July 29, 2015 | LetsRun.com

Our Weekly Recap – The Week That Was

WTWAndrew Wheating Gets Gold, Meet America's Pre-Teen Prodigy, Meet Those Who Said "No Thanks" To Wearing Team USA Uniform (and a Potential Free Lap Dance), & Thank You Germany for Caring

This week we look back at Pan Ams, tell you it's okay to eat ice cream (at least in high school), get caught up on a Polish 800m rivalry, talk about video games and much more.

The Beginning Of The End For Women’s Sports?

LRC The End Of Women’s Sports As We Know It? Is Caster Semenya The Favorite For Gold For The 2016 Olympics? The Court Of Arbitration For Sport Suspends IAAF’s Hyperandrogenism Regulations Earlier this week, hyperandrogenic Indian sprinter Dutee Chand was cleared to compete despite having super-elevated testosterone levels. More importantly, the court totally suspended the IAAF’s hyperandrogenism regulations, meaning athletes with internal testicles are free to compete as women without treatment. We break down what it means. Is this the beginning of the end for women’s sports?

Dutee Chand Aims To Qualify For Rio Olympics After CAS Verdict We 100% disagree with this statement from Payoshni Mitra: “This verdict upholds the notion of gender equality in sports. … I feel this verdict will pave the way for a more inclusive, fairer sporting culture.” Letting people with internal testicles compete as women is absurd.
Dutee Chand Will Not (For Now) Get Coveted Target Olympic Podium Funding In India

This Weekend’s Beach To Beacon 10K Is Latest Race To Join Trend Of Offering Free Photos To Race Finishers

European Maccabi Games – aka The “Jewish Olympics” – To Be Hosted In Nazi-Built Stadium

Boston 2024 LA Or Toronto 2024 News

L.A., San Fran. Look Into Possible Joint Bid For 2024 Olympics

USOC Dumps Boston 2024 Bid, Attention Shifts To LA

Boston Native Jason Gay: Concerns About Olympic Budgets And Olympic Traffic Led To The City’s Bid Never Having A Genuine Liftoff
LA Native Alan Abrahamson Before The Announcement: Hey, Boston 2024, It’s Not The USOC – It’s You Alan Abrahamson doesn’t hold back and accuses the Boston 2024 bid of dishonesty in this piece written before Boston was dropped. Regardless, it’s now time to move on to LA where the city council unanimously supports the bid and 70% of the population as well.
LA Native Alan Abrahamson Before The Announcement: Ding, Dong, The Wicked Boston Bid Is Dead
LA Times: Thank You Boston – “Boston’s sanctioned bid to put on the 2024 Olympics deflated quicker than a bag of Tom Brady footballs.”
USA Today: “The U.S. Olympic movement has had plenty of dark days over the years, but Monday might have been the worst of all.”
Toronto 2024? With Boston Out Of 2024 Olympics Race, An Opening For Toronto? They just did a great job of hosting Pan-Ams and are North America’s 4th largest city.
Toronto Star Columnist: Time For Toronto To Seize The Moment On Olympic Bid
Supporters Of Toronto Olympic Bid Face Tight Deadline

Monday Morning Doping Updates

Mo Farah Questioned For Five Hours By USADA Lawyer (Bill Bock) Who Helped Bring Down Lance Armstrong Farah agreed to meet him and afterwards said, “It went alright… It’s all good. And I’m good, good, good.”
*Bock Also Questioning UK Athletics Head Neil Black
*MB: Mo Farah met USADA
InsideTheGames: “Positive doping tests declined in 2014 – but is this good news or bad news?” Are fewer people doping, or are just more people getting away with it?

International Results

Kenya’s Stanley Biwott Runs 63:15 To Win Bogota Half Marathon Over Ethiopia’s Tadesse Tola (64:47) Ethiopia’s Amane Gobena won the women’s race in 1:13:44. 2012 Boston Marathon champ Sharon Cherop was 3rd (1:13:55).
German Championships Recap: World PV Champ Raphael Holzdeppe Sets 5.94m PR Fabienne Kohlmann won the 800 in 1:59.54 as Gesa-Felicitas Krause set a German-soil record to win the steeple in 9:32.20. *Full Results
Yohan Blake’s 10.12 At The Morton Games Was The Fastest 100m Ever Run On Irish Soil

2015 Pan Am Games All LRC Coverage Results

IAAF Final Day Report: Cuba’s Yorgelis Rodriguez Wins Pan Am Games Heptathlon Breaking The 16-Year-Old Meet Record NCAA champ Andre De Grasse lost the historic triple sprint crown (100, 200, 4 x 100) by a DQ. Canada initially won, but after a lane violation DQ, the gold went to Team USA. Canada’s Derek Drouin won the HJ in 2.37m before attempting and failing to clear 2.41m. *Toronto Sun: “Disqualification shouldn’t take shine of De Grasse”
David Torrence Gets 5,000m Silver At Pan Am Games; Mexico’s Juan Luis Barrios Gets The Win Barrios ran 13:46.47 to beat Torrence by .13 seconds. Garrett Heath was a close 4th as Cam Levins was 5th. US’s Cory McGee finished 4th in the women’s 1,500, which was won by Colombia’s Muriel Coneo.
*US Athlete Quotes From Torrence And Others
*MB: Cam Levins horrible tactics gets boxed and beaten by four scrubs in last 200
*MB: Rosa brothers, least Puerto Rican looking people ever, running for Puerto Rico
Marquise Goodwin Makes A Pro Track/NFL Career Work As The Buffalo Bills Wide Receiver Wins LJ Silver
Kanye West Gets Angry And Throws Microphone At Closing Ceremony Apparently there was a technical malfunction towards the end of his performance.
USATF Tops Pan Am Games Scoring Tables With 41 Medals The US came out with 403 “points” to Canada’s 153.
*USA Won Overall Competition As Well With 265 Medals (103 Golds) Across All Sports Canada was second with 217 (78 golds).
Craig Leon (2:19:26) And Tim Young (2:19:34) Finish Fifth And Sixth For Team USA In Pan Am Marathon The race was won by Cuba’s Richer Perez in 2:17:04.
*Quotes From Leon And Young Leon: “It’s crazy. I was an average high school runner, a college walk-on, and I never would have thought that this was possible. It’s a dream come true …”
*MB: PAN AM MARATHON: US BOMBS

More London

IAAF: After First Day Pole Vault Postponement, Renaud Lavillenie Comes Through With Huge 6.03m Win
IAAF: National Records For Dafne Schippers (Netherlands) And Dina Asher-Smith (UK) In 100
David Rudisha After Losing To Nijel Amos: “I am coming back nicely, and I know in the coming races, I will be there. I am really encouraged and motivated because I lost by very few meters.”
Mo Farah Off To Pyrenees To Compete “Heavy Weeks” Of Training Ahead Of Worlds He won’t race again before Worlds and said there “is still a little bit of work to be done.” He also lamented that he wouldn’t see his family again for 6 weeks.
After String Of Poor Races, Ireland’s Mark English Seals His Spot On 2016 Olympic Squad With 1:45.49 Season’s Best

2015 Stockholm DL Is Thursday Schedule & Entries TV & Streaming

LRC Stockholm Preview: Centro & Robby Vs. Souleiman At 1,500; Molly Huddle Shoots For Win In 3,000 With the Kenyan World Champs Trials this weekend, the mid-d/distance fields aren’t quite as strong, but that opens the door for a slew of Americans. In the 1,500, Ayanleh Souleiman and Matthew Centrowitz will battle as Robby Andrews makes a rare DL appearance. Brenda Martinez, Molly Ludlowand Chanelle Price are all in the 800 and is there any way Andy Bayer can win the steeple?

IAAF Preview: Oliver, Ibarguen And Barshim Seek Final Flourish In Stockholm Before Beijing
Stockholm Press Conference Highlights: SAFP Says She May Double In Beijing After All Earlier, she said she’d just defend her 100m title.
Fraser-Pryce Is As Hungry As Ever She called her recent 10.74 “mind-blowing.” Her PR is 10.70.
Q&A With Brenda Martinez Before Stockholm Martinez says she’s sticking with what’s worked in the past – 60-70 mpw and 3 workouts per week.

IAAF News Of Note: Seb Coe Pulls Ahead Of Sergey Bubka For IAAF Head After He Promises To Pay All 214 IAAF Federations At Least $100,000

2015 Worlds In Bejing

British Team For 2015 Worlds Is Released Despite their resources, the Brits continue to refuse to support the athletes and send full teams to Worlds.

Ridiculous: Former Rice Steeplechaser Lennie Waite, The British Champ Who Has PRed 3 Times This Year, Including In Her Last Two Races, Is Left Off Of Team
*Payton Jordan 10k Winner Andy Vernon Left Out As Well
Chris O’Hare Is Selected For Beijing Despite Not Having Achieved Two Qualifying Marks If you don’t have 2 qualifiers, they think you can get top 8 at Worlds.

Some Good Reads

Recommended Read Difficult Year Now Behind Him, Belgian Decathlete Thomas van der Plaetsen Looks Ahead To Beijing And Rio Last October, Thomas van der Plaetsen was told he’d failed a doping test. In reality, he had testicular cancer. Amazingly, the World Indoor bronze medalist will be competing in Beijing.
Recommended Read Pat Butcher’s Tribute To Zane Branson “As a manager, he was solicitous to a fault.”
Former 4-Time 800 HS State Champ Emily Infeld Fulfills Early Promise At 10k After Nearly Quitting Sport After Series Of Injuries
Good Q&A With Aries Merritt Which does he value more, Olympic gold or the WR?
Good Q&A With Departing IAAF Head Lamine Diack: “I am leaving a financially stable IAAF.” Diack says his biggest regret is he hasn’t made our sport more popular in Africa.
Andrew Wheating Talks About How His Height Is Both A Big Positive And Negative
Column: Drug Bans Should Be For Life – Or We Might As Give Everyone Keys To The Dispensary We 100% agree with the author.

2015 Worlds In Bejing Start In Less Than 1 Month

2015 Beijing Will Feature Big Crowds – Already 80% Full For Morning Sessions, 90% For Evenings On Average Whether they are given away or bused in, we just want it full for TV.
2010 World Junior Champ Purity Kirui Is Hoping To Do Some Damage At Kenyan Trials / Worlds After Running 9:17 PR In Monaco On Limited Training The 23-year-old says she only had 3 weeks of hard training before her PR as she was finishing up college.
Jessica Ennis-Hill Announces She Is Available For World Championships She’d said she’d only go if she thought she’d contend for a medal.
She Won’t Be At Worlds But Hopefully Rio: 2-Time Olympic PV Champ Yelena Isinbayeva Has Started Jumping, Will Return To Competition In January
Author Rips JAAA After Jamaican Tenns’ Dismal Showing At World Youths

Two-Day London DL Meet Was Friday/Saturday Full Fri. Results Sat. Results Television And Streaming Info Schedule, Entries

Screenshot (446) LRC What A Race: Asbel Kiprop Toys With Field, Centro Beats Souleiman For 2nd Kiprop went from first to last in the span of 50 meters halfway through the race but it didn’t matter as he was back with the leaders with 300 to go and blew everyone away on the homestretch to get the win. Matthew Centrowitz ran well to finish second in 3:55.03, .03 ahead of Ayanleh Souleiman. (Includes Video)
On The Boards: What the f*** is Kiprop doing? *Kiprop: History’s Fastest Running Comedian! *Blankenship ran like an animal in London!

LRC Saturday Recap: Mercy Cherono Wins As Molly Huddle Almost Gets The Upset, Eunice Sum Stays Perfect And Nijel Amos Wins A Nail Biter With David Rudisha In the steeple, there was a fierce battle between Conseslus Kiopruto and Jarius Birech and in non-distance action, Renaud Lavillenie cleared 6 meters, Valerie Adams lost again and South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk blew the 400 field away. We recap it all here.
*MB: London Day 2 Thread

LRC Usain Bolt Is (Almost) Back, Wins 100 In 9.87 (Includes Video) Don’t hand the gold medal to Justin Gatlin just yet. Usain Bolt put together his best showing of 2015 by far, running 9.87 into a headwind twice within the span of an hour to win at the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games.
*MB: Usain Bolt “Is Almost Back” – 9.87 Win Into Wind
*MB: UK sprinter Richard Kilty pushes referee after 100 Final DQ

LRC Friday Recap: Mo Farah Dominates The 3,000, While Laura Weightman Gets A Surprise 1,500 Win To Thrill The Home Crowd It was no contest as Farah took the 3,000 in a world-leading 7:34.66 while Weightman held off US’s Gabe Grunewald to get her first big international win.
*MB: Farah wins 3000m in 7:34.66
*MB: Mary Cain, going backwards again

London Diamond League Photo Gallery 110 Photos

More US Distance News

Q&A With Chanelle Price On Pacing Genzebe Dibaba To Her 3:50.07 World Record Dibaba’s coach and agent told her they were comfortable with her pacing because they knew she was comfortable front running.
Standard In Hand, Ben True Says, “I definitely think I have a shot at medaling …”

News From Africa

Aberu Kebede, Meseret Hailu, Gladys Cherono And Anna Hahner Will All Race 2015 BMW Berlin Marathon Kebede (2:20:30 PR) will be seeking her third Berlin title.
Athletics Kenya Is Discouraging Asbel Kiprop And Vivian Cheruiyot From Trying To Double Up At Worlds The article makes it sound like Kiprop wants to run the 800 at Worlds. We’re not totally buying it.
*MB: WTF: Asbel Kiprop wants to run the 800, not 1500 at Worlds
MB: Who knew – David Rudisha is a regular practicer of Sun Salute yoga – It “really helps my stability and flexibility”
Kenya’s Marathon Stars Patrick Makau And Wilson Chebet Are Struggling With The Loss Of Their Mentor Zane Branson They are finalizing his burial plans.

Nike/Apple May Owe You Money

Nike And Apple Settle Class Action Suit Regarding Nike+ Fuelband – Will Pay Out $15-$25 To Consumers They don’t admit that the devices are inaccurate but will pay you either $15 in cash or $25 in Nike credit.

The Bolt Vs. Gatlin Rivalry Is Brewing

Good Read: GB’s Former World Medalist Darren Campbell: “Usain Bolt v. Justin Gatlin could produce ‘crazy’ time.” “They both believe they can win gold. That makes it exciting. … Rivalries are important because it makes people dig deeper.”
Independent Writer Says Bolt Vs. Gatlin Clash Is Like “Chariots Of Fire Rewritten For Marvel Comics”
What About The Sport?: Kim Collins Complains About Men’s Sprinters Always Dodging Each Other “Shot put has become more exciting than the men’s 100m because we very seldom see the best men lining up.”
Seb Coe: “The sport for all sorts of reasons needs Usain to come through in Beijing.”

US Road / Ultra Action

Sam Chelanga Wins Wharf To Wharf 6-Mile In Close Race With Shadrack Kosgei And John Muritu Chelanga won in 27:25 (4:34 pace) as 3 seconds separated the top 3. Brett Gotcher was the top American in 5th (27:32). Risper Gesabwa won the women’s race (31:19). *Full Results
*MB: Sam Chelanga Wins Wharf to Wharf, Becoming American Citizen
Leonard Korir Wins Bix 7 In 33:05 Beating Ethiopia’s Solomon Deksis By 1 Second Micah Kogo was another 4 seconds back in 3rd while Meb Keflezighi was 8th (34:00). *Cynthia Limo Wins Women’s Bix 7 In 36:56 Over Mary Wacera (37:06) After A Five-Woman Battle Boston Marathon champ Caroline Rotich was a close 3rd (37:08). Former Arkansas All-American Stephanie Brown was the top American in 13th (41:50). *Full Results
Sage Canaday Wins Speed Goat 50K
Finland’s Ashprihanal Alto Wins And Sets Record At Self-Transcendence 3,100-Mile Race, The World’s Longest Certified Race Alto finished in a little over 40 days. The entire race is held on a high school campus in NYC, the course being open from 6AM to midnight each day. Crazy.
Track: Final Day Report For USATF Masters Outdoor Championships *Full Results

Olympic News

London Olympic Stadium Track To Turn Be Ripped Up And And Replaced With A New Blue One
Toronto Will Bid For 2024 Olympics; Joins 5 Others They join Boston, Budapest, Hungary; Hamburg, Germany; Paris and Rome.

Upcoming

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?

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.