November 27, 2015 | LetsRun.com

IAAF And UK Anti-Doping Clear Paula

IAAF And UK Anti-Doping Both Clear Paula Radcliffe Of Blood Doping In an unprecedented move, the IAAF has released a 25-page document that among other things it says clears Paula Radcliffe of any doping accusations. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, we at LRC have not read the full document but are offended that IAAF, with its former anti-doping director facing a potential prison sentence, has the gall to tell us what “any competent” scientist should believe. Fortunately, UK Anti-Doping had an independent expert look at the data as well and conclude Paula has nothing to answer. The IAAF and WADA should do the same.
*IAAF Press Release *Full 25-Page Document *Guardian *UK Independent

On The Boards: IAAF clears Paula! Nothing to see here!

Seb Coe / Russia News

Sebastian Coe Finally Agrees To End His Six-Figure-A-Year Brand Ambassador Gig With Nike Coe said he still believes there was no conflict of interest, but didn’t need the “distraction” and “noise” as he tries to “steady the ship” at the IAAF.
*MB: Seb Coe ends his paid relationship with Nike
All-Russian Athletics Federation Accepts Full Suspension From IAAF Over Doping Scandal They had the right to appeal against the IAAF suspension, but that would have delayed the whole process even more and killed their chances of being reinstated for Rio 2016.
Independent: “Lord Coe: ‘Mr. President’ Offers Good Grounds To Laugh In His Face” Columnist rips Coe for failing to admit to the obvious conflict of interest with his Nike deal and for his tendency to belittle journalists.
DailyMail: “Arrogant Lord Coe Fails To Grasp What Damage He Is Doing … He Just Doesn’t Get It”
Toni Minichiello, Coach Of Jessica Ennis, Thinks Reign Of Seb Coe Has Already Been Tainted By Nike Relationship “This is getting really messy and my advice would be for him to just walk away from it. Immaterial of what he does now I think it will always taint his presidency. There will always be that black mark.”

Distance News: Learn From The Pros

Q&A: Desi Linden Shares A Lot Of Good Training Insights Talking About Her Prep For The Olympic Trials Linden says she’s been preparing for the 2016 Trials since she had her major injury back in 2012. She’d love to win in LA as she’s actually never won a marathon.
Next Weekend: Kara Goucher Racing The RnR San Antonio Half As A Tune-Up For The Olympic Trials
Kyle Merber Gives Out “Some Terrible Advice”: You Should Get Injured Merber says he comes back fresh and stronger after his injuries.
Paula Rafcliffe’s Words Of Wisdom Radcliffe says she learned to run her easy runs easy when she started using her husband (Gary Lough) as her training partner.

Doping News Outside Russia / The IAAF

Ukraine’s Three-Time Osaka Marathon Champion Tetyana Shmyrko Gets 4-Year Drug Ban All her results going back to August 2011 will be annulled. That includes all three Osaka titles, her 5th place at the London Olympics and her Ukrainian NR of 2:22:09.
Greece’s Retired Triple Jump Olympic Medalist Piyi Devetzi May Lose Medals Over Positive Re-Tested Sample From 2007 Devetzi won bronze at the 2007 World Champs and also has Olympic medals from 2004 and 2008. She retired in 2009 after the IAAF banned her for 2 years for refusing to take a drug test.
Now You Can Dope Right Out In The Open For $65: Clinics Now Providing Voluntary Infusions To Runners To Aid Recovery Some of them are even showing up at road races, but any non-medical IV is banned by the WADA code.
*MB Archived Discussion: Lynsey Sharp gets silver after vomiting and IV drip, interesting anti-doping angle
WADA “Satisfied” With Marta Dominguez’s Three-Year Ban And Expunged Results From 2009 To 2013 We’re glad justice finally prevailed, but would have liked to have seen such a notorious doper out of the sport a long time ago.
Ukrainian Mid-D Runner Oleksandr Shelest Gets 4-Year Ban He has PRs of 1:48 and 3:43.

George Barber, Father Of Pole Vault World Champ Shawn Barber, Banned From Coaching For Sex Offense Athletics Canada discovered he served a prison sentence in 2007 for having sex with a 17-year-old student athlete.
*MB: PV Gold Medalist Barber’s dad/coach suspended for sex offence

One Of The Sport’s First Convicted Dopers Dies Tragically Young At Age 59

Sweden’s Greatest-Ever Sprinter Linda Haglund – One Of The First Athletes Ever Banned For Doping – Dies Suddenly At Age 59 (Translated) Fourth in the 100m at the 1980 Olympics, her 7.13 60m best still is Sweden’s record some 37 years later. Her bust in 1981 was a game changer.

More News From Europe:

Former Sub-4 High Schoolers Who Are Now Triathletes

MB: Lukas Verzbicas Sighting: Finishes 11th At Pacific Association XC Championships 10K Verzbicas ran 32:24 as Darius Terry won the race in 31:18; AJ Acosta was 4th (31:29).
Results: Alan Webb Finishes 9th In NW Regional XC Championships In Portland MB discussion here.

Other Distance News

Profile On Frequent National Age-Group Winner, Joe Sheeran, Who At 57 Years Old Runs 4 Times A Day Training For Masters Championships Sheeran had PRs of 14:10, 28:55 and 2:15 in his prime, but took 21 years off of running because of injury. Now in his 50s, he’s run 16:05, 32:55 and 2:46.
CNN Video Tribute To Recently Passed Mid-Distance Legend Mal Whitfield The two time 800m champion (in 1948 and 1952 while serving in the military) had a pretty amazing life.
UK Steepler Eilish McColgan Wants More Support For Injured Athletes She’s coming back from ankle surgery and lost her funding. “When people need the support most, that’s when the majority of people are cut.”
Random: Runner Creates “Movember” Themed GPS Sketch With His Running Route David Miller ran 15 miles to draw a mustached face with his run.

Cheating / Doping News

From Gold To 4th Because Of Dopers: GB Steepler Hatti Archer Says Marta Dominguez’s Ban Doesn’t Ease Heartbreak Archer will get 2010 Euro bronze after finishing behind Dominguez. Also in front of her were Russian dopers Yuliya Zaripova and Lyubov Kharlamova.
Shameful: The CAA (Confederation Of African Athletics) Expresses Support For Lamine Diack President Hamad Kalkababa Malboum writes, “Despite this turbulence aiming at Africa, we still show our loyalty, our affection and our full support to President Lamine Diack …”
Marine Corps Serial Cheater Who Was Caught By LRC Message Boarders Apologizes Gregory Price said, “I messed up. There’s no reason to do that. … I apologize to all the other runners.”
*MB: Serial Cheater at Marine Corps Marathon?
Former UK Athletics Coach George Skafidas Provisionally Suspended For Doping Violation Was the coach of GB sprinter Bernice Wilson, who was banned in 2011.
Vitaly Mutko Meeting With WADA This Week To “Design A Roadmap” To Revamp Corrupt Anti-Doping System

Stephanie Hightower Appointed Vice President Of NACAC Athletics Association

A LetsRun First: DIII Recap And Men’s And Women’s Photo Gallery

LRC: Ian LaMere Dominates, Wisconsin Eau Claire Hangs On & Abrah Masterson Surprises While Williams Cruises Photo galleries below.

A Legend Passes And We Barely Knew Anything About Him

Frank Litsky Of NY Times Remembers Mal Whitfield: One Of America’s Greatest 800m Runners – 2 Time Olympic Champ AND A Tuskegee Airman Whitfield’s life (2 Olympic golds 1948 and 1952 while serving in the military, being a Tuskegee Airman in a segregated military, and spreading track and field throughout the globe) was pretty amazing. Plus, after he retired from track, he advised a ton of athletes, including Kip Keino of Kenya and Mamo Wolde. He died this week at 91. *LA Times Obit
On The Boards: Mal Whitfield – USA 800m Legend – RIP

LetsRun.com Investigates

LRCUVA Has Reassigned Banned Doper Martin Maric To Intramural And Recreational Sports - He Won't Coach Throws At UVA This Year

UVA and Mr. Maric still are refusing to provide proof that his initial ban was the result of an "unintentional" act as they claim.
*MB: UVA Coach Serving Doping Suspension

A Big Drug Positive In Kenya

2-Time World XC Champ Emily Chebet Gets 4-Year Ban Chebet is a big name and she gets the new 4-year ban. She tested positive for lasix (a masking agent), and did not even have her “B” sample tested.
*Statement From Her Agency IAC It is the first positive for the agency of the late Zane Branson.
Discuss: 2 time world XC champ Emily Chebet – four year drug ban?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Manchester Road Race: RRW Will Geoghegan Takes Down Olympian Donn Cabral In Sprint Finish To Win 79th Manchester Road Race Maverick Darling was 3rd and Aaron Braun 4th. Solinsky, True and Jenkins apparently didn’t race.
*MB: Manchester road race results?

RRW: Diane Nukuri Repeats At 2015 Manchester Road Race Canadian 10,000m record holder Natasha Wodak was second and Emma Bates third.
Kirubel Erassa Wins Atalanta Thanksgiving Day 5K In 14:30
Kenyan Eliud Ngetich Wins Silicon Valley Turkey Trot In 13:55 As The Top Six Break 14 Minutes; Ethiopia’s Buze Diriba Just Beats Out Kim Conley Other notable finishes: Chris Thompson (7th – 14:00), Brett Gotcher (9th – 14:06), Alisha Williams (3rd – 15:51), Betsy Saina (9th – 16:12).
Jordan Chipangama Wins Dana Point Turkey Trot In 30:00; Belainesh Gebre Wins Women’s Race In 33:24 Chipangama beat out Juan Paredes by 1 second as Nick Arciniaga was 5th (30:30).
Video: BuzzFeed Introduces Olympians To A Live Turkey See Jenny Simpson, Matt Centrowitz, Tori Bowie and Dawn Harper-Nelson react.
Cool Thanksgiving Tradition: Every Year, Jamaican Sprinter Novlene Williams-Mills Hosts Thanksgiving For Elite Track Runners In Florida David Oliver has been going every year since 2010.
Liz Costello Blogs On How She “Navigates Thanksgiving As A Pro Runner” The gist is try not to go crazy so you’re still full for the next day’s workout, but don’t be afraid to indulge a bit. It’s only once a year.”

T-Day On The Boards

Scandals / Doping: IAAF, Russia, Africa

IAAF Party Falls Flat As Doping Dominates Agenda The normal extravagant end-of-year IAAF gala has been canceled and instead, today the Council of the IAAF will meet to discuss the latest doping scandals.
More Calls From Former Swedish Athletics Head Bjorn Eriksson To Investigate Eugene 2021 Decision “It all sounds very odd. I have protested the whole time about the unethical nature of it and I am of the understanding that more investigating needs to be done.”
Norwegian Skier Claims Russian Doping Tests At Sochi 2014 Paralympics Were “Suspicious” Compared With Those From Other Countries Nils-Erik Ulset says Russians were tested in a separate room and only held for 3 or 4 minutes.
Thomas Bach Urges African National Olympic Committees To Step-Up Effort To Eradicate Doping “You can win all the medals you were dreaming, but if one of these victories is tinged with scandal for doping, then all your medals and all your athletes are tainted, and the honest athletes do not deserve this.”
UCI Cuts Ties With Head Of RUSADA Nikita Kamaev Kamaev had been on the UCI anti-doping commission.

Victory For #OccupyAthleticsKenya

More News From Kenya: Geoffrey Kamworor Says He Wants More Than To Simply Repeat At World Half In March “If the conditions and the course is okay, I will attempt to break the world record (58:23).”

NCAA Photos Galore D1 Men’s Race (514 Photos) D1 Women’s Race (486 Photos) D1 Banquet D1 Post-Race DIII Men (257 Photos) DIII Women (185 Photos)

Japanese Distance Action

Aoyama Gakuin University Puts Eight Men Sub-29 In One Race At Kanto Region 10,000 Time Trial The fastest was 28:23. Only 5 countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, USA, Eritrea, Japan) have eight sub-29 guys period in 2015.
*MB: Top Japanese collegiate team puts 8 under 29:00 in 1 race
Honda Victory At Kyushu Corporate Ekiden Rounds Out Qualification New Year Ekiden Aoyama Gakuin University Puts
Kyoto Sangyo Over Ritsumeikan At Tango University Ekiden

Occupy Athletics Kenya

Siege At Athletics Kenya HQ As Athletes Commandeer Building In Protest Against Corruption They’re upset about the rise in doping and Nike money used for personal use. *Discuss Here
AP: Eliud Kipchoge And Augustine Choge Speak Out Against The AK Protesters Kipchoge called it “a total shame.”
NY Times: Kenyan Protesters Planned On Staying The Night At AK Headquarters
Guardian Article/Video: Athletes Calling For Corrupt AK Officials To Resign World 400H champ Nicholas Bett: “Isaiah Kiplagat must go, we are tired of his leadership, we need change.”
BBC: AK Pres Kiplagat Says The Protesters Led Them To Cancel A Meeting To Address The Doping / Corruption Issues Kiplagat: “Serious athletes are training, they have no time for demonstrations.”

Great Ethiopian Run And Haile’s Farewell Race

Tamirat Tola (28:44) And Mamitu Daska (32:16) Win Great Ethiopian Run 10K Haile Gebrselassie ran after first firing the gun. He ran an easy 33 minutes while “zig zagging” through the masses.
Recommended Read: Haile G Is Retired From Racing, But Can’t Stop Running Geb says running is still so “addictive” that he still has to run twice a day and talks about Mo Farah and who the GOAT is … hint: he doesn’t choose Farah or himself.
Was Sunday Haile Gebrselassie’s Last Race? Here, Haile said it would “be the last one here in Ethiopia,” but quotes everywhere else indicate he is done completely.

Interesting Distance News

Well Done, LRC Sleuths: Serial Cheater At Marine Corps Marathon Gets A Lifetime Ban Thanks To LetsRun Message Board Posters Gregory Price, who finished 2nd in the 60-64 age-group with 3:17:47, has apparently cheated at the Marine Corps Marathon 13 times since 1998.
*MB: Serial Cheater at Marine Corps Marathon
*MB: Good job Letsrun! You helped take down a cheater!
Every College Kid’s Dream: Recent Beer Mile WR Setter Lewis Kent Lands Sponsorship Deal With Brooks Kent: “It’s pretty surreal. I’ve always liked to run and drink beer, but I never thought I would be considered world class for doing both.”
*Video: Canadian Lewis Kent Runs New Beer Mile WR Of 4:51.9

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.

2015 IAAF Athletes Of The Year

Ashton Eaton And Genzebe Dibaba Crowned 2015 IAAF World Athletes Of The Year Some nice quotable sentiments from Eaton, and Dibaba announced she’s going for the world indoor mile record in Stockholm on February 17th.
A Closer Look At The AOY Men’s Finalists Eaton beat out Usain Bolt and Christian Taylor.
Closer Look At Women’s AOY Finalists Dibaba beats Dafne Schippers and Anita Wlodarczyk.

Final 2015 NCAA XC Analysis LRC Photos: D1 Men’s Race (514 Photos) D1 Women’s Race (486 Photos) D1 Banquet D1 Post-Race DIII Men (257 Photos) *DIII Women (185 Photos)

LRC Our Final Look At NCAA Cross: Was Syracuse Winning NCAAs The Most Significant Development In A Generation? Chris Lear seems to think so. Plus praise for Edward Cheserek and the men of Oregon and the UNM women. Who are the early favorites for 2016?

Bruce came out of nowhere to take 23rd at NCAAs LRC Forget About The Winners: The Biggest Surprises And Underperformers At NCAA Cross Edward Cheserek and Molly Seidel were the winners, but who exceeded/came up short of expectations?

Molly Seidel: “I’ve Been Hearing About That Stupid Curse for Years” Seidel talks about breaking the curse, why she struggled early in her college career, and “busting up” her knee in a bike crash the week before NCAAs.

Excellent Read: DailyRelay Examines In Great Detail Whether UNM Is The Greatest-Ever Women’s Team And If Cheserek Is The Greatest-Ever Men’s Individual Martin Smith‘s 1982 UVA team was VERY good but UNM appears to be a little better.

A Scandal Or Just A Ridiculous Conflict Of Interest?

BBC Gets Hands On Leaked Craig Masback Email Which Shows Nike-Paid Seb Coe Talked To Lamine Diack About Eugene 2021 Coe, who still is paid six figures per year as a brand ambassador for Nike, denies there is anything wrong with what he did. “I did not lobby anyone on behalf of the Eugene 2021 bid. After their narrow defeat for the 2019 Championships I encouraged them to re-enter another bidding cycle as they had a strong bid.” That may be true but we 100% think Coe can’t be paid for Nike while the head of the IAAF.

Dick Pound Says 2nd Report On IAAF/Russian Corruption Won’t Come Out Until January But It Will Be Worth The Wait As There Will Be A “WOW” Factor “When we release this information to the world, there will be a wow factor. I think people will say how on earth could this happen? It’s a complete betrayal of what the people in charge of the sport should be doing.”

Dick Pound Says, “… it wouldn’t surprise me if Wada did end up doing an investigation on the ground in Kenya.”
Interpol Has Joined French Investigation Of IAAF Looks like they are looking into Papa Diack‘s company.
1st Of Russian Doping Cases To Be Heard At Court Of Arbitration For Sport Next Week Six cases will be heard as the IAAF thought Russia’s timing of the suspensions for the dopers, including 50k gold medalist Sergei Kirdyapkin, was flawed.

US Women In The News

After First Serious Injury Of Her Career, Jordan Hasay Will Return To Racing On December 6th In 10,000 Olympic Standard Qualifying Attempt With Kim Conley Hasay also reveals she used to beat Shannon Rowbury in workouts when Rowbury first joined the NOP.
Mary Cain Video Q&A At NXN Regional Race Cain talks for 7+ minutes and says she thinks she struggled in 2015 as she was away from her family for the first time.
~~2015 Chicago Did Have A Pacer – Alexi Pappas Paced Women Trying To Get US Olympic Trials Standard~~ Pappas was a pacer at Chicago 2014.

Interesting But Random

Aussie Hurdler Nick Hough Has Invented An App – GradeProof.com – That Will Write Perfect School Papers For You Less time spent on school = more time for practice.
Tokyo 2020 Expects 10,000 Entries As Search For New Logo Is Officially Opened

Post-NCAA News

Molly Seidel Also “Broke The Curse” For Notre Dame As They Had Never Had A Women’s Individual Champ Seidel was actually in a bike crash earlier in the week and on Monday wasn’t even sure if she’d race.
A Look Back At Syracuse’s 1951 NCAA XC Champs Title A week before NCAAs, they were only third at IC4As, but peaked at the right time.
Michigan’s Erin Finn Lost Both Her Shoes, But Still Finished 19th At NCAAs She ran the last 4K (which included sections of gravel) barefoot. MB: michigan woman who lost her shoe
The Denver Post Analyzes The Splits: How Colorado Lost To Syracuse At NCAAs They were “out-Coloradoed” over the last 2K.
Stanford Coach Chris Miltenberg Says Third For The Men Was Good “Once they remove themselves and see what they’ve done, they should be proud of themselves.”
Full List Of DI All-Americans *DII *DIII

2015 NCAAs Were Saturday Results (DI, DII And DIII) Complete NCAA Coverage

In Case You Were Gone Over The Weekend Syracuse “Out-Coloradoes” Colorado For NCAA Cross Crown As Edward Cheserek Makes History Look Easy Colorado and Syracuse were tied at 8k but “Syracuse out-Coloradoed Colorado over the last 2k” to get the crown. King Cheserek crushed Patrick Tiernan the final 2k. Full recap with interviews of Chris Fox, Mark Wetmore, Justin Knight, Grant Fisher, Patrick Tiernan and more.

LRC Molly Seidel Breaks The Foot Locker Curse And New Mexico Makes History The Foot Locker curse is over and the New Mexico women proved themselves to be the greatest women’s team in history as they had the lowest point total in the modern era. Interviews with Seidel, Dominque Scott, Joe Franklin, Anna Rohrer and the Lobos.