2017 Monaco Is Friday Schedule, Entries, Results *TV & Streaming (2-4pm 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 1,500 Christmas comes in July for track fans as the Monaco meet is unreal. Despite his recent 1:49 bomb, the Olympic champ Matthew Centrowitz tells 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

• What About The Sport? Andre De Grasse’s Coach Says They Were “Booted Out” Of The 100m By Usain Bolt De Grasse’s coach Stuart McMillan: “We were in the [100] race. We got booted out. That’s all on Bolt. Let’s just say he wanted not such an elite field against him.”
  *The Telegraph: Usain Bolt’s Management Refute Claim They Had Andre De Grasse “Booted Out” Of Monaco
• IAAF Monaco Preview Bolt says he’s spent two weeks in Germany getting treatment for his back problem from Dr. “Healing Hans.”
• Monaco Bolt Press Conference Video Highlights Bolt talks about London, retirement, soccer, whether he could have broken 19 seconds, and who he thinks the next 100m stars will be.

More Bolt News

• Interesting: NY Times: “Something Strange In Usain Bolt’s Stride” Is Bolt the fastest ever because of or in spite of an uneven stride that has his right leg strike the track with about 13 percent more peak force than his left, and his left remain on the ground about 14% longer than his right? Usually an uneven strides slows a runner down, but apparently not for Bolt.
• Usain Bolt Says It’s Too Late To Race Wayde Van Niekerk “I think that’s one of the most disappointing things of my career, that he (Van Niekerk) came along at this late stage and I could never compete against him.
• Bizarre: “Larry The Snail” Defeats “Uslime Bolt” To Win World Snail Racing Championships And yes, of course there is video.
• Washington Post: Usain Bolt Complains ‘No One Is Really Running Fast’ Except Women We wouldn’t complain if we were Bolt as this is his slowest season ever.

Evan Jager Talked To Us About Fancy Bears & Monaco

LRC  Q&A: Evan Jager Talks About Being Listed As “Likely Doping” In Fancy Bears Hack, The Steeplechase In Monaco … And Admits To Reading LetsRun.com To Try To Figure Out What Was Going On Jager was on the LetsRun.com Track Talk podcast for nearly an hour in his first public comments since being listed in the Fancy Bears hack. Read the highlights or listen to the whole thing. Jager revealed what he’s learned from the IAAF about why his name was on the document, he talked about his training, how he got his mind right to win Olympic silver, married life and being a homeowner. Plus, he says he had to stop reading forum posts about the hack because 50% of you were like “I know he’s been doping the whole time!”

• Best Quotes: “Honestly my first thought (if I wasn’t on the list) would have been, oh yeah, like everyone on there is doping.”
• “Naturally, I woke up and the like first thing that I did was I went to LetsRun just to figure out what exactly was going on.”
• “Everyone was looking at me like they thought I was dirty at that point in time and it was a really shitty feeling.”
• On Monaco: “I’m looking to get up to the front and go for the win.”

Support Gabe Grunewald In Her Fight Against Cancer

Help Gabe Grunewald Fight Cancer By Donating Towards Her Medical Expenses Leo Manzano, Kara Goucher, Neely Gracey, Dennis Barker, Jason Vigilante, Scott Bauhs and Suzy Hamilton are among those in the elite running community who have already contributed.
*MB: Gabe Grunewald needs your help! Donate to her medical fund HERE

Paralympic News

• Ireland’s Jason Smyth Completes World 100/200 Sprint Double In London The world’s fastest paralympian ran 10.63 and 21.40 to get the double win.
  *BBC: Jason Smyth wins gold as GB miss out on medals
• Video: Dramatic Finish In World Para T11 (Blind) 400m Final There were three different leaders in the final 50m with one athlete getting dragged across the line by his guide.
• World Records Of Double-Leg Amputees To Be Wiped From The Record Books This is in the wake of new rules that will limit the maximum allowable standing height of double-leg amputees.
• UK’s World Paralympic 100m Bronze Medalist Richard Whitehead Accuses IPC Of “Playing With Careers” After New Rules On Single Vs Double Amputees Whitehead (a double amputee) is angry that at the 2020 Tokyo Games, there will be no 100m for double amputees (previously, single and double amputees raced against each other).
• There Is An Investigation Into The Tragic Death Of The UAE Paralympic Thrower Who Had A Discus Cage Fall On Him

More From The Weekend – Ultras Can Be Dangerous

• The Denver Post: Kilian Jornet Dislocated His Shoulder 13 Miles Into The Hardrock 100 And Went On To Win Caroline Chaverot of France was the top woman despite becoming lost in the dark two-thirds through the race.
  *The Hardrock 100 Last Place Finisher Took Nearly 48 Hours To Finish 49-year-old Robert Andrulis got in just 11 min. before the 48-hour cutoff.
• Neely Spence Gracey Repeats Win At Humana Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon She won in 73:13.
• Holly Bradshaw Breaks British Outdoor Pole Vault Record With 4.81m In Germany Bradshaw has the overall GB record at 4.87m indoors.
• AW: UK Weekly Round-Up
• This Friday: Monaco Diamond League Provisional Entry Lists

Olympic Bidding

• Early Bird Gets The Worm: Germany Unveils 13-City Plan For 2032 Olympic Bid
• IOC Approves Changes To Process For Bidding For 2026 Olympic Winter Games The changes are meant to make the process simpler and reduce costs of bidding.

More Weekend Action

• Padua, Italy: Russia’s World Champ HJer Maria Lasitskene Highlights Impressive Performances With 2.0m Clearance In distance action, Laura Muir ran 4:05.01 to win over Alexa Efraimson (4:06.12), Ajee Wilson took the 800 in 1:59.19, Amel Tuka beat out Mo Aman in the 800. *Results
  
• MB: Drew Hunter 3:36.77 Hunter ran an almost 2-second PR to finish 3rd and beat Nick Willis in a race won by Kenya’s Jonathan Kiplimo Sawe (3:36.56).
• MB: Efraimson provided a workmanlike SB 4:06 finishing 2nd to Muir
  
• Greece’s Ekaterini Stefanidi Extends Her Winning Streak To 10 With 4.72m Clearance To Win In Padova
• Tennessee: Crazy 8s 8K: Teshome Mekonen Wins For Real This Year As Matt McClintock Is 1st American In Top 10 In 14 Years Last year, Mekonen was named the winner on the day of the race only to be given 2nd place the day after it was over.
• France: Renaud Lavillenie Takes His Seventh French Outdoor Pole Vault Title Lavillenie won in 5.80m two days after becoming a father for the first time. Christophe Lemaitre won the 100 in 10.18, missing the 10.10 Worlds standard.

Interesting Reads

• Recommended Read Meet Sonja Robinson – Mikey Brannigan’s Personal Coach, Teacher And Advocate – Who Keeps Him On Track, Sleeps On His Couch And Is Only Paid $300 A Month Brannigan is going for the 800, 1,500 and 5,000 triple at the Paralympic Worlds which have started.
• Think You Want To Own A Running Store? Q&A With Kris Hartner, Naperville Running Company Owner
• World Juniors Has Been Great But Kenyan Journalist Remembers The Greatest Meet Ever Held In Kenya – The Jomo Kenyatta Memorial Pro Meet Stars showed up in droves, from the world’s fastest man Steve Williams to Don Quarrie, Edwin Moses, Henry Rono, Alberto Salazar and Rudy Chapa.
• Walter Dix So Loves Track And Field He’s Now Competing For Free At USATF Masters Champs Dix, who has run 9.88 and 19.51, was 7th at USAs in the 200 this year. “I love track and field. It’s a part of me,” Dix said. “This is just something I always want to be a part of. This is here for people who love track and field. At 31 years old, why would I not run this race?”

Interesting Distance News

• A Lot Of Cheserek Updates From The Register Guard: Healthy Edward Cheserek Seeks Citizenship And A Shoe Contract Cheserek is healthy and working with his agent to get his US citizenship, but the process could take up to 5 years and Cheserek says he’s not interested in competing for Kenya or joining the WCAP program.
  *MB: Edward Cheserek Is Working On His US Citizenship, But It May Take 5+ Years
• Good Read: Nick Symmonds Writes Letter To His 14-Year-Old Self Symmonds admits to a “secret” that he hated running when he was younger, but says now its “found a way into [his] heart.”
• Asbel Kiprop Moving Up To The 5,000 After This Year Kiprop is quoted saying he’s never “done the 5K in my career,” but tilastopaja.org says he ran 13:47 in Kenya last year. He says he wants to do the 1,500/5,000 double at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
• Former NFL Wide Receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson’s Daughter Is An 800 Runner The 12-year-old ran 2:14.80 to win the AAU National Club Championships yesterday. She also has a 56.48 PB in the 400 and doubled back in the AAU 1,500 to win in 4:47. *Results
  *Chad Johnson Donates $2,200 To Help Baltimore Youth Team Get To USATF Junior Olympic *GoFundMe Page