September 15, 2015 | LetsRun.com

Week That Was

LRCPaula's Blood Values, Asafa Powell's 100th Sub-10, Doping, Animal House And Nike, Props To The NYRR And Kyle Merber, Knockout Races And More

We had the Diamond League finale and the 5th Avenue Mile last week, but there was a ton of other interesting news and we break it down for you.

Assorted Distance News

Recommended Watch: Shannon Rowbury, Alysia Montano And Bernard Lagat Do Karaoke In NYC
Best-Selling Author Malcolm Gladwell Runs 5:03 Mile At Fifth Avenue Mile “The Tipping Point” author and LRC poster was 9th in the 50-54 age group.
*MB: Congratulations Malcolm GLADWELL: 5:03 in Fifth Avenue MILE! (9th M50)
DyeStat Q&A With Home Schooled NXN Midwest Regional Champ And Foot Locker Finalist Sarah Kettel She is from Michigan, which interestingly has a championship meet just for home schooled athletes.
Spikes’ Five Favorite Moments From The 2015 Diamond League Season Genzebe Dibaba and Almaz Ayana both make the list.

Seb Coe Gives Speech To Entire IAAF HQ Staff In Monaco “This is a dream come true to be able to shape a sport. We should wake up each morning excited to serve, knowing we have the greatest job in the world.”

2024 Bid News

Weekend Track Action *Rieti Full Results

Rieti World Challenge: Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba Runs 1:57.62 To Beat Out A Solid 800 Field World 1,500m silver medalist Faith Kipyegon was 2nd and world 800 champ Marina Arzamasova 4th. Other distance winners: Taoufik Makhloufi (1,500), Adam Kszczot (800), Hillary Mayo Kipkorir (3,000 – 7:45.35) and Gudaf Tsegay over Canada’s Fiona Benson in a close 1,500 (4:05.17 to 4:05.24). Qatar’s Femi Ogunode won the 100 in 9.93.
Poland’s World Hammer Champs Anita Wlodarczyk & Pawel Fajdek End Season With Home Victories At Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Asafa Powell ran 10.01 into a headwind to win the 100.
Poland’s Pawel Fajdek Clinches IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge With Win In Rieti

NCAA XC *All Results

Edward Cheserek Leads Oregon Sweep Of Dellinger Invitational The top five Oregon men essentially tied while Oregon’s Alli Cash won the women’s race. Redshirt freshman Sarah Baxter made her debut, finishing 10th (UO’s 6th woman). *Full Results
*Register-Guard: Ducks Get Off To A Fast Start
Penn State Women Win At Spiked Shoe Invitational Title Michigan won the men’s race with Syracuse and Penn State 2nd and 3rd.

More Distance News

Meb Keflezighi To Run 2015 New York City Marathon, But It Won’t Be His Last Keflezighi says he wants to have 26 career marathons so will do another NYC marathon at some point, maybe in 2017. He’ll have 104 days between NYC and the Olympics Trials.
Mo Farah Will Stay With Alberto Salazar Regardless Of What UKA Does The UKA decision on Salazar is coming in the next couple days, but Farah says, “It’s their decision what they are going to do but I’m not really thinking about anything else.”
Mo Farah Happy For His Season To Be Over And Finally Take A Break “I plan to go on holiday with family in California – I’m getting a camper van.” Farah’s wife is also due to give birth at the end of the month.

Great North City Games *Full Results

Asbel Kiprop Ends His Season On A High By Winning Great North CityGames Mile In 4:07.73 Ireland’s Mark English took victory in the 500 over Erik Sowinski while Mike Rodgers won the 100 in 10.11 over UK’s CJ Ujah and Kim Collins and Nickel Ashmeade took the 150m over Richard Kilty.
Dafne Schippers Wraps Up Amazing Season With 100m Win In A CG Meet Record Of 11.01 Mercy Cherono won the 2-mile in 9:48 while Allyson Felix lost to Candyce McGrone in the 150m by .04 seconds.
Tiffany Porter Beats Out US’s Jasmin Stowers In GN CG 100H
Great Run Company Announces Global Plan For Street Athletics Their events have been based in the UK, but now they want to go worldwide.

Boston 2024 Officials Report That Reports Of High Debts Owed Are Untrue

The DL Season Has Ended – 2015 Memorial Van Damme – Full Results TV & Streaming

LRC Full Brussels Diamond League Recap: Big World Leaders In Women’s Mile, Steeple And Men’s 5,000, But The Americans Come Up Short – Schippers Over Felix At 200m It was a great way to end the season as the 2nd DL finale of the year lived up to the hype as, unlike in Zurich, the stars were well recovered. There were a ton of world leaders and a great women’s mile. The men’s 5,000 produced 13 seasonal or personal bests but American fans were left wanting more. Canadian fans, the 5,000 record now belongs to Mo Ahmed. We break it down for you.

Dafne Schippers Gets Revenge Over Allyson Felix In The 200 With 22.12, But Felix Wins Overall DL Title In the 100, Justin Gatlin barely beat Qatar’s Femi Ogunode as they were both timed at 9.98. France’s Jimmy Vicaut was a close third in 9.99. Asafa Powell was only 5th.
Renaud Lavillenie (PV), Sandra Perkovic (Discus) And Caterine Ibarguen (TJ) On Top Again In Brussels Lavillenie has won the DL every year since the series started in 2010. Christian Taylor also won again over Pedro Pablo Pichardo in the men’s TJ.
Habiba Ghribi Set A Steeplechase Diamond League And African Record With 9:05.36 After Yulia Zaripova‘s doping ban stripped her 9:05.02 from the books, this puts Ghribi second on the all-time list behind Russia’s Gulnara Galkina, who has the WR at 8:58.81.
Dafne Schipppers Might Start Competing In The LJ Next Year In Addition To The Sprints Not a stretch for a former heptathlete.

Brussels On The MBoard:

2024 Bidding News

Boston 2024 Ends Its Olympic Bid Deep In Debt They started off with a $3.5 million deficit when the bid ended in July, and now are down to a little under a million dollars.
Rome Officially Submits Bid To IOC For 2024 Games
Paris Formally Submits 2024 Olympic Bid To IOC
Hamburg, Germany Mayor Officially Launches 2024 Olympic Bid By Signing Application Letter

News From Jamaica – Usain Bolt Gets A Stadium But Is It Enough?

Stadium To Be Named After Usain Bolt Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium will be renamed the Usain Bolt Sports Academy.
*Author Says It’s Not Enough – Wants The North Coast Highway To Be Renamed Usain Bolt Highway
Jamaican Govt. Agrees To Help Track Stars Prepare For 2016 Olympics To Tune Of $500,000+ The athlete development and welfare fund came about after discus thrower Jason Morgan broke down in tears asking for others for help after Worlds. The govt. has cancelled a large celebration of their great Beijing Worlds to pay for it.

More Drug News

Vindicated? Asafa Powell And Sherone Simpson Reach Financial Settlement With Company That Sold Them Tainted Supplements Their agent is thrilled, “I just think the out-of-court settlement … gives them some justification and clearance for their names.”
Chinese Sports Chief Says It Must Ditch Its Obsession With Gold Medals If It’s Going To End Sports Corruption

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

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?

Track Season Is Over – That Means It’s Time For 2015 NCAA XC – Pre-Season Rankings

LRC2015 Women's XC Preview: #10 Arkansas And #9 Michigan

Arkansas loses a lot to graduation but still has the country's most versatile runner in Dominique Scott. Michigan, with Erin Finn, will look to rebound after an injury-plagued 2014 saw them slip from preseason #1 to 18th at NCAAs. With both teams featuring such strong frontrunners, they crack our pre-season top 10.

Doping-Related Stuff

Recommended Read: Steve Magness: Psychology Of Doping – Why We’re Fighting A Losing Battle” Magness looks at how and why people cheat and how to prevent it. Magness: “Doping is a psychological issue. It’s not that every person who dopes is evil and deranged. Some are seemingly good people who made a bad choice.”
UK Independent Writer Criticizes Piers Morgan’s Interview With Mo Farah And Accuses Him Of “Lazy Journalism” The writer was very disappointed that the interview was recorded back in April so didn’t include anything recent from the NOP doping allegations or Worlds and said that Morgan “failed to ask the questions everyone wanted asked – and answered.”
South Korea Donates Six-Figure Sum To Help WADA Fight Doping

Sprint Stuff

Good Read: Beijing DNF Just A Blip For Dawn Harper Nelson On Her Road To Rio Harper-Nelson is usually very consistent at championships, but crashed out of the semis in Beijing. You might think it wouldn’t faze the former Olympic champ, but she said she didn’t get out of bed the next day and had to force herself not to “wallow too long.”
Ivory Coast Sprinters Win Both Men’s And Women’s 100m At All-Africa Games Ben Youssef Meite set a NR with 10.04 seconds while Marie-Josee took down Blessing Okagbare‘s meet record with 11.02.
IAAF Profile On Russia’s 110H World Champ Sergey Shubenkov Shubenkov says he tried to cheat jet lag by arriving for the heats at the last minute, but that it was a major risk because he was “sleeping on the start line.”

NYC Men’s Field Released

Marathon Greats Wilson Kipsang And Meb Keflezighi Lead Men’s Field For 2015 TCS New York City Marathon Former world record holder Kipsang leads a field of five sub-2:05 men including Lelisa Desisa, Stanley Biwott, Gebre Gebremariam and Yemane Tsegaye. Also World XC champ Geoffrey Kamworor and Japan’s Yuki Kawauchi. Meb and Nick Arciniaga lead the American charge.

5th Avenue Mile Photo Gallery

All Africa Games Have Begun

Absence Of Blessing Okagbare And Murielle Ahoure Take Shine Of All Africa Games Ahoure is injured while Okagbare might just be doing a relay.
AP: All Africa Games Return To Roots In Republic Of Congo
Kenyan Sprinters Move Past First Round Of African Championships
Kenyan Athletes At African Championships Accused Of Theft From Housing Rooms

Doping News

Mo Farah Admits To Using Banned Drug Khat Months Prior To It Being Banned Back In 2003 It’s a stimulant which Farah describes as being like “drinking ten cups of coffee.”
Russian Court Throws Out Two Lawsuits Against German TV Channel ARD Over Doping Documentary The lawsuits were filed by the Russian athletics federation and ex-president Valentin Balakhnichev. However, a separate case had two Russian journalists and their employers fined for printing articles based on interviews with whistle-blower Vitaly Stepanov. So much for freedom of the press.
Justin Gatlin’s Agent Lashes Back At British Media – Cites Double Standard Regarding Linford Christie And Paula Radcliffe
WADA Defends Paula Radcliffe, Saying That Any Blood Values Prior To 2009 Could Never Be “Considered As Doping, Legally Or Otherwise”
Mo Farah Speaks On Releasing His Blood Data: “I did it because I have nothing to hide.” “It wasn’t about me. It was about the Alberto Salazar allegations.”
Good For Them: PRRO Circuit Adds Pre-Competition Drug Testing In Addition To Race-Day Testing At All Its Events The circuit includes the World’s Best 10K, Cherry Blossom Ten Mile, Boilermaker 15K, Pittsburgh 10 Miler and Lilac Bloomsday 12K.
Mo Farah And Greg Rutherford Back Paula Radcliffe They both speak on athletes being considered guilty without evidence.
Sonia O’Sullivan Believes Paula Radcliffe Is Clean, But Thinks She Should Have Been “Quieter” About It “I think in a way she’s brought a lot of the attention on herself this week, probably more than was necessary and she probably could have let it go a bit quieter than she did.”
Jo Pavey Released Her Blood Data, But Doesn’t Think Paula Radcliffe Or Others Should Be Pressured To Do The Same

Some Of Paula’s Blood Values Come Out

LRC Wejo Speaks With Science Of Sport’s Ross Tucker: Paula Can Gain Credibility With More Transparency – Paula’s Explanations Are Plausible But More Info Is Needed – “You’re not dealing with Shobukhova … here!” Plus an explanation of off-scores and how single off-scores don’t mean that much.

3 Of Radcliffe’s Suspicious Blood Values Are Published By Sky News Two of her OFF scores were 109, which Sky News says is below a 111.7 altitude training level. The other – 114 – was taken immediately after a half marathon and Sky News says WADA now considers tests taken within 2 hours after a competition as invalid because exertion can affect the values.

*MB: Radcliffe blood values released

More News From The UK

Collegiate News *Full NCAA XC Schedule / Results

A Look At This Weekend’s NCAA XC Action (Pre-Season) None of it counts for NCAA qualifying purposes.
Podcast With Indiana State’s John Mascari He was 8th at NCAAs last year in XC and has a 28:32 PR.
After Long Break Spent Playing Soccer, A Refreshed Edward Cheserek Is Ready To Try To Become First Runner To Win 3rd Straight NCAA XC Crown Henry Rono likely would have won 4 in a row but he ran off course in year #3 and ended up being nearly last. Ches: “I really enjoy cross-country more than track. I think it feels good when you’re not running circles.”
Preview And Start Lists For This Weekend’s Japanese National University Track And Field Championships Preview

US News Of Note

Scott Jurek Agrees To Pay $500 Fine For Drinking Champagne After Breaking Appalachian Trail Record

Sprint News

Bolt’s Coach Thinks 200 WR Is Possible In Rio – Says 100 WR Would Be Tougher
Nigerian Federation Says Reports That Blessing Okagbare Has Been Banned From 2016 Olympics Are “Not True” Okagbare has refused to compete at the All-African Games competition, saying she has a hamstring injury. The injury caused her to skip the 200 at Worlds but she did run 10.98 in Zurich. *Initial Report Saying She Was Banned
Profile Of Surprise Beijing 400H Silver Medalist Denis Kudryavtsev
World 100H Champ Danielle Williams’ 3 Keys To Success

Field Event News

Interesting Read: VaultMagazine.com Gives A Brief History Of Pole Vaulting Evidence of pole vaulting can be found as far back as 400 BC and the event has gone through a history of changes since.
South African Javelin Thrower Sunette Viljoen Hits Out At SA Sports Confederation And Olympic Committee (Sascoc) For Lack Of Support For Its Athletes She complains that it provides very little for athlete expenses and makes them “beg for every single cent.”
Katarina Johnson-Thompson Leads Field For This Weekend’s Decastar Multi-Event Meeting In Talence, France
IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With World Shot Put Champion Christina Schwanitz Of Germany Her favorite pre-competition song: “Sweat” by Snoop Dogg and David Guetta.
Poland’s World Champions Anita Wlodarczyk And Pawel Fajdek Win Overall IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge Series They take home $30,000 each.
Ashton Eaton And Anita Wlodraczyk (Hammer) Have Their World Records Ratified

5th Ave Mile And Great North Run – Results: 5th Ave Great North Run

5th Avenue: LRC Nick Willis Coasts To 5th Avenue Mile Victory; Jenny Simpson Repeats Over Shannon Rowbury The stars were out in NYC, live on national TV. Willis (3:54.9) won his third title, destroying the field over the final 100, while Simpson (4:29.1) left it late to emerge victorious in a three-way kick over Rowbury (4:29.4) and Susan Kuijken (4:30.0). We break it down for you.

MB: Meb showed up to the Fifth Avenue Mile and ran the 40-49 race
RRW: Jenny Simpson, Nick Willis Claim Fourth And Third Fifth Avenue Mile Wins
Pre-Race: RRW: Fifth Avenue Mile A Fun Test For Mother Alysia Montano Montano ended up 11th in 4:35.4.

Mo Farah Runs 59:22 To Defend His Great North Run Title; Mary Keitany Gets Victory In 67:32 Like last year, Farah won in a sprint finish, this time beating Stanley Biwott by 2 seconds. Mike Kigen was third (60:10). After a slew of withdrawals on the women’s side, Keitany had a solo run as UK’s Gemma Steel took 2nd (71:00). USA’s Adrianna Nelson was 6th (72:29).

More Weekend Road Action

Bedan Karoki (59:14) And Purity Cherotich (68:27) Win Copenhagen Half Marathon (updated w/ article) The top four men were under the hour mark as Alex Oloitiptip took second in 59:28 (4th place was 59:32 and the top 10 were 61 minutes or faster. *Full Results
*MB: Bedan Karoki 59:14 in Copenhagen
Doper Matthew Kisorio Wins Ndakaini Half Marathon In Kenya In 65:15 Pauline Korikwiang won the women’s race in 1:15:31.
Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir Smashes CR At Usti nad Labem Half Marathon To Win In 67:17; Eritrean Merhawi Kesete Wins Men’s Race In 60:58 Jepchirchir dominated her race by about 3 minutes while Kesete won a close race, beating Kenya’s Barselius Kipyego by only 1 second.
Gaberiele Grunewald (4:38) And Jack Bolas (4:07) Win Minnesota Mile
*BBTM: Heather Kampf And Jack Bolas Win (Again) Overall Bring Back The Mile Grand Prix Tour Titles
Sweden’s Jonas Buud And USA’s Camille Herron Win IAU 100K World Championships
*MB: Camille Herron is a WORLD CHAMPION!!!
Thomas James Lokomowa Leads A Kenyan Sweep Of The Milan 10K

Sprint Stuff

Lolo Jones Reminds Drake That She’s Single: “When Serena Breaks It Off … I’m Here For You”‏ Lolo had a string of tweets on the issue which lead to one follower replying, “Drake likes sex.”
Interesting: Usain Bolt’s Best Friend Gives Insight On Bolt’s True Potential Nugent Walker talks about going sub-19 seconds in the 200 and explains how he selectively chooses what headlines from the media he feeds to Bolt in order to motivate him.
GB Sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis Wants To Compete At 2018 Winter Olympics In Bobsled As Well As The 100m In 2016

The Diamond League Is Officially Over

Which Countries Took Home The Most DL Prize Money In 2015? Team USA dominated the financial battle with $1,928,583 in prize money.
Final Updated DL Prize $$$ Rankings Croatia discus thrower Sandra Perkovic ends the season as the richest with $106,000 in total prize money. Yikes! Christian Taylor and discus thrower Piotr Malachowski were the top earning men with $93,000 each.

Sunday Times / Drug News

Sunday Times Has Nothing On Paula Weird considering this tweet.
Sunday Times Does Have Story From Head Of UK Anti-Doping Writing In Email: “We’ll do everything we can to ensure the focus is on the positive news. The last thing we want is a story like this detracting from the Rio countdown.” … in regards to the ARD/Sunday Times investigation. Wow.
Mo Farah Not Considering Cutting Ties With Alberto Salazar UKA is expected to release the results of their review into their relationship with Salazar sometime soon.
Paula Radcliffe Says Doping Claims Are Affecting Her Children “When your little girl is in tears, that’s been the hardest part.”
Sean Ingle Of Guardian: “Paula Radcliffe facing her biggest and loneliest challenge yet.” A good read. Sean puts things in perspective.
Paula: “Real cheats out there are laughing at the whole situation.”
Runner’s Tribe’s Len Johnson Questions What Brit MP Jesse Norman Was Thinking When He Outed Radcliffe At The Parliamentary Meeting Johnson has a problem with Norman’s response afterwards as he didn’t take responsibility for his comments and claimed that he in no way outed Radcliffe.
Today’s Sensational Daily Mail Headline: “Paula Radcliffe’s Ordeal Is Proof That High-Profile Athletics Is Now Being Destroyed” Includes an embedded video interview with Radcliffe.

2015 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Fields Released *Full Fields

LRC 2015 Chicago Marathon Elite Fields Released – Tsegaye Kebede And Florence Kiplagat Lead The Way – Deena Kastor, Blake Russell And Fernando Cabada Lead The American Entries The fields feature 4 sub-2:05 men and 4 sub-2:25 women (not counting US masters stars Joan Benoit Samuelson and Deena Kastor).

Emily Infeld Gets Some Pub

Emily Infeld Talks To Spikes Mag – Don’t Ever Give Up She thought about doing it last December when she told Schumacher, “I just don’t know if I’m built for this sport. My body just isn’t handling it.”