What’s Next For The Great Kenenisa Bekele?

LRC Jos Hermens: Kenenisa Bekele Must Become More “Professional” If He Is To Realize Marathon Potential  Agent Jos Hermens thinks Kenenisa Bekele is capable of much more in the marathon if he can focus on training and not be distracted by his business empire. “Eight marathons, two wins, that’s not Kenenisa Bekele. … What do you want to be, businessman or professional runner?”
*MB: Great insight from Jos Hermens on Kenenisa Bekele

More Post-Berlin:

• Toni Reavis: “Mother Nature Says Nein In Berlin” Reavis says rather than focus on the missed WR, enjoy the great duel that emerged between Kipchoge and Guye Adola.
• Former Boston Winner Amby Burfoot Questions How Slow The Conditions Were In Berlin Burfoot points out how many of the elites still ran PRs even in the conditions and argues that 2:02:57, when it is broken, won’t be “busted by a big margin.”
• 2017 Berlin Marathon Stat Blitz Kipchoge’s top 5 marathon average is now 2:03:47, but that is still slower than Wilson Kipsang‘s, which is 2:03:45.
• Kenyan Op-Ed: “Kipchoge Helped Save Face For Kenyan Sport” Kipchoge’s run is a lone positive while Kenyan sport admins and politicians keep dropping the ball.
• MB: So are we gonna talk about Kipsang’s drop or what???

9-1-1 Call Placed After Condo Resident Realized David Torrence Was Dead At Bottom Of Pool Is Released A resident saw Torrence in the pool when she went out to walk her dog at 6:30 am and assumed he was swimming but realized he was dead when she came back. He was staying at a cousin’s place while she was out of town.

NCAA Updates

• No Changes To The Top 12 Men’s Teams In Updated NCAA Rankings NAU, Stanford and Syracuse continue to be ranked 1-3.
• Top 5 Women’s Ranked Teams Remain Idle As Colorado, Oregon And New Mexico Continue To Lead The University of San Francisco moved from 8th to 6th after winning Roy Griak.
• Abbey D’Agostino And Adam Nelson Honored At Dartmouth On The World Stage Dinner D’Agostino spoke about her dramatic Rio 2016 race and Nelson about doping in sport.
• MB: Wow: James Gatto, head of global sports marketing for adidas, & 4 college ball coaches arrested for bribery/fraud
  *MB: FBI invsitgation about to blow up college basketball

Olympic News

• USOC Looking At Winter Olympic Bidding Options For 2026 And Beyond Salt Lake City, Denver and Reno/Tahoe are among cities that have expressed interest, but 2026 would likely not work out because of conflict with LA 2028.
• Korea Federation Of Banks To Buy $879,000 Worth Of 2018 Winter Games Tickets Due To Dismal Sales So Far Only 22.7% of tickets have been sold so far with less than 5 months to go, the lowest mark in recent Winter Olympic history.
• South Korea Government Doing It’s “Utmost” To Ensure Safety At Pyeongchang 2018
• Tokyo 2020 Unveil New Promotional Graphics

(Russian) Doping Updates

• WADA To Begin Audit Of Russian Anti-Doping Agency This Week The review committee will then make a recommendation to WADA’s board meeting in November on whether to reinstate RUSADA.
• WADA President Craig Reedie Hints That Russia Is Moving In The Right Direction To Be Declared Compliant Before Next Year’s Winter Games Some of teh criteria Russia still has to fulfill is “acknowledgement of the McLaren Report” and granting “access to the Moscow Laboratory and its records.” (WHAT?!? How has that second one not happened already?)
• Russian Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Is Concerned By WADA And IOC Handling Of 2014 Scandal “The expectation I once had for meaningful reform is beginning to fade. In recent weeks, news reports have strongly suggested that the World (Anti-Doping) Agency is trying to find a way to walk away from the findings of its own independent investigator.”
• The Independent: “Why Is Anyone Shocked That Paralympians Have Been Accused Of Cheating?” We’re not. Anytime there is money/glory on the line, there will be some people willing to cheat.
• US Athletes Are Concerned Russians Drug Cheats From The 2014 Winter Games Will Escape Punishment One winter Olympian praised the IAAF’s approach to Russia, saying, “The IAAF outcome is about as elegant a solution as you could come to.”
• WADA Could Turn To Private Donors For Funding After Governments Delay 2018-2021 Budget WADA says they require a budget increase of 8, 15, 15 and 5 percent over the next four years.

Non-Berlin News

• Poland’s Blazej Brzezinski Gets Upset Victory To Win Warsaw Marathon In 2:11:26 Ethiopia’s Bekelu Beji (2:35:08) won the women’s race after pre-race favorite Recho Kosgei collapsed with half a mile to go.
• Former GB Olympic Champ Kelly Holmes Opens Up About How She Used To “Cut Herself Every Day” With Scissors When She Was Injured Holmes concealed her depression at the time, but now wants to help people by showing them that “there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.” *BBC Article

Pre-Berlin Message Board Talk

• Guys Adola is the dark horse in Berlin A fantastic prediction.
• When Bekele gets the World Record … 
• 60:45 PACE for HM in Berlin tommorow ! 61 flat if it’s raining.
• It’s supposed to rain overnight in Berlin. How will a wet road affect race? 
• Kipchoge Training in detail (link) 
• Berlin is next weekend. We can officially start the “Expect Great Things” thread! 

More Berlin Coverage

RRW Ryan Vail – America’s Lone Elite Men’s Entry – Is Hoping For A PR At 2017 BMW Berlin Marathon Vail, who has been running as much as 130 miles per week on just six days of running, has been battling the injury bug of late as he hasn’t finished a marathon since November of 2014.

LRC The Craziest Guy In Berlin? Japan’s Yuta Shitara Ran 60:17 For A Half LAST Weekend And Likely Will Go Out With Leaders He’s got a 2:09 PR. We’re not sure how to say cojones in Japanese.

• Wilson Kipsang Says He Respects, But Does Not Fear Eliud Kipchoge Kipsang also weighed in on Kipchoge’s Breaking2 run and said he thinks he’d run just as fast as Kipchoge.
• Wilson Kipsang: “My motivation continues to be great. I have not yet had enough.” Interesting stuff from Kipsang, who says he wants to win all the marathon majors (he only needs Boston and Chicago), has dropped his mileage and increased speed for Berlin 2017 and hints that the newest adidas sub2 shoe could give him an edge.
• InsideTheGames’ Mike Rowbottom Thinks Berlin Will Be Great, But Doesn’t Want To Hear Talk About The “Greatest Of All Time” (GOAT) Rowbottom thinks the race will be historic, but actually hopes they don’t run the WR.
• Gladys Cherono Wants To Break 2:20 And Maybe Even The CR In Berlin
• SPIKES: Berlin Marathon By The Numbers Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele and Wilson Kipsang have each won Berlin once so far in their career.
• MB: Get A Look At Eliud Kipchoge’s Training Log In The Month Leading Up To Berlin Some interesting insights into the training of the best marathoner in the world.
• LRC Let’s Get Excited: Eliud Kipchoge Vs. Kenenisa Bekele Vs. Wilson Kipsang Vs. World Record Sunday In Berlin It doesn’t get much better than this. 3 global titans, including the greatest distance runner ever (Bekele) vs. the greatest marathoner ever (Kipchoge) on the only course where the world record has fallen the last 15 years.
• Full Berlin Coverage on 2017 Berlin Marathon Page

US Field Event News

• Video: PVer Sandi Morris Shows Off Her Guitar/Vocal Skills
• The Eatons Inducted Into Oregon Sports Hall Of Fame

Before Berlin On Sunday, A Look Back

LRC Classics #1 A Look Back At A Race For The Ages: Eliud Kipchoge Takes Down Kenenisa Bekele & El Guerrouj At The 2003 World Championships In 5,000 14 years ago, three of the greatest distance runners of all-time squared off at 5,000m and hardly anyone realized it.