Our Weekly Recap

WTWPraise For The 800/1,500/5k/10k & 4 X 400 Quintuple, What's Wrong With Edward Cheserek? Boring Track Uniforms And Nick Symmonds Doesn't Think Highly Of A Lot Of You

Huge Russia Doping Conspiracy At Sochi 2014?

• Recommended Read: NY Times: More Major Russian Doping Allegations As Former Moscow Lab Director (The One Who Didn’t Mysteriously Die After The WADA Report) Details How Sochi 2014 Dirty Urine Samples Were Switched Before Testing Fearing for his safety, Grigory Rodchenkov fled Russia for the US, and has opened up about the state-run doping cover-up he partook in where hundreds of dirty samples at Sochi were swapped for clean urine. From the involvement of the Russian intelligence agency to the hole in the lab wall used to pass bottles through, the sensational story is something out of an old spy movie.
• WADA Request Sochi 2014 Doping Tapes Mentioned In 60 Minutes Report
• Craig Reedie Says WADA Will Act “Immediately” In Investigating Latest Russian Doping Allegations Reedie was annoyed that Rodchenkov didn’t come out with any of this when he was interviewed by WADA previously.
• UK TV Network Sky News Claims Russian Authorities Are Obstructing British Anti-Doping Officials From Testing Russian Athletes Russian officials are asking for 30 days notice for tests, disputing payments and delaying customs so samples can’t be transported outside Russia within the 48-hour window required.

General Doping News

• WSJ: Prescription Steroids Get A Quiet Exception With Amateur Athletes USADA says that masters athletes who use medically prescribed testosterone can compete, but are supposed to “prove to USADA that they are unlikely to actually win” the race.
• Former UK Police Commissioner Lord Stevens Wants Doping Made Into A Criminal Offence

Olympic Problems

• Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Will Miss Rio Games After Brazil’s Senate Voted To Proceed With An Impeachment Trial
• Tokyo 2020 Deny Latest Corruption Allegations Of Bribe Payments To Papa Massata Diack
• Thomas Bach Admits IOC Is Not “Immune” To Corruption Yeah, we’ve noticed.
• USA Today: Issues Facing Rio In Run-Up To The Olympics

African Distance News

• Good Read: After Going Toe-To-Toe With Eliud Kipchoge, Stanley Biwott Is Ready To Chase A Medal In Rio Biwott isn’t worried about the heat or the tactical race in Rio and says he wants to bring marathon gold back to Kenya in tribute to Sammy Wanjiru.
• Quick Q&A With Eliud Kipchoge Kipchoge is thankful he had a full track career before moving to the marathon and says he loves to run so will “jog” big city marathons even after he retires.
• Meseret Defar Looking For A Very Fast Time In The 10,000m Tomorrow At The adidas Boost Meet In Germany Defar wants to run the 10K in Rio as she doesn’t have an Olympic medal in that event.
  *Update: Defar has scratched with a minor injury.

Sprint News

• Controversial Sprinter Dutee Chand: “Some of the 4 x 400 relay members don’t like me as I had better timings than them.” Well, they probably don’t “like her” because she has hyperandrogenism and races with an unfair advantage.
• May 20: Trayvon Bromell Will Take On Kim Collins, Richard Kilty, CJ Ujah At Manchester CityGames 100m
• May 28: Kirani James Vs. LaShawn Merritt Matchup Set For Pre Classic 400 At Drake James ran 44.08 to beat Merritt by .14-seconds. Sub-44 man Isaac Makwala also in the field.
• Former Super Bowl Champion Willie Gault Named USATF Athlete Of The Week After Setting M55 WRs In The 200 And 200 Gault, a 110H world bronze medalist in 1983, ran 11.30 and 23.24 to set the age-group records.
• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Pulls Out Of Shanghai DL Meet With Toe Injury This after she pulled out of last week’s Jamaica Invitational.

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

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.

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.