February 22, 2015 Homepage Archive

Quote Of The Day

“It definitely means a lot for me. I love representing my country and giving something back to them (the fans).”

“It’s unbelievable [to have my first WR.] So many people have asked me, ‘When are you going to break the world record?’ I knew training had been going well. I wanted to do it.”

– Mo Farah after setting his first world record on Saturday in the men’s 2-mile in Birmingham.

Weekend Track Action *Sainsbury’s Results

Sainsbury Indoor Grand Prix:
LRC Mo Farah Gets His First World Record, Runs 8:03.40 2-Mile (updated) The critics can shut up for quite some time now. Farah went 3:58 for his 2nd mile to get the WR.
*Farah: Vernon Row Got Me Going

Rest Of The Meet

LRC 2015 Birmingham Recap: Matthew Centrowitz & Shannon Rowbury See Winning Streaks Come To An End Some Americans did find success, however, as Ben Blankenship and Jordan Hasay PRed and Erik Sowinski almost did.
*Katarina Johnson-Thompson Sets British LJ Record With 6.93m; Jenny Meadows Wins 800 In 2:01Greg Rutherford won the LJ in an indoor PR and WLing 8.17m.
*Full Meet Recaps: Athletics Weekly & IAAF

MB: Mo Farah gets his first World Record – 8:03.40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MB: Why does NOP not focus on outdoor records as much?
MB: Jordan Hasay PBs (8:50.21) but gets smoked in last lap in 3k
MB: Lagat will BEAT Farah in Birmingham 2-mile
MB: Mo Farah finally going for a world record?
MB: Birmingham Grand Prix Thread

Previous Farah / Vernon Controversy News

Mo Farah Admits He Doesn’t Like Andy Vernon Because Vernon Said Farah’s “Not European” Apparently Farah heard Vernon say Vernon should have been given gold after finishing 2nd at Europeans to the African-born, American-living Farah.

Column: Mo Farah’s Spat With Andy Vernon Is Just Another Clash Of The Egos
British Website Slams Farah For Being A Hypocrite – 10 Months Ago, He Was Ripping Firms For Not Paying Taxes, Now He’s Trying To Become A Tax Exile In Portland The title of the article is harsh: “From lefty hero to tax exile in 10 short months.”

Week That Was

LRC NCAA Sub-4 Mile Mania, Montana State > Oregon, Colorado Gets Its 2nd Sub-4 Miler (Ever), Florence Kiplagat Nearly Goes 1:04, Drones Film Races, And Break Up With Your Girlfriend To Run Faster … We break down the last week in track and field and apply Isaac Newton‘s “What goes up must comes down” to running and take one final look at the 2015 NYRR Millrose Games. We devote a lot of time to breaking down the greatest day in sub-4 history and discover that Georgetown has 4 sub-4 guys this year, Colorado has had 2 (ever), but everyone should bow down to Montana State.

McFarland USA – HS XC Movie With Kevin Costner – Opens Today

LRC Mini Review:“McFarland USA is a winner … This movie will certainly become a classic on all team bus rides for years to come.” We saw an advanced screening in November and liked it even if it was predictable.
*MB: McFarland USA, currently at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes We should point out it’s down to 77% now – this is far from a “Field of Dreams” type hit.
USA Today: The Real 1987 McFarland, USA Runners Share Their Paths
Meet The Diaz Family That Stars In “McFarland, USA” Brothers David, Damacio and Danny Diaz all were key parts of the 1987 team.
Cleveland.com: “McFarland, USA” Overcomes Cliches To Display The Beauty Of Cross-Country
Thetelegraph.com: Predictable, Pleasantly So
WSJ: “Disney does inspiration on the cheap. … The script is dreadful and everything else suffers from its impoverishment.”
AVClub.com: “A story wherein a white man meets a group of non-whites, helps them realize their potential, and shows them the ocean for the first time.”
Legendary Cross-Country Coach Jim White, The Man Behind McFarland: “It’s all in the attitude.”

Random, But Somewhat Interesting

The Gregoreks Are Now The 8th Father-Son Combo To Go Sub-4 The Keinos have the fastest average – just .02 faster than the Centrowitzes.
Odds Of Having Casino Gambling In Time For Tokyo 2020 Are Slim
Adidas Flies 2 Brits In To Race NYC Subway – The Guys Who #RaceTheSubway
Starting/Timing Glitches Marred AAI Meet In Ireland The entire w60 had to be re-run 3 times as both the photo finish and clock failed to work.
Jaheel Hyde Has Never Beaten Michael O’Hara Of Calabar At “Champs” In The 110m Hurdles
Kelly Sotherton’s 2006 Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Stolen By Thieves

Elite Distance News

Elite American And International Fields Announced For March 15th 2015 United Airlines NYC HalfStephen 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 knows 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

Doping Stuff: Adrienne Herzog Gets 2 Years

Dutch Distance Runner And Boulder Resident Adrienne Herzog Gets Two-Year Doping Ban Herzog has long been linked to drug use and it finally caught up to her. Although of course, she still claims she’s innocent.
*MB Thread
*Good Detailed Look Into Herzog’s Link To Doping Over The Years
*More In The LRC Archives
Seb Coe Doesn’t Think Russia Should Be Banned From Competition After Doping Allegations Coe: “This is not about tap dancing on the graves of Federations. This is actually about helping those Federations …”
Lance Armstrong Pleads Guilty To Careless Driving After He Hit Two Parked Cars In Aspen He got charged about $390.
*MB:Lance Armstrong hits parked car, has girlfriend take the rap

New York’s Kamryn McIntosh Sets High School National 600 Record With 1:28.78

Grandma’s Marathon Race Director Jon Carlson To Retire In September After 12 Years With The Race

NCAA News

NCAA Changes Format For DI Outdoor Track And Field Championships – Men And Women Will Be On Different Days The goal is better media coverage / fan experience with the release stating: “The meet will be easier for fans to follow, and team scoring can be more easily highlighted when following one specific gender each day.” *MB:NCAA T&F Championships to have men’s and women’s events on alternating days – what ?
Florida Men & Arkansas Women Move to No. 1 In NCAA DI Indoor Track & Field National Rankings

Sunday: Dathan Ritzenhein, Jen Rhines Pick Up Wins And $8,000 At Publix Gasparilla Half Marathon 1:03:16 for Ritz with a comfortable win over Abdi. 1:12:34 for a 4-second win by Rhines over Neely Spence Gracey. Discuss Here

Team USA Wins Three Of Four Team Titles At Inaugural 2015 APA Pan American Cross-Country CupMaksim Korolev was the only individual champ for the US. Justyn Knight won the juniors for Canada.

The World Marathon Majors Are Underway – Tokyo In The Books *Results

Chumba running away from everyone but Negesse

LRCTokyo 2015: Negesse And Dibaba Get First Major Wins, Stephen Kiprotich = Hero In 2nd, Japanese Twitter Erupts, Lauren Kleppin Risks It All Ethiopians Endeshaw Negesse and Birhane Dibaba got the major marathon season underway with their first major wins as Stephen Kiprotich showed the Olympic spirit in second, Tariku Bekele bombed in his debut, Japanese twitter went nuts over the marathon, and Lauren Kleppin took a shot at greatness but bombed.

*MB: Official 2015 Tokyo Marathon Thread

NOP And OTC Distance News

Good Read:Cam Levins Feeling Positive About A Breakthrough 2015 Despite Millrose Setback Levins reveals that he was dealing with an illness before Millrose, where he ran a sub-par 5,000. Those who question his double at the ATI should remember his epic quadruples from college.
*LRC MB Archives: Salazar completely WASTES Levin’s AMAZING fitness on pointless DOUBLES *Cam Levins: performance of the week?? *Cam Levins quadruples again!
Q&A With Irish Miler Ciarán Ó Lionaird O’Lionard isn’t a big fan of running for running’s sake. “It is just a job I think more than anything now. A lot of the time you are just running the pace you need to run that day for work. … I don’t think I would be running if I wasn’t competing. … I am more of a competitor I would say, than a runner.”

USATF Angers Even More Of Its Members

Genzebe Dibaba Does It Again Full XL Galan Results WR Race Video

LRC Genzebe Dibaba Smashes Indoor 5,000 WR By Over 5 Seconds With 14:18.86 In Stockholm Dibaba now holds indoor WRs at 1,500, 3,000, 2 miles and 5,000 thanks to a stupendous performance, during which she hit 2 miles faster than Jenny Simpson‘s AR. *Video
*MB:Genzebe Dibaba Smashes 5000 WR – Runs 14:18.86!!
*IAAF Recap Sifan Hassan and Homiyu Tesfaye ran world-leading 1,500 times of 4:00.46 and 3:34:13; Qatar’s Musaeb Balla ran a WL 1:45.13 and Qatari teen Abadalleleh Haroun ran 45.13; plus a 6.99 WL in the LJ.

IAAF Recap Of Russian Champs: Anzhelika Sidorova Clears World-Leading 4.76mYelena Korobkina won the 3,000m (8:50.39) and 5,000 (15:47.09) but the times were modest in most events (2:02 in w800).

TMZ-Type News For A Former And Current Track Star

News From Over The Pond

Athlone GP In Ireland: Mutaz Essa Barshim Breaks His Own Asian Indoor HJ Record With 2.41m He made 3 attempts at a would-be WR of 2.44m, but missed. Ben Blankenship dominated the mile with 3:56.75, the first person to go sub-4 indoors on Irish soil. Erik Sowinski won the 800 (1:47.42). Asafa Powell was a DNS in the 60, while Tianna Bartoletta beat Carmelita Jeter in the women’s 60. *Local Recap*Results
Not Only In The USA:Track Fans Angered As Irish TV Cuts Away Halfway Through The Men’s Mile At AIT Grand Prix
Andy Vernon Talks About His Twitter War With Mo Farah; Calls Farah “Arrogant” “I put in a jab but he put in a haymaker below the belt and it sparked off from there.”
Ken Goe Wonders If Someone Else Was Operating Farah’s Account During His Twitter War With Vernon
GB Heptathlete Kelly Sotherton’s Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Stolen

Could You Beat The Mars Rover In A Marathon?

NASA’s Mars Rover Will Soon Finish A Marathon The robot’s mission on Mars was only supposed to last 93 days and 600m, but 11 years later it’s still going.

A Boring Tuesday Got A Little More Interesting Thanks To Twitter

LRC Andy Vernon Calls Out Mo Farah On Twitter: “I would just rather watch a race than the Mo Show.” Is Farah dodging the competition (again)? Vernon believes so and says the 2-mile field for this Saturday’s Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham (of which he is not a part) isn’t strong enough. Farah responded by saying, “Taylor Swift can probably run faster than you!”
*MB: Mo Farah and Andy Vernon go at it in Twitter
*AW Article

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

Jamaican (Doping) Stuff

Journalist Says Inviting Asafa Powell To Compete At Ireland’s Athlone Grand Prix “Sent Out The Wrong Message” She is of course talking about Powell’s 6-month drug ban last year. That was the headline anyway, but she spends most of the article talking about the Mo Farah – Andy Vernon Twitter battle.
WADA President Craig Reedie And Seb Coe In Jamaica For Anti-Doping Inspection / Check-Up
Jamaica Backs Seb Coe For IAAF President

More News Of Note

Q&A With Mo Aman About Joining The OTC “I am at a crossroads in my career and the Olympics are right around the corner again. … I have heard so much about Coach Mark Rowland and how passionate he is about the sport and his athletes that I wanted to see for myself.”
Australia > UK:Australia Sending 4 Full Teams To World XC
Kenyan Press Still Raving About Austin Marathon Crawler – Hyvon Ngetich – Her Awesome Willpower Is What History Is Made Of
Amy Acuff, NCAA HJ Record Holder, Has Developed A Coaching App For All Events – Ianalyze Side-by-side video comparisons and the ability to calculate velocities is included.
Vin Lananna Says Eugene Might Bid For 2021 Worlds, Talks About New NCAA Outdoor Format
Result Of Kenya’s Jr. Athletics Trials – Athletics Kenya Names 28 For Africa Junior Championships In Addis Ababa
Former CU Sprinter Joe Morris Has Relocated To Portland His PRs are 10.24, 20.77 and 47.17.
Jamaican Discus Thrower Traves Smikle Banned For 2 Years
Kenya Will Hold Its First All-Female Half Marathon On March 8th

News From Kenya

Great Read:Renato Canova Says Florence Kiplagat’s WR Was A Surprise Even For Him Last year, her #1 goal was the 13.1 WR with London Marathon 2nd. This year, the goal was the 15km WR but London is the goal as she needs to figure out if she should focus on marathon or 10,000 for 2016.