May 3, 2015 | LetsRun.com

2015 IAAF World Relays Results Video Interviews

LRCWhat a Race: USA Breaks World Record in Men's DMR in 9:15.50 in a Crazy, Crazy Race

Kenya's Ferguson Rotich (47.84 first 400 on 800 leg) and Timothy Cheruiyot (51.96 first 400 on 1,600 leg) ran like mad men while the quartet of Kyle Merber, Brycen Spratling, Brandon Johnson and Ben Blankenship (3:51.24 anchor) ran superbly to get the win and the world record in a race like no other.

Day 2 Live Thread

LRC It’s Gold! U.S. Quartet Of Duane Solomon, Erik Sowinski, Cas Loxsom & Robby Andrews Win 4 X 800 In 7:04.84 Erik Sowinski ran like a beast on leg #2 and the rest was history as all 4 guys did a great job.

More In Depth: A Mature “Cool And Calm” Robby Andrews Anchors US To 4 X 800 Gold Andrews ran like a pro on the anchor and talked maturely about being back with coach Vig and the rest of 2015.

LRC The US Women Dominate And Set A New World Record Of 10:36.50 In Women’s DMR Total and complete domination by the US, which nearly had the best leg on every leg.

MB: Official 2015 IAAF World Relays Live Discussion Thread Talk about the action live as it happens.

LRC They Did It Again: USATF And Its Board Think Doper Dennis Mitchell Is The Best Man In America To Coach Team USA Jakob Larsen, Danish Athletic President, says it best: “I don’t get it – should be possible to find another skilled relay coach in the US. Wonder how the US athletes feel about it?”

How To Watch World Relays Live TV from 7-10pm Eastern tonight and Sunday. Universal Sport, Eurosport 2 in Europe, & YouTube.

LRC Previews:
Sunday: Men’s DMR: No Kiprop = Wide Open Should be tremendous.
*Women’s 4 X 800: US Should Repeat In case you haven’t read them, you can still read our previews to get ready for the action.

Full coverage in our Special Section.

Despicable & Corrupt

Ugandan Coach Peter Wemali Faces Possible Death Penalty With Rape Charges Against Him Ammended To “Aggravated Defilement” After He Was Found To Be HIV Positive He reportedly infected two of the three runners he’s been accused of raping.
2:07 Kenyan Francis Biwott Says He Was Exploited By A Foreign Agent And Forced To Sit Out Of The Seoul Marathon After Traveling To South Korea To Compete Upon arrival, Biwott refused to sign an agreement that would have forced him to surrender 50% of his prize money.

UCI President Brian Cookson Believes Criminalizing Doping Is A “Good Idea”

Seb Coe Says It’s A “High Priority” To Have A World Championships Hosted In Africa

Upcoming Road Action

Prague Marathon On Sunday: Former Rabbit Geoffrey Ronoh Faces Deep Field With 8 Men In The 2:06-2:08 Range Ronoh is famous for rabbitting Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto at the Olomouc Half and then staying in and beating them in 59:45. Women’s field is led by Ethiopia’s Koren Jelela (2:22:43) and has five sub-2:25 women.
Preview: World Half Marathon Champ Gladys Cherono Leads Field For Ottawa 10K On May 23rd

Previous World Relays News

IAAF Previews: *W 4 X 100 *W 4 X 200 *W 4 X 400 *W 4 X x800 *W DMR *M 4 X 100 *M 4 X 200 *M 4 X 400 *M 4 X x800 *M DMR

2015 Worlds Will Be In Beijing In August And These Athletes Should Be There

Week That Was

WTWLarry Bird's Underwater Treadmill, Why The Slow 4 X Mile At Penn Rocked, Masters Dopers, Tadese's Latest Excuse, And The Annie Leblanc Train Keeps Gathering Steam

What a week it was with London, Boston, Drake and Penn. Annie LeBlanc kept rolling at Penn, we’ve got an excuse for Zersenay Tadese, we tell you why so many of you hate sit and kick races, talk Larry the Legend‘s underwater treadmill, masters doping and more.
*DailyRelay’s Penn And Drake Recap
*DailyRelay’s 26 Thoughts On The 2015 London Marathon
*10 Reasons Why The Drake Relays Are Popular

US Distance News

Doping News

Runner’s World Calculates That Liliya Shobukhova’s Doping Cost Irina Mikitenko $530,000 And Edna Kiplagat $507,000 Of course, this assumes they themselves were/are clean (no reason to say they aren’t).
EPO Cheat Wilson Erupe’s Bid For Korean Citizenship Is Causing Controversy In Korea No one seems concerned he’s an EPO cheat – rather that he is Kenyan.
Isaiah Kiplagat Plans To Make The Fight Against Doping A Top Priority If Elected VP Of IAAF The sport is in serious trouble if this guy gets elected.

Sprint News

Usain Bolt’s Buildup To The Rio 2016 Olympic Games And His Planned Retirement In 2017 Is Set To Be Made Into A Feature-Length Documentary
Adam Gemili Says It’s Absurd To Think That An Arsenal Footballer Is Faster Than Richard Kilty, Let Alone Usain Bolt “If they were to actually have a race then Kilty would breeze it. The Arsenal guys would have no chance.”
After “Rest Year” In 2014, Christine Ohuruogu Relishes Return To Hard Graft As Briton Prepares To Defend 400m World Title In Beijing She purposely didn’t take the whole year off but was only at “half” of her normal fitness by design: “With the 400m you can’t have complete time off. Too much rest is a bad thing.”
Sanya Richards-Ross And Allyson Felix Will Clash In 400 At Pre Classic
Usain Bolt Will Race 200m In Ostrava On May 26th

Doping News

Liliya Shobukhova Doping Hearing Cancelled By CAS The IAAF was appealing to make her 2-year ban a 4-year ban, but reports are saying that the IAAF and Russian athletics federation reached an out-of-court settlement.
Jamaican Opinion Piece Arguing For Lifetime Drug Bans In The Wake Of Usain Bolt’s Comments Against Ban Reductions “… I do also believe that every mentally competent individual works out the cost or benefit of whatever action he or she contemplates …”
WADA Has Set Up Online Site For Whistleblowers To Report Information About Doping In Russia
WADA To Monitor Russian Lab Work During World Swimming Championships

The 2nd Annual World Relay Championships Are This Weekend *Entries

$1.4 Million In Prize Money Up For Grabs At World Relays In The Bahamas
Provisional Entry Lists
St. Kitts And Nevis Names World Relays Squad Former world champ Kim Collins was offered a spot on the team, but turned it down.
Blessing Okagbare Leads Nigeria Team
669 Athletes, 43 Countries For 2nd World Relays

Training Talk

Interesting Look At The Difference In Training Between Sprint- And Endurance-Based 800 Runners Includes quotes and example workouts from Phoebe Wright (sprint/speed) and Heather Kampf (endurance/strength).
Running Form Analysis Of The Elites At The Boston Marathon Could have some small arm swing changes have changed the outcome of the race?

IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With TJ World Champ Caterine Ibarguen In this interview series, she’s probably the 100th athlete to name “herself” for the question about her “greatest rival.” However, in this case we think it was the right answer since she hasn’t been beaten since 2012.

2015 Virgin Money London Marathon Results Video Highlights

Men LRC London Lives Up To The Hype As Eliud Kipchoge Takes Down Wilson Kipsang In Final Mile To Win In 2:04:42 (updated with QTs) This one was packed with drama as with 5 miles to go, it was down to the Big Three of Kipchoge, Kipsang and WR holder Dennis Kimetto plus ’14 runner-up Stanley Biwott. After a 4:33 25th mile, it was Kipchoge vs. Kipsang and after a 4:33 26th mile, Kipchoge was the winner – Kipsang finally breaking with 800 to go.

LRC Did You Miss The Break In The Men’s Race At The 2015 London Marathon? The Mystery Behind The One Minute Of Missing TV Coverage Explained

London On The Boards:

Bruce Jenner Sex Change

Bruce Jenner Says His “Brain Is More Female Than It Is Male” Jenner talks about reaction from his family, not being gay, and sexual reassignment surgery. “I’m not this bad person. I’m just doing what I have to do.”
Bruce Jenner: “For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman.”
Bruce Jenner Interview Gets “Mixed Bag” Of Reactions
Billie Jean King To Bruce Jenner: “We learn from you to be courageous.”

Even Though It Wasn’t Gatlin Vs. Bolt On Anchor, It Was More Entertaining Than Mayweather-Pacquiao *Results

4x1 LRC Sprint Action At World Relays (With Video) – Down Goes Jamaica And Bolt (For First Time Since 2008), Down Goes Felix And US, Tyson Gay Apologizes Bolt vs. Gatlin didn’t happen but there was still drama in the 4 x 100, a disaster in the 4 x 200, and an apology from Tyson Gay.

Alan Abrahamson: “This is exactly the kind of thing that track and field needs, the spotlight on a seemingly relaxed Usain Bolt.”
Women’s 4 X 400 First Round: USA Through With A World-Leading 3:24.05
Men’s 4 X 400 First Round: Bahamas, USA And Trinidad And Tobago Win Their Heats
IAAF Recaps: Men’s 4 X 100 *Men’s 4 X 800 *Women’s DMR

2015 Stanford Payton Jordan Was Saturday *Entries, Schedule And Results

LRC Women: Sally Kipyego Goes Sub-15:00, Nicole Tully Has Fast Debut, Emily Sisson Beats Jordan Hasay’s PR, And Meet Courtney Frerichs The women’s 5k and 10k were the highlights as Kipyego is returning to form and Nicole Tully continues her breakout year.

LRC Men: HSer Grant Fisher Impresses, Nick Symmonds And The 10k Guys Disappoint The 10k went out super slow as Andy Vernon got the win. A D2 guy won the 800, and Stanley Kebenei could be on the US Worlds team in the steeple.

MB: Official 2015 Payton Jordan Live Discussion Thread

*Full Coverage With More Articles In Our Special Section

Distance News

Alberto Salazar Says Mary Cain’s Goal Is To Be Race Fit By June She only ran 4:15 last night, but Salazar expects her to be in the 4:07 range by June (her PR is 4:04.62).
Meb Keflezighi Has Gained 12 Pounds Since The Boston Marathon He was 121.4 before the race and 134.0 10 days later.
*MB: Meb is going to break down
Diamond League Season Is Almost Here: Asbel Kiprop Vs. Mo Aman Vs. Nijel Amos Over 800m In Doha On May 15th Abebe Aregawi, Sifan Hassan and Faith Kipyegon in the 1,500.

Oregon State High Performance Meet *Full Results

Mary Cain Wins 1,500 In 4:15 She won by 10 seconds, but was paced by Geena Lara the first 1,200. She also started the 5K, but stopped 3K in.
High Schooler Matthew Maton 1:51.8 To Win His Heat
Former Oregon Jav Thrower Haley Crouser Back In Form As She Gets Her Best Mark Since High School She has left Oregon, but will transfer to either USC, Georgia or Texas next year.

Post-London And Boston News

LRC Mizuno Renews Contract With 2015 Boston Marathon Champ Caroline Rotich
Dennis Kimetto Says He Lost In London Because A Knee Injury Flared Up Late, Says He Wants To Run Worlds Instead Of Berlin “I could have won if the pain did not return because it made me drop from the leading pack to find my pace.”
Priscah Jeptoo Says Pace Was Too Slow, Weather Too Cold For Kenyan Women In London It sure didn’t hurt the Kenyan men.
*MB: Priscah Jeptoo: Kenyans lost in London because the pace was too slow: “We don’t even train at the pace we were running.” (link fixed)

Track And Field Has Lost Two Of Its Journalist Legends

Vic Holchak Has Passed At Age 74 Credentialed as an Olympic journalist at age 16, he went on an television acting career but always loved track and was loved by the founders of LetsRun.com for being the voice of 1-800-94-Track .

Last Month: Esteemed Track And Field Journalist James Dunaway Dies At 87

800 News

Photo Galleries: London Boston *BAA 5k American Records

Random News

Dude, Where’s My Car? Man Running Manchester Marathon Forgets Where He Parked And Doesn’t Find His Car For 9 Days A stranger actually found it for him after it appeared on the local news.
Epic Fail: Race Official At Glass City Marathon In Toledo Sends Race Leader The Wrong Way, Costing Her An Olympic Trials Qualifying Mark Samantha Bluske still won in 2:47:20, but ran about an extra mile, thereby missing the 2:43 standard.
Bravo: Local Restaurant Tries To Help Save UNCW Track Team Even before the restaurant fundraiser, the team had saved $150,000 of their $250,000 goal.
Wonder What He Thought Of The 4 X Mile? Reports Say Vice President Joe Biden Was At Penn Relays

More Weekend Distance Results

On The Roads: Former World XC Champ Japhet Korir Wins 10K In Würzburg In 27:47 While Caroline Chepkemoi Wins Women’s Race In 32:36 James Rungara wins half in Nice, France in 60:12; Ednah Kimaiko wins women’s race in 70:45.
Japan Running News Weekend Track Round-Up: Kenyan William Malel Runs World-Leading 27:42 10,000
Elisha Barno Wins Kentucky Derby Festival Half Marathon In 1:01:44 Pius Nyantika was 2nd in 1:01:46. Askale Merachi won the women’s race (72:08) while HS pro Alana Hadley ran for 3rd (1:18:43).
Yuki Kawauchi Wins Sado Toki Half Marathon In 66:14
IAAF Recap: Kenya And South Africa Impress At African Youth Championships The 3,000 titles were taken by (a different) Emily Chebet (9:10) and Davies Kiplangat (7:56).
Adam Roach And Malia Crouse Win Big Sur International Marathon

NCAA Stuff

Blogger Defends Edward Cheserek’s 4 X Mile Tactics: “The Leader’s Dilemma”
Ken Goe: “Count the Penn Relays 4 x Mile as a lesson learned for the Oregon Ducks.”
Top NCAA Marks In Each Event From The Weekend
Teams Shift Dramatically In Updated D1 Rankings: Texas A&M Men Stay #1, But Southern California Women Move To #1 As Texas A&M Drops To 9th
USTFCCCA: Clarification On Demi Payne’s Collegiate Pole Vault Record Long story short, it counts even though it broke some random rules.

London Women Results Video Highlights

Women LRC Forget About Kenyan “Fantastic Four;” Ethiopia And Tigist Tufa Reign Supreme In London The “Fantastic Four” and “Fabulous Five” got all the pre-race love but Tufa, a 25-1 longshot, was patient this time and got the win over Mary Keitany in 2:23:22.

Paula Radcliffe's Final Competitive Marathon Paula Radcliffe Has Emotional Goodbye To Competive Running Video of Paula’s finish, interview with her, and article. Recommended read/watch.

LRC Video Highlights Of 2015 London Marathon
*RRW: Recap *IAAF

Payton Jordan Is This Weekend But NOP Won’t Be There *Entries

MB: This 2015 Payton Jordan Entry List IS STACKED!! ~~Rupp in the 5k!!~~
MB: NOP pulls out of Payton Jordan
MB: ~~Cain~~ vs Cranny vs Efraimson Payton Jordan

Non-World Relays Sprint Stuff

Asafa Powell Wins 100 In Guadeloupe In 10.08, Running Into A 2.6 m/s Headwind US’s Aleec Harris won the 110H in 13.18, Brittney Reese won the LJ and Tori Bowi the 100 (11.13). Sharika Nelvis beat Brianna Rollins in the 100H and Bershawn Jackson won the 400H.
Usain Bolt Will Compete At June 13th adidas Grand Prix In NYC
Penn Relays Meet Director Dave Johnson Talks About Court Case With Jamaican HSer Michael O’Hara Johnson says this is the first time any court action has been taken against the Penn Relays, but has no ill feelings towards Calabar HS.
Jessica Ennis Getting Ready To Begin Her Comeback With Her First Competition Since She Won Heptathlon Gold At London 2012 Next weekend, she’ll face Brianna Rollins and Tiffany Porter over 100H at the Manchester CityGames.

More Distance News

Q&A With Former Olympian, Now Running Fashion Designer, Lornah Kiplagat Kiplagat talks about her career as a pro and working in fashion since retiring. Talking about training, she says, “Training is not about killing yourself, it’s not about torturing yourself, it’s about having fun.”
Boston Marathoner Searching For The Man She Kissed In Wellsley On A Dare On a dare from her daughters, she reversed the typical Wellsley College tradition and got a photo of it. *AP Article

Too Much Sitting Increases Health Risks Even If You’re Fit

Training Science

Efraimson In The News

Mike Hickey’s Hoping To Expand His Training Group To More Than 2 People – John Cook Is Now Advising Him MB: John Cook’s back in the game – helping coach Alexa Efraimson
Meet Alexa Efraimson’s Training Partner McKayla Fricker Fricker was a DII champ at Seattle Pacific last year in a PR of 2:06.18 but is thriving with Efraimson and just ran 2:03.

News From The UK

Marathon News

2015 BOA Chicago Marathon Lottery Acceptances Announced – 2015 Chicago Marathon By The Numbers 36% of lottery entrants got in. 15% of the field were guaranteed to charities.
Athletics Weekly Editor Says London Is The Best Marathon “In my view, the race has clearly the best elite fields, the best course, the best and most enthusiastic crowds and the best organisation,” said Steve Smythe, who is a bit biased as he’s run it 34 times.
Man Runs 2:29 In London Dressed As Spider-Man
*MB: Man – i mean moron – ran 2015 London Marathon in 2:28 dressed as superman

Distance Updates

Athletics Kenya To Name Beijing World Marathon Team Next Week
Phoebe Wright Blogs About A Solid Third Place Finish In The Drake Relays 800 Wright has struggled in recent years and said she “forgot what it feels like to run well.” Here, her 2:01.65 time wasn’t super fast, but she got a lot of scalps and won a big (both in size and amount) check.
Running Times Q&A With Leah O’Connor, Who Says “I’m Just Now Falling In Love With Running” O’Connor talks about how she got her start in running, making big improvements and becoming a steepler, and goals for this year including making Worlds.
Good Read: Kyle Merber Blogs About Training In Flagstaff This Winter Reads more like a story than a blog.
Extensive Gary Cohen Q&A With US 1980 Olympic Marathon Team Member (The Year We Boycotted) Benji Durden Benji talks about finishing 3rd in 2:09:57 at the 1983 Boston Marathon behind 2 Americans, the 1980 Olympic boycott and more.

Sprint Stuff

Q&A With Carl Lewis On His Botched National Anthem Rendition In 1993, Jamaican Doping, State Of US Sprinting Lewis on the entitlement culture of student-athletes today: “We’ve got kids now who are used to getting rewards for mediocrity.”
Carl Lewis’s Son Graduates From Basic Combat Training Apparently he struggled with the physical training when it came to pushups/situps, but then blew everyone away in the run (he did 2 miles in under 13 minutes).
Fox News Profile On Top US Hurdler Aleec Harris: “From Troubled Teen To Olympic Hopeful”
Former Top Jamaican 400 Runners Fear Lack Of Training Knowledge Is Hurting The Future Of Top High Schoolers Former Jamaican Olympians say that coaches overtrain their 400m runners.
Jamaican Columnist Proclaims Sherone Simpson Is “Back” After Dealing With Career Of “Adversity” Two weeks ago she pushed Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the 200, finishing only .01 behind.

Post-London News

Wilson Kipsang Says Eliud Kipchoge Beat Him Because He Has More Fat “Towards the last kilometre, Eliud was a bit stronger than me because I couldn’t resist the cold. Since I have less fat, it was not easy to resist such a pace in such conditions …”
Eliud Kipchoge: “A champion is not made when he succeeds, a champion is made when you look back at the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months he has spent preparing.”
Tigist Tufa Will Use Her $70,000 In Prize Money To Buy A Car And Help Her Family
Kipchoge Plans Low-Key Celebrations In Kenya “I’ve won races a lot over the last couple of years and I am a low-key person so there will be no big celebrations.”
Some Bizarre Events / Costumes From The London Marathon
*More Crazy Costumes From London
The Telegraph: “Why The Best Sports Stars Struggle To Retire” We’re glad Paula Radcliffe got to go out with one last run.
How Did Celebrities Do At The London Marathon
Video: Runner Stops To Propose To His Girlfriend During The London Marathon

Upcoming Mid-D Action

Non-London Road Action

Despite Fall, Annie Bersagel Wins Dusseldorf Marathon In New PR Of 2:28:29 Marius Ionescu of Romania won the men’s race in 2:13:19.
Lucas Rotich (2:07:17) And Meseret Hailu (2:25:41) Win Hamburg Marathon Titles
Ethiopia’s Hayle Lemi Berhanu Takes Warsaw Marathon In 2:07:57 As Top 6 Finish Within 32 Seconds Of Each Other Ethiopian Fatuma Sado won the women’s race in 2:26:25.
Kenya’s Ezekiel Kiptoo Chebii (2:12:00) And Monica Jepkoech (2:33:42) Win Rock ‘N’ Roll Madrid Marathon
Kenyans Ernest Ngeno (2:11:47) And Helena Kiprop (2:31:36) Win Yellow River Estuary Marathon In China

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.