Get Ready To Protest or Should We Just Cancel The Trials and Save The Money?

 Absolutely Stunning LRC Our Worst Fears Realized: USATF WILL NOT Honor Top-Three Finish at The US Olympic Trials Unless You Have The Standard This is one of the darkest days in history for US distance fans. We emailed USATF to make sure they would be honoring the IAAF world rankings so those top 3 at the Olympic Trials could go to the Olympics – they told us they would not. That means Olympic silver medallist Paul Chelimo wouldn’t have made the 2016 team, nor would Jared Ward and five others including Bernard Lagat who won the most thrilling race was the Trials. Some US Olympic Trials races may now be totally meaningless.
*MB: Breaking: An Absolute Travesty! USATF WILL NOT honor top 3 finish at US Olympic Trials unless you have the standard!!!

Pushback against the IAAF’s recent changes is growing

• Fantastic read Sports Examiner: IAAF’s new ranking system is biased against US, Jamaican, Ethiopians and Kenyans – “Can we be surprised that the group who developed this process is from Europe, and not from the U.S. or Africa?” “It’s insulting to value the NCAA Championships sprints and hurdles events – some of the best in the world each year – the same as second and third-tier events like the Mediterranean Games or Pan-Arab Games. Are you kidding?”
• Recommended Read #2 Toni Reavis thinks distance running should leave the IAAF “If ever there was a time for the sport of long-distance running to say adios to their governing body, now might be exactly the right time.”
• Capital Sports: The IAAF is out of control – they’ve also cancelled the 10,000 and 5,000 at World Jrs and the meet will be held in Kenya If you are from East Africa and think they hate you, we understand why you think that.

The Diamond League Initially Wanted To Kill ALL Distance Races

LRC Q&A Prefontaine Classic Director Tom Jordan On New Diamond League Format: Original Proposal Was To Drop All Races Longer Than The Mile The Pre Classic meet director answers our questions about the Diamond League and Olympic qualifying changes.
*MB: Tom Jordan tells AP Pre Classic will still focus on distances: “We are certainly going to play to our base and that is middle and long distance plus virtually every event,”

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 5,000 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

Previous Distance News

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.”

• Geoffrey Kamworor Confirms He Isn’t Quitting The Track Anytime Soon He said he hasn’t decided yet between the 5,000 and 10,000 at Worlds.
• BBC Catches Up With Athing Mu After Her #2 All-Time 600m: “When I was taking a picture next to the timer, I actually cried.” Mu is the second-youngest of seven siblings and all her siblings have run track.
• Where Are They Now? Podcast Interview With Former Steeplechase Olympian Anthony Famiglietti Carrie Tollefson gets an update from Famiglietti (who is being coached by Alan Webb to go sub-4 as a 40-year-old) on his running and owning his own business as well as some inspirational stories from his life.
• Olympia, Washington To Rename Park After Joan Benoit Samuelson Marathon Park was the site of the start and finish lines for the first women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984 (which Samuelson won).
• Daniel Rudisha’s Funeral Will Be On Monday David Rudisha‘s father will be laid to rest at his home in Oltanki village.
• A Missed Result: Akira Aizawa Wins Japan National University Men’s Half Marathon Championships He won in 61:45 in a close race where third was 61:52.

Uproar And A Little Support For Recent IAAF Decisions

• MB: Ethiopian Athletics Federation Formerly Protests IAAF Decision To Eliminate Distance Running From Track
• Ken Goe: “Why Not Streamline The Diamond League Meets?” Goe doesn’t think stripping the 5,000 from the DL is “necessarily a bad thing” because casual fans have trouble following it and it doesn’t “translate well to television.”
• Ken Goe: “The IAAF Shouldn’t Mess With The US Olympic Trials”
• InsideTheGames’ Mike Rowbottom: IAAF Shapes Its Future – And Yes, Naturally, Not Everyone Is Happy
• 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 5,000 Article includes quotes from Paula Radcliffe, who isn’t happy about the 5,000, and Nic Bideau.

The Indoor Season In Review

• Yomif Kejelcha Is T&F News’ Men’s Indoor Athlete Of The Year Kejelcha won a tight race for the honor with Samuel Tefera. Tefera won their one head-to-head meeting all season, but according to conversions, Kejelcha’s mile time was better than Tefera’s 1,500.
• Russian HJer Mariya Lasitskene Is T&F News’ Women’s Indoor Athlete Of The Year They almost chose Laura Muir, but gave it to Lasitskene, who won 9 out of 10 meets this season with a SB of 2.04m.
• IAAF: Eight Things We Learned From The 2019 Indoor Season The men’s 1500, Laura Muir, Grant Holloway and Japanese HJer Naoto Tobe are some of the highlights they discuss.
• Jakob Ingebrigtsen And Polish Sprinter Ewa Swoboda Are European Athletes Of The Month For February

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.”