April 24, 2017 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For April 24, 2017

Quote Of The Day

“Back in the early 2000’s, Paula Radcliffe set the bar for what was possible from a female marathoner, running 2:15:25, 2:17:18 and 2:17:42 in a three-year span. But those marks had gone unchallenged for so many years that they began to look unattainable; Radcliffe’s times were drifting off to the heavens like untethered balloons. Today, Mary Keitany yanked those balloons back to earth, reaffirming that it is possible for women to run 2:17 — and perhaps much faster with better pacing.”

-excerpt from our recap of today’s women’s race at the 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon where Mary Keitany went out in 2:10 pace and held on for a 2:17:01!!

2017 Sunday World Relays *Results

MB: Official 2017 World Relays Live Discussion Thread

LRC Clayton Murphy Anchors US To 4 X 800 Gold And Reaffirms His Status As The Current World #1David Rudisha, are you training hard? Clayton Murphy is in supreme form right now.
*US Men Talk After Race

LRC Sunday Sprint Recap US Women Fall In 4 X 100, Canada And De Grasse Win 4 X 200, Merritt Wins Exciting 4 X 400, Bahamas Brings Down House In Mixed Relays Scroll down for Saturday recap.

AFP Sunday Recap

Breaking Barriers

Pole Vault World Champion Shawn Barber Announces He Is Gay Shawn becomes one of the more prominent male gay athletes in the world.

The 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon LIVED UP TO THE HYPE!!!!! *Tracking And Live Results

MB: Official 2017 London Marathon Live Discussion Thread

OMG LRCMary Keitany Survives Nearly Suicidal First Half And Blitzes A 2:17:01 To Take Down Paula Radcliffe’s Women’s-Only World Record And Win 2017 London Marathon Running history was made as Mary Keitany ran the fastest marathon ever in an women’s-only race and she did so in mind-boggling fashion as she ran the first half more than a minute faster than any woman in history. Tirunesh Dibaba had a historic run as well, putting herself third on the all-time list in 2:17:56. On the American front, Laura Thweatt had a super impressive run, taking almost 3 minutes off her PR to finish sixth in 2:25:38.
*Mary Keitany Won More Than $300,000 Today $55,000 for the win, $100,000 for sub-2:18, $25,000 for the course record and $125,000 for the world record.

What A Battle LRC After An Epic Battle, Daniel Wanjiru Outduels Kenenisa Bekele To Win The 2017 London Marathon A great back-and-forth between Kenya’s Daniel Wanjiru and all-time great Kenenisa Bekele saw Wanjiru win a close race in 2:05:48 as he held off a late charge by Bekele.

Outside Coverage

Club Runner Without Elite Bib, 23-Year-Old Josh Griffiths, Is Top British Finisher In 2:14:49 He was hoping to hit the Commonwealth Games standard of 2:16:00 but now will be going to Worlds. *Video Of Griffiths’ Finish
Brit Finishes 100th Marathon In 100 Days In London
David Weir, Who Hadn’t Won In London Since 2012, Banishes Rio Demons To Win Record 7th London Marathon He revealed post-race he’s been suffering from depression for the last 7 months.

Full Coverage In Our 2017 London Marathon Special Section

Sub-2 Hour News

The Guardian: Is Nike’s Sub-2 Hour Marathon Attempt Just A Clever Marketing Stunt? Most doubt Eliud Kipchoge will actually break 2 hours, but even if he doesn’t, the hype is still a win for Nike.
The Guardian:Will Science Help Eliud Kipchoge Run A 2-Hour Marathon? There is talk of Nike’s 4% Vaporflys, some comments from Ross Tucker and we liked the quote from World Half silver medalist and 59:10 man Bedan Karoki: “For me breaking two hours is not possible. Running a half marathon in under an hour is hard enough – after I do it I am sick – so to run the same again for me is much too difficult.”

Previous World Relays News

Recommended Read A Look At 5 Memorable European Relays (With Video) The videos are great as they include Christine Arron‘s unofficial 9.66 relay from 1998 and a clip of Lillian Board, who tragically died of cancer at age 22 in 1970.
Justin Gatlin Set To Shine In Usain Bolt’s Absence At World Relays Gatlin led Team USA to the win over Jamaica at the last World Relays in 2015.
New Relay Coach Orin Richburg Hoping To Change USA Men’s 4 X 100 Trend Of DNFs And DQs Even if he fails, at least he isn’t a past doper.
Carl Lewis Talks Relays: “The Key Is Simplicity” Lewis doesn’t come out and bash Dennis Mitchell (although he has before), but says he is more hopeful now that Orin Richburg is at the helm. “It’s great to have a coach now who understands a successful system, so that’s exciting for me to see.”
Andre De Grasse Is Thrilled To Be At World Relays And Says Key To Success Is Patience And Trust
Olympic Sprint Heroine Elaine Thompson Is Excited For Her 1st World Relays
Kenyan Women Say They Will Win 4 X 800 We don’t think so.
Seb Coe Speaks: “There’s Something We Can All Learn From Relays” Did you know Coe actually anchored GB’s 4 x 400 squad a couple of times at the championship level?

Brianna Rollins Gets Suspended

LRC Brianna Rollins, Olympic 100 Hurdles Champ, Is Banned For 1 Year For Not Being Available For Three Drug Tests Utterly idiotic and avoidable. She took the blame but her agency and USATF were noted in the arbitrators decision.
Discuss: Olympic 100H Champ Brianna Rollins Gets 12-Month Ban For 3 Whereabouts Violations

Sprint Stuff

Bahamas’ 2012 Olympic 4 X 400 Gold Medalist Chris Brown Shares His Tips For Sport And Life“Each race I say to myself ‘I have come too far now to give up or throw in the towel.’ I try to treat every competition like it is my last.”
One We Missed:Teenagers Liv Ryan And Matthew Rizzo Win Famous Stawell Gift Race In Australia The pair took home $40,000 in prize money for winning the historic race which gives athletes a handicap start based on previous performances.
2012 Olympic 100H Champ Sally Pearson Talks About The Challenge Of Making The Decision To Be Self-Coached She says she knows it was the right decision as she coached herself back from her latest injury to win the Australian Championships in April.
17-Year-Old Gong Luying Stars At Chinese Under-18 Championships Taking LJ Gold, 100m Silver And 4 X 100 Silver

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

Big US News

Washington Post: New USATF President Vin Lananna Says He Has No Plans To Audit Max Siegel’s Spending As CEO Before and after the October expose on Siegel, many have questioned the way he conducts USATF business with lavish spending and questionable self-dealing and many were hoping there would be an investigation. However, Lananna said, “I really don’t have enough information to really have an opinion on it … Right now, my position [with Siegel] is I’m comfortable with what I’ve seen. If it comes to the point where I’m not comfortable, I will speak up.” Personally, we think it’s a huge blunder that Siegel paid out more than $20 million in commissions to the people who brought in the Nike deal. The commissions should have a) been capped and b) the deal should have been bid out.

NCAA Track Action *All NCAA Results

NCAA 800m Stud Emmanuel Korir Of UTEP Runs 44.67!!
Paul Ereng Raves About Korir’s 44.67 “I thought he’d run, maybe, 45.8. I didn’t expect this with that wind. He’s an 800 guy, he’s the national champion, but he’s a big talent. “He’s a big talent, a big talent. No 800 runners break 45 seconds, the best 800 runners in the world run 45.5. He’s running 44 out of blocks.”
Penn State’s Isaiah Harris Ran 1:45.12 This Weekend At UVA For NCAA Lead
Fred Kerley’s 44.60 Victory Breaks Meet Record At Michael Johnson Invitational And Puts Him At #1 In NCAA
Odean Skeen (Auburn) Runs 9.98 100m!!! FASTEST IN NCAA!!!!!!!
Kansas Relays *Results *Olympic Champ Ryan Crouser Throws 72-6.5 To Win Kansas Relays Downtown Shot Put
Texas’s Chrisann Gordon Runs NCAA-Leading 400m With 50.64 At LSU Meet

Stanford: *Results *Stanford Roommates Elise Cranny Run And Valarie Allman Set US Leads At The Cardinal Classic Cranny won in 4:11.46 over teammate Christina Aragon (4:13.43). Allman threw 64.69 in the discus. In the women’s steeple, Argentina’s Belen Casetta won in 9:56.
*Friday Recap:Grant Fisher Wins Solid 5,000 In 13:37 Over Colorado’s Joe Klecker
*MB:Fisher is a 5k guy

Pro Track Action

SA Champs: Caster Semenya Completes 400/800 Double Once Again At South African National Championships Semenya won the 400 in 51.60 and came back in the 800 to take the title comfortably in 2:01.03.
*Wayde Van Niekerk Romps To SA 200m Title With A PR Of 19.90 Seconds Van Niekerk said it was good to “get revenge” for finishing second in the 100 (to Olympic finalist Akani Simbine) in the 100m the day before.
*IAAF Recap:Luvo Manyonga Breaks His Own National LJ Record With 8.65m (Also A World Lead)
Akani Simbine (9.95) Beats Wayde van Niekerk (10.04) For S. African 100m Title
Usain Bolt Says He’s Watching S. African Champs

US News

USTFCCCA Previews This Weekend’s Big NCAA Meets*All NCAA Results
Great Read:Toni Reavis Remembers Tom Fleming Fleming always pushed the pace in races and cashed the first $25,000 check in pro running.
Ken Goe: “In the absence of any actionable evidence, maybe it’s reasonable to conclude he (Alberto Salazar) hasn’t cheated.”
*MB: Wow: Ken Goe says if you believe Alberto Salazar is a doper you must also believe USADA is inept
Toni Reavis Thinks All Of The Elites Of One Sex Should Go To Boston, The Other To London We’ve been saying this for years. Having the elite men and women finish within minutes of each other distracts the viewer.
A Look At The Rivalry Trophies College Teams Can Win In Track And Field A pretty entertaining read for sure.
Newton Running Reorganizes Itself And Comes Back To Life Without Its Flagship Store Good news, the company is no longer owned by private equity.
Non-Caffeine User Took Caffeine Pills For 30 Days To See If It Helped Her Running She felt a big impact initially but feels like her body got used to it and doesn’t recommend it.
Guy Ran 2017 Boston Marathon In 3:40 Barefoot And In A Caveman Suit
Raevyn Rogers May Be The NCAA Record Holder In The 800 But She’s Only #3 All Time At Oregon Oregon counts any time in an Oregon uniform whereas the NCAA doesn’t count summer times.
Who Should Light The 2024 Flame In LA? Venus And Serena?

Previous London Marathon News

RRW:American Elites Kellyn Taylor, Laura Thweatt Ready For London Debuts The 2:28 women both will run their first marathon in over a year as Taylor last raced at the Olympic Trials and Thweat hasn’t run a marathon since her debut at NYC 2015.
RRW:London Women Could Tackle All-Women’s World Record There was talk at the London press conference of Paula Radcliffe‘s 2:17:42 “all-women” WR as the pacemakers are targteing a 69-min. first half.
RRW:After Dubai Disappointment, Kenenisa Bekele Optimistic For London Marathon Bekele: “Every time I’m excited when I’m running marathon.”
Pre-London Interview With Former Two-Time World And Reigning Chicago Marathon Champ Abel Kirui Kirui says he’s going for the win and has done more speed than before Chicago to prepare for the faster course.
Q&A With Florence Kiplagat Ahead Of The London Marathon Kiplagat talks about how she only started running in her later teen years to get a US scholarship, but that never happened.
What British Celebrities Are Running The London Marathon? Most will probably go over the heads of non-Brits.

African Distance News

El Guerrouj’s 2004 Olympic 1,500/5,000 Gold Makes List Of “Happy Endings In Sports” The 1,500m WR holder finally won Olympic gold in 2004 after falling on the final lap in 1996 and finishing a close runner-up in 2000.
Athletics Weekly Profile Olympic 5,000m Silver Medalist Hellen Obiri Obiri is a versatile athlete, having won major races at 1,500 through 5,000 (indoors and out) as well as XC.
Science Of Sport’s Ross Tucker Impressed With Boston Champ Geoffrey Kirui’s Muscle Definition Tucker wrote on Twitter that he had never seen an athlete with horizontal musculature in their quadriceps like that of Kirui’s.
Genzebe Dibaba’s 2,000m Indoor WR (5:23.75) Ratified By The IAAF

News From The UK

Sad News:GB’s 2008 Olympic High Jump Silver Medalist Germaine Mason Killed In Motorcycle Accident The 34-year-old was riding at the front of a convoy that included Usain Bolt when he lost control of his motorcycle (possibly trying to avoid a vehicle that had lost control).
*MB: 2008 Olympic HJ silver medallist Germaine Mason of GB/Jamaica is killed in motorcycle accident
Former Olympic 10K Bronze Medalist Brendan Foster To Retire As BBC Sport Commentator After London 2017
London 2017 World Championships Mascots Unveiled Hero the Hedgehog and Whizbee the Bee were created by a 9-year-old as part of a nation wide contest.
Jessica Ennis-Hill Receives Damehood At Buckingham Palace
Liverpool The First British City To Officially Launch Bid For 2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 CWG are up for grabs after Durban, South Africa was stripped of the event.

Saturday World Relays

Saturday Amazing Role Reversal:Justin Gatlin And Team USA Roar To Victory In Men’s 4 X 100 As Jamaica Drops The Baton In The HeatsWith Jamaica not even in the final and three other teams (Andre De Grasse-led Canada, GB and the Netherlands) DNFing, it was Barbados that took the silver way back from the US.
*IAAF Recap:“If you can keep your head when all around are losing theirs, then yours is the world relays title.”
*4 X 100 Heats Recap – Jamaica Goes Home Early

USA Hat Trick: USA Women’s 4 X 800 Makes It A Perfect Three-For-Three With Another Gold At The IAAF World Relays The team of Chanelle Price, Chrishuna Williams, Laura Roesler and Charlene Lipsey got a comfortable 3+ second win over Belarus, although their 8:16 winning time wouldn’t have been fast enough to even podium at the last two World Relays.

Other Road Action This Weekend

Tsegaye Mekonnen Wins His First Marathon Since 2014 Dubai As He Outduels Stephen Kiprotich In Hamburg Mekonnen, the world junior record holder for 26.2, had a 19-second lead at 35k but Kiprotich caught him by 40k, only to be outkicked. In the women’s race, Portugal Jessica Augusto won in 2:25:30. Before the race, she said she was hoping to beat Rosa Mota‘s NR 2:23:29 that has stood since 1985 but given the fact it was hailing early in the race, she decided to just focus on winning.
*MB: Is he back? Tsegaye Mekonnen wins 1st marathon since 2014 Dubai as he outduels Stephen Kiprotich to win in Hamburg
New Half Marathon World Record Holder Joyciline Jepkosgei Breaks Gifu Seiryu Half Course Record By More Than A Minute In Her 1st Race Since WR That’s the good news. The bad news is she ran 67:44 (64:52 is the WR).
*MB: Sara Hall ran 74:40 at Gifu Seiryu Half today in Japan – Joyciline Jepkosgei wins in 67:44
Ethiopia’s Mosinet Geremew Wins Yangzhou Jianzhen International For 3rd Straight Year In 60:56 As He Outsprints 3 OthersImane Merga was in the race. The women’s race was won by Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa (68:23).
2:10:34 And 2:28:44 Win In Warsaw
*MB: American Jeff Eggleston finished 4th in Warsaw in 2:14:00 this morning
2:08:40 And 2:24:20 Win In Vienna, Where Both Races Were Decided By Less Than 5 Seconds
2:10:16 And 2:33:55 Win Rock ‘N’ Roll Madrid

Was Last Week The Most Entertaining Week Of The Year?

LRC WTW: Is Katie Rainsberger The Second Coming Of Jordan Hasay? The Most Incredible Long Jump Ever? Comparing Josh Kerr To Drew Hunter There’s a lot of stuff we really found interesting in this one.

More News From Africa Athletics Kenya Warns Agents And Coaches That They Will Face Extra Scrutiny Due To Doping So AK blames the agents and coaches and the agents and coaches blame the doctors. We blame all of the above but most of all – the athletes. “Cheats will be exposed irrespective of their world status, their agents and coaches will be brought to book.”

Random / Interesting Other News

Sub-4 Miler And College Coach Patrick McGregor Breaks Record For Longest Streak Of Daily Sub-5:00 Miles McGregor ran a 4:12 mile to break his high school coach’s record with 105 straight days of sub-5 “mile-ing.” He plans on continuing into the foreseeable future “until the juice is no longer worth the squeeze.”
Video:Ever Wonder How Spectators At The Boston Marathon Cross The Street? It’s a much more complex process than you’d think.
Retired Pro Lauren Fleshman Is Pregnant, Expecting A Baby Girl In October
Tennessee Runner Saves Woman From Sinking Car Runner Gloria Davis dived into a pond to help the 86-year-old who was stuck in her sinking car.
Tokyo 2020 Adopting Scheme From London 2012 Encouraging People To Work Remotely To Reduce Traffic Congestion For The Olympics

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.