Doping News

• Must Read: NY Times Expose On An Arizona Man Who Used A Clever Online Business Model To Distribute PEDs (In The Form Of Peptides) Around The World Michael A. Moorcones‘ customers included professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, NBA and track and field. In one year, he shipped to more than 8,000 people and had $1 million in sales.
  *Discuss
• WADA Still Pursuing Historic Allegations Of State Sponsored Chinese Doping In The 1980s And ’90s This is in response to the accusations by a former Chinese Olympic team doctor who says athletes as young as 11 were forced to dope.
• Russian Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Meets With US Government Officials To Discuss Russian Doping But he wore a mask to “hide his identity?”
• WADA Propose Charter Of Athletes’ Rights To Improve Anti-Doping System Following Russian Scandal WADA Athlete Committee chair Beckie Scott said, “I think the Russian doping scandal exposed a lot more than doping in Russia. It exposed fractures and conflicting loyalties in the whole system.”
• WADA Annual Symposium Recap: “Compliance, Funding And Capturing The Athlete’s Voice”

2018 World Half Champs *Results *TV & Streaming *Women’s Preview *Men’s Preview

LRC Geoffrey Kamworor Splits 13:01 5k – Yes, 13:01 – At End Of Race To Win 3rd Straight World Half Marathon Title In a performance that will be remembered for years to come, Geoffrey Kamworor got his hat trick. What a sick performance.
*RRW Recap With Quotes From Kamworor: “I can say I was really prepared for this race and I had no pressure.” 

LRC Netsanet Gudeta Kebede Of Ethiopia Sets Women’s-Only World Record Of 66:11 At 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships Ethiopia won both team and individual gold.
*RRW Recap With Post-Race Quotes From Gudeta And Jepkosgei

World Half Message Board Talk

• Official 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Champs Discussion Thread
• Geoffrey Kamworor split 13:01 from 15k to 20k at the World Half Champs – Valencia 2018
• Where would Rupp have finished at world Half?
• Will this be Bernard Lagat’s final national team appearance? Can he get Haile Gebrselassie’s world master’s record?

Full Coverage In Our 2018 IAAF World Half Champs Special Section

Non-Distance News

• NZ’s World Champ Tom Walsh Breaks His Own Oceanian Shot Put Record With 22.67m Walsh is now #6 all-time and you have to go back to 1990 to find someone who’s thrown farther. This is his 8th consecutive victory of 2018. Valerie Adams won the women’s competition in Auckland on countback with 18.48m.
• Usain Bolt Says That When His WRs Are Broken, He Hopes Its By A Fellow Jamaican He expects them to go down “in the future, but not anytime soon.”
• MB: Pole Vault Star Mondo Duplantis Runs 10.69 For 100m
• Short Video: Sandi Morris Shows A Tough Hip Mobility Drill With Hurdles And A Medicine Ball
• MB: Allyson Felix and Bolt ranked on ESPN’s most dominant athletes of the last 20 years

NCAA News

• Robert Johnson Calls Oregon’s Indoor Season “Unacceptable” On the Oregon women’s 5th place and the men’s 13th, Johnson said, “Hurts my heart to say those numbers.”
• Three Nation-Leading Marks Highlight FSU Relays Another interesting note from the meet: Florida State “retired the jerseys” of alumni Walter Dix and former 400H WR holder Kim Batten. We’re not sure how you retire a track singlet, but still sounds cool.
• Men’s Pre-Season NCAA Rankings Have Oregon On Top Despite Their 13th Place Finish Indoors Texas A&M, Houston and Florida are ranked 2-4.
• Women’s NCAA Outdoor Pre-Season Rankings Have Arkansas #1 And Oregon #2
• Michigan State Grad Assistant Kassie Powell Resigns In Protest Of The University’s Handling Of The Larry Nasser Sex Abuse Scandal She writes that MSU “staff and administration failed to do their jobs, allowing myself and hundreds of other young girls and boys to be abused by now, inmate Nassar.”
• FloTrack’s Johanna Gretschel: “It’s Bullshit That USC Doesn’t Have The 4 X 4 World Record” USC’s mark is not eligible for a WR because one runner, Rai Benjamin, represented Antigua & Barbuda as a youth athlete, although he is a US citizen. *Ken Goe Agrees
• NAU’s Brooke Andersen Throws 6th Best NCAA Hammer Mark Of All-Time With 70.98m
• USTFCCCA: Changes Abound To The Collegiate Indoor Record Book 15 of the 34 recognized indoor NCAA records have been set since 2017.
• The Bowerman: 2018 Men’s Post-Indoor Watch List

More Upcoming Distance Action

• Sunday: Elite Fields Set For The 2018 Carlsbad 5,000 The women’s race has GB’s Emelia Gorecka (15:07 PR) and the men are led by Swedish 1,500 NR holder Kalle Berglund and Denmark’s 7-time national champ Nick Jensen.
• Sunday: Course Record Holders Victor Kipchirchir (59:31 PR) And Pauline Njeru (68:20 PR) Return To The Warsaw Half Marathon
• June: Emma Coburn Commits To The Oslo Diamond League Meet So too was a local steeple star in Norway’s Karoline Grovdal, who ran her first steeple in six years in 2017 and set a 20-second PR with 9:13.

Week That Was

LRCWayde Van Who? Clarence Munyai Runs 19.69, Scott Fauble Interviews Himself, Americans Dominate NYC Half, And A Last Hurrah For Caster Semenya?

Problems In Kenya

• Russian Athletes Suspect Fraud After “Fake IAAF Officers” Took Doping Samples In Kenya The Russians became suspicious as the “officers” showed their ID cards on a phone. Were these good samaritans just trying to make sure the Russians were clean?
• Recommended Read: Kenya Standard Digital: “Athletes Race From Rags To Riches And Back To Rags” Kenyans use running to escape poverty and gain a fortune, but with no education on how to manage their wealth, many can end up right back where they started.
• Athletics Kenya Cracking Down On Officials Accused Of Molesting Female Athletes They’ve changed the management of training camps, now having them run by schools rather than individuals.