LRC Listen On Demand To Thursday’s Live Monaco Preview LRC Track Talk Show (or download to itunes) We broke down Friday’s amazing distance action – plus we had Mike Rossi and Kara Goucher talk. 

The Integrity Of The Sport Is At Stake – Mike Rossi Is A Marathon Cheat And Should Have Been DQed From The 2014 Lehigh Valley Marathon

LRC Investigates Lehigh Valley Got It Wrong: The Evidence Is Conclusive: Mike Rossi – The Viral Boston Marathon Dad – Is A Marathon Cheat And Should Never Have Been On The Starting Line In Boston In April, Mike Rossi gained international fame for his snarky response to a letter from his kids’ principal scolding him for taking them out of school for several days to watch Boston. A LetsRun.com investigation has revealed that Rossi’s principal was correct, the kids should never have been in Boston as the evidence is conclusive – their father didn’t legitimately qualify for the 2015 Boston Marathon. How confident are we that Rossi cut the course when he “ran” his 3:11:45 BQ qualifier at Lehigh Valley? Extremely. We’ll pay Mike Rossi $10,000 if he qualifies again in the next 12 months – and the qualifying time is 13+ minutes slower – 3:25.
*MB: Did Mike Rossi (viral marathon dad) cheat his way into Boston? 

2015 Monaco Is Friday *Schedule, Entries, Results *TV & Streaming (2pm ET) *2014 LRC Coverage

LRC Monaco Preview: What A Meet – Mo Farah & Genzebe Dibaba Drop Down To Face Loaded 1,500 Fields; Souleiman Vs. Amos Vs. Aman At 800; A Loaded Women’s Steeple + Caleb Ndiku Tries Not To Fall Oh baby, what a meet. Hopefully, you work at a place that has a flexible summer schedule where you get Friday off as you don’t want to miss this one. All of the distance action is great but the 1,500s are worth more than the price of admission alone – with Genzebe Dibaba, Jenny Simpson, Sifan Hassan and Mo Farah, Asbel Kiprop, Taoufik Makhlhoufi, Matthew Centrowitz and Leo Manzano. The field/sprint action includes PPP vs. Christian Taylor vs. Marquis Dendy in the TJ and Justin Gatlin vs. Tyson Gay in the 100. *IAAF Preview: Mouth-Watering Clashes On Tap

• Press Conference Highlights: Dibaba Thinks She Can Get Closer To 3:50 1,500 WR “Last week I ran 3:54 and it felt comfortable,” said the two-time world indoor champion. “Tomorrow I’m looking to run faster. I don’t know how much faster, but I’m going to go for it.”
• MB: Dibaba thinks she can go faster than 3:54!! “Last week I ran 3:54 and it felt comfortable,” 
• MB: Official 2015 Monaco Diamond League Discussion Thread – Meet Preview is now up

Full Coverage in our Monaco DL Special Section.

Distance Stuff

• Craig Leon Added To US Pan Am Roster In The Marathon After USATF Admits It Forgot About Him When Making The Initial Selection Even after admitting that mistake, it took a “legal team” for Leon to get USATF to put him on the team. Mistakes like this shouldn’t happen; it’s a bad deal for both Leon and Tyler McCandless, who now loses a spot.
  *MB: USATF accidentally gives Craig Leons Pan Am spot to Tyler McCandless. Should TrackTy give up 
• Robby Andrews Talks About The Decision To Do The 1,500 Rather Than The 800 At USAs/Worlds “The 1,500 is my strong suit. I have more potential in the 1,500. It plays to my strengths. Coach [Jason] Vigilante told me that in the 1,500, I’d be closing in 1:48, and to do that I had to run 1:44.”
• Top Distance Runners Among Those Doing 22-Day, 520-Mile March For Peace In Kenya The walk for peace is to raise awareness of ethnic violence in northern Kenya, where cattle rustling and revenge killings are common. Wilson Kipsang, Paul Tergat, Ezekiel Kemboi, Haile Gebrselassie and Stephen Kiprotich are among those participating.
• Wilson Kipsang Completely Focused On Winning Marathon Gold In Beijing “One of the few things lacking in my career is a medal at the World Championships. … I dream of reclaiming the title for Kenya in Beijing.”

Track At Pan American Games Starts Saturday *Meet Website *Schedule/Results

• Rappers Kanye West And Pitbull Will Headline Pan Am Games Closing Ceremony
• Trinidad And Tobago Cuts Three Athletes From Pan American Team In Response To Organizers’ Last Minute Tougher Standards
• What Collegians Are Competing At The Pan Am Games? 800 man Brandon McBride is the top NCAA distance runner competing.

Jumping News

• GB’s 6-Foot 3.5-Inch High Jumper Isobel Pooley Says She’s Had To Endure A Lot Of Unwanted Commentary About Her Extraordinary Height “When I was growing up, I would have killed to be 5ft. 3in., instead of 6ft. 3in., but now I wouldn’t give up my height for the world.”
• Christian Taylor Is USATF Athlete Of The Week After His 18.06m TJ Win At The Lausanne DL Meet

Mid-D News

• Asbel Kiprop Anticipating His Clash With Mo Farah In The Monaco 1,500 On Friday Kiprop: “Farah is in a class of his own in 5,000m. His 1,500m personal best tells it all since no Kenyan athlete in 5,000m has that time.” Field also has Taoufik Makhloufi, Nick Willis, Matt Centrowitz and Leo Manzano.
• Mo Aman Talks About Breaking The Ethiopian Tradition By Being An 800 Runner And Training Under Mark Rowland With The OTC Aman says that he knows the “secret” to beating David Rudisha, but won’t reveal it until after Rudisha retires.
• Caster Semenya Not On South Africa’s World Champs Squad She’s only run 2:04.19 this season and needs 2:01.00. She has until the end of July, but things aren’t looking good as she just pulled out of World University Games with a knee injury.

Pro Distance News

• Nick Willis Runs 1:46.9 In Time Trial 3 Days Before Monaco DL 1,500
  *MB: Nick Willis runs 1:46 in an 800 time trial!
• RW Talks With US National Champ Nicole Tully About Being A Pro Athlete While Working Full-Time And Her Move To The 5,000 This Year She’ll be competing in the London DL meet later this month and is hoping to go sub-15 in what will be her third 5,000m race.
• With The National Championships Behind Them, Kenyan Distance Runners Look Ahead To The World Champs Trials At The End Of The Month Kenya’s Daily Nation talks to Sally Kipyego and Betsy Saina about returning to Kenya to get ready for the qualifiers.
• Carrie Tollefson Does Video Interview With High School Pro Marathoner Alana Hadley

Admin / Politics

• Papa Massata Diack Wants IAAF Ethics Commission To Speed Up Their Investigation They are investigating the IAAF President’s son for corruption charges related to taking bribes from Qatar.
• Seb Coe Puts Out IAAF Presidential Campaign Video With Endorsing From Top Stars David Rudisha, Haile Gebrselassie, Jessica Ennis, Valerie Adams and Yelena Isinbayeva spoke on his behalf.
• Adrian Durant Named Men’s Head Track Coach At Cornell

Lausanne Photo Gallery And Mo Farah Going Nuts (Click For Full Gallery)

Big Ultra News

• Scott Jurek Breaks Appalachian Trail Record In 46 Days, 8 Hours And 7 Minutes
  
• Blow-By-Blow Chronicle Of The Journey
• OTB: Scott Jurek Appalachian Trail Record Attempt *Is Scott Jurek the Bill Rodgers of UltraRunning? *Would you attempt Appalachian Trail speed record for 15-min of fame?

U-23 Champs And More European Action *U23 Champs Results

• Euro Under-23 Champs: Turkey’s Ali Kaya Completes Double By Winning 5,000 In 13:20 Other impressive distance performances included Amela Terzic‘s 4:04.77, Tugba Guvenc‘s 9:36 steeple and Renelle Lamote‘s 2:00.19. Germany’s Rebekka Haase became first in event history to take three gold medals, winning the 100, 200 and 4 x 100.
  
• Day 1: Ali Kaya Wins 10,000 In A Meet Record Of 27:53 Netherlands’ Jip Vastenburg won the women’s 10,000 in 32:18.
• *AW Final Recap *Day 1 *Day 2 *European-Athletics.org Coverage
• French National Champs: Jimmy Vicaut And Christophe Lemaitire Clash Twice And Get One Win Apiece Vicaut won the 100 in 9.92 to Lemaitre’s 10.07, while Lemaitre won the 200, 20.28 to 20.42. *2nd Article
• Day 2 English Schools Championships Recap
  *Day 1: Records Fall At English Schools Championships
• Athletics Weekly’s Weekly Round-Up

More Distance Stuff

• Good Read: Outside Magazine Story On Scott Jurek’s Attempt To Break The Appalachian Trail Record Jurek has been hampered by injury and illness as he tries to break the current 46-day record for the 2,160-mile trail. Will he get the record? It’s going to be close.
• UK Independent Opinion Column: “Mo Farah Would Do Better To Bite His Tongue” “If Mo Farah had not already shelled out thousands for a PR firm, yesterday he’d have done well to hire one.”

2015 Barcelona *Results *Race Video

Wow LRC Genzebe Dibaba Runs 3:54.11 For 1,500 In Barcelona – The Fastest Time In The World Since 1997 Jenny Simpson fans, it’s time to start praying that Dibaba doesn’t double at Worlds as she just ran the fastest 1,500 since 1997. Also Ayanleh Souleiman put up a 1:43.08 world leader in the men’s 800. *Video
*MB: Genzebe Dibaba just ran 3:54.11 for 1500 in Spain! 

More Big News From Wednesday

LRC Analysis Eliud Kipchoge, Emmanuel Mutai & Geoffrey Mutai Announced For 2015 BMW Berlin Marathon A year ago, in his sixth career marathon, Dennis Kimetto set the WR in Berlin at age 30. Will history repeat this year when the 30-year-old Eliud Kipchoge toes the line in his sixth career race at 26.2? What type of chance does Geoffrey Mutai – the Roger Federer of men’s marathoning – have?
*MB: Eliud Kipchoge. Emmanuel Mutai and Geoffrey Mutai in 2015 Berlin Marathon
*Eliud Kipchoge Is Excited About Berlin “Dennis Kimetto’s world record would be hard to break so soon, but everything is possible if the conditions are right and people are prepared for the task.”

Appalachian Trail Record Holder Jennifer Pharr Davis Is Ready For Her Record To Be Broken By Scott Jurek She’ll obviously still hold the women’s record. In what other event is the women’s WR better than the men’s?

NOP Doping Investigation

• WSJ: Members Of The U.S. And U.K. Anti-Doping Agencies Have Submitted Appeals To Ban Synthetic Thyroid Medication On The Grounds That They Could Be Misused To Boost Performance
  *MB: Big development: US and UK anti doping have asked for WADA to ban synthetic thyroid meds!!! –
• LRC David Epstein Talks To House Of Run: “I don’t know if any sanctions will or won’t come out this … My perception is that a lot of athletes, and especially in track and field, don’t want to have to play the pharmacy games in order to compete.”

2015 Paris DL And AJC Peachtree Photos