Saturday IAAF World Challenges *Results: Ponce *Dakar

• LRC Ponce Grand Prix: Charles Jock Gets Big Win Over Nick Symmonds And Cas Loxsom Jock won in 1:45.40. Georgetown alum Rachel Schneider got a solid PR to take the 1,500 in 4:08.46 while Cory McGee was 3rd. Trinidad & Tobago’s Michel Cedenio ran 44.97 to win comfortably over LaShawn Merritt (45.42); Jeremy Wariner was 9th (46.22).
  *OTB: Ponce 800m – Charles Jock with the win, Symmonds showing signs of life *Nick Symmonds is BACK
• Dakar IAAF World Challenge: Caster Semenya Well Beaten In 800; Kenya’s Magdalene Masai (Younger Sister Of 2009 World 10,000 Champ Linet Masai) Wins Steeple In 9:31 Cuba’s Yuneisy Santiusty won the 800 in 2:02.12 with Caster Semenya back in 5th (2:04.19). A highlight in the sprints was Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou running a barely wind-aided (2.1) 11.08. *Full Results

Road News *Ottawa Marathon Live Stream Sunday @ 7AM

• Nicholas Bor Wins Ottawa 10K In 27:55 Over Simon Cheprot; Gladys Cherono Wins Women’s Race In 30:55 Wesley Korir was 9th (29:36). Cherono broke Mary Keitany‘s CR from last year. Eric Gillis and Lanni Marchant (3rd) were the Canadian national champions. *Full Results
• Wesley Korir Angry That Kenya’s Ministry Of Sport Gave Absolutely No Funding For Anti-Doping In The New Budget Korir has proposed a bill in Kenya that would criminalize doping. “I don’t think it’s enough to ban (runners) who have used drugs. I think we need to take them to jail.”
• Kenya’s Richard Mengich (60:44) And Ethiopia’s Workenesh Degefa (68:13) Win Göteborgs Varvet Half Marathon
• Kenya’s Elijah Tirop (61:01) And Ethiopia’s Mulu Seboka Win Karlovy Vary Half Marathon Tirop beat out Nicholas Kipkemboi by 12 seconds.

RIP Former Racewalk Champion Anna Rita Sidoti She died from breast cancer and was only 45 years old.

US / UK Distance News

• Nick Symmonds Apparently Fails To Advance On “American Ninja Warrior” The show’s season premiere airs May 25th, but a TVInsider story says Symmonds “was humbled by the experience.”
• Good Read: Megan Hogan Is A Former College Basketball Player Running Well On The Pro Scene While Working Full-Time Hogan found out that living strictly as a professional runner wasn’t for her. When she first got back into running she raced under fake names as she didn’t want any attention.
• Good Read #2: Q&A With GB’s Former Overweight Smoker Turner, Now Elite 40-Year-Old Marathoner Steve Way Way talks about hiding in the bushes rather than run as a kid, his post-race binges and how his form is so bad that his physiotherapist uses a video of him to teach people how not to run.
• Adams State’s Tabor Stevens Has Ambitious Goals Including Making The US World Team In The Steeple And Running The First Sub-4 Mile Ever On Colorado Soil A few weeks ago Stevens set the Colorado soil record at 4:01.27. He’ll run his last collegiate race this weekend at DII Champs.
• Vivian Cheruiyot Says She Is Close To Her “Best Shape” And Is Hoping To Get Back The World Title She Won In 2011 She did the 5,000/10,000 double in 2011, but only plans on doing the 5,000 in Beijing.
• Next Saturday: Former World XC Champ Emily Chebet Leads Field For Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K In Albany, NY Also racing are World Champs 5th placer Buze Diriba, 2004 Olympic silver medalist Isabella Ochichi and Burundi’s Diane Nukuri-Johnson.

Olympic News

• Boston 2024 Appoint Celtics Co-Owner As New Boston Chairman
• US Delegation To Visit IOC Next Week For Talks On Boston Bid
• Rome Mayor Wants Olympic Medal Ceremonies At Colosseum If Rome Wins 2024 Olympic Bid
• SportAccord President Marius Vizer Proposing “Radical” Change For Prize Money At Olympics

Steve Prefontaine In The News

• A Must Read Jeff Johnson: What Makes Pre So Special “When Pre ran, we felt better about ourselves, glorious in our shared humanity. When Pre ran, we dared to imagine – then believe – that we, too, had deep within ourselves, embers of that same extraordinary fire. Pre inspired us to accept challenge, to attempt, to strive, to risk, to endure. We fed on his unfailing strength and heart, and he, in turn, fed on our frenzy.”
• New Documentary About Steve Prefontaine With Coos Bay Connections Nearly Finished “I was 12, back when I was in the sixth grade, and my dad said, ‘We have to go see this guy.'”

Bye-Bye, David Letterman

• Erik Kynard And Bryan Clay Recall David Letterman Appearances
• Toni Reavis Reflects On David Letterman

Sprint/Jumps News

• Columnist Rips Men’s Sprinters For Being Afraid To Race Justin Gatlin
• Alena Lutkovskaya Breaks 1-Day-Old Women’s JR Pole Vault WR With 4.61m Venezuela’s 18-year-old  Robeilys Mariley Peinad had vaulted 4.60 on Wed.
• Barshim And Bondarenko To Do Battle In Paris

Distance News Of Note

• Roger Bannister’s Sub-Four Minute Mile Shoes To Be Auctioned Sadly, even though paintings go for hundreds of milions, they are only expected to fetch a max of £50,000 *MB: Roger Bannister sub-4 spikes up for auction – HOW THE HELL DID HE GO SUB 4 IN THESE!?!?
• Unhappy With His Doha Opener, Asbel Kiprop Says He’s “Back On The Drawing Board” And Will Compete In Local Kenyan Meet This Weekend The meet will be full of stars as Eunice Sum is also racing.
• Lornah Kiplagat Denies That She’s Locking Out Local Runners From Kenya From Her Track In Iten And That It Is Only For British Runners “Most of the athletes especially from Iten have been frequenting the stadium for their training and it is very malicious to say that only British athletes are allowed to train,” said Kiplagat, who added she lets top locals run for free and notes it’s a private facility and costs more than $100,000 to repair a lane.
• Profile Of Christina Aragon – The No. 5 US HSer Ever At 4:16 1,500m – Who Isn’t Even A Full-Time Runner She still does gymnastics but picked her parents well.
• Arkansas Coach Chris Bucknam Admitted Before SEC Meet, “There is no scenario for us to win it.”
• Meb Keflezighi To Make Masters Debut At Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego Next Weekend

Mid-D News

• David Rudisha (400), Ezekiel Kemboi (Steeple), Asbel Kiprop (800), Silas Kiplagat (1,500), Nixon Chepseba (1,500) All Reportedly Competing At Kenyan Meet On Friday Eunice Sum and Janeth Jepkosgei will compete in the women’s 1,500.
• BBC Profile And Video Interview With Caster Semenya, Who Says She’s Still Determined To Become An Olympic Champion She put down suggestions that she might have intentionally lost the 2012 Olympic 800 because she feared the attention. “How can you be scared? I want to be a winner. … I cannot stop because people say ‘no, she looks like a man, this and that.’ It is their problem. Not mine.”
• Syracuse’s Justyn Knight Won The ACC 1,500 Running With One Shoe He was still able to kick to the win in 3:47.85, winning by .06 seconds.
• Own A Piece Of History: Watch That Timed Roger Bannister’s First Sub-4:00 Sold For $31,000
• Steve Cram Will Run Alongside 90 Other British Olympians At The Bupa Westminster Mile On Sunday Olympians going back to 1948 will participate, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Cram’s former mile WR of 3:46.32 (still the British record).
• Lynsey Sharp Leading A Bright Future Of Scottish Mid-D Women

Jumps And Multis

• Good Read: UK Olympic HJ Bronze Medalist Robbie Grabarz Trying To Make A Comeback After Getting Extensive Knee Surgery Last Year His first meet back at Drake Relays wasn’t great. “To come back and jump 2.16m in public is embarrassing. It’s in your face. To jump that low is tough to take, but life goes on.”
• Jessica Ennis Confirms She Will Compete In Gotzis Hypo-Meeting Heptathlon At The End Of The Month It’ll be her first heptathlon since she won 2012 Olympic gold and she is shooting for the qualifying standard for Rio 2016.
• IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Interviews Jessica Ennis
• Georgia’s SEC Decathlon Champ Maicel Uibo And Arkansas’ Sandi Morris Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Uibo got the highest point total in the NCAA since Ashton Eaton and Morris won the SEC PV in a new NCAA record (4.72m).
• IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With Long Jump WR Holder Mike Powell Powell says his biggest rival was Carl Lewis, his biggest regret partying too much (coming home at 3AM) and his “arch nemesis” is potato chips.
• Throws: Barbora Spotakova Vs. Christina Obergfoll Highlights Deep Women’s Javelin For Oslo DL Meet June 11th