Weekend Road Action *5th Avenue Mile Results *Great North Run Results

RRW & LRC Jenny Simpson Gets Her Sixth Straight Fifth Avenue Mile Title, Jake Wightman Gets His First  Simpson capped her season with another 5th Avenue win over the in form Colleen Quigley. Wightman held off veteran Nick Willis.
LRC Post-Race Videos With Simpson, Wightman, Quigley, Willis, Eriva Avila, Neil Gourley, Ben True
*Official 5th Avenue Mile Thread

RRW: World Under-20 Champion Rhonex Kipruto Scares The Road 10k World Record With A 26:46 Solo Effort At The Birell Grand Prix Kipruto now sits second on the all-time list, only behind Leonard Patrick Komon‘s 26:44. Caroline Kipkirui ran the #5 all-time best 10k to win the women’s race in 30:19 ahead of Fancy Chemutai (30:22) and Diana Chemtai Kipyokei (30:23). *IAAF Recap
*MB: Rhonex Kipruto runs 26:46 for 10K on the roads in Prague — #2 all-time

Mo Farah Wins Great North Run For A Record 5th Consecutive Time Farah ran away from Jake Robertson over the last two miles to win in 59:26 (4 seconds short of his PR) to Robertson’s 59:57. Vivian Cheruiyot won the women’s race in 67:43 over Brigid Kosgei (67:52) and WR holder Joyciline Jepkosgei (68.:10). *Discuss

Josh Kerr (4:10.5) And Amanda Eccleston (4:47.0) Win Minnesota Mile Kerr beat out Daniel Herrera (4:11.1) while Eccleston outkicked Kellyn Taylor (4:47.4).

All-Time Great Sprint News

• Michael Johnson Recovering At Home After Suffering “Mini-Stroke” It occurred last week and Johnson says he has been cleared of any ongoing heart problems. *MB: Michael Johnson Recovering After Stroke
• Usain Bolt Takes Break From Aussie Soccer For A Previously Planned Overseas Commitment Bolt will be gone from the 9th through the 16thh in what was a pre-agreed upon break.

On The Roads

• October 28: Olympic Bronze Medalist Mare Dibaba Leading Quartet Of Ethiopians Trying To Run The First Sub-2:20 At The Frankfurt Marathon Dibaba has a 2:19:52 best and is joined by three compatriots who have gone sub-2:22, including the #4 all-time fastest debutante, Haftamnesh Tesfay (2:20:13). Sara Hall is also racing after finishing 5th last year in 2:27:21.

Doping News

• Two Russians Stripped Of World Medals Over Doping Tatyana Lebedeva loses her 2009 LJ silver and Maria Abakumova loses her javelin gold and bronze from the 2011 and 2009 world champs.
• Zambian 400m African Champion Kabango Mupopo Given 4-Year Drug Ban After Testing Positive For Testosterone At 2017 Worlds She denies wrongdoing, saying her elevated levels are because she has hyperandrogenism.
• IAAF Ethics Board Clears Former Athletics Kenya Officials Cleared Of Extorting Athletes They had been accused of extorting athletes in return for covering up positive drug tests .

Zagreb *Results

• World Champ Elijah Manangoi Defeats World Indoor 3,000 Champ Yomif Kejelcha 3:32.52 To 3:32.59 To Highlight Zagreb Distance Results Nijel Amos set a MR with a 1:44.08 win over Marcin Lewandowski (1:44.43) as Clayton Murphy was 6th (1:45.79). World XC bronze medalist Lilian Rengeruk had a MR in the 3,000 (8:33.37), Sharika Nelvis held off Brianna McNeal by .01 in the 100H and world LJ champ Luvo Manyonga won with 8.45m.
• After A Disappointing Loss In The Diamond League Final, Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic Was Back On Top In Zagreb With A 67.60m Victory

More Coverage From The Long Weekend

• Genzebe Dibaba Makes Mile World Record Attempt In Padua, Italy, But Falls Short With A 4:20.51 Victory The record is 4:12.56 and Dibaba went through 800 in 2:05.38 and still had a chance at 1,200 with 3:12.1, but faded on the final lap. Spain’s Alvaro De Arriba beat out Erik Sowinski in the 800 with 1:45.47 while Russians Sergey Shubenkov (13.09 in the 110H) and Maria Lasitskene (1.95m in the HJ) highlighted non-distance action. USA’s English Gardner (11.11) and Michael Rodgers (10.10) won the 100m.
• NOP’s Suguru Osako Tunes Up For Chicago By Soloing A 61:01 PB At The Labor Day Half-Marathon In Redmond, WA
  *MB: Japanese runner showed up to a local half marathon today and ran 1:01
• Ryan Crouser Throws 22.09m To Win Zagreb Shot Put Crouser beat out World champ Tom Walsh (21.78m) in the street-meet event.
• European Athletics: Robert Harting Bids Farewell Where It All Began In The Berlin Olympic Stadium Estonia’s 2008 Olympic champ Gerd Kanter joked that Harting should carry on: “Robert won everything, he is Olympic champion, world champion, European champion and if he feels that it is time to quit, it is his decision. However, I am five years older than him and still here. Just kidding!”
• Mark Cullen’s ISTAF Berlin Recap And Reflections
• The Finnish Men And The Swedish Women Win Annual Finnkampen Javelin Match

Links That Meet Our Stringent Weekend Requirements

• A Look At Others Besides Conseslus Kipruto Who Have Tried To Win With One Shoe (Most Unsuccessfully) The likes of Moses Tanui, Jenny Simpson and Quincy Watts have all tried to win with one shoe in the past, none successfully.
• 1988 Olympic Decathlon Champ Christian Schenk Admits He Doped But He’ll Keep His Gold Medal Shocker: He competed for East Germany.
• HOKA Long Island Mile Is Wednesday Emily Lipari and Chris O’Hare will try to defend their titles as NCAA 10k champ Ben Flanagan looks to break 4:00 for the 1st time.

Other News That Makes The Cut

• Usain Bolt Made His Pro Soccer Debut Today on Friday He nearly had a goal in the 6-1 mismatch.
• Don’t Forget ISTAF Berlin Is Sunday – Caster Semenya And Timothy Cheruiyot Will Be There At the meet, Robert Harting and Kim Collins will also both call it a career.
  *MB: Where the heck is Centro and why isn’t he racing Timothy Cheruiyot in Berlin on Sunday? 
• Report: Bedan Karoki Wants Sub-2:05 Time In Chicago
• Asian Games Final Day Recap: Qatar Ends Meet In Style With 3:00.56 4 X 400 Meet Record Kalkidan Gezahegne completed the 5,000/1,500 double.
• NAU Coach Mike Smith Signs 5-Year Contract Extension
• Irish 400 Record Holder David Gillick Says He Thought About Killing Himself After Retiring From Track
• Q&A With Beer Mile WR Holder Corey Bellemore

Collegiate XC News

• Oregon Men Take A Hit 1:47.67 HSer Josh Hoey Turns Pro And Joins Terrence Mahon In California Instead Of Going To Oregon Why a 1:47 guy would want to go pro is beyond our comprehension.
• Oregon Women Get Better Oregon Quickly Recovers From Rainsberger And Burdon Transferring Out As Two Top-15 NCAA XC Finishers TRANSFER IN In the game of transfer musical chairs, the Ducks end up winners as 2017 NCAA XC 5th placer Weronika Pyzik and 15th placer Isabelle Brauer have announced they will follow coach Helen Lehman-Winters to UO.
• 2018 Men’s DI XC Preseason National Coaches’ Poll NAU, BYU, Portland and Stanford top the list. Not too surprising as those were the top 4 teams at NCAAs last year.
• 2018 Women’s DI XC Preseason National Coaches’ Poll New Mexico, Colorado, Stanford and Oregon top the rankings while last year’s #2 San Francisco is down in 30th.
• 2018 Women’s DI XC Preseason Regional Rankings
  *Men’s Preseason Regional Rankings

September / October Action

• October 28  2:03:46 Man Guye Adola Makes His Fall Marathon Pick And It’s … Frankfurt
• October 21 Wesley Korir’s Little Brother John Is Excited To Be Racing October’s Scotiabank Waterfront Toronto Marathon The 22-year old debuted last year in 2:09.
• September 9: 2018 New Balance 5th Avenue Mile Fields Released – Fields Include Simpson, Centrowitz And Willis, But Not Shelby Houlihan Simpson and Willis will be looking to make history as if they win it will be titles #7 and #5 respectively.
• September 16: MB: 2018 Copenhagen Half Marathon – WR Attempt – Galen Rupp confirmed as he goes for the AR! Greatest Half Marathon of all time?
• September 8: Laura Muir Will Run The Mile At Great North CityGames The men’s mile has former Olympic bronze medallist Abdelaati Iguidar vs GB’s former Euro 800m silver medallist Michael Rimmer.
• September 8: Europe Names Team For The 2018 Continental Cup Jakob Ingebrigtsen is in the 1,500 and his older brother Henrik in the 3,000. Sifan Hassan highlights the women’s distance team in the 3,000.
• Asia-Pacific Team Announced For IAAF Continental Cup Aussie distance couple Ryan Gregson and Genevieve Lacaze are both on the team.

Doping: Asbel Kiprop Situation Gets Crazier And Sadder

Asbel Kiprop Publishes Video Of Him Making Out With His Pacemaker’s Wife As He Thinks The Pacemaker Set Him Up For EPO Bust 2008 Olympic champ Asbel Kiprop has published a salacious video of him making out with his pacemaker’s wife. Those in the know think Kiprop did so in retaliation for the pacemaker setting him up for the EPO bust out of anger for the affair. The woman has sadly tried to commit suicide.

• First WADA Approved Lab In East Africa Is Set To Open In Nairobi This will be big for African testing as samples will no longer need to be transported to Europe or South Africa. This will allow for more blood tests which previously were extremely difficult.
• Athletics Integrity Unit Confirms Kipyegon Bett’s EPO Positive Not surprisingly, GB 800m runner Kyle Langford (the runner Bett beat out for world bronze by just .04) hasn’t reacted too happilly on Twitter.
• Sandi Morris About Demi Payne On Twitter: “Well, I KNEW – but now it’s no longer just a suspicion.” She and Katie Nageotte had a brief exchange where they lament losing NCAA titles/records and a world team place to Payne.