2017 Tokyo Is Saturday Night At 7:10pm ET On NBC Sports *TV And Streaming

LRC Full Women’s Race Preview: Betsy Saina Debuts Against A Trio Of Sub-2:23 Ethiopians We break down the 2017 Tokyo women’s race where 2015 champ Birhane Dibaba takes on last year’s runner-up, 2:21 woman Amane Gobena.

LRC Full Men’s Race Preview: The 2017 World Marathon Majors Kick Off & Wilson Kipsang Wants The World Record? Wilson Kipsang just ran 2:03:13 in Berlin. He says he wants his world record back. We think a course record (2:05:42) is more reasonable. But it should be exciting nonetheless and the best part about it is you don’t have to get up early to enjoy. Live Saturday night during prime time.
*Kipsang Predicts 2:02:50 At Press Conference *Video

LRC The Bowerman Track Club Goes To Japan: Andrew Bumbalough And Betsy Saina Set To Make Debuts At 2017 Tokyo MarathonThe top U.S.-based entrants in Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon both hail from Jerry Schumacher‘s Bowerman Track Club. Saina is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Olympic 10,000, while Bumbalough, finally healthy after almost two years of injuries, is hoping to find success at the ultimate distance.
*MB: BTC teammates Betsy Saina and Andrew Bumbalough do the 26.2, how low will they go?

Olympic News

• IOC Vows To “Further Adjust” Candidature Process For The Olympics After Budapest 2024 WithdrawalThomas Bach may use this as an excuse to push through with giving LA and Paris the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time as he argues the current system “produces too many losers.”
• Budapest 2024 Athletes’ Committee “Indescribably Sad” Over Bid Withdrawal
• CBS Los Angeles:“Hosting Olympics Is A Risk LA Is Willing To Take” Mayor Eric Garcetti: “There’s 88 percent support, LA has been able to turn a profit and will do it again.”
• Olympic Columnist:“Thomas Bach Must Now Push For 2024 And 2028 Vote This Year”
• Study Finds Only 7% In The UK Were Inspired To Take Up Sport By The 2012 Olympics Part of the London 2012 legacy was to inspire “millions” more young people to take part in sport.
  *Only 4% Say They Would Prefer GB To Focus On Winning Medals In Tokyo 2020 Ahead Of Investigating In Grassroots Programs/Facilities

Week That Was

LRCWTW: Will They Be The Sport’s Next Superstars Or Are They On Their Way To Being Overpaid Flops? Our Young Phenom Report Card: Alexa Efraimson, Konstanze Klosterhalfen, Casey Clinger, Cameron And Tyrese Cooper, Plus Jeremy Wariner Does The 1,200 We span the globe and recap the week in running.

Sprint/Field News

• 60m World Leader Ronnie Baker Ran XC In Alaska As A Kid, Now He’s Making A Name For Himself As A World Class Sprinter The TCU grad still lives and trains in Fort Worth.
• Becca Peter Of Pole Vault Power Discusses Whether Mondo Duplantis Is The Best High School Vaulter Ever Duplantis has vaulted 18′ 10″ but Peter points out Casey Carrigan held the world record in high school back in the ’60s.
• Nice Profile On Harry Jerome: Canadian World Class Sprinter Who Died Too Young At The Age Of 42 Vancouver Sun
• Track & Field News In-Depth:Can Jenn Suhr, Sandi Morris Or Demi Payne Get Yelena Isinbayeva’s World Record?
• Irish Hurdles Legend (4th At This Year’s Olympics) Thomas Barr Gives Some Tips Watching the Irish journalists go nuts during his run was one of our highlights of the Olympics.
• Thando Roto Ran Wind-Aided 9.98 In S. Africa

2017 Abbott World Marathon Majors Kick Off In Tokyo This Sunday

• Andrew Bumbalough Ready For His Marathon Debut In Tokyo Sounds like he might be shooting for 2:11+.
• Wilson Kipsang Revved Up To Reclaim Marathon WR In Tokyo The CR is 2:05:42 by Dickson Chumba and this year’s course is faster with a couple of hills taken out.
• A Look At Some Of 2:07:48 Marathoner Arata Fujiwara’s Training In Iten Kenya Before Tokyo Marathon
• Olympic Champ Jemima Sumgong’s Training Partner Sarah Chepchirchir Running Tokyo

Some Brief Doping News

• How Did Chaunte Lowe Find Out She Won An Olympic Medal? … Via Facebook Eight Years Later Lowe talks about going from 6th to 3rd after three dopers were caught in 2008 retests. Adam Nelson says winning a medal years later is “like winning a lifetime achievement award after you died.”
• Probably The Least Of Her Worries:Doper Mariya Savinova Could Also Be Stripped Of Her 2011 European Athlete Of The Year Award Her coach could also lose his coach of the year award.

2017 World XC Is Going To Be Awesome

Kenya’s Team Is LoadedLeonard Barsoton Stuns Favorites Bedan Karoki And Geoffrey Kamworor At 2017 Kenyan XC Championships Barsoton stormed from 3rd to 1st in the final 500 but the Kenyan team is loaded as Kamworor and Karoki both made it.
*Bedan Karoki Opts Out Of Kenyan World XC Team He wants to focus on training for his marathon debut in London.

14:43 5ker Irene Cheptai Surprises Herself And Wins Kenyan XC Women’s TitleShe won by more than 5 seconds and was more than a  minute ahead of 6th. Defending world champ Agnes Tirop and Olympic 1,500 champ Faith Kipyegon also made the team.

• Recommended Read Barsoton’s Japanese Coach Celebrates By Drinking A Tusker Beer And Reveals He’s Got A Plan For Barsoton To Dominate Tokyo 2020 Barsoton, who runs for Nissin foods in Japan, has other ideas. “My plan for this year is to win the World Cross-Country Championships in Kampala and also the 10,000 metres title on the track at the World Championships in London.”
  
• Asbel Kiprop Is Named To Kenya’s World XC Team For the 1st time, the IAAF is having a 4 x 2k mixed gender relay at World XC.
• Richard Kimunyan And Sandra Chebet Win Junior Races Chebet totally dominated the girls race.

Some Incredible HS Performances

• So Sick:Casey Clinger Just Ran 8:54 At 4,500 Feet Of Altitude! He crushed the field and won by 25+ seconds. When you convert it for altitude, he’s not too far off Craig Virgin‘s legendary American HS record.
• Unreal:HS soph Tyrese Cooper ran a 20.44/45.45 double today but the 200 didn’t count as he got DQd for celebration Update: We’ve watched the video and there is no way that was a 20.44.
• HSer Cameron Cooper Of Michigan runs 1:49.82 – #2 time all-time indoor for US HSers

Pro Road Action

Kenyan Erik Titus Whacks 8 Minutes Off PR – From 2:15:43 To 207:43 CR – At Seville Marathon And it’s not like he had a great half marathon PR either (1:02:26). In the women’s race, Spain’s Paula González defended her title with a big PR of 2:28:54.

Interesting Reads

• Recommended Read Millrose 3,000 Winner Kate Van Buskirk Was So Sick For The Last Two Years With Spondyloarthropathy That She Couldn’t Even Turn Over In Bed At Times “One of the hardest parts was that I was in so much pain just in my regular life that I was just in survival mode. I thought: I don’t even care if I can never run again, I just want to be able to walk or move without pain at some point. Because it was so severe.”
• This Is Getting RidiculousIt’s Almost March And Nike Still Hasn’t Released Details Of Sub-2 Project, Still Continues To Work Runner’s World For Free Publicity The idea that a sub-2 is going to happen in any shape or fashion that is close to legitimate is a joke.
• Len Johnson Reviews The Nitro Athletics Series: Did You See Engagement, Fun And Laughter? A good read on what it all meant. The key thing is the meet was free to watch on TV in Australia and got good ratings as 1.4 million watched the first broadcast.
• Vice Sports: Does The US Just Cheat Differently Than The Russians?
  *MB: Interesting Vice Sports Article On US Doping History – Article Mentions Al Sal And Nike Oregon Project
• World XC Is Coming Up – Craig Virgin Recalls His Two World Titles From 1980 And 1981
• 17-Year-Old Ciara Neville Of Ireland Heavily Favored To Win National Title At Irish Nationals For good reason – she’s the co-Irish national record holder at 7.30.
  *MB: Move over Candace Hill: 17 yr old Irish white girl Ciara Neville runs 7.30 for 60m
• Ryan Crouser Says He’s “Light Years” Ahead Of Where He Was At This Time Last Year, Is Ready For Sunday’s Big Shot Event In New Zealand He’ll face Tom Walsh, Jacko Gil, Ryan Whiting and others.
  *Walsh Is Super-Motivated After Not Winning Last Two Years
• Former Prep Phenom, Now Masters USA XC Champ, Melody Fairchild, Gives Out Her 6 Keys To Running Fairchild was the first US prep to break 10:00 for 2 miles.
• Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Sergei Bubka, Daley Thompson, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Flo-Jo, JJK  Saïd Aouita Was Pat Butcher’s Favorite Athlete To Write About And Watch Aouita was before our time but we imagine he was amazing to watch if you put your blinders on.
• 11 Months After Being Declared Non-Compliant By WADA, Spanish Govt. Is Finally Working On New Legislation To Make Its Doping Agency Compliant

News From Kenya

• Recommended Read:Catching Up With Eliud Kipchoge As He Prepares To Try And Break The 2-Hour Marathon You might assume Kipchoge is at some high tech facility with state of the art equipment, but for him it’s business as usual as he’s in Kenya at a place so low tech you have to fetch your own water to bathe.
• Saturday:Geoffrey Kamworor Had A Rough Time After Rio, But Says He’s Ready To Defend His Kenyan National XC Title Kamworor isn’t just thinking about XC though as he looked ahead to track saying, “My dream is to win that coveted 10,000m title from Mo Farah and especially at his home turf … here is no love lost between him and Kenyan.”

In Case You Are Feeling Overly Hot And Steamy On Valentine’s Day

LRC Could A Cooling Wristband Be The Key To Athletes Who Struggle In The Heat? For years, scientists have been working on solutions to keep athletes cool before, during and after competition. We took a look at the dhamaSPORT, a new cooling wristband used by multiple U.S. Olympians in Rio which will also be used by several members of Team USA at the upcoming World Cross Country Championships in Uganda.