Distance Odds ‘N’ Ends

• For Those Who Haven’t Kept Up With The 28-Page MB Thread: Race Asks For Some Prize Money Back, Then Changes Its Mind A California race gave out $9,500 in extra prize money and then threatened lawsuits against runners to get it back. Ultimately, though, the RD took the hit out of his personal funds.
  *MB: Race wants prize money back
• Top Trail Runners Sign New Anti-Doping Pledge Trail runners who sign the pledge state that if found guilty of PED use they “agree to a lifetime ban.”
• Strava Photo Essay From Club XC Champs

International Distance News

• How Far Do You Think Mo Farah Will Run On Christmas? Some other random tidbits, including Farah wanting his son’s middle name to be “Arsenal” after the UK soccer team, but his wife saying no.
• IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With Geoffrey Kamworor Kamworor says his best friend is Eliud Kipchoge, whom he’s known for ten years and trained with for the last five.
• Canadians Respond Negatively To The NCAA’s Move From 1,500 To Mile Tweets from Justyn Knight, Jeremy Rae, Sheila Reid, Nicole Sifuentes and Nate Brannen.
  *MB: Sheila Reid is losing It – Hilarity Ensues – Says switch from 1500 to mile is “male nostalgia”
• Asbel Kiprop Says Hicham El Guerrouj Is His “Mentor And A Friend” El Guerrouj has said that he believes Kiprop is the only person capable of breaking his record and could even go under 3:25.
• Past Winner Tirfi Tsegaye Added To Field For Dubai Marathon Next Month She won Dubai in 2013 and has a PR of 2:20:18 from when she won Berlin 2014.

2015 In Review

• Jessica Ennis Is Third In BBC SPOTY Award As Tennis Star Andy Murray Wins Controversial nominee Tyson Fury was 4th in the voting.
• UK Independent Gives Their 2015 Track And Field Superlatives Justin Gatlin should thank the IAAF and Russia for taking the heat off of him. Lamine Diack won the “villain of the year” award.
• 2015 End-Of-Year Racewalking Review You might think it impossible to review 2015 racewalking and not mention Russia and their flood of doping bans, but the IAAF pulled it off.

It Always Feels Good Be Honored/Profiled

Famous UK Track Photographer Mark Shearman Talks About His Life Behind The Sporting Lens Japan Times profiles Shearman with nearly 2,000 words on the man who has produced over 1,000 Athletics Weekly cover shots. Shearman has photographed 13 Olympics, starting at Tokyo 1964 and says he’s working through Tokyo 2020.

Nike To Honor Ashton Eaton With Limited-Edition Gold Version Of Nike Lunar Caldra It comes out on December 26. Eaton thinks he can run anything from the 100 to the marathon in the shoe.

5-Time World XC Medalist And Irish Marathon NR Holder Catherina McKiernan Honored With Outstanding Contribution To Women’s Sport Award She ran 2:22:23 in 1997.

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 Monde reports 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 

Thursday News Of Note

• 16-Year-Old Sprint Star Candace Hill Goes Pro, Signs With Asics And Gets NYTimes Profile Hill ran 10.98 last year. She’s the latest sprint star to sign out of the traditional Nike camp. De Grasse signed with Puma, Bromell with New Balance and now Hill with Asics. Hill will be wearing Nike at every Olympics she competes in. Too bad USATF didn’t bid out that contract.
  *MB: Candace Hill becomes the youngest US track athlete ever to go pro, signs with Asics
• Marquis Dendy And Jenna Prandini Win Bowerman Award As Top Collegiate Track Athletes Of Year A guy who failed to make the final at Worlds in the LJ/TJ beat out a gold medalist in the PV as they only consider the collegiate season.
• 2-Time London Marathon Winner Tsegaye Kebede Will Make Dubai Marathon Debut On January 22

Important Doping News

• We 100% Want This To Happen UK Govt. Is Considering Making Doping A Crime Doping is basically theft to the tunes of millions of dollars in major sports.
• In Annual News Conference, Vladimir Putin Addresses “Poison” Of Doping Putin says Russia will eradicate the problem but says it’s unfair to suspend everyone. “Those who are guilty – the coach, the organizer, the athlete – they should be held responsible. Those who have nothing to do with it should not answer for those who are violating something. It’s not fair and it’s not right …”

Cross-Country News Of Note

• Full British Team For Great Edinburgh XC Race On January 9th Is Released Mo Farah is the headliner.
• Foot Locker 12th Placer Hannah DeBalsi Is Sports Illustrated’s High School Athlete Of The Month (Long Profile) She’s bound for Stanford next year.

Here We Go Again?

LRC USATF Releases Qualifying Standards For 2016 OIympic Track And Field Trials – Will We Have Yet Another Controversy As A Result? The Olympic Trials standards are out and we’re already worried there may be a huge controversy next summer. USATF’s guidelines only list an “approximate field size” and USATF had told LetsRun.com that the “sport chairs have the option to fill it out to that field size if they wish.” That’s ridiculous. Make it clear now.

International News

• Blanka Vlasic’s Words Of Wisdom We loved this one – “Don’t underestimate the power of defeat.”
• 45-Year-Old Kelly Holmes Wants To Compete Again – At 10k – “I’d love to get back to competing, probably 10k.” Not at a big time elite level, obviously. “I miss the thing of not having real targets anymore, so that challenge. I’m not necessarily missing the elite side of it, just the fact that I would love to have something that I could set a target for and then the training would become more exciting.”
• Hakone Ekiden Entry Lists And Rankings Japan’s biggest sport event is January 2nd and 3rd.
• Final Athletics Kenya Cross-Country Race Of The Year Is Saturday

Will Rupp Run The Trials?

MB: Galen Rupp solo 1:01:20 half marathon in Portland
*Rupp Says He Hasn’t Made A Decision About The 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials “I’m keeping my options open … I’m not sure what I’ll do.”
*LRC Will Galen Rupp Do The Olympic Marathon Trials?

Sunday Dallas Marathon Duo To Rio Relay Presented by AT&T

LRC The Greatest American Starting Line Of 2015 Was In Dallas For The Marathon Relays: Meb, Deena, Ryan Hall, Leo, Centro, Molly And More, Video And Recap What a star-studded field in Dallas. Interviews with Ryan Hall, Abdi, Chelanga, Ward, Puskedra, Leo, Centro, Robby, Ryan Hill, and Deena, Bersagel, and Becky Wade.
More LRC: Leo, Centro, Ryan Hill, And Robby Andrews Talk Mid-D, Pro Sports And World Indoors After Dallas Relays Good news for track fans as all 4 want to do World Indoors.
*Becky Wade TV Profile Her mom says, “If you had asked me the most athletic of my children, Becky would not be at the top of that list.”

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