LRC4 Takeaways From An Awesome World XC Champs: Get Used To The Name Geoffrey Kamworor, The Vindication Of Sara Hall, LRC Is Popular In China, And African Domination Is A Good Thing

LRC Jeremy Wariner Runs 1:53.02 in His First 800

LRCCorrection See Below: Sunday Times Says Alberto Salazar's Group May Have Inadvertently Broken Anti-Doping Rules With L-Carnitine Injections

30th Carlsbad 5,000 Is Sunday *Streaming info (Women’s race at 2:56pm eastern, men 3:24 east)

LRC Genzebe Dibaba Shoots For World Record (14:46); Bernard Lagat & Diego Estrada Eye American Record; Dejen Gebremeskel Goes For 5 Straight  We spoke to Dibaba and her coach Jama Aden (among others), who offered an explanation for her struggles at outdoor World Championships. Andy Vernon also offered his thoughts on Mo Farah and Bernard Lagat talked about his special relationship with coach Li.

Non-World XC Distance News

• Recommended Read: Hey, LetsRunners, How Would You Like To Truly Be Part Of The “1 Percent”: In 30-Year History, Only 1% Of Competitors Have Finished The Barkley Marathons An absolute must read about the 100-mile ultramarathon in Tennessee which includes 65,000 feet of climbing (more than twice Mt. Everest) and a $1.60 entry fee … although RD Gary Cantrell says, “You pay for this with a chunk of your soul.”
• Saturday: 10K And 15K WR Holder Leonard Komon Leads Field For Prague Half Marathon Komon wants to run under 59 minutes and faces a deep field with 4 other sub-60 runners. The women are led by Lucy Kabuu (66:09).
• Saturday: Lodi Road Mile In California Featues Compeitive Races With An Elite Team Competition The men’s race has David Torrence, AJ Acosta and Riley Masters and Olympian Geena Lara (Gall) leads the women.
  *Race Website Race includes an interesting team concept which determines prize money breakdown.
• Jack Of All Trades: Max King Shares His Tips For Running Well At Track, Road, Trail/XC, Ultra And Mountain Racing At one point or another, King has put out incredible performances on each surface.

LRC Exclusives From 2015 World XC In China

Press Conference And Course Tour LRC Rejoice! Chris Derrick Is Just Like You – A Running Nerd; The Course Is Awesome, Tough And Dry; And The IAAF Shafts Ethiopia The course is far from muddy but it needs to be seen to be believed as it will definitely feature strength.

LRC World XC Track Talk Preview Show Podcast Available For Download With Rojo live in China, the LRC team broke down the men’s and women’s races with audio from Chris Derrick and Renato Canova on Kenenisa Bekele and Mo Farah.

LRC Team USA’s Chris Derrick Talks Medals, Belief, Kicking, And Even Supplements As He’s Ready To Lead Team USA And Challenge For Individual Medal The top US returner is coming off a solo stint in Flagstaff, AZ.

LRC Renato Canova Speaks From China On Derrick, Bekele And Farah Says both Derrick and Team USA have realistic shots at medals. Plus, Bekele’s training & whether Mo Farah would win World Cross.

Rio 2016 Releases Olympic Competition Schedule

Australia Names Team For 2015 IAAF World Youth Championships The championships are in Cali, Colombia in July.

Gatlin And Nike Making Waves

• Justin Gatlin Lands New Controversial Sponsorship Deal With Nike Gatlin was sponsored by Nike in the past before his second drug ban in 2006, but since returning in 2010 he’s been with Chinese firm Xtep.
• Sorry, Paula, But Where Have You Been? Paula Radcliffe Criticizes Nike For Giving Justin Gatlin Sponsorship Deal She tweeted: “I don’t believe it truly reflects the core values of the Nike that I am proud to represent …” Is she talking about the same company? The Nike we know defended Lance Armstrong until the very end.
• MB: Nike Won’t Sign Tyson Gay, But He’ll Still Get Paid To Run In Nike Gear Gay’s contract is with his coach, John Smith. So technically Nike isn’t paying Tyson Gay … at least directly.
• British Athletes Speak Out Against Nike For Sponsoring Justin Gatlin Sprinter Darren Campbell: “If young kids look at the spikes he is wearing and say they want them then how can a parent explain why they are not comfortable buying those shoes?” Unfortunately we’re pretty sure he gave that way more thought than 99% of parents.

Drug (Russian) News

• Thank You: IAAF Appeals Six Recent Russian Drug Ban Decisions The IAAF disagrees with the “selective disqualification of results applied by RUSADA.” Athletes received bans that conveniently let them keep championship medals.
  *IAAF Release The athletes are 5 race walkers and Olympic steeple champ steepler Yuliya Zaripova
• Great New Tool For Race Directors: Road Race Management Unveils Online List Of Convicted Drug Cheats An online searchable list of all convicted drug cheats. If an athlete is on this list, RDs should think twice about having them at their event.
  *See The List Here We just bookmarked this page. RDs, you should too.
• New Russian Head Coach, 2004 Olympic 800 Champ Yuriy Borzakovsky, Says Russia Has Turned Over A New Leaf “The guys now understand that the past should stay in the past. Now we have a new team and everyone in it is clean.”

• April 19: 2-Time Reigning Champ Deena Kastor To Return To NY For MORE/FITNESS/SHAPE Women’s Half Marathon
• May 3: Clara Santucci Eyes Event Record At DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon On May 3rd Santucci faces 9-time Wichita State All-American Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton, who is making her  debut.

Drug / Trial News

• Despicable: Drug Cheat Vadim Devyatovsky Was Actually Elected President Of Belarus Athletic Federation As He Faces A Lifetime Ban From The Sport The former Olympic hammer thrower tested positive at the 2000 Olympics, the 2008 Olympics (had ban overturned) and then in a re-test of 2005 World Champs samples. IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said, “We were not impressed to see he had been elected as president.” Devyatovsky’s lifetime ban case will be decided by CAS.
• Indian Sprinter Dutee Chand Starts Her Appeal Against “Gender Test” Ban Chand failed a gender test last year and was kept off the Indian team for Commonwealth Games when she refused medical treatment that would make her eligible.
  *Read More About Chand In The LRC Archives
• Terrorism Expert Says Boston Bomber’s Note Left In Boat Uses Jihadi Themes

2014 #1 Jairus Birech, Olympic/World Champ Ezekiel Kemboi And Evan Jager Lead Steeplechase Field For Pre Classic On May 30th Paul Kipsiele Koech (7:54), Olympic bronze medalist Abel Mutai, Dan Huling and former NCAA champ Matt Hughes are also in the field.

Sergey Bubka Says He Will Publish His Manifesto Soon As Part Of His Campaign To Be The Next IAAF President

The Search For A Better Running Shoe

LRC The Most Popular Running Shoe On LetsRun.com Is … Not Made Anymore … The Nike Pegasus+ 30 Thousands of you filled out our detailed running shoe survey in the fall and more of you ran in the Nike Pegasus+30 than any other shoe. Only problem is all of you need to find a new shoe, help us out below:

LRC The Improved LRC Running Shoe Survey Is Back – Three Minutes To A Better Running Shoe The running shoe buying process sucks and we want to improve it with data. We took your reviews from the fall, made a running shoe beta site, and have improved our survey to ask you what shoe your previously ran in. We now need more reviews from you on the latest shoes.