July 22, 2017 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For July 22, 2017

Quote Of The Day

“US Record? Waouh! I hadn’t seen the time yet! It felt so good to be competitive again, it was great! Now going home in Philadelphia to prepare for London.”

– Ajee Wilson speaking after pushing Caster Semenya and Francine Niyonsaba to the line in the Monaco Diamond League 800m while breaking the 18-year-old American record with 1:55.61.

2017 Monaco Compiled ResultsTV & Streaming

LRC Evan Jager Crushes 8:01.29 World Leader In Monaco To Become First Non-African Man To Win A Diamond League Steeplechase & Establish Himself As The Favorite At WorldsJager looked in total control as he demolished the field over the final lap to win by over 6 seconds.

LRC Ajee Wilson Smashes The American 800-Meter Record, Runs 1:55.61 In Monaco(updated) Wilson’s incredible run wasn’t good enough to get her a victory or a runner-up finish but she did put a scare into the Olympic gold and silver medalists Caster Semenya and Francine Niyonsaba.

LRC2017 Herculis Recap: Usain Bolt (9.95) Is Back, Emmanuel Korir (1:43.10 800) & Elijah Manangoi (3:28.80 1,500) Rip World Leaders Bolt beat Isiah Young by .03 but looked to have more in the tank while fellow Olympic champs Matthew Centrowitz and Asbel Kiprop struggled in the 1,500. Hellen Obiri rocked the 3,000 (8:23.14) as Wayde van Niekerk was pushed hard in the 400 by Botswana’s Isaac Makwala.

*IAAF:Van Niekerk Pushed All The Way In Monaco If you thought van Niekerk was auto gold in London, Botswana’s Isaac Makwala wants you to guess again.
*IAAF:Usain Bolt Wins With Season’s Best Bolt: “It was good, I’m going in the right direction, there’s still a lot of work to do.”
*The Telegraph:“Usain Bolt Produces Season’s Best 9.95 Victory In Timely Boost Ahead Of London” On the claim that Bolt had De Grasse “booted” from Monaco, De Grasse said, “That was not true. I was never supposed to race Usain here.”

Monaco Message Board Talk:

Olympic / Hosting News

It’s Possible No New Sports Will Be Added Between The 2024 And 2028 Olympics So The 2028 Host Doesn’t Incur Extra Costs
Family Blames Overwork For Suicide Of 23-Year-Old Tokyo Olympic Stadium Construction Worker The worker allegedly clocked 200 hours of overtime at the stadium the month before committing suicide.
Either Birmingham Or Liverpool Will Bid To Host The 2022 Commonwealth Games Five sports, including surfing, were added for Tokyo 2020.

Distance News

August 5:Ben True And Mary Keitany Face Super-Deep Fields As They Return To Defend Their Titles At Beach To Beacon 10K True faces a deep field that includes Stephen Sambu, Tariku Bekele, Abdi Abdirahman, Cam Levins and Dan Huling while Keitany is up against Shalane Flanagan, Jordan Hasay, Meseret Defar, Joyce Chepkirui and Wude Ayalew.
UTEP’s Michael Saruni Cut From Kenya’s World 800 Squad After Finishing 3rd At The Kenyan Trials AK had stated they would take the top 3 across the line, but gave the spot to Ferguson Rotich, who was 4th at the Trials, but was the 2016 Diamond League winner (they invited Saruni to the 4 x 400).
The True Olympic Dream:Shelby Houlihan May Have A Street Named After Her In Her Hometown Of Sioux City “Houlihan Run” would pay tribute to Houlihan and also “help clear up past confusion” over the current street name.
MileSplit Q&A With 1,500 Worlds Qualifier Johnny Gregorek Gregorek talks about going from 10th to 3rd in the last lap at USAs, being part of the fastest father-son mile duo and how he’s gone from a 4:20 HS miler to a 3:53 pro.
Carrie Tollefson Podcast Q&A With Alysia Montano They talk about food, racing during pregnancy, athlete sponsorship, and more.

More Junior / Youth Action

Pan Am Juniors: DyeStat Preview:10 Story Lines To Follow At Pan Am U20 Champs
*Live Streaming Info *Schedule
DyeStat Feature On US Junior 800 Champ Caitlin Collier
Q&A: High School Graduate Zach Shinnick Wants To Run 44 Seconds In The 400 At Pan Am Juniors He won the US Junior National Champs in 45.20 earlier this summer.
Commonwealth Youth Games: Athletics Weekly Round-Up Of Day 1 Of Commonwealth Youth Games *Live Results

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 stride 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 ReadMeet 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

Yesterday Was The 10th Anniversary Of Webb’s 3:46.91

Recommended Read:What Is Alan Webb Doing Running A Mobile Truck Repair Business On An Island In Portland? Webb and his wife, Julia, have started their own business and it has absolutely nothing to do with running. On the 10th anniversary of his 3:46 mile American record run, catch up with Webb and find out what America’s fastest ever miler is doing with retirement from endurance sports.

World Para Champs *Live Results, Start Lists, Schedule

Earlier In The Week:Mikey Brannigan Wins World Para 1,500 Title In 3:53 He’ll try to make it double gold in the 800 final today.
Interesting Read:New Zealand’s Rio 200/400 Paralympic Champ Liam Malone Vows To Run Faster Than Usain Bolt’s WR Within The Next Three Years He says he’s aiming for 9.4 seconds, but admits that it’s advanced technology that will get him there.
1-Minute Audio Clip:USA’s Rio Paralympic Gold Medalist David Brown And His Guide Jerome Avery Explain What Its Like To Run The 100m Blind
Tatyana McFadden Wins Four London 2017 Golds

RW:What Celebrities Are Running The 2017 NYC Marathon? The list includes former Victoria’s Secret model Karlie Kloss and former NFL star Tiki Barber.

India’s Asian Shot Put Champ Manpreet Kaur Fails Drug Test For Banned Stimulant She’ll miss Worlds, most likely lose her title and face up to a 4-year ban.

Under-20 Champs – Pan Am U20: Results/Start ListsLive Streaming InfoScheduleEuro U20: Live ResultsSchedule*Live Streaming Info

Pan AM U20:

DyeStat:Alyssa Wilson Improves Her Own National Shot Put Record With 17.70m To Win Pan Am U20 Gold USA won 20 medals, including 9 golds on the first day.
Caitlin Collier One Race Away From Undefeated Season And Pan AM Juniors 800 Gold
USATF Day 1 Recap
Pre-Meet Register-Guard Article On Oregon’s Rhesa Foster Competing In Pan Am Juniors Long Jump Foster ended up 4th as USA’s Tara Davis won.
Non-USA:Four Records Fall On Pan Am U20 Champs Opening Day

Euro U20:

Gina Akpe-Moses Makes Irish Sprint History With 100m Gold At Euro U20 Champs Akpe-Moses ran 11.71 to become the first Irish woman to win a Euro sprint title at the U20, U23 or senior level.
Athletics Weekly:Italy’s Filippo Tortu (10.73) And Ireland’s Gina Akpe-Moses (11.71) Win Euro U20 100m Titles
Four Athletes Break 6,000-Point Barrier In Euro U20 Women’s Heptathlon

Mid-Week Action

Brannon Kidder (3:39.39 And Hannah Fields (2:00.97) Win At The Club Northwest All-Comers Meet Near Seattle Kidder beat out Izaic Yorks, Dan Huling and Garrett Heath while Sara Vaughn was 3rd in the 800 (2:04.27) behind Fields.
Sandi Morris Wins Street Pole Vault In Here Hometown (Greenville, SC) Morris cleared 4.75m and had two close attempts at 4.86m.
*Pre-Meet Video/Article Catching Up With Morris

Get Pumped For Fall Marathon Season

Chicago: Galen Rupp And Jordan Hasay Headline Strong American Field At The 2017 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Other top Americans include Chris Derrick making his debut, Luke Puskedra, Diego Estrada, Andrew Bumbalough, Sam Chelanga, Becky Wade and Joan Benoit Samuelson going for the first sub-3 hour marathon by a 60-year-old.
*MB: Galen Rupp & Jordan Hasay to Headline 2017 Chicago Marathon

Berlin: Former World Record Holder Wilson Kipsang Returns To The Berlin Marathon To Face Eliud Kipchoage Kipsang joins the previously-announced Kipchoge while the women’s race has six sub-2:24 women, led by 2015 winner Gladys Cherono (2:19:25).

Doping News

Interesting: Wired:How Wimbledon’s Male Players Are Legally Doping WIRED used a clickbait headline, but it’s an interesting article that looks at a recent study which claims to have proved the “winner effect” where male testosterone naturally increases after winning and decreases after losing.
Russian Heptathlete Tatyana Chernova Will Officially Lose Her 2011 World Title And 2012 Olympic Bronze After Losing Her CAS Appeal Chernova has also previously been stripped of her 2008 Olympic bronze and 2010 World Indoor bronze.
*The Guardian:Jessica Ennis-Hill Finally To Receive Her 2011 World Gold At London 2017 The plan is to have Ennis-Hill and other athletes receiving re-allocated medals to get them in a special ceremony during Worlds.
IAAF Clears Another Eight Russians To Compete As Neutrals; Rejects Applications Of 53 Others In total, 47 Russians have been approved to compete while 109 have been rejected. *IAAF Statement
USADA Give 60-Year-Old Masters Racewalker 4-Year Doping BanScott McPherson will lose the two gold medals he won at the World Masters Indoor Champs after testing positive for steroids.
*MB:60 yr old doper nailed
WADA Director General Claims Progress Being Made After Visiting RUSADA Headquarters Some developments in Russia include the opening up of “closed cities” to doping control officers and a decree that will block athletes and coaches found guilty of doping from receiving government grants.

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.

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 1,500m 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 1,500 PR is worth about 3:53, but he’s only run 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 SquadDavid 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 ImpressOnly 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.

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

A New Nominee For The Positive Doping Test Hall Of Fame?

LRC “Frequent And Passionate” Kissing, Moxylong, And An Indian Chemist: Gil Roberts’ Doping Case Is the Strangest One Of 2017 Over the years, there have been some entertaining stories that have been used to get people off (or at least try) from positive doping tests – from a gay man making out with a female Craigslist encounter to five bottles of beer and sex at least four times with the wife. We’ve got a new doozy for you.
*MB: “Frequent and Passionate” Kissing Results in US 400 Man Gil Roberts Avoiding Doping Suspension

US Marathon News: Ritz To Brooks

RRWThree-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

World Record Reset?

Nick Symmonds Video Blog On Proposal To Scrap Pre-2005 WRs: “Why This Idea Is So Dumb” Symmonds goes on the record saying that he thinks Hicham El Guerrouj was dirty, David Rudisha is clean and that dopers should face jail time. Also, check out the comment section for some entertainment as Symmonds doesn’t hold back replying to the trolls.
Runner’s World’s Alex Hutchinson Plays Devil’s Advocate For The World Record Reset Hutchinson addresses some of the key arguments against the proposal and concludes, “Nobody likes to take an action that victimizes someone; but we sometimes forget than inaction also has victims.”

LetsJump.com

Reuters:Maria Lasitskene Set To Defend Her World HJ Title As A “Neutral” Lasitskene has dominated the HJ this year with 20 wins and was just 3cm off the 29-year-old WR when she cleared 2.06m in Lausanne.
The Comeback Kid:GB Pole Vault Record Holder Holly Bradshaw Has Overcome Four Surgeries In The Past Four Years To Get Back To The Top Back, knee and two Achilles surgeries didn’t stop Bradshaw from finally PRing again to break her own 2012 NR and sit #5 in the world this year.
SPIKES Profile:Teen Pole Vault Star Mondo Duplantis And His Parents Refuse To Set Limits As He Gets Ready To Take On The World’s Best In London Duplantis: “I don’t like to think what I’m doing is that crazy. Maybe it’s because I’m the one doing it, but I feel like other people should be able to do it, too.”
IAAF Profile:After Rabat Victory And Finally Injury Free, Polish Pole Vaulter Pawel Wojciechowski’s Sights Set Firmly On London Wojciechowski was the 2011 World champion, but says he doesn’t remember much about winning gold and “wants a reminder in London.”

Previous Euro Under-20 Champs Live Results Schedule *Live Streaming Info (Available Worldwide)

16-Year-Old Star Jakob Ingebrigsten Going For Hat Trick At European U20 Champs He’s entered in the 1,500, 5,000 and 3,000 steeple and there is only 2 hours between the 1,500 and 5,000 final.
MB: Jakob Ingebrigtsen: please don’t start this attitude Ingebrigsten started his celebrations pretty early as he won his 1,500 heat.
Preview:Championship Records Poised To Fall At European U20 Championships In Grosseto, Italy
*How To Follow Euro U20 Champs

The Pro Vs. School Debate

Syracuse Alum And NAZ Elite Pro Martin Hehir Leaves Flagstaff To Pursue Med School Hehir blogs about the “agonizing” decision whether to pursue his dream as a doctor or pro runner. Med school was too big of an opportunity to pass up, but he’ll still continue racing for NAZ Elite in the fall.
Recommended Read Washington Post Takes A Look At Drew Hunter’s Decision To Go Pro After His 3:36 “I was surprised,” Hunter said. “I knew 3:36 was fast and obviously really good for my age. … It shows I’m off to a good start … and it’s a good club to be in for sure. It’s exciting to know I’m on the right path.”
*MB: Drew Hunter gets profiled in Washington Post: “When I watch NCAAs, I get a gut-wrenching feeling …”

Olympic Politics/Bidding/Admin

Interesting Read:InsideTheGames:“Thomas Bach Deserves Top Marks For Political Skill, But Less So For Transparency After ‘Win-Win-Win” Nick Butler gives an insightful look at the tactics Bach used to “bulldoze through plans to jointly award the 2024 and 2028 Olympics to LA and Paris.”
UK Athletics Chief Ed Warner Urges UK Sport To Give Equal Funding To Olympic And Paralympic Sports Individual Olympic and Paralympic athletes already get equal funding. That sounds like more than enough equality to us considering the greater depth of competition in able-bodied sports.
India Considering Bidding For The 2032 Olympics
Brendan Foster Joins Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Bid Team
USA Today:Ryan Lochte Cleared Of Criminal Charge Stemming From Rio Olympics Incident

International Distance News

2012 Olympic 1,500 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 1,500/5,000 Double Attempt At Worlds The London 2017 schedule works really well for Muir as her focus is the 1,500 and that is first with the 5,000 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

Early Week Results

Canada’s Crystal Emmanuel Blasts 200m National Record With 22.50 At Cork City Meet In Ireland Distance winners included Oregon alum Sam Prakel in the mile with 3:55.89 (Leo Manzano was only 6th in 4:06.98), Sheila Reid in the 3,000 (8:54) and Reid Buchanan over Collis Birmingham in the 3,000 (7:50.26 to 7:50.47). Sophie O’Sullivan (15-year-old daughter of all-time great Sonia O’Sullivan) won the junior 800m (2:13.84). *Results*Video Replay
Sandra Perkovic Breaks Her Own Croatian Discus NR With 71.41m In Switzerland It was the best throw in the world since 1992. Switzerland’s Selina Buchel (1:59.85) and Kenya’s Job Kinyor (1:45.17) won the 800s as Aries Merritt and Jasmin Stowers took the sprint hurdles and Brittney Reese beat Russia’s Dariya Klishina in the 100.

Random / Interesting

LA Times:Caitlyn Jenner Considering Running For US Senate In California Next Year Jenner said, “I have considered it. I like the political side of it.”
*MB:Please God No! Caitlyn Jenner Considering A Bid For U.S. Senate In California
New Research Shows That Usain Bolt Could Outrun A T-Rex The Tyrannosaurus Rex was previously thought to run 45 mph, but a new study says it could only go 16.5 mph. That’s about 11 mph slower than Bolt sprints.
Police Department Warns Criminals Not To Try To Outrun Their New Deputy We guess you could try if you think you can run faster than 1:45.76. That’s the 800 PR of former PAC-12 champ, Olympic Trials qualifier and policeman Jesse Jorgensen.

From The NCAA

Good Blog Post: “Why Not Going To The University Of Oregon Was The Best Thing That Happened To Me” Stephen F. Austin University runner Colby Mehmen explains how not going to his “dream school” helped him go from a 4:42 high school miler to a 29:34 10Ker.
Long-Time ASU Coach Louie Quintana Named As The New Head Coach At Oregon State Quintana coached at ASU for 16 years, working his way up from grad assistant to head coach and lead 48 athletes to All-American status.
*MB: Louie Quintana to Oregon State
10 Questions With New LSU Distance Coach Mark Rinker
Amy Cragg Will Be Inducted Into Arizona State Hall Of Fame
Three-Time World 4 X 400 Champ Jessica Beard Named To Texas A&M Hall Of Fame

LetsJump.com

Recommended Read:Vice Sports: “The Five-Buck Bump Of Cocaine That Destroyed An Olympic Dream”Eric Thompson was a HJ prodigy with a full-ride to Arkansas and an Olympic dream, but five dollars of cocaine and some bad luck completely changed his life.
Recommended Read #2:Former High Jumper Jamie Nieto Is Fighting Back From Paralysis To Walk On His Wedding Day Another nice article and video on Nieto, this time from The Sacramento Bee.
*Previously: 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.
Friday:Charlotte Street Pole Vault Is On Friday; Sandi Morris Highlights If you’re going to be near Charlotte, NC on Friday you should check it out.
RIP:New Mexico Mourns The Passing Of 1965 Long And Triple Jump NCAA Champ Clarence Robinson
Former Ivy League Triple Jump Champ Nadia Chika Eke Appeals To Ghana For Financial Support She won the 2016 African Champs for Ghana and wants to be able to travel to more meets.

World Under-18 Champs Continue In Kenya & European U-23 Champs in Poland U18 ResultsEvent-By-Event RecapsLive Streaming Info (Blocked In USA) European U-23 Results*U-23 Live Stream

Sunday:

World U18:Double Delight For Kenya On Final Day Of World U18 Champs Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega highlighted with a 7:47 victory in the 3,000 while Kenya got wins from Leonard Kipkemboi Bett (5:32) in the 2K steeple and Jackline Wambui (2:01.46) in the 800.
*MB:Ethiopia finally found the successor to Kenenisa & Haile – His name Selemon Barega
Predictable: Kenya Boys Go 1-2 In 2k Steeple The winning time at altitude – 5:32.52.
SPIKES:South Africa’s Breyton Poole Proves You Don’t Have To Be Tall To Be A Champion High Jumper (At Least At The Youth Level) The 5-foot 7-inch Poole cleared 2.24m to prove the doubters wrong. Reminiscences of Franklin Jacobs.
European U23: Konstanze Klosterhalfen Storms To Dominant 1,500m Gold With 4:10.30 She ran her last 800 in 2:01 to win by over 3 seconds. Turkey’s Yasemin Can broke the meet record with 15:01 to complete the 5,000/10,000 double.

Saturday:

World U18:Day 4 Recap: 50,000+ Attend World Youth Day 4 But Ethiopia Shines It’s a shame the US and so many others skipped out as most athletes will never run in front of 50,000.
President Of Kenya Insisted Tickets Be Free And The Fans Responded
Ethiopians Lemlem Hailu And Sindu Girma Overcome Raucous Crowd And Go 1-2 In Girls 1,500
Ethiopia Goes 1-2 As Boys Medalists Run 1:47
Shaunae Miller-Uibo’s Little Brother Got 5th In HJ With 6’11” Clearance
European U23: Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir Gets Silver In 800 As Belgium’s Renee Eykens Wins Gold At Euro U-23s

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.

Track And Field In The Real World

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

The good news is track and field got discussed on the radio as one of the hosts saw The Freeze race at the TrackTown Summer Series meet on TV. The bad news is they ridiculed the idea track could be popular anywhere and the concept of a track league in the US.