LetsRun.com Went To Kenya – An Inside Look At The Man Who Will Try To Make History Later This Week

Part I: LRC A Day With Olympic Marathon Champion Eliud Kipchoge, Part I: A Tuesday Morning Track Workout Later this week, Eliud Kipchoge will attempt to become the first human to run 26.2 miles in under two hours. 7 weeks ago, we traveled to Kenya to try to figure out what makes him so special.

Video: Workout Of Champions: Watch Kipchoge’s 5 X 2k, 1k Track Workout In Kenya
*Coming Wednesday: LRC A Day With Olympic Marathon Champion Eliud Kipchoge, Part II: A Look At Kipchoge’s Training Camp & Why He Is Part Of Nike’s Breaking2 Attempt

Should The IAAF Re-Write History?

• Seb Coe Supporting European Athletics Proposal For Scrapping All The World Records Before 2005 The idea is to erase records that occurred before there was proper out-of-competition testing and stored frozen samples. This includes Flo-Jo‘s 100/200 marks, Hicham El Guerrouj‘s 1,500m, Paula Radcliffe‘s 2:15:25 marathon and numerous marks set by Eastern Bloc countries during the state-sponsored doping era.
• The Telegraph: “Paula Radcliffe Reacts With Fury” “It is a heavy-handed way to wipe out some really suspicious records in a cowardly way by simply sweeping all aside instead of having the guts to take the legal plunge …”
• Quotes From European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen And Seb Coe Coe: “There will be athletes, current record holders, who will feel that the history we are recalibrating will take something away from them but I think this is a step in the right direction …”
• MB: IAAF Set to Wipe all pre 2005 World Records from the Books

UK Distance News

• Recommended Read: Josh Griffiths Talks About how His Life Was Turned Upside Down After Finishing As The Top Brit At London Griffiths had no idea he’d be going to a post-race press conference so he had to borrow shorts from his 15-year-old brother. “Abel Kirui is one side of you, Kenenisa Bekele is the other side and you are sat there wearing your brother’s shorts and a top you bought in the London Marathon Expo thinking ‘what on earth is going on?'”
• Laura Muir Sets Her Sights On Zola Budd’s 32-Year-Old 4:17 British Mile Record Muir plans on going for the record at the Anniversary Games in July and revealed she wants to do the 1,500/5,000 double at Worlds.
  *Telegraph Article Muir says people on the bus and train started to recognize her after she won double European indoor gold. *BBC Article
• Laura Graham Became The First Northern Ireland Athlete To Win The Belfast Marathon In 18 Years The 31-year-old ran a PR of 2:41:47 just 8 days after running 2:42 to finish 24th at the London Marathon.
• Athletics Weekly BUCS Championships Final Day Recap: Jessica Judd Out Leans The Competition To Win 800 By .01 *Day 2 Recap *Day 1

Monday’s Top Distance News

• UTEP Distance Coach Paul Ereng Calls Freshman Emmanuel Korir “A Man Among Boys” After He Runs The Second-Fastest 800 In NCAA History Korir ran a ridiculous 52.6/51.1 negative split and won the race by more than 8 seconds. Ereng says he thinks Koror is “capable of 1:42.”
• Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich (66:19) And Tanzania’s Ismail Juma (60:09) Break Turkish All-Comers’ Records At Istanbul Half Marathon Chepngetich got the surprise win over Olympic marathon silver medalist Eunice Kirwa.
• Cooper Teare Says Uneven Splits And Hot Conditions Thwarted Him In His Most Recent Sub-4 Miss “I can’t be that disappointed. It was hot, I ran a little uneven and still ran 4:01. With another big race and good competition, I think I can still get under 4 minutes.”
• Diamond League Steeple Champ Jarius Birech Says He Won’t Go Over Any Barriers In Training This Year Until His First Race “Jumping barriers many times in a year exhausts the body faster than running on the plain track.”
• Mary Keitany May Skip Worlds To Recover From London And Focus On Training For NYC

Don’t Forget The Inaugural SEC Relays

• Saturday: Texas A&M Takes Team Title At SEC Relays The Aggie men ran a 4 x 400 world lead with 3:00.74, the fourth-best performance in school history.
• LSU’S Aleia Hobbs Runs 10.85 Wind Legal!! Also Runs On 4 X 100 That Ties The Collegiate Record LSU’s Aleia Hobbs anchored the team to 42.12 and then came back in the open 100 to win in 10.85, the fastest in NCAA history at low altitude (only the collegiate record of 10.78 from 1989 is faster).
• Friday: 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

Doping Updates

• So Which Is It? Athletics Kenya President Jackson Tuwei Denies Reports That A “Top” Kenyan Has Tested Positive This is in direct contrast to what Reuters quoted him saying on Friday.
  *MB: 3 hammers about to drop on Kenya 
• Ban Her For Life: Russia’s Former World University Games 1,500 Champ Ekaterina Sharmina Has Four Extra Years Added To Her Drug Ban Sharmina was already serving a 3-year drug ban for biological passport violations when she failed another drug test.
• MB: Al Jazeera Puts Out Two Part Doping Documentary: “Sports Doping: The Endless Chase”
• Russian Sports Ministry An “Affected Party” In Criminal Investigation Into Former Lab Director Grigory Rodchenkov And May Sue Him On the five stages of grief, Russia is still hovering between denial and anger. Hopefully they eventually reach acceptance, but we’ll be satisfied if they make it to depression.
• IAAF Strips Russia Of 2013 World Championships 4 X 400 Gold This bust was previously announced, but now it is official that they’ve lost their medals and the US squad will be upgraded to gold.
• Some Tennis Players Not Happy That Maria Sharapova Is Back From Her Drug Suspension Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard: “She’s a cheater. I don’t think a cheater in any sport should be allowed to play that sport again.”
  *Maria Sharapova Makes Winning Return From Meldonium Ban
• WADA Reinstate Madrid Lab Accreditation After Being Suspended Last Year WADA described Spain’s lack of drug testing as “alarming” as many of the world’s top soccer players went untested while the lab was suspended.

Distance-Related Links That Passed Our Stringent Standards

• Why Tina Muir, Member Of British World Half Marathon Team, Retired At The Peak Of Her Career When you haven’t had your period in 9 years and want to have kids, it seems like a no-brainer.
• Katie Mackey’s Mile Win On Tuesday Was Her 1st National Title And It Came After She Nearly Quit The Sport After Coming Up Short Of The Olympics Last Year
• U.K. Man Dressed As Gorilla Still Hasn’t Finished London Marathon As He’s Crawling It
• Toni Reavis Wants To See The Major Marathons Emphasize, Not De-Emphasize, How Much Money They Pay Out In Prizes “The American mind uses financial reward to validate achievement. When you don’t award any money, or just very little money, you devalue the achievement in the public eye.”
• Journalist Goes To Altitude Camp With Brooks Beasts And Realizes Physiological Changes Are Only Half The Ball Game Some runners get bored by the isolation – particularly if they go to Kenya.
• Payton Jordan 2017 Entries Are Out, And They’re Full Of Intrigue And Surprises
• Mizuno Releases Patriotic Limited Edition Shoe For Peachtree Road Race Only 3,000 of the red, white and blue shoes that have a picture of the Atlanta skyline on them are being made.
• Goe: Nike’s Attempt To Break 2-Hour Marathon Barrier Deserves Props, Not Criticism We aren’t big fans of it. Imagine if Nike had Tiger Woods in his prime pull out of the Masters to enter a Nike- only tournament where the rules of golf weren’t followed.
• The Doha DL W800 Is Going To Be INSANE Next Week – Genzebe Dibaba Is Added To The Field That Already Included Semenya, Wambui And Niyonsaba

Thursday Drake Relays News

• Drake’s Reed Fischer Wins 5,000 In 13:48 And Beats 39-Year-Old School Record In The Process
• Oklahoma State Sweeps 4 X 1,600 Relays In 16:18 And 19:07
• Sam Kendricks (18-8.25) And Sandi Morris (15-5.75) Win Drake Relays Pole Vaults
• The Hostetler Sisters, Anna And Marie, Are Iowa’s New Distance Stars As They Go 1-2 In The 3,000
• Ultimate Track Fan Dies And Asks That His Ashes Be Put In LJ Pit – Drake Says No
• Which Drake Relays Prep Records Could Go Down This Week?

Administrative News

• Paul Tergat Will Be The Next Head Of The Kenyan Olympic Committee As Kip Keino Fails To Get A Single Sports Federation To Endorse His Re-Election Bid Tergat took the high road and praised Keino: “I must pay tribute to Kipchoge for leaving an unparalleled mark in sports,” Tergat said.
• Dalian Wanda Group – The Group In Charge Of Expanding The World Marathon Majors – Is Controlled By Wang Jianlin, China’s Richest Man
• Qatar Sports Anti-Corruption Group Lays Off 25% Of Its Staff In Budget Cuts We had no idea the group existed and it has a $26 million budget.

LetsThrow.com: Spectators, Use Caution

• Safeguards Under Scrutiny After Student Is Killed By A Hammer Throw While Standing In An Area That Should Have Been Safe The NCAA cage regulations are not up to par with the IAAF’s and might need to be re-evaluated.
  *AP Article: Errant Hammer Throw During Warmups Kills Student
  *MB: Student Fatally Struck by Hammer at Wheaton College
• 10 Reasons To Watch The Hammer Throw In 2017 #1 on the list is will we see another WR from Poland’s two-time Olympic champ Anita Wlodarczyk?
• IAAF Inside Athletics Video: Ato Boldon Interviews Germany’s Olympic Javelin Champion Thomas Rohler

Upcoming Track / DL Action

• May 27: Double Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson Will Face Allyson Felix, Dafne Schippers And Tori Bowie Over 200m At Pre Classic
• April 28: Young GB Heptathlon Star Morgan Lake Will Return To Multistars Meet In Florence, Italy In 2014 at 17 years old, Lake became the youngest winner in the long history of the meet.
• June 18: German Brothers Robert And Christoph Harting Will Clash With World Leader Daniel Stahl At Stockholm DL Discus
• July 1: Three-Event Multi Competition Added To Paris Diamond League Meet; France’s Olympic Silver Medalist Kevin Mayer Will Compete The multi “triathlon” will include the 110H, LJ and javelin.

Looking Ahead: Who Will The US World Marathon Team Be?

• Runner’s World Talks To The Top 10 Men And Women On The US Descending Order List To See Who Will Run At 2017 London Worlds Jordan Hasay is undecided and after her, Laura Thweatt, Serena Burla and Amy Cragg all want to go. The men’s team will likely be lead by Bobby Curtis.
• May 28: Defending Champion Koren Jelela Will Return To The Ottawa Marathon Jelela will face 2015 winner Aberu Mekuria while the men’s race has 2:06-men Seboka Tola and Sisay Jisa.
• May 13: Olympic Hurdle Champions Omar McLeod (110H) And Kerron Clement (400H) Face Tough Tests At Shanghai DL McLeod is up against Aries Merritt and silver medalist Orlando Ortega while Clement faces Rio bronze/silver medalists Bonface Mucheru of Kenya and Turkey’s Yasmani Copello.

Good Read: GB Olympic 4 X 400 Bronze Medalist Anyika Onuora Shares How She Nearly Died From Malaria 10 Months Before The Games Anyika says she is “literally had to learn how to walk again” after being hospitalized and receiving emergency care and is “lucky to be alive.”

Next Month: Super-Deep Field Set For Pre Classic Women’s 1,500 With Seven Sub-4:00 Women The field will include Olympic champ Faith Kipyegon, Olympic silver medalist Hellen Obiri, USA’s Jenny Simpson, Shannon Rowbury, Kate Grace and GB record setter Laura Muir.

 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