LRC: The Week That Was This week we start off with some random thoughts before getting to the 2009 NCAA champs, the start of the Golden League, and some really fast women's 10k action. Along the way, we revise the men's 10k results from NCAAs, show that the regional qualifying system works, and state that there is only one John McDonnell. We also give props to Stanford (sorry, Ryan Grote) and Galen Rupp and ponder: did Oregon really choke?
Deena Kastor Is 1st Elite Woman To Commit To 2009 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon A big coup for Chicago to land Kastor, who wants a new personal record.
Paris Golden League Likely To Let Dwain Chambers Race Next Month
Administrative News
*Jacques Rogge: Economics Shouldn't Be Deciding Factor In Choice For 2016 Olymipcs
He says the athletes' interest should be #1 *Chicago Reaction: Not Good News As $$$ Are Chicago's #1 Selling Point
*IOC Cash Reserves Doing Well Desipte Global Slowdown They stand at $429 million, down from a high of $457.
*14 Diamond League Cities Announced - Berlin Doesn't Make The Cut
*Two British Meets: London & Gateshead Make Cut
Post NCAA News:
- Vin Lananna Expects Andrew Wheating To Run At USATFs Next Week, Centro Uncertain, Rupp Will Only Run 5k If Something Goes Wrong
- Jenny Barringer Plans To Stay In School Next Fall And Run NCAA Cross Both her and Rupp seem to have increased their value a ton this last year by staying in school.
- Despite Coming Up Short, Ducks Get Welcome Celebration In Eugene (Plus Video Interviews With Rupp, Wheating, More)
- Texas A&M Coach Pat Henry: NCAA Titles Were Five Years In The Making
- Dallas Morning News: Do A&M Titles In Track Make Up For Lack Of Success In Big Name Sports?
- Oregon Editorial: Ducks' Track Performances Shows Power Of Dreaming Big
2009 NCAA Meet
*Results
Day 4: LRC: Texas A&M Wins Men's And Women's Titles On Epic Day
Fernandez Goes Wire-To-Wire In 1,500, Wheating Gets First NCAA Title, Gall Repeats, FSU Goes Sub-3:00 The men's team battle came down to the 4 x 400. 4 teams had a shot at the title and we ended up .22 from a 4-way tie for first. But in the end, Texas A&M finished 2nd in the 4 x 400 to win by 2 points over Oregon, Florida, and Florida State, who all tied for 2nd. We recap all the distance action, including German Fernandez's gun-to-tape 1,500m win as a true frosh, Andrew Wheating's
narrow 800m win for his first NCAA title, and much more. Plus photos and video of the last lap of Fernandez's 1,500 and the men's 4 x 400. What a meet. Rupp's heroics were not quite enough to bring Oregon the triple crown.
LRC Final Day Photos
More: Oregon Men Come Up Just Short Oregonian
Oregon Women Pleased With 2nd Oregonian
*Baylor 4 x 400 Streak Ends At 42
Day 3: LRC: Nothing Can Stop Rupp. The perfect senior season ended in style and more than made up for the first 3 years as a 4:00.08 final 1,600 gave him his 6th NCAA title of the year.
Plus Jenny Barringer with a meet record in the steeple, and the men's steeple
final and
the women's 5k final. Read all about it, photos, and video. Formatting fixed.
LRC: Sprint Recap: Trindon Holliday & Alexandria Anderson Go Out In Style The seniors had done it all but win the big one. Now they've won it all, including Anderson, who had been All-American 17 times without an individual title. Who says we don't love sprinters? We even interview Ahmad Rashad's dad.
LRC: Team Title Update: Unbelievably Tight Team Battles To Be Decided On Saturday We have the Oregon men losing by a single point to A&M and the Oregon women winning narrowly over A&M. Track & Field News has the opposite happening (Duck men winning over A&M, Duck women losing to A&M).
LRC: Field Recap We must admit it's a bit sparse.
LRC: Friday Photos
Updated: 5k Interviews and quotes added to recap.
More:
*Oregonian Men's Recap
*Eugene Register-Guard Recap Chris Winter: "I'm a little devastated right now, I lost two points for the team in
those last five meters. I didn't know those guys were there, and that
was my fault."
*Oregonian Women's Recap
*Alberto Salazar Interview
Day 2: LRC: NCAA Day 2 Recap: Rupp Wins 1st Outdoor Title With Style As Lisa Koll Fails To Score In an unbelievably exciting men's 10k that featured a 63-second first lap and
a 75.99-second 22nd lap (including a 42-second 200), Shawn Forrest & Sam Chelanga teamed up and threw everything they could at Galen Rupp but Rupp more than handled it all as his storybook senior season continued, as he won his 1st NCAA outdoor title. In the end, Rupp closed in 1:58.9 and 3:01 to get the win. If he had to go sub-4 to win, he very well might have done it. Unbelievable. It also
was unbelievable that the favorites in the women's 10k and men's 1,500 failed to score and advance respectively. Oregon's Matt Centrowitz, Jr was last in his semifinal heat, tightening up the team competition. We recap the action from Thursday.
*Day 2 LRC Photos
*Oregonian: Tag Team By Forrest & Chelanga Can't Stop Rupp From Winning 1st NCAA Outdoor Title After Centrowitz Fails To Advance In 1,500
*We Agree AP: "There are times Galen Rupp looks as if he's toying with opponents."
*Oregon's Title Hopes Take Body Blow As Favorite Matt Centrowitz Finishes Last In 1st Round Of 1,500 All we can say at letsrun.com is "you're welcome" for reporting the "rumor" that we heard he had a stress fracture. People come here for the inside info which we consistently produce.
*Updated Men's Team Battle Thanks To T&FN They have it too close to call between A&M And Oregon with A&M winning now after the 10k.
*Updated Women's Team Battle Thanks To T&FN Oregon is now a projected winner over A&M thanks to Jamesha Youngblood's surprise 3rd in the LJ.
LRC: NCAA Day 1 Track Recap
*LRC: Field Event And Multi
Recap The big story on Day 1 was a 3 hour and 15 minute rain delay which pushed everything late into Wednesday
night/Thursday morning. Galen Rupp had to stay up late (his 5k prelim started at 12:40 am), but he was rewarded with as easy a qualifying round as possible, as it was much cooler than expected due to the rain and late start. Rupp's quest for history will have its toughest
test tonight in the 10,000m final versus NCAA record holder Samuel Chelenga. Perhaps the other big news on Wednesday was the return to action for Colorado's Jenny Barringer after her shocking 3:59 1,500 at the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday. We have an 8-minute video interview with her and it seems apparent after talking to her that perhaps no one in the world predicted her stunning run on Sunday. In other action, the first round of the men's and women's 100s sizzled, but the rain made
things much slower in the semis. Plus recaps of round 1 of the 800s, steeples and 5ks. More coverage coming.
*LRC: See Whom LetsRun.com Visitors Have Picked To Win Here
More NCAA Day 1:
- IAAF Recap Of Day 1 Of NCAA Champs
- Day 1 Recap From The Oregonian Things went pretty well for the Ducks after decathlon favorite Ashton Eaton got in a safe jump on his third and final long jump.
- Mixed Results For Arkansas On Day 1: Mideast 800 Champ Chris Bilbrew failed to advance and McClary barely made it through.
- After Trying To Triple Indoors, Ulrey Zoned In On 1,500 Outdoors
- Recap Of Arkansas Women From Day 1
- Shawn Forrest's Mom Coming All The Way From Australia To Watch Him Run In Tonight's 10k
- Arizona State Thrower Sarah Stevens Going For Discus, Shot And Hammer Titles
- Jenny Barringer Wins Honda Award For Track And Field
- Chris Bucknam Making His Own Name At Arkansas
- Sarah Bowman Going For Her Fifth And Final NCAA Title This Weekend
Previous NCAA Coverage:
Rupp All Over The News:
*LRC: Pre-Meet Report From Arkansas: Does Matt Centrowitz Have A Foot Injury?
*LRC "Pardon The InteRUPPtion" Employee #1's take on Galen Rupp's amazing senior season.
*Rupp On The Front Page Of USA Today Sports Dick Patrick wrote a great article, including quotes from Alberto,
Lananna, Rupp's Dad and Sam Chelanga.
News From Oregon Papers:
*Indoor Debacle At NCAAs Motivates Hog Jumpers
*Lananna Thrilled To Be In Hunt For Triple Crown He's trying not to be intimidated by the name John McDonnell on the scoreboard.
*Jumps Are Key To Arkansas
*Lengthy Oregonian Article On Rupp It mentions the "Haters" on LetsRun.com.
*The Register-Guard Preview: Rupp, Centro & Wheating Lead The Way As Ducks Favored To Win First Title In 25 Years
*AP Preview: New Coach Bucknam Trying To Make His Own Mark At Host Arkansas
*Watch Out For Oregon's Big-Meet Long Jumper Jamesha Youngblood Oregon will need points from unheralded stars like Youngblood if they want to upend a strong Texas A&M squad.
*John McDonnell And Arkansas Excited To Host NCAA Outdoors And Hope To One Day Host Olympic Trials
LRC: 2009 NCAA Men's Preview We break down the men's mid-d and distance events
plus the relays, 100, 400 and team competition for you.
LRC: 2009 NCAA Women's Preview We break down the women's mid-d and distance events plus the relays, 100, and team competition for you.
LetsRun.com's 2009
NCAA Prediction Contest After reading our previews, we dare you to see how your knowledge stacks up against that of the very brightest - the LetsRun.com community. Who has truly the best knowledge of NCAA track and field? Enter the contest and find out. Get your friends and compete in your own group. And because we are kind-hearted souls, a perfect distance ballot will net you $20,900
Ostrava GP Is Wednesday *Meet Website *Results
*RRW Preview: Bolt Gets Headlines But Awesome Distance Races, Led By Unreal 800, Will Take Place The men's 800 is simply unreal as it has 1,500-meter stars Augstine Choge and Asbel Kiprop, as well as 800 stars Rudisha, Yego, Ismael and Lalang. In the women's 800, Jenny Barringer's #1 focus - the steeple world record holder - is racing. Plus a world record attempt in the women's 20k and Keitany in the mile and a possible world record attempt in the men's steeple by Ezekiel Kemboi.
*Bolt Ready For Sub-10
*IAAF Preivew: Usain Bolt Running 100, Dayron Robles Hurdles, Asbel Kiprop 800 And Much More In Wednesday's Ostrava Meet
*Bolt: "I'm trying to be a legend." But he admits he's not in the same shape as last year.
*Hammer Results/Press Conference Highlights - Dayron Robles Wants Another World Record
More Post NCAA News
We Agree: NCAAs Make Hog Fans Appreciate McDonnell Even More "The track wars waged by Lananna's Oregon Ducks and Henry's Texas
A&M Aggies last Wednesday through Saturday at the NCAA Men's and
NCAA Women's Outdoor meet at John McDonnell Field cast new light on how
awesome retired coach McDonnell's achievements truly were."
*Ducks Want NCAA Titles Next Year At Home Best bet seems to be on the women's side as they'll lose Rupp on the men's.
*Aggies Have Now Won 3 NCAA Titles Within A Month When Previously They Had 4 In History They also got men's golf.
Japan's 2:08:49 Guy Wataru Okutani Retires
Kenyan News
*Kenya Picks Teams For World Youth Champs As Well As African Juniors
*Jelimo To Run In Madrid On July 4th
More Weekend Track Action
Meselech Melkamu Stuns World With 29:53.80 In Netherlands #2 time ever. World record if you think the Chinese were doping.
Harry Jerome: Gary Reed's 800m Win Among Higlights Of Harry Jerome
*Harry Jerome Results
European News:
- Usain Bolt Running 100, Dayron Robles Hurdles, Asbel Kiprop 800 And Much More In Wednesday's Ostrava Meet
- Rome To Join Diamond League Next Year
- Charles van Commenee Talks about Trying To Rescue British Athletics
- Carolina Kluft To MIss European Team Championships
Berlin Golden League *Results *Watch On Demand: On Our Partner Universalsports.com
Bekele Narrow 13:00.76 Win, Augustine Choge 3:29.47!, Sanya Richards 49.57 Plus Ariane Friedrich jumped 2.06 in the high jump, the men's 400m runners ran really slow, and no women's distance races were run.
HS Action
Mac Fleet (4:02:90) Wins Battle At Mile Distance Between Top 3 US High Schoolers At 800 Robby Andrews ran 4:03.49 for 2nd and Elijah Greer ran 4:08.08 for 4th as Foot Locker runner-up Trevor Dunbar was 3rd in 4:06.65.
*Freshmen Verzbicas Runs 8:53 For 2 Miles!
Pre Race Golden Lague News
- IAAF Berlin Golden League Preview IAAF
- Golden League Lacks Lustre Despite Yelena Isinbayeva's Record Pursuit
- Preview Of Berlin: After Dropout, Kenenisa Bekele Will Run 5k
- Bolt Skipping Chance For $1 Million Jackpot He probably figures sharing it with several others isn't worth his time.
- Sanya Richards Running 400 In Berlin Golden League
World Record Holder In Steeple, Gulnara Galkina-Samitova, Runs 4:02 1,500 Over Nancy Lagat
We Sort Of Agree Michael Johnson: Athletics should be more about genuine competition and less about the obsession with star names such as Usain Bolt.
Toronto Festival Of Excellence *Full Results
- Canadian Press Recap Of Meet - Bolt Wins In 10.00 & Crushes Field By .25 In Rain, Kipyego Beats Elmore In Women's Mile, Shaheen Crushes Ritz In 5k
- Nate Brannen Crushes Mile Field In 3:55.0 As 8 Break 4:00 LaShawn Merritt ran 44.83 as well.
- KD Wins 800 In 1:45.73 As Christian Smith Was 2nd In 1:46.00 And Karjuan Williams Runs Huge PB Of 1:46.03
- CBC: Rain Dampens Bolt's Appearance But Brannen Thrilled To Win In Front Of Home Crowd
- Recommended Read: Nice Washington Post Pre-Race Article On Usain Bolt's Up & Down Off-Season
- NYTimes Pre-Race Article On Bolt: Bolt Paying Attention To Gay
*Spain's Natalia Rodríguez Runs World-Leading 8:35 3k
*IAAF Hurdles Preview Of Golden League
Mid-Week Non NCAA Action
Greece: Dayron Robles Runs 13.30 In First Race Of 2009 In Greece
*South African Johan Cronje Runs 3:35 1,500 PB In Greece
*Thessaloniki Greece Results
UK: Nike Contract Flap Prevents 3 Top Athletes From Competing In Last Night's UK Athletics' Inaugural Super8 Competition It's supposed to be a team competition to revive fan interest in the sport, but athletes couldn't wear the swoosh on their jerseys and as a result the Nike athletes had to pull out.
Poland: Josef Odlozil Polish Meet Recap
LRC The Week That Was Everyone loves teenagers, so this week we do an exhaustive analysis of teen sprint phenoms and tell you how we think the next Usain Bolt likely isn't in Jamaica but rather Texas. We also look at a slew of great performances from some teen distance phenoms and tell you who apparently benefits the most from NCAA Regionals, before telling Nike to get rid of having everyone in the race wear the same uniform and tell you how to get rid of your Prozac. We also wonder why Asbel Kiprop wasn't DQed.
LRC Running Cartoons: Jeremy Wariner And Alan Webb A LRC reader sent these cartoons to us. Check 'em out.
Good Quotes From The Wacky World Of Track & Field
"You put a 1.2 (metres per second) wind behind me instead of in my face, and we may have had a world record today." - Yesterday's Quote Of The Day from American long-jumper Dwight Phillips.
"They read in the paper that she runs on caliche, and they call saying,
'How do we get one of those caliche tracks?' They think it's
something fancy. They can have this one." - Steve Butler,
superintendent of the Rochelle school district where All-American farm girl Bonnie Richardson trains on some dirt circle. What's unique about Richardson is that she has led Rochelle to 2 Texas state titles. By herself.
British Opinion
*Pat Butcher On One Of Track's Worst Components: Rabbited Races Butcher has often railed against rabbits in the sport and we agree. Too much emphasis is being placed on time and not enough on man vs. man competition.
*Steve Cram On Dwain Chambers: He Won't Be Missed In The Golden League Drug users continue to be taught the lesson: don't come clean about drugs or you will lose your career.
*Elsewhere In Europe: Berlin Golden League Couldn't Afford Bolt On The Track In June So they want him on the road in October.
LRC: US Athletes Are Kicking Butt In 2009 A brief look at how the US is stacking up in 2009. Trivia: which US athlete is in the top 4 in the world in 3 Olympic events? Hint: Ivy League Alum with dyed hair.
Prefontaine Classic *Events/Results *LRC: Semi-Live Blog As Meet Was Telecast *Results/Links To NBC Race Videos *Kiprop Photos *Pre Classic Photos
LRC Bowerman Mile: Asbel Kiprop Is The Best Miler On The Planet & He Lets Everyone Know It The soon-to-be Olympic Champ Asbel Kiprop didn't get to enjoy hs "win" in Beijing, but he certainly did on Sunday as he mowed down the field in 3:48.48 and was so brilliant that he started to celebrate before he even had the
lead - over 100 meters out!!!
LRC Pre W1,500: A Race for the Ages - JENNY BARRINGER GOES SUB-4:00 The CU Buff's sensational year just got infinitely better as she stunned the field (and the crowd), becoming the 2nd clean American to break 4:00, and nearly got the win as a ton of American women ran really fast.
LRC Pre Track Event Recaps Lots of great action, including a STUNNING win by American Maggie Vessey in the women's 800. Other big wins went to Nick Symmonds in a stacked men's 800, as well as Michael Rodgers in the 100 in a world-leading 9.94. Plus Bernard Lagat in the men's 3k.
LRC Pre Field Event Recaps *Pre Photos The action in the field produced
some amazing results, especially from American Dwight Phillips,
who became the =5th-farthest jumper in history with an 8.74 jump into a
headwind. Phillips won the Olympics in 2004 but didn't make the US team
last year. Read our recaps of all the events that took place in the
field as NBC showed you almost nothing.
More Pre News: *Eugene Register-Guard Sports Page Has Tons Of Prefontaine Classic Coverage
*Jelimo And Nancy Lagat Get Slammed In Nairobi Paper
*Joe Battaglia Offers His Prefontaine Winners And Losers
Barringer: *Lengthy Post-Race Article With Quotes From Barringer (She Said She Thought She Could Run 4:04)
*CU Buffs Story On Barringer (CU Assistant Heather Burroughs Says They Thought She Could Run 4:02 Or 4:03)
Men's 800: Nick Symmonds Wins Prefontaine 800 Again, Beating 2 Olympic Medallists Oregonian
Men's Long Jump: Dwight Philips Jumps 28 feet, 8 1/4 (8,74) To Beat Saladino (Best Jump In World In 15 Years)
Men's 300: LaShawn Merritt Defeats XMan In Pre 300
More: *LA Times Editorial On Pre "This is track as it should be."
*Mary Slaney Says Watching Last Year's Olympic Trials Was Difficult
*Prefontaine Classic Quotes
Last 300 Of Men's 4 x 400 (This is the final day we can leave this up due to NCAA rules; we already had to take down the last laps of Rupp's victories)
Last Lap Of Men's 1,500
Galen Rupp After The Rupptet (6:43)
Class Act: Florida State Coach Bob Braman
Jenny Barringer On Her Stunning 3:59, Holding Every NCAA Record From 1,500 To 5k, And More
2009 LetsRun.com High School Summer Training Programs Sign Up Now!
Click Here For Details
We're bringing back our summer training programs and are using our
original banner from 2001. Learn from LetsRun.com's world-renowned JK
and a former pupil of the LetsRun.com initital summer training program
who went on to be an NCAA All-American. Yes, ladies and gentleman, that
is right - we've had one summer training program in the past and it
produced one All-American. Many have written asking if we would design a program for a non-high schooler and the answer is yes.
Pre Videos
More here
Kiprop's Incredible Mile (He Starts Celebrating While In 2nd 100m From The Finish)
Maggie Vessey Surprises In 800
Must Read On Barry And Darren Brown - Father/Son Sub-4:00 Darren's father Barry Brown was one of the leading members of the Florida Track Club along with guys like Marty Liquori, John L. Parker and Frank Shorter before taking his life when Darren was a child. Amazing read about an amazing kid giving it a go as a professional runner.
Awesome Read: Oregonian's Ken Goe Says It's Not Fair For Pac 10 To Advocate Cutting Regionals "Doing away with the regional meets would cut costs, but at the expense of fairness."
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.
LRC Running Cartoons: Jeremy Wariner and Alan Webb An LRC reader sent these cartoons to us. Check 'em out.