Track Corruption = Regime Change in Africa?

LRC Report: Lamine Diack Has Confessed to Seeking 1.5 Million Euros from Russian Athletics Federation; Has Admitted That The IAAF Intentionally Slowed Doping Cases Involving Russian Athletes The IAAF corruption case just got weirder as French newspaper Le Mondereports that Diack told French police he needed the money to fund opposition to Senegal’s then-president, Abdoulaye Wade, during the country’s 2012 elections. *Guardian
*Senegal govt denies Russian funding claim
*MB: Diack confesses to soliciting bribes from Russia 

5 Recommended Reads

• Shannon Rowbury Talks At Length About Her 2016 Campaign And Her Improvement Under Alberto Salazar
  MB: For those of you who hate indoors: Rowbury says Alberto’s focus on indoors and 2-peaks has really benfitted her
• Hajo Seppelt Responds To Fine By Russian Court “It was interesting to learn that a court in Russia can take a decision based on complete ignorance of the facts.”
  *MB: Russian court rules that Hajo Seppelt/ARD documentary was based on inaccurate info – says they must pay $42 fine
• UK Columnist Slams IAAF For Tweeting “Happy Birthday” To Doper Heike Dreschler “There is no way [IAAF] can hope to protect the future of athletics when it refuses to disown the sport’s poisoned past.”
• Lengthy Q&A With Evan Jager From January Edition Of TFN
• Jessica Ennis-Hill’s Coach Toni Minichiello Writes 1,000-Word Essay On What Makes Her A Champion Minichiello, who has known her since age 9, says the key in addition to talent is that she’s always been super-competitive and smart.

Sprint/Jump/Throw News

• Last Athlete To Have Competed At The 1936 Olympic Games, “Gabre” Gabric, Dies At 101 She was competing in throwing events as late as age 95.
• Usain Bolt Film Documentary Being Made – Preview Will Be Shown At Berlin Film Festival The producers of the film made one on Manchester United that grossed more than $70 million.
• CBCSports.ca Names Andre De Grasse Its Canadian Athlete of The Year – “From zero to national hero in 7 months.”
• Profile Of Marquis Dendy By Dave Hunter Dendy credits his college improvement to weight training and eating 6, not 3, meals a day.
• Germany’s Cindy Roleder Reflects On Her Amazing 2016 And Says She Was Thrilled With 100H Silver For good reason – she went into Worlds with a 12.80 PR and left with a 12.59.
• Asafa Powell Attended Rihanna’s Annual Diamond Ball And Got To Meet Will Smith

Interesting US News

• Galen Rupp May Have Run 61:20 In Portland, But Jake Stout Broke The World Record In the Race WR for fastest half in an animal costume (1:21:16).
• After Appalachian Trail Record, Scott Jurek Is Trying To Figure Out What’s Next – Racing Isn’t It “For me, the beauty of this sport is it’s a lifestyle. Right now I am trying to figure out what running means to me.  What do I want to do to push my boundaries and explore the edge of physical and mental performance? And racing doesn’t feel like something I need to do. Phasing into a different part of my career is a better way to put it.”
• Athletics Illustrated Asks, “Why did Running Times fail?” A Manifestation Of The Modern Runner Or A Symptom Of Market Conditions?
• Garrett Heath Interview After Club XC Win (Audio)

Elite Distance News

• John Hancock Announces The Return Of Defending Champions Lelisa Desisa And Caroline Rotich To 2016 Boston Marathon
• Impressive: Former World Marathon Bronze Medalist Steve Spence Runs Sub-5:00 Mile For The 40th Consecutive Year The 53-year-old ran 4:55 to keep the streak alive again. He’ll try to take advantage of his current fitness and “knock off 2016 ” in January. *Discuss
• New Olympic Trials Standards Catch Athletes Off Guard As All Of A Sudden They Have Just 9 Weeks To Train Some had given up or had other racing plans. 2:18 man Josh Eberly: “The night before I found out [about the new standards] I was talking to my wife about whether to go for it in Houston.”
• Eliud Kipchoge Focused On Going For Marathon Gold In Rio 2016 “Rio Olympics is my main focus next year and I will take the opportunity fast if given a chance.”
• Team Europe Selected For January 9th Great Edinburgh XC Euro champions Sifan Hassan and Ali Kaya lead the squads.

Guardian’s Sean Ingle: “Time Has Come For Sebastian Coe To Lead New IAAF Legacy Of Openness” A lot more IAAF dirty laundry will be airing as the IAAF Ethics Commission’s disciplinary hearing starts Wednesday and the second WADA report from Dick Pound comes out next month.

Club Nats *Results

Amy Van Alstine, Garrett Heath And BAA (Women) And Hoka One One (Men) Win 2015 Club XC Titles Alan Webb (182nd) beat Nick Symmonds (219th).
*IAAF Recap

SPAR European XC Champs Were Sunday *Results

• Sifan Hassan Runs Away With Euro XC Champs As GB Dominates The Team Race Former NCAA champ Kate Avery was 2nd, 8- seconds behind Hassan.
• Turkey’s Ali Kaya Wins Comfortably As Spain Takes Places Two Through Five To Destroy The Field
• Junior Men: Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa Defends His Individual Title As France Wins A Close Team Race Over Italy
• Junior Women: Konstanze Klosterhalfen Finishes First To Lead Germany’s Team Victory
• U23 Men: GB’s Jonathan Davies And Spain Are Winners
• U23 Women: Victories For Belgium’s Louise Carton And Team GB
• Fionnuala McCormack Finds Silver Lining In Team Bronze For Ireland The former 2-time champ was disappointed to finish 4th, but happy with the team bronze.
  *Irish Examiner Article
• BBC: Britain Tops The Overall Medal Tables As Every Team Member Takes Home Hardware
• IAAF Recap