January 20, 2018 | LetsRun.com

It Was A Record Setting Friday In Terms Of US Action *All US Indoor Track Results

Usain Who? MB: CHRISTIAN MF COLEMAN – COLEMAN OPENS 2018 WITH 6.37 WR!!! Coleman, who beat Bolt in London, opens 2018 with a stunner.

MB: UTEP’S Michael Saruni Runs 1:14.79 600m WR Technically the 600m distance is a world’s best.

Texas Tech’s Vincent Crisp runs fastest 600 yard time in collegiate history – 68.16 – The old record of 68.26 (Arkansas’ Roddie Haley) had stood since 1987.
Florida Star Grant Holloway Runs 7.49 60H To Move To #3 Collegian All-Time Omar McLeod is the collegiate record holder at 7.45.
Texas Tech’s Divine Oduduru runs 20.49 200 on their scorching fast new track

More Sprint News

Justin Gatlin Chooses A New Coach – And He’s 84 Years Young! Brooks Johnson
Elaine Thompson Still Has No Idea What Happened In 100m Fnal Where She Was Just 5th It’s hard to explain as the double Olympic champ won all of her 100s in 2017 except for Worlds.

Field Event News

European LJ Record Holder Sebastian Bayer Retires At Age 31 Due to injury, he’s barely competed since 2014 but is best known for his Beamonesque performance in 2013 when he went from 8.17 to 8.71 in a single competition. He’s still the #2 jumper indoors thanks to this.
Sergey Bubka Is Really Impressed By Armand Duplantis “He was 17 and he jumped over 5.90. This is really amazing.”

Previous Big Administrative News

LRC Caster Semenya Free To Dominate For At Least 6 More Months As CAS Keeps IAAF’s Rules On Hypeandrogenism Suspended After a two-plus year wait, the IAAF got back to the court with what it hoped was proof that women with internal testicles and jacked up testosterone levels have an advantage over other women. The IAAF proposed new regulations that just cover the 400-mile. CAS has asked for more info. Sadly many following the case closely feel that ultimately the IAAF will lose.

Disgraceful: Fancy Bears Is Trying To Act Like The IOC Is Bribing Doping Whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova By Offering Her $$$ The latest Fancy Bears hack shows email correspondence where financial arrangements for Stepanova are discussed after she risked her life to expose Russian doping.

News From Europe

Former British Sprint Coach Claims Colin Jackson Was Called A N***** By His Own Hurdling Coach Jackson hasn’t confirmed or denied the report.
Two-Time Olympic Javelin Champion Barbora Spotakova Is Pregnant With 2nd Child, Will Miss 2018 Season The 36-year-old world record holder says she’s still aiming to be in Tokyo in 2020.
SPAR Convenience Store Group Agrees To Three-Year Sponsorship Deal With British Athletics
British Man Reflects On Running 75 Marathons In 75 Days At 75 Years Old

Russian Doping Updates

Just Another Day In Russia: 36 Athletes Withdraw From Siberian Indoor Championships After Surprise Drug Testers Show Up At The Event Some credit to former world 110H champ Sergey Shubenkov for calling them out on Twitter where he said, “Doping control drove in. … Is that why a couple doze withdrew before the beginning?”
The Guardian: IOC Accused Of “Backroom Deals” With Russia Ahead Of The 2018 Winter Olympics The film-makers behind the Icarus documentary claim that the IOC is going to allow the 42 Russians currently appealing their Olympic bans to take part as neutral athletes.

Assorted Distance News

Athletics Kenya Unveils World Half Marathon Squad Two-time defending champ Geoffrey Kamworor and World Record holder Joyceline Jepkosgei lead the teams.
There Is A Petition In The UK To Have Women Run The Same XC Distance As Men “Actually when you go to longer distances physiologically women have been shown to become more equal to men, rather than the other way around.”
Seven-Time US Road Champion Aliphine Tuliamuk Joins HOKA NAZ Elite Tuliamuk says she is focus on trying to make the US 2020 Olympic team in the marathon.
*Q&A With Tuliamuk She talks about being one of 32 siblings.
*Ben Rosario Talks About Tuliamuk Joining LRC video.
Nijel Amos To Train In Oregon Ahead Of Commonwealth Games Amos is looking to defend his title after he got a big win over David Rudisha at the 2014 CWG.
RRW: Comrades Marathon Champion Piet Vorster Is Dead At 66

Houston Half Chatter On The Message Board

Women

Men

Fancy Bears Puts Out Another Release

Fancy Bears Releases More Hacked Info And Says, “It is apparent that the Americans and the Canadians are eager to remove the Europeans from the leadership in the Olympic movement.”
Fancy Bears Leaks Claims McLaren Report Given “Clear Political Order” To Exclude Russia From Olympics If only this was true. Instead the doping Russians will be at the Games.

Mid-D and Distance News / Advice

Oh baby, it’s on!! Kenenisa Bekele Added To 2018 London Marathon Field Meaning We’ll Get Bekele vs Kipchoge and Farah at 2018 London

Following Centro’s Lead, Nick Willis Is Also Skipping World Indoors To Race In Australia
Good Read A 1,600-Word Look At How Kiwi Matt Baxter Has Thrived At NAU The NCAA runner-up in XC was a 14:10 man before he went to NAU.
70-Minute Meb K Podcast – Meb Talks About Life After Retirement And Looks Back At His Career Highlights
IAAF Visits Eugene And Is Assured Hayward Field Renovation Will Be Done In Time For Worlds The article says the new plans for the track will come out in April.
If Austin, TX Hosts The 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, It Will Be Held The Day Before The Austin Marathon
Free Training Advice: Mastering The Threshold Run By Sub-2:14 Marathoner Mark Tucker
Runner’s Worlds: The 10 Best Onion Stories About Running Some might mistake RW for an Onion production itself.

Administrative News

Plan your winter/Set your DVRs now 2018 USATF Indoor Championship Series TV Broadcast Schedule Released – Millrose Leads Way With 2 Hours Live On NBC

USATF’s Annual President’s Report To The Board Of Directors This is the first report of the Vin Lananna era.
Kenya Paper Writes About How No Big Name Stars Are Doing Commonwealth Marathon Tim Hutchings has a GREAT solution – ax the marathon and run a half marathon. Big stars like Kipchoge could do it in their buildup for London.
So Much For Punishment – Russia To Have Nearly As Many Athletes At 2018 Winter Games As In 2014 When They Hosted The Games

Upcoming Winter Action

LRC Exclusive Reigning Olympic And World Indoor Champion Matthew Centrowitz Will Skip 2018 Indoor Season, Race In Australia Instead In other Centro related news, we have learned that Like Father, Like Son, the memoir by Matt Centrowitz – Matthew’s father – may be turned into a feature film.
*MB: Breaking: Reigning world indoor champ Matthew Centrowitz will NOT defend his crown – will race in Australia instead One LRCer is disappointed that Americans tend to really get up for Worlds only when it’s in the US.

Feb. 3rd: Ajee’ Wilson, Charlene Lipsey, Raevyn Rogers And Chrishuna Williams Will Be Going For Russia’s 8:06.24 4 X 800 World Record At 2018 NYRR Millrose Games

Feb. 10th: Raevyn Rogers Will Race 800 And Christian Coleman, Noah Lyles And Cameron Burrell Will Clash In 60 At 2018 NB Indoor Grand Prix The women’s 800 also includes Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and Great Britain’s Lynsey Sharp. Get your tickets now.

Say It Ain’t So – Hayward Field To Be Demolished?

Ken Goe In The Oregonian: “IAAF Visit To Oregon Ahead Of 2021 World Track Champs Leaves Unanswered Questions” A big issue is the necessary renovations to Hayward Field which were supposed to start in 2016, but haven’t even begun. And now sources say the project will be a “complete teardown” instead of the original plan to preserve the iconic East side of the stadium.
*MB: So long Hayward Field…

Will London’s Crystal Palace Also Be Demolished? The future of Crystal Palace as an athletics facility hangs in the balance with a sports consultancy company due to deliver its verdict on the venue next month.

The World Isn’t Done Picking The Best Of 2017

Mo Farah, Caster Semenya And Allyson Felix Nominated For 2018 Laureus Worlds Sportsman And Sportswoman Of The Year Awards Among Farah’s opponents are Roger Federer and Chris Froome while other women nominees include Serena WIlliams and Katie Ledecky. Justin Gatlin and Sally Pearson were nominated in the comeback of the year category. *Full List Of Nominees
World Discus Silver Medallist Daniel Stahl Named 2017 Swedish Sportsman Of The Year Armand Duplantis got the Newcomer of the Year award.
World Javelin Champ Johannes Vetter And Steeplechase National Record Holder Gesa-Felicitas Krause Named German Athletes Of The Year

2018 Winter Olympic News

Cool Runnings II: Jamaica Sending Its First Women’s Bobsled Team To The Olympics The team will have one former track runner in Carrie Russell who won 4×100 gold at 2013 Worlds.
North And South Korea To March Together At Pyeongchange 2018 Opening Ceremony The last time they did this was 11-years ago at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.
USA Today: North And South Korea May Field Joint Women’s Ice Hockey Team For Winter Olympics “Critics say the North may aim to divide Seoul and Washington as a way to weaken U.S.-led international pressures and sanctions on the country.”
South Korea Coach Criticizes Proposed Joint Team With North Korea; Says She Was Never Even Informed Of The Plan There is so much wrong with this idea it’s hard to know where to start.

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

More Weekend Action

Ajee Wilson Wins Low Key Mile On Staten Island Over Training Partner Charlene Lipsey Wilson ran 4:36.84 to Lipsey’s 4:38.30.
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

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

High School Coaching Legends

LRC 10 Things I Learned From The Best High School Cross-Country And Track Coaches In America LetsRun.com’s Wejo flew to Boulder to hear from the high school top XC coaches in America Joan Hunter (#1 team), Dan Iverson (#2 team), Jonathan Dalby (#3 team) and John O’Malley (Foot Locker champ). What did he learn? A lot.
Discussion: “I attended a clinic with the top high school cross coaches in the country: ask me anything.”

Articles Interesting Enough To Pass Our Stringent Vetting

2,000 + Words On The Demise Of The Print Edition Of Track & Field News: Death Of A Bible? Track & Field News Ends Print Edition, Stuns Old Fans The article, a version of which appears in the San Diego paper, quotes both Rojo and Wejo, who are called “the Nelsons for a new generation.”
Even Rival Coaches Are Raving About Texas Tech’s New $48 Million Indoor Facility We’re pleased to report it features a legitimate (not oversized) 200 meter bank. What many love is the athletes in the warmup area can watch the action. Dennis Shaver of LSU says it’s “one of the best in the country.” Might it host NCAAs?
Omar McLeod Says Hurdling Is In His Blood “I recall from the age of nine or ten I used to set buckets up in the road and invite my cousins and my little brother to race over them.”
Edna Kiplagat, Sara Hall And Betsy Saina Will All Race At Marugame Half On Feb. 4th Zersenay Tadese leads the men’s field – but he hasn’t broken 60:00 since 2015.
Paralympian Samuel Muchai Wins 2017 Sports Personality Of The Year Award (SOYA) In Kenya The blind 1,500/5,000 man beat favorites Conseslus Kipruto and Hellen Obiri.
Spikes Mag Takes A Look Back At The Big Meets Being Offered In 2018 – “Things We Look Forward To In 2018” From World Indoors to the Continental Cup, they give you an overview of what to look forward to in 2018.

Sprints And Jumps

Mondo Duplantis’ New World Junior And Swedish National Pole Vault Record Invalidated All the men’s pole vault marks were invalidated because the pegs holding the crossbar were too long (75mm instead of the international standard of 55m).
Usain Bolt Says The One Regret He Has About His Career Is That He Never Broke 19 Seconds In The 200m “That’s my unfulfilled ambition and it’s going to stay unfulfilled for me. I couldn’t do it. No one can do it.”
Advice On Life And Track From Diamond League 400H Champ Kyron McMaster We liked his cooking tip: “My fav food is ribs. I could eat it all day every day. And in terms of a tip, I would get my mum to cook them!”
Shaunae Miller-Uibo Tells The “Story Behind The Picture” Of Her Dive At The 2016 Olympics “I just remember the complete silence before hearing my mum’s scream in the stadium followed by confirmation on the big screen I had won.”
From The Weekend: Texas Tech HJer Trey Culver And Kentucky Pole Vaulter Olivia Gruver Highlighted The Jumps Culver cleared 2.33m to tie the 4th best mark in NCAA history while Gruver went over 4.60m to equal the 7th best NCAA all-time.
February 10: World 200m Champ Dafne Schippers Confirmed For Ghent 60m Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski will be in the 1500.
Oregon Announces First Nine Additions To Next Year’s Recruiting Class

Industry News

Track And Field News Ceasing Their Print Version They write, “These aren’t the best of times for ink & paper-based publications, but fear not, Track & Field News isn’t going away. The December 2017 edition was the last one you’ll ever find in your snail-mail box, or on a newsstand. From now on, it’s all-electronics-all-the-time.”
MB: RW sold to Hearst Publishing
European Athletics More Than Doubled Its Twitter Followers In 2017 They added more than 60,000 during 2017 and now have over 100,000.

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.

Reads We Enjoyed

Former Providence Star David McCarthy Quit Running For 18 Months And Loved Not Being A Runner – But Now He’s Back Trying Again Thanks To Kyle Merber “I had the best 18 months of my life … It was great to wake up knowing I didn’t have to run. I could have more nights out, enjoy hanging with friends and family more and not feel guilty about it because I had a long run the next morning.”
Villanova Coach Marcus O’Sullivan Remembers When 20,000+ Showed Up In Indianapolis To Watch 1st World Indoors O’Sullivan won his first of 3 World Indoor golds in Indy at the Hoosier Dome.
RIP: Gene Cole – 1st Olympian To Break 47 And Not Make The Olympic Final – Has Died At Age 89
Recommended Read: Italy’s World Indoor Champ Gianmarco Tamberi Writes About His Comeback From Injury And The Support He Got From His Friend Mutaz Essa Barshim Tamberi tells the story of Barshim coming to his hotel room and consoling him after a disappointing competition where he couldn’t clear the opening height.

The World’s Biggest XC Fan

LRC Meet Mr. Cross-Country, The Sport’s Biggest Fan Cross-country’s biggest fan, Michael Mahon, resides in Massachusetts, where for the past 33 years he has traveled to over 1,747 career meets, bag of cans in tow. And he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
*Michael Mahon – Mr. Cross-Country – Share Your Favorite Story Here