April 3, 2017 | LetsRun.com

Did You Miss Our April Fool’s Home Page? Re-Live It Here

Drugs News

Another German ARD Report Comes Out: IOC Accused Of Failing To Investigate Positive Drugs Tests – Including By Male Jamaican Sprinters – From 2008 Olympics In a 2016 re-test of 2008 Olympic samples, small amounts of the banned steroid clenbuterol were found in a slew of athletes’ tests, including some male Jamaican sprinters, but they were all cleared without an in-depth investigation as the IOC says it could be meat contamination. Normally the exact opposite occurs, you are assumed to have doped unless a claim of contamination can be supported.
*Telegraph *Jamaica Observer
*Ross Tucker: The IOC Didn’t Follow Protocol – “(This) is a difficult concept to swallow at face value.”
*MB: IOC sweeps positive Jamaican test results under the carpet? Germany’s ARD just put out another tv show w focus on Jamaica
IAAF Announces That Its Computers Housing TUE Info Has Beem Hacked By Fancy Bears
*MB: IAAF has been hacked

Prague Half

LRC 2017 Prague HM Recap: Joyciline Jepkosgei Sets WR (64:52) To Become First Woman Ever Under 65:00 As Jordan Hasay Runs 67:55; Tamirat Tola Destroys Men’s Field In 59:37 JIn one of the greatest road performances in history, Jepkosgei started fast from the gun and wasn’t too far off the 5k WR of 14:46 as she ran 14:53. Jepkosgei also set road WRs at for 10k (30:04), 15k (45:38) and 20k (61:25) en route. The NOP team member having a great race wasn’t named Galen Rupp; it was Jordan Hasay, who joined Molly Huddle and Deena Kastor as the only Americans under 68:00 on a record-eligible course. Rupp was 11th in 61:59.
*Jepkosgei Reacts After Her WR She said she didn’t even realize when she dropped her competitors. “I was running my own race and my body was feeling good.”
*RRW: After Struggling In Prague, Galen Rupp Reveals He Had “Discomfort” In His Foot – “Hopefully, my foot will be OK for Boston.”

MB: Official 2017 Prague Half Live Discussion Thread
MB: Galen Rupp wtf Prague Marathon almost 62 minutes
MB: Jordan Hasay is running 100 miles a week just 2-3 weeks out from Boston

Interesting Reads From Sunday

Pro Distance News

Kenya: Kenya’s 4 X 800 World Relays Team Is Set – Kipyegon Bett Dominates World Relays Trials The World Jr. champ won the trials in 1:44.2 and was followed by Ferguson Rotich and 2014 World Jr. champ Alfred Kipketer. *Full Kenyan Squad For World Relays
Kenyan Paper: “Galen Rupp Unfazed By Ex-Kenyan Runners Taking Up US Citizenship”
Japanese Track Season Has Started: Just 34 Days After His Epic 2:09 Marathon (1:01:55 1st Half), Yuta Shitara Runs 13:34 5k Ronald Kwemoi won in 13:24.
Selina Buchel Fondly Remembers When She Whacked Her PR From 2:00.14 To A 1:57.95 In One Race It was in Paris in 2015.

Pro Sprint News

18-Year-Old South African Sprinter Tlotliso Gift Leotlela Runs 10.12 For 2nd Time This Year The amount of talent in the South African sprint ranks is absurd right now.
NZ 100 And 200 Champ Joseph Millar Reveals The Key To His Breakthrough Is Just Not Allowing Himself To Consider Anything But Running Fast “The one thing I find works for me is to try to imagine a world where me not running fast doesn’t exist.”

Distance News

Spikes Magazine Lists Its 5 Greatest Spring Marathons Ever And An American’s Win Is #1 Guess who it belongs to? Hint, the person isn’t named Meb or Alberto or Deena.
Former Providence Runner Paul McNamara Named New High-Performance Director At Athletics Ireland
Did You Know The World’s Largest Half Marathon (65,000 Entrants) Is Held Annually In Gothenburg, Sweden? Five Facts About The Goteborgsvarvet

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 First 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.

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.

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

Other Road Action *Carlsbad Top 10 Results

Dejen Gebremeskel wins. Photo courtesy of www.photorun.NET One For The Thumb Dejen Gebremeskel (13:27) Destroys Paul Chelimo By 20 Seconds To Win 5th Carlsbad 5,000 Title, Violah Lagat (15:35) Outkicks Shannon Rowbury For Women’s Title
*Talk About It On The MB
*Race Video

Charleston, SC: Shadrack Kipchirchir Wins 2017 Cooper River Bridge Run In 28:06 – Is 1st American Winner Since 1991 His wife, Elvin Kibet, was 2nd in the women’s race (32:45) as it was won by Monicah Ngige in 32:40.
*Jen Rhines Keeps Winning – Wins Masters In 35:16
Washington, DC: Stanley Kebenei (46:36) and Hiwot Gebrekidan (53:37) Win 2017 Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Tara Welling was the top US woman (55:34). Christo Landry also impressed at 46:48. Luke Puskedra ran 47:57.
Sacramento, CA: Aaron Braun (49:07) And Jane Kibii (55:49) Win 2017 Credit Union SACTOWN Run 10 Miler
Milan: Kenya’s Edwin Koech (2:07:13) Runs Fastest Marathon Ever On Italian Soil (2:07:13) To Win Milan Marathon Sheila Chepkoech PRed by more than 10 minutes to win the women’s race (2:29:52).
Rome: Ethiopians Shura Kitata (2:07:30) And Rahma Tusa (2:27:23) Win Rome Marathon
Korea: Kenyans Mathew Kisorio (2:07:32) And Pamela Rotich (2:27:48) Win Daegu International Marathon Kisorio, of course, is a former EPO cheat.
Berlin: 2017 Berlin Half Marathon: Late Entrant Joan Melly (68:45) Takes Surprise Victory While Fellow Kenyan Gilbert Masai (59:57) Wins Men’s Race

2017 Australian Champs *Results

IAAF Recap: 2017 Australian Champs Conclude: Sally Pearson Sheds Tears Of Joy After Winning In 12.54w Ryan Gregon won the men’s 1,500 with a 53 last lap. Stanford’s Steve Solomon won his 5th national title. For a nice story on Solomon from last year, read this.
Luke Matthews Comes From Behind To Narrowly Win Men’s 800 Title 1:46.71 to 1:46.76.
More On Pearson
Coach Is Outraged After Non-Australian Wins 100m Title You don’t have to be an Australian citizen to win the Aussie title. If you’ve lived there for 2 years and are on a club, you can win.

Interesting Reads From Earlier In The Week

Ross Tucker Rips Team Sky’s Marketing Of “Marginal Gains” As A Breakthrough Concept
Several Kenyan-Born Americans Plead For Kenyans Not To Hate Them Tuliamuk: “There should be nothing much about Kenyans against former Kenyans.” In Kenya, they refer to the Kenyan A team (the actual team) and the B team (teams like the US or Turkey that are dominated by Kenya).
Russian Scientists Finishing Up Study On Meldonium – Say It Proves Most Of The Athletes Banned Weren’t On It After It Was Banned, Appeal WADA’s Meldonium Penalty They expect everyone currently banned for meldonium to be cleared: “All athletes’’samples will be studied again, and the doping charges will be lifted. They had taken this medicine when it was not yet banned.”
68 New Sports Want To Be Part Of 2020 The Olympics need fewer sports, not more. Anyone want 3 x 3 basketball?

Big HS Action – The 2017 CHAMPS In Jamaica Are Complete *Live Results

Calabar Upsets Pre-Meet Form Charts And Wins Its 6th Straight Title, Edwin Allen Dominates Girls Competition For 4th Straight Win Calabar upset pre-meet favorite Kingston College by 3.

Saturday: Boys: Gleaner: Team Battle Too Close To Call As Kingston College Is Only Up 7 Behind its dominant distance squad, Kingston was supposed to up by more than 20 but Calabar is only 7 points back. *Observer
Girls: Edwin Allen Is Dominating Girls Competition
Trackalerts.com’s Live Text Updates
Trackalerts.com’s Recap
Jamaica Observer Recap

8th Grade: Grace Ping Runs 16:26.83 5k – A WR For Age 13

News From The UK

UK Athletics Head Ed Warner Says That Britain’s Obsession With Medals Is “Unhealthy” We 100% agree.
Olive Brown Column: Every Single Women’s Track WR Holder From 100 To 10,000 Is Suspicious
Callum Hawkins Will Run Great Manchester Run (10k) On May 28th His 10k PR is technically 29:19 even though he split 28:12 in the NYC Half in March.
24-Year-Old British HJ Record Holder Isobel Pooley Is On Comeback Trail After Missing Rio With Ankle Injury
Brighton Half Marathon, Which Was Too Long In 2012, Is Found To Be 146m Too Short In 2016
Seb Coe Named 6th Chancellor Of Loughborough University The Chancellor is the chief ambassador of the university, presides over ceremonial functions and confers degrees on graduates of the university.

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.

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

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

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

NCAA Action *All NCAA Results

Texas Relays: Top Sprint Action Set For Texas Relays *Live Results *Live Stream *Schedule

PV: Mondo Duplantis Breaks Pole Vault World Jr. Record With 19’4.25″ At Texas Relays! It’s also a Swedish national senior record for the Louisiana junior.
Mile: HSer Sam Worley Beats Leo Manzano In Texas Relays Mile – Runs 4:00.61!
800: Michael Saruni (1:45.82) Guns Down Donavan Brazier (1:46.11) As Leo Manzano Runs 1:50

Texas A&M’s Lindon Victor Breaks Collegiate Decathlon Record With A Score Of 8,472 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.”
*A&M’s Ioannis Kyriazis Throws NCAA #2 All-Time In Javelin (288’9″ – 88.01m)
Carl Lewis Says He Prefers The Texas Relays To The Penn Relays

Florida Relays: Live Results / Schedule

Oregon Ducks Break 4 X 100 And 4 X 200 Collegiate Records The new records are 42.34 and 1:28.78. In the 4 x 200, Dafne Schippers ran down Ariana Washington.
Oregon’s Alaysha Johnson Destroys Oregon School Record As Well As NCAA 60H Champ With 12.69 At Florida Relays Oregon’s women’s sprint squad is so good it’s amazing as their previous school record holder – Sasha Wallace (NCAA 60H champ) – was 6th in the race.
Florida’s Eric Futch & TJ Holmes Both Break 50 In 400H
Florida’s Clayton Brown Cleared A Nation-Leading 2.21 Meters (7 Feet, 3 Inches) In HJ, Then Jumps 25 Feet (7.62m) In LJ Less Than 30 Minutes Later
Veronica Campbell-Brown Runs World-Leading 200m With 22.60 At Florida Relays

Stanford Invitational: Live Results / Entries / Schedule

18-year old Juco runner Quincy Hall runs 45.32 world lead at Stanford!! The kid is a talent as at age 16 and 1 month, he ran 46.71 in HS.
10k: Anna Rohrer Runs 31:58.99 In 10k Debut For Win At Stanford! Abbabiya Simbassa (28:03) Wins Men’s Race Rohrer got the WChamps standard and is the 7th-fastest collegian ever. Stephanie Bruce, who was 22nd at World XC last week, was 2nd in 31:59. Stars Edward Cheserek (28:46) and Molly Seidel (33:19) won the slow heats.
5ks: Amy-Eloise Neale (15:39.30) Beats Karissa Schweizer To Win Stanford 5k, David Elliot (13:36) Wins Men’s Race
Steeple: Allie Ostrander Runs 9:55 FTW In Her Steeple Debu t Michael Jordan won the men’s race in 8:33.
1,500s: Fresno State’s Annemarie Schwanz (4:13.82) And Ok State’s Josh Thompson (3:41.80) Win
MB: Runners Slam Into Official In Men’s 1,500 At Stanford (Video)

Gonzaga Coach Pat Tyson (And Former HS Legendary Coach) Says He’ll Never Retire

A Ton Of Other Quality Road Racing Is Taking Place This Weekend

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.
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.

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.

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.