May 5, 2017 | LetsRun.com

Nike Sub-2 Marathon Distance Attempt

LRC Breaking2 Falls Short, But Eliud Kipchoge Runs an Astonishing 2:00:25 It won’t go in any record brooks but Kipchoge showed once again he is the greatest marathoner of all-time. We try and break down his remarkable run.

Mid-d and Distance News

2:01HSer Sammy Watson turns down “money that would surprise most people” – signs with Texas A&M Talk about this big NCAA development on our fan forum.
Lots of distance stars got beaten in the Kenyan elections including Wesley Korir and Wilson Kipsang Korir was running for re-election whereas Kipsang was seeking office for the 1st time. 2000 Boston Marathon winner Elijah Lagat lost as well.
Rupp talks in depth about his injury. He was able to get 2nd despite not being able to train normally. “I couldn’t do the type of training I would normally do.”
Laura Muir teleconference Q&A – Muir says training since indoors has been going ‘really well’

Week That Was

LRCWTW: Natosha Rogers and Katie Mackey Get First National Titles, Emmauel Korir Negative Splits 1:43.73, Blue Collar Running, Tergat Replaces Keino

We take quick look at last week as we're really busy getting busy for a big week this weekend.

Previous Sub-2 News

Former Boston Marathon Winner Amby Burfoot “Here’s Why The Sub-2 Marathon Guys WIll Bonk “The Nike Sub-2 runners are going to start way too fast. They pretty much have to. … Hence, according to the laws of human physiology, they will bonk badly.”
Citus Mag: Evaluating Nike’s Sub-2 Project Vs Other High Profile Pop-Cultural Promises Talking about the pre-race hype, Paul Snyder writes, “Nike is pretending to rest its hopes on one of these three men [can run] 1:59:59 or faster. … But sub-two or not, Nike’s already won.”
From Nike.com: Meet The Man Behind The Breaking2 Project Nike’s VP of Special Projects, Sandy Bodecker, actually has 1:59:59 tattooed on the inside of his wrist.
The Irish Examiner Explains Why Even If Eliud Kipchoge Does Break 2-Hours, It Won’t Count As A WR It won’t be because of Nike’s new 4% shoes as the IAAF technical committee apparently ruled that the shoes are legal.
MB: Nike Sub-2 Attempt Will Have Some High Profile Pacers The lineup of 18-pacers includes Bernard Lagat, Chris Derrick, Andrew Bumbalough, Sam Chelanga and Collis Birmingham.

The Rosas Speak To LRC

LRC Agents Federico And Gabriele Rosa Answer Our Questions About Doping In Kenya After Jemima Sumgong’s “A” Positive Test The Rosas have suspended everyone in their women’s marathon group (Olympic, Tokyo and Paris champs). They say they are fighting the scourge of doping in Kenya and before Sumgong’s bust had started blood testing their own athletes, and kicked two out for suspicious values.

Russian Drug News

Three More Russian Athletes Admit To Doping, Including Yulia Chermoshanskaya, Who Was Stripped Of Her OIympic 4 X 100 Gold Medal We’re not sure what his logic is, but Russia anti-doping coordinator hopes that it “… may speed up the process of RUSAF reinstatement.”
Thomas Bach, Craig Reedie And Richard McLaren Pledge To Strengthen Cooperation Between The IOC And WADA You’d think that both organizations would want to accomplish the same thing.
Russian Olympic Committee Claim German Germany Is Violating The Olympic Charter By Calling For Them To Be Banned From The Paralympics And where does state sponsored doping fit into the Olympic charter?

Post-Weekend Track News

MB: NCAA 60m champ Christian Coleman just ran a 40 – He crushed the NFL combine record The NFL combine record is 4.22. Coleman ran a 4.12.
USC Vs. UCLA Dual Meet Recap: USC Women And UCLA Men Prevail Again The UCLA men defended their title from last year while the USC women took their 4th straight title in this crosstown rivalry.
Arizona Men And ASU Women Win In-State Rivalry Dual Meet
Drake Relays Announces Meet MVPs In Jamaica’s Olympic Hurdle Champ Omar McLeod And Minnesota-Duluth Mid-D Runner Emilee Trost Trost became the first woman in meet history to win the college 800/1,500 double.
Updated Men’s NCAA Rankings: Texas A&M And Florida Stay 1-2
*Women’s Rankings: Texas A&M And Oregon Remain On Top
Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend There was another women’s sub-10 steeple as Providence’s Brianna Ilarda won Penn in 9:57.

Track and Field’s Opening Day Was Lots of FunFull Results TV& Streaming

Full Doha Recap LRC Ronald Kwemoi Announces Himself in the 3K, A Historically Fast Women’s Steeple, A BOMB From Thomas Rohler in the Javelin & Much More As the 2017 DL Season Kicks Off in Doha Track and field’s opening day did not disappoint as the women’s steeple was historically good, we’re excited about the men’s 5000 for the first time in years, and a new 21-year old star won an event in just his fourth attempt at the event ever in his life.

LRC Caster Semenya Destroys Genzebe Dibaba in Much Anticipated 800 Matchup It looks like only a court of law can stop Semenya or Wambui this year.

Doha Talk On Our Fan Forum

Full Coverage and Pre-Meet News in our Doha Special Section

More News That Makes The Cut For Friday

After finishing 4th in Olympics, Adam Gemili dumped his coach and his new coach (Rana Reider) is paying off already Gemili has already run faster at 100m than he did all of last year and Gemili says Reider taught him how to sprint.
Mixed gender relays being considered for Olympics It was a big success in the Bahamas but a big part of that was because the Bahamas won.
Devon Allen, Andrew Wheating running the Oregon Twilight on Friday It’s Oregon’s lone home meet of the year.
Meet the college freshman who wanted her leg amputed when she got bone cancer as she knew that way she could run again

Should All World Records Before 2005 Be Wiped Clean?

Martin Bingisser Is Against The Record Rewriting – But Not For The Reason You Think He thinks wiping all records out and starting a new is a good idea – going back to 2005 is laughable. But h e says we shouldn’t wipe them until anti-doping is improved. We agree. Maybe do it in 2020.
Science of Sport’s thought on the recalibration of world records “I’d be considerably more satisfied with anti-doping if I knew that say, the top 6 of any event were likely to be tested half a dozen times in six months before their event, and that all the samples would be independently retested at some future point.”
Seb Coe “welcomes debate” following European Athletics’ proposal to wipe all WRs pre-2015 “I welcome the debate and I welcome the fact that actually, whichever way you look at this, this is underpinned by a recognition that we need to do everything we possibly can in order to improve everything we can possibly do around our anti-doping programmes.”
Darren Campbell is to happy lose his 4 x 100 European record as overhaul would be ‘for the greater good’ “Records are there to be broken and some of those records can’t be broken unless you’re taking drugs.”
HJ WR holder Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria says proposal to rewrite record books mocks her achievement An outright ban of all Eastern European marks might anger her even more but we imagine most of the world would be fine with it.
More Doping News Ridiculous: Three Russians who have already been banned for doping admit they doped and Russia hopes this will get them reinstated sooner
11-time British javelin champ Goldie Sayers retired on Wednesday, feeling cheated and a ‘deep sense of injustice’ She’ll be getting her Olympic 2008 bronze medal soon thanks to a Russian doping DQ.

International Pro Women’s News

Olympic Shot Put Champ Valerie Adams Expecting A Baby In October She’ll miss Worlds this summer, but still plans on bouncing back for the Commonwealth Games 5 months after giving birth.
German Olympic Hurdler Pamela Dutkiewicz Writes About Her Struggle Overcoming Body Weight Issues While she was always fast, Dutkiewicz had big insecurities over her weight and got negative pressure from coaches who she overheard call her “the chubby one.”
Swiss 800m Record Holder Selina Buchel Shares Her Advice On Sport And Life Many inexperienced runners should read her tip on racing tactics … “The most important thing [in the 800m] is to run only 800m! Stay as close as possible to the inside lane.”
Diamond League Javelin Winner Madara Palameika Talks About Bouncing Back From Disappointments Palameika was bummed to only finished 10th in Rio, but bounced back to win the last two DL meets of the season.
Teleconference Highlights With Olympic LJ Bronze Medalist Ivana Spanovic Spanovic isn’t happy with the changes to the Diamond League format this year because the women LJers will have two less competitions.

Upcoming: Payton Jordan And Doha DL Are Friday

Friday: MB: 2017 Payton Jordan Invitational Entries *Schedule *Distance Entries
Friday: Doha Diamond League Provisional Entry Lists
Qatar’s Olympic Javelin Thrower Ahmed Budair Dreams Of Diamond Trophy Budair will compete in his first DL meet at Doha.
June 1: 2017 Adrian Martinez Classic High Performance Fields Some solid middle distance races with Leo Manzano, Kyle Merber, Donn Cabral, Marielle Hall, Amanda Eccleston, Ashley Higginson and more competing.
May 13: New Shanghai DL Discus Format Will Have The Men And Women Competing At The Same Time The women’s disc is lighter so the distances are actually comparable. For example, last year Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic had a better SB (70.88m) than Christoph Harting (68.37m).

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

LetsRun.com Went To Kenya For An Inside Look at Kipchoge’s Training For Sub-2

Part II: LRC A Day With Olympic Marathon Champion Eliud Kipchoge, Part II: A Look At Kipchoge’s Spartan Training Camp & Why He Is Part Of Nike’s Breaking2 Attempt When we visited Kipchoge in Kenya as he was in the midst of training for his sub-2 attempt, he was confident, “I will run under 2:00. The gap, that’s about thinking, that’s psychological.”

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

Kipchoge Workout and Camp Photo Gallery (100+ Photos)

Kipchoge working out
Olympic champs Brimin Kipruto and Eliud Kipchoge
Kipchoge's bedroom (he shares a room with 2 twin beds)
The lone tv in the camp
Camp shoes and gear
The camp latrine
Its not about the technology kids

Others News For Thursday

Athletics Kenya has to move track meet as their track is waterlogge
Athletics Ireland’s court case defending its marathon selection for Rio cost it €75k That’s a lot for an organization that only brougth in €39,000 in ticket sales for its nationals last year.
Laura Muir will try to break Zola Budd’s 32-year old British mile record at London DL on July 9

Reactions Continue To Possibility Of World Record Rewrites

The Guardian’s Sean Ingle: “Will erasing world records cure athletics or just bury the past?” Ingle points out one issue with the proposal which is, “How can we be certain that this era is any cleaner than the past?”
What Stars Would Be Stripped If IAAF Puts Through Proposal For Stricter WR Criteria? The BBC says almost half of thee 146 men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor world records would be rewritten. Kenenisa Bekele would lose his 12:37 5,000 WR to Dejen Gebremeskel‘s 12:46 and the USA could lose at least two marks in the men’s 4 x 400 mark and Jackie Joyner-Kersee‘s heptathlon.
Not Biased At All: Olympic Silver Medalist Dafne Schippers Backs Record Rewrite Which Would Give Her The 200m WR (She’s Currently #3) Well, we wouldn’t complain if the top two women’s 200 marks were erased from the books as they belong to Flo-Jo and Marion Jones.
NZ’s Valerie Adams Could Get The Post-2005 Shot Put World Record Even though she’s only #23 on the all-time list, Adams has the second best post-2005 performance behind known doper Nadzeya Ostapchuk.
Daily Mail: “Erasing world records set before 2005 is a cynical PR charade that will do nothing but punish the innocent.”
Paula Radcliffe’s Former Physical Therapist Gerard Hartman Says She “Has Got To Stomach Up” “Paula has got to stomach up and realize how important this is for the sport … this is not personal.”
Paula Radcliffe Could Launch Legal Battle
Long Jump World Record Holder Mike Powell Calls Plans To Rewrite Records “Disrespectful, An Injustice And A Slap In The Face” Powell says he’s already contacted his attorney and is prepared to fight to keep his WR.
Indoor 60H WR Holder Colin Jackson: “I feel like they are tarnishing my whole career. These world records should be taken by athletes, not by bureaucrats sitting in offices.”
GB Former Olympic 4 X 100 Champ Darren Campbell Says Rewriting The World Records Would Be For The “Greater Good” Campbell would lose his 4 x 100 European record, but said “I will sacrifice whatever it takes to save the sport …”
USATF Has Neutral Response To Record Rewrite Proposal Spokesperson Jill Geer: “Any action has the potential to affect records that are clean as well as those that are tainted … There is no perfect solution.”
European Athletics Taskforce Chairman Defends WR Proposal He claims that he “sees the bigger picture” and challenges critics to “come up with a better solution.”
Athletics Australia Refuses To Back WR Rewrite

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