LetsRun.com

Worlds News

Kenya:
Nice Profile: Eliud Kipchoge Has Amazingly Made Every Kenyan Worlds Team Since 2003
*Milcah Chemos: With $40,000 Diamond League Steeple Title Wrapped Up, Now Turns Focus To Worlds And Then World Record Attempt In Brussels
*Kenya's 800m Runners: "We've won psychological war." They do realize making the final can be tough, which is why the 800m is the most exciting distance event at Worlds.
*Kenyan Men (And Women) Want Medal Sweep In Steeplechase At Worlds
*Olympic Champ Nancy Langat Eyes Worlds 1,500m Gold, But She'll Have To Make Final First

Britain: British Team Named For Worlds And Goal Is 7 Medals The Brits on the men's side have only two 800m runners entered, one 1,500m runner, and no natural-born Brits in the 5 or 10.
*Eilish McColgan's Chance At Worlds Ends With Broken Foot She's the daughter of Liz McColgan.
*Mo Farah Credits Sports Psychologist, Underwater Treadmill To Help Bring Him To The Top
*Mark Lewis-Francis Only Running RelayAat Worlds BBC  The former junior 100m star needs to go lose 20 lbs. LetsRun.com feels somewhat responsible because 9 years ago, we told him it was OK to eat at McDonald's

Injury News

Torn Ligament In Jeremy Wariner's Foot Ended His Season, But He's Having Knee Surgery

Dwight Phillips And sprinter Michael Frater Treated By Irish Physio

Yesterday's Worlds News

Kenya: Ezekiel Kemboi Shows Up At Kenyan Camp After Secretly Training In Warm-Weather Spot In Kenya Running Road Race In Italy Kemboi claimed to be training in warm weather; instead, he was at a road race in Italy. Thanks to the LRC tipster for sending us the results. Hopefully, Athletics Kenya does not kick him off the Worlds team.
*Silas Kiplagat Hoping For Kenya's First 1,500m Gold Ever At Worlds Stat of the day: 4 - the number of medals the US and Kenya have both won in the history of the World Championships at 1,500. Yes, the US has won as many medals as Kenya.
Tegla Laroupe Talks Positively About Kenyan Team At Worlds

S. Africa: South African Team Named For Worlds And It Features Oscar Pistorius, Caster Semenya, LJ Van Zyl
*No More Lily-Whites For S. African Teams Track and field is a meritocracy. If whites - or in this instance, blacks - aren't on the team, usually it means they aren't good enough.
A Heart-Wrenching Story, But He Still Shouldn't Run Worlds: In Boarding School, Oscar Pistorius' "Friends" Hid His Legs, Then Started A Fire With Lighter Fluid And Watched Him Scramble

Japan: 2:23 Marathoner And 2009 World Champs Silver Medallist Yoshimi Ozaki Has Been Doing Overdistance Training In Colorado And Is Ready For Worlds

US: Lauren Fleshman Blogs About Her Amazing Turnaround In London, Crying After Her Debacle In Sweden She could even be named to the US team today, as USATF fortunately may not follow its rules.

Weekend Nationals

Spain: After 1st 800 In 2:17, Manuel Olmedo Closes Last 300 In 38 To Win Spanish 1,500m Title And Become A Worlds Contender?

Brazil: South American Women's 200m Record (Lemos Silva 22.48), 10,000m Record (Alves da Silva 31:16) Set At Brazilian Champs

Uganda: 30 People Show Up To Watch Ugandan Champs

Good News

• The Average Fan Has A Reason To Watch 2 Track Meets After Worlds: Bolt To Run 100 In Zagreb, 200 In Brussels After Worlds
• Usain Bolt's Bolt Becomes Part Of Channel 4 Logo In Britain

Non-London Weekend Action *Ireland Results

Flanders Cup Belgium: Latavia Thomas Runs 1:59.67 - Nearly A 2-Second PR!, Former World Junior Mile Record Holder Ilham Tanui Özbilen Runs 1:44.25, David Torrence Wins 1,500 Congrats to Thomas. Tanui Özbilen is William Tanui Biwott, the world junior record holder in the mile, who would be a darkhorse candidate for gold in Daegu, but he can't compete because he switched to Turkey.

Ireland: Irish Nationals Recap: Youngters Impress John Coghlan, Eamonn's son, got second in the 1,500.

London Diamond League *Complete Results *Eurosport Photos *Day 1 Highlights *Day 2 Video Highlights

LRC  Day 2: Leo, Lisa And Sanya Impress On day 2 of 2 at the final big meet before Worlds, Leo Manzano got Americans excited for WCs by coming from way behind to get a shock victory in the men's 1,500; British fans got excited by Lisa Dobriskey's win in the women's 1,500; American fans also were probably thrilled by Sanya Richards-Ross' return to form in the 400 (49.66). Plus two Americans got the "A" standard in the women's 5,000, as Lauren Fleshman crushed the field - but was it the right two?
*MB: Leo Wow!!!! 3:51 FTW *Lauren Fleshman 15 flat for 5000m *Desi Davilla!!!!!!!!
*Wetmore: Coburn Can Run Faster Than Her New 9:37 PR

LRC Round 1 Of Kaki Vs. Rudisha Goes To Rudisha On day 1 of 2 at the final big meet before Worlds, the matchup between the  two greatest 800m runners on the planet, David Rudisha and Abubaker Kaki, did not disappoint, as Rudisha took down Steve Cram's UK all-comers record. Kenia Sinclair lost her first 800 of the year to Jenny Meadows, as NCAA 400m champ Kirani James appeared for the first time since NCAAs and stamped himself as a favorite in Daegu, Dayron Robles beat David Oliver again as did surprisingly Jason Richardson, Yohan Blake showed he's one to watch in the 100 at Worlds, Jenn Suhr showed she is back, Kaliesha Spencer blasted the 400m hurdles, and Mo Farah ran a 25-second last 200m to toy with the men's 3,000m field.

More Coverage:

• Saturday: IAAF Recap *AP Recap
• Athletics Weekly: Christian Taylor Arrives (17.68m) He's now the 27th-best man in history and 7th-best American.
• Walter Dix Wins 200m And Says Bolt Could "Definitely Be Beaten" If Walter was in his college form, he might be the one to do it.
• BBC: Brits Stink Up On Day 2
• Friday: Farah Blows Field Away At Crystal Palace, Does Tempo Run After The only question surrounding him appears to be how he'll adapt to the heat of Daegu. The Guardian
• Jenny Meadows Wins 800m In London And May Be A Surprise Gold Medal Threat In Daegu Telegraph
• With World Leader, Kirani James Ready To Put Grenada On The Map Reuters

Molly Huddle Hoping To Run Her First Worlds

Molly Huddle Planning On Doing Her First Worlds But Plantar May Keep Her Out She also talks about running the marathon and not breaking the women's 10,000m record.

News From Kenya

• Full Of Confidence, Vivian Cheruiyot Is Eyeing Double Gold At Worlds And Then 5,000 WR After her win last week in 14:20 with "poor weather" and "slow pacesetters," she realized she can get the WR. The crazy thing is she says she wishes Tirunesh Dibaba was in the 10,000 to raise the "level of competition."
• Nobody In Kenya Knows Where Ezekiel Kemboi Is; If He's Not At Kenyan Camp By Monday, He'll Be Kicked Off Worlds Squad We think he's probably being smart and not burning himself out by training too hard.

2010 USATF Annual Report Is Available Here We're sure there are things worth talking about, so if you find them, please email us.

Marathon News From Japan

• Two-Time World Championships Medalist Reiko Tosa Is Unretired And Making Comeback For London 2012 After Giving Birth
• Japanese Amateur 2:08 Marathoner Yuki Kawauchi Runs 30km Race at 5:02 Pace And Gives Result A 100% Perfect Score His other pre-World Championships races had been total disasters. The article reveals the "lone-wolf" of Japanese marathoning is getting coaching advice from the Japanese federation - maybe they are to blame?
• New World Championships Team Member Mai Ito Did 30km Run In Boulder In 95-Degree Heat To Get Ready For Worlds God, that sounds awful.
• Hiroyuki Horibata's WChampionships Training Is Going Well

Shoulda Gone To Stanford? Jordan Hasay Named USTFCCCA Indoor Scholar Athlets Of Year Thanks To Her 3.96 GPA

Carl Lewis Does Q & A With USA Today

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"

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."

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.

Falmouth Is This Weekend

Micah Kogo And Wude Ayalew Headline 2011 New Balance Falmouth Road Race Kogo won TD Bank Beach to Beacon last weekend and is the favorite. There is $10,000 on the line for the winners and $10,000 on the line for first American.

AJ Acosta And Will Leer Racing Each Other At 2011 New Balance Falmouth Mile These guys were the most upset after USA Nationals and wish instead they were going to Daegu, but with the European season on hiatus for 3 weeks, it makes this race more interesting.

Wude Ayalew's Sister, Hiwot, Could Be A Steeple Phenom The article does not say so, but that is what we at LetsRun.com think. She ran 8:23 in her 2nd (pro) steeple ever and was 11th at World XC. She won't be on the Ethiopian WC team unless they change their minds.

Allen Iverson Agrees ... It's Not About Practice

Science Of Sport: Success In Sport is Not Just About Practice

Weekend Road Action

Triathlon: Lukas Verzbicas Wins US Triathlon Junior Title, Then Crashes On Bike In Team Competition And Needs 13 Stitches
On The Boards: LV in bike wreck

Saturday: Micah Kogo And Aheza Kiros Hammer Fields At 2011 Beach To Beacon 10k Despite feeling tired at the start, the Olympic bronze medallist Kogo soon got going and went through 5k in 13:37 as he won in 27:46. Patrick Smyth (9th 29:28) and Sara Slattery (6th 33:36) were the top Americans, as Deena Kastor was uanble to start as she had the flu. State senator and former US star Louie Luchini was the first Maine finisher in 30:35. *MB: 2011 Beach To Beacon Talk With State Senator *Photos

Providence: Kim Smith Wins Rock N Roll Providence In 1:11:54

Iten, Kenya: Dubai Marathon Champ Diana Chepkemoi And Rotterdam Runner-Up Jonathan Maiyo Win Iten 10k As Dan Komen The Older And Edna Kiplagat Watch

Worth A Read

• A Must-Read It's Been A Glorious Summer For Old-School Ciaran O'Lionaird
• Interesting Read: Mature Beyond Her Years, 17-Year-Old Sprint Phenom Jodie Williams Has Millionaire Sponsor Who Pays Her Coach
• LetsVault.com: Jenn Suhr Had To Take Muscle Relaxers To Survive USATFs, But Now She's Been Diagnosed With Celiac Disease And Vaulting As High As Ever
• Recommended Read
  Not A Running Star When In School, Eliud Kipchoge Has Gone On To Be A World Beater The article, which takes you through his entire career, says he couldn't even make the final rounds of Kenya in HS but by age 19 was a world champ thanks to huge desire. People forget he beat El Guerrouj and Bekele in 2004.
• Interesting Read: Having Severed All Ties With Trevor Graham, Justin Gatlin Wonders If Ex-Coach Watches His Race - Answer: Yes The AP caught up with Trevor Graham, who claims Gatlin's current success shows he was clean.

Bureaucrats In The News

• Firing Of Doug Logan Raises USATF's Expenses By 7+ Figures
• Ridiculous: Special Train Will Take IAAF Bigwigs From Hotel To Olympic Stadium
  And people are wondering why all the nations of the world are about to default on their debt.
• Auditor Rips Delhi Govt. For Commonwealth Games Waste & Corruption
• And An Ex-Bureaucrat: Jim Ryun Reflects On His Career, Says He Wouldn't Change A Thing As He's Inducted Into Cinci Hall Of Fame

Worth A Read

• FSU's Ciaran O'Lionaird Talks About His 6-Second 3:34 PR The guy was a 10k runner earlier in the year, now he'll be at Worlds in the 1,500.
• Eliud Kipchoge Wanted To Go To College But Didn't Have Cash, So He Became A Pro Runner
• Seb Coe's Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather Owned Slaves In Jamaica

Assault & Battery-Related News

• French Runners Mehdi Baala And Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad Can Compete At Worlds Yet supposedly they are suspended for 5 months, fined $2,130 and must do 50 hours of community service.
• Sammy Wanjiru's Mom Goes To Court - Case Is Extended To Allow Parties More Time To Reach Out-Of-Court Settlement
• Liz McColgan's Amicable Divorce Gets Nasty As She's Charged With "... repeatedly punching husband and throwing his clothes out the window." She was the 1991 world 10,000 champ.
  *MB: Liz McColgan Goes BAALA On Her Husband

Berlin Is 7.5 Weeks Away

LRC Paula Radcliffe Healthy And Excited For 2011 BMW Berlin Marathon Friends of LetsRun, Losse Veter, were in Belgium for the new opening of a cool place called Runners Service Lab, and Paula was there too. They talked to Paula about her preparations for Berlin. Paula talks about Berlin, her goals, London 2012, getting it right at the Olympics and even getting older.

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.

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.