2015 LRC Year-End Rankings

LRC Steeplechase: Jairus Birech & Evan Jager Are Your World And U.S. Number Ones Birech failed to medal at Worlds but the rest of his season was so good he earns the #1 ranking.

LRC Evan Jager Is “Extremely” Disappointed He Didn’t Break 8:00 Or Medal This Year But Realizes He Made Big Strides Jager: “I feel like I made a huge jump in fitness from years prior. I took myself to a new level of athlete and really proved to myself that I was one of the best steeplechasers in the world and not just hoping I was one of the best.”

LRC Women’s Steeplechase: Hyvin Kiyeng, Emma Coburn Top World, U.S. Lists Two Americans crack the top 10.
*LRC Coburn: “In general, [I was happy with 2015]. I wish I could have run a PR; that was a goal that I really wanted.”

Houston 2015

Loaded Houston Full And Half Marathon Fields Released For January 17th race World marathon champ Mare Dibaba will race for the first time since Bejing in the half, which features Lelisa Desisa and Diego Estrada. In the full, 2:05 man Bazu Worku will look for his third win in Houston.

Doping/Scandal News

• Russia’s Sports Minister Says It’s Absurd Entire Country Is Being Blamed For Doping Cover-Ups
• Kenyan Columnist Not Sure What To Make Of Amazingly Good And Bad Year For Kenya Performance wise, it’s almost impossible to top leading 2015 Worlds with 7 golds and amassing 16 total medals. But off the track, things were bad with Rita Jeptoo‘s bust and the corruption charges against Isaiah Kiplagat and David Okeyo.
• IAAF Task Force Will Visit Russia January 10-11 Let’s announce it now so they can make sure to have everything in order.
• Chelsea Football Club Donated Funds To Support Seb Coe’s IAAF Election Bid The Russian owner denies he was involved. Coe is a paid consultant for Chelsea.

Get Pumped For 2016

• Jan. 9: Garrett Heath Will Go For A Hat Trick At Great Edinburgh XC As He Takes On Mo Farah Heath has had huge upset wins over Kenenisa Bekele and Asbel Kiprop the last two years, but now will step up from the 4K distance to the 8K.
• Jan. 15: TrackTown USA Organizers Announce Plans For Portland Indoor Track Series This Winter There will be four meets in January and February leading up to World Indoors. Jordan Hasay and Matt Centrowitz are among those expected to compete.
• Jan. 16: Ethiopia’s Defending Champ Birtukan Fente Alemu Will Face Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack (Britton) At Antrim International XC Meet
• Jan. 22: Three Top HS Runners Added To Elite Fields For Next Month’s Camel City Elite Indoor Meet Drew Hunter will be in the 3,000 with Bernard Lagat and Garrett Heath.

Solid Road Action In Japan

• One We Missed: Arata Fujiwara Wins Battle With Yuki Kawauchi At Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Going into this race they were 3-3, but now Fujiwara has the upper hand as he ran 2:11:50 to Kawauchi’s 2:12:24. Hisae Yoshimatsu won for the women (2:35:46).
• Sally Chepyego Runs 68:17 To Win Sanyo Ladies’ Half Marathon In Japan In A New CR
• Sera Girls Win First-Ever National High School Ekiden Championships Title
• Sera Breaks National High School Boys Ekiden Course Record

More Russian Doping Updates

• Lamine Diack Faces New Corruption Charges From French Police He was originally accused of “passive corruption,” but the charges have been upgraded to “active corruption.”
• CAS Will Announce Verdicts On Doping Bans For Six Russian Athletes In Late February These are the bans (which included steepler Yulia Zaripova) which the IAAF appealed because RUSADA made them too selective by allowing athletes to keep major medals.
• Transcription Of Hajo Seppelt Update Interview With Russian Whistleblowers Vitaliy And Yuliya Stepanov They reveal that after fleeing Russia, they’ve moved seven times in the last year and haven’t even told their parents where they are living.
  *Full ARD Video
• The Stepanovs Feel “It Would Be Unfair To The Athletes Of The World” If Russia’s Ban Is Lifted Before Rio 2016 “For decades, the Russians did not respect the rules … suddenly, they say they can change and become good people?”

Only 4.5 Years Until Tokyo 2020

• Japan Chooses New Scaled-Down Design For Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium This one will “only” cost $1.26 billion instead of $2.1 billion.
• Tokyo 2020 Organizers Whittle Down List Of Potential Logo Designs The list is down to 311 from the almost 15,000 submitted.

From Tragedy To Triumph

LRC Feature The Miracle In The Black Hills: A Coach, A Fallen Teammate And A Season For The Ages In July, Black Hills State’s Gage McSpadden was struck by lightning and tragically killed at the age of 21. The team’s dream of a first-ever NCAA appearance, one that McSpadden had guaranteed, appeared to be shot. No one will ever forget how they responded.

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)