Kenya’ s Joan Melly Runs Fourth Fastest All-Time 65:04 To Dominate Prague Half By Over A Minute The men’s race was super deep as Benard Kimeli won in 59:47 with two more under the hour barrier and 1-6 separated only by 21-seconds.

Weekend NCAA Coverage *Watch Pepsi Invy @ 4:55PM ET *All NCAA Results

• Saturday: Oregon, Washington, BYU And Washington State Will Clash As The Pepsi Team Invitational At Hayward Field This is one of three more meets that will be held at Hayward before construction begins on the new stadium. *Meet Schedule *Entries
  
• Ken Goe: UO Ducks begin final season at the current Hayward Field
  *Watch For Free On Pac-12 Facebook Page @ 4:55PM ET
• Good Read: Ken Goe: Former Football Player Damarcus Simpson Flies For The Ducks Simpson really wanted to play college football rather than track, but at 5’7″ and 140 pounds he didn’t have the size for it.
  *RG: Former Two-Time D2 Long Jump Champ Making His Season Debut For Oregon At Pepsi Invy Simpson missed indoor after surgery on his leg so this will be his first meet since he was 3rd at USAs last year.
• Virginia Men And Women Sweep Quad Meet At Home
• Duke Women Win Battle Of The Blues Title Just 7 Points In Front Of Michigan North Carolina was only another 8 points back in 3rd.
• Michigan Men Defend “Battle Of the Blues” Team Trophy They scored 91 points to North Carolina’s 69 and Duke’s 43.
• Distance Runner Samantha Nadel Gets A 6th Year At Oregon Coach Robert Johnson said it was going to be a “crapshoot at best” if she got a 6th year, but good documentation of her two stress fractures in 2015 and 2016 got her a final season.
• Oregon’s Indoor 800 Champ Sabrina Southerland Making Her Home Debut In The Pepsi Invy 3000
• Maggie Ewen Breaks Her Own Collegiate Hammer Record Twice At The Sun Angel Classic She now owns 7 of the top 8 collegiate throws ever with a best of 74.53m (although her PB is 74.56m outside the NCAA season).

More Commonwealth Games News

• Zane Robertson Pulls Out Of Commonwealth Games After Missing Training Due To Injury Robertson says that he “almost broke his hip due to a freak mistake made by a massage therapist.”
• Yohan Blake Looks To Bring A Gold Medal To Post-Bolt Jamaica After years of injuries Blake has never gotten back to the level that saw him run 9.69, but he was 4th at Worlds last year and says, “I’m doing some good work in training and my confidence is coming back.”
• Athletics Australia Men’s Long Distance Preview
  *More Athletics Illustrated Preview
• Athlete In “Serious” Condition After Contracting Malaria

Weekend International Road Action

• Sunday: Laban Korir (2:05:54) Leads A Field of Eight Sub-2:07 Men For The Rotterdam Marathon The women’s favorite is Visiline Jepkesho who ran 2:21:37 in Paris last year.
• Sunday: Wide Open Fields Set For The Istanbul Half Men’s field includes Leonard Langat (59:18), Albert Kangogo (59:25) and Amdework Waleglegn (27:36 for 10K). The women’s race has Joyce Chepkirui (66:19), Dubai Marathon champ Roza Dereje (2:19:17) and Ababel Yeshaneh (67:21).
• Sunday: 2:10 Man Shadrack Tanui Leads Greater Manchester Marathon Field
• Sunday: Kenya’s Patrick Wachira Muriuki (2:10:00) And Ethiopia’s Konjit Tilahun Biruk (2:28:11) The Favorites For The Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon In South Korea
• Sunday: Paul Lonyangata Looking To Become The First In 28 Years To Win Back-To-Back Paris Marathon Titles Last year he won in 2:06:10, but this year he’ll only have the fifth-best PR on the start line. Among those he’ll face are former Worlds silver medalist Yemane Adhane (2:04:48 PR from 2012) and Eliud Kiptanui (2:05:21). The women’s race stands to be a duel between Amane Gobena (2:21:51) and Ruth Chepngetich (2:06:06).
• Sunday: Rahma Tusa (2:25:12) Going For Three-Peat At Rome Marathon She’ll face challenges from former World silver medalist Sharon Cherop and a slew of other sub-2:30 women. The men’s race is led by Kenya’s Jafred Chirchir Kipchumba (2:05:48) and Ethiopia’s Girmay Birhanu (2:05:48).
• April 22: World Record Holder And Defending Champ Joyciline Jepkosgei Returns To The Gifu Seriyu Half-Marathon She faces Eunice Chumba (66:11) and Valary Jemeli (67:50). Defending champ Alexander Mutiso will try to defend his men’s title, but only has the fifth best PB as he faces sub-hour men James Mwangi, James Rungaru and Moses Kurong.
• April 29: Fourth-Fastest Marathoner Of All Time (Emmanuel Mutai), Former Olympic Champ Stephen Kiprotich Headline At Hamburg Marathon 2:04:28 man Sammy Kitwara and Ayele Abshero (2:04:23) are also in the field along with several other sub-2:07 men. Six of the women’s field have gone sub-2:30, led by Isabellah Andersson (2:23:41 from 2011) and Shitaye Eshete (2:25:36).

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 Hansons-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.
• 42-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 Landmark Bob 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