2015 LRC Year-End Rankings

LRC Men’s 5,000: Mo Farah (Who Else?) Is #1 In World; But Which American Is #1 – Rupp, True Or Hill? The Ben True–Galen Rupp–Ryan Hill debate was the toughest we had for any spot in any of our rankings this year. How did we pick between the 3?

LRC Women’s 5,000: Almaz Ayana Tops Genzebe Dibaba For #1 Ranking In Greatest Year Ever; Molly Huddle Is America’s Best Without a doubt, 2015 was the greatest year ever in the women’s 5,000 thanks to Almaz Ayana and Genzebe Dibaba, who ran 6 of the 10 fastest times in history.

Previous: *M800 *W800 *M1,500 *W1,500 *MSteeple *WSteeple

Pro Distance News

• With His Insomnia Issues Mostly Behind Him, Bobby Curtis Is Rested And Focused On Making The Olympics With A 2:10 Performance Curtis used to suffer from extreme insomnia and struggled to sleep for more than 3 hours a night in college.
• Eliud Kipchoge And Mare Dibaba Make Donations To The AIMS Marathon Museum Of Running In Berlin
• Lauren Fleshman Starting A Once-A-Month Q&A Podcast

Sprint Stuff

• IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With Queen Harrison Harrison says she’s obsessed with hair extension and has a whole duffel bag full of them which she calls her “Bag O’Hair.”
• With Another Post-Season Athlete Of The Year Award Under His Belt, Usain Bolt Has His Sights Set On Achieving History In Rio

End-Of-Year Reviews

• IAAF End Of Year Review – Long Distance When it came to Worlds, Mo Farah was once again dominant as Genzebe Dibaba vs. Almaz Ayana was a highlight on the women’s side.
• Joe Bosshard, Emma Coburn’s Boyfriend, Blogs About The Top 5 Track Meets He Attended In 2015 Monaco tops his list, one spot ahead of Worlds.
• Video: Season’s Greetings From The Diamond League

Sprints / Field Event News

• Greg Rutherford’s Girlfriend Sexually Harassed Online By Tyson Fury Fans After Greg Rutherford’s Criticisms They referred to her as a “little slut” and threatened serious sexual violence.
• Good Profile: After Setting Multiple PRs And Getting 5th At Worlds, Dina Asher-Smith Was Pleased With Her 2015 Comeback From 2014 Hamstring Tear Asher-Smith talks at length about wanting to be an Olympian as a kid, being a full-time student and history major, but hesitates to speak about doping. Though she says she believes Dafne Schippers and Usain Bolt are both clean.
• Sanya Richards-Ross Hoping To Defend Her Olympic Gold And Win Her Fourth Successive Relay Gold She didn’t make Worlds in the 400, but says it was because of overtraining and she’ll hold back in 2016.
• Jessica Ennis-Hill Talks About Winning World Gold Only 13 Months After Giving Birth “Before I had Reggie, I was selfish. As soon as I had a child, he became the priority. Now, I fit my training around him. I’ve changed as an athlete.”

A Very Slow Weekend For Results

• Jenn Suhr Clears 15-7 (4.75) At Upstate NY Classic She took three attempts and missed at 16-1. She plans to compete again on Tuesday in her hometown of Fredonia.
• Kenya’s Cornelius Kangogo Wins Corrida Pedestre International de Houilles 10K In 28:10 He beat Ethiopia’s Haymonot Alewe by 1 second. Ethiopia’s Zerfie Limeneh won the women’s race in 32:07.

RIP National Scholastic Athletics Foundation Co-Founder Michael Byrnes

End-Of-Year Reviews

• DailyNation Kenyan Year-In-Review: “Kenyan Athletes Write History, But Doping Rears Its Ugly Head” Kenya topped the medal tables at Worlds, but the year was also bogged down with doping and corruption accusations.
• IAAF 2015 End-Of-Year-Review: Jumps If last year was the “year of the HJ,” this year was the triple.
• 2015 End-Of-Year Review: Hurdles The men’s 110H was the most competitive hurdles event of the year.
• Canadian Year-In-Review Canadians took home five medals from Worlds, two of them gold.

Road Race News

• “Millennial Running Study” Set To Come Out In Early 2016 Running purists can blame the “rapid rise of obstacle, color, night and costume races” on “millennials.”
• Free Marathon Organized In Remote Maine Town To Aid Locals Who Were Economically Devastated By Closing Of A Major Paper Mill The race is free, but all runners have to contribute to the town in some way, such as spending their money at local businesses.

Random Tidbits From The Boards

• What part of New York City should you be from in order to be cool?

• Sports Center anchor knows running!!!

• Which professional runner would be the best POTUS?

• Are public tracks a thing of the past?

• My toes look like they were mangled by a hammer

• The STRANGEST thing you've seen on a run?

• Even if Paula doped, how is her WR so much faster than the next best?

US Stars (And Potential US Stars) In The News

• Edward Cheserek Hopes To Get His US Citizenship Before Rio
• The Female Meb? Weini Kelati Tells Her HS Coach She Wants To Be A US Olympian
• Good News: Elliott Denman Reports That Ajee’ Wilson’s Stress Fracture Has Healed And She’s Training Well

World Stars In The News

• Wow: Genzebe Dibaba Says She Definitely Can Run Faster Than 3:50 And Get This – She Wants To Do The Steeple
• Yelena Isinbayeva Calls Russian Suspension “Unfair”
• HJer Mutaz Essa Barshim Wants To Win Qatar’s 1st Olympic Gold In Rio

Year In Review

• Runner’s World’s 10 Most Popular Stories For 2015 Mike Rossi makes the list, as does a bikini-clad running mom and an obese 5k running man.
  *MB: Runner’s World’s 10 most popular stories for 2015 – Guess how many of them involve elite level competition?
• SPIKES’ Hand Out Its 10 Best “Words Of Wisdom” For The Year We aren’t arguing with #1 – “Love what you do.”

News From Eugene

• New Images And Website Show Future Of Hayward Field (Pic)
• Eugene Register-Guard Calls On Lananna And TrackTown To Be More Open About Funding “The welcome restoration of Eugene’s status as TrackTown USA will be more durable if it comes with a renewed embrace of openness.”
• Less Than 200 Days To Go Until European Champs And Stadium Looks Sweet In Amsterdam The shot and discus will be done in the city centre.

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

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

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)