2017 London Worlds Start Next Friday

• TFN’s 2017 World Championships Medal Picks For Men
• TFN’s 2017 World Championships Medal Picks For Women
• Attendance Records Will Be Broken: More Than 660,000 Tickets Have Already Been Sold For 2017 IAAF World Championships The London organizers are on top of their game. Their best work was figuring out a way to 100% eliminate the morning sessions. Now journalists will get to actually enjoy themselves.
• Who Needs Journalists? Microsoft And IAAF Announce They Have Invented A SPIKES Bot On Skype That Will Start Working Next Week
• After Meeting Anti-Doping Deadline, Kenya Finalizes Its World Championships Team Michael Saruni has been left at home with the bogus excuse of “his form is wanting” and reigning 400H champ Nicholas Bett is out with injury.
• Justin Gatlin Believes Usain Bolt Could Make A Comeback After Retirement  So do we.
• Katharina Heinig, Daughter Of 1988 Olympic Marathon Bronze Medalist Katrin Dörre-Heinig, Will Be Making Her WC Debut In London Katharina’s PR is 2:28:34.
• 3-Minute Video Highlights Of All The IAAF Diamond League Meets So Far
  
• On Her 51st Birthday, Sally Gunnell Remembers Her 1993 400H World Title And WR
• Mo Farah Will Keep Racing After Worlds: Mo Farah Will End His Track Career In $50,000 DL Finale In Zurich On August 24

The Gender Debate In Sport Isn’t Going Anywhere

• PBS: Should Testosterone Be Regulated In Women’s Events? A deeper look at the IAAF’s recent study shows why it probably won’t be enough to convince CAS to reinstate the currently suspended hyperandrogenism rules.
• Athletics Illustrated: “Caster Semenya’s Apparent Defiance; Could It Serve A Greater Purpose?” Chris Kelsall wonders if Semenya is “angry at the world or starting to enjoy drawing attention to herself” after she announces Worlds 800/1,500 double.
• Outside Magazine: “The Controversy Around Caster Semenya Explained” The problem is CAS requirement is far too great as they want the IAAF to prove hyperandrogenic females have an advantage as great as men, which they don’t.

Running Form Analysis

• Interesting: Running Form Analyst Jae Gruenke Takes A Deeper Look At The Recent NY Times Article On Usain Bolt’s Unusually Asymmetrical Stride Gruenke says that the asymmetry found in Bolt is actually extremely common in distance runners, including all-time greats like Eliud Kipchoge.
• IAAF: Largest Ever Biomechanics Research Project In Athletics To Be Undertaken At London 2017 A team of 41 people will use high speed cameras and video to analyze athlete biomechanics across 17 events (including the steeplechase, 10,000 and marathon).

Upcoming Action

• Friday: Ben Blankenship, Kyle Merber, Colby Alexander Lead Competitive Field For GNC Live Well Liberty Mile In Pittsburgh The women’s race is led by Heather Kampf, who faces Stephanie Garcia, Lauren Johnson, Emily Lipari and Hannah Fields.
  *Bring Back The Mile Prediction Contest Win a free pair of shoes and other “swag.”
• Saturday: Sam Chelanga And Aliphine Tuliamuk Lead Fields For USATF 7 Mile Champs At The Bix 7 Chelanga faces USATF Running Circuit leader Leonard Korir while the women’s field includes Neely Gracey, Sara Hall, Marielle Hall, Tara Welling and Becky Wade.
• August 20: Dafne Schippers And Mutaz Barshim Join Fields For Birmingham Diamond League The meet will also be Mo Farah‘s last track race on British soil.

Doping News

• Dafne Schippers: “I hate when people see my skin and say I’m a drugs cheat, acne doesn’t mean I dope.” Schippers also says her relationship with Jamaican rival Elaine Thompson is “very bad.”
• Jessica Ennis-Hill And The USA Women’s 4 X 400 Squad Among Those Who Will Receive Re-Allocated Medals At London Worlds Kara Goucher and Jo Pavey will also receive their silver and bronze medals from the 2007 Worlds 10,000 after they originally finished 3rd and 4th.
  *NY Times Article With Quote From Kara Goucher
• Russian Athletes Going To Worlds As Neutrals Will Still Be Paid By The Russian Government The “neutrals” can also win IAAF prize money for their placing at the championships, but the Russian national anthem will not be played if they win.
• Russian Sports Minister Hoping Russia Reinstated To The IAAF Before 2018

Distance News

• Recommended Read: Nick Symmonds Blogs: “What’s Wrong with Pro Track and Field + How to Fix It” Symmonds says, “Professional track and field is broken … and I have some ideas.” Symmonds looks to horse racing and says track needs three things: food, alcohol and gambling. Then he gives his idea for an event in Las Vegas.
• MB: Pierre Ambroise Bosse calls out Mo Farah on French TV show Bosse: “[Farah] has never convinced me. I have doubts.”
• Interesting: Runner’s Tribe: Tactics, Salazar & Gold – The Training Of Matthew Centrowitz A compilation of quotes and stats from Centro that gives a picture of his overall training.
• 25 Athletes Get $25K Grant From USATF Distance runners who got payed were Paul Chelimo, Drew Windle, Hillary Bor and Charlene Lipsey.

LetsJump.com

• Injury Keeps US’s National And NCAA Triple Jump Champ Keturah Orji Out Of Worlds She says she withdrew due to “some lingering pains from USAs.”
• Recommended Read: NY Times: Margareet Bergmann Lambert, Jewish Athlete Excluded From Berlin Olympics, Dies At 103 Lambert was a gold medal contender for Germany at the 1936 Games, but was excluded because she was Jewish. She eventually immigrated to the US and won the US high jump and shot put titles in 1937.
• Good Listen: Pre-Worlds Podcast With US Long Jump Champion Jarrion Lawson
• IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Video Interview With Olympic And Two-Time World Long Jump Champion Tianna Bartoletta

Mile News

• Heather Kampf (4:30) And Jake Edwards (4:00) Repeat As Ryan Shay Mile Winners Edwards beat out Canadian Olympian Nate Brannen by .59 of a second.
• Friday: Ben Blankenship, Kyle Merber, Colby Alexander Lead Competitive Field For GNC Live Well Liberty Mile In Pittsburgh The women’s race is led by Heather Kampf, who faces Stephanie Garcia, Lauren Johnson, Emily Lipari and Hannah Fields.
• Next Friday: Sir Walter Miler “Meet The Competitor” Series: 5 Things About Me With Craig Engels Engels says, “I have never had a cup of coffee in my life.”
  *More: Heather Kampf *Stephanie Brown *Izaic Yorks *Sara Sutherland *More … (We recommend these quick, interesting/funny reads.)
• The Telegraph: Steve Cram’s Top 10 Tips For Running A Fast Mile Cram says to focus on the third lap since that’s when most people get it wrong.

Chaos In Kenya

• 4 Kenyans Fail To Report To Kenya’s WC Training Camp – Coach Has No Idea Where Irene Cheptai, Agnes Jebet, Eunice Sum And Margaret Chelimo Are
• Kenya’s Coach Says Kenya’s Doping Agency Failed To Schedule The Three Mandatory Out-Of-Competition Doping Tests Before Worlds – Athletes May Be Forced To Miss Out

Jesse Owens History

• Before The Freeze, Jesse Owens Was Racing People At Negro Baseball Games
• After Jesse Owens Won His Golds In Berlin, FDR Snubbed Him And Didn’t Offer Him A White House Invite
• After NYC’s Ticker Tape Parade For US Olympic Heroes, Jesse Owens Had To Take The Service Elevator For “Coloreds” To Get To The Waldorf-Astoria’s Banquet Here is a video of the parade.

Irish And Polish Champs Were This Weekend

• Ireland’s Track National Championships Were Last Weekend – And Their 4 WC Team Members All Won As Would Be Expected Mark English and Ciara Mageean won the 800s as Brian Gregan cruised a 45.74 400.
• Ireland Only Qualified 4 Athletes For Worlds On The Track They have 8 more if you count the race walks/marathon and Cathal Dennehy says they need to appoint a full-time director of coaching as they are abysmal in the field events.
• Ireland’s Thomas Barr – Their First Olympic Sprint Finalist In 84 Years (4th In 400H) – Is Recognizable All Throughout Ireland “The months following the Olympics, however, were anything but normal, Barr stepping off the plane to find he was recognisable everywhere he went. Nights out turned into endless selfie sessions with strangers, and Barr got to experience both sides of overnight fame.”
• Polish Champs: Anita Wlodarczyk throws 80.79 WL “I have been waiting for an 80-metre throw since May, This was my eighth national title, so I wanted to get a distance starting with eight here.” There were some interesting results in the women’s 800 and men’s 1,500, where Adam Kszczot beat Marcin Lewandowski in a race where Lewandowski may have let him win.

Saturday: *Heusden Results

MB: 2017 Heusden Results – Infeld becomes 15th US women to break 15:00, Quigley runs huge 1500 pb, Efraimson just misses, True 13:10 and much more Tons of US WC team members ran, including Kate Grace (2:03), Ryan Hill and Eric Jenkins (3:37), Colleen Quigley (4:03), Hassan Mead (13:11), and Emily Infeld (14:56). Non-WC times from Americans included Alexa Efraimson at 4:04, Shalane Flanagan at 14:58 and Ben True at 13:10.

• Wisco’s Morgan McDonald Ran 13:15 To Become Fastest Badger Undergrad In History Solinsky ran 13:12 right after graduation. McDonald didn’t run NCAA indoors (injured) or outdoors this year (no qualifying time as his only individual race was a tactical Big 10 final).
• Other Meets: Tom Walsh Nails 22m To Send Ryan Crouser A Warning Shot For Worlds Walsh: “I’m going to win it, no doubt about that.”