February 5, 2017 | LetsRun.com

Super Saturday Was Full Of Action *Full Results

LRC Six Takeaways From Some Fantastic Action Across The Globe On Super Saturday What a day. Laura Muir and the Kenyan-born Americans were fantastic.We give you the highlights as we doubt you can spend all of Sunday and all of Saturday glued to your TV or PC.

USA XC: Leonard Korir Wins, Aliphine Tuliamuk Dominates As Do Scott Simmons’ Kenyan-American Men Scott Simmons-coached athletes swept the top 4 places on the men’s side at the USA XC champs as Leonard Korir got the win. Aliphine Tuliamuk dominated the women’s race.
*OK State’s Michelle Magnani Wins Jr. Girls Race
*CSU Pueblo’s Paul Roberts Wins Jr. Boys Race

ATI RRW 2017 Armory Track Invitational Full Recap: Ajee Wilson And Sammy Watson Impress With Fast 600m Times In the men’s mile Andy Butchart impressed and the men’s 3,000 was physical and featured shoves and elbows between Drew Hunter and Daniel Winn.

Super Saturday Talk On Our The Fan Forum

GB News

GB Sprinter James Ellington Takes His First Steps After Motorcycle Crash And Surgery Ellington broke his pelvis and both legs in the crash and doctors told him he’d be in a wheelchair for at least 6-weeks.
Jessica Ennis-Hill Still Waiting To Get Her 2011 World Gold Medal Ennis-Hill originally finished 2nd behind now banned Tatyana Chernova.
GB Paralympian David Weir Says He Retired From Team GB Because He Was Accused Of Throwing A Race During The Rio Paralympics The head of the British wheelchair racing program accused him of throwing the race and calling him a “disgrace to the country.” *2nd article
Video: Jessican Ennis-Hill Takes Part In Her First “Park Run”
Rebecca Murray And Alex Teuten Win At BUCS Cross Country Championships

Doping: Don’t Do The Crime If You Can’t Do The Time

Ethiopia Sending A 22-Year-Old Athlete To Prison For Testing Positive For Meldonium Haile Gebrselassie says the athlete will face a minimum of 3 years. Geb also talks about the Russian ban and argues for their return to the sport.
Ban For Turkey’s Ex-2012 Olympic 1,500 Champ Asli Cakir Alptekin Is Over; Racing Euro Club XC Tomorrow She initially received an 8-year ban for her second doping offence, but had it lowered to 4 years for cooperating with anti-doping officials.
Russian Athletes Refuse To Return Their Stripped Olympic Medals None of the 28 medals stripped in the 2008/2012 retests have been returned. One athlete said the government told him he could keep his medal and added, “I’ve got the medal at home. Let them try to take it.”
Fernando Cabada Fails Drug Test For Clenbuterol, But Won’t Be Sanctioned USADA concluded that Cabada accidentally ingested it by eating contaminated meat in Mexico, so will not receive any ban.
*MB: Cabada tests positive for Clenbuterol, won’t face suspension
Russia Names 31 Athletes Seeking Approval To Compete As Neutral Athletes They include 2012 Olympic high jump champ Ivan Ukhov and 2015 World 110H champ Sergei Shubenkov.
WADA Happy With The Progress Kenya Has Made With Anti-Doping A WADA delegation is still in Kenya monitoring the progress of the new Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK).

The Week That Was

WTW If Only Track And Field Were Run Like The UFC, Come On Usain Don’t Be A Chicken, We Take Away A British Record, Could The Russians Do It Clean And The Greatest Gaffe In Track Announcing History This week in addition to praising Cas Loxsom and Serena Burla, we come up with the dream final race for Usain Bolt, which easily could be reality if Bolt wanted it.

From The Boston Marathon To The Empire State Building

Boston Bombing Survivor To Marry The Firefighter Who Rescued Her On Wednesday, they did the Empire State Building Run-Up together, he with his fire fighting gear and she with her prosthetic leg. *Discuss
Poland’s Piotr Lobodzinski And Singapore’s Suzy Waltham Win Empire State Building Run-Up It took Lobodzinski 10:31 and Waltham 12:11 to go up the 86 flights (1,576 stairs total).
Time Lapse Video Of The Empire State Building Run Up

Looking Ahead

Feb. 10: Mary Keitany, Tirunesh Dibaba And Jemima Sumgong Lead Loaded Field Women’s FIeld For The RAK Half Marathon World Half champ Peres Jepchirchir is also in the field while the men are lead by London Marathon runner-up Stanley Biwott, World XC silver medalist Bedan Karoki, Augustine Choge and Solomon Yego (58:44).
Feb. 11: Sydney McLaughlin Going For The 300m National High School Record At The Millrose Games She’ll be in a field with Olympic 400 champ Shaunae Miller and 4 x 400 gold medalist Natasha Hastings.
Feb. 18: Olympic Medalists Orlando Ortega And Dimitri Bascou Will Face World Leader Andy Pozzi In The 60H At The Muller Indoor Grand Prix In Birmingham
*US’s Olympic Champ Jeff Henderson Leads Muller GP Long Jump Field

Mid-Week Action

Adam Kszczot Runs World-Leading 1:46.17 At PSD Bank Meeting In Dusseldorf He won over Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkoech (1:46.89) and Erik Sowinski (1:46.96). Other winners included Poland’s Joanna Jozwik, 2:00.91 world lead, Elijah Manangoi (3:37.62) over Bethwell Birgen and Silas Kiplagat, and Sandi Morris (PV – 4.72m). *Results

Not Your Everyday Distance News

Michael Wardian Wins World Marathon Challenge In Record Time; Ryan Hall Says Goodbye To The Marathon Wardian averaged an impressive 2:45:57 per marathon to break the previous mark by 45 minutes. Hall ran his fastest race in Morocco with 3:04:56 and his slowest in Australia with 5:15:34.
*MB: Ryan Hall has ran his last marathon ever, in 5:15:34… disappointing or just me?
Distance Legend Ron Hill Ends His Every Day Running Streak At 52 Years And 39 Days After having chest pain on a run on Saturday, Hill decided to take Sunday off, thus ending the longest recorded running streak in history.
*MB: The Legend Ron Hill Has Stopped His Streak
Great Scottish Run Half Marathon Course Confirmed To Be About 150m Short This invalidates the 60:24 record set by GB’s Callum Hawkins. *Official Race Organizer Statement
*MB: Great Scottish Run found 150m SHORT There was also talk of the course being short on the boards back in October.

More Weekend Coverage *All NCAA Results

Japan: 60:24 Was No Fluke: Scotland’s Callum Hawkins Smashes British Half Marathon Record In Japan As He Wins Kagawa Marugame Half In 60:00 Hawkins got a dominant win, beating Ethiopian record-holder Atsedu Tsegay by almost a minute. Bahrain’s Olympic marathon silver medalist Eunice Kirwa won the women’s race in 68:07 over Amy Cragg (68:27).
*Amy Hastings-Cragg 68:27 In Marugame! That’s a big PR (69:50) and moves her to #4 all-time in the US.
UTEP’s Jonah Koech Runs 4:02.59 Mile At Altitude In Albuquerque The time converts to a 3:57.31 mile at sea level. In the 800, 600m record holder Emmanuel Korir won in 1:46.75. *Results
BU Scarlet And White Invy Results: Virginia’s Zack Herriott Runs 13:45 In the miles, pro Megan Krumpoch won in 4:35 while Syracuse’s Joel Hubbard ran 3:59.
Armand Duplantis Breaks His Own High School Pole Vault Recod With A 5.72m Clearance The mark qualifies him for Worlds, where he’ll represent Sweden.
Portugal: Euro Club XC Championship Live Results
*Full Race Video

Nitro Athletics Day 1 In The Books Results Streaming *Event Home

Bolt All-Stars Narrowly Defeat Team Australia As Nitro Athletics Series Kicks Off In Melbourne The night culminated with Bolt leading the mixed 4 x 100 to victory along with Asafa Powell, Jenna Prandini and Jeneba Tarmoh. Distance highlights included the Aussie team of Genevieve LaCaze and Luke Matthews winning the “3-minute challenge” (run as far as you can in 3 minutes) and Aussies Matthew Ramsden and Jeff Riseley going 1-2 in the “elimination mile.” Asafa Powell won the 60m in 6.64 seconds.

*Bolt: “It was just a wonderful night. I was just enjoying myself from the start to the end.”
*AP Nitro Athletics Recap

Random College Stuff

Ken Goe Isn’t Too Thrilled With Oregon’s Schedule This Year As They Will Only Host One Regular-Season Meet At Hayward In comparison, back in 2010 they had five regular-season home meets.
*Goe Also Misses Having The Indoor Meets From Last Year’s World Indoor Buildup
NY Times: Athletes Stand To Gain In Settlement With The NCAA Thousands of current and former college athletes (football and basketball) could get $5,000 or more from a settlement of an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA.
Former NJ Community College Track Coach Jailed For Stealing $150,000 From The School The former coach will get 3 years in prison for using a team debit card to steal money through ATM withdrawals.
Three New Names Added To Men’s Bowerman Award Watchlist Penn State’s Isaiah Harris, UTEP’s Emmanuel Korir and Florida sprinter Grant Holloway make the list after stellar performances last weekend.

Fancy Bears Question McLaren Report

Latest Fancy Bear Hacks Show That The IOC Had Doubts Over Parts Of Richard McLaren’s Russian Doping Report Documents from the hack showed that the IOC was not satisfied with proof in McLaren’s reports and asked for more evidence for 16 of the Russian officials accused of involvement in doping cover-ups.
*MB: New FANCY BEARS: McLaren Report lacked evidence
BBC: WADA Has “Full Confidence” In McLaren Report Despite “Discrepancies” WADA says that there were “minor logistical discrepancies” and “typos” with the filing of some pieces of evidence, but that they are still confident in the overall findings.
InsideTheGames: “WADA Plays Down Latest Concerns Surrounding McLaren Report”

Two Big Names Prepping Doping Ban Comebacks

2011 World 400m Champ Amantle Montsho’s Ban Has Ended; Will Return To Racing Next Month However, with 2 years of rust and at 33 years old, her coach has his doubts as to whether she’ll ever be a medal winner again.
Former Jama Aden Athlete Hamza Driouch Will Return From His Doping Ban In 2 Weeks Dirouch is racing the Victorian Mile Championships in Australia on February 16th.
*LRC Archives: Why Was Drug Cheat Hamza Driouch Training (With Mo Farah) In Ethiopia? Who Supplied The 17-Year-Old Doper?
*LRC Archives: Hamza Driouch Retracts Claim That Coach Jama Aden (Whose Athletes Broke 3 World Records Yesterday) Doped Him

Nitro Athletics Pre-Meet News Streaming Event Home *Schedule

IAAF Preview: “Usain Bolt Set To Ignite Nitro Series In Melbourne” The team-based meet will see squads from Jamaica, China, Australia, England, Japan and New Zealand compete across a number of unique events.
Usain Bolt Won’t Decide Until Saturday What Event He’s Running At The Nitro Athletics Carnival Bolt can choose between the 60, 150, a relay and said he’d even consider the long jump (but probably won’t).
Put Your Money Where Your Legs Are: Bolt Has Taken A Financial Stake In Nitro Athletics If we were Bolt, we’d invest in the thing we’re promoting too.
Runner’s Tribe: “Nitro Athletics: Will It Be A Success?” Will this “revolutionize” track and field or is it just the latest gimmick.
InsideTheGames‘ Mike Rowbottom: “Has The Twenty20 Moment Arrived For Track And Field With Nitro Athletics?”
Photos From Nitro Athletics Gold Carpet Gala Dinner
Bolt Hoping New Series Has Same Success As Cricket’s Twenty20 Format The goal is faster, shorter, and popular with the fans.
Bolt Says There’s No Way He’ll Compete At The 2018 Commonweath Games In Australia
Former Olympic 400 Champ Christine Ohuruogu Leads English Team

NCAA / High School News

German Fernandez Joins OSU Coaching Staff As A Graduate Assistant
*MB: German Fernandez joins OSU coaching staff … is he done?
One We Missed: Texas A&M Broke The Collegiate 4 X 400 Record With 3:02.52 They are now the 4th fastest all-time on the indoor world rankings.
*Event-By-Event Top-10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend
NXN Champ Brie Oakley Wins Gatorade XC Runner Of The Year Award She was surprised with the award during stats class by Molly Huddle. *Video
NCAA Athletes Of The Week Are Oregon’s Raevyn Rogers And Texas A&M Sprinter Fred Kerley Rogers ran on Oregon’s record-setting DMR and came back with 2:01.75 the next day while Kerley split 44.96 to help Texas A&M break the collegiate record.
Big Week Doesn’t Change Much At The Top Of The Men’s NCAA Rankings As Florida, Oregon And LSU Remain Ranked 1-3 Five of the top six ranked teams are from the SEC.
*Oregon DMR Record Strengthens Their Position On Top Of The Women’s NCAA Rankings Arkansas and Georgia are ranked 2-3.
Five Of The Ten Athletes On The Women’s Bowerman Watch List Are From Oregon
*What Have Bowerman Award Watch List Athletes Done So Far In 2017?

IAAF Corruption: What Did Seb Coe Know And When?

BBC: Emails Confirm That Seb Coe Was Aware Of IAAF / Russian Corruption Allegations Four Months Before They Became Public Now Coe is in hot water as he previously testified to a UK parliament committee that he was “not aware” of the allegations before the first ARD documentary.
The Independent: “Seb Coe, The Mountains, The Emails And A Staggering Lack Of Self-Awareness” The author mocks Coe’s excuse that he never read the email attachment with Russian corruption allegations after Coe said, “I tend not to go through emails myself.”
The Guardian‘s Sean Ingle: “Sebastian Coe Faces Increasing Scrutiny Over What He Know At IAAF”
The Guardian: Seb Coe’s Former Chief Of Staff Nick Davies Expelled From IAAF Over Secret Payments The IAAFethics board found him not guilty of corruption, but he did admit he lied about a $30,000 secret payment he received from Papa Massata Diack. *The Telegraph Article
IAAF Statement Davies’ wife only got a 6-month suspension.

“If Matt Centrowitz writes a book, you buy it and read it.”

LRC Exclusive LetsRun.com Exclusive: Read Chapter Two of Matt Centrowitz’s New Book “Like Father, Like Son” LetsRun.com doesn’t beat around the bush. Neither does Matt Centrowitz. He’s so confident you’ll like his book, he’s letting you read a whole chapter for free. Purchase the book now and come back at the end of February and participate in the first ever LetsRun.com Virtual Book Club.

LRC Legendary Athlete, Father And Coach Matt Centrowitz Just Published An Autobiography – We Suggest You Read It An autobiography by a man who failed every single class in middle school and was in trouble with the law but went on to set an American record in the 5k, make two Olympic teams and raise a son who broke America’s 108-year Olympic drought in the men’s 1,500 has a lot of potential. Add in the fact that he roomed with Bruce Jenner and skipped school to hang out with Steve Prefontaine on the day he died and you’ve got a must read. Purchase Like Father, Like Son: My Story on Running, Coaching and Parenting now and be a part of the 1st-ever LetsRun.com Virtual Book Tour in one month.

Kenyan Admin News

Athletics Kenya Says No To Wild Card Spots For World XC Team Selection If you’re not first six across the line at the trials, you’re not going to Worlds.
Nairobi Court Waiting On Investigator Report Before Deciding Whether To Prosecute Kenyan Sports Minister Hassan Wario He and secretary Ricahrd Ekai are accused of “losing” $864,000 in money and equipment for athletes.
Kenyan County Catching Slack For Failing To Host Their Annual County XC Championships Every county is supposed to hold a race to determine who moves on to regionals and then nationals.

Pre-Super Saturday Previews And Features

LRC Armory Track Invite, Camel City, Karlsruhe & Nitro Athletics Down Under: Your Guide To One Of 2017’s Busiest Running Weekends There will be A TON of action across the globe on Saturday, from the West Coast of the US to the East Coast to Germany to Usain Bolt in Australia. There’s no way you can watch the entirety of all five meets, so we preview the best matchups in chronological order and suggest you enjoy the best races from the each meet a la carte, including Hellen Obiri vs. Laura Muir over 3,000, Leo Manzano vs. Paul Chelimo in a mile and a Robby Andrews-led squad going for the 4 x 800 WR.

Camel City LRC Q&A: Leo Manzano On How He Went From Unable To Walk To 4th At The Olympic Trials In 9 Weeks, Why He Excels In Championship Races, Breaking 1:44 In The 800 & Much More Manzano reveals that last year he came back from pneumonia not one, not two, not three, but four times to take fourth at the Olympic Trials. This year, fortunately the 32-year-old says things are going great and he’s expecting a big year and next few years as he wants to compete as long as he can like Meb K and Bernard L.

USA XC LRC Men’s Preview: Chris Derrick Looks For His 4th Title Against Red-Hot Leonard Korir And 2016 Olympian Shadrack Kipchirchir You’d better be tough (and talented) if you want to make the 2017 World XC team as the conditions are going to be difficult and the field is stacked with 8 of the top 9 from the Olympic 10,000 Trials. Derrick — and almost everyone else — missed out on last year’s race, but he’s back after three-peating from 2013 through 2015 but he’ll have his hands full with the Kenyan-born talent in Scott Simmons‘ group that is taking America by storm.

LRC Chris Derrick Is Back, Baby! After Struggling With Injuries, Derrick Hopes To Win USA XC Title #4 This Weekend Derrick battled a series of injuries during the last Olympic cycle, but he ran 27:38 on the track in November and has been logging 100+ “Badger” miles in Flagstaff this winter. Healthy once again, he’s hoping to regain his title at Saturday’s USA XC Champs, a race he won three times from 2013 to 2015. The bad news is he me may not do World XC.
*MB: Who will win 2017 USA Cross Country Championship in Bend Oregon this Saturday afternoon?

LRC Women’s Preview: Who Will Win a Wide-Open Race? There’s no clear favorite in this one, which could lead to an exciting race on Saturday. Olympian Courtney Frerichs, 2015 champ Laura Thweatt, Aliphine Tuliamuk, Sarah Pagano and Kellyn Taylor are the biggest names entered.

Camel City LRC Q&A: Canadian 800 Star Melissa Bishop Opens Up About Her Olympic Heartbreak, What It’s Like Racing Caster Semenya And Why She Stayed In Canada For College In HS, Bishop was dropped by US colleges on the recruitment trail when she got injured. Now a decade later, she is the Canadian record holder at 1:57.02 and very well could be the Olympic champ had CAS ruled differently. Bishop, who was 2nd at Worlds in 2015 and 4th at the Olympics last year, is opening her 2017 season on Saturday at the Camel City Elite in North Carolina. We caught up with the 28-year-old over the phone on Sunday to about Camel City and her plans for 2017.

Olympics / Politics News

Tokyo 2020 Will Make Olympic Medals From Old Cell Phones That’s one way to trim the budget.
*IAAF Article Ashton Eaton is a big fan of the idea, going as far as to say, “The awesomeness of this project makes me want to come out of retirement and compete for one.”
Tit For Tat: Iran Bans USA Wrestling From Freestyle World Cup In Reaction To President Trump’s Immagration Policy Not really a fair response considering the USOC has already said athletes from banned countries would be allowed into the US for competitions.
AP: “Refugee Travel Ban Brings Sadness To ‘Lost Boy’ Lopez Lomong” Lomong says he feels for refugees who might not have the same opportunity he had.
New Zealand Becomes The 5th Major Team To Pull Out Of The World Under-18 Championships In Kenya Citing Security Concerns Britain, Australia, Canada and Switzerland have also pulled out, citing concerns over “kidnapping, hijacking, terrorism and violent crime.”
Just In Case You Were Still Dreaming: Rome 2024 Bid Officially Declared Dead In October the bid was “suspended,” but now it is officially “finished.”
Paris 2024 Promise Low Ticket Prices Ahead Of Submitting Final Candidature File They promise that 13 million tickets will cost no more than $16.
LA 2024 Celebrate Official Bid Submission With Morning Fitness Session And Dawn “Rave-Style” Party

Meet The Freshman Who Is Taking The NCAA By Storm

LRC Who Is Emmanuel Korir – The Freshman The Set A World’s Best In The 600m? “I Think He Could Be A World Champion In The 800” UTEP coach Paul Ereng knows a thing or two about 800-meter phenoms – he used to be one himself, winning Olympic gold in 1988 as freshman at the University of Virginia. Now Ereng’s got one on his hands in the form of Korir, the freshman who set a world indoor best of 1:14.97 for 600m last weekend (since surpassed), and he thinks greatness lies in Korir’s future.

Today’s Drug News

Russian Long Jumper Olga Kucherenko Gets 2-Year Doping Ban And Will Lose Her 2011 World Silver
It’s Come To This? Scientists Are Calling For A Crackdown On Doping In Chess A study found that stimulants significantly boost a player’s endurance and ability to concentrate during a match and improve performance by an average of 15%.
Picking Up Where Vitaly Mutko Left Off: New Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov Claims State-Sponsored Doping Allegations Are Groundless
Summary Of IOC Reanalysis Testing From 2008 And 2012 Olympics So far, 98 athletes have been caught in retests of their frozen samples.

Doping Updates

Russia Stripped Of Their Women’s 2012 Olympic 4 X 400 Silver Medal Team member Antonina Krivoshapka tested positive for steroids in a retest of her frozen sample.
Jo Pavey Wants Brits Who Lost Medals To Dopers To Be Re-Awarded Them At The 2017 London World Championships Pavey finished 4th in the 10K at 2007 Worlds, but was upgraded to bronze when Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse was caught in doping retests.
Usain Bolt And Asafa Powell Not Holding Gurdges Against Nesta Carter For Relay Medal Loss Bolt said, “I’m not going to despite anybody for anything … Nesta and I are still friends.”
European Athletics President Says Athletes Who Set European Records Will Have Their Blood And Urine Samples Stored For 10 Years Svein Arne Hansen: “We don’t want cheats to ever feel that they got away with something and that they are safe because they were not caught immediately.”
Give Us A Break: Former Russian Athletics Federation Head Valentin Balakhnichev Refers Dick Pound To IOC Ethics Commission For Comments On Russia All Pound did was suggest that there was a possibility countries could boycott the 2018 World Cup In Russia in reaction to doping scandals.
Russian Racewalker Alexander Yargunkin And Javelin Thrower German Komarov Get 4-Year Bans
Weak Sauce: US Figure Skating Backs Way From Comments Made By Its President Criticizing Russia US Figure Skating came out with a statement claiming president Sam Auxier‘s statements were only “his personal opinions” and not their “official position.”
Head Of Task Force Examining The Credibility Of Previous European Records Is Engaging With Fans Making Suggestions On Social Media Former Irish race walker Pierce O’Callaghan said even “stories and anecdotes” would help.

2016 Was A Record Year For Us In Terms Of Traffic – Thanks For Visiting

An Inside Look At How LRC Operates How a Ragtag Crew Of Almost Journalists Created Running’s Most Controversial Website Author Charles Bethea embedded himself with us during the US Olympic trials and got a behind-the-scenes look at how we operate. His article in Outside magazine includes some really nice quotes from Tim Layden, “… their best quality is that they don’t give a shit about offending people,” and Nick Willis, “It gave me a ton of inspiration. LetsRun is one of the primary reasons high-quality coaching and training have improved in America.”
*MB: Long Article on Letsrun… in Outside Magazine