NCAA XC Is Saturday

LRC $200,018 LetsRun.com Running Warehouse NCAA D1 Cross-Country Prediction Contest Tell us who will win NCAAs and win some cool Running Warehouse prizes. If you entered before noon Eastern on Wednesday, we likely have your individual picks wrong. Click here to check.

Grant Fisher at NCAAs Last year

LRC Men’s Individual Preview: Grant Fisher & Morgan McDonald Look to End Droughts; Can They Hold Off the NAU Duo of Baxter and Day? An American hasn’t won the individual title in 10 years. Similarly, a runner hasn’t won on his home course in 26. That could change on Saturday. *MB: Who is going to win the men’s individual title at NCAAxcs – Fisher, McDonald, Baxter, Day, Kurgat or Sugira?

LRC Women’s Individual Preview: Weini Kelati & Alicia Monson Look to Derail Ednah Kurgat’s Repeat Bid Ednah Kurgat won NCAAs last year in a record time and she’s in better shape this year but we don’t think she’ll be the winner as her teammate Weini Kelati is in even better shape. Fascinating tidbit, we learned that Kurgat and Kelati (or any of the top UNM women) do not workout together.
*MB Ednah Kurgat won NCAAs last year in a championship record time ans is in better shape this year…..Here’s why she won’t win.

• Good Profile On Grant Fisher From Earlier In The Fall On GoStanford.com

African News

• Haile Gebrselassie Resigns As President Of Ethiopian Athletics Federation; Will Be Replaced By Two-Time Olympic 10,000 Champ Derartu Tulu In his statement, Geb said, “I became a president of the EAF because I wanted to do something back for my sport; athletics is my passion. However, some people were making the work impossible, so it is better to leave.”
• Halie Gebrselassie Insists His Resignation Was A Personal Decision He was only 2-years into a 4-year term, but said there was “no external pressure.”However, there was some controversy when a group of athletes protested over lack of facilities at the national cross country championships.

British News

IAAF News

• Finalists Announced For 2018 IAAF Female Rising Star Award List includes Sydney McLaughlin and her 52.75 world U20 record and 9:01 steepler Celliphine Chespol.
• IAAF Revises Qualifying System For 2019 Doha World Champs – Will Use Traditional System Rather Than The New World Rankings Seb Coe said they will use the world ranking system for future championships, but didn’t want athletes and coaches to be confused since this is the first year it’s being introduced.
  *InsideTheGames Article
• Tickets For Doha 2019 Now On Sale You can get finish line seating for $80 and cheap tickets for $16 … you just have to travel to Qatar.
• National Kits From Haile Gebrselassie And Carolina Kluft Donate Donated To IAAF Heritage Collection A private collector donated the vest and competition number Geb wore when winning his fourth World Champs 10,000 gold in 1999.
• Need A Job? IAAF Hiring A New Operations Coordinator In Monaco *IAAF Seeking Candidates To Fill A Vacancy On Its Vetting Panel

Women’s Distance News

• NY Times: Runners At D3 Rowan University Told They Can’t Practice At The Same Time As The Football Team The track and the football field are in the same stadium and the issue seems to have started with the football coach saying the women’s team running in sports bras was distracting for his players.
  *MB: Women’s XC/Track team not allowed to practice on track at the same time as football players – deemed distracting
• Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Q&A With Shannon Rowbury They talk about Rowbury’s life as a new mom and her comeback progress.
• GB’s Steph Twell Making Her Marathon Debut Next Month In Valencia
• MB: Cory McGee Joins Emma Coburn/Joe Bosshard Group In Colorado

Olympic Champion News

• Good Read: Extensive Q&A With 1968 Olympic 5,000m Champion Mohammed Gammoudi Even if you’d get an “F” in track history, if you ran in high school then you probably remember Gammoudi from watching the Steve Prefontaine movies (Gammoudi was 2nd at the 1972 Munich Games).
• Alberto Salazar Acknowledges Break With Matt Centrowitz He didn’t offer much comment, saying, “He has let us know he is not running with the Oregon Project … It’s been an honor having Matthew in the Oregon Project. We wish him success going forward.”
• Two-Time Olympic Champion Ed Moses Says He Was Told To “Shut Up” At WADA Meeting Moses says it was at a WADA foundation board meeting where various individuals told him not to speak. WADA claims he did speak and no one told him to “shut up.”

Kenyan Marathon News

• Mary Keitany Wants To Try To Break Paula Radcliffe’s World Record Next Year “I’m confident with the right conditions and with my current form, I can break the world record or improve on my personal best time.”
• Mary Keitany Is Debating Whether She Wants To Run 2019 Worlds In Doha Or Defend Here NYC Title Next Year Worlds are in October, so she will have to choose between the two.
• Mary Keitany Talks About Her Pacing Strategy In NYC She said “the only problem” was the 15:19 she ran from 25k to 30k was too fast.
• An Brief Analysis Of Eliud Kipchoge’s Running Form From His 2:01:39 World Record In Berlin “Kipchoge doesn’t do anything special with his technique. It’s exceptionally clean, simple, and epitomizes the form of the vast majority of world class runners.”

International Distance News

• January 25: Olympic Silver Medalist Feyisa Lilesa Targeting A Winning Return At The Dubai Marathon After two years in in exile, Lilesa is back training in Ethiopia following the election of a new reformist government.
  *Reuters: Two Years After Protesting Ethiopian Government At The Olympics, Feyisa Lilesa Returns Home Lilesa has spent the last two years in exile after he protested against government violence at the Rio Games.
  *Runner’s World: Feyisa Lilesa Returns From Self-Imposed Exile
• Japanese Health Groups Call For The Tokyo Olympic Marathon To Start At 5:30AM Instead Of 7AM To “Avoid Deaths” People are concerned about the intense Tokyo heat with temperatures likely to be in the low to high 80s during the race.
• European XC Championships Will Return To Ireland In 2020 They will be held in Fingal. They were previously in Dublin in 2009.

Non-LRC NYC Coverage

• Bernard Lagat Says His First Marathon Won’t Be His Last Lagat says the hills in NYC killed him as he’s used to the track and flat road races, but he wants to run faster his next time out.
• Shalane Flanagan Hints That Its Time To Retire “I’ve had a lot of fun with my own running … I do feel like it’s more getting towards the time to serve others.”
• NY Times: A Year After Her Breakthrough, Shalane Flanagan Runs On Flanagan: “You just put your head down, keep working and fight for that podium spot.”
• NY Times: Lelisa Desisa Wins NYC Marathon In The Last Miles
• MB: NY Times disrespected Mary Keitany today with its marathon headline. Was it also racist?
• USATF: A Determined Flanagan Perseveres For Podium Finish At TCS NYC Marathon
• IAAF NYC Recap

50 Years Ago – Bob Beamon Shocked The World

LRC Feature A Leap For The Ages: Bob Beamon’s 29-Foot Long Jump Turns 50 A half century later, there’s still only one way to describe the men’s long jump at the 1968 Olympics: Beamonesque. We take an in-depth look at one of the greatest singular accomplishments in sports history. Beamon improved the WR by 6.59% – that’s the equivalent of someone in 2018 lowering the marathon WR to 1:53:28 or the 100-meter record to 8.95.
*MB: 50 years ago, Bob Beamon made history. Where does his performance rank on list of greatest singular sports performances? 

LRC Why Is The Long Jump World Record So Hard To Break? Mike Powell‘s WR has stood for 27 years and the #2 mark from Bob Beamon celebrates its 50th anniversary today. What explains their longevity? Are the best athletes in the NFL? Are the runways too soft? Is there a mental block?

• BBC Video Looking Back On Bob Beamon’s WR The 3-minute video includes some cool old footage.
• IAAF: The Perfect Jump – Bob Beamon’s 8.90m Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary The IAAF pays tribute to Beamon’s historic jump which broke the WR by a “staggering 55 centimeters.”
• Mark Cullen’s Updated Story Of The 2014 Dedication Of The 1968 Olympic Trials Site/Training Center