August 25, 2015 | LetsRun.com

2015 Beijing Worlds Schedule & Results TV & Streaming Entries LRC Prediction Contest LRC Previews: M800 W800 M1,500 W1,500 WSteeple M5,000 W5,000 (Coming) IAAF Event-By-Event Recaps Post-Race Video Interviews *Race Videos

LRC Genzebe Dibaba Earns Gold With Ridiculous 1:56.9 Final 800 – Americans Stars Jenny Simpson And Shannon Rowbury Left Way Behind Simpson finished the race with one shoe.

LRC Negative Split, No Problem: The King Is Far From Dead – David Rudisha Wins Third Global Title With 24.36 Final 200 Like London 2012, Rudisha led wire-to-wire, but he came through 400 almost five seconds slower (54.17). He ran a big negative split (51.67 final 400) to win over Poland’s Adam Kszczot in 1:45.86, while Amel Tuka earned Bosnia & Herzegovina’s first medal ever by taking the bronze.

Usain Bolt Issues Subtle Dig At Justin Gatlin? Bolt: “He’s always impressive through the rounds. It’s not a question of what he can do …”

MB: Official 2015 Worlds Day 4 Thread: Women’s 1,500 And Men’s 800 Finals

Post-Race Video Interviews *Race Videos

More From Day 2

In Comeback From Pregnancy, Jessica Ennis-Hill Wins World Heptathlon Title Brianne Theisen-Eaton got the silver. One of the pre-meet favorites for a medal, Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished last after she fouled out of the LJ and then jogged the 800.
*MB: So Johnson-Thompson can’t medal since she fouled 3 times in LJ and so she’s jogging the 800? Give me a break.
The Independent: “Jessica Ennis-Hill delivers a valuable lesson to young pretender as she wins gold at World Championships.”
USA’s Joe Kovacs Wins World Shot Put Title With 21.93m Germany’s David Storl was 2nd (21.74) and Jamaica’s O’Dayne Richards took bronze (21.69m).
MB: Yousef Masrahi and Rusheen McDonald go 43.93 in their heat!
*MB: Men’s 400 Meter at Beijing doped to the gills.
Ireland’s Mark Engish (800) And Thomas Barr (400H) Miss Out On World Finals
Poland’s Pawel Fajdek Wins World Hammer Title
Day 2 USA Athlete Quotes: Mixed Bag For US Mid-D Runners
*USATF Day 2 Recap

The World Celebrates Bolt Over Gatlin

The Telegraph: Stars United In Praise Of Hero Who “Saved Athletics” BBC commentator Steve Cram: “Bolt has saved his title, he’s saved his reputation, he may have even saved his sport. It was the result that everyone wanted, apart from Justin Gatlin. I’ve never been happier commentating on a 100m final.”
Twitter Reactions From Athletes Past And Present
The Guardian: “Bolt wins 100m in ‘clash of good against evil.'”
BBC: “Usain Bolt Delivers His Greatest Miracle”

Non-Worlds Weekend Action

Leonard Korir Wins Crim 10 Miler In Michigan In 46:59, Outkicking Uganda’s Moses Kipsiro (47:00) Dathan Ritzenhein was 3rd (47:15) as Boston Marathon champ Caroline Rotich won the women’s race (53:05) over Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton (53:06).
Heather Kampf Wins Crim Michigan Mile In 4:30.45 Rachel Schneider was 3rd (4:40.33) and Morgan Uceny 5th (4:42.39). *Full Results

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 Coe 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

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 Worlds Evan 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.

LRC Day 1 AM Video Interviews

Worlds Previews

Saturday Morning 8:50am ET – LRC 2015 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

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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

LRC Police 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 Worlds

Bookmark This Page: Watch Worlds Without Knowing The Results Thank message boarder “Darth Vader is Luke’s father” for the idea.

LRC One-Page Recap Of Tuesday’s Day 4 Action At 2015 Worlds Rudisha won the 800 and his countryman won the 400m hurdles, Genzebe Dibaba hit burst mode, Greg Rutherford got a Worlds gold, and Justin Gatlin and Usain Bolt cruised in round 1 of the 200.

Starting Wed: LRC 2015 Worlds Men’s 5,000 Preview: Should We Hand Mo Farah The Gold Right Now? Can Ryan Hill, Ben True Or Galen Rupp Become The First American-Born Athlete To Medal In History? We break it down for you.

Day 3 Is Complete LRC Agony & Ecstasy In The Women’s 10,000: Molly Huddle Gives The Bronze Away To Emily Infeld As Vivian Cheruiyot Wins Gold Once Again Huddle had the bronze until the final step, when she slowed down to throw up her arms, allowing Infeld to sneak by on the inside. Overall, it was a fantastic race for the Americans (Shalane Flanagan was the other), as they went 3-4-6.

LRC Ezekiel Kemboi Cements Status As Greatest Of All Time; Evan Jager’s Medal Hopes Come Up Short There were doubts surrounding Kemboi’s fitness this year, but once Worlds came around, he did what he always does, blowing away the field over the final 200 to win in 8:11.28. Conseslus Kipruto managed second despite tearing his shoe on the final water jump, while Brimin Kipruto (3rd) and Jairus Birech (4th) helped produced an unprecedented 1-4 sweep for Kenya. Dan Huling (5th) was the top American as Evan Jager (6th) and Donn Cabral (10th) struggled.

MB: Huddle Celebrates Too Soon, EMILY INFELD GETS BRONZE
*Ezekiel Kemboi 5th straight major win Evan Jager 6th.
*Schippers 10.83!!!!!! SAFP 10.76 for gold.
*Official Day 3 Live Discussion Thread: Molly Huddle and Evan Jager go for medals – can they do it?

LRC History In The Steeplechase: The US Will Send Three Women To The Final For The First Time Ever It was a great morning for the US women in the steeple as two years after sending zero to the final, Team USA will be sending three to the final for the first time ever.
*MB: Steeple Talk

Worlds Monday On One Page

LRC Short On Time? One-Page Recap Of All Of Monday’s Action At 2015 Worlds Drama in the 10k, greatness in the steeple and the 100, collegian Shawn Barber winning the pole vault, plus some developments in the qualifying. We recap it all in quick fashion in one article. *Interview With Barber

Canada’s NCAA Champ Shawn Barber Gets Surprise Victory In Pole Vault He won a dual with Germany’s defending champ Raphael Holzdeppe. Olympic champ, WR holder and favorite Renaud Lavillenie only managed to finish in a three-way tie for the bronze.
Colombia’s Caterine Ibarguen Defends Her World TJ Title Her winning streak is now at 29 in a row with her last loss coming from the 2012 Olympics.

Doping-Related News

Russia’s Disgraced Drug Cheat Liliya Shobukhova Eligible To Compete As WADA Reduces Her Drug Ban In Return For “Substantial Assistance” We support the ban reduction incentive for information, but it will leave a bad taste in our mouth to see Shobukhova on any kind of starting line. *IAAF Statement
Eric Jenkins Joins The Nike Oregon Project Both Jenkins and Alberto Salazar discuss him joining NOP despite the recent doping allegations. Salazar had him wait to decide, saying, “I told him to take his time and look at some other programs to be sure. That was better than jumping in with us right away when every thing was crazy. I didn’t want him criticized.”
*MB: ERIC JENKINS TO NOP!!
Press Conference Video: Justin Gatlin Sidesteps Doping Questions To questions about doping, he repeated three times, “I am thankful.”
Jessica Ennis-Hill Wants 2011 World Heptathlon Gold; Drug Cheat Tatyana Chernova Yet To Have Medal Stripped Chernova was banned after a 2009 re-test and had all her results annulled up until 16 days before 2011 Worlds. The CAS case to strip her of the 2011 gold is still ongoing.
Justin Gatlin Boycotting BBC And British Media Over “Biased” Coverage On the BBC broadcast, Steve Cram said that Usain Bolt “saved the sport” by beating Gatlin.
NY Times After Kenyan Steeple Sweep: “Kenyan Runners Find Their Success Is No Longer Free Of Scrutiny” Mary Wittenberg: “It’s a real concern. The WMM was strongly supportive of an out-of-competition testing lab and system in Kenya and Ethiopia. That has to happen.”

Worlds Photos Galleries: Day 1 (M10k Marathon), Day 2 (M100) & Video (Interviews, Races)

More Worlds Sprint Stuff

Justin Gatlin Defended His Mom From Someone Heckling Her While He Was On The World Champs Award Podium
Glen Mills Says Usain Bolt’s Latest 100m Gold Was His Toughest Medal Yet Mills also let on that they have been focusing on training for the 100 at the expense of the 200.
Dafne Schippers After 100m Silver: “I am so happy. It is a national record, I am second in the world and it is just crazy.”

2015 Beijing Worlds Saturday Action

Saturday Photo Gallery (224 Photos)

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 on Mo 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

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 IAAF / IOC Political Stuff

BBC: “Lamine Diack: What 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 Gender And Age Requirements, Term Limits” Sounds like they’re trying to justify their decision to choose Stephanie Hightower over Bob Hersch for USATF’s IAAF council representative.
LA Due To Give Final Green Light On 2024 Olympic Bid Next Week

Gatlin Is NOT A 2-Time Cheat

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.

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

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.

Sponsorship News

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.

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.

Day 2

LRC He Is The Greatest: The Incomparable Usain Bolt Wins 5th Global 100 Title As Justin Gatlin Can’t Keep It Together In Final Meters Bolt barely made the final after stumbling in the semis but he showed the resilience that makes him the Greatest of All Time by running 9.79 in the final to edge Gatlin by .01. Gatlin led most of the way but he couldn’t hold his form once Bolt caught him in the final 10 meters and had to settle for silver. The battle for bronze between college stars De Grasse and Bromell was even closer.

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.

Shocking Developments In Men’s 800 LRC Three Thoughts After Men’s 800 Semis – Amos And Aman Go Home Early, David Rudisha Most Certainly Stays And The Amazing Year Of Clayton Murphy Comes To An End
*After Season Of His Life, Clayton Murphy Gets Some Attention From Grantland.com Their headline: “Running Man: Clayton Murphy On Junk Food, Passports, And Replacing Nick Symmonds”
*MB: US distance runner gets some pub on Grantland.com – You’ll never guess who

Simpson Diamond Leagues Winner LRC Three Thoughts After Women’s 1,500 Semis – A Medal Of Any Color Won’t Be Easy For Simpson Or Rowbury; Kerri Gallagher And Lauren Johnson Should Be Proud; And The African-Born Runners Have Been Foolish Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury both auto qualified to Tuesday’s final but they are going to have their hands full as the African-born runners are looking great.

Beijing 100m / 400m News

LaShawn Merritt Back In Beijing Where He Won Olympic Gold In 2008 “When I’m looking up and about to take off, I feel something in the back of my head will just click and say, ‘Man, you’ve been here before. You dominated. You’re years older, a couple years wiser and a lot stronger. Do it again.'”
GB 400 Runner Martyn Rooney Could Miss The Birth Of His Child To Race At Worlds His wife is expecting their first child on Monday.
JAAA Screw-Up Cost Nesta Carter A Spot In Beijing He could have replaced Kemar Bailey-Cole, who pulled out with an injury, but wasn’t entered as the alternate.
Christine Ohuruogu Looking Forward, Not Back On Her Beijing 2008 Olympic Win “I always say that the time to enjoy what I’ve done is when I retire and until then I keep working.”
*Ohuruogu Keen To Upset Odds In Beijing “There is no script in sport.”
The Guardian: “Justin Gatlin on track to be least popular 100m world champion ever.”
BBC On Justin Gatlin: Why Villains Are Good For Sport “A boxing match is like a cowboy movie – there’s got to be the good guys and there’s got to be the bad guys. And that’s what people pay for – to see the bad guys get beat.”
Team USA Athlete Quotes From Day 1 Of Worlds

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

Beer Mile World Classic Is Saturday In San Francisco Event Website LRC Beer 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).
LRC Beer 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

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 …”
*LRC Thoughts 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.

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.

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 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

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?