The World Marathon Majors Start Saturday in Tokyo *Full Coverage Here 

LRC Men’s Preview: The Three Kings Geoffrey Mutai, Stephen Kiprotich, and Tsegaye Kebede Have Something to Prove vs Defending Champ Dickson Chumba A year ago a Geoffrey Mutai (2013 NY champ), Kebede (2013 London champ), Kiprotich (2013 World Champ) match-up would have been salivating. Now all 3 titans have something to prove against defending champ Dickson Chumba as Tariku Bekele makes his debut. In all, five sub-2:05 guys will toe the line on Sunday morning (Saturday night in U.S.).

Elite Distance News

• Elite American And International Fields Announced For March 15th 2015 United Airlines NYC Half Stephen Sambu faces a field of top Americans, including Meb Keflezighi, Dathan Ritzenhein, Abdi Abdirahman, Matt Tegenkamp and, in their debuts, Chris Solinsky and Andrew Bumbalough.
• Recommended Read: Nick Willis Is More Motivated Than Ever To Succeed At Track So He Can Keep Being A Stay-At-Home Dad Willis says he know it’s a bit late to start “climbing the corporate ladder” and as a pro runner he can train 2-3 hours a day and be with his family the rest of the time. He also questions the idea that runners slow down in their 30s.
• Update On Matt Tegenkamp, Who Is Training Looking Towards The 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials Tegenkamp won’t run a marathon in 2015, but is throwing in shorter races like the NYC Half in March.
• Ethiopia’s Getu Feleke (2:04:50) And Germany’s Anna Hahner (2:26:44) Will Defend Their Titles At The Vienna City Marathon On April 12th

News From Kenya: AK To Be Disbanded?

• Athletics Kenya To Be Dissolved With Paul Tergat As The New Head? A source has said that Kenyan Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario will dissolve AK and put in place “an interim committee comprising former athletes and professionals.”
• Top Kenyan Stars Urge Hassan Wario To Disband Top AK Officials Wilson Kipsang and former Boston Marathon champ Moses Tanui lead the charge. *2nd Article
• Emily Chebet’s Manager Makes Excuses Explains Why The Two-Time World XC Champ Failed To Make The Kenyan Team They say it was a combination of allergies, hot weather and an “extremely long wait” in the pre-starting area.
• Kenyan National XC Champ Bedan Karoki Determined To Perform For His Country At World XC Champs After Skipping African XC Last Year

• Lolo Jones Elaborates On Her Opposition To The Movie “Fifty Shades Of Grey” “I just wish every woman knew she is worth more.”
• “Words Of Wisdom” From US 400 Runner Michael Tinsley “Tackle mental weakness, don’t take talent for granted and party less.”
• Brycen Spratling Named USATF Athlete Of The Week For Breaking 500 WR At Millrose
• Schedule Set For 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships; Tickets Go On Sale Friday

More T&F Drama / Gossip

• Olympian And Former TJ WR Holder Willie Banks Calls USATF Board Vote “Totally Unforgivable” Banks was a member of the board for 6 years until October. He said, “I have always tried to listen to the constituency before I voted. In this case I believe I would have voted for Bob Hersh.” *MB Thread
• Lolo Jones Slams “Fifty Shades Of Grey” “Funny how some people think there’s nothing wrong with 50 shades of Grey. God didn’t create sex for that purpose. Watch another movie.”
• Mary Cain Withdraws From The 1,500 At Saturday’s Birmingham Indoor GP For Health Reasons
• MB: Nick Symmonds Announces That He’ll Be On Season 7 of American Ninja Warrior It’s an obstacle game show and filming is just two days (March 13 and 14).
  *Sporting News: “The Bachelor ship has sailed.” Symmonds says he’s most focused on 2015 Worlds.

Today’s Doping Updates

• Talk About Making Something Out Of Nothing: World Champ Christine Ohuruogu Upset With Lamine Diack’s Comments About Sport Being In A Doping “Crisis” We don’t understand her issue. He agreed with the interviewer, who said the sport is facing a crisis. With all the doping cases and corruption allegations, does Ohuruogu actually think he should have said no?
• Russian Athletics Federation President Valentin Balakhnichev Steps Down From His Post, But Fires Shots At IAAF First “I want to ask the IAAF to create a fairer balance. When 90 blood tests are taken from Russian sportsmen and just nine are taken in Britain over the same period, this is unfair. The law of averages will work against us. It is unfair to concentrate all your attention on just a few countries.”
• Really Russia, Really? Russia Gives Resigned Head Coach Valentin Maslakov Top National Sprint Coach Job
• Opinion Piece: “Russian Turmoil Putting Pressure On IAAF” “Russian bullying and posturing seems part of the national psyche – a microcosm of Putin’s behaviour in Ukraine. … This is a country without moral integrity at every level, from the top down.”
• Summary Of IAAF Medical And Anti-Doping Media Conference Call Nothing big here, just assurances from the IAAF that they’re investigating Russia, but that everything has to be given due process.

IAAF Inside Athletics Episode 2: Ato Boldon Interviews HJ WR Holder And 1992 Olympic Champ Javier Sotomayor His WR is 27 years old, but could go down soon. *Some Transcription From Q&A

Women’s Pro News

• Kenyan 2:34 Marathoner Hyvon Ngetich Crawls To 3rd Place In The Austin Marathon; RD So Inspired He Doubles Her Prize Money (includes video) She was winning by a good margin, but collapsed around 2 blocks from the finish and crawled the rest of the way, refusing a wheelchair that was offered to her. The race was won by Cynthia Jerop in 2:54:22.
• Video Interview: Lolo Jones Talks About Recovery From Shoulder Injury And Says She’s Still Looking Towards Rio Olympics Although she joked that testing out the shoulder over hurdles soon “will let me know if I need to retire or not.”
• SPIKES Gives A 13-Point Timeline Of Florence Kiplagat’s Career Leading Up To Her 1:05:09 13.1-Mile WR

• Florence Kiplagat Runs 1:05:09 To Break World Half Marathon Record At Mitja Marató de Barcelona That’s 4:58 pace. An amazing run as the course has turns and no other woman has come within 41 seconds on a legit course.
• Lavillenie Vaults 6.02 In Berlin As 12,500 Fans Attend An Indoor Track Meet
• Ethiopia’s 2014 5,000m World Leader Muktar Edris And Kenya’s Violet Jelagat Win Cinque Mulini XC Race In Italy Jelagat won over Portugal’s Ana Dulce Felix while top steepler Jarius Birech was 3rd in the men’s race.

2015 NYRR Millrose Games Were Saturday *Results *Post-Race Videos *Race Videos

LRC Centrowitz Wins Wanamaker Mile In Thrilling Stretch Run Over Willis As Year Of Lagat Continues Matt Centrowitz and Nick Willis delivered the goods on Saturday night with Centro edging Willis to win the Wanamaker mile in 3:51. Wanamaker mile legend Bernard Lagat took 3 seconds off the 40+ world record in 4th.

LRC Bowerman Track Club’s Lopez Lomong And Ryan Hill Go 1-2 As Cam Levins Falters NOP’s Cam Levins had an off day and the rival BTC’s Lopez Lomong and Ryan Hill were glad to pick up the slack, going 1-2 in the men’s 5,000m. German Fernandez DNFed as he was having a terrible day and going to get lapped.

LRC Men’s 3000m: Eric Jenkins Just Misses Galen Rupp’s American Collegiate Record As Oregon Goes 1-2 Eric Jenkins and Will Geoghegan aren’t even Oregon’s best 3,000m runners but they went 1-2 at Millrose and nearly broke Galen Rupp’s American collegiate record.

*Post-Race Interviews Centro, Willis, Rowbury, Lomong, Hasay, many more. The distance stars and Brycen Spratling in NYC.
*RRW Recap

Millrose On The Boards:

• MF Centro

• What's the deal with the world record in the 500?

• Levins BOMBS

• Cain BOMBS

• What the Hell is happening to German Fernandez?

LRC  Did America Just Get Itself A Gold Medal Contender In The 1,500 At The 2040 Olympics? Moroccan 1,500m star Abdelaati Iguider‘s wife Ibtissam went into labor unexpectedly yesterday in Philadelphia and the family welcomed Mohamed Mourad Iguider to the world.

LRC Latest Millrose And Olympic Trials Vote Tallies Voting fixed so you don’t have to refresh page.

RAK Half Marathon Race/ Post-Race Photos

2015 RAK Half Marathon – World’s Fastest Half *Results

LRCRecap: The Marvelous Mary Keitany And Remember The Drone

One Of Africa’s Top Talents Will Train In The USA

• World 800 Champion Mohammed Aman Joins Oregon Track Club Aman, who has a 1:42.37 PR and three world titles to his name, said, “I want to run fast. OTC Elite is a good team with a good coach and I want to improve my performance.”
  *Discuss

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