New Balance Boston On TV Sunday 2-4 PM Eastern On ESPN2 *Results *Photos
Russell Brown Cruises To 3:54 Win, Webb, Manzano And Verzbicas All Over 4 The men's mile featured Alan Webb, Leo Manzano, Nick Willis and high school star Lukas Verzbicas, but the star of the night was Russell Brown, who crushed the field winning in 3:54 as Webb, Manzano and Verzbicas all didn't break 4. Afterwards, Webb threw a tantrum (seriously, that's a fair way of describing
it) before addressing the press, and we'll have more on that Sunday. In other action, Sally Kipyego turned back Jenny Barringer in the 3k, Phoebe Wright got another win in the 800m, but the performance of the night may have been Dejen Gebremeskel running 7:35 and outkicking Mo Farah with a last lap of 26 while having one shoe on for most of the race.
Message Board Thread Here
*Boston Globe Recap: Brown Gets Surprising Win; Verzbicas Says He Was Nervous LV says he's not normally nervous for races.
Fireworks In Stuttgart, Eaton On Course *Stuttgart Results
Yenew Alamirew Runs 7:27.80 To Lead 3 Under 7:30 Barrier For
First Time Ever, David Oliver Runs Fast In Hurdles Alamirew dominated a late season 3k last year and backed it up here, showing he is the real deal. For the first time ever indoors, more than one guy broke 7:30 in a race, as Alamirew triumphed over Augustin Choge and Eliud Kipchoge. David Oliver easily dispatched
Dayron Robles and nearly got the US record, and LRC favorite Silas Kiplagat lost in the 1,500m.
Estonia: Ashton Eaton On World Record Pace After Day 1 Of Heptathlon In Estonia
Impressive: Belgian Dude Stefaan Engels Completes 365th Marathon In 365 Days
Boston Pre-Race
- LRC Lukas Verzbicas Talks To LetsRun.com It takes a true phenom to get LetsRun.com excited about a high schooler, but we're now officially leading the bandwagon, as we caught up with America's greatest high
school phenom (since the Hall-Webb-Ritz era) two days before he tries to join Webb in the sub-4-indoors-as-a-HS-runner club. A natural showman of sorts, Lukas talked about his goals for Saturday, his training, his decision to go Oregon, whether he contemplated going pro straight out of HS, and much more. A must read.
More Pre-Meet Coverage - A Must Read Boston Globe Introduces Lukas Verzbicas To The World A great profile that is definitely worth the read. Verzbicas talks about moving to the US 10 years ago and how his dreams have become a reality since then.
- Alberto Salazar Thinks Webb Will Run Well But Is More Pleased He's Learning To Get Out From Under "Pressure Cooker"
- Boston Herald: Recovered From Flu, Alan Webb Is "Super Hungry"
- Leo Manzano Talks About New Balance Boston Games And 2011 Season
- Mo Farah May Target His Own 7:34.47 UK Record This Weekend
Mid-Week Action
- Irish Junior Stud Darren McBrearty Runs 1:47.87 Indoors In Vienna His PR has come down 1.5 seconds in a week. Over the weekend, he actually lost to another Irish junior, Mark English, as they both went sub-1:49.
- Ivan Ukhov Continues Fine 2011 With 2.30 Win In Moscow
Great Upcoming Action
Next Week: NYRR Deuce Record Challenge
LRC Preview Bernard Lagat To Go For US Two-Mile Record On February 12th At The Armory It's worth noting that Doug Padilla didn't even know he still had the record (8:15.02). It's also worth noting that Robby Andrews is expected to rabbit - so it looks like he's rebounding from his plantar injury.
In Two Weeks: World Dream Mile
Fastest 1,500m Runner Of 2010, Silas Kiplagat, To Race Reigning World Indoor 1,500m Champion Derese Mekonnen At Birmingham On Feb. 19th Mekonnen is fresh off his victory over Bernard Lagat at the Wanamaker Mile and Silas Kiplagat (3:29.27 1,500 last year) just recently said he thinks he's in shape to break
El
Guerrouj's
1,500 World Record, so this should be a great matchup.
End Of Month: Galen
Rupp To Attempt 10k AR On Feb 26 In New Zealand
Early March: Bernard Lagat Added To Melbourne 5K! For those not keeping score at home, that's Lagat, Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and Craig Mottram all in one very fast 5k. *IAAF Preview (Doesn't Talk About Lagat)
Thomas Dold Sets Record For 6th Straight Win In Empire State Building Run-Up He ran up 86 flights of stairs in 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
Random But Interesting
Oops - BYU Doesn't Have A Track Conference To Compete In The Cougars decided to go for the money and go independent in football, leaving their track teams out to dry as the conference they joined for other sports doesn't even have track.
Unbelievable - Australia's 800m Record Is 42 Years Old There is some hope with David Rudisha racing down under that he'll inspire an Aussie to break the record.
The IAAF Profiles Two Of Its Biggest Stars
- IAAF Profiles World High Jump Champ Blanka Vlašić She'll be 29 in 2012 and still doesn't have Olympic gold.
- IAAF Profiles 800 World Record Holder David Rudisha Did you know his dad has two wives?
Records Crushed By Future Studs
- Ryan Crouser Destroys Indoor HS 16lb Shot Record By 3 Feet Crouser started using the spin technique for the first time in competition, throwing a US #2 all-time 73-1 with the 12-pound high school shot, and then set the US high school indoor record with the 16-pound implement, throwing 63-11. That makes him No. 2 all-time, behind Michael Carter, who threw 67-9 outdoors 32 years ago and if he was in college he would have hit the NCAA auto mark.
- Jodie Williams Sets European Age-17 Best In 60m The World Junior 100m champ ran 7.28, which would rank her 7th in the NCAA so far this year.
18 Things You Didn't Know About Steve Prefontaine
Some Countries Actually Put Track On TV! France will broadcast at least 20 hours of live footage from 2011 European Indoor Championships.
Marrakech International Marathon Recap 2:10:22, 2:37:00 get the job done.
Weekend Marathons *Houston Live Thread
Houston: Bekana Daba Nearly Goes Sub-2:07, Strong Day For Americans Daba, a 12:58 5ker on the track last year, had the credentials, but his first marathon wasn't great (2:14 in Amsterdam). He put that behind him, running a stunning 1:02:47 on the second half of the course to finish in 2:07:04 despite a bathroom break near the finish. American marathoning is definitely on the upswing;
at the fast halfway
split, there were 2 Americans in the
pack (Nick Arciniaga
and Brett Gotcher). Arciniaga would grab second and a 2:11:30 PR. Last year's surprise Gotcher blew up. On the distaff side, Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia prevailed in a duel with Ashu Kasim, as American Stephanie Rothstein surprised with a huge 10-minute PR and sub-2:30 clocking.
*Nice Recap From Houston Chronicle No wonder Gotcher blew up; the lead pack did a 4:29 mile for mile 14 (which is Gotcher's 10k PR pace and way faster than Nick Arciniaga's 10k pace) and then 3 sub-4:40 miles from 16-18.
*RRW: Americans Nick Arciniaga, Stephanie Rothstein Impress
Nick was only slated to pace Gotcher through 25k, but he was open to the idea of finishing.
Osaka: Yukiko Akaba (Japan's Top Marathoner In 2010) Wins Osaka Marathon On Cold And Windy Day To Get Her First Marathon Win
Miami: Dude Wins ING Miami Marathon By Nearly 6 Minutes In 2:12 (He Was So Far Ahead Until Mile 23 That 2nd And 3rd Place Thought They Were Winning)
Millrose *1-Page Results *Full Results
LRC Analysis
Millrose Behind The Scenes: Lagat Goes Down, Millrose Entertains Employee #1 and his able assistant went into the bowels of Millrose to tell you what really happened at the grand-daddy of track and field meets in the world. High schoolers flashing U of O symbols, overlooked 3:34 1,500m runners, and pros addicted to LetsRun.com - we've got it covered.
Unlucky 7: Deresse Mekonnen Snaps Bernard Lagat's Winning Streak At 6 The 23-year-old 2010 world indoor champ defeated the 36-year-old President of the Boards (or did Father Time win?) in a fantastic
Wanamaker mile, but not without Lagat putting up a fantastic fight that saw him at least three times try to retake the lead in the final two laps.
*Samantha Nadel Wins High School Girls Millrose Mile In 4:50.58
*NY's Chad Noelle Wins Boys Millrose Mile In 4:16.71
*Register-Guard: World
Pentathlon Record Holder Ashton Eaton PRs In Two Out Of Three Events To Beat Olympic Champion Bryan Clay And World Champion Trey Hardee Eaton set a new shot put PR at 46-8 and lowered his 60m hurdles time to 7.64.
*Jamaicans Lose Sprint Showdown With USA Jamaicans Veronica Campbell-Brown
and Nesta Carter won the sprints, but US sprinters claimed victory on points in the US-Jamaica challenge.
*IAAF Recap: Mekonnen Ends Lagat's Streak
*Millrose Games: Nadel, Noelle Win HS Miles!
*UVA Wins College 4 x 800 Without Robby Andrews
International Track News
- Jessica Ennis Runs 7.97 In The 60m Hurdles, Crushes Two-Time World Indoor Champion Lolo Jones In Glasgow *IAAF Recap
- US's David Oliver Beats European Champ Andy Turner In The 60m Hurdles Turner was trying to "scalp" Oliver (read here), but Oliver beat him easily. Maybe Turner should stick to soccer.
- Russia's Ivan Ukhov Just Misses World Record In High Jump Check out a video of his jump here. It looks like he's jumping in a big barn. Ukhov is a stud but is most known for being the guy jumping drunk at a meet in 2008.
- Rome Diamond League Meet To Feature Two World Record Holders In Usain Bolt (100m & 200m WR) And David Rudisha (800m WR) *IAAF Article
Oregon News
Injury-Prone Dathan Ritzenhein Will Now Shift Focus To 10k At World Champs *LRC MB: RITZ! ENOUGH WITH THE MARATHON!
Lukas V Commits To Oregon For Real It's now official; two time Foot Locker XC national champ Lukas Verzbicas has an oral commitment to Oregon. The news was out unofficially last week. Letsrun.com has learned Lukas considered turning pro but the money he wanted wasn't there. Why would Nike pay big bucks for him when they can get him much cheaper in the U of O singlet?
*Message Board Thread
Read This To Your Kids Edwin Moses Receives World Fairplay Award In Recognition Of His Efforts Promoting Drug Free Sport The Act of Fair Play Award was also given to three other athletes: Amin Zadeh, an Iranian soccer player who kicked the ball out of play rather than score on an open goal when the goalie was injured, Darius Draudvila, a Lithuanian decathlete who cost himself a chance for a medal at Euros when he leant his pole to the eventual bronze medallist who broke his and couldn't find another, and Chinese wrestler Gao Feng, who carried an injured opponent from the arena to receive treatment even though the rival had been sanctioned for biting him during the contest.
60th Anniversary Of Pre's Birthday Keeps Generating News
- Creating The Annual Prefontaine Classic Poster Isn't As Easy As You Might Think Meet director Tom Jordan speaks of the difficulty of finding new photos worthy of the yearly poster.
- Steve Prefontaine And His Three "Brothers"
Craig Mottram & Benita Willis To Lead Australia At World XC Championships Mottram will run for the first time since 2008 and will lead a squad that includes former NAU star David McNeill. *Australian XC Trials Results
News From Europe
- New Pro Ciara Mageean Broke Two Irish Junior Records At New Balance Mageean, whom some are calling the next Sonia O'Sullivan, finished seventh in the elite mile field (10 seconds behind winner Jen Simpson's 4:28.60) in 4:38.81 to break the 13-year-old indoor junior record of 4:41.76. En route to that record, she ran 4:17 to smash her own jr. record of 4:20.88.
- Only Two Scottish Athletes To Compte At This Weekend's Aviva International Meet In Glasgow, Scotland One of them is former U23 European 5k champ Laura Kenney.
- France's Teddy Tamgho Sets World-Leading Mark In The Triple Jump At 17.46m
- Russia's Aleksandr Menkov Sets Top Long Jump In 2011 At 8.17m He's in contention to be the youngest European Indoor Champ if he can win in Paris in six weeks.
Another Edition Of The Famed Kenyan Armed Forces XC Champs Is In The Books (The 3rd-Toughest Race On The Planet)
- World Champ Joseph Ebuya Only 23rd At Armed Forces XC Championships It was the 2nd straight poor performance for Ebuya, who was the defending champ, and now it's time to get nervous. He was leading the first few circuits and blamed his loss on a non-acclimatization to the heat.
- IAAF Recap Of Armed Forces - Teen Steals Show In Kenya Remember the name John Chepkwony, as he may be the next big thing. The World Juniors silver medallist from last summer's 5k got the surprise win and continued his fantastic XC season. The meet also was significant as
Paul Tergat took it all
in in his first public appearance since his horrific car crash.
More XC News: - World Cross Champ Says New Course Is Too Easy Defending WC 12km champion Joseph Ebuya says that this year's Worlds course is too flat and "not what world cross is all about." He'd better start worrying about his recent form, not the course.
- Kenyans Sweep At Antrim Kigen leads 1-4 Kenyan sweep, European junior XC champ Charlotte Purdue wins women's race.
- Kipsang Wins Discovery Kenya Cross-Country Meet Olympic 1,500 champ Asbel Kiprop dropped out, while two-time NYC marathon champ Martin Lel was 33rd.
- Komon Wins Cross Spanish XC Race 2008 World Cross silver medallist, Leonard Patrick Komon of Kenya, beat out fellow Kenyan, Olympic 10k bronze medallist Micah Kogo. For the women, Portugal’s European 5,000m bronze medallist Sara Moreira beat out Spain’s Diana Martín.
Update On Nike's Golden Boys - Rupp & Lance
- Rupp Taken Out By Flu Shot Galen Rupp drops out of mile at Boise State Invitational. Salazar puts partial blame on flu shot. *LRC MB: Rupp Drops Out After Asthma Attack
- One Of Leading EPO Testers Says Drug Testing Head Don Catlin Was Huge Lance Armstrong Fanboy If Catlin's credibility ends up being shot, he may be the biggest name to fall.
- Lance Armstrong Finishes A Disappointing 81st In Last Pro Race Outside US Incredibly, nearly 800,000 people turned out to watch Lance in Australia this year. After the race, his former mechanic predicted doom for Armstrong.
It's Official - Angela Bizzari To Mammoth Track Club Agree or disagree with the decision? It's a hot topic on the message board.
News From Japan
- Japanese 10k Record Holder And Former Marathon Record Holder Yoko Shibui Will Return To Marathoning At Tokyo Marathon On Feb. 27 Her training is just 60-70% of normal and it sounds like she'll do the race more to have a positive marathon experience than to run really fast.
- First-Year Pro Tsuyoshi Ugachi, 12th At Last Fall's World Half Marathon, Leads His Tochigi Team To 1st-Ever Interprefectural Men's Ekiden Championships In Hiroshima *IAAF Recap
Dubai Marathon (World's Richest Prize) *Race Website *Live Thread *Top Results And Prize Money *Photos Here
David
Barmasai And Asselefech Mergia Each Pocket $250,000
David Barmasai earned his $250,000 the hard way. Barmasai had only run marathons in Kenya before. There were 12 guys who went through halfway in 1:02:46. At 30k, according to message board reports, the leaders were only 25 seconds off of Haile G's world record split. Then however, the wheels came off. The final 5k was run in 16:47 and that gave Barmasai the win by nearly a minute over Evans Cheruiyot (2008 Chicago champ), who won $100,000 for 2nd place. Shows how hard
Haile G's record is. On the women's side, Asselefech Mergia of Ethiopia was much more credentialed coming in (bronze at 2009 Worlds) and she was the only one to dip under 2:23 but missed the course record at the world's richest marathon in terms of prize money - $1,000,000 combined between men and women; not the $2 million we said yesterday.
*Top Results And Prize Money
Pretty Shocking
- High School XC Star Arrested For Armed Robbery Of Gas Station The kid tried to use a knife and the clerk
pulled out his own knife to thwart the robbery. The kid is the same kid who got attention earlier this year on LRC in this thread: "HS football player runs 15:11."
Message Board Thread Here.
The Action Is About To Heat Up
A Great Mile Matchup In Europe: 2010 Outdoor Sensation Silas Kiplagat To Race World Indoor Champ In Lievin, France On February 8th; Kaki Also Running
Tokyo Marathon: 27:01, 59:50 Guy Gideon Ngatuny To Make His Marathon Debut In Tokyo, Taking On Gebrselassie The marathon is March 9th February 27th. We like the clever website name: www.tokyo42195.org.
Distance News
Galen Rupp Racing Paul Koech Over 5,000m In Düsseldorf, Germany On February 11 Rupp no doubt will be trying to regain his American record from Bernard Lagat (13:11). Koech ran 13:02 last year in Düsseldorf to become the 4th fastest ever indoors.
*Message Board Thread
London & Boston 2011
Incredible 2011 Virgin London Marathon Field Announced: Wanjiru Vs. Kebede Vs. Makau On Men's Side Director Dave Bedford is calling the women's field "undoubtedly our strongest ever," but we once again are amazed with his men's field. London's got the top 3 men's marathoners in the world Sammy Wanjiru, Tsegaye
Kebede and Patrick Makau going head to head to head. This year's Chicago marathon with Wanjiru vs. Kebede duelling to the finish was incredible and left Sammy Wanjiru exhausted (photo above). Now throw Makau (Amsterdam and Berlin champ) into the mix. *Message Board Thread On London
*European XC Champ Jessica Augusto And Hayley Yelling To Make Marathon Debuts In London
American Hopefuls Kara Goucher And Desiree Davila To Run Boston 2011 Davila has come a long way in her career, as she got equal billing with Goucher in the press release. Last week it was announced Ryan
Hall is running Boston.
On The Boards: Desi will kick Kara's butt this April
US XC Champs Saturday In San Diego *Results
Brent Vaughn Wins Convincingly; Shalane Flanagan And The Other Winners Dominate Vaughn, the CU record holder at 5k (think about that for a second) dominated the field the 2nd half of the race to win by 6 seconds, the smallest margin of victory of the day. Shalane Flanagan
totally destroyed Molly Huddle, winning by 44 seconds, and getting a little revenge for Huddle taking her 5k American record last year. Foot Locker champ Aisling Cuffe won the junior girls race convincingly. 49-year-old Master Pete Magill won in the men's masters ranks, while Colleen De Reuck showed she was in the wrong race, winning by 1:34.
*San Diego Union-Tribune: Flangan Dominated But Says She Didn't Know She Had It In The Bag, "I always run scared."
On The Boards: Men: BRENT MF VAUGHN
Women: Shalane Flanagan Takes USA Cross-Country Title By 45 Seconds In 25:47
Masters: 50-Year-Old Pete Magill CRUSHES
Pre-Race From San Diego: After American Record 5k In 2010, Molly Huddle Undecided On Whether To Focus On 5k Or 10k In 2011 RRW
*Shalane Flanagan Loves Purity Of XC San Diego Tribune
*Abdi, Shalane Flanagan, Jorge Torres And Lisa Koll Share Their Thoughts On US Cross Runnersworld
*Shalane Flanagan And Lisa Koll Enjoying Training Together RRW
Ridiculous: NYT: US Citizen And Soldier Joseph Chirlee Barred From US XC Champs We say let him compete. It's the US Champs and he's a citizen. We can see keeping someone out of the Olympic Trials if they can't go to the Olympics, but that's about it.
Proof That Most Times You Don't Even Need Drug Tests To Know Who's Doping
Third All-Time UK Shot Putter Mark Edwards Suspended For Failing Doping Test The 36-year-old had been one of the UK's top shot putters for more than a decade, throwing 18-19 meters for years before setting a one-meter PR in
2008 with a throw of 20.88m.
Runners World: A Brief Chat With Bernard Lagat After two-mile record, he wants to get the 5k "A" standard out of the way in Australia.
Alan Culpepper Still Running Races Behind The Scenes - Working For Rock 'N Roll People On retirement: "It's a profession that you just can't keep going in," he said. "Eventually, abruptly, you start getting worse. It's not a pretty exodus. You have to come to terms with it. I'm thankful that I can still be in the sport in this fashion and be around like-minded people."
Olympic Stadium Decision Bound To Piss Everyone Off
- Majority Of Tottenham And West Ham Fans Against Clubs Taking Over Olympic Stadium
- Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy Warns He Is Prepared To Sue If His Club Loses Olympic Stadium Bid
Apolo Ohno Goes From Short Track Skating To NYC Marathon USA Today
IAAF: Cinque Mulini / European Club Championships Cross-Country Preview IAAF
IAAF: Beppu-Oita Marathon Preview Top runners from will include Samson Ramadhani, the 2006 Commonwealth Games Marathon champion with a best of 2:08:01, Ethiopian Abiyote Guta, with a career best of 2:09:03, and Moroccan Ahmed Baday, a 2:10:58 runner.
Great Half Marathon This Weekend
Stellar Half Marathon Sunday In Marugame Japan: Elvan Abeylegesse (1:07:07) Vs. Kayoko Fukushi (1:07:26) Vs. Nikki Chapple (1:08:37) Fukushi ran sub-31 for 10k 8 years ago as a 20-year-old, but has not gotten faster.
Track Action This Weekend
- Stuttgart: Preview Of Saturday's Stuttgart Meet: David Oliver Vs. Dayron Robles, Silas Kiplagat's Indoor Debut, Lemaitre Vs. Rogers, And Kaki In 800
- Abubaker Kaki Was Trapped In Rioting In Egypt For A Few Days He couldn't leave the training facility in Cairo due to looters.
- Moscow: Isinbayeva Not Nervous Before Returning To Action This Weekend For First Time In A Year
David Oliver Takes On All Comers And That's Why We Like Him
- David Oliver Vs. Liu Xiang Next Week In Germany
- Dayron Robles, David Oliver And Andy Turner To Race In 2 Weeks In UK Robles and Oliver are racing this week.
- Kellie Wells Ties American Record In The 55m Hurdles
Week In Review
LRC Ritz's Injuries, Should Chris Solinsky Get Nervous?, Runner A Vs. Runner B, The Houston Course, Millrose Announcing And The Most Overlooked Performance Of The Weekend Once a week, we go beyond the headlines to cover the running scene like no one else. So before you turn your attention to the Super Bowl, give us 5 minutes and learn what's going on in the running world. Updated at noon with more on Houston course, praise for Tim Hutchings on ESPN broadcast.
Usain Bolt's London Uniform Will Be Designed By Bob Marley's Daughter Hopefully it's not contaminated with second-hand smoke.
Russia's 800m Runner Yuliya Rusanova Is First Woman Under 2 Minutes In 2011 1:59.44 in Belgorod on Saturday.
Oregon Fans, Eat Your Heart Out
- A Look At Oregon's Ridiculous Recruiting Class For Next Year Lukas Verzbicas is just the tip of the iceberg.
- Brianne Theisen's NCAA Pentathlon Record Will Count Even Though On Oversized Track
- Ashton Eaton Shooting To Break His Own Indoor Heptathlon Record
- Ashton Eaton Is USATF Athlete Of The Week
Review Of Ryan Hall's Book: Running With Joy
USATF News
Lananna Says He's Not A Finalist For USATF Job Eugene Register-Guard The article says USATF is down to 3 finalists. The article doesn't name the finalists, but only names three people (Lananna and Mary Wittenberg, who both have publicly said they aren't interested, and Rich Kenah (former World Championships bronze medallist)).
*Comparing Houston's Olympic Trials Preview Course To Last Year's Houston Course Runner's World
*New Executive Director Of Houston Marathon Pleased With Marathon Preparation For Olympic Trials Houston Chronicle
Good Read: Jerry Schumacher Profile In Portland Paper Got to be a quote of the day in here somewhere.
Good News: Spanish Steeplechaser Jose Luis Blanco Gets EPO Ban
Looking Back At Houston
Greg McMillan And Crew Reflect On 2011 Chevron Houston Marathon Nick Arciniaga & Stephanie Rothstein impressed in a big way while Brett Gotcher had a "tough day at the office."
2012 Olympic News
- 250,000 Apply To Volunteer For London 2012, But Only 70,000 Will Be Chosen *Coe Warns Olympic Volunteers That Their Jobs Won't Necessarily Be Easy 8-hour shifts and they most likely will be forced to work the Paralympics as well.
- This
Bud'sHeineken's For You
Heineken Will Be Official Beer Of 2012 Olympic Games Sad that the Brits couldn't get a company with local ties.
- More British-Related News: Olympic Marathon Champ Constantina Dita Hoping For 2:28 In London Remember, she's now 41 years old.
Kenyans In The News
- Menjo Wins San Sebastián XC Meet LRC favorite Josephat Kiprono Menjo won over a field including European champion Sergiy Lebid (3rd) and the world indoor 3,000m silver medallist Sergio Sánchez (7th).
- 2005 World Cross-Country Silver Medallist (Short Course) Abraham Chebii Wins Discover Kenya Half Marathon Chebii won with a 1:02:59 in his debut half marathon at altitude.
- Athletics Kenya Is Forcing Two Time World Marathon Champ Catherine Ndereba To Run Worlds In 2011 Should we predict a convenient DNF?
US Half Champs In Houston *Results, Prize Money, Splits *Updated Photos *Live Thread
Men: LRC Mo Trafeh Outkicks Ryan Hall Ryan Hall, Mo Trafeh and Patrick Smyth battled together on the streets
of
Houston for 11 miles. In the twelfth mile, Hall tried to push ahead. Smyth was the first to crack, but Trafeh stayed on Hall's
heels. With 200m to go, Trafeh gave it one final surge and passed Hall to get the win.
*Photos
*Video Of Men's Finish *Men's Post-Race Interviews
Women: LRC Jen Rhines' Return Trumps Burla's After a 4-year absence, Jen Rhines made a return to
the longer distances with a win and a PR. However, her comeback was the least impressive of the day, as that award definitely goes to Serena Burla. Burla was second just as she was last year. However, in the last year, she had been diagnosed and beaten cancer. Pretty amazing. Mother of three, Nan Kennard, who trains with Colleen De Reuck, was a surprise third.
*Photos
*Video Of Women's Finish *Women's Post-Race Press Conference
NCAA/US Track Action Really Heats Up
- Nice Weekend By Elliott Heath: Arkansas Results (Elliott Heath 7:52 3k, 3:55 DMR 1,600, 9:29 For Stanford)
- UW Invite Results (Kara Goucher 16:11 5k, Luke Puskedra 13:46 5k, Centro 4:04 Mile, Jordan Hasay 9:05 3k)
- Oregon's Brianne Theisen Breaks NCAA Pentathlon Record* Theisen broke the previous NCAA record (4,496 points) by 11 points. She needed a 2:15 in the 800 and she ran 2:14.5. Afterwards, she said, "It's pretty cool, but I'm pretty tired." *But Her Record Probably Will NOT COUNT No, she didn't run out of her lane. But she did run on an oversized track.
- Indiana's Madness Continues As Three Hoosiers Break 14:00!!! If that's not enough, Andy Bayer followed up his 7:48 with a 3:57.
- NCAA XC Champ Sheila Reid Of Villanova Breaks Amory 3k Record With 8:56 Jordan Hasay also ran 9:05 at UW.
- Breakthrough Of Decade? Woman Whose PR Was 5:38 3 Years Ago Runs 4:33 Mile And Beats Shalane Flanagan Check out Lauren Johnson's amazing background here.
- 3 Break Four At Penn State, Led By Cory Leslie's 3:57.97 It was Leslie's 1st time under 4:00. PSU's Ryan Foster also busted 4:00. Also at the meet: Cas Loxsom of PSU 1:47.36.
- Sam Chelanga Runs World-Leading 13:41 5K
- Message Board News: German Fernandez JR Oklahoma State 4:14.69 *Prediction for Germans mile in Arkansas tomorrow? *Stanford 9:29, Arkansas 9:30 in DMR
- 4 Break 8:00 In Boston
- BU Terrier Results *UW Results
- More Results
Week In Review: *More Dubai Photos Here
LRC Week That Was: Delaware Gets The Ax, Wanjiru Crashes, Dubai Makes Some Marathoners Rich, And The US Indoor Season Gets Going As usual, we recap the week in running like nobody else. Now that the holidays are behind us, the running world is starting to heat up again.
Caster Semenya Sits Down & Gives The BBC Her 1st Extended Interview Since Gender Controversy Arose Semenya said she doesn't want to dwell on the gender issues; she only wants to focus on running, but she did get irritated when asked if she was given hormonal treatment.
She Must Have The Same PR Agent As Lance
Marta Domínguez Remains Defiant In 1st TV Appearance Since Doping Raid She flat-out said she didn't use PEDs and admitted to only giving aspirin, vitamin C and iron to teammates.
*Lengthier Article On Domínguez Translated From Spanish Dominguez appears to say the charges may have a political connection and says she's clean because she's had a 16-year-long career.
*2nd Article Translated From Spanish
More Doping News:
Asian Games Silver Medallist Ahemed Dheeb Stripped Of Medal
Boston Globe Feature Article
Have Athletes Reached Their Limits? The author seems to think they have because so many world records have stagnated since the 1980s. He does acknowledge drugs played a role in many records from the '80s. However, he is perplexed by one athlete - Usain Bolt - and says Bolt's breakthroughs today are why he is so newsworthy. Track and field, by focusing on the competition and not the records, can stay relevant in our opinion.
Duke Senior Kate Van Buskirk Sets Collegiate Record In 1,000 She had an incredible weekend as she ran 2:41.00 after splitting 2:04.15 on a 4 x 800.
New Balance Armory *Full Results
- Jenny Simpson's First Race Since Injury Results In World Leader In Mile (4:28.60) Phoebe Wright dominated the women's 800 and four went sub-4 in the mile, including winner Craig Miller, who for some reason is going to go to Australia to train instead of race in the famed Wanamaker mile. *LRC MB: Simpson 4:28.60
- Simpson Keeping Options Open For Outdoors - May Focus On 1,500, Steeple Or Even 5k We're pleased to see she realizes her strength is her #1 strength as a focus on speed was only going to ruin her career.
- HSer Najee Glass Breaks National Record In Boys 500 (62.22) *Najee Glass Smashes 27-Year-Old HS 500m Record
*Oops, Not So Fast: Video Shows Glass Ran Inside The Line During His 500m HS Record This isn't a matter of him running a step or two on the line. He was clearly running in the wrong lane for parts of two turns and had better be DQed. - Teary-Eyed Hastings Wins 400 In 52.35
More Men's Track & XC Programs Bite The Dust
Sports Illustrated Columnist Joins LRC Faithful In Ripping Delaware For Cutting Its Men's Track & Field / XC Teams Jeff Pearlman is a little biased as he used to run for them, but that doesn't mean he's not right on the money. UD Track is 100 years old this year.
*LRC MBoarders Express Their Outrage
*A Blogger Is Irate
*Delaware's Cowardly Release
Bemidji State's Men's Indoor & Outdoor Programs Get The Ax Not quite as old as Delaware, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, Bemidji track has been around since 1928.
Week In Review
LRC: Week That Was Last week, we had to use sex to sell our Week That Was and this week, except for talking about LaShawn Merritt's penis, everything is clean. We actually are full of praise for some American stars helping the sport, some of the shoe companies, and more. Plus, we cover some XC, India's #1 marathoner, and some Oregon football.
TIA/Unbelievable: Two Of Kenya's Brightest Junior Prospects For World XC May Not Be Able To Race, As They Allegedly Were Beaten By Their Teacher For Not Passing Tests Apparently, in Kenya there is some sort of automatic passing going on that made the teacher irate and he supposedly beat one of the students unconscious.
Alberto On Galen
LRC: Update On Galen Rupp's Training: Two Distinct Seasons For Rupp In 2011, More Mileage Alberto Salazar has done a tremendous job crafting Galen Rupp's career despite the critics (we specifically remember pro athletes who saw Galen train as a high schooler saying he'd burn out). Alberto says 2011 will be a bit different for Galen than 2009 and 2010, with 2 distinct peaks (and time off in between) and that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of training mileage. Plus, we take a look back at Galen's incredibly long and consistent 2009 and 2010 seasons.
It's Not This Easy In America
Olympic Marathon Champ And Accused Attempted Murderer Sammy Wanjiru And His Wife Supposedly Reconcile Press reports are indicating that the families of Wanjiru and his wife got involved and urged a reconciliation which may result in charges being dropped, although his wife was a bit coy in her responses to the press (as we're
sure $$$ is still being negotiated). *Updated
LRC MBoard Talk: "He is now officially qualified to be a professional American athlete. Can some of the women on this board tell me why abused women stay with their abuser. Often, until they are beaten to death?"
*Sammy Wanjiru Arrested For Attempting To Kill His Wife And A Domestic Worker
Worth Reading
- A Must Click Track With A Hill On It Is Built
- A Recommended Read Discoverer Of EPO Dies Eugene Goldwasser never patented EPO and never got fame or fortune. Rather, Amgen is the one who reaped billions off of it.
- Interesting Read The New York Times Looks At Why We Feel Warm For Hours After A Workout Good news also comes from the article, which reveals intense athletes burn more calories hours after exercise is done, whereas average athletes do not.
All That Is Great About LetsRun.com
LRC NCAA And Foot Locker Contest Recaps: The Greatness Of You Recapping our contests always reminds us what is greatest about LetsRun.com - that is you, our incredibly loyal, smart and interesting readers. This time our contest winners impress as usual. Not only do we have acts of sportsmanship, but we have a runner with MS who can no longer run anymore but it still super-dedicated to the sport, a college coach who nearly pulled off the NCAA D1, D2 prediction double (and btw went to high school with the rocket scientist who has won two of our previous contests), a guy who watched malmo win an NCAA XC race, and a guy who issued a challenge to Aaron Braun before he won last week's club XC champs.
The 10 Best High School XC Runners Ever
LRC Week That Was: The 10 Best High School XC Runners Of All Time, Verzbicas, Tribute To Gary Reed, The NY Times & The NE Patriots And More We've got the entire running world covered from San Diego to Japan, from the high school ranks to the pros, and even talk about the NE Patriots and the NY Times.