July 8, 2018 | LetsRun.com

A Slow Weekend In Terms of Pro Action

Utica Boilermaker Results: Gabriel Geay , Mary Wacera Win, John Crain & Allie Kieffer 1st Americans Wacera is now tied with Catherine Ndereba with most Boilermaker wins (4).

Links A Human, Not An Algorithm, Found Interesting

Semenya And Her Coach Samual Sepeng Are Both Upbeat After Her Lausanne Loss Both were happy Semenya went with the hot pace. “I’ve never chased someone like that in my whole life,” said Semenya. “I am quite amazed I could hang on till 1,300m – if I die at the last 200m it is nothing, it is something I can work on.”
Top Pros Like Kamworor, Bekele, Kipchoge Reveal What They Dreamed About When They Last Dreamed About Running Bekele’s involved being with Donald Trump.
Kendell Williams Picks Up First Pro Win In LJ At Klaverblad Arena Games (21 Feet (6.40m)) The 7-time NCAA champ isn’t doing the multi this year and is instead focusing on the LJ and 100H.
Recommended Read The Brooks Beasts’ Hannah Fields Reveals She’s Been Getting Treatment For An Eating Disorder For The Last 12 Weeks Fields, who ran a PR of 4:05 for 1,500 last year, has spent up to 50 hours a week in a treatment center in Seattle.
The Bahamas Govt. Pulls Support For World Relays, Which Are Now Looking For A New Home – Would Jamaica Make Sense?
*MB: How could this possibly be true? Published report says Bahamas govt spent $21 million on World Relays
Citius Podcast: The Third Time Was The Charm: Jim Walmsley Talks About Winning Western States After Two DNFs
Katerina Stefanidi Donates Kit She Won Olympic Gold In To The New IAAF Heritage Collection
Rai Benjamin And Michael Norman Call It A Season
Matt Sparks Promoted To Irish Head Track And Field And Cross-Country Coach

European Athletics U18 Championships Have Started Entries / Seeds Results *Schedule

Free European U18 Live Stream
Ireland’s Sarah Healy lives up to the hype and wins double European U18 gold in 3k &1500 – both in championship records Healy has PBs of 2:02, 4:09 and 9:10.
European U18s – A Golden Night For Great Britain With Four Titles, Including Keely Hodgkinson’s 2:04 800 Win Sonia O’Sullivan‘s daughter Sophie was a well-beaten 2nd, which she was very happy with. *Race Video
Watch: Heartwarming moment as proud Sonia O’Sullivan reacts to daughter Sophie’s fantastic silver
Scotland’s Kane Elliott Wins European Junior 1,500 In Championship Record Elliott, 16, has already run 3:46 this year.
Ireland’s Sarah Healy ((2:02, 4:09, 9:10 PRs) Lives Up To The Hype And Wins European U18 Gold In 9:18 CR She’s the first Irish athlete to ever win U18 European gold. She’s hoping for double gold as she’s also in the 1500 final.
Athletics Weekly Recap Of Day 2 Of Euro U18 Champs
17-Year-Old Thomas Keen (8:14 PR) Wins Britain’s 1st Gold At European U18s In 8:27 Video of sub-60 last lap here.
Sophie O’Sullivan – Sonia’s 16-Year-Old Daughter – Begins International Career With A Heat Win At European U18s Race video is here.

World U20 Champs Are Next Week In Finland

Event-By-Event Preview For IAAF World U20 Championships
LRC Television and Streaming Information for IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere
10 Stars To Watch At World U20s From Barega to Duplantis to Sammy Watson, the IAAF has you covered.

Interesting Reads

Brett Larner: What Countries Have Had The Best 1st Half Of 2018 In The Marathon Answer: Ethiopia is #1 for both the men and women.
*MB: Go figure: US women’s top 10 average marathon times for 2018 trails North Korea
Not April Fools A Look At The Rise Of 3 World-Class Chinese Sprinters Two of them are training in Holland with Rana Reider.
*South China Morning Post: Are American Coaches, Not Drugs, The Reason Why China Is So Good At Sprinting Now?
Sam Kendricks’ Sportsmanship Earns NY Times Profile: “In Pole Vault, Sam Kendricks Is a Team Player” “They probably thought I seemed a little strange. I really pushed on these other guys that I wanted to be their friend and help them,” Kendricks said. “I had an undefeated season last year, but what good is victory if you can’t share it?”

Sprint / Field Event / Multi News

Andre De Grasse’s Agent Paul Doyle Denies Published Report That De Grasse Has Parted Ways With ALTIS Doyle said the report “is complete speculation and unfounded,” but does admit that De Grasse is currently in Canada training with his HS coach.
One We Missed: 400 National Records Of Switzerland (50.52), Netherlands (50.96) And Lithuania (50.99) All Fell In Same 400
Rai Benjamin Announces He Won’t Race Samba At All In 2018 As He Will Not Run Another 400H This Year
Jake Doran, 17, Runs 10.15 Aussie Junior Record “Completely Out Of Nowhere,” PR Before Today Was 10.47
Injured Lemaitre Out Of European Champs At the Paris DL, he pulled up clutching his leg and fell to the track.
Maggie Ewen (37.8%) And Grant Holloway Win Fan Vote For The Bowerman (47.9%) We definitely think the women’s award should go to a field eventer.
Diverse Group Of Italian Runners Wins 4 X 400 Praise And Thousands On Social Media Praise Them For Being The New Face Of Italy Many are using it as an opportunity to take a shot at the new interior minister who is anti-immigration, Matteo Salvini.
Caster Semenya Wasn’t The Only South African To Set A National Record Last Week, Rikenette Steenkamp Ran A 12.81 100H NR
400H World Champ Karsten Warholm Recalls Competing At World Juniors 4 Years Ago … In The Decathlon
World Leader In LJ, Lorraine Ugen (7.05m), Hopes 7+ Meter Jumps Become Routine After Her First Ugen, who was 5th in the 100 final as well (11.32), credits speedwork to her improvement.
24-Yesr-Old Beth Dobbin Can’t Believe She’s The British 200 Champ Even Though Many Thought She’d Win “Everyone has been saying since Eton ‘you’re going to win trials’ but I thought no, because the girls that I’m racing against are a different level. But I’ve won trials, I can’t believe it. It’s a dream come true.”
25-Year-Old Katarina Johnson-Thompson Thinks Her Best Is Yet To Come And Is Very Happy She Relocated From The UK To France After 2016 “I know I’ve got a limited amount of Olympics in one career so I just want to make sure I’ve done everything I could.”

2018 British Athletics Champs *Results

Sunday Men’s Recap: Chris O’Hare Leads Scottish 1-2-3 Sweep Of 1.500 As Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake Breaks Championship Best For British 200m Gold Also NCAA decathlon champ Tim Duckworth won the LJ.
*MB: How in the world is this possible? Before today, the British champs 200m record was just 20.25. Now it’s 20.24
After 5 Injury-Plagued Years, Dai Greene Will Savor His 400H Title
Sunday Women’s Recap: Lorraine Ugen’s WL 7.05m Long Jump Headlines Best British Champs In Years
IAAF Recap Of Sunday
Controversy Top UK Pros Claim Laura Muir Was Allowed To Enter 800 At UK Champs After Deadline; Muir Wins Race
Athletics Weekly’s Recap Of Saturday’s Men’s Action At British Champs Reece Prescod (10.06) wins the 100 over Zharnel Hughes (10.13) as Marc Scott wins a tactical 5,000.
Saturday’s Women’s Recap: Dina Asher-Smith’s 10.97 100m Was The Highlight
Prescod Hopes Brits Can Pull Off 1-2-3 Sweep In 100m At Europeans
Linford Christie’s 9.87 National Record Still Stands Even Though There Was Talk Of It Going Down

Other Weekend Action / News

Gold Coast Marathon: Kenya’s Ruth Chebitok Wins Women’s Race In New Course Record Of 2:24:49 as 44-Year-Old Kenneth Mungara Wins Third Men’s Title In 2:09:49 Chebitok was the first Kenyan women’s winner at Gold Coast ever (40th edition). Boston Marathon champ Yuki Kawauchi was just 9th in 2:14:51. *IAAF
*Australia’s Jessica Trengrove Picks Up $40,000 Bonus For Running Under 2:28:00 For 2nd (2:26:29)
Gold Coast Half Marathon: Americans Sara Hall (69:27) And Laura Thweatt (70:17) Both Set PRs At Sunday’s Gold Coast Half Marathon
Kirani James Continues Comeback From Illness With 44.99 Victory In Guyana
Comrades Champ Ann Ashworth Turns Down World 100km Spot, Rips Athletics South Africa “Until you can actually start doing something to assist road runners in our country with funding and other support, I’m not happy to compete in SA colours.”
Mediterranean Games: Morocco’s Rababe Arafi Pulls Off 800/1,500 Double As Mediterranean Games Conclude
European Mountain Champs – Men: Dematteis Twins Bernard And Martin Go 1-3 At European Mountain Champs To Lead Italian Men’s Sweep
European Mountain Champs – Women: Switzerland’s Maude Mathys Obliterates Field By More Than 4 Minutes To Repeat As Champion

LRC Content For The Weekend

LRC A More Mature Mary Cain Prepares To Return To Track Racing After 2 Years Away – 5 Takeaways From Cain’s Recent Podcast Appearance Next Sunday will mark two years since Mary Cain’s last track race. Find out what’s changed with Cain here.

LRC Why Sam Chelanga Retired From Running At Age 33 To Enlist In The U.S. Army You may have heard the story of pro runners joining the US Army so they can get US citizenship. What you haven’t heard is this story – Sam Chelanga‘s story – a pro runner giving up his running career so he can go the US Army’s Officer Candidate School.
*MB: Sam Chelanga retires

2018 Canadian Champs Free Live Stream Schedule / Results

Aaron Brown Completes 100/200 Double With 20.17 Win As De Grasse Pulls Up With Hamstring Issue In the semis, De Grasse was rolling before pulling up. “I’m not too sure what happened, I think it was just a cramp hopefully … I felt like I was about to run a fast time.”
Andre De Grasse (10.20) Only 3rd In Canadian Champs 100m The announcers initially said Bismark Boateng was the winner in 10.16 but after several minutes Aaron Brown got the win in 10.16.
Pre-Race: Canada’s Trivalry: Who Will End Up As Canada’s Fastest Man – Andre De Grasse, Gavin Smellie Or Aaron Brown?
Mo Ahmed Defeats NCAA Champs Justyn Knight And Ben Flanagan For Canadian 5,000 Title The race was very tactical (14:36) just like the steeplechases and women’s 5,000 as shown below.
Matt Hughes, Who Had The Best Seed Time By 27 Seconds, Wins Canadian Steeple Title In 8:54
Genevieve Lalonde Wins Canadian Steeple Title In 9:49 UNM’s Charlotte Prouse, the NCAA 2nd placer, was third.
Andrea Seccafien Wins Canadian 5,000 Title In 16:05
NCAA Heptathlon Champ Georgia Ellenwood Of Wisco Wins Canadian Heptathlon Title
Meet Preview
Melissa Bishop Has Given Birth To A Baby Girl Named Corrine Chidera
More Canada News: MB: Cross-Canada record attempt, 7200K – 66 days. Current record by Al Howie 72 days

News From Europe

Former Irish 1,500m Champion, Penn Relays Champ And Sub-4 Minute Miler Andrew Walker In Intensive Care After Being Struck By A Car While Training For World Masters Champs You can donate to his GoFundMe here.

Peachtree Is Always On July 4th In Atlanta *Results

RRW Stephanie Bruce, 34, Wins Her 1st National Title, 43-Year-Old Bernard Lagat Wins His 1st Road National Title At 2018 AJC Peachtree Road Race Yes, that’s right. 43-year-old Bernard Lagat beat the likes of Lopez Lomong and many other top US pros to win the 2018 US 10k road title. In the women’s race, Bruce beat Tuliamuk the defending champ as Gwen Jorgensen was 5th, 49 seconds back. *Top 20 Results
*MB: Official 2018 Peachtree Discussion Thread – 2018 USATF 10k Road Champs
*MB: Can we stop the hype about Gwen Jorgensen ?
*MB: B. Lagat running 28:45 @ peach 10k @ 43yo … what could or would that be worth at age 18-38 … 26:34 ..?
*MB: Bernard Lagat makes the 2020 Olympic Marathon squad

Rapper “Jeezy” Finishes In 62:14 As Part Of His Effort To Raise $1 Million For Kids
Olympic Champion Jorgensen Said Pre-Race She Knew It Was “Going To Hurt” “It’s going to hurt. It’s going to be hot. It’s going to be humid. Just kinda see what I can do under those conditions.”
Iconic Peachtree Photo Presented To Family 40 Years After It Was Taken And 30 Years After Man Featured Died The photo is so great it was even used in a Nike ad and the photographer instantly knew it would be the best photo he ever took.

Big Monday Action

Gyulai Memorial In Hungary: Sergey Shubenkov Runs 12.92 110H To Move To #8 All-Time The meet was full of high quality as there was a near WR in the men’s HJ and lots of good mid-d/distance action. In the women’s short hurdles, Sharika Nelvis collected her third 100H victory of the season in 12.55, 0.03 shy of her season’s best and 0.03 ahead of world record holder Kendra Harrison.
*Video: Mutaz Barshim Just Missed The High Jump World Record Today At 8’0¾” (2.46m) But Now He’s Injured
*Genzebe Dibaba Destroyed The Field, Including Kate Grace, In The Mile
*Ayanleh Souleiman Won The 1k In 2:16
*Clayton Murphy Ran A 1:44.69 SB In The 800 But Was Only 4th

Oregon-Related News

Shannon Rowbury Has Successfully Given Birth To A Daughter Named Sienna The dad is 3:54 miler Pablo Solares and the baby has duel US-Mexican citizenship.
Constructionequipmentguide.com: Some Of The Wood From Hayward Field Will Be Reused In New Stadium, Other Wood Will Go To A Museum “They don’t make timbers like that anymore.”

Yet Another Big Idea That Appears To Not Be Working

This Is Starting To Remind Us Of The International Version Of The TrackTown Summer Series: We Guess They Aren’t Paying Enough – Many Top US Stars Who Are Eligible Will Skip Out On The 1st Athletics World Cup US champs Noah Lyles, Sandi Morris and Shakima Wimbley are all skipping out on the July 14-15 event. Whoever thought this event would be the new big thing in track but scheduled it for the day after the Rabat DL and 5 days before Monaco didn’t think very much. We don’t think promoting this thing at the expense of the DL is a good idea either. Plus, everyone on each team gets paid the same. So if you when your event you get the same as a 5th placer if you’re from the same country.

Talented Teenagers

Sports Gene 2.0 Sophie O’Sullivan – Daughter Of Sonia O’Sullivan And Nic Bideau – Will Run Internationally For The First Time At This Week’s European U18 Champs The dual Australian-Irish citizen, who is the #3 seed in the 800, doesn’t have to choose a country until she’s out of U18 competition. We have no idea then why Rai Benjamin is being punished for running for Antigua as a minor at age 17 in 2015.
Q&A With Villanova’s Big Recruit Taryn O’Neill Of Canada The Malindi Elmore-coached athlete has PRs of 4:17.93 for 1,500 and 9:54.40 for 2 miles, which she set when she won the Brooks 2 mile.
Jamaica’s U20 National Record Holder At 400, Christopher Taylor (44.86), Ties Yohan Blake’s 100m U20 Record Of 10.11

The Inaugural Athletics World Cup Is Next Week

Athletics World Cup Organizers Not Worried By Lack Of Stars And Ticket Fears They should be worried. With no Noah Lyles, Laura Muir, Zharnel Hughes, Justin Gatlin and with it coming on the same day as the World Cup and Wimbledon finals and between two DL meets, we’ll be amazed if this is a success. Here’s our solution – hold a Worlds every year.
Reuters: Here’s A List Of Who Is Skipping Athletics World Cup From Renaud Lavillenie to Dina Asher-Smith, no event group seems immune.
Athletics World Cup Platinum Trophy Unveiled In London Unfortunately, the top sprint stars want cash, not a trophy.
The Sprints At The Athletics World Cup Will Be Watered Down As The Men’s 100 In Rabat On Friday Is Loaded Noah Lyles, Ronnie Baker, Mike Rodgers and Christian Coleman will all run the 100m.

2018 Lausanne DL Full Results TV & Streaming

Full Results

LRC After A Dominant 3:57.34 Win (US #4 All-Time) In Lausanne, Is Shelby Houlihan The World’s Best 1,500 Runner? Shelby Houlihan’s fantastic final 70 meters was there once again – this time she used it to kick by the best women in the world not named Genzebe Dibaba.
*After Beating Sifan Hassan In Lausanne, Laura Muir Eyes European Gold After Season’s Best Over 1,500m “Definitely, in terms of Europe, I should be at the top of the rostrum.”

LRC 2018 Lausanne DL Recap & Video Highlights: A CRAZY Men’s 5,000, Noah Lyles Over Michael Norman, And No 400H WR The 2018 Lausanne DL featured a fantastic clash between two of America’s (and the world’s) great young sprint talents in Michael Norman and Noah Lyles. Plus maybe the craziest 5,000 finish we’ve ever seen.

Lausanne On The MBoard: Official 2018 Lausanne DL discussion thread–
*We’ve NEVER seen a 5k end like this. Barega vs. Kejelchas get after it!! (GIF)
*Shelby MF Houlihan – She just took down Semenya and moved to #4 all-time in US history
*Is Shelby Houlihan dirty?
*Pre-Race: Who has the edge? Shelby Houlihan vs Caster Semenya at 1500 in Lausanne on Thursday

Lavillenie Wins Lausanne Lakeside Pole Vault With 5.91m Clearance
After Learning A Lot At Lakeside Poke Vault, Duplantis Will Now Turn Focus To World Juniors Duplantis doesn’t have much experience on a raised runway outside of a track.

Full Coverage including previews can be found here.

A Big Drug Bust 20 Years Ago Led To The Foundation Of WADA – Does It Need A Big Revamp?

Recommended Read Bonnie Ford: Chris Froome Case Shows WADA Rules Need A Revamp 20 Years After It Was Founded 20 years ago this weekend, a big TDF drug bust led to the creation of WADA, but Ford argues WADA wastes too much time on minor substances and says too many rich athletes can get off with high-priced lawyers.

Ross Tucker: Video: Tucker’s Take On Froome Case And “The Descent Of Anti-Doping’s Credibility”
Outside: The Chris Froome Ruling Just Broke Anti-Doping
From The Sports Scientist Archives: In 2009, Dr. Bengt Kayser Called For An Anti-Doping Revamp

College Coaching Carousel Continues

More News Of Note

Telegraph: Athletics World Cup Labeled “Big Flop” With Majority Of Top British Athletes Snubbing New Event The US stars aren’t the only ones skipping track and field’s latest marketing gimmick. Only 4 of the 15 Brits who are on top-level funding are going to compete and none of them are track runners, just field.
Steph Twell, Who Won Her 5th British 5,000 Title Last Week,Has A New Mantra: “My mantra this year is to stop stopping myself.”
Caster Semenya’s Coach Reveals He Wanted Her To Attack From 300m Out In Paris Like David Rudisha

2018 Paris DL Full Results TV & Streaming

Full Results

LRC 2018 Paris DL Recap & Video Highlights: What An Incredible, Incredible Meet – World Leaders Galore If you missed the 2018 Paris DL, you missed a TRULY INCREDIBLE MEET. From a 46.98 men’s 400 hurdles – the fastest time in more than 25 years – in the first event to a 9.88 world-leading 100 in the last event, this meet had world leaders literally from start to finish. In between, there was a 1:54 women’s 800 and a 3:29 men’s 1,500. This meet had excellence in it from start to finish.
*France’s Jimmy Vicaut Moves To Top Of European 100m List With 9.91 In Paris

LRC Caster Semenya Runs 1:54.25 With No Rabbits To Become 4th-Fastest Ever And Destroy World’s Best In Paris Semenya was spectacular.

Paris DL Talk On The Message Board
*Official Paris DL Discussion Thread
*Caster Semenya has just destroyed her lifetime PB, without any rabbits. 1:54.25!
*Timothy Cheruiyot runs 3:29 FTW in Paris!
*Ferguson Rotich just closed a 1:43 race in 25.5. Where does that rank in the all-time best closes?

Depression Is Real And It’s Powerful

Recommended Read The Dark Lining Of The Prefontaine Mantra: Lessons From Hale Ross’ Life At Yale A personal essay from the father of the Yale XC runner who committed suicide just days after a disappointing run at the Ivy League championships. Does Pre’s mantra of “to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” take a psychological toll?
*MB: Yale Runner Dies (thoughts from a mom who lost a son to suicide at Yale)
*MB: Yale Runner Hale Ross Dies