Olympic News: Brooks And Rule 40; The Yellow Should Have Given It Away

• Wall Street Journal: Brooks Went Undercover To Slam Rule 40 Turns out that Brooks is behind the anti-Rule 40 campaign, which has included a website, T-shirts and a flatbed billboard truck driving around Eugene during the Trials.
• Interesting: Study Calls Olympic Sponsorship Into Question As Ambush Marketers Have High Success Ahead Of Rio 2016 The study found that ambush marketers occupy 9 of the top 15 spots as far as brand affiliation with the Games. Nike is #2 on the list even though they aren’t an official Olympic sponsor.
• Protesters Promise Demonstrations On Day Of Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony As Brazilian Politics “Descend Into Chaos” They are protesting against the spending required for Brazil to host the Games.
• Police Take Over Rio 2016 Venue Security After Private Firm Sacked Just Ahead Of Opening Ceremonies The private firm was fired for “incompetence and irresponsibility” as they were only able to hire 500 of the 3,400 staff required to screen visitors outside of venues.

International Distance News

• New Zealand’s Zane Robertson Says He Got Death Threats For Speaking Out About Doping In Kenya “One of [the threats] was from a Kenyan. He said he was going to put a tractor tyre on me and set me on fire. That was just one of them.” *Discuss
• Aisha Praught Followed An Unconventional Path To Her Olympic Dream Praught talks getting Jamaican citizenship and showing up at the Jamaican Trials just to find out no one else was entered in the steeple.
• Eunice Sum Isn’t Ceding Victory To Caster Semenya Just Yet After running a season’s best 1:57.47 in Monaco (where she was 3rd behind Semenya and Francine Niyonsaba), Sum says her training is going well and her goal is gold in Rio.
• Poland’s Angelika Chichocka Runs World-Leading 1,000 With 2:34.84

Olympic News

• Elijah Manang’oi Says He’s Not In A Hurry To Beat Kiprop, But Confident Of Podium Finish In Rio That being said, he does think it’s possible to beat Kiprop.
• Hellen Obiri Thinks Faith Kipyegon Will Win 1,500 Title In Rio
• If London Champ Jemimah Sumgong Wins In Rio, She’ll Be Kenya’s 1st Women’s Olympic Marathon Champ
• What Types Of Pets Does Your Favorite US Olympic Track Athletes Have? If you guess guinea pig for Donn Cabral, you’d be correct.
• Meet US Discus Champ Whitney Ashley, Who Is Going To Her First Olympics
• Kenyan Journalists Arrive In Rio And Everyone Is Beaming Except The South Sudanese Athletes, Who Appear Forlorn Those from the war-torn region seem beaten down by life.
• Julius Yego Is Confident Despite Subpar Season “My body is responding well in training and I am confident that everything will work out well by the help of God.”
• First Batch Of Kenya’s Track And Field Eventers Leave For Rio On Sunday The sprinters are going first.
• Kenyan National Record Holder In HJ, Mathew Sawe, Still Hoping To Go To Rio With Wild Card Even Though He Doesn’t Have Standard
• Kenya’s 400m Runners Are Hoping To Make Their Mark In Rio They’ve entered 3 men but their 4 x 400 team didn’t make it as it’s seeded 18th (16 make it).
• Japanese Men Talking Big Before The Olympic Marathon: “We’re not going there just to take part. We’re ready to take on the world.” We think a team scoring between the US men and Japanese men would be interesting.
• Egypt’s Javelin Silver Medalist Ihab Abdelrahman Tests Positive Last year, he won Egypt’s 1st-ever medal at Worlds. He says he’s a million percent innocent and hopes the B sample clears him.
• Status Of Injured Jamaican Hurdlers Janieve Russell And Hansle Parchment Is Still Unknown They got medal waivers at the Olympic Trials, but Parchment (silver last year) and Russell (3rd world this year) haven’t competed in weeks.
• All Three Of The US Drug-Tainted Sprinters In Rio – Gatlin, Gay And Merritt – Have Excuses For Their Conduct From sabotage to penis enlargement, they’ve got it covered.

Non-Olympic News From Kenya

• Dennis Kimetto Looking To Resurrect Career At Bogota Half Marathon On Sunday He’s not the favorite, though, as Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma, who has run 2:05 this year, is running.
• Meet Willy Tarbei – World U20 Silver Medalist He was satisfied with silver as he has a foot injury which cost him a lot of training. He trains at St. Patricks.
• Ashton Eaton And Brianne Theisen-Eaton Say Helping The Poor In Kenya With Some Help From Lopez Lomong Has Been Life Changing “It would be really interesting if you could go over to Kenya and give all of these people the opportunities that we have,” Theisen-Eaton said. “It would be incredible the things that they would do. They are such hard workers.”

Random But Interesting

• And So It Begins: Estimated Coasts For Temporary Venues At 2020 Olympics Are 4 X Higher Than What Was In Initial Bid
• Gameface Media Hasn’t Been Paying Its Race Photographers
  MB: Gameface Media Race Photographs – Has anyone used them? How much did it cost? Did they get $7.5 million in VC?
• NY Times: Do Compression Sleeves Really Help? They say not for performance, but yes for recovery.
• Did You Know? Malaysian 200m Record Of 20.92 Has Stood Since 1968
• Jesse Squire Introduces You To US Paralympic Track Star AJ Digby, Who Has Improved By More Than 4 Seconds In 6 Weeks For 400 Thanks To Better Technology
• Meet The 11 NFL Olympic Medalists

Good Reads

RRead #1 The Return Of Caster Semenya: Olympic Favourite And Ticking Timebomb The Guardian’s Donald McRae has done an excellent job of bringing the Semenya story to the UK masses in 4,000+ words. You get a feel for both Semenya the person – who had been unhappy and injured in recent years – and the scientific argument for her exclusion thanks to Ross Tucker.

RRead #2 Learn About Amazing Story Of Uganda’s Last Olympic Champ Before Stephen Kiprotich – John Akii-Bua He was born into poverty as one of 43 children and died a pauper at the age of 47. In between, he managed to somehow win 1972 400H Olympic gold with a WR. His coach, who is now the UK Athletics National Event coach for Hurdles and Senior Performance, remembers him fondly: “Of all the athletes I have worked with, I put John number one.”

The Zola Budd / Mary Decker Movie “The Fall” Airs At 9pm Tonight In The UK

• Athletics Weekly Gives “The Fall” A Very Positive Review It airs tonight at 9pm on Sky Atlantic (UK) and is in UK theaters nationwide.
• Zola Budd And Mary Decker Reunited In Moving Film That Shows Scars Of 1984 Olympics Collision Have Healed
• Podcast From BBC Radio Show That Featured Both Mary Decker And Zola Budd You can download it here.

Olympics News

• 800 Olympian Chrishuna Williams Says Having To Work As A Substitute Teacher This Year Was “Humbling” But Thinks It Made Her “Hungry” For Track Success
• After Being An Olympic Alternate In 2012, English Gardner Wants A Medal In 2016
• IAAF Confirms That Yelena Isinbayeva And The Rest Of The Russian Track Team Is Banned From Rio Florida-based LJer Darya Klishina will be there, however.
• Indoor 60H World Record Holder Susanna Kallur Is Thrilled To Be Going To 1st Olympics in 8 Years She didn’t hit Sweden’s tougher 12.80 standard, but for one a national federation was inspired by her comeback and let her compete.
• US Decathlete Jeremy Taiwo Has Raised More Than 50k Of GoFundMe, Which He Credits Getting Him To The Olympics
• Land Of Speed: Jamaica Is 2nd-Best Country In Developing Medalists Per Person They win 1 medal for every 225,485 people. In China, it’s one for every 15 million.
• Sergei Tetyukhin, The Captain Of The Russian Men’s Volleyball Team, Will Carry The Russian Flag In Opening Ceremony
• Will Any World Records Fall In Rio?
• 2-Time World Junior 400H Champ Jaheel Hyde Doesn’t Have Big Expectations For Rio, Just Wants To Have Fun
• South African Racewalker Lebogang Shange Used To Be Mocked For Not Being A Runner And For Doing A White Man’s Sport, But Now He’s A Medal Hopeful

US Distance News

• Matt Centrowitz’s Mom Says He Hasn’t Even Dated Because He’s Been So Focused On Rio Centro says he’s looking for redemption in Rio after just missing a medal in 2012.
• Meb Keflezighi Says He Debated Bringing His Family With Him To Rio Due To The Multitude Of Safety Concerns Meb’s says his family is coming, but he is “minimizing the risk” by only getting there 4 days before the marathon.
• Big Bear Gives Brenda Martinez And Boris Berian A Going Away Party Before They Leave For Rio
• Good Podcast Interview With US 5,000m Olympian Paul Chelimo Ahead Of Rio

Even The Drug Dealers In Rio Are Getting Into The Olympic Spirit: Cops Seize Olympic-Themed Bags Of Cocaine

Diamond League Points Update As The Series Goes On Break For Rio

General Doping News

• Germany’s Olympic Discus Champ Robert Harting: “For me he [Thomas Bach] is part of the doping system, not the anti-doping system.” Harting says he is “ashamed” of Bach, but Bach called Harting’s criticisms “unacceptable” and blamed WADA for not investigating Yulia Stepanova‘s claims back in 2010.
• Italian Steepler Jamel Chatbi Removed From Olympic Team For Doping Violation The Moroccan-born athlete missed his third drug test in the past year.
• Survey Find What We Already Knew; Doping Scandals Reduce Interest In Olympics If people don’t believe what they’re seeing, then the magic is lost.
• CAS Sets Up Fast-Track Olympic Court In Rio To Expedite Doping Cases

American Fields For NYC Announced

LRC Three Thoughts On A Much-Improved American Field At The 2016 New York City Marathon Earlier today, the full American elite field for New York was released. Kim Conley will be making her debut and Dathan Ritzenhein will be returning to NY for the 1st time in 6 years.

• American Field Announced For 2016 TCS New York City Marathon, Which Will Feature $116,000 In American-Only Prize Money – Molly Huddle, Dathan Ritzenhein And Kim Conley Lead Way
  
• MB: Kim Conley marathon debut in NYC; Ritz returns!!

Women’s Distance News

• Recommended Read #1: Maggie Vessey Not Calling It An End To Her Career Yet After Olympic Trials Disappointment After running one of her best races “in a long, long time” at Stanford, she was dreaming of Rio, but a string of injuries saw her running through pain and finishing last in her heat in Eugene.
• Recommended Read #2: Amanda Eccleston Blogs About Missing The Olympics By Three-Hundredths Of A Second Eccleston has put a really positive spin on the heartbreak of 4th place as that led to her taking her first international flight, competing in the Diamond League and running two 1,500 PRs in 5 days.
• Shalane Flanagan And Amy Cragg Do Video Interview With Carrie Tollefson Ahead Of Rio Flanagan says she thinks they’re dabbling around 2:20 shape. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m tenth or I’m first.
• Zola Budd Will Run Scottish Marathon Next May – It Starts In A Safari Park

LetsBolt.com

• Interesting: Two UK Biomechanics Experts Try To Analyze What Makes Usain Bolt So Fast They say that Bolt’s huge height shouldn’t be an “advantage or disadvantage” and argue it’s a “misconception” that Bolt has a poor start.
• Usain Bolt Talks About Fear Of Turning 30, Winning Another Triple Gold And 2016 Being “One Of The Poorest” He’s Seen For Men’s Sprinting Talking about golf Bolt said, “There are a few sports in the Olympics that make me go ‘Argh.'”
• Usain Bolt’s Coach Glen Mills Started His Career In Coaching At Age 14, When He Realized He Wasn’t Fast Enough To Be A Sprinter Himself When Bolt didn’t make the 200m final at the 2000 Athens Games, he went to Mills, who helped break down his bad habits.

Rio Health Concerns

• New Study Claims Only Between 3 And 37 People Will Catch Zika While In Brazil For The Rio Games Considering the projected attendance is between 350,000 and 500,000 people, a few dozen is a surprisingly low prediction.
• HBO Has Two Undercover Reports On Health Concerns In Rio Two short clips look at sewage problems and the “alarming state of public hospitals” in Rio.
• NY Times: Keep Your Mouth Closed: Aquatic Olympians Face A Toxic Stew In Rio

Post-IOC Russia Decision Updates

• Aquatics To Wrestling, Sport-By-Sport Analysis Of Reaction To Russian Doping Scandal Some sports have already banned Russians from Rio while others are welcoming them with open arms. *2nd Article
• Rowing And Swimming The First Sports To Ban Russian Athletes From Rio 7 swimmers and 3 rowers so far have been removed from the Russian team.
• Five Russian Canoeists Banned From Rio Apparently canoeing and rowing aren’t the same thing.
• The Telegraph: Russian Olympic Team Could Still Be Cut Down From 400 To 40 Based on the response we’re reading so far, we wouldn’t expect it to go this low.
• Back In The Hunt For Olympic Gold: Russia’s 10 Best Medal Hopes For Rio Swimmer Anastasia Fesikova tops the list.
• The Guardian: IOC Ruling On Russia And Rio: Key Questions Answered

2016 World Junior (U20) Championships *Results

LRC American Christina Aragon Gets 1,500m Bronze At IAAF World U20 Championships Aragon ran 4:08.71 for 3rd as Ethiopia’s Adanech Anbesa (4:08.07) and Fantu Worku (4:08.43) went 1-2. Alexa Efraimson was 5th in 4:10.23.

*MB: Bronze for Aragon! *IAAF Race Recap

• IAAF: USA Steals The Show On Climactic Final Day In Bydgoszcz With Double 4 X 400 Gold Overall, Team USA took home 11 golds and 21 medals overall, more than double the next best country. *USATF
  
• Kenya Goes 1-2 In The Men’s 800 With Kipyegon Bett Prevailing Over Willy Tarbei In 1:44.95 USA’s Brian Bell was 7th.
• Amos Kirui Wins Steeplechase In 8:22 To Keep Kenya’s Perfect 15-For-15 Junior Champs Streak Alive

International Distance News

Mid-D News

• Robby Andrews Gets Memorable Hometown Olympic Sendoff Parade Andrews said he was nervous “there was only going to be like five people out there” but hundreds turned out for the ceremony, which included a ribbon cutting for the new local HS track.
• Jake Edwards (4:00) And Shannon Osika (4:27) Win Ryan Shay Mile Ashley Higginson was 2nd in 4:28.
• Paula Radcliffe Speaks On Caster Semenya Situation “Then it’s no longer sport and it’s no longer an open race. Obviously there is an issue and there is an issue that needs to be understood a lot better.”
• Emma Coburn And Jenny Simpson “Happy To See” Russian Track Athletes Banned From Rio

Previous 2016 World Junior (U20) Championships

• Ethiopia’s Kalkidan Fentie Gets Upset Victory In Women’s 5,000 (15:29) Coming in, Fentie had one of the slowest PRs in the field with only a 16:26 to her name. US’s Anna Rohrer was 11th (15:49).
• Ethiopia’s Selmon Barega Gets 13:21 Victory In Men’s 5,000 Djibouti’s Dijamal Direh lost in a sprint finish only .29 back.
• USATF: Dakin Volz Gets Surprise Win In Men’s Pole Vault As USA Sweeps Men’s And Women’s 4 X 100 Gold Maybe the youngsters can teach the senior Olympic team something about good handoffs?
• IAAF Saturday Recap: Neeraj Chopra Smashes World U20 Javelin Record With 86.48m Taylor McLaughlin – older brother of high school Olympian Sydney – got silver in the 400H behind Jamaica’s Jaheel Hyde. Kipyegon Bett ran the fastest 800 semis with 1:46.37 as USA’s Brian Bell was the last man into the final.
• IAAF Saturday AM Recap

The Latest On USADA’s Investigation Into Alberto Salazar’s Nike Oregon Project

LRC Exclusive What’s Going On With US Anti-Doping’s Investigation Of Alberto Salazar’s Nike Oregon Project? Documents And Audio From Latest Court Hearing Offer Lens Inside The Investigation USADA’s attempt to compel Dr. Jeffrey Brown to testify about his treatments of several elite athletes has been met with skepticism by a Texas judge even though seven athletes themselves have given their permission.
*MB: The latest on USADA’s investigation into Alberto Salazar’s Nike Oregon Project

LRC Legal Analysis: 5 Takeaways From USADA’s Attempts To Force The NOP’s Endocrinologist To Give A Deposition A lawyer gives his thoughts on the court hearing.

NY Times: Judge Rules Against USADA Seeking To Despite Doctor Brown

More Distance Results / Upcoming

• NJ-NY Track Club Goes 1-2-3 At Ireland’s Morton Mile As Johnny Gregorek Wins In 3:55.57 Kyle Merber and Colby Alexander were 2-3.
  *Full Meet Results Katie Mackey won the women’s mile in 4:25 over Heather Kampf (4:27) and Cory McGee (4:28). GB’s Kyle Langford won the 800 (1:46.73) as Shaquille Walker and Harun Abda were 3-4.
• Next Week’s TrackTown Summer Series At Hayward Field Will Be A Rio Tune-Up For 14 Olympians Fields will include Matt Centrowitz, Robby Andrews, Ben Blankenship, Emma Coburn and Kate Grace.
  *Full Team Rosters Portland vs. NY vs. Philly vs. SF.
• Preview Of Sunday’s Grintovec Mountain Race In Slovenia

Previous World Juniors

• Day 3: LRC Americans Sammy Watson And Aaliyah Miller Win Gold And Silver At World Juniors In 800
• LRC Candace Hill Wins World Junior Title in Championship Record Of 11.07 – She’s 1st American To Win 100m Title Since 2008 Is Hill starting to live up to the hype?
• LRC Kenya’s Kumari Taki Dives (Falls?) Across Line To Win Crazy World Junior 1,500 Title This was an interesting finish to say the least.
• Zoe Hobbs Sets Kiwi U20 National Record Of 11.53 In 100m

• Day 2: LRC Noah Lyles Wins 100m At 2016 World Juniors Championships The American junior record holder at 200 is on top of the world at 100m. *USATF Recap Of Day 2
• Ethiopia’s Beyenu Degefa Becomes First Ethiopian Since Meseret Defar To Win WJr 3,000 – Does It In Ridiculous 8:41!
  *MB: Katie Rainsberger just misses US HS record in women’s 3k – Runs 9:00 at World Jrs. She ran 9:00. 62 and the record is 9:00.16. She also just missed the US junior record (8:57) as well.
  *MB: Konstanze Kloshterhalfen – Germany’s Mary Cain – wins bronze in 3000 at World Juniors by running 8:46!! 

Previous 2016 World Junior (U20) Championship News

• IAAF Day 1: Kenya’s Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi Wins 10,000 In 27:25 It was a close race as Eritrea’s Aron Kifle and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo were 27:26.20 and 27:26.68.
  *MB: 15 yr old just ran a 27:26 10K at the World Junior Championships!
• IAAF: World Junior Shot Put Record (22.46m) By Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki Highlights Day 1 Of World Junior (U20) Champs USA’s Bronson Osborn won SP bronze.
• DyeStat Day 1 Recap  Candace Hill and Khalifa St. Fort both move past round 1 in the 100. *USATF
• Morning Qualification Round Recap No Team USA runners advanced in the men’s 1,500, but Samantha Watson won her heat in the 800. *USATF
• DyeStat Meet Preview
• USTFCCCA Picks Their College Medal Hopefuls