April 05, 2018 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For April 05, 2018

Quote Of The Day

“I’m not a young athlete any more. I’m not coming into championships to make up the numbers or fill the lanes. I’m here to win. As a junior you go to championships and, if you do well, it’s a bonus. You never really expect that but as a senior athlete and someone who has now been to a lot of major championships I do feel like an elder statesman in the team – especially as the Commonwealth Games team is very young. I’m making sacrifices every day. I don’t do that just to fill a lane and make someone else look good.”

– GB’s 24-year-old 4 x 100 Worlds gold medalist Adam Gemili talking about his goal for 100m individual gold at the Commonwealth Games.

Commonwealth Games Start Sunday *Commonwealths Schedule

LRC Track And Field Fan’s Guide To The 2018 Commonwealth Games: Why You Should Care And How To Watch We preview the action down under which features Elijah Manangoi vs. Timothy Cheruiyot, Elaine Thompson vs. Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Caster Semenya, Joshua Cheptegei, Clarence Munyai, Isaac Makwaala.
*Day-By-Day Track Schedule And Highlights

Mid-D News

April 27: Drake Relays Will Feature A Challenge To The American Two Mile Record From Jenny SimpsonShannon Rowbury has the current record at 9:20.25 from 2014. Along with the clock, Simpson will also race Brenda Martinez and Alexa Efraimson.
Jenny Simpson Donates 200 Paris Of Shoes To Kids In Colorado
Two Of The Best High School Distance Runners In Missouri Won’t Be Allowed To Complete At Arcadia Due To District Rules Their high school doesn’t allow athletes to compete out-of-state. In an interview, an administrator at the school said, “I don’t feel a national track meet competition is in the best interest of our student-athletes.”
GB Miler Chris O’Hare Reflects On His Early Career Run At The Mini London Marathon Back In 2008 We were surprised that O’Hare was racing a half marathon when he was only 16 years old, but turns out “mini marathon” is actually only 5k. Under no circumstances should the word marathon be in the name of a 5k race.

LRC Debate

LRC 5 Months In, After 31:55 10,000m Win, LetsRun.com Analyzes Gwen Jorgensen’s Olympic Marathon Dreams Will Jorgensen be a force in 2020 in the marathon? We debate.
Discuss: After 31:55 10k Win in Stanford, how do you assess Gwen Jorgensen’s Olympic chances?

Sports Illustrated Q&A With Gwen Jorgensen On Her Move To Marathoning Asked to respond to the LRC analysis giving her no chance to win marathon gold, Jorgensen gave a great reply: “If someone else showed me my PRs on paper and said this person wants to win Olympic gold, I’d probably laugh [too].”

NCAA & US Action Texas Relays Stream / ResultsFlorida Relays Stream / ResultsRaleigh Relays Stream / ResultsOther NCAA Results

Texas Relays: Renaud Lavillenie, Shawn Barber And Armand Duplantis All Clear 5.92m Lavillenie won the meet on countback. The last time three men cleared 5.92m or higher at the same meet was 1999. In the sprints, Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare won the 100 in a wind-aided 10.72 (all-conditions African record) and NCAA indoor champ Elijah Hall took the men’s 200 in 20.11.
USATF Texas Relays/Florida Relays Recap Jenn Suhr cleared the outdoor WL with 4.83m in the PV.
MB:Cruz Culpepper – son of Alan and Shayne – just ran 4:11 as a soph at Texas Relays
Denzel Comenentia Breaks Dutch Hammer Throw Record With 76.29m
Tori Franklin Moves To #2 All-Time American Triple Jumper With 14.48m At Texas Relays Franklin now only sits behind Olympic 4th placer Keturah Orji‘s 14.71m.
MB:Leo Manzano – 1:52 800m at Texas Relays

Jacob Despard And Elizabeth Forsyth Win Stawell Gift, Australia’s Richest Foot Race The 120m handicap sprint race on grass awards $30,700 to the winner. Devon Allen competed, but went out in the semis.
*Recap And Video From The Australian Forsyth, a university “beach sprinter” said she told her family not to come because she didn’t think she had a chance to win. *Results

Ultra Corner

South Africa’s Gerda Steyn And Kenya’s Justin Kemboi Win Two Oceans Marathon Chesire ran 3:09:18 (5:26 pace) and Steyn 3:39:26 (6:18 pace) for the 56k ultra.
Samantha Amend And Rob Turner Win 100km Anglo Celtic Plate Titles In The UK
MB: Why do people on here hate ultra runners? We certainly don’t.

Olympic News

Paris 2024 At Risk Of Running $616 Million Over Budget
The Sydney Olympic Stadium Won’t Be Torn Down After All It was previously reported that it would be torn down, but now it will be renovated instead to save $500 million.
Austrian Olympic Committee Confirm Bid For 2026 Winter Olympics
Norway Rules Out Bid For 2026 Winter Olympics

Week That Was

LRC Jake Robertson, Ce’aira Brown, Nijel Amos, Sydney McLaughlin, Cruz Culpepper, Tom Walsh Impress, Plus More Proof Galen Rupp Is Very Fit Sports Gene gets a boost this week and John Calipari is talking track, not basketball.

USATF News

Drake Stadium In Des Moines, Iowa Will Host The 2019 USATF Championships In Addition To The 2018 Meet Makes sense since Hayward Field will still be under construction at that point.
USATF Still Hasn’t Paid The Athletes Who Won Prize Money At USATF Club Champs In December Hanson Brooks Sent out a tweet with a picture of their team and said, “Hey @usatf remember this it was held on December 9th. YOU STILL HAVENT PAID THE ATHLETES.”

Sprint Stuff

Recommended Read:In-Depth Interview With 1968 Olympic 200m Bronze Medalist And Human Rights Activist John Carlos Carlos talks about his historic Black Power salute on the Olympic podium, his relationships with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and many more insights about his life/career. Even if you know about Carlos, you are guaranteed to find out plenty of new info in this ~18,000-word interview.
April 14:Justin Gatlin, Christian Coleman, Mike Rodgers And Ronnie Baker Teaming Up To Go For The American 4 X 100 Record At The Tennessee Relays
April 28:Drake Relays Men’s 100m Field Unveiled With Five Olympians Including Andre De Grasse De Grasse will face Mike Rodgers and Worlds LJ silver medalist Jarrion Lawson.
41-Year-Old Kim Collins Plans Farewell Outdoor Season

Non-Distance News

Fred Kerley Talks About Being Adopted By His Aunt And Growing Up In A House With 13 Kids Living In It Kerley is one of five siblings and his aunt adopted them all so they wouldn’t be split up. Kerley says, “She sacrificed so much and sometimes even went without food to make sure we always ate.”
Jamaica Tops The Medal Tables At Carifta Games Lead By Briana Williams’s Three Golds Williams won the U17 girls 100 in a Games record of 11.27, lead off leg on the gold winning 4 x100 and took the 200 in 23.11. Distance action was highlighted by a tactical 4:02 victory by Jamaica’s Javon-Taye Williams.
World Champ Mutaz Essa Barshim Announced For Pre Classic HJ He’ll face a deep field including World Indoor champ Danil Lysenko and USA’s 2012 Olympic silver medalist Erik Kynard.
IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Video Interview With Australia’s World Indoor Pole Vault 4th Placer Kurtis Marschall

Hayward Field Updates

Register-Guard:Oregon Alum Trying To Get Hayward Field’s Iconic East Grandstand Designated As An Official City LandmarkBob Penny: “The case for tearing down the grandstands is almost nonexistent. It doesn’t hold water by any standard except the standard of, ‘We just want to build something new.'”
Cost Estimates Continue To Soar For Hayward Field Renovation Original estimates were at $60 million, but Ken Goe writes he’s now hearing the cost will top $200 million.

Florida

Florida Relays: Recommended Read: Sydney McLaughlin Talks About The Transition To College Running, Decision Not To Go Pro McLaughlin says the training workload has been “much more intense,” she isn’t homesick, and she’s “been to zero parties.”
MB: Sydney McLaughlin 50.07 at Florida relays! She’s now #2 in the history of the NCAA and US Juniors.
Sydney McLaughlin Opens Outdoor Season With 22.39 PR At Florida Relays That’s #4 all-time on the world junior list and .29 faster than she ran indoors but .01 slower than Gabby Thomas‘ indoor CR.
*IAAF Article McLaughlin’s 22.39 is the fastest time in the world by an U20 athlete since Allyson Felix‘s 22.19 at the 2004 Olympics.
High Schooler Caitlin Collier Is USATF Athlete Of The Week After She Ran 2:04.87 To Win The 800 By Almost 9 Seconds At Florida State Relays It was an impressive double for Collier as she also won the 1600 in 4:47.61.
MB: Christian Taylor runs 45.48 at Florida Relays + Bershawn “Batman” Jackson isn’t retired afterall

Stanford Invitational *Stream / Results

LRC Gwen Jorgensen Wins Stanford 10,000m In 31:55, Easily Defeating NCAA 3,000/5,000 Champion Schweizer

Nijel Amos 1:44.65 Season Opener At Stanford Drew Hunter doubled back from the 1,500 yesterday with 1:49.73 for 5th.
Nick Miller Breaks British Hammer Record At Stanford With World-Leading 78.29m Brianna Rollins highlighted the sprints with a meet record 12.62 in the 100H while Olympic 400H champ Dalilah Muhammad won the 400 in 52.72.
Stanford MB Talk: Official 2018 Stanford Invite discussion thread & play by play
Why wasn’t Justyn Knight in the 10000m at Stanford?
Carrie Dimoff (31:57) – a 34-year old Princeton alum whom you’ve never heard of – just beat Schwiezer (32:00) and almost beat Jorgensen (31:55) at 10k The mother of two ran 31:57 to Jorgensen’s 31:55 as Schweizer ran 32:00 (#8 all-time in the NCAA).
Allie Ostrander Gets An Almost Three Second PB To Dominate Steeplechase In 9:38 The time puts her #8 on the collegiate all-time list.
Alabama’s Vincent Kiprop Beats Out Lopez Lomong To Win 10,000 In 28:19
Drew Hunter Runs 3:39 Hunter was 2nd. Peter Callahan won in 3:38.
Gwen Jorgenson 10km Prediction Thread

Field Event News

World Indoor And Outdoor Shot Put Champ Tom Walsh Explains Why He “Enjoys Heaving Metal Balls For A Living” One of Walsh’s reasons is he likes to “prove people wrong” and cites a coach that told him when he was 18 that he would never throw far because he wasn’t strong or big enough.
Podcast Interview With Arkansas’ NCAA Pentathlon Champ (Currently Ranked 3rd In The World In The LJ) Taliyah Brooks
Christian Taylor And Will Claye Will Resume Triple Jump Rivalry At Pre Classic The complete field will have all the World and Olympic medalists as well as 7 of the top 10 ranked from 2017.
Five Quick Facts About South Africa’s World LJ Champ Luvo Manyonga This writer explains how failing a drug test for meth “pretty much kick started his career.”

Commonwealth Games *Schedule / Day-By-Day Guide

Nigerian Officials Beg Blessing Okagbare To Run Commonwealth Games 100/200 Currently she is only entered in the 4 x 100 and apparently it has something to do with being angry because she feels the Nigerian government abandoned her when she was recovering from injury.
Can GB Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Win CWG Gold? She’s won some indoor medals, but never came through at a major outdoor championship.
Athletics Weekly:Northern Ireland Sprinter Leon Reid Says CWG Are A Chance For Him To Make A Mark
Sally Pearson Pulls Out Of Commonwealth Games With Achilles Injury Pearson had been dealing with the injury, but it flared up again a few days ago.
Zharnel Hughes Is “Raring To Go” At His First Commonwealth Games Hughes has had a positive start in Australia as last weekend he ran fastest 200m time (20.23) on Australian soil since 200.
Adam Gemili Wants To Bounce Back From Individual Disappointment In 2017 With Commonwealth Games 100m Gold Gemili was angry about being overlooked for an individual spot in the 200 at Worlds last year and says it’s “massively important” to make up for it now.
Did You Know GB Sprinters Dina Asher-Smith And Zharnel Hughes Were Dating? Asher-Smith was surprised when news of their breakup was covered in the UK media. “I’m not a celebrity, which is why it is hilarious that people care if I have a boyfriend.”
Dina Asher-Smith Wants To “Have Fun And Do England Proud” At The CWG Asher-Smith is enjoying having less stress after finishing her history degree last year, but still wants to take on some other activity outside track to give her “an escape.”
Brownlee Brothers Blame Injury After Commonwealth Triathlon Failure The two GB brothers Jonny and Alistair only managed 7th and 10th.
The Guardian:Ten Questions To Be Answered At The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games Have Opened

Prince Charles Declares Gold Coast 2018 Open After Colorful Opening Ceremony
UK’s/Nigeria’s High Jumper Mike Edward:“I should not be penalised as an adult for a decision that I made as a juvenile.” He might not have competed for GB internationally since he was a kid, but he’s still competed as Brit, winning the British indoor champs in February.

NY Times:At The Commonwealth Games, Competing For Medals And Relevance “Despite the impending glow of an international audience, familiar concerns over the Games’ substantial cost and dwindling significance have again come to the fore.”
Nine Indians Detained After Pretending To Be Journalists Covering Gold Coast 2018
Nigeria’s Former Olympic 100H Silver Medalist Gloria Alozie Wants Belssing Okagbare To Concentrate On Sprints At The CWG Rather Than The LJ
Gold Coast 2018 Admit Error After England Listed As African Nation In Opening Ceremony Program
Indigenous Protest Disrupts Baton Relay Prior To Gold Coast 2018 Opening Ceremony
BBC Video:Hurdler Eilidh Doyle Chosen As The First Scottish Woman To Carry The Flag At The Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony
*InsideTheGames Article
Commonwealth Games Organizers Roll Out Red Carpet And Condoms About 225,000 condoms, 17,000 toilet rolls and free ice cream welcomed athletes to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games village.
CWG Schedule / Day-By-Day Guide*BBC Guide

Did You Miss April Fools?

LRC April Fool’s Home Page All of the tech glitches have been fixed and the links are now working.
MB: Why is no one talking about Mo Farrah DQ???
MB: BREAKING: Colleen Quigley just got married.
MB: Canaday announces retirement. Good for him
MB: Wait! Is the Coe quote about Farah DQ April Fool’s?????
MB: What were the best April Fools jokes that various runners did today?
MB: DQ’s of Farah et al
MB: April Fools
FloTrack:IAAF Staging “DQ Games” For Athletes DQed From World Indoors

Post-Weekend NCAA Updates

Jury Needs Just Three Hours To Convict Former Arizona Track Coach Craig Carter Of Assault
*MB: Former UofA track coach found guilty
USTFCCCA Looks At What Collegiate Outdoor Records Could Fall This Year An interesting stat is that the average women’s record is 9 years old and the average men’s is 21 years old.
NCAA Athletes Of The Week Are Sydney McLaughlin And South Dakota’s Chris Nilsen McLaughlin had a crazy weekend with a 22.39 and 50.07 at Florida Relays as well as splitting 49.45 on Kentucky’s 4 x 400. Nilsen beat out a deep pole vault field in the non-pro section at the Texas Relays to win with 5.80m.
Florida Men Top The Latest NCAA Rankings Moving Up From 4th Texas A&M and Houston are 2-3 while Oregon moved from 1st to 4th.
Updated Women’s Outdoor Rankings: Arkansas And Oregon Stay 1-2 Texas A&M moved up from 6th to 3rd; Georgia dropped from 3rd to 9th.
Event-By-Event Top-10 Marks Of The Collegiate Weekend

Road News

Abraham Kiptum Wins Fierce Battle To Break CR At Daegu Marathon In 2:06:29 Kiptum only beat out Evans Korir by 6 seconds with Peter Some 3rd in 2:06:49. Janet Rono won the women’s race in 2:28:17 as the top 4 all broke 2:29.
MB: Jake Robertson crushes field, wins Crescent City Classic in 27:28 Robertson beat some big names including former Olympic 5,000 bronze medalist Edwin Soi (3rd), 12:48 man Isiah Koech (5th), Kenya’s Bernard Lagat (6th) and Donn Cabral (7th). Monicah Ngige won the women’s race in 32:05.
Yuki Kawauchi Outkicks Countryman Ryoga Asai To Win Satte 10 Miler In His Final Boston Marathon Tune-Up Kawauchi ran 49:17 to beat Asai by 8 seconds.
April 8:2018 Paris Marathon Elite Fields Have 15 Sub-2:08 Men And 8 Sub-2:25 WomenPaul Lonyangatta (2:06:10) is the defending champ while Yemane Tsegaye (2:04:48) and Markos Geneti (2:04:54) have the fastest PRs. 2016 Tokyo runner-up Amane Gobena (2:21:51) leads the women’s race.
April 15:Elite Field For Nagano Marathon Released: Ethiopians Abdela Godana (2:09:45) And Tigist Girm (2:29:05) Lead The Way

The 2018 Commonwealth Games Open April 4th

The Telegraph:Meet Leon Reid – The England-Born Sprinter Chasing Glory For Northern Ireland Despite Hatred, Red Tape And International Exile Reid is another athlete caught in limbo because of the international transfer freeze as he ran for GB when he was younger, but now wants to represent Ireland. The Commonwealth Games is the only championship he can race at since NI is part of the UK, but competes separately.
Athletics Weekly:High Jumper Mike Edwards’ Commonwealth Games Dream Thwarted By IAAF Edwards is the British indoor HJ champion, but has dual citizenship with Nigeria. He had hoped to compete for them at the Commonwealth Games, but has been prevented by the IAAF’s freeze on transfer of allegiance.
Sally Pearson Faces Her “Cathy Freeman Moment” At The Commonwealth Games Pearson will compete at a home championship like Freeman did at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where she won 400 gold.
Valerie Adams Is Realistic About Her Commonwealth Games Expectations Even If Her Fans Aren’t Adams will be competing just six months after giving birth to her first child and says she’s “happy about the progress” she’s made so far.
Racewalker Tom Bosworth And Sprinter Anyika Onuora Named Team England Captains For Commonwealth Games