LetsRun.com Goes To 2017 World XC *Schedule, TV & Streaming

LRC Video Tour of 2017 World Cross Country Course and Its PIT with Photos Wimps should stay home as this pit has the “PIT”, two steep hills, one with a 90 degree turn, is almost never straight. Repeat that 5 times.

LRC Women’s Preview: A Comically Loaded Kenyan Team Should Roll, Can Alice Aprot Win Worlds Like Her Brother? The Kenyan team is loaded and includes 1500m world champ Faith Kipyegon.

LRC The World’s Greatest Footrace – 2017 World XC Champs Senior Men’s Preview: Can Geoffrey Kamworor Lead Kenya To Team Gold? Can The Americans Medal? Geoffrey Kamworor is looking to become the 1st man since 2006 to successfully defend his world cross-country crown. Can he do it? If he falters, who is likely to win? Can the Americans possibly pick up their first individual medal since Alberto Salazar‘s silver in 1982? They’ve certainly got a good chance, particularly if Olympic 5,000 silver medalist Paul Chelimo, who is in Uganda ready to race the 10k (but currently only on the 4 x 2k relay), somehow ends up running.

LRC U.S. Champ Leonard Korir Says The American Men Can Win Team Gold At World XC The US men have never won team gold.

LRC Photos Of Eliud Kipchoge Working Out In Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite Shoes On our way to Uganda for the World XC champs, we made a detour to spend the day with the world’s greatest marathoner, Eliud Kipchoge.

• Former Olympic / World Marathon Champ Stephen Kiprotich Looks Back On His Fondest World XC Memories Kiprotich competed three times as a junoir, but his highest finish was in the 2011 senior race when he was 6th.
• Senior Men Preview: Geoffrey Kamworor Is Back To Try And Win Another Global Title Kamworor will have his hands full as he is up against Kenyan XC champ Leonard Barsoton, Ethiopian national champ Getaneh Molla, world XC bronze medalist Muktar Edris and USA’s Leonard Korir.
• Senior Women: Kenya’s Agnes Tirop Will Try To Become The First Back-To-Back Champ Since Tirunesh Dibaba In 2005-06 She’ll face last year’s runner-up Senbere Teferi, Olympic 1,500 champ Faith Kipyegon and Olympic steeple champ Ruth Jebet.
• Mixed Relay: World XC Mixed Relay Highlighted By Two Of The All-Time Best 1,500m Runners In Genzebe Dibaba And Asbel Kiprop Olympic silver medailst Paul Chelimo leads Team USA.
• Kenyan Media Calls Out USATF For Sending A Team To World XC In Uganda, But Skipping World U18 Champs In Kenya Over Security Concerns
• Kampala Won’t Be A Cup Of Tea For Kenyans Warns Uganda’s Former Olympic Marathon Champion Stephen Kiprotich “I want to welcome team Kenya in Kampala and they should feel at home but I must warn them that they should prepare for a real battle.”
• Men U20: World U18 3,000m Champ Richard Kimunyan Yator Is The Favorite After Dominating Kenyan Trials Since 1988, Kenya has won every team title except two and only once has a team other than Kenya or Ethiopia finished in the top two (Eritrea silver in 2007).
• Women U20: Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey Returns To Defend Her Title Against Kenya’s World U20 Steeple Champ Celliphine Chepteek Chespol In the 25 editions since the junior race started in 1989, Kenya and Ethiopia have won every team title and the last individual winner not from Kenya or Ethiopia was 22 years ago.
• AFP: Kampala Set To Host Uganda’s Biggest Ever Sports Event More than 550 athletes from 59 countries and one refugee team from South Sudan will compete.

World Marathon Majors Reduces $ To Pros

LRC Abbott World Marathon Majors Reduces Prize Bonus For Pros By 35% The pro runners take a cut at the expense of wheelchair racers and charity. Discuss: Abbott World Marathon Majors Reduces Prize Structure to Pro Runners by 35%

Our Weekly Recap  – The Week That Was

LRC WTW: Noah Droddy And Emily Sisson Rock NYC, The Slow Twins Rise Up, Ed Whitlock Dies And The US Olympians Doing Boston And A Disgraceful Hitler Analogy We break down some great half marathon action from across the globe, wonder when some mid-20s Americans will make their marathon debuts and say goodbye to a legend.

Drug Busts In Jamaica & Russia

• Jamaica’s Former World 400H Silver Medlalist Kaliese Spencer And World Champs Relay Bronze Medalist Riker Hylton Charged With Doping Violations They are both accused of “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.” Hylton claims he left the stadium before anyone told him he was supposed to be tested.
• Three Russians DQed From The 2012 Olympics After Being Caught In Doping Retests Hammer throwers Maria Bespalova and Gulfiya Khanafeeva, and triple jumper Viktoria Valyukevich all tested positive. This is the third time Khanafeeva has been found guilty of a doping offense and Bespalova is already serving a 4-year ban from 2015.

Doping / Cheating News

• Doctor Who Gave Mo Farah Controversial L-Carnitine Infusion Called To Give Evidence In Doping Hearing The doctor and UKA head endurance coach Barry Fudge are to appear before the the Culture, Media and Sport committee next month.
• +1 For China: China Says They Will Ban Amateur Marathon Cheats (Course Cutters And Bib Swappers) For Life This after it was found that a man died of a heart attack during a December road race while running under someone else’s name.
• UK Athletics Review Claims Paralympic Track And Field Classification System Is “Open To Abuse” Athletes can take advantage of the system by exaggerating how bad their condition actually is.
• BBC Poll Reveals “Concerning” Level Of Doping In Amateur Sport BBC’s investigation revealed that more than a third of amateur athletes know someone who has doped.
  *Surprising Stat: UK Anti-Doping Says Of The 52 GB Athletes And Coaches Serving Bans, 62% Are Amateurs
• RUSADA Appoints Acting Director General As Hunt Continues For Permanent Choice Tatyana Chirkina was formerly the RUSADA accountant. This is a different position than Yelena Isinbayeva who is the RUSADA Supervisory Board chair.

More Sunday Distance Action

• Lisbon Steals The Spotlight: Jake Robertson Wins Lisbon In 60:00 And he’s only the second-fastest twin in the family as his brother Zane has run 59:47.
  *IAAF: Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba Wins Women’s Race In 69:43
  *MB: Awesome documentary on the ROBERTSON BROTHERS ahead of Lisbon HM today
• LA: Kenya’s Elisha Barno Shakes Off Queezy Stomach To Win Los Angelse Marathon In 2:11:52 Kenyan Hellen Jepkurgat won the women’s race in 2:34:23. *Results
• Amos Kipruto Knocks More Than Two Minutes Off His PR To Win Close Race At Seoul Marathon Kipruto ran 2:05:54 to beat Felix Kipchirchir by 9 seconds. The women’s race was also a nail biter with Kenya’s Margaret Agai running 2:25:52 to finish 5 seconds in front of Ethiopia’s Ashete Bekele Dido.
• Isaac Kipkoech Runs Fast Half At Altitude To Win Red Cross Half-Marathon In Kenya With 60:52 Esther Chesang (70:58) won the women’s race.
• Ethiopia’s Afewerk Mesfin Wins Thrilling Dual With Keneya’s Julius Tuwei To Win The Chongqing Marathon Mesfin ran 2:09:49 to set the CR and win by only 3 seconds. Rael Nguriatukei Kiyara won the women’s race easily in 2:26:22.
• Ben Sathre (49:59), Andrea Rediger (57:24) Win Hot Dash 10 Mile Crowns In Minneapolis
• Hillary Maiyo (62:55) Defends His Title At The Gydnia Half Marathon Morocco’s Fatiha Benchatki (72:23) won the women’s race.
• Hilary Kipkosgei Yego (2:17:02) And Munkhzaya Bayartsogt (2:38:08) Win New Taipei City Marathon
• Khahisa Mhlanga And Ben Dijkstra Win English Schools Cross-Country Titles

International Distance News

• Japan Selects Marathon Team For 2017 Worlds The team includes Yuki Kawauchi and Yuka Ando, who ran the fastest debut by a Japanese woman (2:21:36).
• One Small Kenyan Village Has 6 Of The 28 Members On Kenya’s World XC Team The athletes from the village of Keringet, which means “a hole” in the local language, include Olympic 1,500 champ Faith Kipyegon.
• Kenya Escapes Threat Of Ban After Promising To Adopt A New Constitution Later This Month And we’re sure this will be the end of it because of course Kenyan officials never miss deadlines.
• Mo Farah Wins 2017 British Ethnic Diversity Sports Award

Doping News With A Slightly Positive Angle To Them

• Roger Bannister Says Track & Field’s Rampant Doping Brings Him “Extreme Sadness” – Hopes USADA And WADA Can Kill It Off So Track Can Have A Revival “It pains me a lot, but I still believe there is something very healthy underneath the whole of this activity and I long to see this brought into ascendancy again.”
• Proof Positive That Not All Dopers Are Bad People – Particularly When They Grow Up In A State Where Everyone Was Doing It 1991 World 100 & 200 Champ Katrin Krabbe Now Helping Terminally Ill In A Hospice Her official title is “dying companion” which she rejects wholeheartedly, “Dying companion? I am a companion for living!”

Centro Sr.’s Book Gets Some Publicity

Matt Centro’s Sr Gets Q&A In Washington Post About His Biography And His Son’s Olympic 1,500m Gold

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 Review Legendary Athlete, Father And Coach Matt Centrowitz Just Published An Autobiography – We Suggest You Read It