Happy Belated National Running Day

"Man-to-man challenge is the way, not football ... Our job is to bring our sport back to the schools. We have to give it to a new generation; if not to our children, give it to our grandchildren."

- Sengalese IAAF Head Lamine Diack on bringing track back to the top of the world of sports. We agree and hope more of you can coach a team, start a club, and get kids training and racing to win.

LRC: The Week That Was This week we get ready for Usain Bolt to move to the 400, break down the Reebok Grand Prix in depth, give props to Tyson Gay and heap praise on Anna Willard. We also sadly have to officially write off Alan Webb for 2009 (with a tiny asterisk). The facts show clearly, if anything, Webb is getting worse as the season goes along. 

Brief Chat With Deena Kastor Runner's World

Free Self-Help Tip: Exercise Elevates Moods Of Test Subjects For 12 Hours After We were thinking maybe this study means we should go running in the morning rather than waste 8 hours of "elevated mood" sleeping. Or you can just run 12 hours apart every day and always be happy.

Wall Street Journal Writer Asks: Can Ivy League Sports Teams Get Their Luster Back?  LetsRun.com asks: Did we miss something? We didn't notice the luster was gone. The writer assumes that because Harvard can't compete with USC in football that Ivy League sports have something wrong with them. We disagree but it's still a worthwhile read.

Berlin World Championship News

*Mucho Moolah: $7 Million+ In Prize Money Awaits World Championship Top Finishers Plus add $100,000 for any world record you break (which won't happen in a distance event).
*Kenya Requiring Only One 10,000m Trial For Worlds Seems like they want their 10k guys like road world record holder Micah Kogo a little fresher for the last 400m when either Geb, Bekele or Sihine of Ethiopia have been blowing them away.
*Good Hengelo Recap From Kenya - Beijing Champ Brimin Kipruto Brimming With Confidence He doesn't usually run as fast as Paul Kipsiele Koech, but he sure wins when it counts.

British Running News

*Paula Radcliffe And Mara Yamauchi To Provide Strong 1-2 Punch For GB WC Marathon Team *Paula Passing Up Payday To Run Berlin World Championships Having Paula in the race immediately makes it more compelling.
*Dwain Chambers Has Invitation Revoked From Small German Track Meet Dwain is finding it very tough to find races.

Interesting Japanese News From Brett Larner

*New Tokyo Marathon To "Feature" 10km-Long Underwater Tunnel Section This will undoubtedly be a good place for runners to employ tunnel-vision focus.
*5 Japanese Runners Save The Life Of A Fellow Marathoner Suffering From A Heart Attack On The Course This may be the only time it is deemed honorable for a Japanese runner to drop out of a race.

Hengelo Meet Sizzles *LRC Recap *LRC Thread *Hengelo Results There were some unexpected results in Hengelo including Kenenisa Bekele dropping out of the 1,500, and some super performances including another impressive win by the man to the left (Abubaker Kaki) and a sub-4:00 run by Gelete Burka. Americans Reese Hoffa and Dwight Phillips had tight contests with international stars Thomasz Majewski and Irving Saladino plus all 3 steeplechase medal winners from Beijing squared off. Find out more in our recap including who became the first man under 13:00 in 2009 (you will be surprised).
*IAAF Recap
*
Churandy Martina Breaks 10.00 For The First Time This is the guy to whom Shawn Crawford gave his Olympic medal after he (Martina) was DQed for running out of his lane to the outside.
*Canada's Lopes-Schliep Third, Bekele Drops Out There is a brief mention of Bekele appearing injured but we haven't heard anything more on that yet.
*Ohuruogu Gets 200m PR In Good Meet For Female British Runners
*Athletics Weekly Gives British Rundown From Hengelo Their mid-d women, led by 2008 NCAA champion Hannah England, were great.
*Reports Trickling In: *Geb Fails To Get 1-Hour Record

Not a good weekend for Ethiopia's Mega-stars: Kenenisa Bekele drops out of a 1,500m in Hengelo and world-record holder Tirunesh Dibaba looked flat as Kenya's Linet Masai beat her by 5 seconds in New York. Also, Haile Gebrselassie fell short of re-setting his 1-hour world record. But hold on; Ethiopia has much to celebrate, including Ali Abdosh, who became the first man to crack 13:00 for 5k this year, Gelete Burka, who ran 3:58 for a big 1,500m win also in Hengelo and, of course, perhaps the runner of the year so far, Deribe Merga, who won again on the roads in a 10k in India.

Rashid Ramzi's B-sample Results Are Coming Soon - FYI Rumors Are Swirling About Possible Negative

Reebok GP *Results *Quotes *Photos

Usain's Got A Rival: TYSON GAY 19.58!!!
*Post-Race Quotes From Event Winners
*Ethiopian Press: "Out of Shape Dibaba Loses In NYC"
It seemed that since the Olympics everyone in the sport (but us) had forgotten that the fastest man in history (all conditions) at 100 meters is a Mr. Tyson Gay. Gay's 19.58 200m shows that when he's healthy, he can challenge Bolt.
*In other action, the meet was unreal. Leo Manzano won the men's 1,500 in 3:34 as Alan Webb basically embarrassed himself with a 3:42 showing (although he did beat Lukezic, who ran 3:43) that has sparked pleas for him to change coaches or just give up. Webb wasn't the only star to do awful as Asafa Powell was terrible in the men's 100. The men's 5k was absolutely stellar, as three guys ran faster than anyone had previously had on American soil. Bernard Lagat ran 13:03 and lost to Micah Kogo. In the women's 5k, Linet Masai upset double Olympic champ Tirunesh Dibaba. Wurth-Thomas was spectacular in the women's 1,500 (4:03). So much more, including a great men's 400h race. Allyson Felix got a win in the women's 400 as Anna Willard ran 1:59.23 to win the 800 and KD got the win in the men's 800.
*Overall Meet Recap Here
South African Milers Move Up To 3rd And 5th In 1,500 All-Time In Reebok

Prefontaine Classic Brings In The Stars *TV On NBC 2 - 4 pm Eastern Sunday, June 7.

*Pre Meet Website Including Event Previews *LRC Preview Coming Soon.
Also From Italy: Kaki, Robles, Cuban Triple Jumpers Hilight Turin Meet On New Mondo Track Surface
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1:47.68 HS Senior Elijah Greer Going For HS 800m Record At Pre
*Asafa Powell Gets Chance For Redemption Sunday At Pre Against Tyson Gay
*Pamela Jelimo, Nancy Lagat And Janeth Jepkosgei Lead Kenyan Charge To Pre Meet Add 1,500m star Asbel Kiprop and 3:30 guy Keitany to the 9-strong list of Kenyans competing in Eugene.
*Nick Symmonds Returns To Pre, Where He Made A Big Splash In 2007
*A Look At The History Of Foreign Athletes Coming To The Pre Meet

*Usain Bolt Rules Out Triple Gold Attempt At London He already pulled a triple gold / world record in Beijing but some thought London might have been the time for 100/200/400 glory.
*Bolt Intrigued By Gay's Big 200m Performance
*The Next Bolt? 17-Year-Old Jamaican Double World Champion Dexter Lee Goes Pro For Reebok Part of his deal is tuition to go to school in the U.S. though he clearly won't compete in the NCAA system. Only Rupp can pull that off.
*IAAF Leader Lamine Diack Applauds Bolt's 150m And Creative Track Events In General Lamine Diack seems like a great dude.

The Future

*1:47.68 HS Senior Elijah Greer Going For HS 800m Record At Pre
*Portland HS Mile Race To Feature Robby Andrews It's being billed as a sub-4:00 attempt on June 13th.

Galen Rupp Enters The 10k/5k At NCAAs - Check Out Oregon's Squad That Is Our Pick To Win NCAAs They've got potentially big-scoring studs in the Decathlon, Javelin, 800, 1,500, 5k and 10k.

US Bests: *NY Times Article On Decathlete Bryan Clay's Life Since His 2008 Gold Medal Clay's life hasn't changed much since being crowned the world's best athlete thanks to his decathlon triumph.
Sharon Day, Most Known As An Olympic High Jumper, Posts 2009's Best US Heptathlon, Breaking 6000

Track Stars In The News Around The World

*Miling Great John Walker Knighted In New Zealand  *Sir John Walker Joins Sir Murray Halberg And Sir Peter Snell As Honored NZ Runners
*Good But Strange News: Chinese To Build Ultra-Modern Hospital In Ethiopia Named For Tirunesh Dibaba
*Georgie Clarke Was Australia's Version Of Jordan Hasay, Except Better, But Early Success Was Tough To Handle Running Times
*Joe Battaglia Interviews Swedish Heptathlon Champion Turned Long Jumper Carolina Kluft Universal Sports

After linking to several articles quoting Samuel Wanjiru saying he won't run the world championships but instead is focusing on Haile G's world record in Berlin on September 20, we at LetsRun.com have been alerted to a quote from Wanjiru's agent Federico Rosa who is quoted in various foreign language articles saying, "It is true that he will not run the marathon at the World Cup, but I can not confirm yet that it will be in the Berlin Marathon." Rosa goes on to say that Wanjiru is considering mainly Chicago (super fast) or New York as alternatives to facing Haile in Berlin. To the left is a picture of NYC Marathon and NYRR head Mary Wittenberg courting meeting with Wanjiru after his London win earlier this year.

Deena Kastor Worried About Foot Pain Again We hope the pain she's feeling after Bay to Breakers is just a minor thing. Looks like her plans to run the NYC mini are on hold. Earlier: Kastor and Ndereba to run in NYC.

Interviews And Opinion

*Coach Dieter Hogan Interviewed An experienced coach of many elite athletes, Hogan comments on what the differences are between African and European runners.
*Pat Butcher On Bolt Making History - And His Future Plans For The 400m
*Joe Battaglia Rates The Performances At Reebok Quick summary in case you don't have time to click the link: Tyson Gay ran well, Alan Webb did not.
*Podcast With Dyestat Legend Steve Magness

*Rock 'N' Roll San Diego Recap Dan Browne struggles big-time and drops out somewhere after a 1:07 half. Also finding it a tough go was charity fund-raiser Tom Bedford, who was on pace through halfway (thanks to the much-publicized help of Ryan Hall and Josh Cox) yet fell off to run 2:47. *Results here. *Photos of Ryan Hall, Tom Bedford, Dan Browne and Josh Cox


National Running Day Is Wednesday

Tell Us What You're Doing On National Running Day If you're in the DFW area, join Wejo at 6:30pm at Fort Worth Running Company on Camp Bowie. If you're in Boston, you can run with Bill Rodgers.

NCAA Regionals

Amazing Page: All Regional Results On One Page

Busy Weekend Photos

*Freihofer's 5k Run For Women PhotoRun
*San Diego Rock 'N' Roll Marathon PhotoRun
*Reebok Photos PhotoRun
*Hengelo Photos Durand Photo
*NCAA East Regional Photos PrettySporty

Sign Up: Cornell's Summer Track/XC Camps Featuring LetsRun's Rojo

*Cornell Track & Field Camp July 12-16
*Cornell Cross-Country Camp July 26-30
Experienced D1 Coaches. Cornell Athlete Counselors Including NCAA Qualifiers. A Lot Of Fun. Stay In The Dorms. Eat In One Of The Best College Dining Halls. Every Event Covered. Distance Runners Welcome At Both. All Skill Levels Welcome.