September 23, 2014 Homepage Archive

NCAA / HS XC News

Eritrean World Junior Team Member Weini Kelati Now Running For High School Team In Virginia Kelati represented Eritrea this summer, placing 8th in the 3,000 at WJs, but has now moved to the US to live with her cousin, a former Foot Locker finalist. She ran and won her first high school XC race this past weekend.
Arkansas’ Dominique Scott And UMass Lowell’s Robert Allen Are DI XC Athletes Of The Week Scott won the Missouri Southern Stampede by 26 seconds while Allen won Iona’s Brother Doyle Meet of Champions at VCP in 25:32, beating a field that included NCAA steeple runner-up Stanley Kebenei.
Regional Rankings In Division I XC Hold Steady Ahead Of A Big Weekend Of Races
Weekend NCAA XC Recap: How Did The Top Ranked Teams Do? One of the highlights was Michigan men/women sweeping the Big 10 Preview meet.
Arkansas Men Win Iona Meet Of Champions UMass Lowell’s Robert Allen was the individual winner. *Results
Brown Women Win Iona Meet Of Champions Albany’s Silvia Del Fava was the individual winner. *Results
MB:The Great Oak High School Juggernaut *DyeStat article

Trail Racing

1:03 Half Marathoner Brett Hales And Former Olympic Cross-Country Skier Liz Stephen Win XTERRA Trail Run Nationals
Megan Roche And Tim Tollefson Win USA 50K Trail Championships In CR Times Roche won over Olympian Magdalena Lewey-Boulet while Tollefson beat Ryan Bak.

Yohan Blake Buys House From Jamaican Government For Almost Half A Million Dollars

Boulder Marathon Race Director Being Accused Of Fraud Runners say he failed to secure permits for the event, but used last year’s floods as an excuse to cancel the race which was supposed to be in two weeks.

More Pro Distance News

Jenny Simpson Talks To The Denver Post About Her Epic Season “The significance of [winning the Diamond League] surpasses, for me, anything that I’ve ever accomplished in a single race.”
Dathan Ritzenhein Spending A Few Weeks At The Olympic Training Center In Colorado Springs For Treatment Of His Injured Ankle
UK Independent: “Paula Radcliffe is back on the start line today – but it’s not a ‘comeback.'” “I’m not expecting much; this isn’t a big comeback because I can only do what my foot will allow me to do.”
Aaron Braun (29:00) And Brianne Nelson (33:05) Win Cow Harbor 10K Titles *Full Results
British 1992 Olympic 800 Finalist Curtis Robb Wins 800 In 2:06 At 42 Years Old The race was in memory of former UK 800 champ Mark Sesay, who died last year at 40 years old.
Eric Gillis (29:52) And Rachel Hannah (33:07) Win Canadian 10K Championships

Other Distance Stuff

Ireland’s Ciara Mageean Looking To Continue Her Comeback This Fall By Medaling At Euro XC Champs After being out 2 years with injury, Mageean was 3rd last week at the Fifth Avenue Mile.
Amanda Mergaert And Megan Malasarte Join Brooks Beasts Track Club Malasarte ran for the University of Georgia and was 4th in the 800 at NCAAs this year. Mergaert was 3rd in the NCAA 1,500 in 2013.
Research Finds Correlation Between Successful Companies And CEOs That Run Marathons Researchers found companies with CEOs who run marathons have a 5% greater value.

Intersex – A Big Issue Facing Women’s Sports – Guest Column

LRC A Brief History Of Intersex Athletes In Sport Caster Semenya was a big story in 2011. Dutee Chand is a big story this year, and maybe Margaret Wambui? Some people are under the misconception that these are isolated incidents. They are not. A guest column on the intersex issue facing women’s sports, by a former 2:23 men’s marathoner who is now a multi-time national champ as a woman.

More Distance News

The Mile Race Distance Gets Some Love From The WSJ For recreational runners, studies show they can get the same health benefits in a lot less time than marathon training.
Where Will The Top XC Teams In DI Be Competing This Weekend? For the men, #12 Iona vs. #13 Arkansas at Meet Of Champions.
New Research Shows Running Can Help Curb Junk Food Binges Running increases brain function associated with self control.

US Marathoning News

Say It Ain’t SoMB:Ritz injured again – pulls out of Philly half
*More Philly News: Dejen Gebremeskel Says He’s Ready For Half Marathon Debut In Philly Gebremeskel, the Olympic 5,000 silver medalist, only ran one 5,000 on the track all summer. He’ll face 2012 Olympic 10,000 5th placer Bedan Karoki and many others.
Shalane Flanagan Talks About Her American Record Attempt In Berlin Next Week We believe that since Flanagan will be paced by Rob Watson and Ryan Vail, so if she sets the record it will only be an American “best” – not record – unless the IAAF changes its rules, which makes no sense since Deena Kastor had a male pacer herself.
*MB:Flanagan’s record(?) attempt
*LRC Archives from April 24, 2006: Kastor Sets AR
2015 USATF Marathon Championships Awarded To LA – Will Take Place As Part Of LA Marathon On March 15th
Good Read: Toni Reavis Remembers The Great John Kelley, Who Won Boston In 1957
*$87,000 Statue Of 1957 Boston Marathon Winner John Kelley To Be Dedicated On Sunday In Mystic, CT Details of ceremony here.

News From Canada:Canadian Record Holder Lanni Marchant Will Return To Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon On October 19th

And The Netherlands: Olympic Marathon Champion Tiki Gelana Will Headline This Weekend’s Dam tot Damloop 10 Miler In Netherlands She’ll face Linet Masai. On the men’s side, a lot of people are running, including defending champ and African 10,000m champ Nguse Amlosom and world junior 10,000 champ Joshua Cheptegei.

News From Asia

India’s Version Of Caster Semenya – Dutee Chand – Refuses To Get Hormone Treatment, Resumes Training You can pretty much kiss women’s sports goodbye if she’s allowed to compete.
Thousands Of Athletes Are Flooding Into Incheon, South Korea For 2014 Asian Games, Which Open Friday
Next Asian Games Will Be In 2018 In Jakarta The 2014 Asian Games start Friday. The next games were initially awarded to Hanoi for 2019 but Hanoi backed out.
Osaka International Women’s Marathon Establishes New “Next Heroine” Program The development program is focused on young corporate runners and studly collegians.

Pro Distance News

Recommended Read: Boulder Track Club’s Laura Thweatt “Is The Best Runner You Only Sort Of Know” Learn about the runner who went from never making NCAAs in college to running 15:04 and becoming one of the best 5K women in the US.
Great Interview With The US’s First And Only Olympic 10,000 Gold Medalist Billy Mills Read about the life/career of Mills, who talks about the shock of winning Olympic gold in 1964, setting the 6 mile WR, racing against Gerry Lindgren, his friendship with Mohammed Gammoudi and more.
Haile Gebrselassie Will Run The Bupa Great South Run 10 Miler On October 26th Not to be confused with the Great Scottish Run, the Great North Run or the Great East and West runs either.

Sprint Stuff

IPC Claim There Was No “Ulterior Motive” In Excluding Oscar Pistorius In List Of “Top 25 Moments In History Of The International Paralympic Committee” They may not have altered the voting, but there’s no way he wouldn’t be on that list if he hadn’t killed his girlfriend.
IAAF Work Rest And Play Interview With Jamaica’s 400m Diamond League Champ And Breast Cancer Survivor Novlene Williams-Mills She likes to watch NCIS and apparently is very into playing the Nintendo Wii.

Philly RnR Half Results5K Results

RRW Deena Kastor Sets Masters World Record Of 69:36, Aberu Kebede Wins In 68:39 Kara Goucher also returned to racing.

RRW Beddan Karoki Wins Rock ‘N’ Roll Philly In 59:21 – Fastest Time In US This Year The race was also the 13.1 debut for Dejen Gebremeskel.

5k: Bernard Lagat Comes Up Short In 5k American Record Attempt – Lawi Lalang Runs 13:29, Lagat 13:31 In Phiily

Wallace Spearmon Gets 3-Month Doping Ban For Testing Positive For A Steroid Spearmon’s ban was only 3 months because USADA accepted his explanation that he was taking it in a therapeutic dose under the care of a doctor, but he never got a TUE.
*USADA Statement
*MB Discussion

South African News

LJ van Zyl Says It’d Be “Great” To Have Oscar Pistorius Back On The Track And That South Africa “Needs Him In The 4 X 4 Relay”
South Afircan Court Tells Athletics South Africa To Pay Nearly A Million Dollars To Pole Vaulter Who Was Injured At A Meet ASA claims that Jan Blignaut won his case by default since they were unable to defend themselves properly with the “disorganization” of the past few years. They will now try to seek advice from the IAAF.

HSers Are So Fast Now – Sub-9 Guys Are Going DIII

LRC Q&A With Jack And Tim McGowan – The Sub-9 Twins Who Have Gone The DIII Route To Roger Williams University Someone stop the insanity. HS running is now so fast that sub-9 guys are going the DIII route. Meet identical twins Jack and Tim McGowan. *Discuss on theMB: Two sub-9 HSers go to the same college….. And it’s DIII…..

*NBC Nightly Did Feature On Their 4:07 Teammate With Autism, Mike Brannigan Together the three went sub-9 for two miles in the same race.

Pro T&F

Ato Boldon’s 2014 End Of Track Season Awards: Justin Gatlin And Valerie Adams Are Athletes Of The Year His top event of the year on the men’s side was the HJ and for the women it was the steeplechase as he highlighted the close battles between Emma Coburn and the Ethiopians.
BBC Asks “Is Sport Sexist?” – Why Can’t Women Do The Decathlon? They also look at the lighter implements in throws, shorter hurdles and some other sports including cycling and swimming.
IAAF Preview Decastar Meeting In Talence, France This Weekend This is the last meet for points in the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.

News From Africa

Calen Ndiku Says Mo Farah Won’t Be Able To Avoid Him Forever – “The forest has a new king now.”
*MB: Caleb Ndiku: “I always remember that winning is not everything, but wanting to win is what matters.”
World Half Marathon Champ Geoffrey Kipsang Is Focused On Winning Berlin, Not WR “My aim will be simply to win the Berlin marathon; the rest will follow.”
Recovered From Childbirth, 3-Time World Champ Vivian Cheruiyot Targets November Return To XC Cheruiyot will first compete in XC and then is planning on focusing on the 5,000, where she is a 2-time world champ (2009, 2011). Her baby boy, Allan, turns one next month.
Article Says 1992 Olympic Steeple Champ Matthew Birir Is Racing Again This Weekend If true, the 42-year-old, who hasn’t raced since 2006, will race Geoffrey Mutai and Wesley Korir at 13.1.
Wilson Kipketer And Olympic Champs Hicham El G, Brahim Boutayeb And Khalid Skah Get Hero’s Welcome In Small Moroccan Village They went there for an IAAF Athletics for a Better World event.
*On 40th Birthday, El Guerrouj Shows Up Late To Event, But Wows Crowd With Midas Touch In Inspiring Future Generation He stopped to get tea in another village and got lost on his way to the event.

USA 5K Championships Top 20 US ResultsTop Overall Results

RRW:Molly Huddle Earns Fourth USA 5-K Title In 15:10; Diego Estrada Wins Emotional First National Title (13:56) Huddle won by 15 seconds over Jordan Hasay in second; Mary Cain was back in 6th (15:53). Estrada won in a kick over German Fernandez (13:57.0) and Maverick Darling (13:57.5). Matt Centrowitz was 7th in 14:03.2.

More Weekend Road Action: The Return Of Paula

Paula Radcliffe Returns To The Roads For The First Time In More Than 2 Years With 35:49 Third-Place Finish At Worcester City 10K Radcliffe said she went out too fast and would have liked to gone under 35 minutes, but that her foot is fine, which is the main thing. The race was won by 19-year-old Jenny Nesbitt in 34:22. *Athletics Weekly Article
Kenya’s Linet Masai And John Mwangangi Win Dam tot Damloop 10-Mile In The Netherlands Masai ran 53:09 to win comfortably over Olympic marathon champ Tiki Gelana (53:57) while Mwangangi outkicked Eritrea’s Nguse Amlosom 45:45 to 45:47.
Ethiopians Gebo Burka (2:11:18) And Biruktayit Eshetu (2:29:42) Get The Wins At The Sydney Marathon
Kenyans John Kyalo Kyui (2:14:50) And Purity Kimetto (2:38:53) Win Siberian Marathon In Cold Conditions The #4 fastest 10Ker ever, Nicholas Kemboi, was outside the reported top 5 (slower than 2:30), so likely a DNF.
Track: Germany’s Carolin Schafer And Estonia’s Mikk Pahapill Win Decastar IAAF Combined Events Challenge Meet In Talence, France
Kenya’a Willy Kibor (2:10:45) And Ethiopia’s Meserest Biru (2:31:00) Win Cape Town Marathon
Peter Kurui (64:33) And Nancy Kimaiyo (75:58) Win Chemususu Half Marathon In Kenya

The Top Africans Are Getting Ready For Fall Marathon Season

Eliud Kipchoge Says He’s Going To Chicago To Run His Own Race, Not Compete Against Kenenisa Bekele More interesting than that, the writer, Justin Lagat, shares a story he heard about a giant “man-like creature” that was eating dogs.
Stephen Kiprotich On The NYC Marathon: “New York will be war for me.”
Rita Jeptoo Is Focused On Winning Chicago Rather Than On Winning The World Marathon Majors And The $500,000 Jackpot She only needs to finish in the top 3 in Chicago to win the overall WMM title.

Weekend XC Results

Grant Fisher Starts Of His XC Season With A Dominating Win With 15:22 Fisher has decided to give up playing soccer to focus solely on running. Go here to read our piece on him from this summer.
DyeStat High School Weekend XC Recap *MileSplit
Mason Ferlic And Michigan Men Win Big 10 Preview
Erin Finn And Michigan Women Win Big 10 Preview
Texas A&M Men Win Home XC Invite; Women Take Top 3 Spots But Finish 3rd As Lamar University Wins

The Best Men’s 1-Day 100/200 Doubles Justin Gatlin has the best with 9.77 and 19.71, but Ato Boldon has 5 of the top 10.

Sport And Politics

US Marathon News: Shalane Completely Focused On 2:19:36

Shalane Flanagan Says She’s 100% Focused On The American Record At Berlin And Is Not Worried About Trying To Win Flanagan’s training has been going well and has has included long runs from 24 to 28 miles. She said, “I will say that I am the fittest I have been in the marathon. Everything has surpassed our expectations …”
Kara Goucher Blogs About Her First Marathon (NYC 2008) And Shares Some Tips For Beginners
Ryan And Sara Hall Talk To Outside Magazine About Their Obsession With Food The two are very into cooking and trying interesting ethnic foods and talk about how food was big for them when they were dating in college too.
Q&A With Meb Keflezighi On “Aging Gracefully” The phrase almost doesn’t apply to Meb as he’s still setting PRs as he nears 40 years old.

Be An Expert / Let Your Voice Be Heard – National Top 10 And Conference Voting

LRCIt’s Time To Vote: NCAA XC Fans Super Polls Are Back The pro track season is over and that means it’s time to turn your attention to NCAA XC. Our LRC Fans Super Polls are back where you tell us the top 10 teams in the country and the top teams in each conference.

More NCAA News

New Penn State AD Promotes Jon Gondak, He Moves From Interim To Permanent Director Of Penn State XC/Track And Field Gondak had been a long-time assistant to Beth Alford-Sullivan. Amazingly, the press release talks about his coaching the NACAC team this summer as a key qualification. *Discuss in our NCAA Coaching Thread.
Ole Miss’s Sam Kendricks Goes Pro, Won’t Vault For Ole Miss As A Senior The two-time NCAA champ won NCAAs and USAs this year. Not sure why he didn’t go pro after USAs.

Week That Was

LRC New York Vs. Chicago, Your Worst Race Ever, Eugene 2018, $$$, PEDs In The Military, And Talent Does Not Go Away The Continental Cup brought to an end the 2014 track season and that means we turn our attention to marathoning – Chicago and New York. Plus a defense of Katie Mackey and Andrew Bumbalough, a look at $$$ – prize money & appearance fees – Kevin Durant vs. the IAAF and USATF, and Eugene ~~2019~~ 2018?