May 11, 2016 | LetsRun.com

We’d Be Scared To Death To Pull A Mike Rossi / Kip Litton In North Korea

LRCAgent Alleges That Two North Korean Runners Cut The Course At North Korean Marathon To Secure Olympic Qualification

Mike Rossi, the North Korean version, x 2?

Maybe USATF Should Hire These Young Women To Coach The Rio Olympic Team

LRCA Solution For Dennis Mitchell's And Team USA's 4 X 100 Relay Debacles? HS Team Runs And Wins 4 X 100 Using A High Jump Bar For A Baton

Learn how (and why) Fairfax (Va.) HS won a 4 x 100 using a high jump bar for a baton.
*MB: HS Team Runs and Wins 4 x 100 Using a High Jump Bar For A Baton (amazing video)

Upcoming Action

Thursday USATF 1 Mile Road Championships: Garrett Heath And Heather Kampf Return To Defend Their Titles At The Medtronic TC 1 Mile Their primary challengers will be Ben Blankenship and Gabriele Grunewald.
*USATF.tv Coverage @ 8:55PM (subscription)
*Race Home
*BBTM Prediction Contest
*MB: USATF Road Mile Championships Thursday
Q&A With Nicole Blood Ahead Of TC 1 Mile Most of Blood’s training is 5K based, but she’s added in some speed to get ready for a mile.
Saturday: Omar McLeod Looking For First Sub-13 Of The Year In Shanghai McLeod is on a big winning streak this year, having racked up 10 wins in the 60, 100 and 110H.
Saturday: Egyptian Javelin Thrower Ihab Abdelrahman Hopes China Continues To Be Good To Him Abdelrahman broke out at Shanghai two years ago with a huge PR and then won world silver in Beijing last year.
May 20: Big Names On The Track And In The Booth For Next Friday’s HOKA ONE ONE Middle Distance Classic Alan Webb, Chris Solinsky and Carrie Tollefson will commentate for the free live stream as Shannon Rowbury, Galen Rupp, Evan Jager, Leo Manzano, Robby Andrews and more line up in deep distance fields. *Meet Site/Info *Entries

Upcoming DL Action: Pre Classic In A Little Over 2 Weeks

Amazing Field Set For Pre Classic Bowerman Mile: Asbel Kiprop Faces Matt Centrowitz, Taoufik Makhloufi, Ayanleh Souleiman And Drew Hunter Silas Kiplagat, Elijah Manang’oi, Abedelaati Iguider, Evan Jager and Ben Blankenship also in the field.
*MB: Pre Mile is SALTY!
*MB: 5K: True vs Hill vs World Geoffrey Kamworor leads the way, challenged by Yomif Kejelcha, Bernard Lagat, Hagos Gebrhiwet, Caleb Ndiku, Edwin Soi, Isiah Koech.
Saturday: Fast Sprints For Shanghai DL: SAFP Vs. VCB Over 200m Justin Gatlin vs. Tyson Gay in the 100.
June 5th: Kirani James Will Lead 400 Field Against GB Local Star Matthew Hudson-Smith At Birmingham DL Meet Sub-44-second men Yousef Masrahi and Isaac Makwala are also in the race.

More Road Results

Irvette van Zyl Wins SPAR 10K Road Race In South Africa van Zyl said she was in a “very bad place” after a disappointing performance in the London Marathon and getting the win here helped her bounce back.
Masato Imai Wins Sendai Half Marathon In Japan With 63:06 Over Tomohiro Tanigawa (63:11) Yuki Kawauchi was 5th (64:35).

Sunday Road Results

Little-Known Dickson Kipsang Tuwei (2:09:27) Gets Surprise Win At Yellow River Estuary Marathon Tuwei won in a close race, just beating out Marius Kimutai (2:09:32) and 2:03 man Moses Mosop (2:09:33). Bahrain’s Eunice Chumba (2:31:13) won the women’s race.
RRW: Lawrence Cherono (2:07) And Lucy Karimi (2:24) Complete Kenyan Sweep At Volkswagen Prague Marathon
*Finish Video
Julius Chepkwony (2:11:10) And Jane Kiptoo (2:35:04) Take Geneva Marathon Titles
Italian Doper Alex Schwazer Wins IAAF World Racewalking Team Championships In Return From Drug Ban Schwazer is the one who got his ex-girlfriend, figure skater Carolina Kostner, banned by having her lie to drug testers. *IAAF Report
AW Weekly Round-Up

Rec Running News

Interesting Read: WSJ: How Millennials Ended The Running Boom After two decades of growth, the number of race finishers dropped 9% in 2015. Fewer young people are running races and even fewer are running them competitively.
*MB: WSJ: How Millennials have ended the running boom
One Millionth Finisher In London Marathon History Is Revealed Shannon Foudy finished in 5:45:18, running for the hospital that saved her newborn daughter’s life.

Next Week

Provisional Start Lists For Next Week’s Shanghai Diamond League Released Jenny Simpson is in the 1,500. Role models Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay in 100m.

Next Week’s adidas BOOST Meet In Germany To Try To Have Sub-27:00 Men’s 10k, Meseret Defar In Women’s, Yohan Blake, Tori Bowie In 100

Surprise News From Kenya If True

Associated Press Says Eliud Kipchoge, Stanley Biwott, And … Wesley Korir Will Be Kenyan Olympic Marathon Team Jemima Sumgong, Mary Keitany and Florence Kiplagat are favorites for women’s team. Korir wouldn’t be on the Olympic team if we picked the Kenyan team.

Meet Phil Knight

In “Shoe Dog: A Memoir By The Creator Of Nike,” Phil Knight Opens Up About His Life And Nike The Oregonian has an excerpt from this “revealing memoir” from the man who turned his passion into one of the biggest businesses in the world.
RunBlogRun Book Review By Jeff Benjamin Benjamin was impressed that Knight has “not forgotten the past” and emphasized the grassroots beginnings of Nike.

Mid-D News

Despite Missing Indoor With Pneumonia And Opening Outdoor With A Slow 800, Leo Manzano Isn’t Worried Manzano says he’s confident he’ll be ready by the Trials in July. And he always is.
MileSplit Q&A With Michael Slagowski And Coach Bob Hays Slagowski and Hays talk about how the sub-4 goal became a reality when he ran 1:48 and 4:05 solo efforts. They also hypothesize about how a race between Slagowski and Drew Hunter would go.

Upcoming Action

May 13-14: adidas Holding New Meet At Their Global Headquarters In Herzogenaurach, Germany The meet will be live streamed and they are hoping for fast times. Fields will include Yohan Blake, Jenn Suhr, Meseret Defar and Tori Bowie.
May 28: Nicholas Bor Returns To Defend His Title At The Ottawa 10K He faces last year runner-up and World Half Champs 6th placer Simon Cheprot and former World Half champ Wilson Kiprop. World Half champ Peres Jepchirchir leads women’s field against Mamitu Daska.
Germany’s Defending Winner Kai Kazmirek And World Indoor Champ Brianne Theisen-Eaton Lead Fields For Gotiz Hypo Multi-Event Meeting

US Distance News: Ryan Hall Now Jacked

RR: Since Retirement, Ryan Hall Has Turned To Weightlifting And Put On 40 Pounds Of Muscle Hall says he’s always been “small and weak” and wanted to know what it was like to be “big and strong.” Now he’s all in with weightlifting and has gone from only benching 100 pounds to over 200.
*MB: How Ryan Hall Gained 40 Pounds Of Muscle

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.

Mid-D News

MB: Video: T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Nick Symmonds decide what tattoo to put on his arm Last week, Legere won the auction for $21,800 to put a tattoo logo on Nick Symmonds’ shoulder.
Good Read: In-Depth Interview With Phoebe Wright Talking About Her Early Life, College Career And Current Training Situtaion Wright talks her favorite workouts, best college memories and what she does for fun.
No Hard Feelings After Ahmed Muhumed Got Tripped By Michael Slagowski’s Pacer Muhumed missed a chance at a PR after colliding with Slagowski’s pacer as he dropped out, but wasn’t bitter about the accident.
*MB: Slagowski’s rabbit tripped a competitor
Daily Mail: “Caster Semenya On Track For Rio Gold, But She’s Running In An Ethical Minefield” With the IAAF gender hormone rules suspended, there will be more and more negative attention on Semenya as she continues to dominate in the buildup to Rio.

Olympic Stuff

Common Sense Wins The Day: IOC Says They’re Okay With Athletes Having Olympic Ring Tattoos This after a paralympic swimmer was DQed last week for not covering his up at the Euro Swimming Champs.
Rio 2016 Downplays Concerns Over Mosquito Infestation In Warm-Up Pool There were apparently a “ton of mosquitoes” at the outdoor pool at last month’s test event, but organizers have fumigated the area.

Sprint Stuff

Asafa Powell Wants To Contest The 200 As Well As The 100 At The Olympics The former 100m WR holder hadn’t even run a 200 since 2011 and hasn’t done it at a championship since 2004.
Powell After 200m Win At Jamaican Invite: “Honestly I don’t remember how to even run the 200m event so this is a work in process.”
Tyson Gay Has High Praise For Usain Bolt, Putting Him, Along With Carl Lewis, In The Top Two Greatest All-Time “The guy is a great competitor, great heart. Excuse my language … the sh*t he pulled off last year was amazing.”
Oscar Pistorius Documentary In The Works For Cannes Film Festival This Month

Post-Weekend NCAA News

Event-By-Event Top Collegiate Marks From The Weekend BYU’s Aaron Fletcher ran 8:39 in the Oxy steeplechase to finish 2nd behind pro Ole Hesselbjerg (8:36). New Hampshire’s Laura Rose Donegan won the American East steeple in 9:49.
Kentucky, Arkansas And Oregon Women Stay 1-2-3 In Updated DI Rankings
No Changes To The Top 4 As Texas A&M Men Continue To Sit Atop National Rankings

Weekend Pro Action Golden GP Jamaica Invite Results Oxy Results (link fixed)*

Golden Grand Prix: Justin Gatlin Clocks 10.02 Into A .4 m/s Headwind
*Tianna Bartoletta Gets 100-LJ Double Win; Shawn Barber Takes PV Erik Sowinski won the 800 in 1:45.92 while Ben Blankenship (7:52.80) was 2nd in the 3K. Caroline Chepkurui took the steeple in 9:31.
*Gatlin Says That Racing Usain Bolt Has Made Him “Smarter And Wiser”

Jamaica Invite: Jamaica Invite Recap: Elaine Thompson Blasts To Wind-Aided 10.71, Powell Wins 200m, Alexa Efraimson Wins 1,500m Thompson said she wants the 100, 200 gold in Rio. Efraimson won the 1.500 in a meet record 4:08. *IAAF Recap

Texas Invite: Trayvon Bromell Runs Wind-Aided 10.00, Ashley Spencer Runs 55.75 In Hurdles Spencer ran 54.70 in the hurdles two weeks ago, which is the #2 in the world right now and would have made her #16 in world last year.

Oxy Invite Meet Results: Brenda Martinez 2:01 800, Carmelita Jeter 11.42 100m

College Action Heps Results: Men Women All NCAA Results

Cornell Wins Heps In Record Fashion, Becoming First Team In Ivy League History To Pass 200-Point Barrier Cornell’s Ben Rainero won the 5K/10K double and Rudy Winkler set an Ivy record in the hammer. *Full Results
Harvard Women Three-Peat At Heps, Beating Princeton By 21 Points Dartmouth’s Dana Giordano won the 1,500 and 5K, becoming the first Ivy League woman to win the 1,500 for 3-straight years. *Full Results
*Heps Day 1 Recap And Results
Arizona’s Pau Tonnesen Wins PAC-12 Decathlon As Oregon Goes 2-3 USC’s Amalie Iuel won the heptathlon. *Results
Bucknell Women, Navy Men Capture Patriot League Outdoor Track And Field Titles

**Track And Field’s Opening Day – 2016 Doha DL *Results**

LRC Was Caster Semenya’s Final 100m In Doha The Fastest Ever Run In A Women’s 800? Crazy as it sounds, she closed in 13.6.

Embed from Getty Images

2016 Doha Recap LRC A Day Of Distance Dominance: Asbel Kiprop, Conseslus Kipruto, Almaz Ayana & Caster Semenya Earn Big Wins On Track & Field’s Opening Day The 2016 Diamond League season opened with a bang in Doha as favorites Asbel Kiprop, Almaz Ayana and Caster Semenya won in utterly dominant fashion. The men’s steeple wasn’t as kind to the favorites as Jairus Birech lost and Ezekiel Kemboi got embarrassed. American Ameer Webb looked fantastic in the men’s 200, Dafne Schippers ran fast but lost the women’s 100 to Tori Bowie, and a number of Americans picked up their first-ever DL victories in the field events. *Full Results

MB: Official 2016 Doha Diamond League Discussion Thread

Omar McLeod Man To Beat In Hurdles After Win In Doha
Ibarguen And Rojas Triple Jump Dual A Treat In Doha
Tori Bowie Runs 10.80 Fastest 100m Of 2016 Before you get too excited, realize the fastest 100m of all of 2015 was also run in Doha by Justin Gatlin at the first DL meet of the year.

More US Distance News

Sara Slattery Returns To Track At 34, Pointed Toward Olympics In Rio Denver Post profile. Slattery wasn’t going to give the Olympics a go, but she started coaching a collegiate team and has rediscovered the competitive bug.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere Pays $21,800 For Nick Symmonds’ Tattoo

Erin Finn May Not Be Competing For Michigan This Semester But She’s Got U Of M In Her Heart

Sprint Stuff Worth A Read

Recommended Read: After Kidney Transplant, Olympic Champion Aries Merritt Has Heart Set On Rio Gold Merritt talks at length about being diagnosed with his kidney problem, the surgery and the comeback. He says that now he is “ready to show the world what I can really do now that I have a real body again.”
Three “Did You Knows” With World 400 Champ Wayde Van Niekerk Van Niekerk throws up after almost every race, likes to play poker, and has a fast younger brother.

Running Science

Is Blood Testing For Amateur Runners The Way Of The Future? Elites already do it, but soon, routine blood tests tracking red blood cells, iron and vitamins of recreational runners could be the norm. Is it useful or just one more thing to worry over?
The Guardian: “Runner’s High: The Athletes Who Use Marijuana To Improve Their Training” Is cannabis performance enhancing or detracting? The science isn’t 100% clear, but some ultrarunners feel it goes hand-in-hand with running.

Medical Emergency Ends Ultrarunner’s Trans-America Record Attempt Lisa Smith-Batchen was shooting to break the 36-year-old record for the fastest time crossing the country, but had to have emergency gall bladder surgery.

Rio 2016 Updates

A New Level Of Absurdity: Paralympic Swimmer Gets Disqualified At IPC Euro Champs For Having An Olympic Rings Tattoo Reportedly, the tattoo “breaches advertising regulations.” Will the IOC enforce this in Rio? Wow. Just wow.
NY Times: Rio Anti-Doping Lab Trying To Learn From Sochi 2014’s Mistakes It has cost Brazil $60 million to get the lab up and running for the Olympcis, and even then, it almost didn’t happen in time.
Commission Set Up To Investigate Possible Corruption Within Rio 2016 Construction Projects Construction companies have paid bribes to politicians to receive inflated contracts.

Sad News: RIP Former IU Runner And Navy SEAL Charlie Keating

NBC: Navy SEAL And Former Indiana University Distance Runner Charlie Keating Killed By ISIS In Iraq
Indy Star: “Navy SEAL Remembered For “Magnetic Personality” As IU Runner Keating had PRs of 3:52 (1,500) and 1:55.
IU Mourns Passing Of Charles Keating Former teammate Stephen Haas: “I’m sure you are going to hear a lot about what a bad ass Navy SEAL Charlie was, and I’m sure he was the baddest. I think me and my teammates at IU will always remember him for being the most likable guy in the room.”
Keating Was The Grandson Of Infamous Banker Who Served Prison Time For Role In 1980s Savings And Loan Crisis
MB: Navy Seal, Runner, infamous grandson killed in Iraq

Stanford Payton Jordan *Live Results

LRC Lagat Wins 10,000m Debut In 27:49, Izaic Yorks Beats Pros In 1,500, Courtney Frerichs Dominates Steeple Brief comments on the races and full results on 1 page. *IAAF

Another Exclusive From Kenya – LetsRun.com Goes To Kenya

LRC Asbel 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.

We Knew 100% They’d Screw It Up

LRCAthletics Kenya Does It Again And Butchers Third Selection To Both Men's And Women's Teams - Kenyan Olympic Marathon Team Announced

Good news, Galen Rupp and US women’s marathon fans – it just got a lot easier to medal in Rio as Athletics Kenya picked a 2:24 woman and a man who is about to celebrate the 2-year anniversary of his last sub-2:10 clocking (May 25th) to the Olympic team. Stars like Edna Kiplagat and Mary Keitany will be sitting at home. Updated with new stats for Dickson Chumba and Bernard Kipyego and the fact that Wilson Kipsang didn’t want to go to Rio.
*Eliud Kipchoge In Search Of Elusive Olympic Gold In Rio Kipchoge has won Olympic silver and bronze, but never gold.

LetsThrow.com

After A Huge Breakthrough In 2016, Pittsburg State’s Garrett Appier Is An Olympic Hopeful In The Shot Put The DII athlete and son of a former World Series champion pitcher, Appier is ranked 9th in the world (3rd in the US) this year after moving his PR from 18.54m to 20.79m.
IAAF “First Impressions Q&A With German World Champs Javelin 4th Placer Thomas Rohler Rohler’s first track competition was actually a mandatory “cross country” race held in a parking lot.
Podcast Interview With New Zealand Shot Putter Tom Walsh We’re not sure the title of their show, “The Sauce,” is the best choice for interviewing T&F athletes.
Euro Round-Up: Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch Threw A WL’ing 86.76m In The Javelin At The Golden Grand Prix In sprints, Christophe Lemaitre won a low-key 100 in 10.14.

Olympic News

Leading Rome Mayoral Candidate Is Opposed To Olympic 2024 Bid
British Stars CJ Ujah And Adelle Tracey Help Lay The First Sections Of New Track In London Olympic Stadium Brendan Foster was also there promoting the Great Newham London Run 10K, an open road race finishing on the London track.

“60 Minutes” Does Russian Doping Piece

Russian Whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov Says He Has A List Of Athletes Who Had Their Steroid Use Covered Up At The Sochi Olympics The list includes 4 gold medalists and Stepanov says he has the taped conversations to prove it.
ESPN: Stepanov Sent WADA 200 Emails And 50 Letters Before Getting Them To Act Stepanov was in contact for WADA for 3 years before they steered him towards German TV network ARD.
MB: 60 Minutes Episode on Russian Doping – 5/8/16
Video: 60 Minutes Report

High School – The Drew Hunter Show Continues (And The McGorty And Lomong Brother Show Begins)

Drew Hunter Celebrates 3:58.25 Junior Brandon McGorty Edges Drew Hunter And Alex Lomong In One Of The Deepest High School 800s Ever Brandon is the brother of Stanford runner Sean, Lomong is the brother of US Olympian Lopez and Hunter is the sub-4 high schooler who, after lowering his 800 PR by nearly 4 seconds, came back to run an 8:43 3,200m.