2014 LetsRun.com Top 10 NCAA XC Countdown

LRC 2014 Men’s XC Preview: #4 Oregon & #3 Northern Arizona Oregon has the best runner in the NCAA in sophomore Edward Cheserek, who should be joined by 13:18 man Eric Jenkins to form a formidable 1-2 punch. NAU was 2k away from a national title last year and will try to move up a spot from second with Futsum Zienasellassie and Louisville transfer Tyler Byrne.
Previous: #6 Portland & #5 Oklahoma State
*#8 Wisconsin & #7 Indiana
*#10 Villanova & #9 Iona

Bolt And Ritz Highlight Saturday Action

• Dathan Ritzenhein Makes Return To Racing Tomorrow At Crim Festival 10 Miler In Michnigan Ritz hasn’t raced at all in 2013 after he got a sports hernia in the fall. He said he’s not at 100%, but has been working out hard for a month and wants to see where he’s at.
• Another WR For Bolt? Bolt Could Break World Indoor 100m Record When He Races At The National Stadium In Poland Which Has A Retractable Roof The unofficial record for 100m indoors is 10.05 set by Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks in 1996.
• Sunday: Provisional Entry Lists For August 24th Brimingham DL Meet

Sprint Stuff: Gatlin Calls Himself “Batman”

• Justin Gatlin Still Feeling Backlash From Doping Past As Three Of The Final 4 Diamond League Meets Wouldn’t Invite Him Zurich meet director Patrick Magyar said, “There’s no personal animosity. The decision of the general assembly stands as this: We don’t want to give our money to athletes that have brought the sport disrepute.” Gatlin on the other hand said, “I look at myself as the ‘Batman’ of track – a vigilante. You may not like me, but I’m needed.”
• Happy Birthday, Usain Bolt! 10 Career Stats To Know About The World’s Fastest Man Bolt turned 28 on Thursday.
• Oregon’s NCAA/USA 110H Champ Devon Allen Heading Into Football Season With High Expectations Football season is starting, but he’s still talking about doing big things in track as he wants to become the first collegian to break 13 seconds.
• GB’s Young Sprinter Jodie Williams Talks About Coming Back From Injury Disappointments To Get Double Silver At Commonwealth Games And Euro Champs She’ll finish her season this weekend at the Birmingham DL meet before she goes on to enjoy 2 weeks of binge eating.

• Study Looks At How EPO Works In this study, they found that just taking EPO alone (no training) increased VO2max by 15%. Those that trained and took EPO increased by 27%.
• A Look At 2013 Drug Testing Stats By WADA For All Sports In Chart Form According to this, overall tests for track are down from 2012.

Doping News: Turkey Paying For Last Year’s Drug Busts

• Positive News: Cleaned-Up Turkish Team Fails To Score At Euro Champs After the slew of bans last year they are missing a lot of their “top” athletes and also had many others quit competing for “personal reasons.” The team is worse, but apparently cleaner.
• IAAF Anti-Doping Official Abby Hoffman Says That New Innovations In Retroactive Testing Technology Should Deter Athletes From Cheating Unfortunately, you can dope now, gain fame and money and even if your frozen sample tests positive in 10 years, in most cases you still keep all that money.
• 6 Years Later, Canada’s Dylan Armstrong Will Receive His SP Bronze Medal From 2008 Olympics Comes in wake of lifetime ban of Belarus’ Andrei Mikhnevich.

Sprint/Jump News

• Important Doping News Sprint Times Are Likely To Get A Lot Slower In Coming Years As The Biological Passport Now Works For Testosterone
• Lolo Jones Ends Track And Field Season Early As She’s Tired After Winter Olympics

Next Week’s Big Meets

• 1st DL Final In Zurich Next Thursday Will Feature An Insane Men’s 800 David Rudisha, Mohammed Aman, Nijel Amos and Asbel Kiprop.
• Dasaolu Vs. Gemili Vs. Bolt In Weltklasse Zurich 100m
• All Of Germany’s European Medalists Will Compete At IAAF World Challenge Meeting In Berlin On 31 August

• Mo Farah Says He’s Skipping DL final, Won’t Run A Marathon Until After Rio 2016
• Congrats: Alysia Montano Has Given Birth To 7-Lb. 15-Oz. Baby Girl
• US High Schooler Stephanie Jenks Wins Silver In World Youth Olympic Games Triathlon
• USATF Chula Vista Head Coach Craig Poole Resigns
• Jenny Meadows Runs 2:01.48 In UK
• After Missing 8 Months With Knee Injury, Patrick Makau Is Healthy And Will Do Half Marathon In Sept. Then Tokyo Marathon In Feb.