Two-Day London DL Meet Is Friday/Saturday

LRC Saturday What a Mile – Kiprop vs Souleiman as Centro, Leo and Blankenship Try and Go Sub 3:50; Amos vs Rudisha Rematch at 800 (and Berian), Molly Huddle Tries to Win the 5k The men’s 800 (Rudisha vs Amos Rematch + Berian and Loxsom) and mile (Kiprop vs Souleiman as Centro, Leo, and Blankenship try and go sub 3:50) are the crown jewels of the Saturday action. Other action includes Molly Huddle vs. Mercy Cherono in the 5,000, Eunice Sum vs. Brenda Martinez in the 800 and an African showdown between Isaac Makwala (#5 all-time) and Wayde van Niekerk (#11 all-time) in the 400.

LRC Friday What Does Usain Bolt Do At 100? How Fast Does Mo Farah Try To Go At 3k? Friday DL Preview The DL meet in London is so good it takes up two days. We preview down Friday’s action, where two of the sports biggest stars, Mo Farah and Usain Bolt, take center stage. Farah faces Lopez Lomong & Bernard Lagat in the 3k, plus an American-heavy women’s 1,500 featuring Lauren Johnson, Katie Mackey, Treniere Moser.

News From Jamaica

• Aisha Praught Talks About The Decision To Switch To Jamaica And Represent Them At The World Championships The Jamaican press headline reads, “Mississippi Girl Carries Ja Hopes In Steeplechase.”
• Recommended Watch: IAAF Inside Athletics Interview With Usain Bolt Ato Boldon has a lengthy video with Bolt talking about everything from the Olympics to why doesn’t do the 400. Bolt says it’s a problem being so tall because he is “unable to hide” and is spotted wherever he goes.
• JAA Head Warren Blake Talks About The Trend Of Athletes Leaving Jamaica To Represent Other Countries There have been reported cases where athletes going to Bahrain or Qatar have received $5,000 a month for life and additional bonuses for records.
• Bolt Says Having To Eat Healthy Is The Biggest Sacrifice He’s Had To Make To Extend His Career “I’ve started eating healthy. That’s the hardest thing for me right now is the sacrifices, eating vegetables all the time. Everything else is easy to give up, but eating healthy is really hard!”
• UK/Jamaica/Anguilla: Anguillan Sprinter Zharnel Hughes Talks About The Decision To Represent The UK In International Competition Anguilla can’t send athletes to the Olympics and is a GB overseas territory.
  *Hughes Is Excited To Compete In The Olympic Stadium This Weekend After Watching 2012 Games On TV
• The Telegraph: “Usain Bolt’s Achievements Are Overshadowed By Ongoing Success Of Drug Cheats”

More Recent / Upcoming Action

• MB: Foot Locker XC 10th Placer Conner Mantz Runs 3:51 Downhill Mile (Includes Video)
• Hammer World Record Holder Anita Wlodarcyzk Highlights Poland Champs With The 10th Farthest Throw In History Adam Kszczot won the 800 in 1:46.70 beating out European indoor champ Marcin Lewandowski (1:47.32).
• AW Weekly Round-Up
• September 13: Mary Keitany Vs. London Marathon Champ Tigist Tufa Headlines Great North Run Half Marathon The field also includes Priscah Jeptoo and Gemma Steel.
• September 3: Four Fastest 100m Women In 2015 Announced For Zurich DL Meet Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will line up against English Gardner, Blessing Okagbare and Murielle Ahoure.

Sprint News / Controversy

• Bahrain Not Just Buying Kenyan Distance Runners Now: Jamaica’s Former Olympic Silver Medalist Shericka Williams Is Transferring Allegiance To Bahrain Two sub-10 100m men, Andrew Fisher and Kemarley Brown, are also switching nationalities.
• Irish Sprinter Steven Colvert Has A 2-Year Drug Ban For EPO But Is Adamant That He Never Cheated “When I come back and run PBs people will say ‘he’s a doper.’ I know because that’s what I say! I see Justin Gatlin, (and think) ‘he’s a bastard.'”
• Kevin Liao: “Justin Gatlin Deserves To Be On Athlete Of The Year Ballot” Despite Doping Past We agree that if he is free to compete, he should be eligible for the award. Whether or not he should be free to compete after testing positive twice is a separate debate.

If At First You Don’t Succeed … Japan Holding New International Design Contest To Choose Stadium For Tokyo 2020

2015 World Youth Champs In The Books *Results *Event-By-Event Recaps *Meet Website

• Final Day Report: USA’s Candace Hill Completes Sprint Double With A World Youth Record In The 200 At World Youth Championships She won in 22.43 to win by a ridiculous .47 seconds. Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown also won the sprint double, breaking Usain Bolt‘s championship record with 20.34.
• Team USA Wins Record Medal Haul USA took home 8 golds and 19 medals overall to top the medal tables. Kenya was next best with 5 golds and 13 overall.
• Samantha Watson Wins 800 Gold For Team USA In 2:03.54
• Kenya Gets Two More Gold Medals Via Richard Yator Kimunyan (3,000) And Vincent Kipyegon Ruto (2K Steeple) Yator ran 7:54.45, closing in 55 seconds to win a very close three-way sprint by .07 seconds.
• Day 4: USA’s Norman Grimes And Sydney McLaughlin Dominate To Win World Youth 400H Titles Ethiopia’s Bedatu Hirpa won the girls 1,500 in 4:12.92.
• Willy Tarbei And Kipyegon Bett Go 1-2 For Kenya In World Youth 800 Tarbei won in 1:45.58.
• Day 3: Kenya’s Kumari Taki Leads Wire-To-Wire To Win World Youth 1,500 In 3:36.38 Celliphine Chepteek lead a 1-2 Kenyan finish in the girls 2K steeple. *AM Recap
• Christopher Taylor Breaks Usain Bolt’s Jamaican Youth 400m Record; Runs 45.27 To Win He ran 45.30 in the semifinal before going even faster to win the final.
• Jamaica Observer: “Taylor’s Gold Only Spark As Jamaica Ends World Youth Champs With One Medal”
• Day 2: USA’s Candace Hill Sets MR To Win World Youth 100 In 11.08 *AM Recap
• Day 1: Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown Sets Meet Record To Win World Youth 100 In 10.28 *AM Recap
• Ethiopia’s Shuru Bulo Won The World Youth 3,000 In 9:01 Over Kenya’s Emily Chebet
• Team USA Highlights: Day 4 *Day 3 *Day 2 *Day 1 *Athlete Quotes And More Here

Americans Drop Fast Times In Heusden *Full Results

LRC KBC Nacht Meeting: Ben True Gets IAAF Standard As Eric Jenkins Explodes To A 13:07 And Lauren Johnson Destroys Her PR To Make Worlds On A Night Full Of Fast American Running True ran 13:06 to seal the deal for Worlds with Jenkins right behind him in a huge PR. Abbey D’Agostino PRed at 5,000 as did Johnson to punch her ticket to Worlds in the 1,500. Other big names in action included Dejen Gebremeskel, Chris Derrick, Emily Sisson, Mary Cain, PVer Sandi Morris and Lolo Jones. Check out how they did.
*MB: Ben True Runs 13:06 5000m, Eric Jenkins 13:07

More Recent Action

• Jeffrey Eggleston (65:05) And Maegan Krifchin (1:15:17) Win Chicago Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon In Hot And Humid Conditions
• Euro Junior Champs: UK Tops Medal Tables At European Junior Championships Iceland’s 19-year-old 2-flat runner Anita Hinriksdottir actually lost in the 800 as she only finished 3rd in 2:05.04. The race was won by Belarus’ Renee Eykens in 2:02.83. *Results
• Euro Part 1 Recap: Polish Shot Putter Konrad Bukowiecki Crushes David Storl’s Championship Record
• Hepathlete Morgan Lake Wins HJ To Lead GB Medal Haul At European Junior Champs
• Tajikistan’s Dilshod Nazarov And Russia’s Mariya Bespalova Win Znamensky Memorial Hammer Meet

• Mo Farah Might Only Do The 10,000 At World Champs “I will do the 10,000m for sure and then we will see about the 5,000m.”
• Mo Farah In A “Happy Place” Despite NOP Doping Allegations “I’ve answered all the questions that I’ve needed to answer. All I want to do is to be Mo Farah and continue running faster and enjoy it.”
• Nick Willis Wasn’t Thrilled With His New 1,500 PR In Monaco As He Only Finished 5th “I crossed the line not feeling the jubilation I thought after running a sub 3m 30s. I really wanted to finish in the top two.”
• Genzebe Dibaba: “I think Tirunesh will be happy, all of Ethiopia will be happy.”
• Renaud Lavillenie And Sandra Perkovic Return To Winning Ways In Monaco
• Joe Kovacs Produces World’s Best Shot Put Mark Since 2003 In Monaco
• Justin Gatlin: “Hopefully the 9.7sec will be my standard and I can get some rest and run faster in Beijing.”

• July 24-25: 41 World And 22 Olympic Champions Will Line Up When The Olympic Stadium Re-Opens For The London Anniversary Games Mo Farah, David Rudisha, Asbel Kiprop, Usain Bolt, Eunice Sum and more.
• July 30: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Confirmed For Stockholm 100m

Doping Updates

• Justin Gatlin Calls Out London Anniversary Games Double Standards As He Is Barred From Racing There He won’t be invited, but other athletes with past doping bans like Asafa Powell and Mike Rodgers are. Gatlin also had some advice for Mo Farah in his current situation.
• Russia Withdrawing Its Racewalkers From All International Competition To Avoid “Disgrace” Due To Doping If they want to be extra sure, they could just withdraw the entire team.
• Gatlin Says His 4-Year Doping Ban Was A “Gift And A Curse “My body feels it’s like a 27-year-old instead of a 33-year-old who’s run those four years and feels tired.”
• Irish Sprinter Steven Colvert Gets Two-Year Doping Ban After He Tested Positive For EPO Last Year

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.

Sprint News

• Justin Gatlin Ineligible For IAAF Athlete Of The Year After New Rule Change Disqualifies Athletes With A “Serious Doping Offence” We’re not Justin Gatlin fans, but we agree with the British ultra runner who said, “If he’s allowed to race then he should be eligible.” After all it’s not a “sportsmanship” or “personality” award. It’s for the athlete who performed the best.
• The Telegraph: Allyson Felix Has “Perfect Blend Of Style And Substance” The Telegraph talks to Felix about her smooth running style which contrasts so drastically to the quick turnover of the “power runners” like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
• IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With Puerto Rico’s Two-Time World 400H Silver Medalist Javier Culson Culson says his greatest achievement outside track is being a father to his daughter.
• Jamaican Opinion Piece: “Respect is due to Asafa Powell, but … unfortunately there will always be that but.” Powell has surprised by coming back to be Jamaica’s current top sprinter, but will he finally be able to overcome his tendency to choke on the biggest stage?
• Random: Asafa Powell Raced Against Olympic Cross-Country Ski Champion Dario Cologna In Switzerland Powell ran on a track while Cologna was on snow.
  *Race Video
• From The Weekend: South Africa’s Carina Horn Equaled A 25-Year-Old National Record When She Ran 11.06 In Madrid
• GB 400 Runner Richard Buck (45.61 PR) Retiring From Track To Pursue An Acting Career *2nd Article

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?

Excellent Guest Column

LRC Dealing With Depression: How I Got Past Suicidal Thoughts While Running In College For a while, life didn’t feel real to Nico Composto – it existed entirely in his head. Might a fall from the 12th floor window make all the pain go away? Thankfully, Composto realized that suicide wasn’t the answer. He shares his powerful story of how he overcame suicidal thoughts out of a desire to help others.