Getting You Ready For 2017 NCAA XC

LRC Feature The Rise Of Syracuse: How A Cross-Country Powerhouse Was Built From Scratch In 10 Years We take an in-depth 6,000+ word look at how Chris Fox and company built Syracuse from nothing into a national champion.
*MB: Syracuse – From Nothing to National Champ – How a Cross Country Powerhouse Was Built From Scratch in 10 Years

LRC 2017 NCAA Men’s XC Preview: #2 Syracuse & #1 Northern Arizona Syracuse had storybook 2015 season. NAU had a storybook 2016 season. Which one will get the glory in 2017?

LRC 2017 NCAA Women’s XC Preview: #2 New Mexico & #1 Colorado Colorado choked away a national title chance last year but they’ve got a real good shot at winning in 2017, but a top heavy New Mexico team is going to be very hard to beat.

Previous:
Men: #4 BYU & #3 Arkansas
Men: #6 Colorado & #5 Stanford 
Men: #8 Oregon & #7 Wisconsin
Men: #10 Oklahoma State & #9 Iona
Women: #4 Oregon & #3 Stanford 
Women: #6 NC State & #5 Michigan
Women: #8 Penn State & #7 San Francisco
Women: #10 Providence & #9 Arkansas

• MB: Official 2017 NCAA XC Preview Discussion Thread
• Isaac Wood’s Top 31 Men’s Pre-Season Rankings He’s got Arkansas at #1.
• Week 1 Women’s NCAA XC Poll: Colarado And Oregon Remain 1-2, N. Mex. Moves Up To #3
• Week 1 Men’s NCAA XC Poll: NAU, Stanford And Syracuse Stay 1-2-3
• Week 1 NCAA Men’s Regional XC Rankings
• Week 1 NCAA Women’s Regional XC Rankings

Russian Doping / IOC Corruption Updates

• Good Read: USA Today: “IOC Must Make Choice Between Greed And Good” Nancy Armour rips the IOC for its culture of corruption and Thomas Bach for not having a “spine.”
• NY Times: IOC Investigation Of 2014 Winter Games Russian Doping Might Soon Yield Bans And IOC member says that they are analyzing which Sochi urine samples had been tampered with and should have the first from the first 50 bottles in a few days. *Reuters
• Russia Looking Certain To Avoid 2018 Winter Games Ban As IOC And WADA Condemn NADO Statement Calling To Exclude Them WADA head Craig Reedie actually accused NADOs of looking “backwards rather than forwards.” We’re sure Reedie would love everyone to forget his and WADA’s ineptness and the fact that many believe he should resign.

More Sunday On The Roads

• James Mwangi (59:07) Aims To Retain Copenhagen Half Marathon Title Against Strong Field The field also has Abraham Cheroben (58:48), World XC silver medalist Geoffrey Yegon and a slew of other men around the one hour mark. The women’s race is led by Brigid Kosgei (67:35), Pascalia Chepkorir (67:17) and Eunice Chumba (68:04).
• Edwin Kiptoo Going For Hat Trick At The Dam Tot Damloop 10 Mile In The Netherlands Kiptoo will face former world half marathon bronze medalist John Mwangangi, 59:20 half runner Birhanu Legese and Fernando Cabada. The women are lead by Worlds 10,000 5th placer Susan Krumins, who faces Kenyan Mercyline Chelangat (13th at Worlds).
• Defending Champion And South African All-Comers Record Holder (2:08:41) Asefa Negewo Leads Cape Town Marathon Field Negewo faces fellow sub-2:10 men Laban Mutai (2:08:01) and Seboka Nigusse (2:09:25) and South African 5,000 NR holder Elroy Gelant in his debut. Agnes Jepkemboi Kiprop (2:23:54) leads the women’s field against Betelhem Moges (2:24:29), Germany’s Lisa Hahner (2:28:39) and SA’s Irvette van Zyl (2:31:26).

Anti-Doping Updates

• Good Read: NY Times Tribute: Gary Wadler, Antidoping Pioneer, Had A Gift For Straight Talk Wadler was one of the first to start educating people about the prevalence and dangers of doping in sports.
  *AP: Anti-Doping Pioneer And Expert Gary Wadler Dies At Age 78 Wadler was a leading critic of the way US sports leagues (NFL, MLB) handled their “anti-doping” programs.
• 95 Of 96 Russian Doping Cases From McLaren Report Cleared By WADA These were cases with not enough hard evidence due to samples destroyed by the Moscow lab, but WADA is still pursuing others among the 1,000 McLaren found.
• IOC And WADA Respond After Group Of National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs) Call For Russia To Be Banned From 2018 Winter Olympics The NADOs called on the IOC to “stop kicking the can down the road and issue meaningful consequences” and accused the IOC of “dereliction of duty.”

Weekly Recap

WTW Running’s Version Of Sergio Dipp, A New 10k WR, Galen Rupp, Jordan Hasay And More We take a look back at the week in running and along the way introduce you to a new road race in Colorado.

Distance News

• Copenaghen Half Marathon, With 5 Sub-60 Men And 5 Sub-69 Women, Will Be Broadcast Live On Sunday At 6 AM ET (11 CET)
• Olympic Champion Kipchoge Signs Endorsement Deal With Isuzu He’ll get 7 million Kenyan shillings ($68k) and a new car.

Non-Distance News

• Did You Know That Vashti Cunningham Isn’t The Best 19-Year-Old HJer In The World? Ukraine’s Yuliya Levchenko Is She was 2nd at Worlds and 2nd on the 2017 performance list.
• Japanese Are Worried That Construction Workers On 2020 Stadium Are Working Too Hard One worker committed suicide recently and said he was overworked after doing 200 hours of overtime in a month. There is a shortage of construction workers in Japan after the tsunami.
• Akani Simbine Is Disappointed With His 5th Place In 100 In Worlds – Says Hip Injury Cost Him A Medal He’ll go for the 100/200 double at Commonwealths in 2018.

News From Japan

• Kiryu’s 9.98 100 Wasn’t The Only Great Performance At Their Collegiate Champs Yume Kitamura set a national university record 2:00.92. A Japanese woman has never broken 2:00.00. A new meet record in the men’s 800 was also set (just 1:47.92).
• 4 Japanese Athletes Were In Prague 10k Where Jepkosgei Broke WR Kenta Murayama was hoping to break the Japanese NR on the roads of 28:05 but ran over 29:00.

News From Kenya

• Elijah Manangoi And Governor Of Narok County To Establish Training Camp, Hoping To Help Reduce Youth Unemployment Unfortunately, professional running is close to being a zero sum game. Only the fastest few get paid.
• Former WR Holder Patrick Makau Isn’t Sure Which Stud Will Win The 2017 BMW Berlin Marathon

Sad News: Jamaican Sprinter Jordan Scott Dies In Car Crash In Kingston, Jamaica The 20-year-old was driving with with fellow sprinter Michael Campbell, who ran in the 4 x 100 heats for Jamaica at Worlds. Scott died in the crash, but Campbell survived and is currently in hospital.

Other Distance News

• Team USATF Wins DecaNation Title For Tenth Time In 13 Years The US scored 122 points at the international ten-event meet to beat France by 19 points. Big names competing and winning for the US included Shannon Rowbury (2,000), Courtney Okolo (200/400) and Sam Kendricks (PV). *Full Results
• Jake Gyllenhaal Movie About Boston Marathon Bombing Victim Jeff Bauman Premiering At Boston Hospital Today “Stronger” is in theaters on September 22nd. *Trailer
• September 16: 2017 USATF National 24-Hour Championships Return To Cleveland For 9th year

For The Running Form Nerds

• Interesting Read: Great North Run Form Analysis: Mary Keitany Vs. Vivian Cheruiyot And Mo Farah Vs. Jake Robertson Has Keitany’s form actually deteriorated over the years? Why is Robertson’s form better during the race, but worse in the kick?
• Women’s World Champs Marathon Form Analysis A look at winner Rose Chelimo, Edna Kiplagat and Amy Cragg.

The World’s First Sub-30k On The Roads By A Woman

LRC Joyciline Jepkosgei Smashes 10k Road World Record – Becomes First Woman To Break 30 On The Roads With A Sensational 29:43 The world half marathon record holder wasted no time getting after it as she broke the 5k road WR with a 14:33 split.
*IAAF Recap Benard Kimeli took the men’s race in 27:10.
*MB: Official 2017 Birrell 10k Dicussion Thread – Women’s Sub-30 WR attempt 

Doping / Corruption News

• 58-Year-Old Former British Olympic Shot Putter Paul Edwards Still Fighting Lifetime Doping Ban From 1997 Edwards has launched a Facebook page proclaiming his innocence and saying he will continue to fight to clear his name.
• Russian World HJ Champ Maria Lasitskene Hits Out At Russian Officials For The Slow Pace Of Anti-Doping Reforms The Russian federation head Dmitry Shlyakhtin hit back with, “Judging the federation’s work is the prerogative of the IAAF task force and the Russian Sports Ministry. Athletes should do their job, whether it’s jumping or running on tracks.”
• NY Times: Brazil Whistleblower Says He Told The IOC About Rio Olympics Corruption Years Ago The former official, Eric Maleson, went to the IOC back in 2011, but the IOC claimed they didn’t have “the capacity to make any criminal investigation.”
• Papa Massata Diack Calls Corruption Allegations Against Him “The Biggest Lie In The History Of World Sport”
• Former Australian Olympic Javelin Thrower Oliver Dziubak Fined For Selling Steroids Dziubak, now a pharmacist, got caught thanks to some text messages that came out during a messy divorce with his ex-wife.
• The Guardian: “Charities Still Waiting For The Millions Raided To Build West Ham’s New Stadium” The article says that the stadium was funded partly by money meant for charities and complains that West Ham got the stadium so cheap.

More Road News

• Ben Blankenship (4:07) And Heather Kampf (4:42) Win Close Races At The Minnesota Mile Blankenship won over Trevor Dunbar, Riley Masters and Patrick Casey, who all were clocked at 4:08 while Kampf beat Kenya’s Monicah Ngige by less than a second. *Results
• October 22: Dickson Chumba Going For The Canadian All Comers’ Record At The Toronto Waterfront Marathon Chumba’s PR is 2:04:32 and the Canadian soil record is 2:06:54. Besides the clock, Chumba will have his hands full with defending champion Philemon Rono and Ethiopians Solomon Deksisa (2:06:22) and Endeshaw Negesse (2:04:52).
• Sunday: Georgina Rono (2:21) And Evans Sambu (2:10) Will Defend Their Titles At The Taiyuan Marathon In China
• Sunday: Kenyan Hilary Maiyo (62:41) Will Defend His Title At The Minsk Half Christine Moraa Oiga (71:50) leads the women’s race.