It’s mid-October. It’s time to get excited for NCAA xc.

LRC Who Are The Top 10 NCAA XC Teams In The Country? 2016 NCAA Cross-Country Fan Polls Are Open We need to figure the top 10 teams heading into Pre-NCAAs and Wisconsin.

LRC Analysis Who’s #1 on the Men’s Side, How Good Is Stanford and Three Other College XC Questions Ahead of Wisconsin/Pre-Nats Weekend If you want to win NCAAs as a team, you’d better run well this weekend. Every single year for the last 15 years, the eventual men’s NCAA champion has won on this weekend. The race of the week is the men’s race at Wisconsin as it includes the top three teams in the country and a great individual battle between NAU’s Futsum Zienasellassie, Syracuse’s Justyn Knight and Stanford’s Sean McGorty.

Recent General Doping Updates

• Dick Pound Claims Anti-Doping Recommendations Made By Olympic Summit Were “Long On Generality And Short On Specifics” Pound was critical of the way professional sports are run saying, “This business about sport being able to take all the money and absolve itself of all responsibility is not good chemistry as far as I am concerned.”
• The Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations Calls Out “Troubling Omissions” From Olympic Doping Summit iNADO the IOC for yet again failing to acknowledge state sponsored doping in Russia and for referring to Richard McLaren‘s report as “allegations” rather than facts.
• NY Times: I.O.C. Expands WADA’s Authority to Lead Anti-Doping Efforts The Olympic Summit feels WADA should have more control over national anti-doping agencies.
  *USA Today: IOC seeks to give WADA more independence in anti-doping efforts
• After Interviewing Him And Listening To Him Speak, Irish Journalist Writes “Redemption A Long Way Away For Lance Armstrong” “There’s no other template for the Armstrong recovery story other than the passage of a lot of time and he seems impatient.
• WADA Head Craig Reedie Welcomes Olympic Summit Call For WADA To Receive “Greater Authority And Regulatory Powers”
• Doping News Just Keeps Getting Weirder: Prank Phone Caller Pretending To Be Jesse Owens Records IPC President Philip Craven Criticizing Thomas Bach Craven said, “What I think about it is, if Bach tries to pull a fast one, I am gonna slam him” and that “Germany can’t stand him.”

Columbus Day Action

LRC Emily Sisson (31:47) Dominates To Win First National Title At Tufts Health Plan 10K For Women/USATF 10K Champs With Molly Huddle absent as she’s getting ready for her marathon debut, Emily Sisson did a great job of imitating Huddle by crushing the field.
*RRW: Emily Sisson Runs Away With First National Title At Tufts 10-K

 2016 BOA Chicago Marathon *Results *Complete Coverage *Tracking, Leaderboard, TV & Streaming

LRC Abel Kirui Digs Deep To Resurrect His Career With His First Win Since 2011; Florence Kiplagat Sends A Statement To Athletics Kenya Kirui, “We were pushing and I was tired, but my mind kept saying ‘go Kirui, go Kirui, go Kirui, your dream is coming true today.’ And I was able to achieve it.”
*RRW Full Race Recap: With Contrasting Styles, Abel Kirui And Florence Kiplagat Prevail At Chicago Marathon

LRC The Top American At The 2016 Chicago Marathon Ended His Day On Crutches, But Dropping Out Wasn’t An Option For Diego Estrada Estrada wanted this one badly.

• MB: Official 2016 BOA Chicago Marathon Live Discussion Thread
• Puskedra in Chicago?
• Able Kirui wins chicago, check it out if you missed it.
• Does Chicago still deserve to be a World Marathon Major?

Lance Armstrong In The Headlines Again

• Recommended Listen: Lance Armstrong Does Hard-Hitting Podcast Interview With Irish Journalist On NewsTalk.com The interviewer doesn’t pull any punches as he calls out Armstrong on several things which leads to some heated exchange and Armstrong asking if he’s “out of his mind.”
• Armstrong Says The Tour de France “Is Too Grand To Not Have A Winner” Armstrong was asked if there could be a time when he considers himself a 7-time winner of the Tour.
• Armstrong Admits He “Was A Complete D**Khead” To Journalist Paul Kimmage

Have They Finally Seen The Light?

• IOC Calls For Major Reforms: They Want CAS – Not Sports Federations – To Hand Out Doping Penalties
• IOC Brass Calls For “A New Anti-Doping Testing Authority Within The Framework Of WADA To Be Established” They want to withdraw “drug control duties from international sports federations.”

Other Action This Weekend

• Japan’s University Ekiden Season Kicks Off This Weekend With Izumo Ekiden – How Does The Ivy League Team Stack Up? The Ivy Leaguers will have their hands full even with the likes of Geoghegan and Gregorek as the top Japanese teams have average PRs of sub-13:50/29:00.
• Eindhoven Marathon Is At 5:00 AM ET Sunday
• Lindsey Scherf Is Running US 10 Miler Sunday In Minnesota And US 10k On Monday In Boston
• US 10 Miler Is This Weekend In Minnesota Defending champ Sam Chelanga is racing as is Aliphine Tuliamuk, who has won 3 straight US road titles.
• Army 10 Miler Paul Chelimo Greeted President Obama In Swahili When They Met At The White House Chelimo is in DC this week and getting major ink in the Washington Post under the headline, “Army Ten-Miler: Olympian Paul Chelimo defends a title that has special meaning.”

 More Interesting Reads

• All College Runners, Show This To Your Coaches Column: Requiring Alcohol Abstinence From Runners Is Bad Coaching Advice “A night of intoxication can still yield a net-positive impact across an athlete’s season.”
• Learn All About Percy Cerutty – An Athletics Coaching Legend This is the man that inspires the FM HS powerhouse in upstate New York.
• Profile Of US Hammer Champ Rudy Winkler Of Cornell He got last at HS nationals as a frosh but now is the US champ. *MB: US hammer champ: “No one really preps you for how boring the Olympics can be.”
• Because Of Hurricane Matthew, FSU Invitational XC Meet Will Be Larger Than Normal Lots of other meets in the state have been cancelled, so everyone is going to try to go to FSU.
• Free Coaching Advice From Former European 1,500 Champ Matt Yates, Who Has Been Coaching The Last 2 Years: Buy A Good Mattress It’s critical for recovery.
• Laura Muir Has No Regrets About Going For Broke In Rio “I was gutted with the end result, but that’s how I ran the race and I wouldn’t have run it any other way. I went for it and it just didn’t happen.”
• Runner’s World Feature On The Woman Behind The “Fat Girl Running” Blog The 250 lb. marathoner runs 25-35 mpw.
  *MB: Runners world article today is about a fat female ultra runner 
• VIDEO: Life After T&F For Usain Bolt … Where Does He Keep His Gold Medals?

Sprint / Field News

• DyeStat Feature: High School Sprint Stars Noah And Josephus Lyles Transition To New Life As Pros The brothers and their mother talk about making the decision to turn down their scholarships at Florida to go pro with adidas.
• NY Post: The Rise And Sudden Fall Of “Olympic Sex Symbol” Michelle Jenneke Jenneke has had a lot of sponsorship opportunities (including Coca-Cola and SI Swimsuit) after her viral warmup dance video, but didn’t make the final in Rio and lost her Athletics Australia funding.
• Good Read: IAAF Profile On French Discus Thrower Melina Robert-Michon, Who In Rio Finally Won An Olympic Medal In Her Fifth Olympic Games After getting silver, the 37-year-old says she isn’t ready to retire yet.
• “Did You Know?” Interview With St. Lucia’s Rio High Jump 6th Placer Levern Spencer Spencer isn’t too keen on animals and says, “I pretty much don’t like any living creature touching me.”

2020 & 2024 Games Issues

• Is Tokyo 2020 Really Becoming Japan 2020? It is being proposed that many sports are moved outside the city to save money, with one already having moved 90 miles south.
• Delaying The Inevitable? Rome 2024 Announcement Delayed Following Meeting Between Thomas Bach And Italian Olympic Committee Rome is expected to withdraw after the city mayor refused to support the bid. An official announcement will be made October 11th.
• Officials Reject Referendum On Budapest 2024 Olympic Bid The journalist calling for the referendum will appeal to Hungary’s highest court.

Sprint News: Was Usain Bolt Not Marketed Enough?

• Puma Head Of Marketing Adam Petrick Says They “Could Have Done Better” Marketing Usain Bolt “To be honest with you, [Bolt] does a lot of the heavy lifting himself. He gets so much attention no matter where he goes.”
• Allyson Felix Becomes First Woman To Lead USC Football Team Out Of The Tunnel Felix was one of 10 Rio Olympians honored by USC during the game.
• Aussie 100 Hurdler Michelle Jenneke Dropped From Athletics Australia Funding After Not Making It Out Of The Heats In Rio The Australian head coach questioned whether her many sponsorship distractions away from the track hurt her fitness.
• Jamaican Columnist Is Happy To See Usain Bolt Choosing His Own Time For Retirement Rather Than Being Pressured To Pack It In On the contrary, most are begging Bolt to continue on for another 4 years, but this columnist calls London 2017 a “perfect farewell.”