Weekend Road / XC Action

• Patrick Makau Is Back – Wins Fukuoka In 2:08:22 It wasn’t easy but the former world record holder got the win after Mongolia’s Bat-Ochir made him earn it. Bat-Ochir was third in 2:08:50, a Mongolian record. *IAAF *MB Thread
• Kenya’s Jacob Chemtai (2:11:56) And Belarus’ Volha Mazuronak (2:27:33) Win CIM *Results
• Both Marathon WR Holders Run Montferland Run 15K As Eritrea’s Miskel Tewelde (43:27) And Ethiopia’s Askale Merachi (50:44) Get The Wins Kimetto had a very low-key comeback in his first race since Berlin, finishing 13th (47:00). Radcliffe was 5th in the women’s race in 52:48 (5:39 pace).
• Kenya’s 41-Year-Old Former Barber Kenneth Mungara (2:16:42) And Waganesh Amare (2:46:54) Win Singapore Marathon In Extremely Hot And Humid Conditions By the 5AM start, the temperature was already 82º F (28º C ). Solomon Keter won the men’s 10K in 29:47 as Haile Gebrselassie was 3rd in 30:00.
• IAAF Weekend XC Roundup: World XC Champ Emily Chebet Only 5th In Kenyan XC Race Won By World Junior 1,500 Bronze Medalist Sheila Chepngetich Chepngetich also beat World Junior XC champ Faith Kipyegon as Philip Langat won the men’s race. In a separate AK/KCB Cross Country Series race in Kenya, Titus Mbishei and former WJ XC champ Viola Kibiwot got the wins.
• Eritrea’s World half silver medalist Samuel Tsegay and Spain’s Alessandra Aguilar win the Cross de la Constitucion in Spain (link above).
• Janet Cherobon Bawcom (1:13:30) And Augustus Maiyo (1:04:35) Win Rock ‘N’ Roll San Antonio HalfMarathon

More Post-USATF Annual Meeting News

• Lauren Fleshman Blogs About Her Experience At The USATF Annual Meeting Fleshman is outspoken as ever as she discusses her frustration that athletes have no voice in the way USATF is run. And even when they do, that voice is ignored.
• Andrew Bumbalough’s Reinstatement Gets Press In WSJ
• RunBlogRun’s Elliott Denman Analyzes USATF Annual Meeting, Part 1 As far as finances go, there is a lot to be happy about as USATF almost doubled its annual revenue in 2014 (going from $19 million to $35 million).
• USATF activist Becca Gillespy Peter (Of PoleVaultPower.com) Shares How Much It Costs To Have A Voice At USATF With registration and travel, she had to spend over $1,000 to attend, so was especially angry when the USATF board ignored her vote (and the vote of 389 others).

• Q&A With Alan Webb About His Transition To The Triathlon Webb finds it funny to compare how carefully he used to tie his shoes before races to how fast he tries to do it now during triathlon “transitions.”
• David Rudisha Puts His Support Behind Seb Coe For IAAF President
• Scotland Athletics Federation Wants To Send Their Own Separate (From The UK) Teams To Some Events Like Euro XC Champs If they’ll actually send a team to World XC Champs (unlike the UK), then we say let them.
• Race Videos And Interviews From 2014 Canadian Cross-Country Championships

Russian Doping Updates

• Russian Athletics Federation Considering Legal Action Over German Doping Documentary Whenever someone accuses you of something: Step 1 – Deny. Step 2 – Threaten to sue.
• Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) Launches Investigation Into German TV Documentary Claims
• Former WADA President Dick Pound Blasts IAAF “If the allegations are proved with sufficient certainly, the IAAF, WADA and IOC could say the Russians are non-compliant and that they’re suspended from all competitions until they clean up. What I don’t know is if there are sufficient balls within these organisations to make that happen.”
• UK’s Dai Greene Not Surprised About Russian Doping Allegations He says many athletes already suspected the Russians since they often don’t race at all on the circuit and then just turn up at major championships.
• UK Anti-Doping Chief Andy Parkinson Says “Clean Athletes Shouldn’t Lose Heart”

16-Year-Old Aussie Jack Hale Runs 10.13 To Win Australian Under-18 100m Title *Video *MB Thread

2014 USATF Annual Meeting Concludes In Anaheim

• 9 Months Later: Andrew Bumbalough Reinstated To US Indoor Results; New Rule Adopted To Allow Changes 72 Hours After A Race Yes, children have been conceived and born in the time it took them, but USATF finally gave Bumbalough back his 8th place 3K finish.
  *MB: Andrew Bumbalough DQ Reversed! Finally!
• USATF Board Of Directors Vote To Replace Bob Hersh On IAAF Council With Stephanie Hightower They chose to reject the 85% of USATF membership who voted Hersh for the position.
  *Lauren Fleshman And David Torrence React Angrily On Twitter
  *MB: USATF Board overturns 392-70 vote, will instead nominate Stephanie Hightower for IAAF Council
• Dwight Phillips To Chair USATF Athletes Advisory Committee Phillips will replace Jon Drummond.
• List Of USATF 2014 End Of Year Awards
• Robert Giegengack Award Presented To The Late Kim Haines Haines was a former USATF board member and won the award that is “USATF’s highest honor for contributions to Athletics through volunteerism.”

Week That Was

LRCWeek That Was: The Olympic Mascot Is Here, The Eugene R-G Looks Into Worlds 2019, The Foot Locker Final Fields, Some Guy Runs 1:45 In December, Andrew Wheating Runs 13:59

• WADA To Investigate Doping Allegations WADA says they already have some evidence and sent it to the IAAF and are waiting for them to act.
• IOC Spokesman: “These are serious allegations. I understand an investigation is already under way by the IAAF ethics commission and we await the full findings.”

Seb Coe’s Election Manifesto

• Four Pillars To Seb Coe’s Manifesto: Transform Calendar, Commercial Growth / Youth Engagement, Anti-Doping Improvement And Greater Voice For Athletes Coe says the athletics calendar is “disjointed, lacks a narrative,” talks about attracting more young people with “street athletics” and setting up an IAAF “ethics” department. *BBC Article
• Coe Thinks The IAAF Needs To Improve The “Presentation” Of Track And Field “While there is no need for panic, the status quo is simply not an option.”
• Coe: Sport Needs Greater “Financial Transparency” When It Comes To Appearance Fees And Prize Money
• Coe Wants To Make It More Difficult For Athletes To Transfer Allegiances From One Country To Another He wants to end transfer of allegiance for financial exchange.
• Coe Backs Qatar As Choice For 2019 Worlds, Says Money Didn’t “Sway” The Vote He also says that the situation with migrant workers in Qatar is something the IAAF will “monitor very closely.”

• USATF Reports It Almost Doubled Its Annual Revenue In 20014 CEO Max Siegel announced an increase from $19 million in 2013 to an $35 million this year. Largely thanks to new marketing partnerships the renewal deal with Nike.
• Prize Money Announced For 2015 USATF Marathon Championship In Los Angeles $150,000 total prize purse.

News From The US

• Oxy HOKA ONE ONE 2015: USATF Announces HOKA ONE ONE As Title Sponsor Of Middle Distance Classic Prize money for the Oxy meet, now known as the HOKA ONE ONE Middle Distance Classic, will double and it will be on free on USATF.tv.
• Jenny Simpson To Return To Boston’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix On February 7 Simpson first competed at the event as a HSer in 2005.
• Q&A With Stanford Frosh Anna Laman, Who Ran 4:13 At Age 15 The Aussie frosh was 76th at PAC-12s but is pleased to have gotten a base for the first time in years.
• Toni Reavis Fondly Recalls A Trip To Borneo In 1991 For The Richest Road Race In The World – The Borobudur Run 10Km The race had a $1 million bonus.
• Run – Don’t Walk Study: Running May Reverse Aging In Certain Ways While Walking Does Not Researchers in Boulder have found that “70-year-old runners had about the same walking efficiency as your typical sedentary college student.”