April 20, 2017 | LetsRun.com

MB: Breaking: Olympic 100h Champ Brianna Rollins gets 12-month ban for 3 whereabouts violations Passing 8 out of competition tests rightfully means nothing if you miss 3 tests.

LRC Goes To Kenya

LRC My Trip To A Possible Doping Camp In Kenya: What I Saw When I Spent A Day With Olympic Champion Jemima Sumgong LRC founder Weldon Johnson was at Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong‘s training camp in Kenya a couple of weeks before her positive “A” sample doping test was announced.

RIP

NJ Running Legend And Two-Time NYC Marathon Champ Tom Fleming Dies While Coaching HS Track Meet The 2:12 marathoner won the NYC Marathon in 1973 and 1975 and finished second in Boston twice.
*MB: RIP: Tom Fleming -1973 and 1975 NYC Marathon champ – has passed away

Olympic News

No, We’re Not Joking: E-Sports To Become Official Medal Sport At 2022 Asian Games Apparently playing video games is now a “sport.”
*USA Today: “E-Sports In Olympics Could Happen Before You Know It” “Crushing it at Call of Duty or Madden will soon get you a gold medal just like the swimmer who sets a world record in the 100-meter butterfly.”
Rio Organizers Still Owe $28 Million In Outstanding Payments For The Olympics

Outside Boston Coverage

Guy Who Posted Motivational Super Bowl Themed Poster From Boston Sticks It To ESPN When ESPN asked permission to use the photo the guy vehemently refused as retribution for ESPN’s “witch hunt” against Tom Brady.
USATF Chief Marketing Officer Jill Geer Encourages Everyone To Go See New Boston Marathon Documentary The Matt Damon-narrated film is in theaters for one night only tomorrow.
It Was The Best Overall American Performance In Boston Since 1985 USA had six men and two women in the top ten.
How Did Other Notable Runners Fare In Boston? Results from former NHL and NFL players as well as ultra runners, former Boston winner Amby Burfoot and Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run Boston with a bib number.
Runner’s World: Top Social Media Post From Boston 2017
*Kiss Photos From Wellesley Scream Tunnel
NY Times: “Boston Marathon 2017: Kenyans Sweep The Main Events”

Reads That We Really Enjoyed

Fascinating Q&A With Lisa Rainsberger, The Last American Woman To Win The Boston Marathon And Mom Of Oregon Star Katie Rainsberger Rainsberger only took up running as the US boycotted the 1980 Olympics and so she ended up quitting swimming.
Scott Reid Profiles Mondo Duplantis – And Calls Him The Pele Of Pole Vault A fantastic feature on arguably the sport’s biggest young star. The kid is so good that WR holder Renaud Lavillenie was filming him on his phone when he was 12.
T&F News Q&A: “Donovan Brazier Adapting Well To Being A Pro” Brazier reveals he wanted to run World Relays but despite his recent 1:44 wasn’t selected. He also had some interesting quotes about mileage as he said, “I don’t know, a lot of people ask that and it’s just a weird question. I think it’s an irrelevant question, the mileage someone does.” He added, “I don’t do a 3-mile warmup and a 3-mile cool-down at 8:00 or 9:00-minute pace. My mileage is hard and it hurts.”
Veteran Athletics Journalist Pat Butcher iIs “Mightily Impressed” By How Much Hardball Seb Coe Is Giving To The Russians Butcher has read the IAAF’s most recent report on the Russians and finds it to be amazingly good. Read the full report for yourself here.
Feature On Oregon HS State Pole Vault Champ, Who Put A Javelin Into His Right Eye Socket In A Bizarre Accident At A Meet Last Year

Sprint Stuff

Good News For Wayde Van Niekerk As IAAF Approve Schedule Change To Allow For The 200/400 Double
Sports Scientist Ross Tucker Has Some Advice For Wayde Van Niekerk Tucker thinks Van Niekerk should focus on the 200/400 and forget about the 100: “You can be good at all three … but you’re not going to be world-class at all three. … [the 100] is never going to be an Olympic medal for him. The 200m and 400m both will.”
Dafne Schippers Wants To Defend Her World 200m Title In 2017, But Will Be Putting Just As Much Emphasis On The 100m She wants to get her 10.81 PB under 10.80.
GB Sprinter Nigel Levine “Not Angry Anymore” After Motorcycle Crash “I’ve got to deal with now. I’m still smiling and getting on with life. I’m just happy just to be alive and mobile, still got all my limbs and have a great team.”
1984 Olympic 400m Silver Medalist Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice Picks Her All-Star Women’s 4 X 400 Team No recent stars made her list, but there are two Americans.

Previous Boston Coverage

Recommended Read: Runner’s World: How Did Abdi Abdirahman And Diane Nukuri, The Fastest Couple At The Boston Marathon, End Up Together? It took some persistence from Abdi to get Nukuri to go out with him. “She turned me down for like almost a year, so I was chasing her,” he said.
5 Thoughts From Meb Keflezighi Before His Final Boston Marathon Keflezighi has an A, B and C goal for Boston Monday: “My goal is to hopefully win it, but if not then top three, and if not top three then top 10. And if not that, then hopefully finish.”
Good Read: Ben Beach Eyeing Record 50th Straight Boston Marathon Finish Beach was 18 when he ran his first Boston in 1968 and has a best finish of 2:27:26 from 1981. He is just one of 81 people to have a streak of 25 Bostons or more.
Matt Damon-Narrated Boston Marathon Documentary Premieres Saturday In Boston
Boston Marathon Retires Bib Number 261 In Honor Of Women’s Pioneer Kathrine Switzer Switzer is running again this year on the 50th anniversary of her historic run.

Olympic / Political News

InsideTheGames Opinion Piece: Bid Race Between Paris And LA 2024 Turns Sour Both bids are touting their own strengths while subtly (or not subtly) pointing out the other’s weaknesses.
Carl Lewis Stars In LA 2024 “Legends Of LA” Video Lewis won four gold medals (100, 200, 4×100, LJ) when LA last hosted in 1984.
Former Rio Mayor Linked To Rio 2016 Corruption Allegations He’s accused of taking bribes from a construction company for contracts for the Games.
*Five Members Of Rio State Accounts Court Arrested In Investigation Into Construction Projects Corruption
London Tops Online Poll On Which City Should Host The 2022 Commonwealth Games Several UK and Australian cities have shown interest since Durban, South Africa was stripped of the event.
Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates Admits To Swearing At Australian Sports CHariman At Nitro Athletics Event In Melbourne They exchanged some words as Coates called John Wylie a liar and Wylie called Coates a “c***.”
Paris 2024 Vow To Support Gender Equality In Sport

Two Great Athletes Are Retiring; Another Is Just Getting Going

29-Year-Old US 800 Star And Expectant Mother Molly Ludlow Announces Her Retirement From Track And Field Ludlow had an impressive career which included 1:57.68 PR (#7 all-time US) and two heartbreaking 4th place finishes at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials.
*MB: Molly Ludlow to retire!
33-Year-Old Bershawn “Batman” Jackson Announces His Pending Retirement Following The 2017 Season The former Olympic bronze medalist and four-time World champ will kick off his last season at the Drake Relays on April 29th.
MB: NAU Alum And 6-Time All-American Futsum Zienasellassie Joins NAZ Elite

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.

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.

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

2017 Boston Marathon Rankings

LRC The Boston Marathon Report Cards Are Out – We Rate the Runners A Through dnF We rank the top 10 and the Americans on their Boston performances. Someone pictured might have gotten an A+.

Doping News

Top Kenyans Say They Are “Embarrassed” And “Ashamed” Of Jemima Sumgong Vivian Cheruiyot, Florence Kiplagat and Mary Keitany all spoke out against her at the London Marathon press conference.
Former UK Athletics Chief Medical Officer Chastised For “Inexcusable” Conduct When He Failed To Record Mo Farah’s L-Carnitine Injection Dr. Rob Chakraverty was questioned by UK MPs and said he had simply forgotten to record the treatment as he was busy and flying out the next day.
*The Independent article The doctor said the 13.5mL injection was well below the maximum 50mL allowed within 6-hours.
It Never Ends: Russia State Medical Agency Boasts That It Has New And Improved Alternatives To Meldonium The agency claimed it has found “several drugs which are not banned and work significantly better than meldonium.”
Five Russian Athletes Given 2-Year Doping Bans After Being Caught In 2012 Olympic And 2013 World Re-Tests Sprinter Antonina Krivoshapka will lose her 2013 400m bronze and 4×400, meaning the Team USA squad of Jessica Beard, Natasha Hastings, Ashley Spencer and Francena McCorory will be promoted to gold.
Five-Time Russian Olympic Gymnastics Medal Winner Denis Ablyazin Questioned As A “Witness” To Doping In Russian T&F

2017 London Marathon Is Sunday

LRC 2017 London Marathon Men’s Preview: Kenenisa Bekele Takes On Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, Feyisa Lilesa, Abel Kirui & Rising Star Daniel Wanjiru In Another Stacked Race Even without Eliud Kipchoge, the 2017 London race is LOADED as Bekele (Berlin), Ghebreslassie (NYC), Kirui (Chicago) & Wanjiru (Amsterdam) all won big fall marathons, while Lilesa took Olympic silver in Rio. Kenyan stud Bedan Karoki (’15 World XC/’16 World Half silver) is also making his debut.

Upcoming Action: World Relays Are This Weekend

$1.26 Million In Prize Money Up For Grabs At World Relays This Weekend $50,000 to the winning teams with bonuses for WRs.
Event-By-Event World Relays Previews
*World Relays Provisional Entry Lists
May 5: Olympic HJ Silver Medalist Mutaz Barshim Leads List Of Qatar Olympians And Rising Stars For Doha DL
May 27: Olympic Champ Omar McLeod And WR Holder Aries Merritt Lead Pre Classic 110H Field The field also includes Russia’s recently cleared to compete world champ Sergey Shubenkov, David Oliver and France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde.

NCAA News

Event-By-Event Top-10 Marks From The Weekend Top distance results not already mentioned include Elinor Purrier‘s 9:43 steeple win at Ocean State Invy and the 1:45.70 Eliud Rutto ran behind Clayton Murphy at Mt. SAC.
Future NCAA Championship Sites Announced Through 2022 XC and indoor will move around a lot while outdoor will stay in Eugene through at least 2021.
NCAA Events Returned To North Carolina After Repeal Of Transgender Bathroom Law
NCAA Atheltes Of The Week Are Josh Kerr And Raevyn Rogers Rogers set the NCAA 800 record at 1:59.10 while Kerr put himself #6 all-time with 3:35.99.
Updated Women’s NCAA Rankings No changes to the top 5 as Oregon stays #1.
Updated Men’s Collegiate Rankings Top 5 remain unchanged with Florida ranked #1.

2017 Boston Marathon *Tracking And Live Results

LRC Updated Geoffrey Kirui Outduels Galen Rupp Over Final 5 Miles To Win 2017 Boston Marathon A great run by Kirui to put back a stiff challenge from American Galen Rupp.

LRC 7 Thoughts On Men’s Race In Boston: Galen Rupp More Than Leads The Way With Six Americans In Top 10 A Kenyan may have won and a Japanese guy was 3rd, but Galen Rupp led the American invasion (these points are in our full race article above).

LRC Boston Winner Geoffrey Kirui Does “… 70% (of) the preparation of a real marathon runner.” Life isn’t always fair.

Boston Marathon Discussion

Previous Coverage In Our 2017 Boston Marathon Special Section

Other News

Triple Jump Star PPP May Have Defected From Cuba Pedro Pablo Pichardo was training in Germany but there is zero trace of him.
Eunice Sum Wins Her 1st Race Since Rio Olympics – 4:13 1,500m
Interview With Australia’s Michael Hillardt: 1985 World Indoor 1,500m Champion

News From Europe

Eilish McColgan And Others Talk About What It’s Like To Be A Pro Athlete When Your Parent Was A Really Famous Pro Athlete Liz McColgan somehow won World 10,000 gold in 1991 – just 9 months after giving birth to Eilish.
Britain Forfeits Again – Pulls Out Of Women’s 4 X 100 For 2017 World Relays
Chrissie Wellington, Who Won 4 Ironman World Titles, Is Running This Year’s London Marathon
Pat Butcher Wonders Whatever Happened To Kid Phenoms Zhang Huimin And Budhia Singh And Wonders How Much Running For Young Kids Constitutes Abuse If you know what Huimin or Singh are up to, email us as we wonder too.
We Wish This Was A Joke IAAF Has Proposed That The IOC Add A 4 X 5,000 Mixed-Gender Racewalk For 2020 Olympics Talk about change for change’s sake.

Jumps And Throws

New Zealand’s Olympic Shot Put Bronze Medalist Tom Walsh Shares His Tips For Sport And Life Walsh says he likes to play golf while traveling on the athletics circuit and he and his coach have a rule that they don’t talk track on the golf course.
Italy’s World Indoor HJ Champ Gianmarco Tamberi Is “Back On The Road To The Big Time” After Heartbreaking Injury Kept Him From Rio Tamberi says he spent a week in bed crying when he missed Rio and is already counting down the days until Tokyo 2020.
World Junior Record holder Mondo Duplantis Will Compete In Pre Classic Pole Vault
GB Indoor Record Holder Lorraine Ugen Hopes To Continue The Resurgence Of The Women’s Long Jump In The UK Shara Proctor won GB’s first World LJ medal in 2015 with a NR and Ugen knows it’ll take another record jump replicate that in 2017.
IAAF Profile On GB’s Olympic Bronze Medalist Hammer Thrower Sophie Hitchon Hitchon talks about how she bounced back from a bad rut in 2014-2015 to win a medal in 2016.

Other Assorted News

Good Read: Samford University Assistant Coach And Sub-4 Miler Pat McGregor Going For A Streak Of Sub-5:00 Miles 105 Days In A Row He’s trying to break the record that was actually set by his high school coach Devon Hind in 1979.
Props, But Sad That It’s Come To This: Beijing Marathon To Use Facial Recognition In Cheating Crackdown Race organizers are doing this in reaction to many instances of runners hiring “ringers” to run in their place with their bib.
3000m World Record Holder Daniel Komen Charged With Fraud And Forgery He is accused of trying to defrauding someone of a card, but he denies the charges claiming he’s being framed by political enemies.
*MB: Daniel Komen finally busted!
UK Drunk Driver Jailed For 6-Years For Killing Two Teenage Runners Last Fall The driver, a British soldier, pleaded guilty and admitted to driving drunk and speeding.
IAAF To Keep 50K Race Walk On Program For Tokyo 2020 Games Plans to replace it and the 20K with a half-marathon for men and women were opposed by the IAAF Council after a campaign from the world’s leading race walkers.

More Drug News: Russia Crash And Burn

Seb Coe Has Harsh Words For Russia As IAAF Task Force Is “Disappointed With Lack Of Progress” Russia hoped to be reinstated by the end of 2017, but with major officials like Vitaly Mutko and Yelena Isinbayeva criticizing whistleblowers like 1,500m runner Andrey Dmitriev, that is unlikely to happen.
Head Of IAAF Task Force Warns Appointment Of Yelena Isinbayeva As Chair Of RUSADA Could Delay Reinstatement It sends a pretty terrible message considering how much Isinbayeva has bashed Russian whistleblowers. Also, both Isinbayeva or head Russian coach Yuriy Borzakovskiy have failed to sign a pledge for clean sport.
Know When To Quit: Maria Sharapova Criticizes Tennis Federation For Not Doing More To Inform Her That Meldonium Was Added To The WADA Banned List Sharapova should just feel lucky she got away with taking a PED for years before it was added to the banned list.
Andrew Pipe Given Role On IAAF Athletics Integrity Unit After Resigning From Swimming Federation Doping Board He resigned his swimming post in protest of the handling of the Russian Olympic team in wake of the McLaren report.
Doha Labratory Reinstated By WADA Five Months After It Was Suspended

Previous Boston News

Good Read: Jordan Hasay Shares Some Thoughts Before Her Marathon Debut Hasay says her favorite marathon workout is a 20-mile long run and her least favorite is a 800/300 workout at faster than race pace which always feel “absolutely horrible.”
DyeStat Q&A: Catching Up With Boston-Bound Jared Ward Ward says he isn’t in quite as good shape as when he got 6th in Rio, but says his long runs “have been as good as they have ever been.”
Q&A With Longtime Boston Marathon RD Dave McGillivray As He Prepares To Run His 30th “Solothon” Every year long after the race is over, McGillivray runs the Boston course alone in the dark. He says he won’t run the regular race again until he retires from directing.
Runner’s World Lists Their “12 Most Important Boston Marathons” A look back at some of the more significant moments in Boston history.
Details From FBI Interview With Deceased Boston Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev Revealed The FBI interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 two years before the Boston bombing, but said they saw no evidence of terrorism.
Boston Marathon Weather Forecast Calling For Temps Starting In The Low 50s With Partial Sunshine

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”

Good Read: Interview: Ato Boldon Gives His Advice On What It Takes To Go Pro Out Of High School Even though his athlete Khalifa St. Fort went pro successfully Boldon said that, “I think it’s almost never the right choice.”

Drug News

Jessica Ennis-Hill And Jo Pavey Will Receive Re-Awarded World Championship Medals At Special Ceremony At London 2017 Seb Coe was all for it as he said, “We can’t just say: ‘Sorry about that, but here you go – you’ve got your medal now, take it down to your local pub.’ They should be handed over in London.”
Doctor Who Treated Mo Farah With Controversial L-Carnitine Infusion Will Appear Before British MPs The doctor and BA endurance head Barry Fudge will be questioned about the infusion which was not properly logged as they try to determine if it broke any anti-doping rules.
US Pole Vaulter Derek Miles Gets His 2008 Olympic Bronze Medal At Special Ceremony In South Dakota Miles was moved up from 4th to 3rd after Ukraine’s Denys Yurchenko failed a doping re-test.

More Recent Sprint/Field Results

GB’s Danny Talbot Runs Wind-Assisted 19.86 To Win In Clermont Harry Aikines-Aryeetey won the 100 in a wind-aided 9.90.
IAAF Recap: Jamaicans Impress At Carifta Games Jamaica lead the medal standings with 39 gold, 28 silver and 19 bronze.

Boston Women

LRC Updated Edna Kiplagat Wins Boston And Possibly $500,000 As Jordan Hasay’s Debut Is A Huge Success, Desi 4th Kiplagat crushed it from 30k to the finish and got the big win as Hasay hit her debut out of the park.

Hasay_Jordan-BostonM17 LRC 4 Thoughts On Women’s Race In Boston – Kiplagat Hopefully “Doing It the Right Way,” Hasay’s Debut For Her Mom A Smashing Success, Plus Updates On Favorites Cherono And Linden These thoughts are in our full recap above but weren’t when initially published.

It Was A Record-Breaking Saturday On Both The East & West Coasts Mt. SAC Results All NCAA Results

Mt. SAC 800 Madness: Raevyn Rogers 1:59.10 NCAA 800 Record At Mt. SAC, Breaking Old Record By .01 Suzy Favor Hamilton‘s record had stood since 1990.

Clayton Murphy Runs 1:43.60 At Mt. SAC He won by over 2 seconds and is now the 3rd-fastest man in history for April.
*Other Mt. SAC Results Deajah Stevens won the 100 (11.00 PR) and 200 (22.31). Ronnie Baker went 9.99 in the 100m.
*Ronnie Baker Recalls His Worst Moment In The Sport – When He Bombed The Final At The 2015 World University Games

Nice Mt. SAC Recap By Scott Reid: Clayton Murphy Texted Donavan Brazier Before His 1:43 800 And Thanked Him For Running 1:44 – “I said ‘thanks for setting the bar so high.'”
IAAF Recap Of Mt. Sac: Deajah Stevens Has Ridiculously Good Day At Mt. SAC First, she ran a leg on the 4 x 100 which broke the collegiate record by running 42.12. Then she set a huge 100 PR of 11.00 into a .8 m/s headwind and then ran a 22.31 200 into another headwind. *Ken Goe
LSU Nearly Beat Oregon In The 4 X 100 At Mt. SAC As They, Too, Beat The Old CR
Cooper Teare Just Misses Sub-4 Again With 4:00.16 At Mt. SAC Relays He dominated the high school race by 10 seconds.
*Cooper Teare’s 4:00.16 Mile Is The 3rd-Fastest Ever By An American Against HS Competition

Mt. SAC Results Amanda Eccelston took the women’s 1,500 in 4:12.86 over Oregon’s Katie Rainsberger (4:13.25), David Torrence won the men’s 1,500 (3:43), Anthony Rotich the steeple in 8:39.96, while Western State’s Alicja Konieczek won the women’s in 9:51 over Jamie Cheever (9:53). 5,000m victories went to Yui Fukuda (15:23) and Tulsa’s Marc Scott (13:37.45).
UO Freshman Katie Rainsberger Runs 7th-Fastest 1,500 In School History With 4:13.25