Sprints And Jumps

• As Lolo Jones Tries To Make Her Fourth Olympic Games, She Is Motivated By Guy Who Didn’t Win A Medal Until His Fifth Jones hasn’t ruled out going back to track, but says this winter could be her last season.
• Bahamian 400m Record Holder Steven Gardiner Talks About His Journey To Winnign His Breakthrough Silver Medal At London Worlds He failed to make the final in 2015 and 2016, but says joining a training group (under Gary Evans in Florida with Tony McQuay and Novlene Williams-Mills) made a big difference.
• Brittney Reese “The Beast” Says She’s As Strong And Motivated As Ever After Winning Her Fourth World LJ Title 31-year-old Reese says she’ll continue on through Tokyo 2020 and then she’s done.
• USA’s Mike Powell Says He Wants To Coach Somebody To Break His Long Jump WR Powell’s 8.95m record is now 26-years-old.
• Justin Gatlin Gets A Couple Spots In Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 Photos Of The Year Also shots from the World Champs and NYC marathons.
• Wayde Van Niekerk Gets Early Christmas Gift From Liverpool Soccer Player Mo Salah Salah, the top goal scorer in the Premier League, sent Van Niekerk a signed Liverpool jersey.

Non-Pro News

• RW Profile: Masters Runner Of The Year Sabra Harvey Didn’t Let Hurricane Harvey Slow Her Down Harvey’s Houston home was ruined by flooding, but Harvey didn’t let that stop her from winning every age-graded national race she entered this year (mile, 5K, 10K and 15K)
• US Masters Runner Gary Patton Runs 70-74 Indoor Mile Record With 5:29.81 Patton broke the previous WR of 5:32.4, which had stood for 30 years. His training includes only running just once every three days and strength training the rest.
  *MB: 71 year old sets mile record, and only runs once every three days.
• Top 10 Most Popular Strava Segments In The US For 2017 The most popular route is a 1.5K loop around the Central Park Reservoir in NYC. The fastest time on it is 4:44 (5:05 pace).
• Listening To The Right Music Can Actually Help You Recover From A Tough Workout A study shows that listening to slow relaxing music after a workout can help lower your cortisol levels whereas fast music increases them.
• If You Missed This: In Dramatic Finish, Dallas Women’s Marathon Winner Gets Helped Across The Line By A High Schooler Chandler Self collapsed across the line in 2:53:57.
  *MB: Women’s winner of BMW Dallas Marathon blows her legs out, finishes carrying a fridge.

More International Pro News

• New Star Constellations Created For Usain Bolt And Mo Farah They are not official, but they were chosen by Astronomy experts at the University of Birmingham.
• Scottish Distance Couple Lynsey Sharp And Andrew Butchart Are Moving To California To Be Close To Their Coach, Terrence Mahon
• Good Read: IAAF Profile On Aussie Pole Vaulter Kurtis Marschall, Who Made The Rio Olympics Just Three Days Short Of The Deadline Marschall has improved quickly from 2016 with a 7th place finish at Worlds. He takes a mature approach to sport, following a “24-hour rule” where you have 1 day to celebrate or cry over a performance, then you have to move on.
• Japanese Teen Star Sprinter Abdul Hakim Sani Brown Talks About The Challenge He Faced In High School Of Not Having Access To A Track To Train At In Tokyo, even his school campus was very limited space so he sometimes had to train on the streets.
• Heart Condition Rules New Zealand Shot Putter Jacko Gill Out Of Commonwealth Games Gill is suffering from myocarditis and been advised to avoid training for at least six months.

(Russian) Doping/Scandal Updates

• Does He Think This Is Russia Or Something? Vladimir Putin Claims US Security Services Drugged Grigory Rodchenkov To Persuade Him To Reveal Doping Scandal Putin also continues to claim that the attack on Russian doping is about “politics” and specifically timed before he stands for re-election.
• International Federations Told Names Of 300 Russian Athletes On Grigory Rodchenkov’s Doping Cover-Up List
• IAAF Doping Review Board Approve Guidelines For 2018 Neutral Athlete Status Previously-approved neutral athletes have to reapply for continued permission in 2018.
• Vitaly Mutko Does Post-Russian Ban Interview, Says There Would Be No Point To Him Resigning
• The FBI Is Investigating The Awarding Of The 2016 Games The investigation is focused on alleged vote buying, which won Rio the 2016 bid over Chicago and other cities.
• IOC Confident 2020 Tokyo Games Won’t Be Tainted By Doping
• Decision On Russian Women’s Ice Hockey Team At 2018 Winter Games Due To Be Made Next Week It’s kind of hard to argue a country is banned from the Olympics if they’re allowed to send an entire team. Especially a team that had six players get doping bans.
• IOC Bans Six Russian Female Ice Hockey Players For Life Over Doping

Upcoming Winter Action

• January 12: Mo Farah To Race The Doha Half Marathon
• March 24: IAAF Countdown: The World Half Marathon Championships Are In Valencia, Spain In 100 Days
• February 3: 100H World Bronze Medalist Pamela Dutkiewicz Will Clash With European 60H Bronze Medalist Gina Luckenkemper At The Karlsruhe Indoor Meet Other headliners include PV WR holder Renaud Lavillenie.

Rupp And Flanagan To Boston 2018

Loaded American Field Set For 2018 Boston Marathon With WMM Winners Galen Rupp And Shalane Flanagan Joined By Jordan Hasay, Desiree Linden, Molly Huddle And Dathan Ritzenhein (link fixed) Rupp and Flanagan will go try to get back-to-back WMM victories. They’re also joined by Abdi Abdirahman, Ryan Vail, Shadrack Biwott, Sara Hall, Kellyn Taylor and Deena Kastor will also race. *Announcement Video
*Flanagan: “My heart ♥️ said … give it one more chance, try again. See everyone in Boston on Patriots Day.”
*MB: Rupp is running boston, scared of running a real marathon
*MB: Flanagan, Hasay, Huddle, and Linden ALL set to race Boston 2018!

European XC Champs In The Books *Results

Kaan Kigen Ozbilen And Yasemin Can Make It A Turkish Double Victory At European XC Championships Ozbilen won by 9 seconds over Spain’s Adel Mechaal, helping Turkey to a 3-point team win over Spain. On the women’s side, Can won easily while GB took the team title.

• Irish Journalist Cathal Dennehy Rips Turkey: “Turks’ Shameless Talent Grab Playing A Sick Joke On European Athletics” Dennehy writes that it was “another proud day for Kenya” and another “up yours from Turkey” at the Euro XC champs.
• You Can’t Make This Up: After Winning Euro XC Champs, The Four Kenyans That Made Up The Kenyan Team Posed With The Turkish Flag The Wrong Way
• Video Highlights
• GB Lands Five Gold Medals At Euro XC Champs The GB senior women didn’t have anyone in the top 5, but put 4 in the top 10 to win team gold. Andrew Butchart took individual bronze after Dewi Griffiths did the early leading and DNFed with a hamstring injury.
• Former Two-Time Euro XC Champs Fionnuala McCormack Could Only Manage 12th This Year
• Jakob Ingebrigsten Defends His Euro U20 Title GB’s Harriet Knowles-Jones won the women’s race.
• After Near Misses, France’s Jimmy Gressier And Germany’s Alina Reh Take Euro U23 Titles Reh beat out her countrywoman Konstanze Klosterhalfen by 3 seconds as GB’s Jessica Judd was 3rd.
• Britain Wins Inaugural Mixed Relay Gold 

Honolulu Marathon *Results

RRW Lawrence Cherono (2:08:26) And Brigid Kosgei (2:22:14) Smash Course Records At Honolulu Marathon, Win $50,000 World record holder Dennis Kimetto dropped out again. Nick Symmonds ran 3:00:35.

RRW King Cheserek Wins Battle Of Sexes Kalakaua Mile In Hawaii And Defeats Nick Willis And Will Leer The race does not give splits and makes the runners essentially time trial it by feel. Excellent.
*MB: Nick Willis’ 8-Month Pregnant Wife Runs 6:59 Mile In Hawaii

Hot Track Action

• Donavan Brazier Joins Sub-4:00 Club With 3:59.30 To Beat Leo Manzano By 4 Seconds
• Sydney McLaughlin’s Collegiate Debut Is A Success As She Breaks 300m World Junior Record, Becomes No. 7 World, No. 2 American, No. 2 Collegian She ran 36.12. Video of race here.
• Sammy Watson Runs 2:42.12 1,000m To Crush NCAA 800m Record Holder Jazmine Fray In Her First Collegiate Race Watson did run 2:40.72 last year.
• Indiana’s Ben Veatch Runs 13:57.27 To Break American Junior Indoor 5,000 Record (14:08)
• Kaori Morita Runs 31:59.94 In 10,000m Debut

Track/Olympic News

• IAAF Says 9 Million More Americans Watched Diamond League In 2017 Than In 2016 On TV
• Kiwi Shot Put World Camp Tom Walsh Relishes Challenge From Joe Kovacs And Ryan Crouser Will they all square off at World Indoors?
• Track And Field News Looks At New “National Relay Championships”
• Denver, Reno-Tahoe And Salt Lake City May Bid For 2026 Or 2030 Olympics
• Athletics Weekly Readers Choice End-Of-Year Winners

More From USA Marathon Champs

LRCQ&A With USATF Marathon Champ Tim Ritchie, Who Explains What He Learned From Eliud Kipchoge And How He Ran 2:11 Off 85 Miles A Week

LRCParker Stinson Went For It, Tim Ritchie Got It Done, Sara Hall Doubled Down, A 50-Year-Old Made The Trials And A Jerry Lawson History Lesson

*Recommended Read: USA Marathon Champ Sara Hall Defies Convention Hall has always had great range and now is enjoying the success her non-standard approach is bringing. “In my mind, I flash back to times that you are thinking you aren’t even good at this sport. It makes you realize that, wow, when you hear those voices, don’t believe those voices.”

USATF Marathon Championships *Results

RRW Sara Hall And Tim Ritchie Win 2017 USA Marathon Titles At Cal Int’l Marathon Hall won in 2:28:10 just 5 weeks after running 2:27:21 in Frankfurt while Ritchie ran a new PR of 2:11:55.
*CIM Going The Extra Mile To Stop Race Cheats In addition to analyzing results, CIM hired Marathon Investigation’s Derek Murphy to help catch cheats and even catch people pre-race who tried to hire a “bib mule.”

Message Board Talk

• MB: Timothy Ritchie (2:11:56) And Sara Hall (2:28:10) Win 2017 USATF Marathon Championships At CIM Ritchie beat out Tyler McCandless by 32 seconds with the top 10 all breaking 2:15. Hall won the women’s race by over 2 minutes over Roberta Groner (2:30:38).
  
• MB: CIM Race Tracking
  
• MB: Holy hell the depth at CIM.
  
• MB: Over/Under 3:30 @ CIM Sunday? No training runs over 5 miles, first marathon
  
• MB: Ashley Brasovan is BACK, baby! The former Foot Locker champ was 17th in 2:40:19.
  *Pre-CIM Q&A With Ashley Brasovan

NCAA XC Photo Galleries (800+ Photos Each Race) *Men *Women