August 19, 2015 | LetsRun.com

The Sam Chelanga Story

LRCThe Accidental Runner: Sam Chelanga's Amazing Journey From Poverty In Rural Kenya To American Citizen And US Olympic Favorite

Sam Chelanga always vowed he'd bring change to his totally impoverished village where his mother died when he was young. At age 20, he was told by marathon world record holder Paul Tergat he should become a runner if he wanted to go to college. Chelanga's first thought was no way. "I went home and I had made up my mind. This dream of helping people, trying to get a higher education, it's too much. It's hurting me," said Chelanga, but in the end, he gave it a try and now a 27:08 collegiate record, 4 NCAA titles and favorite status for the 2016 US Olympic team are his reality - as is clean drinking water for his village.

Seb Coe For IAAF President

Seb Coe Elected New IAAF President He won the vote over Sergey Bubka 115 to 92.
*MB: Seb Coe elected President of IAAF!
Coe Promises To Create An Independent Doping Commission To Address “Conflicts And Loopholes” In The Current System Article includes quotes from Paula Radcliffe and Steve Cram about Coe and doping.
BBC Article With Video Interview With Coe Coe addresses multiple question on doping and the perception of the IAAF. *IAAF Article
Coe Acceptance Speech Video: “This is for me is the pinnacle. It is my sport, my passion, the thing I’ve always wanted to do.”
UK Opinion Piece: “Seb Coe Can Conquer Cynicism Again But Misplaced War Analogies Must Go”
The Telegraph: “The Challenges Facing The New Man” From doping to revitalizing interest, Coe has his hands full.
Coe: “Timeline Of An Olympic Champion And Sports Administrator”
MB: What is Seb Coe’s Salary w/ IAAF?

More IAAF Politics

USATF: Stephanie Hightower Overwhelmingly Elected To IAAF Council There are six IAAF council seats designated to be filled by women and there were ten candidates. Of the ten, Hightower received the most votes.
*USATF Candidates Score Record Victories In IAAF Election
Kenya: AK Head Isaiah Kiplagat Fails In His Attempt To Be Elected As An IAAF Vice President He came in last of 7 candidates (for 4 spots) and also lost his seat on the IAAF council.
*CapitalFM: “Is Kiplagat’s race run after failed IAAF VP bid?” Kiplagat had previously said he would step down from AK if he won an IAAF vice president position.
JAAA President Dr. Warren Blake Fails In Bid For IAAF Council Seat
Kosovo And South Sudan Voted Into IAAF

The Lauren Johnson Story

LRC The Lauren Johnson Story: From Over 2:20 For 800 In HS To The U.S. World Championships Team At 1,500 Johnson grew up in Indiana playing basketball and didn’t take running seriously until her senior year of college. Now she’s heading to Worlds.

LRC Reacts To The Sunday Times Doping Investigation

LRC LetsRun.com’s Thoughts On The Sunday Times Doping Investigation – Including Kenyan Medalists May Be CLEANER Than Other Countries We’ve had a couple of weeks to digest the Sunday Times doping data and we share our thoughts, mainly trying to give some perspective.

LRC Three Things That Need To Be Done To Immediately Improve The Anti-Doping Fight The Sunday Times exposé has shown us there needs to be a lot more transparency in the anti-doping fight.

LRC The Good, The Bad And The Interesting From The Sunday Times Doping In Athletics Data A good read if you actually haven’t read the Sunday Times series as we try to summarize the numbers, including the longer the distance the more cheats, and New Zealand is as clean as snow.

Legal News

Oscar Pistroius Set To Be Released From Prison On August 21st He’ll serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.
*Prosecutors File Appeal At South Africa’s Supreme Court; Want A 15-Year Murder Sentence The hearing will be in November.
Tokyo 2020 Logo Designer Admits His Staff Stole Designs For A Japanese Beverage Firm Promotional Campaign However, he and the IOC still stand by the Tokyo 2020 logo, saying it was not plagiarized. This has lead to a lawsuit by a Belgian designer against the IOC.
Lawyers Ask For New Trial Outside Boston For Marathon Bomber They say jurors in Boston were too close to the events to be impartial, especially with all the media coverage.

2015 Beijing Worlds – Get Your Picks In

LRC$200,015 LRC Running Warehouse Worlds Prediction Contest Is Here!

Worlds start Friday night in Beijing and our world famous prediction contest always makes Worlds way more interesting. Plus, thanks to Running Warehouse, Saucony and Molly Huddle, we've got some cool Saucony/Molly Huddle-themed prizes.

1,103 Days Later But Well Worth The Wait

MB: Turkey’s Asli Cakir Alptekin Stripped Of 2012 Olympic Gold In 1,500 For Doping (link fixed) Alptekin’s victory didn’t pass the “smell test.” Thankfully, after her initial DQ was overturned by the Turks, she’s agreed to accept an 8-year ban and forfeit her 2012 gold medal. That’s the good news. The bad news … the new Olympic champ is fellow Turk Gamze Bulut, who had never broken 4:18 prior to 2012 and hasn’t broken 4:07 since 2012.

2015 New Balance Falmouth *Results

LRC Stephen Sambu (32:17) & Diane Nukuri (36:47) Streak To Titles At 43rd Falmouth Road Race Americans Abdi Abdirahman, Chris Derrick and Meb Keflezighi all had the lead at one point in the men’s race but the top Americans were Sara Hall (2nd) and Sam Chelanga (4th). Derrick ended up getting trounced but thinks he’s ready to PR at 5,000. Keflezighi reveals he recently was forced to walk home in the middle of a 12-mile training run. And American marathoners, it’s time to get nervous as Chelanga reveals he may run the Trials. Post-race interviews with Americans Keflezighi, Chelanga, Derrick, and Hall.
*RRW: Stephen Sambu Is Big Winner At Falmouth; Wins Race, Countdown Bonus

2015 Worlds Start Next Saturday – Distance News *Entries Released

David Rudisha Says Training Has Gone Well And He’s Ready For Worlds “I have already picked up power. It is not that I did not have power but it had not been activated.”
Silas Kiplagat Has Been Getting Ready For Worlds By Studying Videos Of Hicham El Guerrouj And Noureddine Morceli
Caleb Ndiku Knows He Can’t Let The 5,000 Turn Into A 1,500 If He’s Going To Beat Mo Farah – “The only thing that will make us defeat Farah is to highly pace the race.”
Steepler Brimin Kipruto Thinks China Might Be lucky Spot For Him As He Won Olympic Gold There In 2008 “I remember China because of that Olympics gold medal and I believe I can repeat the feat during the World Championships.”
Wilson Kipsang Is Confident Kenya’s Marathoners Will Rock Beijing He should be confident as the teams are loaded with him, Dennis Kimetto, Edna Kiplagat and others.
Is He Britain’s Next Coe, Cram Or Ovett? Kyle Langford – Just 19 – Is Ready For His First Worlds The British champ ran 1:45.78 in London to get on the team.
David McNeill Writes About Why He’s Shut Down His Season, One In Which He Missed The Worlds 27:45.00 Standard By A Cruel .01. “The human body is a lot like a computer: leave too many applications open at once for too long, and everything stops working as efficiently.”

Administrative News

Nick Symmonds 1, USATF 0 USATF Admits To Incompetence USATF claims that senior executives had no idea a letter had been sent to all US athletes telling them to pack “ONLY” Nike gear and now says athletes can wear whatever they want in private.
WADA Looking Into ARD Allegations, Says Nothing Before 2009 Will Be Looked At “No test data derived from the IAAF database prior to the adoption of the ABP in 2009 can be considered to be proof of doping. It would be reckless, if not libelous, to make such an allegation.”
Sebastian Coe Keeps Racking Up Votes – Ghana Commits – Up To 38 Supporters Now Many thought Bubka would get all of Africa.
*Coe Had Been Leading Bubka 36 To 5 In Race To Become IAAF President
Is This Proof That Designer Of Japan 2020 Logo Copied Others?
Japanese Runners Are Irate There Will Be No Permanent Track – Even Practice Track – In New 2020 Stadium As There Is “No Land Nearby” There is only 1 track in central Tokyo accessible to the public. Runners were hoping the Olympics would leave a 2nd.

Sponsorship News

Nick Symmonds Gets Huge Profile In New York Times – Nick Symmonds, A Sidelined Track Star, Continues To Break From The Pack
Symmonds Also Gets Featured On CBS News
Interesting Read: Is Track And Field Really A Zero-Sum Game? Does $20 Million To USATF Mean $20 Million Less To Athletes? Does more money to the federations from Nike mean less money to the athletes. John Capriotti said so 8 years ago.
Greg Rutherford Leads Criticism Of No Union Jack On Great Britain’s World Championships Kit The flag has been replaced by the UK Athletics logo. We can only imagine the outrage in America if the American flag was replaced with the USATF logo.
Kelly Holmes Joins Criticism Of Flag-Less British Athletics Kit
British Athletics Loses Key Sponsor As Sainsbury’s Pulls Out They were thought to be paying £5 million per year and the deal was through 2017 but they had an opt out clause and took it.

Thursday Miling

LRC Jack Bolas (3:58) And Rachel Schneider (4:31) Win Inaugural Boxcar Mile Bolas won over Ford Palmer (3:59.30) and Ashley Schneider beat out Heather Wilson (4:33.04) and Ashley Higginson (4:34.32).

Interesting To Say The Least: Q&A With Jamaican Sprinter Steve Mullings, Who 4 Years After His Lifetime Ban Is Still Shouting His Innocence Mullings contends that both times he tested positive he was sabotaged by the JAAA and JADCO and that he’s had threats on his life. He claims that JAAA/JADCO refused to do a DNA test and blocked him from a CAS hearing.

Worlds Are Coming

Coach Glen Mills And Agent Ricky Simms Both Confident Usain Bolt Can Deliver At Worlds Mills says they’ve been getting better results in training, but he would have liked Bolt to get in more races.
USA Jumpers Chaunte Lowe (HJ) And Christina Epps (TJ) Get IAAF Invite To Compete At Worlds Without The Qualifying Standard Why did USATF seek an invitation for these two, but not shot putter Andrew Evans?
IAAF Profile On Canada’s Long Shot Medal Hope Andre De Grasse He’s been approached to turn pro, but according to this is sticking with the NCAA.
Greg Rutherford Criticizes “Terrible Choice” To Leave The UK Flag Off Their World Champs Uniforms Scottish steepler Eilish McColgan said, “It’s unfair for athletes not supported by UK Athletics to have to wear it. It doesn’t make any sense. Bring back the flag.”
*More UK Athletes React Angrily
*UKA Chief Niels de Vos Defends Unfirom “It’s not about taking the Union flag off the kit – the logo is still on the shorts and socks. It’s about promoting British Athletics.”
Ashton Eaton And Brianne Theisen-Eaton Trying To Become The First Married Couple To Win Multi-Event Golds At The Same Championship Barring disaster, Ashton is a lock, and Brianne is #1 in 2015, but will face a challenge from the Brits.
UKA Makes Martyn Rooney Team GB Captain After They First Made Him Appeal His Way Onto The Team You would think someone credentialed enough to be captain would have been an automatic entry (he was originally only in the relay, but not open 400). *2nd Article
Spain Names Team Of 39 For Worlds Their captain is 45-year-old 1993 50K racewalk champion Jesus Angel Garcia. He’ll be the oldest athlete in Beijing as he makes a record 12th World Champs appearance.
Kenyans Margaret Wambui (800) And Jacinter Shikanda (400) Get IAAF Invites To Worlds This year, the IAAF extends invites to the top athletes who didn’t get the standard in order to fill the fields at Worlds.
Ugandan Steepler Benjamin Kiplagat Gets An IAAF Invite

Book Reviews

LRC Book Review Of Once a Runner Prequel Racing the Rain By John L. Parker, Jr. – “It works and has the potential to draw a new audience into Once a Runner.” Racing the Rain isn’t about Quenton Cassidy‘s development as a runner, but rather his development into a runner. The novel opens by introducing a second-grade Cassidy and concludes with the miler moving into his familiar room in Southeastern University’s Doobey Hall. In between, Parker’s sharp prose richly describes what it was like to grow up a middle-class baby boomer on Florida’s Gold Coast.

LRC Book Review: How to Race the Mile By Jeff Hollobaugh – “A terrific resource for younger runners.” And “… also a great read for even the expert fan.” We recommend the book, which is a comprehensive look at the mile from the 19th century to the present and is full of rich race histories.

2015 Beijing Worlds Start Friday Night In US So It’s Time For Previews TV & Streaming Entries *LRC Prediction Contest

Saturday Morning: LRC 2015 World Men’s 10,000 Preview: Can Geoffrey Kamworor (Or Anyone) Stop Mo Farah? Can Galen Rupp Medal? This year, in the span of 118 days, Mo Farah ran 59:32 for 13.1 and 3:28 for 1,500. How does that combination of strength and speed possibly lose? World XC champ Geoffrey Kamworor hopes he has the answer – be in shape to run 27:11 for 10,000 at 5,500 feet of altitude. *Discuss

LRC 2015 Worlds Women’s 1,500 Preview – “On paper, this isn’t a race; it’s a coronation.” – Can Americans Jenny Simpson And Shannon Rowbury Somehow Take Down Genzebe Dibaba? What a race. This race has it all. The returning champ. The European champ who has run 3:56.05. Two historically fast Americans. And, oh yeah, the world record holder. We break it down for you in 3,300 words. This preview is so good we feel guilty not charging you for it. *Discuss
*LRC The Lauren Johnson Story: From Over 2:20 For 800 In HS To The U.S. World Championships Team At 1,500

LRC 2015 Worlds Men’s 1,500 Preview – Can Favored Asbel Kiprop Win His 4th Global Gold Against This Historically Loaded Field? Asbel Kiprop looks to join Hicham El Guerrouj and Noureddine Morceli in the history books as a 3-time World Champ but he’s got his hands full as Matthew Centrowitz, Silas Kiplagat, Ayanleh Souleiman and Taoufik Makhloufi all could strike gold or go home without a medal as this field is LOADED. We break it down for you in nearly 4,000 words. *Discuss

IAAF: Event-By-Event Previews
*Men: *HJ *PV *LJ *TJ *SP *Discus *Javelin *Hammer *Decathlon
*Women: *HJ *PV *LJ *TJ *SP *Discus *Javelin *Hammer *Heptathlon

Pre-Worlds Distance News

Recommended Read: Great Profile On The Life And Career Of Nick Willis Starting From His Early Days At Michigan To Now Read how Willis went from a 12-year-old binge drinker to the world beater and family man he is today.
Akron Junior Clayton Murphy Talks About His Unexpected Trip To Worlds Thanks To Nick Symmonds Coming into the year as a 1:50 guy, he never thought he’d be ending the year with a trip to Beijing.
Amel Tuka (800), Yomif Kejelcha (5,000) And Selina Buchel (800) Among The “New Kids In The Blocks” At Worlds These three, along with sprinters Andre De Grasse and Elaine Thompson, were unknowns coming into 2015, but could leave Beijing as World medalists.
Q&A With Hassan Mead Ahead Of His First World Championships Mead calls himself a 10,000 “rookie” and thinks he has a lot more room to improve.

It’s Sunday And The Sunday Times Has Another Front Page IAAF Doping Allegation

Sunday Times: IAAF Blocked Publication Of Paper In Scientific Journal Saying 1/3 Of Competitors At 2011 World Champs Took An Anonymous Survey Where They Said They Doped We’re not sure how it can be scientific when you ask people “have you doped” and tell them it is totally anonymous. At the same time, the IAAF should let the survey come out.

IAAF Denies: “The IAAF has never vetoed publication of this article. … The IAAF understands that the article in question was submitted for publication (in a scientific paper) but it was rejected.” The study, which was funded by WADA, was one where competitors in Daegu submitted anonymous surveys about whether they were a doper or not. The IAAF says this isn’t a new allegation as it was aired by ARD in 2013.
*BBC Recap

More Doping News

UKA Performance Director Neil Black Says Their Investigation Into Alberto Salazar Is Finished, But Won’t Release The Verdict Until After Worlds UKA is deciding whether or not to keep Salazar as a consultant. In the meantime, he will still be there working with Mo Farah in Beijing.
*MB: Alberto Salazar will travel 2 China 2 Coach Mo
Elvan Abeylegesse Says She Never Doped And Wants Her “B” Sample Tested
UK Writer Calls On IAAF To Do More To Restore Public Confidence In The Sport, Including Re-Testing All Frozen Samples He would also see the IAAF work with, rather than against, German journalist Hajo Seppelt. Talking about frozen re-tests, Seppelt said, “Why don’t the IAAF do retesting on every opportunity on every occasion? They say it is not so easy … but it is completely bullshit.”
WADA President Craig Reedie Denies Claims He Said That WADA Would Go “Soft” On Russia The Daily Mail reported that Reedie told Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko he wouldn’t do anything to “disrupt the pair’s friendship.”
GB Sprinter Richard Kilty Feels Like He Faces An Unfair Advantage In Beijing Racing Against Dopers “It is very, very annoying. One: that you have to go out there and they have an unfair advantage over you. And two: they are taking all the publicity for all the wrong reasons. Of eight potential finalists, if you look on paper, at least five have failed tests.”
Olympic Champ Discus Robert Harting And Two Other Germans Make Their Blood Results Public
IAAF Elaborates On Previous Comments About UCI’s Anti-Doping Spending In Cycling “We wish to reiterate that there is strong collaboration between the two organisations …”
Lamine Diack: “When the day comes where we no longer can believe what we see then sport is dead.”

Coe Vs. Bubka Goes Down Wednesday

IAAF To Use Paper-Based Voting To Elect New IAAF President On Wednesday This is due to many previous problems with the electronic voting system.

Sponsorship News

2015 Worlds Start Next Saturday – Non-Distance News *Entries Released

Britain’s Heptathlon Rivals Jessica Ennis-Hill And Katarina Johnson-Thompson Finally Get To See Who’s Best In Beijing In First Clash Since 2012
*Katarina Johnson-Thompson Confident She Will Challenge For World Gold
*Jessica Ennis-Hill Views Beijing As Vital Stepping Stone On Road To Rio
Could We See The Unveiling Of The Next Usain Bolt In Beijing? Names To Watch Article mentions Trayvon Bromell, Jenna Prandini and Zharnel Hughes.
Q & A With Canadian Jav Record Holder Liz Gleadle, Who Is Dreaming Of Gold In Beijing
A Trimmer & Faster Jacko Gil Will Be Competing In China At Age 20 He’s made a lot of changes after failing to make the CG final 8 last year.
Jamaican 400 Hurdler Roxroy Cato Is Excited For Worlds And Has Been Training Great With Bershawn Jackson And Johnny Dutch
Edino Steele Has Gone Off The Radar Due To Personal Problems, Won’t Be Competing At Worlds “I’m just going thru a ruff time in my life and I need a little space and time for my thoughts to gather. … Times like these [I] wanna be around my family to help me through this ruff time,” wrote Steele, who hasn’t even contacted his coach Glen Mills.
Media Guide That Breaks Down Everything In Great Detail For Team Australia
IAAF And adidas Will Have Fans Vote For Athlete Of The Day And Meet At 2015 Worlds
The Guardian’s Ten Events Not To Miss At The World Athletics Championships In Beijing
Nigeria’s 100m Champ Egwero Ogho-Ogene Is Left Off Worlds Team As Nigeria Is Running Low On Money He’s got a 10.15 SB (10.10w).

Zane Branson Is Laid To Rest In Kenya

Stars Show Up As Zane Branson Is Laid To Rest In Kenya Wesley Korir, Edna Kiplagat, Mary Keitany, Florence Kiplagat, Patrick Makau, Emily Chebet, Wilson Chebet and Joyce Chepkirui were all there to pay their last respects to their manager.
The Nation: Branson’s Family Donates Heart Equipment That Might Have Saved His Life To Kenyan Hospital

Make Sure Your Parents Walk

A Brisk Walk May Be All It Takes To Improve Our Ability To Think As We Age Old people who walked for 225 minutes a week were only a little smarter than those who did it for 75.

Worlds Didn’t Use To Almost Always Be Held In Asia (3 Out Of Last 5)

Journalist Takes A Trip Down Memory Lane And Recaps The 1st World Champs Held In Asia – Tokyo 1991 The track exceeded IAAF standards for hardness and was therefore great for sprinters.

Welcome To America (Officially)

LRCFour-Time NCAA Champion Sam Chelanga Became A U.S. Citizen On Friday

Chelanga, who has a 27:08 10,000 PR (a time surpassed by only two Americans in history), was sworn in as a citizen on Aug. 14 in Arizona.
*MB: Breaking: Sam Chelanga was sworn in as a US citizen today in Arizona

IAAF News

Olympic News: LA 2024

USOC Confirm Los Angeles As Choice To Bid For 2024 Olympics
IAAF: Sergey Bubka Gets Support From Four Countries As Coe Picks Up His First African Country Paraguay, Peru, Singapore and Thailand will vote for Bubka and Ghana for Coe.
US Predicted To Finish Top Of The Medal Table In Rio 2016 With 99 Medals (46 Gold) China and Russia are predicted 2nd and 3rd.
IOC Official Says She Will Jump In The Water At Rio 2016 To Prove It’s Safe And Not Polluted
Rio 2016 Calls On Taxi Drivers To Sign Up For Online English Language Courses
British Charity Blasts UK Government For Failing To Repay Money They Claim Is Owed To Charities And Communities Used To Fund London 2012

Doping News: Silver For Kara And Shalane?

Kara Goucher And Shalane Flanagan Could Be Upgraded To World And Olympic Silver After IAAF Re-Tests The Daily Mail is reporting that Turkey’s Olympic/World silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse is among the 28 athletes caught in IAAF re-tests from 2005 and 2007 Worlds. Abeylegesse would lose three silver medals and UK’s Jo Pavey would also be upgraded to a Worlds bronze.
*MB: Kara Goucher to be upgraded to 2007 WC silver
*MB: “Elvan Abeylegesse excluded from WCH squad due to last minute injury.” What a coincidence!
Recommended Read: Open Letter From Doping Expert Michael Ashenden To Seb Coe Ashenden: “Does the IAAF pursue its anti-doping mandate with the same single-minded, all-consuming dedication that athletes adopt in their pursuit of winning? Based on what I saw in the leaked database, my view is No.”
*Article With Synopsis Of The Letter *2nd Article
Apparently Kip Keino Doesn’t Understand How Re-Testing Of Frozen Samples Works Keino: “Why should WADA and IAAF sanction athletes for doping issues taken in 2005 and 2007 now? Surely, can’t a way be found where decisions are taken immediately after tests are done as was the case with (Canadian) Ben Johnson in 1988?”
Tour De France Winner Chris Froome Backs Mo Farah’s Release Of Blood Data He compares it to the release of “power data” in cycling.
*MB: Chris Froome on PEDs in athletics
Good Video Interview: Froome Urges Track To Follow Cycling’s Lead And Invest More Money In Anti-Doping UCI spends way more as a percentage than the IAAF.
Ireland Independent: “Sebastian Coe’s pathetic statement on IAAF revelations is worrying.”
Seb Coe Doesn’t Want Athletes To Be Pressured To Release Their Blood Data
WADA President Craig Reedie Is Against Banning Entire Nations For Doping

More Big Thursday Headlines

Did USATF Drop The Ball Again? Why Isn’t Discus Thrower Andrew Evans Going To Worlds? Evans finished 3rd at USAs and according to the USATF and IAAF qualification procedures, it appears he should be going to Worlds. However, 4th placer Rodney Brown was named to the team.
Oscar Pistorius Likely To Be Released From Jail Next Week After Serving 10 Months Of His Five-Year Sentence He will live under house arrest and still faces an appeal by prosecutors as they fight to have his verdict be upgraded to murder, which would mean 15 years jail time instead of 5.

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?

Doping Updates

Ridiculous: Russian 800 Runner Who Was Caught On Tape Talking About Doping In ARD Documentary Is On Worlds Start Lists If Anastasia Bazdyreva is on the start line, we and a ton of athletes are going to be furious.
Only A Third Of Athletes Will Have Their Blood Tested At 2015 Worlds Even Though Every Athlete Did In 2011 And 2013 The IAAF says it will do 600-700 targeted tests rather than mass screening the 1,900 athletes at Worlds.
RR: Japan Times, Part IV: Victor Conte Explains How He Would Completely Overhaul The WADA Testing System If He Was In Charge He explains why the out-of-competition testing system is a joke and athletes can strategically miss tests and dope for weeks without being tested. He would change the system and also make missed tests public.
IAAF Statement On It’s Testing Strategy Ahead Of Beijing Some good news here as the IAAF says it’s now implemented a version of of the biological passport for steroids and urine (the current one is for blood and blood doping).
WADA President Craig Reedie Says They Would Consider Banning Entire Countries Like Russia For Doping “The sport has turned around and said, ‘At the moment, your record isn’t good enough so we don’t want you coming to our events for a period of years.’ It’s happened very infrequently but I think it’s been effective.”
European Athletics Head Svein Arne Hansen Wants IAAF President To Put Anti-Doping On Top Of Their Agenda

The Answer To Doping Is Not Legalizing It

Guardian Writer: “The Answer To Drugs In Athletics? Have Two Races: Doped And Clean” This is most certainly not the answer. Health risks aside, athletes would still dope in the “clean” category.
Another Idiot Thinks Doping Should Be Legalized This is one of the worst arguments about legalizing doping we’ve ever heard, at least concerning track and field.

IAAF Pre-Election News

The Media Says Seb Coe Is The Favorite For IAAF President, But Sergey Bubka Is “Very Confident” Bubka: “I prefer not to guess who will win. I’m a man of results so we’ll see the results on Wednesday!”
Mo Farah Backs Seb Coe For President Farah: “I hope Seb gets the job because he can change athletics. What he did for London 2012 was incredible, so I believe he can do a great job.”
The Guardian: “Globetrotter Seb Coe Makes Final Push For IAAF President” Is Coe the one to restore public confidence in the IAAF?
Athletics Weekly: “The Race To Become IAAF President Enters Finishing Straight” AW compares and contrasts Coe’s and Bubka’s athletics “manifestos.”