Week That Was

LRC WTW: More Praise for the Japanese, Some Love For Caster Semenya, A Big Track Meet Gets Cancelled, RIP Jonathan Grey, Ken Young Semenya’s got a new coach, the Japanese have a super cool way to broadcast marathons, and the sport lost two of its own.

Book Review

LRC Book Review: “Endure” By Alex Hutchinson – A Fitting Successor To “The Sports Gene” As The Next Great Sports Science Book Treat yourself to your own Valentine’s Day gift by buying Alex Hutchinson‘s new book Endure, which we give our highest rating – 5 stars out of 5. Purchase here.

Thursday In Poland *Live Stream At 1PM ET

Copernicus Cup Preview: IAAF World Indoor Tour Goes To Poland On Thursday Distance highlights include World 5000 champ Hellen Obiri in the 1500 against Dawit Seyaum, World silver medalist Adam Kszczot in the 800.Off the track, Russia’s Maria Lasitskene will go for her 36th straight HJ win and Poland’s Piotr Lisek tries to lock up the series title against a deep field in the pole vault.

RIP David Torrence

LRC David Torrence’s Death Ruled An Accidental Drowning, But For His Family Questions Remain Because Of Death Threats While the medical examiner’s report and the Scottsdale PD ruled Torrence’s death an accidental drowning, David’s mother, Bianca Torrence, is frustrated because she feels investigators didn’t seriously consider another possible cause of death: murder. Bianca said that multiple people told her that David had received death threats in 2016 and said she does not believe that Scottsdale PD has taken the information about the death threats seriously.
*MB: David Torrence’s Death Ruled An Accidental Drowning, But For His Family Questions Remain Because Of Death Threats 

The 2018 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Was Saturday *Results *Watch It *Meet Preview

LRC 2018 NBIGP Recap: Jenny Simpson > Emma Coburn, Donavan Brazier Runs 1:45.11, & Chris O’Hare Keeps Rolling The lone US stop on the IAAF World Indoor Tour did not disappoint as Donavan Brazier nearly broke the American record, Jenny Simpson PRed and much more.

LRC Edward Cheserek Destroys Hagos Gebrhiwet At 2018 NBIGP To Complete Epic 3:49/7:38 2-Day Double During his four years at Oregon, Edward Cheserek became a legend in the US by winning 17 NCAA titles. This weekend, he started working on becoming a legend at the world level by pulling off an insane double.

Other Saturday Action:

• Craig Engels Blasts A 3:53.96 With His Tongue Out On The Last Lap 
• 4 Oregon Ducks Break 4:00 At UW Sam Prakel won in 3:56.89 as Evan Jager was only 7th in 3:58.27.
• Clayton Murphy Gets Ready For USAs With 1:48.36
• Ghent: Schippers Clocks 7.17 In 60m Heats In Ghent Before DQ In Final
• Ghent: Norway’s Wunderkind Jakob Ingebrigtsen Came Up Short Of Qualifier For World Indoors With A 3:40.96 (Lewandowski Won In 3:40.74)

NBIGP MB Talk

• MB: Official 2018 NBIGP Discussion Thread
• MB: CHESEREK IS THE REAL DEAL – He just destroyed Hagos G and ran 7:38.74 
• MB: Oh so close!! Donavan Brazier just misses the AR – 1:45.11. Boris Berian races with GUTS. 
• MB: Aisha Praught Leer 4:04 for 1500 indoors
• MB: America, do you really want to take Cheserek from us? Give us Noah Lyles ….

RIP Jonathan Grey

• MB: RIP: Former William & Mary star / 27:59 man Jonathan Grey has lost his battle with depression at age 29
• York Daily Record: Fellow Runners Share Their Memories And Pay Tribute To Jon Grey Grey’s coach Lee Troop tweeted, “He was a hard worker, always went for goals despite how unrealistic, & was one of the most honest persons I’ve ever met. If he ran like shit, he accepted full responsibility and never looked for excuses.”

News From Africa

• Geoffrey Kamworor Wins 2018 Kenyan XC Champs, Then Rips His Employer He didn’t rip Nike but rather the Kenyan Police Force for not giving him a promotion. *IAAF Recap
• South African 5k Champ Thabang Mosiako Allegedly Beaten By Group Of Whites In Racist Attack His friend claims he could have lifelong seizures as a result. More info here and here.
• Report: Justin Gatlin Is Ducking Akani Simbine When He Races In South Africa In March Gatlin has supposedly requested to run a 150 so he won’t face Simbine.
• Who Knew? Eliud Kipchoge’s Mom Was Once Patrick Sang’s Teacher And now Sang is Kipchoge’s teacher.

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

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.