Rabat DL is Sunday (2-4 pm ET) *Schedule & entries & results * TV & streaming

LRC 2017 Rabat DL Preview: Rowbury Vs BMart at 1500, Caster Semenya Drops Down To The 400 as Donavan Brazier Looks for Revenge vs. Nijel Amos Americans Brenda Martinez and Shannon Rowbury will square off over 1500 meters, while Stephanie Garcia and Andy Bayer will also go in the steeple which feature the two Olympic champs in Conseslus Kipruto and Ruth Jebet. Plus Donavan Brazier gets a rematch with Nijel Amos in the 800.

Distance News

• Interesting Read: Cam Levins Opens Up About Doping Allegations, His Decision To Leave NOP And His Relationship With Alberto Salazar Levins had a “pretty good” relationship with Salazar, although not as personal as he has with his former college coach Eric Houle. Levins said the doping allegations were tough, but weren’t why he left the and he has “the utmost faith” that his former teammates are clean.
• Drew Windle Has Been Mirroring Dave Wottle’s And Nick Symmonds’ Come-From-Behind Racing Style However, Windle clarifies that’s not his “trademark style or anything,” just what has worked for him lately.
• 2008 Olympian Amy Begley Finishes Second In W30-39 800m At USATF Masters Championships Begley ran 2:36.79, finishing behind Lisa Edwards (2:35.57). Another highlight: 92-year-old Mary Norckauer, who is running 12 events. She won the W90 800 in 7:31 and still has 11 events to go. *Live Results
• Scottish Runner Saves Drowning Woman Who Fell Off Bridge, Then Finishes Run A bystander said, “She could easily have died if he hadn’t taken action. Afterwards, he just put his hat on and jogged off … as if nothing had happened.”
• Podcast Q&A: Carrie Tollefson Interviews Former US Marathon Great Dick Beardsley Beardsley talks about his struggle with addiction, his passion for the sport, and moving back to Minnesota to open a Bed and Breakfast.

NCAA News

• It’s Official: Chris Solinsky Is The New Florida Distance Coach
  *MB: The new distance coach at Florida will be…. Chris Solinsky
• Recruiting “Dos And Don’ts” Advice From Former Columbia University Coach Willy Wood Apparently some recruits have accidentally sent Wood an email addressed to a rival coach expressing interest in a rival school. Yeah, don’t do that.
• Police Investigating The Death Of John Hopkins Sprinter Police found Abigail Bastien‘s body near campus, but said there were no obvious signs of foul play.

The Week That Was

LRCWTW: Women Vs. Men, The Boilermaker Turns 40, Konstanze Klosterhalfen Is Only 20, & Jakob Ingebrigtsen Is Younger Than LetsRun.com

Sprint / Field Event News

• Oregon’s Deajah Stevens Announces She Is Going Pro Early The nine-time All-American will pass on her final year of eligibility, but will stay in Eugene next year to finish her degree. No word yet on an agent or shoe company. *Discuss
• Ashton Eaton Steals The Show Finishing 17th At Prineville’s Splash ‘N’ Dash Quadrathlon Race Eaton didn’t know he was even competing in the swim/bike/kayak/run event until a few days before as his wife and HS coach had signed him up under the pseudonym “Cash Money” without telling him.
• Tips For Sport And Life From Lithuania’s Euro Indoor HJ Champ Arine Palsyte She says, “Don’t fall asleep during the good times. Because while you are celebrating, your rivals are working hard to reach their goals.”
• The Bahamas’ Olympic 400m Champ Shaunae Miller-Uibo Says Her Favorite Track Memory Is From When She Was 10 Years Old At the Caribbean Union of Teachers Games Miller-Uibo won the 100, 200, was second in the 400 and LJ and second-to-last in the softball throw.
• IAAF: With Late Round Heroics In London, Barbora Spotakova Shows She’s Still Very Much A Contender The two-time Olympic champ and WR holder had a few big losses to her younger compatriot Sara Kolak, who beat her to gold in Rio, but in London Spotakova got some revenge with her biggest throw since 2012.
• Belgium’s World Discus Silver Medalist Philip Milanov Talks About The Challenge Of Being Both A World Class Athlete And A University Student Milanov says his studies as in digital arts and entertainment “is like a hobby” that keeps him relaxed, but can also be “intense” and time consuming.

Evaluating The Sport

• Is Scrapping The Pre-2005 World Records A Good Idea? An Interesting Discussion Between Kara Goucher And Several Sports Writers The general consensus was that the new proposed criteria for WRs is good, but most are against scrapping the old marks.
• Ross Tucker Doesn’t Think The New Testosterone Study Will Be Enough For CAS To Reinstate The IAAF’s Hyperandrogenism Policy He thinks CAS will argue that the advantage hyperandrogenic women have is the same as other genetic differences (such as height in basketball), but Tucker points out that there aren’t different categories for height, while there are for sex.
• Toni Reavis Gives Props To The London Diamond League Coverage He also proposes an interesting idea to deal with the false start issue and TV – don’t re-start the race. Just let it run and DQ the false starting athlete after the race.
• Coaching Tip: “Why It’s Not Good For A Coach To Go All Braveheart In The Dressing Room”
• The Telegraph: “More People Than Ever Are Running, But Fewer Bother Taking Notice Of Elite Athletics” (You can access one free premium article a week with an account.)

Sad News

• RIP: USATF Hall Of Fame Coach Jim Bush Has Died At 90 Years Old Bush guided UCLA to five NCAA track titles and coached 30 Olympians.
  *USTFCCCA Tribute
• UAE Paralympic Athlete Abdullah Hayayei Dies After A Metal Discus Cage Fell On Him

High School News

• Sydney McLaughlin Becomes First Repeat Winner Of The Gatorade Athlete Of The Year Award; Earns SI Cover The male winner was pitcher MacKenzie Gore, who got a $6.7 million signing bonus with the Padres.
• DyeStat Video Interview With McLaughlin
  *Video Interview With Two-Time NXN Champ Casey Clinger
  *Video Interview With NXN Champ Brie Oakley
• DyeStat Asks If The 2017 Girls High School Graduating Class Is The Best Ever Led by Sydney McLaughlin, Candace Hill and Sammy Watson, it’s definitely a contender for the title.

Distance News

• Cam Levins Leaves NOP, Returns To College Coach Levins is back with Coach Eric Houle and says he is “excited about the future” as he returns to his pre-ankle surgery fitness.
  *MB: CAM LEVINS LEFT NOP!!!!
• Recommended Read: Tim Layden SI Profile On Gabriele Grunewald: “Athlete Gets Cancer. Athlete Fights Cancer. Repeat, again and again…” Layden recounts Grunewald’s inspirational story as a multi-time cancer survivor who continues to battle a rare, incurable form of the deadly disease.
• Sara Vaughn Talks About Balancing A Life As A Pro Runner, A Career And Three Kids 31-year-old Vaughn, who clenched the final spot for Worlds in the women’s 1500m, doesn’t lead the life of a typical pro runner—she had her first kid before graduating college and works as a full-time realtor. But she and husband/coach Brent Vaughn make it work even it means doing her doubles after 9PM.
• Drew Windle’s Parents Reflect On Their Son’s Journey To Team USA After Windle’s unexpected berth to Worlds, his family is now scrounging to get passports and crowdfund to pay for the trip to London.
• MB: Nick Willis Wins His Season Opener 1500 In Belgium With A 3:37.69 It was Willis’ first track race of 2017 after only two road mile finishes in the spring.
• Good Read: 3-Time Cancer Survivor Breaks World Record For Marathons Run In Most Countries 67-year-old Brent Weigner ran the Madagascar Marathon to bring his count up to 133 countries. He certainly has an interesting running resume which includes finishes on every continent and creating his own marathon in a country that didn’t have one.

Sprint Stuff

• Asafa Powell Has A Chance To Make Jamaica’s World 4 X 100 Squad If He Can Prove His Fitness It’s bad luck for Powell since he should have a wildcard spot after winning last year’s Diamond League, but Jamaica is already using their wild card on defending champ Usain Bolt.
• Former Oregon Sprinter Kyree King Added To Team USA World Champs Roster To Replace Christian Coleman King finished 4th in the 200 at USAs.
• Good Read: Outside Magazine: “There Will Never Be Another Usain Bolt” Martin Fritz Huber writes of Bolt’s races, “There were times when the race itself felt almost secondary – a brief interlude between the before-and-after party.”
• Usain Bolt Talks About How He Plans To Celebrate His Retirement Bolt says since he’ll be in the UK, he hopes to party with friend and Manchester United soccer player Paul Pogba.
• NBC Sports Q&A With Allyson Felix Felix talks about why she didn’t want to do the 200/400 double at Worlds and what it was like to compete at Usain Bolt‘s final Jamaican meet.

Canadian Champs In The Books *Results

• Andre De Grasse Wins Canadian 200 Title In Wind-Aided 19.96 Afterwards, he gave what he estimates as “probably hundreds, maybe thousands” of autographs, including signing body parts like hands and a neck.
• Melissa Bishop Wins Her Fourth Canadian 800 Title In 2:00.26 Brandon McBride (1:45.23) won the men’s race.
• Arizona’s NCAA Champ Sage Watson Wins 400H At Canada Champs Watson ran 54.97 to break a 14-year-old MR and become the second fastest Canadian of all-time.
• Texas’ Kirema Macharia Wins Canadian 400H Title
• Mo Ahmed Wins Canadian 5,000 Title Over Justyn Knight Ahmed ran 14:02.36 to beat Knight by .80.
• Matt Hughes Rebounds From Freak Fire Hydrant Accident To Make Canadian World Team In The Steeple Hughes injured his knee when he ran into a fire hydrant back in March and only started training 6 weeks ago. But he bounced back to run 8:30 to win his 4th title and get the Worlds qualifying mark.
• Andre De Grasse Runs 10.11 To Win His Third Consecutive Canadian 100m Title De Grasse was disappointed by the slow time and said he was annoyed he couldn’t listen to music before the race as he forgot his headphones at his hotel.
• MB: Official 2017 Canadian Champs Discussion Thread

Sprints And Jumps

• Christian Coleman Will Only Run The 100 At Worlds With 48 races this year, his coach thought it’d be best to skip the 200.
• Recommended Read: 14 Years Ago, Perdita Felicien Became Canada’s First Female World Champion, Winning An Upset 100H Gold Over Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster-Hylton Felicien talks about her 2003 gold, her career and going on to become a sports journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation after retiring.
• Recommended Read #2: US High Jumper Jamie Nieto Trying To Defy The Doctors To Be Ready To Walk For His July Wedding Nieto suffered a spinal cord injury when doing a backflip in 2016. Doctors weren’t sure if he’d ever walk at all, but now he’s up to 130 steps without a cane or walker, which should about get him from the altar to the church door on his wedding day.
• Sweden’s Lea Sprunger Continued Her Breakout Season With A 54.29 Runner-Up Finish In Deep 400H Race At The Lausanne DL At 27, Sprunger is a “late comer” to the top tier of the T&F world as she started in the heptathlon and 200 and didn’t move to the 400H until 2015.
• LSU’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake Returns Home To London As Britain’s Fastest Sprinter Mitchell-Blake was born in London, but moved to Jamaica at 13 years old before coming to the US for college. Now he’s back in London to race at the Anniversary Games on Sunday.

Need A Job? Want To Make The Sport Less Corrupt?

• IAAF’s Athletics Integrity Unit Seeking Administration & Office Manager For Its Headquarters In Monaco
• IAAF Looking For An Ethical Compliance Officer/Regulatory Lawyer