November 20, 2018 | LetsRun.com

Week That Was

LRC Another Look At NCAA XC, Joshua Cheptegei Sets World Record On A Course Named “Seven Hills,” 2 Great Finishes In China This week had it all across the globe. The NCAA XC champs lived up to the hype in the snow in Madison, Joshua Cheptegei delivered in the Netherlands, and there were 2 great finishes in China.

News From The British Media

Mo Farah To Run The 2019 London Marathon Farah won in Chicago, but a win in London would be at another level.
Michael Johnson Says He’s Nearly “Back To Normal” After Suffering A Stroke In September Two days after his stroke, Johnson couldn’t walk and it took the former WR holder 15 minutes to cover 200m.
*BBC Article “I told my wife I was confident of making a full recovery and not only will I do that, I will do it faster than anybody else has done before.”
GB’s Steph Twell Says She Was Inspired To Make Her Marathon Debut By Callum Hawkins And Aly Dixon
British Masters XC Champs Recap

2018 NCAA XC D1 Results D3 Results

Men LRC Morgan McDonald Gets His Storybook Ending As NAU Men 3-Peat At 2018 NCAA XC Champs McDonald redshirted last year to do what he did today: win the 2018 NCAA title on his home course. NAU became the first team to three-peat since Arkansas from 1998-2000.

Women LRC MAGS-NIFICENT: Dani Jones Leads Colorado Women To Dominant Win At 2018 NCAA Cross-Country Championships The Colorado women hadn’t been on top of the winner’s circle at the NCAA XC champs in 14 years but their drought was broken in style on Saturday as they won both the team and individual titles.

NCAA XC On The Boards

D3: Paige Lawler Wins And Leads #2 Wash U To 1-Point Win Over #1 Johns Hopkins, 98 To 99
*Dhruvil Patel Wins And Leads North Central To Title

Pre-2018 NCAA XC News

MB: Official 2018 NCAA XC Discussion Thread

LRC Women’s Predictions: LRC LetsRun Fans Expect Weini Kelati And UNM To Win NCAA Titles On Saturday We’ve compiled the early votes from our prediction contest.

LRC Men’s Predictions: LRC The LetsRun Nation Votes: NAU Is HEAVILY Favored Over BYU, Fans Are Split Between McDonald And Fisher Fans are picking NAU at a more than 20-1 clip over BYU.

LRC Final Pre-2018 NCAA XC News: Mike Smith Believes The ’18 NAU Team Would Beat The ’16 & ’17 NCAA Champs, Allie O Wants To Race 10K At NCAA XC, & More On The Eve Of 2018 NCAA XC We give you the inside scoop on 2018 NCAA XC from after today’s press event in Madison. How will 2-4 inches of snow impact the race?

Haile G Resigns

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

British Athletics Names 114-Strong World Class Program For 2018-2019 The list includes British 200m champ Beth Dobbin, who has battled PTSD after having an epileptic seizure as a teenager.
Mo Farah Included In British Athletics Lottery Funding For 2018-2019 No surprises there as Farah has said he wants to run the marathon at Tokyo 2020.
BBC: “Can sport help to come to terms with grief and loss?” Greg Rutherford talks about how his grandfather died just before he flew out to Beijing for his first Olympics in 2008 and he missed the funeral.
Laura Muir: “I don’t like taking anything. I don’t even drink coffee.” Muir says as a clean athlete she’s happy to be tested “every day of the year.” That’s the kind of attitude a clean athlete should have.
Laura Muir Talks About The Extra Things She Has Time To Do With Training Now That She Isn’t Also A Full-Time Vet Student “It would be nice to learn a bit more about myself. Doing different biomechanical stuff, improve those one per cents that I haven’t had time to do before.”
February: Laura Muir Announced For Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix
UK Sport Chief Executive Liz Nicholl Stepping Down Mid-2019 After 20 Years

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

LetsRun.com (Finally) Goes To Ethiopia

Day 3 LRC Day 3 In Ethiopia: Hagos Gebrhiwet Wins, Haile G Dances, And … No Porta-Potties? LRC spent Day 3 at the Great Ethiopian Run, which saw wins for Hagos Gebrhiwet (28:54) & Foten Tesfaye (33:43). Our distinguished author even managed to run the race himself and went to Haile G‘s house afterwards.
*MB: Day #3 in Ethiopia: I broke bread with Haile G, watched him dance, and watched the Dallas Cowboys soar to 5-5 ask me anything

Day 2: MB: Day #2 in Ethiopia: I went to a kids race in Ethiopia…they give out finishers medals… ask me anything

Day 1 LRC LetsRun.com Goes To Ethiopia, Day 1: Arrival In Addis Ababa, Meeting Haile G, & A Run-In With The Ethiopian Military
*MB: LetsRun.com Is Making Its First Trip to Ethiopia. … What Should We Know and What Do You Want to Hear!?!!

IAAF Athlete Of The Year

IAAF Names Men’s Athlete Of The Year Finalists Eliud Kipchoge and his 2:01:39 will be hard to beat, but Christian Coleman, decathlon WR setter Kevin Mayer, Armand Duplantis and 400 hurdler Abderrahman Samba will try.
Finalists Announced For IAAF Female Athlete Of The Year List has steeplechase WR holder Beatrice Chepkoech, GB sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, TJer Caterine Ibarguen, Bahamas sprinter Shaunae Miler-Uibo and heptathlon Olympic champ Nafissatou Thiam.

Sunday International Results

MB: Joshua Cheptegei Just Broke The 15k WR In 41:04 With A 2:27 Last Km! The Ugandan, Cheptegei, first turned heads by leading World XC in Uganda and then staggering to the finish. He then pushed Mo Farah in the 10,000 at the 2017 Worlds and settled for second and we speculated he was primed to succeed Farah. *IAAF Recap
Ethiopia’s Yebrgual Melese (2:20:37) And Abdiwak Tura (2:09:20) Make It Achieve An Ethiopian Double At The Shanghai Marathon It was a super-tight finish in the men’s race as Tsegaye Mekonnen finished second with the same time and Dickson Tuwei was only 1 second off in third.
*MB: After 3 consecutive DNFs, former WR holder Dennis Kimetto has finished his first marathon since April 2016. Guess his time.
Taye Girma (60:52) And Parendis Lekapana (70:46) Win Boulogne-Billancourt Christian Grangier Half Marathon In France
Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo And Kenya’s Gloria Kite Win Soria, Spain XC Race

USATF Marathon Champs At California International Marathon

December 2: CIM Set To Host USATF Marathon Championships For The Second Year The men’s race is led by 7 sub-2:14 men including Nick Arciniaga (2:11:30), Matt Llano (2:12:28) and Daniel Tapia (2:12:28). The women’s race has former Olympian Janet Bawcom (2:29:45) and Stephanie Bruce (2:29:35).

European News

Greek 5.80m PVer (#2 On The All-Time U20 List) Emmanouil Karali Talks About How He Developed His Love For Pole Vaulting Karalis explains how his dad was the former Greek decathlon record holder and got him into pole vaulting. But once he beat his dad’s PR, Karalis said to him, “Okay, Dad, that’s enough. I know what I’m doing now.”
Germany’s Former World Javelin Champion Katharina Molitor Announces Retirement
Hammer Throwers Wojciech Nowicki And Anita Wlodarczyk Are Polish Athletes Of The Year There’s something about Poland and the hammer throw.
RIP Well Known Czech Republic Athletics Official, Author And Coach Viktor Trka
Racewalker Matej Toth Voted Slovak Athlete Of The Year

Sunday Results

Ruth Chepngetich Drops A Four-Minute PR To Win The Istanbul Marathon In 2:18:35 (link updated) The went through halfway in a super-quick 68:22 and held on enough to win comfortably with a new CR. Felix Kimutai won the men’s race in a CR (2:09:57). *Discuss
Former NCAA XC Champ Kate Avery And Mahamed Mahamed Win At Milton Keynes Cross Challenge In The UK Avery continues her comeback after dealing with stress fractures the last couple years.
Kenya’s Magdalene Masai Breaks CR At Hefei Marathon To Win In 2:28:20 In Her Debut Kenya’s Leonard Langat won the men’s race in 2:10:48.
Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (2:10:41) And Medina Deme Armino (2:29:31) Win Beirut Marathon Former Boston Marathon champ Wesley Korir was only 7th in 2:14:18.
Kenyans Brimin Misoi (2:10:56) And Shelmith Muriuki (2:36:46) Win Athens Marathon
MB: Zach Bitter Wins Tunnel Hill 100 Miller

The Half Marathon WR Holder Shares His Training With LRC

LRC Q&A: Half Marathon WR Holder Abraham Kiptum Reveals His Workouts Before Running 58:18 The new half marathon record holder shares his workouts exclusively with the LetsRun.com nation.

More NCAA News

Denver Post’s Women’s NCAA Recap The last time Colorado won both the individual and team title was 2000. Jones post-race said, “That whole last stretch – I just felt four years flashing by. It took my breath away. I’ll never forget it.”
Denver Post‘s Men’s NCAA Recap On beating their #8 ranking with a 4th place finish, CU’s #3 man Ryan Forsyth said, “We knew what the ranking was. We didn’t believe it was accurate.”
Track And Field News: Morgan McDonald And The Bader Tradition Post-race, McDonald said, “It is crazy to think back to my 16-year-old self and see such long-time goals come to fruition.”
T&F News: Dani Jones And The Colorado Mindset Jones said despite being from Arizona, she was happy with the cold/snowy conditions as she’s been in Colorado for 3 years.
USTFCCCA: True Team Efforts Led Colorado, NAU, North Central And WashU To D1/D3 National Titles
MileSplit: NCAA DI Champs By The Numbers Grant Fisher‘s 2nd place finish gave Stanford an unfortunate stat. They now have five runner-up finishes without getting an individual champion.
This Weekend Made 8 Straight Top 20 Finishes For The Arkansas Women
RRW: Dani Jones, Morgan McDonald Sprint to NCAA Cross-Country Titles
List Of All D1 XC All-Americans
Field Announced For NCAA D2 XC Champs
*Division II Regional Weekend Recap
List Of D3 All-Americans

Track Politics

Times Of San Diego: Former Olympic TJer Willie Banks Seeking To Oust Stephanie Hightower As IAAF Council Rep But even if he wins the USATF vote, will it matter? Four years ago, Bob Hersh won the vote 392-70 over Hightower, but the USATF board chose her as the IAAF council rep anyway. Thankfully this time there are some new by-laws that will make it harder for the USATF board to go against the members’ vote.
*MB: Willie Banks challenging Stephanie Hightower as America’s IAAF rep
InsideTheGames‘ Mike Rowbottom: “Haile Gebrselassie Pays Personal Price For Political Pressures” Rowbottom explains that Geb’s resignation is the result of established coaches/officials fighting against his proposed pro-athlete changes. Sounds like what we’ve heard the USATF board had against Vin Lananna before suspending him.
Kenyan Journalist Thinks Haile Gebrselassie’s Resignation Is “Cause For Big Concern” Barnabas Korir writes, “But the fact that he has been forced to bail out, speaks volume of how an athlete’s enemy happens to be a fellow athlete. … I am sorry to say the conspiracy by fellow athletes to push him out is a ‘disease’ that is also prevalent here in Kenya.”
Former GB Track Stars United In Bid To Save Crystal Palace Stadium From Bulldozers Crystal Palace used to host a Diamond League meet every year before it moved to the Olympic Stadium after 2012.

Non-DI College News Results: D2 Regionals D3 Champs *NAIA Champs

Week That Was

LRC Kellyn Taylor PRs, Ruth Chepngetich Makes History, Edward Cheserek Is Back, An Impressive Run In Japan, And Will Someone Die In Tokyo 2020? We span the globe and look back at a week where a 2:18 was run in Istanbul.

WADA / Doping News

Emma Coburn Speaks Up On Looming WADA Presidential Election Coburn has backed reformist Linda Helleland to succeed Craig Reedie when his term ends November 2019. She also spoke against Helleland’s rival, Witold Banka, who Coburn feels “does not have his finger on the pulse of mainstream athlete and public opinion.” *Coburn’s Full Opinion Piece
RUSADA Worried They Won’t Meet The WADA Deadline To Allow Access To The Moscow Laboratory They shouldn’t be worried though. We’re sure WADA will just move the goalposts for them if they miss it.
African Union Propose Age Limit For WADA President Which Would Prevent Linda Helleland From Standing For Election They are calling for WADA presidential candidates to be at least 45 years old in a move interpreted as an attempt to block 41-year-old Helleland.
WADA Presidential Candidate Witold Banka Calls For Linda Helleland To Stand Down As WADA Vice President He claims it gives her an unfair advantage, but Helleland has responded calling his statements “offensive.”
The Independent: UKADA Agency Calls For WADA Reform After Russia Controversy

NCAA XC Regionals Are This Weekend *All Results

Official: NCAA DI Cross-Country Championships Fields Set – Teams/Individual Qualifiers
USTFCCCA Division 1 Regional Weekend Recap
MB: Official 2018 NCAA D1 XC Regional Discussion Thread – Who Is Going To The Big Dance? Follow this thread all day long on Friday as we should have the field within minutes of the final region going final.
LRC Here Is Your Projected 2018 NCAA Men ‘s Cross-Country Field The Bradley Braves are dancing for the first time ever. The field will also include Purdue and Wyoming, both of whom last made NCAAs in 1986, but not pre-season #6 Alabama.
LRC Here Is Your Projected 2018 NCAA Women’s Cross-Country Field The field will include first-time NCAA participants Oregon State and Southern Utah but not pre-season #10 Utah State or #11 Providence.
FloTrack: 15 Athletes Who Will Miss NCAAs Despite Being All-American Material
D3: Field Announced For NCAA Division III Cross-Country Championships
*Division III Weekend Regional 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?