Update: Australian Scientists Michael Ashenden And Robin Parisotto Criticize Latest IAAF Statement About Blood Doping Ashenden says that “the IAAF has failed their athletes” by being “legally timid when they should have been morally strong”. *BBC Article *The Guardian

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!

Japanese National 10,000 Record Goes Down As Kota Murayama Runs 27:29.69 In An Electrifying Race For Glory On a track lined with screaming fans Murayama just beat out Tetsuya Yoroizaka by .05-seconds as both were under the old 27:35 mark. Kenya’s William Malel won the race in 27:22.

Admin News

• Guardian Columnist Rips Apart Today’s Sporting Admins: “It’s Time Either To Clean Up Sport Or Put The Teletubbies In Charge” Marina Hyde laments that they can’t get “within 50 miles of competence”, accuses them of competing in “an Olympics of uselessness” and implies they are all fat and need viagra.
• Mexico Warned BY IOC They Could Be Suspended From Rio 2016 For Government Interference In The Mexican Olympic Committee A top Mexican official claimed money is not being channeled to athletes and that there are too many “rich Federation directors and poor athletes.
• UK Sport Given A 29% Increase In Government Funding UK Anti-Doping also had it’s budget increased (by 7%) after there had been fears that anti-doping and sport funding would be cut.
• Paula Radcliffe, Ezekiel Kemboi and Ashton Eaton Among The Six New Additions To The IAAF Athletes’ Commission

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.

• Haglund Died Of Cancer On Saturday – Three Weeks After Her Husband Also Died Of Cancer – But Had No Idea She Had It Until Monday
• European Athletics Mourns Passing Of Linda Haglund

• A Look At The Irish Teams That Will Compete At European XC Champs
• Q&A With 400 Hurdler Eilidh Child, Who Is Ready To Put Disappointing 2015 Behind Her And Focus On Medal In Rio

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