LRC: The Week That Was This week, the 2009 track season came to a close with the World Athletics Final (WAF) where Anna Willard and Kenenisa Bekele impressed us once again and Usain Bolt was upstaged by Carmelita Jeter as everyone paused to ask, "Is she clean?" Plus some fine road racing performances by Brett Gotcher and Colleen De Reuck in New Haven, as well as Sammy Kitwara in Rotterdam. And even though he got crushed, we tell you why it's time to get excited for Sammy Wanjiru's run at the BOA Chicago Marathon in less than a month and prove once and for all that we don't hate the Oregon Ducks.
Important: Former Duke Runner Kevin McDermott Paralyzed In Diving Accident - Call For Donations To Help With Medical Costs Brother Sean McDermott wrote to us asking if we would share Kevin's story with our readers. Kevin was paralyzed in a diving accident and the family is struggling with medical bills.
Recommended Read: Read About How Running Has Helped A Girl's Depression When Drugs And Therapy Could Not
Tuesday's Sprinting News
- Smart: Bolt Not Worried About Breaking Any Indoor Records
- Asafa Powell Runs Season's Best 9.82 In Obscure Poland Meet; Symmonds And Wurth-Thomas Win Too We can't find a good link to results, but Wurth-Thomas' win was especially impressive over Berlin silver medalist Lisa Dobriskey.
- The World Champion Sprinter Who Never Lifted A Weight, Kim Collins, Retires Collins won WCs in 2003.
LRC Recap: Brilliant Day 2 Action From Greece Capped By Willard-Vessey 1-2 In The 800m We thought this World Athletics Final was going to be totally boring, but in the end, it was one of the best meets of the year thanks to awesome distance races, great sprinting and more fireworks from the king and the diva Usain Bolt and Blanka Vlašić. Day 2 was awesome and we hope you enjoy our thorough recaps.
*IAAF Day 2 Recap
*Full Results
*LRC: Day 2 Photos *Day 1 Photos *Day 1 Recap
Informative Usain Bolt Articles Full Of Interesting Tidbits From Coach Glen Mills
- No Joke: Usain Bolt Mechanic-Mastermind Says He'll Break 19 Seconds Technical flaws still being worked out for world's tallest elite sprinter.
- Glen Mills Lays Out Bolt's Long Term Racing Plans 2010: easy, win big diamond. 2011: hard, win everything. 2012: hard, win everything. 2013: 400 WR? Retire.
- Usain Bolt Happy Season Over - Excited For Time Off Sleep & 6 weeks' rest on the big man's agenda.
- 2009 First: Sprinter Upstages Usain Bolt Despite the talk of Bolt, American Carmelita Jeter's season carmelized suddenly on Sunday with her hyper-smooth 10.68 that trails only Florence Griffith-Joyner and drug cheat Marion Jones on the all-time list.
LRC Day 1 Recap Bekele Over Lagat Kenenisa Bekele and Bernard Lagat came down to the wire again, this time in the 3,000m. Most of
the favorites won, except in the women's 1,500m, where Kenya, Great Britain and America surprised pre-race favorites Gelete Burka and Maryam Jamal.
LRC: Beautiful Day 1 Photos From Thessaloniki
IAAF Day 1 Recap Describes Atmosphere In Thessaloniki They let the kids all come down close to the track to get autographs and high fives.
LRC Boards: Bekele's last 100m at WAF -- 11.6 !!
Bob Ramsak Recaps Day 1
Bolt Steals Gay's Thunder Without Even Competing
American Distance Runners Entered In The World Athletics Final
IAAF Releases Pre-Race Quotes From Worlds
World Athletics Final Distance Preview
WAthletics Final Jumps Preview *Throws *Hurdles
Nike Tempo Running Shorts Only $19.99
Brief Chat With Colleen DeReuck Former South African citizen Colleen DeReuck just won a US championship over 20k at the age of 45.
W Pole Vault: One Great Retires While Another Keeps Chugging
- Event Pioneer, Olympic Champion Stacy Dragila Retires At Age 38 After Another Competitive Year
- Yelena Isinbayeva And Her 27 World Records Wish She Had Competition
*Brett Gotcher's First USA Title Means A Ton To Him And His Coach Greg McMillan
*Dr. Ross Tucker Returns And Offers Intelligent Analysis Of Caster Semanya Situation *London's Telegraph
Describes Caster
Semenya By The Numbers
*ESPN Hoping To Purchase Olympic TV Rights And Have Much More Live Coverage Once ESPN bought the rights to the MLS and Champions League they started treating soccer like a real sport. Perhaps they will do the same with track.
LRC The Week That Was - Week 36 - For the 2nd-straight week, an American broke 13:00-flat in the 5k (isn't it fun to write that?), for the first time in a long time someone almost broke 1:42.00, and Anna Willard staked her claim to the #1 US ranking at 800 meters. Plus, the Golden League concluded with great runs by Bekele, Richards and Bolt, while the Caster Semenya story got crazier and crazier.
Kenyan News
*Brother Colm O'Connell Says David Rudisha Can Break Kipketer's 800m Record And he should know considering he's coached so many of their great runners at St. Patrick's.
*Kenyan Press Blasts Some Kenyan Runners For Not Talking To The Kenyan Press With the exception of Kiprop after his disasters generally the problem is hardly anyone bothers to interview them. By and large were willing to talk to LetsRun.com! Janeth Jepkosgei here, Asbel Kiprop here,
and of course a hilarious Ezekiel Kemboi here. (In our week that was we surmised why David Rudisha went out in the semis at Worlds. Then we found out Wejo talked to him here)
*Kenyans Concerned With Athletes Defecting (Smuggled?) To Qatar And Bahrain
LRC Recap: Bolt Does It Again In Brussels
LRC Ritz Speaks USATF held a teleconference with Dathan Ritzenhein Tuesday afternoon and we quickly give you the highlights. We tell you what Ritz had to say about new coach Alberto Salazar and what event Ritz will focus on for 2012. Plus we tell you what Ritz's next race will be. Is an American 10k record run a possibility?
Ian O'Riordan Column: "Berlin restored a lot of people's faith and interest in the sport ..." But will it all go to waste?
LRC: Dathan Ritzenhein Breaks Bob Kennedy's American 5,000m Record In Zürich Amazed? So are we.
LetsRun.com Exclusive Interview With Oklahoma State Coach Dave Smith We talked with Dave Smith about the big-time new additions to the Cowboys team, the expectations of German Fernandez, and his biggest challenge as a coach: holding his runners back in practice. In our LRC Preview Of Ok St., we officially put all the pressure on them and rank them #1 in the country over the 2-time defending champs Oregon thanks to the late addition of transfer All-American Girma Mecheso.
Distance News: Chicago Elite Fields Announced And Deena Kastor's Task Just Got A Lot Tougher
Irina Mikitenko Announced For Chicago The world's most consistent marathoner over the past two years will run her first race since the sudden death of her father interruped her training for the Berlin World Championhips marathon. Also, Ethiopian Tadese Tola will make his marathon debut against Sammy Wanjiru and co. on the blazing fast Chicago course. Chicago is officially back with the
big-time stars.
Kenyans Name Kitwara And Keitany To Their World Half Marathon Teams
Interview With Will Leer Who Keeps Rerunning His USA Champs Race Over And Over
Tuesday's Semenya News
- T&F Heavyweight Carl Lewis Calls Out South African Athletics For Poor Treatment Of Semenya The façade is crumbling for Athletics South Africa.
- Fishing For Help: South African Official Calls On United Nations To Defend Caster Semeya
Track News Hodgepodge
- Kenyan Officials Begrudgingly Admit Kitwara Might Be A Good Pick For World Champs Half Marathon Kitwara mentioned after his 58:58 that he really had no idea if Athletics Kenya would select him to run.
- Jamaican Sprinters - Including 2 From Bolt Group - Banned 3 Months For Stimulant They will be banned from all of the big track meets in September, October and November.
- Recommended Read: Fascinating Story Told By Writer Pat Butcher Of Computer Patriarch, Marathoner And Homosexual Martyr Alan Turing Turing, a talented tough runner, committed suicide after the British legal system ordered hormone treatment to fix his homosexuality. An amazing story.
- Murray, Baddeley Win Great Races In Great Capital Run (GBR) *Results
- Blade Runner Accused In Assault On Woman At His Party
- Screaming Marathon Man Wins Rochester For most of us, it's not as easy as Sammy Kitwara makes it seem.
Another Day, Another Bombshell From Johannesburg
- Today's Unbelievable Semenya News: Caster Was Going To Run Regardless Of What Any Sex Test Said According to the latest official statements, Athletics South Africa places zero value in any gender test, high value on gold medals.
- "Caster Sacrificed For Medal" Headlines Johannesburg Star Front Page
- Lost In Translation: ASA Demands IAAF Apology Asked to describe ASA - IAAF negotiations, we would say they're not even speaking the same language and the interpreters are being ignored.
- South African IAAF Representative Told To Go Back After He Resigned In Protest
- South African Officials Claim Gender Tests Mean Nothing To Them - Gold Medals Do Story's lead journalist Mike Hurst on latest quotes out of Johannesburg.
- Women Rights Group Accuses IAAF Of Abusing Caster Semenya Can we accuse Athletics South Africa of abusing the IAAF?
Sammy Kitwara Rocks Rotterdam With 58:58 Course Record As 7 Kenyans Not Named Wanjiru Go Under 59:33
Sammy Kitwara is now the 4th-fastest man on the half marathon list after his latest outrageous road run. The first 5,000m was covered in
an unbelievable 13:37, but Kitwara said it was not too fast because he is a track guy. He won the Kenyan 10k Trials this year on the track but they didn't let him run Worlds because he ran and won Peachtree.
LRC LetsRun.com's Race Of The Weekend: Fortis Rotterdam Half Marathon Preview Half marathon WR holder Sammy Wanjiru returns to the roads against brash phenom Sammy Kitwara. Each 22 years old, they will be joined by fellow youngster Tilahun Regassa of Ethiopia and 2:04:27 marathoner James Kwambai in what might be the best half marathon ever seen. Get a feel for the new generation of African road racing stars with our preview, stats and videos.
No Ovaries, No Problem: 54% Of 10,000 Voters Say "Let Semenya Keep Her Women's 800m Medal" Unbelievable amount of votes, Telegraph journalist Mike Hurst says it's by far the biggest response they've had to any topic. Vote in our poll to the right.
A War Over Internal Testes: South African Sports Minister Threatens World War 3 If Semenya Is Banned Absolutely ridiculous statements pour out of South Africa as political and athletic officials ignore evidence and try to incite public anger.
*Must Read/Hear If You Want The True Story: The 2 Most Informed Members Of The Media Discuss What They Know About Semenya Ross Tucker of Science of Sport (based in South Africa) points us to an audio interview done with news breaker Mike Hurst of The Daily Telegraph. (click on "audio")
*South
African Fortress Around Semenya Could Get Her Banned Regardless Of Tests
*IAAF Officially Comments On Leaked News Nick Davies, IAAF spokesman: "ASA's actions can have serious consequences for Semenya if we are not able to speak to her soon. In
short, it will come down to her refusing to co-operate. Had it been a
drugs issue, she would have been suspended a long time ago, but this is
a unique problem for which the IAAF's rules do not make provision. It
is important for us to talk to her about the results of the tests.''
LetsRun.com Being Ripped Off In The British Tabloids
The Sun is using a LetsRun.com video of Caster Semenya without attribution.
IAAF Source Leak: Semenya Is A Hermaphrodite And Will Be Banned The IAAF believe they have evidence to strip world 800m gold medalist Caster Semenya of her medal and bar her from competing but must act carefully to avoid PR backlash. Author Mike Hurst of Sydney, Australia's The Daily Telegraph has been all over the
Semenya controversy and is a journalist we really respect. He managed to get an anonymous IAAF source to admit that the IAAF "is ready to disqualify Semenya from future events and advise her to
have immediate surgery because her condition carries grave health
risks. They have also not ruled out stripping Semenya of her 800m World
Championships gold medal."
*Based In South Africa, Ross Tucker, PhD Gives His Response
*IAAF Source: Semenya Tests Show She/He Is A Hermaphrodite, Has No Ovaries Or Womb
David Rudisha Sets African Record 1:42.01 800m In Rieti! 20-year-old Kenyan leads three men under 1:43 and now sits behind only Wilson Kipketer, Seb Coe and Joaquim Cruz on the all-time 800m list.
*David Rudisha, Son Of Olympic 4 x 400m Medalist Daniel Rudisha, Surprises With 1:42.01 The Nation - Kenya
*Boards: Leo Manzano Pr's Again - All 3's 3:33.33
*Results
Deal Of The Day