January 23, 2015 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For January 23, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“I would never have thought that I could win this race.”

“It was my dream to do this in Dubai one day, but not this year! With around one kilometre to go, I sensed that I could succeed.”

– Hayle Lemi Berhanu, who won marathoning’s richest first place prize of $200,000 at Friday’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, despite only having one major race EVER to his name and being a 2:10 marathoner until Friday.

2015 Dubai Marathon *Results

Hayle Lemi All Alone Before the Finish

Unbelievable! LRC Some Guy ~~You’ve~~ We’ve Never Heard Of (Hayle Lemi) Wins Sport’s Richest Prize Of $200,000 As Bekele Drops Out This doesn’t happen in any other sport. A total unknown (Hayle Lemi), who previously had one international race to his name and had not broken 2:10, took home the sports richest prize ($200,000) at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon as Kenenisa Bekele dropped out.

MB:Official 2015 Dubai Marathon Live Discussion Thread

Must Read:Coach Canova Talks To Alberto Stretti About Bekele’s Buildup & Future In The Marathon – “His engine is still the most powerful in the World.” Canova, who also reveals he coached the race winner, is still VERY bullish on Bekele’s future.
*Discuss On MB

Pre-Race: Kenenisa Bekele Talks At Length With Sabrina Yohannes About How He’s Learning To Be A Marathoner

Full Coverage, Including More Pre-Race News, In Our 2015 Dubai Marathon Special Section

Updates On Pair Of Welsh Athletes Who Got Reduced Drug Bans

Welsh Athletes Rhys Williams (400H) And Gareth Warburton (800) Target Track Returns Now That Their Drug Bans Have Ended In a video interview Williams says, “Don’t for a second think I’m happy with a 4-month ban, because I’m not. I’ve had to accept the 4-month ban, but I should have received nothing because I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Full Detailed Q&A With Williams & Warburton They talk about the process testing positive, fighting the ban, and moving forward.
Williams And Warburton Warn Athletes Not To Take Supplements They apparently tested positive from a contaminated energy drink.
Welsh Nutrition Company “Baffled” As To How A Batch Of One Of Their Products Would Have Been Contaminated
Williams Upset That The First Thing You See Now When You Google His Name Is Drugs He says he’s “never cried so much in my life” and spent a fortune in legal fees and chemical testing to fight the ban.

Japanese Road News

Japan Running News Recap: Saitama Scores First-Ever National Title At National Men’s Ekiden Apparently the first stage was pretty eventful as one team’s runner collapsed and DNFed while another collapsed multiple times before the finish, eventually getting DQed for an illegal handoff as he tossed his “tasuki” over the line.
*Opinion Piece: Thoughts On Disqualification In The Ekiden And Latitude In Application Of Rules
John Kariuki Wins Okukuma Half Marathon In CR 63:16 Still recovering from a sprained ankle, Yuki Kawauchi was only 9th in 64:44.
Kita-Kyushu Women’s Ekiden: Osaka Kunei Unseats Ritsumeikan Uji

Get Psyched For Boston 2015

LRCThree Thoughts On 2015 Boston Elite Field: Who Has A Better Shot At Victory – Meb Or Shalane? How Does It Compare To London? Could We Have A “Wild Card” Winner? 10 sub-2:07 guys and six sub-2:22 women will battle it out for glory. Which American has the easier path to victory? Meb or Shalane?
*Quotes From Wilson Chebet, Patrick Makau And Joyce Chepkirui
*Lusapho April Hoping To Become The First South African To Win The Boston Marathon The 2:08:32 man was a disappointing 15th last year.
*Press Release: John Hancock Announces 2015 Elite Field
*RRW: Meb Keflezighi To Face Patrick Makau, Lelisa Desisa At 2015 Boston Marathon
*MB:2015 Boston international field announced – Meb will have his hands full with 5 sub 2:05, 10 sub 2:07 guys!!!

LRC Remembering LRCer Van TownsendThe running world lost one of its bright lights this week with the death of Van Townsend.
*MB: RIP Van Townsend: Share Your Respects Here

Standard Chartered Dubai Women *Results

LRC Aselefech Mergia Edges Gladys Cherono In An Epic Stretch Run To Win A Cool $200,000 Ethiopia’s Aselefech Mergia is back. The Dubai course record holder prevailed by :01 in an epic final straight battle over World half marathon champ Gladys Cherono to take home $200,000 in the deepest women’s marathon ever (top 10), bumping Desi Linden from the fastest 10th place finisher ever.

Upcoming Action

February: Tokyo Field Released:5 Sub-2:05 Men, Including Defending Champ Dickson Chumba And Geoffrey Mutai, To Battle The women’s field has just 4 sub-2:24 marathoners in it (London has 9, Boston 11, Dubai 12).
March And Beyond: Geoffrey Kipsang Says He’s Going For Gold At World XC, Then Wants To Break 27:00 At Pre, Then Get 13.1 World Record Kipsang was the Jr. World XC champ in 2011.
This Weekend: British Athletics Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match Will Be Streamed Live On Saturday At 13:29 GMT
*After Running 12.95 In 2014, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde Hoping To Open 2015 With Fast Time At Saturday’s Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match
Next Week: Dayron Robles Will Race In Russia On 2/1

Doping News

Good News If This Isn’t Just A PR Stunt:Russia Will Create A Government Job That Will Concentrate Exclusively On The Fight Against Doping
*Move Marks U-Turn For Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, Who Announced The Position, As He Had Previously Said The German TV Documentary Was Simply Something Aimed At Humiliating Russian Sport
Well Said:Haile Gebrselassie Calls For Life Bans For Dopers

Olympic News / The 1st Amendment Doesn’t Apply

Boston Mayor Has Signed A Formal Agreement With The USOC That Bans City Employees From Criticizing Boston’s Bid For 2024 Games The “joinder agreement” forbids the city of Boston and its employees from making any written or oral statements that “reflect unfavorably upon, denigrate or disparage, or are detrimental to the reputation” of the International Olympic Committee, the USOC, or the Olympic Games.

Learn Something About The 1964 Olympics: 50 Years Ago, Jim Alder Was Left At Home As Alternate For Tokyo Olympics; He Went Out And Ran Nearly 95 Laps On Track To Blow Off Steam And Set 2-Hour WR That Still Stands *Discuss On MB

Russian Doping Updates

IAAF Issues Statement That The Number Of Russian Doping Cases Is A “Major Concern” And They Are Investigating Out of the 37 athletes sanctioned by the Biological Passport system since 2009, 23 have been Russians.
Australia’s Double Olympic Racewalk Silver Medalist Jared Tallent Calls For A Blanket Ban On Russian Athletes Tallent was beaten by a doper at both the 2008 and 2012. He is questioning why RUSADA has said that 2012 winner Sergei Kirdyapkin was clean for the Olympics, but dirty for the World Cup in May 2012. We 100% agree … if he was dirty 3 months before the Games, he was dirty at the Games.
2nd Article With Good Quotes From Tallent And Ireland’s Olive Loughnane Tallent: “It’s crazy, absolutely ridiculous. You can’t cherry-pick when the athlete should get the results annulled.”
Paula Radcliffe Wants Maker Of German Documentary On Russian Doping To Come Forward To The IAAF With List Of 225 Athletes With “Suspicious” Blood Samples She says, “This makes me so mad because he won’t give it to the IAAF. The IAAF have no idea what you’re talking about.” However, we were under the impression that the list came from an IAAF employee and they knew exactly what it is.

LetsVault

LRC2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Jenn Suhr And Husband/Coach Rick Suhr Share Thoughts On The “Year Of The Vault” Since the women’s pole vault is expected to be one of the marquee events of the 2016 Olympics with hometown favorite Fabiana Murer, it’s time for you, the LRC visitor, to learn about one of the event’s biggest stars. We sat down with Jenn Suhr on Tuesday in Boston. She’ll be back there for the NBIGP and USAs this winter.

Upcoming Track / XC Action

Saturday: Emily Chebet, Vivian Cheruiyot, Mercy Cherono And Edna Kiplagat Racing Saturday’s Kenyan Police XC Championship
Sprinter Conrad Williams Will Captain Great Britian And Northern Ireland Team For Glasgow International Match The roster also includes LJer Chris Tomlinson and sub-2 800 runner Jessica Judd in the 1,500.
*UK’s World Indoor 60m Champ Richard Kilty Opening His Season
Sunday: Briggs Athletics Classic 5,000 In Australia: National 10K Champ Brett Robinson Vs. Ben St. Lawrence And David McNeill Live results will be posted here.
Next Saturday: Will Claye (LJ) And Chaunté Lowe (HJ) Highlight Jumps At The Armory Track Invitational The meet which will be live on USATF.TV features great distance fields as well with Galen Rupp, Mary Cain, Ajee Wilson, Matt Centrowitz and a WR attempt in the DMR.
$40,000 In Prize Money Up For Grabs At Camel City Elite Meet Women’s mile has Shannon Rowbury, Morgan Uceny and Heather Kampf while the men’s race is lead by Leo Manzano and Will Leer.
USA Shot Putters Ryan Whiting And Christian Cantwell Will Go Head-To-Head At Karlsruhe Meeting On In Germany

LetsRun.com’s 2014 Awards – We Need Your Vote

LRC Meb Or Galen? Vote For LetsRun.com’s 2014 Award It’s time to vote. Vote and tell us who are the male and female runners of the year for the World, US, and NCAA. Plus vote for the “best record-breaking performance,” the “race of the year,” the “moment of the year” and “unusual moment of the year.”

Less Than One Month Away

LRCGet Your Butt To Boulder, Colorado For The USA XC Afterparty One Month From Today

Steve and Sara Slattery are hosting the party and want runners, non-runners, and LRCers to be there.

GB Women: Everything You Didn’t Want To Know About Women’s Periods

BBC: “Curse Or Myth – Do Periods Affect Performance?” Most men won’t have given this much thought, but it can be a major issue for elite women athletes. Recently, tennis player Heather Watson blamed a loss on “girl things,” but Paula Radcliffe says she once set the WR when she had hers.
Radcliffe Says Sport Medics Have Not Learned To Deal With Athletes’ Periods And That They Messed Up 18-Year-Old Jessica Judd’s Race At 2013 Worlds Judd went out in the 800 heats after she was given norethisterone, a drug Radcliffe says she knows from experience makes things “a hundred times worse.”
UK Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Excited To Be Competing As One Of The Best In The World She was only 14th at the London Olympics (when she was 20), but in 2014 was the top heptathlete in the world.

NCAA Q&As

USSTFCCCA Podcast Q&A With Providence Distance Runner Emily Sisson In December Sisson came back from a semester on the roads to run the 6th-fastest indoor 5,000 in NCAA history with 15:21.84.
Podcast Interview With Cornell’s NCAA Shot Put Runner-Up Stephen Mozia
*LRC Archives: Mozia just misses Ivy League SP record of 20.46m, finishes 2nd at 2014 NCAA Champs

Russia: At What Point Do You Just Ban The Whole Country?

Five More Russian Racewalkers (Including Three Olympic Champions) Banned For DopingSergei Krdyapkin, Olga Kaniskina and Sergei Bakulin have been banned for 3 years and 2 months with their bans backdated to 2012. Valery Borchin got 8 years while Vladimir Kanaykin is banned for life.
A Little Suspicious? Foreign Swimming Coaches Offered $300,000 A Year To Work At Russian Pools With On Site “Pharmacological Laboratory”
Irish Racewalker Olive Loughnane Hoping To Have Her 2009 Worlds Silver Medal Upgraded To Gold After Russian Olga Kaniskina Gets Banned While no Olympic medals were affected by the most recent Russian bans, five World Champs medals from 2009 and 2011 may be re-awarded.

Paula Speaks: Doping, Career And Her Last (?) Marathon

Paula Radcliffe Talks About How It Still Upsets Her When People Accuse Her Of Doping And Says Authorities Need To Work To Protect Integrity Of Clean Athletes “There will be some Russian athletes who are not cheating, there are a lot of Kenyan athletes out there who are not cheating, and they are all being lumped together. It spoils it so we have to do something to protect that and protect the sport.”
Radcliffe Says London Might Not Be Her Last Marathon She has to see how London goes first. She knows she won’t be competitive with the top runners, but at this point is just happy to be running.
*Radcliffe Would Like To Run Something Between 2:30-2:40
Spikes Lists Ten Of The Top Moments From Paula Radcliffe’s Career Sure, you know about Paula’s 2:15, but how much do you know about the rest of her career? For example, she won World XC gold as a junior (1992) and senior (2001).