March 15, 2016 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For March 15, 2016

Quote Of The Day

“You say we should elect new leadership for the athletics federation – OK, we’ve done that. You should not elect anyone to be the leader who has done this or that – OK, we did that. There are no criteria. What should Russian athletics do? Dance on the table? Sing a song?”

– Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko asking what more Russia needs to do in order to be eligible for the 2016 Rio Olympics. After the latest report by the IAAF task force, Seb Coe says there is still “significant work to be done.”

World Indoors are Almost Here (Pole Vault is Thursday, Everything Else Starts Friday)

LRC M 800 Preview: Can the USA’s Unsponsored Boris Berian Get Gold in His First World Championship Appearance?Berian’s in great shape and two-time defending champ Mo Aman of Ethiopia is not. In a wide-open race, does Berian have the strength to run two good 800s in two days?

LRCAfter Stellar 2015, Ben True Turns His Sights To Bigger Things In 2016

After a fantastic 2015, Ben True is very bullish on 2016 even if he is a little banged up right now. Update: True has withdrawn from this weekend's United Airlines NYC Half but you can still learn about how his off-season is going.

2016 World Indoors Start Thursday Schedule TV/Streaming Info

LRCIAAF Announces Entries For 2016 World Indoor Championships

Good news track fans. Vashti Cunningham is competing.

IAAF Event-By-Event World Indoor Previews
SPIKES: USA Champs Was A Great Dress Rehearsal For World Indoors “It was a dress rehearsal that had us salivating at the thought of the long weekend in store.”
Ireland 800 Runner Mark English Will Miss Worlds With A Twisted Ankle
Roster Of 58 For US Squad

NCAA Photo Galleries (1,659 Photos!) Day 1 GalleryDay 2 Gallery

USA Indoor Photo Gallery

2016 NCAAs Results LRC Video Interviews

LRC NCAA 3,000s: Molly Seidel And Edward Cheserek Remain Utterly Dominant The 2015 NCAA XC champions have added the indoor 5k and 3k crowns to their CVs with ease.

LRC NCAA 800 Finals: Favorites Deliver As Clayton Murphy Has To Fight For It; Raevyn Rogers Was Totally Unbeatable The people that we thought would win at the start of the day did, but in contrasting fashion.

LRC Mile Finals: Henry Wynne Wins By Controlling It From the Front; Kaela Edwards’ Patience Pays Off Virginia’s Henry Wynne and Oklahoma State’s Kaela Edwards got their first NCAA titles.

Live From Birmingham: New On 1 Page:NCAA Post-Race Video Interviews Meet TCU’s Ronnie Baker – the fastest man in the world.
Live Discussion Thread
Ducks Sweep Team Titles
What A Race! Men Turn In A Historic 60-Meter NCAA Final

2016 USAs Day 1 *LRCVideo Interviews

LRCM3k: Ryan Hill Stamps Himself As A Medal Contender & Paul Chelimo Kicks His Way Onto Team USA In A Classic Race Bowerman Track Club tried to rabbit the race to set it up for Hill and Evan Jager but ultimately only Hill was able to take advantage as he claimed his second straight U.S. title in a meet-record 7:38.60. Chelimo was the surprise runner-up while Galen Rupp was eighth 27 days after winning the Olympic Marathon Trials.

LRC W3K:Shannon Rowbury Puts Away Field With Ease Over The Final 400 and Turns Focus To Medaling At Worlds Shannon Rowbury dispatched the field with ease the final 400 and now turns her attention to a medal at Worlds. Abbey D’Agostino will join her on Team USA after a strong second-place showing.
LRC800 Prelims: Favorites Advance, Though Not Without DramaLaura Roesler and Ajee Wilson both faced some trouble in their prelims but ultimately advanced to Saturday’s final unscathed. Boris Berian and Erik Sowinski had an easier time of it on the men’s side.

Screenshot 2016-03-12 at 15.26.58 LRCUSA Post-Race Video Interviews*Race Videos

USATF On The Boards: Official 2016 USATF Indoor Track And Field Champs Live Discussion Thread
HILL TAKES THE 3K
congrats to Bernard Lagat on a new WR
Paul Chelimo (Surprise 2nd in 3k)

The Latest Doping Headlines

Well Said: Andy Murray On Maria Sharapova: “Taking a drug you don’t necessarily need because it’s legal is wrong.” Murray went as far as to call out his own sponsor for extending Sharapova’s contract and to complain that he hasn’t been drug tested enough this year.
Seb Coe Reveals That Adidas Has Given The IAAF “Until The End Of The Year” To Sort Out Doping Crisis What does that even mean?
Ethiopia And Morocco Set To Be Investigated By IAAF Over Doping Problems The high levels of doping in the two countries was cause for concern at the first day of the IAAF council meeting yesterday.
Top Brazilian Sprinter Ana Claudia Lemos Will Miss Rio After Failed Drug Test
World Boxing Champion Carl Frampton Thinks Maria Sharapova Should Be Banned For Life
Russian World Junior Biathlete Champ Becomes Latest To Test Positive For Meldonium

The Week That Was

WTW Meet Germany’s Teen Phenom, How Not To Run A Marathon, The End Of The Diamond League In New York, And Praise For Doper Maria Sharapova We introduce you a German teen sensation and try to figure out if she’s most like Cain,Efraimson, Hasay and Ostrander, prove to you that it’s a real bad idea to just go for it in a race, talk about the end of NY Diamond League, and do something we almost never do – praise a doper.

World Indoors Are Next Week

UK Team For World Half Champs Named – Mo Farah Obviously Leads The Way

Double Standard Or Just Business As Usual?

LRCUnbelievable: The 2016 NYRR Millrose Games Wasn't A USATF-Sanctioned Meet

Just over a month ago, USATF told us that Rachel McFarlane couldn't run in the Olympic Marathon Trials as her qualifier didn't come in a USATF-sanctioned event, even if we paid the sanctioning fee ourselves. A month later, someone failed to secure a sanction for the crown jewel of the US Indoor season - the NYRR Millrose Games - but all of the marks will count.

Distance Stuff

Jerry Schumacher Reveals He Had A Slight Hesitation When Shalane Flanagan Wanted To Join His Training Group As At The Time It Was All Male Schumacher: “In the first couple months Shalane contacted us. I was like, ummmm. … But it worked out well.”
Evan Jager Thinks Tactics Will Be Crucial To Give Him A Chance To Medal Against The Kenyans In The Steeple At Rio 2016 Jager will be work on those tactics at USAs this weekend.
The Daily Relay: “Whose Career Would You Rather Have, Meb Or Rupp? Spoiler Alert: They go with Meb.
Mo Farah Officially Announced In UK Squad For World Half Marathon Champs On March 26th Farah will face a stacked field which will include Geoffrey Kamworor and Zersenay Tadese. *Video Interview With Farah
Genzebe Dibaba Will Only Run The 3,000 At World Indoors

More Distance Results From The Weekend

Wilfred Kimitei (60:38) And Valentine Kipketer (69:05) Get Victories At First Lady’s Half Marathon In Kenya Both races were close as they won by two and four seconds respectively.
Kenya’s Cyprian Kotut (61:04) And Ethiopia’s Dibabe Kuma (69:19) Win Paris Half Marathon
Ryunosuke Hayashi Wins Japan National University Men’s Half Marathon Title He ran 63:07 to beat two competitors by only 1 second. The top 7 were separated by only 7 seconds.
98-Year-Old Sets World Indoor 1500 Record With 16:32Orville Rogers now has every indoor record from 800 up in the 95-99 age-group. *Race Video

Financial/Legal News

Oregon Lawmakers Approve Hotel Tax Increase That Could Help Subsidize 2021 Eugene World Champs The tax increase passed with two narrow, last-minute votes could mean a $25 million state subsidy for Eugene 2021.
Nick Symmonds Lawsuit Against USATF/USOC Could Have Implications In Canada Apparently it isn’t just the US where national federations try to use Rule 50 to create a monopoly on advertising at championships.

Is Russia Doing Anything To Change? Did Nike Bribe Athletics Kenya Officials?

German Broadcaster ARD Still Going Strong, Will Air New Documentary Tonight Which “Casts Doubt Over Russia’s Willingness To Clean Up Drug Problem” The video reportedly shows a banned coach still working with athletes and a Russian official selling drugs.
NY Times Report On Kenyan Officials Taking $500,000 In Bribes From Nike Nike paid AK a “commitment bonus” as part of their sponsorship deal, but insiders allege Nike meant it as a bribe to the three officials who ended up pocketing it.
*MB: NY Times: Kenyan officials being investigated for taking $500,000 in Nike money
adidas Denies Ending IAAF Sponsorship Deal Over Doping Scandal They say they haven’t terminated their contract and will “watch very closely” what the IAAF does about doping.
Tokyo 2020 Chief Confident Organisers Will Overcome “Hurdles” Amid Corruption ProbeToshiro Muto: “Tokyo 2020 considers that the allegation is beyond our understanding.”

Nick Willis Opens Up On Porn

Nick Willis After Winning 2013 Fifth Avenue Mile Nick Willis Talks About Porn Addiction & Being Porn Free For 2.5 Years and How It’s Helped His Marriage Nick’s post on Facebook is getting a lot of press.
*Editorial: “It takes guts to do what he has done – not just in being public about it, but in facing his own fragility.”
*Discuss

In The USA

Five Masters World Sprint Records Go Down At Day 2 Of USATF Masters Indoor ChampsOrville Rogers became the first M90 athlete in history to run the 1,500m, finishing in 16:32.19.
Indiana Tech Men And Wayland Baptist Women Win NAIA National Titles

$200,106 LRC Running Warehouse Trials Prediction Contest Recap

LRCGirl Power! A 13-Year-Old Wins LRC Running Warehouse Marathon Trials Prediction Contest There’s a new generation in the running ranks. 13-year-old Kate Kowalik won our contest and her 11-year-old sister finished in the top 10. Take that, LRC Nation.

Distance News Of Note

Upcoming Action

March 26th:World Record Holder Zersenay Tadese Joins Field For World Half Marathon Championships With Mo Farah and Geoffrey Kamworor previously announced, this is shaping up to be an amazing race.
April 10th:2:05 Man Levy Omari Matebo Vs. Robert Chemosin (59:19 Half) Will Highlight Vienna City Marathon
May 7th:Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Will Face World 200 Silver Medalist Elaine Thompson At Kingston World Challenge Meet

The Week That Was

WTWWTW: Nationals Galore, D2 > D1?, NCAA > USATF?, Super-Fast Collegiate Sprinting And Super-High Women's Vaulting, And Meet The Unknown 58:44 Half Marathoner

What a week! Indoor nationals were held at every level - HS, college and pro. We get you caught up on everything as it was impossible to follow it all as it took place. Who overachieved, underachieved and dropped out? Plus learn about Drew Hunter's latest exploits.

Doping News

Seb Coe Emphasizes That There Is “No Preordained Outcome” On The Russian Olympic Ban And A Final Decision Will Be Likely Be Made In May Or June It was also announced that the IOC will re-test stored samples from the London 2012 Olympics to try and catch cheats before they compete at Rio 2016.
Confederation Of African Athletics Unhappy WIth IAAF Probe Into Anti-Doping Practices In Ethiopia, Kenya And Morocco
Kenyan Athletes’ Official Noah Ngeny Quits Post, Saying Athletics Kenya Isn’t Doing Enough To Fight Drug Issues
Russia Questions If It Needs To “Dance On The Table” Or “Sing A Song” In Order To Compete At Rio Seb Coe says there is still “significant work to be done.”
Tennis Star Rafael Nadal Threatens Lawsuit Over Allegations By Ex-French Sports Minister
Russia Requests “Scientific Research” On Meldonium From WADA
IAAF Identifies Ethiopia, Morocco, Kenya, Ukraine And Belarus As Urgent Cases Of Countries With Poor/Non-Existent Drug Testing
German Sprinter Rouven Christ Suspended After Failing Drug Test As a plus, he was also suspended from his job coaching juniors.

USA 15K Champs Were Saturday *Results

Stanley Kebenei And Tara Welling Win US 15K Championships At Gate River Run Welling just held off Kebenei by 2 seconds to win the $5,000 man vs. woman equalizer bonus (the women got a 6-minute head start). On the men’s side, Kebenei won a close race with Shadrack Kipchirchir and Christo Landry.

Non-USA/NCAA Weekend Action

Kenya’s Solomon Kirwa Yego Runs World-Leading 58:44 To Win Romea-Ostia Half Marathon The first sub-60:00 of the year was also a sub-59:00 but this is point to point and wind-aided. Ethiopia’s Workenesh Degefa won the women’s race in 67:08. *Results
Kenya’s Valerie Aiyabei Sets A Spanish All-Comers Record With 2:25:26 At The Barcelona Marathon 2:04:50 marathoner Dino Sefir won the men’s race in 2:09:31.
Kenya Cleans Up At African XC Champs, Taking All Team Titles And 10 Of 12 Individual MedalsJames Rungaru won in a sprint finish with Uganda’s Philip Kipyeko while Alice Aprot dominated the women’s race.
Portugal Locals Nelson Cruz And Carla Salome Rocha Win Almond Blossom XC After Travel Issues Keep Ugandan And Kenyan Runners From Making The Race

NCAAs Day 1

LRC The Legend Of King Cheserek Grows Even Bigger – Edward Cheserek Wins Two More NCAA Titles Thanks To 3:52 DMR Anchor Less Than 35 Minutes After 5,000 Win Less than 35 minutes after winning the 5,000, Edward Cheserek used a 3:52 anchor split to dispatch the fastest American collegiate miler in history and give Oregon the DMR title.

LRC The Rest Of The Meet: Molly Seidel Continues To Roll, Chaos In The Men’s 800 And Katrina Coogan Kicks Georgetown To Women’s DMR Title There was a TON of action on day 1 at the NCAA meet. Additionally, the women’s pentathlon record was broken, the NCAA women’s HJ record fell to a woman who didn’t even score and the men’s 60m meet record fell.

USAs Are This Weekend, But World Indoors Comes To Portland Next Weekend

Greg Rutherford Pulls Out Of World Indoors With Chest Infection
British Athletics Defends Decision To Not Send IAAF Invited Athletes To Portland The UKA motto is if you can’t win, don’t bother trying.
IAAF Looks Back At USA’s First Gold Medal At A World Indoor Championships In 1985Diane Dixon won the 400 as a 20-year-old and became known as the “Indoor Queen.”
Defending HJ Bronze Medalist Ruth Beitia Leads Spain’s Team For World Indoors
Multis And Relay Fields Announced For World Indoors

Previous US Indoors News

Marquise Goodwin Talks To USATF About His Olympic LJ Dreams While A Member Of The Buffalo Bills
Plenty Of Seats Remain For USA Indoors Fewer remain for Worlds.
The Daily Relay Reminds Us That This Isn’t The First Time The US Hosted World Indoors (scroll down) In 1987, it was in Indy and it featured a dominant win by Ben Johnsonin the 60m and a horrendous hurdle collision.
Ken Goe Praises Oregon Legislators For Raising State Lodging Tax From 1% To 1.8% To Pay For World Outdoors
Ken Goe Takes A Look At The Comeback Of Emily Infeld, Who Is Ready For 3k At USAs “The 3,000 is a little short for me, but I always want to win.”
Eric Jenkins Says He Made Tactical Mistakes Which Cost Him In Millrose 3k

There Will Be A New Meet In Jamaica

Glen Mills’s Dream Comes True – A New Meet – Racers Grand Prix – Will Be Held June 6th In Jamaica And Usain Bolt Promises To Put On A Show Bolt and his Racers teammates, which include Yohan Blake, Warren Weir and Zharnel Hughes have all confirmed for the meet. *Reuters Article

Carl Lewis Helps You Get Over Hump Day

MB: Two AMAZING articles on Carl Lewis – Carl Lewis thinks Coe should (temporarily) step down and says current state of lj is “pathetic”
Lewis Calls Long Jump “The Worst Event In The World” And Says Greg Rutherford’s Best Performances Are “Pathetic”
Carl Lewis Wants Seb Coe To Temporarily Step Aside And Allow Doping Mess To Be Taken Care Of And Then Come Back “I think Seb Coe is smart enough, he’s a great guy who can do this,” Lewis said Tuesday. “But at the end of the day, when you’re talking about drugs and issues like this, you’re talking about credibility. If he was willing to step aside, and let someone independent come in and really clean this up, he’d be the perfect guy to come back in and run it.”

More Sprint/Jump News

Even More Drug News: Jos Hermens And Alysia Montano Speak

Interesting Read:Jos Hermens Defends His Reputation After Abeba Aregawi Positive: “I have never been involved or assisted any athlete at any time to dope.” Some interesting quotes from Hermens, who calls Aregawi’s husband a “f*cking lunatic” and explains why a lot of Africans don’t care if they get banned for 4 years for doping as long as they win a lot of money first.
Alysia Montano Says Tyson Gay And Justin Gatlin Should Be Banned From Competing At The Olympics“Excuses are like – well, you know what the saying is. … These people just want to play the naive card and we’re too old for that. We’re not in pre-school. Sorry. … I don’t care if that’s a bold statement, it’s true.”
Three-Time Dutch 60m National Champ And Record Holder Brian Mariano Provisionally Suspended After Failing Drug Test

Two More Bite The Dust?

LRCShannon Rowbury Shares Her Thoughts On 2012 Olympic 1,500 Final – “These Cheaters Rob People Like Me And My Competitors Of Medals” 4 of the 6 women who finished ahead of the American record holder at 1,500 at the 2012 Olympics have been linked to doping.

Turkey’s 2012 Olympic 1,500 Silver Medalist Gamze Bulut And World Junior Marathon Recorder Holder Tsegaye Mekonnen Reportedly Fail Drug Tests Bulut, who has raced sparingly since 2012, has apparently been caught by a radical biological passport profile. Ethiopia’s Mekonnen is famous for his 2:04:32 debut as a 19-year-old at the 2014 Dubai Marathon.
*MB:2012 London Olympic 1500 silver/gold medalist Gamze Bulut being investigated for ABP abnormalities

LetsJump.com

Good Read:Milesplit Profile On High Schooler Vashti Cunningham, Who At 18 Years Old Is The Favorite For US Indoors This Weekend And To Make The Olympics Cunningham is the daughter of NFL legend Randall Cunningham, who also coaches her. Vashti has cleared 1.95m this season and might go pro as early as this spring.
Video Documentary:“Leap Year: A Look At Collegiate Jumping” The 63-minute video follows the long and triple jumpers at the University of New Mexico through the 2014-2015 season.
IAAF First Impressions Q&A With US Pole Vaulter Demi Payne +1 for the the Sports Gene. Payne’s dad was a 5.86m pole vaulter (former collegiate record holder) and her mom a basketball player for Baylor.
Poland Names Its Team For World Indoors, Led By Defending HJ Champ Kamila Licwinkio Licwinko actually tied for the gold 2 years ago with Russia’s Mariya Kuchina. But she won’t have to compete against Kuchina this time thanks to the Russian ban.
Ashton Eaton Will Focus On The 60m And LJ At US Indoors This Weekend

Latest On The Abeba Aregawi Doping Story

Recommended Read:Swedish Coach Per Synnerman Says Swedish Officials Need To Take Responsibility For The Abeba Aregawi Situation(translated) Synnerman says those in charge fought for her citizenship despite warning signs like her “sham” marriage because they wanted medals. Now they want to wash their hands of it without taking any blame.
Authorities After Former Turkish Man Who Is Suspected As The Person Who Sold Abeba Aregawi Drugs In EthiopiaMetin Sazak is a former Turkish distance runner, now coach and allegedly drug dealer.

Non-Distance Action

Teenage Pole Vaulter Eliza McCartney Sets Oceanian Record With 4.80m At New Zealand Champs It is the best mark ever by a teenager and 11th on the all-time lists. In the shot put, Tom Walsh beat out rival Jacko Gill (21.11m to 20.23m).
Renaud Lavillenie Vaults World-Leading 6.03m At The Jablonec Indoor Gala In Czech Republic
Valerie Adams Wins Her 14th NZ National Shot Put Title World University Games champion Angie Petty took both the 1,500 and 800.
Richard Kilty Bounces Back From False Start At GB Champs To Run The Second-Fastest 60m Of The Year He won the Jablonec Indoor Gala in 6.50 seconds.

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

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.

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 ThompsonJosh Thompson of Oklahoma State has a unique and cool story.

News From The UK

UK Olympic 5K/10K Runner Julia Bleasdale Switches Allegiance To Germany Bleasdale had dual citizenship through her parents.
The Independent:“The Last Thing Athletics Needs Is A Lecture From Carl Lewis” UK Writer calls Lewis out for making hypocritical statements as someone with past doping positives.
*MB:Two AMAZING articles on Carl Lewis – Carl Lewis thinks Coe should (temporarily) step down and says current state of lj is “pathetic”
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson Quits London 2017 Over “Tokenistic” Role She is the fourth member of the organizing board to step down.
From Last Week:Seb Coe Accused Of Giving “Untrue” Evidence To Parliament Did Coe avoid telling the truth about the IAAF blocking a study that found 45% of track athletes may be on drugs?
*MB:Seb Coe accused of perjury in front of Parliament regarding IAAF doping scandal

Japanese Distance News

Bahrain’s Eunice Kirwa (2:22:40) Defends Nagoya Women’s Marathon Title As Tomoni Tanaka Finishes 2nd As The Top Japanese In A Sprint Battle For The Olympics Tanaka clocked 2:23:19 to just beat out Rei Ohara by 1 second in the last Japan Olympic selection race. *IAAF Recap
Yuki Kawauchi Breaks World Record For Half Marathon In A Suit By 18 Minutes He ran 66:42 to finish 3rd in the race.
*MB: New world record over 1/2 marathon run a suit for Yuki Kawauchi
JRN: Understanding The Japanese Women’s Olympic Team Selection Standings
JRN: Understanding The Japanese Men’s Olympic Team Selection Standings

2016 USAs ResultsLRCVideo 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. TitlesLaura 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.

Screenshot 2016-03-12 at 15.26.58 LRCUSA Post-Race Video Interviews*Race Videos LRCUSATF Indoor Flash Saturday Recap:

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 FavoringMB: 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.

[gravityform action=”polls” id=”343″ mode=”poll” cookie=”1 month” show_results_link=”false” display_results=”false” percentages=”false” counts=”false” ajax=”true”]

Random Stuff On The Boards

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.”

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 ChampionshipsMax 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…”
*LRCWinter Running Archives
Satirical Racing Video Goes Viral, Nearly Costs Arizona 50-Miler Its PermitJesse 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.