2016 Pre Classic Is Friday (11:20 pm ET) / Saturday (3:30 pm ET) *Schedule & Results *TV & Streaming

LRC Pre Classic Preview: Mo Farah (10K), Geoffrey Kamworor (5K), Asbel Kiprop (Mile), Faith Kipyegon (1500) Among Many Stars at Hayward Field This Weekend The Prefontaine Classic is loaded once again. Meets are much more enjoyable if you know what you are watching so give us 15-20 minutes and read this 5000+ word preview.  In addition to the World’s best from Africa, the meet features US grudge matches of  Jenny Simpson vs Shannon Rowbury and Drew Hunter vs. Alan Webb. Hunter wants a US Olympic Trials qualifier (3:54.00) so Alan Webb’s 3:53.43 US HS mark could be in jeopardy.

• 2012 Olympic Champ Sandra Perkovic, Who Has Won The Last 4 DL Titles, Is Ready For Pre
• Jenna Prandini Returns To Hayward Field As A Pro To Face Stacked Field With Dafne Schippers, Olympic Silver Medalist Elaine Thompson, And 18-Year-Old Kaylin Whitney
• Good Profile Of Spanish HJer Ruth Beitia, Who Is Making Her 2016 DL Debut In Eugene Beitia won the DL title in 2015. Interestingly, she retired in 2012 at age 33 after finishing 4th in the Olympics.
• Vin Lananna Says The Key To Having Successful Events Is Community Engagement People are happy to volunteer if given a reason to. “It has been my experience that people want to be insiders. They want to know what’s going on from the earliest stages of the planning process.”
• 10 Jaw-Dropping Moments From Four Decades Of The Prefontaine Classic

She’s Not Competing At Pre, But We Wish She Was Shalane Flanagan Did Special 90-Minute Run In Environmental Chamber At US Olympic Training Center To Learn About Properly Getting Ready For Rio Heat She nearly didn’t make it through the heat of LA.

Dakar Is Complete Results: 2016 IAAF World Challenge Dakar Results American Jarvis Gotch won the long jump with a 27′ 3¼” (8.31m) leap.
*MB: Broken wind or measurement gauge? American Jarvis Gotch just won the Dakar LJ w 27′ 3¼” (8.31) leap into -4m/s wind!

The Latest On The Doping Front

• USADA Head Travis Tygart Writes Opinion Piece In NY Times Where He Criticizes WADA Almost As Much As Russia
  *MB: Interesting Travis Tygart NY Times column on Russian doping crisis – He rips WADA almost as much as Russia!!
• Athletics Kenya Has Its Headquarters Put Under Police Protection As They Are Fearful Of Another Athlete Revolt In November, it was taken over for two days “in protest at alleged corruption by officials and their failure to deal with the country’s doping problems.”

Be Inspired

• Man Born Without Arms Or Legs Is Doing Calgary Marathon This Weekend He has a foot which he uses to help propel himself on a longboard.
• Video Of Idaho State’s Shelby Erdahl Finishing 400m Hurdles In 2:53.26 With Totally Ruptured Achilles And Scoring 1 Point At Big Sky Conference Has Gone Viral She was even interviewed on Sports Center.
• ESPN’s Olympic Writer Bonnie Ford Talks About How She Learned To Appreciate Running – Excerpt From “Night Running, A Book Of Essays About Breaking Through”

The Latest On Transgderism/Hyperandrogenism

• Interesting Point In NY Times: Children In Wheelchairs Or With Severe Autism Have Been Using Bathroom Of The Opposite Gender For Decades Many parents say there is no chance they could be left alone to go in the bathroom of their gender.
• Toni Reavis Points Out That The Paralympics Have Tests For Its Various Categories, Why Not The Same For The Regular Olympics? “Sure, it’s arbitrary at some point, but you didn’t go to school and self-declare what grade you were in.”

How Not To Run Your Local Road Race

• RacePartner Butchers Falmouth Race Registration, Sends Out Rejection Emails To People Accepted And Emails Telling People They’d Be Charged Thousands
• Minneapolis Marathon Canceled 10 Days Before Scheduled Start

The Pre Classic Loses Two Stars

• Genzebe Dibaba Pulls Out Of Pre Classic 5k The meet says her toe injury makes racing in spikes “unwise.”
• Allyson Felix Pulls Out Of Pre Classic With Ankle Injury Coach Kersee says, though, that training is going well and she’s still planning on doubling at USAs.
• Ritz Won’t Be There, Either Dathan Rizenhein Says He May Not Do The 10,000 At The Olympic Trials

While You Wait For The Week That Was: Read The Daily Relay’s Weekly Recap The talk about Hoka One One, Semenya, Ayana and the Ethiopian marathon selection.

News From Kenya

• Kenya Changes Date Of Olympic Trials (Again) Trials To June 30- July 1 It will be June 30-July 1 so Kenyans can run in Stockholm and Oslo. They finally got the date right as there are no DL meets from mid-June to mid-July.
• Still Don’t Know Where It Will Be Held Eldoret has not been confirmed.

Ireland Names Its Marathon Squad For Rio

• Former Euro XC Champ Fionnuala McCormack Leads Irish Olympic Marathon Squad Then there are Lizzie Lee (2:32), Breege Connolly (2:37) and Kevin Seaward, Mick Clohisey and Paul Pollock (all in the 2:14-2:15 range).
• Heartbroken Irish Marathoner Sergiu Ciobanu Set To Appeal After “Unfair” Olympic Omission Ciobanu’s time was 24 seconds faster than Pollock’s, but he feels he was left out because he is originally from Moldova.
• Ciobanu’s Coach Jerry Kiernan Blasts Athletics Ireland, Calling Decision “F***ing Bull***t”
• MB: Irish Athletics Shows Incompetence Again (marathon selection fiasco)

Almost Half The “Beijing 31” Were Russians – Anyone Surprised?

• London 2012 HJ Champion Anna Chicherova And 13 Other Russians Are Reportedly Among The 31 Athletes Caught Doping Through Beijing 2008 Re-Tests Chicherova won Olympic bronze in 2008 and World gold in 2011. USA’s Brigetta Barrett finished runner-up behind her in London 2012.
  *MB: Chicherova first name to come out from 2008 re-tests
• Yelena Isinbayeva Says She’ll Sue For “Human Rights Violations” If Russia Is Banned From Rio It is not yet clear whom she would file a lawsuit against. *2nd Article
• Russia’s New Track Federation President Dmitry Shlyakhtin Thinks They Have “Between 50 And 60 Percent” Chance Of Competing In Rio Shlyakhtin: “We have looked through our documents and made them legally sound. A mouse would not be able to slip past us now!”
• WADA Investigation Into Sochi Doping Claims To Be Competed In Time For Rio The investigation will look into whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov‘s claim that he swapped hundreds of dirty urine samples in Sochi.

UK Sprint News

• Maybe Team USA Should Give This A Try: GB Men’s 4 X 100 Has Been Working With A Sports Psychologist To Help Prevent Their DNF/DQ Streak
• We’ll Never Understand UK Athletics’ Decisions: UKA Will Prevent Martyn Rooney From Defending His European Title Because They Want Him To Focus On Training For Rio This is the guy they made appeal his way onto the World team last year (and then made him captain). Euros are a month before the Olympics, but they say that’s too close. Meanwhile, they’ve made exceptions in the past for Mo Farah and any field athlete.
• GB 110 Hurdler Andy Pozzi Smashes His PB At Loughborough International With 13.32 In the 100, CJ Ujah came out on top with a 10.06 to James Dasaolu‘s 10.16.

High School News

• MB: Utah State Record Sprint Medley Team Unjustly DQed Despite Photo Evidence Proving The Wrong Call Was Made While there is a petition process, archaic rules do not allow video or photo evidence to be considered. You can help them by emailing the Utah High School Athletic Association and politely asking them to wake up and realize it’s 2016.
  *Facebook Discussion/Photo Evidence
• DyeStat Talks To Christopher Nilsen After He Sets The HS Pole Vault Record With 18-4.75 He broke world champion Shawn Barber‘s 18-3.25 mark from 2012.
  *T&F News Profile On Nilsen Nilsen’s coach says that he is “fearless” and uses “monster poles for a high school kid.” *MileSplit Profile
• MB: Michael Slagowski Triple Wins At Idaho State Champs: 9:36, 1:49, 4:16
• MB: Deep 3,000m Race In Oregon State Championships Top 7 were under 8:30.
• MB: Aaliyah Miller Runs HS-Leading 2:06.06 With Huge Negative Split
• Sad News: Alaskan High Schooler Dies Day After Collapsing At Finish Line Of 3,200m Race
  *MB: Kid dies the next day after 3200 meter run at regionals in Alaska

Distance Action: Manchester 10K

MB: Kenenisa Bekele (28:07) And Tirunesh Dibaba (31:16) Win Manchester 10k Bekele beat Wilson Kipsang (28:15) and David McNeill (28:39) while Dibaba made a triumphant comeback, beating Edna Kiplagat by 9 seconds.

• Bekele On Not Being Selected For Ethiopia’s Rio Marathon Team: “If I represent my country I would expect to do better than others. But they didn’t give me that chance.”
  *IAAF Recap *BBC Article
  
• LRC Fast 1,500s At Windsor Open: NZ’s Hamish Carson Misses Olympic Standard Again With 3:36.65; Canada’s World 800 Silver Medalist Melissa Bishop Wins In 4:09 Carson came close again after only missing by .05 last week. Nick Willis was on rabbit duty again with Nate Brannen, Lee Emanuel and Will Leer all in the field. Bishop’s race was a solid solo PR.
  *MB: NICK Willis super fit: video
• Records Fall Despite Difficult Conditions At Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon: Abraham Akopesha (62:09) And Joyceline Jepkosgei (69:07) Win Titles *Results
• Ayele Megersa Feisa (64:22) And Caroline Lefrak (74:45) Win Airbnb Brooklyn Half Former USA marathon champ Esther Erb was a close 2nd (74:51).