January 14, 2016 | LetsRun.com

WADA Report #2

LRCDick Pound's Puzzling Endorsement Of Seb Coe, Looking For Heroes And Where Is The "Wow" Factor? - Analysis And Reaction To Part 2 Of WADA Report

The good , the bad, and the ugly from the report.
More: Guardian: Seb Coe Admits IAAF Is A “Failed Organisation” After New Wada Report

WADA Part II

9am ET MB: Official 2nd WADA Press Conference Live Discussion Thread Dick Pound‘s 2nd report came out on Thursday morning. Watch a replay of the conference below. Talk about it here. Analysis coming.
*MB: If Coe Isn’t the Best Person to Lead the IAAF, Who Is?

Video: Seb Coe Gets Grilled By CNN Over State Of The Sport And His Past With The IAAF Watch as CNN’s Amanda Davies grills Coe with questions and jumps on him for giving unsatisfying answers.
IAAF Official Who First Raised Concerns About Liliya Shobukhova Cover-Up 2 Years Ago Says Not To Make Seb Coe A Scapegoat Sean Wallace-Jones: “Let’s give the man the chance to carry out reform before condemning him.”
Seb Coe Says There Was No (Additional) Russian Cover-Up After Latest Email Leak Coe: “There is a difference between cover-up and failure to hold to account.”

More Distance News

Video Interview: Matt Llano Trying To Get In 2:09 To 2:10 Shape For The Trials
NXN Champ Kate Rainsberger Blogs About Her Experience At Great Edinburgh XC She was the top American in the junior race in 5th place.

Less Than A Month To The Trials

Dathan Ritzenhein Is Feeling Good About His Prep For The Olympic Marathon Trials “I’ve had great training. I’ve pretty much done everything I’ve wanted to do.”
Kara Goucher’s Theme For 2016 Is “Woman Up” “I believed in myself enough to get fit and give myself a shot at an Olympic Team. But now it’s time to put my neck on the line.”
Video Interview: Carrie Tollefson Talks To Deena Kastor About Setting The US Masters Record And Her Buildup To The OT Kastor reveals a ton went wrong in her buildup to Chicago, but she ran 2:27:47.
Neely Spence Gracey Skipping Olympic Trials To Debut At Boston Marathon She was planning on running the OT when she qualified with a 69:58, but didn’t recover fast enough to feel confident for a February debut.

NCAA Coverage *All Weekend NCAA Results

Top NCAA Marks From The Weekend: Erin Finn Runs 9:13 3K Penn State’s Brannon Kidder ran the anchor leg of the 4 x 800 and the opening 1,200 on the DMR, closing that in 54 seconds.
Southeastern Louisiana’s Steven Barze And Kansas State’s Akela Jones Are NCAA DI Athletes Of The Week Barze set a school record with the top NCAA LJ of the year of 7.92m. Jones posted national best marks in the HJ (1.87m) and 60H (8.17).
Iowa Outscores Illinois & Missouri In Border Battle
Kansas Dominates In Opening Home Meet
KSU Has Strong Showing At Home Invite

US Mid-D / Distance News

Garrett Heath Talks XC And Training After Taking Down Mo Farah Heath says he “sucked at XC” in college and that most of the Brooks Beasts girls are stronger than he is in the weight room.
5 Questions With Olympic Hopeful Desi Linden – Women’s Running If she could have only one song stuck in her head for the entire 26.2, she’d pick Boston’s “Foreplay/Long Time.”
Ajee Wilson Has Fully Healed And Is Training Well After 2015 Stress Fracture After getting top 3 at USAs, Wilson had to skip Worlds with the injury.
Recent Trend Of More American Only Prize Money At Road Races Helps Emerging Elites Heather Kampf: “It certainly helps to kick it in for that final stretch if you know placing one spot higher might also have a dollar amount attached.”
US 800 Runner Geena Gall Shares Her Goals For 2016 She plans to retire after this year to start a family, but wants to try and make one more US team.
Quick Q&A With Chanelle Price Her advice for HSers: “Do not dwell on your high school achievements. College is a different animal.”

400m Sprinters In The News

Oscar Pistorius’ Lawyers Lodge Appeal Against Murder Conviction Now a decision will be made if the case will go to the Constitutional Court.
Video Interview: Jeremy Wariner Inducted Into Texas Track And Field Hall Of Fame Sanya Richards-Ross and Carl Lewis were also inducted.

Random Stuff

Top 6 Bizarre Track And Field Events With Videos Did you know synchronized high jumping was a thing?
MotorSport.com: Why Formula 1 Doesn’t Have Doping Scandals We didn’t read the article, but our guess is because it’s not a sport.
How Far Do Athletes Run In Different Sports? Soccer obviously has a ton of running with players logging 6 or 7 miles a game. NBA players average 2.72 miles a game and NFL WRs 1.25.

2016 Great Edinburgh XC Results Video Highlight *Full Race Replays

LRC Garrett Heath Does It Again, Takes Another Huge Scalp And Beats Mo Farah At 2016 Great Edinburgh XCountry International Challenge In the past in Edinburgh, Heath has taken down the likes of Asbel Kiprop and Kenenisa Bekele. Now he’s beaten Mo Farah by 2 seconds in a sprint finish. UK’s Kate Avery (formerly of Iona) won 4 seconds ahead of Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack.

Athletics Weekly: “Garrett Heath, The King Of Holyrood Park” *IAAF Recap
Phillip Rocha And Katie Rainsberger Lead USA Junior Squads With 5th Place Finishes Amy Van Alstine was the first American in the women’s senior race in 6th.
Brits Win Overall Team Title Europe was 2nd, USA 3rd. *All Results
Kate Avery: “It is the biggest win of my career. I have always been in the medals, but not on top, always the bridesmaid.” We guess she isn’t counting winning NCAAs.
Fionnuala McCormack Says Runner-Up Finish A “Nice Place To Start The Year”
MB: Official 2016 Great Edinburgh XC Live Discussion Thread – Farah vs. Heath
MB: FARAH GOES HOME DEVASTATED — SMOKED BY GARRETT MF HEATH — USA!!!!!!
MB: Garrett Health is a savage

Olympic News

Protests Against Rising Transport Prices In Rio Grow Violent Masked protesters threw rocks at police, who in turn used tear gas, stun grenades and pepper spray on the protesters.
Italy’s Premier Matteo Renzi Reiterates Support For Rome 2024 Bid

Sprint Stuff

Who Will Replace Usain Bolt As The Top Jamaican Sprinter When He Retires? Yohan Blake is clearly the most likely candidate if he can get (and stay) healthy.
Usain Bolt-Signed Shoes Stolen From A Car In Southern England The victim had paid a lot of money for the spikes at a charity auction and for some foolish reason, left them overnight in his car.
David Oliver Shares Some Random Facts About Himself He’s big on DIY projects, started track as a terrible LJer, was really shy as a kid and “not a super popular dude in high school.”
Justin Gatlin Explains How He Used To Long Jump With An Unorthodox Technique He based his form off of the well known Michael Jordan “Air Jordan” logo.
A Historical Progression Of Sprinting Top Speed World Bests Bolt is obviously the fastest recorded at 12.35 m/s (27.63 mph).
UK’s Richard Kilty Wants To Become Only The Second Person To Win Back-To-Back World Indoor 60m Titles

Hosting News – Is It Worth It?

Will Spending $45 Million In Public Money On The 2021 World Championships Generate $568 Million For The Economy? That is what TrackTown USA is trying to convince Oregon government officials of anyway.
Small Fire In Rio Olympic Park May Have Been Started On Purpose The fire happened after a demonstration by former workers who were laid off without receiving their last month’s salary or severance pay.
Tokyo 2020 Logo Contest Down To A Shortlist Of Four The original logo was scrapped due to plagiarism.
Preliminary Entries Of 699 Athletes Set For Portland World Indoors

February Will Be Here Before You Know It

Molly Huddle And Andre De Grasse To Star In 2016 NYRR Millrose Games On Feb. 20th Can Huddle challenge Shalane Flanagan‘s 14:47.62 AR?
Marathoner Aaron Braun’s Baby Is Due The Day Before The Olympic Marathon Trials

Track Town Poland FTW

Bydgoszcz, Poland Named Host Of 2016 World Juniors That’s Being Stripped From Kazan, Russia *LRC Bydgoszcz Photos
More On Bydgoszcz – Track Town, Poland Bydgoszcz has hosted a lot of big events in recent years, including World Youths, World Juniors and World XC twice.

Doping News: IAAF Officially Bans Russian Doping Scandal Officials

IAAF Ethics Commission Bans Four Senior Officials Involved In Russian Doping Cover-Ups – Three For Life Papa Massata Diack, Valentin Balakhnichev, Alexei Melnikov get lifetime bans and former anti-doping director Gabriel Dollé ridiculously only gets 5 years. *IAAF Statement *WADA Statement
*Full Decision Text “In GD [Dollé]’s case such ban is also appropriate but in his case for five years only; his sins were those of omission, not commission.”
One Week To Go: Second Part Of WADA Doping Probe To Come Out On Thursday Next Week Dick Pound will once again present the findings which will center on the IAAF and Kenya.
Russian Deputy Sports Minister Loses Place On WADA Foundation Board Pavel Kolobkov is barred from participating until RUSADA is compliant again.
Former Blood Doping Cyclist David Millar Says That The IAAF Knew Back In 2009 That Track Was “Riddled” He claims they knew, but did nothing about it.
IAAF Ethics Commission Appoints Two New Members; No Longer All Male Council Justice Catherine O’Regan is a former South African judge and Annabel Pennefather is a distinguished Singaporean lawyer.

More Distance Stuff

Sara Hall Now Being Coached By Husband, Ryan Hall In this interview with Carrie Tollefson, Hall talks about her training/strategy for the OT and adopting her 4 Ethiopian daughters.
Imane Merga And Alice Aprot Win Campaccio XC Meet In Italy Merga just beat out Yasin Haji as they had identical times with Jarius Birech and Thomas Longosiwa 3rd and 4th. Aprot beat out Ruth Jebet by 4 seconds as Linet Masai and Mercy Cherono were 3-4.
February 14: Meseret Defar And Brenda Martinez Announced For New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Trayvon Bromell in the sprints.

Will You Run More Than Mark Zuckerberg In 2016?

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Wants To Run A Mile A Day In 2016 LRC message boarders were quick to call him out on a number of points.
Mark Zuckerberg Wants Us To Run A Mile A Day In 2016, But He’s Doing It All Wrong Blogger points out that Zuckerberg is heel striking and being over optimistic when he says it’ll take less than 10 minutes.
MB: Is the Mark Zuckerberg running challenge real?

Radical Group Wants Referendum On Rome 2024 Bid

LetsRun.com’s Look Back At 2015 *Year-End Rankings

Wejo A Look Back At 2015: Tsepo Mathibelle Is My Athlete Of Year, Evan Jager’s 8:00:45 Is My Race Of Year, Plus My Unknown Person Of Year And One Regret Wejo hands out high praise to two unknowns – one literally and one figurative. The anonymous source at the IAAF for Hajo Seppelt‘s work is is Person of the Year and Tsepo Mathibelle, who blew up at Worlds, is his Athlete of the Year.

Rojo: The Year Of Doping And Corruption, No One Is Too Big To Fall, Domination By Stars On The Men’s Side And New Faces On The Women’s Rojo is far from depressed by the doping/corruption scandals of 2015 as it shows no person is too big to fall. He has high praise for Hajo Seppelt and Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanov, looks at the domination by stars on the men’s side and new faces on the women’s side, plus the emergence of Eric Jenkins and Emily Sisson.

Gault Kipchoge’s 2:04:00 Without Insoles, Dibaba’s 3:50:07, Bolt > Gatlin, The Greatness Of Montaño, Symmonds, Farah And Cheserek What a year: Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:04:00 with his shoes falling apart, Genzebe Dibaba ran 3:50.07 with both her shoes, Bolt defeated Gatlin, and Montaño, Symmonds, Farah, and Cheserek kept winning.

The 2016 US Marathon Trials Are One Month From Yesterday

LRCLess Than A Month From LA 2016, Kevin Hanson & Desi Linden Talk Marathon Trials, Bobby Curtis & Galen Rupp

Linden went into depth about her Trials buildup and the trickiest parts of the LA course, while Hanson discussed Linden and Bobby Curtis before discounting Galen Rupp's chances (should he elect to run) and reminding people why they shouldn't underestimate Jake Riley.

LRCChris Derrick On The Olympic Marathon Trials, Pro Running Being A Sweet Part-Time Job, The NY Jets, And The Decreasing Marginal Utility Of Income

Chris Derrick joined us on the podcast and talked about his potential marathon debut at the Trials, the doping crisis in the sport, the ticking clock on 60 minutes, Twitter, the New York Jets, how he "was" a big fan of LetsRun.com and how professional running is like a part-time job.

News From Oregon

Outside Magazine: “Can Galen Rupp Pull Off A 10,000 And Marathon Double In Rio?” They argue “It wouldn’t be that crazy” and remind you that back in 2012 Alberto Salazar predicted that Mo Farah would do that double for Rio.
*LRC’s Take: Will Galen Rupp Do The Olympic Marathon Trials?
Vin Lananna Says TrackTown USA Won’t Ask Lawmakers For $15 Million To Upgrade Hayward Field Ahead Of 2021 Worlds “We’re going to have to fundraise it. It may slow the project down.”
Good Read: The Oregonian: “Track Town Trips Over World Champs Funding Request” An in depth look at the funding situation in Oregon and why organizers cut back their request for funds by more than a third, “admitting they miscalculated the level of political support for the event.”
Brianne Theisen-Eaton Hopes Portland Will Be Scene Of First Global Title Right now she’s Mrs. Silver as she’s finished runner-up in three consecutive World Championships (two outdoors, one indoors).
Register-Guard Roster Breakdown: “What To Expect From UO Men’s Indoor Team” Erik Jenkins was a key loss, Edward Cheserek is a key returner, Matthew Maton is a key newcomer.
RG UO Women’s Roster Breakdown Jenna Prandini going pro was a big loss.

More Doping News

AP Report: Did Vladimir Putin Bribe Lamine Diack To Cover-Up Doping By Paying $19 Million Extra For Russian TV Rights To Televise The 2013 Moscow World Champs? Article says that a Russian bank increased the payment from $6 million to $25 million, mysterious hotel meeting.
France Issues Wanted Notice Via Interpol For Papa Massata Diack Wanted for corruption and money laundering.
Edna Kiplagat Wants $1 Million To Be Retrospectively Awarded To Her As She Lost Two World Marathon Major Titles To Dopers “My talent is being wasted. I don’t have any motivation.”
UKA Want To Scrap WRs Through A Technicality Instead of wiping out old marks, they’d adjust event rules slightly so they were “new events.”
Jamaican Athletics Head Warren Blake Speaks Out Against Resting Records Obviously they’re pretty attached to Usain Bolt‘s 9.58.
IOC Claims They Were “Refused Access” To Alleged Emails In Qatar 2016 Bribery Accusations The IOC say they were turned down by The Guardian.The Guardian, says the IOC never asked.

London Produces Yet Again

LRCInsanely Good Women's Field Announced For 2016 Virgin Money London Marathon - Is This Race Tougher To Win Than The 2016 Olympics?

Once again, London has secured an amazing field with five women who have run under 2:20 and eight under 2:21. All of the top 5 from our 2015 World Rankings are in the field including the winners of 2015 Dubai, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York and Worlds marathons.

Doping Updates: More IAAF Dirt Sees The Light

Uncovered Documents And Emails Show That The IAAF Knew How Serious The Russian Doping Problem Was (42% Of Athletes Tested) As Early As 2009 The IAAF even warned Russian athletics chiefs that athletes were “putting their health and even their own lives in very serious danger.” They also show that IAAF officials at least considered covering up Russian doping ahead of London 2012 as they would make a deal to not make the bans of some athletes public if they accepted shorter bans. *BBC *The Telegraph
IAAF Officials Deny They Tried To Cover Up Russian Doping Cases Spokesperson says they were emails sent by now banned doping director Gabriel Dollé and the plan was never carried out.
WADA Concerned By Latest Findings They want their independent commission to investigate, if they haven’t already.

Sad News

RIP: University Of Evansville Mourns Death Of 20-Year-Old XC Runner Bailey George She died in January after being diagnosed with cancer in October. A new 5K race will fund a scholarship in her honor.
RIP: Former LSU Track Coach, Murrell Garland, Dies At 82 He was there for 11 years in the 1970s and ’80s.

African Distance News

Florence Kiplagat Trying To Break Her Own World Half Marathon Record At The Barcelona Half On February 14th She set her 65:09 mark at this race last year.
Gladys Cherono Won’t Defend Her World Half Marathon Title This Year As She Focuses Her Training On The London And Olympic Marathons She will be one of the favorites to make the Kenyan squad as she won Berlin in 2:19:25 last year.
Uganda Putting Their Gold Medal Hopes On Stephen Kiprotich, Who Will Try To Defend The Upset Marathon Title He Won In 2012 They also have a medal hope in Solomon Mutai who won bronze at Worlds this summer.
Wilson Kipsang Encourages His Fellow Kenyans To Invest In Education Kipsang takes classes at a university and also encourages athletes to go to seminars on how to invest their money properly.

A History Of Falmouth

LRCBook Review: "A History Of The Falmouth Road Race" By Paul Clerici - A Well-Researched Reference Book On One Of America's Most Beloved Road Races

If you are interested in learning all about the history of the race that started as a dream of bartender Tommy Leonard, who wanted to get Frank Shorter to Falmouth, then this book is for you. 3.5 out 5 stars.

Dope News

Finally A Resolution 10 Years Later? Blood Samples In A Barcelona Freezer Could Spark Biggest-Ever Doping Scandal As Operacion Puerto Resurfaces Spanish courts set to release verdict on the appeals by WADA and UCI against the destruction of almost 200 bags which have been stored for 10 years as part of the Operacion Puerto doping scandal.
Guardian’s Sean Ingle: “IAAF Has Betrayed Athletes, But Law To Jail Doping Cheats Carries Risks” Ingle claims it would have “unintended consequences,” but then fails to really name any. He just quotes an Aussie official who points out that criminal convictions need a higher burden of proof and court cases take longer.
IAAF Task Force Arrives In Moscow Ahead Of Meeting With Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko They’ll have 2 days of meetings and inspections.
Martin Bingisser Criticizes The IAAF/IOC System That Gives Too Much Power To Politicians And Not Enough TO Athletes While we agree there, we think he’s wrong when he says athletes “give up all civil liberties” by submitting to out-of-competition drug tests and the whereabouts program.

Weekend High School Action

Video: Kate Murphy Runs 2:45.36 1,000m, Second-Fastest All-Time She missed Sarah Brown‘s 2:43.4 record by 1.96 seconds.
Video: High School Relay Runner Gets Accidentally Body Checked By Track Official
MileSplit Weekend In Review

Latest Doping Stuff: Mo Farah Takes Some Shots

Mo Farah Calls Out Spain’s Alemayehu Bezabeh For Doping; Says He Wants Lifetime Bans For Drug Cheats Bezabeh beat Farah at the 2009 Euro XC Champs and was later banned for 2 years for doping.
Steve Magness Criticizes Seb Coe, Saying His Relationship With Nike Put Him In Denial Magness thinks Coe and others at the IAAF ignore what they don’t want to hear and spend too much time in “politician mode.”
IAAF Will Face More Criticisms From WADA Report This Week, But They Won’t Be Banned Dick Pound: “Like all organisations, there’s an effort to try to distance the organisation from the conduct that occurred … I’m sorry, but these are not people unrelated to the IAAF … this is an IAAF problem. It’s not just a couple of bad people.”
IAAF Urges Any Witnesses With Knowledge About Extortion Of Moroccan Or Turkish Athletes To Come Forward
GB Marathoner Disillusioned By Doping Scandals And No Longer Advises Young Runner To Aim For “Hollow” Olympics The 2008 Olympic 6th placer was satisfied when she ended her career, but now looks back in disgust at the areas where she was cheated.

LetsRun.com Debates

LRC LetsRun.com Debates: Is It Time To Panic For Mary Cain? How Many World Records Will Be Set In 2016? Mary Cain‘s 1,500 PR was set in May of 2013. Is this a make-or-break year for her? We analyze that question in great detail and talk about Ajee Wilson and wonder how many world records will go down in 2016?

Doping News

Dick Pound Says That IAAF Officials, Including Seb Coe And Sergey Bubka, Should Have Acted Quicker To Change Its Outdated Governance Structure “They had a [19th-century] constitution in a 21st-century organisation.”
Mo Farah On Doping Problems: “I want to be able to race against clean athletes.” He also said, “I’m getting bored of [questions about Salazar].” *Guardian Article
*Farah Backs Seb Coe To Clean Up The Sport “He’s doing a great job. Obviously it’s going to take time, but he’s all up for it.”
Dutch Olympic Discus Champion Ria Stalman Admits To Using Steroids Ahead Of 1984 Los Angeles Games
WADA Confirms That IAAF Bribes And Blackmail Extended Behind Russia And Included Asli Cakir Alptekin Alptekin won 1,500 Olympic gold, but should have been banned before the Games based on her blood profile.

Will History Be Made?

LRCTirunesh Dibaba Is "Training Well" And Planning On Going For Unprecedented 3rd Olympic 10,000 Gold In Rio

Seven distance stars have won double Olympic 10,000 gold - Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Lasse Viren, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Derartu Tulu - but no one has ever won three. *Discuss

Free Training Info

Sonia O’Sullivan’s Free Training Advice For An Olympic Year: Pushing Too Hard Doesn’t Always Pay *Sonia O’Sullivan is interested to see how Ireland does now that Russian and Turk dopers are being cracked down on.
Photos Of How Many Top European Athletes Train In The Winter Includes a great video of Greg Rutherford doing stairs with his two labs.

A Look Back At The Geniuses Of LetsRun From 2015

LRCLRC $200,015 Running Warehouse NCAA XC Prediction Contest Recap

A pre-med student, a collegiate record holder, and a guy dating someone on the Syracuse team took home the prizes.

Portland World Indoor/Outdoor Champs News – Did $400,000 In Donations Buy 2021 Worlds $40 Million In State Support?

Register-Guard: Oregon Governor’s Top Aide Was Very Much Against Request For $40 Million In State Aid For 2021 Worlds – After $400,000 In Donations Poured In From Phil Knight, Nike And Others, The Governor Was All For It Emails show Governor Kitzhaber‘s administration was initially extremely skeptical of a $40 million state subsidy request by TrackTown USA. However, after Knight, Nike, and UO officials gave nearly $400,000 to Kitzhaber (who has since resigned in scandal) in a six-week period, Kitzhaber was all for it.
Nike Giving $13.5 Million To The University Of Oregon For Hayward Field Renovations They have given the first half with the second half dependent on further fundraising.
Public Gets A First Look At The New Indoor Track Set Up In A Portland Warehouse For World Indoors The warehouse has been dubbed the “House Of Track” and will stage several high performance meets before the track is dismantled and moved to the Portland Convention Center for Worlds.

The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials Are Going To Be Amazing

Breaking News Chris Derrick Reveals That He’s Training For The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials The men’s Trials just continue to get more and more interesting as Derrick has confirmed to LetsRun.com that he is currently training for the Trials. Only 10 men in US history who have a 10,000 PR faster than Derrick’s 27:31 have ever raced a marathon.
*MB: Breaking: Chris Derrick, “I am currently training for the marathon trials”

Upcoming Action

Friday: Matthew Centrowitz, Jordan Hasay And Shannon Rowbury Competing In Portland Indoor Meet
Saturday: 16-Year-Old Candace Hill Will Make Her Pro Debut At The University Of Alabama Invite She’s in the 60m against Nigerian Olympian Gloria Asumnu. AR holder Chaunte Lowe in the HJ.
Feb. 6th: Kim Collins Vs. Mike Rodgers Over 60m In Karlsruhe, Germany Dafne Schippers vs. Dina Asher-Smith in the women’s 60m.
Feb. 20th: Ajee Wilson And Brenda Martinez Will Go Head-To-Head In Millrose Games 800 Erik Kynard vs. Derek Drouin also announced in the HJ.
Feb. 20th: Jessica Ennis-Hill Will Compete At Glasgow Indoor GP In The 60H Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford were already announced.

2016 Boston Marathon Field Announced

LRC Three Quick Thoughts On The 2016 Boston Marathon Field Both defending champs will be back. In terms of PRs, the men’s field is a little stronger than last year.

*MB: 2016 Boston Marathon field announced.
*MB: Neely Spence Gracey running Boston – good idea?

Neely Spence Gracey Skipping Olympic Trials To Debut At Boston Marathon

Other Doping Updates

Irish Opinion Piece: “Paula Radcliffe’s Selfish View On Records Wipe Misses Point” Writer argues her record is itself suspicious and that she “doesn’t have the good of the sport at heart.”
The Telegraph: “Why Records Are Meaningless – UKA’s Plans To Start Afresh Miss The Point” Writer argues that records are “meaningless” because they exist “beyond context” since technology and rules change so much over the years.
IAAF Task Force Concludes Its First Visit To Russia The next step is the Russian Federation’s elections this weekend and then another visit by the IAAF task force.
6 Men Arrested For Running Doping Lab In Germany
IOC Wants To See The Lamine Diack Emails That Allegedly Show Qatar Tried To Bribe IOC Officials To Get 2016 Games The emails mention “parcels” sent secretly to six people, referred to by their initials which correspond with six members of the IOC at the time.
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Wants A “Cultural Revolution” Against Corruption In Track He calls for tougher penalties and review of all European records.
NY Times Recaps The Situation And Sets The Stage For Thursday’s WADA Doping Report

Watch Out, Dopers – The British Are Coming

UK Athletics Puts Forward Radical Anti-Doping Reforms In 14-Point “Manifesto For Clean Athletics” Some of the recommendations include banning dopers from ever representing GB, moving 4-year ban to 8 years, and starting a new set of world records.
*BBC: UKA Wants To Reset WRs
UKA To Tighten Up Regulations On Top Athletes Working With Foreign Coaches After Alberto Salazar-Mo Farah Controversy
UKA Chairman Warner Wants ~~USATF~~ USADA To Finish Their Salazar Investigation “I would encourage them to complete it because it has gone on a long time. And I would also encourage them if they find nothing just to say that. I live in fear it will never have an outcome because they’ll decide they have nothing to say.”
Alberto Remains An Unpaid Consultant, But Only Mo Farah Will Work With Him
Paula Radcliffe Rejects Proposal To Wipe Out WRs Because It Would Punish Innocent Athletes She believes a better idea is for all confirmed dopers to lose their previous records.
UKA Attempts To Shock Seb Coe Into Action With Surprise Manifesto Ed Warner: “They are designed to be a cattle prod for the whole sport of athletics and very specifically the IAAF.”
Ed Warner Says He Had Meeting With Seb Coe And Coe Is In Favor Of Removing Some Clearly Doped Records From The Books

IAAF / IOC Corruption News

Leaked Emails Show That Papa Massata Diack And Lamine Diack Might Have Been Involved With An Attempt By Qatar To Buy The 2016 Olympics Doha was eventually dropped from the 2016 race because it wanted to hold the Games in October.
IAAF Delivers 30-Page Report To WADA Responding To Dick Pound’s First Report From November The IAAF refutes that there was ever “systematic corruption” and argue it was only a few rogue officials. They also address specific accusations that they delayed banning athletes such as Turkey’s Asli Ҫakir-Alptekin.
IAAF Task Force Has First Day Of Meetings In Russia Chairperson Rune Andersen: “Discussions at today’s meeting have been frank and open, and we look forward to continuing them [tomorrow].”

International Distance: Does Farah Have Any Chance At Komen’s Record?

Mo Farah Considering Taking A Stab At Daniel Komen’s 7:24.90 World Indoor 3,000 Record At The Glasgow Indoor GP In February Last year he set the world indoor 2-mile record, but the 3,000 record is at a whole different level.
*MB: Mo Farah 2 tackle world’s indoor 3k in Glasgow Feb20th
IAAF Weekend XC Roundup: Former World Silver Medalist Mercy Cherono And Uganda’s Thomas Ayeko Win In Amorebieta, Spain Vincent Rono and Damaris Areba won in Kenya as track studs Isiah Koech and Paul Kipsiele Koech were 8th and 14th while Paul Tanui DNFed.
Wilson Kipsang Reveals That He’ll Run A February Half Marathon As He Builds Up For A Spring Marathon (Almost Certainly London)

US Distance Runners Dreaming Big In 2016

Marathoner Stephan Shay Talks More About How He Moved From A 9-To-5 Job Into Living In A Vintage Van By The Beach For the last year, Shay has been living by the California beach in a restored vintage 1966 RV. He made the move after losing his full-time job, but has turned it into a pretty satisfying life.
Liz Costello Says Her Resolutions For The New Year Are To Nap More And Improve Her Racing Tactics The US champs 7th placer dreams of making Olympics in the 10K.
Video Interview With Annie Bersagel About Training For The Marathon Trials She had knee surgery in June and was on crutches for 6 weeks, so has had to substitute with a lot of cross training in her buildup for the Trials.
Video Interview: Donn Cabral Talks About His Outlook For 2016 Cabral never planned on making the 2012 team when he was younger, so 2016 is the year he’s “thought about since he was a kid.”

Olympic Hosting News

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh Blames Olympic Movement’s “Unrealistic Expectations” For Failed 2024 Bid Walsh says Thomas Bach tried to persuade them against holding a referendum. “The President of the IOC didn’t want a ballot question, and ironically his own town in Hamburg, Germany, voted down the Olympics.”
Italian Prime Minister Claims No Chance Of Rome “Giving Up Olympic Dreams” There have been calls for a referendum by the Italian Radicals Political Party.
Four Shortlisted Designs For New Tokyo 2020 Logo Will Undergo Plagiarism Checks

International Distance News

Defending Champion Lemi Berhanu (2:05:28) And 2014 Winner Tsegaye Mekonnen (2:04:32) Added To Field For Dubai Marathon There will now be six runners on the line who have won Dubai in the past.
2009 World 10,000 Champ Linet Masai Recovered From 2015 Injuries And Focused On Making Kenyan Team For Rio She’s still only 26 years old.
Easier Said Than Done: Top Japan University Runner Daichi Kamino Planning A Short Pro Career, Ending With A Medal At The 2020 Tokyo Olympics “I don’t plan to do it for long. I’m going to put everything I have into it, medal, and then I’m done.”
Australia Selects Its First Five Members Of 2016 Olympic Squad David McNeill and Eloise Wellings will represent in the 10,000.
Botswana Hoping To Send A Record 20 Athletes To Rio 2016, Led By Olympic Silver Medalist Nijel Amos

News From Kenya

Kenya Jittery As They Anticipate Next Week’s WADA Doping Report Early reports have said the report will focus on the IAAF and Kenya.
2010 World Indoor 1,500 Bronze Medalist Haron Keitany Raring To Go After Returning From Chronic Hip Injury After logging almost no results since 2011, the 3:30 man says he’s finally healthy and dreaming of making Kenya’s Olympic squad.
Former Road 10K WR Holder And 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist Micah Kogo Hoping To Drop A Big Time At The Paris Marathon In April Kogo (2:06:56 PR) is still dreaming of Olympic glory and hoping he can run fast enough in Paris to make the Kenyan Rio 2016 squad. *2nd Article
Caleb Ndiku Focused On Defending His 3,000m World Indoor Title “I want to win and it will start with the Indoor.”

Midweek Action

Thursday’s XC Action: Imane Merga And Alice Aprot Win 59th Campaccio Cross-Country Race World Jr. XC champ Yasin Haji was 2nd and steeple star Jairus Birech was third. Aprot broke the CR ahead of Ruth Jebet and Linet Masai. *Photos
*LRC Archives: Ritz Won This Race Last Year

The Press Reacts To The IAAF Getting Ahead Of Next Week’s WADA Report And Banning 3 Officials For Life

Meet The IAAF Insider Who Had The Guts To Expose Everything – Sean Wallace-Jones Hajo Seppelt wasn’t needed for this case to come out as Wallace-Jones was willing to shake up the IAAF.
Expose Of IAAF Cover-Up Began At A Hotel Bar In Tokyo
Independent: Lifetime Bans For Officials Are Nothing Compared To What Will Come Out Next Week When WADA’s Dick Pound Releases His “Wow” Factor
Guardian: Sebastian Coe’s “Roadmap To Reform” Endangered By Wreckage Left By Old Regime

LetsRun.com Debates

Day 2 LRC Predictions For The New Year: Will Mo Farah Win Double Gold (Again)? Will Tirunesh Dibaba Win Triple Gold? Will Kenenisa Bekele Even Compete? The LRC staff debates all of that and more.

Day 1: LRC Predictions For The New Year: How Many Mid-D/Distance Medals Will Team USA Win At The 2016 Rio Olympics?
*MB: Crazy thought: Might Centro be America’s best hope for a 5000 medal in Rio?

Brooks Distance News

Was Brooks, Now Nike: MB: AMY CRAGG (HASTINGS) Joins Bowerman Track Club This isn’t a big shock since Cragg has been training with Shalane Flanagan for a while now.
*MB: Amy Hastings Cragg to Portland
Brooks Beasts Coach Danny Mackey Writes About The Process Of Building A Team Mackey believes that a lot of benefits come from the team environment, rather than athletes training off alone as “lone wolves.”
Nick Symmonds Talks About How In 2016 The Answer Is Often “I better not, it’s an Olympic year.” Symmonds also announces athletes now sponsored by Run Gum, including Will Leer, Kyle Merber and Emily Infeld.

Don’t Call It A Comeback

After Two Surgeries Within A Year, Lolo Jones Still Shooting For Rio “You just have to tell yourself, ‘I can do this,’ and look at where you started from – take joy in the small things that you have overcome to get where you’re at.”
*Jones On Decision To Remain A Virgin: “It’s extremely hard. It brings a lot of lonely nights.”
Kenya’s 1,500m Commonwealth Games Champ James Magut Ready To Return After Nursing A Groin Injury For The Last 6 Months The 3:30 man had to pull out of the World Military Games when he re-aggravated it last year.
GB Mid-D Runner Jemma Simpson Likely To Miss Olympics With Foot Injury She ruptured a tendon in her foot and says she will need a “miracle” to qualify for GB’s team as she can’t run until at least April.

RIP To A Local Legend

Recommended Tribute: WP: “Charlottesville Mourns A Moving Landmark, ‘Running Man’ After He Is Hit By An SUV” 55-year-old Philip Weber was a local legend in Charlottesville and known to most only as “Running Man.” He earned his fame from running miles and miles on the roads every day since the 1980s, always shirtless and in short shorts regardless of the weather.
NBC29 WVIR Video: Community Remembers Charlottesville’s “Running Man”
Great Profile/Video On “Running Man” From This November Weber lived a simple life and got by with not much money so he could spend more of his time running. He put thousands of miles on each pair of shoes, repairing them as he went with duct tape and Shoe Goo.
MB: Charlottesville Runners – Did you know ‘Running Man’? Killed by SUV?