Lagat To Run 26.2

Bernard Lagat To Make His Marathon Debut At The 2018 NYC Marathon At The Age Of 43 There is mention of Meb Keflezighi‘s 2:12:20 US Masters record  and Lagat’s 62:00 half marathon PR from Houston 2018 is worth about a 2:12:00 on a flat course, but obviously NYC is slower. *Discuss

Olympic News

• Thomas Bach Admits That The Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics Were “Very Close” To Being Cancelled Over North Korea Security Fears
• IOC Disappointed After UN Reject Request For Sporting Equipment To Be Sent To North Korea The UN had granted a similar request to allow equipment into North Korea before the Winter Olympics, but wouldn’t grant an exemption to sanctions on North Korea in this case.
• Rio 2016 Still Hasn’t Paid Off Their Debts Two Years Later

2018 TCS New York City Marathon Women’s Field Is Out

Mary Keitany, Vivian Cheruiyot And Molly Huddle Added To 2018 NYC Field Shalane Flanagan faces a daunting task if she is going to repeat as Keitany and Cheruiyot are two of the best in the business.

News From The UK

• Thursday: GB’s Euro 1,500m Champ Laura Muir To Race Ukraine’s Two-Time Euro 800m Champ Nataliya Pryshchepa In Rovereto Muir was originally going to do the 1,500/800 double at Euros before an Achilles issue made her decide on just the 1,500.
• The Guardian: Reece Prescod’s Close Finish With Christian Coleman In Birmingham Suggests He Can Be A Real Force In Tokyo It’s hard to say anything two years out, but finishing right behind the World silver medalist and ahead of the world leader (Noah Lyles) isn’t a bad sign.
• The Telegraph: Dina Asher-Smith Eyes Up First Diamond League Trophy To Finish Superb Euro Treble Season On A High She’s the world leader in the 100 and 200, but couldn’t beat Shaunae Miller-Uibo last weekend in Birmingham.
• Vivian Cheruiyot Will Lead The Women’s Field At The Great North Run Half-Marathon Mo Farah is going for a record 5th win on the men’s side.
• The Telegraph: Ditching Of Egos And A Focus On Team Ethic Has Turned Britain Into A Thriving Sprint Nation There’s been more than a little drama between GB sprinters over the years.
• 2:09 Marathoner Dewi Griffiths Lead Wales’ Team For the Inaugural Commonwealth Half Marathon Championships The race is October 7th at the Cardiff Half Marathon.
• GB’s Jessica Judd (4:07.50) And Alex Bell (2:01.64) Win British Miler’s Club Trafford Grand Prix

Falmouth And The Fastest 3k In 7 Years

• NCAA 10,000 Champ Ben Flanagan Becomes First North American Man To Win The Falmouth Road Race In 30 Years Flanagan beat Scott Fauble by 2 seconds as Olympian Leonard Korir was another 5 seconds back in 3rd and Stephen Sambu 4th. On the women’s side, Kenya’s Caroline Chepkoech got her third consecutive victory, dominating by almost a minute. *Results
• World Indoor Champion Yomif Kejelcha Runs 7:28.00 For 3,000m At The Goteborg In Sweden It was the fastest time in the world since 2011. Sweden’s Andreas Kramer ran 1:45.23 to win the 800, just missing his national record of 1:45.03. Russia’s Olympic/World HJ champ Mariya Lasitskene won in 1.97m. *Full Results *Discuss
• Craig Engels (3:58.88) And Rachel Schneider (4:27.23) Win Falmouth Mile Josh Kerr did most of the early leading, but Engels surged from midpack to blow by him and Ben Blankenship in the final straight. So did Cristian Soratos to take runner-up in 3:59.19. Schneider won a close race with Helen Schlachtenhaufen, who fell at the line and got up just in time to take 2nd. *Results *Discuss
• David Angell (15:45) And Laurie Knowles (17:29) Win USATF Masters Road 5k Championships

Upcoming Action

• Sunday: Mo Farah Going For A Fifth Successive Great North Run Half Marathon Title Farah won last year in 60:06.
• August 30/31: With Qualifications Now Concluded, IAAF Diamond League Final Fields Taking Shape The DL finals are on August 30th in Zürich and August 31st in Brussels. Some highlights will be Noah Lyles vs. World champ Ramil Guliyev in the 200m and Mondo Duplantis vs. Renaud Lavillenie in the PV.
• September 8-9: African Team Named For IAAF Continental Cup In Ostrava Nijel Amos and Emmanuel Korir in the 800, Elijah Manangoi in the 1,500, Hellen Obiri in the 3,000 and Caster Semenya and Francine Niyonsaba in the women’s 800.
• Trophy For Continental Cup Unveiled Looks like a bowl of candy. *European Athletics: Each Member Of The Winning Team Will Get Their Own Piece Of The Trophy It’s a pretty cool/unique design.

NCAA News

• Attorney General Of New Mexico Says It Will Take University Of New Mexico To Court Over Elimination Of Four Sports They are accused of violating state laws on open meetings and are being asked to reconsider the decision or face court action.
  *MB: New Mexico to cut athletic programs
  *MB: University is New Mexico Track/XC still alive, but forced to reduce track/XC roster size
• MB: Head Coach Al Cantello To Retire At End Of August After 55 Years At Navy
• Colorado State University’s Newly Renovated Track No Longer Open To The Public Or Non-Track Athlete Students Apparently there was issues with homeless people sleeping there and the track being too crowded during practice. Sounds like an obvious solution would be to lock it at night and block access during practice hours?
• MB: What D1 programs should be great but aren’t?
• MB: Preseason NCAA D1 Men’s Cross Country Podium Picks

Week That Was

LRC Week That Was: A 17-Year-Old Is Dominating Europe, Everyone Is Medaling In North America, And What Is The Real American 1,500 Record? A look back at an interesting week in the track and field world.

Sprint Stuff

• Good Read: You Can’t Say He Isn’t Entertaining: Noah Lyles Believes He Can Run 9.41 Seconds For 100m Lyles also talks about “transcending the sport” and says he’s had a lot of kids come up to him and saying they’ve only heard his rap songs, but not seen him run.
• Reuters: Christian Coleman Ready For A Bright End To A Rough Season In Birmingham Coleman didn’t have much of a season as he was dealing with hamstring injury, but the 9.98 he ran for the win in Rabat shows he’s at least in a place to challenge Noah Lyles.
• The Guardian: “Sprinting Needs Another Hero And Noah Lyles Puts Up His Hand” Lyles says he’s sad he didn’t get to race against Usain Bolt at least once before he retired.

African News

• Ethiopia’s Olympic Marathon Silver Medalist Feyisa Lilesa Invited Home After Reformist Prime Minister Takes Power Lilesa has been in self-imposed exile since he held up his arms in protest of the Ethiopian government when he crossed the finish line at Rio 2016. *2nd Article
• Recommended Read: The Guardian: “Why Ethiopia’s Running Success Is About More Than Poverty And Altitude” A UK writer talks about his training adventures in Ethiopia which included things like 3AM hill repeats and six hour round-trips by bus. A good read, but he is discounting the genetic factor when he says Brits could have similar distance success if they trained like the Ethiopians did.
  *MB: Guardian article on Ethiopian Training Philosophy
• Emmanuel Korir Believes He Can Break David Rudisha’s 1:40.91 World Record And Even Go Sub-1:40 Korir is also already thinking ahead to 2019 Worlds: “I can’t go and sleep even after the season ends. I have to work harder to be ready for Doha. It is a title that I long for …”
• Video: Olympic 400m Champion Wayde Van Niekerk Recounts The Race Of His Life When He Broke The WR At Rio 2016
• Athletes Eulogise Nicholas Bett At His Burial Asbel Kiprop was among those to say some words.
• Top Three Moments From The History Of The Birmingham Diamond League The list includes Kenya’s former javelin World champ Julius Yego‘s 91.39m African and Diamond League record.