Mid-D News

• Bizarre: Young GB Runner Abdi Abdi Given 4 Years In Prison For Committing A Series Of Robberies With A BB Gun The 19-year-old with a 3:52 1,500 PR stole $4,600 worth of mobile phones and BMX bikes from kids at a local skate park.
• MB: Over/under on Nick Symmonds’ 3k? Symmonds opens his season this weekend with a 3K at Washington.
• GB’s Laura Muir Says Training Is Going Really Well As She Comes Off A Very Disappointing 2014 She ran an 8:49 3,000 PR in January.
• After Opening Season With Two Back-To-Back Sub-2:00 800s, Jenny Meadows Is The Favorite Going Into This Weekend’s UK Champs
• Jenny Simpson Is USATF Athlete Of The Week For Her 9:18 2-Mile AR Last Weekend

Doping News

• AP Writer John Leicester Calls On New IAAF President (Either Seb Coe Or Sergei Buka) To Crack Down On Russian Doping Starting With The Walking Center In Saransk Leicester was much more impressed with Bubka’s response for comment than Coe’s “diplomatic” ones.
• Sergei Bubka Says The IAAF Should Create A Database Of Coaches Who Have Athletes Test Positive Our question is why the hell isn’t this done already?
• Kenya’s 2008 Olympic 800 Champion Wilfred Bungei Calls On Rita Jeptoo To Name Names He would like to know who helped her get and take EPO.
• AK To Host Doping Education Seminar Day Before National XC Champs

• Michigan State Women And Stanford Men Are Scholar Teams Of The Year
• Kate Avery, Edward Cheserek Are Scholar Athletes Of The Year

USATF / USOC

• USATF Activist Becca Gillespy Peter Responds To Latest USATF Memo On IAAF Council Controversy She has harsh criticisms of Stephanie Hightower and praises Bob Hersh, saying he played a role in getting the DMR added to the 2015 World Relay Champs.
• USOC Signs Sponsorship Deal With Dick’s Sporting Goods Part of the deal involves giving jobs at Dick’s stores to athletes training for the Olympics.

• Tickets For 2015 Bejing World Championships Now Open To The Public
• Meet AKB48 – The Girl Band Labeled Too “Embarrassing” For The Tokyo 2020 Olympics
• Satirical “Nazi” Ads Anger Berlin 2024 Olympic Bid Officials
• Former Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo Appointed Head Of Rome 2024 Olympic Bid

Distance News: Was Sammy Wanjiru Murdered?

• Pathologist Claims Sammy Wanjiru’s Death Was Murder And Not An Accident Dr. Moses Njue says that Wanjiru had head injuries which could not have been caused by a fall from his balcony and indicate he was hit on the head with a blunt object. *2nd Article
  *MB: Pathologist says Sammy Wanjiru was murdered – Fall from balcony could not have killed him.
  *LRC Archive: RIP Sammy Wanjiru: The World’s Greatest Marathoner Has Died
• Profile On Christo Landry, Who Had A Big Breakthrough 2014, Winning Multiple US Road Championships Landry credits his improvement to finally staying healthy, saying, “You are building on the past instead of starting from scratch every year.”
  *More Quotes And Interesting Tidbits From Landry He actually chose golf over XC as a freshman in high school.
• Andrew Wheating Will Race The 800 At The Auckland Track Challenge On February 26th In New Zealand
• Kayla Montgomery Going On The “Rachael Ray Show” To Share Her Inspiring Story Of Being A Runner With Multiple Sclerosis
  *LRC Kayla Montgomery Archive

More From The Weekend

• Boston Bound Zersenay Tadese Won 3rd Eastern Africa Half Marathon Championships In 61:37
• San Blas Half: Rose Chelimo (71:40) Breaks CR And Wins $13,000, Levy Matebo (64:13) Wins Men’s And $6,000 (translated from Spanish) The conditions were warm in Puerto Rico.
• Updated DI Rankings: Georgia Women Pass Florida For The #1 Spot Oregon men stay #1 as the top 5 men’s ranks are unchanged.
• More From Europe: Belgium’s Pieter-Jan Hannes Runs 7:49.80 To Beat Kenyan Vincent Rono Over 3,000 France’s Dimitri Bascou ran a new world lead in the 60H with 7.51, Bulgaria’sIvet Lalova won the women’s 60 in 7.26 and Pavel Maslak ran 45.82 in the 400.
• NBIGP Non-Distance Action Trell Kimmons ran 6.51 to beat Asafa Powell by .01 in the 60. Michelle-Lee Ahye won the women’s 60 (7.15), Tiffany Townsend the 300 (36.74). Mary Saxer won the PV as Jenn Suhr was only 3rd. Ryan Whiting (SP), Chaunte Lowe (HJ) also won.
• GB Hepathlete Morgan Lake Equals UK Under-20 HJ Record With 1.89m The record is 18 years 0ld.
• Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend For Each Event Fastest women’s mile was 4:38.19 by Brook Handler of Michigan. Robby Creese‘s previously-mentioned 3:57.86 was the best for the men.
• Athletics Weekly Weekend Round-Up
• Missed From Last Weekend: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Opened Her Season With 7.13 60m In Jamaica Nesta Carter won the men’s 60 in 6.53 while Delano Williams broke Usain Bolt‘s 400 MR with 46.20. *Full Results
  *Jamaican High Schooler Christopher Taylor Runs 46.87 400
  *BU Terrier Results NJNY’s Heather Wilson won the mile in 4:34.95; men’s mile by Virginia’s Mike Marsella (3:59.97).
  *New Mexico Invy Results: Anthony Rotich Won The Mile In 4:02.75

2015 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix In Boston *Results

LRC Bernard Lagat Still Has It, Nick Willis Breaks The Kiwi Mile Record, And Matt Centrowitz Just Misses The American 1,000m Record Tremendous mid-d action led by the 40-year-old Lagat showing he still can kick (in a losing effort).

LRC Brenda Martinez Edges Nicole Tully In World Record DMR, An American Record For Jenny Simpson And Treniere Moser Impresses Again Brenda Martinez put back a superb challenge from Nicole Tully, Jenny Simpson got a much deserved American record, Treniere Moser, Mary Cain, Emma Coburn and more.

LRC Post-Race Video Interviews BMart after WR, Simpson, Nick Willis, Lagat, Centro, Mary Cain, Treniere Moser, Blankenship, Nicole Tully, Emma Coburn, Gebremeskel.
*High Schoolers Ryen Frazier (4:44) And Logan Wetzel (4:08) Win Junior Miles Jack Salisbury was a close 2nd in 4:08.76.
*Race Videos
*Official New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Live Thread
*RRW Recap *IAAF *AP

Collegiate Results *All NCAA Results

• Penn State’s Robby Creese Runs Fastest Non-Converted Collegiate Mile Of The Year With 3:57.86 He won the race at home by almost 5 seconds.
  *Sykes & Sabock Challenge Cup Results Robby Andrews ran a 1:51.62 800. Penn State men and women won the team comp.
• USTFCCCA Highlights: Top Pentathlete Kendell Williams Cleans Up In The Open Events Too Williams set the collegiate lead in the LJ (6.54m) to win at Virginia Tech and also won the 60H (8.21). Elsewhere, Raven Saunders set a collegiate lead and a US junior record in the SP (17.64m). Texas A&M’s Deon Lendore ran 45.68 in the 400 to win at home and Shavez Hart ran a NCAA-leading 20.57 over 200.
• 2015 Notre Dame Meyo Invitational Results Sam Penzenstadler (4:00.61) and Brook Handler (4:38.19) get close mile wins.

The Year Of The Vault Continues

• Pro: Renaud Lavillenie Makes Three Attempts But Fails To Break His Own Pole Vault World Record At French Indoor Meet Lavillenie cleared 6.01m, but failed to get over 6.17m, which would have broken his 6.16m mark from February last year.
  *IAAF: Fabiana Murer Cleared 4.83m To Set A Women’s WL
• NCAA: Akron’s Shawn Barber Breaks Collegiate PV Record With 5.88m (19-3½) He broke the record of 5.85m from 1999 as well as his own unofficial record (set competing unattached) of 5.87m (19-3). In women’s action, Demi Payne won a historic showdown between the three career 15-foot collegiate vaulters as she beat Sandi Morris and Kaitlin Petrillose with a 4.66m clearance.
• HS: High School National PV Record Goes Down Twice On The Same Day Deakin Volz set a new record of 5.43m (17-10.5) early on Saturday, but later Paulo Benavides broke that mark with 5.46m (17-11).
  *More High School Weekend Highlights

CNN Article On The Potential Danger Of Dietary Supplements

T&F’s New Kiwi Star?

LRC Q&A Zane Robertson Discusses His 59:47 Shocker, His 10,000 Plans And Why He Knew Hayle Lemi Was Going To Win Dubai LRC caught up with Robertson, who’s got big plans for 2015, on Thursday morning after his spectacular half marathon debut in Japan.

• MB: Mo, Galen are you ready? Zane Robertson’s got big 10,000 plans: “I would really like to challenge for a gold medal.”
  
• Zane Robertson Q&A With Alberto Stretti
  
• Robertson: “I said to Koech in Swahili, let’s go man, sub-60 is possible.”