February 2, 2018 | LetsRun.com

The Weekend To Be – Super Saturday Is This Weekend

LRC Millrose Press Conference: Nick Willis Not Letting Flu, New Baby, ‘Old’ Age stop his Millrose Dream, Kate Grace Says Bowerman Transition Has Been Tough, Vashti Cunningham Says Go Eagles + Emma Coburn, Josh Kerr, Robby Andrews, Ben Blankenship, Colleen Quigley, Tori Bowie, Omar McLeod, Asafa Powell, Aries Merritt.

Download/Stream Now Track Talk Podcast: We 1st Get You Ready For Millrose, USAXC, Camel City Then Look Back at Dec and January Before Sharing What We Are Most Looking Forward To in 2018 As A Whole Track geeks delight. 1hr and 42 minutes. 1hr and 7 minutes on Super Saturday and then 35 minutes on a look back at the end of 2017 and look ahead to the rest of 2018.

The Non-Millrose Action LRC Weekend Preview: Rupp And Hasay At USA XC, Ches, Engels, And A Lot Of $$$ At Camel City, & Fast Races In Karlsruhe The Super Bowl may be on Sunday but we are calling Saturday “Super Saturday” as there is going to be incredible action taking place all day long across the globe. If you are a distance fan, you might as well cancel your plans as there is going to be riveting action all day long.
*MB: What a weekend. Rupp and Hasay go for XC titles, Engels vs Ches at Camel City + Millrose
*MB: Rupp & Hasay to run 2018 USA Cross Country Championships

LRC 2018 Millrose Preview: Willis Tries to End His Mile Drought, Korir vs. Brazier vs. Murphy in a Stacked 800, & Much, Much More An incredible Saturday for track and field fans will come to an end with a fantastic NYRR Millrose Games – the 111th edition.

Eugene 2021 Under Investigation

NY Times: Eugene’s 2021 World Championships Bid Under Investigation By The US Justice Department Prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas as they investigate possible racketeering, money laundering and fraud charges related to the 2019 and 2021 World Championship bids.
The Oregonian: TrackTown USA Stands By Bid For 2021 World Track Champs In Wake Of Federal Subpoenas TrackTown USA CEO Michael Reilly said: “Our role was to put the best bid forward. We are proud of our bid and stand by it.”
Register Guard article

More Upcoming Distance Action

IAAF Preview: Genzebe Dibaba And Yomif Kejelcha Highlight Karlsruhe Distance Action On Saturday World indoor champ Kejelcha leads the 3000 with Olympic 5000 bronze medalist Hagos Gebrihiwet and Silas Kiplagat. In the 1500, Dibaba faces German star Konstanze Klosterhalfe (3:58.92), Winny Chebet (3:59.16) and Poland’s European champ Angelika Cichocka.
World And Olympic 1500 Champ Faith Kipyegon Is Pregnant And Will Miss The 2018 Track Season
MB: Eliud Kipchoge says he WON’T be going for the WR in London
February 18: Kenya’s Former Two-Time World Marathon Champ Abel Kirui Will Headline The Verona Half-Marathon He’s using the race as part of his buildup for the London Marathon.
USATF’s USA XC Champs Preview

Field Event News

Greg Rutherford Reveals That He Thought His Career Could Be Over Before Getting Surgery This Fall Rutherford had reconstruction surgery on his groin and an ankle operation and says now he’s jumping “remarkably far” in training. He was thinking of retiring, but now wants to go to 2020.
*Greg Rutherford: “I can still beat any long jumper in the world if I’m in shape.”
Drake Relays 2018 Announces Addition Of Elite Shot Put Competition More interesting than that, though, is that Olympic champ Ryan Crouser will go against high jumper Ricky Robertson in a dunk competition during halftime of a Drake basketball game.
February 25: Olympic Gold Medalists Ekaterini Stefanidi (PV), Tianna Bartoletta (LJ) And Greg Rutherford (LJ) Announced For Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix The ageless Kim Collins is in the 60m.
February 15: US’s Ryan Whiting, Poland’s Euro Indoor Champ Konrad Bukowiecki And Former Olympic Silver Medalist David Storl Will Clash At The Copernicus Cup Shot Put
Podcast Interview With NCAA Hammer Throw Record Holder And World Team Member Maggie Ewen
Olympic LJ Champ Ivana Španović And LJer Lazar Anic Named 2017 Serbian Athletes Of The Year Španović just missed a medal in London, but won the overall Diamond League title.

International Pro News

World Decathlon Champion Kevin Mayer Of France Is Eyeing Ashton Eaton’s World Record “Clearly it’s on my mind. I don’t know when it will happen – if it will happen – but I know that I have the potential to do it, it’s up to me to do it.”
Olympic And World 110H Champ Omar McLeod Might Skip The Commonwealth Games McLeod says he may focus instead on defending his world indoor title and trying to break the WR during outdoor season. He also talks about moving to the 400H after Tokyo 2020.
Caster Semenya Leads Announced South African Team For 2018 Commonwealth Games The big name missing is Wayde van Niekerk, who is still recovering from the knee injury (and subsequent surgery) he sustained during a rugby game.
IAAF Launches Inside Athletics Podcast The first episode features interviews with Mary Keitany, Hellen Obiri, Christian Coleman, Sydney McLaughlin and Mutaz Barshim. Listen to episode #1 here or download for free here.

LetsSprint.com

Oregon Sprinter Hannah Cunliffe Leaves School To Go Pro Coach Robert Johnson said, “It surprised me that it was this time of the year. That was a surprise. She just wanted to follow her dreams and her passions and how can you be upset about that?”
*MB: hannah cunliffe goes pro….drops out of school
Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson Opens Her Season With A 7.18 Second 60m Win In Jamaica Just days after being shot at, Zharnel Hughes won the 200 in 20.28 while Yohan Blake finished back in 4th place (20.95).
30-Year-Old Former World 400H Silver Medalist Kaliese Spencer Says She’s “In The Best Shape Of My Life” And Thinks She Could Break The WR Spencer ran her 52.79 PR back in 2011 and the WR is 52.34.
GB Sprinter Perri Shakes-Drayton Reflects On Her Dancing On Ice TV Experience Drayton was voted off the on-ice version of “Dancing with the Stars,” but says she enjoyed learned a new skill.
Q&A With Former Two-Time World Indoor 60m Champ Nelli Cooman Giving her advice for people racing the 60 she said, “The start and the finish are the two most important elements. You have to run like a tiger catching its prey.”

A Historic Weekend Of Indoor Action *All US Results

History Was Made In Boston

LRC The US Army’s Emmanuel Bor Becomes 500th American To Break 4:00 In The Mile As Shadrack Kipchirchir (3:55) Holds Off Justyn Knight For The Win In Boston Today, 60 years, seven months, and 26 days after Don Bowden first ran 3:58.7, Emmanuel Bor became the 500th American to break 4:00 with an eerily similar time – 3:58.77. Despite the sub-4:00 club’s expanding membership, it remains a rare feat. Five hundred people (actually 501; Western Oregon’s David Ribich joined the club three hours later) in a country of over 320 million represents an exceedingly small number. For comparison, there are more billionaires in the country (540 as of 2016) than sub-4:00 milers.

Albuquerque: King Cheserek Is Back! He Just Rocked A 3:54 Mile At 5,120 Feet Of Altitude, Beating Ben Blanenship By 6+ Seconds An astute message board poster points out this would be converted to 3:49 if he were still in the NCAA.

Dr. Sander Invite In NYC

MB: Official 2018 Dr. Norb Sander Invite Live Discussion Thread

*Men’s 800: Erik Sowinski (1:46.98) DOMINATES As Robby Andrews And Clayton Murphy Both Fail To Break 1:50
*MB: Clayton Murphy is DONE
*Men’s Mile: Craig Engels Wins In 3:57 Engels wanted the World standard but no one went with the rabbit. HSer Brodey Hasty ran 4:03.26.
*Men’s 3k: Reid Buchanan Gets Worlds Standard By Narrowist Of Margins (7:51.97)
*Women’s 800: Ajee Wilson Ties Up But Wins In 2:00.90
*Women’s Mile: Kate van Buskirk Wins In 4:26 PR Karissa Schweizer moved up to #4 all-time on the collegiate list at 4:27.54.
*RRW: Armory Magic Continues For Canada’s Kate Van Buskirk Van Buskirk won in 4:26.92 to set a world lead and a Canadian indoor record.
*DMR: Oregon Men’s And Women’s DMR Teams Run NCAA Leads With 9:31.87 And 11:00.13
*4 X 200: USA 4 X 200 Women Break A 24-Year-Old American Record Kyra Jefferson, Deajah Stevens, Asha Ruth and Daina Harper ran 1:32.67 to break the 1:33.24 mark from 1994 and just miss the WR of 1:32.41 held by Russia.

UW: Sifan Hassan runs 8:34 and Shalane Flanagan 8:43 Flanagan is in the midst of a 110 mile week.

Texas Tech: Michael Saruni 1:45.19! #2 Time In Ccollegiate History And Leo Manzano had an encouraging 1:48 result as well.

Boston: 10k Man Shad Kipchirchir Just Ran 3:55.52 For The Mile, Beating Justyn Knight (3:55.82)

Arkansas: Aggie Men Win Razorback Invy Team Title By Half A Point Over Florida
*Arkansas Women Take Razorback Invite Team Title

Previewing This Weekend’s Action

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.

Weekend Road Action

2018 Osaka Marathon Is This Weekend (10pm ET Saturday Night – Watch It Live) Yuko Ando – the fastest debutante in Japanese history (2:21:36) – runs marathon #3 here. *IAAF Preview Of 2018 Osaka

Will The 500th US Sub-4 Happen This Weekend?

494 Americans Have Broken 4:00 In The Mile – Predict Who Will Be #500 And Win Fee Saucony Gear Plus the athlete who is #500 will win $500 from BBTM.

2018 Dubai Marathon *Results

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

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Boston Vs. London – Who Has The Edge? Is Nike’s 4% For Real? Is Mo Farah 2.0 Already Here? And Free Coaching Advice For Paul Ereng This week we wonder if we’ve already found Mo Farah‘s replacement, prove that life isn’t fair, compare the 2018 Boston and London Marathon fields, beg Paul Ereng to let Michael Saruni do the World Indoor/NCAA double, rave about the domination of the Nike 4%, introduce you to Ethiopia’s budding 1,500 star, and bemoan the fact that hardly any American women run the marathon before they are 25.

Outside Millrose Coverage

Recommended Read: A Decade After Winning The Millrose High School Miile, Kyle Merber Shooting For The Wanamaker Mile Title “It’s humbling when you look back at the history books and you see all these guys who’ve run just as fast, or faster, than I have, and I don’t even — I don’t know who they are. It’s an unforgiving sport.”
Good Read: Katelyn Tuohy Doesn’t Think She’s Ready To Run Her Fastest Mile In Millrose, But Wants To Go Under 4:40 On the subject of going pro, Tuohy says she plans on running in the NCAA.
Brenda Martinez Scratches From Wanamaker Mile At Millrose
Chris O’Hare “Ready To Roll” At Millrose O’Hare is looking forward to the Wanamaker Mile, but also seeing his wife and 16-month-old son as he’s been away from them in Flagstaff for the last month.
New Mexico’s Josh Kerr Relishing Wanamaker Mile Experience Kerr says training has gone great and he’s “never been this fit this early in the season.”
USA Today: World’s Best Hurdler Omar McLeod Will Try To Challenge The Top Sprinters At Millrose McLeod has spent this season focused on flat sprinting because as his coach says, “he doesn’t want to be known as a guy who just runs the hurdles.”
A Rundown Of The Top Collegians Competing At Millrose

Drug News: A Sad Day For The Fight Against Doping

CAS Fails Clean Athletes: 28 Out Of 39 Russians Have Their Sochi 2014 Disqualifications Overturned By CAS Who Said The Evidence Against Them Was “Insufficient” Not only that, but the 11 athletes whose bans were upheld were reduced to a 4-years rather than lifetime bans.
IOC Criticizes CAS Decision Saying, “This may have a serious impact on the future fight against doping.”
WADA Says CAS Decision Will “Cause Dismay And Frustration” USADA’s Travis Tygart bashed the IOC saying they failed to “swiftly and decisively deal with Russia” and tried to “slam dozens of cases through the process on the even of the Olympics.”
WADA back potential IOC appeal of CAS Russia decision to Swiss Federal Tribunal The IOC have reiterated that “not being sanctioned does not automatically confer the privilege of an invitation” to the Olympics on the neutral Russian team.
Russians Hail “Triumph Of Justice” As IOC Doping Bans Are Overturned The court’s ruling on the 28 athletes reinstates their results at the 2014 Olympics, returning Russia to the top of the Sochi medals chart.
New ARD 35-Minute Documentary On Russian Doping With Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Who “Raises Serious Accusations Against President Vladimir Putin”
Vladimir Putin Calls Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov An “Imbecile With Obvious Problems”
US Triple Jumper Atlanta Westbrook Gets 4-Year Doping Ban For PED Use

Great Distance Races On The Horizon

Saturday: Teammates Ajee Wilson, Charlene Lipsey And Raevyn Rogers Are Teaming Up With Chrishuna Williams To Try To Break The 4 X 800 World Indoor Record At The Millrose Games The 2011 record is held by Russia at 8:06.24.
Saturday: Lots Of Prize Money And Deep Mile Field Set For The Camel City Elite Meet The men’s mile has $9,000 offered to the winner if they can beat Matt Centrowitz‘s 3:54.02 facility record. The field includes Edward Cheserek, Craig Engels, Leo Manzano, former NCAA indoor champ Henry Wynne and NCAA runner-up Kirubel Erassa.
Saturday: MB: Rupp & Hasay to run 2018 USA Cross-Country Championships Evan Jager and Chris Derrick are also on the start list.
February 9: World Record Holder Joyciline Jepkosgei Will Clash With Mary Keitany At The 2018 RAK Half Marathon Other big names include Vivian Cheruiyot, 2014 World Half champ Gladys Cherono and Fancy Chemutai, who ran 65:36 to finish as runner-up when Jepkosgei set her WR.

Other Random News

Vladimir Putin Calls Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov A “Nutjob” Putin also said that he “should be put in prison.”
The IAAF Ethics Committee Is In Kenya To Finish Investigations And Hearings Before Giving A Final Verdict On The Three Suspended Fromer AK Officials
AP: The Bev Kearney Vs. Texas Lawsuit Is Still Ongoing Kearney was fired for having relations with a student athlete and her lawyers are making it a point to compare how Texas didn’t fire a football coach who had relations with a student trainer.
SPIKES Indoor T&F 7 Question Pop Quiz Do you know who is the oldest male world indoor champ in history?
Chicago Marathon Race Director Carey Pinkowski To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award From Chicago Area Runners Association Pinkowski has been the Chicago RD for almost 30 years.

Mid-Distance News

Good Read: Donavan Brazier Looking Towards World Indoors After Putting A Disappointing London 2017 Behind Him Poor tactics cost Brazier a spot in the final and he says, “It’s sickening. What happened in London was disappointing, but when you get that feeling you never want to feel it again.”
Illinois Sophomore Jon Davis Runs 3:58.46 On A Flat Track He was the 498th American to break the 4-minute barrier.
*MB: Jon Davis runs 3:58 on flat track and gets no love
Robby Andrews Talks About His Experience Filming An Adidas Commercial In Iceland Watch the commercial here.
MB: Katelyn Tuohy loses in a HS race!!!!!!!!!!! She tripled at her county championships, winning the 1,000 and 1,500, but getting 2nd in the 600. *Post-Meet Video Interview With Tuohy
Erin Finn Feeling Joy After Breaking Her Own 3,000m School Record Last Week “I felt the joy of finally just completing something that I’ve been working towards. It’s been almost two years since I’ve PRed in any of my distance events.”
MB: Dalton Hengst – Penn Relays Mile Champ And 4:08 Miler – Transfers High Schools In The Middle Of The Last Semester Of His Senior Year Hengst transferred from McDonogh School in Maryland to Bishop Shanahan in Pennsylvania. He’s now part of a team that already has the second-fastest miler in the country this year.
British 1,500m Olympian Ross Murray Retires After Years Struggling With Injuries

Thursday And Friday’s 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: Kejelcha and Rupp go 1-2 and run 13:34 They did it as a workout switching off the lead.
MB: Sifan Hassan 8:34, Shalane Flanagan 8:43!!
MB Donavan Brazier runs 46.91 400
Paul Merca’s UW Invitational Recap

Thursday: Hellen Obiri’s 8:38 WL Win In 3k Was Highlight Of The 2018 Czech Indoor Gala In Ostrava
*Tomas Stanek Won Shot In Ostrava With 21.61m
*2018 Ostrava Full Results Bahrain’s Mohammed Tiouali won the men’s 3,000 in 7:44.

Weekend International Track Results

Laura Muir breaks Scottish Indoor 800m Record With 1:59.69 Muir brokee the 2:00.30 mark set by Lynsey Sharp in 2016.
World 400H Champ Karsten Warholm Opens Season With Norwegian 400m Record Of 45.88
Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera Runs A World Indoor Under-20 1,500m Record of 3:36.05 Tefera beat out 2015 World bronze medalist Abdalaati Iguider in what was the first indoor race of his career.
Russian World Champ Mariya Lasitskene Clears 2.04m To Move To 8th On The All-Time World Indoor List Russia’s Danil Llysenko also set the world lead at 2.37m.
Poland’s World Silver Medalist Piotr Lisek Clears 5.83m To Win Berlin ISTAF Indoor Lisek beat out Olympic champ Thiago Braz da Silva and WR holder Renaud Lavillenie, who each only cleared 5.70m. In the discus throw, Germany’s Daniel Jasinski got a surprise win over former Olympic champ Robert Harting.
Sally Pearson Disappointed With 100H Win In Australia Pearson ran 12.87 into a headwind when she had run 12.73 two weeks ago even hitting three hurdles.
Germany’s Tatjana Pinto Runs 60m World Lead Of 7.08

Great Reads

Recommended Read Alan Abrahamson Has Written A Fantastic Column Asking Why We Praise AROD But Rip The Russians “Which leads to this final question, and again to compare and contrast: what does the American veneration of Alex Rodriguez (and condemnation of the Russians) say about … us? Right. Hypocrisy. Check.”
RIP: British Athletes Pay Tribute To Legendary Coach Bob Parker, Who Guided Dave Bedford To The 10,000 WR In 1973
2-Time NCAA Indoor HJ Champ Trey Culver Of Texas Tech Started College As A 6’9″ Jumper – Now His Coach Thinks He Can Do 7-9¼ (2.37m)

Annoying Reads

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.”

Non-Distance News

Mutaz Essa Barshim Clears World Leading 2.38m At The Asian Indoor Championships In Iran
Some Have Accused Oscar Pistorius Of Getting “Special Treatment” Now That He Is Being Held In A “Relaxed Jail” For Non-Violent Offenders Who Have Sentences Six Years Or Less At this prison, Pistorius has his own bathroom and can grow his own food, but an analyst says he may be there because of his disability and because he has been deemed “low risk.”
Poland’s Piotr Lisek CLears 5.83m To Beat World Champ Sam Kendricks In Cottbus, Germany
Young Sprint Star Noah Lyles Talks About The Highs And Lows Of His Roller Coaster 2017 Lyles went under 20-seconds for the first time and won the 200m DL trophy, but a hamstring injury cost him a trip to Worlds.
Christian Coleman Talks About his Love For Sprinting Coleman says he’s enjoyed sprinting since he was six years old and ran for a track club in Atlanta.

Women’s Distance News

Shalane Flanagan Is Going To Be In A Super Bowl Commercial She appears briefly in a Michelob Ultra commercial with actor Chris Pratt, golfer Brooks Koepka and surfer Kelly Slater.
*RW Article With Some More Details On The Commercial Which Will Feature Flanagan Singing “I Like Beer”
*Watch The Commercial Here
Laura Muir Shares How She Deals With The Double Grind Of Being A Pro Runner And A Full-Time Veterinary Student “You make your priorities. You just get it done. You finish work. You go and train. It’s not more complicated than that.”
Profile / Q&A: Allie Kieffer Is Still Flying High After Her NYC Breakthrough Talking about what she did differently ahead of NYC, Kieffer says she did all her workouts on the roads (instead of the track) and ran her easy days faster (7:15 pace).
Good Read: Profile On 2:29 British Marathoner Aly Dixon, Who Has “Unfinished Business” At The 2018 Commonwealth Games The 39-year-old had a DNF at the 2014 Games, but says it was a blessing in disguise because it motivated her to continue on and hit new highs in the years since.
Athletics Illustrated: “The Anatomy Of Kate Van Buskirk’s National Mile Record” Talking about what she has done to reach her 4:26.92, Buskirk mentions training with Canadian steeplechaser Matt Hughes, which helped her hit times in workouts she hasn’t been able to in the past.

US Non-Distance News

Lolo Jones Bashes NBA Player Blake Griffin Jones tweeted, “I went on a date with him. Worst date of my life and he’s a terrible kisser.”
Pole Vaulting Isn’t Sandi Morris’ Only Talent; She’s Also A Great Singer Morris recently sang the national anthem before the Pole Vault Summit and plays the guitar and violin.
At 31 Years Old, World LJ Champ Brittney Reese Says, “I still feel like I’ve got a lot more left in me to win some more medals.” Reese has four world golds and an Olympic gold and silver and thinks “2020 is probably going to be it” for her.
Sam Kendricks Reflects On His Perfect 2017 Season Which Culminated With A Celebration Photo With A Bunch Of Randoms After Winning The Zurich DL Kendricks: “This photo is very special to me. I don’t know any of the faces in the photo but the fact that they got to share in my success means that they are as much in the moment as I am.”

NCAA Updates

No Changes To The Top 3 Men’s NCAA Rankings Florida, Georgia and Texas A&M stay top 3 as Oregon moved up from 14th to 4th.
Updated Women’s NCAA Rankings: Arkansas Takes Over As #1 As Oregon Drops To 3rd
Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend
Karissa Schweizer And Michael Saruni Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week

Doping Updates

WADA Launch Investigation After New ARD Report That Doping Sample Bottles Can Be Manipulated Without Detection Apparently the bottles can be opened manually after being frozen.
*ARD Report (In German)
IOC Urge WADA To Ensure Anti-Doping At 2018 Winter Games Is “Credible And Reliable” After Sample Bottle Integrity Issue WADA is currently in contact with the bottle manufacturers after the latest ARD report.
Italian Athletics Federation Doctors Who Helped Racewalker Alex Schwazer Avoid Being Caught Using Drugs Get Two-Year Prison Sentences Another official also got a 9-month sentence.
IPC Will Allow Russian Athletes To Compete As Neutrals At The 2018 Winter Paralympics
Germany Criticize “Incomprehensible” IPC Decision To Allow Russians At Pyeongchang 2018
Banned Former Head Of 2018 FIFA World Cup Vitaly Mutko Is Apparently Has A Net Worth Over $1 Billion Mutko appeared on a US “oligarchs list.”
UK Anti-Doping Given $86 Million Public Money Increase To Help Catch Drugs Cheats Ahead Of 2020 Tokyo Olympics This is a nearly 50% increase in their funding.

On The Roads And Trails

Japan’s Mizuki Matsuda Dominates Osaka Women’s Marathon With A 2:22:44 Debut Honami Maeda was runner-up in 2:23:48 as the top 5 were all under 2:30 with Japanese women taking the top 3 spots.
Honolulu Marathon Champ Brigid Kosgei And Josphat Kipchirchir Win Eldoret Discovery XC Race
Bahrain’s Aweke Ayalew And Kenya’s Daisy Jepkemei Win San Sebastian XC Race Jepkemei beat out steeple WR holder Ruth Jebet, who finished a distant third.
Getaneh Molla (61:25) And Zeineba Yimer (70:24) Win Ethiopian Half Marathon Titles
Cambridge University 4th In Ekiden Debut The Tokyo Police Department won the Okumusahi Ekiden while Cambridge graduates took inspiration from the Ivy League team that competes at the Izumo Ekiden and decided to try out one themselves.
Kazuma Ito (62:10) And Maki Ashi (71:26) Win Osaka Half Marathon
GB Weekend XC Round-Up

Other US News

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