Quote Of The Day

“With Nike signed up as USATF’s primary sponsor … the perception of impropriety and the potential for conflict of interest is constant and enduring.  Whether it is true or not is inconsequential.  The assumption, that Nike’s clout was enough to pressure the [national governing body] into re-opening the appeals process in the women’s 3,000 after the initial rulings had gone against them, rests at the heart of the matter. … The perception of favoritism alone is enough to suggest that signing an endemic sponsor is eventually counterproductive as it opens the door for exactly this kind of charge.”

“… USATF remains a 19th century type organization trying to govern in a 21st century sporting world. Though it has a professional staff, the vast majority of the organization is volunteer-based. And it shows! … well-intentioned, well-meaning, nice USATF volunteer officials seemed to be making it up as they went along, either intimidated or overwhelmed by the impassioned advocacy.  Only after CEO Max Siegel stepped in after the fact did it all come out right with Grunewald getting reinstated as national champion.  But, Lord, what hashtag was made of it.”

– Toni Reavis reacting to the latest USATF controversies and pointing out what he feels are some major flaws, saying, “Having volunteer officials and majority endemic sponsorship are two more penny-wise, pound-foolish vestiges of an old and tired system …” Reavis speaks on Alberto Salazar, Nike and the Grunewald DQ, saying if the roles were reversed, he doubts Jordan Hasay would have been DQed.

LRC More Albuquerque Craziness: Sanctioned Doper Christian Hesch Volunteered As A Drug Testing Chaperone At USA Indoors Before Having Credential Revoked By USATF No, it’s not April Fools. Who knows what we’ll have tomorrow.

 More Craziness At Indoors 

LRC The Inside Story Of The Andrew Bumbalough DQ: A Case Of Mistaken Identity Or A Near Catastrophe Bigger Than The Grunewald DQ Averted? Salazar, possibly fixated on Bumbalough since he out-leaned Rupp at the 2012 Trails, got Bumby DQed from a race where he made no contact with Rupp as the officials and Salazar got him confused with Ryan Hill. But we get you to ponder for a minute, how big would have the outrage been if Hill had beaten Rupp on the track and then been DQed for making this (see above) amount of contact 1k from the finish?
*MB: Challenge: Post Examples of DQs for Actions Similar to Grunewald and Ryan Hill
*MB: Imagine for a moment that Hill had beaten Rupp and then been DQd for bumping him 1k from the finish

International Distance News

As If Running Form Wasn’t Complicated Enough: New Study Uncovers Fourth Type Of Running Footstrike? Before, there were rearfoot, midfoot, and forefoot, but now running biomechanics expert Ned Frederick says there’s a fourth: the “atypical rearfoot striker.”

Big Jumps In Prague

More From The Weekend

Non-USATF Results From The Weekend

USA Indoor Champs *Results *Full 2014 USA Indoor Coverage *New USATF Indoor Photos 200+

 

3 Great Reads With Past And Present Stars

Explosive Interview With Former Mile Indoor Record Holder Eamonn Coghlan

Best Rabbit Of All Time? Haile G Will Pace London Marathon

Solinsky Doing The Marathon

LRCChris Solinsky Is Moving Up To The Marathon

Chris Solinsky believes the speed and endurance combo are no longer there at the same time, and thus it's time to move up to the marathon. We break down the news and pause to remember the greatness of his 26:59.60 10,000m.
*Discuss Solinsky's Move To The Marathon

USATF Controversy

2nd Good Read: Grunewald’s Coach Dennis Barker: Time To Act “The controversy that involved the women’s 3K was just one of several incidents that created an uncomfortable meet environment, but became a catalyst for athletes, coaches, and fans to question the credibility and independence of USATF.”

 Sprint News 

 USATF Drama 

How About A Little More Drama? LRC Lopez Lomong Says He Was Verbally Berated By Alberto Salazar After Men’s 3k: “To see the outrage in his eyes, he was very, very mad. … It was very hard to see how unprofessional, the (lack of) sportsmanship.”

Wall Street Journal Picks Up W 3k Story: USA Track Reinstates Disqualified Champ 744-word article by Sara Germano and Kevin Helliker.

The Most Popular Single Day Story In LRC History
LRC The Inside Story Of Gabriele Grunewald’s DQ – Insider Access, False Promises And A Violation Of USATF’s Own Rules? By now, you’ve heard bits and pieces about what happened on Saturday but we tell you the inside story of what really went down, plus reveal that the Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet as an arbitration hearing will take place later this week.

LRC Gabriele Grunewald Reinstated As USATF Champ As Jordan Hasay Withdraws DQ USATF CEO Max Siegel said that “they followed the process laid out in our competition rules.” Scary thought if true, with no transparency on the part of USATF. *Discuss

More:

Other Countries Start Picking Their Teams For World Indoors

NCAA Weekend Results *All NCAA Coverage

Tokyo – A World Major – Is In The Books *Full Tokyo Coverage

Dickson Chumba (2:05:42) And Tirfi Tsegaye (2:22:23) Set Tokyo Marathon CRs As Five Japanese Men Break 2:10 The race was fantastic as both the men’s and women’s races were decided after 40k.
*MB: 2014 Tokyo Thread

Asian XC Champs: Non-Asian Born Runners Dominate Asian Cross-Country Champs They took the top 5 spots in the men’s race and four in the women’s.

Lauryn Williams Makes Olympic History In Sochi *LRC Sochi 2014 News Section

 Millrose Photo Gallery 

 2014 USA Cross-Country Photo Gallery 

Mo Farah To Headline 2014 NYC Half Marathon March 16th

It's official. Mo will be running the NYC Half as he tunes up for the 2014 Virgin London Marathon. *Discuss Here

A Hollow Victory? Everything Still Remains Unanswered

LRC Editorial: Far From Resolved, All Of The Questions Leading To The Uproar About USATF’s Initial DQ Of Gabriele Grunewald Remain The results has been changed but none of the issues that led to the nationwide uproar have been addressed – just glossed over. #USATFchange #integrityofsport

A Pro Speaks Out: LRC Mark Wieczorek: “Either USATF indeed does have conclusive video evidence or they, in collusion with Alberto and Nike, lied and cheated to manipulate the system.” The 800 Olympic Trials finalist says there is “so much to be answered for” and hopes this doesn’t end up being remembered simply “as a happy, good feeling memory where an athlete did a good thing.”

Oscar P Trial Will Be Broadcast Live

Sherone Simpson Fill Find Out Verdict Of Doping Court Case On April 8th It’s looking like she might get a 2-year ban. An interesting fact was that the sample of the supplement she sent to be tested was packaged differently than the actual substance bought offline and it was only her sample that contained the banned stimulant.

2014 USA Indoor Photos *Day 1 *Day 2 (Link Fixed)

2014 USA Indoor Photos *Day 1 *Day 2 (Link Fixed)

More Good Reads From The US

LRCAlan Webb Retires From Track And Field

Webb, the American mile record holder, talks about his career after running one last mile in the place where he first broke 4:00.

The Moment You’ve All Been Waiting For: The Results For Our “Dirty” Or “Clean” Doping Polls

LRC World Record Holders “Dirty” Or “Clean” Doping Poll Results Without further ado, we present to you the results of our world record doping poll. LRC The “Dirty” Or “Clean” Doping Polls: Why Did We Do Them? Many of you get it. You voted and gave us some very interesting demographic data. We think you’ll find the data very interesting. Some of you don’t get it and have said so. Here we address some of your concerns.
*Blogger Reflects On LetsRun’s “Clean Or Dirty Polls” And Says It Has Helped Promote Belief In A Clean Sport He writes, “The most surprising aspect of the data to me was the percentage of voters who thought that athletes were clean. … This data is surprising because I thought that as a community we were more cynical than the numbers show.”
*MB: LetsRun “Clean or Dirty” Poll Discussion Thread
*MB: Wait a minute! Over 40% of letsrun visitors DON’T think El G was doped up?