June 07, 2016 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For June 07, 2016

Quote Of The Day

“A normal person can take banned substances if they want to. So why can’t athletes take them as well. How else can we achieve high results?”

– Russia’s three-time 4 x 400 Olympic silver medalist Tatyana Firova speaking about doping in sport after her retested sample from the 2008 Olympics came back positive.

The Latest In The Nike Lawsuit Against The Former McDonald’s Worker

Wow LRC Boris Berian’s Legal Team Files Its First Response To Nike Lawsuit – Alleges Nike’s Legal Strategy Is “Clearly” Designed To Interfere With His Training Things are certainly heating up in the courtroom. Berian’s legal team argues that Nike clearly didn’t match the NB offer as they included reductions in the contract. Meanwhile, the stress of it has caused Berian to pull out of his final two pre-Olympic Trials races.

Goucher_Kara_NYCHM_2011_Cropped_Jane_Monti LRC Pro Runners React To Boris Berian’s Contract – Most Greatly Underestimated How Much He Was OfferedSome guessed it might be as low as 35-40k for the guy who is now the World Indoor champ.

Nike Vs. Berian Lawsuit Makes The Front Page Of The WSJ he article is behind a paywall which you may be able to bypass via google news here.
MB: Wow: Nike’s mafia-themed party where LetsRun.com was allegedly one of 3 parties to be ‘hit ‘makes it into the WSJ
MB:Official Discussion Thread For Boris Berian’s Contract Dispute

High School News

There Was An Epic HS Pole Vault Clash Over The Weekend As Chris Nilsen And Mondo Duplantis Both Went Over 18 Feet Nilsen followed up his recent oudoor NR with the win in 18-3 as Duplantis, the indoor record holder, cleared 18-0.
DyeStat:10 Biggest Takeaways From California State Championships
*MB:Blazing fast last laps at the CA state 1,600

2016 Birmingham Diamond League*Results

LRC Recap: David Rudisha Is BACK – Runs World’s Second Fastest 600m Ever But Is Nearly Beaten, Mo Farah Gets The One Record He Didn’t Have, Asbel Kiprop Sub-3:30, And The American 800m Women Struggle AgainRudisha is back but beatable, Farah now owns all the British records, the 800m is a different event this year, and Caterine Ibarguen‘s 38-win streak in the triple jump came to an end as English Gardner and Andre De Grasse got wins.

Sally Pearson Upbeat Despite” Disgusting” Time In Return From Year Out With Injury She was only 7th place but still feels she can medal in Rio.
*Good Read:Pearson Says She “Retired In Her Mind” When She First Broke Her Wrist Last Year“I didn’t want to come back to the sport and hated everything about the world. I was just sick of getting injured.”
After Getting Destroyed By Semenya And Niyonsaba, GB’s Lynsey Sharp Acknowledges That “Everyone Can See It’s Two Separate Races”
IAAF: Mutaz Essa Barshim Bounces Back With A 2.37m Victory; Caterine Ibarguen’s 34-Win Streak In The Triple Jump Ends The last time Ibarguen lost was the London 2012 Olympics. Here she lost to the same woman that beat her then, Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova.
Greg Rutherford’s 9-Win Streak Comes To An End As He’s Only 5thMarquise Goodwin won in 8.42m.
IAAF: Keni Harrison And Kirani James Impress With Meet Records Harrison won the 100H in 12.46 while James ran 44.23. English Gardner won over Dafne Schippers in the 100 (11.02) while Andre De Grasse won the 200 (20.16).
IAAF:World Leads For Asbel Kiprop And Conseslus Kipruto
MB:Official 2016 Birmingham Diamond League Discussion Thread
MB:AJEE WILSON LOOKS DEFEATED – The Semenya Effect?
MB:Mo Farah ran really slop sloppy today!
MB:Womens 800 now a joke

Doping News

Two Russians Register Negative B Samples After Failing Initial Beijing 2008 Retests Apparently there is concern “that doping agents are gradually disappearing from samples after they are thawed” and HJer Anna Chicherova has delayed the testing of her B sample until June 8th.
Mo Farah Says He Feels Vindicated In Staying With Alberto Salazar After Recent Rumors That USADA Has Dropped Their Investigation
Tunisia’s Habiba Ghribi Receives 2012 Olympic And 2011 World Steeple Gold Medals That Were Stripped From Russian Doper Yuliya Zaripova
IOC Establish Joint Integrity Intelligence Unit For Rio 2016

Saturday Road Results

Brianne Nelson Wins Freihofer’s Run For Women In 15:46; Sara Hall Second (15:56) It was the first American winner since 2005 as the race moved to American-only prize money. *Results
*The Daily Gazette Article
Barselius Kipyego (60:30) And Ashete Bekere (70:40) Win Ceske Budejovice Half MarathonGeoffrey Mutai‘s first race in 8 months did not go very well as he was 6th place in 64:28.

Gender Controversy Continues

Phoebe Wright Tweets Great Photo: What It’s Like Racing Caster Semenya Why aren’t more of Semenya’s competitors speaking out? *Race Video
*MB:OK girls what say you about competing against Semenya?
*MB:Womens 800 now a joke
*Caster Semenya Running 800 And 1,500 At This Month’s African Championships
Duathlete Chris Mosier Will Be First Known Transgender Athlete To Represent US Men’s Team In International Competition Mosier has a TUE to take testosterone injections every 10 days to get within the normal male range.
Competitors Upset About Racing Transgender Girl At Alaska State Meet One said, “I’m glad that this person is comfortable with who they are … but I don’t think it’s competitively completely 100-percent fair.”
*MB:Alaska boy selected for girls all-state honors

Doping Updates

Jamaican Olympic Association Confirm That An Athlete Tested Positive In Beijing 2008 Retests They won’t confirm the name, but it’s rumored to be Nesta Carter, which could cost Usain Bolt his 4 x 100 gold from 2008.
WADA To Share Potential New Evidence On Russian Doping With IAAF Before Olympic Ban Verdict There were some strong words from WADA director general David Howman and Dick Pound about not being concerned about “innocent” Russians being banned as well.
Ethiopian Team Doctor Confirms 5 Of The 6 Recently Suspended Athletes Tested Positive For Meldonium The doctor said two of the six would have made Ethiopia’s Olympic team “if they were clean,” but are still suspended for now.
WADA Investigation Into Doping At Sochi 2014 Among Agenda Items At International Ski Congress

2008 Jamaican Positive Isn’t That Big Of A Deal

Nesta Carter Is Rumored To Be The Jamaican Who Tested Positive At 2008 Olympics The positive is only for methylhexanamine, which normally results in a short suspension, but it could impact a 4 x 100 gold medal for Bolt. The B sample hasn’t been tested.

Birmingham DL Is Sunday (9-11am ET)

LRCSchedule, Entries, TV/Streaming Information
Provisional Entry Lists For Birmingham Diamond League Meet LRC faithful, please note that we will not be previewing or recapping the meet as we normally do as we have to get ready for the 2016 NCAA champs.
Five Events To Watch At The Birmingham Diamond League On Sunday
Christine Ohuruogu And Dina Asher-Smith Will Lead GB Sprint Charge In Birmingham
Mo Farah Is Racing 3,000
World’s Best LJers Will Do Battle At Birmingham DLGreg Rutherford, Marquise Goodwin, World indoor champ Marquis Dendy and Christian Taylor.

Women’s 800 News

Good Read:Alysia Montano Says Dopers “Stole The Best Moments” Of Her Career Montano writes an emotional essay and says, “What hurt the most was that it made me feel like my career wasn’t real.”
GB’s Laura Muir Opens Her Season With A 2:00.57 Victory In France

Sprint Stuff

Justin Gatlin Says He’s Tired Of Being Portrayed As The Villain“It’s hurtful, it’s hurtful to be looked at as a villain because that’s not how I portray myself, that’s not how my son portrays me or my family.”
Saturday:World Youth Champion Candace Hill To Make Outdoor Pro Debut At American Track League Meet In Atlanta
Usain Bolt Says His 2002 World Junior Champs Gold Is His “Best Achievement” Bolt: “The reason is because it was actually in Jamaica. It feels much better and more pleasurable to win in front of your home crowd.”
Good Read:USATF Has Lengthy Profile On New American 100H Record Setter Keni Harrison In high school, Harrison’s older sister used a new pair of spikes to bribe her to do track full-time.
“Did You Know?” Interview With Bulgarian Sprinter Ivet Lalova Lalova says she loves to write and sing in the shower.
*MB Archives:Ivet Lalova Blows Employee #1 a Kiss.
Register-Guard:Sanya Richards-Ross Not Ready To Be The Retiring Type Doctors tried to talk Richards-Ross out of her 3rd foot surgery, but she “wanted to give it one last shot.”
Usain Bolt Predicts Yohan Blake Will Take Over As The “Face Of Global Athletics” When He Retires
Sports Illustrated Video Interview With Allyson Felix Felix is currently injured and in the pool, isn’t worried about Zika in Rio.

Five Sports Recommended For Tokyo 2020 Inclusion Baseball and softball, karate, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing are all approved for the 2020 Games.

Monday Was The 41st Anniversary Of Pre’s Death

Recommended Read:Mark Cullen Writes About Watching Steve Prefontaine Win The 1972 Olympic Trials Cullen was a “nodding acquaintance” with Pre and shares a heartfelt story and exchange they had after the Trials.
SF Examiner:Steve Prefontaine Remembered On 41st Anniversary Of His Death
LRCSteve Prefontaine Archives

LetsJump.com

Christian Taylor Says He Was Motivated After Becoming “The Biggest Loser Of All Time” When He Jumped Over 18 Meters And Lost To Pedro Pablo Pichardo Last Year“I will not take anything for granted. I will attack every competition like it’s my last. That’s the goal now.”
Photo:Take A Look At Marquis Dendy’s Nasty Ankle Sprain With how bad the photo looks, he’s lucky it was just a sprain.
“Blade Jumper” Markus Rehm “Not Giving Up Hope” On Rio 2016 Olympics After Study On Use Of Prosthetic Blades Is Inconclusive The study found that his blade was a disadvantage with his start and run-up, but improved his “jump efficiency.”
German LJer Sosthene Moguenara Leaps 7.16m, The Farthest Jump In 3 Years Moguenara wasn’t even a finalist at Worlds last year, but her jump is the longest since US’s Brittney Reese‘s 7.25m in 2013.
IAAF First Impressions Q&A With Ukraine HJer Bohdan Bondarenko Interestingly, Bondarenko’s first and current coach is his father.
GB High Jumper Robbie Grabarz Has A Long Road Back Since Winning Bronze At London 2012, But Is Ready To Set The Bar High Again Grabarz struggled for a long time after getting knee surgery, but has come back around this year, winning silver at World Indoors.

Doping News

Yelena Isinbayeva Accuses US, UK, Germany And Kenya Of “Systematic Doping” Isinbayeva has also threatened to sue if she is not allowed to compete in Rio. Not a very diplomatic tone from someone trying to get elected onto the IOC Athletes’ Commission.
Good Read:Nick Butler For InsideTheGames: “Russian Athletics Ban Must Remain For Rio If Sport Is Really Serious About Ending Doping” The IOC meet this week in Lausanne and what they discuss could “be heavily involved in ‘suggesting’ a solution” for what IAAF ultimately decides on June 17th.
IAAF Extends Bans For Three Former Athletics Kenya Officials Isaiah Kiplagat, David Okeyo and Joseph Kinyua were provisionally suspended until May 29th, but have had those suspensions extended for 6-months.
Opinion Piece:Why Banning Kenya From Rio Presents An Olympic Dilemma

NCAA Championship Season Has Started Results: DI WestDI EastAll NCAA Results

Brandon McBride Highlights NCAA Preliminary 800 With 1:44.89 Dominating Win In The East Florida’s Andres Arroyo was a surprise non-qualifier.
Donavan Brazier Topped NCAA West 800 Action With A 1:46.53, Winning His Heat By More Than Two Seconds
Big Blow To Oregon: Star Jasmine Todd Announces She’s Ending Her UO Career She was entered in the NCAA West meet, but scratched due to “unforeseen circumstances” that were “out of my control.”
*MB:Jasmine Todd DNS at West Regional and no longer a duck
Mississippi State’s Marta Freitas Runs NCAA-Leading 4:09.80 In the men’s 1,500, Clayton Murphy and Henry Wynne were the heat winners. Izaic Yorks, Sam Prakel, Blake Haney and Dillon Maggard were the heat winners in the West.
Oregon Qualifies 32 Entries For NCAAsEdward Cheserek won the 10K (29:45) comfortably by 5 seconds over Futsum Zienasellassie and finished 2nd in the 5K 1 second behind Portland’s Woody Kincaid (14:09).
*MB:Did Ashlee Maton lodge protest @ West Regional?
Arkansas Women’s 4 X 400 Runs World-Leading 3:25.48 They broke their school record and now sit 7th all-time in the NCAA. Dominique Scott won the 10K and then came back and qualified in the 5K in a race won by OSU’s Aurora Dybedokken.
Michigan’s Mason Ferlic Highlights Steeple Action With 8:29 Win
New Mexico’s Courtney Frerichs Won Her Steeple Heat By 18 Seconds In 9:51 New Hampshire’s Elinor Purrier was the fastest in the East with 9:55.
Stanford Gets 12 Athletes And A Relay To NCAAs Among their distance qualifiers were Aisling Cuffe (5K), Sean McGorty (5K), Grant Fisher (5K), and Elise Cranny (1,500).
LSU Sending 24 Athletes To NCAAs Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake ran a wind-aided 19.96.
Texas A&M Qualifies 33 Entries For NCAAs
Texas Punches 23 Tickets To NCAAs

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

The Pre Classic is this weekend and the Bowerman Mile is LOADED with Olympic champ Taoufik Makhloufi, all three medalists from Worlds last year, plus studs like Matthew Centrowitz, Silas Kiplagat and Ayanleh Souleiman. But the headliner is Asbel Kiprop, and our man on the ground in Kenya, Andy Arnold, says hand him the victory and world record later this summer after getting a behind-the-scenes look at his preparation for Pre.
*MB: The secrets of Asbel Kiprop revealed - Our man on the ground in Kenya says hand him the gold and WRecord

The Olympic Trials Are Less Than A Month Away

LRC LetsRun.com Olympic Trials Q&A: Who Are The Favorites To Make Rio? What Big Names Are Going To Stay Home? Wednesday marks three weeks to go until the Olympic Trials. With that in mind, it’s time for the LRC crew to start looking ahead. Who looks good? Who needs a lot of help? Who might surprise? Dare we say who will make the team?

**NCAAs Start Wednesday *Schedule And TV/Streaming**

LRC 2016 NCAA Outdoor Women’s 5K/10K Preview: Arkansas’ Dominique Scott Goes For the Double That Eluded Her Last Year With Molly Seidel out for the season with a stress fracture and Erin Finn focused on the Olympic Trials, Scott, who finished second in both events last year, is the NCAA leader at both distances (15:25/31:56). On paper, SEC rival Chelsea Blaase is her biggest competition in the 10k but seems past her peak; could Georgetown’s Katrina Coogan threaten in the 5k after moving up from the 1500?

LRC 2016 NCAA Outdoor Women’s Mid-D/Steeple Preview: Can Raevyn Rogers (800), Marta Freitas (1,500) & Courtney Frerichs (3,000 SC) Deliver As Favorites? Freitas (4:09.80) and Frerichs (9:29.31) have SBs that put them well ahead of the rest of the NCAA, while Rogers is the defending NCAA indoor/outdoor champion. Can indoor mile champ Kaela Edwards challenge Freitas in the 1,500? What about Stanford’s super-soph Olivia Baker (NCAA-leading 2:01.02) in the 800?

LRC 2016 NCAA Outdoor Men’s Mid-D/Steeple Preview: Clayton Murphy Vs. Izaic Yorks Vs. Henry Wynne In An Epic 1,500; 1:44 Men Brandon McBride & Shaquille Walker Battle In 800 The men’s 1,500 is totally stacked (Penn State’s Brannon Kidder and Oregon’s Blake Haney are among the other contenders) while a resurgent Donavan Brazier could threaten in the 800. Mason Ferlic of Michigan is the favorite in the steeple.

LRC 2016 NCAA Outdoor Men’s 5K/10K Preview: After Losing Twice In The Regular Season, Is Edward Cheserek Finally Vulnerable At NCAAs? Cheserek looked rough in April and early May but flashed his old form at regionals. Can NAU’s 27:52 man Futsum Zienasellassie challenge him in the 10k? What about Virginia Tech’s Thomas Curtin, Stanford’s Sean McGorty, Villanova’s Patrick Tiernan or Syracuse’s Justyn Knight in the 5k?

Upcoming Diamond League Action: Oslo Is Thursday TV & StreamingSchedule & Entries

Hmmm …Genzebe Dibaba Pulls Out Of Oslo Dream Mile The race had been touted as a WR attempt by Dibaba who gave no reason for her withdrawal and hasn’t raced since World Indoors. Ruth Jebet also canceled her WR attempt in Oslo as she pulled out of the steeple.
Dafne Schippers And Elaine Thompson Will Clash Over 200m Schippers has won all five of their career races, but they’ve been close finishes with margins of .03 to .14 of a second. *Provisional Entry Lists
June 16:Christian Taylor And Teddy Tamgho Will Highlight Stockholm Triple Jump Also 2008 Olympic champ Nelson Evora and 3-time NCAA champ Omar Craddock.

Doping Updates: Russia’s Date With Destiny Is In 10 Days

Russian 3-Time Olympic Silver Medalist Tatyana Firova Suggests Athletes Should Be Able To Take Banned Substances As “Normal” People Do She asks, “How else can we achieve high results?” Firova recently failed a drug test when her 2008 Beijing sample was retested.
Olympic HJ Champ Anna Chicherova Records Clean “B” Sample After Her London 2012 Retest Initially Was Positive For Doping Her Beijing “A” sample also tested positive, but she for some reason has delayed the “B” sample retest until June 8th.
Russian Ministry Of Sport To Introduce Anti-Doping Classes In School Starting Next Year We’ll give them this, they’re trying really hard to look like they’re trying.
The Guardian: Russia Begins Charm Offensive Ahead Of Doping Ban Decision A good synopsis of how Russia started off denying and calling the WADA report a “political hit job”, but have now facing Rio ban have changed their tune to one of reform.
Madrid Doping Control Lab Has Accreditation Suspended By WADA The decision was taken as a response to WADA’s Foundation Board declaring the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency noncompliant.

What Is Wrong With Some Countries?

Canada: National Record Holder Lanni Marchant In A Battle With Athletics Canada To Go To Rio Despite far exceeding the Olympic standards and Canada’s extra tough standards, Athletics Canada may not send Marchant in the 10K and marathon, but only the 10K. And they won’t tell her until July 11th.
Athletics Illustrated Rips Head Coach Peter Eriksson For Tweeting On The Topic And Then Refusing To Comment To The MediaChristopher Kelsall gives a good rundown of the situation and also explains why Canada’s “proof of fitness” qualifying requirement should be done away with.
Canadian Running Magazine Article That Broke The Story Marchant has reason to be sore at Athletics Canada. They didn’t send her to London 2012 in any event even after she ran 2:31.
Sweden: Sign A Petition To Help Get Swedish Marathoner Mikael Ekvall To The Olympics Ekvall is Sweden’s fastest marathoner in 25 years, but isn’t being sent despite running 2:12:07 (the Swedish federation’s standard is 2:12:00, the IAAF’s 2:19:00). Ridiculous.

Weekend Track Action – Results: Furman 1,500ATLFestival Of MilesMusic City Distance Carnival

MB:Morgan Uceny Runs Her Fastest 1,500 Since 2012 – 4:03.94 In Furman Elite Race Uceny just beat out Canada’s Nicole Sifuentes by .03. NJ-NY Track Club’s Colby Alexander won the men’s race in 3:37.32.
Italy’s Daniele Meucci And Turkey’s Esma Aydemir Win European 10,000 Cup
Jordan McNamara Wins Saint Louis Festival Of Miles In 3:56.39Frezer Legesse (3:57.24) and Cristian Soratos (3:57.39) were also sub-4. *Results
2016 American Track League – Atlanta Results Distance highlights included Jamaica’s former NCAA champ Natoya Goule winning the 800 in 1:59.38 from Justine Fedronic (1:59.86) and Rachel Johnson taking the steeple in 9:46. In sprint action, winners included Asafa Powell (100 – 10.01) and Queen Harrison (100H – 12.72).
*MB:Discussion Thread
Sanya Richards-Ross Carried Off Track After Pulling Up With Hamstring Injury It was also a rough day for Dee Dee Trotter, who had to receive treatment for an asthma attack and Lolo Jones, who was a DNS with injury.
2016 Music City Distance Carnival ResultsCharles Jock ran 1:14.92 in the 600m to beat out Cas Loxsom (1:14.96) and Eliud Rutto.
Poland’s Pawel Fajdek Extends His Hammer Throw World Lead To 81.71m At European Athletics Festival
Asian Junior Champs Recap:100m Victories By Khairul Hafiz Jantan (10.36) And Liu Qun (11.84) Highlight

David Torrence Will Run For Peru In 2016 Olympics

LRC Q&A:David Torrence Talks About Why He’s Switching Nationalities To Peru, Seb Coe’s Criticism And Why He Wants To Run The 800/1,500 Double In Rio Torrence said he’s hoping to inspire the people of Peru by representing them in Rio and said that he had to do some soul searching before reaching a decision. “I’ll acknowledge that getting to the Olympics now is a much easier task. But if anything, that made me want to run for the U.S. even more.”
*MB: David Torrence request to compete for Peru granted!

Other Citizenship News: GB Olympian Julia Bleasdale Hopes To Run For Germany In Rio She was 8th in the 5K and 10K at London 2012.

Nike Vs. Berian

Nike Seeking Federal Court Order To Halt Boris Berian From Running With New Balance Gear Nike had the “right of first refusal” and claim they matched the NB offer. Berian’s lawyer says, “We have a different view on that, and this matter will play itself it out in the courts.”
*MB: Boris Berian forced to scratch out of the rest of my races, maybe even the trials

Week That Was

WTWMolly Huddle And Emma Coburn Open Up Fast, NCAA Regional Flops And Kim Collins Breaks 10 At Age 40 Who flopped at NCAA Regionals? Does your state let transgender athletes compete without treatment? We answer those questions and more.

2016 Adrian Martinez Classic

Full Meet Recap LRC 2016 Adrian Martinez Classic: HSers Sammy Watson (US #1 2:03.07 800) & Thomas Ratcliffe (4:01.50 Mile) Run Fast As Brandon Johnson (1:46.79) & Gabriele Grunewald (15:25.40) Pick Up WinsAndrew Wheating (4th in 800 in 1:47.33), David Torrence (8th in 1:48.55) and Kim Smith (4th in 5k in 15:32.10) were among the big names who raced in Concord, Mass., on Thursday night as a ton of athletes chased Olympic Trials standards in the 800, mile and 5,000.
*MB: Thomas Ratcliffe sub 4 attempt at Adrian Martinez Classic – Official Discussion Thread
*MB: Ratcliffe just misses 4:00 barrier!

Boston Will Host An Even Better Meet In Two Weeks

LRC Wayde van Niekerk, Robby Andrews, Morgan Uceny, Ben True, Abbey D Added To adidas Boost Boston GamesJenn Suhr, Nick Willis, Yohan Blake and Meseret Defar were previously announced for the June 17-18 meet.

Other News Of Note

Jess Andrews’ Coach Told Her 11 Months Ago She Could Make Rio
Japanese Comedian Who Just Ran 2:44 Marathon Will Run Marathon In Rio For Cambodia
Kuwait Ban Unlikely To Be Lifted In Time For Rio The ban is meaningless as they will be allowed to compete under the Olympic flag.
President Of The Jamaica Olympic Association Won’t Confirm Or Deny That A Jamaican Medalist Tested Positive In 2012

Field Event News

GB Decathlete Ashley Bryant’s Olympic Hopes In Doubt After Airline Loses His Pole Vault Poles Bryant was only 44 points short of the standard after borrowing a pole a foot longer than the one he’s used to and missing his PR by 30cm.
*BBC Article He may try to qualify elsewhere and UKA said they will consider his exceptional circumstances.
Greg Rutherford: “It’s great I’m the favourite for Rio. I love the pressure.” Rutherford has a 10-competition winning streak going since last summer and is the bookmakers’ favorite for the Rio LJ.
Sports Illustrated Documentary On Caitlyn Jenner Will Premiere Monday At 9 AM ET In “Jenner: 40 Years After Gold,” Jenner reflects on the journey since winning Olympic gold at the 1976 Montreal Games.
*AP:Caitlyn Jenner To Mark Olympic Anniversary On SI Cover

Marathon News

Ethiopia Officially Chooses Its Rio Marathon Squad; Women’s Team Sees Some Changes Selectors still foolishly left off Kenenisa Bekele, but they took our advice with the women’s squad and added Tirfi Tsegaye and Tigist Tufa to join Mare Dibaba. *Discuss
*LRC2016 Ethiopian Olympic Marathon Team Announced – Ethiopians Leave Off World’s Fastest Woman And Arguably The World’s Greatest Distance Runner Ever
Kenenisa Bekele:“I am very disappointed by the announcement … The selection process was biased and the result unjust.” The criteria required you to run at least 2 major marathons in the last year, but Bekele says they didn’t inform athletes until it was too late.
Good Read:Jared Ward Gets Nice Local Profile Piece And Video On Making The Olympic Team And Prep For Rio Watch the video – you’ll see Ward is not only an Olympic caliber runner, but he’s got a decent golf game too.
Australian All-Comers Records Of 2:08:42 And 2:27:17 Under Threat At This Weekend’s Gold Coast Marathon Defending champ and record holder Kenneth Mungara faces 2:05 man Peter Some and Yuki Kawauchi. Women are lead by sub-2:24 runners Gulume Tollessa and Meseret Mengistu.

More Upcoming Diamond League Action

June 16: Steeplechase WR Could Go Down At Stockholm DL With A Ruth Jebet And Hyvin Kiyeng Rematch They’ll also face Olympic silver medalist Sofia Assefa, 2015 Diamond Race winner Virginia Nyambura and African champion Hiwot Ayalew.
June 5th:Provisional Entry Lists For Birmingham Diamond League Meet
Overall Diamond League Points Updates There have only been 4 out of 14 meets, but in some events it’s not too early to predict who will win the overall series.
*Meet-By-Meet Video Highlights
July 15: World Indoor Silver Medalist Pascal Martinot-Lagarde Will Headline 110H Field At Monaco DL Meet

NCAA Champs Are Next Week Men’s EntriesWomen’s Entries

Arkansas Women Favored In Pre-NCAA National Rankings Kentucky and Texas are ranked 2-3; Oregon moved down from 3rd to 6th.
Texas A&M Leads Men’s DI Rankings Going Into NCAAs Florida and Oregon are ranked 2-3.

2016 Pre Classic*Results

LRCLive Day 2 Thread

LRCRecap: 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 ScareAsbel 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).

LRCRuth 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

LRCBoris Berian (1:44.20) Front-Runs His Way To Victory At Pre, Becomes Third* American Man To Win Diamond League 800Berian 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.

LRCPost-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 LeadRenaud 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 44.39Omar 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

DII And DIII NCAAs In The Books Results: DIIDIII All NCAA Action

Women’s Sports Are In Danger

A Must Read: Ross Tucker Interviews Medical Physicist Joanna Harper On Hyperandrogenism In Women’s Sports Harper, who describes herself as a “scientist first, an athlete second, and a transgender person third,” provides amazing insight and analysis into the controversy surrounding intersex athletes such as Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand.
*MB: If you care about women’s sports and the Caster Semenya situation, you MUST read this article

Some Good Reads From Across The Pond

Jo Pavey Concedes Her Dream To Make A Fifth Olympic Games Is Probably Over, But At The Age Of 43, She Doesn’t Plan On Retiring Yet She missed in the 10K and can still run the 5K at the British Trials, but doesn’t have the 15:20 standard and only ran 15:47 in Birmingham.

Recommend Read:After 3 Years Of Injury, Olympic Hurdler Perri Shakes-Drayton Says “I’ve Been Through Hell” But Is Happy To Be Back She injured her knee during 2013 Worlds and after needing surgery switched from the 400H to the flat 400.
RR:HJer Robbie Grabarz Not Taking Things For Granted After Years Struggling Back From Injury“In 2012 I didn’t really appreciate it all but this time I feel I’ve really earned to be back in shape …”
400 Runner Martyn Rooney Is “Granted Permission” To Defend His European 400 Title Before Rio UKA had initially said he couldn’t go because they wanted him to focus on Rio.
Interesting:400 Runner Christine Ohuruogu Apparently Shared Some 400m Training Advice With Caster Semenya Last Year Ohuruogu says she’s happy Semenya isn’t running the 400 in Rio after she dropped a 50.7 earlier this year.
Random Q&A With Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson She says she was a tomboy as a kid, believes in the “supernatural” and only drinks alcohol in September.

Finally A Pro Contract Is Revealed!

LRC Find Out What Pro Track And Field Runners Make: Boris Berian’s New Balance Contract Offer Revealed We’ve got all the details on the contract including base pay, bonuses, and more.

LRC New Court Filings Reveal What The Nike Vs. Boris Berian Lawsuit Is Really About – The “Dreaded” Reduction Clause Nike agreed to match New Balance’s offer to Boris Berian, then sent him a contract that included reduction clauses, whereas the New Balance offer sheet did not mention them. Nike justified this by saying the clauses are “standard in track and field endorsement contracts.”

Sunday On The Roads

San Diego: Shalane Flanagan Runs Huge PR Of 67:51 At San Diego Half Marathon She beat Trials champ and training partner Amy Cragg by 2 minutes.
Thomas Poston And Alycia Cridebring Win Hoka One One State Street Mile Poston just edged Scott Bauhs as both were timed at 3:53 on the downhill course Cridebring set the women’s CR at 4:23. Brian Duff and his dog Kaydom won the dog mile in 4:13.

Olympic News

IOC President Thomas Bach Leads Tributes To Muhammad Ali
World Health Organization To Hold Emergency Meeting To Discuss Rio 2016 Zika Threat Some experts have called for the Games to be postponed or canceled.
Olympic Channel Signs Agreements With 27 International Federations, But Negotiations With IAAF And FIFA Continue
More Olympic Concerns As Rio State Government Refused Loan “Essential” For Competition Of Subway-Line Extension
Favorite To Become New Mayor Of Rome Accused Of Making “Humiliating” And “Offensive” Remarks About 2024 Olympic Bid The Italian Olympic Committee President hit out at the mayoral candidate after she said Rome bidding to host the 2024 Games was “criminal.”
IOC Set Out Process To Choose New Events Within Existing Sports For Tokyo 2020 No mention of XC unfortunately.

News From Oregon

Galen Rupp And Matt Centrowitz Racing Portland Track Festival Next Weekend Centro is entered in the 800 and 1,500, Rupp in the 5,000. *Meet Info
Sprinter Marybeth Sant Adds To The List Of High Profile Departures From The Oregon Women’s Track TeamKen Goe writes that “the number of the defections [in recent years] that raises eyebrows.”
*Register-Guard:Injuries End Oregon Sprinter Marybeth Sant’s Career

Ultra News

Colleen De Reuck Says Comrades Marathon Is The Toughest Event She Has Ever Done De Reuck finished 7th place in the 55.4-mile race and won the 50-59 age group by 84 minutes.
Ultramarathoner Scott Jurek’s Wife Gives Birth To Baby Girl On Global Running Day

2016 Rome Golden Gala Full Results TV & Streaming

Full Meet Recap LRC Almaz Ayana Just Misses The World Record, Caster Semenya And Conseslus Kipruto Continue To Dominate And Elijah Manang’oi Breaks His Maiden The 2016 IAAF Diamond League circuit almost began its European stint in sensational fashion as Ethiopian Almaz Ayana just missed the world record. She wasn’t the only one running impressively as Ameer Webb had a great double, Caster Semenya toyed with the field once again and an American man PRed to place in the top 5 in the steeple. The meet wasn’t roses for everyone as Ajee Wilson struggled mightily. *FULL RESULTS
*MB: Official 2016 Rome Golden Gala Diamond League Discussion Thread

The Summer Of Greatness Is Here

LRCThe LetsRun.com Summer Of Greatness Kicks Off With Advice To The High School Hopefuls June is here, the Olympic Trials start in one month, and the LRC Summer of Greatness is officially here. We want everyone to pursue a little greatness this summer and start with some advice for high schoolers. How are you going to pursue greatness this summer?

Random But Interesting Distance News

Man Born Without Arms Or Legs Finishes MarathonChris Koch has a foot which he used to propel himself on a longboard to a 4:23 finishing time at the Calgary Marathon.
*2nd Article Koch: “On the uphills I’d have people passing me. On the downhill (though), I could’ve just let it go and blew past people but I didn’t want to be disrespectful.”
91-Year-Old Sets Age Group World Record Over 800mBetty Lindberg ran 6:57 at the Atlanta Track Club All-Comers meet and said she didn’t even know what the record was. “I was just thinking I’d be lucky if they didn’t turn off the lights while I was finishing!”
Ultrarunner Sets World Record for 24-Hour Treadmill RunDave Proctor covered 161.81 miles to beat the 2004 record of 160.24. He also broke the 12-hour record along the way.
Great North Run Closing In On Target To Have A Runner From Every Country In The World They only have 40 countries left to find runners from.

Olympic Doping Re-Test News

Unnamed Jamaican Medal Winner Among The Positive Retests From Beijing 2008 Sources say that the athlete isn’t Usain Bolt, thank God. *MB:Jamaican medalist tests positive in Beijing 08 retest
Good News:IOC To Widen Re-Analysis Of Doping Samples From Beijing 2008 And London 2012 To Include All Medal Winners So far they’ve done targeted re-analysis on athletes who were likely to compete in Rio.
Gianmarco Tamberi Calls Racewalker Doper Alex Schwazer “The Shame Of Italy” Schwazer recently return from a 4-year ban, but Tamberi doesn’t think he should have been selected for Italy’s national team.
Turkish Boxer Latest To Be Identified From London 2012 Doping Re-Tests

Go Out And Run Today

More Than Two Million People Pledge To Run On Global Running Day On June 1

Latest Doping Updates

The BBC Is Reporting That Even If The IAAF Decides To Ban Russia From Rio, The IOC Is Discussing The Possibility Of Overruling Them The IAAF could ban the Russian athletics federation, but the Olympics is under IOC jurisdiction. And what’s more, the IOC would allow athletes to compete under the Russian flag, not the Olympic flag as has been suggested.
Russia’s Hammer Gold Medalist Tatyana Beloborodova And Shot Put Silver Medalist Yevgeniya Kolodko Among Those Caught In London 2012 Doping Retests~~Beloborodova~~Kolodko is the wife of Canadian shot putter Dylan Armstrong, who was upgraded to 2008 bronze after someone else was caught doping.
Dylan Armstrong Releases Statement About His Wife’s Positive Doping Test They apparently met at London 2012 and didn’t know each other before that. He says he will encourage her to “cooperate fully with the IOC and WADA.” *Full Statement
Has USADA Dropped The Oregon Project Investigation? Jamaican whistleblower Renee Anne Shirley tweeted that she’s “getting word” that USADA and Travis Tygart are no longer investigating.
*MB:Has U.S. Anti-Doping Agency dropped the Oregon Project investigation w/ Alberto Salazar?
*LRCNOP Doping Investigation Archives
June 8th: New ARD Documentary Will Focus On Russia’s Commitment To Reform Ahead Of Rio 2016 The documentary looks to suggest that the Russians continue to resist change and haven’t done enough to be unbanned.
IAAF Task Force Head Rune Andersen Feels Russia Has “Done A Tremendous Job” With Technical Changes, But Warns That Cultural Problems Remain Andersen: “They still have a problem to change a culture in just six months that has been there for 30 to 40 years.”

Bolder Boulder 10K Men’s ResultsWomen’s Results

Isaac Mukundi Wins Bolder Boulder 10K As Diego Estrada Finishes 3rd To Lead Team USA Kenya won the overall team race with USA Red (Estrada, Scott Fauble – 6th and Abdi Abdirahman – 8th) finishing second.
After Finishing 2nd Five Previous Times, Ethiopia’s Amane Gobena Finally Wins Bolder Boulder 10K; Kenya Wins Team Competition USA Red finished 4th in the team standings lead by Alisha Williams in 8th.
Jared Ward Preps For Rio Marathon With 16th Place Finish“You go into these 10Ks thinking they’re a sprint compared to the marathon, but it was a long race.”
Sara Slattery Struggles In Boulder Homecoming Slattery is the last American woman to win this race in 2006, but struggled to a 24th-place finish this year.
Brandon Johnson (30:34) And Melissa Dock (35:44) Win Citizens Races

Friday Pre *Results

LRC Friday Night At Pre – The King Mo Farah Survives A Scare In The 10,000m, Mom Power From Alysia Montaño And Hellen Obiri Mo Farah won an exciting 10,000 and Alysia Montaño and Hellen Obiri showed being a mom doesn’t mean you can’t kick some ass. *Friday Results

IAAF Recap:Joe Kovacs Gets World-Leading 22.13m In Shot Put As Brittney Reese Wins LJ
Register-Guard:“Alysia Montano Puts Mom Duties On Hold To Win Again “Tonight was awesome. I felt like I had a good kick.”
Register-Guard:“Youth Isn’t Served As Mo Farah Sprints To Victory”
MB:Pre Friday Live Thread A blow-by-blow of the action.
MB: Discuss: 2016 Prefontaine 10,000
MB: Hellen Obiri Smashes Personal Best at Pre Classic 5,000
MB: Bet You Didn’t Know This: The Guy Leading Farah with 80 Meters to Go Lost to Lagat (and 5 others) at Payton Jordan
MB: Chris Derrick 28:38-is he done?

2016 Is The Year Of Emil Zátopek Books

LRC Book Review: The Emil Zátopek Biography Today We Die A Little By Richard Askwith Is A Fine Work This well-researched biography on the “patron saint of running” – a man whom Runner’s World named the greatest runner of all time – is one of three English-language biographies on the Czech legend coming out this summer. *Purchase here.

LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”