Houston Marathon/Half *Results

LRC Official Houston Thread

LRC Final Molly Huddle Breaks American Record At 2018 Aramco Houston Half Marathon Huddle went out blazing fast – 66:29 pace at 15k – and held on to get the AR in 67:25. In the process, she beat Jordan Hasay by 73 seconds. Oh yeah, Huddle didn’t win. She was just 7th. Ruti Aga, the 2017 Berlin Marathon runner-up, won in 66:39. Updated with analysis, quotes and videos.
*RRW: Three USA Records For Molly Huddle At Aramco Houston Half Marathon
*Houston Chronicle: After AR In Houston, Molly Huddle Is Looking Forward To Boston And Another Clash With Hasay Huddle: “I think her recent marathon success is going to spark a good rivalry. She’s just at another level of running right now. Rivalries are good for the sport. I think we’re going to be finishing close to each other in Boston.”

LRC Final Jake Robertson (60:01) Crushes Stacked Field Over Final 2 Miles To Win 2018 Houston Half Marathon Kiwi Jake Robertson was dancing after this one was over as he got the biggest win of his career and took some huge scalps, including runner-up Guye Adola. American Sam Chelanga moved to #4 on the US all-time list with a 60:37 and Haron Lagat cracked the top 10 for the US all-time at 61:01.
Updated with analysis, quotes and videos.
*Post-Race Reaction: Jake Robertson Paid His Own Money To Top Up And Fly Business Class To Houston As He Knew He Was Ready To Run Fast

Marathon: LRC Bazu Worku (2:08:30) And Degefa Biruktayir (2:24:51) Win Full Marathons Wilkerson Given (2:15:52) and Sarah Crouch (2:35:22) were the top Americans.
*Houston Chronicle Recap Of Ethiopian Domination

IAAF: Ethiopians Dominate In Houston Once Again We think the Kiwis did incredibly well on a per capita basis.

UW Over-Sized Results And More *Full UW Results

• Stars Deliver Three World-Leading Performacnes At UW Indoor Preview Shalane Flanagan‘s 8:55, USC’s Jaide Stepter in the 400 (52.50) and Aries Merrit tied the WL with 7.65 in the 60H. The 60m was an interesting race with world long jump champ Brittney Reese getting an upset win over Oregon’s Ariana Washington.
• MB: Clayton Murphy Runs 1:51 Winning By 1.65 Seconds) In His 800 Debut For Al Sal
• MB: Yomif Kejelcha (4:02.70) Debuts For Salazar With A Win Over Lopez Lomong (4:03.84)
• MB: In Her First Race After NYC Win, Shalane Flanagan Wins 3k In 8:55
• MB: Craig Engels Wins The Men’s 3k In 7:55

NCAA Action

• Hand Him The NCAA Title Now? UTEP’s Michael Saruni Opens Season With 1:45.92!
• Freshman Phenom Sammy Watson Splits 4:42.97 As Texas A&M Runs 11:12.06 In DMR
• UK Track Phenom Sydney McLaughlin Scratches From Open 400 With Hip Issue, Splits 51.9 in 4 X 400 But Gets Beaten At Line
• Texas Tech’s Trey Culver Leaps 2.33m / 7-7.75 Feet (NCAA #4 All-Time) In High Jump At Texas Tech Corky Classic (Video)
• Register-Guard: Ducks Start Strong In Seattle
• Top 10 College Marks From The Weekend For Every Event

More Weekend Action

• Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega And Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet Win 75th Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza In Spain The men’s race was a battle of 17-year-olds as Barega, the 2016 World Junior champ at 5k with a 12:55 PR, got the win over the 2017 World Junior XC champ Jacob Kiplimo.
• Renaud Lavillenie Clears World-Leading 5.86m (Video)
• Omar McLeod And Keni Harrison Set World 60H Leads At The Kentucky Invitational
• “Rusty” Sally Pearson Snags First Hurdles Win Of 2018 With 12.73 In Australia
• Official Killed After Being Hit In Chest By Shot At Youth Meet

Great Edinburgh XC *Results

LRC 2018 Great Edinburgh XCountry: Americans Leonard Korir And Kelsey Chmiel Pick Up Wins Korir repeated as champ with a perfectly timed kick as Heath, Bor and Derrick were 6-7-8. The other US win came in the junior girls race where NXN runner-up Kelsey Chmiel got the win and trounced 2017 Foot Locker champ Claudia Lane, who was just 7th. Molly Seidel was 3rd in the women’s race.

• Turkey’s Yasemin Can Holds Off GB’s Emeila Groecka To Win In Edinburgh Team Europe won both the men’s and women’s team titles.
• Laura Muir Leads GB To Great Edinburgh Mixed Relay Race Victory
• After 14 Years, Edinburgh Expected To Lose Great XC Race After The City Of Edinburgh Council Withdraws Its Backing “It’s a decision I think Edinburgh will regret in the future,” said Scottish Athletics chief executive Mark Munro.
• Post-Race Interviews With Korir *Seidel *Chmiel *Danny Kilrea
  
• MB: Kelsey Chmiel wins Great Edinburgh XCountry
  
• MB: Official 2018 Great Edinburgh XC Live Discussion Thread

More XC Action: World 5,000 Champ Hellen Obiri Defeated Half Marathon WR Holder Joyciline Jepkosgei To Win The Kenya Defence Forces XC Championships At the Kenya Prisons Service Cross-Country Championships, Worlds and Olympic 10,000m fourth-placer Alice Aprot won her third successive title.

European Track News

• UK Poll Says That Track And Field Is Britain’s Most Exciting Sport To Watch The Brits really voted track ahead of soccer or tennis?
• February 7: Ekaterini Stefanidi Confirmed For Paris Indoor Meet
• World 110H Bronze Medalist Balazs Baji Named Hungarian Sportsperson Of The Year
• World Finalists Alina Talay (100H) And Pavel Bareisha (Hammer) Named Belarusian Athletes Of The Year

Pole Vault Power – Another Big Jump For Mondo Duplantis

Armand Duplantis Breaks His Own Under-20 World Indoor Record With 5.83m (19-1.50) At The USC Spirit National Pole Vault Summit Making it even more impressive, Duplantis broke the record with a borrowed pole because the one he had was too short. Sandi Morris won the women’s competition with 4.90m and also sung the national anthem.
*Duplantis Video Interview
*More Video Interviews From The Summit: *Sam Kendricks *Sandi Morris Part 1 – Part 2 *Katerina Stefanidi Part 1 – Part 2

Admin, Legal, Drugs, Etc.

• Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Will Testify At CAS Hearing Of 42 Russians Who Are Appealing Their Bans Anyone worried about a Russian hit, it’s okay; he’ll be testifying “from a distance.”
• Donald Trump Claims Credit For North And South Korean Winter Games Talks “I always believe in talking, right now they’re talking Olympics. … If we are not involved they wouldn’t be talking about Olympics right now. … He [Kim Jong Un] knows I’m not messing around.”
• In Case You Were Wondering, Disgraced Former IAAF Head Lamine Diack Is Still Being Held In France A Paris appeals court said he was an “elevated risk” that he “would escape French justice” if he left the country. That’s a pretty safe bet considering his son is on Interpol’s most wanted list, but can’t be taken from Senegal.
• Canadian PGA Tour Golfer Suspended For Three Months After Self-Reporting Doping Violation He says he accidentally took the banned hormone DHEA that was in a weight loss drug.
• Medals For 2018 Birmingham World Indoor Unveiled
• Need A Job? IAAF Seeking A Lead Counsel In Sport Law And Governance If the past is any indication, the IAAF is always going to need some good lawyers.

We’re Not Done With 2017 Yet

LRC A PhD Student, Son Of A World Masters Champ, And A Guy Who Trained With The Big 10 100m Champ: Meet The Winners Of The $200,017 Running Warehouse NCAA XC Prediction Contest See who the kings and queens of LetsRun.com are.

LRC We Revise Our Steeplechase Rankings, Moving Ruth Jebet To #2, Emma Coburn To #3, And Drop Kiyeng To #4 We love the input of you – our visitors on the forums – and you convinced us that Coburn should be ahead of Kiyeng. *Discuss

RIP

• Runner’s World Tribute To 37-Year-Long Running Streaker Who Was Killed By A Hit-And-Run This Summer 68-year-old Linda Evans was on her 13,563rd day of running in a row when she was killed by a driver under the influence of drugs.
• IAAF: Accomplished German Athletics Journalist Christian Fuchs Dies At 43 From Cancer

Andrew Wheating Retires

LRC Former Oregon Great Andrew Wheating Retires At Age 30 – A Look Back At The Highs And Lows Of His Career Tons of glory as a Duck and a 3:30.9 1,500m before he even signed his Nike contract. A look at his career. Discuss: ANDREW WHEATING RETIRES
*Favorite Andrew Wheating Moment?

• Good Read: Runner’s World Q&A With Andrew Wheating On His Retirement Asked if he would change anything about his career he said, “No, honestly I wouldn’t. The things that happened in my career happened, and they made me who I am today. I’m thankful for what happened and what didn’t happen and I have no regrets on how it turned out.”
• Register-Guard: Wheating Decides To Hang Up His Running Spikes For Good Wheating’s message to his competitors: “To my competition, I hated every single one of you … for 4 minutes or less. But I loved you just as much when the race was over. … Keep the flame stoked and don’t ever stop believing in your potential. I’ll see ya behind the stands.”
• Ken Goe Article
• Wheating’s Facebook Post Announcement

Another Mid-D Guy Is Also Retiring: Brooks Beasts’ Former NCAA 3rd Placer Shaquille Walker Retires From Track At 24 Years Old Walker said running was interfering with other things in life and he’ll now focus on spending time with his family and pursuing a career as a dentist.
*MB: What? Shaquille Walker would rather be a dentist than an Olympic medallist and Danny Mackey thinks he could have set the AR?