Vin Lananna Suspended

LRC Trying To Make Sense Of USATF’s Suspension Of Vin Lananna – Was This A Silent Coup? After reading USATF’s explanation for placing Vin Lananna on administrative leave, we were more confused than before we read it. So we try to make sense of it all.

• The Oregonian: Vin Lananna “Taken Aback” By The USATF Board’s Move To Put Him On Temproary Leave USATF activist Becca Gillespy Peter slammed the decision saying, “The board has been disregarding the will of the USATF membership for years, and this is just the latest slap in the face to the volunteers who have dedicated their lives to the sport.”
• Register Guard article Apparently Lananna didn’t inform UO about the DOJ investigation either even though it is university policy, but a spokesperson said they didn’t consider the TrackTown contact with the DOJ a university matter.
• USATF Release: Vin Lananna Placed On Temporary Administrative Leave From USATF Presidency The USATF board of directors say that they wanted to eliminate conflict of interest concerns as the Department of Justice is investigating the bid for the 2021 World Championships.
• MB: Vin Lanana being placed on “Administrative Leave” by USATF board!

Non-LRC USAs Sunday Recaps

• USATF: Javianne Oliver Runs World Leading 7.02 To Win Women’s 60 (Ties #6 All-Time US) Courtney Okolo edged Shakima Wimbley by a 51.16 to 51.17 margin in the women’s 400, while Jarret Eaton (7.43) edged Aries Merritt (7.46) and Devon Allen (7.49) in the 60H. Ryan Whiting won his 4th indoor men’s shot put crown in 8 years.
• IAAF: Will Claye (TJ) Brittney Reese (LJ) And Vashti Cunningham (HJ) Win The Jumps It was Clay’s first competition of the year, Reese’s 11th national title and Cunningham’s third straight US crown.
• DyeStat: Sharika Nelvis Sets 60H American Record, #3 All-Time With 7.70 Keni Harrison was beaten into second place and said, “[Nelvis] came out here and she got the job done. It’s only going to make me work harder. I’m pretty sure at Worlds, that world record is going to get beaten.”
• AP: Christian Coleman: “When I transitioned and I stood up, I felt as good as I have ever felt. I kept running and saw that tape and got that line. It was a world record and it was pretty special.”
• RRW: Shelby Houlihan, Paul Chelimo Complete Distance Doubles At USA Indoor Championships

Day 1 At 2018 USA Indoors

LRC Men’s 3,000: Army Strong – Paul Chelimo Repeats As Shadrack Kicphirchir Outkicks Ryan Hill Chelimo showed why he’s one of the best in the world with a 26.09 final 200 as altitude-born runners took 4 of the top 5 spots.

LRC Women’s 3,000: Shelby Houlihan Earns Convincing Win As Katie Mackey Makes Her First Worlds Team Shelby Houlihan looks unbeatable domestically right now but there was room for an underdog behind her as Katie Mackey snapped an 0-13 US Champs streak and made her first US team.

LRC Big Drama In Men’s 800 Prelims: Clayton Murphy Goes Home Early, Women’s Favorites All Advance While there was big drama in the men’s 800 prelims, the women’s race went very much according to form as the six fastest entrants took the six spots in tomorrow’s final.

MB Talk

• Official 2018 USA Indoor Day 1 Discussion Thread
• Clayton Murphy OUT in Round 1 of 800 at USAs
• Unsponsored Quamel Prince makes 2018 USA indoor final -Olympic medallist & NOP sponsored Clayton Murphy doesn’t 
• More 3k DQ drama at USAs in ABQ? Should someone be DQd for this? 
• Clayton Murphy will win USAs here is why

British Indoor Champs

• Laura Muir Eases To British Indoor 3,000 Title In 8:46 Muir now has a set of British indoor wins as she’s previously won the 800 and 1,500.
• Greg Rutherford Back On Track From Injury With British Indoor Long Jump Title Rutherford only jumped 7.80m, but it was his first competition after having two surgeries and only starting to walk in November.
• Rutherford: “I was terrified about this competition. Genuinely terrified. Last night I was lying in my bed in the hotel thinking I don’t know if I can do it.”
• Asha Phillip And CJ Ujah Storm To 60m British Titles In the men’s 1,500, Jake Wightman outkicked Charlie Grice to win in 3:43.83 after Chris O’Hare had to sit out due to a foot issue. Paralympic shot put champ Aled Davies finished 6th in his first able-bodied championship.

Distance News

• Recommended Read: SPIKES Profiles Czech Middle Distance Runner Jakub Holusa, Who Has Become Known For His Blistering Kick Holusa kicked from 6th to 2nd in the last meters of the 1,500 at 2016 Portland World Indoors, but looking back thinks he should have beaten Matt Centrowitz for gold. “If I had been close to Centrowitz, I believe to this day I could have beaten him. With 150 to go I started my finish and it was so, so, so late …”
• Spikes Does A Nice Feature On Kemoy Campbell: Jamaica’s Trailblazing Distance Runner
• Commonwealth Games 5,000 Champ Mercy Cherono Is Pregnant

Upcoming Road / XC Action

• Sunday: Morocco’s World Steeple Silver Medalist Soufiane El Bakkali The Favorite At Almond Blossom XC In Portugal He faces former world indoor 1,500 silver medalist Daniel Kipchirchir Komen. 2016 winner and home favorite Carla Salomé Rocha leads the women’s race.
• March 4: Defending Champ And 2:06 Man Ezekiel Chebii Returns To Lead Field For Lake Biwa Marathon He faces a field with seven sub-2:10 men and New Zealand’s Jake Robertson (60:01 half PR) making his marathon debut.
• April 8: MB: 2018 Rotterdam Men’s Elite Field Released – Race features 7 sub 2:07 guys
• April 22: Mary Keitany More Confident About Marathon WR Attempt After RAK Half Performance “The marathon world record is something that I have been working towards for several years and I feel I am now in the position where I can really attack the time of 2:15:25 set by Paula Radcliffe.”

TrackTown Construction Delay USA

LRC   NCAA TF Committee Reopens Bid Process For 2019 & 2020 NCAA Outdoor Championships That Had Previously Been Awarded To University Of Oregon The 2019 and 2020 NCAA outdoor meets were supposed to be at Hayward Field, but citing the “timing around pending construction,” the NCAA T&F committee decided to reopen the bid process.

More From Oregon: The Oregonian‘s Ken Goe Offers Another Perspective On The Vin Lananna USATF Conflict Of Interest Issue Goe writes that the USATF board never wanted Lananna, preferring Jackie Joyner Kersee and Lananna’s election (Kersee withdrew from consideration) was a “repudiation of the way the board had been doing business.”

More Non-Distance News

• Despite A Modest Start To His Season, Yohan Blake Says 2018 Is His Year To Take Over The 100m From Usain Bolt On Saturday in Jamaica, Blake ran 10.32 to finish 4th while Zharnel Hughes won in 10.18.
• Interesting History Lesson: A List Of Team USA’s Biggest Olympic Scandals Track and field gets four spots on this top ten list.
• GB’s Third Fastest 100m Sprinter Of All-Time Joel Fearon Will Be Competing In The 2018 Winter Games In The Bobsled Fearon was actually already an Olympic bobsledder when he had his breakthrough 9.96 in 2016.
• Christophe Lemaitre Runs European-Leading 200 With 20.53 In France

NCAA Updates

• Texas Tech Passes Florida To Move To #1 In The NCAA Rankings Georgia stayed #3 while Southern California jumped from 15th to 4th.
• Some Big Shifts In Women’s NCAA Rankings As Arkansas Stays #1 And Southern California And Kentucky Jumped From 4th And 5th To 2nd And 3rd Georgia and Oregon dropped down to 4th and 5th.
• Grant Fisher And Ednah Kurgat Are XC Scholar Athletes Of The Year Fisher is the first back-to-back winner of the award since Chris Derrick won it in 2010 and 2011.
• The Portland Men And The New Mexico Women Are NCAA All-Academic Cross-Country Teams Of The Year To win the award you have to be the top finishing team with a GPA of at least 3.0.
• Florida’s Grant Holloway And New Hampshire’s Elinor Purrier Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Holloway broke Omar McLeod‘s 60H NCAA record as well as split 45.12 on Florida’s 4 x 400 while Purrier ran the second-fastest collegiate indoor mile with 4:26.55.
• Event-By-Event Top-10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend

Running Science

• CNN: Research Finds That Smiling Can Improve Your Running By Decreasing Perceived Effort The study found that runners used 2.8% less energy when smiling compared to frowning.
• RW: Are Veiny Arms And Legs Really A Sign You’re Super Fit? While it’s not a direct indicator of fitness, having veins that “pop” is more likely in fit athletes because they are leaner with less body fat and more muscle mass.