February 10, 2018 Homepage Archive

The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Is Saturday Watch It On NBCSN 5-7 PM ET Meet Preview

MB: Official 2018 NBIGP Discussion Thread: Christian Coleman in the 60, King Ches vs Hagos & Simpson v Coburn in 3k + BB Returns

LRC What We Learned In Boston: What’s Up With Boris Berian, How Christian Coleman Can Run Even Faster, & How Much Money It Would Take For Jenny Simpson To Race The Steeple Again Get the inside scoop from today’s NBIGP press conference where three sets of stars will battle each other tomorrow – Simpson vs. Coburn, Coleman vs. Lyles and Berian vs. Brazier. Plus after talking to Brazier, we can only wonder: Has anyone in the history of the world ever broken 4:00 in the mile with a shorter longest run than Donavan Brazier?

LRC NBIGP Preview: WR Alert: Christian Coleman Goes For History, Jenny Simpson Battles Emma Coburn, King Ches Races Gebrhiwet & More The lone US stop on the IAAF World Indoor Tour should be a dandy as with Christian Coleman and Noah Lyles in the 60, Emma Coburn and Jenny Simpson in the 3k, and Edward Cheserek, Hagos Gebrhiwet and Dejen Gebremeskel in the men’s 3k. Plus the return of Boris Berian. *IAAF Preview

Reuters: Coleman Gets Another Chance To Break “His” Record In Boston
Scottish 5,000 Star Andrew Butchart Will Miss Commonwealth Games (And NBIGP) With Navicular Stress Fracture It happened at Millrose and he knew it immediately.
Latest Boston World Indoor Tour Updates From IAAF

Distance News

Good Read:Eliud Kipchoge Explains Why He Loves Running “When I miss a day’s running, it makes me feel bad. It’s like when I was younger and I missed a day at school. To me, running is life. I run to live longer and enjoy a healthier life. … It is good for your mind. … I can’t imagine a life without running.”
Steve Magness Does 90-Minute Podcast With Alan Webb They talk about a lot of different aspects of the training Webb did when he was competing.
*MB: 90 min of Alan MF Webb
Scottish Mid-D Runner Jake Wightman Writes About The Pros And Cons Of Being Coached By His Dad Weightman tells a story of one time where he used “some pretty explicit language” towards his dad during a workout and “did the whole session filled with rage.”
Podcast Interview With World Steeple Silver Medalist Courtney Frerichs Frerichs talks about winning silver, previously being a multi-sport athlete and transitioning from college to pro.
Very Random:Texas Man Loses Bet, Runs Beer Mile In Kim Jong-un Onesie It was his punishment for coming in last his his fantasy football league.

Previous Mid-Week Action

Tuesday: World HJ Champ Mutaz Essa Barshim Loses For The First Time Since 2016 At A Meet In Slovakia China’s Wang Yu and Barshim both cleared 2.31m, but Barshim lost on countback. Russia’s Maria Lasitskene dominated the women’s competition with 2.02 meters.
Wednesday: South Africa’s World Long Jump Champ Luvo Manyonga Jumps World-Leading 8.32m In Paris
*IAAF Paris Recap:Decathlete Kevin Mayer Dominated The Multi-Event “Triathlon Competition” World and Olympic pole vault champ Ekaterini Stefanidi won with 4.81m before taking three unsuccessful attempts at a would-be Greek indoor record of 4.91m.

Sprint Stuff

Andre De Grasse To Play In NBA All-Star Celebrity Game Actors Jamie Foxx and Jerry Ferrara (former Entourage star) are among those playing. The game will be Friday, February 16th in Los Angeles.
Q&A:World 100m Champ Tori Bowie Is Walking In New York Fashion Week She will appear at various shows for clothing company Valentino and possibly on some catwalks too.
Canadian Olympic 4 X 100 Bronze Medalist Akeem Haynes Is Trying Out Football Haynes has signed with a team in the Canadian Football League as a wide receiver.
Justin Gatlin To Race At The Athletix GP In South Africa In March Gatlin will run the rarely-run 150m for the first time in his career.

Doping Updates

GB Sprinter Nigel Levine Suspended After Failing Out-Of-Competition Drug Test Before Christmas Levine was one of the sprinters who was gravely injured in a motorcycle accident last year.
CAS Will Announced Decision On Russian Appeals On Friday, The Day Of The Winter Games Opening Ceremony
WADA President Craig Reedie Doesn’t Rule Out RUSADA Remaining Suspended Until 2020 Tokyo Games
Russia Confident Of Favorable CAS Decision For 45 Athletes Hoping To Compete At Pyeongchang 2018
WADA To Implement Extra Security Measures Aimed At Protecting Anti-Doping At Pyeongchang 2018 Following Sochi Scandal

Non-Pro Running News

Sad News:Video: Coach Who Dropped 100 Pounds Over Last 4 Years Dies After Run With Students An Indiana teacher and coach Dan Runyan collapsed while on a run and died two days later. *Video Transcript*Discuss
*School And Community Mourns Loss Of Dan Runyan 45-year-old Runyan used to be 340 pounds and on the cusp of diabetes, but changed his diet and became a runner to turn his health around. He was training for the 2018 Chicago Marathon.
Bill Defeated In Hawaii That Would Have Banned Hawaiian Runners Under 18 From Competing In Half And Full Marathons
RIP Ken Young, The Founder Of The Association of Road Racing Statisticians A nice tribute by JRN’s Brett Larner on the man who contributed a lot to the art of keeping road racing stats/data.
*Great Runner’s World Profile On Young From 2016

US Distance News

Register-Guard:Andrew Wheating Is Comfortable In Retirement And Has “Zero Regret” But is it hard to go through a track season as a spectator rather than athlete? Nope, Wheating says he sees pictures of “guys finishing races with that gritty face” and is happy that’s not him.
*MB: QOTD: “Zero. Zero bit of regret…” – Andrew Wheating on retirement
DyeStat:Gabrielle Wilkinson Steals Katelyn Tuohy’s Thunder In The Millrose Games High School Mile Reportedly, Tuohy, only a sophomore, was crushed by the loss and ran “to the bathroom in tears” after the race.
*MB:How Gabrielle Wilkinson won the Millrose HS Girl’s Mile
Jim Ryun, Steve Prefontaine, Alan Webb, Jesse Owens, Allyson Felix Among The Inaugural Inductees Into The National High School Track And Field Hall Of Fame Unfortunately, so too was Mary Decker Slaney.
Sabrina Little And Ronnie Delzer Successfully Defend Their Titles At The US 100 Mile Trail Champs

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

Friday Night Action – Fast Hurdles And Miles + Gwen Jorgensen Knocks It Out Of The Park

Cheserek celebrates #15 LRC Edward Cheserek Blasts 3:49.44 Mile To Move To #2 On The All-Time World Indoor List Edward Cheserek is currently a man without a country. He doesn’t want to run for Kenya and he can’t race for the US, so tonight he raced the clock – and won.
*MB: Edward Cheserek Runs 3:49.44 Mile At Bu – #2 Indoor Time Ever

Olympic Triathlon Champ Gwen Jorgensen Makes Her Bowerman Track Club Debut 6 Months After Giving Birth, Runs 37-Second PR Of 15:15 She finished just behind USA XC champ Emily Infeld. Very impressive.
Grant MF Holloway- Holloway Beat Omar McLeod And Runs 7.42 Collegiate Record (Great Video)
Elinor Purrier Runs 4:26.55 Mile At BU – #2 NCAA Indoor Time Ever
Keni Harrison Ties LoLo Jones’s AR With 7.72 At Clemson

2018 RAK Half Results Race Replay *Km-By-Km Splits

MB: Official 2018 RAK Half Live Discussion Thread

LRC Oh So Close, Fancy Chemutai Just Misses WR And Runs 64:53 (#2 All-Time), Bedan Karoki Runs 58:42 (#4 All-Time) At 2018 RAK Half Even though the WR just barely survived, the women’s race was the best in half marathon history as 11 women broke 69:00. The men’s side was pretty darn good as 7 men broke 60:00, including a guy making his debut, Jemal Yimer, who ran a debut record of 59:00.

Other Thursday Action

Spain’s Óscar Husillos (400) And Russia’s Maria Lasitskene (HJ) Highlight Madrid Indoor Meeting Husillos beat world indoor 400 champ Pavel Maslak to win the 400 in NR 45.86. Lasitskene got her 34th consecutive win by clearing 2.00m and then taking some attempts at a would-be PR of 2.07m. Distance action included wins from Genzebe Dibaba (4:02.43), Adam Kszczot (1:46.53), Ayanleh Souleiman (3:38.47) and Meraf Bahta (8:42.46). *Results

LRC Exclusive Q & As

LRC Q&A With The Man Who Is Now Coaching Edward Cheserek – Stephen Haas; Haas Talks About Cheserek’s Sub-3:50 Mile Attempt & What Makes King Ches Special Cheserek will be attempting to be the 4th man to break 3:50 in the indoor mile this weekend and then a day later he’ll take on a stacked field in the 3k at the NBIGP. Get the inside scoop on his first altitude camp and learn how Cheserek closed a recent session with a 49-second 400.

Catching Up With Teen Phenoms Past And Present

LRC Q&A: Mary Cain On The Injury That Kept Her Out In 2017 & Her 2018 Plans, Plus Katelyn Tuohy Talks About Her Incredible XC Season, Her Millrose Defeat & Managing Expectations 21-year-old Mary Cain surprised fellow NY Section 1 phenom Katelyn Tuohy Wednesday afternoon and presented her with the Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year Award. We caught up with the two right after the ceremony and did a Q&A.

Bowerman Award Update

The Bowerman: 2018 Men’s Mid-Indoor Watch ListJustyn Knight, Josh Kerr and Michael Saruni make up the trio of distance men on the list.
The Bowerman: 2018 Women’s Mid-Indoor Watch List Distance runners on the list include Karissa Schweizer, Sammy Watson and Ednah Kurgat. Young sprint star Sydney McLaughlin is also on the list.

Assorted Distance News

USATF Announces World Half Marathon Team The men’s team has Bernard Lagat, Jared Ward, Leonard Korir, Diego Estrada and Sam Chelanga. The women’s team is Jordan Hasay, Sara Hall, Natosha Rogers, Becky Wade and Elaina Tabb.
Cam Levins Is On Canada’s World Half Marathon Team
Andrew Wheating Unveils Funny Retirement Video Wheating talks about what he’s been up to since he hung up his spikes.
Kenya Will Name Its Africa XC Champs Team On Saturday Top XC man Geoffrey Kamworor is focusing on World Half Champs, but the women’s team is likely to have former World XC champ Agnes Tirop.

Tuesday Afternoon Track Action – 2nd IAAF World Indoor Tour Event – Düsseldorf *Results

MB:Official Düsseldorf IAAF World Indoor Tour Live Discussion And Watch Thread
*IAAF Dusseldorf Recap: Su Bingtian Runs 6.43 In The 60m To Move To 5th All-TimeChristina Manning edged Sharika Nelvis in the 60H to set a 7.77 world lead.
*Czech Republic’s Tomas Stanek Improved His Own World Lead And The Czech Record To 22.17m

Did you miss the action? Watch it now without knowing the results.
*Men’s 800 1 With Kszczot
*Men’s 800 2 With Sowinski
*Men’s 1,500 With Iguider And Manangoi
*Women’s 1,500
*Men’s 3,000 With Kejelcha

Meet Preview

Sprint Stuff

Hannah Cunliffe Signs WIth adidas And With Paul Doyle; Is Living In Washington Being Coached By Her Father No word on when she’ll make her pro debut.
*MB: Hannah Cunliffe Signs with Adidas
IAAF Ratify USA’s Men’s 4 X 400 Under-20 World Record The team (which included pro Josephus Lyles) ran 3:00.33 this July to break the mark held by a team that included LaShawn Merritt, Kerron Clement and Brandon Johnson.
Christophe Lemaitre Had A Solid Weekend With 6.57 And 6.58 In The 60m He ran 6.57 in the heats and then almost equaled it in the final to beat a field that included his domestic rival Jimmy Vicaut.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo Excited For 2018 After Setting The 300m World Record At Millrose

International Distance News

Caster Semenya Dumps Her Coach Of Three Years, Jean Verster Verster coached Semenya to her Olympic and World titles, but Semenya has now left to join the Tshwane University of Technology and apparently will represent them in future races.
Nick Willis Could Miss The Commonwealth Games After Suffering A Stress Reaction In His Fibula Willis tweeted that he’d take a few weeks off to cross train and would “put 100%” of his focus on the 1,500, making it sound like he’s giving up on the 1,500/5,000 double.
Nike Makes Advertising Blunder As They Show Mo Farah Pictured In A T-Shirt With A Terrorist Group Slogan The shirt says “LDNR” meant to stand for “Londoner,” but apparently those are also the letters used by a terrorist group in Ukraine.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen Just Misses A Hat Trick Of Titles At Norwegian Indoor Champs 3:42.75 to win the 1,500, then a Euro indoor U20 record in the 3K with 7:56.74 and bounced back for 2nd in the 800 with 1:52.01. On the sprint side, world 400H champ Karsten Warholm broke his own national indoor 400 record for the second week with 45.59.
World 10,000 Silver Medalist Joshua Cheptegei Announced For A New Three Meet Grand Prix Series In South Africa At the first meet on March 1st, Cheptegei is stepping down to the 1,500 and says he wants to run 3:32 (his 3:37 PR comes from the one 1,500 he’s ever run).
AW Weekend Round-Up:Jake Heyward Breaks British Under-20 Indoor 3,000 Record With 8:00.93 He broke the 50-year-old record set by Ian Stewart in 1968.
Video Highlights From European Champion Clubs Cup Cross-Country

The Latest USATF Controversy

The Oregonian: Vin Lananna Has Been “Stripped Of Some Of His Authority” As USATF President Due To Conflicts Of Interest Lananna heads several companies and nonprofits that bid on contracts and host track meets, including TrackTown USA and because of this (as well as concerns expressed by their auditing firm), the board passed a resolution requiring Lananna to recuse himself from many USATF issues. We said back when Lananna was running for president that he should “give up his current role at TrackTown USA.”

Non-Distance News

MB:Fred Kerley Runs 44.50 Time Trial
RIP:Australian Commonwealth Games Javelin Champ Jarrod Bannister Dies At 33 Bannister’s last major competition was 2011 Worlds and he had a 20-month ban in 2013 for missing three out-of-competition drug tests.
Trinidad and Tobago’s 200m World Bronze Medalist Jereem Richards Talks The Highs And Lows Of His Career While 2017 Worlds was great, Richards had a lot of difficulties in 2016 that culminated in him not making the Rio Olympics.

News From The 2018 Winter Olympics In South Korea

At Least They Got One Right:CAS Dismisses Appeals Of 47 Russians Seeking To Compete At The 2018 Winter Games
*USA Today article
*Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko Disappointed With CAS Decision
Canadian Team Warned About Conduct After Cafe Incident With Russia The Canadian team issued a “partial apology” after a verbal exchange between a Canadian and Russian athlete.
North Korea Will Stay At Pyeongchange 2018 Following Withdrawal Threat After Comments From US Vice President Mike Pence North Korea threatened to pull out of the Games after Pence said the US planned to introduce tough sanctions against North Korea.
USOC Ends Prospects Of Bid For 2026 Winter Olympics Over Fears It Would Negatively Affect LA 2028
NY Times:Norovirus Is Spreading At The Winter Games With 128 Confirmed Cases
NY Times:Will North Korea Win the Gold Medal for Deceit?
NY Times:“A Surprise (?) At The Winter Olympics: It’s Really Cold” Recent Games were “balmy,” but it’s been getting under 0 degrees Fahrenheit in Pyeongchang.
Curlers Become First “Olympic Athletes From Russia” To Compete At 2018 Winter Games The opening ceremony is Friday, but some events started Thursday.
Olympic Athletes from Russia to march between Austria and Kazakhstan at Opening Ceremony A volunteer will carry the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” flag. Why do they need a flag at all?
Thomas Bach Defends IOC’s Handling Of Russia Doping Case

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Some Stars Thankfully Ran US Cross, Michelle Sikes Is Back, Emmanuel Korir Was Flying, Edna Kiplagat Struggled, Russian Doping And Coaching Advice From Katelyn Tuohy’s Coach We break down the week of running.

Distance News: Does King Ches Have A Shot At Sub-3:50?

Edward Cheserek Going For A Sub-3:50 Mile At BU Valentine On Friday Brannon Kidder and Hamish Carson are scheduled to take Cheserek through 800 in 1:54 and 1,200 in 2:52, trying to help Cheserek become only the fourth person to go under 3:50 indoors.
A Missed Result From The Weekend:Abel Kipchumba (60:12) And Shitaye Eshete (68:35) Win Napoli Half Marathon (Corrected Link/Result)