Mid-Week Action

• Tuesday: Three World Leads Go Down At Pedro’s Cup Meet In Poland: Orlando Ortega In The 60H (7.45) Ryan Whiting In The SP (21.80m) And Kim Collins In The 60 (6.47)
• Wednesday: Asafa Powell, Carmelita Jeter And Mutaz Essa Barshim Going For The HJ WR At Athlone GP In Ireland Eric Sowinski in the 800, Ben Blankenship and Ciaran O’Lionaird in the mile.
• Thursday: Genzebe Dibaba Will Go For 5,000 WR At Stockholm XL Galan Meseret Defar has the record at 14:24.37. Other stacked distance fields include German 3:35 man Homiyu Tesfaye vs. Kenyans Silas Kiplagat, Vincent Kibet, Collins Cheboi and Bethwel Birgen in the 1,500, Poles Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski vs. Olympic bronze medalist Timothy Kitum and South Africa’s Andre Olivier in the 800 and a solid women’s 1,500 including Siffan Hassan, Meraf Bahta (4:01) Laura Muir (4:00).
• Saturday: AW Preview Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix: Deep Fields In The Sprints/Jumps
  *All Entries Erik Sowinski, Timothy Kitum in 800, Matt Centrowitz, Bethwell Birgen, Nixon Chepseba, Lee Emanuel, Chris O’Hare, Ben Blankenship in 1,500. Jenny Meadows and Charlene Lipsey in 800. Mo Farah vs. Bernard Lagat in 2-mile.

• Seb Coe Pledges To Limit Length Of Term For IAAF President To 12 Years If He Is Elected Lamine Diack has served for 16 years and in general, IAAF presidents serve long terms as there have only been 6 in the 103-year history of the IAAF.
• Dahlan Al Hamad Wants Asia Center Stage As He Seeks Re-Election As IAAF Vice President

Random But Interesting

• NY Times: “Forget Barefoot; New Trendsetter, If Not Pacesetter, Is Cushioning” Articles on Hoka One One running shoes and the new “maximalist” shoe fad. Includes quotes from Leo Manzano and Lauren Fleshman.
• A Race After Employee 1.1’s Heart: Local Runners In Portland Frustrated With Mis-Measured And Mis-Managed Road Races Create Track Half Marathon The race, named for its founder, is called the “Bill Aronson Track Half To Insure Mileage Exactness” and was won by Mike Davies in 1:16:36. *Results *Race Website
• High School Student Makes Dress Out Of Race Medals

British Indoor Champs *Results

• Day 2: Motivated By A “Cleaner Sport,” Jenny Meadows Wins 800 In 2:01.43 Ireland’s Sara Treacy won a close race in the 3,000 over Emelia Gorecka and Jessica Judd with Hannah England 6th. Laura Muir won the 1,500.
• Nigel Levine Wins His 5th Straight GB Indoor 400 Title
• AW Recap: On Comeback From Surgery, Abigail Irozuru Wins LJ In 6.73m, Putting Her 3rd On UK All-Time List
• IAAF Full Meet Recap
• Day 1 Recap: Lee Emanuel Wins Men’s 3k
• Katarina Johnson-Thompson Beats Morgan Lake, Sets New British Record Of 1.97m
• More European Stuff: AW Weekly Round-Up: Germany’s Homiyu Tesfaye Runs NR And WL 1,500 With 3:35.71 Also WLs from Belarus’ Alina Talay in the 60H (7.88) and on the US collegiate scene Marquis Dendy in the TJ (17.23m), Kyra Jefferson in the 200 (22.81).

Are You Getting Excited For 2015 World XC? We Are

Kenyan Champs: Bedan Karoki And Faith Kipyegon Repeat As Champs, Geoffrey Kipsang And Agnes Tirop Are 2nd The big news on the men’s side was reigning World XC champ Japhet Korir failed to qualify. Faith Kipyegon, who has won the last 2 World Jr. XC titles and has a 3:56 1,500 PR, will go for title #3 in China.
*Full List Of 26 Kenyans Who Could Race In Worlds

Ugandan Champs: World Junior Mountain-Running Champion Phillip Kipyeko Beats Moses Kipsiro

The Last Star Standing? After 18-Month Maternity Break, Yelena Isinbayeva Begins Preparations For 2016 Olympics Meanwhile, the rest of Russia has seemingly been banned for doping.

Season-Opening News For Track’s Biggest Stars – Rudisha, Farah And Bolt

• Rudisha: David Rudisha To Open 2015 In Australia On March 14 And 21
  *Alex Rowe Hopes Facing Rudisha At Home Will Lead Him To New NR Of Sub-1:44.40
• Farah: Mo Farah To Make 2015 Outdoor Debut Vs. 5 Sub-1:00 Guys At EDP Lisbon Half On March 22
  *Mo Farah Might Run 2016 World Half Champs In March Of 2016 In Cardiff
• Bolt: Usain Bolt Won’t Open 2015 Season With 400 In Jamaica Today Many thought Bolt would run. Despite the DNS, Ricky Simms told LRC on Saturday in NYC that Bolt is in good shape.
  *Usain Bolt: “I will break a world record again.”
  *Bolt Will Race 100 In Paris DL In July

• Recommended Read: An Incredible Rebuttal: Bob Hersh Responds To USATF Board’s Memo That He Claims “Contains Many Incorrect And/Or Misleading Statements”
• Oscar Pistorius Rival Wants Him To Return To Competition Once He’s Out Of Jail
• After Shedding 60 Pounds, 1992 Olympian John Trautmann Is Shooting For 45-49 WR In Mile This Weekend – 4:16.83 Trautmann had trouble running 60-second 90-second quarters when he first started training.
• Nick Arciniaga The Favorite At Ome 30k In Japan This Weekend – Japanese Weekend Preview

Kenyan XC Champs Are Saturday Unless Runners Strike

• Killer Fields Set For Saturday’s Kenyan National Cross-Country Championships Men’s field includes World XC champion Japhet Korir, WJ XC champ Geoffrey Kipsang, doper Matthew Kisorio, Augustine Choge. Women’s field has 2-time world champ Emily Chebet, WJ champ Faith Kipyegon, world medalists Vivian Cheruiyot, Mercy Cherono and Gladys Cherono.
• AK Head Isaiah Kiplagat Says Meet Still On Despite PAAK Boycott Threats
• This Might Hurt His Chances: World Champ Japhet Korir Made His Marathon Debut Last Sunday With A 2:19:46 For 4th Place At The Tapei Marathon
• DailyNation: “Cocky Karoki Looks Beyond National Trials” Two-time Kenyan XC champ Bedan Karoki looking for a third title as well as a world medal.

Nevada Looking Into Lifting Ban On Olympic Betting The LRC staff might have to take a trip to Vegas in 2016.

Sprint / Hurdle Stuff

• Usain Bolt Ready To Return To His Winning Ways In 2015 Bolt, who said he felt like he’d “retired, the way people were talking about Justin Gatlin” last year, will open his season on Saturday with a 400 in Jamaica … although he says, “I’m trying to get out of it.”
• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Wants To Break Her 10.70 PR In 2015
• Good Read: USA Hurdles Great Terrence Trammell Says Goodbye To Track And Field The two-time Olympic silver medalist is officially retiring from the sport at 36 years old.
• Good Q&A With US 100H Champ Dawn Harper-Nelson
• Bolt Will Return In The 100m To The Paris DL Meet In July

9-Year-Old Zach Blum Going For Age World Record For Track 5,000 This Spring In the fall, he ran 18:30 to set the road 5K record (track record is 18:41). Talking about his race back in November, Blum said, “I was pretty sad because [my dad can] usually can keep up with me. But that day, he fell back because I was probably going 5:59 mile pace.”

New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Photo Gallery

Marijuana – The Next Performance Enhancer?

Wall Street Journal Asks, “Do lots of ultramarathoners smoke weed? Marijuana Has Enormous Benefits – But Is It Ethical?”
*MB: WSJ-Ultra runners smoke hella weed
*MB: Is that a picture of Galen Rupp smoking weed on back cover of WSJ?

2015 USA XC Champs In Boulder *Results/ Streaming *Official Live Discussion Thread!

Nothing But Net: Chris Derrick For Three! Chris Derrick 3-peated as USA Champion in dominating fashion as Bobby Curtis was 2nd and Dathan Ritzenhein 3rd. Ben True, the guy who tried to stay with Derrick the longest, faded to 11th.

LRC Laura Thweatt Dominates At 2015 USA Cross-Country Championships updated The CU alum won her first major US title in convincing fashion before the home crowd. Mattie Suver 2nd, 40-year-old Jen Rhines 3rd.

RRW: Derrick, Thweatt Dominate USA XC Utah high schooler Conner Mantz and University of Colorado’s Kaitlyn Benner won the junior races.