November 24, 2016 | LetsRun.com

**Turkey Day Action –Manchester Road Race *Results**

LRC Ben True Wins Sprint Finish Over Leonard Korir, Galen Rupp 10th, Emily Sisson Dominates Video of finish and top results.
*Official Manchester Road Race Discussion Thread: Sisson took down Edna Kiplagat while True won in a tight finish as Galen Rupp was a nonfactor.

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: American Morgan Pearson Takes Down Quality Field The men’s race which included Drew Hunter (13:56), Lawi Lalang (13:44), German Fernandez (13:39), Olympian Shadrack Kipchirchir (13:36) and others was won by Morgan Pearson in 13:32. Caroline Chepkoech (15:18) won the women’s race which included Alexi Pappas (15:44), Leah O’Connor (15:54) and Kate Grace (16:03).
*MB: Drew Hunter: 13:56 today
*MB: Morgan Pearson 13:32 @ Silicon 5km

Atlanta: Nearly 12,000 People Compete in Atlanta: Sam Chelanga Outkicks Kirubel Erassa (14:21 to 14:25) as Natosha Rogers Wins Women’s Race

Idaho: Slagowski Beats Symmonds (By A Lot)

NCAA XC News

Week That Was One More Look At A Great NCAA XC Meet: Patrick Tiernan Really Brought It, Meet Karissa Schweizer’s Running Family, Colorado Came Even Closer Than You Thought To Winning, Plus Some DII And DIII Love We take one more look back at an incredible NCAA XC Meet.

Good Read: 8 Things To Know About The Surprise Women’s XC Champ Karissa Schweizer Including the fact that her grandfather is an Iowa coaching legend and he and both parents starred in college at Minnesota State-Mankato.
Jesse Squire Tries To Put Oregon’s NCAA Win In Historical Perspective And Compares It To Villanova’s 1985 NCAA B-Ball Title We 100% disagree. ‘Nova wasn’t pre-season #4 in B-Ball.

More Turkey Day Action

Hartford Courant: Galen Rupp May Be Forced To Wear His Mask Once Again
Hartford Courant: “Cabral Among Elite Runners Looking For Win At Manchester Road Race” Cabral says he’s in good shape now after he was so disappointed with Rio that he didn’t take down time and kept trying to “make steps forward.”
Sam Chelanga Vs. Kirubel Erassa At Atlanta Track Club Thanksgiving Day 5K Thomas Curtin, Trevor Dunbar and Ford Palmer are also in the field. Women’s race has Serena Burla and Natosha Rogers

More Doping News

Mark Your Calendars: Second Part Of Richard McLaren’s Russian Doping Report Will Be Released On December 9th
Seb Coe’s Former Aide Nick Davies Says He Was “Conned” Into Accepting $31,000 “Bribe” To Bury Russian Doping Tests Davies claims he was told it was a bonus for hard work and to be used “if needed” for a public relations campaign to ensure the 2013 World Championships in Russia were a success.
*MB: Coe’s former aide admits to taking ‘bribe’ to bury Russian doping tests
Vladimir Putin Approves Russian Law Criminalizing Doping As Vitaly Mutko Promises Inspectors Special Access To Russian Military Cities These military cities are normally closed to members of the public and it is suspected that athletes list them as their training bases in order to deter WADA testers.
WADA Will Seek Legal Advice Before Making Any Move To Reintroduce Controversial Osaka Rule Craig Reedie said they are “reluctant to put anything in the Code that runs the risk of being overturned.”

High School News

Recommended Read: The Chronicle Of Higher Education: “The Myth Of The Sports Scholarship” Some great insight for high school athletes and their parents on what they can expect from the college recruiting/scholarship hunting process. Spoiler Alert: Full-rides are hard to come by.
Eighth Grader Grace Ping Not Allowed To Race NXN Despite Qualifying As An Individual Ping competed at NXN last year as a 7th grader when her family lived in Minnesota, but this year they moved to Utah where middle schoolers aren’t allowed to compete against high schoolers.
*MB: Grace Ping not allowed to run Nike Nationals
Video: Galen Rupp Shares Some Post-Season Peaking Tips For High Schoolers Rupp advising HSers to rely on their base and make sure they’re getting in some workouts between those major end-of-season races.

Today’s Doping Headlines

Would It Survive The Courts? IOC Proposes Reintroducing Controversial “Osaka Rule” To Ban Drug Cheats From The Olympics The rule would mean any athlete who receives a drug ban of 6 months or longer also misses the next Olympic Games. It was originally introduced in 2007, but was overturned by CAS in 2011 after being challenged by the USOC on behalf of LaShawn Merritt.
Craig Reedie Voted In For 2nd Term As WADA President We would have preferred he resigned.
NY Times: “Olympic History Rewritten: New Doping Tests Topple The Podium” So far, 75 athletes, 40 of them medalists, from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics have been caught doping.
Doping Charges Dropped Against Rita Jeptoo’s Former Agent Federico Rosa; Prosecutors Continue To Investigate, Could Re-Charge In Future Rosa was in high spirits as he said, “There is no witnesses. There is nothing against me. There is no case. This is one of the best days of my life.” *2nd Article
+1 For The Biological Passport: Russian Steeplechaser Yuliya Zaripova Tests Positive In London 2012 Retests Zaripova had already been stripped of her Olympic and World medals when caught with the biological passport so this just further confirms her guilt.
*USA Today: Zaripova Was One Of 12 More Athletes Caught In London 2012 Retests
Brazil, Azerbaijan And Indoneseia Declared Non-Compliant At WADA Foundation Board Meeting Not surprising given the post-Olympic report, which slammed the Rio drug testing that often hit less than 50% of the daily target.
*MB: WADA’s independent observers blast Rio 2016 for shoddy anti-doping work
International Biathlon Union Given Until January 14th To Explain Decison To Award Russia 2021 World Championships If they don’t give a “satisfactory” reason for defying the WADA code, they could be declared non-compliant.

DII And DIII NCAA Champs

DII Men: Adams State Men Win 2016 National Championship Adams State, which lost to #1 Colorado Mines at conference, had four in before Colorado Mines even had 1.
DII Women: D2: Grand Valley St. Women Captures Fifth National Title They’ve won four of the last 5 after narrowly losing last year.
DIII Women: Johns Hopkins Wins Its 4th Title
*Stevens Institute’s Amy Regan Wins 2nd Individual Title
DIII Men: North Central Wins 17th National Title

NCAA Banquet Photo Gallery

Doping News Making The Headlines

New York Times: Jere Longman On Kenya’s Decision To Drop All Charges Against Federico Rosa We told everyone not to rush to judgment on this, particularly after CAS said Jeptoo had hidden her doping from him.
Travis Tygart Says Athletes Have Good Reason To Be Irate With The Lack Of Progess In Anti-Doping Fight “Look at the Rio IO report – 4,000 athletes out of the 11,000 that were in Rio had no tests prior to the Rio Olympics? Our athletes are saying,’What on earth is going on here?’ How is that possible? 1,900 of them in high-risk sports? No tests before getting to Rio? It’s incredible.”
WADA Publishes 2015 Testing Figures WADA did 303,369 tests last year and 1.26% of those were positive.

Next Week, USATF Will Select A New President

Ken Goe: Who Should Be USATF President – Vin Lananna Or JJK? Lananna is a visionary with a plan (but with conflicts of interests) whereas JJK is one of the most famous female athletes in history.

News From Overseas

Old School: Olympic 1,500 Champ Faith Kipyegon Won’t Do Any Indoor Track Races – Will Focus On Cross-Country Instead
Mo Farah Documentary “No Easy Mile” Comes Out December 5th – Watch The Trailer Exclusively Here The film includes clips from Usain Bolt, Thierry Henry, Lord Coe, Haile Gebreselassie, Alberto Salazar and Tania Farah. You can purchase the DVD here. Earlier in the year, the BBC released a different documentary called “Race of His Life.”
Racism? Christine Ohuruogu Says Sports Boards Are Not Open To BAME People BAME means black, Asian and minority ethnic people. We guess she’s not aware of the USATF board, where 11 of 16 members are black.
Catching Up With Cindy Ofili She was 4th at NCAA outdoors and 4th at the Olympics
Kenyan Who Won Kass Marathon Over Weekend, Bornes Jepkirui, Is Now Training For World XC “So far, I feel the hand of God in my career and I hope the same continues even as I eagerly train to try my luck in the World Cross Country team,” said the 2:32:00 marathoner.
2018 European Championships – A Mini-Olympics – Already Has 35 TV Deals With Free Over-Air Channels In Place In addition to Athletics, the competition will also feature Aquatics, Cycling, Gymnastics, Rowing, Triathlon, with a new Golf Team Championships.

Update On Kenyan Olympic Scandal

Kenya’s Deput Chef De Mission In Rio Arrested Arrested For Hoarding Stolen Sports Kits Meant For Athletes Ben Ekumbo was arrested by police after they found him hiding under his bed.
Kenyan Olympic Committee Elections May Not Be Held Before IOC Deadline Kenya missing a deadline? Shocker.
Kenya’s Sports Ministry Reports That Millions Of Dollars Meant For Athletes Were Embezzled By Sports Officials

NCAA Photo Galleries 1,000+ Photos Men’s Gallery Women’s Cross Gallery *NCAA Banquet Photo Gallery

2016 NCAA XC Men’s Results Women’s Results LRC Video Interviews D2 & 3 Coverage

LRC Final Patrick Tiernan Stuns Edward Cheserek As NAU Wins First Crown To Send Coach Eric Heins Out On Top Full LRC recap. Edward Cheserek won NCAAs as a freshman, sophomore, and junior, but not as a senior.

Videos: *Tiernan On Upset Win *Eric Heins On NAU’s Historic Day *Gracious Justyn Knight *King Ches *More

Outside Coverage

R-G: Cheserek Says His Hamstring Tightened Up When Leaders Made Their Move “I was in decent shape and ready to go, but when those guys made their move, my hamstring got really tight,” Cheserek said. “I couldn’t do anything. I could have dropped out, but I was like ‘You know what, I’m going to finish and do it for my team.'”
Stanford Men And Women Hadn’t Both Been Top 5 Since 2006

Weekend Pro Results

LRC Eliud Kipchoge Wins Airtel Delhi Half Marathon In 59:44 After Battle With Olympic 10,000 4th Placer Yigrem Demelash The pacemakers weren’t up for the CR 59:06 but the bonus was it ended up being a great battle for the win. Worknesh Degefa won the women’s race in 67:42. *Results
Kenya’s Valary Jemeli Aiyabei Sets Spanish All-Comers Record Of 2:24:28 At Valenicia Marathon Kenya’s Victor Kipchirchir won the men’s race with a 2:07:39 PR.
Two Junior Athletes Win Great Ethiopian Run Abe Gashahun (8th at World Jr. XC last year) won the men’s race. Fotyen Tesfay (4th in 3k at U20 Champs in July) won the women’s.
Alice Aprot Wins XC Race In Spain By 72 Seconds Timothy Toroitich won the men’s race over Eritrea’s world U20 10,000m silver medalist Aron Kifle, who is going to be a contender at World Jr. XC.
2:19:04 and 2:42.57 are winning times of Kass marathon held at 7,000 feet in Eldoret The winners got $14,700 and a cow.
1:10:21 and 1:02:04 Produce Winners in Windy Half Marathon In France

D3 Runner Gets Mauled

LRC Video: Deer Collision Sends NCAA D-III Runner Flying During Cross-Country Race If you think a cramp is the worst thing to fear in a race, you’ve never had anyone yell, “Watch out for the deer!”

Mid-D News

Good Read: Washington Post: Matt Centrowitz Says He’s Going After The US Mile And 1,500 Records; Plans To Do Some 5Ks Next Year Centro talks about his athletic start in soccer, wanting to “enjoy the moment” now that he’s Olympic champ and shares a 6 x 400 workout where he averaged 51.3.
*MB: Centro Says He is Running 105 miles per Week
Matthew Centrowitz Sr.: “The Rockefellers probably talked about money, the Kennedys holding office. In our house, we talked about racing splits.” Younger Centro says he runs 105 miles a week, part of the reason he chose the University of Oregon was he didn’t see a lot of drinking, weighs 135 pounds and has a resting heart rate between 45 and 50.
Carie Tollefson Video Interview With Nick Symmonds Symmonds talks about retirement (2017 will definitely be his last year), Run Gum, and being an advocate for pro athletes.
Runner’s Tribe Q&A With Brenda Martinez A pretty extensive interview which includes Martinez talking about the structure of her training, what it’s like being coached by Joe Vigil and the OT/Rio.
Drew Hunter Talks About Learning To Cook On His Own And His Mom Explains The Effort That Goes Into Feeding A Family Of 11

More From 2016 NCAA XC

RRW: After Bloody Fall At NCAA XC Champs, NC State’s Eli Moskowitz Is Recovering Well Who said cross-country isn’t a contact sport?
*MB: Elijah Moskowitz of NC State looks like he got punched in the face at NCAA’s
Every Point Counts: RW Speaks With Oregon’s 5th Woman Maggie Schmaedick, Who Beat Out Michigan’s Jamie Phelan By A Tenth Of A Second To Win Oregon The Team Title “In that moment I didn’t know she was from Michigan and I didn’t know that the points were as close as they were … I didn’t find out until later that my final push mattered as much as it did.”
Podcast Q&A With Pat Tiernan After His Upset Win Over Edward Cheserek Tiernan talks about NCAAs, the decision to not wear hat/gloves, competing at the Olympics, and more.
Mark Wetmore On CU Women’s 3rd Place: “They were out a little too tentatively, in fact a lot too tentatively, and then it was a catch-up race the whole way.”
Ben Saarel Became Only The Third Colorado Buff To Be An All-American Four Times The other two were Adam Goucher and Stephen Pifer.
The Denver Post: Katie Rainsberger’s 4th Place Finish Was The Highest Ever For An Oregon Freshman
List Of All DI All-Americans

NCAA XC Women Men’s Results Women’s Results *LRC Video Interviews

LRC Final Upsets Galore – Oregon Women Pull Off Biggest Upset In NCAA History, Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer Your Surprise NCAA Champion Two big upsets.

Full 2016 NCAA Cross-Country Women’s Results (team results fixed)

Videos: Karissa Schweizer On The Win *Maurica Powell On Oregon’s 1-Point Win *More

Outside Coverage

Full Coverage In Our NCAA Special Section

The Latest Pro News

After Injuries Kept Her From Defending Her Olympic Title, Sally Pearson Has Sacked Her Coach And Decided To Coach Herself “Now I take responsibility for everything that I do in my training and my competitions and I feel actually that there’s a lot less weight on my shoulders,” said Pearson, who has already competed at a low-key meet.
Men’s Track Stars Have Been Avoiding Each Other For Decades: Seb Coe Faced Steve Ovett Only 6 Times At 800 And 4 Of Those Were In The Olympics
Caster Semenya Is On The Cover Of Elle In South Africa
The Most Underappreciated Gold Of The Games RR IAAF Profiles Jeff Henderson – The Man Who Went From 4th To 1st On His Last Jump In The LJ In The Olympics
Kiwi Zane Robertson Has Joined Sub2 Project – Will Make Marathon Debut In 2017 “I do think it’s possible, but first the right situation and preparation must be achieved. I’m not saying it will be me but Sub2 is about pushing limits and breaking barriers.”
Jamaica Gleaner: Nike Blocked Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce From Leaving Stephen Francis They reportedly were willing to let her leave – if she trained with Allyson Felix.
Usain Bolt’s Team Hid Fact That His Pre-Rio Ankle Injury Came At A Nightclub

An Inside Look At What Going Pro Out Of HS Is Really Like

LRC New $50,000 BMW Or A $70,000 Lexus? What It’s Like To Go Pro In Track & Field As A Teenager In recent years, Ajee Wilson, Mary Cain, Alexa Efraimson, Drew Hunter, Kaylin Whitney, Candace Hill, Vashti Cunningham and the Lyles Brothers have all gone pro early. We take a look at that it entails.