Airing The Sport’s Dirty Laundry

• LRCIAAF Spokesman Nick Davies Writes LetsRun.com About Reports IAAF Did Not Follow Up For Retesting 150 Suspicious Samples From 2006-2008 Davies says the blood test info is “taken completely out of context” and “will do nothing to combat the scourge of doping in athletics.”
• The Telegraph Claims They Have Seen “Documents Which Show Hundreds Of Cases Of Abnormal Readings, Suggesting Cover-Up By IAAF” A sensationalist headline as they admit, and the IAAF has stated, that “reasons for abnormal blood values are many and are often perfectly innocent.”
  *MB:225 Athletes from 39 Countries Implicated in Doping
• The Head Of The Russian Athletics Federation Valentin Balakhnichev Has Stepped Down From His Role As IAAF Treasurer While Investigation Is Conducted He stepped down voluntarily and says he plans to return to his position after the investigation is over.
• The Guardian Claims To Have Seen Leaked Emails Implicating Lamine Diack’s Son In 2017 Worlds Bribe With Doha Article includes quotes from alleged emails.
• Related To IAAF Accusations?WADA To Conduct Its Own Investigation Into Russian Doping Allegations Originally they had left it to the IAAF, but now after “careful review” they will conduct their own probe.
• AP Column: Russia Is Athletics’ Lance Armstrong Case
• Speaking Of Lance: Lance Armstrong On Decision To Dope: “Once we realised … that we had brought knives to a gun fight, we all went out and got guns. Virtually everybody in the business made that decision.” Armstrong compared himself to Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods, but said they were given a chance to redeem themselves and he wasn’t.
• EightLane.org:From Russia With Love: Why 2014 Could Be The Beginning Of The End For Athletics Blogger warns, “2014 will be remembered as the year of Armageddon for the credibility of global track and field.”
• DailyMail: “Calls To Name British Athlete On Doping List Intensify … And Suspicious Blood Samples May Be Re-Tested”
• The Telegraph: Athletics In The Fight Of Its Life UK journalist calls this a “new low even in this sport.”
• Chairman IAAF Medical And Anti-Doping Commision Dr Juan Manuel Alonso Defends IAAF On Twitter “Blood samples taken before 2009 were thoroughly examined.”

• WSJ Does Feature On Ahletes Who Thrive With Soda In Their Diets, Including Aaron Rodgers And Frank Shorter LRC is the leader of the anti-Gatorade tax movement.
  *MB:Many top pro athletes drink soda. Coke fueled Frank Shorter to gold in 1972
• The 2014 Bowerman Trophy To Be Awarded To Next Week You’ll be able to watch live on December 17th. The six finalists include Laura Roesler, Edward Cheserek and Lawi Lalang.
• Hey Brits, You Can Win An Art Print Of Steve Prefontaine From Athletics Weekly

SA News: Oscar P Isn’t Off The Hook Yet

• South African Judge Approves Appeal Of Oscar Pistorius Verdict The original verdict of culpable homicide/5 years will be reviewed by the SA Supreme Court. As of now, there is no timeline for how long an appeal could take.
• South Africa’s Commonwealth Games TJ Champ Khotso Mokoena Blasts Idea Of Dropping TJ From Olympics The Olympic medalist in the LJ said, “It’s a bad call. There’s a lot of events that are not of a high level – I don’t want to say which ones – but track and field is the main event of the Olympics.”
  *MB: Dick Pound suggests Triple Jump get axed from the Olympics – Seb Coe says no way (also defends race-walk)

News From The USA

• Recommended Read Great Article On Dave Wottle’s College Days At Bowling Green By The Best Man At Wottle’s Wedding The author thinks Wottle, the 1972 Olympic 800 champ, might really have been a miler and recalls him doing 3 x 2 miles (5 min. rest) in 9:35, 8:55 (est.), 8:29.
• 2014 USATF Club XC Championships Are Saturday At Lehigh And Record 1,800 People Will Compete
• RTimes Q&A With Molly Huddle After Her Amazing Year Huddle wants to try longer reps – something Kim Smith used to do – like 3 x 3k – for the 1st time next year as it’s a weak point.
• Track Star, Fashion Icon Maggie Vessey Gets Two New Agents
  *MB: Maggie Vessey dumps Ray Flynn – gets two new agents – Wasserman Media Group and Hawi Keflezighi

• Super 50-Year-Old – Butch Reynolds Training For M50 World Record Amazingly, the former WR holder at 43.29 weighs the same as when he competed.
• Usain Bolt Is In Miami For Ribbon Cutting At Hublot Boutique, Calls Dwayne Wade A “Cool Dude” For those of you without money, Hublot is a watch company. Bolt was sporting some sweet gold Pumas.

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).
• 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.
• 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