June 04, 2014 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For June 04, 2014

Sadly, We Don't Think It's April Fools Day In Kenya

“We shall also demand for reports from their respective managers explaining why they have dipped in form. We are not fighting them but trying to help our athletes. … We can’t let rogue managers and agents exploit our athletes by making them run in even when they are tired. …

We are in charge of athletics in this country and we can break any contract the athletes have signed with organisers of any event if we think that it’s not for the benefit of the athletes. Diamond League is not a matter of life and death compared to the health of our athletes.”

– Athletics Kenya head Isaiah Kiplagat banning Kenya’s top athletes from the Rome DL on Thursday for a drop in form. Funny, as Eunice Sum, one of the banned athletes, just set a 1,500 PR at Pre.

Why anyone would schedule the Commonwealth Games Trials this weekend and not during the 19 days from June 14 to July 3rd when there are no DL meets is beyond us.

Men’s Doping Poll Results World Record Doping PollsFemale Stars Doping Poll

LRCWho Do You Think Is "Dirty"? Who Do You Think Is "Clean"? Male Track And Field Stars Doping Poll Results

It’s spring cleaning time at LetsRun.com and we present to you the results of our male stars doping polls – from Chris Derrick (7%) to Taoufik Makhloufi (87.6%) and everyone else in between, who do the most sophisticated track and field fans think are “clean” and who do they think are “dirty”?
*MB:LRC Male Stars “Clean” or “Dirty” Doping Poll Results

More Weekend Action

The Daily Relay’s Monday Morning Run: A Look Back At The 2014 Pre Classic Their performance of the meet was Rupp’s 10k but they also loved Nijel Amos‘ swag and the Kenyan women.
Trinidad & Tobago’s 2008 Olympic Medalist Richard Thompson Ran 9.74 Over The Weekend – With No Wind Reading Unlike Flo-Jo back in the day, he admits it was very windy.
Comrades: Runner Completed 10 “Comrades” In 10 DaysThat’s 54 miles each day. “I felt like Forrest Gump,” he told the Beeld newspaper. *Original Beeld Article (Translated)
Ellie Greenwood Was The First British-Born Woman To Win The Comrades Maratho -, Despite Winning, She Says She Had A “Terrible Race” We hope the Brits realize she’s Canadian. Regardless, Greenwood came from 8 minutes back to beat the Russian twins who had won the previous 10 races.

Post 2014 Pre Classic News

LRC Taoufik Makhloufi Talks About His Famous Premature Celebration We caught up with the Olympic champ after his race in Eugene to talk about his race that went viral.
LRC 6 Quick Takeaways From The 2014 Pre ClassicOh, baby! What an incredible 2.5 hours. The Bowerman Mile was historic, Jenny Simpson PRed for the first time in 5 years, David Rudisha and Mo Aman both lost. So much to talk about. We get started here.
Story On Alexa Efraimson’s Decision To Skip Pre, Run States And Get Rewarded With The Fastest-Ever HS 1,600 Of 4:33.29 Efraimson definitely can go way faster as her splits were 67-71-70-65.
*MB:Efraimson 4:33
Allyson Felix Taking It Slow On Comeback Trail, Relatively Happy With 22.44 3rd-Place Finish At Pre
Sports Scientist: Simon Magakwe Is Just As Fast As Any Sprinter Not Named Bolt (Except For 1st 20m) “Magakwe’s top speed doesn’t rival Bolt’s, but is certainly in the same league as any other sprinter.”
Squire: Five Things We Learned At The Prefontaine Classic
MB: Rupp Interview after 10k – LetsRun asked him about Verne Gambetta and ‘innovation vs. cheating’

Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego

20-Year-Old Solomon Deksisa Runs 60:10 at Suja Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon; 20-Year-Old Ethiopian Birhane Dibaba Upsets Boston Champ Rita Jeptoo In 69:34 60:10 is the fastest on US soil in 2014. Jeptoo ran 69:37.
*MB: Ryan Hall 1:02:5x at San Diego*Alan Webb pacesetter for San Diego rock n roll
Ben Bruce “Wins” Suja Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego Marathon In 2:23:50Alan Webb paced Bruce through 14 miles.
Harriette Thompson, 91, Becomes The Second-Oldest Marathon Finisher In U.S. History (Finishes In 7:07:42)
More Road News: Minneapolis Marathon Cancelled Due To Lightning As a gesture of good will, Grandma’s has re-opened race registration until June 2.

More Pre Classic Coverage

LRC Fast Women: Hellen Obiri (3:57.05), Sofia Assefa (9:11.39) And Mercy Cherono (9:13.27) Run Fastest Times Ever In US For 1,500, Steeple And 2-Mile Those winning times were very impressive but American fans were pumped by Jenny Simpson’s PR and Shannon Rowbury’s AR.
*Former Duck Zoe Buckman Sets 4:04 PR “I feel like a completely different athlete now compared to when I lived as a student in Eugene.”

Outside Stories On 2014 Pre:

Good Read: Steve Prefonaine’s HS XC Teammates Reunite At 2014 Pre Classic
LaShawn Merritt And Kirani James Both Break 44.00 In Photo-Finish Classic!
Justin Gatlin Runs Windy 9.77 “
Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce Finishes Last In 200m The 200 was won in a HUGE upset by 2011 NCAA LJ champ Tori Bowie in lane 1. Bowie just started sprinting seriously this year and it was just her 3rd 200 since 2010.

US Stars Trying To Get Back Into Old Form

MB:Morgan Uceny Runs 2:00.29 and NBB Twilight Meet!
MB:Ryan Hall Runs 1:02:5x at San Diego
MB:Anna Willard runs 4:19 at Boston NB Twilight Meet

2014 Comrades

Bongmusa Mthembu Wins Wild Comrades Marathon In His First Attempt There were three different leaders during the second half of the race, including SA marathon record holder Gert Thys (2:06:33).
Joseph Mphuti Was New Leader At Three-Quarters Point In Comrades
Gert Thys Took The Lead Just After Halfway He was behind at halfway but soon seemed to be on his way to victory.

LRCCatherine Ndereba Has Not Retired, Plans On Still Competing

A story by Xinhua on her retirement was false according to her manager.

#MissionAccomplished By Our LRC Dennis Mitchell Story

Dennis Mitchell Coaching Controversy Gets Picked Up By NY Times “It seems ridiculous that United States track officials would want him anywhere near their delegation, or that any athletes would want Mitchell to coach them, for fear that his doping background might cast a shadow on them. But this is track and field, a sport that has repeatedly failed Public Relations 101, so nothing seems to be too ridiculous to be true.”
*MB Thread
LRC Story That Kicked This Off: USATF Does It Again: Dennis Mitchell, Convicted Doper, Your Head Sprint Coach For World Relays

Upcoming DL Action – Rome Is Thursday (2pm ET) Rome Schedule/EntriesRome TV Streaming/Info

LRCA Fan’s Guide To Rome Golden Gala: Top Stars To Clash In 800s (Amos Vs. Aman; Sum Vs. Martinez) And 1,500 (Souleiman Vs. Kiprop); How Low Can Molly Huddle Go In 5,000? (link fixed) The turnaround from Eugene is short and there will be men’s 800 and 1,500 rematches but also a women’s 5,000 with Genzebe Dibaba and an in-form Molly Huddle,a women’s 800 with Sum and Martinez, plus a men’s steeple.

Unbelievable: Athletics Kenya Bans Kenyan Stars From Rome DL For Drop In Form – Will They Obey? Truly unbelievable. The head of Athletics Kenya apparently doesn’t care about signed contracts or the fact that many of the Kenyan stars like Silas Kiplagat and Eunice Sum just set PRs in Eugene. He wants them back for the Trials being held for the African champs and Commonwealth Games.
*MB:Here we go again, Kiprop banned from Diamond league
*Kiprop To Run In Rome Despite AK Threat “I’m in Rome now and preparing to run on Thursday and I will be back for the final day (Saturday) and will compete if I’m invited,” said Kiprop about the AK ban.
*Rudisha Isn’t At Trials Either – He’s Staying In US Getting Ready For adidas GP

IAAF Preview Of Rome: Unreal HJ With Bondarenko, Ukhov, Barshim And Drouin In addition, the meet also features a great women’s 100H with Bianna Rollins and Sally Pearson clashing with each other and world indoor champ Nia Ali,and a slew of other great events.
Good Read:Meet World Indoor 60H Champ Nia Ali – For Now, The “Greatest Pure Athlete” That USC Coach Has Ever Seen Will Stick To Hurdles, Hepthalon Return Will Come After 2016 Games Coached by fellow hurdler Ryan Wilson, Ali is fully back into track after her father’s murder-suicide in 2009.

Pre Day 2 Photo Gallery Is Here*Prefontaine Day 1 Gallery (Galen Rupp American Record Here)

Future DL Action

Oslo Is Next Wed. (June 11):Ashton Eaton To Make European IAAF Diamond League Debut In 400H
*Allyson Felix To Run ExxonMobil Bislett Games For 1st Time Next Wed.
Lausanne Is July 3rd: Simon Hart: Tyson Gay To Return To Action And Face Justin Gatlin In Lausanne As “Fans Fume”We like the creativity of the meet organizers. We imagine the asking price for Gay is way less than Bolt/Blake. Lausanne is the meet that three years ago actually lost a “restraint of trade” court case for trying to prevent doper Hind Dehiba from competing. *MB: Gay vs. Gatlin, Lausanne, July 3. Just say No.
*More Lausanne: Kirani James Vs. LaShawn Merritt At 400, Yohan Blake In 200, Eunice Sum, Great Men’s Steeple To Highlight

Trey Hardee (8518) And Katarina Johnson-Thompson (6682) Win At Gotzis Multi MeetBrianne Theisen-Eaton set a new Canadian record but finished second.
*British Press Goes Ga Ga: Katarina Johnson-Thompson Is Now A Threat To Jessica Ennis Hill?

Good Read: Meet The NY/NJ Track Club’s Ex-Football Player But Soon-To-Be Sub-4 Miler, Ford Palmer Palmer started his collegiate career at Monmouth as a 185-lb. football player. 30 pounds lighter, he’s now a 3:38 1,500 runner who three times in three months has run between 4:00 and 4:01.

Road Miles

Bring Back The Mile: California’s Gabriel Hilbert (3:55) And Marina Vorderbruegge (4:36) Win 2014 Platinum Performance State Street Mile In Santa Barbara In the unofficial tail-wagging Dog Mile world championship, Geoffrey Gray and dog Hank Mardukes and Brian Duff and dog Kadym finished in a dead heat to share the win (4:32) as Kasey Urman and her dog returned to claim another women’s title in 5:29.
Jeff Riseley And Melissa Duncan Win 2014 Leonora Golden Gift Miles Those of you who think gambling and T&F should go together should love this event in a remote part of Australia where people bet up to $2,000 on a pigeon race. *Results

Friday At Pre

LRC Galen Rupp Runs 26:44.36 To Break His American Record39 years to the day after Steve Prefontaine died, Galen Rupp came within .62 seconds of running Prefontaine’s 5,000m PR back-to-back. After the meet, it was also announced Galen’s wife, Keara, is expecting twins.
*LRCRupp Post-Race Video Interview At the very end, Rupp responds to LRC question about whether gimmicks are “innovation” or “cheating.”
*IAAF:Records Fall To Rupp And Perkovic In Eugene
*Oregonian:Rupp Smashes Own American Record

More Friday Pre News

LRC Women’s 800: Chanelle Price Hangs On; Colorful Maggie Vessey Takes Second; Mary Cain Fizzles In the men’s 800, Job Kinyor beat Elijah Greer and Eric Sowinski.
*Oregonian:Chanelle Price Holds On To Win The Women’s 800 – Mary Cain Is 8th

Former Nike Strength And Conditioning Coach Vern Gambetta Speaks About Drugs In The Sport “Very honestly, everybody in the sport knows the drug coaches. And it’s not those supported by just one shoe company. Everybody knows it, but nobody will speak out because of fear of libel. It’s going to take some balls, that’s for sure. And the federation [USATF] is complicit. …”
*MB:former NOP strength coach speaks on drugs!

2 Recommended Reads And Other Top Distance News

Recommended Read:“They Might Be Ryans”: Article On Group Of Sub-Elites Living, Training And Trying To Make It At Altitude In Flagstaff, AZ The group (which includes LRC’s 1.1) moved to the town that pros like Nick Arciniaga and Ryan Hall call home to chase their running dreams.
RR#2:Runners World Profile On Matt Elliott: “America’s Fastest Kindergarten Teacher” Elliott has came a long way from a guy who ran 4:42 in the mile in HS as he finished 4th at US Champs last year.
Former Prep Star And NCAA Champ Melody Fairchild Racing Freihofer’s 5K Saturday; Now Excelling As A Masters Runner After “Disappearing” From The Sport For A While She says, “Having been a high school prodigy who people said would someday burn out and they’d never see me again, being a master has special significance because I feel very proud to be still running.”
WSJ:“Breaking the Five-Minute ‘Beer Mile’ Brews Controversy” As Critics Say James Nielsen Didn’t Do Can-Over-The-Head Maneuver On First Beer The video has gone viral with more than a million views on YouTube and Nielsen says he’s actually been approached with endorsement offers from apparel and beer companies.
Nick Symmonds Blogs About His Knee Injury Symmonds attributes the injury to racing the tight turns indoors and while he’s still hurt, expects to be back in shape “within a month or two.”

Fixtures From 1964 Tokyo Olympic Stadium Up For Sale Get a royal box seat for just ¥250,000 ($2442). LRC is interested in the manhole covers for just ¥20,200 ($197).

News From The UK

Press Says Seb Coe To Head BBC Trust But He Has TWENTY Jobs Already – Is It Too Much? He reportedly makes a cool $2.5 million a year.
Edinburgh Marathon Does U-Turn – Will Publish Race Results For Everyone To See Initially they said, “All your personal data and information, including your running times, are treated with great respect.”

**NCAA Regional News Of Note *NCAA West Preliminary Round***NCAA East Results

2014 Prefontaine ClassicFull ResultsTV/Stream Info LRC Photo GalleryLRC:Tons Of Post-Race Video Interviews

LRC 6 Quick Takeaways From The 2014 Pre Classic Oh, baby! What an incredible 2.5 hours. The Bowerman Mile was historic, Jenny Simpson PRed for the first time in 5 years, David Rudisha and Mo Aman both lost. So much to talk about. We get started here. *IAAF Recap Part I*IAAF Recap Part II