News From Down Under

• Athletics.com.au’s Detailed Event-By-Event Preview Of Saturday’s IAAF Melbourne World Challenge There is some good action in the mid-d events, including Eunice Sum (800), Mercy Cherono (1,500), Duane Solomon (800), Collis Birmingham (1,500) and Ben St. Lawrence vs. Isiah Koech in the 5,000m. Plus Sally Pearson, LaShawn Merritt, David Oliver, Valerie Adams. *IAAF Preview
• College Coaches, Recruit Her: Meet New Zealand’s 17-Year-Old Megan Kikuchi, Who Has Run 55.95
• Athletics: Shot Put Showdown Between Jacko Gill And Tom Walsh Being Hyped By Papers As “Best Matchup In NZ Athletics In 50 Years” Gill went to twitter and said the groin injury rumors won’t be stopping him: “Just so everyone knows I’m completely injury-free … Even if I was injured I’d still be in Wellington.” Last week, Gill made a bizarre video which has been viewed over 150,000 times of him training to apparently try to psych out the competition. The video ends with him  staring into the camera, eating a red-hot pepper.
  Jacko Gill Psych-Out Video:
  
  

Doping News

• Abrahamson: Think State Doping Doesn’t Exist? Entire Azerbaijan Weightlifting Performance From 2013 Europeans – 5 Lifters, 14 Medals – Is Thrown Out For Doping
• USADA Head Travis Tygart Hopes Cycling Figures Out What People Benefited From Armstrong’s Cheating “I’m interested in the people behind Lance Armstrong – that might be outside of sports jurisdiction, team owners, agents, lawyers, who may have participated in this.” He also says Jamaica’s poor anti-doping record hurts Usain Bolt‘s credibility. *More From Travis Tygart
• Russia’s World Leader In Long Jump, Svetlana Biryukova, Tests Positive If you were wondering why the WL, who had a massive 22 cm PR this year, didn’t show up at Worlds, now you know. A second Russian tested positive in the 400m. *2nd Article On Biryukova
  More News From Russia:
• Russian Construction Mogul Is Trying To Trademark The Defective Olympic Logo – IOC Is Opposed

Oiselle In The News

• MB: Kara Goucher signs with Oiselle Goucher told the WSJ’s Sara Germano she turned down 7 figures from a shoe company. *WSJ
• Interview With Goucher On Her Transition Back To Boulder And Mark Wetmore She says it’s been a smooth transition and talks about training with Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn and Shalaya Kipp. Goucher says she gets a minute head start for long runs so she can warm up as the group hits it hard from the start.
  *Part II: Training, Sponsors, Connecting With Fans And The Journey
• Oiselle’s 1:59 Runner Kate Grace leaves NY/NJ Track Club – Moves Back West Grace was 4th at USAs last year and broke 2:00 in Paris, but this LRC message board poster has never heard of her.

IAAF News

• IAAF Branching Out To Recreational Runners With Launch Of New Site WorldRunning.com The site is aimed at non-elite runners and supposedly offers a system which can give you an “official” global rank.
• IAAF Forms 7-Member Ethics Commission Their object is to eliminate corruption and they have the power to form independent investigations and hand down sanctions.
• Sally Pearson, Natasha Hastings, David Oliver And LaShawn Merritt Help Launch IAAF / Nestlé Kids Athletics In Melbourne
• IAAF President Lamine Diack Opens AIPS Africa Congress In Dakar

Anti-Doping Updates From WADA / Jamaica

• Jamaican “Whistleblower” Renee-Anne Shirley Says She Was Forced To Relocate Because Of Backlash Against Her By Jamaicans She says “Personal safety is something you can’t take lightly” and that her family didn’t even want her to do this interview.
• WADA Says Jamaica’s Anti-Doping Program Is Back In Order WADA Director General David Howman said they’ve improved a lot, although he was very disappointed by the Veronica Campbell-Brown faulty sample collection issue and by the fact that the Asafa Powell / Sherone Simpson process isn’t complete yet.
• WADA Looking At Use Of Xenon Gas And Might Ban It The investigation comes after claims that Russians were using it to boost EPO during the Olympics, but the WADA’s director general says it’s been used for “years and years” and that it’s been previously looked at.
• Rio Anti-Doping Lab Must “Act Quickly” To Be ready For 2016 Olympics, Says WADA’s David Howman

Sad News

• RIP: Kenyan Runner Pamela Lisoreng Dies After Morning Run In Eldoret Lisoreng was part of Kenya’s 2006 World XC team and ran a marathon debut last year of 2:34.
• RIP: 16-Year-Old Dies After Finishing Virginia Beach Half Marathon Her father said he saw her at the 3-mile mark and thought, “It was the happiest I’ve ever seen her.”
  *MB Thread

Week In Review

WTWFlanagan's 3 X 5k At 15:40, True Gets Revenge On Derrick, A Great Weekend For The Men And Women Of Oregon, Solinsky Was Fat, And A World Record Attempt Comes Up Just Short In New Orleans

New Anti-Doping Test Could Be “1,000 Times More Sensitive” Than Current Tests The new detection method would increase the window drugs could be detected in an athlete’s system as well as be able to detect smaller amounts.

Oscar Pistorius Trial Updates

• Court Hears Of Previous Time When Oscar Pistorius Went Into “Full Combat Mode” When He Thought There Was An Intruder In His House Pistorius even tweeted about the incident back in 2012 when he heard a noise in his house and took out a gun, only to find out it was the washing machine.
• Prosecution Presents Gun Licensing Test Pistorius Passed According to his past test, Pistorius knew you couldn’t shoot an intruder unless your life was in danger.
• Pistorius’ Defense Lawyers Accusing Police Of Mishandling Evidence And Not Following Proper Procedure The police admitted that much of the scene was disturbed before or while being photographed as items (including gun and cricket bat) moved between photos.
• SA Police Face More Embarrassment As It Comes Out That Ballistics Expert Handled Oscar P’s Gun Without Gloves Pistorius’ watch (valued around $5-9 thousand) was apparently stolen during the police investigation.
• Court Sees Graphic Photos Of Pistorius’ Home After Shooting Pistorius vomited for the second time of the trial when photographs of Steenkamp’s face and body were shown accidentally to the court.
• Pistorius’ Bathroom Door Brought Into Courtroom As Evidence The defense and prosecution are arguing whether or not Pistorius’ story is accurate, that he was on his prosthetics when he broke the door down with a cricket bat.

Mo Farah’s Collapse Getting A Ton Of Attention In British Press

• Mo Farah Flies Back To Kenya For Last Pre-London Training Saying He’s Feeling In “Good Shape”
• Steve Cram Says Farah Should “Move On” From Collapse And “Not Worry About It”
• British Media Being Over-Dramatic About Farah’s Collapse: “Mo Farah’s collapse show (sic) he faces uphill battle in London.”
• UK Telegraph: Farah’s Collapse Likely To Have Been Due To Low Blood Pressure
• NY Times: Fall Derails Men’s Duel In Half Marathon; Women’s Record Is Set NY Times coverage of the race.