April 29, 2016 Homepage Archive

Very Cool

LRC The Future Has Arrived – PUMA Unveils BeatBot – A Personal Robotic Pacer Do you hate working out alone? Or seeing races ruined by people going out too fast or slow? Puma has the answer.

Another Exclusive From Kenya – LetsRun.com Goes To Kenya

LRCAsbel Kiprop, Elijah Manang’oi And Vincent Yator Put On A Show At The 2016 Kenyan Police Championships Get the inside scoop on how Kiprop and Manangoi, who went 1-2 at Worlds last year in the 1,500, totally toyed with the fields en route to 1,500 and 800 titles. Yator pulled off a tough double, winning the 5,000 and 10,000 within the span of 90 minutes.You’re lucky we aren’t charging you to read this 5,500 word masterpiece.

Eliud Kipchoge’s Coach, Patrick Sang, Thinks Geoffrey Kamworor Could Break The Marathon WR “He has the potential; he has the mind. It’s just a matter of time.”
Athletics Kenya Announces They’ll Host Olympic Trials In Eldoret For The 1st Time It’s always been held in Nairobi.
Suspended Athletics Kenya CEO Isaac Mwangi Is Fired
Hellen Obiri & Emmanuel Kipsang Easily Win Women’s 5,000 And Men’s 10,000 On Day 1 Of Defence Forces Champs Obiri won by nearly 20 seconds in the women’s 5k (15:21.8) as she comes back after missing all of 2015.
Explosive Sprint Showdowns Loom Friday At KDF Championships
MB: A role model for Galen Rupp: Jemima Sungong will run a 10,000 Friday – just five days after winning London Marathon

Pre-Meet Drake News

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.
Des Moines Register’s Ultimate Guide To Drake
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

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 Breakdown 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 TimeJesse 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 HengeloDafne 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

The Penn Relays *Schedule, Entries And Results

Meet Preview: 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 Find out what’s worth watching.

Day 2: MB: Penn State Comes Through As Favorite In DMR The field basically bowed down and let Brannon Kidder lead the final leg wire-to-wire.
*MB: Nova Women Win Slow 4 X 1,500 Possibly the slowest winning time ever; definitely the slowest in 10 years.

Day 1: MB: Official 2016 Penn Relay Discussion Thread

Georgetown Women Dominate Women’s DMR The race had little drama as Georgetown dominated in cool weather. OK State’s Kaela Edwards had the fastest split but the got baton 6 seconds back.
Inexperienced Villanova Women Happy With Third In Penn Relays DMR
Lake Braddock’s Kate Murphy Splits 4:37 And Comes Back From More Than 8 Seconds Behind To Win Girls HS DMR
Harvard’s Nikki Okwelogu Wins Women’s Shot Put
Shanice Love Sets New Jamaican Jr. And Penn Relays HS Record In Discus With 179′ 6″ (54.72m) Heave She only beat California’s Elena Brucknor on her sixth attempt.
Jamaica’s HS girls team advance in relays but they all fear Union Cathlic’s Sydney McLaughlin (51.84)
A Lengthy Look At The Great Career Of Penn Star Thomas Awad Awad says he’ll go for the Trials in the 1,500 most likely as he doesn’t think there will be a collegiate race in the 13:20s.
Behind The Scenes Of The Penn Relays A look at how the meet is put on. Two words – Dave Johnson.

Another American Legend Hangs Up The Spikes

LRC Chris 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.

Week That Was

LRC WTW: 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.

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 10KLaura 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.

Boston Marathon Photo Gallery

Less Than 100 Days To Rio

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama Launched A “100 Days From The Rio Olympics” Street Party In NYC
Alan Abrahamson Is Upset That The IOC’s Road To Rio Countdown Was In NYC, Not LA
South Korea Unveils “Zika-Proof” Olympic Uniforms Most of the stuff covers your entire body and has insect repellent on it.
Mark English Isn’t Panicking That He’s Currently In A Boot Waiting For Broken Bone To Heal Missing World Indoors where Sowinski won bronze was a little frustrating as English beat him twice before getting hurt.
Allyson Felix Says She Has A “Minor” Ankle Injury – Pulls Out Of 100 At May 6 Doha Meet
Dutee Chand Breaks Indian National Record Of 11.33 Thankfully, Chand, who no longer has to take hormone treatments, came up .01 short of the Olympic standard.
Kaliese Spencer Pumped After Signing Sponsorship Deal With PUMA
Mondo Says Rio 2016 Olympic Stadium Now “Fully Installed”

Doping News

Good News:WADA Positives Down 13% In 2014 Even Though They Did 1,000 More Tests There were 1,462 anti-doping rule violations taken from 217,762 samples.
Surprise, Surprise (Not): Russia Led All Countries In Doping In 2014 The US isn’t even in the top 10. Russia (148), Italy (123), India (96), Belgium (91), France (91), Turkey (73), Australia (49), China (49), Brazil (46) and South Korea (43) are your leading dopers.

Pre-Meet Penn News

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 than she 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.