December 16, 2014 | LetsRun.com

Week That Was

LRCKenny B Commits To Dubai, Foot Locker, USATF And European XC Mania, Meb "Dusts" Ryan Hall, And No Love For Stephanie Hightower?

What are the Olympic chances of Grant Fisher and Anna Rohrer? How will Kenenisa Bekele do in his marathon in Dubai next month. Plus Club Nats XC, European XC, Kevin Sullivan moving to the marathon, Stephanie Hightower making the wrong news off the track, and LRC on the BBC.

EPO Marathoners In The News

We Should Know Result Of Rita Jeptoo’s “B” Sample Test Later This Week Announcement expected on Saturday.
Relay Runner Accidentally Steals Spotlight And Breaks Tape From Dallas Marathon Winner Shitaye Gemechu It was an accident as 51-year-old Janice Moore said, “I have nothing but the best respect for Shitaye Gemechu and did not mean to go in front of her.” We, however, disagree with Moore and lack respect for past-EPO user Gemechu. 3rd placer Liza Hunter-Galvan also has a past ban for EPO to her name. *Video *MB Thread

Olympic Stuff: 2016 Track Schedule Released

Full Track And Field Schedule For 2016 Olympics Released Unlike most past Olympics, a handful of the finals will be held in the morning sessions. The IAAF also made a statement on the possibility of track events being removed from future Games: “No credence whatsoever should be given to recent unfounded speculation …”
UK’s Former World Champ Dai Greene Upset About 400H Being Scheduled For The AM At Rio Olympics
US 2024? USOC Will Hear Olympic Bid Pitches From Four Cities Today LA, DC, Boston and San Fran.
A Deeper Look At Rome’s Bid For The 2024 Olympics Which Could Involve The Vatican There is hypothetical talk of having some events in St. Peter’s Square.
Drug Resistant “Super Bacteria” Found In Water For Rio 2016 Sailing Events
NY Times: Kosovo Savors An Olympic Victory, Two Years Before The Torch Is Lit Earlier this month, the IOC voted to admit them and let them compete at the Olympics.

‘Thon #3 For Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele’s Third Marathon Will Be In Dubai On January 23rd; Now Being Coached By Renato Canova Bekele said that he learned a lot from his disappointing race in Chicago and that things have gone well since then. Canova has taken over his training and is with him in Ethiopia.
*MB: RENATO CANOVA is Bekele’s new coach!
*Bekele On The Possibility Of The Sub-2-Hour Marathon “I don’t think human beings can do that, but maybe a new generation in the future … maybe in 10 years.”

Euro XC Champs Were Sunday Results: Men Women *All Races

GB’s Gemma Steel Just Nips Teammate And NCAA Champion Kate Avery To Win European XC Champs GB dominated the team competition to win easily.
*Video Interview With Avery *Steel
Former 2-Time Champ Fionnuala Britton Leads Irish Women To 3rd Place Team Finish Britton was 1st-1st and 4th the last three years, but only 6th on Sunday. *2nd Article
Turkey’s Polat Kemboi Arikan Wins Men’s Race At Euro XC Champs In Close Battle With His Teammate Alia Kaya Just as in the women’s race, both men finished with the same time. Spain’s defending champion Alemayehu Bezabeh was third, 11 seconds back. Turkey won the team competition, beating Spain by 3 points.
All The Top 3 In The Men’s Euro XC Championship Race Were Formerly Of Kenya Or Ethiopia
More Recaps: *IAAF Recap *Men’s Under-23 *Women’s Under-23 *Men’s Junior *Women’s Junior

Olympic News

Italian Prime Minister Unveils Rome 2024 Olympic Bid
Brazilian Public Names Rio 2016 Mascots Vinicius And Tom The names honor Brazilian musicians Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim.

American Stars Getting Good Pub

Administrative News

Attorney David Greifinger Says Hightower/Hersh Vote Should Be Rescinded
Elliott Denman Gives His Thoughts On The Controversial Hersh/Hightower Decision
Will Leer Blogs About Attending USATF Convention He’s got good news – USATF will fill the distance fields at USAs. The bad news – well, you already know that.
Tim Hadzima Has Been Named General Manager Of The Abbott World Marathon Majors Previously, he worked in marketing for Bank of America.

News From The UK

2012 Olympic Heptathlete Louise Hazel Is Enjoying Being Retired As She Now Can Go To The Pub “I had never been in a pub on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, having a roast, playing darts. What a novelty! It was brilliant.”
Jo Pavey Is Crowned British Athletics Athlete Of The Year In Fan Vote The young athlete of the year was Matthew Hudson-Smith.

The Triple Jump Might Be Safe, But Not The 10K

The 200, 10,000 And Shot Put Allegedly Among Events That Could Be Removed From The Olympics Australian paper is reporting that those along with the 20K race walk and TJ are being considered in the IOC’s push to make room for other sports. Apparently the 10,000 is most at risk.
*MB: IOC in Talks, Pondering to Remove 10k/200m from Olympics
Glasgow Herald Writer Warns That Olympic Reforms Might Mean A Painful “Price That Will Have To Be Paid” For Track And Field He knows “every event on the programme is sacrosanct to aficionados of whatever discipline” so there will be uproar no matter what goes.

Distance News

Results 2014 Hoosier Open: NAU’s .US 12K Champion Brian Shrader Runs 13:40.94 Texas’ Craig Lutz was 2nd in 13:47.09. UMKC’s Courtney Frerichs won the women’s 5,000 in 15:48.12. *Men’s Race Video *Women
Michigan Coach And Former 3:50 Miler Kevin Sullivan Runs His 1st Marathon In Honolulu On A Whim Sullivan on his unplanned debut: “When Nick Willis and Will Leer asked if I wanted to join them on their long run, I simply said, hell if I am going to run 16-18 miles and wait to get picked up, I might as well just run the whole thing.” The 40-year-old ran 2:40:22.
*David Monti Tweets Before The Start Willis And Leer Jumped In The Creek To Rescue A Woman Who Had Broken Her Arm
*Willis’ FB Status On The Race *Leer’s Tweet
Shawn Forrest, An Australian 61:25 Half Marathoner And Former All-American At Arkansas, Diagnosed With Type 1 Diabetes Forrest went to the ER when his body started shutting down and he was almost blind with an “off the charts” blood sugar count. He hopes now with proper treatment he’ll be able to get back on track with his running.
RunningTimes Catches Up With Teen Runner With MS, Kayla Montgomery, After Her First Season Of College XC At Lipscomb University Montgomery was in Lipscomb’s top 7 all year. The team finished 4th in the DI South Regional.
*Archives: ESPN Video On Recent High School Graduate Kayla Montgomery Who Became A State Champion While Battling Multiple Sclerosis

Suspended Adrian Peterson Considering Retiring From NFL And Pursuing Olympic Dream In The 200/400 Peterson apparently has a has a wind-legal 10.26 (or 10.19) from high school and a 21.23 200 (wind-aided) and 47.6 400.
*Philip Hersh: “Adrian Peterson In The Olympics? Not A Chance” His times from high school are nowhere near being competitive with today’s elites and he’s 29 years old.

2014 Foot Lockers Results HS Forum *Photo Gallery

Anna Roher and Grant Fisher

LRC Grant Fisher & Anna Rohrer Become Legends, Win Second Titles One pushed hard throughout, one waited until the final 800, but both were utterly dominant in earning their historic second wins. Where do they stack up in terms of all-time greats?

Foot Locker On The Boards:
*Official 2014 Foot Locker Live Discussion Thread
*Make your predicitions now, When does Grant Fisher break 4:00 and how close to Webb’s 3:53 does he get?
*Footlocker Nationals!! WEST Team, What happened?
*Fisher=Centro, Maton=Rupp
*Five reasons why I hope Grant Fischer doesn’t win footlocker.

MB: WSJ Does Profile of Bill Aris – Call Him ‘The Lombardi’ of Teen Running

(Updated 252 Photos)
Foot Locker Photo Gallery

2014 Wasn't An "Off Year" For Doping

Will It Ever End? Two Kenyan Marathoners Banned For Failed Drug Tests; Six More Suspected Viola Kimetto is a 2:40 marathoner and Joyce Kiplimo a 1:10 half marathoner. The other 6 suspected runners are also named.
A Sad Look At The People Most Hurt By Dopers: UK’s Jenny Meadows Angered By Russian Cheats: “I don’t know how they can sleep at night. I don’t know how anybody can deceive so many people.” Meadows tabulates that she has missed out on many medals and possibly up to $100,000 in prize money/sponsorship due to dopers.
Seb Coe Says Current Doping Scandal On Par With Ben Johnson And BALCO “This is up there … I’m not afraid of embarrassment here. I would rather deal with this now than get to the point where nobody cares about the sport.”
The Guardian: Crisis At IAAF That Threatens To Bring Athletics to Its Knees A look at some of the questions that need to be answered.

Jo Pavey Finishes 3rd In Vote For BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton won with golfer Rory McIlroy runner-up. *Pictures Of Final Candidates

What Happened To Foot Locker Legend Kenny Cormier?

LRC 10 Years Later: Finding Kenny Cormier 10 years ago, Kenny Cormier was atop the running world. Three years later,he was completely out of the sport. Here’s his story.

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Double Wins For Bill Aris, Sarah Disanza Rocks It, Jeff Eggleston Goes For It, Paula Radcliffe Improves, And More We recap the week that was and talk about Sarah Disanza rocking it, Jeff Eggleston going for it, Paula Radcliffe improving, Patrick Makau returning and investigate whether Bill Aris is the greatest high school coach ever?

Q&A With 2:10 American Jeffrey Eggleston
*MB: Who says Americans don’t go for it? Jeffrey Eggleston sure did. 2:10 marathoner went out in 63 at Fukuoka last weekend!!

The Latest Doping Scandal News / You Know It’s A Huge Story When BBC World Is Talking About LetsRun.com

LRC BBC World Wants To Know Why IAAF General Secretary Nick Davies Wrote A Passionate Letter To LetsRun.com Instead Of Issuing A More Traditional Statement LRC co-founder Weldon Johnson gives his thoughts. Bad reporting or not, maybe the names should come out.

Important Read: Hajo Seppelt Says After Documentaries Airing, He’s Been Flooded With More Info Of Systematic Russian Doping “We did not plan a sequel; however, people are sending us more and more evidence to back the claim there is systematic doping in Russian sport.” He also doesn’t back off claims of an IAAF cover-up. “The IAAF is trying to give the impression that all the details we had were individual blood values. That is simply not the case. There are several readings for each athlete.”
Words Of Wisdom From David Rudisha “If your talent is not taking you to that higher level, don’t force it and don’t cheat to get there because it’s not fair even to yourself and it’s not fair to others.”

IAAF / Russian Doping Scandal News Continues

IAAF’s Most Senior Anti-Doping Official, Dr. Gabriel Dolle, Leaves Job After Being Interviewed By IAAF Ethics Commission Dolle has possibly been implicated in the investigation into Liliya Shobukhova‘s payoff to the Russian Athletics Federation. The IAAF Ethics Commission has apparently been investigating since March and is expected to deliver a verdict within two months.
Papa Massata Diack Steps Down From IAAF Pending Investigation Lamine Diack has been interviewed by a French newspaper and said that his son was big enough to look after himself.
The Guardian: “Doha: The Honeypot That Catapulted Itself Into The Sporting World” Writer analyzes Doha’s consistent (possibly corrupt) use of money/financial incentives in its quest to host events including the World Cup, World Champs and Olympic Games.
Guardian: “IAAF Limps On As Rumors, Allegations And Innuendo Race Out Of Control” This article claims the IAAF has sat on allegations of corruption in Russia for a long time before acting.
IAAF Statement On Russia’s Valentin Balakhnichev Voluntarily Stepping Down As IAAF Treasurer During Investigation

2014 Club Nats Men’s Results Women’s Results *Masters

LRC Results: Ryan Hill And Laura Thweatt Win Zap Fitness dominated the men’s team competition as the BAA was 2nd. In the women’s team, the BAA won over the Boulder Running Company/adidas. Perhaps more importantly, German Fernandez was third in the men’s race.
*MB: German’s back baby!! 3rd at 2014 Club Nats

Scott Reid In Orange County Register: Stephanie Hightower Betraying Sport To Chase Her “Own Self-Serving Agenda” He accuses of her of working behind the scenes to take Bob Hersh‘s spot on the IAAF Council, saying she pushed to alter the USATF selection procedure to do so.
*MB: Damning indictment of Stephanie Hightower

More From The Weekend

Sara Hall, Paced By Ryan, Sets PR To Win Dallas Half Marathon In 1:12:26 39-year-old Logan Sherman won the men’s race in 68:21. *Results
Meb Keflezighi “Dusts” Ryan Hall In First Leg Of Dallas Mavericks Vs. Texas Rangers Relay Challenge At The Dallas Marathon However, the Rangers “recovered” and beat the Mavs by almost 9 minutes. In the elite race, Kimutai Cheruiyot won the marathon in 2:17:11 as Shitaye Gemechu won the women’s race in 2:46:46. *Results
*MB: 1/2 Marathon Jogger steals banner moment from Women’s Full Marathon Winner
RRW: Wilson Chebet (2:15:35) And Joyce Chepkirui (2:30:23) Complete First Kenyan Sweep At Honolulu Marathon
Better Than Prize Money? Eritrea’s World Half Marathon Silver Medalist Samuel Tsegay Wins Cross Nacional Castellano-Manchego XC Race In Spain Spain’s Alessandra Aguilar took the women’s race as she and Tsegay won their body weight in cheese, wine and chocolates.
Athletics Weekly Recaps UK’s Weekend Domestic XC/Road Racing Scene

We Wish This Wasn’t True

Actor Who Plays Louie Zamperini In “Unbroken” Admits He’s Never Run A 5k He also admits to taking “a little bit of artistic license” and inventing Zamperini’s “finishing style.”

Confused By The Latest Doping Scandal? Get Caught Up Here

Science Of Running: Everything You Need To Know About Doping Scandal By Steve Magness
The Guardian Does A Good Job Of Summarizing The IAAF/Russian Doping Scandal
Shalane Flanagan Rips Rita Jeptoo For Being A Doper “I literally catered my whole race around (trying to beat) that woman.”
Great Anecdote About Seb Coe And Doping Once when a friend was nailed for doping (later totally exonerated) he said, “If Diane Modahl is on drugs then there is no hope for athletics.”
Kenyan Press Wants To Know Why Papa Diack Wired $200,000 To Athletics Kenya In 2010
Irish Columnist Says She’ll Give Up Track And Field If Bolt Is A Doper She, like us, thinks he’s a freak of nature.

Interesting Reads

Good Read: Pat Bucher Catches Up With Haile G – Haile G Says He Wants One Last Hurrah At Marathon The 41-year-old is going to up his training and go for it one last time. “I don’t know where (which marathon) at the moment, but something at the end of May, or Berlin (late September), just for myself. The problem is everybody expects me to be in front, so it’s not easy. They know Haile Gebrselassie is a front runner, and if they don’t see you at the front …?”
Polish Hammer Thrower Anita Wlodarczyk Aims To Become First To Throw 80 Meters The WR holder at 79.58 was inspired by Poland’s Olympic champ Kamila Skolimowska, who died of a blood clot at age 26.
Why Qatar’s Quest For Sporting Dominance Has Backfired Badly
Maggie Vessey And Alysia Montaño Are 2 Of 4 Finalists For Spikes’ Personalities Of The Year Vote for who you think “showcased athletics in an unusual fashion” in the inaugural SPIKES Personality of the Year awards.