Maybe Communism Isn't So Bad After All
Chinese Official Wants To Jail Coaches That Dope Athletes
Help Elect Angela Bizzarri As Sullivan Award Winner - Vote Here
LRC The Week That Was We take a brief break from celebrating Cornell's ride to the Sweet 16 to give you an abbreviated "Spring Break Version" of our weekly recap. Along the way, we talk about Zersenay Tadese's world record, Mo Trafeh's sudden surge, Deena Kastor's fade, and wonder whether Jeff Risely owns Nick Willis. We cover all of last week except we purposely ignore the LA Marathon.
Interesting/Random News Relating To Female Stars
- Maria Mutola Is Enjoying Retirement As Dominant Striker In Top Women's South African Soccer League Mutola: "We've played five or six games, and I've scored eight or nine goals. I scored four in the one game."
- Kim Smith Dominates Half Marathon In Massachusetts As She Gets Ready For Virgin London We wonder why she didn't run the NYC half.
- Good For Her: Kelly Holmes Rips Big Names That Are Planning On Skipping Commonwealths
- 2007 WChamps Bronze Medallist At 800, Mayte Martinez, Is Looking Forward To This Summer's Europeans In Barcelona She says she's in the best shape since 2007.
Vin Lananna On Oregon AD Position Lananna says he hasn't talked to anyone about it. Lananna's quote: "... I think the athletic department is a wonderful and special place. We'll see how it plays out."
Recommended Read: Irish Times Article On Colm O'Connell And Kenyan Success It's simply amazing to read about what Irish-born Brother Colm O'Connell has done with Kenyan runners.
Marathon Winner Disqualified Over Technicality - What Do You Think? He signed up for the half marathon but made a wrong turn and ended up on the marathon course.
Dibaba To Run In Poland
Kenyan Women Head To Poland Knowing Tirunesh Dibaba Is Waiting With Kenenisa Bekele and Zersenay Tadese sitting out the event, the Kenyan men will have a good shot to win in Poland. The Kenyan women and Linet Masai will have to contend with Tirunesh Dibaba.
*Polish National Women Take Nearly Half An Hour To Run Muddy, Snowy 8km World XC Course The best women's XC runners in Poland could barely cover the course that will be used for Worlds in under 6:00/mile.
New Road World Record (Actually, 2!)
Zersenay
Tadese 58:23 WR
Eritrean Zersenay Tadese followed through with his promise to chase Sammy Wanjiru's world half marathon record, shaving 10 seconds off the Kenyan's time on the record-legal course in Lisbon - winning by almost 2 minutes.
*Zersenay Tadese Nabs 2 World Records From Wanjiru And Gebrselassie Not only did Gebrselassie have a bad day in New York, he also lost his world 20km road record by almost 30 seconds to Eritrea's Tadese, who covered 20km in 55:21.
Sunday Road Results
2005 World 10,000m Medalist Moses Mosop Debuts At 59:20 For Half Marathon That's quite the debut time. Article in Italian.
Seoul Marathon: Sylvester Teimet Wins In Close 2:06 Battle Sylvester Teimet won in 2:06:49 as Gilbert Kipruto Kirwa was 10 seconds back. Amane Gobena won in 2:24:13 on the women's side.
Wesley Korir Repeats In L.A. But Edna Kiplagat Steals $100,000 Gender Battle Prize Kiplagat, 30, is a very talented runner, but her marathon PB was only 2:50 coming into this race. Her win in this non-drug-tested race ends an 11-year streak by Russian women. Korir's run was again inspiring as he overcame an East-African pack to remain the King of L.A. while on his honeymoon, no less.
John Kemboi And Tera Moody Win BoA Shamrock Shuffle 8k In Chicago
LRC Can't Miss: Training Talk #6 With Craig Virgin Two-time World Cross-Country champion and two-time American record holder Craig Virgin joined us for Training Talk #6 and talked about a wide range of subjects, including his high school and college training, his time with Nike and Athletics West, racing 3 times in 4 days during a "front-loaded" career, and Jimmy Carter and the 1980 US Olympic Boycott that cost Virgin his best shot at an Olympic medal. Virgin is a true ambassador of US distance running and one of the greatest-ever US distance runners - whether you're looking for training advice, inspiration or entertainment, his stories and opinions are a must-hear.
The Greatest Race On The Planet - World XC - Is This Weekend *Meet Website
- IAAF Women's Preview: Can 3-Time Champ Tirunesh Dibaba Hold Off Kenya's Rising Star Linet Masai Masai came up just short last year but will be hard to beat this year. In the junior race, Dibaba's little sis will go for her third title.
- Lengthy Kenyan Team Profile - Team Dreams Of Senior Men's Individual Gold Wants To Defeat Dibaba Sisters In Women's Races
- Confident Kenyan Team Departs For Poland
- Wilson Kipketer Was In Poland Last Week Promoting World XC
Unrelated But Important/Interesting News
- Nick Willis Hurt Again And Pulls Out Of New Zealand Champs
- A Year After Running 2:04:27, James Kwambai Returning To Rotterdam Hoping To Win This Time
- Recommended Read: Geb's Impact Extends Beyond Running Unfortunately, he may not be having much of a running impact any more, as his performances have been subpar of late.
Random News From Australia
*Australia Picks Team For July's World Juniors
*With World Title In Hand, Steve Hooker Eyeing Famous 120-Meter Race In Australia As Next Goal
A Brief Chat With Mo Trafeh - The American Runner Everyone Is Wondering About Trafeh, the US's newest sub-61 minute half marathoner, talks about turning down coaching from Hicham El Guerrouj's coach, why he trains alone, and what he plans to do after his recent road breakthroughs.
Bitter Welsh Marathoning Prospect Quits The Sport Teenager cites criticism of his 180 mile/week training as a reason he is switching to soccer.
British Bosses - A Funny Bunch
- Dame Kelly Holmes Rails Against Athletes Skipping Commonwealths In October In Delhi
- UK Athletics Expects 99 Medals From Paralympians It's like the runner who stops at 99 miles in a week.
- Seb Coe Named 3rd Most Powerful Man In Sport By London's Times
Caster Semenya - Her Future Still Undecided Interesting quote from her father.
Nigerian-Born Portuguese Francis Obikwelu Returning To Sport
Noteworthy Weekend Performances
- HJ Icon Stefan Holm Wins Wrong Footed High Jump Competition In Sweden Holm has cleared 2.30m 130 times in his career.
- Stephen Mokoka Wins 1,500/10,000m Double At South African Champs His 1,500m win in 3:38 is described as the surprise of the meet.
- Kenyan Sylvester Teimet Wins Seoul In Record Time
NYC Half Marathon - Haile STOPS
Haile Gebrselassie Says Asthma Ended His Day Early
He slept wrong in Dubai. The air was bad in New York. Can Geb still run with the best in the sport?
*LRC Photos See Gebrselassie on the side of the road - plus shots of all the action in the race full of interesting characters.
*Deena Kastor Says She's Happy With Her Effort ... Despite getting passed at the end. She flew through 10km in 32:30 and will face Mara Yamauchi again at Virgin London.
LRC Favorites Fall In Dramatic Fashion In New York The Haile Gebrselassie coronation did not go as planned, as he inexplicably pulled off the course while running with eventual race winner Peter Kamais in mile 8. Deena Kastor built a huge lead in the women's race, running on course record pace, before being reeled in by a determined Mara Yamauchi.
The Rage - Barefoot Running Discussion
The Science Of Sport - Q&A On Barefoot Running Part 1 *Part 2 *Part 3 *Part 4 Almost every day, we answer questions from friends and acquaintances about the barefoot running push. Our friends at Science of Sport are hosting a lengthy discussion of the topic.