Week That Was: January 27th – February 2nd

LRCWeek In Review: Was Genzebe Dibaba's 3:55.17 The Fastest Clean 1,500 Ever Run? The Marathon Trials Go To LA, The Depth Of Japanese Road Racing And Fast Collegiate DMRs And 3Ks

News From East Africa

• Geoffrey Mutai Wants To Prove His Boston 2:03 Was No Fluke When He Races In London 2014  The 2005 Helsinki World 5,000 champ Benjamin Limo said, “Mutai is a dangerous runner and his 2.03.02 should not be taken lightly. He is not happy being referred as the unofficial fastest runner over the distance and that is why I believe he’ll be out to upset everyone in London.”
• Two-Time World Marathon Champ Abel Kirui Talks About Bouncing Back From Injury At Tokyo This Month Kirui missed most of 2013 with a stress fracture but says his form is coming back around. Talking about Kenya’s poor performance at Worlds (their first runner was 9th), he actually said they should have spent more time in the AK training camps, advocating for 4 months there.
• Spikes-Mag: “10 things we love about Genzebe Dibaba” They point out she’s raced older sister Tirunesh Dibaba 5 times and never beat her.

Queens Of The Vault

• IAAF Q&A With Jenn Suhr, Who’s In Such Good Shape It’s Throwing Off Her Vault Because She’s Not Used To The Extra Speed/Strength She’s training in Colorado Springs this winter to avoid the harsh NY weather as she gets ready for World Indoors. She also talks about France’s Renaud Lavillenie and says she thinks he can get the WR this season.
• Yelena Isinbayeva To Return To Training In 2015 To Go For Gold #3 In 2016 She hopes to have children before Rio 2016 as well and unofficial reports earlier in the week were she was pregnant already.

Craig Virgin Calls For More Transparency With Supplements/TUEs

LRCRunning Legend Craig Virgin Calls For More Transparency Revealing The Medications And Supplements Athletes Are On: "In Sight It Must Be Right"

Kenyan News: Anti-Doping Task Force Is Broke

• Lost Cause: Kenyan Anti-Doping Task Force Appointed To Investigate Kenyan Doping Is Out Of Money And Won’t Finish It’s Report Apparently the government is refusing to give them any more money and according to this article they’re asking for $207,000.
• Amos Mitei Wins Nike Discovery Half Marathon In 62:49 Peris Chepchirchir won the women’s 10k in 31:53. Apparently one of the Mutais did poorly in the men’s race, finishing in 14th place (64:43), but based on the phrasing it’s unclear if it’s Geoffrey or Emmanuel.
• Good Blog Post: US Olympian Janet Bawcom Blogs About “Accidentally Racing” The Discovery Kenya 10k She did it as a hard workout and finished 11th in 34:27.
• Recap Of Kenyan Western Region XC Championships

• Lolo Jones Speaks Out About Bobsled Team Selection Controversy “I don’t know, just gotten to the point for some reason being popular … I don’t know how that comes across as being negative (or) how people will try to use that against you. Like, ‘She has too many Twitter followers, so now we hate her.'”
• Salty Running: What Would Your Favorite US Track Stars Be Doing If They Were In The Winter Olympics? See some funny photos of Kara Goucher curling, Shalane Flanagan on hockey skates and Mary Cain and Galen Rupp figure skating.
• List Of Top Former Track Stars That Are In Sochi For Men’s Bobsled Among the top sprinters are GB athletes Craig Pickering (10.14) and Joel Fearon (10.10).
• Sochi 2014 Found To Be Killing Stray Cats And Dogs Even Though They Had Promised Not To The owner of the company hired to kill the animals said, “Dogs must be taken off the streets even if that means putting them to sleep. … Let’s call things by their real name. These dogs are biological trash.”
• Cool: Pieces Of Russian Meteorite To Be Given To Sochi 2014 Gold Medal Winners On Anniversary Of Meteorite’s Fall
• President Obama: “Sochi safe but I can’t discount the risks.”
• Australia To Restrict Movement Of Athletes During Sochi 2014 As Safety Precaution

More International Results From Sunday

• IAAF Recap Russian Winter Meeting: Silas Kiplagat Beats Bethwell Birgen In 1,500 With World-Leading 3:35.85 Mohammed Aman ran 1:15.31 in the 600 to miss the WR by .19 seconds (3rd best all-time) as Poland’s Adam Kszczot was 2nd (1:15.75) and Erik Sowinski was 5th (1:16.11). In the women’s 800 former Olympic champ Pamela Jelimo bombed with a 2:11 as the race was won by Belarus’ Marina Arzamasova in 2:01.31 as Russia’s Olympic bronze medalist Ekaterina Poistogova was 4th (2:02.34). Other meet highlights came from Natasha Hastings (400),  Ivan Ukhov (HJ) and Alexandr Menkov (LJ). *Full Results
• Mark English Makes Ireland World Indoor Team, Breaking 13-Year-Old National Indoor 800m Record English ran 1:46.82 to finish second to the Netherlands’ Thijmen Kupers (1:46.78). Jakub Holusa won the 1,500 in a Czech record of 3:38.79 to beat Ireland’s David McCarthy (3:39.14).

Un-American Quote Of The Day? Nick Symmonds Isn’t Going To Watch The Super Bowl “Apparently, it is called the ‘Super Bowl,’ and several hundred million people will sit down to watch it. I know I’m in the minority, but I must be honest: I couldn’t care less about this particular game or the sport of football in general.”

2016 Trials Go To LA *2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials Coverage

RRWLos Angeles To Host 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials