More Distance News

• The Guardian Has New Opinion Piece On Caster Semenya: “The Unequal Battle: Privilege, Genes, Gender And Power” The author tries to tackle the Semenya debate from political point of view, making it about women’s rights, racism and income inequality when it really should just be about the science.
• Cas Loxsom On Depression And The Realities Of Chasing The Running Dream
  *MB: Cas Loxsom lays it all out in flotrack interview
• GB 800 Runner Lynsey Sharp Blogs About Being “Emotionally Drained” Due To Endless Traveling And Boyfriend Andrew Butchart’s Fractured Foot Sharp says it was strange that Butchart “dealt with [the injury] better than” she did.
• Naming Of Australian Commonwealth Team Delayed Due To Seven Appeals Over Non-Selection Olympian Jeff Riseley is appealing after he finished 3rd in the 800, but an athlete in the “B” final ran faster and gained selection. A “B” final in an 800? How about just adding an extra round?
• Schedule Announced For The 2018 Bring Back The Mile Grand Prix Tour They have five road miles planned for 2018 starting with the Grand Blue Mile in Des Moines on April 24.
• Athletics Weekly Preview: English, Scottish And Welsh National Cross Country Championships Are This Weekend Dewi Griffiths will be going for his 7th consecutive Welsh national XC title.

LetsJump.com

• Recommended Read: Photographer Tony Duffy Explains How His Photo Of Bob Beamon’s World Record Long Jump In 1968 Changed His Life Duffy was at the Olympics as a spectator, but dabbled in photography as a hobby and snuck down to the first row to take the now iconic picture. The attention it got motivated him to quit his accounting job and start his own photo agency (which he later sold to Getty for $29.4 million).
• RR #2: World And Olympic Pole Vault Silver Medalist Sandi Morris Talks About The Highs And Lows Of Her Career Morris lows came at the start of her college career and her favorite high when she won an NCAA indoor title in her final year in 2015.
• Stacked Pole Vault Field Set For All Star Perche Meet In France On Sunday Renaud Lavillenie, Sam Kendricks, Piotr Lisek, Shawn Barber and more. Recent upset surprise US champ Katie Nageotte will also be in action.
• South Africa’s World Long Jump Champ Luvo Manyonga Explains His Love For Jumping “When I jump, it makes me feel like a super hero. … I don’t want to stop jumping until I have jumped out of the pit.”
• LetsThrow: Valerie Adams Making Her Return To Competition At The Big Shot Meet In Christchurch On March 16th This will be her first meet since 2016 as she missed last year to have her first child.

Bolt / Powell Update

• Usain Bolt Is Back In Training … For Soccer Bolt is training with a Jamaican team to prepare for a tryout with a German club. He claims he’s serious about trying to play pro soccer.
• Asafa Powell Injured His Hamstring In Jamaican 100m Race Over The Weekend

NCAA News

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 7.70 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

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

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