2017 Pre Classic *Results *Event Hub *Photo Gallery

NOP Updates

• Where Has Cam Levins Been? Get An Update On Cam Levins Who Says “Things Aren’t Over For Me” As He Makes His Way Back From Last Summer’s Foot Surgery Levins says Worlds are a possibility, but he doesn’t know how his fitness will progress. What sounds more certain though is a marathon debut this fall.
• Recommended Read: Gary Cohen Does Extensive Interview With Matt Centrowitz Sr. Centrowitz goes into great detail about his own running career, his coaching at American University and his Olympic champion son.
• The Washington Post: Matt Centrowitz Sr. Says Decision To Step Down As American University Coach To Help Coach His Son Has “Nothing To Do” With Alberto Salazar Allegations Centrowitz said he’s retiring from college coaching to focus on promoting his autobiography and help coach his son “when Alberto can’t be in two places.”
• The Japan Times: “Tokyo 2020 Games “Too Far” For Mo Farah” This is Farah’s last year on the track before he heads to the roads, but he says he doubts he’ll be running the marathon in 2020.
• Sports Illustrated: What Are The Legal Implications Of The Leaked USADA Report? Could Salazar sue USADA? Could Salazar be on the hook for criminal charges (drug trafficking, racketeering) as well as doping violations?

43rd Hypo Meeting *Results

• Olympic Champion Nafissatou Thiam Shoots To Third On The World All-Time List With 7,013-Point Heptathlon Victory At Gotzis Hypo Meeting In “one of the greatest heptathlon competitions of all time,” Germany’s Carolin Schäfer (6,836 points) and Latvia’s Laura Ikauniece-Admidina (6,815 points) also broke the 6,800 barrier. GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a new 6,691-point PR, but only finished 4th. Canada’s Damian Warner won the decathlon with 8,591 points.
• The Telegraph: Katarina Johnson-Thompson Makes Unwanted History With High Score In Gotzis Johnson-Thompson’s score would actually have been good enough to medal at every Olympic Games, but was only 4th here.
• The Guardian: Katarina Johnson-Thompson The Best Fourth Place Score In Heptathlon History
• Day 1: GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson Leads Over Olympic Champ Nafissatou Thiam After Day 1 Of Hypo Meeting Heptathlon Defending winner Damian Warner leads the decathlon.
• The Guardian: “Katarina Johnson-Thompson soars to lead prestigious Götzis Hypomeeting.”
• The Telegraph: “Katarina Johnson-Thompson Feeling On Top Of The World As Her PBs Fall”
• The Guardian: Katarina Johnson-Thompson Trying To “Fall In Love” With The Sport Again In Gotzis
  *Johnson-Thompson Missed Her Flight To Gotzis Hypo Meet She still made it to the meet, but says it was “drama.”

More Pre Classic Coverage

• IAAF: Christian Taylor Sails To Diamond League Triple Jump Record Of 18.11 Taylor had an epic battle with Will Claye (18.05m) to jump an American soil record and the 4th longest jump of all-time.
• Register-Guard: “Mo Farah goes out a winner in the 5,000 at the Prefontaine Classic.” Farah: “This track adds a lot of pressure on me, there’s a lot of people doubting me, ‘Mo’s getting old.’ There was lots of talk, a lot of youngsters coming through talking a lot. I let my running do my talking. That’s what I’m good at.”
• IAAF: Tori Bowie Blasts To 200m Win She beat a super-deep field including Elaine Thompson, Dafne Schippers and Allyson Felix.
• Jenny Simpson Was “Really Embarassed” With Her Pefromance At Pre She finished 8th (and the third American) in the 1,500.
• The Oregonian: “Teen Armand Duplantis Didn’t Win The Pre Classic, But He’s Earned His Competitors’ Respect” Duplantis revealed that he has a signed poster of Renaud Lavillenie on his bedroom wall, but joked that maybe he should take it down now that they are competitors.
• Ken Goe’s Saturday Recap: “Mo Farah Says Goodbye To Hayward Field And The Pre Classic With Another Victory”
• Register-Guard: “Devon Allen looks fully recovered from knee injury with third-place finish”

African Road News: Kenyan World Marathon Squad Is Official

• Kenya’s World Marathon Squad To Be Led By Two-Time World Champ Edna Kiplagat And London Champ Daniel Wanjiru The men’s squad also has Boston winner Geoffrey Kirui and Tokyo runner-up Gideon Kipketer while the women have World silver medalist Helah Kiprop and Commonwealth Games champion Flomenah Cheyech.
• Sunday: Joel Kositan (2:09) And Eddah Jepkosgei (2:39) Lead Fields For The Edinburgh Marathon
• May 28: Ethiopia’s Canadian All-Comers Record Holder (2:22:43) Koren Jelela Returns To Defend Her Ottawa Marathon Title In the associated 10K, 27:38 man Nicholas Bor is back to try and win again while the women’s race has former World Half bronze medalist Pascalia Kipkoech.

Doping / Gender News

• Western States 100 Miler Will Has Added Drug Testing To This Year’s Race They say they are “the first major US ultra” to do drug testing and it costs $700 per athlete tested.
• Not A Philosophy We Agree With: Lengthy Piece From “The Sports Integrity Initiative” On Issues Surrounding Women And Testosterone In Sport The article presents the argument that athletes like Caster Semenya who produce high levels of testosterone do “have a competitive advantage” but that “the advantage is no different from natural talents enjoyed by athletes such as Serena Williams [or] Lindsey Vonn …”
• Unnamed Indian Track Athlete Gets Provisional Suspension After Being Found With Meldonium In Their Hotel Room

Doping Updates

LRC  6 Takeaways On Full USADA Report On Alberto Salazar, NOP: USADA: “It Appears Highly Likely” That 6 NOP Athletes, Including Galen Rupp And Dathan Ritzenhein, Violated Anti-Doping Rules We give you the nitty gritty on the 269-page USADA interim report on Alberto Salazar, Dr. Brown and the Nike Oregon Project, hacked by Fancy Bears and released in its entirety on Flotrack.

*Salazar Responds: The Oregonian: Alberto Salazar Issues Statement In Response To Leaked USADA Doping Report Salazar refers to the report as “baseless speculation” and states that he never used testosterone when competing nor had “dual” prescriptions or rubbed it on an athlete.

Tons Of Discussion On The Boards:

• MB: The full USADA report on Alberto Salazar has been leaked – Here it is
• MB:  Letsvote.com: Anyone associated with Salazar is tainted. YES or NO?
• MB: Salazar Responds to USADA
• MB: I feel bad for Ritz…
• MB: Let’s be clear Ritz, Galen etc are not victims, they are cheats.
• MB: Is NOP DONE or FINISHED?
• MB: USADA is screwed. I feel sorry for them.
• MB: I’m calling it right now, NOP disbans soon and the top athletes all go into hiding while still coached by Salazar.

Assorted Distance News

• Good Watch: 4-Minute Video With Matt Centrowitz Talking About Training/Racing As A Miler, Rio And What Comes Next Centro says now that his has two major championship golds, he wants to set some American records. “I have the hardware, I want the times to back it up.”
• Sunday: Wilson Kipsang Faces Dathan Ritzenhein And Bernard Lagat At The Great Manchester Run 10K Genzebe Dibaba leads the women’s race against GB’s Gemma Steel. GB’s Callum Hawkins had to pull out of the race due to illness.
• World 5,000m Silver Medalist Senbere Teferi Impresses With A 15:12 Meet Record At The Ethiopian National Championships Another highlight was unheralded Anduamlak Belhu getting a shock win in the 10,000m over World XC bronze medalist Muktar Edris as Belhu out sprinted him by .37.
• Another One From The Weekend: World 800 Silver Medalist Melissa Bishop Stepped Up In Distance To Run 4:10 For 1,500 In Canada (includes video) She won over a field that included fellow Canadian Nicole Sifuentes.
• Olympic 1,500m Champ Faith Kipyegon Shares Her Advice For Sport And Life Kipyegon’s driving tip: “In Kenya we say ‘pole pole,’ which means ‘not too quick.’ It is the best way to stay safe on the road. I like to think that I am a pretty good driver!”
• July 1: Paris Diamond League Meet Will Include An Epic Battle In The 1,500 With Almaz Ayana And Faith Kipyegon

Sprints And Jumps

• Yohan Blake Says He Could Have Gone Faster Than The 9.93 He Ran At The Jamaica Invitational Last Weekend Blake says he “shut it down” when he realized he had control of the race, but was happy with the quick time after a terrible start to his season.
• Radek Juska Smashes 29-Year-Old Czech Long Jump Record With A European-Leading 8.29m
• Good Read: Kerron Clement Reminisces About Finally Realizing His Dreams By Winning Olympic 400H Gold In Rio Clement finished second at the 2008 Olympics but says, “I just didn’t feel complete winning silver.”
• Multis: GB Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Says She Has Grown Up Since Leaving Home In The UK To Join A New Training Group In France Johnson-Thompson said it was hard to split with her coach of 8 years, but thinks the move has paid off as she’s done the most training and competing since she was a junior.
  *2nd Article From The Telegraph Johnson-Thompson has struggled a bit with the language barrier as she doesn’t speak French. “There’s some things that I had to sacrifice with finding the right place for me and language was one of them.”
• IAAF Inside Athletics Video: Ato Boldon Interviews Jamaica’s Double Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson
• Video: Sandi Morris Talks About The Pole Vaulters Never Ending Struggle Of Traveling With Poles
• Two World Under-20 Indoor Records Ratified By The IAAF France’s Melvin Raffin (17.14m TJ) and Ukraine’s Alina Shukh (4,535 points in the heptathlon).

LetsThrow.com

• New Zealand’s Olympic Shot Put Bronze Medalist Tiptoes Between Confidence And Cockiness As He Declares Himself “As Good If Not Better” Than Any Other Thrower In The World
• Hammer Thrower Martin Bingisser Does Podcast “Rant” He talks about several throwing related topics including doping: “We keep putting historic throwers on a pedestal when we know they doped. They’re cheaters not heroes.”
• Prep Liam Christensen Writes Thesis Paper Making A Case To Have The Javelin Throw In High School There are only 19 states that sanction the javelin with safety concerns being a major thing holding it back.
• RIP: GB Olympic Discus Thrower Philippa Roles Dies At 39 Roles competed at the 2004 and 2008 Games and is 4th on the UK all-time list.
  *Athletics Weekly: Athletes, Officials Pay Tribute To Philippa Roles
• Police Say A Moment Of Inattention Cost Wheaton College Student His Life In Hammer Throw Accident Last Month The student volunteer was distracted by two other volunteers who were goofing off during warmups.
  *MB: Student Fatally Struck by Hammer at Wheaton College Track Meet
• 1-Minute Video: Olympic Champ Michelle Carter’s Guide To The Perfect Shot Put Technique

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