Reebok Is Launching A New US-Based Pro Team

LRC Exclusive Reebok Is Launching A New Pro Track Club; Chris Fox Tabbed As Head Coach, Justyn Knight Signed As Star Athlete Though the group will be called the Reebok Boston Track Club, the club’s training base will actually be in Charlottesville, Virginia. This marks a big move for Reebok, which had basically gotten out of running over the last decade.
*MB: Justyn Knight and Chris Fox to Reebok – New Reebok pro track team announced! 

Rojo Speaks Déjà Vu: Reebok Starts A Pro Track Team – Let’s Hope They Stick To It This Time Reebok is starting a pro track team and basing it near Washington, DC? Sound familiar? They did this 25 years ago as well.

Shelby Houlihan Gets The American Record

LRC Shelby Houlihan 14:34.45 American 5,000m Record In Heusden! What a year Houlihan is having as she led a slew of American PRs in the race.
Discuss: HOULIHAN SHELBY with the AR in heusden 
*Houlihan racing 5k Saturday in Heusden, Shalane Flanagan Pacing
*Is Jerry Schumacher the best American distance coach right now? 

Nike News

• Karissa Schweizer Signs With Nike And Bowerman Track Club Schweizer made her debut in the BTC uniform in Heusden running 15:02 in the race Shelby Houlihan ran her 14:34.
• The Guardian: “Nike’s Lightning Shoes Hint At Power Of Technology To Skew Elite Competition” In light of the recent NY Times story/study, Sean Ingle asks if “game-changing” technology like the Vaporflys should be banned and if these shoes the reason why Kara Goucher didn’t make the 2016 Olympic team?

Monaco On The Message Board

• Official 2018 Monaco Diamond League Discussion Thread
• COURTNEY MOTHER FV<KIN FRERICHS
• JAKOB 3:30
• JAKOB. DFL with a lap to go
• 8:44.33 WR, 3:31.18 by 17 yr old: Monaco doing TOO much
• John Kellogg is proven to be a genius yet again – He predicted the possibility of the 8:44 steeple WR (after the fact but..)
• Aussie Deng breaks almost 50 year old 800m record
• Monaco Diamond League – Expectations vs Reality

More Doping News

• Former Olympic High Jump Champ Ivan Ukhov Among Top Russians On AIU List Facing Doping Cases The list has 13 Russians and includes double world champ shot putter Tatyana Lysenko, Olympic bronze medal LJer Svetlana Shkolina and 2014 world indoor TJ champ Lyukman Adams.
• Agent Who Was Caught Offering To Get Drugs For Undercover Reporters Is Among One Of The 109 Facing Disciplinary Action On The AIU List Robert Wagner, an Austrian agent who has worked with Justin Gatlin, has been provisionally suspended while the AIU investigates.
  *MB Archive: Justin Gatlin embroiled in new doping scandal; agent caught offering drugs
• Japanese Pro Had Surgical Procedure For “Gynecological Issues” – Didn’t Tell Anyone – And Got Popped For Steroids Which Were Part Of Her Post-Operative Therapeutic Treatment
  *Japan Federation Statement On Moeno Nakamura’s Failed Test Her ekiden team (Universal Entertainment) lost all awards and prize money and she got a ban of one year and three months.
  *Japan National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Champion Team to be Stripped of Title After Member Tests Positive
• Chilean Shot Putter Natalia Duco Suspended After Testing Positive She now faces losing her gold medal from last month’s South American Games.

Rest In Peace

• 1983 Marathon World Silver Medalist Kebede Balcha Has Died Balcha, 66, was also a 4-time winner of the Montreal marathon. He ended up seeking asylum in Canada, where he died.
• RunBlog Tribute To Recently Passed 1952 Olympic 100m Gold Medalist Lindy Remigino Remigino passed at age 87 after battling with cancer.

Shoe Doping?

NY Times Does Extensive Statistical Analysis Of Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% Using Strava Data And Determines It Is Indeed 3-4% Better Using race data from more than 500,000 marathons and half marathons, they also found that runners using the shoes run 1% faster than those using any other racing shoe. The article is entitled, “Nike Says Its $250 Running Shoes Will Make You Run Much Faster. What if That’s Actually True?”
*MB: NYTimes research suggests that Nike Vaporfly may actually be 4% faster based on Strava data

Actual Doping News: +1 For Transparency

• Olympic Champ Ruth Jebet Confirmed To Be Among The 109 Athletes Facing Doping Proceedings It came out back in March that Jebet had failed a drug test for EPO, but it was never officially confirmed. Also on the revealed list is the third-fastest half marathoner of all-time, Violah Jepchumba, who currently fighting a 4-year doping ban.
• Reuters: Athletics Integrity Unit Reveals Details Of New More Transparent Anti-Doping Legal Process Now supposedly every stage of the process will be made public, including the “initial failure.” So we will find out about positive “A” samples before the “B” sample is even tested.
• IAAF Release: Athletics Integrity Unit Unveils Transparency Measure; Releases Details Of 109 Disciplinary Cases All ongoing cases will be published on the AIU website with updates announced via the AIU Twitter account.
• Only A Decade Late: GB’s 2008 Women’s 4×400 To Receive Their Olympic Bronze Medals At Saturday’s Anniversary Games The team which included former Olympic champ Christine Ohuruogu and heptathlon medalist Kelly Sotherton finished 4th, but went up to 3rd after Russia and Belarus were caught in doping retests.
• Hey Russia, Stuff Like This Is Why No One Believes You’re Changing: Convicted Doper Re-Elected As Russian Bobsled Federation President Not that the USA can talk. We  had a convicted doper as our relay coach forever.
• WADA Signs Agreement With International Centre For Sport Security To Better Fight Doping Activities And Trafficking Of Drugs

More Mid-Week Action

• Sandra Perkovic Extends Her Winning Streak To 13 With 68.92m In Switzerland Distance results were highlighted by meet records of 1:44.38 from Jonathan Kitilit in the 800 and 14:36.13 by Agnes Tirop in the 5,000m. In other action, Morocco’s Soufyan Bouqantar won the 3,000m in 7:42.24 ahead of Ethiopia’s Telahun Bekele (7:42.81), USA’s Michael Rodgers ran two sub-10 second 100m races with 9.94 in the heats and 9.92 to win the final, and world indoor 60m bronze medalist Mujinjga Kambundji ran 11.13 to beat out Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce by .02.
• Asafa Powell Returns With 1st Race Snce February, Only Runs 10.44 In His Quest For 100 Sub-10s He’s stuck at 97.
• New Zealand’s Olympic Bronze Medalist Eliza McCartney Jumps 4.94 World Lead Pole Vault In Germany This added 2cm to her own Oceanian record as she beat a field that included Jenn Suhr. Armand Duplantis won the men’s competition in 5.80m.
• Former European Indoor 60H Champ Eline Berings Runs 12.72 To Win The 100H In Liege She just missed breaking the Belgian record by .01.

More From The World U20 Championships

• IAAF Profile On Joint World U20 High Jump Champions Antonios Merlos Of Greece And Roberto Vilches Of Mexico When they both failed to clear 2.25m (after going over 2.23m on their first attempts) they decided to share the gold rather than have a jump off. They had never met, but found out afterward that they had a lot in common.
• Hima Das (U20 400 Champ) Is Already A Household Name For Many In India As the first global gold medalist for India in any track event, she’s getting a lot of press and is already being compared to the “queen of Indian track and field” – the legendary PT Usha, who was 4th in the 84 Olympics in the 400 hurdles. Usha herself is a huge fan, saying, “I am 100 percent sure that she has the potential to win gold at 2020 or 2024.”
• US Collegians Won 17 Individual Medals At World Juniors – More Than Any Country Medal tally includes 5 gold and 5 silver medals.
• IAAF Video: Ten Highlights From World U20 Champs Men’s 1,500 and women’s 3,000 make the list.

Distance News

• Good Read: Katelyn Tuohy Wins Overall Gatorade National Girls Athlete Of The Year Award This after she became the first athlete to win the Gatorade award in two sports (XC and track).
  *Watch Tuohy’s Acceptance Speech
  *Video Interview
• Recommended Read: Lengthy Q&A With NCAA 10,000m Champ Ben Flanagan Learn all about the surprise NCAA winner as he gives a ton of details about the race, his training and college/high school career.
• A Japan University Track Meet Canceled Their 5000m Because Of Heat Temperatures climbed up over 95 degrees F (35 Celcius).
• IAAF: Abel Kirui’s Story Behind The Picture – His 2011 World Champs Dance “The picture is of me dancing after I crossed the line. The dance was not pre-rehearsed, it came to me automatically because I was so happy.”

Sprint Stuff

• BBC: Usain Bolt May Play Football In Australia Bolt will stay six weeks to try out with the Australian A-League club Coast Mariners. But apparently there are already negotiations over Bolt’s pay with the owner agreeing to pay 70% of his salary.
• Recommended Read: BBC Article And Video Interview WIth British 200m Champion Beth Dobbin Who Suffered An Epileptic Seizure As A Teen That Left Her Unable To Walk Or Talk Dobbin talks about her seizure and the road to recovery which involved not recognizing her dad and thinking microwaves were cupboards were microwaves.
• AP: Ohio’s Governor To Dedicate State Park Named For Jesse Owens

And Oregon’s New Coach Is …

LRC The University Of Oregon Names Ben Thomas – Formerly Of Virginia Tech – As Its New Distance Coach Additionally, Pete Watson (formerly of UVA) will be moving to coach the men’s distance runners at Texas.
*MB: 2018 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion
*Register-Guard Article