LRCIAAF Announces Entries For 2016 World Indoor Championships

2016 USAs *Results *LRC Video Interviews

LRC Robby Andrews Gives Him A Run For His Money, But Centro Is Still The King Of The 1,500 A great race between Centro and Andrews that had Ben Blankenship speculating he may move up to the 10,000m afterwards.

LRC USA Distance Recap: Favorites Boris Berian, Ajee Wilson & Brenda Martinez Cruise To U.S. Titles Laura Roesler (800) and Cory McGee (1,500) also made it onto Team USA but men’s 800 runner-up Erik Sowinski will have to wait to see if he’ll get an at-large bid from the IAAF for World Indoors.

LRC Young US Phenoms: High Schooler Vashti Cunningham (Randall’s Daughter) Jumps A World Leader In The High Jump, Sandi Morris Joins The 16-Foot Club And Ashley Spencer Is On Her Way Back In 400 The future is very bright for the US in the vault and high jump. Demi Payne had a vault that would have put her top 10 all time and didn’t make the US team.

LRC USA Post-Race Video Interviews *Race Videos LRC USATF Indoor Flash Saturday Recap:

• USA Discussion: Woowwwww! Centro Holds Off Andrews!!!!
• Blankenship May Move Up To 10k (ThisIs Not A Joke)
• Rowbury Decides Not To Run 1,500m t USAs. Turns Focus To World 3k
• Sandi Morris = AthleteGoddess

DII And DIII Champs In The Books *Results: *DII *DIII

• Tiffin Men And Lincoln Women Win DII Champs Team Titles In Historic Meet Includes some quick event-by-event highlights. *Results
• UW-Eau Claire Men And Baldwin Wallace Women Win Division III Team Titles *Results
• Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend

Non-USA/NCAA Weekend Action

• South Africa’s 400m World Champion Wayde Van Niekerk Makes Sprinting History By Running A 9.98 100m Van Niekerk is now the only person to ever run sub-10 in the 100, sub-20 in the 200 and sub-44 in the 400.
• David Rudisha Wins Again With A 1:44.89 At The Perth Track Classic Kenya’s James Magut won the mile in 3:59.83 over Elijah Kipchirchir and Australia’s Brooke Stratton set an Oceanian record in the LJ with 6.84m. *Results
• Kate Avery Wins UK Inter-Counties XC Champs

Our Prediction Contests Go Indoors For The First Time Ever

LRC $20,016 USA/NCAA Running Warehouse Distance Prediction Contest What’s the track fan supposed to do this weekend with both USA Indoors and NCAA Indoors? Play in the LetsRun.com Running Warehouse Indoor Prediction Contest that has the USA Indoor distance events + some of the top NCAA events. In a LRC first, we have excluded the USA men’s 800m from the contest.

See Who The LetsRun.com Nation Is Favoring MB: It’s Official: Ryan Hill The Huge Favorite In Tonight’s 3,000m: LRC Running Warehouse Predictions Galen Rupp is the #2 choice, but Matthew Centrowitz is the biggest favorite of the weekend.

• How do I deal with an ugly child

• Sleep issues due to meets

• "Middle Zone" feels uncomfortable

• LETSRUN OFFICIAL SURVEY : Most outrageous doper that got away with it?

• Split shorts question

• Name 5 things I HAVE to do while in Birmingham, Alabama or the NCAA Indoor Champs

• Runners Beware: CrossFit has discovered Pose Running

• Best Way to Recruit Within my High School?

Top US Stars In The News

• Luke Puskedra And Wife Thank The Running Community For Donating $73,000 To Their Daughter’s Cancer Battle Thanks really should go to the baby’s grandmother, who insisted they get an ultrasound.
• Aries Merritt At Full Speed After Kidney Transplant “Now I have a real body again and it is because of (my sister). If I win gold I will tell her ‘We did it.'”
• 2008 Olympic 110H Silver Medalist David Payne Is On Comeback Trail After Missing All Of 2014 And 2015 After Shattering His Femur Payne won’t be at US or World Indoors, however.
• Ashton Eaton Talks About Receiving A Call From Caitlyn Jenner After Winning Gold In Beijing Jenner is long-time friends with Eaton’s coach Harry Marra.

Doping News

• Inventor Of Meldonium Says Ban Of His Drug Will Result In Deaths “We will see many deaths on the field … This drug was on the market for 32 years – as a self-protective agent – and now suddenly it becomes forbidden …”
• WADA President Craig Reedie Confident Kenya Will Be At Rio Games
• Former WADA President Dick Pound Says Russia Is Running Out Of Time For Rio

News On The Corruption Front

Educate Yourself  Watch The English Version Of The Latest ARD Doping Documentary – “Russia’s Red Herrings”

• Abebe Aregawi B Sample Is Positive We’re pleased to see that Aregawi has admitted to taking the drug and supposed a doctor is in jail.
• Alan Abrahamson Rips Media For Acting Like The Olympics Are Going To Be A Disaster 5 Months Before Every Single Olympics We agree.
• Kenyan Authorities Are Demanding Answers From Nike Over Alleged Athletics Kenya Corruption “Why was such a huge sum of money paid as commitment?” said one of the detectives. “It’s only Nike who can tell us.”
• UK Athletics Head Says Lord Sebastian Coe Will “Face Ridicule If He Lifts Russia Ban” Before Olympics After Latest ARD Report We still don’t think it will happen (even if it probably should). Money talks. Can someone imagine the financial hit to NBC if it was the USA that was banned?
• Four More Russian Athletes Test Positive For Meldonium

Russian-Related Doping Headlines

• Maria Sharapova Tests Positive For Meldonium, The Same Drug Which Caught Abeba Aregawi She admitted to taking the drug since 2006, saying she didn’t know it was banned and had it prescribed by a doctor. The fallout has been quick as Nike already “suspended its relationship” with her, but her lawyer is hoping that she won’t get any sanction.
  *MB: Sharapova busted for meldonium
  *MB: What do we know about meldonium (drug Aregawi was busted for)?
• UKA Chairman Ed Warner Says Seb Coe Will “Face Ridicule” If He Lifts Russian Ban Before Rio He wants the IAAF to rule Russia out of the Games this week and “end the uncertainty.”
• WADA “Dismayed” By Latest Doping Allegations Against Russia In New ARD Report WADA president Craig Reedie: “At a time when trust in sport is wafer-thin these troubling assertions will do little to reinforce confidence in the Russian anti-doping system.”
• Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko Says Russia Is “Doing Everything Possible” And Will Investigate Latest Report Elsewhere, he’s quoted dismissing the ARD report as a political attack.
• IAAF Task Force Investigating Latest Allegations
  *IAAF Task Force Will Address IAAF Council On Friday

The Russian Doping Trilogy

• Third ARD Report Says Russia’s Efforts To Clean Up Doping Have Been “Mere Lip Service” As Culture Of Doping Continues Undercover journalists found a banned coach still working with athletes and a Russian official selling drugs. It also shared documents claiming that a newly elected leader of RUSADA previously gave athletes advanced warnings about drug tests.
• IAAF Statement “Thanking” ARD And Hajo Seppelt And Saying It Will Look Into The Latest Accusations The IAAF/Seb Coe have come a long way from accusing ARD of “declaring war” on the sport.
• AP Article With Some More Specifics
• Russian Whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova Wants To Compete At The Olympics Under The Olympic Flag Stepanova and her husband fled Russia and have applied for political asylum in Canada. The IAAF will consider her request at a meeting this week.
• The Guardian’s Sean Ingle Argues For Keeping Russia Banned From The Rio Games He also thinks the situations in Kenya and Ethiopia should be “more in the firing line.”
• Banned Russian Coach Vladimir Kazarin Denies The Accusations And Accuses USA Of Using Political Influence Against Russia “The USA controls politics and sport. … If we are banned, then all these medals will go to the USA and Great Britain.”

More From The Weekend *All NCAA Results

• Yale’s James Randon Runs 3:58 To Win IC4A Championships
• IAAF Indoor Round-Up: Spain’s Ruth Beitia And Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi Head To World Indoors As HJ Medal Favorites After Winning Their Respective National Championships Tamberi cleared 2.36m while Betia set a new world lead at 1.98m.
• Sandra Perkovic Throws 70.59 Discus National Winter Throwing Meet In Croatia World junior bronze medalist Sara Kolak broke her own national javelin record with 62.75m.
• 43 World And American Records Go Down At USATF Masters Indoor Championships

Distance: David Rudisha Opens His Season

• David Rudisha Wins Season Opener In 1:44.78 20-year-old Aussie Luke Matthews had a massive PR to finish 2nd in 1:45.16. Two OQs in the women’s steeple plus a Ryan Gregson win in the 1,500. *Results *Race Videos
  *IAAF Melbourne Recap After winning NZ champs on Friday, Tom Walsh flew to Australia on Saturday to win the SP here in 20.87m.
• Lucas Rotich Wins Lake Biwa Marathon With 2:09:11 In Warm Conditions In the final men’s Olympic selection race, three Japanese men went sub-2:10, led by Hisanori Kitajima (2nd – 2:09:16). Yuki Kawauchi finished back in 7th (2:11:53).
  *IAAF Recap Kitajima: “I like warmer weather so today’s weather did not bother me. Please note that I am sending this message to the selector.”
• Donnie Cowart And Grace Morgan Win Pan AM XC Championships Max King was 3rd. *Full Results

Big Doping News

• Swedish Paper Says Jos Hermens’ Group May Have Made Up Stuff About Ukrainian Doctor Being Found In Ethiopia – In Reality, Paper Says Hermens Was Employing A Doctor Who Thinks EPO Should Be Legal 
• Fascinating Read: What Is Meldonium/Mildronate – The Drug Aregawi Was Busted For? The Latvian-manufactured heart drug that was only banned starting January 1 has already resulted in two huge positives. A LetsRun.com reader explains what the drug – which isn’t approved in the US – is and does.
• 3 More Ethiopians Bite The Dust And Are Suspended – 1 Appears To Be 2:09 Marathoner Sintayehu Mergia In December, he went from 2:12 to 2:09 in the marathon at age 30.

Worlds News

• IAAF’s World Indoor Stats Book / Media Guide Is Now Out Read it for free.
• Ukrainian Team Named For World Indoors 2012 silver medalist Nataliya Lupu could be a factor in the 800.
• Forget About The Olympics – It’s Only 500 Days Until The 2017 Worlds In London

Ultra Running News

• Worth A Watch: Trailer For New Film On 89-Year-Old Ultra Runner Bob Hayes “I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to do it, but I just keep going because if I stop, that’ll be the end and they’ll haul me off through the pearly gates.”
• UK Ultra Runner Robbie Britton Writes About Running And Winning The 230K Beyond The Ultimate Ice Ultra In Arctic Sweden “If you sweat it freezes to you. A fine balance has to be found by creating enough heat to stay warm but not too warm. Basically it is a Arctic strip tease…”
  *LRC Winter Running Archives
• Satirical Racing Video Goes Viral, Nearly Costs Arizona 50-Miler Its Permit Jesse Weber‘s video of him racing in jean shorts and drinking beer got attention from Maxim, Fox Sports and Yahoo, but ended up offending the Navajo community whose land he ran through.