Distance News / Recommended Reads

• Recommenced Read #1: Profile On The Life And Death Of US Distance Runner Gabe Proctor, Who Took His Own Life This Past May Family and friends describe Proctor as “funny, generous and kind to everyone,” but only those closest to him knew about his battle with depression.
  *MB Archives: Sad News: Rest in Peace Gabe Proctor 1990-2017
• RR #2: A Belated Essay And Assessment Of Eliud Kipchoge’s And Nike’s Sub-2 Hour Marathon Attempt “This footage of [Kipchoge’s] preparation … recalled the gloriously overwrought training montage of Rocky IV. In this case, though, Nike seemed to be asking its viewers not to identify with Rocky Balboa … but instead with Ivan Drago.”
• Running Author (Lore Of Running) And Scientist Tim Noakes Thinks The Sub-2 Marathon Project Should Talk To Wayde Van Niekerk About His Mental Training Noakes: “You have to convince the brain it is possible.”
• RR #3: Gabe Grunewald Does Q&A Update On Her Battle With Cancer Grunewald says it’s been a good summer as she’s started a new clinical trial of “immunotherapy” where – unlike chemo – she has “almost zero symptoms.”
• Check Out Craig Mottram’s 2004 Olympic Diary Leading Up To His 8th Place Finish In The 5,000 Mottram finished 8th in a race where Hicham El Guerrouj, Kenenisa Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge took the three podium places.

2017 World University Games *Live Stream *Live Results, Start Lists, Schedule

• Watch The 2017 World University Games For Free On LetsRun.com The WUG are in Taipei, Taiwan and go through Monday.
• IAAF Recap: Poland’s Pawel Fajdek And Taiwan’s Chun-Han Yang Make History At WUG World champion Fajdek won a historic 4th consecutive hammer title and Yang took an upset victory in the 100m, running 10.22 to beat favorites Thando Roto (9.95 PR) and USA’s Cameron Burrell (9.93 PR). Dominican Republic’s 2012 Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos ran a 45.24 season’s beest to win the 400m.
• Athletics Weekly: Jonny Davies Bags GB’s First WUG Medal With 1,500m Bronze As Germany’s Timo Benitz Gets The Win In 3:43.45

General State Of The Sport News

• Good Read #1: The Telegraph: “Seb Coe Is Right To Run With New Ideas For Change” Sports writer Ben Bloom: “Give things a go. … Try – and potentially fail. Because … surviving in this whizz-bang celebrity era without Bolt and Farah is going to be incredibly difficult. Athletics must be prepared to gamble.”
• GR #2: Alan Abrahamson Gives Props To London 2017 Mascot, Hero The Hedgehog Abrahamson gives some analysis and thinks Hero should be track and field’s official brand ambassador. He says, “Don’t laugh at any of this. Mascots are big stuff.” Includes a video highlight reel.
• Rieti Track Meet Cancelled For The Second Year In A Row Last year it was cancelled in the wake of the deadly earthquake that hit central Italy, but this year it was financial issues as a number of sponsors pulled out.
• InsideTheGames: New Analysis Details How IOC Used Money Earned During 2013-2016 Olympic Cycle Of the $5.6 billion in revenue, apparently 7.2% went to the USOC.
  *David Owen: “The IOC Likes To Say It Redistributes 90% Of Revenues, But Does It? And Who To?” Owen has some questions about the IOC’s expenditures and gives his best guess at how the IOC is spending its billions.

Marathon News

• Good Listen: Podcast Q&A With Jared Ward (Starts @ 13:30 Mark) Ward says he was impressed with the way Mo Farah and Usain Bolt lost at Worlds.
• Brianne Theisen-Eaton Is Running The Chicago Marathon Theisen-Eaton says before this she hadn’t run more than 1,200m, but now has gotten up to a 13-mile run which “absolutely killed” her.
• The Japan Times: Experts Say Tokyo Summer Temperatures Will Raise Heatstroke Risk At 2020 Olympic Marathon The Olympic marathon is often hot, but experts are saying it will be worse than the past and have asked organizers to change the route to pass in the shade of buildings.
• Runner’s World: “My Race Attire Is Not An Invitation For Rape” Woman writes blog post in response to a stranger’s lewd comment her race photos.

Africa To Bid To Host The 2025 World Championships The bid is expected to come from one of six nations – Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt or Morocco.

Usain Bolt Updates

Assorted Distance News

• GB’s Anthony Whiteman Goes Sub-1:50 To Break World M45 800m Record Whiteman ran 1:49.86 to break his own record by .66 and become the oldest man to ever go under 1:50.
• Mo Farah “Wouldn’t Change Any Part” Of His Career After Ending With A Win In Birmingham Farah gave his singlet to countryman Andrew Butchart after the race and told him it was “his time to shine.”
• The Denver Post: British Runner Ian Sharman Wins Leadville 100 For The Fourth Time
• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Marathon To Start And Finish At The Olympic Stadium And Follow The Tokyo Marathon Course The last time the Olympic marathon finished in the stadium was in the Bird’s Nest at the 2008 Beijing Games.
• Runner Fights Off Attacker On The Trails In Eugene, Oregon The woman was brought to the ground by an attacker hiding in the brush, but she fought him off, possibly breaking his nose before escaping.

Upcoming Action: Caster Semenya Going For A WR?

• Sunday: Caster Semenya Leads List Of Eight World Champions Competing In The ISTAF Meet At Berlin’s Olympic Stadium Semenya specifically requested that the meet run the 600 instead of the 800 and she may go for the 20-year-old WR of 1:22.63 while facing world silver medalist Francine Niyonsaba. Other world champions include Phyllis Francis, Ramil Guliyev, Dafne Schippers and Sam Kendricks vs. Renaud Lavillenie.
• The World University Games Begin Today In Taipei GB is sending distance runners Jess Judd and Adelle Tracey while three-time world hammer champ Pawell Fajdek highlights the throws. *Live Results/Schedule/Start Lists *Entries
• August 29: Zagreb Meeting Preview: World Discus Champ Sandra Perkovic Leads “Parade Of Stars” An interesting 100m features 200 world champ Ramil Guliyev against Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and and Adam Gemili while Dawn Harper Nelson faces Queen Harrison, Christina Manning and Kristi Castlin in the 100H.
• February: Indoor Track Returns To Georgia The meet will feature competition from the youth level all the way through NCAA and the pros.

Doping News

• Justin Gatlin Issues “Official Apology” To Fans Who Booed Him At Worlds Gatlin admitted that it “hurt” when he was booed by the London fans and reminds people that he wrote apology letters to the IAAF back in 2010.
• CAS Upholds Life Bans For Papa Massata Diack And Two Former Russian Officials They were all banned for covering up Liliya Shobukhova‘s doping and blackmailing her for it.
  *IAAF Statement On CAS Ruling Upholding Bans On Three Former Officials
• Shalane Flanagan Officially Gets Her 2008 Olympic Silver Medal Upgrade After Turkish Distance Runner Elvan Abeylegesse’s Doping Positive Flanagan decided to “celebrate in private” rather than receive her medal during any formal ceremony. *2nd Article

Truly Random

• Usain Bolt To Open 15 Of His Tracks & Records Fast Food Restaurants In The UK
• Just 3 Or 4 Journalists Showed Up To Hear People Complain About The IAAF Not Adding The Women’s 50k Racewalk Earlier
• What Was The Best Throws Country In 2017? Poland. The good news for US fans is America was #1 in the shot.

Good Reads

• Recommended Read Tianna Bartoletta Writes Great Blog Stating She’s Upset She Was Booted Off 4 X 100 Team
• LetsRun Visitor Writes About U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program For ESPN’s “The Undefeated” Article quotes Rojo and has this great quote from Andy Bayer: “I think our country was built by immigration. Welcoming new citizens is what the nation has been about. At times I’ve gotten frustrated because I didn’t want to lose to them, but when I step back and see how we should be as a people, it’s a lot different.”
  *MB: Check out an article I wrote on the WCAP 
• Sarcastic British Fans Are Happy They Will Have A Dual Meet With US Next Year: “Less chance of finishing fourth I suppose.”
• British Journalist Wonders If Mo Farah Should Do A Podcast With Someone Like LetsRun (Like Evan Jager) About Doping Instead Of Getting Annoyed By Questions

Post-Worlds Reaction – Ireland Didn’t Win Any Medals And Britain Only Won 2 Individual Medals

• Pat Butcher Is Far From Impressed From Britain’s Success In Relays As He Thinks Relays Are A Joke “Athletics is an individual sport; one man or woman (more or less) against the rest, and the best one wins.” On that front, GBR was awful as Farah was the only Brit to medal individually.
• Cathal Dennehy Says World Champs Were One Of Worst Ever For Ireland They only put one non-walker in the top 20 of any events.
• Sonia O’Sullivan Is Very Upset That Ireland Didn’t Wear Green Warmups At Worlds – Say They Looked More Like The New Zealand All Blacks We agree.

Kiwi Coach Is Satisfied: NZ Coach Pleased With Worlds Performance: “I’d say it was six or seven out of ten.” The article also says the Robertson twins “probably” will be moving to the marathon.