August 23, 2015 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For August 23, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“It was amazing to be able to go out there, cross the line and defend my title. It means so much. It hasn’t been an easy year, but at the same time it is nice to get the team started well. To win the first gold medal (for the British team) is incredible. It is nice to be known as someone who has won the most medals for my country. It is great to make history.”

– Mo Farah after overcoming a relentess Kenyan assault to win his 6th global track gold. Galen Rupp ran the 4th-fastest 10,000 in US history but that only got him 5th.

2015 Beijing Worlds Schedule & Results TV & StreamingEntriesLRC Prediction Contest LRC Previews: M800 W800 M1,500 W1,500 MSteeple WSteepleM5k (Coming) W5k (Coming) M10kW10k IAAF Event-By-Event Recaps

boltvideo Video of Men’s 100m Final: Usain Bolt Defeats Justin Gatlin 9.79 to 9.80 (Or Did Gatlin Give it Away)? You can rewatch it and decide. Full coverage from Sunday coming. US visitors only.

Day 2 On The Boards: Official Day 2 Live Discussion Thread – The King Isn’t Dead. Usain Bolt FTW!!!
*SUCK IT GATLIN
*Shock: Nijel Amos OUT of 800m Final (didn’t qualify) as is Mo Aman (DQd) Shock results in the 800 as Amos and Aman both fail to make the final.
*Amos doesn’t go through and Aman should be disqualified
*Mo Aman disqualified
*So Johnson-Thompson can’t medal since she fouled 3 times in LJ and so she’s jogging the 800? Give me a break.
*Gatlin says F*CK YOU HATERS, runs 9.77 in semi final
*Bingtian Su 9.99! First Chinese man sub-10!!!
*Men’s 400 Meter at Beijing doped to the gills – two guys run 43 in 1st round
*Mo Farah’s PB’s at age 22

Pre-Race: LRC It’s Official: Justin Gatlin, Not Usain Bolt the Favorite in 100m Final Sportsbooks and LRC nation agree Justin Gatlin is the favorite in tonights 100m final. Race at 9:15 am eastern. Tape delay on NBC.
*Official Sunday/ 100m Final Thread

Post-Coe Election News: Coe Under Fire For Relationship With Nike

“Bristling Seb Coe Under Fire Over Six Figure Nike Salary Despite IAAF Presidency The Guardian’s Owen Gibson said, “I don’t know how he can maintain that global advisory role with Nike and be President of the IAAF. The two just don’t go together.”
Good Read:The Independent: “Lord Goe Must Navigate Tough Path To Save His Sport”Tom Peck: “So far one of the great drawbacks is finding a powerful motivation for a sport to actively spend its money on seeking to shame itself.”
Daily Mail: “Lord Coe claims he will feel ‘queasy’ if Justin Gatlin claims gold in Beijing, but his links to Nike are pretty sickening too”
Coe Points Out He Has Worked With adidas Despite Nike Relationship
Seb Coe Blog Post: “There is more to athletics than doping and drug cheats and I believe our sport is in a very strong position” “Our sport is more than just doping, yet that is all we seem to be discussing at the moment.”
The Guardian: “Coe must race to prove he can take the hard decisions at IAAF helm”
The Telegraph: “Coe the ‘knight in shining armour’ seen as the man to restore credibility to athletics’ battered reputation”
NY Times: Hard Climb Awaits Seb Coe

Oiselle Partners With Yale University’s Women’s XC And Track Teams

Beer Mile World Classic Is Saturday In San Francisco Event WebsiteLRCBeer Mile Archives

Recommended Read:Large ESPN Feature On The Beer Mile And The Beer Mile World Classic Saturday In San Francisco The race will feature the three all-time fastest beer milers in Lewis Kent (4:55.78), Josh Harris (4:56.2) and James Nielsen (4:57).
LRCBeer Mile World Classic In San Francisco August 22nd – Will We See The World’s First Sub-5:00 In A Competitive Event?
ESPN:After Bringing Beer Mile To Forefront, James Nielsen Is Back For More
ESPN: Josh Harris Looking To Reclaim World Record At Beer Mile World Classic
ESPN:As Beer Mile World Classic Approaches, Lewis Kent Relives World-Record Run

Doping Talk

Video:Usain Bolt Saddened By Doping Focus Going Into Worlds “All I’ve been hearing is doping, doping, doping. All the questions have been about doping. … But I can’t do anything about it ’cause you’re the one writing about it.” *Guardian Article/Video
“Bad Guy” Tag Does Not Bother Justin Gatlin Gatlin: “I really don’t care what they think, I am just a runner like [Bolt] is a runner. We are just runners – there is no good runner or bad runner. No-one is trying to take over the world. No-one is trying to blow up the world.”
Bolt Is Fine With Revealing His Blood Data “I really don’t have an issue, I really didn’t know I got one.”
Outgoing IAAF President Lamine Diack: “We Are Convinced 99% Of Athletes Are Clean”
AP:Lamine Diack Defends IAAF Integrity On Doping On His Watch “Blame it on an old president on the eve of his departure who wanted to take this opportunity to give this opportunity to the United States. I’m sorry about this.”
BBC: What Is Doping? A History
Bolt: I Can’t Save Athletics On My Own

Legal Stuff

Caitlyn Jenner Could Face Manslaughter Charge For Role In Fatal Car Crash Last February Jenner rear ended a car, sending her into oncoming traffic. Jenner could face a year in prison.
Decision On Oscar Pistorius’ Release May Take Up To 4 Months A review board will decide whether and when he will be released from prison into house arrest.

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

LRCThe 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

LRCLetsRun.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.

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

LRCThe 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

Falmouth Pre-Race News

Zane Branson Is Laid To Rest In Kenya

Stars Show Up As Zane Branson Is Laid To Rest In KenyaWesley 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

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 Beijing Worlds Saturday Action

Day 1 In The Books: LRC Kenyan Team Tactics Not Enough To Stop The Invincible Mo Farah In Men’s 10,000 – Farah Wins 6th Global Track Title At last, the Kenyans gave the fans what they wanted – a relentless assault onMo Farah. In the end, it didn’t matter as Farah overcame the spirited team challenge to win 27:01 as Kenya was rewarded with the 2-3-4 placings. Galen Rupp ran the 4th-fastest time (27:08) in American history to finish 5th. *Video highlights
*MB: Official 2015 Worlds Men’s 10,000 Discussion Thread
*MB: Mo Farah – What a talent!!!
*Independent on Farah’s win

Bolt-Gatlin Tmw Should Be Awesome: LRC Justin Gatlin 9.83 And Usain Bolt 9.96 Get Battle Underway With Their Fastest Round 1 Times Ever
*Usain Bolt: I Can’t Save Athletics On My Own
*Fox Sports: Usain Bolt V. Justin Gatlin: Credibility Of Track And Field Hangs On A Bolt Victory

Saturday Morning:LRC 2015 Worlds Marathon: Stars Fizzle As 19-Year-Old Ghirmay Ghebrselassie Wins Eritrea’s First Gold, A 2:16 Guy Goes For It, And The Top 10 DON’T KNOW WHERE THE FINISH IS A 2:16 marathoner broke away from the world’s best, but he could not hang on as Eritrea got its first Worlds gold ever as the top 10 did not know where the finish was. *AP Recap Of 1st Session: After A Big Surprise In Marathon, Rudisha, Ennis-Hill Restore Normalcy At World Championships
*RRW: 19-Year-Old Ghirmay Ghebreslassie Surprises As Youngest-Ever World Marathon Champ

More Worlds ***Day 1 AM Video Interviews *Men’s 10k Video Highlights**

LRC Recap: Everything You Need To Know About The Saturday AM Session At WorldsEvan Jager survived a huge, huge scare on a very good morning session from the Americans as Clayton Murphy filled in admirably for Nick Symmonds to keep his dream 2015 going. All 4 Americans advanced in the women’s 1,500m, as did druggie Tatyana Tomashova, which got some comment from Jenny Simpson.

LRCDay 1 AM Video Interviews

Worlds Previews

Saturday Morning 8:50am ET – LRC2015 Worlds 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

Monday Morning 8:35am ET:LRC 2015 Worlds Women’s 10,000 Preview: Can Anyone Stop Vivian Cheruiyot From Returning To The Winner’s Circle And Winning A 4th Track Gold? Will Molly Huddle Medal? An American man has never medaled in the 10,000 at Worlds but Molly Huddle has a real shot at joining Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan as a global medalist. Vivian Cheruiyot is back from maternity leave and seems like a near lock for gold given Tirunesh Dibaba‘s absence.

LetsRun Previews: *M800 *W800 *M1,500 *W1,500 *MSteeple *WSteeple *M5,000 (Coming) *W5,000 (Coming) *M10k *W10k *MMarathon *WMarathon (Coming)

IAAF:Event-By-Event Previews
*Men:*100*200*400*110H*400H *HJ*PV*LJ*TJ*SP*Discus*Javelin*Hammer*Decathlon
*Women:*100*200*400*100H*400H *HJ*PV*LJ*TJ*SP *Discus*Javelin*Hammer*Heptathlon

Pre-Worlds Distance News

Ben True Talks About His Strategy That He Thinks Can Get Him A Medal At Worlds True is hoping for a quick race in the 13:05-13:10 range. He also talks about how he doesn’t think TUEs should be allowed.
GB 19-Year-Old Kyle Langford Didn’t Even Know Who David Rudisha Was Two Years Ago; Now He’ll Race Him In Beijing Langford ran 1:45.78 to put himself only .01 behind Steve Ovett on the all-time junior list. He has big goals like making the final in Beijing and Rio and trying to win gold in London 2017.
After Winning World Silver And Bronze, Matt Centrowitz Is Hoping To Finally Get Gold His last race in Stockholm was a dud as he finished 11th in 3:39, but he says he was just over-raced and is feeling better now.
Genzebe Dibaba Happy To Finally Keep Her Indoor Success Going Into Outdoors Normally she starts strong indoors and fades outdoors, but this year has obviously been different.
After A String Of Bad Races, Irish 800 Man Mark English Broke Through With A 1:45.49 In July And Now Is Poised For Worlds The med student realized he had a tight abductor which was cutting off blood flow to his right leg.

Oscar P Is Not Free

Oscar Pistorius To Remain In Prison After South African Justice Department Rules Early Release As “Premature” His parole has been postponed until after his case is reviewed since he could end up with a longer sentence.

Pre-Worlds Sprint News

Good Read:Asafa Powell Wants To Finally Be The Man On Top Of The Podium In Beijing “The world needs me, Asafa Powell, to be on top. … I should’ve been on top of the podium five or six times by now, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to catch that gold medal.”
Allyson Felix Gears Up For Her 6th World Championships But Says She’s Far From Done
The Five Best Duals In Beijing: Bolt Vs. Gatlin Tops The List Also America vs. Jamaica relays, David Rudisha vs. Nijel Amos, Greg Rutherford vs. “the doubters” and Jessica Ennis vs. Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
Track Alerts’ Five World Champs Dark HorsesZharnell Hughes tops the list.
IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With Breakthrough 400 Runner Wayde Van Niekerk Of South Africa Van Niekerk ran 43.96 in Paris this year to make him one of the contenders for gold in Beijing.
*IAAF Profile On Van Niekerk

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 RussiaThe Daily Mailreported 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.”

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.”

Death Threat At USAs Unveiled

LRCPolice Report: Nike Global Director Of Athletics John Capriotti Threatened To Kill Brooks Beasts Head Coach And Former Nike Employee Danny Mackey At 2015 USAs At USAs, it was stated that people had been threatened at the meet but the details were missing – until now. LetsRun.com has obtained a police report stating that Nike’s John Capriotti threatened the life of the Brooks Beasts coach Danny Mackey. Witnesses interviewed by LetsRun.com support Mackey’s claim.
*MB: Nike’s Global Director of Athletics John Capriotti Threatened To Kill Brooks Beasts Head Coach Danny Mackey At 2015 USAs

More IAAF / IOC Political Stuff

BBC: “Lamine Diack: Whaht Has He Achieved As IAAF Chief?” The end of Diack’s time has been been marred by doping allegations, but is proud of his financial success.
*AP:Diack defends IAAF integrity on doping on his watch
IOC President Thomas Bach Says He Supports Lifetime Bans But That They’re Not Legally Realistic We’re not sure what he means by this because they are 100% legal. Maybe he means for first-time offenders?
Sergey Bubka To Miss All Of Worlds Due To Family Illness
USATF Release:“New IAAF Era Includes Gendera And Age Requirements, Term Limits” Sounds like they’re trying to justify their decision to choose Stephanie Hightower over Bob Herschfor USATF’s IAAF council representative.
LA Due To Give Final Green Light On 2024 Olympic Bid Next Week

Bolt Vs. Gatlin Is Sunday Morning In USA

LRC Fans’/Idiots’ Guide To Day 1 (Saturday) Of The World Championships

LRC Everything You Need To Know About Justin Gatlin’s Drug Positives Before His Showdown With Bolt, Including His Dad Got A Gun And Wanted To Kill Trevor Graham In a LetsRun first, we show some sympathy for Justin Gatlin, reveal how his dad intended to kill Trevor Graham when he heard his son tested positive (as part of an April Fool’s Prank), and how Gatlin’s own agent didn’t buy the Chris Whetstine sabotage story. Plus, we go on the the record and say Gatlin should never have been banned 4 years.
Excellent Read: Tim Layden Sports Illustrated: Usain Bolt vs. Justin Gatlin: 100 meters for the soul of track?

Pre-Worlds Distance News

David Rudisha Is Enjoying His “Underdog” Status Going Into Worlds As He Feels No Pressure He says his speed is improving and actually ran some of his 300 and 200 repeat sessions faster than ever before.
RRW:Jenny Simpson Aiming For Third Time On World Championships Podium Simpson thinks the 1,500m rounds are an “equalizer” and can “play to [her] favor.”
Random Quiz:Which Men’s Athletics Legend Are You? Employee 1.1 took it and got Haile Gebrselassie.
Rudisha: “I know I’m not in my best form … when I get there, I’ll control races again.”

Pre-Worlds Non-Distance News

Aries Merritt Reveals The Reason He Hasn’t Been At The Level He Was In 2012 Is He’s Been Suffering From A Life-Threatening Kidney Disease Merritt spent months in the hospital in 2013 and 2014 and was unable to train. Just four days after the 110H final, he’ll be getting a kidney transplant as currently his is only functioning at less than 20%.
Happy Birthday, Usain Bolt!Bolt Will Try To Give Himself A Birthday Gift By Winning Another Global Title “Things normally come together for me at championships, I’m not worried.”
Allyson Felix Disappointed She Can Run The 200-400 Double At Worlds There is actually talk from IOC president Thomas Bach and Lamine Diack about the changing the schedule for her in Rio 2016.
*Schedule Changes Have Happened Before In the 1996 Atlanta Games, the schedule was changed so sprinters (including Michael Johnson) could do the 200-400 double.
USATF Press Conference:Good Quotes From Jenny Simpson, Christian Taylor , Allyson Felix And David Oliver Conversations covered tactics, medal hopes, drugs and Justin Gatlin. Simpson addressed whether she’d consider going back to the steeplechase.
Jessica Ennis-Hill On Leaving Her Son At Home To Go To Worlds: “One of the hardest things I have ever, ever done. I was overcome with emotion.”

More Distance News

Paula Radcliffe Doesn’t Think Athletes Should Release Blood Data “I think if you put too much of that information in the public domain you risk doing a lot of things, you risk it being misunderstood and misinterpreted, you also risk putting information into the hands of people who are trying to cheat …”
*LRCThoughts From Rojo*LRC Thoughts From Wejo
*MB:Radcliffe says she’s not releasing blood values
Inspirational:Two Weeks Ago, 28-Year-Old Brandon Hudgins Overcame Years Of Illness To Finally Run A Sub-4 Mile Hudgins has a rare autoimmune disease which has hindered his training and life since college. However, he has persevered and ran 3:59.67 to place 5th at the Sir Walter Miler.
*MB:Brandon MF Hudgins!!!! Sub-4 and more
Meb Keflezighi, Other Elites Helped Save Cyclist’s Life Before Falmouth Road Race A man flipped over his handlebars and was knocked unconscious and bleeding. Elites on the scene called 911, went for help and used Keflezighi’s shirt as a tourniquet.

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.

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 IAAF 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.”

Sponsorship News

Administrative News

Nick Symmonds 1, USATF 0 USATF Admits To IncompetenceUSATF 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.

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.