March 14, 2019 | LetsRun.com

Big $ Half Marathon Friday in Bahrain

LRC The Best and Richest ($100k FTW) Half Marathon You’ve Never Heard of Is Happening on Friday in Bahrain The field are stacked and include WR holder Abraham Kiptum. $100,000 for the winners.

One Final Look At NCAAs

LRC 5 Final Thoughts from 2019 NCAA Indoors: Grant Holloway Is Ready for His Closeup, You Don’t Need to Train Indoors to Win Indoors, & Florida’s Other Sprint Phenom And how about some love for USC’s Caryl Smith Gilbert and NAU’s Mike Smith?

Our Weekly Recap

LRC Week That Was By The Numbers: New Champs Erika Kemp, Julia Rizk & Geordie Beamish, Canada Vs. The USA, And Mo Farah Says He’s Ready For London This week we let the stats do the work for us and they reveal that Canada is 97.49% the equal of the US. Plus learn about the NCAA virgins that won the miles.

Women’s Distance News

Kara Goucher Making Her Trail Racing Debut At The Leadville Trail Marathon This June Goucher says she is enjoying not worry about times or constantly checking her watch, but admits that she is a “surface diva” and needs to get used to trail running again.
*MB: Kara Goucher to run Leadville!!!
Recommended Read: A Little Older And A Lot Wiser, Kate Murphy Slows Down Murphy, who ran 4:07 for 1,500 at age 16, is technically retired at the University of Oregon but she hasn’t entirely given up on the dream.
*MB: Kate Murphy story in RunWashington.
Where Are They Now? Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Julia Lucas Lucas was part of the famous battle for the last Olympic spot in the 5,000 at the 2012 Trials. Here she shares what she learned from just missing out on the Olympic dream and talks about where life has taken her since.
*LRC Archives: The Women’s 5,000 Final – The Olympic Trials At Its Absolute Best
Carrie Tollefson Interview With Ajee Wilson They discuss what it was like to go professional at such a young age and how apparently she never takes an “ugly race pic.”

World XC Champs Are March 30th

Shadrack Kipchirchir And Courtney Frerichs Lead Team USA For World XC Champs
*Kenyan Headline: “USA Set To Field Kenyan “B” Team – Kipchirchir Leads Four Other Kenyan-Born Runners In US Team To World XC” Five of the six men on the USA squad are Kenyan-born.
GB Names Squad Of 24 For World XC Champs GB is sending a full men’s and women’s teams for the senior and junior races.
Two-Time Euro XC Champ Fionnuala McCormack Leads Irish Team For World XC Unlike GB, Ireland is not sending a full squad, but just two senior men and two senior women.
IAAF Fab Five: World XC Near Misses The IAAF looks back at five great XC runners who got close, but never won a World XC title.
Three Time World XC Champ Wilson Kipketer And Olympic 400H Silver Medalist Sara Slott Open IAAF Heritage XC Display In Denmark The display opened one month before they host World XC Champs on March 30th. They exhibit is meant to “tell the 200 year history of cross-country running.”

Non-NCAA Weekend US Results

LRC American Record Holder Athing Mu Gets Beaten By High School Freshman Roisin Willis, Who Sets National Freshman Record For 800 Two weeks after running faster than any American ever at 600m indoors, 16-year-old sensation Athing Mu got beaten by a high school freshman at 800m. Yes, you read that correctly. That’s what happens when you go for sub-2 and tie up.
*Loudoun Valley Sweeps Men’s Distance Relay With 2 National Records

Shadrack Kipchirchir And Unknown Erika Kemp Win USATF 15km Titles At Gate River Run $12,000 for the winners.
*Top 10 Results
*MB: Erika Kemp, Relative Unknown, wins Gate River Run

Jordan Hasay Runs 71:06 At Rome Half The race was won in 66:40 by Lonah Salpeter Chemtai. Guye Adola won the men’s race in 60:17. *IAAF Recap

Doping News

No Changes To Russian Status After IAAF Council Meeting Today The Russian Athletics Federation still has outstanding costs they need to pay to the IAAF and the Moscow lab data still needs to be processed by WADA and analyzed by the IAAF.
New Hitch To Russian Reinstatement As IAAF Task Force Is Probing Allegations Of Discredited Coaches Remaining Active This would not be the first time Russian athletes and coaches have completely ignored their bans.
Seb Coe Says Russia Owes The IAAF About Three Million Dollars
HJer Ivan Ukhov And Four Other Russians Filing Appeals Against Their Doping Bans Ukhov will lose his 2012 Olympic gold and HJer Svetlana Shkolina her world gold.
International Anti-Doping Leaders Call On Watershed Opportunity To Reform Anti-Doping System Leaders of 18 national anti-doping organizations met in Switzerland to discuss what types of changes they’d like WADA to make.

More Thoughts / Opinions On Hyperandrogenism Debate

MB: Craig Virgin Shares His Thoughts On The Caster Semenya Debate Virgin writes, “I absolutely come down on the side of the IAAF and their Pres. Seb Coe when it comes to [this] issue.”
Paula Radcliffe Says Tighter Transgender Rules Are Needed to Avoid “Manipulation” “Right now, transgender women are not a threat to female sport. But you would be naive if you thought that, by not putting in any rules, it couldn’t come to that at some point in the future.”
The Guardian Opinion Piece: “Stop Talking About Testosterone – There’s No Such Thing As ‘True Sex'” Interesting tidbit from the article – did you know Usain Bolt had a 2:07 800m PR?
All-Time Great Ed Moses Shares Thoughts On Caster Semenya: “There’s some medical issues, social issues and sports issues that all combine and it’s really hard to determine what is the right path to go.” He emphasized that she should be treated fairly and we do believe that the IAAF testosterone limit is a fair compromise.

The New Balance US HS Nationals Meet Info Results *Free Live Webcast

UPSET CITY: MB: FRESHMAN TAKES DOWN ATHING MU – Wins 800 at New Balance Nationals

List Of 2019 New Balance Nationals Winners – The Big Board
Sam Affolder And Loudoun Valley Break DMR Record (9:54.41); Katelyn Tuohy Leads Team To 4th-Straight DMR Win The splits were as follows: Jacob Hunter (3:01), Akere Simms (50.92), Connor Wells (1:55) and Affolder (4:06.21). Tuohy split 4:41.
*MB: Sam Affolder greatest triple ever at nationals? Two 4:06 splits and a 1:51.
MB: Transgender Connecticut Sprinter Accepted To New Balance Indoor Nationals
10 Boys Story Lines To Follow At New Balance Nationals Indoor 2019
10 Girls Story Lines To Follow At New Balance Nationals Indoor 2019 Naturally, #1 is Athing Mu.

RIP To The 5,000 – 1912 To 2019

LRC Distance Runners and Fans Around the Globe React Negatively to Diamond League Cutting the 5,000 It wasn’t hard to find a lot of people expressing their disapproval, but we did find one person who is “not against” the move – former Diamond League 5000 winner Lauren Fleshman.

LRC Podcast The Death of the 5,000m, New Olympic Track Qualifying Procedures, Grant Holloway Machine, NCAA Indoors, the Future of the Diamond League -LetsRun.com Track Talk We have a funeral for the 5,000m on the show. *Discuss

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The Death of the 5,000m, New Olympic Track Qualifying Procedures, Grant Holloway Machine, NCAA Indoors, the Future of the Diamond League -LetsRun.com Track Talk

Kenyans And Ethiopians Unite In Outrage By IAAF’s Decision To Wipe Out 5,000, Wonder If 5k And 10k Will Be Eliminated From The Olympics

Recommended Read Athletics Illustrated: Mass confusion around 2020 Tokyo Olympic standards and IAAF’s decision to kill off the 5000 Article includes quotes from Paula Radcliffe who isn’t happy about the 5000 and Nic Bideau.

The IAAF Knows People Have LOTS Of Questions About The New Olympic Qualifying Rules

LRC Find Out Who Would Have Qualified Under The IAAF’s New World Rankings If Worlds Were Held Last Year, Plus The IAAF Answers Our Questions On Olympic Changes The IAAF is very much aware that people have lots of questions about the new Olympic qualifying system so they have shared with us the spreadsheet they gave to the member federations showing you who would get into Worlds based on the new rules.

Japan And The US Olympic Trials Need To Be Given Gold Status Now Even A Marathon Superstar Country Like Japan May Have Top-3 Finishers At Tts Trials Lacking The Olympic Qualifying Standard The issue is the Japanese Trials were purposely put in a hot city to try to mimic the Olympic conditions. So someone like Suguru Osako who just DNFed Tokyo may not be ranked high enough.
Commonwealth Games Marathon Medalist Robbie Simpson Fears Some Brits Won’t Even Try For The 2:11:30 Standard As It’s So Fast, And Points Out The World Rankings Totally Undervalue Runs In Hot Weather Simpson’s bronze at the CGs isn’t worth really anything in the new ranking system as he’s ranked just #1,285 in the world.
British team to IAAF World Relays named As if killing off the 5000 and perhaps the US Olympic marathon trials wasn’t enough, the IAAF has wiped out all distance races from the world relays as well.

The Beauty Of US Olympic Marathon Trials Is In Jeopardy

LRC Rich Kenah, Head Of Atlanta Track Club (Host Of Olympic Marathon Trials) On New Olympic Qualifying: “(I hope they) reconsider the damage this will do to the Olympic movement.” Kenah is worried the simplicity and dream of the US Marathon Trials will be lost by the new qualifying system. The new qualifying system treats the US Trials equal to the national marathon champs of Andorra.

Olympic News

London Mayor And UK Sport Back Idea Of A London Bid For The 2036 Olympics That kind of turnaround from the 2012 Games wouldn’t be completely unprecedented as Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Olympics.
USA Today Columnist Argues For An Olympic Host Rotation Christine Brennan writes that, “It’s time for the sports world to tell the IOC that it can no longer bankrupt cities in the name of hosting the Olympics.”
USOC Announces Revival Of Hall Of Fame The Hall of Fame was first set up in 1979 but no new names have been inducted since 2012.
IOC Hiring For New Head Of Ticketing Position After London 2012 And Rio 2016 Scandals
USA Today: 500 Days To Go Until The Tokyo 2020 Olympics Organizers marked the milestone by unveiling the stylized pictogram figures for each sport.

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

Road News

Steeplechase legend Ezekiel Kemboi will make his marathon debut in Hamburg on April 28th The men’s race also includes Olympic marathon champ Stephen Kiprotich and double world champ Abel Kirui. The women’s race will serve as the marathon debut for half marathon WR holder Joyciline Jepkosgei.
*MB: Ezekiel Kemboi says his career accomplishments to “equal to winning a World Cup” in soccer
2019 Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon on April 6th will be loaded and field includes American Amy Cragg 9 sub-60 men will compete and 5 sub-68 women. The race will be streamed live.
*IAAF: Stephen Kiprop (58:42) And Fancy Chemutai (64:52) Lead Fast Fields For The Prague Half
Japanese Athletics Federation passes rule allowing doctors to stop runners in distress from continuing
*MB: Even Japan is getting soft? Japanese pass rule allowing docs to stop runners in distress even if runners want to continue

The Backlash Continues

Haile Gebrselassie Slams IAAF Diamond League Changes “It is a sad decision that will disproportionately affect Ethiopia and Kenya, as well as East Africa as a whole.”
Athletics Kenya Protests Diamond League Changes AK president Jackson Tuwei said, “Long distance races on track is where Africa’s strength is … This is not a good show for athletics.”
FastRunning.com: “Cut Short: IAAF Revamp Leaves Distance Running Fans In The Cold” The writer makes a good point when he notes that Seb Coe says they want to make the DL “more relevant to the world our fans live in today” but are cutting the distance recreational runners do the most.

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 Weekend Paul Chelimo isn’t a fan of the IAAF killing off 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.”

LRC Did 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 Minutes If 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 Changes Seb 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

2019 NCAA Indoors Results Post-Race Interviews *Broadcast Info

LRC Wisconsin’s Morgan McDonald And Oregon’s Jessica Hull Cross Finish Line 1st Yet Again In 3,000s At 2019 NCAA Indoors The men’s race came down to McDonald vs. Fisher as we hoped it would. Monson vs. Hull never materialized in the women’s race.

LRC Penn State’s Danae Rivers (Narrowly) And Kansas’ Bryce Hoppel (Convincingly) Win 2019 NCAA Indoor 800 Titles Danae Rivers was just 5th coming off the final turn but somehow she got the win over Penn’s Nia Akins at the line. In the men’s race, Kansas’ Bryce Hoppel was clearly the best.