April 9, 2017 | LetsRun.com

Sumgong Tests Positive

LRC Analysis Oh Sh**, Olympic Marathon Champ Jemima Sumgong Tests Positive: What Does It Mean And Where Do We Go From Here The Olympic and London champ was caught in an out-of-competition test in Kenya as part of the enhanced testing program supported by the Abbott World Marathon Majors. We break down what this means for the sport, for her training group, her agent, her husband/coach, and for Kenya.

*Discuss MB: The emperor has no clothes: Jemima Sumgong has tested positive for EPO!!!

Jemima Sumgong Maintains Her Innocence: “I train extremely hard. That’s the only way to succeed in athletics.”
LRC Federico And Gabriel Rosa Issue Statement On Positive Test: “Doping in Kenya has become a plague, because of unscrupulous Kenyans doctors who approach the athletes.”
A Look At How Some Pros Are Reacting To Sumgong’s Positive We love Shalane Flanagan‘s response, “What is real anymore?” Meanwhile, Hellen Obiri is worried the whole country will end up banned like Russia.
AK Shocked And Disappointed By Sumgong’s Drugs Test Fail “The information contained in the notification and also carried in the press, if true, is extremely shocking and disappointing not only to Athletics Kenya but to the entire Nation of Kenya.”

Fast Times At Arcadia Invitational *Results

MB: Sydney McLaughlin Destroys 300H National Record She broke former Olympic silver medalist Lashinda Demus‘ mark by more than a second. *Video Interview
MB: Cooper Teare Wins Arcadia 3,200 In 8:41 To Lead 25 Sub-9 Minutes Austin Hindman was second (8:43) and NXN champ Casey Clinger was third (8:44).
MB: Claudia Lanes Edges Out NXN Champ Brie Oakley By .07 To Win Arcadia 3,200 In 9:57.52
MB: More than 100 PRs in Arcadia 3,200m races?
MB: American Fork Breaks HS 4 X 1,600 NR With 16:41 By Going 4:08, 4:05 And 4:02 On Last 3 Legs Plenty of college teams don’t have 3 sub-4:10 guys.

Even If It Wasn’t State Sponsored, It Seemingly Encompassed Nearly Every Single Elite Athlete

CAS Bans 2012 Olympic 800 Bronze Medalist Ekaterina Poistogova For 2 Years She keeps her Olympic medal, however, and with the ban backdated to August 2015 may be competing late this summer.

Positive News

Fantastic News NBC And IAAF Reach Long-Term Deal For Broadcast Rights To Diamond League Through 2019 Great news as the Diamond League will be on a much bigger platform now and NBC is becoming the home of track and field on TV in America (they also have rights to USATF meets). Plus, 10 hours of DL on NBC, a huge step up from BeIn Sports last year.

Confusing News Kenenisa Bekele And Eliud Kipchoge Join Forces – They Are Now Part Of The “NN Running Team” Which Seems To Also Be Sponsored By Nike If you understand what this is, please email us. *More From Alberto Stretti.

Long-D News

Recommended Read: RRW: Boston By Meb – In His Own Words As Meb Keflezighi prepares to race his final Boston Marathon, he looks back and shares some of his favorite memories from Boston.
SI.com: Q&A With Joyciline Jepkosgei’s Husband And Coach Nicholas Koech, Who Gives An Inside Look At The Training She Did Leading Up To Her Half Marathon WR Jepkosgei is only 23 years old and doesn’t plan on making a rush to the marathon like many other African distance runners as Koech says her debut will not be for “several years.”
*IAAF Profile: Jepkosgei Front Running Her Way Into The Record Books Jepkosgei was inspired to take up running herself when watching her husband compete at the 2013 Kenyan Championships.
Q&A With 2:11 Marathoner Nick Arciniaga On Making The Transition To Ultra/Trail Racing Arciniaga says he isn’t done with the roads, but will make his ultra debut at the North Face 50-mile this December. Long term, he wants to go after the 50K WR and could see himself “running until I’m 90 or whatever.”
*MB: Uh Oh…Arciniaga (2:11 Mar.) moving to trails
Racewalkers Petition IAAF To Keep 50K Event In The Olympics There is a push from the IOC to cut the event since there is no women’s equivalent and the IAAF is discussing moving to a half marathon walk rather than a 20K and 50K.

World Relays Are In Two Weeks

Kipyegon Bett And Ferguson Rotich Lead Kenyan 4 X 800 Squad For World Relay Champs
Host Nation Bahamas Names 31 Athletes For World Relays
London Qualification The Goal For Aussie 4 X 400 Squads At World Relays Top team earn automatic qualification for Worlds.

Arcadia HS Invitational Is Friday/Saturday *Live Webcast – Friday @ 7:30PM ET, Saturday @ 12:30PM ET

Can Sydney McLaughlin Get 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist Lashinda Demus’ National 300H Record?
American Fork Boys Going For National 4 X 1,600 Record At Arcadia Invitational The record is 16:52.95, which is 4:14.72 mile pace (4:13.25 a man for 1,600).
Girls 4 X 1,600 Preview And More

Doping Updates: Hacks, Cover-Ups & NOP

Good Read: The Denver Post: As She Prepares For Medal Upgrade, Kara Goucher Opens Up About Life As An Anti-Doping Whistle-Blower Goucher has faced a lot of harassment since speaking out about Alberto Salazar but says it’s been worth it. She says, “Reporters write articles that the investigation is dead. We know for a fact that’s not true.”
Seb Coe Apologizes To Athletes After Their TUE Info Was Stolen In Latest Fancy Bears Hack Coe claimed the IAAF actually uncovered the hack themselves while doing a review of their security systems … apparently too little too late.
IOC Denies That There Was Any Doping Cover Up With Clenbuterol Results From 2008 Olympic Retests The IOC and WADA both said that they were “very low levels” that are “in the range of potential meat contamination cases.” *2nd Article
Is Anyone Surprised? WADA Report Reveals Russia Tops The List For Anti-Doping Violations In 2015 Russia topped the list with 176 violations with Italy a distant second with 117.

Upcoming Track Action

May 5: More Great Sprint/Jump Matchups Announced For Doha Diamond League Andre De Grasse vs. Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell in the 100, all three Rio triple jump medalists with Christian Taylor, Will Claye and Bin Dong and Olympic champ Kerron Clement in the 400H.
April 29: Olympic Champion Derek Drouin Headlines World Class High Jump Field For Drake Relays
Olympic Bronze Medalist Ashley Spencer Leads Drake Relays 400H Field
May 27: US’s Olympic Champ Dalilah Muhammad Headlines Pre Classic 400H Field The field will also have two-time world champ Zuzana Hejnova and Rio silver and bronze medalists Sara Petersen and Ashley Spencer.
July 9: Greg Rutherford Says The London Anniversary Games Will Be A Crucial Test Ahead Of His World Title Defense

City Running

Support A Cool Documentary About Running In NYC “We Run New York” is a series “about the different facets of running within NYC’s diverse landscape” and will include segments on the NJ-NY Track Club, Coach Gags and the Fifth Avenue Mile.
Study Names The Top 10 Cities For Runners Madison, Wisconsin is on top with Portland rounding out the top 10. How did they leave off Flagstaff?

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

International Road/Track Results

Rotterdam: Kenya’s Marius Kimutai (2:06:04) And Ethiopia’s Meskerem Assefa (2:24:17) Cruise To Rotterm Marathon Victories Both took hard fought victories as Lawrence Cherono (2:06:21) and Eunice Chumba (2:24:27) had close runner-up finishes. Steeple star Paul Kipsiele Koech bombed his debut as he was with the leaders through the half, but faded to 15th in 2:12::02.
Paris: Husband-Wife Duo Paul Lonyangata (2:06:10) And Purity Rionoripo (2:20:55) Take Paris Marathon Crowns Rionoripo broke the CR to win a really close race, finishing just 2-seconds ahead of Agnes Barsosio.
Grenada: Steven Gardiner Breaks Bahamian National 400m Record With 44.26 At Grenada Invitational Running from the “B” heat, Gardiner upstaged former Olympic Champ Kirani James, who ran 45.44 to win the “A” heat. Other meet highlights included a world lead from Ashley Spencer in the 400H (54.78), and wins from LaShawn Merritt (200 – 20.42) and Mike Rodgers in the 100 (10.17) as Asafa Powell ran 10.18 in the “B” heat.

Good Read: How Former Basketball Player And NAIA Triple Jumper Cora Gallop Became A Top DI Steeplechaser In her first steeple ever last week, Gallop broke the University of Nevada school record and ran one of the top times in the NCAA this year with 10:14.

US Action *All NCAA Results

Sun Angel Classic: MB: Donovan Brazier Wins Sun Angel Classic 800 In 1:44.63
*Sun Angel Classic Results BYU’s Shea Collinsworth ran 2:01.51 to beat out former world indoor champ Chanelle Price. Sprint action included wins from Phyllis Francis in the 400 (51.63) and GB’s Chijindu Ujah in the 200 (20.39).
*Gleb Dudarev Shatters 11-Year-Old Kansas Hammer Throw Record With 72.69m
*Garrett Starkey Highlights ASU Performances With #2 In School History 5.50m Pole Vault Clearance
Tennessee Relays: *Results *Double NCAA Indoor Champ Christian Coleman Runs First Open 100m Of The Season In 10.02 To Win Tennessee Relays
*Brian Williams Breaks Ole Miss Discus Record (61.13m)
MB: Jim Walmsley wins the 2017 Gorge Waterfalls 100k in 8:20:29.

Links We Found To Be Interesting

Being A Mom Is Hard: Deena Kastor Reveals She Now Runs 50 mpw But Is Way More Tired Than When She Ran More Than 100
A Day In The Life Of 44-Year-Old Deena Kastor
An In-Depth Look At Kendell And Devon Williams – The Brother-Sister Combo That Won NCAA Multi-Event Titles Indoors This Year For Georgia
USTFCCCA Profiles New Decathlete Record Holder Lindon Victor He came up clutch in discus after fouling in the 1st two events.
TFN Q&A With Centro: Despite Struggles In 3k indoors, Centro Still Planning On Running 5,000 In May
Doug Gillon: Miguel Francis’ Arrival Sparks The “Plastic Brit” Debate Once Again The author notes how Saif Saaeed Shaheen supported 30 people back home with his earnings.
Former Georgia Star Megan Malasarte Is Now Part Of Atlanta Track Club – Will Compete For ATF For 1st Time This Weekend She was part of the Brooks Beasts.
Spikes Takes A Look At How Kate Van Buskirk Has Come Back From Not Being Able To Get Out Of Bed In 2015

Current And Future Stars In The News

We Wish Him The Best South African LJ Star Luvo Manyonga Re-Enters Drug Treatment Facility Last month, he jumped an African record of 8.62m but the battle with crystal meth addiction is very tough. “I wanted to release this statement to show others that there is no shame in your past and empower others to shake off the stigma associated with addiction.”
Ken Goe Takes A Look At The Somali-Born, Canadian-Raised, US-Living Mo Ahmed, Who Was 4th In The Olympic 5k Jerry Schumacher thinks Ahmed’s best days are to come. “He’s a young runner with a lot of fun upside.”
Sonia O’Sullivan’s Daughter, Sophie, Won The U-17 Australian Title In The 800 (2:10.00) And 1,500 (4:29.17) In Sydney’s Olympic Stadium And mom (who has nothing to do with her coaching) was there to enjoy it with her.
Matthew And Matt Centrowitz Starred At TrackTown Tuesday Meeting In Eugene This Week The younger Centrowitz didn’t know his dad was an Olympian until HS which caused Centro Sr. to quip, “Everybody in the world knew I was a two-time Olympian except my own son.”
Olympic Gold Medalist Matthew Centrowitz Wants To Break The American 1,500 Record This Year He says Webb’s mile record is steep – apparently not knowing that the 1,500 record (3:29.30) is better than Webb’s mile conversion (3:30.06).
Usain Bolt Recently Visited Dr. Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, Who Gave Him The OK To Train All-Out

Other Doping News

The Establishment Of The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Is A “Momentous” Move For Athletics And Could Form A Template For Other Sports To Follow We certainly agree that track and field deserves credit for being the only sport that really somewhat tries to bust its biggest stars.
Michael Johnson Says He’s Always Viewed Athletics As A Leader On The Anti-Doping Front We actually agree and that’s a scary thought. It’s really just a huge indictment of the NFL, NBA, MLB and soccer.
Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Is Upset IOC Didn’t Look Into 2008 Olympic Clenbuterol Positives “They don’t really want to find out the truth. That’s when we’ve (got) a problem, when organisations like the IOC don’t want to know,” she says. The IOC says the amounts were very low and likely due to beet contamination.

Upcoming Action

Newly-Minted 13.1 WR Holder Joyciline Jepkosgei Is Going To Keep Racing While She’s Hot – Will Race Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon On April 23rd
Brittney Reese Will Be In Drake Relays Long Jump
IAAF Is Going To Hold A Women’s Marathoning Development Training Camp In Tokyo In Late August We have no idea why the camp, which will feature runs a 7:00 am (same time as Olympic marathon), is for women only. It will be hot as hell in Tokyo.

Sprint Stuff

Is The Heir To Usain Bolt’s Throne 12-Year-Old Sprint Sensation Brianna Lyston? Lyston drew earned comparisons to Bolt after dominating performances in the 100 and 200 at the Jamaican Boys And Girls Champs last weekend
Good Read: Australia’s Former Olympic 100H Champ Sally Pearson Is Back On Track After Losing Years To Injury Pearson, who still can’t do normal pushups after her hurdle crash and broken wrist, won her 12th national title last weekend.
Former US Sprint Great Maurice Greene Reflects On What He Considers The Greatest Challenge Of His Career Greene says his greatest challenge was “continuing to be myself” and not letting stardom go to his head.

Looking Ahead On The Roads

This Weekend: Washington Post: Women Will Be Forced To Run On An Indoor Track While Men Compete Outside In Iran’s First International Marathon
*AP Article 28 Americans have registered, but may not get visas in time to compete.
April 23: Two-Time 5,000m Worlds 4th Placer Viola Kibiwot Making Her Marathon Debut At The Hamburg Marathon Former Olympic and World champ Stephen Kiprotich leads the men’s field.
April 30: Olympic Marathon Silver Medallist Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa 10,000m Bronze Medalist Tamirat Tola Headline At The Istanbul Half Marathon

Drug Stuff

IAAF Launches Athletics Integrity Unit Website; Former WADA Director General David Howman Appointed Chair Well, hopefully things can only go up from here.
*IAAF Release
*Need A Job? The IAAF Athletics Integrity Unit Is Hiring
*IAAF Athletics Integrity Unit Website
Sport Ireland CEO John Treacy Criticizes IOC For Not Investigating Clenbuterol Positives From 2008 Olympics “If we have a (doping) case, even if it’s traces, we have a duty and obligation to pursue those cases.”
Russian Sports Minister Insists Russia Is Ready To Return To The International Sporting Fold
WADA Publishes Indpendent Observer Report For 2016 Rio Olympics
Saudi Arabia Gives $100,000 To WADA

General Olympic News

LA 2024 Denies French Claims That It Artificially Inflated Facebook Likes The LA FB page recently surged to over a million followers, but a team of digital experts found the majority of the recent likes came from Africa and the Middle East.
*USA Today: “LA Olympic Campaign Got A Lot Of Likes From Unlikely Place”
Thomas Bach Meets With LA And Paris Mayors To Discus 2024 (And 2028) Olympic Bidding Paris was more open to the idea of hosting 2028 than before when they completely ruled it out.
LA Highlights “Low Risk” Nature Of Their 2024 Bid While Paris Focuses On Their “Compact” Venue Plan
NY Times: NHL Says Players Will Not Participate In 2018 Winter Olympics Owners don’t want to take a three-week break during the season so players can go to the Olympics.
*NY Times: NHL Players Not Happy With League’s Decision; Some May Fight It The mood coming from players is one of “frustration, disappointment, resentment and even defiance” towards the League’s decision.

Kenyans On The Road: Just So Crazy It Might Work?

Eliud Kipchoge Doesn’t Think His Sub-2 Hour Goal Is “Crazy” “I accept the freedom of those who are pessimists … The difference only is thinking. You think it’s impossible, I think it’s possible.”
MB: Former WR holder Patrick Makau pulls out of Boston

**This Weekend’s Action – Paris & Rotterdam Marathons Are Taking Place *All NCAA Results**

IAAF Rotterdam Preview: 2017 Rotterdam Marathon Men’s Field Full Of Winners The race director wanted a field full of guys who recently won races as he has 8 of them plus 2017 NYC runner-up Lucas Rotich. Steeple star Paul Kipsiele Koech will make his debut at age 35.
Paris Is Sunday: 2017 Paris Marathon Elite Field *IAAF Preview *Defending Champ Visiline Jepkesho Hoping To Repeat In Paris
Hanover Marathon Preview: Frankfurt marathon expected to feature conservative 65 flat first half German NR holder Arne Gabius is finally healthy and hoping to finish his first marathon since 2015. Germany’s Fate Tola intends to attack the course record of 2:27:07 in the women’s race.
Powell, Gatlin, Collins For This Weekend’s Grenada Invitational – Men’s 100m Is Loaded VCB is also in the meet as is Kirani James.

Coming in Two Weeks Bekele is confident in his fitness as London approaches, “I know what I need to do to win.”

Early May: Japan names young team for 2017 World Relays None of the guys on the 4 x 100 team that won Olympic silver last year are on the team as the oldest member is just 20.
*Christophe Lemaitre leads France’s team

Wow – Bold Predictions

Elijah Manangoi’s Coach Says The “Time Has Come” For Him To Chase The 1,500 WR And That He’s Ready To Do It Hicham El G‘s WR turns 19 this year.
*MB: Elijah Manangoi’s coach says the 1500 WR may soon be theirs!! “He is in great shape and ready to bring down the WR”

President Kenyatta Of Kenya Vows To Build 3 Big Stadiums – In Nairobi, Mombasa And Eldoret We hope they aren’t track-only stadiums as a country with Kenya’s size/wealth doesn’t need three huge track-only stadiums.

Our Weekly Recap – 5,000+ Words

LRC WTW: Was Witchcraft To Blame For Joshua Cheptegei’s World XC Collapse, All Hail Stephanie Bruce, And A Possible Scientific Explanation As To Why Women Collapse So Often At The End Of Races In our weekly recap this week, we declare Stephanie Bruce as our new hero as she rocked two races that were 9,000 miles apart in the span of 5 days, we take a look at a very interesting theory that some Ugandans have as to why Joshua Cheptegei blew up, and we try to find a scientific explanation for why so many women collapse at the end of cross country races.

LRC Does Science Explain Why So Many More Women Than Men Collapse At The End Of Races? The next time you see scores of women collapsing at the end of a race, you might want to think twice before assuming this means they are less tough than men.

More Upcoming Track Action Sun Angel Classic Live Results All Weekend NCAA Results

Saturday: Matt Centrowitz Making His Outdoor Season Debut In The Mile At The Sun Angel Classic
Friday: Olympic HJ Champ Derek Drouin To Try Decathlon At Sam Adams Invitational
The 2017 Diamond League Will Have A New Format And Scoring System Athletes will earn points during the regular DL season to qualify for a winner take all final. In the past, the overall DL winner was already decided before the final race.
April 28: Two-Time Olympic Champ Christian Taylor Leads Triple Jump Field For Drake Relays
April 29: Reigning Olympic Gold Medalist Omar McLeod Announced As Part Of World-Class 110H Field For The 2017 Drake Relays Presented By Hy-Vee McLeod will face top Americans Aries Merritt, David Oliver, Aleec Harrris and Ronnie Ash.
May 13: Sensational Sprints In Store For Shanghai DL Elaine Thompson, Tori Bowie, VCB, LaShawn Merritt and Justin Gatlin to name a few.
May 27: Pre Classic Women’s Long Jump Will Have All Three Olympic Medalists In Tianna Bartoletta, Brittney Reese And Ivana Spanovic
2018: Schedule Revealed For The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games

European News: Comebacks And New Beginnings

Recommended Read: GB Sprinter James Ellington Is On The Road To Recovery From His Horrific Motorcycle Crash, But Has A Long Way To Go Three months later and Ellington is just starting to walk on crutches, but has high spirits and plans defy the doctors by being back competing again next year.
RR #2: The Telegraph: “James Ellington On Cheating Death: ‘It Was Like I’d Been In A Bomb Explosion. Everything Was Just Ripped Off'” Ellington says he and his fellow GB sprinter Nigel Livine were saved by their strength. Apparently the pelvis surgeon said theirs was the hardest he’d ever seen and he broke two drills operating on them.
British Citizenship Debate Reignited As Usain Bolt’s Training Partner Miguel Francis Switches To GB Francis (7th in the world in the 200 last year) ran 2015 worlds for Antigua and Barbuda. Seb Coe ordered a halt on nationality transfers this year, but Francis applied back before Rio.
The Telegraph: “Francis Insists He Is Proud To Wear GB Vest After Controversial Nationality Switch” Francis was born in the British territory Montserrat, but he and his family fled when he was a child because of a volcanic eruption. *BBC Article
Renaud Lavillenie Is Flying High Again After Coming Back From Injuries Which Ended His Indoor Season Lavillenie is back in full training, but says he pretty much lived on the physio’s table doing three to five hour sessions at a time.
Belgium’s Olympic Heptathlon Champ Nafi Thiam Gives Her Tip For Sport And Life

NCAA News

Good Read: Q&A With Samford’s NCAA Indoor Mile Champ Karisa Nelson Nelson credits her fellow distance runner boyfriend for helping her “become more focused” and says now that she’s national champ she sees her competitors “as friends instead of people I’m afraid of.”
Register-Guard: Oregon Sprinter Hannah Cunliffe Says They Had Talked About Getting AN NCAA Record This Year, But Hadn’t Expected It So Early Cunliffe credits “good “chemistry” and “smooth” hand-offs to the UO women breaking the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 collegiate records last weekend.
NCAA Considering Letting North Carolina Host National Championships After They Repealed Its Bathroom Law
Texas A&M’s Lindon Victor And Oregon Women Sprinters Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Victor broke the collegiate decathlon record while Makenzie Dumore, Deajah Stevens, Hannah Cunliffe and Ariana Washington broke the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 records.