Down Goes Italy?

Italian Olympic Committee Requests Doping Bans For 26 Track Athletes List includes European marathon champ Daniele Meucci, Worlds 4th placer Ruggero Pertile and Olympic TJ bronze medalist Fabrizio Donato. They are accused of evading doping tests, but claim that there was an administrative error.
*MB: Italian dopers revealed Includes full list of 26, as well as 39 others who are under investigation.
*MB: Down Goes Danielle Meucci

Distance News

• Worth A Watch: Short Video On Steve Prefontaine And His Connection With Oregon Football Through Head Coach Mark Helfrich Helfrich, like Pre, is from Coos Bay and uses Pre’s story and quotes to motivate his team.
• Paula Radcliffe Voted Top Female Distance Runner Of All Time In Athletics Weekly Poll Radcliffe got 46% of the vote to Tirunesh Dibaba‘s 34%. Thankfully doper Wang Junxia got 0%. And before you accuse the Brits of being biased, remember that Mo Farah got spanked by Haile G when they did the men’s poll.
• GB 800 Man Andrew Osagie Feeling Positive As He Works Back From October Hamstring Surgery The man who ran 1:43.77 to finish last in the London Olympic final is still aiming for a medal in Rio.
• OSU Alum And 7-Time All-American Kirubel Erassa Joins Atalanta Track Club Elite
• New Staten Island Indoor Track Facility Opened Last Month

Did You Not Get All Your Gifts On Black Friday And Cyber Monday? We Have A Solution For You

LRC Book Review"Two Hours" By Ed Caesar - A Wonderful Book Worthy Of 5 Stars And One We Consider "The Definitive Book On The Modern Elite Marathon"

LRC Cyber Week Special: 2 LetsRun.com Shirts For The Price Of One

FloTrack Beer Mile

Canada’s Lewis Kent And USA’s Erin O’Mara Set World Bests At FloTrack Beer Mile Both set world bests as Kent ran 4:47 to beat out Corey Gallagher by 1 second as O’Mara won easily in 6:08.
*Results *Men’s Video *Women’s
*Brooks Press Release
*MB: Beer Mile World Record Softness
*MB: The Beer Mile WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS are in a PARKING LOT
*MB: Slowly watching Flotrack Die

Russian / General Doping News

• Russian Whistleblowers Vitaly And Yulia Stepanova Don’t Regret Exposing Russian Doping Despite Having To Flee Their Homeland Vitaly: “In the sense that I believed in something that I thought was right, and I tried. You can have fake values, animal instincts or you can be more human.”
• MB: Doper Mo Trafeh In A Local Running Club And Doing Online Coaching Should Trafeh even be allowed to coach recreational runners while being banned from the sport? We say no.
• Video: Victor Conte Thinks Russia Should Miss Olympics Conte feels a lot more could be done to catch cheats, but it isn’t done because it’s “bad for business.”
• Good Read: NY Times: Cloud Of Corruption And Doping Hangs Worldwide Former head of Australian anti-doping Richard Ings: “Remember, it was the media, not the system, that picked up these issues. Indeed, the system for some time pushed back on the media message …”
• Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko Insists RUSADA Will Not Be Disbanded

+1 For LA 2024

• Hamburg Officially Withdraws Bid To Host 2024 Olympics Now LA, Paris, Rome and Budapest are the 4 remaining bidders.
• InsideTheGames Columnist: “Hamburg 2024 Blow Shows Thomas Bach Remains Out Of Touch With What Ordinary Citizens Want”
• Thomas Bach Calls Hamburg’s Bid Rejection A “Missed Opportunity”
• Columnist Calls For A “Single, Permanent Olympic Site” “Historic Greece” in the summer and “neutral Switzerland” in the winter. Writer feels this “would help us reclaim the integrity of sport.”

2015 Canadian XC Champs *Full 2015 Canadian XC Results 

Natasha Wodak And Ross Proudfoot Win Canadian Cross-Country Championships – Runners Debate How Far Women Should Run – 8 Or 10k? *Full Results 

• Wodak Won Just Two Days After Finishing 2nd At Manchester Road Race

FL Regionals

2015 Foot Locker Regional Results: Drew Hunter Wins By 33 Seconds, Sets South Record

This Weekend’s Pro Action

21-Year-Old Birhanu Legese (59:20) Wins 2015 Airtel Delhi Half Marathon And $27,000 As 5 Men Break 59:30 – Cynthia Limo (68:35) Wins Women’s Race It was only the third time in history 5 men have broken 59:30 in the same race. WR holder Zersenay Tadese lost out in the sprint finish had his best finish in 4 years (59:24). India’s Lalita Babar, the steeple WC finalist, set a new NR of 70:52. WR holder and 2015 Chicago champ Florence Kiplagat was a DNF.
*MB: Totally Loaded Airtel Half Marathon Is Sunday With WR Holders Zersenay Tadese and Florence Kiplagat – Who You Got?

• Linet Masai destroys Fionnuala McCormack (nee Britton) by 36 seconds to win IAAF XC meet in Spain Masai, who ran 30:22 at age 18 and was the 2009 world 10,000 champion at just 19, is on the comeback trail. Ethiopian Tamirat Tola (2:06:17 marathon, 6th World XC) won the men’s title over Timothy Toroitich and Muktar Edris.
• Gemma Steel And Ross Millington Win At Britian’s Euro Cross trial
• Cleophas Ngetich (Crazy 8k Winner This Year) And Caroline Chepkoech Get 2nd Kenyan XC Wins Of Season Cleophas says his goal is to make the World XC team.
• RW recaps Dallas, Silicon Valley and Buffalo Turkey Trots Craig Lautenslager repeated in Dallas.
• Runner’s Worlds lists its favorite Turkey Trots

Important Reads

Overlooked Eugene 2021 Worlds Bid Being Investigated By French Police As Part Of Corruption Inquiry Into Lamine Diack Everything Lamine Diack touched should be investigated but this is the first formal news we’ve seen that Eugene 2021 is part of the investigation.

Previous: 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

Big News From Friday – 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!

Young Stars In The News

• Michigan High School Athletics Association Will Allow Northville Girls To Compete At NXN Once the parents filed a lawsuit, and with so much negative press and public pressure, MHSAA was fighting a losing battle from the start.
  *MB: Northville NXN team barred from NXN nationals by MHSAA rule
• High School 100m Record Holder Trentavis Friday Turns Pro; Signs With Xtep Friday will forgo the rest of his NCAA eligibility and give up his scholarship at Florida State.
• Sprinter Abdul Hakim Sani Brown Becomes First Japanese To Win IAAF Rising Star Award Sani Brown ran 10.28 and 20.34 to win World Youth Champs this summer.
• US’s World Youth 100/200 Champion Candace Hill Wins IAAF Rising Star Award Hill became the first prep female in history to break 11 seconds when she ran 10.98.

A Look Back At The World-Record-Breaking Years Of Ashton Eaton And Genzebe Dibaba

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?

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.

• Seb Coe: “I did not lobby anyone on behalf of the Eugene 2021 bid.”
• Seb Coe Does Q&A On IAAF Site Where he Answers A Ton Of Questions About 2021 Bid
• David Walsh Wants To Know Why Nike Hasn’t Made Any Comments About Russian Doping Scandal When They Sponsor Russian Athletics Simple answer – money.
• Telegraph: Lord Coe In Fresh Controversy Over Links With Nike And Award Of World Championships To Eugene

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

More From The Weekend

• Sifan Hassan And Germany’s Richard Ringer Win Warandeloop XC Race In The Netherlands  
• Inaugural USA Half In The Books; Race Wants To Be The “Boston Of Half Marathons” As It Requires Qualifying Times Winning times were 1:07:35 by Sean Gildea and 1:14:14 by Katja Goldring.
• Defending Champions Jim Walmsley And Sarah Bard Win JFK 50 Miler, America’s Oldest Ultra

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.