Upcoming Distance Action: Boston International Field Released

LRC Analysis Breaking Down The 2019 Boston Marathon International Field, Plus What Does The Addition Of Sally Kipyego Mean To The US Field? The Boston field is out and we help make sense of it all.
*MB: 2019 Boston Marathon Elite Field Is Released – 5 Sub-2:05 men, 4 Sub-2:20 women will battle + AMERICAN Sally Kipyego.

John Hancock Announces 2019 Boston Marathon International Elite Field- Sally Kipyego Will Make Her Debut For America The race for top American honors (and the battle for the 2020 US Olympic team) just got more interesting with the addition of Sally Kipyego, who will run for the US for the 1st time. In addition to Kipyego, previously announced defending champions Yuki Kawauchi and Des Linden are joined by World champ Geoffrey Kirui, NYC champ Lelisa Desisa, and sub-2:20 women Edna Kiplagat and Aselefech Mergia. Other notables include former Boston champions Lemi Berhanu, 2:04 man Lawrence Cherono, 2015 World champ Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, 2015 World champ Mare Dibaba and 2:19 woman Worknesh Degefa.

• Saturday: UW Indoor Preview heat sheets Notable entries including Konstanze Klosterhalfen (1k/mile) making her Nike Oregon Project debut, Shannon Rowbury‘s (3k) first track race since giving birth, Clayton Murphy and World Indoor champ Yomif Kejelcha in the 1k/mile, plus Brooks Beasts Josh Kerr (800), Drew Windle (400/mile), & Izaic Yorks (3k).
  *MB: UW Indoor Preview accepted entries 
• Saturday: Two-Time Champion Leonard Korir Leads Team USA For Great Edinburgh Stirling XC The men’s team also includes former Great Edinburgh winner Garrett Heath, Ben Blankenship and Hillary Bor. The women are lead returning team members Anne-Marie Blaney and Olivia Pratta.
  *Live Broadcast On USATF.TV+ @8:15AM EST (subscription required)
• February 9: Olympic Medalists Clayton Murphy And Nick Willis And World’s Fastest Miler Of 2018 Edward Cheserek To Headline NYRR Wanamaker Mile Men’s Field At 112th NYRR Millrose Games Murphy was runner-up in 2017 while Willis has three runner-up finishes to his name.

Doping Updates

• Better Late Than Never? Russia Says WADA Team Will Return To Moscow For The Required Data On January 9th On this, USADA head Travis Tygart said, “We are all holding our breath as to how this one will end … whether WADA will be finally given the data on the roughly 9,000 presumptive positive tests results on over 4,000 Russian athletes that hopefully have not been destroyed.”
• Swedish Winter Olympian Claims WADA Compliance Review Committee Has “Weight Of History On Their Shoulders” If Russia actually give up the Moscow lab data on Wednesday like they’re supposed to, we think there is zero chance WADA imposes any new sanctions come their meeting next week.

Weekend Distance Action

• Olympic 5,000m Bronze Medalist Hagos Gebrhiwet Defeats 12:43 Man Selemon Barega By Four Seconds To Win The Campaccio 10k XC Race In Italy Turkey’s three-time Euro XC champ Yasemin Can dominated the women’s 6km race by 16 seconds.
• Laura Muir Gets A Flying Start To 2019 With A 14:52.02 Victory At The GAA Miler Indoor Meet In Glasgow Second place was Gabriela Stafford with a new Canadian national record of 14:57.45.
  *MB: Muir 14:52 Stafford of Canada 14:57 First meet of year.
• Kenya’s Joseph Mwangi Ngare Runs Hong Kong All Comers’ Record To Beat Yuki Kawauchi At The Lok Wah 100 Minutes Half Marathon Ngare ran 65:56 to Kawauchi’s 66:07.
• Kenya’s World U20 5,000m Silver Medalist Stanley Mburu Waithaka And Spain’s Trihas Gebre Win Cross Zornotza XC Race In Spain
• Bahrain’s Albert Rop And Alia Saeed Mohammed Win Arab XC Championships
• From Last Week: Tokai University Wins First-Ever Hakone Ekiden Title Tokai University set a course record to win by over 3 minutes.
  *Stats From The Hakone Ekiden
• Ethiopians Dejene Debela (2:09:26) And Medina Deme Armino (2:27:25) Win Xiamen Marathon Titles In China
• British 10,000m Champ Charlotte Arter Clocks 15:50 Parkrun Record In Cardiff The race series is mostly recreational runners (she came in one second behind the top guy).

Non-Distance News

• Torie Bowie Considering Changing Training Base, Coaching And Management After Being Asked To Leave The Olympic Training Center Bowie explains that security watched her pack up her things at the Olympic training center and forced her to leave and she was told by staff she owed $6,000. Bowie also reveals that last year she got in a physical altercation with Olympic champ Shaunae Miller-Uibo when they were training partners in Florida which left her bleeding from the head.
  *MB: CATFIGHT! Tori Bowie and Shaune Miller Got Into Fight Drawing Blood!
  *MB: World 100m champ Tori Bowie denied access to Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA over unpaid $6k bill
• Kenya’s Julius Yego Wants To Reclaim His World Javelin Title In 2019 “YouTube Man” Yego won African Champs last year, but says he’s still not back to the level he was at in 2015 and 2016 before he got injured.
• Video Interview With Andre De Grasse Talking About The Future After A Coaching Change De Grasse also talks about being a new dad as he had a daughter last year.
• 2016 Olympic Sprinter Marvin Bracy Trying To Make It As A Football Player Bracey was a high school football star, but quit in college to go pro in track. Since competing in the 100m at Rio 2016, Bracey has gone back to trying to make it in Football, just missing several close tryouts with NFL teams.
• 47.83 By Ashton Allen Highlights Marine Corps Holiday Classic High School Meet

Doping Updates

• WADA’s Athlete Committee And Vice President Join Calls For Immediate Re-Issuing Of RUSADA Ban It’ll be interesting to see how things at WADA change if the current vice president Linda Helleland wins the coming election as she’s often been at odds with WADA’s and Craig Reedie‘s decisions.
  *The Guardian Article
• Dick Pound Compares Critics Of WADA To A “Lynch Mob” Pound explains that despite Russia missing the December 31st deadline, there still needs to be due process before any action is taken against them.
• WADA Leaders Admit They’re “Navigating Challenging Times” But Claim They Made Several Achievements In 2018
• Head To Key WADA Panel Defends Waiting To Decide On Next Action With Russia British lawyer Jonathan Taylor explained that there needed to be time for a full report explaining the reasons for Russia’s “non-compliance.” But the reason is simple; the deadline was December 31st and they didn’t meet it.
• IOC Athletes’ Commission Joins Slew Of Groups Pushing For Fresh Sanctions On Russia From WADA Hey WADA, if everybody else agrees but you, then you’re the problem.
• IOC Athletes’ Commission Calls For WADA Compliance Review Committee To Recommend Immediate Measures After Missed RUSADA Deadline
• Is This The Best Use Of USADA’s Resources? 90-Year-Old Cyclist Accepts Public Warning For Failing Drug Test Here’s the thing – he tested positive in his second test in two days. Then there was a hearing and in the end, he just got a warning anyway (for tainted meat). Is this useful?

More Looking Back At 2018 And Ahead To 2019

LRC The 2018 LetsRun.com Awards: Meet Our Athletes Of The Year, The Breakout Performers Of The Year, And A Whole Lot More 2018 was quite a year. We do our best to recap it all for you by handing out awards – everything from most improved to race of the year to travesty of the year. Does your favorite runner make the cut?
*MB: The 2018 LetsRun.com Awards are out. Did your favorite runner make the cut? 

• IAAF Analyzes Some Head-To-Head Matchups They Are Most Anticipating In 2019 One constant back-and-forth is the battle between Ryan Crouser and Tom Walsh in the shot put.
• FloTrack’s Top 5 Upsets Of The Year Yuki Kawauchi in Boston tops the list.
• IAAF’s List Of Five Stars Making Comebacks In 2019 Olympic 400m champ Wayde Van Niekerk tops the list. He’s not raced since 2017 Worlds thanks to a charity rugby game and knee injury which required surgery.
• What World Record Might Go Down In 2019? The men’s HJ makes the list for the umpteenth time and the men’s almost 30-year-old shot put record is mentioned as a possibility.
• IAAF’s Eight “Emerging Stars” They Are Watching For In 2019 Sydney McLaughlin and Noah Lyles top their list.
• IAAF 2018 Roads And XC Year In Review There was a record number of women’s sub-2:20s and sub-2:19s. 11 women broke 2:20 (previous record was 6) and 6 women broke 2:19 (previous record was 3).
• GB Athlete New Year’s Resolutions Zharnel Hughes had arguably the best resolution, which is to win World Championships gold.
• European Champions Nataliya Pryshchepa (800) And Maryan Zakalnytskky (Racewalk) Named Ukrainian Athletes Of The Year

LetsRun.com’s 2018 World And US Rankings Are Complete

LRC M Marathon: Eliud Kipchoge (Duh) & Galen Rupp Are World & US #1s The unparalleled Eliud Kipchoge tops the marathon rankings yet again.

LRC David Graham’s 2018 Marathon Rankings And Musings LRC visitor David Graham is back with his annual men’s marathon musings. This year, he comes in at a record 4,823 words.

LRC W Marathon: Vivian Cheruiyot & Des Linden End Year As World & US #1s 2018 was the best year in the history of the women’s marathoning. Coming into the year, only five women in history had ever broken 2:19 but six different women did it 2019.  Plus 11 times a woman broke 2:20 in 2018, the most in history.

Previous LRC’s 2018 Rankings: M3k/5k *W3k/5k *MSteeple *WSteeple *M1,500 *W1,500 *M800 *W800

• Athletics Weekly‘s Top 3 World Rankings For 2018: *Women *Men
  
• Athletics Weekly‘s Top 3 British Rankings For 2018: *Women *Men
• TFN’s World #1s For 2018: *Women *Men
• College Rankings: Sydney McLaughlin & Michael Norman Named Dyestat College Performers Of The Year McLaughlin was the people’s choice, Norman was the editor’s choice.
• HS Rankings: Katelyn Tuohy & Armand Duplantis Named Dyestat High School Performers Of The Year Tuohy was the people’s choice, Duplantis was the editor’s choice.

Floyd Landis Big Talk Part II

LRC Floyd Landis On Life After Cycling, Runners Vs. Cyclists, CBD Products, Running A Business, And Donald Trump Landis shares some of the secrets he’s learned from his crazy life in part 2 of our recap of our talk with him. From a Mennonite upbringing, to crossing the line at the Tour first, to a doping suspension, denial, depression, and now fatherhood and a successful new business, Floyd has seen a lot.

Miss Part I? Part 1: Is There Any Hope For Anti-Doping? Floyd Talks Doping Then, Now And What Can Be Done Landis is one of the most notorious dopers in American sport, and the man who helped bring out the truth about Lance Armstrong. He’s got a lot of interesting things to say.