Sprints, Jumps And Throws

• Even Sprinters Can;t Touch Her At Their Own Event: Caster Semenya Takes Down Former World 400m Champion Amantle Montsho In South African 300m Race Semenya ran 37.22 seconds to just miss beating the 17-year-old SA national record by .20. Montsho was .22 back in second while World 400H finalist Wendal Nel was third.
• LA Times: Brian Oldfield, Free-Spirited Olympian Who Excelled At Shot Putting And Partying, Dies At 71 The former WR holder had an amazing and interesting story which includes starting the spinning throw shot put technique, taking a cigarette break during the Olympics, appearing in Playgirl magazine, competing in the “World’s Strongest Man” competition, and once sparring with Muhammad Ali.
  *MB: RIP Brian Oldfield *USATF release
• At 30-Years-Old GB Long Jumper Greg Rutherford Believes He’s “Still Got A Lot To Give In The Event” Rutherford says he isn’t limiting himself to just jumping this year either as he plans on doing some sprint races as well and adds that he’d like to do some road races once he retires.
• US’s Olympic Shot Put Champion Michelle Carter Shares Her Advice For Sport And Life Carter says you need to listen to your parents and trust your coach, which is perfect for her as her father and coach are one and the same.

Olympic News

• Kenyan Olympic Committee Finally Passes Constitutional Changes To Avoid IOC Suspension Under the new rules, none of the current committee members have voting power at elections and Kip Keino is apparently actually ineligible for re-election.
• InsideTheGames‘ Nick Butler: “Cross Country And Winter Olympics Would Be A Perfect Fit” That’d be great, but we’re not so sure about his suggesting to run the race on a snow filled cross country skiing course.
• Alan Abrahamson: “A 2024 Dose Of Common Sense” Abrahamson explains the many reasons he feels it’s “common sense” for the IOC to choose LA over Paris for the 2024 Games.
• Survey Claims 82% Of French Youth Support Paris 2024 Bid
• Paris 2024 Becomes First Olympic BId To Receive Sustainability Award
• LA 2024 Reaffirm Commitment To “Most Inclusive Games In History”

LetsRun.com Goes To 2017 World XC *Results *Video Interviews

Epic Men’s Race: LRC Geoffrey Kamworor Defends His World Cross-Country Crown And Denies Host Uganda A Fairy Tale Ending Kamworor cemented his status as the biggest young talent in the sport by coming from 12 seconds down on the final lap to overcome a heroic effort by Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei. Team USA went for it big time but came up short of a medal.

• NCAA Cross-Country Champion Patrick Tiernan Signs With Nike Tiernan was the top non-African born finisher in 13th.
• Video Of Joshua Cheptegei Staggering To Finish At World Cross-Country If you haven’t seen it, you need to.

Jr. Boys: Dreams Become Reality: Jacob Kiplimo – The Winner Of The U20 Race – Is A Name You May Want To Remember The guy who turned heads by running 27:26 at the reported age of 15 last summer sent the home crowd into a frenzy as he won Uganda’s first-ever World XC gold. Trust us, the crowd went nuts.

NCAA News *All Weekend College Results

• Oregon Coach Robert Johnson Says The Ducks Won’t Focus On The Triple Crown “It’s already been stated the white elephant has been taken out of the room. And now it’s just back to business as usual …”
  *The Oregonian‘s Ken Goe Says “Don’t Sleep” On The UO Men; They’re An NCAA Title Contender Too
• Olympic Shot Put Champ Throws World-Leading 18.51m At Ole Miss Home Meet
• Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend Virginia’s former NCAA indoor mile champ Henry Wynne highlighted the distances with a 13:43 5,000m.
• Florida State Men And Women Sweep Titles At FSU Relays

Unusual Running News: Marathon On The Track

• Chris Zablocki (2:21:48) And Laura Manninen (2:42:30) Break World Indoor Marathon Records At The Armory NYC Marathon They each bagged $6,000 for winning the race and breaking the record.
  *MB: Marathon WR falls…… to an American (and Dartmouth alum)
  *LRC Archives Meet The Most Interesting Man In Running: Chris Zablocki’s Long Road To Los Angeles
• The World Record For Fastest Half Marathon In A Business Suit Went Down At The NYC Half Last Weekend Former pro runner Chris Estwanik ran 1:11:36 to break the record by more than seven minutes and says he got two marriage proposals along the way.
• Two Guide Dog Puppies Will Be Named After This Year’s Boston Marathon Winners

Doping / Corruption Stuff

• Common Sense Wins: Frank Fredericks Steps Aside From IAAF While Being Investigated Over Olympic Bid Bribes
• It’s Come To This: Even Poker Will Have Drug Testing As International Federation Of Poker To Become WADA Compliant
• The Irish Times: “Something About Irish Anti-Doping Doesn’t Add Up” Sports writer analyzes the numbers in the recent survey which found 40% of Irish athletes know a doper.

World XC Course Preview And Race Previews

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 1,500m world champ Faith Kipyegon.

LRC The World’s Greatest Foot Race – 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.

• 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.
• 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.”
• 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.

IAAF Preview Of All Races

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