Interesting Reads

• Did The 2004 Wisconsin XC Dream Team Choke? Chris Solinsky Says He “Kind Of” Did
• Athletics Illustrated: How Good Can Ben Flanagan Be Considering He Won NCAAs Despite Cross Training For Nearly 2 Months This Year He had a foot issue that kept him from running for much of January and then again for 4 weeks around indoor conference time.
• Sarah Barker Takes A Lengthy Look At How Gwen Jorgensen Went From Swimming To Running To Accountant To Triathlon To Running “I need to be confronted with the world standard on a daily basis. Yes, I am comparing myself with Mary Keitany.”
• Billie Jean King And Several Olympic Stars Demand Track And Field Officials Rescind Testosterone Rule 
• South African Journalist Thinks The Sport May Be Better Off Without Bolt “I would argue that the Bolt era was somewhat damaging to the sport as too much of the marketing of the sport relied on the iconic Jamaica … The men’s sprint events are no longer a question of who will finish second behind Bolt.”
• Runner That Was Coached By The Great László Tábori Writes A Glowing Tribute To The Former 1,500 WR Holder – “More Than A Coach” “He gave us all a chance. He considered himself once an underdog. All he expected of us was hard work. He was always ‘there for us.'”
• Mary Cain To Race A 3,000 In Ireland On Monday, July 16th

The Inaugural Athletics World Cup Is Saturday / Sunday

• MB: Are Athletics World Cup organizers desperately hoping for an England loss today in World Cup? 
• Lots Of 2018 NCAA All-Americans And NCAA Champs Will Get 1st Big Pro Experience At Athletics World Cup The US team has 16 athletes who competed in the NCAA in 2018 on it from Maggie Ewen to Cameron Burrell to Rudy Winkler. Lots more are competing for other countries.
• 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.
• Thompson, Fraser-Pryce On Jamaica’s Team For Athletics World Cup
• 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.

A Slow Weekend In Terms Of Pro Action

• MB: Ben Bruce tries out for Worlds at USA Mountain Champs – Ends up eating a slice of “humble pie.” J. Gray and A. McLaughlin win 
• 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).
• Recap Of French Champs: Renaud Lavillenie Wins 8th Pole Vault Title Mahiedine Mekhissi won the steeple but world champ Pierre-Ambroise Bosse lost the 800 … to a guest Kenyan. Carolle Zahi completed the 100/200 double in 11.01 (1.5m/s) and 22.92 (3.6 m/s) as Jimmy Vicaut pulled out with an injury scare after running just 10.35 in the semis.
• Nigerian Champs Are Halted After Athletes Stage Protest Demanding Administrator Resign
• Full Results For The IAAF World Challenge Event In Brazil – The 2018 Grande Premio Brasil de Atletismo Bralon Taplin won the 400 in 44.67 as Brazil’s Andressa de Morais set a new South American record in the discus of 65.10m. *IAAF Recap
  *American Curtis Jensen Surpasses 70 Feet In Shot With Massive 1 foot+ PR In Brazile His mark of 70 feet, 11.75 inches (21.63m) is #5 in the world this year but not even in the top 20 all time in the US due to steroids.
• Kilian Jornet Breaks A Long-Standing 42-Peak Climbing Record On The English Fells

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

• Free European U18 Live Stream
• 16-Year-Old Max Burgin Runs European Age 16 Record Of 1:47.36 To Win Euro U18 Gold We’re wondering if anyone knows what the US age 16 record is. If you do, post it here.
• Ireland’s Sarah Healy Lives Up To Hype And Wins Double European U18 Golds In 3k & 1,500 – Both In Championship Records Healy has PRs 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.

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.