March 28, 2018 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For March 28, 2018

Quote Of The Day

“Then, it’s the mentality of the Kenyans: they don’t fear training hard, they don’t even think about what training is, so running is very simple and it helps you not to think too much. I think most of the Europeans are not training hard enough and thinking too much about recovery, the pace they have to go, but to get to the top you have to train really hard and sometimes just forget about the pace.”

– Switzerland’s 60:09 runner and World Half Champs 8th placer Julien Wanders talking about the training lessons he’s learned by living in Kenya the last three years.

Week That Was

WTWHow Does Kamworor Stack Up Versus Bekele And Farah? ESPN Overrates Allyson Felix, Bernard Lagat Isn't The Fastest Masters Half Marathoner

All of the above plus we debate whether Laura Muir is a 10k runner.

British MPs Have Threatened To Reopen Inquiry Into Seb Coe’s “Very Murky” $17 Million Deal During The 2012 Olympics There are conflict of interest concerns as Coe’s company “made a fortune at the Olympics” while Coe was the chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee.

US Winter Olympians And Paralympians Visiting The White House Next Month

Doping News

Must Read:NY Times Expose On Arizona Man Who Used A Clever Online Business Model To Distribute PEDs (In The Form Of Peptides) Around The WorldMichael 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”

More Weekend Distance Results – What’s Up With Centro?

Sweden’s Kalle Berglund (14:15) And GB’s Emillia Gorecka (16:00) Win Carlsbad 5,000 Gorecka beat out US’s Sarah Brown by one second. *Results
MB: Matt Centrowitz ran 1:53 for 800 in Australia on Thursday He was the last place finisher as the winner was 1:47.53.
Wilson Kipsang Races Another Marathon; Wins The Tokushima Marathon In Japan With 2:19:35
Kenya’s Felix Kibitok (60:11) And Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede (70:54) Win Stramilano Half In Italy
Ethiopia’s Meseret Legese (2:28:55) And Kenya’s Kennedy Cheboror (2:13:41) Win At The Chongquing Marathon In China
Double Kenyan Victory At The Warsaw Half As Ezrah Sang (61:37) And Pauline Njeru (70:02) Get The Wins
MB: No one finishes Barkley Marathon; Gary Robins goes home devastated again

IAAF News

That’s A Significant Zero:IAAF Hopeful Missing $150,000 Sent To Nigeria By Mistake Will Be Reimbursed Soon Last year the IAAF sent the Nigeria Athletics Federation $150,000 instead of the $15,000 due to be awarded all national federations.
Seb Coe To Be A Commentator For Australian Broadcaster Channel 7 During Next Month’s Commonwealth Games

Women’s Distance News

Caster Semenya Fails In Attempt To Break Zola Budd’s South African 1,500 Record Semenya ran 4:02.50, just .70 off of Budd’s 4:01.80. Former NCAA champ Dominique Scott-Efurd was a distant second in 4:08.6. In the sprints, Luxolo Adams won the men’s 200 (20.01) and Carina Horn the women’s 100 (11.12).
Laura Muir’s Coach Says She’s A Victim Of Having To Face “Some Of The Best Distance Runners Of All Time” He also said that “in a matter of weeks” she could go out and break the British 10,000 record if that’s what she wanted.
Reddit AMA With Olympic Triathlon Champ And Now Marathoner Gwen Jorgensen “Marathon training’s biggest hurdle has been staying injury free. There are more days I wake up and limp than days I wake up and feel good.”
RW:“Why US Women Marathoners Are Having A Moment” Four of the 10 fastest Americans have run their PRs in the last 14 months. Comparatively, American men only have one new name on the top 10 list in the past five+ years.
Queen Elizabeth II Named Official Starter Of The 2018 London Marathon
Laura Muir Excited At The Prospect Of Winning More Medals At A Home Championships At Next Year’s Euro Indoor Champs In Glasgow

Russian Doping Updates

WADA Says Russia Ignored Four Requests To Inspect Moscow’s Anti-Doping Lab WADA president Craig Reedie says Russia still needs to acknowledge its state-sponsored doping and allow the Moscow lab to be inspected.
Russian Sports Minister Claims Pyeongchang 2018 Doping Cases Are “Senseless”Pavel Kolobkov said he is “outraged” about the two Russians who failed drug tests at the Winter Games and that hr has “no explanation of how it could have happened at all.”
BBC:Craig Reedie Says Russian Participation At Major Events Still In Doubt

Non-Distance News

Christian Coleman Thinks He Can Become The Second-Fastest Man Of All Time This Year Coleman says he wants to get Tyson Gay‘s 9.69 American record, but admits Usain Bolt‘s 9.58 is out of reach.
Christian Coleman Confirms He’ll Return To London For The Anniversary Games On July 21-22
IAAF Inside Athletics:Ato Boldon Video Interview With Venezuela’s World Triple Jump Champion Yulimar Rojas
Renaud Lavillenie And Sam Kendricks Lead Stacked Pole Vault Field For Pre Classic In May Also Olympic champ Thiago Braz and Mondo Duplantis.
Loaded Men’s Javelin Field Announced For Pre Classic With German Duo World Champ Johannes Vetter And Olympic Champ Thomas Rohler

2020 Olympic Trials News

Judge Orders Mt. SAC To Halt Stadium Work, Potentially Putting The 2020 Olympic Trials At Risk The college and the city of Walnut are in a legal battle over whether the stadium reconstruction is complying with regulations protecting water quality. Mt. SAC is also dealing with a civil suit which is arguing the cost of the stadium shouldn’t be covered by public funds.
*Ken Goe’s Take And Comparison To Hayward’s Issues

Older Trials News We Missed
Atlanta Track Club Surprised USATF Selection Committee By Bringing In Meb To Endorse Their Bid For The 2020 Marathon Trials Meb likes the Olympic tradition of Atlanta, saying he still has a T-shirt a teammate brought him back from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and will be working with the ATC in the future. USATF will decide in April between Atlanta, Austin, Chattanooga and Orlando.

Sprints And Jumps

This Time It Counts!Christian Coleman’s 6.34 World Record For 60m Ratified By The IAAF
Video:Usain Bolt Jokes (?) That He’ll Try To Get The Footage Of His Soccer Trial To Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho Bolt isn’t joking about trying to make it in soccer though as he sounds very sincere in his interview.
Shock US Pole Vault Champ Katie Nageotte Credits Her Big Breakthrough To Moving To Be Coached By Former US Vaulter Brad Walker Nageotte says a large part of it is Walker helping change her mental approach to vaulting.
Mondo Duplantis Cleared To Compete Elite Men’s Pole Vault At Texas Relays His participation was up in the air for a week as the Louisiana HS Athletic Association was threatening to take away his eligibility if he did.

The Commonwealth Games Start In A Week

Three Time Commonwealth Games Champ Moses Kipsiro Dropped From Uganda Team The Uganda federation wanted him to defend his title in the 10,000, but Kipsiro was only interested in the marathon and they felt they had better options at that distance.
Caster Semenya To Carry South African Flag At Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony It will be the third time Semenya has carried SA’s flag at an Opening or Closing ceremony.
Sally Pearson Battling Achilles Problem Ahead Of Commonwealth Games Pearson has been battling the injury for the past few weeks and skipped her tune-up race in Brisbane.
South Africa’s 100m World Leader Carina Horn Withdraws From Commonwealth Games With Injury
Sally Pearson And Paralympic Wheel Chair Racer Kurt Fearnley Named Team Co-Captains For Commonwealth Games

Upcoming Action

Friday/Saturday: Stanford Invitational Preview: Gwen Jorgensen Vs Karissa Schweizer Over 10K; Lopez Lomong Makes His 10K Debut Against Justyn Knight Oregon’s Katie Rainsberger is also in the women’s 10,000 while Allie Ostrander is listed in the steeple/5000, Drew Hunter is in the 1500 against Stanford’s Sean McGorty and Oregon’s Sam Prakel and former Olympic silver medalist Nijel Amos highlights the 800. *Schedule *Entries
April 8:Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa (2:25:12 PB) Going For Her Third Straight Victory At The Rome Marathon She’ll face Kenyans Sharon Cherop (2:22:28) and Angela Tanui (2:26:31). Kenya’s Jafred Chirchir Kipchuma (2:05:48) and Ethiopia’s Girmay Birhanu (2:05:49) lead the men’s field.
April 29:Belarus’ Olympic Marathon 5th placer Volha Mazuronak The Favorite At The Dusseldorf Marathon

Hayward Field Updates

Register Guard:Hayward Field Project A Clash Of Past And Future Some, including the son of legendary Oregon coach Bill Bowerman, are concerned about the lack of transparency around the plans for the new stadium.
Ken Goe:Ducks Need To Come Clean About Hayward Field’s Seating Capacity The UO website lists the seating capacity as 10,500, but Goe says he hand counted himself and it’s only about 8,500. The concern is if the new stadium has 12,000 seats, it’s going to look empty when only 7,000 fans show up for meets.
Ken Goe Feels That The Concerns Over The Hayward Field Renovations Might Have “Been Avoided Altogether With A Less Secretive Planning Process”

Jamaican Boys And Girls Champs *Results

Calabar Boys And Edwin Allen Girls Retain Their Titles At The Jamaican Boys And Girls Champs Highlights came from Christopher Taylor, who won the U20 boys’ 200 in a world-U20 leading time of 20.35, Tyreke Wilson, who won the 100 in 10.21, and Dashawn Morris, who took the boys’ U20 400 in 45.09. On the girls’ side, Kevona Davis broke a 16-year-old meet record with a 22.72 win in the 200m and won the 100 in 11.16.
*Jamaica Gleaner Recap:“Calabar, Edwin Blow Away Rivals Again”

News From Oregon

Recommended Read:Register-Guard:2012 Olympic Silver Medalist Nijel Amos Is On The Fast Track With OTC Elite Amos had a rough 2015 and 2016, but now Mark Rowland at OTC has got him back in the right direction. He says he’s feeling good and is even talking about a WR attempt this summer.
Ken Goe:“Passion Flares Over Size, Scope And Secrecy Of Hayward Field Renovation Plan” The renovations that were supposed to begin in 2016 are expected to begin this summer, but with no plans having been made public, many are nervous about what the new stadium will be like. Goe writes, “They worry about Hayward’s atmosphere disappearing, swallowed up by a glitzy stadium with thousands of empty seats.”
Andrew Wheating Is Now On Portland Track’s Board Of Directors Portland Track puts on the Portland Track Festival and Stumptown Twilight meets. Wheating is also involved with a comical track YouTube channel called, “Tracklandia.”
University Of Portland Getting A Brand New 8-Lane Track In 2019

Usain Bolt Had His Soccer Tryout

Usain Bolt Pleases 1,400-Strong Crowd That Showed Up To Watch His Dortmund Soccer Tryout In Germany Bolt apparently made a couple of errors, but made up for it with a “terrific header into the corner of the net.”
Usain Bolt Says Soccer Tryout (With A Team Also Sponsored By Puma) Isn’t Just A Publicity Stunt: “I really want to try and make it professionally, to play at a high level.” Bolt gave himself a “seven out of ten” for his tryout and admitted he has to work on some things, including his fitness. He’d like the team to sign him, but “wouldn’t want to play in a lesser league” for their reserve team.

Bolt’s Soccer Dream Becomes Reality?

Usain Bolt Has His Soccer Tryout With German Club Dortmund On Friday It’s been debatable if Bolt was serious about this, but if he’s flying to Germany he must be, right? The tryout will be open to the public.
Instagram Video:Watch Usain Bolt Swap Track For Soccer As He Prepares For Charity Soccer Game Against Mo Farah We’re not going to lie, we’d like to have seen less of him stretching/drinking Gatorade and more of him actually playing soccer. He does score a goal, though.

African Distance News

Can He Still Be Relevant?Marathon World Record Holder Dennis Kimetto Will Line Up For The Vienna City Marathon On April 22 Kimetto hasn’t finished a marathon since London 2016, where he was 9th in 2:11:44, but says he wants to break the Vienna CR of 2:05:41.
Reuters Headline Says Dennis Kimetto “Snubs London For Vienna” More likely London didn’t want to pay a big appearance fee to someone who DNFs most of his races since 2015.
Bedan Karoki Now Focused On Preparing For The London Marathon After Withdrawing From The World Half Champs With A Hamstring Injury
After Winning African XC Champs, Celliphine Chespol Targets A Commonwealth Games Title The world junior steeple champ wants to win a senior title to go along with it.
Joyciline Jepkosgei’s 64:52 World Half Marathon Record Ratified By The IAAF

Drug News

WADA Considering Changing Its Name To Generate More Funding WADA wants to expand it’s brand to be more about fighting drugs in society, not just sport. They hope they can reinvest in their scientific research budget which has taken an 80% cut over the last 10-years.
InsideTheGames’ Nick Butler Hits The Nail On The Head:“Cheating Still Goes On In Sport Because Rewards Often Outweigh The Risks” $$$ … need we say more?
The Guardian Opinion Piece:“MY Dad Used Performance Enhancing Drugs – It Nearly Killed Him” A British woman explains how her dad’s PED and cocaine abuse as a professional powerlifter almost cost him his life and wrecked havoc on their family.
Cycling:Chris Froome Could Be Banned From This Year’s Tour De France If His Ongoing Drug Case Hasn’t Been Resolved

RIP News

Good Read: RunBlogRun:RunBlogRun: USA 1996 Olympic Marathoner Keith Brantly Remembers His Coach Dr. David Martin Brantly tells how Martin began coaching him in 1985 and to his surprise laid out a 16-year plan that would ultimately get him to the Olympics.
NY Times Tribute To Hall Of Fame Coach Mel Rosen Who Passed At 90 Years Old Rosen coached at Auburn University for 36 years and served as the head coach for Team USA at the 1987 World Championships and 1992 Olympics Games.
*USATF Mourns Coach Mel Rosen
RIP Britain’s Oldest Olympian Bill Lucas The 1948 Olympic 5000 runner passed at age 101.

2018 World Half Champs Results TV & Streaming Women’s PreviewMen’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

Full Coverage In Our2018 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?

Clarence Munyai and Caster Semenya put on a show at the S. African Champs, the Americans did well at NYC Half, and a look back at some splits from World Indoors.

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.