Talent Doesn’t Go Away – Even When You Are 76

Ed Burke Sets WR At USATF Masters Champs Burke, who is famous for being the US flagbearer in 1984 at age 44, is still going strong at age 76.  *2016 USATF National Masters Indoor Results

Sprint News

• 400m World Champ Wayde van Niekerk Says He’s In “Good Shape” But He’s Struggling Academically In College
• Athletics Weekly Has Lengthy Feature On Allyson Felix, Who Reveals The 400 Is Her Least Favorite Event 200 is #1, 100 #2 and 400 #3.
• Q&A With Former 9.97 Man Uchenna Emedolu Of Nigeria

Doping Updates: Aregawi Trying To Get Off On A Technicality

• Abeba Aregawi And Manager Jos Hermens Trying To Save Her With A Loophole (translated) Her positive test came from January 12th and meldonium (the drug she tested positive for) was only banned on January 1st, so they are saying she could have taken it before it was banned. However, one expert says it wouldn’t stay in the system that long. Also interesting, she apparently had a 3-day warning that the out-of-competition test was coming.
• Blame The Foreigners: Swedish Journalists Visit Ethiopia To Investigate: Source Reveals Several Russian And Ukrainian Doctors Have Been Arrested For Drug Distribution (translated) It sounds like the Ethiopian federation is going the Kenyan route and trying to blame foreigners for the current drug issues.
• UKA Asking Athletes To Sign A “Drug Vow” Ahead Of World Indoors By signing, they agree that they “will never represent their country again if they take drugs”.
• UKA Head Neil Black Says They’re “Really Comfortable” With British Stars Training In Ethiopia In Spite Of Recent Doping Scandals Black said that Mo Farah and the other athletes who trained there for 6 weeks this winter were “fully supervised.”
• Kenya’s Proposed New Anti-Doping Law Delayed After It Was Due To Be Presented On Monday The law will criminalize doping and set up funding for the new Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya. WADA has given them an April 5th deadline to get it straightened out.
• Rio Organizing Committee President Insists That Drug-Testing Lab Will Be Operational In Time For The Olympics Brazil’s lab lost its accreditation in 2013 after failing to meet standards.

NYC Says Goodbye To The Diamond League

• The New York Diamond League Is No More: Rabat Meeting Will Replace New York City In Diamond League Series The adidas GP has opted out of hosting a DL meet and will now be replaced by Rabat, giving Africa its first DL meet.
• Global Athletics And Marketing Statement: The adidas GP Will Be Replaced With A Street Competition Event GA&M president Mark Wetmore: “It’s been a great run on Randall’s Island … we believe that changing our focus to a street meet is one way to make the event attractive to a younger audience.”
• MB: Diamond League replaces New York with Rabat, Morocco

2016 NCAA Entries – We Tell You Who Gets In And Who Doesn’t

LRC Observations On The Men’s NCAA Indoors Entries: Can Anyone Prevent An Oregon Three-Peat? It’s going to be hard to beat Oregon once again.

LRC Observations On The Women’s NCAA Indoors Entries: Florida Leads The Way; Multi-Event Stars Akela Jones & Kendell Williams Will Battle All Meet Long Only in a sport like track and field, can a team like Florida, which got killed at SECs, be the favorite at NCAAs.

LRC 2016 NCAA Entries – What Did It Take To Get Into NCAAs? How Does It Compare To Past Years? Find out what it will take to get into NCAAs and who is running what here.

*Update To The Women’s Bowerman Watch List Molly Seidel and Raevyn Rogers are the two distance runners to make the list.

US Women’s Distance News

• Former High School Star And Oregon All-American Nicole Blood Hasn’t Given Up Her Olympic Dreams Post-collegiate injuries derailed her and she quit the sport, but now she’s back living in Oregon and says she’s running the best workouts of her life.
• Good Read: Phoebe Wright Blogs About Eating Disorders Wright analyzes how eating disorders can “attack” a person and become part of their identity and suggests what they need to overcome it is “love.”
• Q&A With Sarah Brown On Training Through Pregnancy As She Approaches Her Due Date This Month Brown talks positively about the training she has been able to do while pregnant and is optimistic about being ready for the OT.
• Alexi Pappas Talks To Runner’s World About Decision To Run For Greece “It comes down to, why am I doing this sport? … It is not a decision that happened overnight – it was a very thoughtful process …”
• Q&A With 2:35 Marathoner Polina Carlson Carlson is Russian, but has been living in the US for almost half her life and is hoping to be a US citizen by 2017.

Drug News: Abeba Aregawi Facing Doping Ban

LRC Jenny Simpson’s Take On Abeba Aregawi Testing Positive: “What has been announced today is far from justice served.” (link fixed) News broke today that 2013 World 1,500m champ Abeba Aregawi’s “A” sample has tested positive. We have the reaction from 2013 Worlds silver medalist Jenny Simpson.
*MB: Epic fail: Abeba aregawi tested positive for doping

• More To Come? Ethiopian Anti-Doping Official Admits That Nine Athletes Are Currently Under Investigation He says that five of them are “top athletes.”
• Aregawi Reportedly Tested Positive In An Out-Of-Competition Urine Test In Ethiopia In January
• They Start ‘Em Young In Russia: 17-Year-Old Russian Hurdler Maxim Kosyukov Banned For Steroid Use He tested positive back in June after winning the Russian 110H national youth title.

Dreams Do Become Reality

LRC Meet The Most Interesting Man In NCAA Running: He’s 5’9″, Can Dunk A Basketball And In One Year Has Gone From 4:17 To The #3 Time In NCAA History: Meet Oklahoma State’s Josh Thompson Josh Thompson of Oklahoma State has a unique and cool story.