Week That Was
LRC Week That Was: American Women's Medal Chances, Semenya's Inconsistency, The Amazing Magdalena Lewy Boulet And More We've got it all covered this week. We have emails from a scientist and a 2:23 transgender marathoner to possibly explain Caster Semenya's up-and-down season, daydream about Jenny Barringer Simpson being a world leader in two events, and praise the amazing Magdalena Lewy Boulet, while looking at her husband Richie Boulet's similar situation in 1997. We spend the majority of our time breaking down the US women's chances of medaling at the World Championships. We hate to admit it, but as good as Morgan Uceny and Shalane Flanagan are, they both face an uphill battle in grabbing a medal.
A Must Read! Sports Illustrated Takes A Great In-Depth Look At Carl Lewis' Long Jumping Prowess And His Supposed 30-Foot Jump King Carl was the Usain Bolt of his era and this article is a true treasure. We loved this quote from Carl when he was asked to compare himself to the current generation.
News From Kenya
- Sally Kipyego Excited About 1st World Championships We didn't realize Kipyego's brother, Mike, is an 8:08 steepler who has run 2:11 in the marathon.
- Women's Commonwealth Games Marathon Champ Irene Kosgei Added To Kenya's World Championships Squad Rotterdam champ Philis Ongori Moraa is out injured.
All We Can Say Is Wow
WADA Was On 72 Organizations Hacked Possibly By Chinese In Operation Shady Rat
*Exclusive Vanity Fair Exposé On "Operation Shady Rat"
More News
- 75 Years Ago From Wednesday - Jesse Owens Won His 1st Gold
- Lolo Jones Tries Speed Dating For ESPN Magazine In New York
- Meet The 2011 Australian World Championships Team
- Meet The Italian World Championships Team
- Meet The Czech World Championships Team
Humorous Take On Monaco 5k: Rupp And Solinsky Suffering From Rare Disorder
Cross-Country Is Coming
*Peoria Illinois Hosts Summer XC Event Under the Lights
*DyeStat HS XC Pre-Season Top 25 Rankings
News From Africa
- More Kenyan Athletes Move Into World Championships Camp As Coach Admits They Don't Do Much Of Anything "The shape they are in is very encouraging and it has made our work easier since what we shall be left to do is to maintain their form and sharpen their tactic."
- Meet The Unknown 10,000 Kenyan Champ, Peter Cheruiyot, Who Fulfilled His New Year's Resolution By Making Kenyan Team He talks about using team tactics to defeat the Ethiopians and sweep the medals at Worlds. Galen Rupp may have a thing to say about that.
- South Africa's Top 10,000 And Half Marathon Woman, Irvette van Blerk, Is Struck By Car In Training This came hit just months after their top male 1,500 runner, Juan van Deventer, was hurt much more severely. Now the weird thing is she was hit after she visited van Deventer earlier that day.
- Despite Her Struggles, Caster Semenya's PR Team Issues Document Where She States She Wants 800/1,500 World Records
Cornell Alumni Magazine Profiles Morgan Uceny Uceny on Worlds: "I want to be the last one standing at the end of it all." To all the skeptics who doubt her classic progression, we'd like to point out the piece includes a photo of her from her sophomore year when she was way less fit-looking and way less fast (2:06).
UK Trials *Meet Website *Results
Final Day Recap Of UK Trials: Mo Farah, Jenny Meadows Win, Perri Shakes-Drayton Completes 400, 400m Hurdles Double Mo Farah ran over a minute slower than last time out, running 14:00 as Jenny Meadows got her first UK title and 21-year-old James Shane ran 3:36 to win the UK title by an incredible 3 seconds on the last lap (he was a 3:42 guy a year ago).
- Steve Cram Impressed With 1,500m Runner James Shane At UK Trials
- Mo Farah: "I'm definitely going to concentrate on one event and put all my eggs in one basket and that is the 10k." Journalists are getting carried away with the quote but he also said, "I'm looking at definitely doing the 10,000m at the World Championships and then I will see how I'm feeling to the 5k."
- Jessica Ennis To Skip Diamond League London Event Next Week To Compete Somewhere Else Whenever they say it's not about the money, it's about the money. When Wejo was in Scotland in January, Ennis was on billboards throughout the city.
- PR In Long Jump Pleases Jessica Ennis And Her Coach
- Perri Shakes-Drayton Becomes First Brit To Complete 400-400m Hurdles Double
Day 2 and 1: - Dwain Chambers Wins 100m Euros silver medallist Mark Lewis-Francis was DQed for false start and will hope for discretionary spot.
- Ethiopia's Former World XC Champ Werknesh Kidane Wins 10k In 31:08 NZ's Kim Smith dropped out mid-race.
- Olympic 400m Champ Christine Ohuruogu Is 3rd And Will Rely On "Discretionary" Spot
Different News Of Note
It's OK In Our Minds If He Dopes: 97-Year-Old Wins 8 Golds At USATF Masters Champs He only went 3 feet in the long jump but ran 30 seconds for the 100.
Elvan Abeylegesse Gives Birth To A Baby Girl Giving birth isn't different, but translating an article from Turkish is.
Kenya 4 X 400 Team Wants Medal At Worlds
JumpRunThrow.com Interviews Charles Jock Asked why he goes out in that crazy 49-second first lap, he says, "I'm driven to do this because I don't want to have regrets if I lose, I want to know that I ran to the best of my ability and they were just better than me that day. There's probably nothing worse than losing in a slow race."
UK Trials Day 1 *Full Results
- James Walsh Wins 10k National Title But Finishes 6th In The Race As Mexico's Juan Luis Barrios Won In 27:38
*Tetsuya Yoroizaka Breaks Japan University 10k Record In 27:44 Running In UK Trials - Recap Of Day 1: Mark Lewis-Francis Posts Fastest 100m Semi-Final Qualifying Time With 10.30 Mostly just trials on first day. UK uses similar qualifying system as Kenya, as the top 2 finishers get an automatic bid to World Champs and the 3rd spot is "discretionary."
- France Trials: Christophe Lemaître Lowers His National 100 Record To 9.92 This is with a just-barely-legal 2m/s tailwind.
Other UK News:
- The Telegraph Says Mo Farah Is Not Getting Attention He Deserves Compared To Top UK Athletes In Other Sports Well, that's track for you, but at this point you can be sure that just about everyone in the running world knows him and come World Champs will definitely be paying attention.
- Dwain Chambers Tries To Ignore All The Olympic Talk Because As Of Now He Can't Go Due To His Past Doping Violation
- Profile Of UK's Jessica Ennis And Her Coach, Who Has Been With Her For 14 Years Since She Was 11 Article likens Coach Toni Minichiello to actor Al Pacino.
- UK Writer Says Britons Need To Stop "Whining" About The Olympics And Appreciate It
- UK's Christine Ohuruogu: "Once The Face Of The Games, Now Yesterday's Woman"
- Time Is Running Out For UK's 1,500m Runner Charlene Thomas To Get "A" Standard
French Athletes Trained To Fight With Their Heads? The Monaco 1,500 incident was "eerily reminiscent" of when French midfielder Zinedine Zidane head butted Italy's Marco Materazzi at the World Cup final.
David Monti Takes A Look At Morgan Uceny's Rise To The Top Of The 1,500 Ranks The daughter of a bricklayer and bus driver knows a thing or two about hard work. She gives a lot of credit to her training partner Anna Pierce for her rise, as well as her coach.
Ryan Hall Teleconference Highlights
Ryan Hall Sees BOA Chicago Marathon To Olympic Trials 14-Week Gap As Ideal Hall also sounds like he's tired of being the rabbit: "In Boston I functioned as the pacemaker."
*Brief Chat With Ryan Hall
Rojo Gets Props In A Brief Chat With Sage Canaday What other college coach would let his athlete run a marathon in college and run the Trials the week before he qualified for NCAAs in cross? Canaday has now gone on to 2:16:52 and to write a book Running With The Hansons.
News From Europe
- Disciplinary Hearing For Mehdi Baala And Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad To Take Place On August 4
- Good Idea: 700+ European Jrs. Go To Anti-Doping Program Where A Lottery Was Held To Send Them To European Champs Last Year People need to be taught at an early age that winning at all costs is not what sports is about. Winning fairly is.
- Finland: Former Oregon Runner Zoe Buckman Wins In Europe In 4:06.06 - Just .06 From "B" Standard That's a big 2.51 PR. Craig Miller was 2nd in the men's 1,500 in 3:40.09. *Finland Results
World Champs Are 30 Days Away
- Koreans Start 30-Day Countdown To Worlds The article claims that at the last World Championships, there were 8 billion television viewers. We don't believe it. There are only 6.75 billion people on the earth.
- 132 Food Inspectors To Be On Hand In Daegu To Make Sure Food Isn't Tainted Apparently food poisoning is common in the summer in parts of Asia. Last week, a Chinese court sentenced people for selling pork tainted with a poisonous chemical.
Ryan To Run Chicago
Ryan Hall To Run Chicago Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune has broken the news that Hall will run this year's Bank of
America
Chicago Marathon and take on Boston runner-up Moses Mosop. Three months later, Ryan will run the Olympic Marathon Trials. The appearance fee of Ryan is so high that the Chicago/Trials double makes a lot of cents sense.
*Lornah Kiplagat To Run Amsterdam Marathon In October
Worlds Are Coming Soon ... And LRC Will Be There
- US 5,000 Champ Molly Huddle Hasn't Run In A Month Due To Plantar Fasciitis- Will Still Try To Run Worlds
- Ethiopia Releases Provisional Daegu Worlds Team Rupp's medal chances seem to be going up by the minute, as this article makes it sound like Bekele is still struggling. 5,000m - Men: Dejen Gebremeskel, Tariku Bekele, Abera Kuma, Yenew Alamirew. Women: Meseret Defar, Sentayehu Ejigu, Genzebe Dibaba. 10,000m - Men: Imane Merga, Sileshi Sihine, Ibrahim Jeilan (and Kenenisa Bekele, if he's ready). Women: Meselech Melkamu, Belaynesh Oljira, Tigist Kiros.
- Russia's World Championships Team Is Announced Two marathoners with the same name, Aleksey Sokolov, will race.
- Philips Idowu Says He Doesn't Even Know Where His Medals Are, But That's Okay Because He Knows He'll Win More
Not Your Normal Boring Reads
- Alberto Probably Is Calling BMW On Thursday
Bryan Clay & Sanya Richards-Ross But Not Galen Rupp To Be Helped By BMW's Tech Gadgets BMW will help 10 athletes that are part of its BMW's Performance Team by using "the stereo-vision technology that the company tests in its automobile safety systems" on athletes. - Recommended Read US 100m Hurdles Champ Kellie Wells Is Not Afraid To Admit She Was Sexually Abused As A Child - Wants To Help Others Sexually abused for a long time before being raped as a 16-year-old by her stepfather, Wells is adamant about not hiding her past, as too many people sweep similar stories under the rug and the abuse conditions. She's hopes her track success allows her to form a foundation to help abused families. "People don't listen to the girl in fifth or sixth place who is not making teams. They listen to the person who is successful, and if I'm successful it means I can share my story with girls and boys and women who will look up to me. Your past doesn't have to dictate your future, and that's an important thing I want to stress to people. Just because something bad happened to you, that doesn't mean that is who you are."
- AJ May Be Leaving Oregon, But At Least He's Being Replaced By A Kid With Personality
Lukas V Talks About His Dream Date & Much, Much More "Anything would be perfect with the girl of my dreams but if I had to choose I would make her a really nice dinner, then we would go out to a concert (either John Mayer or Dave Matthews Band) that's at a beautiful park where afterwards we would walk around in the dark holding hands while eating ice cream. Once we have nothing more to say to each other we would just gaze at the stars and end up kissing. We would have to be in the moment to know where things go on from there ..." - Today's Sign Of The Apocalypse: Kenyan Paper Profiles Racewalker
- WSJ Feature Says British Track & Field Team Is Terrible Meanwhile, the people at Athletics Weekly, whose job it is to cover the sport for a living, are saying Britain is currently enjoying a second "golden era."'
- Meet The Mother & Daughter Sprint Combo Of Irina And Olga Lenskiy Both are at the top of their events in Israel at the same time. Mom at age 40, though, was able to beat her daughter at her specialty of 100m by the slimmest of margins - .01.
Geoffrey Mutai Wins In Castelbuono He ran 29:05 to finish over a minute ahead of NYC Marathon champ Gebre Gebremariam in 2nd (30:13) and Mathew Kisorio 3rd (30:14). London Marathon champ Emmanuel Mutai finished sixth in 30:48 and Ryan Hall was supposed to race this, but his blog says he's currently in Switzerland.
*Highlights Video
*Top 10 Results
Upcoming: Gebre Gebremariam Returning To Defend Title At Beach To Beacon 10k Sam Chelanga will also be in the field. US marathon record holder Deena Kastor and twice Olympic silver medallist Catherine Ndereba in women's field.
- World Champs News: Nickson Chepseba Looking To Prove The Team Selectors Wrong After Being Dropped From The Kenyan World Champs Squad Apparently Chepseba only learned he was replaced on the WC 1,500 team by Daniel Komen when he read the news in the media. Article also mentions Chepseba's unusual transition to the 1,500, as he was originally a volleyball player, then a 10k runner, and then moved down to the 15.
- Jake Robertson & Adrian Blincoe Makes New Zealand's World Champs Team In The 5k
London Diamond League Is August 5th And 6th *Schedule/Entry List
LRC Friday Preview: Kaki vs Rudisha is On! It only took until the final Diamond League meet of the year before Worlds to get one of the marquee match-ups in the sport we've been waiting for, David Rudisha vs Abubaker Kaki (and Nick Symmonds) at 800m. This should be a real treat. Plus Friday you've got the Jason Richardson-David Oliver rematch, Asafa Powell vs Yohan Blake and 5 other sub 10 guys. We preview this plus the men's 3000m, men's 5000m, and women's 800m which are all Friday. Saturday has much more action including a men's mile with Lagat, Manzano, Lomong, Willis and Gregson.
- We Didn't Put this Up: Ryan Gregson Gets Named to Australian Worlds Team They factored in he's only 20 and ran 3:31 last year. Good decision. He runs the mile Saturday in London.
- Angelo Taylor And Yohan Blake Added To This Weekend's Diamond League Meet LetsRun's preview of Day 1 of the last Diamond League meet before Worlds should be out by 12 noon. Check back soon.
- Kara Goucher Pulls Out Of London Diamond League 5k With Hip Injury She said, "No London. Heading back to Portland to be with my therapists. Still hoping for World Championships."
- UK Athletics Sticking To Their Ban On Dwain Chambers As They Won't Let Him Compete In The London DL However, they ironically asked him to do a filmed TV interview representing UKA.
Other News From The UK:
Coming Back From Injury, Former Florida State Star Hannah England Seems Stunned By Her Great 2011 Form Nonetheless, she's planning on making the World Championships final. "I'm totally surprised with how well I've been running recently. I did train hard and worked very hard in the gym and did aqua jogging and all that sort of thing, but you're never quite sure how that's going to translate on the track and luckily I pulled that off."
We 100% Disagree: Tiffany Ofili-Porter Says She's No "Plastic Brit"
We 100% Disagree: Usain Bolt: "I am serious, I believe I could be good at (soccer), I think I could compete well."
The Gouchers In The News
- Adam Goucher Not Done Yet - Hoping To Run Half Marathon This Fall And 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials Anyone who was at the 2000 Trials, where he qualified for the final only on time but made the team, knows not to count him out.
- Kara Goucher Wants To Keep 10,000 Final Honest Since She's Not Doubling
Janeth Jepkosgei In The News
- Thanks To Janeth Jepkosgei, Eunice Sum Is A Sub-2 Runner Gunning For World Champs A few years ago, she was a 2:09 girl with a daughter, but Jepkosgei came by and said it was time to train.
- Janeth Jepkosgei Feels She's In Shape To Reclaim 800 Gold Before She Moves Up To 1,500 "I am ready to bring back what I missed in Berlin two years ago and I believe I am in a very good position to do that at the moment," said Jepkosgei.
World Champs News
- Jeremy Wariner Out Of Worlds A foot injury is keeping him out, although the way he was running, he wasn't likely to medal.
- Wariner's Injury Will Hurt The US 4 X 4's Chances Of Continuing Its Winning Streak Wariner was on the teams that won in 2005, 2007 & 2009.
- Athletics Kenya Makes Some Last Minute Changes To Its Roster Rotterdam Marathon champ Philis Ongori Moraa is injured and will be replaced by Delhi Commonwealth Games champ Irene Jerotich Kosgei in the marathon.
- Even The "Plastic" Brits Still Need That "B" Standard Former Jamaica Julian Reid won the UK Trials LJ and was 2nd in the TJ, but doesn't have the "B" standard in either event, so as of now won't go to Worlds.
- Ireland's 100m Runner Trying To Join Oscar Pistorius As The 2nd Disabled Athletes Competing At World Champs Jason Smyth is a vision-impaired sprinter who has ran 10.22, which gets him the "B" standard, but is still short of the 10.18 "A" standard.
- Pole Vault Olympic Champ Steve Hooker Captains Aussie Team For Worlds Other notables are Craig Mottram (5k), Jeff Riseley (800/1,500), Ben St. Lawrence (5k/10k). *Full Roster
- Bulgaria's Ivet Lalova Could Be A Threat In The Daegu 100 As She's The First European To Go Under 11 Seconds In 6 Years Ran 10.96 at the Balkan Championships last month, ranks 7th in the world this year.
Random Elite News
- Bernard Lagat Talks About Retirement He says that if he can win gold in 2012, he'll be happy to say that's his last Olympics and maybe have one more "farewell" season after that before ending his career.
- Interview With Marty Liquori, Who Says He Isn't That Impressed With His Sub-4 HS Mile "There are dozens of African kids who have run that fast by the time they were 18 years old, so it isn't really that big of a deal worldwide. What I did in high school is just that - what I did in high school."
- Gatorade's "Inside The Edge" Video With Usain Bolt
Bureaucratic-Related News
- USOC Chief Admits He's Worried US Might Not Finish In Top 2 In Medal Counts At 2012 Olympics We aren't buying it and think he's just a) setting expectations low and/or b) angling for government funding as many of the other countries rely on heavily govt. funding.
- Ahletics Ireland Quickly Moves To Dipsel Rumor That "B" Atheltes Will Get To Go Olympics Only those with the "A" standard will be allowed to go.
- 2011 World Championships Deagu Statistics Handbook Is Now Available For Download
Top Weekend Road Action *Bogota Photos
Colombia: Geoffrey Mutai Crushes Deriba Merga, Breaks Course Record, And Wins Renault Car At 2011 Bogota Half Marathon We still think Mutai (the Boston champ) would win the Worlds 10k if there was enough money on the line. *IAAF
Recap
Bix: Silas Kipruto, Caroline Rotich Win $12,500 At Quad Cities Bix 7, Abdi 6th This is one of America's premier road races.
*Achilles Injury Kept Meb Out Of Bix
*Joan Samuelson Ran Bix
International Results
- Hungary GP: Asafa Powell Wins In 9.86 In Windy/Cold Conditions With the consistent times he's putting up, it's almost hard to call Bolt the favorite going into Worlds. Oscar Pistorius was last in the 400 in 47.47.
*Q&A With The Blade Runner - France Champs: Christophe Lemaitre Runs Wind Aided 20.08 To Win 200 Shattered NR of 20.16, but not wind-legal.
*Full Results *IAAF Recap - Japan's Yuki Kawauchi Tunes Up For WCs By Winning Kushiro Shitsugen 30K Road Race He ran 1:33:55 (5:02/mile pace).
- Steve Mullings Wins 100 In 9.93 In Italy He also went on to win the 200 in 20.22.
Other International News
*Vivian Cheruiyot: 14 minutes Can Be Broken Next Year, "And It Will Be Me" IAAF
*After All That Talk About A "Strict 'A' Standard Policy," Ireland Is Considering Letting "B" Athletes Go To London Most countries do bring one athlete per event with the "B" standard, so no reason why they shouldn't.
*GB Comes Down Harder Than Anyone On Dopers, But Now Make A Hypocritical Move They are "forcing" discus thrower Lawrence Okoye to work under Olympic drugs cheat Vesteinn Hafsteinsson.
*Nick Willis' Medal Chances At
World Champs
Are Looking Good He's always been good in a tactical race and he's comfortable in a fast one, too.
*James Evans Elected President Of SA Athletics
DN Galan Stockholm Diamond League *Results *Photos *Video
LRC Vivian Cheruiyot Sizzles, Shalane Flanagan Misses, Kenia Sinclair Stays Undefeated*, LaShawn Merritt Returns, Usain Bolt's 20.03 Win Leaves Some Questions, Silas K Wins Again And Much More Stockholm was the second-to-last Diamond League meet before Worlds
and last for many athletes competing.
Vivian Cheruiyot and Silas Kiplagat stamped their status as favorites at Worlds. Usain Bolt won by nearly half a second and we weren't that impressed. David Oliver was upset, Yelena Isinbayeva came back to form, and an Aussie became the favorites for Worlds in the long jump. The American distance runners disappointed, except for 37-year-old Magdalena Lewy Boulet, who ran a huge 50-second PR of 15:14.25 in the 5,000m.
*IAAF Recap: Vivian Cheruiyot Gets 5k NR And WL With 14:20.87
*Bolt Complains Of Back Pains On Tight Turn In Stockholm Caster Semenya runs 2:01 and says she is disappointed and worried, as she should be.
*Scientists Say Usain Bolt's Key To Success Lies Not With Foot Speed, But Foot Pressure Lets him take 41 steps in a 100m while the normal elite takes about 44.
*Yelena Isinbayeva Backs Up Her Bold Statements With A Win In Stockholm She said before the meet she was "still the best vaulter in the world" and she proved that by beating high class DL field.
*BBC Video Interview With Usain Bolt After 200m Victory
*Mitchell Watt Breaks Australian LJ Record
Stockholm On The Boards:
- Lashawn Merritt makes his come back debut at 44.74
- Another near-miss for Flanagan
- DN Galen 1500
- Vivian Cheruiyot Is Special
- Torrence 3:35.9, Leer 3:36 in B race
Looking Ahead To World Champs
- Kenya's Men's 800m Squad Is The Only "Surviving Trio" From The Kenyan Team That Competed At Berlin In 2009 Their coach stresses that they will practice using
teamworktactics to make sure all three of them make the final. - Kenyan 4 X 4 Team Looking To Medal In Daegu
- Q&A With Allyson Felix Talking About Her Decision To Do The 200/400 Double Reveals that as of now she will do both relays, but only the finals, she will not run any of the rounds.
- UK's 800m Runner Jenny Meadows Is Going To Have The "Biggest Collection Of Silver And Bronzes" If She Can't Win Gold In Daegu Or London
News Coming Out Of Europe
- Mo Farah's Moving Up To The Marathon ... after 2012, he says. "I think 2012 will probably be my last track season, Ill probably move up to the marathon from 2013 onwards."
- Even Though She's Doubling At Worlds, Allyson Felix May Run Just 200m At London Olympics
- Czech Republic's Decathlon WR Holder Roman Sebrle Will Compete At French Champs, Which Start Thursday The 36-year-old needs 8,000 points to qualify for WCs. We say - let him compete regardless.
- We 100% Agree: Michael Stow, the head of science and medicine at UK Anti-Doping, said he does not believe that substances such as cocaine and ecstasy should be treated in the same way as performance-enhancing drugs.
Injuries, Injuries
- Battling Injury Problems, Irish 400m Record Holder (44.77) David Gillick Calls It A Season - Sacks Tyson Gay's Coach Interesting to note that Tyson Gay isn't the only Lance Brauman-coached athlete struggling with injuries. He's going back to his old Irish coach.
- Olympic Medallist At 400H, Tasha Danvers, To Miss Rest Of Season With Injury
Week In Review
LRC Week That Was: American Men's Medal Chances In Daegu With less than a month until Worlds, in our weekly look at the world of track and field we look at the American men's distance medal chances in Daegu. And while our beloved Menjo won't be in Daegu, he is in the news. Plus we've got some football talk from Florida coach Will Muschamp, a Brit celebrating July 4th, and Alberto on old school and new school training.
US News
- Recommended Read Many Elite US Distance Runners Live In Flagstaff Beneath The Poverty Level Trying To Chase Their Dreams
- Q&A With UC Irvine's Charles Jock, Who Is The 3rd Man On The US's World Champs 800 Team
- Interview With Lukas Verzbicas About His Transition From Running Back To The Triathlon
- Athletics Weekly Maps Out Allyson Felix's World Champs Race Schedule With relays, she could face up to 10 races in nine days.
- Marion Jones Leads Top 10 List Of Most "Shocking" Athletes Caught Doping
Professor Attributes Jamaica's Wealth Of Fast Sprinters To A Diet Of "Yam And Bananas"
Russian Vera Sokolova's 20K Racewalking WR Ratified By The IAAF In related news, Guinness World Records ratifies records for largest tonsils removed and most nails filed in 8 hours.
The Olympics Are 1 Year Away *NBC Video
- WP: China, Russia And Many Others Hope To Chip Away At USA's Olympic Dominance
- Seb Coe: London Olympics To Be "Toughest Ever" On Doping
- Illegal Betting, Match Fixing As Dangerous As Doping, Says IOC Chief
- All The Planning In The World Won't Save London Games From UK's Rainy Weather
UK: - UK "Rolling Out The Red Carpet" For IAAF President Lamine Diack In Lobbying Effort To Host 2017 World Champs Never underestimate the power of kissing up.
- Mo Farah Says That He Will Move Up To The Marathon After 2012
- Study Done On UK Olympians Reveals That You Have A Better Chance Of Winning An Olympic Medal Based On Your First Name Study concludes that your best chance of winning is if your name is John or Katherine because those are the names most common to UK Olympic medallists. This is probably true and it has nothing to do with the fact that those are popular British names.
- UK Coach Van Commenee Says "Nervous Athletes Are Just Not Prepared" And Are "Unprofessional"
*Are Van Commenee's Coaching Tactics Brilliant Or Bullying? "Elite athletes have the ability to focus on their own business, no matter what sort of noise of people are around - also, no matter what sort of relationship they have with their parents, their fiancée or their head coach. They are focused, in this case, on jumping far. The rest is not relevant." - At This Rate There May Not Be Any British Athletes At The Opening Ceremony
*Seb Coe Says Athletes Should Be "Free To Choose" Whether Or Not To Attend
US News
- It's Official: Allyson Felix Doing The 200/400 Double At World Champs She is seeking to make history twice, as no one has ever won the 200/400 double world titles and she is seeking an unprecedented 4th straight title in the 200.
- Video Interview With Ryan Hall: Talks About His Training And Racing Since Boston Says he's enjoying the freedom of being self-coached, as he's on the Europe circuit with Sara and training-wise he's really learned to listen to his body rather than "be a slave to a schedule."
- Carl Lewis Was Part Of "Project 30" Report Group that was formed after a disappointing 2008 Olympics to assess the issues and problems in US track and field so that they could be corrected and help the US hit the goal of 30 medals in 2012. He said a big issue lies with the relays and that "we're talking about 30 medals and we still haven't figured out how to pass the baton."
- Coaches Try To Increase Interest In The Sport By Holding Pole Vault Competition On The Beach Rory Quiller won the men's elite class with 17.6 ft., while Jess Mira won for the women in 11.6 ft. The event was held in Lake George, NY.
Poll: Vote Online For The Bowerman Award As of now, Washington State's Jeshua Anderson is winning for the men and Texas A&M's Jessica Beard for the women.
Sounds Like A Cool Job
Steve Magness Talks About Getting His Dream Job Of Working With Alberto Salazar At Nike Not sure if Magness (who ran 4:01 in high school) still wants to break 4, but he is still running and pacing Kara Goucher and even Rupp and Farah in workouts.
Silas Kiplagat Outlasts Nick Willis (More Stockholm Coverage And Video Here)
Kenia Sinclair Stays Undefeated, American Women Struggle
LaShawn Merritt Returns
Usain Bolt Runs 20.03
Monaco Photos
Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)
LRC Contest Recap - The Greatness Of You
LRC USA Nationals Contest Recap As usual we had a couple of ringers come out on top in our contest. Our winner is in the elite of the elite of LetsRun.com, as not only has he been to watch the World Championships and Olympic Trials, he has a @runner.org email address, and a real-life wife. Our runner-up was a state champion in high school and has started a post-collegiate group in Utah.
USAs In Review
LRC 2011 USATF Women's Nationals (Distance) In Review Which event represents America's best chance for a distance medal at Worlds? It's the same event an American led the world in 2010. Still stumped? You'll have to read the
article. We break down all the action, look at the very different fates of non-qualifiers Christin Wurth-Thomas and Anna Pierce, wonder if Kara Goucher can beat Shalane at Worlds, and even talk about coach Gags' commute and the reverse LetsRun.com jinx.
LRC USA Men's Nationals In Review Wejo puts Galen Rupp's 10k performance in perspective, talks about the stellar men's 5,000m, and break down all the distance action. Plus Dathan Ritzenhein, German Fernandez,
Evan Jager and even
Xavier Carter, Adam Nelson, and Adam Goucher just to get your attention.
A Must-Watch (We're Not Sure How We Missed This) - Sammy Wanjiru's Mom Theatens Others With A Machete 2 Weeks Ago (More Here)
Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)
- Lydiard vs magill vs malmo for summer cross country training
- Couple questions about summer training?
- Peter Snell Interview and his thoughts on Lydiard training
- Sprinter to Distance : My quest to run sub 2
Boston *Recap Analysis: *JK On The Wind *Wejo On Desiree *Rojo *London And Boston *Video Highlights
Women's World XC In Photos
Men's World XC In Photos
Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)
- Wow, Lydiard training seems ridiculously hard
- best marathon improvement after age 40?
- How does "strength" differ from "speed" and "endurance" as a runner?
- "A runner needs a LT run every 2 to 5 days in order to not lose any aerobic ability."
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