Jumpers In The News

• Good Read: Greg Rutherford Fears “Arms Will Be Twisted” To Allow Russians To Compete In Rio Besides doping, Rutherford about hosting a LJ meet in his backyard this fall with his IAAF-approved pit and throws out a diss at Carl Lewis.
• Renaud Lavillenie Seeking Stockholm Diamond League Pole Vault Success On June 16th This is actually the only DL meet he’s never won as 2 years ago, his 22-meet winning streak came to an end here.
• UK HJer Isobel Pooley’s BBC Column: “I won’t waste my breath talking about doping.” She says she doesn’t “have the expertise to pass comment.” Well, we don’t think you need to be a science expert to have an opinion on whether Russia should be in Rio.
• Video Interview:Greg Rutherford Thinks Russia Should Stay Banned From Rio; Wants IOC To Re-Test More 2012 Samples
• IAAF Ratifies Vashti Cunningham’s 1.97m World Junior HJ Record

Midweek Action – 2016 IAAF Challenge Beijing *Race Videos

LRC Complete Results: 2016 IAAF World Challenge Beijing Two American men picked up wins in seasonal bests – Justin Gatlin (9.94) and Aries Merritt (13.24) – while pole vaulter Sam Kendricks was even better as he got a new PR and world lead (19’5″). Other world leaders included Majd Eddin Ghazal in the HJ (7′ 8¾”), Bin Dong in the TJ (56′ 6¾”), and Wenxiu Zhang in the women’s hammer (75.58m). Plus Ezekiel Kemboi won the steeple, Erik Sowinskialmost won the 800 and Nick Symmonds struggled in the 800.
*IAAF Recap Of Beijing: Ghazal Surprises With HJ World Lead, Kendricks Soars 19’5″; Hellen Obiri Wins 1,500, Ezekiel Kemboi Wins Steeple As Erik Sowinski Almost Wins 800
*MB: IAAF Challenge Beijing Official Thread 
*MB: Erik Sowinski 1:45:81
*Race Videos

Oxy & Ostrava Are Friday – Rabat Is Sunday – Previews Coming Soon
*MB: Trouble in NOPland? Rupp SCRATCHES the 5000m at Oxy.
*Usain Bolt Promises He’ll Run Fast On Friday In Ostrava If The Weather Is Good, Wants A 9.8 He says his tight hamstring is feeling great.

Latest Russian Doping News

• Alan Abrahmson Enraged That The US Department Of Justice Is Investigating Russian Doping Among other things, he thinks it will hurt LA’s chances in the 2024 Olympic bid.
• UK Athletics Chief Ed Warner Backs Proposal By Thomas Bach Which Would Let “Clean Russians” Compete In Rio Under The Olympic Flag If Russia Remains Banned This would kind of defeat the point as Russia is banned because doping is so widespread it’s impossible to know which athletes might be clean.
• IOC President Thomas Bach Acknowledges National Federations Can Be Banned From The Olympics, But Won’t Speculate About Russia’s Status For Rio
  *NY Times Article

Kenyan Doping Updates

• Kenyan Government Agrees To “Roadmap” To WADA Compliance Kenyan officials met at WADA HQ in Canada and director-general David Howman says they can be complaint “very quickly” if they make the necessary law amendments.
• Kenyan Olympic Committee Lashes Out At WADA For Declaring Them Non-Compliant They claim the issues were “very insignificant.” Maybe if they had met WADA’s deadline a year ago they would have had time to make changes.

Some Potentially Major Doping News

• 31 Athletes From Six Sports Could Be Banned From Rio After IOC Re-Test Of Frozen 2008 Beijing Samples The IOC target-tested 454 samples from Beijing, focusing on athletes that could be in Rio. They also re-tested 250 samples from London 2012 and those results will be announced soon.
  *MB:IOC busts 31 athletes from 2008 Olympics!
  *The Telegraph Article
• NY Times:The US Justice Department Has Started Investigation Into Russian State-Sponsored Doping In order to establish jurisdiction, prosecutors will go after those who facilitated unclean competition in the US or used the US banking system. *Discuss
• Six Arrests Made In Long-Running Investigation Into Doping In The Moroccan Athletics Federation No athlete names have been released yet.
• Maria Sharapova Meldonium Case To Be Heard By Anti-Doping Panel In London Today Some experts have predicted her ban will be 6 to 12 months rather than the max 4 years.
  *Verdict In Sharapova Meldonium Case Not Expected Until Next Month Sharapova admitted to using meldonium after it was banned and her levels are thought to be higher than the one microgram limit.
• IOC President Thomas Bach Writes Open Letter About Sochi Drug Allegations“Should the investigation prove the allegations true, it would represent a shocking new dimension in doping …”
• WADA Promises Full Public Report Into Sochi 2014 Doping Allegations

Random Running News

• Good Read:Masters Runner Fred Zalokar Shooting For Age-Group Sweep Of The World Marathon Majors 55-year-old Zalokar has won his age group at five of six WMMs with a best of 2:34 at age 50. He ran 150-mile weeks leading up to his most recent win in London.
• British Racewalker Challenges Runners To Run 5K Faster Than He Can Walk ItTom Bosworth has a walking 5K PR of 18:54, so they’ll have to run 6:05 pace to beat him. Those that beat him get free entry into the Great South Run.
• Video:Former Beer Mile WR Holder Jim Finlayson Sets Beer Two-Mile Record At 11:39 8 laps, 8 beers.

Sunday / Monday US Track Action *Results: *Portland Twilight*Swarthmore

• MB: 16-year-old Kate Murphy guns down Marielle Hall – Runs 4:14.26 at Swarthmore – #6 all-time
  *Race Video
• MB: 3:37.75 for Awad at Swarthmore. 0.01 off the NCAA lead In a race rabbited by Nick Willis, Awad got his OTrials qualifier in a race was won by David Torrence, who picked up the Olympic Games standard of 3:36.20 with a 3:36.02. Julian Mathews also got Olympic standard as Hamish Carson missed it by .05.
  *Race Video
  *Julian Matthews Clinches Kiwi Olympic Spot With 2nd Place Showing
• Portland Twilight:Kate Grace Runs 2:00.05 To Win Over Alexa Efraimson (2:00.99)Lopez Lomong, Treniere Moser and Jordan Hasay were among the other pros who competed.

2016 Bay To Breakers

• “Texas” Man Isaac Mukundi Wins Bay To Breakers In 35 Minutes, 23 Seconds We guess the liberals out West don’t want to state the obvious – he’s Kenyan – as every article we’ve read has called him a Texas man. Caroline Chepkoech won the women’s race.
• More Naked Runners Show Up At Bay To Breakers, Which Pleases Many
• Residents Stand Guard To Make Sure Racers Don’t Snort Cocaine And Pee In Their Foyers

Rio Is Ready – Are You?

• MB: American Brandon Johnson places third in Rio test event in 1:46.12.
• Seb Coe Attended Event After Taking Subway And Predicts Olympics Will Be A Huge Success “Don’t for one moment overlook the unique spirit of this city, it’s an extraordinary city and it will absorb the Games. I think people will be surprised by the spirit these Games will generate.”
• After Taking Subway To The Event, Coe Says Track Was Fast And PredictsAthletics World Records Will Fall
• Interesting: Chaunte Lowe Paid Her Own Way To Rio For Test Event And Says It Was Well Worth It As She Learned A Lot About The Track Surface
  *Chaunte Lowe Loved Rio: “I have to say I love Rio! I felt safe, had fun and ate great food!”
  *Chaunte Lowe Set HJ World Lead With A 1.96m Victory
• Rio 2016 Olympics: Australian Athletes To Be Given Anti-Zika Virus Condoms As “A Common Sense Approach” In a cost saving move, male distance runners won’t be given any as officials know they’ve got no chance of needing to use them 😉
• British Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith Isn’t Very Worried About Zika “You can’t live in fear of the unknown, otherwise you do nothing, just stay inside in your house.”

Meet The Bernard Lagat Of The Discus 44-Year-Old Virgilijus Alekna – The 2000 And 2004 Olympic Discus Champ – Still Competing For Lithuania

2016 Shanghai DL *Full Results*TV & Streaming*Meet Preview By LetsRun.com

MB: Official 2016 Shanghai DL Live Discussion Thread *Full Results

LRC A Diamond League Debacle: David Rudisha Beaten By Four Men; Nick Symmonds Runs 1:48 In Farce Of Men’s 800 In Shanghai Rudisha had a good excuse for his loss. The same can’t be said for Nick Symmonds. Find out what we are talking about.

The Rest Of The Meet LRCFaith Kipyegon Crushes It In Women’s 1,500; A Fast Women’s Steeple; A Sub-13 Men’s 5k And Much More  In the first DL women’s 1,500 of the year, Jenny Simpson fans have reason to worry as Faith Kipyegon smashed the Kenyan national record. Justin Gatlin was utterly dominant as well, Muktar Edris was great in the 5,000, Omar McLeod went sub-13, Americans Sam Kendricks and Kurt Roberts picked up their first DL victories, and more.

• VCB Disappointed With 200m Runner-Up Finish, Saying She Needs To Listen To Her Coach And Not Be A “Workaholic” In Training
• IAAF:Sam Kendricks Gets Surprise PV Victory Over Renaud Lavillenie; Sandra Perkovic Breaks Discus MR
• IAAF:Despite Two False Starts, Omar McLeod Keeps Cool And Storms To A Sub-13 Clocking McLeod ran 12.98 for his third world lead in the last three races.
• IAAF:Classy Faith Kipyegon Sets 1,500 NR

Shanghai On The Message Board:

• WTF- Shanghai 800 – Rudisha 5th, Symmonds 10th
• Kim Collins 100m Masters WR?!
• Official 2016 Shanghai DL Live Discussion Thread

The “Blade Debate”

• IAAF Will Decide On Criteria For Paralympic Athletes In June German long jump paralympian Markus Rehm wants to compete in the able-bodied Olympics, but will have to prove his blade doesn’t give him an advantage.
• GB’s Paralympic Medalist Stef Reid Joins The “Blade Debate” And Says The Wrong Question Is Being Asked “The notion that single leg amputees have an advantage is ridiculous. The question we should be asking is whether the performance is comparable.”