February 22, 2018 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For February 22, 2018

Quote Of The Day

“Did I think I was going to break four minutes? Not a fecking hope in hell. I’m over the moon. I tied up in the last 100 and I was close enough to making an attack, but I can’t complain. It was never on the plan to break four, so I have to take that, and now I’ll always be there as the first Irishman to do it here.”

– John Travers speaking after running 3:59.40 to become the first Irishman to run a sub-4 mile indoors on Irish soil.

Until 2018 Tokyo Marathon

LRC 2018 Tokyo Marathon Men’s Preview: Wilson Kipsang Looks To Repeat; What Can The Japanese Men, Led By The Daring Yuta Shitara, Do? Tokyo may not have the cachet of London or Boston but it’s by far the best marathon for US fans to watch as it’s on during prime time in the US. We get you ready for Saturday night’s race.

Wilson Kipsang Might Go For The World Record At Tokyo; His Brother Is One Of The Pacers Kipsang won Tokyo in 2:03:58 last year and says, “I missed out on the world record narrowly last year and I want to see if I can be able to achieve that time on Sunday with my pacemakers.”.

Recent International Results

IAAF:17-Year-Old Riley Day Highlights Youth Break Out At Australian National Champs By Winning The 100/200 Double In men’s distance action, Luke Matews took the 800 in 1:45.90, Ryan Gregson had a great kick to win the 1,500 in 3:39.66 over Jordan Williamsz (3:39.85), Morgan McDonald ran 13:19.95 in the 5,000 to beat out former NCAA champs David McNeill (2nd – 13:19.51) and Patrick Tiernan (4th – 13:26). On the women’s side, Sally Pearson won her 9th 100H title and Linden Hall outkicked Zoe Buckman to win the 1,500.
*MB:Ryan Gregson drops the hammer in Aussie Champs
USA’s Joseph Gray And Augustus Maiyo Go 1-2 To At Pan American Cross-Country Championships The women’s medals were swept by South American athletes as Ecuador’s Ecuador’s Carmen Toaquiza took the overall title. *Results
Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali And Home Favorite Salomé Rocha Win Almond Blossom XC Race In Portugal They didn’t have as stiff competition as expected as the Kenyan runners didn’t make it due to visa issues.
Kenyans John Nwangangi (63:49) Diana Chemtai Kipyokei (70:00) Win Guadalajara Half Marathon Nwangangi beat out his countryman Rhonzas Kilimo by just one second with Ethiopia’s Dawit Fikadu another three seconds back.

RIP News

33-Year-Old Irish Distance Runner Jamie McCarthy Dies In Car Accident In South Carolina McCarthy was a member of the Irish team that won silver at the 2004 Euro Junior XC Champs.
Russia’s Former Olympic And World Hammer Champion Sergey Litvinov Dies At 60 Litvinov’s 86.04 PR from 1986 is still #2 all-time.
*Nice Tribute To Sergey Litvinov By HMMR Media
Asbel Kiprop In Grieving After Losing His Brother At Age 35

UK News

Paula Radcliffe Reveals She Tore Her Colon While Breaking The World Record (2:17:18) At The Chicago 2002 (Where LRC’s Wejo Paced Her) Radcliffe: “In fairness, I actually don’t feel the pain so I wasn’t being particularly brave either. My pain threshold is quite high.”
*Full 58-Minute BBC Interview With Radcliffe
*3-Minute BBC Clip On Her Colon
Laura Muir, Greg Rutherford And Katarina Johnson-Thompson Lead GB Team Of 31 For World Indoors Muir and Eilish McColgan will both do the 1,500/3,000 double; Chris O’Hare in the 1,500.
GB’s Former World Indoor 60m Champ Richard Kilty Ruled Out Of World Indoors With Achilles Injury Kilty made the GB Champs final, but had to withdraw.

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

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

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.”

Doping Updates

Major Tension In The IOC As Notable IOC Members Dick Pound And John Coates Have Public Spat Over Russia Issue Coates criticized Pound said he didn’t deserve the title of “IOC doyen” after Pound said, “Only athletes can scare IOC old farts into beating cheats.”
IOC Tell Dick Pound He Can Get Lost Actually, what IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said was more obnoxious: “In the end, if you don’t like the coffee that’s served at the coffee shop, and you don’t like the décor and you don’t like the prices, then you maybe go to another coffee shop.”
IAAF Invite Seven Russian Athletes To The 2018 World Indoor Championships The athletes, lead by high jump world champ Mariya Lasitskene, will compete under a neutral flag.
IAAF Doping Review Board Approves Applications Of Two More Russians To Compete As Neutrals Thrower Maksim Afonin and jumper Anna Krylova are now eligible to compete.

NCAA News

Jesse Squire Examines Where The 2019 And 2020 NCAA Outdoor Championships Might Be Oregon is re-bidding for 2020, but Squire thinks 2019 will be at Drake Stadium in Des Moines although he also looks at Sacramento (Hornet Stadium), Philadelphia (Franklin Field), New York (Icahn Stadium) and several others.
Ken Goe Speculates On Hayward Field Renovations Even though no official announcement has been made, he’s heard from “usually reliable sources” that the stadium will be completely torn down. It’s also been reported that the state of Oregon is only contributing $10 million of the $40 million organizers were hoping for.
Oregon’s Three TIme NCAA Champion Ariana Washington Still Doesn’t Have A Qualifying Standard For NCAA Indoors Washington is currently only ranked 57th in the 200 and 59th in the 60. Coach Robert Johnson says they’re “scratching their heads” over it as they don’t know why she’s not running up to her normal standards.
Men’s Updated NCAA Rankings Leave Texas Tech And Florida As The Top-2 Arkansas moved up from 5th to 3rd.
Latest Women’s NCAA Rankings Have No Changes To The Top-9 With Arkansas, Southern California And Kentucky As The Top-3
DI Athletes Of The Week Last Week Were South Dakota’s Chris Nilsen And Cincinnati’s Annette Echikunwoke Nilsen jumped 5.80m to put himself tied for 9th on the all-time NCAA list while Echikunwoke threw 24.78m to move to #2 all-time NCAA.
Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From Last Week

Highlights From European National Champs

Germany’s European Silver Medalist Konstanze Klosterhalfen Runs 8:36.01 To Win National Title And Break German Indoor 3,000 Record Other interesting results included Tatjana Pinto running 7.06 to run the fastest 60m by a German since 1988 and the Lavillenie brothers (Renaud and Valentin) going 1-2 in the French Champs PV with 5.83m and 5.72m. At the Dutch Champs, Dafne Schippers won in 8.09.
*MB:Konstanze Klosterhalfen – 8:36,01 min for 3.000 indoor (solo)
Mujinga Kambundji Runs 7.03 World Lead And National Record To Take Swiss Indoor 60m Title
Former World Bronze Medalist Amel Tuka Wins Balkan Indoor 800 Title In A Tactical 1:49.49
41-Year-Old Triple Jumper Fabrizio Wins His 23rd National Title At The Italian Indoor Champs
MB:“LRC Singlet Guy” Benjamin de Haan Wins 3,000 At Dutch Champs He made a solo attempt for the 7:52 world indoor standard, but didn’t get it, winning in 8:07.
Cindy Roleder Clocks 7.84 To Beat World 100H Bronze Medalist Pamel Dutkiewicz And Win German Indoor 60H Title
Three-Time European Shot Put Champ David Storl Rounding Into Form With A 21.19m SB To Win German Champs
Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki Breaks European Under-23 Shot Put Record With 22.00m
IAAF Full GB Indoor Champs Recap For more specific coverage scroll to the British Indoor Champs section further down on the LRC homepage.
Athletics Weekly’s Weekend Highlights

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.
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 Claye’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 7.70Keni 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

More USA Indoors Coverage

Erik Kynard Wins A Record 5th-Straight US Indoor High Jump Title But Doesn’t Make Team USA Kynard was so mad when he failed to get the 2.33m standard that he “ripped off his number and spiked the crossbar.” But since no other Americans in Albuquerque have the standard, Kynard could probably still go via IAAF invite.
IAAF: World Silver Medalist Jarrion Lawson Impresses In The LJ With 8.38m To Defeat World Indoor Champ Marquis Dendy In the women’s 60H, Christina Manning (7.84) led the way ahead of WR holder Keni Harrison (7.87), Sharika Nelvis (7.91) and Olympic bronze medalist Kristi Castlin (7.94).
Scott Houston Gets Upset Pole Vault Victory Over World Champ Sam Kendricks Houston cleared a PR of 5.83m to Kendricks’ 5.78m.
USATF Recap:Jeremy Taiwo Wins Heptathlon; Christian Coleman Leads 60m Heats With 6.46 In the “our sport is weird” category, there were three heats of the men’s 60 hurdles to eliminate one guy.
DyeStat: Will Claye Seeks His First USA Indoor TJ Title Since 2012
Colorado High Schooler Emily Sloan Runs #2 All-Time HS Mark In 60H Prelims With 8.07 The performance also qualified Sloan for today’s final.
Some Interesting (AKA Glitchy) Reaction Times In The Men’s Heptathlon 60m A negative reaction time means you time traveled right?
Albuquerque Journal Saturday Recap
RRW:Shelby Houlihan, Paul Chelimo Retain USA Indoor 3,000m Titles
Texas’ Wolf Mahler Comes Away With Runner-Up Heptathlon Finish After PRs In 5 Of 7 Events

Previous USAs News

Colleen Quigley Says That Even Though 3K Steeple Is Her Race, She Prefers The Mile Over A Flat 3K “I think [3,000m] is so stinking hard without hurdles; it’s so fast.”
New Mexico Native Curtis Beach Isn’t Competing Due To Injuries But He’s Changed Course & Plans To Give Heptathlon Another Shot Once Healthy In 2016, he said he was done with the multis but now says he’d like to give the Hep but not the decathlon another shot. But for 2018, he’s training for the 800.
Erica Bougard Defends Her Pentathlon Title On Day One OF USATF Indoor Champs In the heptathlon, Devon Williams and 2015 national champ Jeremy Taiwo are in a close battle for first.
*AP Recap Bougard was 45 points off the AR and said that she wanted to hit high marks in her first four events “so when I got to the 800, I wouldn’t have to be all out.”
Register-Guard‘s Oregon-Centric Preview*USATF Preview
DyeStat’s 10 Storylines To Follow At USATF Indoor Champs The 60H should be great races as the men have the past three national champs in Aries Merritt, Jarret Eaton and Aleec Harris, and Keni Harrison leads the women after tying the AR with 7.72 earlier this season.
USATF Awards Elite Athlete Development Grants To 65 Athletes

NCAA: Oregon Wants 2020 NCAA Champs Back At Hayward

Vin Lananna Says The University Of Oregon Will Re-Bid For The 2020 NCAA Outdoor Championships After The NCAA Re-Opened The Bidding Process Lannana said that Hayward Field will take a one-year renovation hiatus in 2019, but be able to host meets in the 2020 outdoor season.
*Register-Guard Article Lananna: “We plan to bid for 2020. It doesn’t mean that we’ll get it, it just means that we’ll go through the process again.”
MB:Mario Sategna OUT as University of Texas Track and Field Coach
*AP:Texas fires track coach Mario Sategna after 5 years

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

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Morgan McDonald Runs Fast Down Under, A Lot Of Americans Ran Fast And Missed Worlds, International Indoor Update, Drew Hunter Update Plus meet the woman who is the #1 800 woman in the world in 2018 after a 10+ year break from competition.

The World Starts To Name Their Teams For Birmingham 2018

Genzebe Dibaba Will Do The 1,500/3,000 Double At World Indoors World Indoor 1,500 silver medalist Dawit Seyaum is also doing the 1,500/3,000 double while the men are led by defending 3,000 champ Yomif Kejelcha, Hagos Gebrihiwet and former World 800 champ Mohammed Aman.
USATF Names Team Of 49 Athletes For World Indoor Champs
World Silver Medalist Adam Kszczot And Pole Vault World Leader Piotr Lisek Lead Polish Squad Of 25 For Birmingham 2018Angelika Cichocka will do the 1,500/800 double.
Renaud Lavillenie And World Decathlon Champ Kevin Mayer Lead Small French Squad For World Indoors

African News

Hagos Gebrhiwet Chooses And Talks About A High And Low Moment Of His Career Gebrhiwet says his high was setting the world under-20 5,000 record at 12:47 in 2012, only two years after switching to track from soccer.
Ethiopia Names Its Team For The 2018 World Half Marathon Championships Jemal Yimer leads the team after debuting in 59:00 at RAK earlier this month and Houston Half winner Ruti Aga (66:39 PR) leads the women.
Kenya’s 2015 World Javelin Champ Julius Yego Opening His Season In South Africa On March 22nd

2018 USA IndoorsSchedule / Results EntriesTV & Streaming Prediction Contest LRCPost-Race InterviewsPrediction Contest

MB: Official Day 2 USATF Indoors Discussion Thread

LRC Christian Coleman Breaks 60m World Record For Real This Time With 6.34 At 2018 USATF Indoors Usain Bolt‘s successor is here. His name: Christian Coleman. *Video & Post-Race Interview
*MB: CHRISTIAN MF COLEMAN 6.34 60M WR!!!

1,500s LRC Paul Chelimo And Shelby Houlihan Complete Doubles, Win 1,500 Titles At 2018 USATF Indoors In contrasting ways, Chelimo and Houlihan proved they were a step above everyone else in ABQ.
*MB: Ben Blankenship refused to tell us his age today The mysterious age of Ben Blankenship saga continues. Today’s interview in page #3.