January 26, 2018 Homepage Archive

2018 Dubai Marathon*Results/ Tracking/ Live Leaderboard

LRC Final The Marathon Turns Into A Track Race: Mosinet Geremew & Roza Dereje Win Dubai Marathon – The Deepest Marathon In History As 7 Men Break 2:05 & 4 Women Break 2:20 Total insanity. What a race for the richest prize in the sport. A guy ran 2:04:15 and took home $12,000. Another guy ran 2:04:00 and took home $200,000.
*IAAF Recap: Earlier Start Pays Off In Two Course Records In Dubai The elite race started at 6 am – when Geb won it was 7 am.
*Men’s Winner Geremew Wasn’t Sure He Could Win Until Late “It was very fast, perhaps a little too fast. But then it settled down, and I felt good. Although I wasn’t sure I had a chance of winning until between 40 and 41 kilometres.”
*Paula Radcliffe Thinks Defending Champ Tola Would Have Won Had He Not Had A Collision At 35k

Dubai Discussion:

MB: The bar has been rasied: Ethiopia just had 7 men under 2:04:45 and 6 women 2:20:45 or better in one race
MB:Official 2018 Dubai Live Thread

Russia / Winter Olympic News

IAAF Says 18 Russian Athletes Can Compete In 2018 Technically they’ll be neutral athletes as if that matters in a non-championship year. Thankfully, there are zero mid-d or distance runners on the list.
Russia Will Send 169 Athletes To Winter Olympics – But Many Of Their Top Stars Were Left Off The List We wonder why.
IOC Says Fans Attending Next Month’s Winter Olympic Games In Pyeongchang Will Be Free To Wave Russian Flags

Field Event News

Two Time NCAA Decathlon Champion Lindon Victor Talks About The High And Lows From His Career High was setting the NCAA record, the low happened at 2017 Worlds.
World Champ And WR Holder Barbora Spotakova To Miss The 2018 Season As She Is Expecting Her Second Child Spotakova says she still plans to return for the 2020 Olympics.
February 3:Germany’s World Javelin Champ Johannes Vetter Will Open His Season In Offenburg He’ll face his domestic rival and Olympic champ Thomas Rohler.
Teen Start Kate O’Connor Breaks Irish Pentathlon Record With A Score Of 4,108

The 2018 Winter Olympics Start February 9th

22 North Koreans To Compete At Pyeongchang 2018 They will compete in hockey, figure skating, short-track speed skating, cross-country skiing and alpine skiing.
IOC Approves Joint Korean Team For Opening Ceremony And Women’s Hockey This despite objections from the South Korean coach who feels it will damage her players.
Good Read:InsideTheGames’ Nick Butler: “Thomas Bach Shouldn’t Start Clearing A Place In His Trophy Cabinet For The Nobel Peace Prize Quite Yet” Butler writes that Bach’s opening remarks on the unified Korean team on at a recent press conference “produced a collective wave of nausea” in the media room.
NY Times:Protesters In Seoul Burn Image Of Kim Jong-un During North Koreans’ Visit
North Koreans Face Protest During Pyeongchang 2018 Visit
North Korea To Hold Military Demonstration The Day Before The 2018 Winter Games Opening Ceremony
USA Today:Neither North Nor South Korea Want Defections During The Olympics South Korea normally encourages North Koreans to defect, but wants to avoid confrontation during such a sensitive time.
Exploratory Committee Claims Future Winter Olympics In Salt Lake City Could Cost Less Than 2002 Costs will be reduced because many of the 2002 venues have been well maintained.
Former Pyeongchang 2018 Minister Jailed For Two Years She was jailed for her part in the blacklisting of artists critical of the former president’s government.
USOC CEO Scott Blackmun May Miss Winter Olympics After Being Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer

LetsJump.com

From The Weekend: Keturah Orji Breaks NCAA And American Triple Jump Record With 14.32m
Getting Started Early:There’s Going To Be A Documentary On High School Pole Vault Star Mondo Duplantis This is a 4-minute clip from the Reno National PV Summit two weekends ago.
February 3:Olympic Champ Tianna Bartoletta And Euro Champ Ivana Spanovic Will Clash At The Karlsruhe Indoor Meet
Sergey Bubka Warns Against Changes That May Put Athletes At Risk Last year the IAAF changed time given to athletes to make an attempt in the PV from 60 seconds to 30 to speed up the meet, but Bubka and Renaud Lavillenie have argued it’s not safe for athletes.
Greg Rutherford Withdraws From 2018 Commonwealth Games Rutherford says he has recovered from the ankle injury which kept him out of London Worlds, but wants to “ease back into competition.”

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

Get Excited – Indoor Track Is Back In a BIG Way *All Collegiate Results

Fri Night Action

LRC Shadrack Kipchirchir Runs 7:42 In Boston As The LetsRun.com Singlet Breaks 8:00 For The First Time In his first 3k in 5 years, Kipchirchir, the third fastest American ever at 10,000, ran the second-best 3,000 in the world since the start of 2017. Had the rabbiting been better, he might have run even faster.
MB UW 5k: Kejelch and Rupp go 1-2 and run 13:34 They did it as a workout switching off the lead.
MB Donavan Brazier runs 46.91 400

LRC Weekend Preview: Clayton Murphy Vs. Robby Andrews; Ajee Wilson Vs. Charlene Lipsey; An AR Attempt In The 3K; & the Return Of The LetsRun.com Singlet Oh, baby. We hope you are ready. Indoor track is BACK in a BIG WAY with action all over the US. In Boston, American Shadrack Kipchirchir wants to run the low 7:30s in the same race where the LRC singlet will be looking for a big PR. In NY, Ajee Wilson and Charlene Lipsey go for the AR and Robby Andrews and Clayton Murphy clash over 800. In Seattle, these big names will be racing – Galen Rupp, Yomif Kejelcha, Shalane Flanagan and Sifan Hassan. Plus marathoners Scott Smith & Aaron Braun chase sub-4:00.
*MB: Rabbit needed for tomorrow (Friday in Boston 1/26) – Get at least $500 if you can hit sub 5:15 for 2k

Ajee Wilson, Charlene Lipsey, Kate Grace, Craig Engels, Clayton Murphy, Robby Andrews Among The Distance Runners Highlighting The Dr. Sander Invitational’s Armory Challenge Murphy vs. Andrews and Erik Sowinski over 800 should be a great race. *Pro Fields*Live Results*Schedule
NXN Runner-Up Brodey Hasty Going For Sub-4 At The Dr. Sander Invy On Saturday He’ll be in the pro race with Craig Engels, Brannon Kidder and Pat Casey. Hasty has a PR of 4:01.75.
Olympic Champions Renaud Lavillenie, Thiago Braz, Robert Harting And Tiana Bartoletta Highlight Fields For Berlin ISTAF Indoor

College News *All Collegiate Results

Beth Alfred-Sullivan Gets 4-Year Contract Extension At Tennessee Sullivan, the first woman to ever coach a men’s team in the SEC, created a firestorm when she started decided to basically ax all of the recruits she inherited.
Jesse Squire’s NCAA Dual Meet Women’s Rankings (Week 2) – Texas A&M Leads
Jesse Squire’s NCAA Dual Meet Men’s Rankings (Week 2) – Texas A&M Leads

Random But Somewhat Interesting

Former Colorado Star Bret Schoolmeester Explains How Algorithms Helped Design Nike’s Latest Trainer
John Ngugi Backs Seb Coe’s Desire For X-Country To Be Put Back In The Olympics
Runners World: What It’s Like To Run At The Havana Marathon In Cuba Running a race in Cuba is a great way to get to go as you get a sports visa that way, but be sure to bring your own toilet paper.

More Distance News

Good Read:IAAF Profile: Determined Sondre Nordstad Moen Plots His Own Path To Success After his breakthrough 2017, Moen wants to become the first European to win the World Half Champs in the last 22 years.
RW Q&A With Amy Cragg Ahead Of The Tokyo Marathon Cragg has been working on her speed so she can break her almost 4-year-old 2:27:03 marathon PR on the flat/fast Tokyo course.
Former Olympic And World Marathon Champ Stephen Kiprotich To Skip 2018 Commonwealth Games To Focus On The Hamburg Marathon
Wales Names Team Of 21 Athletes For 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Leading the distance events is Dewi Griffiths in the 5K/10K.

Russian Doping Updates

IAAF Clears 18 Russians To Compete As Neutrals At The World Indoor Championships These 18 were already cleared last year, but the IAAF just renewed permission. *IAAF Statement
CAS Starting Hearing Appeals For 39 Russian Athletes DQed From Sochi 2014 And Banned From All Future Games The hearings are expected to continue through Friday or Saturday with a final decision coming between the 29th and February 2nd.
RusAF Asks IAAF To Speed Up Neutral Status Requests
Two Russian Figure Skaters Barred From Winter Games Also five Russian men’s hockey players.
Russian Short Track Skater Viktor Ahn To Miss 2018 Games
MB:Grigory Rodchenkov: Russian whistleblower suspected British cheats
The Guardian‘s Sean Ingle:“Maria Sharapova’s Reception A Reminder Of Indifference To Doping” He should watch Justin Gatlin‘s reception and say that there is complete indifference.
Russian Olympic Committee Ask IOC For Explanation Behind Skating Bans We guess they’re looking for something more complex than “They’re dopers.”
NY Times: How Many Russian Athletes Will Get to Compete in the Winter Olympics?

Distance Updates

Good Read:SPIKES Profile Catching Up With Former NCAA Indoor Mile Champ Kaela Edwards, Who Is Now Part Of Emma Coburn’s Group In Boulder Edwards talks about how she visited Boulder and stayed in Coburn and Joe Bosshard‘s house when she hadn’t even met them before.
Former NCAA Champ And Jamaican Olympian Natoya Goule Ran A World-Leading 1:59.86 At The Clemson Invite Goule crushed her 2:01.64 indoor PR, although she has previously broken 2:00 outdoors.
MB:Emma Coburn runs fastest mile ever in Colorado – 4:38.08 at 7,771 feet no less!
February 3:Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir Shooting To Break Her Own National 800m Record At The RIG Games In Iceland At this meet last year, Hinriksdottir set a national indoor 800m record of 2:01.18.

Post-Weekend NCAA News

Florida’s Grant Holloway And Georgia’s Keturah Orji Are NCAA DI Athletes Of The Week Orji broke the NCAA and American TJ record (14.32m) while Holloway ran the 3rd-fastest 60H in NCAA history (7.49).
Florida Men Stay A Dominant #1 In The First Regular Season National Rankings Georgia and Texas A&M are 2-3.
The Oregon Women Top The First Regular Season NCAA Rankings Arkansas and Georgia are ranked 2-3.
Register-Guard:Ducks Have Plenty Of Options For Dr. Sander Relay Meet At The Armory This Weekend Last year the Oregon women broke the NCAA DMR record at this meet while the men ran an NCAA-leading time.
Event-By-Event Top-10 Marks Of The Collegiate Weekend

Non-Distance News

Former Cornell Star Bruno Hortelano – The Reigning European 200 Champ Who Ran 10.06 And 20.12 – Is Almost Ready To Return To Action For 1st Time Since 2016 A car accident kept him out in 2017.
Good Read Jazmin Sawyers Writes 1,000+ Words About Competing And Practicing While On Your Period “I want to be able to talk about (my period), so you’re in on this conversation. It’s a conversation sport has been having all wrong – if at all.”
Double Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson And Double World Silver Medalist Marie-Josée Ta Lou Will Clash In 60m At Müller Indoor Grand Prix Glasgow On Feb. 25
Olympic Javelin Champ Thomas Rohler Started Out In Track As A Jumper Bur Does Remember Telling His Dad As A 9-Year-Old That He wanted To Be An Olympic Javelin Thrower

Sprint Stuff

WOW! British Sprinter Zharnel Hughes Victim Of Attempted Robbery At Gunpoint In Jamaica When the gunman demanded Hughes’ phone, Hughes turned and ran while the gunman shot at him. Even after all the excitement, Hughes still competed his training session for the day at the UWI track.
*LRC Archives: Meet Zharnel Hughes: The 18-Year-Old Has A Shot At Taking Down Yohan Blake’s 10.21 And Usain Bolt’s 20.25 “Champs” Records
Oregon’s Three-Time NCAA Champ Ariana Washington Postpones A Pro Career To Stay With The Ducks Washington says it was a tough decision and she sought advice from boyfriend Clayton Murphy, who left Akron early to go pro.
Good Read:The Guardian:“Double First: The Twin GB Sprinters With The Tokyo Olympics In Their Sights” The twin sisters used to be dancers/volleyball players, but after only five years in the sport, Cheriece and Shannon Hylton are eyeing the GB Olympic team.
Omar McLeod Was Motivated By A Schoolgirl’s Slur After winning Worlds gold, McLeod said, “Every time I remember that girl who told me I was a cruff (Jamaican word for someone who is worthless), I pushed myself more.”
Spain’s Oscar Husillos Looking For A Euro Medal After Opening His Season By Breaking The Spanish Indoor 300 And 400 Records

More Upcoming Distance Action

April 22: Tirunesh Dibaba Will Return To The 2018 London Marathon Dibaba was runner-up last year with 2:17:56, making her the third fastest all-time. Marathon debut record holder Guye Adola (2:03:46) and Stanley Biwott (2:03:51) were announced for the men’s race.
February 4:RRW: Norway’s European Marathon Record Holder Sondre Nordstad Moen To Run Napoli City Half Marathon The 59:48 man is using the race as a tune-up for March’s World Half Champs.
February 8:Genzebe Dibaba And World Silver Medalist Adam Kszczot Will Highlight The Madrid Indoor Meeting Dibaba is in the 1,500 against former world indoor silver medalist Axumawit Embaye and Poland’s European champ Angelika Cichocka. Kszczot is in the 800 against former world champ Mohamed Aman.
Can XC Be Edgy? The IAAF Says It Wants To Move Cross-Country In A “More Extreme, Edgier” Direction To Attract New Audiences It’s anyone’s guess what that actually means. Does the IAAF even know?