2018 Pre Classic Is Friday / Saturday

Listen On Demand LRC Special 2018 Pre Classic Preview Podcast How will Edward Cheserek‘s return to Hayward Field go? Who wins the stacked ____ (fill in the distance event)? Who has a brighter future? Noah Lyles or Christian Coleman? Plus a little Caster Semenya and Drew Hunter talk and discussion of Matt Centrowitz Sr.‘s thoughts on doping.

LRC 2018 Pre Classic Friday Night Preview: King Ches Returns To Hayward As A Pro; Are You Ready for Two LOADED Men’s Races (800 & 2 Mile)? Get ready – the men’s 800 and 2-mile at the 2018 Pre Classic are TOTALLY loaded.

• Justin Gatlin Pulls Out Of Pre With Hamstring Injury It was also announced that Christian Coleman will no longer do the 100/200 double, but just the 100.
• Ken Goe: “What if you held a meet and nobody outside the stadium noticed?” Goe laments that this weekend’s Pre Classic won’t get more attention and points out that there are no track athletes on ESPN’s annual list of the 100 most famous athletes in sports.
• MB: Kyle Merber drops out of pre mile field
• International Mile Full Field Released – It Includes HSer Brodey Hasty + Drew Hunter
• World Champ Bowie To Clash With Olympic Champion Thompson + Schippers & Ahoure In 100 At Pre
• LRC Ajee Wilson Hasn’t Thought Much About New IAAF Hyperandrogenism Regulations But Is “Glad” Caster Semenya Can Still Race For Now If the IAAF’s new hyperandrogenism rules stick, Ajee Wilson may be the biggest beneficiary but that’s not something she’s thrilled about. “I definitely know that I enjoy racing with them. I’m glad that they’re allowed to race still.”

Sprint Stuff

• Recommended Read: DyeStat: The Rise Of Noah Lyles And The Mom Who Helped Make It Happen Researching the steps to a pro track career, scrounging money so Lyles could travel to big meets as a high schooler, helping manage his career and his finances, and flying to Florida to do Lyles rehab walks with him, Keisha Caine-Lyles is definitely an Olympic quality mom.
• GB Sprinter Zharnel Hughes Remembers The “Most Treasured Memory” Of His Career Racing Usain Bolt At The New York DL In 2015 Hughes was a surprise challenge for Bolt who only beat him with a dip at the line by .03. Hughes says his mother still has a huge portrait of that finish line photo on the wall in her house.
• Olympic 400m Champ Wayde Van Niekerk Targeting July Return Van Niekerk is flying to Doha for “intensive rehabilitation” as he continues to make his way back from the knee injury he sustained during a charity rugby game.
• 2008 Olympic 100m Silver Medalist Kerron Stewart Got Emotional After Running Her Final Race In Jamaica This Past Weekend The 34-year-old finished second to double Olympic champ Elaine Thompson at the Jamaica Invy before announcing she was retiring at the end of the season.
• Jamaican High Schooler Christopher Taylor Motivated After Beating LaShawn Merritt Over 200m At The Jamaica Invy Taylor: “I was entered against the big boys and I came out victorious. It is just motivation for me going into World Juniors.”
• Jumps: World Indoor Triple Jump Silver Medalist Almir Dos Santos Talks About How He Made The Transition From High Jumper To Horizontal Jumper In 2016

Looking Ahead On The Track

• June 5: Throws Will Highlight The Pavo Nurmi Games With World Champ Johannes Vetter And Olympic Champ Thomas Rohler Facing Off In The Javelin Also world champions Sandra Perkovic (discus) and Pwel Fajdek (hammer). World indoor champ Samuel Tefera is in the 1500 while recent 8:33 woman Meskerem Mamo leads the woman’s 3000.
• July 5: Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson, World Champ Tori Bowie And European Champ Dafne Schippers Will Clash At Lausanne DL Meet Worlds silver medalist Marie-Josée Ta Lou is also in the 100 while world champ Karsten Warholm leads the men’s 400H with Kyron McMaster and world leader Abderrahman Samba. Sam Kendricks vs. Renaud Lavillenie and Shawn Barber in the PV.
• July 20: Caster Semenya (800), Timothy Cheruiyot (1,500) And Beatrice Chepkoech (Steple) Announced For Monaco Distance Action Noah Lyles is in the 200, Mutaz Barshim in the HJ steeple, Omar McLeod in the 110H.
• July 21: Slew Of Top Sprinters Added To Fields For London Anniversary Games South Africa’s Akani Simbine and USA’s Ronnie Baker join Christian Coleman and Andre De Grasse in the 100m while Kim Collins will run his final race on UK soil.

News From Europe

• Callum Hawkins Will Race For 1st Time Since CG Collapse Against Mo Farah At Vitality London 10,000 Next Monday
• 15+ Minutes: Ato Boldon Interviews Belgium’s World And Olympic Heptathlon Cahmp Nafissatou Thiam
• 50 Days To Go Until World Juniors In Finland The Finns are trying to be environmentally friendly and will be giving the athletes tap water, not bottled water as their tap water is so clean it’s way cleaner than bottled water.
• 30% Of British Athletes Report They Have Seen “Unacceptable Behaviour” 17% of them say they’ve experienced.
• Former European Indoor 3k Champ Bob Verbeeck Of Belgium, Now An Event Promoter, Says Athletics’ Strength Lies In Its Variety “Yes we’ll have the javelin going on the same time as a 100m or 10,000m, which are different sports fitting into one sport. But what we need to do is translate that better. We can’t have the assumption that people know what’s going on. As far as telling the story, we need to do a better job. Also it’s important how we mix in the ‘show element’ of the sport.”
• Irish Marathon Olympian Lizzie Lee Says The Marathon Is Made For Older Women “Marathon is not a young women’s game. That’s because it is so mental as well as physical,” says the 37-year-old.
• And Australia: 50 + Athletes Illegally Remain In Australia After Commonwealth Games Another 200 are trying to stay in some form or fashion in a legal manner.

2018 adidas Boost Boston Games *Schedule / Results 

Day 2 LRC Shaunae Miller-Uibo Breaks 150m WR; Tori Bowie (11.05 100m) & Noah Lyles (14.77 150m) Grab Wins On  the streets of Boston a world record (150m for women) and American record (women’s 200 hurdles) went down.

Day 1 LRC Drew Hunter Earns His Biggest Win To Date, Ajee Wilson & Charlene Lipsey Impress On Day 1 At adidas Boost Boston Games Hunter took down some big names to win the mile, while Wilson (1:59.27 800) and Lipsey (4:04.98 1,500) both posted US leaders. Plus Nick Willis explains why even if Asbel Kiprop doped (Kiprop denies it) and it cost him Olympic gold why he wouldn’t be the biggest casualty of Kiprop’s doping.

*MB: Official adidas Boost Discussion Thread
*MB: Drew Hunter does it! Takes down O’Hare + Willis + a 3:33 guy to get biggest win of career at adidas Boost
*MB: HS Josh Hoey Runs 1:48 in his record attempt Michael Granville‘s 1:46.45 seems safe.
*LRC Video Interviews From Boston

International Results

• Mo Farah And Tirunesh Dibaba Win Great Manchester Run 10k Farah ran 28:27 to beat out former Commonwealth 10,000 champ Moses Kipsiro by a second while Abel Kirui was 3rd. In the women’s race, half marathon WR holder Joyciline Jepkosgei went out at world record pace, but slowed allowing Dibaba to win by 49 seconds in 31:08. Betsy Saina was 3rd (32:25).
• Double Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson Wins 100m In 11.06 At Jamaica Invitational In the men’s 100, Ronnie Baker won in 10.00 while world U20 leader Christopher Taylor beat LaShawn Merritt in the 200m with 20.49. Shericka Jackson beat world leader Blessing Okagbare in the 200 with 22.55.
• Former Cornell Sprinter And European 200m Champ Bruno Hortelano Returns To Competition With A 400m PB Of 45.96 It was Hortelano’s first race in almost two years since he suffered severe injuries in a car crash.
• Osaka Seiko Golden Grand Prix: Distance Records Go Down To Emily Cherotich Tuie In The 800 (2:00.22) And Shuru Bulo In The 3,000 (8:47) Ryan Gregson won the 1,500 (3:37.72) and Mostafa Smaili the 800 (1:46.18). Justin Gatlin (10.06) and Isaac Makwala (19.96) highlighted the sprints.
• Course Records Fall As Ayana Tsedat (2:11:00) And Georgina Rono (2:28:22) Win The Riga Marathon In Latvia
• GB Olympian Seb Rodger Highlights Loughborough International With 49.80 Win In The 400H
• Roman Romanenko (63:58) And Eva Vrabcova-Nyvltova (71:54) Win Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon

2018 USATF Distance Classic – AKA Oxy *Results 

LRC Matt Centrowitz Wins 1,500, So Does Gregorek, Berian Struggles, Ce’Aira Brown Keeps Rolling: 2018 USATF Distance Recap Centro was only 5th in the 800, but he bounced back nicely in the 1,500 for the win.

RRW: Johnny Gregorek Is Pumped for Bowerman Mile: “I want to really run something fast … I’m going up to Eugene now to get locked and loaded.” Gregorek ran the fastest 1,500 of the night at Oxy, clocking 3:36.95, and says he’s now ready for his first Bowerman Mile appearance.

• Oxy Discussion: Official 2018 Oxy Discussion Thread
• What’s up with Centrowitz?

More Upcoming

• Sunday: Mo Farah And Tirunesh Dibaba Headline At The Great Manchester 10k Farah is up against former two-time world marathon champ Abel Kirui while Dibaba will have her hands full with world half marathon record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei.
• Saturday: Jamaica Invy Preview: Double Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson Faces Commonwealth Games Silver And Bronze Medalists Christina Williams And Gayon Evans In The 100 Shericka Jackson vs. Blessing Okagbare and 400m World champ Phyllis Francis in the 200. In the men’s 100, Kim Collins is “coming out of retirement” (he called it quits this indoor season) for one more race in Jamaica and will face US’s Mike Rodgers and Ronnie Baker.
  *From The Winter: Kim Collins At Peace With Retirement
• Sunday: South Africa’s Lusapho April (2:08:32) And Kenya’s Georgina Jepkirui Rono (2:21:39) Leads Fields For Riga Marathon In Latvia
• Saturday: Multi-Time Euro XC Champ Sergey Lebid Leads Field Of Europeans For The Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half In The Czech Republic Czech half-marathon record holder Eva Vrabcova Nyvltova (71:11) leads the women’s race.
• June 10th: Christian Coleman And World 400H Champ Karsten Warholm Announced For Stockholm DL

LetsJump.com

• GB’s London 2012 High Jump Bronze Medalist Robbie Grabarz Announces Retirement The 30-year-old said, “I’ve seen people carry on too long past the point of enjoyment and there is no need, life is too short and I want to feel positive about my time competing.”
• Christian Taylor Plans On Racing The 400m Throughout The 2018 “Off Year” Season He says a “bucket list” goal is to break the 45 second barrier and he wasn’t far off in Shanghai with 45.24.
• IAAF Inside Athletics Video: Ato Boldon Interviews World PV Champ Katerina Stefanidi
• Nigeria Jumper And Sprinter Blessing Okagbare Looks Back At Her Experience At 2006 World Juniors In Beijing It was Okagbare’s first time flying and she became sick and had a terrible meet. But she said it was valuable experience for when she returned to Beijing two years later and won Olympic LJ silver.

Previous Doping News

• MB: 2:11 Marathoner And Flagstaff Resident Jordan Chipangama Gets 4-Year Doping Ban Chipangama tested positive on two separate occasions for meldonium.
• Swedish Anti-Doping Hit By Fancy Bears Hacking Attack Fancy Bears have accessed and published records of doping tests performed on Swedish athletes.
• Vitaly Mutko Replaced As Deputy Prime Minister For Sport And Put In Control Of Construction In Russian Government Reshuffle Remember that Mutko has been banned from the Olympic Games for life for his role in the Russian doping scandal.
• Proposal For Detailed Audit Of Russian Doping Crisis And An Update On RUSADA Are Key Issues At WADA Meeting On Thursday RUSADA is pretty much a guarantee to remain non-compliant as they still haven’t fulfilled two reinstatement criteria, accepting the McLaren Report and granting access to the Moscow Laboratory.