Terrible News

• Recommended Read: RIP: Tribute To Former UC Davis All-American Sarah “Stump” Sumpter, Who Lost Her 5-Year Battle With Cancer Sumpter’s story was extremely inspirational as even after she was diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent surgery, she fought back to have an impressive collegiate career including multiple conference titles and All-American finish. After college, she was still training to qualify for the 2016 Marathon OT.
  *MB: 25 year old former CA state champ and UC Davis standout Sarah Sumpter loses battle with cancer
• Blog Post By Team USA Minnesota Runner Jon Peterson “You simply did. You led Your life in a way that exemplified what it meant to be a star athlete, a scholar, a loving friend, a fighter, a tougher than nails woman that let nothing stand in your way.”
• 8:32 US Steepler Cameron Bean Is Killed By Car While Running The ZAP Fitness member was hit while on a run Saturday. The driver of the car who crossed traffic to hit Cameron from behind said the sun was in her eyes and she didn’t see him.

Marathon News: Berlin Is Sunday

• RRW Remotivated After Move Home to Michigan, Dathan Ritzenhein Ready for Olympic Marathon Trials Build-Up “I was waning on motivation a little bit and being able to be back home has just revived me. It’s been really cool.”
• Eliud Kipchoge Eyeing The WR At This Weekend’s Berlin Marathon As He Faces Emmanuel Mutai And Geoffrey Mutai “The focus is on the world record and I want to do just that. I have not run under two hours and four minutes and that is my inspiration.”
• Good Profile On Eritrea’s Surprise World Marathon Champion Ghirmay Ghebreslassie Ghebreslassie had to fight with his parents to run as they wanted him to focus on school. His debut marathon was last year in Chicago, where he was a pacer through 25K, but he felt good so he kept running, placing 6th in 2:09:08.
• Strava Offering $1,500 Stipends To Ten Women Who Hit Olympic Marathon Trials Standard Anyone shooting for the Trials standard can apply by Friday and ten who qualify will get the money to help with travel to LA in February.
• It’s Getting Tougher Than Ever To Get Into Boston After the first week of registration (for the fastest time qualifiers) only 5,000 spots remain, about 3,000 less than last year at this time.
• Rock ‘N’ Roll Series Drops Denver Marathon The half marathon will continue, but not the full. Former US Olympian and RNR series vice president Alan Culpepper said it was because of difficulties with the route and road closures.

Advice From The Pros

• Are You Injured? Here’s Some Good Advice From UK Steepler Eilish McColgan: “Six Things Nobody Tells You About Injury And Rehab” Injury might be physical, but the side effects are largely mental.
• Words Of Wisdom From Four-Time World LJ Champ Dwight Phillips No big secrets here: hard work and discipline. Phillips: “I could do the same workouts as a 400m runner but then I would bound, lift weights and then go to the pool with an hour work out. I would do that every single day for nearly 14 years.”
• Good Read: “The Winning Mindset”: Former UK 400m Record Holder Derek Redmond Explains How He Prepared Mentally For Championships In the off-season, he would write the world rankings on postcards and stick them all around his house, even under the sun visor of his car, so he could always see them.

Non-Running Stuff

• German Broadcaster ARD And The Sunday Times Report That European Soccer Study Could Show High Level Of Steroid Use A study conducted by 12 European anti-doping labs found that 7.7% of players tested showed “conspicuous levels of testosterone.” This is up from the 1.3% found in older studies.
• Europe’s Soccer Governing Body UEFA Denies Doping Problem At a glance it sounds like the study doesn’t really prove much, but UEFA loses a lot of credibility when they cite lack of failed drug tests as proof that “doping in [soccer] is extremely rare.”
• US Snowboarder Justin Reiter Suing The IOC For Axing His Event From The Olympics He is arguing that the IOC violated its own rules, which prohibit changing an Olympic schedule within three years of the Winter Olympics.

Sprinters In The News

• Usain Bolt Leaves Night Club Without Paying $15,000 Bar Tab; Comes Back To Settle Up The Next Day
• Parole Review For Oscar Pistorius Postponed For Two Weeks Pistorius is hoping to be released from prison on house arrest.
• Track And Field News Takes An In-Depth Look At Ronnie Ash’s Controversial DQ From Worlds Ash was DQed in the heats for a false start, but looking at the start “wave graphs” it’s possible he could have advanced to the semis had Team USA filed an appeal.
• Jamaican Women Have Accumulated Over 200 Sub-11-Second 100s The first was Merlene Ottey 30 years ago. The USA has more with about 300.

UK Athletics Clears Alberto Salazar – Or Does It?

• After Review, UK Athletics Gives Mo Farah All Clear To Continue Relationship With Coach Alberto Salazar But UK Athletics Refuses To Support Salazar Or Say If It Still Employs Him “(USADA has) asked us not to give any further details of our review until their work has concluded. We respect their request and are, of course, giving them our fullest support and co-operation.” *Full UK Athletics Statement
• Steve Magness “Disappointed But Not Surprised” At UK Athletics Statement This article sums it up well when it says in the end, USADA’s investigation, led by American lawyer Bill Bock and the former New York City police detective Victor Burgos, will be what matters.
• BBC Reporter Mark Daly Doesn’t Understand What The Point Of UK’s Review Was

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.

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?