March 10, 2015 | LetsRun.com

Week That Was

WTWAndrew Wheating Your Kiwi 800 Champ, Great 1,500 Video From Euros, The Great Julia Lucas, Airbrushed Logos, Tweet Of The Week And More

The classy Julia Lucas hung them up in style, Nick Willis won the Kiwi champs and so did Andrew Wheating. We've got some great 1,500 action from Euros, a tweet of the week, a video of the week and airbrushed logos.

More Weekend Distance Action

Stanley Biwott Runs 59:20 World Lead To Win NN City Pier City Half Marathon In The Netherlands Countryman Cyprian Kotut was a close 2nd in 59:28 with Edwin Kiptoo 3rd (59:35). Maja Neuenschwander of Switzerland won the women’s race in 1:11:08.
Kenya’s Vincent Yator (60:16) And Ethiopia’s Yebrgual Melese (69:54) Win Paris Half Marathon
Andrew Butchard And Lily Partridge Win UK Inter-Counties XC Championship The meet served as the UK’s World XC trials, but that’s a bit irrelevant since UKA has already said they won’t take a full senior team to China.
*MB: Pathetic: Great Britain’s new motto – “If you can’t win, then don’t try at all.” What a horrible message to send!
Moses Kosgei And Former Boston Marathon 3rd Placer Georgina Rono Win First Lady Half Marathon In Kenya Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta ran the race in 3:24:55 (15:38 mile pace), beating last year’s time of 3:53:05. We expect more of Kenya’s top politicians.
Koichi Sakai Wins Kanaguri Hai Tamana Half Marathon In 62:54 Yuki Kawauchi is still struggling with a calf injury and finished in 24th (66:37).

Women’s Pro News

Kenya’s Two-Time World Jr. XC Champ Faith Kipyegon Out Of World XC Champs Due To “Toe” Injury She was even flown to the Netherlands for special treatment on it. This means two-time World XC champ Emily Chebet (who didn’t qualify at the Kenyan Trials) is now on the squad with a chance to defend her title.
*Africa XC Bronze Medalist Alice Aprot Also Out With Injury
Star Prep Sprinter And World 200 Gold Medalist Kaylin Whitney Goes Pro With Nike She ran 11.10 and 22.49 last year as a 16-year-old; the fastest under-18 woman ever. *Dyestat
Jordan Hasay Blogs: Wrapping Up The indoor Season Hasay talks about working towards goals and how times that seemed impossible in high school come easily now. *MB Thread

More Gruesome Testimony Expected In Boston Marathon Trial, Which Continues Monday

Boston Bombing Trial Updates

AP Legal Writer Explains Why There Is A Trial At All Given That Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Admitted He Did It
Victim Who Lost Both Legs In Widely Circulated Image Talks About How He Saw Tsarnaev Before The Explosions Jeff Bauman: “He was alone. He wasn’t watching the race. I looked at him, and he just kind of looked down at me. I just thought it was odd.”

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.

2015 NCAA Indoors Start Fri.

Men’s Mile LRC An Epic Battle Between An NCAA Superstar (Edward Cheserek) And A Guy Who Has Never Made NCAAs Before (Cristian Soratos) Cheserek goes for individual title #6 vs. Montana State’s 3:55 man Cristian Soratos, and don’t forget about defending champ Anthony Rotich of UTEP.
Women’s Mile LRC 1,500 Champ Shelby Houlihan Looks To Add Mile Crown To Her Résumé FSU’s Colleen Quigley (4:29.67, #5 all-time NCAA) and outdoor steeple champ Leah O’Connor of Michigan St. won’t go down without a fight.
800s:LRC Brandon McBride & Natoya Goule Shoot For Second Titles In Loaded Fields McBride hasn’t lost a collegiate 800 since May 2013, Goule lost at ACCs.

USATF Politics

LRC More USATF Controversy: Stephanie Hightower Gets Angry Reaction From Youth Chairman Lionel Leach Accusing Her Of “Bullying” Law And Legislation’s Tim Baker Baker spoke out about some recent USATF decisions at December’s annual meeting. Aftewards, he received a warning letter from Hightower. Read Hightower’s letter to Baker and Leach’s reply to Hightower and decide for yourselves. #USATFchange
*MB: Stephanie Hightower tries to bully Law & Legislation Secretary, gets called out by Lionel Leach
*LRC USATF Controversy Archive

Entries For This Weekend’s High School New Balance Indoor Nationals

European Indoor Champs In Prague Distance Results: Sun. Sat. Fri. *All Results

Final Day Distance Results: Chris O’Hare Beats Out Germany’s Homiyu Tesfaye For 1,500 Bronze Czech Republic’s Jakub Houlsa thrilled the home crowd with a surprise win in the 1,500 over Turkey’s Tanui Ozbilen. Sifan Hassan (4:09) won the women’s race while Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski and Switzerland’s Selina Buchel won the 800s.
IAAF Recap: Russia Tops The Medal Tables With 6 Gold Medals As Belgium’s 4 X 400 Sets A European Record The Belgium 4 x 400 (which included the three Borlee brothers) ran 3:02.87 to beat Poland by .10. In the women’s 60m, the Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers won, tying WL of 7.05. Behind her, Brit Diana Asher-Smith got silver in 7.08, tying the UK NR and setting a world age-19 best. Russia’s Ilya Shkurenev won the hepathlon while Russia also got wins in the women’s TJ, men’s PV and HJ.
UK’s World Indoor Champ Richard Kilty Wins 60m Gold To Prove He’s Not A “One-Hit Wonder” His GB teammate Chijindu Ujah was DQed for a false start. *BBC Recap *AW
Czech Republic’s Jakub Holusa Thrilled To Win 1,500 Gold On Home Soil “I still cannot believe I found the energy. … This is the top moment of my whole career.”
The Favorite Coming In, GB’s Jenny Meadows Pulled Out Of Euro 800 Final With Illness It’s worth noting this is after she got in to the final through a UK protest/Russian DQ.
Ireland’s Mark English On Getting 800 Silver: “I don’t know where it came from but I just had this big well of energy over the last 150 meters.” “Ireland’s a small country and we’re not going to produce the same amount of athletes as Britain, so there’s always going to be expectations on anyone with a chance of a medal.” *2nd Article
Chris O’Hare Got Spiked Bad At The Start Of Euro 1,500 Final He also said he wasn’t the weekend highlight in his family as his younger brother got 2nd at the Scottish School’s XC Champs after losing a shoe in the first mile.
Reuters: Russia Leap From Scandal To Top Of European Medal Table Russia had six golds, twice as many as any other country.
From Saturday: Lee Emanuel Exorcises Demons To Get Euro Silver In 3,000 “The 2012 trials were a real low point and I remember being on the track and wanting to cry but I had people who supported me and believed in me.”
Photos From 2015 European Indoor Champs

Lance Armstrong, Doping And The UCI

Year-Long Investigative Report Says UCI Colluded With Lance Armstrong To Hide His Doping Turning a blind eye doesn’t even begin to describe it as apparently at one point Armstrong’s lawyer was allowed by UCI officials to secretly write and edit the “report” of an earlier investigation into Armstrong’s doping.
Spark-Notes Version From USA Today
Good Piece With More Links From The Guardian
List Of Main Recommendations To UCI From Doping Report
USA Today: Cycling Leaders Slammed For Letting Doping, Armstrong Win

European Indoor Saturday Coverage

Sat. Distance Action: MB: Lee Emanuel Gets 3,000m Silver And A WR Attempt In The Men’s 1,500 Heats!!! Turkey’s Ali Kaya dominated the 3,000, leading gun to tape and breaking Mo Farah‘s MR with 7:38.42. Russia’s Yelena Korobkina won the women’s race (8:47), and the big names got through in the 800s semis. But maybe the biggest excitement came in the form of two extremely non-tactical men’s 1,500 heats.
The Huge Favorite Coming In, GB’s Jenny Meadows Runs A Disappointing 2:02.40 For 4th In Her Heat She only made the final after the UK protested and a Russian was DQed for a lane violation. Meadows said she has had a cold.
Lee Emanuel: “It’s nice to come here and show people I can actually run. It’s a big step … I finally feel like I can belong now.”
IAAF: Renaud Lavillenie Dominates PV With MR 6.04m To Win His 4th Straight Title He had it won with only 2 jumps, but continued on to break his own MR. Pavel Maslak thrilled the home crowd by defending his title in the 400 with a MR 45.33. Russia’s Mariya Kuchina won the HJ (1.97m) in a sudden death jump-off.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson Thinks UK Heptathlon Rivalry Between Her, Jessica Ennis And Morgan Lake Could Help The Sport “I heard BBC switched off the tennis to go to the athletics, which is insane.”
The Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers Could Be The Favorite In The 60m After Setting A New PR Of 7.07 To Clock The Fastest Time In The Heats
Ireland’s John Travers Sets A PR To Make 1,500 Final
UK’s Richard Kilty, CJ Ujah And Diana Asher-Smith All Through The First Round In The 60m
Johnson-Thompson Says She’s “Still In Awe” Of Jessica Ennis Even After Breaking Her Record “She’s one of the people who inspired me to be an heptathlete.”

LRC Editorial #weareusatf #dotherightthing

LRC"The System Didn't Work" - USATF Board Should Respect Its Members And Nominate Bob Hersh To IAAF Council

Next week, the USATF Board has the opportunity to do the right thing and honor the wishes of 85% of USATF delegates and nominate Bob Hersh to the IAAF Council. The track and field community that the Board is supposed to serve could not have made it more clear - Bob Hersh, not Stephanie Hightower, should be the USA nominee to the IAAF Council.

Runner Of The Month

LRCThe Nate Houle Story: "Trying to live life while you've still got it."

Nate Houle had it all: a beautiful wife, wonderful son, and his dream job coaching track at his alma mater Southern Utah University (Cam Levins' school, Nate was Cam's teammate). Then, in the span of five months, he lost his job, and was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Rather than make Nate bitter, the cancer has given Nate a new appreciation for life and God's plan for him. That makes him our Runner of the Month.

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

Nick Willis & Andrew Wheating Impress At NZ Champs *Results

Nick Willis Closes In 51.9 To Dominate 1,500 At NZ Champs In 3:50.90 Willis says he’s feeling so good at 32 years old he may carry his career on to 2020. Nikki Hamblin won the women’s 1,500 in 4:12.02. *Race Video
*MB: Nick Willis flies last lap in 51.9 to win NZ 1500m
Video: Andrew Wheating Wins NZ 800 In 1:49.82
*Video Of Wheating’s Heat He jogged in 1:52.92.
Jake Robertson Easily Wins 5,000; Wants To Go For The 10,000 NZ Record At Payton Jordan The NR is 27:41.95 by Dick Quax from 1977. Zane Robertson didn’t race due to a calf injury. *2nd Article
Nick Willis Set A New Speedgolf PR While In New Zealand Willis placed 2nd at the New Zealand Speedgolf Open, shooting an 84 in 38 minutes.
Tom Walsh Beats Jacko Gill In NZ Shot Put Battle Walsh won with 20.73m to Gill’s 20.33m.
NZ Sportswriter Wants To See More Walsh Vs. Gill Clashes This was the first time they had competed head-to-head for a year. The problem is Gill competes sparingly. He was at 5 meets in 2014 compared to Walsh’s 14.
Really Bad Rain/Windy Conditions For NZ Champs
Gill Going To Sweden Training Camp To Try To Bridge The Gap To Walsh Gill normally trains solo in his parents’ basement.
Stuart Farquhar Won His 15th NZ National Javelin Title

Julia Lucas Retires

Recommended Read: Julia Lucas Blogs About The 2012 Olympic Trials 5,000 And Her Retirement From Professional Track And Field “And so, as I emerge from a career that ended not as I would have liked, disappointed with what could have been and almost was, I still look to running. … A race is just a race, but running can be anything.”
*MB: Julia Lucas wrote an article about losing out in the 2012 Olympic Trials 5,000
*LRC Archives: The Women’s 5,000 Final – The Olympic Trials At Its Absolute Best
*“It Should Be Mathematical: One Couple, Two Dreams, .04 Seconds” Popular piece by Michael Heald.
*Official Julia Lucas Appreciation Thread!!!

More Weekend Action

Bahrain’s Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa Wins Nagoya Women’s Marathon In A CR 2:22:08 Russian 40-year-old Mariya Konovalova was 2nd, setting a PR and Masters WR with 2:22:27. Japan’s Sairi Maeda was 3rd despite taking a hard fall (2:22:48, #8 Japanese all-time). *JRN Recap
IAAF Recap Of Jamaica’s Carifta Trials: World Junior 110H Champ Jaheel Hyde Moves To 7th All-Time On WJ List With 13.22 He also dominated the 400H in 49.78. 15-year-old Christopher Taylor won the under-18 400 in 45.69 while Akeem Bloomfield won the junior race in 45.41.
France’s European Champ Yohann Diniz Breaks 20K Race Walk WR He “walked” 6:12 mile pace for 20K.

NCAA News / 2015 NCAA Indoors Start Fri.

NCAA 800 Previews: LRC Brandon McBride & Natoya Goule Shoot For Second Titles In Loaded Fields The favorites come in with opposite momentum. McBride hasn’t lost a collegiate 800 since May 2013, Goule lost at ACCs.
MB: Somone Break The Blue Hawks Up – Monmouth Men Win 2015 IC4A Indoor Title!!!
UConn Women Win ECAC Championships For Second Year Running *Results
Register-Guard: Another National Championship Could Come Down To The 3,000 For The Oregon Men Edward Cheserek: “If we have a good day we’ll go 1-2-3-4-5.”
Ken Goe: “The UO men will be one-dimensional at the NCAA Indoor, but it’s a good dimension.” They will rely almost exclusively on points from distance events.
RIP: Syracuse Sprinter Sabrina Cammock Found Dead In Times Square Hotel During Spring Break *AP: More Tests Needed To Determine Cause Of Death
Ken Goe: “What more does Eric Jenkins need to do to make The Bowerman watch list?” Coach Robert Johnson: “How Eric Jenkins isn’t on that list blows my mind.”

Interesting Indoor Stuff

Be Jealous: There Is A 546m Indoor Track In Oslo
University Of Iowa Could Get The Indoor Track From World Indoors In Portland After The Meet Is Over They might buy the portable track for a discounted price of $2.4 million, opposed to the $4 million it costs new.
Indoor Vs. Outdoor PRs: Analysis In Graph Form Compares PRs For Some Of The Fastest Athletes In Each Event The 5,000 has the worst average increase in time indoors compared to out.
Is Sub 6.50 For An Indoor 60 Equivalent To A Sub-10 100 Outdoors? 71% of the athletes that have run under 6.50 seconds have run a sub-10, but really sub-6.48 is probably more equivalent to a sub-1o.

Recommend Read: A Look Back At The Story Of Javelin Thrower Reg Spiers, Who In 1964 Mailed Himself Home To Australia From London Spiers was stuck in the UK with no money for a ticket, and desperate to make it home in time for his daughter’s birthday, he mailed himself home in a crate. A great story and a must read.

IAAF Recap Opening Days Of African Junior Championships In Ethiopia Highlights included a close 3-way battle in the 10,000 where Uganda’s world junior champ Joshua Cheptegei won in 29:58.70 over Kenya’s Davis Kiplongat (29:59.32). Other winners included Kenya’s Anthony Kiptoo in the 1,500 (3:43.98) and Abrahm Kibiwot‘s 8:47.43 steeple. *Full Results

Bernard Lagat And Deena Kastor Highlight March 29th Carlsbad 5K Kastor set the women’s US road 5K record here in 2002 and Lagat would have got the US record here last year if it wasn’t for a small 13.5-foot course setup error.

Euro Indoor Champs Friday Coverage

Friday Mid-D/D Results: MB Lee Emanuel Makes 2015 European Indoor 3,000 Final – Kate Avery does not Aníta Hinriksdóttir set a European Jr. record of 2:01.56 in the 800.
Video: Two Athletes Fall Hard At Finish Line Of 800 Heat Poland’s Karol Konieczny fell over the line and won the heat, but Austria’s Andreas Rapatz fell just before and had a final time of 2:19 by the time he got up.
Kate Avery “Absolutely Devastated” Not To Make Euro Champs 3,000 Final
Irish 800 Runner Mark English Thinks He’s Got A Great Shot At A Medal If He Makes Final
Ireland’s/NJ-NY TC’s Declan Murray Advances To 800 Semis He was in the heat with the crash.
IAAF Day 1 Recap: GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson Dominates Pentathlon With 5,000 Points And Just Misses Natallia Dobrynska’s WR By 13 Points She ran 2:12.78 in the 800, but needed 2:11.86. Sweden’s Michel Torneus won the LJ in a NR 8.30m, David Storl won the SP. Huge favorite Renaud Lavillenie almost went out in the PV as he needed 3 attempts at his opening height of 5.70m. World 400H champ Zuzana Hejnova failed to make the final in the 800.
Johnson-Thompson Disappointed With Missing Pentathlon WR “I am full of regret from the 800m. I thought I could easily run that time and maybe took it for granted …”
Legal Bribery? Russian And Ukraine Reach Deal Over Euro Javelin Champ Vira Rebryk Rebryk and other athletes took Russian citizenship last year when Russia annexed Crimea, but were blocked from competing. Now Russia has paid Ukraine “compensation” so Rebryk and the others can compete in the spring.