Depression Is Real – Please Be Strong & Seek Help If You Are Struggling (800-273-8255)

RIP Two-Time NCAA D2 Champ Gabe Proctor Has Died Proctor lost his battle with depression and took his own life at the age of 27.

Is King Ches The GOAT? / Is Steeple Hurdle Technique Overrated?

LRC Is Edward Cheserek The GOAT Of NCAA Distance Running? Why The Answer Isn’t That SimpleKing Ches certainly had an amazing career but Gerry Lindgren only lost once at NCAA championships, Henry Rono set a world record in four different events in one season, and Suleiman Nyambui won just as many NCAA individual titles but also secured an Olympic medal and had better PRs at the 1,500, mile, 5,000 and 10,000.
*MB: Is Edward Cheserek the GOAT for NCAA distance runners? 

• UO Coach Robert Johnson Likens Edward Cheserek To A Race Horse That’ll “Ride Itself To Death” If You Let It “Most athletes have that, ‘I want to go, I want to go, I want to go’ mentality. It’s up to the older and the wiser to make good and sound decisions for them.”
• Ken Goe:“An Appreciation Of Ducks’ Star Edward Cheserek And What’s Next”

LRC How Much Do The World’s Top Steeplechasers Practice Hurdle Form? For 2008 Olympic Champ Brimin Kipruto, The Answer Is “Never” Everyone prepares for the steeplechase in their own way, from the Olympic champion who claims he never practices hurdling to Evan Jager, who works on his hurdle form every week. LetsRun.com consulted the experts to explore the differences between the top Kenyan and American steeplers and the importance of hurdle form.
*MB: How important is hurdling form to being great at the steeplechase? We asked the experts.
*MB: Kiprop runs steeple 1 week before pre classic

Upcoming DL Action: Pre Classic Is Saturday *Provisional Entry Lists

• Justin Gatlin And Andre De Grasse Set To Collide In The Pre Classic 100m They lead a field of 8 sub-10.00 men including Mike Rodgers and Adam Gemili.
• English Gardner Withdraws From Pre With Slight Calf Tear
• July 1:Elaine Thompson Announced For Paris DL Meet

The King Has Abdicated His Throne

MB: Edward Cheserek’s NCAA Career Comes To A Close – King Ches Scratches From NCAAs Due To Back StrainKing Ches certainly had an amazing career but Gerry Lindgren only lost once at NCAA championships, Henry Rono set a world record in four different events in one season, and Suleiman Nyambui won just as many NCAA individual titles but also secured an Olympic medal and had better PRs at the 1,500, mile, 5,000 and 10,000.

British 10K Trials In The Books *Results

Triathlete Beth Potter And Andy Vernon Triumph At British 10,000 Trials At Highgate Night Of The 10,000m PBs Potter, a triathlete who only runs 50 miles a week, took the win in 32:04 with a comfortable lead over Steph Twell while Jo Pavey finished back in 4th (32:42). Vernon won in 28:21 to beat Dewi Griffiths by 10 seconds.

*BBC:43-Year-Old Jo Pavey Misses Out, But Not Giving Up As She Can Still Be Selected For The 3rd Spot If She Drops A Fast Time Pavey had a tough comeback with some health issues after DNFing at the London Marathon.
*IAAF Recap
*MB:Official Night of 10k PBs Live Discussion Thread

Doping News

• Federico Rosa Says They’ve Suspended Paris And Tokyo Champs Purity Rionoripo And Visiline Jepkesho From Their Group While Investigating Doping The two were training partners with Jemimah Sumgong, however Kenya’s anti-doping agency denies that the two runners are suspected of doping.
• ESPN:WADA Discusses Signs Of Russian Anti-Doping Progress At Meeting In Montreal Russia still hopes to be reinstated by November, but multiple issues still exist.
• Former World 10,000 Champ Liz McColgan Says World Record Rewrite Plan Is “Very Unfair” She made a point which we agree with when she said, “Before they scrap records, they need to think of how to guarantee the next few years will be clean.” Zola Budd thinks if they’re going to rewrite the books, it should be all of them and start from scratch.
• Lengthy Interview With European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen About WR Rewrite Proposal “Everybody has self-interest, but our thinking is: no individual is bigger than the sport.”
• Federation President Says Doping In Sambo Is “Useless” And “Can Hardly Give You Any Advantage” Even before we Googled what “sambo” was (a form of martial arts) we knew this was a BS statement since even barely-sports like ping pong and non-sports like chess utilize doping.

It Was A Great Night For The NOP On The Track But A Horrible Morning Off The Track

NY Times Publishes 2,400-Word Expose On The Nike Oregon Project: “This Doesn’t Sound Legal” – Ritz Testifies Under Oath The Times has secured access to the 269-page report that the USADA has written about the NOP. Dathan Ritzenhein testified under oath that he felt compelled to take an L-Carnitine injection that he thought didn’t “sound legal” as Nike was reducing his payments. Ritz also said Alberto Salazar had him take thyroid medication to rev up his endocrine system for a race “instead just whatever was best for my health.” The report also indicates Tara Welling lied to investigators about ever being a patient of Dr. Brown and that Dr. Brown sent investigators altered medical records. When pressed about what sort of treatment she received from Dr. Brown, Welling cried and said, “I don’t know if Alberto did something to me.”
*MB: NY Times Article on Nike Oregon Project implicates Ritz and Farah
*Ken Goe’s Quick Takes From The Latest Story Alleging Doping Within Alberto Salazar’s NOP

More Links That We Found Interesting

• Pat Tiernan Is Glad He Went To World XC As He Says He Learned A Lot And Is Glad To Be Training Alone Under Marcus O’Sullivan At Villanova Even though he’s run 27:29, he only runs 70-80 mpw. “The focus has been on strength and conditioning recently. We’ve come a long way in that in the last 18 months and to be able to close (in sub-60), something I’ve never been able to do, I’m really happy with how I’m going.”
• You Know Those Studies Saying Some People Don’t Respond To Exercise? It Looks Like They Aren’t True As The Latest Studies Show Pretty Much Everyone’s Aerobic Fitness Will Improve If They Work Hard Enough It’s still up in the air, though, if that work will help their “glucose and insulin response.”
• Do You Get Nervous Before Your First Race Of The Year? Don’t Worry, So Does Usain Bolt “I always get nervous before my first race,” he says. “Every year I worry, ‘am I still fast?'”
• What Is THe Cause For The Recent Decline In Irish Athletics?Between 2000 and 2012, they consistently had 8-12 world class athletes. Now they have 3.
• Dick Pound Says Russia Was Giving WADA The Middle Finger By Appointing Yelena Isinbayeva As Anti-Doping Head – WADA Says She’ll Be Canned By May 31st

RIP

1956 Olympic 10,000 Bronze Medalist And Houston Coaching Legend Al Lawrence Has Died
*MB: RIP Al Lawrence — 1956 Bronze Medalist 

Toni Reavis Remembers The Great Grete Waitz 6 Years After Her Passing

Hosting / Bidding News

• Chris Chavez Makes A Case For Each Of The Finalists Bidding To Host 2020 Olympic Trials Do the two California cities (Sacramento and Walnut) have any chance against Eugene?
• USA Today:IOC Evaluation Commission Praises Paris’ Vision IOC members finished their three-day visit to Paris on Tuesday.
• Paris’ Olympic Athletes’ Village Key Issue In Fight Against LA The IOC may want to award the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time, but Paris says their site for the athletes’ village won’t be available in 2028.
• Getting An Early Jump On The Corruption Allegations:Paris 2024 Chief Denies Conflict Of Interest After Company He Founded Is Awarded Contracts To Work For Bid
• Rio 2016 Organizers Ask Local And National Governments To Help Pay Their Outstanding Debuts From The Olympics They still owe $37.8 million, but that’s mostly because the governments didn’t contribute the amount they initially promised.
• Brazilian Olympic Committee Set To Be The Target of A Federal Police Investigation They are being investigated for corruption allegations related to the use of public money.
• London Withdraws Interest In Hosting 2022 Commonwealth Games That leaves Birmingham and Liverpool as GB’s potential bid cities.

• Need A Job? IAAF Posting For A Head Of Event Operations Position
• IAAF Tribute:RIP 69-Year-Old Cuban Track Journalist Enrique Montesinos

News Worth Noting

• USATF Announces Finalists To Host 2020 Olympic Trials Eugene obviously, but also Sacramento and Walnut, California. A final choice will be made no later than mid-July.
  *Ken Goe Suggests Delayed Renovations Could Possibly Be An Issue With Eugene Hosting 2020 Trials
• London 2017 Won’t Be The Best Women’s Marathon Ever:Mary Keitany And Florence Kiplagat Turn Down Kenyan World Championships Marathon Spots There are mixed reports on what other selected team members (including Eliud Kipchoge and Wilson Kipsang) are planning to do.

NCAA Studs

LRC Top 10 Greatest Performers From NCAA Conference Weekend: Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, Deajah Stevens, Grant Fisher, Dani Jones And More Shine Just another ho-hum NCAA weekend with a 9.97/19.98 double, 44.09 in the 400m, 11.05/22.09 double, 51.8-second lap in a 1,500m. Plus there was some great distance action. From Grant Fisher‘s domination of the PAC-12 1,500 to the arrival of Texas A&M’s true freshman Devin Dixon as an NCAA star (1:45 win at SECs), we’ve got the top performances from last week covered.

• LSU Sprinter Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake Becomes Just The Second Brit Ever To Have Sub-10 And Sub-20 Second PRs Mitchell-Blake ran 9.99 and 20.09 to finish second to Christian Coleman twice at SECs.
• Ken Goe:“The Ducks’ PAC-12 Title Sweep Was A Total Team Effort”
• Oregon Women Move To #1 In Post-Conference National Rankings Arkansas moved from 5th to 2nd while top-ranked Texas A&M dropped to 4th.
• Texas A&M And Florida Men Stay 1-2 In Updated NCAA Ranks
• Event-By-Event Best 10 College Marks From The Weekend

MB:Johnny Gregorek Wins Swarthmore 1,500 In 3:36.61 Over Jordy Willamsz (3:36.87) Robby Andrews was 6th (3:38.42) but how about the Ivy League with 3 guys under 3:40, led by Yale’s James Randon at 3:37.93. *Video *Full Meet Results

IAAF Publishes Qualifying Standards For 2018 World Indoors The standards didn’t change by much from 2016 World Indoors except the women’s 3,000, which got significantly faster from 9:00 indoors/8:36 outdoors to 8:50 indoors and 8:28 outdoors.

PA Sports Writer Bashes High School Track And Field; Gets Ripped Apart By Track Community, Including Ato Boldon In reaction to the writer calling track “as intense and high pressure as frisbee golf,” Ato Boldon wrote in the comments section, “Mike Gross, kindly return whatever sum you were paid to write this.”