Today Is The Day: Russia And Rio

• D-Day For Russia: Post-IAAF Council Meeting Press Conference Live Stream The IAAF Meets today in Vienna to decide Russia’s Rio fate. Come here at 11AM ET to watch the post-meeting press conference.
  *MB: What Will The Decision Be On Russia? Make Your Prediction
• Good Read: The Guardian: Sebastian Coe’s Moment Of Truth Owen Gibson writes, “The reputation of the man who pledged to clean up his sport depends on the outcome” of the Russian ban decision.
• Jenn Suhr And Her Husband Don’t Want Yelena Isinbayeva Banned From Rio Husband and coach Rick Suhr said Jenn vs. Isi was like “Ali-Frazier” and added, “Without them, is it really even the Olympic final?”
• IOC Vice President John Coates Wants Russia To Stay Banned; Calls Their Athletics Federation “Rotten To The Core”
• Yelena Isinbayeva Pleads For Ban To Be Lifted; Says She Won’t Compete Under Olympic Flag “If the entire Russian team is suspended, I will be suspended, too. If I compete, it will be as a Russian.”
• IAAF Release: Key Moments In Russia Suspension And Reinstatement Process A rundown of the timeline since WADA’s first report in November.
• InsideTheGames: Support Growing For Russian Athletics Ban To Remain
• AP: “In Or Out? A Look At The Upcoming IAAF Ruling On Russia”

Random Running News

• Recommended Read: A Look Into The Obsessive, Time Consuming And Thankless World Of Course Measuring You probably don’t know how much work goes into measuring a course accurately. These elite measurers put in countless hours on the roads in the middle of the night pedaling, calibrating and doing math.
• Recent Syracuse Graduate Juris Silenieks Sets World Record For Fastest Half Marathon In Dress Shoes The 14:28 5K runner ran 1:17:05 at the Hotlanta Half in dress shoes specially designed for running.
• Ed Whitlock Was “Relieved” To Get Mile Age Group Record Despite Being “A Long Way From Peak Condition” He ran 7:18.
  *MB: Ed Whitlock M85 Age Group Mile record

Mid-Week Action

• Switzerland: World Bronze Medalist Amel Tuka Wins 800 With 1:45.56 Beating World Junior Champ Alfred Kipketer Lynsey Sharp won the women’s race over Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir while France’s Jimmy Vicaut won the 100m twice, first in 9.98 (after he didn’t hear the false start) and then again in 10.08.
• Great Sportsmanship: Pole Vaulter Nicole Buchler Shares Prize Money Bonus With Jimmy Vicaut $20,000 bonus should have gone to Vicaut for his 9.98, but was given to Buchler instead as the false start meant his mark didn’t count. So Buchler shared part of her prize money with him.
• France: Taofik Makhloufi Wins 800 In 1:44.91 Over Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski (1:44.91)

More Doping Updates

• Recommended Read: USA Today: “Whistleblowers Seek Protection As They Play Key Roles In Exposing Doping” There is a concerning trend of whistleblowers being vilified rather than celebrated when they expose the truth.
• Russian Whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova Wants To Compete In Rio Under The Olympic Flag Her husband Vitaly Stepanov says it makes no sense as she’s been effectively banned for whistleblowing since she can’t return to Russia and can’t compete outside of Russia.
• UKAD Has Only Done 50% Of The Tests They Planned In Russia Because Doping Control Officers Are Blocked From “Military Cities” These cities require 30 days notice for foreigners to enter so the UKAD chairman said, “If athletes are training there you haven’t got a hope of testing them.”
• Chairs Of IOC And WADA Athletes’ Commissions Send Letter To Thomas Bach And Craig Reedie There are some harsh criticisms against Reedie, who is accused of treating athlete chair Beckie Scott “abysmally” when she called for investigations into other Russian sports.
• Maria Sharapova Files Appeal To CAS Against Her 2-Year Doping Ban
• USA Today Opinion Piece Urging IOC To Let Yuliya Stepanova Compete In Rio

Olympic News

• Olympic Medal Designs For Rio 2016 Unveiled
• Favorite To Be Next Rome Mayor Says Their 2024 Olympic Bid Won’t Necessarily Be Over If She Is Elected Virginia Raggi has had some very anti-Rome 2024 statements, even calling the bid “criminal.”
• Raggi Says She Is Open To A Referendum On Rome 2024 Olympic Bid Every referendum held in recent years on an Olympic bid has failed except one (Oslo’s 2022 winter bid).

Doping News: Operation Puerto Not History Yet

• Good News: Court Rules In Favor Of Transferring Operation Puerto Blood Bags To Anti-Doping Authorities 10 years ago, a Spanish judge ordered that the 200 frozen bags of blood and plasma seized by police be destroyed. Now, finally, that decision has been overturned and some dopers can hopefully be outed.
• Hammer Thrower Gwen Berry Gets Three-Month Doping Ban For Use Of Prohibited Medication Berry’s ban was backdated to March and she will lose her 76.31m American Record she set last month.
• Russian Hammer Thrower Kirill Ikonnikov Gets Lifetime Ban
• UCI Investigating Claims A Staff Member Alerted Riders Of Police Investigation Into Mechanical Doping New testing procedures and scanners have had to be put in place to combat “mechanical doping” in cycling.

Going Pro

• Courtney Frerichs And Izaic Yorks Sign With Kimbia Athletics
  *MB: Courtney Frerichs and Izaic Yorks join Kimbia
• GoZips.com: Clayton Murphy Embarks On Professional Career Murphy will stay in Akron and continue working with his coach and finish his degree.
• Teen Sprint Phenoms Candace Hill And Kaylin Whitney Talk After Racing Against Olympic And World Medalists In Florida The the 18-year-old Whitney was 4th in the 100 and the 17-year-old Hill was 5th and also won the 200.

2016 NCAAs *Day 1 Full Results *Day 2 Full Results *Full Day 3 Results *Day 4 Results

LRC Updated Wow: Mississippi State’s Marta Freitas Wins Women’s 1,500 But A Premature Celebration Nearly Costs Her The Title As Stanford’s Elise Cranny Almost Steals It What a race. Freitas led it wire to wire but Elise Cranny is back and better than ever as she PRed and lost by the tiniest of margins. *MB: Cranny is Back!

LRC Updated From 54th At State Meet To NCAA Record Holder: Courtney Frerichs Wins Women’s NCAA Steeplechase Title In Style, Breaks Jenny Simpson’s Collegiate Record By Running 9:24.41 Frerichs wanted the record and she got it!

LRC Updated Oregon’s Raevyn Rogers Wins Her Third Straight NCAA 800m Title In Dominant Fashion She’s a class above at the NCAA level.

LRC NCAA Women’s Recap: Dom Scott’s Double Leads Arkansas To First Team Title, Keturah Orji Breaks The AR In The TJ, Frosh Ariana Washington Wins The 100-200 

UK News

• Good Read: Tom Bosworth Longs For The Day When He Won’t Be Known As “The Gay British Racewalker” Bosworth talks about coming out publicly, quitting the sport to join the circus and being so much better than any other GB racewalker he can stop for mid-race bathroom breaks.
• Steve Cram Thinks GB Can Match Their Medal Haul From 2012 Historically, countries always win less medals the Olympics after they hosted, so GB would be breaking the mold if they could win 65 again.
• After Running A New Scottish Mile Record Of 4:19 In Oslo, Laura Muir Confident She Can Finish On The 1,500 Podium In Rio
• Jessica Ennis-Hill Competes In Four Events At Northern Champs In Manchester She ran 13.10 in the 100H and also did the 200, shot put and javelin.

JN Racers GP: Usain Bolt Is Back! *Results

• LRC Usain Bolt Is Back! Runs 9.88 To Take Down Asafa Powell And Yohan Blake Despite Nearly Falling Over At Start Bolt crushed it despite a terrible start. Video of race.
  *MB: Bolt it BACK! Runs 9.88 to Take Down Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell Despite TERRIBLE Start
• World Champion Wayde Van Niekerk Defeats LaShawn Merritt To Run Third-Fastest 300m Of All-Time Van Niekerk trained with Bolt all week leading up to the race.
  *MB: Van Niekerk 31.03 300m! #3 all time
• IAAF Recap: National 200m Records For Antigua’s Miguel Francis (19.88) And Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller (22.05) David Oliver (110H 13.09), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (100 – 11.09) and Chaunte Lowe (HJ – 1.93m) also got wins.
• US’s Johnny Dutch Runs World-Leading 48.10 In The 400H In distance action, Natoya Goule took the 800 in 200.23 over Kenia Sinclair.

Jenn Suhr’s Husband Still Complaining And Campaigning Against The US Olympic Trials Rick Suhr: “We have to be top three that day, that day only or we don’t go. We’re stuck with it and we’ll make the most of it.” … So does everybody else.

Outside Women’s NCAA Coverage

• Coach Robert Johnson: “Jasmine Todd, that’s not my story to tell.” Johnson admitted the “Todd situation stings a little bit” and added it was something the coaching staff “should have done a better job” with.
• AP: Dominique Scott’s 5K Win Gives Arkansas Women NCAA Title Scott: “I saw that Oregon was ahead … I just knew that I had to do whatever I could to score as many points as I could.”
• Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks’ Rally Falls Just Short
• Georgia Sophomore Keturah Orji Breaks Triple Jump American Record With 14.53m Georgia also got a win from Kendell Williams in the heptathlon.
• Kentucky’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn Becomes First Freshman In History To Win NCAA 100H She ran a wind-aided 12.54.
• Ariana Washington Has “Monster Day” For Oregon Winning Pulling Off The 100/200 Double
• Register-Guard: Ariana Washington Steps Up For Oregon Washington was not the most heralded sprinter at Oregon, but came through as the “hero.”
• LSU Women Break 20-Year-Old Hayward Field 4 X 100 Record With 42.65 Victory
• Texas A&M’s Shamier Little Wins Her 3rd Consecutive NCAA 400H Title In 53.51
• Courtney Okolo Gets Individual 400 Win In 50.36 And Anchors Texas 4 X 400 To Victory
• Kim Williamson Nabs Kansas State’s Only NCAA Title With 1.88m In The High Jump
• Wisconsin’s Kelsey Card Wins NCAA Discus Title Easily In A PR 63.52m All three of her final throws would have been enough to win.

Full Day 4 Results

Full Coverage In Our 2016 NCAA Section

Non-NCAA Action

• Kenya’s Jemima Sumgong (31:26) Destroys Competition At 45th Edition Of NYRR New York Mini 10K, Americans Finish 2nd, 5th And 6th Sumgong crushed Aliphine Tuliamuk (32:14) by 47 seconds. Brianne Nelson (33:02) and Desi Linden (33:17) were 5th and 6th.
• Mutaz Essa Barshim Is Back – Clears A World-Leading 2.40m In Poland In Doha and Shanghai, he only made it over 2.27m.

Interesting Reads

• Find Out How A Portland Lawyer Now Owns The First Pair Of Nike Shoes To Ever Cross The Finish Line In A Race (1972 Olympic Marathon Trials) Nike wanted them but world’s biggest shoe collector now owns them.
• Good Read Two Years Ago, Dominican Yancarlos Martinez Was A Failed Baseball Player Who Didn’t Catch On With A MLB Organization, Now He’s Olympics-Bound As The National Record Holder (10.14/20.19) A great read. 20.19 is also the stadium record for the Olympic stadium. “At 21 years of age, I felt depressed knowing that my future as a baseball player was over,” says the 23-year-old.
• The Lyles Brothers – Superstar Teenage Sprinters – Are Both Injured And Getting Ready For The Olympic Trials Neither competed in the finals at the VA state meet.
• South Africa’s Coach Is Worried Semenya Is Racing Too Much She’s doing the 400/800 double at the African Champs and then the 1,500 in Monaco.
• Singlet That Peter Snell Wore To Win 800 And 1,500 Gold Medals At 1964 Olympics Is Going Up For Sale Snell has no idea how someone else owns the jersey but is hopeful it will stay in New Zealand after it sells. The estimate is it will go for 30-50k.

Marathon News: Huddle Will Debut In NYC

• Molly Huddle Will Make Her Marathon Debut At 2016 TCS New York City Marathon The heir apparent to Shalane Flanagan has arrived.
• Despite Protests, Kenenisa Bekele Won’t Get Spot On Ethiopian Olympic Team The Ethiopian federation president said, “He has a big place in our athletics history but he has failed to qualify … We couldn’t really change the criteria again to bring him back just because he is Kenenisa.”
• Stephen Sambu To Make His 26.2-Mile Debut At The Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Sambu has PRs of 26:54 and 60:41.
• USA Today Article On The Estonian Triplets Who Will Run The Rio Olympic Marathon They call themselves the “Trio to Rio.”

General Doping Updates

• Maria Sharapova Gets 2-Year Drug Ban After Tennis Federation Finds She Deliberately Took Meldonium To Boost Performance The report noted they didn’t believe she intentionally break anti-doping rules by continuing to take it after January 1st, which is why her ban was 2 years and not 4.
• NY Times: Maria Sharapova Will Appeal The Suspension Through CAS “I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension.”
  *BBC Article Includes video interview with Caroline Wozniacki.
  *MB: Sharapova — 2-Year Ban
• Nesta Carter’s “B” Sample Tests Positive For A Banned Stimulant During The 2008 Olympics Now the big question is will Usain Bolt lose his 4 x 100 relay gold for which Cater was the opening leg and which also included Asafa Powell and Michael Frater.
• No Surprises There: Nike Will Continue Its Sponsorship Of Maria Sharapova
• Two Racewalkers Who Lost Gold Medals To Russian Drug Cheats At 2009 Worlds Will Have Them Re-Awarded At Euro Champs

African Distance News

• Turmoil Brews In Ethiopian Camp As Haile Gebrselassie Leads Meeting In Protest Of National Federation’s Olympic Selection Process About 100 athletes met to discuss the poor management which, among other things, didn’t select Kenenisa Bekele for the Rio marathon team.
• Haile G Says The Ethiopian Federation Is “Marred With Incompetency”
  *MB: Good sign for Kenenisa. Haile Gebrselassie, other athletes protest at Ethiopia federation
  *LRC Ethiopians Leave Off World’s Fastest Woman And Arguably The World’s Greatest Distance Runner Ever
• IAAF: What’s Next For Almaz Ayana After Scaring The 5,000m WR In Rome? At 4K, Ayana was 5 seconds ahead of Tirnesh Dibaba‘s WR run, but Dibaba closed way faster when she ran her 14:11.
• Nice Profile On World 1,500 Silver Medalist Faith Kipyegon Interesting takeaways: Kipyegon says a 4:00 1,500 “feels slow” to her now and her coach thinks she will end up running a great marathon one day.

Early Week Action / Weekend Leftovers

• France: World Indoor Bronze Medalist Margaret Wambui PRs By 2 Seconds To Run 1:57.52 That puts her #3 in the world this year only behind Caster Semenya and Francine Niyonsaba. Nicholas Kipkoech won the 800 in 1:43.85 with Pierre-Ambroise Bosse 3rd (1:44.53). France’s Jimmy Vicaut equaled European 100m record with 9.86 *Results
  *MB: Jimmy Vicaut 9.86!! European Record and World Lead!  Thread includes video of race.
• Italy: Brittney Reese Wins Long Jump With 7.04m, Her Biggest Leap In Three Years In the 800, Poland’s Adam Kszczot (1:45.77) and Angelika Cichocka (1:59.97) got the wins. Cornelius Kangogo won the 5K in 13:12. *Results
• Ithaca, NY: Tyler Sigl And Corrine Malcolm Win USATF 50 Mile Trail Championships
• Hungary: Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk Throws 77.70m Hammer Meet Record
• Ethiopia: New Talents Emerge At Ethiopian Junior Champs Men’s 5K was a highlight with Selemon Bogale winning a close race in 14:12.
• Vietnam: Asian Junior Champs Recap 1:51 and 2:06 will get you 800 gold at Asian juniors.

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.”

The Summer Of Greatness Is Here

LRC The 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?