Diamond League Season Opens Friday In Doha (Noon ET) *TV / Streaming (Doha) *Schedule / Results (Doha) Then Moves To Shanghai On Sunday (7am ET) *TV / Streaming (Shanghai) *Schedule / Results (Shanghai) *Play Fantasy Track 

LRC 2015 Doha Preview: Mo Farah Doesn’t Duck The Competition In A Stacked Men’s 3,000; Asbel Kiprop, Mo Aman & Ayanleh Souleiman To Battle In 800; Abeba Aregawi And Sifan Hassan To Clash In 1,500 Track fans have been waiting since 8 months for the DL to start up again but this one is well worth the wait. How low will American Aisha Praught go in the steeple? *IAAF preview

LRC 2015 Shanghai Preview: Ben Blankenship Takes On Big Boys Silas Kiplagat & Ronald Kwemoi; Eunice Sum (800) & Jairus Birech (Steeple) Open Up In Their Specialties Are you ready for some Sunday morning track and field? American Molly Beckwith-Ludlow, who split 1:59 at world relays, seems to be. In non-distance action, there’s a great HJ with Mutaz Essa Barshim & Bohdan Bondarenko, plus Merritt vs. James in the 400 and VCB vs. SAFP in the 100.

• Doha: Unpredictable Asbel Kiprop Ready For DL Opener “The World Championships are returning to the Bird’s Nest and I’ve never forgotten what happened there in 2008.”
• Kiprop Ready To Battle With Favoured Aman In Doha Season Opener
• Caleb Ndiku: “(I) believe it is not possible for the Kenyans to beat (Mo Farah) at this stage of the season.”
• Caleb Ndiku Pulls Out To Focus On Training; Will Make Season Debut At Pre Classic
• LJ van Zyl Pumped For Big Season At 400H As He’s Got A New Coach
• Nesta Carter Is Ready For DL After Running 9.98 Last Week
• Five Events To Watch At Diamond League Opener In Doha
• Sanya Richards-Ross Pumped For Doha & Diamond League Season – Does Hour-Long Facebook Chat “I am still motivated by my desire to leave a lasting legacy in the sport.”
• Trackalerts Sprint Preview Of Doha
  
• Shanghai: Bogdan Bondarenko Vs. Mutaz Essa Barshim Will Be One Of Highlights Of Sunday’s Shanghai Meet
• Eunice Sum Says She’s Ready For 800 Opener In Shanghai Last month, she had a rust-busting 1,500 win in 4:09 in Kenya.
•  Current 200m World Leader Carvin Nkanata Will Become The First Kenyan Sprinter To Compete In The Diamond League He’ll race in Shanghai this weekend.
• Better Than Fantasy Football: Play In The 2015 IAAF Fantasy Diamond League
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  Full Doha Coverage *Full Shanghai Coverage

Non DL News: 

• London 400H Finalist Leford Green Of Jamaica Thinks He’s Ready For Big Year Thanks To New “Motivational Coach”
• Two-Time Boston Marathon Champion Ibrahim Hussein Wants Other Countries In Africa Besides Kenya To Excel At Women’s Steeple

Bye-Bye Mary, Hello Peter

• NY Times: Meet The New Head Of The NYRR – Peter Ciacca “Mary was always the face of this organization, while I stayed behind the scenes.”
• RW Takes A Look At Mary Wittenberg’s Legacy: At NYRR, Women And Pros Found An Advocate In Mary Wittenberg “She’s done a terrific job of highlighting Americans when they come to the race – they’re treated just as well as the world record holders there, although she’d never water down the field for you,” said Kara Goucher.

Be Inspired

• 550-Pound Missouri Man Continues Goal To Finish 5K Per Month In 2015 – Has Lost 75 Pounds
• Bay To Breakers Is Sunday And For First Time Since 1968, Blind Runner Harry Cordellos Won’t Be Running Harry: “It looks like we’re going to win this race!”
  Reporter: “Harry, how is that?”
  Harry: “Well, I don’t see anyone in front of us.”
• Michael Wardian Breaks His Own 50K Treadmill World Record – Runs 2:59.49

Portland 2016 Worlds Countdown Clock To Be Unveiled On May 27th At Pioneer Courthouse Square The clock will be unveiled in Pioneer Courthouse Square on May 27th.

Pro News Of Note – Not Related To Doha/Shanghai

• USA Men’s Re;lay Team Stripped Of 4 X 100 London 2012 Silver Medals Due To Tyson Gay’s Doping Ban
• Gebresalassie Talks About Ethiopia’s Current Marathoners, Says It Was A “Big Mistake” That Tsegaye Mekonnen Debuted At Age 18
• IAAF Pleased With Anti-Doping Progress In Jamaica
• Mike Powell, Colin Jackson And Michael Johnson Are All In Beijing For 100 Days To Worlds Celebration On Thursday
• Track & Field News’ 2015 World Champs Medal Picks They are picking Galen Rupp and Ajee Wilson to get silver – no US mid-d or distance gold.

We Will Miss Her

LRCMary Wittenberg Steps Down As New York Road Runners President To Launch Virgin Sport

• New York Times: Mary Wittnberg Rose Along With New York’s Race A look at some of the many positives Wittenberg brought to the NYRR as well as some of the criticisms against her.
• New York Times: NYC Marathon Chief Finds Next Step Has Arrived “Ultimately, I could have stayed at the NYRR forever because I loved the organization and I loved the impact it made. … or I could start all over and creat something from nothing. I decided to start new.”
• RRW: Wittenberg Leaving NYRR For New Virgin Sport Venture

A Result Not Mentioned From The Weekend: Ajee Wilson Ran 2:00.65 To Win The Jamaican Invitational 800

Another Russian Racewalker Banned For Doping Tatyana Akulinushkina gets 4 years in her second doping offense as only a 21-year-old.

Sprint / Field Stuff

• Letter To The Editor: Ryan Bailey Showed True Class Despite Booing Masses Bailey wasn’t too popular with the Jamaican fans after dissing Bolt at the World Relays, but handled it well and won over at least some of the crowd.
• Bailey: “I knew the crowd would have done this (boo me) and my only regret was it was not louder. I surely would have run much faster.”
• Branch Chairman Wants Athletics Kenya To Set Up Camps To Find Young Sprinting Talent
• Katarina Johnson-Thompson Pulls Out Of Gotzis Hypo-Meeting Where She Was Supposed To Face British Rival Jessica Ennis She is healthy, but lost training time with a knee injury in March.
• Former Oregon Javelin Thrower Haley Crouser Will Transfer To Texas
• Clayton Vaughn And Demi Payne Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Vaughn ran the #4 fastest 100 with 9.93 and Payne broke the collegiate PV record again.

News From Africa

• Caster Semenya Happy With Her 2:08.58 800 Win At The SA Open Over The Weekend She’s still a ways away from the world qualifying standard, but said, “I think I am on the right track but I just need to be patient and wait for the next race.”
• Georgina Rono (2:35:12) And Barnabas Kibii (2:17:42) Win Tea For Health Kericho Marathon In Kenya Drug cheat Flomena Chepchirchir was 3rd in her return from a 6-month doping suspension which ended less than a week before the race.
• World 5,000 Bronze Medalist Isaiah Koech Talks Ahead Of Facing Mo Farah In The Doha 3,000 Koech says he isn’t in the best shape right now, but is focused on winning in Beijing. He also complains about his Kenyan teammates making him the “sacrificial lamb” at Worlds in 2013.
• SPIKES Explains While Haile Gebrselassie “Will Forever Be Known As The King” Includes some great quotes from throughout Geb’s career.
• Two-Time World XC Champ Emily Chebet Announces She Will Make Her Marathon Debut Sometime After Worlds For now she’ll focus on improving her Worlds finish from 2013 where she was 4th in the 10,000.
• Paul Tergat Welcomes Haile G To Retirement “He’s a great person, a great man. … I’m looking forward to working with him in retirement.”

Review Of New Award Winning Documentary On The Tarahumara Running Tribe From The Book, “Born To Run” Available to rent or buy. *Trailer

Money, Points And Statistics For 2015 Diamond League, Which Starts Friday In Doha

New IAAF Headquarters Officially Inaugurated In Monaco

Click For World Relays Photo Gallery 100+ Photos