Week That Was

LRC  80,000 People Tried To Go To A Youth Track Meet And There Were Only 60,000 Seats; Drew Hunter, Nick Willis Updates The US missed one of the best track meets of the year.

2017 Monaco is Friday Schedule, entries, results * TV & streaming (2-4 pm ET)

LRC 2017 Monaco Diamond League Preview: Bolt’s Final Test, van Niekerk in the 400, Jager Looks to End US DL Steeple Drought, & Centro vs. Kiprop in a Stacked 1500 Christmas comes in July for track fans as the Monaco meet is unreal. Despite his recent 1:49 bomb, the Olympic champ Matthew Centrowitz tell us he’s really optimistic, “I think I’m definitely rounding into really good form and I’m excited about the progression I’ve had since USAs.”
*MB: Official 2017 Monaco DL Discussion Thread – Oh baby what a meet

International Distance News

• 2012 Olympic 1500 Champ Taoufik Makhloufi Will Miss Worlds With Calf Injury The Rio double silver medalist hasn’t raced at all in 2017.
• Paula Radcliffe Thinks Mary Keitany Could Break Her 2:15:25 Marathon WR “[Keitany] looks like the sure candidate to set a new mark and I want to encourage her to give it a try.”
• BBC Article/Video: Laura Muir Confident Before 1500/5000 Double Attempt At Worlds The London 2017 schedule works really well for Muir as her focus is the 1500 and that is first with the 5000 heats starting three days later.
• Nairobi News: “David Rudisha Trolled For Blond Twitter Moment” Rudisha spelled the word “applaud” as “upload” on Twitter and Kenyan fans (and Asbel Kiprop) didn’t let him live it down.
  *MB: Wise guy Asbel Kiprop Strikes Again

Upcoming Mile Action

• Saturday: Four Time Winner Heather Kampf And Jake Edwards Are Back To Defend Their Titles At The 10th Annual Ryan Shay Mile Edwards will have a tough run against 1500m Olympians Nate Brannen (Canada) and Julian Matthews (NZ).
• Saturday: Garrett Heath Headlines At Bend Classic Mile Heath faces former NCAA 800m champ Edward Kemboi and Mexican mile national record holder Daniel Herrera. *Race Website
• August 4: Solid Men’s Race Set For Sir Walter Miler In Raleigh, NC Field includes Craig Engels, Drew Hunter, Lopez Lomong, Nate Brannen, Cory Leslie, Trevor Dunbar and Izaic Yorks.
  *Podcast Interview With Craig Engels Engels talks about his 2017 season, his decision to join NOP and his goal of breaking 4 in the mile for the first time (his 1500 PB is worth about 3:53, but he’s only ran 4:01 for a full mile).

Distance News

• Nick Willis Is Cutting It Close To Qualify For 2017 Worlds Willis got a late start on his season due to injury so has only 3:36.95 (still .95 off the qualifying standard). His current spot on the descending order list should get him an invite from the IAAF, but he’s on the bubble.
• Good Read: Arizona Daily Sun: “NAZ Elite’s Ben Bruce Going The Distance In His Career” Talking about competing in races that aren’t his strongest event, Bruce says, “I think with some runners, they are maybe scared, … they’ll get beat by people they feel they should not get beat by. I never really let that bother me.”
• The Problem With Too Many Wild Cards: Athletics Kenya In Dilemma Over Who To Select For Their Men’s World 800m Squad David Rudisha (defending world champ) and Ferguson Rotich (Diamond League winner) have automatic wild card spots for Worlds, but neither finished in the top 3 at the Kenyan Trials, so now 5 athletes are technically qualified.
• The Malibu Times: David Torrence Finding Success Representing Peru Torrence set the national mile and 1,500 records this summer (3:53/3:34) and says he’s “knocking on the door for some of the South American” records.
• Did You Get Your Daily Dose Of LRC? Elite Ultra Runner Jim Walmsley Gives Props To LRC On Outside’s List Of Top “Fitness Websites” “I check it every day.”

Junior / Youth News

• IAAF Rundown Of The Highlights From The European Under-23 Championships Norway’s Karsten Warholm starred with an impressive 400/400H double. He took silver in the 400 and won in a championship record (48.37) in the 400H.
  *European Athletics Article
• Jamaican Writer Says Scrapping The World U18 (Youth) Champs Could Be Unfair To Younger Athletes World U23 (Juniors) is still there, but that means the youngest could compete against athletes 4 years their senior, although the IAAF may promote more U18 events at the regional level.
• Kenya Hails World Under-18 Champs As A Big Success Organizing chairman Jack Tuwei: “Our ability to deliver this event to success has shown that we can even have a Diamond League series or World Championships and I want to thank the IAAF for believing in us.”
• Commonwealth Youth Games Starts In The Bahamas Thursday

Rabat DL Was Sunday *Full Results

LRC Recap: Nijel Amos, Andre De Grasse, Elaine Thompson & Ryan Crouser Keep Rolling, Conseslus Kipruto Goes Out Injured, And The Moroccans Impress Only one more DL meet remains before Worlds.

*IAAF: Elaine Thompson And Shaunae Miller-Uibo Impress In Rabat Thompson won her 14th straight 100m race with 10.87 while Miller-Uibo ran 49.80.
*IAAF: Ryan Crouser Dominates In Rabat With 22.21m (Third Best Of His Career)
*AW: Brit CJ Ujah Wins 100m In 9.98
*European-Athletics: Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova Rounding Into Form With London Approaching She ran a SB of 54.22 to get her first 400H win of the year.

• MB: Official 2017 Rabat DL Discussion Thread – BMart Vs. Rowbury + Caster At 400
• Caster Semenya Runs….. 51.53
• Please Stephanie Garcia STOP running the Steeple
• Dude Runs 1,50m of 3,000m after False Start

Doping / Corruption

• USA Today: “Feds Don’t Want Lance Armstrong To Say ‘Everybody Was Doing It'” The US Justice Department is trying to prevent Armstrong from “putting the entire sport of cycling on trial,” by discussing the history of drugs in the sport.
• IAAF Council Member Frankie Fredericks Provisionally Suspended Pending Ethics Investigation He allegedly received payments from Papa Massata Diack days before voting on the 2016 Olympics. *IAAF Statement

Big Pub For Sydney M

Crossover Star: Sydney McLaughlin Is On The Cover Of Sports Illustrated The amount of money she’s going to make when she goes pro will be insane.

Speaking Of Covers: Kirby Lee Is A Track And Field Legend Behind The Camera

The Olympic Channel Has Launched In The US

• LRC USA Olympic TV Channel Launched In The US On Saturday Learn what will be on it. It’s a partnership between the USOC, IOC, and NBC which will have archival Olympic footage, original programming and some live events that otherwise might not have been on TV.
• Peter Ueberroth Isn’t Gloating Even Though He Tried To Start An Olympic Channel In 2009
• Where Does The IOC Spend Its Money? Read This To Find Out

Previous WU18 And EuropeanU23 Championship News

• IAAF Day 3: Kenya’s George Manangoi Crushes 1,500 Field, Jamaica’s De’Jour Russell Wins 110H In 13.04, Cuba’s Jordan Diaz Wins TJ With Ridiculous 17.30m Diaz is now 7th in the world in 2017 and he’s just 16. Video Of Jump
• Winner Of Boys 1,500 At World U18s Is The Younger Brother Of 2015 WC Silver Medalist Elijah Manangoi
• Antonio Watson Wins WU18 Title In 46.59
• Spikes Recaps The 1st Half Of The World U18 Championships
• With Ethiopia Favored, It Looks Like Kenya May Lose Boys 800 Final For First Time Since 2009
• IAAF Day 2 Recap: Thrilling LJ Showdown Highlights As Cuba Goes 1-2 Maikel Y. Vidal won with a world U18 lead of 7.88m.
• Day 2 Morning Recap Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega led the way with 7:55.

• Europeans: 21-Year-Old Ojie Edoburun (GBR) Sprints To European U23 100m Title In 10.14
• Ireland’s/Villanova’s Penn Relays Hero Síofra Cléirigh-Buttner Is Ready For European U23s We still can’t believe she didn’t make the NCAA final as we thought she’d contend for the title.

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.

Upcoming Distance Action

• August 20: Mo Farah’s Last Track Race Will Be At The Birmingham Diamond League “I’m really looking forward to what will be my final track race … I’m sure it will be a day I remember for the rest of my life.”
• July 28: Heather Kampf And Ben Blankenship Will Defend Their Titles At the GNC Live Well Liberty Mile Blankenship faces Kyle Merber while Kampf is up against Katie Mackey and Emily Lipari.
• August 4: Deepest Women’s Field Yet Announced For 2017 Sir Walter Miler Stephanie Garcia, Heather Kampf, Emily Lipari, Nicole Tully, Katie Mackey and more.
• August 10: Deep American Fields Set For West Chester Mile And 800 The men’s race has Leo Manzano, Garrett Heath, Cristian Soratos, Kyle Merber and more while the women are lead by Katie Mackey, Emily Lipari, Lauren Johnson and Amanda Eccleston.
• September 10: Mary Keitany And Mo Farah Vs. Dathan Ritenhein Headline At Great North Run Half Marathon

Track And Field In The Real World

LRCSports Radio In Dallas Talks Track And Field: "I think the WNBA is laughing at these guys."

US Marathon News: Ritz To Brooks

RRW Three-Time Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein Has Joined The Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project Since 180 days had passed since Ritz’s Nike contract expired, he was free to sign and he chose to go with Brooks.
*MB: Breaking: Dathan Ritzenhein has joined the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project

2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials Standards Announced The marathon standards stay at 2:19 and 2:45, but the half marks are quicker at 64:00 and 73:00 (dropped from 65:00 and 75:00 in 2016).
*MB: USATF Announces 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon qualifying standards