Latest Saturday News From Kampala

LRC 2017 World XC Press Conference Highlights: Olympic Champs Asbel Kiprop, Faith Kipyegon, Stephen Kiprotich And Seb Coe About XC’s Importance With XC Legend Paul Tergat The stars were out in full force with Kiprop, Kipyegon, Kiprotich, Coe and Tergat.

LRC Her Dreams Became Reality: Canadian Champion Sasha Gollish Will Run World XC After An 8-Year Break From The Sport Gollish quit the sport as a 20-year-old but recommitted herself at age 32 in 2014 and has improved rapidly since, winning the Canadian and NACAC XC titles this winter. She’ll lead Team Canada on Sunday.

LRC Could We See Asbel Kiprop Vs. Genzebe Dibaba On Sunday? Everything You Need To Know About The New 4 X 2K Relay At World XC The IAAF has spiced things up with the 1st-ever mixed gender relay where it’s up to the teams to decide when to run each gender. Former World Jr. XC champ Asbel Kiprop is a fan as he’s back at the champs for the 1st time since 2007.

College / HS Section *All Weekend NCAA Results

• The Harvard Crimson: Controversy Within Harvard’s Women’s Distance Program As Team Divided Over Coaching Style The team is performing better than ever, but harsh criticisms from team members who quit sparked an administrative investigation.
  *MB: Harvard woes
• Sad News: High School Track Coach Killed In Bus Crash In North Texas The accident involved an 18-wheeler, a school bus carrying the track team and the coach in his car. The 18-wheeler driver was also killed and 19 athletes were injured and taken to the hospital.
  *MB: Track Team Bus Crash
• USTFCCCA Profile On Tennessee’s 60m/200m Indoor Champion Christian Coleman Justin Gatlin was Coleman’s relay teammate in Rio and has high praise for Coleman: “To see him run 20.11 indoors, he’s going to run 19-high to 19-mid outdoors. There’s no question about it.”
• Edward Cheserek Still Only Has The Second Most National Titles In NCAA History He has the most of any track athlete, but still trails former Stanford Swimmer Jenny Thompson by two.
• USTFCCCA: Could 2017 Break The Record For The Most NCAA Records In A Single Year? Last year was a new high with six, but 2017 could be even better.

Sprint And Field News

• Olympic Discus Champ Christoph Harting Shares His Tips For Track And Life Harting says he stays off social media completely. “There is a whole world do be discovered outside of your smartphone or computer. When I was young we got to know each other by talking to each other in person.”
• Girls Sports Month Q&A With Olympic 100H Champ Brianna Rollins Rollins is the oldest of seven children, but the only girl.
• Bahamas’ 2012 4 X 400 Olympic Champ Chris Brown Talks About The Greatest Challenge Of His Career When Brown was a senior in high school a coach ditched him and he missed his opportunity to see a US college scout. Brown was devastated and ended up repeating the 12th grade, but says it ended up being a blessing and “That one bad experience changed my life forever.”
• US’s Former Olympic 4 X 100 Champ Lauryn Williams Shares Who She’d Put On Her Fantasy Relay Team Shelly-Anne Fraser Pryce makes the cut, but isn’t the lead off or anchor.
• Allyson Felix Announced For Jamaican Invitational On May 20th
• Olympic Javelin Champ Thomas Rohler Announced For Paavo Nurmi Games In Finland On June 13

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%

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

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