Only In Japan - The Good & Bad
- The Good: 35,000 Fans Turn Out For Nittai University's Hakone Ekiden Victory Parade Even at Oregon, only a handful of fans show up to celebrate the Duck XC titles.
- The Bad: Despite Ongoing Scandal Involving Allegations Of The Repeated Use Of Corporal Punishment By Its Head Coach, Toyokawa Kogyo HS Will Run This Weekend's Ekiden After signing a pledge apologizing for overstepping his bounds of authority, the coach allegedly "beat male team members in the head with a deck brush seriously enough for them to require stitches."
Interesting Sprint News
- More Interesting News: Kim Collins Still Irate He Got Kicked Out Of Olympics For Being With His Wife "I am the first man to get in trouble for allegedly having sex with his wife."
- Asafa Powell Getting Ready For Corporate Road Race
African-Related News
- Eritrean Steeplechaser Weynay Ghebresilasie Defected To UK After Olympics The teenager who fought in the Eritrean/Ethiopian war said he might be executed if he returned.
- Several Other Countries, Including Ethiopia & Uganda, And Jake Robertson (NZL) Will Compete At Kenyan XC Trials The Ugandans will pick their World XC team in Kenya as well.
- An African Vote Problem Yet Again? Many In Kenya Are Wondering, "What's Cooking?" As AK Defers Election Yet Again
- Surprising: Athletics Kenya Disbands XC Training Camp As Athletes Wanted To Train On Their Own We thought this would never happen, as the camps are used by AK to justify its existence.
- S African XC Trials Winners Elroy Gelant And Lebo Phalula Are Part Of 27-Member Team At CAA Southern Region Cross-Country Championships
More Sprint News
- John Steffensen Is Now A Coach
- Aussie Sprinter Jordan Caldow, Who Just Won 100m Beach Title At The World Surf Lifesaving Championships, Finishes 2-Week Training Stint In Jamaica
US News: Ritz Excited For US Cross
- Dathan Ritzenhein Blogs About Running His First Race Since The Chicago Marathon At US XC Champs "Cross country is racing in its purest form and it always brings me back to the pure love of competition. I don't look at the clock and check my splits or worry about the weather. You get out there and just go, trying to push it to the max."
- World Ranking System Shows US Still Number One Country In The World For Sports Since 2006 With China And Russia Still Second And Third
- Craig Miller And CIM Champ Daniel Tapia Join American Distance Project
- Feb. 6th: Germany's Thomas Dold Trying To Win His 8th Consecutive Empire State Building Run-Up; Aussie Suzy Walsham Will Go For Her 4th Win Race includes a 1576-step/86-floor climb which equals about 320m of vertical gain.
- RunBlogRun Makes Arguments For A Track & Field TV Show Sounds great, but now we have to figure out a way to get people to want to watch it.
A League Of Their Own
- Paralympians Get Their Own Version Of Diamond League Series The Grand Prix series will start in March with meets in Dubai, Beijing, Sao Paulo, Grosseto in Italy, Arizona and Berlin with a possible "finale" in Birmingham.
- UK Paralympic Champ David Weir Has Doubts Over New GP Series And Fears No One Will Come He would rather see paralympic events integrated with able-bodied events, but that would make meets too long for sponsors.
- Summer BT Paralympic World Cup In Danger Of Being Scrapped Partially Due To The Refusal Of Track To Commit It is a multi-sport competition, but the new Paralympic Grand Prix track series may conflict.
Saturday's US Action *Full BU Results
LRC Galen Rupp Runs 3:50.92 Mile To Become Fifth-Fastest Indoor
Miler Who said Galen Rupp has no speed? The endurance king has become the speed king the last two years and Rupp showed it on Saturday by running 3:50.92 in Boston to become the 2nd-fastest American indoor miler ever behind Bernard Lagat. *Videos
On The Boards: *Rupp runs 3:50!!
*any updates on the BU elite mile?
*Rupp is the 5th fastest indoor miler in history
updated Mary Cain Smashes High School Mile Record By Running 4:32.78 Cain breaking the record may have been expected considering she ran 4:11 last year outdoors for 1,500 (roughly 4:31 for a mile), but Debbie Heald's old
record (4:38.5) was the longest record on the books for high school women (from 1971) and Cain absolutely crushed it - and we use that term knowing it is way over-used in track but well-deserved here. In the men's mile, Robby Andrews faded to 4:11.
*What's Better Than Having An Olympian For A Coach? Having Two: With Salazar Living On The Other Side Of The Country, NZ 2004 Olympian John Henwood Has Been Administering Her Workouts In NY
*Video Interview With Mary Cain
OTB: Mary Cain 4:32.78
*Robbie Andrews
*Other HS: MileSplit Weekend HS Coverage: Edward Cheserek Wins NB Invite Mile In 4:10.92
*Q&A With Edward Cheserek Asking A Lot About His Move To The US From Kenya
*Sarah Baxter Named Gatorade Runner Of The Year For XC, Presented To Her By Allyson Felix
Oregonian's Ken Goe Against High Price Pay Per View Track Broadcasts
Osaka Marathon, Kenyan Prison XC, NACAC XC *Full NACAC Results *Prison XC
- Carlsbad: In His Half-Marathon Debut, Stephen Sambu Wins Carlsbad In 1:03:02 Over Jordan Chipangama (1:04:10) And Tesfaye Alemyehu (1:04:14) Belianesh Zemedkun Gebre won the women's half in 1:12:10 as Mario Macias and Lauren Kleppin were the full marathon winners in 2:19:43 and 2:42:17. *Full
Results
- NACAC XC Champs: Craig Forys Outkicks Cam Levins To Win The NACAC XC Champs, Leading The US Men To The Team Victory Matthew Forys was 4th and Simon Bairu 9th for Canada. The US women finished 2nd to Canada in the team scoring; Mary Kate Champagne was the top US runner in 4th.
*Jamaican Article/Recap With Some Quotes
*Coach Blames "Lack Of Preparation" And Training On The Home Course For Disappointing Jamaican Performances At NACAC
- Kenyan Prison XC Champs: Timothy Kiptoo Defends His Title At Kenyan Prisons XC Champs, Beating Field That Included Africa XC Champ John Mwangangi (8th) & Silas Kiplagat (11th) Eunice Kioko (mother of 7 children!) won the women's race running barefoot. *Deeper
Results
- Osaka Women's Marathon: Ukraine's London Olympics 5th-Placer Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko Wins Osaka In 2:23:58 Kayoko Fukushi was the top Japanese in 2nd place with 2:24:21, but missed out on the 2:24 standard to get an automatic team spot for the Moscow 2013. *IAAF
- Jamaica: Olympic 100m Champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce And Nesta Carter Get 100m Wins At Queen's / Grace Jackson Meet In Jamaica Shelly-Ann ran 11.47 and Carter 10.59.
- Other: Lolo Jones Wins Gold At Bobsled World Champs
- Yuki Kawauchi Breaks Stage Record At Okumusashi Ekiden Running 13:00 For 4.679k It was his fourth race and third win this year. He races the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon this Sunday.
- Olympic PV Champ Renaud Lavillenie Sets WL At 5.92 In French Indoor Meet Beating Out Germany's Bronze Medallist Raphael Holzdeppe
- Kenya's Albert Rop and Ethiopia's Eleni Gebrehiwot Win ING Eurocross Races In Diekirch, Luxembourg
- Good Track Perfomances In Volgograd/Moscow: Yelena Kotulskaya Wins 800 in 2:01.38 OverAlena Glazkova (2:01.58) & Olga Kucherenko Goes 6.90m In The LJ In 1,500m action, Vladimir Smirnov ran 3:38.67 to beat Kenya's Collins Cheboi (3:39.81) and Anna Shchagina ran the 2nd-fastest time in the World this year in 4:09.95.
- Russia's Olympic Champ Ivan Ukhov Wins Moravia HJ Tour Meet In The Czech Republic After A Close Battle With Bronze Medallist Mutaz Essa Barshim Reigning World champ Jesse Williams had a horrible day with 2.18m for 12th place. Italy's World Junior champ Alessia Trost won for the women.
- Dresden, Germany: Poland's 2009 World PV Champion Anna Rogowska Sets World Lead At 4.63m
- Elroy Gelant And Lebo Phalula Win South African XC Trials
- Steve Vernon Wins UK's Northern Men's XC Championships
London Does It Again
LRC 2013 Virgin London Marathon Field Released - Is This The Greatest Men's Marathon Field In History? All we can say is - Wow! The course record holders of all
five
majors, the Olympic
champ, the WR holder - you name it, they got it. And one the women's side? How about the debut of Tirunesh Dibaba plus 4 of the 5 non-pregnant sub-2:20 runners from last year? So sick.
*Reuters: Dibaba To Race In London Marathon *Discuss
LRC Mary Keitany Is Pregnant With Second Child, Will Miss 2013 London Marathon
And Season
Usain Bolt The Republican? London Diamond League Meet Will Be So Stacked It Will Be Held At Olympic Stadium But Yet Again, Bolt Will Boycott Due To Taxes
Oregon Indoor Mile Record Holder Mac Fleet Is Pumped To Be back On Track After 2 Years Of Injuries Things were so bad last year, he started drinking heavily and tried to tear his plantar on purpose.
Rest In Peace Will Steele - aka "The Cancer Guy"
LRC Celebrating The Life Of "The Cancer Guy" Will Steele Will Steele was running 18 minute miles last year. And never has there been a more inspirational runner on LetsRun.com. We pay our respects to this great man who contributed so much to the LetsRun.com community and lost his battle with cancer one month ago on Christmas eve.
Big Race News: Ritz Running US XC, Mo Farah Running New Orleans Half, Olympic Stadium Will Host T&F This Summer
- Dathan Ritzenhein Added To Field For US XC Championships On Feb. 2nd The field also includes Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Derrick and Bobby Mack. Women's field includes Shalane Flanagan, Deena Kastor and Kim Conley.
- Mo Farah To Run Rock 'N' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon On February 24 In His First US Race Since The London Games
- London Diamond League Meet Moving From Crystal Palace To The Olympic Stadium And Will Take Place On The Anniversary Of The 2012 Opening Ceremony (6/27) Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis say they hope to compete, but Bolt still won't be there due to UK tax laws.
- Jamaica Hoping To Host A Diamond League Meet In 2014
- Big Sur Marathon Admits It Spread False Drug Testing Rumor When It Had No Intention Of Actually Testing
More Running Website/Meet Broadcasting News
- Ken Goe: "Once Again, The PAC-12 Networks' Reach Exceeds Grasp" PAC-12 says no one else can stream the meets, even though they don't intend to.
- TrackFocus' Explanation Of The Current Situation With PAC-12 And Track Broadcasting Rights The good news is the University of Washington will now broadcast its meets themselves. Downside is the PAC-12 network doesn't allow for archiving of the video.
- RunnerSpace Founder Says DyeStat Should Be Up And Running Next Month
Want To Watch A Live Stream Of The New Balance Games Or The Armory Collegiate Invitational? It Will Cost You $20 And just think many of you complained that the entire Diamond League Series on UniversalSports.com was too much at $25 with individual meets just $1.99. In our book this doesn't seem to be about track fans, but about getting parents to pay.
Looking Ahead To Next Month's Tokyo Marathon And Beyond
- Feb. 2nd: Meseret Defar And Bernard Lagat Highlight Fields For Karlsruhe 3,000 Lagat will face a deep field in World Indoor medalists Augustine Choge and Edwin Soi as well as 3rd fastest 3ker all-time Yenew Alamirew (7:27.80).
- Eilte Field Released For 2013 Tokyo Marathon, The Newest Addition To The Marathon Majors The field is led by 4 sub-2:05 runners in Dennis Kipruto Kimetto (2:04:16), James Kipsang Kwambai (2:04:27), Dino Sefir (2:04:50), and Jonathan Kiplimo Maiyo (2:04:56). The top Japanese male is Olympian Arata Fujiwara. The women are led by Irina Mikitenko (2:19:19 PB), Bezunesh Bekele (2:20:30) and Aberu Kebede (2:20:30). *IAAF
- London: Wilson Kipsang Will Defend His London Marathon Title Against Abel Kirui, Emmnauel Mutai, Martin Lel And Tsegaye Kebede Talking about the Olympics, Kipsang said, "I have to change my strategy because if you kick early you run the risk of getting swallowed at the end."
- June: Usain Bolt Will Return For Third Straight Year To Race The 200 At The Bislett Games In Oslo In June
*Bolt Says He Wants Another Three Gold Medals At The 2013 World Championships - The World's Oldest Marathoner Fauja Singh (101) Will Run The Hong Kong 10k Next Month As His Last Race
- There's Still A Chance The Olympic Stadium Could Be Used To Host Some Sport Events This Summer
Millrose Mile Fields Announced
- Millrose Announces Field For 2013 Wanamaker Mile: Matt Centrowitz Will Defend His Title Against Lopez Lomong And Robby Andrews Also in the field are Miles Batty, Donn Cabral, Garrett Heath, Jordan McNamara, Ryan Hill, Lawi Lalang, Chris O'Hare, Mitch Goose and Irish Olympian Ciarán O'Lionaird. The women's race features Abbey D'Agostino, Jordan Hasay, Emma Coburn, Ashley Higginson, Delilah DiCrescenzo, Emily Infeld, Sheila Reid and high schooler Mary Cain.
- Matt Centrowitz Thinks He's In Shape To Go For Bernard Lagat's Wanamaker Mile Record And Maybe Even American Record Lagat's Wanamaker Mile record is 3:52.87 and his AR is 3:49.89. However, it needs to be noted that Lagat set his Wanamaker record at Madison Square Garden, while Centrowitz will be at the much faster track at the Armory.
- Centrowitz Says His Recent Workouts Have Been "Faster Than Anything I Could Imagine" Coming Out Of College
- Good RW Q&A With Abbey D'Agostino On Being Added To Millrose Mile Field Come NCAAs, she'll probably be shooting for the 3k.
US News: Great Quotes From Brett Gotcher And Erik Kynard
- Olympic Trials 5th Placer Brett Gotcher Racing Rotterdam Marathon On April 14th Gotcher: "It's hard [not running Boston] because it is a big part of your yearly income, but I feel like at some point you just have to make a sacrifice for the greater goal, which is to run fast."
- Kansas State's Erik Kynard Won't Let Winning An Olympic Silver Medal Affect His Competitiveness "I won't let victory defeat me. Victory can defeat athletes. ... You go into competitions expecting everyone else to move out of the way. I don't expect the Red Seas to part for me, and I don't expect anyone to bow down."
US News
- Jesse Williams Says Size Doesn't Matter "Almost in every big competition I'm the shortest and usually the heaviest or closest to it, which I take pride in."
- Brooks Running Company Pledges Continued Commitment To Developing Athletes And The Sport Of Running They've started a Seattle-based middle distance team which includes Matt Scherer and Mark Wieczorek.
Mumbai
Course
Records Fall At 2013 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon As Jackson Kiprop Runs 2:09:32 And Valentine Kipketer Runs 2:24:33 Kipketer's 2:24:33 is fastest time in the world in 2013 and a new Indian all-comers record. Edit: This press release incorrectly stated that Kipketer's 2:24:33 was a world-leading time. It is actually 3rd fastest in 2013 behind the top two
from the
Houston Marathon, Merima Mohammed (2:23:37) and Buzunesh Deba (2:24:26).
18-Year-Old Ajee Wilson Sets WORLD Jr. Record At 600 (1:27.30) And Will Attack AR At Millrose
Dying Too Young
LRC 4-Time World Marathon Majors Runner-Up Abderrahim Goumri Has Died At Age 36 The former MAR national record holder at 2:05:30, who once ran 12:50 for 5k and was twice
the runner-up in New York, has been killed in a car accident. Goumri was busted for drugs due to the biological passport last summer.
Former 10k World Record Holder Samson Kimobwa, Who Ran 27:30.47 On June 30, 1977 In Helsinki, Has Died Suddenly At Age 58 Interesting fact - he coached Boaz Cheboiywo in Kenya and went to Washington State. *Wikipedia Page
*IAAF Tribute To Samson Kimobwa And Abderahim Goumri
Great Idea: 2004 Olympic Hurdles Champ Joanna Hayes Wants Runners To Have Customized Jerseys
Houston Marathon/Half Was Sunday
LRC Ethiopians Feyisa Lilesa And Mamitu Daska Win 2013 Aramco Houston Half Marathon The performance of the day belonged to Daska, who was dominant on US soil just as she was in all of 2012. Shadrack Biwott (62:23) and Lisa Uhl (73:28) were the top Americans as Luke Puskedra and Aaron
Braun also broke 63.
LRC Bazuk Worku (2:10:17) And Merima Mohammed (2:23:27) Win 2013 Chevron Houston Marathon Titles The former WJr. record holder picked up marathon win #1 as Andrew Carlson (2:17:16) and Tera Moody (2:39:10) took top American honors.
RRW: Ethiopians Sweep Titles At Cold, Wet 2013 Chevron Houston Marathon & Aramco Half Marathon Includes quotes from Biwott, Carlson, Uhl.
Unbelievable
The Smoking Gun.com: Suzy Favor Hamilton Has Been Working As $600/Hour Escort For Last Year SFH, the 3-time Olympian, has
been one of the hottest commodities in the escort business over the last year as she jumped up to a #3 ranking and got rave reviews for her runner's body and for providing
the "full GFE (girlfriend experience)." One client raved, "I would do anything to protect her. ... She is worth every penny. I will go bankrupt before I stop seeing her. I hope no one else goes to see her, because I want her all to myself. ... I never thought I would find anyone in this hobby like her."
*Definitely Not Politcally Correct: Chicago Sun-Times Columnist: SFH isn't alone - lots of female distance runners are total nut jobs SFH had "a glint of ferocity in her eyes, of suppressed danger. I saw the look in many of the Wisconsin middle-distance and long-distance female runners. In my book, I made special note of them, of their lapses
into near insanity, of their successes and crashes and eating disorders
and dependence on their controlling German head coach, Peter Tegen."
*Suzy Favor Hamilton Issues A Statement
*MB: Suzy Favor-Hamilton: Vegas Escort
North American Distance News - New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Is This Saturday *Schedule/Start Lists/TV Info
- Q&A With Galen Rupp, Who Is Pumped For This Weekend's 3,000 In Boston, As Is Al Sal Surprisingly, Rupp flew back to Oregon after his 3:50 mile in Boston and is coming back again this weekend for the clash between the Olympic 10k and 5k silver medallists. If you don't have tickets to the sold-out event, the good news is you can watch it for free on ESPN2 on Sunday 2-4 pm.
- American Magdalena Lewy Boulet Hoping To Make World XC Team So She Can Compete In Front Of Family In Her Native Poland
- A Good Cause: Inaugural Bring Back The Mile Tour, Consisting Of 13 Events Across The United States, Will Kick Off On Saturday
- Canada Running Series Set To Kick Off Fifteenth Year In 2013