March 31, 2017 | LetsRun.com

A Ton Of Quality Road Racing Set For This Weekend

LRC 2017 Prague Half Marathon Preview: Galen Rupp & Jordan Hasay Tune Up For Boston – Will Galen Rupp Break Ryan Hall’s 59:43 American Record? 9 days before Alberto Salazar won Boston, he set a 10,000 PR on the track. So we fully expect Rupp to set a half marathon PR tomorrow – will he get the AR as well?
*RRW Galen Rupp Downplays His AR Chances Before 2017 Prague Half Marathon – “I just have to get a race in.”
*MB: Prague 1/2 predictions? Rupp ftw? – Official 2017 Prague Half Live Discussion Thread
*MB: Jordan Hasay is running 100 miles a week just 2-3 weeks out from Boston
*IAAF Preview Violah Jepchumba will try to defend her title against African 10K bronze medalist Joyciline Jepkosgei while the men’s race also has road 10K WR holder Leonard Patrick Komon, Olympic 10K bronze medalist Tamirat Tola and 59:15 man Barselius Kipyego.

RRW: Americans Shannon Rowbury, Paul Chelimo To Take On International Rivals At Sunday’s Carlsbad 5,000 Rowbury faces Viola Lagat, former All-American Dominque Scott and Neely Gracey while the men’s race has 2012 Olympic silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel, Will Leer, GB’s Andy Vernon and Aussie Collis Birmingham.
Luke Puskedra And Christo Landry Lead American Field At The Cherry Blossom 10 Mile In DC They’ll face Kenyans Philemon Cheboi and Philip Langat while the women are lead by Mamitu Daska, Buze Dirba and US Half champ Tara Welling.
Berlin Half Marathon Preview: Men’s Race Led By Sub-60 Minute Kenyans David Kogei, Gilbert Masai And Daniel Chebii Sarah Hall is in the women’s field which is lead by the race’s past two winners Elizeba Cherono and Cynthia Kosgei.
MB: Michael Wardian Set to Race Barkley (Ultra) Marathons After Running 2:29 Marathon On Indoor Track Last Week For some good reads on this epic ultra race which has way more DNFs than actual finishers, go to our Barkely Marathons archive page.
$62,000 In Prize Money Up For Grabs At The Cooper River Bridge Run 10K In Charlotte, NC Fields include last year’s winner Monicah Ngige, former NYC Marathon champ Firehiwot Dado, Amy Van Alstine, Becky Wade, Jen Rhines for the women and 2-time defending champ Dominic Ondoro, Shadrack Kipchirchir, Jon Grey, Kirubel Erassa for the men.
Past Winners And Top American Set Headline Strong Field For Credit Union SACTOWN Run 10 Mile The men’s race includes Aaron Braun, Andrew Lemoncello and Fernando Cabada while the women are lead by Kenya’s defending champ Jane Kibii.

African Distance News

These Thieves Are Lucky She Didn’t Run Them Down: Former Steeplechase World Champ Milcah Chemos Robbed At World XC In Uganda She had her smart phone and cash stolen from her. She saw some boys running away, but the policemen she went to for help just laughed at her.
RunBlogRun: Should World XC Stay In East Africa Permanently? Kenyan Runner And Journalist Justin Lagat Thinks So “There will be no day that the Winter Olympics will happen in East Africa because we lack the snow here. In the same way, letting the world cross country take place in countries that lack enthusiasm and passion for the event is not so different from having the Winter Olympics in Eastern Africa.”
Caster Semenya Says Experience Has Been Key To Her Good Form After Beating The Former World 400 Champ Over 300m “I know what is good for my body, I don’t panic anymore when it comes to training.”
Patrick Makau Will Return To The Berlin Marathon For The Fisrt Time In Six Years This Fall But first, the former WR holder will race in Boston and says he is “doing great” now that he’s recovered from a recent injury.

Drug Busts

Russia’s Mariya Savinova Launches CAS Appeal Over Her Doping Ban And Stripped Medals Savinova was banned for 4 years and lost her 2012 Olympic, 2011 World and 2010 European golds.
Dopers, Watch Out: Craig Reedie Says More Whistleblowers Are Talking To WADA Reedie says he has been told that a number of whistleblowers are working with WADA, but he himself doesn’t know the specifics because it remains confidential.
Former Hammer World Record Holder Gulfiya Khanafeyeva Among Four Russians Diqualified From London 2012 Olympics Khanafeyeva, another hammer thrower, a triple jumper and weightlifter were sanctioned after being caught in doping retests.
Jamaica’s Riker Hylton Files For Dismissal Of His Provisional Doping Ban

Looking Ahead On The Track

May 13: Shanghai Diamond League Meet WIll Have 13 Olympic Champions Distance headliners include David Rudisha, Faith Kipyegon, Ruth Jebet and Almaz Ayana.
May 27: Eugene Assembles Its Best-Ever Women’s Javelin Field Pre will have all three Olympic medalists, the World champion, the European champion and the 2016 Diamond League winner … amazingly they are all different people.
June 13: World Champ Julius Yego, 2012 Olympic Champ Keshorn Walcott And 2007 World Tero Pitkamaki Added To Paavo Nurmi Games Javelin Field They’ll face off against Olympic champ Thomas Rohler.

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.

Three Quote Of The Day Worthy Reads

Good Read #1: Wayde Van Niekerk Has His Sights Set On A Sub-43 Second 400m “I’m not someone that necessary likes counting my chickens before they hatch, but at the age of 24, achieving a record that’s been there forever … you still feel that you’ve got so much more to prove.”
GR #2: Australia’s Olympic Racewalk Bronze Medalist Dane Bird-Smith Tells Story Of How Meeting His Fiancee At A Party In 2012 Was His Inspiration To Get Serious About The Sport “I took a hard look at myself. I needed to cut out the parties and the social life. If I wanted to be the best in the world, I had to want it more than anybody else.”
GR #3: IAAF Profile: With Second World XC Title Secure, Geoffrey Kamworor Now Turns Focus To London “In 2015 … I got silver, so I am not satisfied yet. I want to win the title. I am working so hard for it. That’s really my big dream and I will work for it until I fulfill it.”

World XC *Video Interviews

Historic Women’s Race: LRC Perfection: The Kenyan Women Perfect Score The World And Go 1-2-3-4-5-6 At 2017 World XC Champs The Kenyan women more than lived up to their favorite status as they put on a show for ages today at the 2017 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships. Team USA was 5th.
*Jr. Girls: Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey Leads Squad Over Kenya In Team Battle

MB: Official 2017 IAAF World XC Live Discussion Thread

4 X 2k: LRC Kenya, Thanks To Asbel Kiprop, Goes Wire-To-Wire To Win Inaugural Mixed Relay At 2017 World Cross-Country Champs Team USA was 6th as Paul Chelimo took Team USA from 9th to 6th.

IAAF Profile: World XC Was A Culmination Of A Perfect Season For Irene Cheptai Cheptai had always been relevant at the top level (she was 7th in 2015), but has risen to a new level in 2017 with four XC races and 4 victories, including the Kenyan Trials and now Worlds.
Team USA Quotes From World XC
IAAF Race Recaps

Non-World XC International Weekend Action

Admin News

Wayde Van Niekerk’s Agent Pete Van Zyl Calls Athletics South Africa “A Bunch Of Clowns” For Scheduling Their National Champs The Same Weekend As The IAAF World Relays ASA said they expect the athletes chosen for World Relays to skip the national meet, passing up the opportunity for a great domestic meet as they have four sub-10 sprinters this year.
Apparently Price For Tickets For The LA 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremonies Would Be “Comparable To The Super Bowl” The average ticket price would be $1,783 and Closing Ceremony tickets would cost an average of $1,226.
2019 World Cross-Country Hosts Aarhus, Denmark Want To Use Their Event To Campaign For XC Getting Back In The Olympics The meet will include a race for the masses which is expected to attract 8,000 runners.

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.

Dominance Indoors (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images for IAAF)" 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.

More Distance News

Podcast Interview With Ryan Hill Ahead Of The 2017 Outdoor Season
Sunday: Kenyans Justus Kangogo (59:31) And Peninah Arusei (67:48) Are The Favorites At Sunday’s Warsaw Half Marathon Kangogo is up against Mesfin Alemu (59:39) while Arusei will face former race walker and 2:23 marathoner Volha Mazuronak.
April 23: 2012 Olympic Marathon Champions Stephen Kiprotich And Tiki Gelana Will Star At The 2017 Haspa Hamburg Marathon

We’ll Have More From Kenya After World XC

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.

Looking Ahead To Outdoors

May 5: Elaine Thompson Vs. Dafne Schippers Vs. Veronica Campbell-Brown Will Be One Of The Meet Highlights At This Year’s Doha Diamond League Meet Other meet highlights will include LaShawn Merritt vs. Kirani James at 400, Olympic champ Ekaterini Stefanidi vs. Sandi Morris in the PV and Mutaz Barshim vs. Erik Kynard in the HJ.
May 20: Double Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson And 100H WR Holder Keni Harrison Confirmed For Jamaican Invitational The 200 has LaShawn Merritt against Andre De Grasse and Devon Allen is in the 110H.
May 27: Olympic Champ Ruth Beitia Leads Deep High Jump Field For The Pre Classic She’ll face USA’s World Indoor champ Vashti Cunningham and former Olympic medalist Chaunte Lowe.
June 13: World Record Holder Renaud Lavillenie Highlights Pole Vault Field For Paavo Nurmi Games

International Distance News

Injured Dennis Kimetto Not Ready To Call It A Career Yet Kimetto withdrew from this year’s Boston Marathon with injury and hasn’t raced since 2015 Worlds, but says, “I am not giving up. I am not taking it easy … One step back, two steps in front.”
Jake And Zane Robertson Are The First Twins To Ever Go Sub-60 In The Half
China Will Select Two Amateur Runners For Their 2020 Olympic Marathon Squad The amateurs will still have to run faster than the 2:19/2:45 IAAF standards, but what does this mean exactly? Will China really choose a 2:18 runner over a 2:14 runner because the 2:14 runner gets paid (probably marginally)? If so, that’s ridiculous.
Andy Vernon (63:08) And Charlotte Purdue (72:15) Win Reading Half In The UK Vernon won over fellow Brits Chris Thompson (63:39) and Dewi Griffiths (63:54) while Purdue beat Gemma Steel by over a minute.

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

Enjoyed The Article Above? Then Check This Article On LRC’s Founding From Marathon And Beyond In 2009 The LetsRun Phenomenon

Japanese News: Kawauchi Corner

Recommended Reads: Lengthy 3-Part Blog Series By Japanese Citizen Runner Yuki Kawauchi In the first part, Kawauchi talks about the “miracle in Fukuoka” where despite a sprained ankle, he fought through to finish 3rd (top Japanese man) and make the 2017 World team.
*Part 2: Kawauchi Clarifies That He Isn’t Retiring After London, Just Not Seeking National Team Berths “Unless you give up the fight, there’s no retirement for amateur runners.”
*Part 3: “The Lessons of the Past Are Not ‘Outdated'”
Yuki Kawauchi Butted Heads With Japan National Long Distance Head Toshihiko Seko At Worlds Meeting Kawauchi had some witty remarks to Seko’s speech and Sekio criticized Kawauchi thinking too much about being weak in the heat. An interesting exchange for sure.
The Japan Times: Change To Japan’s Marathon Team Selection In Works For 2020 Games They’re considering taking a page out of the US book and having the top two finishers at a trials race qualify automatically with a third being selected based on whoever has the fastest qualifying time.

NCAA: Stanford Is Tonight *All Weekend NCAA Coverage

Texas A&M’s Lindon Victor Breaks Collegiate Decathlon Record With A Score Of 8472 Points He broke Trey Hardee‘s mark from 2006 by 7-points. Afterwards Victor said, “I don’t think my record will last as long as Trey’s did. I think it will only last a few months, until I do my next one.”
Stanford Invitational: Live Results / Entries / Schedule As always the meet will be loaded with top college athletes as well as some pros. Edward Cheserek is in the 10K.
*MB: Allie Ostrander Running Steeplechase At Stanford
Florida Relays: Live Results / Schedule
*Veronic Campbell Brown Runs World Leading 200m With 22.60 At Florida Relays
Texas Relays: Top Sprint Action Set For Texas Relays *Live Results *Live Stream *Schedule
Oregon’s NCAA Indoor 60H Champ Sasha Wallace On The “Triple Crown”: “We don’t talk about it at all. … I think thinking about it too much throughout the year would put too much pressure on us.”
*Ken Goe Video Interview And Profile With Sasha Wallace In HS Wallace was the best TJer in the country, but now focuses on the hurdles because as her coach says, “For the work and time, the reward in the big picture probably isn’t worth as much [in the hurdles.]”
Register Guard Profile: Sprinter Kyree King Has Excelled At Oregon After Transferring To What is His Third School In Five Years

Administrative

Paul Tergat Enters Running To Replace Kip Keino As NOCK Chair The candidates aren’t finalized, but Keino is expected to attempt to seek another term although new rules in the NOCK constitution prohibit it.
Seb Coe To Become Chancellor At His Alma Mater Loughborough University The job entails being the “chief ambassador of the university” and handing out degrees to graduates.
UK Athletics Head Ed Warner Calls For Move Away From International Federations Being Lead By Former Sportspeople

Doping Updates: Silver Medals For Flanagan And Goucher

Turkish Distance Runners Elvan Abeylegesse And Gamze Bulut Officially Sanctioned By The IAAF These doping positives were announced earlier, but now that the sanctions are official that means Shalane Flanagan (2008 Olympics) and Kara Goucher (2007 Worlds) will get silver medal upgrades from Abeylegesse and Bulut will lose her 2012 Olympic silver.
RW: Shalane Flanagan And Kara Goucher Upgraded To Olympic And World Silver Medals Flanagan tweeted that she was “elated,” but has never been contacted by the IAAF or IOC.
The Guardian: Jo Pavey To Receive 2007 10,000m Bronze … 10 Years Late “You feel like you’ve let everyone down when it could have been you standing on the podium feeling massively proud, it should have been a day of massive elation.” *BBC Article
Kaliese Spencer’s Anti-Doping Case Set For May 15th In Jamaica Spencer is accused of refusing or evading a drug test.
Craig Reedie And Thomas Bach To Discuss RUSADA Re-Compliance At A Meeting Next Week We already know Russian track athletes won’t be at London 2017, but the big question now is will Russia be at the 2018 Winter Games?
*Reedie Encourages IOC To Make A Quick Decision On Russia’s 2018 Winter Olympics Participation

Women’s Track News

Good Read: Marathoner Teal Burrell Credits Giving Up TV For A Year With Helping Her To Qualify For The Olympic Marathon Trials In addition to dropping her PR by 10 minutes to 2:42:13, Burrell also used her year away from the boob tube to finish her PhD and read 35 books.
Ato Boldon Interviews Almaz Ayana On IAAF’s Inside Athletics Ayana looks back at Rio and talking about losing the 5K after setting the WR in the 10K she says, “I was very shocked. I was really upset. Why? Because I didn’t think I would lose.”
Q&A: Several Female Track And Field Reporters Share Their Experiences Covering The Sport Former Olympian Carrie Tollefson as well as writers from Runner’s World, SPIKES and FloTrack give some insights and women’s perspective on how the sport is covered.
Furman Distance Runner Allie Buchalski Is NCAA Athlete Of The Week After Winning Raleigh Relays 5,000m In 15:35 Buchalski dominated the race with a huge 33-second PR. Southeastern Louisiana thrower Alex Young was the men’s athlete of the week with an NCAA-leading 71.24m hammer throw.
High School Thrower Jill Shippee Reflects On Her #2 All-Time Weight Throw Mark (65 Feet, 6 Inches) From The Weekend It was a personal best by five feet for the Shenendehowa, NY senior.

Looking Ahead Spring Track/Road Action

May 5: Hot Races Set For Doha With Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba And Margaret Wambui Re-Matching Over 800m The women’s steeple will be stacked as well with all of the top 6 from Rio, led by Olympic Champ Ruth Jebet, Hyvin Kiyeng and Emma Coburn.
May 27: Olympic Triple Jump Medalists To Reunite At Pre Classic Christian Taylor, Will Claye and China’s Dong Bin will face off in Eugene this May.
May 28: The Great Manchester Run 10K Has Never Had A British Male Winner, But This Year 60-Minute Half Runner Callum Hawkins Could Change That The race has a long line of distance legends as its winner, including Haile Gebrselassie, Keneisa Bekele, Paul Tergat and Tirunesh Dibaba.

The Dirtiest Jumps In History?

Three Athletes Call For Investigation Into Athens 2004 Women’s Long Jump, Where Russia Swept The Podium All three Russians have since failed drug tests, which has the women who finished 4th through 6th feeling they were cheated. However, they’ll have a tough time getting the results overturned as the statute of limitations has passed and the frozen samples have been destroyed.

High School Corner

NXN Champ Brie Oakley Wins In Photo Finish With Allie Schadler In Girls Mile At Chandler Rotary Invitational Oakley was given the win in 4:46.97 to Schadler’s 4:46.98, but at the 1600m split, Schadler was actually winning 4:45.39 to 4:46.43.
Arizona State Discus Record Goes Down As Turner Washington Throws 215 Feet, 8 Inches It is the 9th-best prep mark of all time.
Jelena Rowe Jumps US-Leading 6-1 HJ In Illinois

Checking In With Andre De Grasse, Who Answers Questions On His “Bromance” With Usain Bolt De Grasse says “there isn’t really a bromance,” but Bolt was impressed when De Grasse tried to challenge him in Rio.

Oklahoma High School State High Jump Record Goes Down As Vernon Turner Clears 7-5 For To Put Himself #6 All-Time (Includes video.)

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

Women’s Running News: Our Thoughts Go Out To G. Grunewald

MB: Sad News: Gabe Grunewald fighting cancer once more She posted the following on Instagram: “The sun is shining on us, even on our darkest days. I am so done with cancer, but unfortunately it is not done with me. Let my faith be bigger than my fear.”
DyeStat Q&A With Desi Linden Who Has Been Putting In 120+ Mile Weeks In Her Buildup To Boston Linden says she may be ahead of where she’s been in the past, but won’t really know until she does her last few indicator workouts in the next couple of weeks.
Carrie Tollefson Interviews Kelly Herron, The Woman Runner Who Recently Fought Off An Attacker In A Woman’s Bathroom In Seattle
*MB: Seattle rapist goes away DEVASTATED after attacking female marathoner
Masters Runner Kathryn Martin Talks About How She Trained To Run A 5:51 Mile At Age 65 She broke the world age group record earlier this month.
This Runner Goes To The Extremes To Simulate Race Day At Boston, Including Practicing The Bus Ride She practices the entire 36-hour pre-race routine, which includes sitting in her chair for an hour before a long run to simulate the long bus ride on race day.

Drug News

Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer And Riker Hylton Both Deny Evading Or Refusing Drug Tests
Survey Finds That Over 40% Of Irish Athletes Know A Doper
World’s Major Sporting Organizations Disagreeing Over How Anti-Doping System Should Be Reformed Some think that anti-doping should be completely separate from any world or national sports organizations.

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.

NCAA ` Outdoor News

USC Star Kendall Ellis Runs World-Leading 22.79 200m At Trojan Invy
MB: Sub-4 High Schooler Michael Slagowski Leaves Penn State For the time being Slagowski is going back home to work with his high school coach.
*LRC Archives: Idaho’s Michael Slagowski Becomes the 9th US High Schooler And 4th In Last Year To Go Sub-4 In The Mile
High School: MB: HSer Cooper Teare 14:13 at Texas Distance Festival Nine boys ran 14:38 or faster.
Texas A&M Sprinter Aaliyah Brown Breaks 19-Year-Old Meet Record At Castillo Invitational Brown won the 100m in 11.26.
Ex-Oregon Duck Shot Putter Brittany Mann Continuing Her Career At USC Mann finished her degree at Oregon and transferred to USC for grad school. She opened up her outdoor season with a 53-foot, 3-inch victory at the Trojan Invy (#6 all-time at USC).
Texas’ Haley Crouser Starts Off Outdoor Season Strong With Javelin Meet Record (168 Feet, 8 Inches) At UTSA Invy
Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend

US News

LRC RIP: Dr. Norbert Sander – 1974 New York City Marathon Champion And Long-Time Armory President CEO – Has Died Unexpectedly At Age 74
*RRW: Armory Foundation Founder Dr. Norbert Sander Has Died Unexpectedly At 74 He was instrumental in getting the controversial decision to move the Millrose Games to The Armory.
RRW Charlene “The Savage” Lipsey Is Really Happy She Moved To Derek Thompson’s Group Ajee Wilson has nicknamed her “The Savage” as she’s ultra-competitive.
*MB: Amazing: Charlene Lipsey and Ajee Wilson both trained all winter outdoors in Philly
The Armory’s NYC Indoor Marathon Is Next Weekend – These Are The Men That Will Battle For the WR The race can be watched live for free. The record is 2:21:56.

Video: Fellow Runners Help Collapsing Woman Make It To Half-marathon Finish Line
*Runner’s World Post-Race Story
*MB: Woman collapses in half marathon, carried to finish line.

More Upcoming Road Action

April 9: Deep Field Set For UAE Healthy Kidney 10K As Stephen Sambu Faces Sam Chelanga And 2012 5,000 Olympic Bronze Medalist Thomas Longosiwa On the women’s side, two-time Frankfurt Marathon champ Mamitu Daska faces off against 31:55 woman Veronicah Nyaruai.
April 15: Last Year’s Winners Mike Fokoroni And Caroline Wöstmann Will Return To Defend Their Two Oceans Ultra Marathon Titles
April 17: TV Announcer Craig Masback Gives His Boston Marathon Spetating Tips
April 23: Estonian Triplets Leila, Liina and Lily Luik To Run Vienna 10K In Rio they became the first triplets to ever compete in the same Olympic Games.
April 30: 2:07 Man Josphat Ndambiri Will Headline At The Dusseldorf Marathon

Olympic Bid News

Former IOC Marketing Director Says Olympic Bidding Process Has Become “Toxic” He credits social media with discouraging cities from bidding: “Politicians are being faced with having to justify whether it’s a good idea or not and most politicians, most sports bodies, have done a very poor job at explaining the rationale.”
NBA Legend “Magic” Johnson Joins LA 2024 Board Of Directors

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 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 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.

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.