH *Bolt pauses interview to show respect to the USA anthem
*Asafa Powell Pulls Up In 100 Final With Injured Groin And Jogs In For Last Place

W Marathon:
LRC Tiki Gelana Wins 2012 Olympic Marathon As Shalane Flanagan And Kara Goucher Finish 10th And 11th The star-studded field featured Mary Keitany, Edna Kiplgat, and Liliya Shobukhova, but in the end it was the marathon's new star Tiki Gelana who got the win. American Shalane Flanagan was 10th and teammate Kara Goucher 11th. LRC analysis, recap and more from London.
*Kara Goucher After Marathon Finish: "Honestly, I haven't felt that kind of pain since I had a baby. I'm serious." Flanagan said all the turns really broke her rhythm and "trashed her legs."
*IAAF Marathon Recap *MB: OFFICIAL WOMENS MARATHON THREAD

More Saturday Stuff

Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah And Greg Rutherford Get Gold On Britain's Greatest Olympic Night Ever 80,000 fans got what they wanted - gold for Britain. Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis delivered as promised and the bonus was Greg Rutherford's gold in the long jump on a special night for Britain.

Starting Monday:
Final Is Friday At 3:55 PM ET: LRC
Women's 1,500 Preview: Is Anyone Favored In This Wide-Open Affair? And What About The Americans? Do Simpson, Rowbury or Uceny stand a chance? And is the favorite Russian Ekaterina Kostetskaya, who went to HS in the US?

Doping Corner

  • LRC Guess Who Was In Monaco On Friday? Banned Agent Mark Block The banned agent Mark Block, who just happened to be hanging out at the Nike hospitality suite for the Olympic Trials, just happened today to be in Monaco, site of the Diamond League meet. Evidence also points to him also being at the Penn Relays, Mt. SAC and the Jamaican Invite. Plus he was in Daegu last year. And a trusted source says Block drank a celebratory beer in "Cap's Corner" at the Trials, where he also watched the women's 100 from the Nike box and not just the 200. Hey, Nike - It's pretty easy; why don't you ask John Capriotti, your Global Director of Athletics, if he knew Block was in the VIP area. If so, fine or suspend him for poor judgement. At a minimum, tell him, "Block's presence is unacceptable." And tell your star athletes Jason Richardson and Carmelita Jeter the same thing.
  • IAAF Announces 9 Doping Suspensions And The Worldwide Press Eats It Up:
    Rojo
     Nine Over-Hyped Doping Suspensions Or A Savvy PR Move Gone Too Far? Headlines across the globe are talking about the 9 doing suspensions announced by the IAAF on Wednesday. Yet LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson finds himself not happy with the way the development was announced and broadcast to the world. *MB: IAAF finds 6 new dopers using biological passport
  • LRC 8:16 Spanish Steeplechaser Dropped From 2012 Olympic Team Amid EPO/HGH Doping Probe A local Spanish paper has released a reported email exchange between 8:16 steepler Angel Mullera and a doctor from

Saudia Arabia Sends Women To Olympics

LRC Meet Sarah Attar - Saudi Arabia's First Female Track & Field Athlete The woman who will make history in traditional Islamic attire at the Olympics is a Pepperdine sophomore who runs in shorts during the collegiate season. She's never run an 800 in college, but that's what she'll run in London.
*NY Times: Attar's Family Asked School Website To Take Down Photos Of Her Competing In Singlet And Shorts
*Philip Hersh Says Recent Gender News Isn't Quite As Good As It Seems Still needs to generate change at home.

LRC Catches Up With Carmelita Jeter & Jason Richardson

LRC Carmelita Jeter And Jason Richardson Answer Questions About Banned Agent Mark Block LetsRun.com's Weldon Johnson asked Jeter and Richardson about their association with banned agent Mark Block. Jeter and Richardson, to their credit, didn't dodge the questions. *Discuss

Day 6 Photo Gallery: Allsyon Felix, Aries Merritt, Brittney Reese, Women's 1500m Semis

Day 5 Photo Gallery: Leo 1500m Silver, Men's High Jump, Men's 800m Semis, Men's Discus Final

Day 4 Photo Gallery: King James, Felix Sanchez, Jenn Suhr, Women's Steeple

Day 3 Photo Gallery: Men's 100, Men's Steeple, Women's 400, More

Women's Olympic Marathon Photo Gallery

Non-Olympic News

  • Julia Lucas Recovering From Trials Disappointment By Hitting Up The Road Circuit On the Trials, she said, "Running a safe race would have meant that I would be in London. Of course I would rather be in London. I just got mad watching that race and I went into my own race saying that I wasn't going to run in a tentative and what I considered dishonorable way. I was going to go after it. I think that for the top three women at the Trials to go is the right thing. And Kim Conley deserved to go because she got third. So do I wish I had run it differently? Yes, I wish I could have won the race. Do I wish I would have intentionally slowed the pace in order to get fourth and still go? No. That’s the opposite of what I love about the sport."
  • Mathew Kisorio Admits Doping He also claims EPO use is wide spread in Kenya.
  • Chris Solinsky To Coach At University Of Portland

More Bolt And 100m News

Day 2 Photo Gallery: Olympic 10,000m Final Photo Gallery

You Might Want To Update Your LRC Prediction Contest: Tirunesh Dibaba Confirms She Will Race Olympic 5,000

Mark Block Talks About His "Mistake"

LRC Mark Block Gives His Side Of The Story The banned agent talks to flotrack and says he travels to track meets across the globe as a form of therapy, says he technically he still can coach athletes (yet is never asked if he actually does), says he went into the Nike VIP suite - where he felt at home - at the Olympic Trials because it was cold, and feels as if he's paid a steep price for his mistake of ten years ago. He never tells or is asked what his "mistake" was - namely the doping of his world champion wife. We obviously disagree with his take on things and tell you why.

Day 1 Friday Photo Gallery: Women's 10k And Men's Shot Final, Round 1 Steeple, 1,500

Day 1 US Non-Distance: Reese Hoffa Gets US's First Track Medal With A Bronze In The Shot Put 2008 champ Tomasz Majewski repeated to win over David Storl. US's Christian Cantwell and Ryan Whiting were 4th and 9th. All US runners advanced in the first rounds of the w100, w400, and m400 hurdles. Carmelita Jeter won her heat in 10.83.

The Conscience Of The Sport

LRC What Are Carmelita Jeter And Jason Richardson Doing With Mark Block? All year long, two of the America's three individual track World Champions from last year have been traveling the globe and associating with convicted doper Mark Block. Whether it's been dinner in California, a walk to the track in Jamaica or a pre-meet stretch in China, Jeter and Richardson haven't been shy about continuing to associate with someone deeply involved in the BALCO scandal, who is currently supposed to be banned from the sport for ten years.  All we want to know is "Why?"

LRC We Rank The US Mid-D And Distance Olympians' Odds For A Medal No one has the guts to rank all the US Olympians in terms of their medal hopes but us. While we're a little fearful of the athletes' reactions, we think the piece is very positive, as for the first time in recent memory, if not ever, the US men have a legitimate medal contender in every event. *Discuss

Help Out A LRCer Who Has Terminal Cancer: Help Cancer Guy

RIP Oregon Track Clasic Founder Paul Banta

Craziest Sports Video Ever - Worth A Watch

 

A Legend Passes Too Young

LRC Eight-Time US Cross-Country Champion Pat Porter Dies In Plane Crash Updated: We've added a great photo of Porter with 3-time World XC Champ Lynn Jennings.
*
Authorities: "There are no indications as to what may have caused this accident." Porter and his 15-year-old son and a neighbohood friend have perished.

Usain Bolt The Video Game Is Out

LRC Usain Bolt The Video Game For Iphone/Ipod - Q & A With Friend Of LRC Matt Taylor Bolt!, the Usain Bolt Iphone/Ipod free video game was released yesterday. We talk to LRC guest columnist Matt Taylor, who was instrumental in the game coming to fruition.