November 05, 2015 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For November 05, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“I remember sitting at the European Championship last year with some sponsors. I looked down into the arena and I’m thinking: ‘Why am I watching the start of the men’s 1,500 metres through the netting for the hammer? Why can’t I see the split screens? What the hell is going on?’ I said to the sponsors: ‘Has there been anything happening in the last half-hour you’ve been able to follow?’ They looked a bit nervous and said: ‘Not really.’ Presentationally we are in a mess …”

“… I first got elected to the IAAF council in 2003 and on the agenda that day was the proposal for a world relay championship. In 2014 we finally get the first edition of the world relay championships. Eleven years later? Come on. We haven’t got 11 weeks to implement progress.”

– IAAF president Sebastian Coe explaining some of the current problems with the sport and what he thinks needs to change. On doping, he says, “I will do everything in my power so that a kid … can devote more than half their young lives to this sport in the certain knowledge that the guys they are lining up alongside are not cheating. … The crowds have to know that what they are watching is genuine.” In wake of yesterday’s troubling headlines, we hope he knows there is a long way to go.

100 Days Until The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials

LRC100 Days Until The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials: Catching Up With Dathan Ritzenhein, Desi Linden And Jared Ward

Ritz reveals he has yet to hit 100 mpw a single time in all 2015 while Desi says she's super-motivated to be an Olympian as she doesn't think she "really lived up to the label the last time around."
*MB: 100 Days To The Olympic Trials - We catch up with Desi, Ritz and Jared Ward.

Latest Doping / Lamine Diack Updates

Some More Details:Diack Is Suspected Of Pocketing $1.2 From The Russian Athletics Federation He was arrested and is out on $550,000 bail, but was ordered to turn in his passport so he couldn’t leave France.
*MB:How does a bribed IAAF official cover up a drug positive
*MB:Lamine Diack Accused Of Taking Cash To Cover Up Russian Doping
Mark Your Calendars For Monday:WADA Commission To Unveil Report On Russian Doping Allegations On November 9th A three-man panel, chaired by former WADA President Dick Pound, will present their report entitled, “Top secret doping – how Russia makes its winners?”
IOC Ethics Commission Looking Into Lamine Diack Case
Daily Mail:“Seb Coe Was Too Quick To Back His Friends And Now Faces The Darkest Hour In Athletics History”
UK Independent Opinion Piece:Lord Coe Must Act Over Lamine Diack Cover-Up Claims, Or He’s Just Another Sepp Blatter Writer complains that so far Coe has been all talk when it comes to anti-doping.

Book Review – The Animal Keepers Is Certainly A Keeper

LRC Book Review"The Animal Keepers" By Donn Behnke - A Terrific Tale Of What It Means To Be A Team

We highly recommend this book - hell, we call it "a triumph" - by Chris Solinsky's high school coach, Donn Behnke. Purchase here. 5 out 5 stars.

Negative Legal News

Prosecutors Seek Murder Conviction For Oscar Pistorius They made their case in front of five Supreme Court judges who will give their ruling at a later date (possibly weeks from now).
Murder Suspected And Ex-Boyfriend Arrested After Belarus’ Former Olympic Sprinter Yulia Balykina Disappears Balykina competed at the 2012 Olympics, but was banned for doping in 2013. She’s been missing since last Wednesday.
BAA Loses Bid To Block A Massachusetts Clothing Company’s Use Of “Marathon Monday” The BAA felt it created a false suggestion of affiliation with the Boston Marathon, but the courts disagreed.

LetsRun.com NCAA Analysis

LRCNCAA XC Weekend Recap: Grant Fisher Is Running, Ben Saarel Is Not (For Now), And What's Wrong With The Wisconsin Men?

We also take a look at the Penn State women's upset at Big 10s, Thomas Curtin taking down Justyn Knight at ACCs and wonder whether the Foot Locker women's curse may come to an end this month?

Updated NCAA Rankings

Colorado And Syracuse Stay 1-2 As Stanford Jumps From 23rd To 4th
Conference Upsets Shake Up The Latest Women’s Rankings New Mexico stays #1, but after that, the top 15 teams moved all over the place with Colorado 2nd and Arkansas 3rd.

Pro Distance News

Mo Farah To Compete At The Great Edinburgh XC Race On January 9th If he runs, it’ll be the first time he’s run XC since 2011. He was supposed to race last year, but pulled out with illness.
Fun Read:Phoebe Wright Blogs About What Goes Through The Mind Of An 800 Runner During XC Races“The Start … 800ers do not try to get to the front but accidentally do anyway. This is followed by panic and a ‘HOW THE F DID I GET UP HERE?!'”
Q&A With Betsy Saina On Joining The Bowerman Track Club After track season she decided to make the switch from the American Distance Project in Colorado Springs.
Five Takeaways From The Fall Marathon Season For The Olympic Marathon Trials New contenders, interesting debuts and what have the favorites been up to?
Former NCAA Standouts Natalja Piliusina (Oklahoma State) And Jess Tonn (Stanford) Join Brooks Beasts Track Club Piliusina was the 2013 NCAA 1,500m champ while Tonn was 3rd in the 5,000 at NCAAs last year.

Change – Is There Hope For The Sport?

Good Read:Seb Coe Talks About What He Wants To Do To Improve The Sport Coe says that “presentationally we are a mess.” He complains that progress has been too slow in track and field and wants to make big changes.
USATF And Athletes Advisory Committee Sign Memorandum Of Understanding For Revenue Distribution Model This formalizes the plan announced in September which will deliver an additional $9 million in cash to athletes over the next five years.
*MB:Let’s Figure Out the Details And Get More Context on New USATF Deal: Make a World Champs or Olympic Team – USATF pays you $10K

Injured? These Pros Tell You To Not Give Up

Former British 400m Record Holder Derek Redmond Gives Advice On Coping With Injury “I knew that a healthy Derek Redmond could compete at the highest level and this was the thought I held on to through my rehabilitation. It was the light I focused on at the end of the tunnel.”
Words Of Wisdom From Australian World Long Jump Silver Medalist Fabrice Lapierre He says to “never stop believing” as after seasons of injuries he finally had success.

More Doping Updates

NY Times: Kenya Excels In Running But Lags In Anti-Doping As The Government Refuses To Fund It WADA director general David Howman: “There’s just no political will for it, even though they’ve been encouraged, persuaded, cajoled by us. … It’s an indication of talking the talk, but not even starting the walk, and that’s really disappointing.”
Dick Pound Says A Much Bigger Budget Would Be Needed To Have A Truly Independent Anti-Doping Body The idea would be to avoid any conflict of interest by taking responsibility away from local federations. Pound: “What we’ve found on the basis of human nature and experience is that its very difficult for a sport to promote itself and police itself.”
In First Official Visit To Russia, Seb Coe Stresses Need For Athletics “To Build Trust And Defend Clean Athletes At All Times” Speaking on Russian athletes, coaches and officials, Coe said he appreciated their “openness” and “passion” and “noted a real appetite for change.” *IAAF Article

Distance News: IAAF AOY

RIP Chariots Of Fire

Recommended Tribute:Colin Welland, Oscar-Winning Writer Of “Chariots Of Fire,” Dies At 81 The writer of the classic movie about an Olympic sprinter who wouldn’t race on Sunday has died from complications with Alzheimer’s disease.
RIP Swaziland Athletics President And Former 800 Olympian Themba Makhanya He died after collapsing at work. He was only 45 years old.

Breaking: HUGE Doping News

MB: Former IAAF President Lamine Diack Accused Of Taking Cash To Cover Up Russian Doping; Is Under Investigation In France Additionally, Habib Cisse, a legal adviser to Diack, is also under investigation while IAAF’s former anti-doping director Gabriel Dolle has been arrested. *IAAF Statement
IAAF Headquarters In Monaco Raided By French Police In a statement, the IAAF admitted to this and said, they were “fully cooperating with all investigations.”
Daily Mail:Charges Include Corruption And Money-Laundering Related To Cover-Up For Doper Liliya Shobukhova “This all comes as a result of an IAAF ethics investigation, conducted with the assistance of WADA.”

Some More Post-NYC Tidbits

Good Read:After DNF And A Double Scotch, NYC’s Oldest Entrant Offers Life Advice 95-year-old Jonathan Mendes dropped out after 16 miles, failing to become the oldest NYC finisher (record is at 93). He says if he’s “still here,” he’ll try again next year.
Interesting Notes And Stats On The 2015 TCS New York City Marathon Take a guess on who beat out Alana Hadley and Meb Keflezighi as the top tracked runner?
Missing Runner Found After NYC Marathon A recovering heroin addict from Italy was found aboard a subway train still wearing his racing clothes.
NY Times Article On The NYC “Almost” Crew; The Runners Who Finished After The 7:30PM Cutoff Read what the experience is like for the runners literally at the back of the pack.
*MB:Inspirational New York Times article about unofficial NYC finishers Fair warning: Some LRCers may feel the use of the word “inspirational” is trolling.
Strangers Help Guy In Broken Wheelchair Finish

Great News

TrackTown Summer Series Launched For Next Year And ESPN To Televise Finale

Great news for the sport that ESPN has committed to showing a new meet next year even without knowing the details of the Summer Series.

Depressing News

MB: Former Columbia runner and American citizen Lisa Nemec (runs for Croatia) positive on doping control The former pretty good Ivy Leaguer has improved a ton post-collegiately from 16:31/34:19 to 2:25 in the marathon. Was it too good to be true?

The 2015 TCS New York City MarathonResults Mile-By-Mile Splits *Video Highlights

Full Recap LRC Stanley Biwott Blasts 28:35 Final 10K To Capture 2015 TCS NYC Marathon Title (Updated) He had to be sensational over the final 10k to beat back a strong, strong challenge from Mo Farah’s #1 rival Geoffrey Kamworor. Meb finished 7th and Craig Leon 8th for the Americans.

Full Recap LRC Mary Keitany Repeats As 2015 TCS NYC Marathon Champion As Laura Thweatt Runs 2:28:23 DebutMary Keitany was back on top in NYC and is now tied atop the $500,000 Abbott WMM standings with one race to go. Sally Kipyego and Alana Hadley dropped out.

LRC A Look At Laura Thweatt’s 2:28:23 Debut And Decision To Skip The US Olympic Marathon TrialsWe break down Thweatt’s impressive debut and her decision so skip the Olympic Marathon Trials.
*MB: Thweatt won’t run marathon trials because …