Post-USAs News

• The Story Behind Shannon Rowbury’s Eye-Catching Lipstick She used the lipstick in homage to her grandmother, who passed away in February 2011.
  *OTB: Shannon Rowbury’s Lipstick-What The Heck. And what color is it, Fusha? *Rowbury wearing lipstick?????
• US Pole Vault Champ Demi Payne Lost Her ID In Boston, But Was Able To Get Through Airport Security By Showing TSA The Cover Of T&F News
• Toni Reavis: “Racing Rules At USATF Indoor Champs” Reavis writes about the meet and the great excitement that can come from races without pacers.

More USA Indoors *Photos
*Interviews *Race Videos

Updated Centro Wins His First Indoor Crown In Impressive Fashion Matt Centrowitz won his first indoor title impressively as Ben Blankenship was the runner-up for the second day in a row.

LRC Shannon Rowbury Completes The Double; Alysia Montaño Is Officially Back; Ajee Wilson Falls Hard A fall marred the women’s 600. Shannon Rowbury needed no help in the women’s 2-mile.

*Boston Globe: Collegiate Record Holder Demi Payne Surprises Pole Vaulting Field Payne won with 4.55m as Jenn Suhr no-heighted after pulling out with an injury.
*IAAF Recap Non-distance highlights: Michelle Carter‘s world lead in the SP (19.45m), Tianna Bartoletta (7.08) and Marvin Bracy (6.55) in the 60m.
*Final Day Athlete Quotes Lauren Wallace on winning the 1,000: “The coolest part was running through the tape. I’ve never been able to do that before. The tape was really, really cool.”

Sunday Road Racing

• Sammy Kitwara Gets His Fifth Title At World’s Best 10K In Puerto Rico He ran 28:51 in hot/humid conditions to win over a competitive field. John Mgangui was a close 2nd (28:52) with Stephen Sambu 3rd (28:56); Ben True 6th (29:19). Ethiopia’s Belaynesh Oljira (31:57) won the women’s race by 1 second over Cynthia Limo. Betsy Saina was 3rd (32:07); Vivian Cheruiyot back in 8th (33:23). *Full Results
• Kenya’s Samuel Ndungu Runs 2:09:08 To Regain Lake Biwa Marathon Title 3 Years After He First Won There were still 40 runners in the lead pack when they went through 20K in 1:01:12 (2:09:07 marathon pace), but Ndungu won by over 2 minutes. 2:04 man Bazu Worku was back in 7th (2:13:32).
  *Bizarre: Pacemakers Did A Terrible Job As The Pace Was All Over The Place And One Almost Took The Leaders The Wrong Way Apparently the elites kept passing the pacers and telling them to speed up. One pacer helped Ndungu out, though, by loaning him his watch before dropping out.
• Kenyan Robert Chemosin Runs World Leading 59:37 To Win Rome Osita Half Marathon In A Close Race With Simon Cheprot (59:39) Geoffrey Kusuru was 3rd in a Ugandan NR (59:43). Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso took the women’s race in 1:08:43.
• Tadashi Isshiki Wins Japan National University Half Marathon Champs In 1:02:11 There was only a 5-second spread between the top 4 and the top 27 broke 1:03. 159th place was 1:04:59; 265th place 1:05:59.
• MB: Danny Mercado Sighting – OT Marathon Qualifier

Random Stuff

• The Telegraph Asks Who Was The Most Stylish Sportsman Of All Time? Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson and former GB world champ hurdler Colin Jackson were on the list.
• Ah, To Be Young And Naive: Nigerian 15-Year-Old Eying Usain Bolt’s 100m WR He is quoted as saying the record is 9.88 seconds, so someone might need to break it to him that he’ll need another 3 tenths on top of that.
• Former World XC Champ Lornah Kiplagat Launches Sports Apparel Line

Asking The Questions That Need Answering

LRC Why Was Drug Cheat Hamza Driouch Training (With Mo Farah) In Ethiopia? Who Supplied The 17-Year-Old Doper? Social media photos of Mo Farah training with now drug cheat Hamza Driouch of Qatar have the British press asking, “What is Farah doing training with a drug cheat in Ethiopia?” Our more immediate focus is, “What the hell is drug cheat Driouch doing training period?”
*MB: Mo Farah training with Driouch after his suspension started (but before it was announced)

Update: British Athletics Responds: Say They Relied On Jama Aden To “Facilitate” Farah’s Trip Aden provided Driouch as an athlete to train with Farah. Aden says he didn’t know about his ban.
*Mo Farah In Twitter Pic With Gamze Bulut And Taoufik Makhloufi

• Another Russian Walker Suspended For Doping This time, it was 18-year-old Evgeny Pantyushin, who is another one of Viktor Chegin‘s athletes (Chegin has had at least 17 athletes get banned). She gets a 9-month ban backdated from October for a steroid.
• Following Visit, WADA President Craig Reedie Praises Improvements Jamaica Has Made To Their Anti-Doping Program “They have now created a model that others can replicate.”

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

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.

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.

Marathon News

• Good Read: Shalane Flanagan Going All-Out For Boston Again Flanagan talks about her devotion to winning Boston, her connection to the race, and Rita Jeptoo drug bust.
• 18-Year-Old 2:38 Marathoner Alana Hadley Ineligible For The Olympics Due To Her Age She’ll be 8 days too young for IAAF rules. If she finished top 3 at the Trials and couldn’t go, that would be an outrage, but as she’s 44th on the qualifier list, that isn’t expected to be an issue.
• Lead Car Takes Top 3 Runners Off Course In Birmingham Mercedes-Benz Half Marathon; 4th Place Runner Gets The Win And Prize Money The Hansons Distance Project was understandably upset, tweeting that organizers “dropped the ball.”
• Good Q&A With Dennis Kimetto, Who Says Yes, He Did Run To School And Back Each Day As A Kid Interestingly, Kimetto disagrees with Mo Farah as he says “A record is more valuable than beating somebody.”

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