February 27, 2015 | LetsRun.com

2015 USA Indoors Are Saturday / Sunday In Boston 4-6pm Eastern On NBCSN, Rest Of Meet On USATF.TV

LRC Matthew Centrowitz Ready To Move On From Birmingham, Treniere Moser Feels At Home In The 1,000: Highlights From The USATF Press Conference Centro talks about the NOP double peak philosophy and trying to get his first indoor crown. Moser has indoor PRs at 800, 1,000, and the mile this year. More: 2015 USATF’s Quotes From Press Conference Treniere Moser, Sharon Day-Monroe, Natasha Hastings and Mary Saxer.

RRW: Treniere Moser Eyes 1,000m Crown To Cap Off Indoor Season

Women’s Preview LRC Mother Alysia Montaño Returns To Face Ajee Wilson + The Shannon Rowbury Show Ajee Wilson vs. Alysia Montano in the 600; Treniere Moser in the 1,000 (with high school senior Alexa Efraimson); & Shannon Rowbury and Jordan Hasay in mile/2-mile double.

Men’s Preview: LRC A Stacked Mile With Centro Vs. Leo (And Others), AR Vs. WR at 600 + A BTC Civil War At 2 Miles A WR holder and an American record holder clash in the men’s 600; the BTC trio of Chris Derrick, Ryan Hill and Evan Jager square off with Ben Blankenship in the 2-mile; & past USA Champs Matthew Centrowitz, Leo Manzano and Lopez Lomong vs. rising stars Blankenship and Pat Casey in mile.
*MB: 2015 Men’s USA Indoor meet is loaded – Who you got?

Conference Action This Weekend: Schedule And How To Watch All The Conference Champs This Weekend

Seb Coe Makes His Case For IAAF Presidency Over 5 Days *All Days

Day 4: LRC Coe On Marketing The Sport: One Size Doesn’t Fit All Coe advocates moving money from Monaco to the member federations who will know what works best locally. “We have to put the member federations in the best possible position to deliver the sport in the way they know there is a local interest. …We’ve got to find the key drivers of growth for the sport and we’ve got to be able deliver that sport in a much more flexible way.”
*Day 3: LRC Seb Coe’s Growth Plans: “We’ve got a sport, I think we’ve got to create a movement.”
*Day 2: LRC Seb Coe On Trust/Doping
*Day 1: LRC Intro And Summary “I take great exception to people from outside our sport trying to redesign our sport because they don’t fundamentally understand the nature, the history and the philosophy of it.”
*Day 5: A Sub-2 Hour Marathon?

Our Internal Squabble, Aired Publicly

LRC The LetsRun.com Civil War: Is Mo Farah The Greatest Of All Time? With 5 world titles and now a world record, there is no doubt that Mo Farah is currently the king of the track, but is he up for GOAT? The LRC team got into a heated argument about this topic. One even argued Farah isn’t as good as Sileshi Sihine.
*MB: With 5 world titles and a WR, is Mo Farah the GOAT (Greatest of all-time)? We say yes…(and hell no)

Drake Relays Presented By Hy-Vee Announces First Wave Of 2015 Athletes And Events A highlight will be the addition of an elite women’s 800 with Brenda Martinez and Ajee Wilson. Other top names competing include Renaud Lavillenie, Jenn Suhr, LaShawn Merritt vs. Kirani James, and a deep 110H and HJ competition.

Defense In Oscar Pistorius Case Is Challenging Judge’s Decision To Allow An Appeal By The Prosecution The prosecution thinks the judge made a misinterpretation of the law with her original rule of “culpable homicide” for 5 years.

Sainsbury’s Birmingham GP Results Race Video

LRC Mo Farah Gets His First World Record, Runs 8:03.40 2-Mile The critics can shut up for quite some time now. Farah went 3:59 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 2:01 Greg Rutherford won the LJ in an indoor PR and WLing 8.17m.
*Full Meet Recaps: Athletics Weekly & IAAF

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.

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.”

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

Big Administrative News

A Big Win For Athletes: IOC To Scrap Rule 40, Which Prevented Athletes From Doing Advertising With Non-Olympic Sponsors During Olympics The IOC under new leadership is starting to get it. If this rule wasn’t changed, we were going to encourage major athletes like Usain Bolt to violate it. Nick Symmonds and Sanya Richards-Ross were two athletes who spoke out against rule 40 at the last Olympics. For more on that, click here.

Asafa Powell’s Management To Sue Supplement Company Epiphany D1 For $8 Million For His Positive Drug Test Powell’s manager, Paul Doyle, also criticized the IAAF for not stepping in and acting quicker.

Thursday/Mid-Week Action

Auckland: Nick Willis Powers Away Over Final 600m For Convincing Win Over Zane Robertson In New Zealand The bookies (yes, you could bet on the race) in New Zealand had Zane as the favorite, but he’s had a slight injury. Andrew Wheating 1:48.40 over Ryan Gregson 1:49.21 in 800. Discuss Willis, Roberston here.

Malmo, Sweden: American Sharika Nelvis Runs World Leader In Hurdles, Barshim Ends Indoors Unbeaten, 38-Year-Old Kim Collins Still Unbeaten, So Is Lavillenie

Previous – Metz, France: Bernard Lagat Runs 7:37.92 – New Masters WR He took down some big names – Paul Kipsiele Koech, Nixon Chepseba, Bethwel Birgen. *Metz, France Results

Doping Updates

Qatari 1,500 Runner And Former WJ Champ Hamza Driouch Gets 2-Year Drug Ban People were saying Driouch would be the next great miler when he ran 3:50 as a 17-year-old. Saudi Arabia 5,000 runner Hussain Jamaan Alhamdah also got a 2-year ban. Both were caught with the biological passport. *Discuss
Depressing Numbers: New Dutch Study Estimates Doping In Elite Sport Is Likely Between 14 To 39 Percent This is way less than the number of athletes actually testing positive, which is about 1%.

Elite Distance News

March 15: Past Champions Sally Kipyego And Caroline Rotich, Along With Top Americans Molly Huddle And Desiree Linden, Headline Women’s Field For NYC Half Marathon The deep field also includes Joyce Chepkirui, Buzunesh Deba and Annie Bersagel.
Great Podcast Interview: 2:14 Marathoner Nate Jenkins (7th At The 2007 Olympic Trials) Making A Comeback From 7 Years Of Injuries To Race At The Boston Marathon Jenkins: “Six weeks ago I was thinking that to run in the 2:15 range would be on that course really phenomenal. Right now I feel like 2:13 is definitely possible. … Yeah, I’m starting to get some big eyes.”
*Some Good Insights Into Jenkins’ Comeback/Training In His Blog
*MB: Nate Jenkins returns to Marathon
You’ve Been Reading, But Have You Been Watching? Video Highlight Reel From The Top Track And Field Action So Far In 2015 Includes the recent WRs by Mo Farah, Genzebe Dibaba and Florence Kiplagat, as well as Jenny Simpson‘s AR.
Good Read: Spikes Talks To Zane Robertson About His Transformation From The 17-Year-Old Who Left New Zealand For Kenya To The Sub-60 Minute Half Runner He Is Now “It [winning bronze at Commonwealth Games] meant all of the hardship had finally paid off. It is something I’ve been aiming for the whole of my life.”
Visit From Pope Francis Will Push Rock ‘N’ Roll Philadelphia Marathon Back To Saturday, October 31st The race is normally on the third Sunday in September and is often used by a tune-up for elites racing Chicago or NYC.

Week That Was

LRC Tsegaye Kebede Vs. The USA, Don’t Positive Split The Marathon, Worlds Is Coming, An Improved World Marathon Majors, NCAA Men Vs. NCAA Women And More We recap the week in running.

The World Marathon Majors Are Underway – 2015 Tokyo In The Books *Results

Chumba running away from everyone but Negesse

LRC Tokyo 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. *IAAF Recap

More Weekend Distance Highlights

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
*Toni Reavis Article *Earliest Race Of Ritz’s Career

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 4.76m Yelena 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

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.”

We Span the Globe So You Don’t Have To #InterestingNews

USA: Desi Linden Has Trained In Florida, Kenya And Michigan, Doing A 12 Miler In -35 Wind Chill Weather In Preparation For Boston
ASICS America Goes Over $1 Billion In Sales For First Time Congrats to Asics.
USATF Foundation Awards $374,000 In Grants to 45 Athletes Among the athletes getting $7,000 are Alysia Montano, Morgan Uceny and Chanelle Price. Maggie Vessey and others are getting $4,000. Of the $374,000, $170,000 was announced separately yesterday for throwers.
Japan: Imperial Crown Prince Of Japan Runs Outside For First Time In 7 Years, Clocks 27:20 5k Article claims he ran about 5k in 27:20, which would be a really good time for a 55-year-old. Who knows? Maybe he is a LRC reader. Japanese article with photo here. 7 years ago, he reportedly ran under 5 min/km.
Preview Of Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon – Final Japanese Worlds Qualifying Men’s Race
Britain: 2016 World Half Marathon Champs In Cardiff, Wales Will Not Pay Mo Farah An Appearance Fee Good for them. World Championships should not pay appearance fees. The race is a mass participation race and pre-registration is now open.
Kenya: Only In Kenya: First Lady Margaret Kenyatta Training In Iten In Advance Of First Lady Half Marathon She’s run with Abel Kirui, Mary Keitany, Wilson Kipsang and Edna Kiplagat, among others. Maybe she realizes she has to start training after running over 7 hours in London last year.
Australia: USATF Isn’t the Only Dysfunctional One: Sports Commission Slams “Poor Governance” Of Athletics Australia They recommend only 60% funding for next year.
Worldwide: Classic Photos From The History Of World Cross-Country Champs

A Step In The Right Direction: USATF Acts Quickly And Reinstates Sisu Club XC Nats Video Last week, USATF got their video taken down off YouTube, saying it was copyright infringement. Max Siegel put out a statement recognizing clubs should be encouraged (not prevented) from promoting the sport.

News From Europe: Indoor Champs Are Next Week

800 Runner Mark English Not Feeling The Pressure Despite Being Ireland’s Lone Medal Hope At European Indoors He says he’s got a lot of confidence from the bronze medal he won at European outdoor champs last year.
Greg Rutherford Has Last Minute Change Of Heart And Will Compete For GB At European Indoor Championships Starting March 5th Other top team members include sprinter Richard Kilty, pentathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Chris O’Hare in the 1,500, Jenny Meadows (800) and Kate Avery and Laura Muir (3,000).
IAAF: Volunteers Wanted For The 2015 World Masters Athletics Championships In Lyon, France

Spice Up Your Winter – Photo Of The Year Contest

LRC The Story Behind The Alaskan Flip-Off: The 2013 LRC Photo Of The Year

LRC What’s Your 2014 Running Photo Of The Year? Have you taken a photo or seen a photo that could be the running photo of the year (2014 until now)*. Submit or tweet your entries to us. Winner and/or person who tells us of winner wins $100.