The Sport Is Changing, But For The Better?

LRC Paul Chelimo Pushes Back Against Recent IAAF Decisions & Explains Why He’s Making His Half Marathon Debut In New York This WeekendPaul Chelimo isn’t a fan of the IAAF killing of the 5,000 in the Diamond League: “I don’t know if they’re trying to kill distance running or what.” And it may cause him to move up to 26.2 sooner than he expected, “I know I’m going to be a great marathoner.”
*MB: Paul Chelimo on IAAF rule changes: “I don’t know if they’re trying to kill distance running or what.”

LRCDid The IAAF Just Kill Off Some Of The Significance Of The Olympic Trials? IAAF Announces New Qualifying System & Entry Standards For 2020 Olympics We’re not opposed to change but we have a lot of questions about the qualification system that will be used for the 2020 Olympics. For example, the men’s marathon standard is now 2:11:30 – what does that mean for the US Trials?
*MB: New 2020 Olympic Standards Posted – They Are WAY Tougher – Will US Olympic Trials take a hit

MB: BREAKING: IAAF Guts The Diamond League? Bans 5,000 And Reduces TV Times From 2 Hours To 90 MinutesIf changing the Olympic qualifying wasn’t enough change for you, the IAAF has doubled down and totally altered the Diamond League starting in 2020. The longest event allowed will be the 3,000.

• Rundown Of Decisions And Changes Made At IAAF Council Meeting
• IAAF Release On 2020 Diamond League ChangesSeb Coe stated, “Change is never easy but should, wherever possible, be done from a position of strength which is what we have done.”
• IAAF Release On New Olympic Qualification System And Entry Standards

The NYC Half Is Sunday *Live Streaming Info, Starts 7:10AM ET *Full Entry Lists

This Coming Weekend: RRW: Desi Linden, Paul Chelimo Ready For United Airlines NYC Half On Sunday Linden faces a deep women’s field with WR holder Joyciline Jepkosgei, two-time world marathon champ Edna Kiplagat and defending champ Buze Diriba. The men’s race has USA marathon champ Brogan Austin and Cam Levins.

More Non-NCAA International News

Mo Farah Retains Vitality Big Half Title In 3-Way Sprint In 61:15, Says He’s Confident About London “I’m definitely confident … I’m definitely a better athlete than I was last year in my opinion.” Charlotte Purdue (70:38) also defended her title in the women’s race.
*Farah Says He Misses Track After Half Marathon Win: “Deep down, I miss the track. I look at my fellow athletes and I think ‘woah’ and I just get excited.”
*MB: Farah is DONE – 1:01:15 in the London Half 

38-Year-Old Helalia Johannes Of Namibia Runs Massive 3:44 PR Of 2:22:25 To Win Nagoya Marathon As 15 Women Break 2:27 And 2 National Records Fall Two-time Olympic 5,000 champ Meseret Defar improved her PR from 2:27:25 to 2:23:33 to finish 3rd.
*Rachel Cliff Breaks Canada’s National Marathon Record With 2:26:56 In Nagoya The old record was 2:28:00 (Lanni Marchant). Cliff also has the half NR at 1:10:08. 7 Japanese women beat her in the race.

• Morocco’s Salah Eddine Bounasr (2:07:52) Outkicks Two Others To Win Lake Biwa Marathon As Yuki Kawauchi Qualifies For Worlds In his last race as an amateur, Kawauchi ran 2:09:21, which Brett Larner thinks will qualify him for Doha.
• Bahrain’s Alemu Bekele (2:06:04) Leads 3 Under 2:07 In Barcelona
• Adam Hickey British World Cross Trials Win Hickey last made a GBR world XC team 12 years ago as a junior.
• Jenny Nesbitt Wins British World XC Women’s Trials And we also are pleased to report that UK Athletics has confirmed they’ll actually send 4 full teams to Worlds this year. Former NCAA star Kate Avery was 4th. We can’t find full results but think they will show up here.
• Gjert Ingebrigtsen Says High Mileage And Hard Work Is The Secret To Their Success
  *MB: Gjert Ingebrigtsen shares the secret to his sons’ success – high mileage – and claims “they don’t have any natural speed.”

LetsWalk.com

• IAAF Council Approve Removing Of 50k Race Walk Distance After Tokyo 2020 Rather than a 20k and 50k, there will two events with TBD distances between 10k and 35k. The IAAF are also looking into implementing chip technology that would detect if both an athlete’s feet leave the ground.
• China’s Olympic Champion Liu Hong Breaks 50k Race Walk Record She became the first woman to break the four hour barrier with 3:59:15 (previous record was 4:04:36 and her previous best was 4:13:04), but the IAAF only started recognizing a women’s 50k record in 2017.

Looking Ahead To April 7th Road Action

• Swiss Marathon Record Holder Tadesse Abraham (2:06:40) Hoping To Bounce Back From Sub-Par Racing At The Vienna City Marathon He’ll face Kenya’s Robert Chemosin, who has a 59:19 PR to his name.
• Defending Champ Nancy Kiprop (2:22:46) Chasing A Hat Trick At The Vienna City Marathon She’ll face three-time Rome Marathon winner Rahma Tusa (2:23:46).
• Kenya’s Duncan Koech (2:07:53) And Poland’s Karolina Nadolska (2:26:32) Lead Fields For The Hannover Marathon

Have You Listened To This Week’s LRC Podcast? (Click Here For More Listening Options/Show Notes To Listen To The Highlights)

2019 NCAA Indoor Individual Previews

LRC 3k/5K Previews: Can Wisconsin’s Morgan McDonald & Alicia Monson Sweep All Four Distance Races? Or Will Grant Fisher, Jessica Hull, Or Someone Else Play Spoiler? We break down the longest individual races at NCAAs for you.

LRC 2019 NCAA DMR Preview:Why Every Men’s Team Won’t Win The DMR (& Why The Oregon Women Will) We break down the DMRs for the upcoming NCAA indoor champs by starting by telling you why each team won’t win.
*MB: Rojo claims “several” NCAA footballers can split 46 for 400m in a DMR. Is that true?

LRC800 Preview: Devin Dixon & Danae Rivers Try To Cap Stellar Seasons With Their First NCAA Titles We think Texas A&M’s Devin Dixon, who set the American collegiate record of 1:45.27 this year, and NCAA women’s 1,000m record holder, Penn State’s Danae Rivers, will be tough to beat in the 800s at NCAAs.

LRCMile Preview: Ollie Hoare Favored To Win Men’s Title; Can Hannah Meier Complete A Comeback For The Ages In Wide-Open Women’s Race? Prior to this year, Michigan’s sixth-year senior Hannah Meier hadn’t PRed since high school. Yet she enters the NCAA mile as the #1 seed. Can she win it?

Non-Distance News

• Up-And-Coming Australian Decathlete Ashley Moloney Is Being Compared To WR Holder Kevin Mayer Who knows how he’ll progress, but 18-year-old World U20 champ Moloney is actually better than Mayer was at the same age.
• IAAF Inside Athletics Podcast With Lolo Jones Jones talks about some of her experiences from the summer and winter Olympics.
• IAAF Inside Athletics Video Interview With Serbia’s World Indoor LJ Champ Ivana Spanovic
• IAAF Profile: Japan’s Koki Ikeda Was An Average High School Distance Runner Who Thought He’d Go To Tokyo 2020 As A Spectator; Then He Discovered Racewalking

LRC Weekly Exclusives

LRC Podcast Kejelcha Is King, Gregorek Joins Sub-3:50 Club, 2019 Euro Indoors, Tokyo, Wife Audio, Transgender Sport And “Scalping” We’ve got a big show for you this week which includes audio from Wejo’s wife as she watches the Tokyo marathon.

LRC WTW: Racing And Time Trialing Are Very Different, Laura Muir Is Dominant, And The Olympic Marathon Trials Will Be Hilly If you thought Kejelcha’s world record was all that happened last week, think again.