September 26, 2018 | LetsRun.com

NCAA XC Action Gets Going In Earnest This Weekend *Top 10 NCAA XC Countdown

LRC All Grown Up: “This Is A Different Grant Fisher Than We’ve Ever Seen Before” Grant Fisher is entering his senior cross country season and Stanford coach Chris Miltenberg is worried…for the competition. “I’m maybe worried for everybody else out there because this is a different Grant Fisher than we’ve ever seen before.”
*MB: Who will win the 2018 NCAA XC individual crowns? Will an American man (Grant Fisher?) win for the 1st time in 10 yrs?

Russian Doping Updates

Really? This Again? Russian Athletics Federation To Appeal IAAF Suspension At CAS RUSAF claim that the criteria for their reinstatement was identical to RUSADA. They aren’t wrong, the difference is WADA decided to let Russia off the hook with some of the criteria whereas the IAAF isn’t. *BBC Article
WADA President Craig Reedie Defends Decision To Reinstate RUSADA Reedie’s logic makes no sense. He says this deal with RUSADA will allow access to the Moscow lab samples, but that’s exactly what was on the reinstatement criteria. So they’re essentially accepting an “IOU” from RUSADA rather than the actual payment.
Craig Reedie: “I have a question for the athletes and that is: ‘What, in practice, is the alternative option?'” Alternative to rolling over and giving Russia a free pass? How about actually making them fulfill all the reinstatement criteria before you reinstate them.
The Guardian: “How far has the fight against doping really come since the ‘dirtiest race in history?'”

International Road Results: WTF?!?

Guy No One Has Ever Heard Of Runs 2:05 Marathon In Buenos Aires In 68 Degrees And Sun! Saina Kipkemboi ran 2:05:20 to win his debut and the course isn’t flat. He dominated the race, running the last 7+ miles alone and beating Barnabas Kiptum by almost 4 minutes. Kenya’s Vivian Kiplagat Jerono won the women’s race in a CR 2:29:03.
*MB: Saina Kipkemboi 2:05:20 debut! Running alone the last 17km, heat, humidity and hilly circuit in Buenos Aires!

South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka Wins Cape Town Marathon In A New Course Record Of 2:08:31 Mokoka won a race over a trio of Kenyans who finished between 2:09:02 and 2:09:21 behind him. Namibia’s Helalia Johannes won the women’s race in 2:29:28.
World Silver Medalist Joshua Cheptegei (45:15) And Isreal’s Lonah (50:45) Win Dam tot Damloop 10 Miler Salpeter beat out Ethiopia’s Dibabe Kuma by just a second and won the gender pursuit race (women started 6:04 ahead of the men).
*European Athletics: Israel’s Lonah Chemtai Salpeter Shows Her Class In The Dam Tot Damloop

Non-Distance News

Recommended Read: Jenn Suhr Talks About How She Got Her Start In Pole Vaulting When Her Now Coach And Husband Rick Recruited Her From Basketball Suhr also talks about her early career when Rick had remortgaged his house and she had to work at a gas station making pizzas and cleaning toilets to make ends meet.
IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Video Interview With Russia’s Former World 110H Champ Sergey Shubenkov
IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Video Interview With USA’s World 400m Champ Phyllis Francis
Germany’s Carolin Schäfer And Arthur Abele Are The Overall Winners Of The IAAF Combined Events Challenge Series They take home $30,000 each.

More Early Season NCAA News

Susan Ejore Leads Oregon Women To A Dominant Win At The Bill Dellinger Invitational The UO women took the top 7 spots while the men finished second to #3-ranked Portland. Portland’s Reuben Kiprono got the individual win.
*MB: Oregon Women = Jacked
Register-Guard: New Women’s Distance Coach Helen Lehman-Winters Relishing Opportunity At Oregon Comparing Oregon to San Francisco (where she coached for 15 years), Lehman-Winters says that there were so many obstacles there to being good that are now removed at UO.
NAU, BYU, Portland And Stanford Are The Top 4 Ranked Men’s Teams In The Week 2 NCAA Coaches’ Poll *Week 1
*Men’s Regional Rankings
New Mexico, Colorado, Stanford And Oregon Women Sit 1-4 In Week 2 NCAA Coaches’ Poll *Week 1
*Women’s Regional Rankings
Last Week DI NCAA Athletes Of The Week Were Liberty’s Azaria Kirwa And Louisville’s Dorcas Wasike Kirwa won the Iona Meet Of Champions at Van Cortlandt Park while Wasike won the Commodore Classic hosted by Vanderbilt.
*Last Week: Indiana Men And Women Swept The Team Titles At Iona Meet Of Champs IU beat out Columbia in a tie-breaker and IU’s Katherine Receveur won the women’s individual race.
*Previous Athletes Of The Week

Miscellaneous

The Telegraph’s End-Of-Season Review – Eight Talking Points From 2018 An interesting point they brought up is that we could have seen Caster Semenya‘s last race over the 400 to mile distances depending on how her CAS appeal goes.
IAAF Installs First Stadium Air Quality Monitor In Monaco Seb Coe: “Air pollution is a silent killer which is affecting the health of athletes, local communities and our environment …”
North And South Korea Agree To Launch A Joint Bid For The 2032 Olympics The two countries are still technically at war.
Dates Confirmed For 2018-2019 IAAF XC Permit Meetings The nine-race series begins on November 11th in Spain and ends on February 3rd with the Almond Blossom XC race in Portugal.
IAAF: More Than 170 Nations Set To Compete At The Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games Next Month
London Marathon Raises A Record $84.5 Million For Charity It broke the previous world record of $81.7 million from 2017.
Athletics Weekly: UK Athletics Chief Niels De Vos Steeping Down After 11 Years On The Job De Vos is leaving to set up his own business. *BBC Article
Another Italian Bid Bites The Dust: Officials Declare Three-Way Italian Bid For 2026 Winter Olympics “Dead”

Week That Was

LRC Eliud Kipchoge’s World Record By The Numbers, The Greatness Of Gladys Cherono, Sifan Hassan’s 1,500m Days May Be Over Kipchoge’s run wasn’t the only great road action this weekend.

Berlin Marathon Photo Gallery (Click For Many More Photos) Full Berlin Coverage Here

Week That Was

LRC WTW: How Did Some Guy You’ve Never Heard Of Run A 2:05 Marathon? Katelyn Tuohy Stars, Joshua Cheptegei Returns, WADA Sucks We break down the week for you.

October Road Racing

MB: World Bronze Medalist Amy Cragg Has Withdrawn From The Chicago Marathon Cragg said she had a “setback early in her training” and didn’t feel she would be 100% on race day.
October 21: Eric Kiptanui (58:42) And Caroline Kipkirui (65:07) Lead Fast Fields For The Delhi Half Marathon Kiptanui will face eight other sub-60 minute men, including Zane Robertson (59:47), Leonard Korir (59:52), Alex Korio (58:51), Olympic silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa (59:22). Kipkirui will face Ethiopians Worknesh Degefa (66:14) and Yeshaneh Ababel (66:22).

More On Kipchoge

JG Opinion The Meaning Of 2:01:39: The Era Of World Record Chase Is Over LRC’s Jon Gault argues the era of the world record chase is over for the immediate future on the men’s side thanks to Kipchoge’s run.
*MB: Gault’s Kipchoge article is great.

US Women’s Distance News

Good Read: A Look Inside Gwen Jorgensen’s Journey From The Triathlon To The Marathon Talking about joining the Bowerman Track Club and training with Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg, Jorgensen says, “I like to surround myself with people who are better than me. This shows me what the world standard is and pushes me to step up to their level on a daily basis.”

MB: Katelyn Tuohy Runs 16:06.87 At Ocean State XC Invy – Fastest High School XC 5k Of All Time She broke Katie Rainsberger‘s mark from 2015 by 17 seconds. *MileSplit Article *Video Interview With Tuohy

MB: Kara Goucher signs with Altra! Altra is known for their trail/ultra shoes. *Twitter Announcement
Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Lauren Fleshman

Sad News: MB: Jogger stabbed to death in Washington, DC, collapses in takeout restaurant as attacker flees, cops say The attacker has been arrested and reportedly he had been previously released by the courts despite drug use, mental health issues and officials warning that he was “likely to injure self or others.”

On The Roads

Kenya’s Joseph Kiprono Kiptum Hit By Car While Leading Medellin Half Marathon In Colombia Kiptum was taken to the hospital with cuts and bruises and has been discharged in “good health.”
IAAF Weekend Road Preview: World 10,000 Silver Medalist Joshua Cheptegei Leads Field At Dam tot Damloop 10 Mile
World Marathon Champ Rose Chelimo And 2015 World Marathon Champ Mare Dibaba Will Face Off At The Great Scottish Run Half Marathon Next Weekend GB’s Chris Thompson will try to defend his title in the men’s race.
Sunday: Cape Town Marathon Has Their Deepest-Ever Field, Led By South Africa’s 10k Record Holder Stephen Mokoka (2:07:40 PR) He faces three other sub-2:09 men while the women are led by Namibia’s Helalia Johannes (2:26:09 PR).
Sunday: USATF Masters 5k Championships Kick Off Fall Season Kevin Castille and Sabra Harvey lead the fields.

Russia’s Back

WADA Votes To Lift Russia’s Three-Year Doping Suspension The decision means RUSADA will now be able to test its own athletes again and issue TUEs. The move has been widely condemned by athletes and anti-doping officials.
*BBC Article Lawyer for Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov calls it “the greatest treachery against clean athletes in Olympic history.”
IAAF Statement On WADA’s Reinstatement Of RUSADA The IAAF says it has “its own set of criteria for the reinstatement of the Russian Athletics Federation,” but they are actually the same as WADAs. The question will be if the IAAF considers the criteria fulfilled when they meet in December.
Good Read: BBC: What Now For Sport After WADA Decision? Dan Roan writes that part of the fallout from this move will be that WADA will no longer trusted after it effectively left Russia “off the hook.”
WADA Tried To Help Russia Lift Their Doping Ban In May Letters between WADA director general Olivier Niggli and Russia Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkoov show Niggli gave tips on how to word their letter to WADA’s compliance review committee to “ensure a positive recommendation.”
The Guardian: “WADA Appears To Have Complied With Russia – Wasn’t It Meant To Be The Other Way Around?”
IAAF Athletes’ Commission Letter To WADA Before They Voted To Reinstate Russia The letter (signed by athletes including Paula Radcliffe, Valerie Adams, Mutaz Essa Barshim and Adam Kszczot) urged WADA not to do it, but obviously they did not listen.
IOC Athletes’ Commission Backs WADA Decision To Reinstate Russia
The Guardian: Anti-Doping Rift Deepens As Agencies Turn On WADA Over Russia “Compromise”
InsideTheGames: iNADO Urges WADA Not To Pander To Russia As Express “Dismay” AT Compromise

NCAA News

NCAA 800 Record Holder Michael Saruni Goes Pro Early The 1:43.25 man is following in the footsteps of Isaiah Harris and Emmanuel Korir and going pro early. Initially it was reported that he signed with Nike, but that was not correct.

The 2018 BMW Berlin Marathon *Berlin Results

LRC Meet “Drinks Guy,” The Fist-Pumping German Who Gave Eliud Kipchoge His Drinks During His World Record Marathon We tracked down “Drinks Guy,” the fist-pumping German who gave Eliud Kipchoge his drinks in Berlin. He’s Claus-Henning Schulke, a 52-year-old amateur triathlete from Berlin.

LRC Final The Greatest Ever – 2:01:39 – Eliud Kipchoge Crushes World Record To Win 2018 Berlin Marathon The greatest marathoner in history has run the greatest marathon in history, 2:01:39, and taken 78 seconds off the WR, marking the biggest improvement in the WR in 51 years, thanks to a 60:33 second half.

Kenya’s Gladys Cherono Wins A Third Berlin Marathon Title She ran 2:18:11 to become the fourth-fastest woman in history and break the 13-year-old course record by a minute. Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga (2:18:34) and Tirunesh Dibaba (2:18:55) were a close 2-3.

Ross Tucker: Was 2:01:39 Really A Big Breakthrough Or Was It Just The Shoes? Tucker, who predicted after Monza that Kipchoge could run 2:01:40, wonders if the jump from 2:02:57 to 2:01:40 is simply the result of the Nike 4% shoes which (despite the name) the NY Times found is worth 1%.
IAAF: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Marathon WR With Stunning 2:01:39 In Berlin
MB: Fernando Cabada– 2:15 today in Berlin
MB Pre-Race: Huge NY Times Profile on Eliud Kipchoge: “Eliud Kipchoge Is the Greatest Marathoner, Ever”

Berlin On The Boards

$20,018 Running Warehouse Prediction Contest Winners

LRC Meet The $20,018 Running Warehouse DL Prediction Contest Winners: A Guy Who Beat Obea Moore, A Guy Who Got Stomped By Cam Levins, And More Our top 3 have connections to Cam Levins, Obea Moore, Meb and LRC coaching guru John Kellogg.

Discussion: Our apologies LRC nation – Jonathan Gault only finished 2nd in the worldwide Fantasy Diamond League competition

NCAA XC Top 10 Countdown

LRC No. 10 Syracuse Men Dominate While Unranked Ole Miss Women Edge Georgia Tech At 2018 Coast-To-Coast Battle In Beantown Campbell’s Amon Kemboi (24:03) held off Syracuse’s Aidan Tooker for the individual win as ‘Cuse put 5 in the top 13. Providence’s Abbey Wheeler (17:10) won the women’s race but the No. 11 Friars wound up 11th as a team.
*Brien Bell Talks About Being Syracuse’s New Head Honcho
*Andy Powell Talks About Having Centro As An Assistant
*Abbey Wheeler Talks After Winning Women’s Race
*Amon Kemboi Talks After Winning Men’s Race

LRC 2018 NCAA Men’s XC Preview: #2 BYU & #1 Northern Arizona With two 5th-year seniors and two 7th-year seniors that have all gone sub-13:40, last year’s 3rd placer BYU is very good, but NAU, with three back from last year’s top 8, has a chance to be historically good.
*MB: Will NAU be historically great and three peat? Or might they not even win the 2018 NCAA xc title?

LRC 2018 NCAA Women’s XC Preview: #2 Oregon & #1 New Mexico Can UNM three-peat? Or will Oregon, which lost their coach and their #1 and #2 from last year, get the job done? We know one thing – one of these foreign-dominated teams will win it all.

Previous Men’s Previews:
*#10 Syracuse & #9 Boise State
*#8 Wisconsin & #7 Colorado
*#6 Alabama & #5 Iowa State
*#4 Portland & #3 Stanford

Previous Women’s Previews:
*#10 Arkansas & #9 Villanova
*#8 Wisconsin & #7 Michigan
*#6 NC State & #5 Stanford
*#4 Boise State & #3 Colorado

Doping Updates

Investigator Richard McLaren Says WADA Got A Bad Deal From Russia “They (WADA) have lost any kind of leverage over the ongoing situation with Russia.”
Seb Coe Opinion Piece On WADA Decision – Points Out That Russians Have Already Been Competing As Neutrals All Along Coe says the big change is now RUSADA can test its own athletes and he wonders if we’re “ready for that.”
MB: Bahrain’s 65-Minute Half-Marathoner Violah Jepchumba Gets 4-Year EPO Ban Sara Hall reacted with this tweet: “Went from 69 min to 65 min in the half in 2016– ??.”
MB: Bahrain 3:31 Runner Sadik Mikhou Ges Doping Suspension Mikhou was 6th at Worlds last year.
WADA’s Former Director General David Howman Says He’s Disappointed In Russia Decision Howman accuses WADA of putting “money over principle.”
USA Today: “Russia’s Cheating Is Rewarded As We Both Feared And Expected” While it was incredibly disappointing, we think they’re being a little over dramatic when they write, “Cheating has been rewarded. … Honesty, honor and fair play have lost. The bad guys have won.”
North Korea Given Four-Month Deadline By WADA To Address Doping Concerns Or Be Declared Non-Compliant Only one athlete was tested in the build-up to the 2018 Winter Olympics and that athlete tested positive (though they were cleared due to “contaminated food”).
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Says WADA Decision “Appears To Be A Backward Step”

More Russian Doping News

IAAF And IPC Warn Russia Their Bans Won’t Automatically Be Lifted Following WADA Decision The IAAF wants the Russian government to pay for the investigation expenses (several million dollars) and won’t consider lifting the ban until all the data from the Moscow lab has been evaluated.
WADA Vice President Linda Helleland Says They Have Failed Clean Athletes By Lifting Russian Ban She said that this “casts a dark shadow over the credibility of the anti-doping movement.”
Paula Radcliffe: “It undermines their credibility and the faith clean athletes have in them.”
Michael Phelps Slams WADA Over Russia Ban
Kremlin Call WADA Decision “Positive Step” While Admitting “There Is Still A Rather Long Way To Go”
Reuters: Compilation Of Quotes Condemning WADA Decision To Reinstate RUSADA

International Distance News

Olympic Steeple Champ Conseslus Kipruto Involved In Car Crash In Kenya; Escapes Unhurt A police officer said that he believes Kipruto was speeding and trying to get around a tractor when a car coming the opposite direction forced him to brake and he hit the tractor.
*AP Article Apparently David Rudisha came to the scene of the accident afterwards to help Kipruto.
Track, Road And Dirt: Sifan Hassan Says She’s Targeting The European XC Championships In December After her 65:15 half this weekend, Hassan also says she wants to move up to the marathon, but not until after a 5k/10k double at Tokyo 2020.
Recommended Watch: MB: Recent Video Interview With Zane Robertson Some footage and discussion about Robertson’s training in Ethiopia as well as his and his brother Jake‘s initial move to Kenya when they were just teenagers.
Beatrice Chepkoech’s 8:44.32 Steeplechase World Record Ratified By The IAAF So to were Armand Duplantis‘ 5.92m U20 pole vault record from March (although he later jumped 6.05m at Euros) and the 100k WR by Japan’s Nao Kazami.

WADA Not All On The Same Page Concerning Russia

BBC: WADA Vice President Linda Helleland Says She Is Opposed To Lifting Russian Doping Ban “I will vote for, and support the original roadmap. This is because I believe you should never make any compromises that undermine your credibility.”
The Guardian: Anti-Doping Rift Deepens As Agencies Turn On WADA Over Russia “Compromise” 13 agencies have spoken out against the WADA decision with UKAD chief Nicole Sapstead, saying, “It is pretty much sticking two fingers up at the athletes and the organisations that work tirelessly on their behalf.”
Full Statement From WADA Vice President Linda Helleland Meanwhile WADA president Craig Reedie has defended their deal with Russia: “Is doing nothing a realistic option? We couldn’t just sit back and do nothing – this moves things forward.”
The Telegraph: Key WADA Committee Member Resigns In Frustration Over Plans To Drop Russia Sanctions Many officials aren’t happy with WADA’s plan to “compromise” with Russia.