April 9, 2018 | LetsRun.com

Until The Boston Marathon

The Inside Scoop LRC The Running Experts Sound Off & Tell Us Who Will Win Boston & Whether They’re Rooting For Galen Rupp We reached out to 8 of America’s top athletes/coaches and 6 got back to us with their feelings about the Boston Marathon which will take place next Monday. Most expect big things from Molly Huddle in the women’s race and Galen Rupp in the men’s.

It Was An Incredibly Busy Weekend On The Roads

Rotterdam MB: Kenneth Kipkemoi Comes From Behind To Win Rotterdam Marathon In 2:05:44 In His Debut The 33-year-old winner has PRs of 13:03/26:52/59:01 at shorter distances. Visiline Jepkesho won the uneventful women’s race in 2:23:47. *Video Of End Of Men’s Race

Paris MB: Betsy Saina Holds On For Narrow 4-Second Win In 2:22:55, Paula Lonyangata Defends In 2:06:25 The third time was certainly the charm for Saina, who DNFed her 1st two marathons last year, but got the win in #3. Ex-doper Mathew Kisorio, who once said there was lots of doping in Kenya, was 2nd in the men’s race.

Berlin Half MB: Wow: Erick Kiptanui Goes For WR (13:32 Through 5k), Wins In 58:42!! He was on WR pace through 14k.

Rome: Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa Wins Third-Straight Title In 2:23:46, Announces She Wants To Replicate Firehiwot Dado’s Feat And Win NY This Fall Dado three-peated in Rome in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and then NYC in 2011. Kenya’s Cosmas Birech won the men’s race in a PR of 2:08:03.
Istanbul Half: World Jr. XC Silver Medalist Amdework Walelegn Of Ethiopia, 19, Sets Turkish All-Comers Record Of 59:50 Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshane won the women’s title in 66:22.
Prague Half: Kenya’s Joan Melly Runs Fourth-Fastest All-Time 65:04 To Dominate 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 by only 21 seconds.
Milan: Ethiopia’s Seyefu Abdiwak Tura – Who Ran 2:04:44 In Dubai – Wins Milan In 2:09:04 As Lucy Kabuu Wins Women’s Race In 2:27:02
Hannover: Seboka Negussa (ETH, 2:09:44) And Agnes Kiprop (KEN, 2:32:35) Win
Cherry Blossom 10 Miler MB: World Half 4th Placer Jemal Yimer Wins Men’s Race in 46:17, Buze Diriba (53:45) Wins Women’s, Matthew Centrowitz Runs 50:38. Chris Derrick (46:52, 5th) and Emma Bates (54:44, 7th) were the top Americans. You can watch a race replay here. *Washington Post *Results
*MB: Matthew Centrowitz is running a 10 miler on Sunday morning – Predict his time

Lengthy Reads We Really Enjoyed

Paul Kimmage Catches Up With Ireland’s Catherine McKiernan 20 Years After Her London Marathon Win The country girl who never liked the spotlight that came with being a star was a 4-time World XC runner-up who found her home in the marathon where she was the best in the world in 1997-1998, but injuries prevented her from Olympic glory. This nearly 6,000-word piece is much more than about just running – it’s about life – and finding yourself after a devastating divorce.

How Gabby Thomas Developed Into The 200m Collegiate Record Holder At Harvard Coach Kebba Tolbert has done a masterful job. Read all about it in this 3,500+ word piece by Johanna Gretschel.

Kentucky Derby Favorite Named After Usain Bolt The horse’s full name is Bolt d’Oro.

Weekend US Action

DyeStat Preview: 10 Boys Story Lines To Follow At Arcadia Invitational The 3,200 has both NXN champ Aidan Troutner and Foot Locker champ Dylan Jacobs.
*DyeStat: 10 Girls Story Lines To Follow At Arcadia
*Live Webcast Friday @ 7PM ET & Saturday @ 12:30PM ET
Sunday: $12,000 In Prize Money Up For Grabs At The Credit Union SACTOWN Run 10 Mile Men’s race is led by Matt Llano while Jane Kibii will try to defend her title on the women’s side.
Saturday: Ultra Runners Prepare For USATF 100K Road Championships In Madison, Wisconsin
Competitive Fields Going After $62,000 At This Weekend’s Cooper River Bridge Run 10K In South Carolina Men’s race has Shadrack Kipchirchir and former Olympic bronze medalist Edwin Soi while the women are led by two-time defending champ Monicah Ngige, Ethiopia’s Hiwot Ayalew, Katie Matthews and former US marathon champ Esther Erb.

Upcoming Sprint / Field Action

June 13: Dafne Schippers And Mutaz Essa Barshim Confirm Appearances For The Ostrava Golden Spike Meet Barshim will be up against World Indoor champ Danil Lysenko, the first person to beat him since 2016.
May 19: Olympic 400 Champ Shaunae Miller-Uibo And World 100 Champ Tori Bowie Headline adidas Boost Boston Games Also Noah Lyles and Christina Manning vs. Sharika Nelvis in the hurdles.

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.

Track Action & 2018 Commonwealth Games LRC CG Preview CG Schedule & Results *TV & Streaming

Day 2: A kani Simbine (10.03) Upsets Yohan Blake For 100m Gold The women’s 100 went to Michelle-Lee Ahye (11.14). Tom Walsh also won the shot put as expected.
*World Mountain Champ Stella Chesang Wins Women’s 10k For Uganda
*MB: Day 2 Commonwealth Games Discussion Thread

Day 1 CG: MB: Joshua Cheptegei Runs 3:58 Final 1,600 To Beat Mo Ahmed For 5,000 Gold Wisco star Morgan McDonald was a well-beaten 8th.
*Dai Greene Suffers Yet Another Injury Setback, Withdraws From Commonwealth Games With Grade 1 Hamstring Tear

Arcadia: LRC Cruz Culpepper Gets His First Major Win With 56.8 Final Lap In Mile, Mooney Twins Impress, Great Oaks Wins 5 Of 6 Distance Relays Cruz Culpepper, son of Olympians Alan and Shayne, got his first major high school win and he’s only a sophomore. The winning times in the distance races were 4:13.14, 4:39.63, 8:50.95, and 10:02.56. *Official Arcadia Thread *LA Times Recap

LRC USC’s Michael Norman Runs 20.04 Into Wind, Steven Gardiner Runs 19.75 National Record Includes video of Norman’s run.

Weekend NCAA Action *All NCAA Results

Emily Richards Does It Again – After Only Running 2:05.28 Indoors, The D3 Star Is Now The Overall NCAA Leader At 2:02.84
Harvard’s Gabby Thomas Runs NCAA-Leading 22.32
TCU’s Derrick Mokaleng Runs NCAA-Leading 45.17
Navy Men And Women Beat Army The men’s dual meet was as close as they get. 102-101 and the men’s 5,000 (14:22) was decided by just .o1.
Stanford Men And Women Sweep 124th Big Meet With Cal
Oregon Ducks Persevere In Nasty Conditions To Sweep The Pepsi Team Invitational
LSU 4 X 100 Runs World-Leading 42.50 At Home That’s #9 all-time in the NCAA.

Previous NCAA News

LSU-Related News Mondo Duplantis Talks World Junior Record, Pole Vault And Future Duplantis says he is “old school” and refrains from using technology too much.
Ken Goe: UO Ducks Begin Final Season At The Current Hayward Field
*Watch For Free On PAC-12 Facebook Page
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 3,000
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 PR is 74.56m outside the NCAA season).

Previous CG News

The Commonwealth Games Most Memorable Track And Field Moments The article by the Backstraight Boys includes great race videos. *Pre-Commonwealth Games Podcast By The Backstraight Boys
Commonwealth Games Organizers And IAAF Considering Going Back To The Mile At CGs They ran the mile every year until 1966.
Arizona Alum Sage Watson (2017 NCAA 400H Champ) Is Hoping For Canadian Record At CGs She’s only .13 off the record.
New Zealand Shot Putter Tom Walsh Doesn’t Like Being Called The “Clean WR Holder” – He Wants The Actual WR

Assorted Distance News

USATF: What To Watch, When And Where In The Month Of April
Andrew Wheating Now Coaching At A Portland High School
Podcast With America’s Fastest Woman With A Full-Time Job – Stanford Invite 10,000m Runner-Up Carrie Dimoff And she’s a mom to boot.
Good Read: Engaged Aussie Distance Runners Ryan Gregson And Genevieve LaCaze Discuss Their Relationship LaCaze: “I would say we are the complete opposite (personalities). When I met Ryan, I thought ‘how the hell is this going to work?'”
Updated Boston Marathon Elite Fields: Sara Hall And Olympic Silver Medalist Eunice Kirwa Withdraw With Injury
Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Molly Huddle Huddle talks about going back and forth between track and road, training for Boston and hopes for 2020
Family Of Woman Who Died Last Fall Sues Race Organizers After She Fell In Ocean During The Japanese Race Four Years Ago The family is suing the race for $933,000.

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

More Weekend International Road Action

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: Rahma Tusa (2:25:12) Going For Three-Peat At Rome Marathon She’ll face challenges from former Worlds 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 PR 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).

We Talk To One Of The Sport’s Biggest Stars

LRC Feature The Greatness Of Geoffrey Kamworor: Where Does The Kenyan Star Go From Here? Jonathan Gault talked to Kamworor, who (thanks to his recent win at the World Half Champs) has won a global title in each of the last five years, to see what’s next for one of Kenya’s biggest distance stars.

WSJ: Memo From Nike’s HR Chief Says The Company Fails To Promote Enough Women, Minorities Nike’s global workforce is 50% female, but 71% of the vice presidents are men and 84% of its US vice presidents are white.
*MB: Internal Nike HR memo says the company is too white and too male

IOC Reveal Seven Contenders Interested In Bidding For 2026 Winter Games The cities include Graz in Austria, Calgary in Canada, Sapporo in Japan, Stockholm in Sweden, Sion in Switzerland, Erzurum in Turkey and a joint Italian bid from Milan, Turin and Cortina d’Ampezzo.