LRC 8 Of The NFL’s First 9 Draft Picks Were Track And Field Athletes In High School – How Good Could The First-Round Picks In The 2017 NFL Draft Have Been Had They Stuck With Track & Field? 8 of the top 9 picks (88.9%) and at least 19 of the 32 in the first round (59.4%) were also track and field athletes in high school. Did any of them have Olympic potential?
*MB: 8 of the top 9 picks in the 2017 NFL Draft were track and field athletes in HS, how good could they have been?

The 2017 Penn Relays *Results / Schedule / Start Lists *TV & Streaming (NBCSN Sat. 12:30-3pm ET) *All NCAA Results

MB: Official Penn Relays Live Discussion Thread

Saturday: 

• Villanova and Siofra Cleirigh Buttner Get The Triple as They Win The 4 x 800 after previously winning DMR and 4 x 15
• Virginia Tech (7:13) destroys Penn State and everyone else in 4 x 800
• Brazier goes 1:44.1 in smr at Penn. Jogs last 20m
• Oregon men win 4 x mile

Friday At Penn

• Oregon Wins Men’s DMR Without Edward Cheserek
• Siofra Cleirigh Buttner Outkicks Fresh Elise Cranny As ‘Nova Wins 4 X 1,500 Title Day After Winning DMR Stanford sat out the 4 x 1,500 and still didn’t win the DMR.
• 4 X 1,500 Win Was Angel Piccirillo’s Record 8th Penn Relays Title
• Oregon Women Destroy Collegiate SMR; Their Record Lasts 4 Minutes As Texas A&M Then Breaks It At SEC Relays!
• Penn State Men Win SMR – Oh, Wait … They Get Beaten By A Team In The Slow Heat
• Oregon Rocks Penn As They Win Women’s SMR, Women’s 4 X 100 And Men’s DMR
• Sydney McLaughlin Splits 50.37 In 4 X 400 Final Her team was way back though when she got the baton (ended up 3rd).
• Oregon Women Set Penn Relays Records In 4 X 100 And Sprint Medley Relays
• Jamaica’s Edwin Allen Is 1st HS Team To Break 44.00 In HS 4 X 100 At Penn – Win In 43.96
• Jamaica’s Hydel Wins Its first Penn Relays Title In HS Girls 4 X 400m In Style, Beats 16-Year-Old Meet Record By Running 3:33.99
• Kevin Byrne Talks About How Three Generations Of His Family Have Gotten To Compete At The Penn Relays A good read for sure.
• Penn Relays Are Really Home Advantage For Eastern High Grad English Gardner

Previous News/Full Coverage On Our Penn Relays Event Page

Don’t Forget The Inaugural SEC Relays 

Texas A&M Starts Off SEC Relays With Collegiate Records In Both Men’s And Women’s SMR Jaevin Reed (50.9), and Jazmine Fray (2:02.3) led the way in the women’s while Mylik Kerley (44.8) and Devin Dixon (1:47.0) led the men.

Many Of The SEC Schools Are Skipping Penn And Drake To Go To The Inaugural SEC Relays The power schools are trying to take over the sport for themselves.
*MB: Pat Henry thinks destroying the Penn and Drake Relays is good for the sport – what say you?
*USTFCCCA Preview Of Inaugural SEC Relays

Reuters Confirms That What’s Been Discussed On The LRC Message Board For The Last Week And A Half Is True

Another “High-Profile” Athlete In Kenya Has Tested Positive On the message board, we’ve been telling you for days that a source told us more names are coming from Kenya and Reuters has confirmed this fact.
*MB: 3 hammers about to drop on Kenya 

Thursday At Penn

• Villanova Women Storm To DMR Title As ‘Nova’s Siofra Cleirigh Buttner Blows Things Open On 800 Leg
• 16-Year-Old Brogan MacDougall Just Smoked Everyone In The 5,000 And Won The Penn Relays Title In 16:06.75! 
• Sydney McLaughlin’s Historic 50.79 Split Steals The Show On Day 1 Of Penn Relays Her heroic run put her team in HS final on Friday with the #2 seed.
• Penn Relays’ Unsung Heroes Sacrifice Time, Money And Credit … But They Keep Coming Back This is definitely a good read. It’s very hard for starters to get to meets as they have to fly with their guns.
• Temple Grad Travis Mahoney Wins Penn Relays Steeplechase
• Jamaican Girls Win 5 Individual Events At Penn Relays And Edwin Allen Girls Win 3 Of Those 5
• Double Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson Leads Jamaican Team Against USA At Penn Relays In 4 X 100

Loxsom Confirms He’s No Longer A Beast

LRC Cas Loxsom – World’s Fastest Man At 600m – Dismissed From Brooks Beasts, Looking For A Sponsor The mid-d runner, who enjoyed a great indoor season and just won gold at the World Relays, is looking for a new sponsor after being dismissed from the team for violating “team conduct rules on multiple occasions.”
*MB: Cas Loxsom no longer a Beast?

Meet One Of The Investors Behind The Track Town Summer Series

LRC Q&A Why Is NASDAQ Chairman Bob Greifeld Investing Some Of His Millions In Pro Track And Field In The US? The super-successful Greifeld is one of the main backers of the Track Town Summer Series. Is he crazy or will he help make track and field more popular and profitable in America?

African Distance News

• Meet Caroline Chepkoech, The Woman Who Answered The Last Minute Call To Pace Mary Keitany To An All-Women’s Record At The London Marathon Chepkoech paced Keitany through halfway even though she had never raced half-marathon before.
• London Champ Daniel Wanjiru Says He Won’t Let His New Celebrity Status Go To His Head Wanjiru: “I know it will come with many challenges, but I have come from far and will remain that humble boy from Kanyekine, Kirinyaga.”
• 2012 Olympic 800m Silver Medalist Nigel Amos Relocating To The US Amos has been nomadic recently, moving his training base from South Africa to Botswana to Kenya and now to the US (apparently a controversial decision among the Botswana federation).
• Caster Semenya Racing University Sports South Africa Games As A Last Tune-Up Ahead Of The Diamond League Season

Pre-Drake Relays News

• Good Read: The Des Moines Register: “Jenny Simpson Holds Drake Relays Close” Simpson has actually never lost at Drake. She’ll be going for her fifth Relays title in the 1,500 this weekened against a deep American field including Brenda Martinez, Kate Grace and Shelby Houlihan.
• First-Year Director And Former Pro Miler Blake Boldon Is Living His Dream; Wants Drake To “Have An Impact On Every Single Iowan’s Life” Boldon: “Track and field is a sport where it’s got a place for everybody. If you’re big and strong you throw, if you run fast, you’re a sprinter, if you jump, you jump and if you can’t do any of those, they put you in distance.”
• USATF Preview: Over 70 Olympians Set To Face Off At The Drake Relays
• Drake Relays Rio Olympic Rematch Fields These are the events to watch at Drake.

Coaches Of Winning Athletes At 2017 Worlds Will Also Get Medals Now coaches can really live vicariously through their athletes.

Women’s Running Insights

• Interesting Read: All-Time Irish Great And Former World 5,000m Champ Sonia O’Sullivan Tells Women Motherhood Is NO Reason To Give Up Sport O’Sullivan talks about her experience coming back from pregnancy to win Olympic silver one year after giving birth and points out that four of the top five women at London were mothers.
• Runner’s World: “5 Things Female Runners Should Know About Their Private Parts”
  *MB: Females get angry over RW Article

Week That Was

WTW 2017 London Was The Fastest Marathon In History, A Mother Of 7 Runs 2:24 In The Marathon, Clayton Murphy Didn’t Run As Slow As People Said He Did, And Might An NCAA Frosh Be The Greatest 400/800 Guy In History?  We break down the past week in running that saw the Virgin London Marathon and the World Relays.

The World Marathon Majors Wants To Expand

LRC Abbott World Marathon Majors Looking To Expand – Signs Deal With Chinese Company To Find Races In Asia And Africa
*MB: World Marathon Majors looking to expand – How many is too many? What criteria should they use? 

More Post-London Marathon News

• Nike Says That Kenenisa Bekele Was Not Wearing Their “Breaking2 Shoes” Bekele was using the standard Zoom Vaporfly 4% shoes, not the “Vaporfly Elite” that are only for the Breaking2 athletes.
• Good Read: Toni Reavis Shares His Thoughts On The London Marathon From “A Viewer’s Perspective” Reavis tries to put Mary Keitany‘s performance in perspective relative to Paula Radcliffe‘s runs and talks about the difference between a pacer and an “escort.”
• London And Boston Running Form Analysis: How Kenenisa Bekele’s Form Hinted That It Wasn’t Going To Be His Winning Day Also form analysis of Mary Keitany, Daniel Wanjiru and the runners in Boston, including Galen Rupp and Jordan Hasay.
  *MB: Kenenisa BEKELE has become a heel striker — WTF?!?
• London Marathon Still Pursuing Russian Doper Liliya Shobukhova For Return Of Prize Money And Appearance Fees They launched legal action against her, but there is no guarantee they’ll actually recover any money.
• Club Runner Josh Griffiths, Who Shocked By Making GB’s World Team Without Even An Elite Bib, Is Self Coached He plans to stay that way through Worlds.
  *Paula Radcliffe Urges Griffiths Not To Rush To Get A Coach
• The British Media Is In Love With This Guy Who Stopped To Help Another Guy Across The London Finish Line Mary Keitany ran 2:17:01, but this journalist writes that the story of these 2:50+ marathoners “has become the defining image of the 2017 London Marathon.” *2nd Article *3rd Article *4th Article *5th Article
  *MB: The heartwarming moment a runner gets a competitor DQed

 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 #1 David 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 LRC Mary 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.

• Official 2017 London Marathon Live Discussion Thread.
• Mary Keitany Sets The Women’s Clean WR!!! 2:16:59
• With even pacing, John Kellogg thinks Mary Keitany could have run 2:15 and change today
• Laura Thweatt 2:25:38 in London, #7 all-time US
• WEJO – PAULA CLAIMS SHE DIDN’T HAVE “PACERS”

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.

• Official 2017 London Marathon Live Discussion Thread.
• KENENISA MF BEKELE
• Bekele has a special watch for London, isn’t that unfair?

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