June 22, 2014 Homepage Archive

MB:Official 2014: USA vs. Portugal World Cup Discussion Thread

BAA 10k (Top 10 Results in article)

Stephen Sambu Takes Down Geoffrey Mutai At BAA 10k And Sets 8k America's Best En Route, Mamitu Daska Wins

Stephen Sambu, the former Arizona star, continued his fine 2014. After pacing Galen Rupp to his American record at 10,000m and running 26:54.61 himself, Sambu took to the roads in Boston and beat Geoffrey Mutai.

Rabbit Stuns Wilson Kipsang In Czech Republic

RR: Pacer Geoffrey Ronoh Stuns Wilson Kipsang, Dennis Kimetto At Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon Ronoh only has one professional race to his name (a 2:15:51 marathon) and is Kipsang’s personal pacer. However, here he shocked Kipsang, beating him by 8 seconds to win in a CR 60:17. Kimetto was way back in 3rd (1:01:42) and Edna Kiplagat dominated the women’s race in 68:52.
*Highlights Video

Mid-D News

Jordan McNamara Feeling Pressure To Perform This Year At USAs After He Didn’t Make The Final Last Year Talking about trying to beat Leo Manzano, McNamara said he knows he can’t let him have a head start going into the last 100m.
David Rudisha Could Be Included In Kenya 4 X 400 For Commonwealth Games

More Distance News: Where Will Rupp Race?

Galen Rupp’s Racing Schedule The Next Two Weeks Depends On Wife’s Pregnancy His wife is due with twins soon and that will determine whether Rupp races at US Champs or the 5,000 at the Paris DL meet on July 5th. Salazar would prefer he do Paris. Matt Centrowitz is skipping US Champs to race the Lausanne DL meet; Mary Cain will race USAs in the 1,500.
Good Read:Article Looks At Distance Couple Hannah England And Her Husband Luke Gunn, Who Will Represent GB Together At Team European Champs England is in the 1,500 and Gunn in the steeple.
Iceland’s 18-Year-Old 2:00.49 Runner Anita Hinriksdottir Running 800, 1,500 And 4 X 400 At Euro Team Champs This Weekend
Aussies Ryan Gregson And Zoe Buckman Lead Fields For City Of London Mile On Sunday Buckman faces Genevieve LaCaze and GB’s Lisa Dobriskey.
2014 US Club XC Champs Will Be In Hosted By Lehigh University In Bethlehem, PA The same location that hosts Paul Short.
Final Figures Show Financial Impact Of 2012 Hurricane Sandy Cancellation On NYC Marathon The NYRR had $18.9 million in losses, but that was mostly cancelled out by a $15 million insurance payout.

US Distance News

Entries For 2014 USATF Track And Field Championships, Which Start Next Wednesday Some big names missing in the distance events.
*Meet Schedule
Kara Goucher Back Training And Targeting A Fall Marathon She got a sacral stress fracture back in March, but has been on the Alter-G for the last 5 weeks and solid ground since June 2nd. She’ll do Chicago or New York.
Ryan Vail Blogs About His First Race Back Since The London Marathon – A 3:43 1,500 At The Portland Track Festival
Columbia’s Head Coach Willy Wood Retires Wood has been the head coach at Columbia for the last 20 years.
*MB:Willy Wood Steps Down
Extensive Interview With Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray Detailed Q&A with McGillivray on many topics, including Meb Keflezhigi being the first US men’s winner since 1983 and running 42 straight Bostons.
Q&A With Mammoth Track Club Coach Andrew Kastor Under Andrew and Deena Kastor the group has moved away from being a mix of track and road to primarily just a half and full marathon group.
Video Interview With Coach Mike Scannell, Coach Of Dream Mile Winner Grant Fisher
*LRC Story On Fisher’s Win

David Rudisha Highlights Fields At July 11-12 Glasgow Grand Prix (British Leg Of 2014 Diamond League) Other big names competing include Mo Farah, Ashton Eaton, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Carmelita Jeter, Sally Pearson, Anna Chicherova, Blanka Vlasic, Dayron Robles and Aries Merritt.

Distance News

Good Read: Marc Bloom Examines Why HS Girls Are So Fast Nowadays A great read – nearly 4,000 words. Cain, Efraimson, Baxter and Cranny aren’t the only good HS girls. In 1993, there was 1 US girl under 4:50 in the 1,600. 10 years later there were 12, 20 years later there are 35. Why? Salazar says big is beautiful: “You want muscle on you. In the long term, being skinny is a negative.”
2014 BAA 10k Is Sunday: RRW: 6 Storylines Led By G. Mutai Vs. Gebremeskel And Sambu A great road race in terms of star appeal.
Ireland’s Mark English, Who Was 2nd In 800 At adidas GP, Defends Decision To Fire Coach Mid-Season He’s looking for the “right fit.” LetsRun.com will coach him for free.
Brenda Martinez Is Now A Star – American Gets IAAF Full Profile
Hannah England Says It’s “Amazing” To Captain Great Britain & NI Team For European Team Champs This Weekend
RRW Abbey D’Agostino Stays With Mark Coogan, Signs With New Balance
*MB: Abbey D’Agostino signs with New Balance
Inspiring Read: Homeless S.F. Marathoner Who Is Getting Ready For San Fran Half Is Also A Budding Artist

First Come The Agents, Then The Shoe Deal

Action We Missed

Dorian Ulrey Ran 3:38 Over The Weekend Former Columbia star Kyle Merber ran 3:40 in the race won by Canada’s Charles Philibert-Thiboutot.
21-Year-Old Thomas Barr Took An Amazing .71 Off Irish 400H Record With 48.90 Over Weekend In Geneva He and 800 man Mark English are the top 2 guys in Irish Athletics right now.

RIP Tony: USATF CEO Max Siegel Was Tony Gwynn's Agent And Friend

Distance Updates

Alexa Efraimson Considering Turning Pro Early As Mary Cain Did After running her 4:07, she said, “I’ll see how I do at the U.S. seniors. I just want to keep my options open.”
Yuki Kawauchi Caps Sixteen Straight Weeks Of Racing With All-Time Top Ten 2:47:27 Japanese 50K National Record See a list of all Kawauchi’s 2014 races with “The Kawauchi Counter.”
Geoffrey Mutai And Dejen Gebremeskal Headline Field For This Sunday’s BAA 10K The deep field also includes Stephen Sambu, while the women are led by defending champ Mamitu Daska plus Buzunesh Deba, Linet Masai, Betsy Saina and Jen Rhines.
IAAF Recap Ethiopian National ChampsIbrahim Jeilan came back from his marathon debut to win the 5K, Aman Wote took the 1,500 (3:38). 800 NR holder Fantu Magiso was 2nd in the 400 (53.35). 9:14 World Champs steeple 5th placer Etenesh Diro suffered a surprise defeat to Tigist Getnet.

Do You Want To Be A Good Coach?

Recommended Read:Very Interesting Interview With World Renowned Track Coach Dan Pfaff On His Coaching Philosophy And “What Drives Successful Performance Under Pressure” This isn’t a technical coaching article, but one that talks about the “coaching” part of coaching which can be applicable to almost any sport.

England's Commonwealth Games Team

Sub-10 UK Sprinters James Dasolu And Chijindu Ujah Left Off English Team For Commonwealth Games Dasaolu hasn’t raced in a while due to injury and Ujah’s sub-10 race came after the selection deadline.
UK’s 21-Year-Old Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Will Be Disappointed With Anything Less Than Gold At Commonwealth Games She expects it to be a battle between her and Brianne Theisen Eaton.

Dick Beardsley’s Record Finally Goes Down At Grandma’s *Results

Kenya’s Dominic Ondoro Breaks Dick Beardsley’s 33-Year-Old Grandma’s Marathon Course Record With 2:09:06 VictoryNick Arciniaga was 9th in 2:14:31. Pasca Myers ran 2:33:45 to win over US’s Brianne Nelson (2:34:44). Julius Koskei won the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in 1:03:36 while Cynthia Limo took the women’s race in 1:09:50. *Results
Duluth News Tribune Article With Quotes From Dick Beardsley Beardsley: “As soon as I heard, I ran over here and I gave him a big hug, shook his hand, congratulated him and told him that he earned that race 100 percent.”
17-Year-Old OT Qualifier Alana Hadley WasOn Pace For Sub-2:40 At 19 Miles But Dropped Out With Hip Flexor Tightness Article talks about how the weather was perfect with high 40s to low 50s and a slight tailwind.
Pasca Myers Takes Husband’s Advice And Runs Her “Own Race” To Win Myers set her own pace and let defending champ Sarah Kiptoo and others go early, but ended up “passing a lot of ladies” later in the race to win.
Julius Koskei Won Garry Bjorklund Half After Previously Dropping Out Of Grandma’s Marathon TwiceFernando Cabada was 3rd in the half.
Pretty Amazing Story:Minnesota Man Tim Bowman Runs Grandma’s Less Than A Year After Having Brain Tumor Removed After his surgery, he had to relearn everything, including walking and talking.
Duluth News Tribune Photo Gallery

Richard Thompson Sets 100 World Lead And Trinidad And Tobago NR At 9.82 At His National ChampionshipsMichelle-Lee Ahye ran a women’s WL of 10.85, setting a huge PR as her previous best was 11.04. The article doesn’t mention wind readings.

Youth News

Good ESPN Article On Alexa Efraimson With A Lot Of Interesting Insight From Her Coach, Who Apparently Goes To Joe Vigil And Alberto Salazar For Advice Her coach, Mike Hickey, talks about the ins-and-outs of coaching an elite high schooler and how he could tell the first time he saw her run that “she was special.”
Youth-Related: USATF Announces Youth Olympic Team

Sprints/Jumps/Throws - No Bolt Or Blake At Commonwealths

Usain Bolt And Yohan Blake Won’t Compete At The Commonwealth Games They are sitting out of the Jamaican Trials, which are next week. Bolt could be eligible for an “exemption” from the Trials, but as of now has not applied for one.
Asafa Powell And Sherone Simpson Confirmed For Jamaican Commonwealth Games Trials
Will Claye Video Blog With Erik Kynard And Justin Gatlin Claye sat down with the other two at 3AM to talk about topics on and off the track.
Shot Putter Ryan Whiting Out Of US Champs As He Recovers From Surgery
HMMR Media: 2014 US Championships Women’s Throws Guide
12-Minute Video Looking At The Daily Training Of Ashton Eaton Narration in French, but interviews with Eaton in English.

European News: Sprinter Tests Positive For EPO

Irish Sprinter Steven Colvert Removed From European Team Champs Team For Testing Positive For EPO Colvert is very adamant that he is innocent and it could be a case where the “A” sample was a false positive as he’s waiting on a “B” test. First, EPO is not the drug of choice for sprinters and Colvert is in a program that freezes his samples for 10 years.
*Colvert Vows To Clear His Name After Positive Test
Sprinter Adam Gemili Says Bad Blood Between Rival UK Sprint Groups Was “Blown Way Out Of Proportion” He said not everyone gets along, but that he didn’t have any personal issues with anyone.
France’s Christophe Lemaitire Pulls Out Of This Weekend’s Team European Champs With Thigh Injury
AW European Team Championships Preview: Abeba Aregawi In The 1,500; Hannah England Might Be Best Of Rest
Sochi 2014 Says It Made A $261 Million Profit From The Olympics

Sprint News

Asafa Powell And Sherone Simpson Are Cleared To Compete By Court Of Arbitration For Sport (For Now) They want their 18-month suspensions reduced and the hearings aren’t until early July so CAS has let them compete now so they can run the Jamaican Trials next week.
Spikes: The Ten Best Hairdos In Track And Field History FloJo’s mullet was pretty incredible for us.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Has Left Jamaica To Seek Treatment, Still Hopes To Run Jamaican Trials
Niall Flannery (48.96 PR In 400H) Planning Podium Assault At Commonwealth Games

Post-2014 NCAA News

Deon Lendore, Ryan Crouser, Courtney Okolo, And Georgia’s Kendell Williams Named As National Athletes Of The Year By USTFCCCA Lendore was undefeated on the year, which enabled him to beat out Cheserek.
World Jr. 100 Record Holder And NCAA Champ Trayvon Bromell Is USATF’s Athlete Of The Week Watch our post-race video interview of him here.
Conway Hill: Dedric Dukes, Not Trayvon Bromell, Was The Sprinter Of The Meet At NCAAs A come-from-behind win in the 4 x 100 and a 19.91 were pretty special.
Andy Powell And Tonja Buford-Bailey Named National Asst. Coaches Of The Year By USTFCCCA Transfers were instrumental in both winning the awards.
Meet Arkansas’ Jessica Kamilos, Who Has Gone From Bucking Hay As A Kid To 7th In The Women’s Steeple The sophomore, who is married, was stunned to score. “When I was a little kid I used to set up jumps in the front yard with two chairs and a stick on top and I used to run and jump over them.”
Running Times Gives Some Love To Marisa Howard And Patrick Tiernan For Their Overlooked Success At NCAAs

Post-adidas News

Elliott Denman: Was The 2014 adidas GP The Greatest Ever Thanks To The Spectacular HJ?

Throwing News

UCLA Redshirt Braheme Days Breaks American Jr. Shot Put Record – 69-5.25 (21.16m)
Incoming UCLA Frosh Stamatia Scarvelis Just Did Throws Double In CA, Won 3 Straight Cali State Shot Titles She’s got a great family in her corner.
TFN Q&A With Ryan Whiting

Dan O’Brien & Dave Johnson Will Compete Against Each Other For 1st Time In 10+ Years At RBC Decathlon This Weekend It’s a Wall St. charity event which includes non-standard events like a football throw, pullups, 40-yard dash, etc.
Update On Diamond League Races Which Are Still Open In Every Event

2014 Ostrava *Results

Dibaba Misses 2,000 WR; Caleb Ndiku Smashes Field And Bernard Lagat In 3,000 Allyson Felix won, Justin Gatlin ran 9.86 into a headwind, LaShawn Merritt kept winning, and Bernard Lagat lost by nearly 7 seconds but became the oldest man ever under 7:40. Dibaba’s last lap was just 66.88, she needed a 64.72 to break Sonia O’Sullivan‘s 5:25.36 world record. *Full Results
*Caleb Ndiku Crushes Field In 3k On His Birthday In Ostrava
*Nick Willis Breaks John Walker’s 31-Year-Old New Zealand Record With 7:36.91
*3,000m Race Video Ignore the analysis part as the last 200 wasn’t close to 23.9.
*Jeff Riseley Breaks 14-Year-Old Australian 1k Mark With 2:16.09
*MB:Willis & Lagat Go 3-4 in Ostrava

Canadian News

Is Dylan Wykes Finally Healthy? The 2:10:47 performer isn’t quite sure himself: “I think things are coming along well, but it’s hard to know these days. I’ve had two years of off-and-on injuries so I’m finding it difficult to get a clear sense of my exact fitness now.”
Catching Up With Leah Pells – 1996 Olympic 1,500 4th Placer From Canada The 49-year-old still runs every day but has no desire to race.

Portland Track Festival *Results

LRCThe King (Mo Farah) Returns, Andrew Wheating Wins And Says He's Back, Jordan Hasay Wins Twice, And Andy Bayer The Steepler

Mo Farah returned to the track and showed great finishing speed. Andrew Wheating returned as well with a win and said he's "back" and Jordan Hasay got double wins with impressive last laps. Plus the steeple debut of Andy Bayer, wins by Bridget Franek, Cas Loxsom and Kate Grace in a tshirt.

Teddy Tamgho Doping Ban / Euro Team Champs (Live Stream @ 6:20AM ET)

France’s World TJ Champ Teddy Tamgho Gets One-Year Ban For Missing Three Drug Tests Tamgho is the WR holder indoors and 3rd all-time outdoors, but has had a career plagued by “disciplinary and injury problems.”
IAAF Recap: Germany Hold Narrow Lead After Day One Of The European Team Championships*Live Stream Here Starting At 6:20AM ET
Men’s 4 X 100 Team Are GB’s Only Winners At Day 1 Of Euro Team Championships Olympic champ Greg Rutherford was beaten in the LJ by Germany’s Christian Reif.

Grandma's Marathon Pre-Race News

2:11 Man Nick Arciniaga Wants To Contend For The Win At Grandma’s Marathon He’ll face 2:08 Kenyans Dominic Ondoro and Abraham Chelanga.
17-Year-Old Alana Hadley Is Racing Her 3rd Marathon At Grandma’s After Becoming Youngest To Qualify For OT Since 1984 She says getting her 2:41:56 qualifying time last year “was one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt before.”
Profile On Retired Grandma’s Marathon Director Scott Keenan, Who Co-Founded And Directed The Race From 1977 Until Last Year Keenan says he’ll enjoy sleeping in on race morning instead of setting 5 alarms to make sure he’s up by 3AM.

Lance Armstrong Loses Bid To Have US Government Lawsuit Thrown Out

Study Tries To Determine Where To Focus Your Attention While Running They concluded that you’re better off thinking about “how you’re feeling” rather than trying to focus on your breathing or form.