April 28, 2016 | LetsRun.com

Another American Legend Hangs Up The Spikes

LRCChris Solinsky Retires And We Rank The Five Best Moments Of His Career - Sub-27:00, A Dominant Foot Locker Title And The Epic 2011 USA 5,000

The 2nd-fastest non-African-born man at both 5,000 and 10,000 has called it a career at age 31.

Drake Relays Live Results Schedule *Meet Home

LRC A Fan’s Guide To The 2016 Drake Relays: Sit Back, Relax And Enjoy This One As Drake Is Absolutely LOADED Yet Again Some of the sprint fields are Olympic caliber, including the men’s 400 (Merritt, James, Santos), the men’s 110 hurdles (McLeod, Parchment, Merritt, Oliver) and women’s 100 hurdles (Harper-Nelson, Rollins, Harrison). The mid-d action is very intriguing. Jenny Simpson races for the first time in 2016 as she Mary Cain, Brenda Martinez and Morgan Uceny are all in the women’s 1,500. And the men’s 800 will features a clash between Boris Berian, Erik Sowinski and Clayton Murphy. Plus the field events feature a cool $1,500 payment for the best mark in each round in the “Throw For The Dough” and “Leap For Loot.”

Good Read: Erik Sowinski Says As An Iowa Resident, Winning A Drake Relays Title Would Be “One of the highlights of my career” Sowinski will have his work cut out for him as he’s up against Boris Berian and Clayton Murphy.
Shawn Barber And Sandi Morris Win Pole Vault In Downtown Des Moines
Cold And Rainy Conditions Forecasted For Drake Could See Some Elites Pull Out
Heather Kampf Repeats As Grand Blue Mile Women’s Champion; Chad Noelle Wins Men’s Race Kampf won in 4:37.52 in a close race with Canadian Nicole Sifuentes (4:37.95) while Noelle ran 4:12.11 to beat Frezer Legesse (4:12.13) and Riley Masters (4:12.34).
LaShawn Merritt And Kirani James Will Renew 400 Rivalry At Drake Relays

Upcoming Action: T. Dibaba Comeback And Pre Will Be Awesome

May 22nd: Tirunesh Dibaba Will Make Her Return To Racing At The Great Manchester Run 10K After time away to have a baby, Dibaba will run her first race since winning here 2 years ago. She’ll face two-time World marathon champ Edna Kiplagat and Euro XC champ Gemma Steel.
May 27: Stacked 800 Set For Pre Classic With World Indoor Champ Boris Berian Taking On Nijel Amos, Mo Aman And Amel Tuka Berian actually only has the 6th-fastest PR in the field as 1:42 Kenyan Ferguson Cheruiyot and Poland’s Adam Kszczot are also in the field.
Saturday: Ryan Bailey And Jenna Prandini Competing At Oregon State High Performance Meet
May 28: Olympic Champ Jessica Ennis-Hill, World Indoor Champ Brianne Theisen-Eaton And Katarina Johnson-Thompson Will All Clash At Gotzis Hypo Multi-Event Meet
Tomorrow: Preview Of Multistars IAAF Combined Events Challenge Meet In Florence European silver medalist Kevin Mayer and defending champ Sofia Yfantidou are the favorites.

UK (aka Jessica Ennis) News

Jessica Ennis Helps Unveil New GB Olympic Uniforms *2nd Article
*New GB Olympic Uniforms Get Backlash From Fans On Twitter Who Call Them “Horrendous”
Telegraph Projects 9 Track Medals For Team GB In Rio
Jessica Ennis Is Deeply Concerned With The Zika Issue In Rio She said it would be a “late call” as whether her 2-year-old son would come with her.
Ennis Says She’s In An “Amazing Place” Despite Some Injury Issues

Video Interview: Jessica Ennis-Hill Says She’s Feeling Less Pressure Ahead Of Rio

Road News

Recommended Read: After Finishing 11th In Boston (2nd American), Sarah Crouch Blogs About The Battle She Went Through Just To Make It To The Starting Line A procedure called “dry needling” got her healthy enough to run Boston and she promised that if she could get through the race healthy she “wouldn’t take one step for granted.”
Wesley Korir Wants Athletics Kenya To Choose Him For The Olympics Korir thinks the hot weather tactical race in Rio will favor him (he won the super-hot and slow Boston 2012). We think there is about a 0% chance AK chooses him unless he has some major political influence.
Interesting: NY Times: Aging Runners, Want To Know How Slow You’re Going To Get? A Yale economics professor has an online calculator that can predict the rate you will slow down as you age.
May 14: World Medalists Edna Kiplagat, Mary Wacera And Cynthia Limo Lead Women’s Field For The UAE Healthy Kidney 10K Laura Thweatt is the top American while the men are led by NYC Half runner-up Wilson Chebet and NZ’s Zane Robertson.

Post-London Headlines

Eliud Kipchoge Says He Would Prefer To Run The Olympics Over Making A World Record Attempt In Berlin
Good Read: Alyson Dixon Wanted “British Bragging Rights” At The London Marathon She had Olympic selection locked up, but still made sure to beat Sonia Samuels by 8 seconds, saying, “It would have been lovely if we had gone ‘let’s cross the line hand in hand.’ But no, you still want the bragging rights.”
Brothers Derek And Callum Hawkins Will Both Represent GB In Rio Callum was the top Brit so guaranteed selection, but Derek had to wait for the selection committee’s decision.
Jemima Sumgong’s Tumble Inspires SPIKES To Take A Look Back At Some Other Famous Running Falls Evan Jager at the Paris DL meet last year makes their list.
Eight Seconds: Runners World Does Split-By-Split Comparison Between Eliud Kipchoge’s 2:03:05 And Dennis Kimetto’s 2:02:57 Kipchoge was 21 seconds faster through the half, but lost a lot of time with a “slow” 14:54 split from 30 to 35K.
For Some Reason The Kenyan Media Want You To Remember Jemima Sumgong’s Failed Doping Test From 2012 The headline says “Sumgong proved critics wrong,” but all it does is serve as a reminder that Sumgong was initially banned before being cleared on appeal.
South Africa’s Irvette van Zyl’s 2:32:20 In London Earns Her Olympic Selection She she and her husband, 400 hurdler LJ van Zyl, will go to their second Olympics together.
Couple Gets Engaged At London Marathon Finish Line
*Sorry Brits, This Boston Engagement Where The Guy Spewed Vomit Afterwards Was More Interesting

Hosting News

Tokyo 2020 Unveils The New Official Olympic And Paralympic Games Logos
*New Tokyo 2020 Logo Draws Mixed Reaction; Fails To Excite
European Team Championships Move To Every Two Years
July 19: This Summer’s IAAF World U20 (Junior) Championships Could Be The Biggest Track Event Poland’s Ever Hosted Biggest in terms of number of athletes competing.

Non-London Road Results

World Champ Peres Jepchirchir Crushes CR At Yangzhou Jianzhen Half To Win In 67:21 Over A Deep Field On the men’s side, Mosinet Geremew defended his title in 60:43 after winning a five-man battle in the last 300m which saw the top 5 finish within 4 seconds of each other.
Japhet Kosgei (2:10:46) And Zsofia Erdelyi (2:35:37) Take Duesseldorf Marathon Titles Germany’s Hendrik Pfeiffer booked a ticket to Rio with a 2:13:11 debut.
Kenya’s Peter Kiplagat (2:11:54) And Ethiopia’s Askale Alemayehu (2:33:08) Win The Madrid Marathon
Poland’s Artur Kozlowski (2:11:54) And Ethiopia’s Kumesci Sichala (2:28:43) Win Warsaw Marathon
Turkey’s Ali Kaya (60:16) Defeats World Record Holders Leonard Komon And Zersenay Tadese To Win Vodafone Istanbul Half Marathon; Violah Chepchumba (68:17) Wins Women’s Race Tadese was 2nd and Komon 4th in the men’s race.

This Weekend’s Track Action *All NCAA Results

Distance:

Penn State’s Brannon Kidder Gets Big 1,500 Win At Stanford Twilight Kidder ran 3:40.11 to beat Joshua Thompson, Sean McGorty, David Elliott and Grant Fisher.
*Full Results Georgetown’s Joseph White ran 1:46.67 to beat Isaiah Harris with Cristian Soratos was 4th (1:49.66). Maggie Vessey (2:02.18) and Fresno State’s Annemarie Schwanz (4:14.89) won the 800/1,500.
Alysia Montano Opens Her Season With A 2:01.27 At Cal
Baylor Wins Eight Titles At Michael Johnson Invitational *Full Results Laura Roesler took the 800 in 2:00.72.
HS Star Drew Hunter Beaten At Princeton In Outdoor Opener By Former 4:01 HSer Garrett O’Toole And Sam Penzenstadler Hunter ran 3:42.42.

Kenyan Police Champs: Asbel Kiprop Puts On A Show In 1,500; Rival Elijah Manangoi Wins 800 Kiprop went from first to last and back to first. As he was celebrating his apparent win with a salute to the crowd, the showman was passed and had to lunge for victory. *Video
*Kiprop Wants Jail Terms For Dopers “I said two years ago in Doha that dopers should be jailed.”
1st Day: Kenyan Police Champs Have Started – Asbel Kiprop Rolls In 1,500 Semis, Hyvin Kiyeng Wins Steeple In 9:36
Non-Action: Jama Aden Says Genzebe Dibaba Has A Toe Injury – She’ll Be Out At Most Two Weeks

Sprints

Good News

LRCTsepo Mathibelle, Wejo's Athlete Of The Year In 2015, Gets Back-Page Profile In Wall Street Journal And Short Documentary Film On His Olympic Dream

He’s now sponsored by Samsung.

Oregon-Based Distance News

Mo Farah And Galen Rupp Will Race At Pre Classic; Which Events Is TBD Alberto Salazar says he’s torn because he doesn’t think Rupp should run a 10K so close to the OT, but he doesn’t know if he’d be competitive in the 5K. Sounding likely Rupp will run the marathon in Rio.
Interesting Read: Ken Goe And Others Ask If The Collegiate Season Is Too Long For Distance Runners Goe has quotes from multiple athletes and coaches and most agree that peaking three times a year is too much. That said, we agree with Alberto Salazar, who argued Edward Cheserek isn’t overworked as most of his races are very easy wins. And remind you that Andrew Wheating’s best season by far was when he was under the structure of the collegiate system.

LRC Goes To Kenya

LRCThe Brilliance Of Asbel Kiprop & Jairus Birech's Crazy Quadruple: Scenes From The Spring's Final Athletics Kenya Meet In Eldoret

LRC's latest dispatch from Kenya includes a recap from the "City of Champions," where Andy Arnold tells you who's looking good (Ezekiel Kemboi, Elijah Manangoi, Timothy Cheruiyot), why Kiprop can go sub-3:26 this year and why he's become a Birech fan. Plus did he spot Kenyan's newest teen sensation? Updated with altitude conversions.

Boston Marathon Photo Gallery

Week That Was

LRCWTW: Here's Why You Ran Slow In Boston, Allyson Felix Pulling A Michael Johnson Will Be Tough, Courtney Okolo Makes History And So Does Omar McLeod

Plus Alberto Salazar doesn't think Cheserek's triple was that hard, and a look at the Dibaba sisters doubling.

The Penn Relays *Schedule, Entries And Results

Penn On The Boards:
MB: Official 2016 Penn Relay Discussion Thread
*Georgetown Women Win DMR The NCAA indoor champs had no problems dispatching Oklahoma State that had Kaela Edwards.
*BOLD PREDICTION: Thomas Ratcliffe and his Concord Carlisle DMR team takes win over Drew Hunter and Loudon Valley

LRC A Fan’s Guide To The 2016 Penn Relays: Brannon Kidder Leads Penn State Against Georgetown & Oklahoma St.; HS Studs In The Boys’ 4 X 400 & Drew Hunter In The DMR Edward Cheserek and the Oregon men are staying home this year, but Penn is still full of big match-ups, including a potential rematch between NCAA mile champ Kaela Edwards and NCAA 800 champ Raevyn Rogers in the 4 x 800. The Lyles brothers will look to lead T.C. Williams (Va.) to the 4 x 400 but face HS studs Christopher Taylor (45.27) and Akeem Bloomfield (44.93), who will anchor for Calabar and Kingston College, respectively.

Drew Hunter Will Anchor His High School’s DMR And Try To Join His Mom As A Penn Wheel Winner Hunter: “A race like Penn, the goal is always to win. I’d like to make Penn as memorable a last race as possible. Will I go out in 1:55 and die? That might be what I have to do.”
Team USA Rosters For USA Vs. The World Announced
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce And Elaine Thompson Lead Jamaica’s Team
Could The Penn Relays Boys’ 4 X 100 Record Go Down For The Third Straight Year? Teams from Jamaica have broken it the last 2 years, with Calabar setting the mark at 39.63 last year.
USATF: “At Long Last, Relay Season Is Back” An interesting look at the history of the Penn Relays.
College Distance Preview
College Sprints Preview

US Jumping News

Good Read: Teleconference Highlights Catching Up With Christian Taylor Taylor is in a training group that includes 200m world champ Dafne Schippers and he admits to making sure he runs faster thanshe does out of pride.
Jenn Suhr Struggling With Achilles Injury; Has Pulled Out Of 4 Consecutive Meets

100 Days Until Rio

South Korea Reveals “Anti-Zika” Clothing For Rio Long sleeves, pants, hats and dyed with mosquito-repellent chemicals (maybe they’ll get cancer, but not Zika).
Ralph Lauren Unveils U.S. Uniforms For Rio Closing Ceremony
More Sensationalist Olympic Headlines: NY Times: “With Brazil In Turmoil, Rio Counts Down To Olympics” The opening paragraph makes it sound like Rio will be a disaster.
Rio Gets Olympic Flame 100 Days Before Games

Sprint Stuff: Two Greats Are Retiring

Sanya Richards-Ross Announces She Will Retire After Rio If Richards-Ross wins in Rio, she’ll become only the second woman ever to win back-to-back Olympic 400 golds.
The Dominican Republic’s Two-Time Olympic 400H Champ Felix Sanchez Retires Between 2001 and 2004, Sanchez won a ridiculous 43 400H races in a row, including an Olympic gold and two World titles. Then in 2012 as a 35-year-old only ranked 7th in the world, he got a surprise victory at the London Games.
May 20: Usain Bolt Will Line Up Against Ashton Eaton Over 100m At Ostrava Golden Spike Meet Eaton: “I hope people realise Usain Bolt will destroy me in the race.”
Jam Company Smuckers Sponsors Allyson Felix Maybe if USATF settles Nick Symmonds‘ lawsuit Felix can even wear the Smuckers logo on her uniform.

NCAA Updates

NCAA Indoor Mile Champ Henry Wynne And Courtney Okolo NCAA Athletes Of The Week Wynn ran 3:38.05 to win the Virginia Challenge 1,500 over Justyn Knight while Okolo broke her own NCAA 400 record with 49.71.
Former Oregon Heptathlete Ashlee Moore Transfers To Arkansas It was previously reported that Moore was going home to AZ to train for the OT.
Courtney Okolo’s 49.71 And Deep Women’s Pole Vault Action Highlight Historic NCAA Weekend Record Book Updates

More From The Weekend – Distance

Yuki Kawauchi Gets His First European Victory At The Zurich Marathon Kawauchi overcame tough, snowy conditions to win in 2:12:04. Kawauchi: “Now I’ve won marathons in Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe. Next up, the U.S.A.” Switzerland’s Daniela Aescherbacher won the women’s race in 2:47 after four women DNFed in front of her.
*MB: How awesome is Yuki Kawauchi…?
Unknown Abadi Hadise Gets Surprise 10,000 Win At Ethiopian Champs As Former World Champ Ibrahim Jelian And World XC Champ Imane Merga Falter Hadise won in 28:43 while Jelian and Merga both DNFed. 2012 world indoor silver medalist Aman Wote won the 1,500.
In 1st Race Since Olympic Trials, Elkanah Kibet Wins $1,200 At TD Bank Reedy River Run 10-K In Greenville
Two-Time World Bronze Medalist Paul Tanui Runs World-Leading 27:22 10,000 At Hyogo Relay Carnival In Japan
Ed Whitlock Breaks Men’s 85-Year-Old Half Marathon Record With 1:50:47 (8:27 Pace) Whitlock now holds more than 80 age group world records at distances from 1,500 to the marathon.
*MB: Ed Whitlock half marathon world record!!

Doping Stuff

London Marathon Hopes That By Going After Liliya Shobukhova In Court, They’re Sending A Strong Message To Drug Cheats Whatever is recovered from the $1.5 million they paid her, they plan to redistribute to the runners who finished behind her.
Austrian Anti-Doping Agency Blasts WADA For Sending Out “Bad Signal” Ahead Of Rio 2016 By Relaxing Meldonium Sanctions
Former War Crimes Investigator Peter Nicholson Appointed By WADA To Help Overhaul Russian Anti-Doping Program

Post-Weekend Sprint / NCAA News

Asafa Powell Blew Away The Field At The Michael Johnson Invitational To Win In 20.51 Seconds Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare won the women’s 200m in 22.87.
Event-By-Event Best Collegiate Marks From The Weekend There was a fast mid-d action with Brandon McBride (1:46.14), Morgan Schuetz (2:02.29), Henry Wynne (3:38.05) and Marta Freitas (4:11.52) posting the fastest 800/1,500 times.
IAAF Article On Omar McLeod’s And Courtney Okolo’s Big Weekend McLeod is the first man to go sub-13 (110H) and sub-10 (100m), but his PR before this was only 11.02.
Texas A&M And Florida Women Men Stay 1-2 In Updated NCAA Rankings There was a lot of shuffling for spots 3-10, though, with LSU moving from 5th to 3rd and Oregon going from 3rd to 7th.
Big Changes In Women’s NCAA Rankings See Arkansas Go To #1, Kentucky Jump From #8 To #2 Oregon dropped from 1st to 3rd and Southern Cal from 3rd to 7th.

Doping News

Catching Up With Seb Coe, Who Says The Anti-Doping System Now Is “On A Different Planet” Compared To When He Was An Athlete Coe touches on a lot of things including how the scandal has affected his family, June 17th being the “come to Jesus moment” for Russia, and how he’s finally communicated with Russian whistleblowers Vitaliy and Yuliya Stepanov.
Beijing Anti-Doping Lab Was Suspended By WADA For Reporting Two False Negative Tests Last Year
Russian Sports Minister Says Athletes Have A “Moral Right” To Be In Rio We’re not sure if anyone in Russian sports should be pulling the ethics card right now.

Friday’s News Of Note

The DL Starts Soon

Week That Was

LRC LaShawn Merritt And Kirani James On Track To Collide In Rio, Is Yohan Blake Back? Donovan Brazier Stumbles, A Marathon Legend Retires And Women’s Sport May Be Changing For The Worse Get up to speed as we span the track and field globe.

Non-London Road News

May 29: Good Read: Former 1,500 Runner Elkana Yego Could Surprise The Favorites At The Ottawa Marathon The 22-year-old caught the attention of former Boston champ Wesley Korir when he won a local 3K running barefoot.
We Hope Your PR Didn’t Come From Manchester: Times From The Last Three Years Of The Greater Manchester Marathon Have Been Invalidated As The Course Was 380m Short For someone running 3-hour pace, that’d be 1 minute and 37 seconds added to their time.

The London Marathon Is Sunday

RRW Q&A: Sara Hall Is Lone American In London Marathon Elite Field Hall says the Trials was the first race she ever dropped out of. In London, she has no time expectations, but wants to run “with reckless abandon, without anything really on the line.”
Kenenisa Bekele Admits He’s Not 100% Fit For London But rather than talk retirement, he says he still wants to eventually break the WR.
Good Read: Despite Money And Fame, Eliud Kipchoge Chooses To Live A Simple Spartan Lifestyle In A Training Camp Where He Has To Do His Share Of The Chores At his camp Kipchoge shares a tiny room, has to chop vegetables, trim the garden and even clean the toilets.
Dennis Kimetto Says His Training Has Gone Well And He Has “No Injuries” Comparing to when he ran his 2:02:57 WR he claims his fitness “is the same.”
Eritrea’s Ghirmay Ghebreslassie: From Pacemaker To World Champ The first time Ghebreslassie met the elites in London was when he paced the Chicago 2014. Now he’s back as their equal.
London Organizers Hope That Mo Farah Will Come Back In 2018 Wilson Kipsang: “He’s a great athlete but even he needs time to focus on the marathon.”
GB’s Charlotte Purdue Making Her Marathon Debut In London Hoping To Gain Olympic Selection
Video Interview: Wilson Kipsang Thinks He Can Win And Break His 2:04:29 Course Record
Former 800/1,500 Olympic Champ Kelly Holmes Has Struggled With Injury Issues During Marathon Training However, she says no matter what she’ll finish on Sunday and “be sprinting like Usain Bolt” at the finish.
Video: Astronaut Prepares To Run London Marathon In Space

LetsSprint.com

HS Freshman Tyrese Cooper Wins Triple Crown (100, 200, 400) At Florida Regional Meet And Runs 45.94 He ran 10.49 in the 100, 21.28 in the 200 and also anchored the 4 x 400.
Stadium Power Outage Turns Indian Grand Prix Into “A Farce” As Races Had To Be Hand-Timed Rather Than Electronically Multiple long standing Indian national records were “broken,” however, none of the times can count for records or Rio qualifying.
*Two Indian Athletes Could Miss Rio Due To Power Failure In truth, likely neither of these athletes are capable of qualifying for Rio. Miya Kumar Mallick and Srabani Nanda ran 10.09 and 11.23 in the hand-timed 100, but only have PRs of 10.51 and 11.58. The standards for Rio are 10.16 and 11.32.
Allyson Felix Pulls Out Of Doha DL With A “Minor” Ankle Injury
US’s Multi-Time World Relay Medalist David Verburg Gives A Leg-By-Leg Break Down For Running The 4 X 400 There is way more strategy and differences between each leg than you would think.

Doping Updates

LetsRun Nation, Your Help Is Needed

LRC Olympic High Jumper Jamie Nieto Paralyzed After Attempting Back Flip At Practice – Please Consider Donating Now A terrible tragedy for Nieto, who always finished his competitions by waving to the crowd and performing a back flip or a back handspring.

Payton Jordan Is Sunday *Full Entries

Traditional Super-Deep Fields Set For Payton Jordan Edward Cheserek, Evan Jager, Lopez Lomong, Chris Derrick, Jordan Hasay and Sally Kipyego among those competing.

Olympic News

NBC Sports Writer Ranks The Top 100 Olympic Athletes Of All Time Jesse Owens is his #1 with Usain Bolt #4 behind Michael Phelps and a Soviet gymnast.
Opinion Divided Over New Tokyo 2020 Olympic Logo Some have complained that the monochromatic design needed more color.

Upcoming: adidas GP Moves To Boston

June 17-18: adidas Grand Prix Moves To Boston; Now The “adidas Boost Boston Games” Day 1 will be on the track and include the traditional Dream Mile and Dream 100 while day 2 will be a “street meet.” Nick Willis, Meseret Defar, Yohan Blake and Jenn Suhr are the elites announced so far.
May 22: Almaz Ayana Will Face Five Of The Top 6 From Worlds In Rabat 5,000 Ayana’s challengers include silver medalist Senbere Teferi and Mercy Cherono. Jairus Birech will face Paul Kipsiele Koech, Conseslus Kipruto and Mahiedine Mekhissi in the steeple while the women’s 800 has World indoor champ Francine Niyonsaba and Eunice Sum.
May 22: World Indoor Champ Sifan Hassan Gunning For 2,000m World Record At The FBK Games In Hengelo Dafne Schippers will highlight the sprints in the 200.
May 28: Allyson Felix Vs. Sanya Richards-Ross Will Highlight Pre Classic 400 World leader Shaunae Miller and 2015 DL winner Francena McCorory are also in the field.
May 6: World Champs Piotr Malachowski, Christina Schwanitz And Katharina Molitor Lead Throws Fields For Doha DL

Wow London Marathon Is Done *Results

LRC The Greatest Ever? Eliud Kipchoge (2:03:05) Crushes Course Record, Runs #3 Time Ever At 2016 London Marathon NYC champ Stanley Biwott ran 2:03:51 but had to settle for second behind Kipchoge, who produced one of the greatest marathon performances in history. Kenenisa Bekele, racing his first marathon in 15 months, was third in 2:06:36.
LRC: Was This The Greatest Marathon Performance Ever?
LRC: Kenenisa Bekele Is Back … But Will He Go To Rio?

LRC What Drama: Jemima Sumgong Gets Taken Out From Behind, Gets Up And Wins London 2016 Sumgong for her first major win despite a big fall.

Kenenisa Bekele Complained That The Pacemakers Beat Him To His Own Drink Bottles Five Times “I am not happy about it. It was a fast, hard race and you need energy!”
Craig Mottram’s Dream Of Going To His 5th Olympics Is Over As He Only Ran 2:28 In London Mottram was through halfway in 1:07, but fell apart after that. *Discuss
Eliud Kipchoge On His Face Palm: “I didn’t realise the time but my reaction was not disappointment. I have no regrets.”
Athletics Weekly British Trials Recap: Callum Hawkins, Tsegai Tewelde, Alyson Dixon, Sonia Samuels Win Battle For Olympic Selection Hawkins’ brother Derek was 3rd, but will have to hope for selection by committee.
Sumgong Overcame A Near-Collision With An Overzealous Spectator Sumgong “I was thinking maybe he’s enjoying running with me. No I was not scared. I was not worried.”
Daily Mail Reporting That Locals Stole Crates Of Water Bottles (Includes Video) The video is reminiscent of Black Friday in the US, except with water bottles.
*MB: London Marathon Thieves
Game Of Thrones Actress Natalie Dormer And Top Gear Host Chris Evans Among The Celebrities Who Ran London Dormer was the top reported celebrity finisher in 3:51.
*Video Interview With Dormer
UK Writer Defends The British Bias Of The BBC’s Broadcast Some favoritism is to be expected; whether the BBC takes it too far is a matter of opinion.
Sad News: 31-Year-Old War Veteran Dies After Collapsing Near The Finish Line Capt. David Seath died while running to raise money for a UK military charity.
Ireland Olympic Marathon Selections Still Up In The Air After London The top Irishman was Sean Hehir, but his 2:17:20 won’t be enough to get him on the Olympic team.
31 Guinness World Records Were Set In London All are very random, but the fastest was the 2:39:09 ran by a guy dressed as Elsa from the movie Frozen.
Runner From Israel Was The Last To Start After Showing Up At The Finish Line By Mistake

More London

Video: Jemima Sumgong Wins London Despite Fall The video of the fall is shown after the finish.
Video: Kipchoge Wins London + Post-Race Interview
*Kelly Holmes runs 3:11 listening to Purple Rain; Brit astronaut runs it in 3:25 in outer space

Genzebe Dibaba Scratches From Her 10,000 Debut

Jama Aden Says Genzebe Dibaba Has A Toe Injury – She’ll Be Out At Most Two Weeks
Update: Genzebe Dibaba Scratches Due To Injury
Previous: Genzebe Dibaba Contemplating 5K/10K Double In Rio Dibaba says she is set on doing the 5K and the schedule for a 5K/10K double is better than the 5K/1,500 (1,500 final and 5K heat on same day).

More London

Former Olympic Bronze Medalist Ian Stewart Thinks Mo Farah Should Stay Away From The Marathon He also talked about GB’s qualification system and wishes they would be like the US Trials where it’s “first three past the post.”
NYC Runner-Up Aselefech Mergia Encouraged By Atsede Baysa’s Win In Boston As They Are Training Partners
36-Year-Old GB Marathoner Lee Merrien Hoping To Gain Olympic Selection In London
GB’s Jonny Hay Using “Old School” Training To Prepare For His Marathon Debut Hay will be among those fighting for a spot on the UK team for Rio.
42-Year-Old Legally Blind Runner Hoping London Leads To A Spot On US Paralympic Team Donald Balcom runs 90 miles a week on the treadmill while working as a mechanical engineer for the Navy. He’s coached by GB Olympian Andrew Lemoncello.
Sensationalist UK Headlines? London Marathon Could Face Snow For First Time In 35-Year History Of The Race The article talks about the “icy” gusts and snow, but weather.com is predicting a high of 52, low of 40 and only 10% chance of precipitation.
*MB: Forget fast times in London, bad weather, it may even snow!
BBC And London Marathon Extend Broadcast Deal Through 2021

Latest Doping News

IAAF Will Make Final Decision On Russia’s Olympic Fate On June 17th The IAAF will hear reports from its task force and make a decision.
Kenyan Athletes Can Breathe Easy: Kenyan President Officially Signs Anti-Doping Bill Into Law President Uhuru Kenyatta: “Let me be clear that this law is the continuation, not the end, of our efforts to stand against cheating and corruption …”
Six More Russian Track Athletes Banned For Doping They include mid-d runner Olesya Syreva, who gets an 8-year ban for her 2nd doping offense.
Russian Olympic Speed Skate Champ Among Those To Have Ban Lifted After Testing Positive For Meldonium
WADA Suspends Accreditation Of Beijing Laboratory For 4 Months For Failing To Meet Standards

New Forensic Evidence Claims Oscar Pistorius Attacked Reeva Steenkamp With An Air Rifle And Cricket Bat Before Shooting Her That’s some pretty heavy evidence to come out after the trial (and 3 years after a murder).

Sprint Stuff

TMZ: Rihanna Snubbed Date Request From Usain Bolt Bolt joked that Leonardo DiCaprio (whom Rhianna is rumored to be dating) was “no competition” saying, “I’m tall, I’m handsome I’m dark, I’m the greatest.”
Usain Bolt Says There Is A Chance He Could Not Retire After 2017, Although It Sounds Like He Really Wants To “Coach says I shouldn’t say I want to retire just yet, I should focus on the year and see how I feel after (2017) … But he says to give it a chance, because I think my coach is pushing for me to go a few more years. We’ll see what happens.”