December 30, 2015 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For December 30, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“It really pisses me off. It’s nonprofessional. It kind of makes me angry. It’s not something [USATF] should put me through.”

– 43-year-old Kevin Castlille talking about how he’s angry he has to run another qualifier to get into the US Olympic Marathon Trials because his 1:04:45 from the USA Masters Half Champs didn’t count due to the elevation profile. Castille apparently received a letter from USATF saying he had qualified, but then was removed from the list without any notification once USATF realized the course wasn’t eligible.

Discuss: MB: Article on Kevin Castille.

2015 LRC Year-End Rankings

LRC2015 LRC Year-End Rankings, Men’s 10,000: Surprise, Surprise - Mo Farah And Galen Rupp Are The World And US #1s

After a year hiatus, the 10,000 rankings are back. Does Cam Levins make the list? Who is the US #2 - Hassan Mead or Ben True?

LRC2015 LRC Year-End Rankings, Women’s 10,000: Vivian Cheruiyot Leads The Way As Three US Women Are In Top 6

Emily Infeld won the bronze but is she or Molly Huddle our world #3?

Time To Say Goodbye To 2015

Recommended Read:Daily Relay Does Comical “Yelp Reviews” For 2015 Their reviews for Usain Bolt, Genzebe Dibaba, Russia and others are spot on. For Nick Symmonds they say: “In dispute with the city over a zoning ordinance. Has yet to reopen. Will review again next year, hope it’s open when I go back.”
IAAF 2015 Mid-D Review:Asbel Kiprop Made His Competition Look Like A Joke As Genzebe Dibaba Made History
Athletics Weekly Does A Month-By-Month Recap Of 2015
BBTM:Month-By-Month, The Best Of the Mile In 2015 One of the biggest highlights came at the year’s end with the mile returning to NCAA outdoors.
Usain Bolt Wins His Fifth International Sports Press Association (AIPS) Athlete Of The Year Award He was voted the winner over Novak Djokovic (tennis) by sports journalists from 91 countries. The women’s award went to tennis star Serena Williams while Genzebe Dibaba and Dafne Schippers finished 2-3.
Jamaican Writer Calls Danielle Williams’ World 100H Gold The Best Of 2015
Strava Shares Their Best Photos From 2015
Athletics Illustrated Shares Their Top Articles/Interviews In 2015

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.

Another IAAF Doping Bombshell?

Nick Davies, Seb Coe’s Chief Of Staff, Stands Down Over Leaked Email He is voluntarily standing down until the IAAF Ethics Commission reviews his case. By the way, this is the same commission that saw no problem with Coe being paid six figures a year by Nike. *Telegraph Article
IAAF Deputy General Secretary Nick Davies Implicated In “Secret Plan” To Delay Naming Russian Dopers Until After 2013 Moscow World Championships A leaked email between Davies and Papa Massata Diack showed that Davies manipulated the release of dopers to avoid the bad press that would come with a slew of Russian bans ahead of Moscow 2013. *BBC Article
Davies Claims He Was Only “Brainstorming” Ways To Convolute The Truth “My email … was brainstorming around media handling strategies to deal with the serious challenges we were facing.”
Hajo Seppelt Calls It The “Most Explosive Email I’ve Ever Seen About Lies/Doping Cover-Up”
IAAF Lawyers Send Threatening Legal Letter To Hajo Seppelt ON Behalf Of Coe/Davies
MB: If this doesn’t sink Coe nothing will
LRC Archive:IAAF Spokesman Nick Davies Writes LetsRun.com About Reports IAAF Did Not Follow Up for Retesting 150 Suspicious Samples from 2006-2008
LRC Archive:BBC World: Why Did IAAF General Secretary Nick Davies Write A Passionate Letter To LetsRun.com Instead Of Issuing A More Traditional Statement

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 BanquetD1 Post-RaceDIII Men (257 Photos) DIII Women (185 Photos)

Elite Distance News

Good Read:43-Year-Old Kevin Castille Trying To Be Oldest Male Marathon Trials Qualifier At Jacksonville Half On Sunday Castille already ran 1:04:45 and got a USATF letter saying he qualified, but then without notice his name was taken off the list because the course wasn’t eligible.
Good Q&A: Extensive Interview With Syracuse Coach Chris Fox Fox talks at length about this year’s team and winning NCAAs, but also about wanting the team to be good for the next 10 years and his own career.
What Professional Runners Do In The Off-Season Hear from Nick Symmonds, Deena Kastor, Kyle Merber and more as to how their routine, diet and activity all change during their down time.

The Dirty World Of Doping

Kentucky-Based Kenyan Lilian Mariita Banned For 8 Years For A Second Doping Offense She tested positive for a steroid after previously receiving a 2-year ban for EPO. *USADA Release
*MB:Hebron, KY-based Kenyan receives 8 year sanction Mariita is a member of a Kentucky group notorious for doping.
After Al-Jazeera Report, WADA Wants To Investigate Doping In The NFL Doping is obviously widespread in the NFL and the NFL Players Association has resisted WADA’s involvement.
We Can Only Hope: European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Thinks Russia Is Unlikely To Return In Time For Rio 2016 “They must have a cultural change. They must get rid of all those people from before.”
Russian Sports Minister And FIFA Member Vitaly Mutko Complains That The FBI Have Called On “Unprecedented Powers” In Their FIFA Corruption Investigation Mutko claims, “FIFA is the victim now.” Doesn’t this guy realize that constantly attacking the people/organizations trying to fight corruption makes him look dirty as hell?
Russia’s World 110H Champ Sergey Shubenkov Could Be The Second From His Family To Miss The Olympics As His Mother Missed When The Soviet Union Boycotted 1984 He said, “It’s like there’s some kind of karma.”
The Telegraph’s Athletics Moment Of The Year:“How The Stepanov Family Risked Their Lives To Expose Russia’s Doping Regime” It’s now been over a year since the original ARD documentary aired, but the ramifications are still being felt and will only increase when the second WADA report comes out in 2 weeks.

2015 LRC Year-End Rankings

LRCMen’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

Upcoming: Time Running Out For Trials Hopefuls

Sunday:104 Elite Distance Runners Lining Up At The Jacksonville Half Marathon For One Last Ditch Effort To Qualify For The Marathon Trials The men’s field includes some top elites as well with Chris Derrick, Anthony Famiglietti and Tyler Pennel lead the way.
*MB:Chris Derrick running a half in Florida this weekend
Wednesday:Ritsumeikan University Going For Third-Straight Mt. Fuji Women’s Ekiden Title
Asahi Kasei Set To Challenge Honda And Toyota For New Year Ekiden National Title

Interesting Non-Running News

IAAF Post-Doping Updates

UK Shadow Sports Minister Clive Efford Writes Letter To Seb Coe Interrogating Him On Doping Scandal Efford is concerned about a number of points from the Nick Davies leaked email and wants Coe to address them specifically.
Official Bids Received For Hosting 2016 IAAF Events Taken From Russia There are several countries interested in the World Race Walking Team Champs, but only Poland is bidding for World Juniors.

More Year-In-Review

IAAF Year-End Review: Road RunningEliud Kipchoge was the obvious dominant name at the marathon in 2015.
The Year’s Best And Worst In Japanese Distance Running There were good performances, but a very poor showing at Worlds, controversies surrounding Tokyo 2020 and the unrealistic time standards set by the Japan federation.
HMMR Media’s 2015 Women’s Hammer World Rankings Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk was the clear number 1 as she broke her own WR.

Elite Distance News

GoStanford.com: Stanford’s XC Season ReviewedChris Miltenberg talks about the season, Sean McGorty‘s NCAA title potential and Grant Fisher‘s development. Says Elise Cranny is back from injury and training, but might not run indoors.
Press Release: A Quick Look At All The Brooks Athletes Training For The Marathon Trials
Osaka International Women’s Marathon Field Released: Japan’s Kayoko Fukushi (2:24:21) Leads Field Of 13 Sub-2:30 Women

LRC Thanks Its Best Partners In 2015

Meter Magazine: The Perfect Holiday Gift If you’re looking for a holiday gift, what about a subscription to Meter, a running magazine you actually want to read. The founders of Tracksmith (makers of premium performance running apparel) wondered what happened to the inspirational stories of our sport and its heroes and Meter was born. Meter is something you’ll want to read and keep. Get a subscription today.

Banquet Photos (Click For Gallery)

New Year’s Eve Action

Evan Jager, Ezekiel Kemboi And Linet Masai Lead Fields For Madrid’s San Silvestre Vallecana 10K Men’s field also has Turkey’s Kaan Kigen Ozbilen (formerly Mike Kigen of Kenya) and Masai will face 2:22:30 marathoner Birhane Dibaba.
GB’s Lisa Dobriskey And Joe Stilin Lead Fields For The NYRR Midnight Run In Central Park

Some Good Advice For The New Year

Recommended Read:Former NCAA Champ David McNeill Blogs About The Often Strained Relationships Between Runners And Non-Runners “For the friend, family member, or significant other who shares in a runner’s life, the all-encompassing impact of running can become a source of resentment, with the resentment going both ways.”
Good Read: Six Ways To Change Your Running For The Better In 2016 Some good advice from elites and coaches on how you can improve mileage, recovery, strength, diet and more.

Doping Updates: A Longtime Doper Finally Goes Down; WADA Part II In Two Weeks

Al Jazeera Stands By Its Reporting on Today Show

Spanish Steepler Angel Mullera Banned For 2 Years For Doping The sad thing is that in 2012 Mullera won a legal case with CAS which allowed him to be reinstated to Spain’s Olympic team after he had originally been excluded for doping allegations.
Mark Your Calendars:Second Part Of WADA’s Doping Report Set For January 14th This part will focus on corruption within the IAAF, but had to be delayed while French authorities finished their investigation.
BALCO Scandal’s Tim Montgomery Understands Denials By Peyton Manning And Others Because It’s What He Did When CaughtAl Jazeera originally wanted Montgomery to go undercover, but he declined. Manning is using the same “crisis management” expert as Tiger Woods and Mark McGwire have in the past.
Former IAAF Vice President Helmut Digel Says The IAAF Has Failed In The Anti-Doping Fight He knows that there are many other countries with major issues besides Russia and says that Seb Coe has done “far too little” so far.

Headlines From Africa

Five Sudanese Athletes Arrested And Fined For Wearing “Inappropriate Dress” (aka Athletic Clothing) While Training The majority of them were actually men. Sudan is an Islamic state which enforces Sharia law’s strict dress code.
Eliud Kipchoge Says He “Enjoyed 2015” And Is Now Working Towards 2016 Kipchoge will start off with the London Marathon and says he wants to represent Kenya in Rio.
Asbel Kiprop Says His “Greatest Challenge” Comes From Other Kenyans “Kenyans are the best naturally, we are the best hardworking we are on top of it. My greatest challenge comes from my fellow Kenyans. My able friend Elijah Manangoi is in a position to challenge.”

RunnersTribe:“Athletics: Sooner We Say The Eulogy The Sooner It Can Be Resurrected” Writer says track events cost to much to attend for too little entertainment.

UK Pole Vault Coach Allan Williams Shares 10 Dos And Don’ts For Success “Don’t just train. Ensure that you have a very specific focus at every training session …”

Video Interview With Aussie Miler Jordan Gusman, Who Recently Broke 4 Minutes For The First Time Gusman gives an emotional interview after going sub-4 not long after losing one of his best friends and running rival to a freak accident.

Upcoming

January: Ayele Abshero Will Return To The Dubai Marathon Where He Set The 2:04:23 Course Record Four Years Ago He will face a tough field lead by two-time London champ Tsegaye Kebede.
February: Trayvon Bromell Will Line Up Against Kim Collins, Richard Kilty And Chijindu Ujah In The 60m At Glasgow Indoor GP

Sprint / Field News

Random: Usain Bolt Calls For Jamaican Murderer And Singer Vybz Kartel To Be Released From Prison Kartel is serving a life sentence for murder. Apparently Bolt paid a DJ to play just Kartel’s music at a big party.
Interesting:Ashton Eaton Discusses A Hypothetical Decathlon Where The WR Holders In Each Of The 10 Events Would Go Head-To-Head Renaud Lavillenie would probably win (he’s done the decathlon before), but Eaton predicts Aries Merritt would beat Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt, even though he thinks Bolt could LJ 9.50m. *Full Podcast With Eaton
Andre De Grasse Will Have To Deal With Pressure Of High Expectations From Canadian Fans Apparently De Grasse initially didn’t want to pose with the Canadian flag at Worlds because he didn’t think he won a medal. Only after Canadian coach Peter Eriksson told him did he fully celebrate.

2015 Foot Locker XC Photo Gallery (200+ Photos)

Say It Ain’t So

LRCDid Mike Rossi - The Viral Marathon Dad - Try To Cheat LetsRun.com Out Of $10,000 On Saturday?

Has Mike Rossi cut yet another course, this time in an attempt to win $10,000 from LetsRun.com?
*MB: Did Mike Rossi (viral marathon dad) cheat his way into Boston?

Book Review – The Animal Keepers Is Certainly A Keeper

LRC Book Review"The Animal Keepers" By Donn Behnke - A Terrific Tale Of What It Means To Be A Team

We highly recommend this book - hell, we call it "a triumph" - by Chris Solinsky's high school coach, Donn Behnke. Purchase here. 5 out 5 stars.

LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”