September 25, 2016 | LetsRun.com

BMW Berlin Marathon Sunday TV/Streaming Tracking Info Results

LRC The King Is Back – Kenenisa Bekele Runs 2:03:03 To Defeat Wilson Kipsang In A Race For The Ages In Berlin What a race. Kenenisa Bekele won an epic duel with Wilson Kipsang in 2:03:03 to Kipsang’s 2:03:13 despite getting dropped twice. Aberu Kebede dominates women’s race in 2:20:45. *Rewatch The Race Here

More OTB:

LRC Men’s Preview: Kenenisa Bekele Is BACK To Battle Wilson Kipsang & Field Full Of Men Searching For Redemption

LRC Women’s Preview: Aberu Kebede Looks To Join The Sub-2:20 Club And Hold Off A Young Field

Russian Hackers Release Data On 2 US Stars

LRC Russian Hackers Release Galen Rupp And Shalane Flanagan Anti-Doping Data Rupp had three TUEs listed, all in 2009 for asthma/allergy medication. (Interestingly, Alberto Salazar has written that Rupp had 2 TUEs from 2010 onwards which weren’t in the hack). Flanagan had one, for an IV after being dehydrated at the Olympic Marathon Trials in February.
*Discuss: Galen Rupp, Shalane Flanagan Among Latest Round of Fancy Bears Hacks

Former Doctor Of British Cyclist Bradley Wiggins Has Questioned Decision To Allow Him TUE Steroid Days Before Three Major Races
Six British Athletes Among The Latest Fancy Bears Release, Including Sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey
IOC Claims Plans To Introduce An Integrity Unit To Replace WADA Are A “Total Fabrication”
Weightlifting Federation Not Happy With The Way IOC Has Handled Beijing 2008 And London 2012 Retests While 47 athletes were caught in retests, only nine have received sanctions so far.

More Upcoming Road Action

MB: Dennis Kimetto Withdraws From The Chicago Marathon
Oct. 2nd & 23rd: Tirunesh Dibaba Running Two More British Road Races This Fall At The Great Scottish Run Half And The Great South Run 10 Mile She’ll face Betsy Saina in the half next weekend.
October 2nd: Paris Marathon Champ Cybrian Kotut (59:12) And Recent 30:24 10Ker Violah Jepchumba Lead Fields For The Cardiff Half Marathon

Previous Doping News

Steve Cram Defends Athletes Taking TUEs Cram: “I think we are getting into a crazy scenario where we are assuming everyone is cheating. They aren’t. We are frightening people away from top-level sport.”
Russian Sprinter Yulia Chermoshanskaya Abandons Her CAS Appeal After Being Stripped Of Her 2008 4 X 100 Gold So much wasted time and money could be saved if athletes just owned up to their cheating. She didn’t confess, but at least she knew she was busted.
WADA President Craig Reedie Urges National Federations To “Fulfil Obligations” To WADA Code By Not Awarding Russia Major Events Despite Russia’s non-compliance, the International Biathlon Union awarded them the 2021 World Championships.

Negative Running News

An Unplanned Race Delay At A New Jersey 5K Might Have Saved Runners From Harm After A Pipe Bomb Exploded On The Course If the race had started on time, runners would have been going right by the pipe bomb explosion. After a shootout with police, a man was arrested and charged for the bombing.
Sad News: Colorado High School Runner Brandon Ries Collapses And Dies At XC Race The senior co-captain is fondly remembered by his coach and teammates. The cause of death is currently unknown.
*Boulder Daily Camera Article

Track Season Isn’t Over For Everyone

Canadian 20-Year-Old Pierce LePage Had A Big Decathlon Breakthrough At The Decastar Multi Event Meet Last Weekend The youngster set three PRs to lead going into the 1,500, but even another PR there couldn’t get him the overall win as he finished 3rd.
First Impressions Q&A With Seven-Time Long Global Long Jump Champ Brittney Reese Not surprisingly for a jumper, Reese played basketball when she was young and wanted to be in the WNBA.
Germany Takes Team Victory At Fly Europe Meet In Paris Five European countries, just three events (PV, LJ and the 40m sprint).
Germany’s Kai Kazmirek And Carolin Schafer Are The Overall Winners Of The 2016 IAAF Combined Events Challenge USA’s/Brooks’s Jeremy Taiwo was 2nd in the series rankings.
2016 Diamond League Season In Review The IAAF runs down the defending champions, the “late surges,” intense duels and dominant newcomers.
Track And The Olympics Might Be Done, But There’s Still A Lot Of Distance Action To Look Forward To In The Rest Of 2016 A season of road and XC races really gets going with Sunday’s Berlin Marathon.
From Last Week: Olympic Medalists Renaud Lavillenie And Christophe Lemaitre Lead French Team To Victory At DecaNation It was their first win in 8 years at this event. There was a distance upset in the 2K, where Japan’s Masaki Toda beat out Mahiedine Mekhissi.

Sprint Stuff

Video: The Men’s Olympic 100m Final In Legos A whole new way to watch Bolt dominate.
*Lego Version Of Women’s 100H Final
Ken Goe In The Oregonian: “Oregon’s Devon Allen Should Quit Playing Football And Get On With His Hurdling Career” Goe caught some flack in the comment section from football fans as he wrote, “It’s time to end this flirtation with disaster as a football player …” *Discuss
Q&A: Allyson Felix Hasn’t Given Up On Doing The 200-400 Double As She Talks About 2017 Worlds And Beyond Asked which track athletes she enjoys watching compete she mentions Emma Coburn who she says is the “sweetest.”
Elaine Thompson And Nesta Carter Getting Roads Named For Them In Their Hometowns The article mentions Carter’s 2008 4 x 100 gold, but will he get to keep that?
Britain’s Former World Indoor 400m Champ Jamie Baulch Thinks Wayde van Niekerk’s WR Is Better Than Usain Bolt’s However, according to the IAAF Scoring Tables and also decathlon scoring tables, Bolt’s records are better.

Our Weekly Recap

WTW The Kenyans Are Really Good At The Half Marathon, The Paralympics Come To An End, Drama At The World Triathlon Champs, Slow Times At The Philly Half, And Usain Bolt Gives Up On The 200? This week we try to figure out why Kenyans are way better at the half marathon than the marathon, point out that the US road 5k champs were won in a time that was slower than the 5k split of a European half marathon, learn that it’s better (from a performance perspective) to be a double amputee than single amputee in the Paralympics, and wonder if fast times will ever return to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon.

Interesting Reads

MB: Great Q&A With Ritz By Larry Eder – Ritz Talks About His NYC Prep, Galen’s Olympic Marathon And Centro’s Gold
Recommended Watch Alistair Brownlee CARRIES Exhausted Brother Jonny Over Line In World Triathlon Series This is for everyone who thinks waiting for a fallen teammate (Rupp) or picking up a tripped competitor (D’Agostino) is some unprecedented action.
Blade Technology Is So Good At Paralympics That Single Amputees Are Now Wishing They Were Double Amputees The top 6 finishers at the Paralympics were all double amputees.
Exclusive Q&A interview With DumbFloTrack Twitter Account “FloTrack was a real grassroots voice when it came up, then they got this venture capital money and you could see the passion kind of leave for more of this move towards ad clicks.”
*MB: So so good: Exclusive Q&A interview with masterminds behind DumbFloTrack Twitter account
London Marathon Charitable Trust Awards Over £1.1m To Projects To Get People Active

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.
Lehigh Men And Women Destroy Lafayette
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
2012 Olympian Julie Culley Named Interim Director Of T&F/XC At Georgetown She’s been an assistant coach for the last 2 years.

Paralympic News

“Colourful, Energetic And Moving” Closing Ceremony Brings 2016 Rio Paralympics To A Close
Tatyana McFadden Upset In Rio Paralympic Marathon, Finishes Paralympics With 4 Golds And 2 Silvers
Iranian Cyclist’s Death Casts A “Dark Shadow” Over Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Admits IPC President
RIP: Iranian Para-Cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad Dies After Crash In Cycling Road Race
Tatyana McFadden Powers To Her 3rd Gold Of 2016 Paralympics She won the 800 in 1:44.73.
South African Prosecutors Once Again Appeal Oscar Pistorius’ 6-Year Sentence For Murder
6-Time Gold Medalist David Weir Says He “Let The Country Down” With His Rio Paralympics Performance He had an awful Olympics as he failed to medal and also missed the birth of his 4th child.
Nigerian Paralympic Gold Medalist Was Able To Win Gold Even Though She Had To Skip Meals And Didn’t Have $6 To Buy A Cell Phone

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, led by Gladys Chesir (66:57 PR).
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 PR) 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”

Previous Paralympic News

LRC USA’s Mikey Brannigan Dominates 1,500m At Paralympic Games Brannigan ran like the boss in the Paralympic T20 1,500.
*NBC Video: Race Highlights, Interview With Brannigan And His Parents And Reaction Clip From His Former HS Watching At Home

NCAA XC Panorama Farms Results All Weekend NCAA XC

Roy Griak: #19 Ranked Portland Men And #30 Portland Women Win Roy Griak Invitational Surprising upsets, especially on the women’s side, although #6 ranked Boise State ran without Allie Ostrander. Colorado State’s Jerrell Mock and Boise State’s Brenna Peloquin took the individual titles.
*MB: PORTLAND PILOTS WIN GRIAK!!!?
*MB: Oklahoma Men’s team goes home DEVASTATED
*MB: Ostrander at Griak?

Panorama Farms: MB: #12 BYU men shock #1 Syracuse at Panorama Farms Invite Justyn Knight got the course record, but Syracuse’s Joel Hubbard DNFed, costing them the team win. *Results

LRC 2016 NCAA Men’s XC Preview: Syracuse #1 In The Nation, Could Be Challenged By #2 Stanford, #3 Oregon, #4 Georgetown We break down the top teams in the country. The front three teams are all stacked.

colorado14 LRC More Previews: #5 Iona, #6 Arkansas, #7 NAU, #8 Colorado Colorado could do much better if it doesn’t redshirt its freshman.

*Previous LRC XC Previews: The Colorado women are our #1.

Pro-Distance News

Good Read: Diego Estrada Looking For Redemption After OT DNFs By Running Sub-2;10 In His Second Marathon Attempt At Chicago Next Month Article has some interesting insights, including a time Estrada accidentally did double the workout he was supposed to.
Recommended Read: Extensive Q&A With New Zealand’s New Zealand Olympic Legend Rod Dixon Dixon talks about running at three Olympic Games from the 1,500 to the marathon, this iconic finish photo and drinking beers with Steve Prefontaine.
Interesting Podcast With Nick Symmonds Symmonds talks about his 800 training, future in the sport, and is run through a series of “hypothetical situations.”
Ultra Runner Karl Meltzer Celebrated His Appalachian Trail Record With Filet Mignon Meltzer went the final 86 miles without sleep to break the record by as much as possible. On helping him break his own record, Scott Jurek says, “As sick as it might sound to someone who doesn’t understand … it was really cool.”
Q&A With Sara Hall On Motherhood And Other Odds ‘N’ Ends Hall says the family might eventually relocate to Ethiopia and says she likes Ryan’s “new muscular build.”

US Olympic News: RIP To A Coaching Legend

Legendary Tennessee State And Olympic Coach Ed Temple Has Died At 89 Temple helped break down racial and gender barriers in the sport and coached athletes to 13 Olympic gold medals, including Wilma Rudolph, who in 1960 became the first American woman to win three golds at a single Olympics.
*USA Today Has Some Photos And Video
*USATF Release
Good News: House Passes Bill To Give Olympic Medalists A Tax Break On The Prize Money They Got From The USOC Most Olympians and Paralympians are not millionaires and many compete for Team USA without any kind of endorsement.

The Random And Bizarre

Washington Post Headline: “Pumping Breast Milk During A Half Marathon Turned One Runner Into An Inspiration”
UK Mountain Running Champion Lauren Jeska Pleads Guilty In Attempted Murder Case She stabbed three British athletics staff members at a UK stadium earlier this year.
What You Eat May Be Affecting How Your Sweat Smells Apparently a diet high in fruits and vegetables smells better than one high in carbs. However, if you go to a low carb diet, you’ll probably have bad breath so it’s a lose-lose.
Spain’s World Triathlon Series Champion Mario Mola Claims Alistair Brownlee Knocked Off His Hat And Goggles During The Swim Mola is insinuating that Brownlee obstructed him to help his brother win the overall series title as he needed Mola to finish 5th or lower.

NCAA XC Countdown

Women LRC 2016 NCAA Women’s XC Top 10 Countdown: #2 Providence And #1 Colorado – Is #1 Colorado Wetmore’s Best Team Ever? Is #1 Colorado Mark Wetmore‘s best team ever?

LRC #6 New Mexico, #5 NC State, #4 Oregon And #3 Stanford
LRC #10 Michigan State, #9 Oklahoma State, #8 Michigan And #7 Boise State

Men LRC 2016 NCAA Men’s XC Preview: #10 Washington And #9 Wisconsin After 43 straight NCAA appearances, the Badgers were absent in 2015 but they should back in a big way in 2016 thanks in part to a guy who ran 14:07 in HS on less than 40 mpw.
*MB: Very impressive. Wisco’s Morgan McDonald ran 14:07 in HS on less than 40 mpw

Procrastinate Your Day Away With This Cross-Country Computer Game If you’ve got time to kill.
Syracuse Stays On Top Of Latest National XC Poll With NAU And Oregon Swapping 2nd And 3rd
New Mexico Women Stay Ranked #1 In National Coaches Poll Providence got some #1 votes and moved up to 2nd as Colorado is ranked 3rd.
Some Video Highlights From Last Weekend’s Battle in Beantown
The Latest NCAA Women’s XC Regional Rankings
The Latest NCAA Men’s XC Regional Rankings

Doping Headlines: WADA-IOC Tension Grows

Fears Growing For Future Of Anti-Doping As IOC Members Consider Integrity Unit Which Would Marginalize WADA WADA supporters thinks this is a play by the IOC to punish WADA for recommending Russia be banned from Rio.
*WADA President Craig Reedie Hits Back At IOC Suggestion That WADA Needs To Be Replaced Reedie said there was a “willingness to reinforce the independence and regulatory powers” of WADA rather than completely overhaul it.
BBC: WADA Hacks Just The Latest “Symptom Of A Much Wider Crisis: The Erosion Of Faith In The Entire Anti-Doping System” It has been a rough year for fans of clean sport.
Writer From The Guardian Reminds Fans Not To Be Sucked In By Fancy Bear Hack’s Goal Of Lumping Athlete TUEs In With Russian Doping Scandal Nothing unveiled by the WADA hack has been anywhere near the level that the investigations in Russia discovered.
Banned Former Cyclist Says They Always Claimed They Had “Some Allergy” So They Could Take TUEs As Performance Enhancers
Doping Sample Of Banned Italian Racewalker Alex Schwazer Seized For DNA Tests Schwazer got an 8-year doping ban for his second doping offense, but claims his sample was sabotaged.

Mo Farah’s TUEs Revealed And There’s Not Much To See

Mo Farah Has Medical Data Leaked By “Fancy Bears” Hackers Farah has only taken two TUEs according to WADA.
Mo Farah Shrugs Off “Fancy Bears” Drug Disclosure

Road Races We Didn’t Get To Over The Weekend

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” (fixed) Molly Huddle may have recently lost the 5,000 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."

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 candid 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

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 wrongdoing, 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 PR 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 masters runner has a 2:06 PR 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 PR), 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 x 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 X 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 to.

U Of O News

Hayward Field Renovations Delayed By A Year Due to a late cell tower construction project, the construction that was supposed to start this fall won’t start until next summer. This opens up the track for additional events this spring.
Oregon Shot Put Record Holder Brittany Mann Transferring To USC For Her Final Season She graduated in June and wants a masters program not offered at Oregon.

Weekend XC Action Panorama Farms Results All Weekend NCAA XC

MB: #12 BYU men shock #1 Syracuse at Panorama Farms Invite Justyn Knight got the course record, but Syracuse’s Joel Hubbard DNFed, costing them the team win.
USTFCCCA Panorama Recap: #19 BYU Women Get Surprising Win As William & Mary’s Regan Rome Takes Individual Glory
*Meet Preview
Good Read: GoStanford Talks To Coach Chris Miltenberg, Who Has Big Expectations For This Year’s Team They were hurt by injuries last year, but with Sean McGorty and Grant Fisher leading the way, they want to be in the hunt for a team title.
#6 Ranked Boise State And #10 Ranked Michigan Lead Women’s Race At Roy Griak
*Men’s Preview: Michigan State Back To Defend 2015 Team Title
*MB: Allie O not competing at Griak? Not listed on Boise’s start list *Results Will Be Posted Here
USTFCCCA Live Weekend XC Updates

Usain Bolt & The Sub-5 Minute Mile

LRC Usain Bolt On Whether Or Not He Could Break Five Minutes In The Mile: “Of course! I’m not that bad.” Bolt was super confident about it, laughing at the suggestion he couldn’t run faster than 5 minutes and cites his 2:07 800m PR.
*MB: Usain Bolt runs a 2:07 800m. Can he break 5?

Tyson Gay Sits Out US Bobsled National Push Championships As London Olympics 100m 5th Placer Ryan Bailey Wins Gay didn’t feel ready as he’s only pushed a sled ten times.

Sport Politics

Craig Reedie Says WADA And The IOC Have Agreed To Work Together And Stop Publicly Criticizing Each Other Reedie: “We have much better things to do than to hurl abuse at each other.”
BBC Analyzes Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi’s Decision To Go Against 2024 Olympic Bid The author hypothesizes that “rejecting the Olympics may be her way of winning back popularity and asserting her authority over the city.”

Distance News

Good Video Q&A With Nick Symmonds After pulling out of the Trials with injury, Symmonds said there was a possibility of retirement, but he says “most likely” he’ll still be competing for a Worlds spot in 2017.
*Part 2 Of The Interview
Wilson Kipsang Says His Training Has Gone Well And He’s In Shape To Break The World Record At The Berlin Marathon On Sunday
North Face Ultramarathon Challenge Series Sets New Standard Against Doping In Trail Running With Policy Excluding Past Drug Cheats From Awards If you’ve ever served a ban, you can run, but not win awards/prize money. The problem is though that testing is almost nonexistent in the ultra world.
Jo Pavey Wins Kew Gardens 10K Road Race Over Charlotte Purdue Chris Thompson won the men’s race in a sprint finish with Scott Overall.

Olympic News

LA’s Olympic Dreams Just Got A Boost: Rome Mayor Officially Withdraws Support For 2024 Olympic Bid Calling It “Irresponsible” This effectively ends the bid as it can’t really continue without support of the mayor. *Previous Article
Judge Accepts Indictments Against Eight Men Accused Of Plotting Terrorist Attacks At Rio 2016

US Action Was Led By 2016 USATF Road 5k Champs *Results

RRW Ryan Hill (With A Kick) And Aliphine Tuliamuk (Thanks To A 4:43 Opening Mile) Win USATF 5k Champs At CVS Downtown 5k In Providence Jordan Hasay 3rd.

2016 GNC Live Well Liberty Miles Ben Blankenship (4:02) And Heather Kampf (4:33) Win $30,000 was handed out to American runners.
Karl Meltzer Breaks Scott Jurek’s Appalachian Trail Record With Less Than 10 Hours To Spare

International Action

World Jr. Triathlon Champs Missouri HS Sr & 9:03 3,200 Runner Austin Hindman Wins The World Junior Triathlon Title The girl’s winner was Taylor Knibb, who is a freshman at Cornell. She’ll be running xc for the Big Red this fall.
Copenhagen Half: 22-Year-Old Kenyan James Mwangi Wangari Runs #2 Half Marathon Time Of Year – 59:07 – To Win In Copenhagen Ethiopia’s Hiwot Gebrekidan Gebremaryam, a 21-year-old who ran a 2:34 marathon debut in Dubai this year, won the women’s race in 68:00.
Czech Half: Barselius Kipyego Rocks 59:15 Half Marathon In Czech Republic. Peres Jepchirchir (World Half Champ) Wins Women’s Race In 67:24
Dam tot Damloop 10 Miler Edwin Kiptoo (45:25) And Alice Aprot (51:59) Win
Cape Town Marathon: Ethiopia’s Asefa Negewo Sets South African All-Comers Record By Winning Sanlam Cape Town marathon in 2:08:42 The previous fasteset in SA was 2:09;50. The women’s race was won in just 2:36:13.
Sydney Marathon Tomohiro Tanigawa (2:12:13) And Makda Harun (2:32:22) Win Blackmores Sydney Marathon The men’s winner came on late to win, whereas the women’s winner led from start to finish.
Beijing Marathon: Ethiopians Mekuant Ayenew (2:11:09) And Meseret Mengistu (2:25:56) Win
Multis: Oleksiy Kasyanov Of Ukraine (8077) And Nadine Broersen Of The Netherlands (6377) Win Decathlon And Heptathlon Competitions At The Talence Decastar Both competitions were won by less than 10 points.

Good Reads

Russia’s Putin On WADA Leaks: “It seems as if healthy athletes are taking drugs legally that are prohibited for others.”
Interesting Link: Read All 293 Q&As That Have Been Featured In Track And Field News Since 1973 Pretty cool link. You can read all 3,868 that LetsRun.com has on YouTube here.
Fascinating Scientific Study: How Much Do Heavy Shoes Slow You Down? Every 100 grams hurts you by .78% but cushioning helps you by 3-4%.

Sprints / Jumps / Throws News

SAFP Might Be Coached By Stephen Francis In 2017 After All Francis: “From what I’m hearing, it looks as if things are not as clear cut as they were before.”
Olympic Medalist Joe Kovacs Gets Hoero’s Welcome When He Returns To Lehigh Valley
Christian Taylor Returns To His Old Elementary School To Share His Olympic Gold
Arsenal Star Hector Bellerin Has Challenged Usain Bolt To A Sprint And Is Waiting To Hear Back He might be able to beat him at 40m. “It’s not me you have to ask, I’ve been waiting for that phone call from Jamaica … I challenged him a while ago and he said maybe after Rio.”

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 gray 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

More Paralympic News

Hear! Hear! Canadian Paralympic Runner Guillaume Ouellet Calls Out Media For Out Of Context Headlines Which Made It Sound Like The 1,500 Paralympians Were Better Than The Olympians When the paralympic 1,500 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 5,000 Gold To Add To His 1,500 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 Settles 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.”