April 12, 2017 | LetsRun.com

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Jemima Sumgong Tests Positive, Donavan Brazier Runs 1:44, Sub-9 Madness at Arcadia and More Get up to speed on the last week in running.

2017 Boston Marathon Is Monday

LRC Why Galen Rupp Will (& Won’t) Win The 2017 Boston Marathon An American-born male hasn’t won in Boston since 1983. A healthy Galen Rupp would have a great shot at changing that. The question is – is he healthy enough to win on Monday?

Full Men’s Preview: LRC Lemi Berhanu Hayle Goes For The Repeat Against A Field That Contains 5 Sub-2:05 Guys We break down the elite men’s field that will challenge US Olympians Galen Rupp, Jared Ward and Meb Keflezighi in Boston on Monday.

American Men’s Preview: LRC Olympians Galen Rupp, Meb Keflezighi, Jared Ward & Abdi Abdirahman Headline A Stacked American Field

LRC Six Years After Seeing The First Atomic Bomb Detonate In Hiroshima, Shigeki Tanaka Became The First Japanese To Win The Boston Marathon And soon the Japanese were a marathoning power. Read all about it.

International Sprints, Jumps And Throws

Wayde Van Niekerk Wants To Go After Usain Bolt’s 100m And 200m World Records Van Niekerk is the first man in history to run 100m in under 10 seconds, 200m in under 20 seconds and 400m in under 44 seconds, but his 9.98 and 19.94 PRs are a long way from Bolt’s 9.58 and 19.19. *Discuss
June 11: World 200m Champ Dafne Schippers Announced For FBK Games She’ll be going for her third straight win there as she set the meet records in the 100 and 200 the last two years.
The Sydney Morning Herald Takes A Look Back At Sally Pearson’s Golden Moment At The 2014 Commonwealth Games One of the biggest obstacles Pearson had to overcome was the conflict with the polarizing Australian head coach Eric Hollinsworth.
Austria’s European Indoor Pentathlon Silver Medalist Ivona Dadic Talks About Her Big Breakthrough This Season Dadic set a slew of PRs this indoor season which culminated with her silver medal and a national pentathlon record.
IAAF Inside Athletics Video: Ato Boldon Interviews Jamaica’s Olympic 110H Champ Omar McLeod
Decathlon Legend Daley Thompson Has Faith Katarina Johnson Thompson Can Be “One Of The Stars Of London 2017”

NCAA Updates

Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend NCAA indoor champ Karissa Schweizer ran a 4:15 1,500m at the Crimson Tide Invitational.
Top 4 Men’s NCAA Ranks Remain Unchanged With Florida, Texas A&M And Oregon 1-3
Updated Women’s NCA Rankings See Oregon Stay #1 With Arkansas Jumping From 4th To 2nd

Boston Is One Week From Today

Good Read: Man Journeys From Drug Addiction And Living Under A Bridge To Running The Boston Marathon Danny Dwyer needed shoulder surgery, but can’t take pain meds for fear of relapse so turned to running instead.
Cloud 259 Podcast With US Olympian And Former Marathon Champ Blake Russell The 41-year-old has come out of a brief retirement to race Boston hoping for around a 2:32.
Drones Added As Security Measure For Boston Marathon The 15-pound drones can zoom for a mile and fly for days.

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.

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

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.

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.

Tracktown Summer Series Is Back For Year #2

LRC TrackTown Summer Series 2.0 To Have Allyson Felix, Bernard Lagat, Nick Symmonds And Sanya Richards-Ross As GMs, Plus Why Nick Symmonds’ Final Season May Be A Short One An improved TrackTown Summer Series is back for year #2. We give you the details, plus the news that Nick Symmonds’ career may not make it into July.

NCAA News *All Weekend NCAA Coverage

Friday Night: Great 1500 Set For Bryan Clay Invitational With A Edward Cheserek Vs Josh Kerr Rematch, Ryan Hill, Dan Huling, Craig Engels And Mo Ahmed
*Full Meet Entries *Meet Info
2017 Mt. SAC Relays Entries A stacked men’s 800 will have Clayton Murphy, Duane Solomon and Eric Sowinski, Edward Cheserek and David Torrence in the 1500, Amanda Eccleston, Chanelle Price, Allie Ostrander and Katie Rainsberger in the women’s 1500 and Laura Roesler, Chanelle Price and Raevyn Rogers in the women’s 800.
Georgia Decathlete Devon Williams And LSU Sprinter Aleia Hobbs Are DI Athletics of The Week Victor put up 8345 points to be #6 in NCAA history while Hobbs anchored the LSU 4×1`00 to the 2nd fastest time in the nation this year and then doubled back for nation leading 11.07 in the open 100.

Get Excited For The Diamond League And World Relays

May 27: Pre Classic Women’s 800 Is Loaded As Caster Semenya Leads A Field With All The Top 7 From Rio Plus Ajee Wilson And Former World Champ Eunice Sum
April 22: Andre De Grasse Leads Team Canada World Relays Squad
*IAAF Looks At 5 Highlights From Past World Relays
May 5: Solid Distance Action Set For Doha DL With Asbel Kiprop In The 1,500 Vs. Silas Kiplagat And World Silver Medalist Elijah Manangoi Olympic steeple champ Conseslus Kipruto is in the 3,000 against Paul Chelimo and World Indoor champ Yomif Kejelcha while the women’s 100H has WR holder Keni Harrison and Olympic 1-2 Brianna Rollins and Nia Ali.
May 13: Shanghai DL Pole Vault Is Stacked As It Has The Olympic Champ Thiago Braz, The WR Holder Renaud Lavillenie And Two World Champs Shawn Barber And R aphael Holzdeppe

International Road/Track Results

Rotterdam: Kenya’s Marius Kimutai (2:06:04) And Ethiopia’s Meskerem Assefa (2:24:17) Cruise To Rotterdam 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. Purity Rionoripo trains in Jemima Sumgong’s group.
Hannover: Kenya’s Allan Kiprono Wins Tight Race Over Compatriot Philip Sanga And Norway’s Sondre Moen To Take Hannover Marathon Title Kiprono won in 2:09:52 with Sanga and Moen both clocking 2:10:08 in 2nd and 3rd. Fate Tola won the women’s race easily in 2:27:48.
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.
Ireland: Mark Christie Gets Surprise Win At Irish Road 10K Champs Hosted By The Great Ireland Run
*Gemma Steel Wins Great Ireland Run 10K After Fionnuala McCormack Pulls Out With Injury

Women’s Sports Takes Another Hit: Transgender Girl Competeting Against High School Girls In Connecticut As a freshman running without blocks, she is already running times that could win the state championships.
*MB: Trans runner competes against girls

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

Wow – Bold Predictions

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.

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.

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

Will Roger Bannister Have To Share His Anniversary With Eliud Kipchoge?

Nike Sub-2 Hour Attempt Set For The First Weekend Of May The attempt will go down at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza F1 track in Italy on either May 6, 7, or 8 depending on weather. The date is very appropriate as May 6th is the 63rd anniversary of Roger Bannister‘s first sub-4 minute mile.

Gender News

Recommended Read: Runner’s World: Who Was That Guy Who Attacked Kathrine Switzer During The Boston Marathon 50 Years Ago? An interesting/odd fact: RD Jock Semple actually had no problem with Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon, running in the race because she did it unofficially as a bandit. He chased Switzer to try and take away her bib number.
Caitlyn Jenner Reveals She Has Undergone Gender Reassignment Surgery She says in her book, “I just want to have all the right parts. I am also tired of tucking the damn thing in all the time.” *Discuss
Eye For An Eye? Des Moines Women’s Half Marathon Charging Men 23% Higher Registration Fee The race website says it is “to reflect the current wage inequality between men and women.”
*MB: Iowa Half-Marathon charges men 23% more than women

US Action *All NCAA Results

NYC: Sam Chelanga Just Edges Out Former Olympic Bronze Medalist Thomas Longosiwa To Win UAE Healthy Kidney 10K Chelanga and Longosiwa finished with identical times of 28:21 while Stephen Sambu was 10 seconds back in 3rd. Mamitu Daska won the women’s race in 31:37 over Magdalyne Masai (31:44)
Sun Angel Classic: MB: Donovan Brazier Wins Sun Angel Classic 800 In 1:44.63
*Matt Centrowitz Pulled Out With Strained Hamstring Alberto Salazar said “it was just a little tweak,” but he didn’t want Centro to risk racing on it so he did a workout instead.
*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
The Big Meet: Cal Men, Stanford Women Win The Big Meet Grant Fisher (3:46) and Elise Cranny (4:21) swept the 1,500s for Stanford and Cranny also took the 800 in 2:05. *Results
*MB: Video: Grant Fisher 1500m at 123rd Big Meet
UCLA: Results: Rafer Johnson / Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational Invy At UCLA Interesting results included American Jr. record holder Candace Hill beating out Olympic LJ champ Brittney Reese in the 100m with 11.29. Reese also took the 200 in 22.68.
Olympic HJ Champ Derek Drouin Sets Decathlon HJ World Record With 2.28m Drouin finished 4th in his first decathlon since 2010 at the Sam Adams Invy.
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)

Doping News

Paula Radcliffe Advocates For Making Doping A Criminal Offense In addition to being a bigger deterrent, it would make it easier to catch dopers as police can conduct searches.
Jemimah Sumgong Getting Caught Gives Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Hope “Looking back at the Olympics, you can pretty much put yourself up one spot. It puts you in a realistic position for doing something better the next time in Tokyo.”
Polish Canoeist Considering Legal Action Against The IOC For Banning Him For Clenbuterol Positive At 2008 Olympics Adam Seroczyński is angry that he got a 2-year ban while Jamaican sprinters were given a free pass.
*ARD’s Hajo Seppelt Says The IOC Never Responded To A Request From The Polish Conoe Federation To Retest Seroczynski’s Sample
Jemima Sumgong’s Drug Bust Will Delay The Naming Of The WMM Series Winner, Which Is Set To Close For This Cycle At Boston Sumgong leads the point standing so they won’t be able to name a winner until her doping case is final.
Tennis Federation (ITF) President David Haggerty Refuses To Condemn Tournaments’ Decision To Let Maria Sharapova Compete Many players are upset that she’s been given wildcard entries so she can compete immediately after her ban without having to qualify.

Ultra: Two Big 100Ks In The Books

**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

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.

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.