LetsRun.com’s World And US Rankings

LRC Men’s Marathon: Eliud Kipchoge Caps A Historic Year As World #1 As Breakout Marathon Star Galen Rupp Leads The Americans LRC super visitor David Graham has rolled out his 2016 world rankings plus plenty more thoughts on the year in men’s marathoning. Obviously, the great Kipchoge is #1, but where does Galen Rupp rank?
*MB: 2016 Men’s Marathon Rankings controversy – Where should Galen Rupp be ranked?)

LRC Women’s Marathon: London/Olympic Champ Jemima Sumgong Tops The List; Shalane Flanagan Top American Sumgong, like Eliud Kipchoge, was the unquestioned world #1 in 2o16. Flanagan was one of three Americans to finish in the top 10 at the Olympics (Amy Cragg and Desi Linden were the others) – only the second time a country had pulled off that feat (after Kenya in 2008).
*MB: 2016 Women’s Marathon rankings. And the #1 US rank goes to……)

LRC Men’s 3,000/5,000: Mo Farah Is #1 Again; Paul Chelimo Tops U.S. List After Shock Silver In Rio Farah’s presence at the top of the podium in Rio was no surprise, but few envisioned Chelimo, who was just 11th at USAs last year, winning America’s first Olympic medal in the 5,000 since 1964 and two other Americans cracking the world top 10.
*MB: What a year for Team USA! Three American men make our World Top 10 in our 3000/5000 rankings.

LRC Women’s 3,000/5,000: Almaz Ayana Is World #1; Shannon Rowbury Or Molly Huddle For U.S. #1? Ayana may not have earned Olympic gold in the 5,000, but she was utterly dominant apart from that, breaking 14:20 three times in 2016 (before this year, it had been done six times, total). U.S. #1 was a tough choice as Shannon Rowbury earned 3k bronze at World Indoors and set the American 5k record while Molly Huddle crushed everyone in the 5k at the Olympic Trials.
*MB: And the bad news: Zero US women crack the world top 10 in our 3k/5k rankings

Previous LRC Rankings:

*Men’s Steeple: Men’s Steeple: Conseslus Kipruto Ascends To #1 After A Year To Remember; Evan Jager (#2) Leads Americans Again 
*Women’s Steeple: Ruth Jebet Leads The Way; Olympic Medallist Emma Coburn Tops U.S. List For Third Straight Year
*Men’s 1,500: Olympic Champion Matthew Centrowitz Is Our World #1
*Women’s 1,500: Faith Kipyegon Unseats Genzebe Dibaba As World #1; Jenny Simpson Back On Top Of U.S. Rankings
*Women’s 800: Caster Semenya Is the Clear World #1; Kate Grace Finishes A Shocking Year As U.S. #1
*Men’s 800 David Rudisha Is On Top For 2nd Year In A Row; Olympic Bronze Medalist Clayton Murphy Leads The Americans

IAAF End-Of-Year Reviews: *Jumps *Throws *Multis *Hurdles *Relays *Racewalks  *Mid-d *Long Distance *Road & XC

New Track And Field News: Wayde Van Niekerk Named Track and Field News Athlete Of The Year Mo Farah #2, Usain Bolt #3.
*Hammer Thrower Anita Włodarczyk Named Track And Field News Female Athlete Of The Year And we bet 95% of track and field fans couldn’t name her. Almaz Ayana 2nd, Elaine Thompson 3rd.

Athletics Weekly‘s Rankings: Top 3 International Rankings For All Women’s Events You can see their top 10 rankings by purchasing a digital copy of their bumper 112-page end-of-year stats special.

• AW’s Top 3 Rankings For All Men’s Events
• AW’s Top 3 UK Men’s Rankings For 2016
• AW’s Top 3 UK Women’s Rankings For 2016

End-Of-Year Cheer

Mo Farah Is Knighted And Jessica Ennis-Hill Becomes A Dame It’s Sir Mo Farah from here on out.
*Mo Farah Says Knighthood Is A “Dream Come True”

New Zealand: Valerie Adams Becomes New Zealand’s Youngest Dame She’s only 32. For more on Dames and Knights, click here.

She Said Yes: Wayde van Niekerk Gets Engaged And Is On Cloud 9 A great year for the South African with a world record, gold medal, and engagement.

And Some Jeer: Indian Olympic Association Stripped Of Government Funding And Suspended After Giving Honorary Titles To 2 Corruption-Tainted Officials

A New World Record Was Set This Week / Jordan Who?

Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki Smashes His Own World Junior Shot Put Record With 22.96m Heave Considering he’s an Olympic finalist with a 23.17 outdoor PR, it’s not a shock. Jordan Geist has his work cut out for him.

2016 Is Almost Over – 2017 Will Be Here Before You Know It

• US Distance Stars Share Their New Year’s Resolutions From do more yoga (Huddle/Linden) to write a handwritten note every month (Centro), RW has you covered.
• British Athletics Stars Share Their New Year’s Resolutions
• Runner’s World‘s 10 Most-Read Stories Of 2016 Game of Thrones fans, RW’s article on Margaery Tyrell‘s 3:51 showing at the London Marathon cracks the list.
• Gabriele Grunewald Is Meg Bellino’s 2016 Human Of The Year For Her Cancer Fight
• BBTM The Best Mile/1,500 Moments Of 2016 From Drew Hunter and Genzebe Dibaba‘s exploits indoors to Matthew Centrowitz‘s gold outdoors, it was quite a year.
• Might A Legendary HS Record Fall In 2017? After Massive Indoor Heave, Jordan Geist Admits Michael Carter’s Legendary Outdoor Record From 1979 is “… sitting in the back of my mind.”

More Look Backs At 2016

Good Read Nikki Hamblin Says Helping Abbey D In Rio Won’t Define Her “If the same sort of scenario happened in the street you wouldn’t just get up and walk away. It just so happens that it took place for me in front of a few hundred TV cameras.”

• Andre De Grasse Selected Canadian Male Athlete Of Year Over Sidney Crosby And Derek Drouin De Grasse got 43 first place votes, Crosby (hockey) 18, Drouin (high jump gold) 2.
• The Guardian‘s Andy Bull Takes A Look Back At The Chaos And Brilliance Of The Rio Olympics
• BBC Golden Moment Video: David Rudisha Looks Back At Rio Gold
• Video: Elaine Thompson Talks To BBC About Her 100-200 Double In Rio

Rupp Running Boston!

LRC Analysis LetsRun.com Breaks Down Galen Rupp’s Boston Marathon Debut – Will He (And Should He) Be The Favorite? How Well Suited Is He For The Course? + Conspiracy Theories Galore An American-born man hasn’t won the Boston marathon since 1983. That very well may change in 2017. In this LetsRun.com debate, the LRC staff goes back and forth about Rupp’s Boston debut. They start by debating if Rupp is the favorite but before it’s all over the venture into the conspiracy theory front: Is it possible that the Nike sub-2 attempt was created to water down Boston to ensure Rupp’s victory?
*MB: Galen Rupp to run Boston Marathon. He will need volunteers to hand him new hats throughout the race.
*MB: Calling it now, Rupp wins Boston 2017 2:07:04, prove me wrong.