September 17, 2016 | LetsRun.com

Post-Rio Talks With Molly Huddle and Abbey D’Agostino

LRC Molly Huddle Talks About Losing Her 5k American Record And Her NYC Marathon Preparations: “I Kind of Miss The Track Already” Molly Huddle may have recently lost the 5000 American record she once held but she’s not too upset about it, “(Sub-14:40) that’s where the record belongs – we’ll see how much lower it can go.”
*MB: Molly Huddle on Shannon Rowbury breaking her 5000 AR, “(Sub-14:40) that’s where the record belongs.”

LRCOne Month Later, Abbey D'Agostino Reflects on Rio, Her Olympic Fall and Her Rehab From a Torn ACL

D'Agostino said she had a sense, even before her race, that something special might happen. "I felt this affirmation that yeah, I really am going to be there for some reason other than this race performance."

More Distance News

Recommended Read: Danny Mackey Blogs: “4 Rules For Coaching Your Spouse” The Brooks Beasts coach tells the story of how he at first reluctantly became the coach for his wife, Katie Mackey, and what tactics they’ve used to make the “not simple” arrangement work.
Q&A: Emma Coburn Wants To Continue Her Career As Long As Possible (2024 And Possibly Beyond) And Says A Marathon Is Not “On Her Bucket List” Coburn’s first sporting idols were the 1980 US Olympic gold medal hockey team as she used to be a hockey player.
Two Part Podcast Interview With Marathoner Nick Arciniaga Arciniaga talks about his journey from average college runner to 2:11 marathoner and the mental side of running. Some quotes are transcribed here.
Nick Willis Throws Out First Pitch At Detroit Tigers Game

Sunday Road Action

Bedan Karoki Faces A Field Of 14 Sub One-Hour Men At The Copenhagen Half-Marathon The women’s race has nine sub-70 minute runners lead by Gladys Chesir (66:57 PB).
Edwin Kiptoo Looks To Defend His Title At The Dam tot Damloop 10 Mile In Amsterdam Rio 10,000m 4th placer Alice Aprot is the favorite for the women.
Sydney Marathon Preview: Mogos Shumay (61:09 Half PB) And Karolina Nadolska (2:26) Lead Fields Live stream Saturday @ 4PM ET.
Shadrack Kemboi (2:11) And Megerta Ifa Geletu (2:29) Are the Favorites At The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon Kemboi faces Ukraine’s 9-time Euro XC Champ and 2:08 marathoner Sergey Lebid.
October 2: Tirunesh Dibaba Will Headline Field At Great Scottish Run Half-Marathon She’ll face Betsy Saina who is coming off a 5th place finish in the Rio 10,000.
October 30: Kenya’s Mark Korir Looking For Marathon Redemption At The Frankfurt Marathon After Only Finishing 22nd At Last Year’s World Champs

The Week That Was

LRCWTW: The Men's 5000 Was Historically Bad in 2016 But The Women's Was Historically Great, Meet Distance Running's Newest Female Star Violah Jepchumba, A PR Disaster for Mo Farah and How Much of An Asterisk Does Ritz's 60:12 Deserve?

Did you know that 2016 produced the slowest world leading time in the men's 5000 in 23 years? We know that and a whole lot more.

Doping: Hackers Release Info On Multiple T&F Olympic Champions

MB: Fancy Bear Day Two Release Includes TUE Info For US Olympic Shot Put Champ Michelle Carter Other big name athletes in the latest release include 2012 Olympic discus champ Robert Harting, former hammer world champ Christina Obergföll, and British cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.
*Full List With TUE Documents At Fancy Bears Website
Philip Hersh: “Athletes Should Just Say No To Flawed Anti-Doping System” Hersh laughs at the idea that the hack doesn’t have ties to the Russian government.
Alan Abrahamson: “The ‘Fancy Bear’ Bid To Stir Up Chaos” Victor Conte sent out an email saying “This is gonna get ugly” and Abrahamson says it already is.
WADA Asks For Help Combatting Hacker Group After Second Release Of TUEs Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said they are happy to help, but disputed that the attacks came from Russia saying, “Nowadays, Russia is blamed for everything…”
*Note: The “Fancy Bear” hacking group is “believed to have ties to the Russian government.”
WADA President Craig Reedie Says Russia Faces Further Exile For Leaking Medical Files He claims they have “authoritative information on the identity” of the hackers.
Audio Interview With Craig Reedie On Hackings Reedie says Russia is still in denial about their doping problems.
Video Interview: GB 400 Runner Martyn Rooney Calls WADA Hacking “Petty” And “Sad”

WADA Gets Hacked

LRC The Russians Have Hacked WADA and Want You To Think Simone Biles Is A Drug Cheat Because She Takes ADHD Medicine Russian hackers have gotten their way into WADA and published a positive drug test for American star Simone Biles. In reality, the positive test is a good thing for the anti-doping movement as it shows the tests work as Biles should have tested positive for the ADHD med she openly declared she was taking.
*MB: The Russians Have Hacked WADA: Leaked Drug Tests/TUEs – Real or Not?

NY Times article The hacking group “the Fancy Bears” said, “This is just the tip of the iceberg” as they plan to released more medical records of other athletes from around the world. *BBC analysis
USADA Head Travis Tygart Slams “Cowardly And Despicable” Cyber Attack
Kremlin Spokesperson Says Russian Government Involvement In The Hack “Is Out Of The Question”

The Latest From The Paralympics

LRC USA’s Mikey Brannigan Dominates 1500m at Paralympic Games Brannigan ran like the boss in the Paralympic T20 1500.
*NBC Video: Race Highlights, Interview With Brannigan And His Parents And Reaction Clip From His Former HS Watching At Home

If You Care: General Olympic Themed News

Anti-Ryan Lochte Protesters Arrested For Interrupting His “Dancing With The Stars” Debut Includes video of security tackling one of the protesters to the ground as Lochte and his dance partner were about to receive their scores.
Update On Olympic Ticket Scandal: IOC Defend Their Email Exchange With Ireland’s Patrick Hickey, Saying They Did Nothing Wrong

Doping / Corruption Headlines

Seb Coe Defends Mo Farah’s Status As A Clean Athlete And His Coaching Relationship With Alberto Salazar “There are some systems where you can’t have that presumption of innocence any more but Mo – and I am not here as his spokesman or his defender – has made all his readings public.”
Kenyan Op-ed: “Olympic Shenanigans Mirror What Our Country Has Become” The author says the problems that went down in Rio are “a microcosm of Kenya today.”
Opinion Piece By InsideTheGames’ Nick Butler: “Control Or Independence? A Vital Crossroads In The Fight Against Doping” A long read that provides an interesting analysis of the power struggle and sports politics between the IOC, WADA, USADA and more.
Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov Believes History Will Prove IPC’s Decision To Ban Russia Was Wrong Or history will prove the IOC wrong for not banning Russia from the Olympics.
Maria Sharapova Will Find Out Early Next Month If Her 2-Year Doping Ban Will Get Reduced By CAS
Three Russian Cyclists Threaten To Sue WADA And Former Moscow Lab Director Grigory Rodchenkov Over The McLaren Report And Subsequent Ban From Rio They were named in the McLaren report as taking EPO.
UCI President Brian Cookson Says UCI Isn’t In Denial About Doping Like Some Other Sports But then he says something like this: “I think it’s actually quite difficult to cheat in our sport now.”
Police Release Alleged Incriminating Ticketing E-Mails From Irish IOC Member Patrick Hickey
*Brazil Police Will Oppose Hickey Returning To Ireland Pending Court Hearing

Great North CityGames *Full Results

Great North CityGames: David Rudisha runs ridiculous 57.69 world record (best) for 500! There was a lot of interesting action as Laura Muir won the women’s mile and Bernard Lagat struggled in the men’s.
*MB: Rudisha runs 57.69 over 500m in Newcastle

RRW: Rudisha Runs Fast 500m At Great North CityGames
Greg Rutherford Remains “Marginally Disappointed” About His Rio Bronze Now Rutherford turns his attention away from jumping to focus on his appearance on the UK’s version of “Dancing with the Stars.”
James Dasaolu & Chijindu Ujah in 100m photo finish Dasaolu got the win.
Greg Rutherford & Laura Muir claim wins

Results/Video: Olympic Pole Vault Champ Thiago Braz da Silva Upset By Rio 4th Placer Jan Kudlicka At Golden Fly Series Street Meet In Schaan, Liechtenstein

Doping Updates

Former WADA Director General Calls Out WADA And IOC Over Russia; Says WADA Should Have Deemed The IOC Non-Compliant David Howman is afraid the IOC’s plans to reform anti-doping will prioritize increasing their personal control rather than establishing independence.
Polish 19-Year-Old Olympic Shot Putter Konrad Bukowiecki Fails Drug Test He reportedly tested positive when he won World Juniors in July. *Polish language article (translated)
Seb Coe And European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Congratulate Belgian Women’s 4×100 Team For Their 2008 Olympic Gold Following Russian Doping Positive Re-Test

The Not So Smooth Travels Of Mo Farah

Mo Farah’s Wife Tania Says They Were “Humiliated” By A Delta Flight Attendant When He Was Trying To Board A Flight Home From Rio Farah’s wife accused the flight attendant of being racist and “yelling at him like he was a piece of sh— to get back into line” when he was trying to board business class for his flight. *BBC *Discuss
Other Reports Say That The Farah’s Arrived Late For Business Class Boarding And That Farah’s Wife Was “Disrespectful” Witnesses say Farah was silent, but his wife called the worker “f***ing pathetic” and said she had a “sad little life.”
Farah’s Applauded By Other Passengers After Being Allowed To Board
Irish Examiner: Mo Farah And David Rudisha Arrested For Speeding … Sort Of Photos to prove it.

News Involving Rio’s Stars

If you can’t beat ’em, have them join your team Galen Rupp might soon be the US’s #2 marathoner – Feyisa Lelisa is now living in the US
Wayde van Niekerk says he was upset that some people speculated he was a doper after he broke the WR If that’s true, he shouldn’t have skipped the rest of the season.
Controversies in S. Africa? Some in South Africa are wondering why Wayde Van Niekerk was given a new Audi and Caster Semenya wasn’t The fact that he was sponsored by Audi before the Olympics is the answer. Others are wondering if Van Niekerk’s victory is a victory for blacks or a victory for coloured people.
Kenyans can’t agree who it was that stayed in a luxury cruise ship in Rio

Paralympics

Tatyana McFadden’s quest for 7 golds ends in 1st event as she settles for silver We’re glad in the sense the same athlete shouldn’t be the best in the world at the 100m and marathon. It would be like the quarterback also being the best offensive linemen.
Blade runner Peacock peerless as he powers to another Paralympic 100m title

Week That Was

LRC Week That Was: How Fast is the 5th Avenue Mile Course?, Free PR Advice for Mo Farah, And a College Coach Helped an NCAA Legend Score Some Booze Plus in case you were gone we had the Diamond League finale in Zurich with the big win by Shannon Rowbury, a game effort by Evan Jager, and a great women’s 200m.

Wejo Speaks – His Rio Olympics

LRC “People are People”- The Olympics Remind Us Of All That is Great (and Bad) in the World Two weeks after Rio, LRC’s Weldon Johnson tries to make sense of his Olympic experience.

The Paralympics Have Started

Belarus Stages Pro-Russia Protest During Paralympics Opening Ceremony By Carrying Russian Flag To be fair, Belarus is a country with a lot of doping bans as well.
Q&A With Utah High School 400m Champ Hunter Woodhall Ahead Of The Paralympic Games Back in May, Woodhall ran 47.63 to win the stat championships against able bodied runners.
New Brazilian President Booed As He Opens 2016 Rio Paralympic Games Michel Temer was the vice president of the impeached Dilma Rousseff, so he is accused of the same corruption allegations.
Paralympics Opening Ceremony In Pictures There were some cool stuff like a wheelchair stuntman and some strange things like a paralympic snowboarder dancing with a robot.
Opening Ceremony For Russia’s Alternative Paralympic Games Takes Place In Moscow The Russian paralympic committee president had some harsh words for the rest of the world as he said, “Let the God be the judge for all those, who used to say that everything is all right with us and then barred us from the Paralympic Games.”
British Paralympic Chief Denies Accusations That Classification System Is Being Maniupated To Boost Medal Chances
Five Irish Stars To Follow At The Paralympics
Olympic Channel Will Show More Than 300 Hours Of Rio Paralympic Coverage

Mid-Week Action: Genzebe Dibaba Misses Mile WR Results: Rovereto *Zagreb

Rovereto: Genzebe Dibaba Runs 4:14.30 To Break African Mile Record, But Comes Up 1.74-Seconds Short Of The WR Dibaba’s time was the second fastest outdoors ever, although it’s slower than her indoor WR of 4:13.31. Sifan Hassan was way back with 4:25 for 2nd and Alexa Efraimson was 3rd (4:27). World bronze medalist Amel Tuka won the men’s 800 in a SB of 1:44.80. *Discuss
Zagreb: Long Jumper Ivana Spanovic (7.03m) And Discus Thrower Sandra Perkovic (67.86m) Were The Highlight Performances Distance victories included Robert Biwott in the 1500 in 3:37 (Robby Andrews was only 12th) and Margaret Kipkemboi in the 3K (8:45) over World XC champ Agnes Tirop. In the sprints, Asafa Powell missed his 98th sub-10, but won in 10.01.
*Olympic Champ Ryan Crouser Wins Deep Shot Put Crouser beat out bronze and silver medalists Tom Walsh and Joe Kovacs.

Unrest In Kenya

Kenyan Sports Minister Hassan Wario Defends Decision To Disband NOCK He said that sporting organisations should not exist in a “vacuum above the law.”
NOCK Reportedly Lost $30,000 Paying For A Room On A Cruise Ship For The Kenyan President Even Though He Never Attended The Games
Bickering And Finger Pointing Continues Between Hassan Wario, NOCK And Wesley Korir At Parliamentary Meeting

Get Excited For This Weekend: The Final Diamond League Meet Of The Year Is Friday

Friday: IAAF Preview: Some Events Will Come Down To The Wire For The Overall Diamond League $40,000 Prize The 100 will be a duel between Dafne Schippers and Elaine Thompson, Asbel Kiprop has a small lead in the 1500, but faces Elijah Manangoi and the men’s HJ is wide open.
*Provisional Entry Lists
*MB: Shannon Rowbury entered in Brussels 5000m, will she break the AR?
Saturday: 500m And Mile Fields Highlight The Great North City Games David Rudisha will take on GB’s top 400m runners in the 500 and in the mile, Bernard Lagat faces Silas Kiplagat while Laura Muir leads the women’s race.
Sunday: Vivian Cheruiyot, Tirunesh Dibaba And Priscah Jeptoo Will Face Off At The Great North Run Half-Marathon There is a good men’s field as well with Mo Farah leading Dathan Ritzenhein, Emmanuel Bett, and Abdi Abdirahman.
*MB: Farah, Ritz, Abdi And Vivian Cheruiyot vs Tirunesh Dibaba

NCAA XC Battle In Beantown Results All Weekend NCAA Results

LRC Battle in Beantown: No. 3 Providence Women Roll; Unranked Dartmouth Men Upset No. 20 Providence and Shorthanded No. 6 Arkansas At the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, Arkansas’ Alex George (24:09) and UNH’s Elinor Purrier (17:06) claimed the individual wins at Franklin Park. We also ran into Molly Huddle, who updated us on the early stages of her NYC Marathon training.
*RRW: Providence Women Earned Dominant Win At BC Battle In Beantown
Princeton men and Yale women dominate HYP meet Rojo and Wejo‘s alma maters both pick up bragging rights.
Oregon Men And Women Sweep Bill Dellinger Invitational Oregon’s Sam Prakel and Emily Weber got the individual wins. Edward Cheserek sat this one out. *Results
FloTrack’s Dennis Young Says NCAA Qualifying System Is “Extremely Stupid” Likely, Dartmouth and Providence men got an “extremely generous Kolas point” for beating a 6th ranked Arkansas team that was missing three of their top runners.
2012 Olympian Julie Culley Named Interim Director Of T&F/XC At Georgetown She’s been an assistant coach for the last 2-years.
USTFCCCA Weekend Preview

Doping I: The WADA Hack / TUEs

MB: Fancy Bear Day 3 Hack Release Includes A Bunch Of Swimmers And Rowers; No Track Athletes
Mo Farah Might Be One Of The Next Athletes To Have His TUE Information Leaked, But He Isn’t Worried Farah says he’s only ever had one TUE (a drip when he collapsed in Park City, Utah in 2014), but revealed he uses an inhaler for asthma which he was prescribed in 2009 and swapped to a different one after moving to Alberto Salazar.
Athletics Weekly Looks At Robert Harting And Michelle Carter’s TUE Record Harting: “Me and the medical staff are fine with the leaked content. We don’t hide anything. Go transparency!”
Vladimir Putin: “It seems as if healthy athletes are taking drugs legally that are prohibited for others…”
Good Read: The Telegraph: “Hackers Have Raised Questions Of Morality Over Therapeutic Drug Use” While some TUEs are innocent, others are in the grey area and have “stirred a debate about whether athletes are pushing the moral boundaries while honouring the legal ones.”
Richard McLaren Believes TUEs Are Open To Abuse And Specifically Names ADHD Medication As A Possible Offender McLaren also criticizes the IOC reaction (or non-reaction) to his report and contrasts how the IPC immediately contacted him while he’s never heard anything from top IOC officials.
The Telegraph: “Russian Rage Over Doping Points To A New Cold War” Oliver Brown writes that there was a “jaw-dropping exchange” between the Russian Embassy in London and a UK journalist after the embassy tweeted about doping “double standards”.
WADA Statement On Most Recent Fancy Bear Hack Release
GB’s Former Tour De France Winner Bradley Wiggins Allegedly Caught Lying In His Autobiography In his autobiography he says he’s “never had an injection” besides vaccinations, but his data shows at least three, all shortly before some of his biggest races.
GB Sailing Gold Medalist Saskia Clark: “I am not ashamed of getting a TUE, but the system is open to abuse.”
IOC Vow To Speak With Russian Authorities About Helping WADA Respond To Cyber-Attacks

Doping II: Other Russian Doping News

Hey Russia, The Horse Is Dead: Five Russian Athletes Have Appeals Against Rio 2016 Paralympic Ban Turned Down By German Federal Constitutional Court
Richard McLaren’s Final Report On Russian Doping Is Still Several Months Away This one will be focused on winter sports and athletes.
Rio 2016 Won’t Stop Political Protests During Paralympic Closing Ceremony Despite Likely Pro-Russia Protest From Belarus
Russian Weightlifting President Resigns After Entire Team Banned From Rio 2016 While not admitting to wrong doing, he said “someone had to be held responsible for what had happened”.

2016 TCS New York City Marathon Fields Released

LRC Might Dathan Ritzenhein Have A Chance To Win The 2016 NYC Marathon? We Break Down the 2016 NYC Marathon Elite Fields We break down the fields for you and note that the men’s field is short on African talent – could that open the door for a win by America’s Dathan Ritzenhein? Molly Huddle will have her hands full on November 6 as Mary Keitany is looking for a 3-peat against Berlin champ Gladys Cherono, 2015 NYC runner-up Aselefech Mergia and Joyce Chepkirui.
*Press Release from NYRR
*MB: 2016 NYC Marathon Fields released – Does Ritz have a chance (only 4 other sub-2:08 guys in the race)?

More Upcoming Road Action

Saturday: Jordan McNamara And Heather Kampf Face Solid Fields As They Try To Defend Their Titles At The Pittsburgh GNC Live Well Liberty Mile Ben Blankenship is the star of the men’s race while Kampf faces a rematch with Emily Lipari who beat her last weekend. *Bring Back The Mile Prediction Contest Win some free shoes from Running Warehouse.
World Half-Marathon Champion Peres Jepchirchir Returns To Mattoni Usti nad Labem Half Marathon Jepchirchir is the class of the field with a PB 3-minutes better than her main competition. The men’s race has four sub-60 minute runners.
Kenyan 42-Year-Old Mariko Kipchumba Will Defend His Title At The Beijing Marathon The master runner has a 2:06 PB and won here last year in 2:11:00. He faces a field with seven other sub-2:10 runners. Former Paris Marathon winner Meseret Mengistu (2:23:25) leads women’s race.
Sunday: UK’s Ageless Wonder Jo Pavey Returns To Kew Gardens 10K Road Race Pavey, just days from her 43rd birthday, will face fellow GB runner Charlotte Purdue. Men’s race has Chris Thompson and Scott Overall.
October 30: Former World Bronze Medalist Tadesse Tola (2:04:49 PB), Lani Rutto (2:06:34) And Former Paris Champ Mark Korir (2:05:49) Headline Frankfurt Marathon Field Former world 10,000 bronze medalist Moses Masai is also in the race. The women’s field is lead by world half champ Peres Jepchirchir and 2:21 woman Mamitu Daska.

More Doping: No Russia, It’s Still You

Russian Javelin Thrower Maria Abakumova Stripped Of Her 2008 Olympic Silver Medal Following Doping Re-Tests Russia’s men’s 4×400 team will also lose their 2008 bronze after team member Denis Alexeev re-tested positive. Adding to the Russian doper list are 2008 10K 8th placer Inga Abitova and a cyclist. Out of the 18 named so far in re-tests, 10 have been Russian.
GB Jav Thrower Goldie Sayers And Men’s 4×400 Upgraded From 4th To 2008 Olympic Bronzes *BBC
Good Read: GB 4×400 Runner Andrew Steele Says Bronze Is Emotional And Reflecting About Bronze Upgrade Doping destroys dreams.
Appeals Of 94 Russian Athletes Against Rio Paralympic Ban Rejected By German Court They will now appeal to Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, but with only 5-days left in the Paralympics, there isn’t much point.
Russia To Still Host World Curling Championships Despite McLaren Report Doping Allegations The IAAF took events away from Russia, but other sports seem reluctant too.

One Year To Go Until Decision On 2024 Olympic Host

Previous Paralympic News

A Pre-Race Good Read: Wall Street Journal: “Mikey Brannigan’s Ready For The Long Run” Brannigan gets high praise from coaches, legendary Irish Olympian Eamonn Coughlan and of course his mom.
*NOTE: You may have to access this through Google to read.
Good Read: “Mikey Brannigan Wasn’t Allowed to Compete in College. Now, He’s Going for Gold in Rio” Great profile on the paralympic runner who’s autism and academic scores kept him from being eligible to compete in the NCAA, but haven’t stopped him from chasing his running dreams.
The Huffington Post: “Four Paralympians Just Ran The 1500m Faster Than Anyone At The Rio Olympics Final” Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka won in 3:48.29 and the headline points out that even the 4th place finisher was faster than Centro‘s time in Rio. But if this author understands time having no significance in tactical races, he isn’t letting on and it’s the casual non-runners who will be left confused. *The Telegraph article
New Zealand’s “Blade Runner” Breaks Oscar Pistorius’ Paralympic Games Record Liam Malone won 200m gold in 21.06
*MB: Blind paralympic athletes run faster than Centro
Minor Fire And Water Damage In Rio After Unmanned Hot-Air Balloon Crashes Into Roof Of Paralympic Games Venue.

NCAA News

AP: Texas Track Coach Mario Sategna Taking Indefinite Leave of Absence *Discuss
DI Women’s Week 1 Regional XC Rankings *Men’s Week 1 Regional Rankings
NCAA Athletes Of The Week Are Eastern Kentucky’s Erick Rotich And Penn State’s Tessa Barrett Rotich won the Kentucky Bluegrass Invitational as Barrett was first at Harry Groves Spiked Shoe.

NCAA Action and News *NCAA XC Schedule and Results

Video: Devon Allen Scores Touchdown For Oregon And Celebrates With Some Hurdling In The Endzone
Michigan Women Almost Sweep At Sycamore Invy In Terre Haute Erin Finn won easily as they went 1-4 and 6th.
Drake University Starting Off Year Without A Head Coach
MB: Syracuse’s 13:55 transfer Iliass Aouani dominates 1st meet of year – Will the Cuse repeat?
NCAA Head Mark Emmert is concerned that Texas’ Joseph Schooling got a $750,000 gold medal payment from Singapore Few people realize that since 2001, the NCAA has allowed athletes to receive medal bonuses from their home countries. But the didn’t consider that other countries might pay way more than the US.

Show Us The Money

Diamond League Prize Money Breakdown For 2016: Who Came Out On Top? Discus thrower Sandra Perkovic and Dafne Schippers tied for the highest earners as Conseslus Kipruto was the top male and distance earner.

Paralympics Odds And Ends

Irish Mid-D Runner With Cerebral Palsy And A 3:51 PB Wins Emotional Paralympic 1500 Gold Michael McKillop shed some tears as he talked about the tough buildup he had to Rio.
Utah High School State 400 Champ Hunter Woodhall Qualifies For The Paralympic 200m Final The 17-year-old took second in his heat with a PB of 21.50.
Paralyzed, Pregnant Woman Wearing A Bionic Suit Finishes Great North Run In Five Days Claire Lomas was paralyzed from the chest down from a horse riding accident, but used the suit and her arms to finish the half-marathon.
*BBC: “Bionic Woman Completes GNR”
GB Sprinter Jonnie Peacock Defends His Paralympic 100m Title Before Going On A Stadium Wide Search For His Missing Family Heirlooms Peacock even had members of the British press helping him look for this missing family keepsakes which he had taped to his blade.
Belgian Paralympic Silver Medalist Wheelchair Racer Talks About Considering Euthanasia She has a painful degenerative muscle disease and has signed euthanasia papers but has no immediate plans to use them.

Good Reads

Incredible read for throws fans and coaches 1976 Olympic discus champ Mac Wilkins takes you behind the scenes into Ryan Crouser’s gold medal performance in Rio He gives you the scoop on his training and each and every throw of the Olympics. All coaches, even distance coaches should read this, as it tells you how to set up a season and competition to peak perfectly.
Outside Magazine asks what’s responsible the renaissance in American distance running – are training groups the key?
Scott Douglas ask, “Why Don’t More Elites Post Their Training Online?” Ritz, “It would be like a company just posting their business plan and protocols for everyone to see and use. I have no problem sharing it with anyone who asks, I just don’t want it available for anyone at anytime.”
Is your dog injured? Send him to Chicago where he can get on an underwater treadmill
Kathrine Switzer To Run 2017 Boston Marathon To Mark 50th Anniversary of Her Historic Run The 70-year old will move from the tv booth (which she’s been doing for 30 years) to the course for the 2017 race.
*Did you know? Switzer is married to Kiwi xc legend Roger Robinson
*Video interview with Carie Tollefson from June
Salazar Gave A HS Fan Galen Rupp’s Spikes + Bib and Salazar’s Own Jacket in Rio After Mo Farah Won 10k Gold *Discuss
Alan Abrahamson isn’t impressed by Ryan Lochte’s 10-month swimming suspension He also is missing out on $100,000 in medal bonuses.

2016 Berlin is Fast Approaching

2016 BMW Berlin Marathon Field Released – Wilson Kipsang and Kenenisa Bekele Will Have Their Hands Full As Field Features 8 Sub 2:06 Men Who will be racing in Berlin on September 25?
*MB: Calling it now: World record falls in Berlin to Bekele
*MB: 2016 Berlin field released – Race features 8 sub 2:06s

October 9: Former Two-Time World Marathon Champion Abel Kirui Still Has High Ambitions As He Lines Up For Next Month’s Chicago Marathon Kirui has struggled with injuries, but is hoping to return to the top and represent Kenya at Worlds next year by running sub-2:05 in Chicago.

General Olympic / Doping News

Sprints Jumps And Throws

Recommended Read: New British Book Tells The Stories Of Olympians Who Died Fighting In World War I GB hammer thrower Alfred Flaxman was among those who used his athletic skill in war as he could throw bombs over 75 yards.
Valerie Adams Pokes Fun At Her Husband With Picture On Instagram The caption read “When your wife’s biceps are bigger than yours.”
Surprise Audi Sports Car Waiting For Wayde Van Niekerk When He Returns To South Africa It isn’t to keep though as his sponsor, Audi, is loaning it to him for a year with the option of extending.
Jamaica Fills “Lion’s Share” Of List Of World Sprint Records For Each Lane *Full List Published By T&F News USA and Jamaica dominate most of the slots.
NZ Herald Writer Thinks 19-Year-Old Olympic Pole Vault Bronze Medalist Eliza McCartney Is The Most Marketable New Zealand Athlete Her agent says she has at least 30 commercial sponsorship opportunities.

The Paralympic Opening Ceremony Is Today At 4:30PM ET (NBC Broadcast At 7PM)

IOC President Will Miss Opening Ceremony Of Paralympic Games For First Time In 32-Years Thomas Bach will instead go to the mourning ceremony for the former West Germany President, but some see this as a sign of tension between the IOC and IPC over the Russian ban.
GB Head Paralympic Head Coach Calls Russia’s Ban An Opportunity For British Athletes “Every other nation will be looking at it the same as us. In their misfortune someone else will benefit from it.”
The Guardian: Five Australian Paralymics To Watch In Rio
*Athletics’ Weekly’s “Paralympians To Watch” List
Paralyzed Woman To Compete Great North Run Half-Marathon In A “Bionic Suit” Claire Lomas plans to complete the half by doing 3-miles a day.

Distance News

Chris Solinsky Promoted To Head Distance Coach At William & Mary
He’s Not Hanging ‘Em Up Anytime Soon: Nick Willis Plans To Continue On Through Tokyo 2020 Olympics After becoming the oldest ever medalist in the Olympic 1500, he’ll likely focus on the 5000 in 2020 when he’ll be 37.
Clayton Murphy Throws Out First Pitch At Cleveland Indians Game
MileSplit: Will The Nation’s Best XC Prep Not Race Foot Locker This Year? Casey Clinger is the favorite heading into this year, but his Foot Locker regional meet is the same weekend as his team hopes to compete at NXN.

Sprint Stuff

Usain Bolt Says He Only Wants To Run The 100 At The London World Championships Next Year, But Has Left The Door Open Coach Glen Mills wants him to do the double. Talking about times, Bolt has finally admitted that his WRs are “all beyond me now.”
Cornell Alum And European Champion Bruno Hortelano Has Second Operation On His Right Hand After Car Crash
Ebony Magazine Q&A With Allyson Felix In a candida interview Felix discusses her career, overcoming challenges and despite being 30-years-old, doesn’t rule out another Olympics.
Q&A With 100m Olympic Silver Medalist Tori Bowie Who Says Her Next Goal Is “Building A Brand” “My manager says it is important to build a brand right now, to take advantage of the exposure from the Olympics. If I wait longer, it could be too late.”
Usain Bolt First Episode In “Before They Were Superstars” Video Series Check out some clips of the 17-year-old version of Bolt.
Usain Bolt Turns Up For His “First Day On The Job” As “Chief Speed Officer’ At Mobile Phone Company Digicel

More Paralympic News

Hear! Hear! Canadian Paralympic Runner Guillaume Ouellet Calls Out Media For Out Of Context Headlines Which Made It Sound Like The 1500 Paralympians Were Better Than The Olympians When the paralympic 1500 was won faster than Matt Centrowitz‘s gold medal time, many media outlets had headlines implying that their performance was at a higher level than Centro’s tactical win.
AFF Headline: “Dwarfs Stand Tall At Rio Paralympics” HBO tv show “Game of Thrones” and character Tyrion Lannister get mention.
Kenya’s Henry Kirwa Wins Second Paralympic Medal As He Gets 5000 Gold To Add To His 1500 Bronze

Road Race Disasters

Boston Marathon Won’t Accept Adjusted For Train Delay At The Via Marathon (includes video) An unexpected train derailed many runners’ BQ qualifying attempt.
*MB: Train stops marathon at Lehigh Valley
NYRR Settle In Lawsuit Over Lottery Entry Fees They will pay out $2.1 million in credits to runners who payed a lottery fee and the race drawing will be free for the next 3-years although entry fees are going up to $295.

Interesting Paralympic News

Paralympic Repair Shop With Technicians From 29 Countries Are Making 100+ Free Repairs A Day In Rio Wheelchairs, carbon fiber legs, you name it, they fix it.
There’s A Secret Inside The Rio Paralympic Medals Each medal has tiny steel balls inside so they make noise when you shake them. Gold has the most balls so is the loudest. The medals are also engraved with Braille for visually impaired athletes.
How Is The UK’s Paralympic Medal Tally Compare With London 2012? Like the Rio Olympic team, the GB paralympic team has won more medals than when they hosted in 2012.

Feyisa Lilesa Continues His Protest From The US

Recommended Read #1: Feyisa Lilesa Talks About The Internal Conflict He Faced When Deciding To Make His Protest In Rio And Speaking To His Family Since On training runs before Rio Lilesa was afraid he’d be attacked by authorities and whenever there was a knock on his door, he always ran to the roof to check before opening it.
RR #2: Feyisa Lilesa Writes Powerful Op-Ed In Washington Post Lilesa talks about the oppression the Oromo people face in Ethiopia and explains why he is afraid to go back. *Discuss
Video/Audio: Feyisa Lilesa Speaks At Press Conference In Washington DC Lilesa is going to train in New Mexico and said he doesn’t currently plan to run for the United States as he hopes to eventually run for Ethiopia again when things improve.
AP article Lilesa: “If I would’ve taken my medal and went back to Ethiopia, that would’ve been the biggest regret of my life. I wanted to be a voice for a story that wasn’t getting any coverage.”