– Barnabas Korir, chairman of AK Nairobi, ripping the IAAF’s decision to drop the 5,000 from the Diamond League (after never including the 10,000). His Ethiopian colleagues agree as Sileshi Bisrat of the EAF communications department said, “We Africans should shout loud to IAAF to stop the silent killing of our long distance running. The way forward showed that IAAF is going to remove these two events from the World Championships.”
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.
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.
LRCAmerican 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
UPSET CITY: MB: FRESHMAN TAKES DOWN ATHING MU – Wins 800 at New Balance Nationals
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
Recommended ReadAthletics 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.
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.
LRCRich 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.
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.
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.
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 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.”
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.
LRCWisconsin’s Morgan McDonald And Oregon’s Jessica Hull Cross Finish Line 1st Yet Again In 3,000s At 2019 NCAA IndoorsThe 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 TitlesDanae 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.
LRC Ohio State’s Julia Rizk And NAU’s Geordie Beamish Pull Off Upsets To Win 2019 NCAA Indoor Mile TitlesTwo runners who had never even been in an NCAA final before won the mile titles tonight in Birmingham. Men’s winner Geordie Beamish only has a 4:06 PR.
MB: Dude with 4:06 mile PB – Geordie Beamish – just won the 2019 NCAA indoor mile title
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