2015 NCAA XC *This Weekend’s Results

• Bernie Montoya, Former 4:01 Miler As A Prep, Is Racing This Weekend For 1st Time In 10 Months After Being Told By Mayo Clinic He Had A Heart Problem And His Career Was Finished
• The Oregon Ducks Announce A Transfer-Laden Track & Field Recruiting Class

LRC Women’s Pre-Season Rankings

LRC 2015 Women’s XC Preview: #1 New Mexico And #2 Colorado Colorado adds a ton of reinforcements, including redshirts Carrie Verdon and Melanie Nun and stud freshmen Brianna Schwartz and Dani Jones. However, none of those additions can match New Mexico’s acquisition of Courtney Frerichs (13th last year for UMKC) and Scot Rhona Auckland. Auckland was top 20 at 2015 World XC in the pro race and could put the Lobos over the top in their quest for the program’s first national title.
*#3 Stanford And #4 Georgetown
*#5 Oregon And #6 Iowa State
*#7 Providence And #8 Michigan State
*#9 Michigan And #10 Arkansas

Women In The News

• Genzebe Dibaba Says She’s Planning On Doing 1,500/3k Double At World Indoors But Won’t Double In Rio In Rio, the 5,000 heats are the same day as the 1,500 final. We think she’s so good the 5,000 heats wouldn’t deny her gold in the 1,500.
• Lauren Fleshman Has Achilles Tendon Surgery And Is Thrilled – “I feel 100% confident I am on the right path to running pain free and fast again.”
• Fiona Benson Thinks She’ll Ultimately Focus On The 1,500 As It’s Her Favorite
• After Appearing In ESPN Body Magazine, US Olympic Hammer Thrower Amanda Bingson Is Now Starring In Plus-Size Photo Shoots

Odds & Ends

• Wayde van Niekerk Actually Got A Big Airport Reception Upon Return Home The article on the irate Facebook poster got it wrong as Wayde was simply connecting flights at the first airport.
• New Balance Opens New World Headquarters At Boston Landing *AP
• Firm That Designed Initial Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium Pulls Out Of Redesign Contest As It Can’t Find A Construction Firm To Do It Cheaply
• Study: A Single Ankle Sprain Can Haunt You For Life Not sure what you are supposed to do with that info.

Olympics – Boston May Not Have Wanted Them, But LA Hopes To Turn A Profit

• Why Los Angeles Might Actually Make Money Hosting The 2024 Olympics The key is expenses will be low – $4.1 billion dollars – much less than London’s $10.4 billion and Beijing’s $44 billion.
• Swimming Federation Is Unhappy Rio Organizers Have Reduced Capacity Of Pool From 17,500 To 13,000 “Providing less available space for TV, media, athletes and spectators, this will naturally have its negative impact in terms of the coverage of the Olympic competition and in terms of working conditions for all those using the venue.”

News From Europe

• Former FSU Star Susan Kuijken Admits She’s Not Actually Dutch Royalty She had told people (as a joke) she was at FSU and it stuck.
• 2015 World Mountain Running Champs Are Saturday In GBR – Race Previews
  *British Champ Sarah Tunstall Says Brits Are Stronger Than Ever

All-African Games *Full Results

• Kenya Beats Botswana For 4 X 400 Gold In 3:00.34
• Alice Aprot, Younger Sister Of former World XC Champ Joseph Ebuya, Wins Surprise Gold In Women’s 10,000 At African Champs She wasn’t even entered in the event but took home gold, as did Nijel Amos in the men’s 800.
• Isaac Makwala Wins African Games 400 In 44.35
  
• IAAF Recap: First 3 Days Of All-African Games In The Books: Ben Youssef Meite (10.04) And Marie-Josee Ta Lou (11.02) Dominate The 100m For The Ivory Coast Mekonen Gebremedhin (1,500) and Tsebelu Zewude (10,000) get wins for Ethiopia. Sofia Assefa and Hiwot Ayalew also went 1-2 for Ethiopia in the steeple.
• Caster Semenya Wins 800 Handily At African Champs Second place was more than a half second back as she ran 2:00.97.
• Kenya Sweeps Women’s 5,000 Medals At African Champs And Takes Top 2 In Men’s Steeple Margaret Chelimo and Clement Kemboi were the winners.
• South Africa’s Friedrich Pretorius Shows Guts In Winning Decathlon Bronze At African Games Pretorius wanted to quit after a day in a competition that saw brutal heat and up to 8 athletes having to share one pole in the PV, but came through with the bronze.

Long Live Soft Surfaced Trails: Runners Limit Paving Of Towpath In Central New York After Protests Most of the 4.5 mile trail was still paved, but 1.6 was left untouched.

Olympic News

• IOC President Thomas Bach Confirms Five Cities Bidding For 2024 Games – LA, Rome, Paris, Budapest, Hamburg A final decision will be made in September 2017.
• USA Today Opinion Piece: “Why The Olympics Will Come Back To The United States In 2024” Get the low-down on each city and why LA should win.
• Joint Decision Made Between Baku And IOC Not To Bid For 2024 Olympics – But Possibility Remains For 2028
• Tokyo 2020 Appoints Committee To Select A New Olympic Logo