2016 Pre Classic *Results

LRC Live Day 2 Thread

LRC Recap: Asbel Kiprop Wins An Underwhelming Bowerman Mile, Mo Ahmed Goes For It In The Men’s 5K And Keni Harrison Gives The World Record A Scare Asbel Kiprop won a slow Bowerman mile, Keni Harrison went after the WR in the hurdles, and a whole lot more, plus a sick women’s steeple and Boris Berian winning the 800 (both recapped separately below).

LRC Ruth Jebet Wins The Greatest Women’s Steeple Ever Run, Emma Coburn Gets American Record What a race!
*Nice Read In Denver Post On Coburn’s Struggles This Winter *Coburn Video Interview

LRC Boris Berian (1:44.20) Front-Runs His Way To Victory At Pre, Becomes Third* American Man To Win Diamond League 800 Berian didn’t let the Nike lawsuit distract him as he won convincingly at Hayward Field (in his New Balance kit). *Nick Symmonds won two 800s at DL events in 2013 but they did not count for Diamond Race scoring purposes.

LRC Post-Race Video Interviews 25 videos. Drew Hunter talks Bowerman Mile, Emma Coburn her American record, Bernard Lagat his cold, and much, much more.

• Asafa Powell Blames Poor Starting Gun On His Loss To Justin Gatlin Powell complained that he could not hear the starter’s gun and reportedly Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers also complained.
• TJer Will Claye Caused A Scene During The Women’s Steeple As He Celebrated A Jump By Sprinting Onto The Track The women “did not appear to be affected” though Coburn called it “frustrating.”
• IAAF: Keni Harrison And Ruth Jebet Scare World 100H And Steeplechase Records Harrison’s 12.24 AR was just .03 off the WR from 1988.
• IAAF: Christian Taylor Throws Down The Gauntlet With 17.76m TJ World Lead Renaud Lavillenie beat Canada’s Shawn Barber on count back in the PV. Chaunte Lowe took the HJ in 1.95m as Vashti Cunningham finished 5th.
  *Renaud Lavillenie Wore University Of Oregon Speed Suit
• LaShawn Merritt Says He Doesn’t Care About His Overall Record Against Kirani James, Just The Big Races For those counting, James has as 12-7 record against Merritt.
• IAAF: Kirani James Over LaShawn Merritt With 44.22 To Merritt’s 44.39 Omar McLeod took the 110 hurdles.
• AP: Justin Gatlin Runs 9.88 To Smoke Asafa Powell (9.94) And Tyson Gay (9.98) Gatlin joked about Keni Harrison “stealing his thunder.”
  RRW: Asbel Kiprop Snags Fourth Bowerman Mile Win At Pre Classic Kiprop was happy to get the win, but disappointed he didn’t set a PR.
• Register-Guard: Former Duck English Gardner Rolls To Victory In 100m With 10.81
• Register-Guard Pre Mile Recaps
• USATF’s Pre American Highlights
• MB: Who were your biggest winners and losers at Pre?
• MB: 8:59.96 for Jebet, American Record for Coburn – That was the greatest women’s steeple ever
• MB: Two high school sub-4:00 miles today…and the reaction is “meh”
• MB: Drew Hunter singlet
• MB: Wheating and OTC Are Really Bad

Non-Pre Track Action: 40+ Year-Olds Impress

• Kim Collins Becomes The First Masters Runner To Break 10 Seconds In The 100 With A 9.93 PR
  *MB: Kim Collins became the first Master ever to go sub-10
• British Milers Club Grand Prix: Adelle Tracey Runs 2:01.24 To Beat Jenny Meadows On the men’s side, 44-year-old Anthony Whiteman ran an impressive 1:49.56 for 6th. *Full Results
• Canadian Sweep At Gotzis Hypo Multi Meet As Brianne Theisen-Eaton And Damian Warner Win
• The Guardian: GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson Targeting Olympic Gold Despite Shaky Qualification She was only 6th in Gotizs. *The Telegraph Article *BBC
• HS: Tyrese Cooper Leads High School MGX Team To 3:09.19 4 X 400
• Irish Teenager Elizabeth Morland Breaks National Heptathlon Record With 5,545 Points In Irish distance news, Ciara Mageen ran a 4:98 victory in Belgium and marathoner Sergiu Ciobanu lost his appeal of the controversial Olympic selections.

Doping News

• Eight Russians Among The 23 Positive London Games Re-Tests
• Russian HJer Anna Chicherova Continues To Compete Despite Reports She Was Caught In Beijing Re-Tests Her coach says they’ve received no notice from the IAAF so will continue to compete.
• Good Read: Seb Coe Slams UK Media; Says “It Would Be Delusional To Say London 2012 Was The Dirtiest Olympic Games Ever” We agree with him there; previous Olympics before effective drug testing were likely way dirtier.
• The Telegraph Visits Moscow’s Discredited Anti-Doping Lab And Talks With Athletes And New Federation Head They all swear Russia has turned over a new leaf and some are still delusional (or desperate) enough to contest the original allegations in the first place.
• What A Joke: Former UCI President Hein Verbruggen Wins Defamation Case Against Jurnalist Paul Kimmage Kimmage was one of the main journalists who spoke out about doping with the UCI and Lance Armstrong. Now Kimmage will have to pay Verbruggen $12,000 and pay his legal fees.
• Australian Anti-Doping Gets 20% Budget Cut

Non-Pre Weekend Results *Comrades Results

• South Africa’s David Gatebe Smashes Comrades Marathon “Down” Record
• Charne Bosman Beats Out Defending Champion Caroline Wostmann To Win Comrades Wostmann had an 11-minute lead at one point, but had to take numerous “walking breaks” and at one point ran into one of the lead motorcycles.
  *MB: Max King 8th at Comrades Marathon; Colleen De Reuck 7th
• World Half Champ Peres Jepchirchir Wins Ottawa 10K In 31:29 After Almost Collapsing At The Finish Line, Struggling In The Hot And Humid Conditions Morocco’s Mohammed Ziani (28:37) was the surprise winner in the men’s race.
• Canadians Damian Warner And Brianne Theisen-Eaton Lead After Day 1 Of Gotzis Hypo Multi-Event Meet
  *The Guardian: Three PRs Have GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson Sitting In 2nd
  *The Telegraph: Katarina Johnson-Thompson Puts Beijing “Scars” Firmly In The Past *BBC *AW
• Rebecca Hilland And Andrew Douglas Win British European Mountain Running Championships Trials

Rio 2016 Zika Fears Continue

• 150 Expert Doctors, Scientists And Researchers Say Rio Should Be Moved Due To Zika Concerns They fear it will help spread Zika worldwide and accuse the World Health Organisation of having a “conflict of interest” because of the financial investments.
• World Health Organization Rejects Calls To Move Rio 2016 Due To Zika They say it will “not significantly alter” the spread of the virus.

Week That Was

WTW Top 5 Winners From Hoka Meet, 40-Year-Old Kim Collins Beats 20-Year-Old Trayvon Bromell, Lawi Lalang Struggles, And Is Mike Powell BACK?! Plus read about the dude who tried to hang with Chris Solinsky at the state XC meet.

Doping News

• IOC Finds 23 Positives In London Olympics Doping Retests 23 athletes from 6 countries and 5 sports. What’s the over/under on how many of them are Russians?
  *MB: IOC Finds 23 Positives from 2012 London Olympics
• Maria Sharapova On Russia’s Provisional Olympic Team For Rio Despite Her Provisional Drug Suspension This should help out Russia with its doping image issues.
• Inside Source Says None Of The 31 Caught In 2008 Olympic Doping Retests Were American
• Kenya’s Parliament Approves Changes To Anti-Doping Legislation In Hopes Of Becoming WADA Compliant
  *Kenyan Media Article With More Specifics On The Legislation Changes
• Botswana’s Former World 400 Champ Amantle Montsho Planning Comeback In 2016 Her drug suspension will end on August 1st, but she’ll miss the Olympics as she won’t have a qualifying time by the July 11th deadline.
• Joke Video: Australian Race Walker Jared Tallent Awards Himself Mock Olympic Gold Medal In His Backyard Tallent was upgraded to 2012 Olympic gold after the Russian winner was caught doping.
• Study Claims That The Olympic Brand In Decline Ahead Of Rio 2016 With drug and corruption scandals left and right, you’d assume this much, but the study focuses on the negative impact from the Zika virus and other Rio 2016-specific issues.

Previous Pre-Pre Classic News

• Michael Slogowski Says He’s “A Little Nervous Racing Pros For The First Time” But Is Looking Forward To Running Against Competition Almost all his races this year have been solo efforts.
• Press Conference Quotes From Vashti Cunningham, Sanya Richards-Ross, Aries Merritt, Christian Taylor And Justin Gatlin Richards-Ross ran a 51-second 400 in practice leading up to Pre.
• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Faces Crucial Injury Test In Pre 100m She’s still working through a toe injury which has required her to take time off and miss several meets.
• The Daily Relay Gives Their Best Pre Classic Matchups
• 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!

Throwing News / Two Throwing Legends Aren’t Done Yet

• Totally Awesome: Adam Nelson, Double Gold Medalist In SP, Says He’s Coming Out Of Retirement And Will Compete At 2016 Trials
• 2004 Olympic Hammer Gold Medalist Koji Murofushi, 41, Will Return For Rio After Not Competing In 2015
• Goldie Sayers Says She Should Have Celebrated Olympic Bronze On The Podium – Instead She Learned Of Her Medal While Driving On A Highway Eight Years Later
• Goldie Sayers Says She Might Not Compete In Rio If Russia Isn’t Banned

More Field Event News: Have You Wondered How Pole Vaulters Train? World Pole Vault Champion Shawn Barber Likes To Play Volleyball Three Times A Week For X-Training

What Makes Asbel Kiprop So Good? We Try To Tell You

LRCA Week With The World's Best Miler: An Exclusive Look At Asbel Kiprop's Last Two Workouts Before The Pre Classic

News From The UK

• Jess Andrews “Still Shocked” By Olympic 10,000m Qualification, Will Take It Easy For A Week Before Talking To Coach About A Plan For Rio “I’ve not really been telling people what I’ve been up to while living here,” Andrews added. “I haven’t been racing on the British scene recently, so that’s why it’s come as quite a shock.”
• Catching Up With British Sprint Star Dina Asher-Smith, Who Has Gone From Being A Kit Carrier At The 2012 Olympics To An Olympic Medal Hopeful

US Distance News

Sunday Track Action – The Diamond League Goes To Africa – Rabat DL *Full Results *TV & Streaming *Hengelo Results

LRC Rabat Recap: Almaz Ayana’s World Record Attempt Comes Up Short (14:16.31), Caster Semenya Wins Again (1:56.64), Another WL For Conseslus Kipruto (8:02.77), And Pierre-Ambroise Bosse (1:44.51) Gets His First Career DL Win The first-ever African DL didn’t disappoint. Find out what happened here.

• IAAF: Ruswahl Samaai Equals African All-Comers Record With 8.38 In LJ Caterine Ibarguen‘s TJ winning streak extends to 33 and Bogdan Bondarenko took the HJ with a 2.31m clearance.
• IAAF: Jamaica Gets Double Wins From Janieve Russell (400H) And Elaine Thompson (100)
• IAAF: Ayana Exceeds All Expectations
• MB: The Diamond League goes to Africa – Official 2016 Rabat Discussion Thread

*FBK Games: *Hengelo Results
*MB: Dejen Gebremeskel smokes the field – runs 13:00 in Hengelo!! Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey won the women’s 5,000 in 14:58.
*IAAF Recap: Dafne Schippers Clocks World-Leading 22.02 In Rainy Conditions
*3 Races Over 3 Days For Schippers It would have been a perfect 3-for-3, but the Dutch 4 x 100 relay team botched a handoff and was a DNF at the FBK Games.
*Loughborough: Jessica Ennis-Hill Makes Return From Injury In Loughborough Javelin She threw a modest 41.69m (her PR is 48.33), but said she was free from the Achilles pain that cancelled her indoor season. *More Quotes From Ennis

Doping Updates

• Good Read: InsideTheGames.biz’s David Owen Has Long Profile Piece On WADA President Craig Reedie: “The Man With The Impossible Job” Reedie: “The only good thing about the [Maria] Sharapova case was that it emerged that in one year she made more money than the total of WADA’s budget.”
• Reedie Looking To Build $1 Million+ Doping Investigations Fund Within A Matter Of Months Apparently Dick Pound‘s investigation into Russia cost WADA $1.54 million.
• Reedie Says That 47 Out Of 49 Russians Who Failed Drug Tests In The Last 6 Months Tested Positive For Meldonium He also said that they would be meeting with Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov to discuss his story about swapping samples at Sochi 2014.
• Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan Hasn’t Given Up Hope That China’s Wang Junxia Could Still Be Retroactively Banned After The Emergence Of A Letter Written From 1995 O’Sullivan: “Whether they do it now or whether they do it in 10 years’ time, it’s not going away.”
  *MB Archives: Chinese 10,000 WR holder Wang Junxia admitted to Chinese doping in 1995
• Russia Says It’s Financing Extra Doping Tests For Athletes That May Go To Rio

A $95 Billion Company Vs. The Former McDonald’s Worker – Nike V. Berian

LRCGet The Inside Scoop On Why Nike Is Suing World Indoor Champ Boris Berian For Breach Of Contract

It’s A Busy Weekend – Hoka One One, Ostrava, Manchester & Rabat Are All Taking Place *Hoka Full Results *Ostrava Full Results *Manchester Schedule & Streaming *Manchester Results

LRC Oxy Recap: Evan Jager (8:15), Eric Jenkins (13:24), Hassan Mead (3:37) & Kate Grace (4:05) Impress With Victories; Leo Manzano (3:43) Struggles Find out who excelled and struggled late at night in California in the meet where none of the races were amazingly fast.

Oxy On The Boards MB: Official 2016 Hoka One One Oxy Live Discussion Thread
*MB: 10,000m Runner Hassan Mead Just Crushed Wheating and Manzano at 1500 – They’re Done
*MB: Oxy drinking game

LRC Ostrava Full Results *Bolt Race Video

LRC Ostrava Recap: Usain Bolt Wins In 9.98; Breakout Runs From Young 1,500 Runners Filip Sasinek (3:36.32) & Konstanze Klosterhalfen (4:06.91) Bolt crushed the competition, beating a man Gatlin beat by .30 by .23, but wasn’t happy and shook his head when he saw the time. MB *Official Ostrava Thread
*IAAF Recap: Thomas Rohler Throws World Leader On Last Throw To Win Javelin
*Unknown 20-Year-Old Czech Runs Huge PR To Win 1,500 Over Chris O’Hare In 3:36.32 American Cristian Soratos was way back.
*19-Year-Old Konstanze Klosterhalfen Of Germany Gets Olympic Standard (4:06.91) And Win

Manchester: *Results

• Greg Rutherford Jumps Great CityGames Record (8.20m) In Manchester, 40-Year-Old Kim Collins Beats 20-Year-Old Trayvon Bromell At 100m Dafne Schippers the women’s 100.
• Greg Rutherford Credits Dan Pfaff For All Of His Amazing Success Rutherford, like LetsRun.com, realizes pure genius when he sees it. “He (Pfaff) is the reason why I’ve won the medals that I’ve won.”
• Kim Collins Says The Hardest Part About Competing At Age 40 Is Being Away From His Family
• Team GB Golden Girl Jess Ennis-Hill Will Open Her Season Sunday In Javelin At Loughborough International
• MB: Wow: 40-year-old Kim Collins just beat 20-year-old Trayvon Bromell in 100m