January 05, 2014 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For January 05, 2014

At Least He's Honest

“It’s so difficult to adjust to training in India after training in Europe and the United States. Look at our facilities. If someone offered you steroids and said you would not get caught, wouldn’t you take them too?”

– Prakash Singh, 2012 shot put Olympian for India, talking in a New York Times article examining why Indian athletes are the most doped in the world.

Really Cool:Siberian Man Runs Coldest Marathon In The World At -36 F (-38C), Vows To Try Another One At -76 F (-60)

More Action Of Note

World Champion Japhet Korir Has Best Outing Since Worlds, Wins In N. Ireland – Fionnuala Britton Is 4th Uganda’s 10,000-meter man Thomas Ayeko was second as Steeplechase silver medallist Conseslus Kipruto 20-year-old Cornelius KiprutoKangogo was 3rd. Bahrain’s Mimi Belete won a tight women’s race over Maryam Jamal as Mimi’s sister Almensch was the first European (via Ethiopia) in third ahead of two-time defending champ Fionnuala Britton who was 4th. *IAAF Recap
*Japhet Korir Needs To Recover Fast As He’s Racing 2013 Silver Medallist Imane Merga At The Campaccio Meeting In Italy On Monday This is a rematch of 1-2 from last year’s Worlds. *Follow It Live – Chris Barnicle Of USA Is Running
Pre-Race: Fionnuala Britton Is #1 Women’s Name At Saturday’s N. Ireland XC Meet
*World Champion Japhet Korir Leads Men’s Field

Time To Guess …

MB: Awesome: 2:05:12 marathoner Stanley Biwott ran a 1500 yesterday, 2 days after winning NYear’s 10k – Guess his time
1976 Olympic Bronze Medallist Brendan Foster Reveals The Highlight Of His Athletics Career Came In Year ****
NYTimes.com Investigates – Why Is **** The Most Doped Country In The World? With more than 500+ positives since 2009, can you guess the name of this country?

Next Saturday

Next Saturday: Chris Derrick, Bobby Mack And Joe Grey To Lead; Team USA Announced For Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross-Country; USATF.tv To Air LIVE For Free USATF will broadcast for free at 8:15 am ET.
*NXN Champ Wilmot & FL Runner-Up Dressel Lead US Juniors Selected For Bupa Great Edinburgh XC

UK News

Tom Farrell Is Off To Kenya To Train, Soon Will Be Joined By Mo Farah, But After That He May Or May Not Return To US The former OK State Cowboy hasn’t quite figured out where he wants to be based.
Now Retired, Former UK 800 International Karen Cudby (Harewood) Is Running London Marathon To Raise Money To Give Back To Athletics At Age 38 A nice gesture by Karen, who once broke her femur so badly at the European Champs that doctors thought she’d been in a car accident, to support the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund.

New Year’s Week Races

Thursday: Hakone Ekiden: Led By Identical Twin Seniors Keita And Yuta Shitara, Toyo University Has Day One Hakone Ekiden Lead The sub-28 seniors both won their stages as Toyo put up the second-fastest time ever on day one. Komazawa University is in second, however, less than a minute back and looking to be the 4th school ever to win the triple crown.
Thursday: Mare Dibaba Sets Course Record At Xiamen Marathon (2:21:36)In her first marathon in 17 months, Mare Dibaba, who has a 2:19:52 PR, went out fast and was on 2:19:29 pace at 30km before fading. 38-year-old Mariko Kiplagat won a tactical men’s race in 2:08:06.
*IAAF head starts 2014 with a bang in China
2:05:12 Marathoner Stanely Biwott Beats 12:48 5ker Yenew Alamirew To Win In Luanda – Priscah Jeptoo Wins Women’s Title The time (28:31) may not seem fast but it was 90 degrees with 50+% humidity. In the women’s race, 2013 NY Marathon champ Priscah Jeptoo returned to racing with a win in 32:10.
Konica Minolta Repeats As New Year Ekiden Champs In Japan

Random But Why Not?

New Year’s Eve Races

Amanda Winslow And Cole Atkins Celebrate New Year With Wins At NYRR Midnight Run

LRC Imane Merga Edges Wilson Kiprop To Capture 2013 BOClassic In Italy (28:43.8 Vs. 28:43.9) The 2011 world XC champion barely got the best of the 2010 world half marathon champion. 2008 Olympic 5,000 bronze medallist Edwin Soi was seventh (30:00.5) just ahead of American Chris Barnicle (30:01.1). 2007 and 2009 world 1,500 champ Maryam Jamal of Bahrain won in 16:00.6 as 2013 Moscow 10,000 silver medallist Gladys Cherono was second in 16:01.8. *IAAF Recap
Leonard Komon And Linet Masai Come Through As Favorites And Win Madrid’s 49th San Silvestre Vallecana Spain’s Chema Martinez was 10th in his last race. Yuki Kawauchi came up short in his attempt to break 29:00 for the first time in his life. *MB: Yuki Kawauchi says if he finally breaks 29 (yes 29) for 1st time today (12/31), he’ll never run 10,000 again on track.
Edward Rotich Repeats At Brazil’s Historic São Silvestre Road Race As Kenyans Go 1-2-3 Rotich won close to $25,000 in the 89th edition of the race in 43:48 (last year he won in 44:04). Nancy Kipron of Kenya won the women’s title in 51:58. Gionavi dos Santos was the top Brazilian finisher (4th,44:50) as Moroccan Abderrahime Elasri was fifth. It will be interesting to see if Rotich now goes to defend his title in Cuiabra, where he was infamously tackled mid-race last year.
*Translated Recap From O Globo – Brazil’s #1 Paper

Olympic News

“YMCA” Songwriter Will Not Perform At Sochi In Protest Against Anti-Gay LawVictor Willis says he’d perform for world unity but not a specific protest: “The words were crafted by me to be taken any number of ways but not specific to gays. It’s much broader than that. The song is universal. I don’t mind that gays think the song is about them but I won’t perform the song in support of any protest.”
Olympic Writer Phil Hersh Wants Olympics To Be Broken Up And Hosted In A Slew Of Cities Iinstead Of Sochi
1948 Olympic Shot Put Champion Wilbur “Moose” Thompson Has Died A former USC Trojan.

Another Slow Saturday

Australia’s Len Johnson Wonders: Why Do We Suck At Track? The Aussies for three straight years have only had a single person (Sally Pearson) ranked in the top 10 in the world in a track (not field or walking) event. We’d start by saying your population of just 22 million makes it tough.
Kenyan Runner Fractures His Leg And Had To Drop Out Of Japan’s Biggest Ekiden Relay, Bows Repeatedly In Front Of Team And Says “I’m Sorry” “Everybody has told me, ‘Don’t lose hope, don’t quit running.’ That has made me very glad. I’ve come to understand that in the ekiden you share in both the joy and the sadness.”
MB: Ever wonder what happens if someone drops out of an Japanese ekiden, now we know – Kenyan fractures leg mid-race
2012 Olympic Steeple Champ Yulia Zaripova Is Pregnant, Vows To Be Back For 2016 Games
New WADA President Issues Welcome MessageSir Craig Reedie has been with WADA since its inception and he’s pumped the IOC has given it $10 million for research.
The Telegraph: Is 16-Year-Old Heptathlete Morgan Lake The Next British Athletics Star?
Usain Bolt Was 7th In World In Endorsements In 2013 At $24 Million Before you get too excited, realize a cricket player is #6.
IAAF Review Of Combined Events Challenge 2013

3 Recommended Reads

Inspired By LetsRun.com’s “Clean Or Dirty” Poll, The Science Of Sport Analyzes The Suspected Dirtiness Of The World Records Scientifically Some of the women’s world records, which on average are over 20 years old, are simply untouchable. “Doping moves performances beyond the realms of possibility – it takes women’s performances and pushes them out 10%, to a point where it is no longer possible to match them without androgenic assistance.”
Toyo University Grows Lead And Comes Through With Second-Fastest Hakone Ekiden Win This is EXCELLENT RUNNING JOURNALISM. 1843 words that totally tell you what the biggest event in Japan is all about. Toyo, who had been second in every single Ekiden since legendary ace Ryuji Kashiwabara graduated in 2012, got the job done.
*Japan News:Toyo pulls away, cruises to 4th Hakone win
Great New York Times Piece On 86-Year-Old Joy Johnson – The Woman Who Died Happily After Falling At Mile 20 Of NYC Marathon She always said she hoped to die with her laces on and she almost did.

One We Missed

One We Missed: Peter Najem Wins 2013 Millennium Mile In 3:58.55

Blog It Up

Pat Rizzo Blogs About Highs And Lows Of His Marathon Buildup For Houston “After the frustration of Twin Cities Marathon, my target immediately became revenge. In this case, revenge comes in the form of Houston Marathon on January 19th.”
After Very Disappointing 2013, Lisa Uhl Blogs About Her Goals For 2014 She’s going to start hitting the roads a little in 2014.
Birmingham CrossPlex: $48 Million Indoor Track And Swimming Complex In Middle Of Birmingham, AL Ghetto Is Getting Nice Reviews
MB:Anyone been to Birmingham CrossPlex – indoor track and swimming complex in middle of Birmingham ghetto?

Nick Symmonds Signs With Brooks

The Oregonian On Symmonds’ Departure:Symmonds Doesn’t Rule Out Living In Eugene After His Career Is Over

LRCNick Symmonds Is Thrilled To Have Say At Brooks – “Just sitting in Eugene twiddling my thumbs waiting for Nike to call me – that was not satisfying for me.” In an exclusive chat with LetsRun, Symmonds reveals the financial the deals offered to him by Nike and Brooks were similar, but at Brooks he’s got input. Symmonds also talks about training without Mark Rowland, how fortunate he is as compared to Leo Manzano, and the high quality of journalism one can find on LetsRun.com each day.

LRCAnalysis: 4 Quick Thoughts About Symmonds’ Move The Brooks Beasts Track club has a high profile member now as Symmonds is leaving Nike, Oregon and coach Mark Rowland to move to Seattle and Brooks.

More: Press Release From Brooks With Video Announcement From Symmonds:Brooks Running Company Jumpstarts 100th Year with a Clear Focus on the Future of Run, Signing Olympian Nick Symmonds.

MB: *Nick Symmonds’ Free Agency Is Soon To Be Over – New Shoe Deal Coming At 1pm ET – – Update has signed with Brooks!!
*NICK SYMMONDS WITHOUT A SPONSOR
*Who does Brooks cut to afford Symmonds?
*Who does Nick Symmonds think he is? LeBron?

Protect Your Weenie:

Toni Reavis On Running In The Cold And Dealing With Dreaded Penis Frostbite

The Key To Jamaican Sprint Success Unveiled?

Perfectly Symmetrical Legs Are Key To Jamaican Sprint Success “We found that Jamaican children have particularly symmetric legs, in comparison to Europeans. Furthermore, in children symmetry in the legs, particularly in the knees, predicted their willingness to sprint and their sprinting times when they were adults.”

Week In Review

WTWDistance Runners Can't Dance, Run Over The Summer, Don't Set Goals, The Joys Of Being Called A Steroid-Using Hermaphrodite And Words Of Wisdom From Janet Bawcom

In the final week of 2013, Janet Bawcom reflects on Christmas and how far she's come, Phoebe Wright gets cult status on LetsRun.com after giving out some dating advice, Haile G can't dance, free goal setting advice, free healthy living advice, and a flash mob from India.

New WADA Head Says They May Start Doing Hair Testing To Identify Drug Cheats Cycling has been doing hair testing for a long time as Lance Armstrongcomplained about it via twitter in 2009.

The Latest Year-End News

IAAF End-Of-Year Reviews of Steeple, 5k And 10k 2013 looked a lot like 2012 as the same men won the steeple, 5k and 10k as amazingly, no one even tried anything against Mo Farah. The women’s side was ruined by the collusion of the Ethiopians in the 5,000 and 10,000.
Eurosport’s 3 Biggest Shocks Of Year: #1 Oscar P Kills Someone, #2 Boston Bombing, #3 Lance Comes Clean
The Sport Literally Is Dying: 3 Of 20 Most-Read Stories On Athletics Weekly Were Obituaries
IAAF’s Look Back At The Mountain Running Year
Donald Thomas Is Nassau Guardian’s Bahamas Athelte Of The Year He was 5th at Worlds in the HJ. Oral Roberts Jeffery Gibson (5th 400H at NCAAs) was 2nd.
Cold? Embrace It: 10 Snowshoe Races To Try In 2014

Olympic Writer Alan Abrahamson Slams Dennis Rodman For Going To N. Korea Next Month “Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is not engaging in ‘sports diplomacy’ by going to North Korea and hanging out, or not, with the dictator Kim Jong Un. All he’s doing is creating publicity for Dennis Rodman.” Kim Jong Un is a bad, bad man. “On his birthday last year, Kim reportedly handed out copies of’ Mein Kampf‘ as gifts.”

Not Your Normal Races

40 Finish Half Marathon On Indoor Track In Massachusetts For the record, it was 207 meters long. 102 laps, 13.1 miles. If you missed the race, they are doing a full marathon next month.
Runners At San Fran’s Resolution Dash 5k Made New Year’s Resolutions Before Start Of Race

Asbel Kiprop Allegation & Denial

Asbel Kiprop Denies Gun Assault/Alcohol Claims Kiprop has issued a vehement denial and says he was just looking for grub after watching a Premiere League match with his training mates.
MB: Kiprop denies all allegations: “At the moment, I am only armed with my spikes and training shoes. I do not take alcohol.”

Previous:1,500 Star Asbel Kiprop To Be Charged For Beating Up Security Guard That Wouldn’t Let Him Drink After Hours At Bar “Kiprop punched me several times on the mouth and kicked me on my private parts saying that he is a police inspector and cannot be questioned by anyone or taken anywhere.”
MB:Asbel Kiprop Might Be Going To Jail
*Assuming He’s Not In Jail In A Week, Asbel Kiprop Will Try To Defend Great Edinburgh Cross-Country Crown Next Saturday
*Blog From Kenya: Someone Please Advise Asbel Kiprop Before He Loses His Career

New Running Shoe Introduced

LRCMizuno Running 2014: The Launch Of The Wave Paradox

Mizuno used its "One Minute/One Product" pitch at the 2013 Running Event to talk about the new Mizuno Wave Paradox.

What A Difference A Decade Makes

Recommened Read10 Years Ago, The US Sucked In The Mid-Distances, Now The US Is A World Power – Why?David Monti reminds us just how much things have changed from 2003 to 2013 as 10 years ago no one from the US made the final of Worlds in the 800 or 1,500 and only six men and women broke 3:40/4:10.

2013 IAAF End-Of-Year Review Of 800 And 1,500 Races 2013 was supposed to be the year of the 800 but some of the stars of the incredible 2012 Olympic final struggled in 2012, but not Nick Symmonds and Mo Aman.

3 Good Reads

#1Australian Olympians Ryan Gregson & Genevieve LaCaze Are Dating Quite an interesting read. Did you know that Gregson one day hopes to be a bar owner?
#2Great Profile Of Ireland’s 3rd-Ever World Champ Rob Heffernan: Emerging From The Shadows To Be Best Of Best Yes, we’ve ridiculed the walks over the years, but this is a great profile of what it takes to get to the top. That being said, we didn’t like how he praised Russian dopers for all of the hard work they put in before they dope.
*Previous:Heffernan’s Gold Medal Stolen But Recovered By Police*Heffernen’s Tweet Causes Uproar
#3 Chris Kelsall Congratulates India For Banning Entire States For Doping Did you know the Ancient Olympics were finally shut down in 393 because of rampant corruption?

Athletes Of The Year

In Tightest Voting Ever, HJer Bohdan Bondarenko Wins Track & Field News Athlete Of Year Award The 23-year-old HJer, who went 7-10¾ this year, edged Usain Bolt by a single point as Mo Farah was third and Mo Aman fourth.

LaShawn Merritt & Brianna Rollins Are TFN’s US Athletes Of The YearJenny Simpson (#5)and Brenda Martinez (#7) and Nick Symmonds (#5) and Galen Rupp (#10) were the only mid-d/distance women/men in the top 10.

More End-Of-Year News

Bernard Lagat And Shalane Flanagan Are Running Times US Runners Of YearNot sure how Lagat is ranked ahead of Galen Rupp when Rupp ran 3:50/7:30 indoors and was 4th in 10,000 at Worlds versus Lagat’s sixth. Ben True was third. Canadian winners were Cam Levins and Andrea Seccafien, which again shows the flaw in the rankings, as how a 16:05 5,000 runner is ranked ahead of a national record holder in the marathon is bizarre. For international runners, Mo Farah and Meseret Defar were the winners.
2013 IAAF End-Of-Year Reviews Of Road Running The IAAF spends a lot of time looking at Kipsang’s world record, and has some good 13.1 stats showing how the 13.1 is dominated by half marathon specialists, not marathoners or 10,000 men. On the year, 13 men broke 2:06:00.
Usain Bolt Named AIPS Athlete Of The Year Again AIPS is the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). Tennis star Serena Williams won the women’s award as Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayevaand Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were second and third.
Ben True Reflects On His “Almost Season” – 4th In 5k And 10k At USAs We don’t think of it as an “almost” year as he does have a silver from World XC.
Toni Reavis 2013 Year In Review
Athletics Weekly’s Month-By-Month Review Of 2013
Q&A With Moscow LJ Bronze Medallist Ivana Spanovic – The First Serbian Medallist In WC History