The LetsRun.com World And US Rankings Are Here – Who’s #1?

LRCMen’s 1,500: Training Partners Elijah Manangoi & Timothy Cheruiyot Lead The Way, Matt Centrowitz Still US #1 Sorry, Robby Andrews fans, Centro is still atop the US.
*Discuss: 2018 World and US 1,500m Rankings Here, Share your opinion

LRCWomen’s 800:  Caster Semenya’s Perfect Season Makes Her World #1 Again; Ajee Wilson Produces Greatest Year Ever By An American What a year for Semenya and Ajee Wilson, and the American women in general, who had three in the world top 10.
*Discussion: 2017 800m Women’s Rankings: Semenya #1, Ajee Wilson #3, 3 Americans in top 10

LRC Men’s 800: Nijel Amos Is Your World #1; U.S. Champ Donavan Brazier Is Top American
*Discussion: 800 World Rankings Men: What do you think?

Check back as we unveil more rankings each day.

Scotland’s Favorite New Running Couple

• BBC:“Love Blossoms As Lynsey Sharp And Andrew Butchart Launch Scots’ Team Tartan” Butchart and Sharp talk a bit about their relationship as they prepare to represent Scotland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
• Things Have Came A Long Way In A Short Time For Scotland’s Andrew Butchart Butchart wasn’t at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and only ran his first 5K in 2014, but now will be looking for a medal at the Gold Coast 2018.
• Lynsey Sharp Has High Hopes For The “Second Half” Of Her Career Sharp has made some big changes for the second half with a move from the UK to California and a new sponsorship with adidas.

African Distance News

• Paul “Mr. Silver” Tergat Looks Back At When He Was Runner-Up In the 2000 Olympic 10,000 To Haile Gebrselassie “It was hard to accept losing by just 0.09. Maybe if I had competed in the 100m dash rather than the 10,000m it might have been easier to accept.”
• Q&A With 10,000m WR Holder Almaz Ayana, Who Gives Some Insights Into Her Training Ayana says she averages around 150km (93 miles) a week.
• Edna Kiplagat Still Hungry For More As She Aims To Defend Her Boston Marathon Title

Upcoming Road/XC Racing

• January 13:Three-Time Winner Garrett Heath, Chris Derrick, Leonard Korir And Club XC Champ Ian La Mere Lead Team USA For Great Edinburgh XC Challenge The women’s team has Desi Linden, Molly Seidel and Natosha Rogers. Juniors are lead by Foot Locker champs Claudia Lane and Dylan Jacobs.
• Yuki Kawauchi Added To 2018 Boston Marathon Elite Field It was also announced that Kawauchi will run the Marshfield Road Runners New Year’s Day Marathon with the goal of breaking the record for most sub-2:20 marathons (he is currently tied at 75 with US’s Doug Kurtis).
• December 31:Molly Seidel, Stephanie Bruce And Sarah Pagano Lead Field For NYRR Midnight Run In Central ParkChristo Landry leads the men’s race.
• January 28:#4 All-Time Japanese Woman Yuka Ando (2:21:36) Leads Field For The Osaka Women’s Marathon
• Southern California Fires Affect Numerous Road Races One of the largest wildfires in California history has lead to the cancellation or postponement of many races.

Japanese Road News

• Japan’s Two-Time World Championships And Olympic Marathoner Risa Shigetoma (2:23:23 PR) Retiring This March
• Katsura Girls And Hakusan Boys Break Records At Japan National Junior High School Ekiden
• 2:28 Japanese Marathoner Risa Takenaka Retiring After January’s National Women’s Ekiden

Winter Olympic News

• What A Joke:Russian “Neutral” Uniforms For 2018 Games Could Be Red And White With “Olympic Athlete From Russia” On It How about blank beige uniforms? Can’t get much more neutral than that.
• Russian XC Skier Accused Of Being A “Traitor” For Allegedly Informing On His Teammates He denies that he “slandered” any teammates.
• Salt Lake City Set To Bid For 2030 Winter Olympics They last hosted the Games back in 2002.
• Denver Considering Bidding For The Winter Olympics (Possibly 2026) Denver was supposed to host the 1976 Games, but withdrew due to financial concerns.
• IOC Release Verdicts Against Russian Athletes Including An Olympic Skating Champ That Was Cleared Of Doping

Sunday Road Action

• Kenenisa Bekele Wins TSK 25K, But Nowhere Near The WR With 1:13:48 There was talk of the 1:11:18 WR and Bekele said he wanted at least his 1:12:47 PR, but Bekele actually fell off the leaders at one point before coming back to win by a good margin. Ethiopia’s Degitu Azimeraw got an upset 3-second win over 2015 World marathon silver medalist Helah Kiprop.
  *MB: Kenenisa Bekele Comes Up Short in Breaking 25k world record
• With A Rare Negative Split, Yuki Kawauchi Wins Hofu Yomiuri Marathon In 2:10:03, Tying The Record For Most Career Sub-2:20 Marathons With 75 Misaki Kato dominated the women’s race by 11 minutes with 2:28:12.
• Peter Kimeli Some (2:14:49) And Kyrgyzstan’s Viktoria Poliudina (2:33:25) Win Shenzhen Marathon In China

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!

Foot Locker High School XC Champs *Results*Race Replay

LRC Claudia Lane Dominates To Repeat As Champ, Misses Joining Sub-17:00 Club (link fixed) 17:03 for Lane as only 3 women in the last 30 years have ever gone sub-17. She’ll attempt to be first-ever 3-time girl’s champ next year.

LRC Dylan Jacobs Wins To Make Carl Sandburg High In Illinois The First With Two Different FL Champs (Lukas Verzbicas) As Soph Graydon Morris Is 2nd Jacobs turned the tables on rival Daniel Kilrea as sophomore Morris moved up to take second and could become the second boy ever to run at 4 Foot Lockers (Jorge Torres).

LRC Official Foot Locker Nationals 2017 Live Thread 

2017 Fukuoka Marathon Was Incredible *Fukuoka Results

Wow! LRCNorway’s Sondre Moen Makes History, Smashes European Record To Win Fukuoka In 2:05:48 Moen, who ran 59:48 during his buildup, became the first non-African born male to break 2:06 on a record-eligible course as he stunned the world and Bedan Karoki. 2012 Olympic champ Stephen Kiprotich grabbed second in 2:07:10 just ahead of the Suguro Osako, who set a new Nike Oregon Project record of 2:07:19.

• IAAF RecapSuguru Osako: “I gave my all to this race. … If I continue to train this way, I can continue to improve. I felt that I found a coach I can really trust. In Japan I did not find anyone like that.”
• MB:Official 2017 Fukuoka Marathon Discussion Thread
  
• MB: SONDRE MOEN of Norway runs 2:05:48 (!!!)to win the 2017 Fukuoka Marathon. How did he do it?
  
• Must Read:Renato Canova explains Moen’s amazing breakthrough: “Clean your minds, start to believe in yoursel[f], and go [all] in [on] hard CLEAN training if [you] are really interested in improving [your] performance.”