August 7, 2017 | LetsRun.com

**2017 IAAF London Worlds *Schedule / Results** TV & Streaming Prediction Contest LRC Post-Race Interviews LRC Previews: M800 W800 M1,500 W1,500 MSteeple WSteeple

LRC Flash: Women’s 1500: Faith Kipyegon Wins Another Gold Title As Jenny Simpson Beats Caster Semenya To Nab Her Fourth Global 1500 Medal A thrilling final sprint saw a five-way battle for the medals as Kipyegon just held onto the gold with Simpson timing her kick perfectly to grab silver over Semenya. GB’s Laura Muir and world leader Sifan Hassan both ran out of gas after starting their kicks too soon and finished in 4th and 5th.
*LRC Women’s 1500 Post-Race Video Interviews Hear from Kipyegon, Simpson, Semenya and Muir.
*MB: Official 2017 Worlds Monday Discussion Thread – Women’s 1500 Final + More

1500 MBoard Talk

Monday: Get Ready For Monday By Listening To The Daily LetsRun.com Podcast We’re recording a live podcast each morning this week at 8 am ET to get you filled in on what happened the night before and get you ready for the following day.

LRC Worlds Day 3: Tori Bowie Wins 100 To Complete US Sweep As Joe Kovacs (Shot Put) & Sandi Morris (Pole Vault) Earn Silver Anything can happen in sport as it was a rough day for the two US men who entered World undefeated on the year as Ryan Crouser didn’t medal in the shot and Sam Kendricks needed a third attempt final to make the PV final.
*MB: Was Joe Kovacs robbed of world title? Was his last throw really a foul?

LRC Men’s 800: Carnage In The Semifinals Sets Up A Wild Final On Tuesday; With Emmanuel Korir Out, Who Is The Favorite? None of the Americans made the final as Donavan Brazier knew he let a great opportunity get away.

Justin Gatlin Is The British Media’s Scapegoat

Recommended Watch: Michael Johnson Calls Out Steve Cram Over Failure To Put Spotlight On Drug Cheats Johnson accuses the media of vilifying Gatlin when he’s far from the only past drug cheat still competing in the sport.
The Irish Times: BBC Happy To Ignore The (British) Elephant In The Room John O’Sullivan writes that their “treatment of Gatlin is in stark contrast to the refusal to ask questions about Mo Farah [and Alberto Salazar.]
IAAF Deny 100m Medal Ceremony Was Moved Over Justin Gatlin Boo Fears It was originally supposed to be at 8PM when the stadium would be packed, but was moved to 6:50PM.
The Independent: “It’s Not Good Enough For Usain Bolt To Bat Away Doping Questions” Cathal Dennehy wasn’t thrilled by Bolt’s response to a doping question at the 100m press conference.
*MB: Most Entertaining Part of Press Conference: Usain Bolt Takes Offense at Reporters Anti-Doping Question
MB: Was Usain Bolt’s stunning loss last night actually a great development for track as it proves Bolt is clean?
The Independent: “Justin Gatlin is the shameless fraud who plays the system perfectly”
Usain Bolt says Justin Gatlin had ‘done his time’ and deserved 100m world title

Beach To Beacon 10K *Results

Mary Keitany Lowers Her Course Record For Repeat Win And Stephen Kosgei Kibet Holds Off Ben True To Reclaim Title At Beach To Beacon 10K Kosgei ran 27:55 to beat True by 1 second while Keitany won comfortably in 30:41 and Shalane Flanagan was the top American in 4th, with an identical 31:14 time as former Olympic champ Meseret Defar.
RRW: Course Record For Mary Keitany At TD Beach To Beacon 10-K
Pre-Race: RRW: America’s Marathon Past, Present And Future On Display At Beach To Beacon 10K

Outside Saturday Worlds Coverage – Gatlin Wins And The UK Is Pissed

South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga Leaps To Golden Moment In London Long Jump USA’s Jarrion Lawson was a close second, leaping 8.44m to Manyonga’s 8.48m. SA’s Ruswahl Samaai took bronze.
UK Headline: Usain Bolt Beaten In Last Solo Race As Drug Cheat Justin Gatlin Gatecrashes World 100m Final There were boos from the crowd and plenty of disdain from the British media.
Justin Gatlin’s Medal Ceremony Moved To Avoid Booing
Seb Coe: “Sport rarely settles upon the perfect script. Life’s just not like that.” “I’m hardly going to sit here and tell you I’m eulogistic that somebody that has served two bans in our sport would walk off with one of our glittering prizes …”
Pat Butcher: “The Bad Guy Wins”
Seb Coe: “The second ban, we went for an eight-year ban, which would have, in essence, been a life ban. We lost that.”
Bolt: “London, I really appreciate the support you gave me. I’m just sorry I couldn’t deliver as I wanted.”
Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s HJ Flop Hits Heptathlon Medal Hopes She has a 1.98m PR, but only cleared 1.80m. She did bounce back, though, with a quick 200m to put herself in 4th going into the second day.
*Johnson-Thompson Moves Into 3rd After LJ
IAAF Saturday Worlds Recap

LRC Betting Odds For 2017 IAAF London World Championships In Track And Field / Athletics What American man has the best odds (60%) for gold in a mid-d/distance event? What woman has the best odds at just 9%?

Non-Worlds Distance News

Recommended Read: The Allegiance Switching Problem In Track And Field Is Much More Serious Than You Think Ethiopian runner Lily Abdullayev says athletes are “treated like sporting slaves” and talks about how corrupt coaches and officials stole prize money and tricked her into taking dangerous drugs when she switched to Azerbaijan.
NCAA Champions And All-Americans Marc Scott, Henry Wynne, MJ Erb And Josh Thompson Sign With KIMbia Athletics Scott and Thompson joined the Bowerman TC, Wynne the Brooks Beasts and Erb a Saucony team coached by Tim Broe.
MB: 15-Year-Old Brandon Miller Runs 1:49.87 Freshman Class Record To Win AAU Junior Olympics 800m Miller led wire-to-wire to win by over 5 seconds. *Meet Results
NPR Interview With Sports Writer Kate Fagan, Author Of New Book On UPenn Suicide Victim Madison Holleran Fagan’s new book is titled, “What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles And Tragic Death Of An All-American Teen.”
*MB: Madison Holleran Story
AP: Man Running Across US For Charity Struck By Hit-And-Run Driver In Ohio Nicholas Ashill was flown to Columbus hospital and is in “fair condition.”
Not Your Every Day Headline: RW: Recovered From Paralysis, A Runner, His Surgeon And The Driver Who Hit Him Reunite For A Half Marathon

Olympic News

Don’t Quit Your Day Job: The Telegraph: Former British Olympic Badminton Silver Medalist Issues Public Cry For Help As She Admits She Can’t Find A Job Or Pay The Bills Gail Emms says she lacks the credentials to find regular employment (she has a sports science degree) and has to sell belongings on eBay to pay the bills.
Kenya Facing Olympic Ban After Government Refuse To Back Plan To Allow NOCK Elections To Take Place Things just wouldn’t feel right if Kenya wasn’t on the brink of being banned for something.
*Premature Celebrations: NOCK Elecction Set To Finally Go Ahead After Legal Objection Dropped
Public Poll Says LA 2028 Has 83% Support
IPC President Hopes LA 2028 Will Help Paralympic Movement Grow In The US Paris and LA have both hosted the Olympic twice, but neither has ever hosted a Paralympics.
Tokyo 2020 Opens Mascot Design Competition To Public Come on Japan, we know you can do better than 2012’s “walking alien penis creatures.”
The Netherlands Not Currently Planning 2032 Olympic Bid We’ve barely decided the 2024/2028 hosts and already talk is on to 2032.
IOC Payments To LA 2028 To Start By January 1, 2018 THe IOC will send quarterly installments of of $9 million.
Kobe Bryant Stars In LA 2028 Promotional Video
French President Meets With Thomas Bach After LA 2028 Announcement

The Wait Is Over

LRC $200,017 LRC Running Warehouse LetsRun.com Worlds Prediction Contest Is Here! The World Champs start Friday. It’s time to get down to business and enter our prediction contest. Easy to do even if you know very little about Worlds.

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).

Sunday AM

LRC Final Amy Cragg Ends America’s 34-Year Medal Drought In The Women’s Marathon At Worlds By Snagging A Surprising Bronze In London What a run for the 33-year-old.
*MB: Amy MF Cragg!!!

LRC Amy Cragg Credits Jerry Schumacher For Her Surprising Bronze In The Women’s Marathon “Jerry has completely changed my running. He has changed my life.”

LRC Final Men’s Marathon: Kenya’s Geoffrey Kirui Follows Up Boston Victory By Winning 2017 World Title Marathon’s got a new star and his name is Geoffrey Kirui.
*MB: WC Marathon: Tamirat Tola vs Daniel Wanjiru
*MB: World Championship Marathon late start times, does it advantage the Africans.

LRC Former NCAA Champ Bobby Curtis Announces He’s Retiring At The End Of The Year He’ll end his career with PRs of 13:18, 27:24 and 2:11:20.

LRC Men’s Steeple Prelims: Conseslus Kipruto Reveals He’s Run One Track Session Since June; Evan Jager Leads All Qualifiers Jager looked good even if he was sporting a goatee he plans to shave.
*LRC VIDEO EXCLUSIVE- Evan Jager Explains His Goatee

*LRC Post-Race Interviews

*Running Warehouse Prediction Contest Scores Updated Through Men’s Marathon Boston champ Geoffrey Kirui has won. A husband of a US Pro is leading the way in the contest.

More Outside Worlds Coverage

The Telegraph: Justin Gatlin’s Father Claims Fans Booing His Son After 100m Win Are “Disrespecting The Sport”
Boos Ring Out At Justin Gatlin’s Moved Medal Ceremony
GB’s Former Olympic Heptathlon Bronze Medalist Kelly Sotherton Explains Why She “Joined In The Booing Of Justin Gatlin”
Katerina Stefanidi A Class Apart To Take World Pole Vault Title It was a top two repeat from Rio as Stefanidi cleared 4.91m to beat out USA’s Sandi Morris (4.75m).
Athletics Weekly: Nafissatou Thiam Rises To The Occasion To Win World Heptathlon Gold Thiam adds World gold to her Olympic win from Rio as she beat Germany’s Carolin Schafer by a healthy 112 points.
GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson Misses Out On Heptathlon Medal After 5th-Place Finish A terrible high jump (her favorite event) cost her a shot at a medal.
*Johnson-Thompson Reflects On Another Missed Opportunity
*Johnson-Thompson: “I feel like I’m at ease with the high jump and it’s just a freak accident.”
Jessica Ennis-Hill Enjoys ‘Surreal’ Moment Of Receiving Re-Allocated 2011 World Gold In Front Of Home Fans “I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve just come to a stadium, watched, and not actually physically exerted myself and stood on the podium and received a gold medal. So, very surreal.”
Kara Goucher Gets World 10,000m Upgrade To Silver At London Stadium
The Telegraph: Tori Bowie Springs Surprise In 100m Final As Elaine Thompson Is Squeezed Out Of Medals
European-Athletics: “Stefanidi and Thiam are London golden girls with 2018 Euro Champs in Berlin now beckoning”

Day 1 At Worlds

LRC Unbeatable: The Amazing Mo Farah Wins The 10,000 At 2017 Worlds, Earns 10th Global Gold In “Toughest Race” Of His Life He almost had to PR to do it as the Africans threw it at him but Farah held them off in 26:49.51

LRC Joshua Cheptegei Is Primed To Succeed Gebrselassie, Bekele And Farah As The World’s Next Great 10,000-Meter Runner The Ugandan turned heads first at World XC and now looks to be Farah’s successor.

Women’s 1,500 Heats: LRC All 3 Americans (Including Sara Vaughn With A PR) And 4 Brits Move On In The Best Opening Round Women’s 1,500 In History The women brought it today as 17 of the top 20 seeds moved on.

London MBoard Talk

Major Doping News: Hajo Seppelt Goes To Ethiopia

Recommended Read: The Guardian: Inside The Doping Hotspot Of Ethiopia: Dodgy Testing And EPO Over The Counter A joint investigation by The Guardian and German broadcaster ARD looks into how easy it is to get EPO in Ethiopia, the disorganization of Ethiopia anti-doping and gets a former Berlin Marathon winner (who is still active) to admit to EPO/HGH use.
MB: Unidentified Female Berlin Marathon Champ Admits To EPO And HGH Use The athlete caught on tape wasn’t named, but has to be either Aberu Kebede (2016 and 2012 Berlin champ), Tirifi Tsegaye (2014), or Atsede Habtamu (2009).
ARD: How To Sell Africa’s Sports Heroes The article is in German, but you can watch an English version of the 30-minute broadcast here.
Ukrainian Sprinters Olesya Povkh And Olha Zemlyak Register The First Failed Drug Tests Of World Champs Povkh (a former Olympic and Worlds relay medalist) was entered in the 100 and 4 x 100 while Zemlyak was in the 400 and 4 x 400.
Russia Apologize For Doping Scandal But IAAF Vote Overwhelmingly To Keep Ban In Place Many were surprised by the sincerity of Russian Athletics president Dmitry Shlyakhtin‘s apology speech, but only 21 of the 166 federations voted to reinstate them.
*Hey Jamaica, What Gives? Jamaica Was Among The 21 Countries To Vote In Favor Of Reinstating Russia This after Jamaica was one of the only countries not to support Seb Coe‘s IAAF reform package eight months ago.
*Seb Coe Praises “Candid” Russian Apology
Suspicious Betting Activity Joins Doping As Target For Athletics Integrity Unit Anything tennis can do, we can do better.
Jenny Simpson Urges IAAF To Reduce Wait For Athletes Receiving Medals Stripped From Doping Cheats “It is difficult to watch an award ceremony that is 10 years worth of correcting. You can be retired and long gone and then finally be given what you deserve.”
Jamaican 4 X 400 World Champ Bronze Medalist Riker Hylton Cleared Of Doping Charges After He Was Accused Of Evading An Anti-Doping Test The anti-doping panel wasn’t “comfortably satisfied that Hylton was in fact notified (by JADCO).”

IAAF Admin Stuff

Brendan Foster Awarded IAAF Golden Order Of Merit For His Contributions To The Sport
Highlights From 51st IAAF Congress In London Seb Coe: “As a miler, I’ve always looked at things in four parts. Two years into a four-year term – the half-way point – is a good time to take stock.”
Full Video From IAAF Council Meeting Press Conference IAAF officials including Seb Coe discuss issues including the continuation of Russia’s ban.

Alan Webb’s 2007 Season 10 Years Later

LRC The Summer Of Webb: An Inside Look At Alan Webb’s Magical 2007 Season For a few months in 2007, American Alan Webb was the world’s best miler. Ten years later, we take a look back at Webb’s magical summer.

Webb MB Talk:
*LRC Feature: 10 years ago, Alan Webb was the greatest miler on the planet. An inside look at Webb’s magical summer.
*How did Alan Webb inspire you? post your stories
*10 Years later and Centro is STILL SLOWER then Webb??????!!!!!!!
*I don’t think Webb Would Have Feared El G
*Alan Webb confirms sex is critical for running
*Greatest American Distance Runners: 1) Billy Mills, 2) Alan Webb. 3) ? 4) ? 5) ?
*“Summer of Webb” 2007- What a Joke!
*Willis’ 3:29.66 = 3:46.22 mile. Sorry Alan.

Saturday In London

LRC Justin Gatlin Steals The Show In Usain Bolt’s Final 100M Race To Win 2017 World Title At Age 35 Usain Bolt did the unthinkable once again – he lost. We put in perspective.

LRC Final (updated) Almaz Ayana Laps Nearly The Entire Field To Win Gold In The Women’s 10,000 In One of The Finest Displays In Women’s Distance Running History The Chinese level of distance running is now the reality. Updated with comments from Molly Huddle, Emily Infeld and Emily Sisson.
*MB: Molly Huddle on the Ethiopians: “I feel like they get away with a lot.”
*MB: Almaz Ayana – guts and glory

LRC W1,500: Semis: Jenny Simpson Moves On To The Final, Genzebe Dibaba Struggles But Survives & Konstanze Klosterhalfen Goes for It (But Fails)

*MB: Official 2017 Worlds Day 2 Discussion Thread

Mason Finley Of USA Talks About Getting Historic Bronze It’s not easy being a discus thrower full-time as he lives at home with his mom to save money.

LRC 400 Round Qualifying: All 3 Americans Advance, But Makwala Says “We want to take the 400 to Africa, to make it (an) African race.”

Full Coverage In Our 2017 London Special Section

Worlds Outside Distance Coverage

Recommended Read: Q&A: US 1,500 Champ Robby Andrews Heads To Worlds After Final Weeks Of Hard Workouts On actually being towards the front at USAs (instead of way back), Andrews says he “felt strangely comfortable.”
The Guardian: “Mo Farah Hails 10,000 Gold As Greatest Of His Career”
Recommended Read: IAAF Profile: After Nightmare At World XC, Joshua Cheptegei Lives London Dream At World XC, Cheptegei had a 7-second lead with 1,000m to go, but cratered and finished 30th. Now he’s a Worlds silver medalist.
Mo Ahmed Sets Canadian 10K Record With 27:02 For 8th He broke Cam Levins‘ 27:07 mark from 2015.
Q&A With Daniel Winn On Pacing Robby Andrews To The World Standard, The Rewards Of Rabbiting And His Training Partner Chris O’Hare Winn shares some insights into the rabbiting experience and what it pays.
Farah Says He’ll See A Doctor As He Hurt His Leg And Got Some Cuts And Bruises During The 10,000
UKA Chief Neil Black: I Have Looked Mo Farah In The Eye And I’m Convinced He Is Not A Cheat
MB: World Steeple Silver Medalist Habiba Ghribi Scratches From Worlds With Injury

Sir Walter Miler

MB: Drew Hunter 3:57 FTW @ Sir Walter Miler Hunter beat out Craig Engels by .45 with Izaic Yorks third. Amanda Eccleston won the women’s race in 4:31.72 over Stephanie Garcia(4:31.87). *Results *Meet Website

Sir Walter Miler Recap: Third Time’s The Charm For Amanda Eccleston; Drew Hunter Outkicks Craig Engels
Craig Engels Is Cutting His Mullet For Charity He’s raised $1,865 of his $2,000 goal. Follow the haircut live on Engels’ Instagram account.

More Non-Worlds News

Oscar Pistorius Taken To Hospital With Chest Pains Pistorius is currently serving a 6-year jail sentence, but his case is not completely over as prosecutors are appealing for more jail time.
DyeStat Video Interview With Mt. SAC Coach On Winning The Bid For The 2020 Olympic Trials
Kayla David Earns USATF Athlete Of The Week Award After Record-Breaking Performance At Junior Olympics Davis became the fastest 13-year-old girl in history by winning the 400m in 52.54.

Doping Updates

The Telegraph: Furious Backlash Forces Athletics Chiefs To Abandon Plans To Scrap Pre-2005 WRs There is a new proposal to scrap WRs that came before 1991, when out-of-competition testing started. The new cutoff would scrap the records of FloJo (100/200), Marita Koch (400) and Jarmila Kratochvilova (800).
*Paula Radcliffe Relieved Her Record Is Safe, But Still Opposed To New 1991 Proposal She would rather see records individually investigated.
WADA Says Russia Must Fulfill At Least 12 More Criteria Before They Can Be Ruled Compliant Among the criteria is that the Russian government must publicly accept the findings of the McLaren investigation.
Russia Warns That They Will Not Give In To WADA Demand To Publicly Accept McLaren Report Findings One official stated, “We have repeatedly said that it contains certain controversial positions and provisions … Undoubtedly, no one is going to accept this report.”
Russia Bans Six More Athletes On Eve Of Appeal To Have IAAF Suspension Lifted Among the banned is steepler Lyubov Kharlamova, who will have all her results since July 2010 (including a Euro silver medal) annulled.
CBC: Should Track And Field Erase Its Record Book? Infamous BALCO scandal drug expert Victor Conte actually supported the record reset.

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.