March 22, 2019 | LetsRun.com

An Update On The Confusion / Controversy Surrounding The 2020 Olympic Selection System

LRC One Week Later: How Will USATF Select The 2020 Olympic Team? No One Really Seems To Know We have a little good news to report. Amid confusion, USA Track and Field is refusing to confirm the statement they gave us last week that put US distance fans into a tizzy. And USATF tells us they are appealing to the IAAF to give the top 5 at the US Olympic Marathon Trials the marathon standard.
*MB: A Little Good News: USATF is appealing to get top 5 at US Olympic Marathon Trials the standard.

Assorted Distance News

Kemoy Campbell On Millrose Collapse: “The doctors said I basically died.” the doctors told him to take some time off and then do some tests which will determine if he can build back up or if it’s the end of his career.
IAAF Inside Athletics Video Interview With Geoffrey Kamworor Just a quick 4-minute interview.
Podcast Q&A With Becky Wade Firth Carrie Tollefson talks to 2:30 marathoner Wade about her 110 mile weeks training for Boston and her new book, “Run The World.”
May 5: USA Marathon Champions Brogan Austin And Emma Bates Headline Fields For 2019 USATF Half Marathon Championships In Pittsburgh
Sunday: Former Winners Return To The Wuxi Marathon In China Priscilla Kipruto Chepatiy (2:33:34) will try to defend her title in the women’s race while 2015 winner Li Zicheng (2:13:12) faces several sub-2:10 men.

Our Weekly Recap

LRC WTW: USATF Defies The IAAF And Ruins The Olympic Trials, Fast Halves And The Perfect Solution To The DL 5,000 Situation What a ridiculous week for US distance fans. We pick ourselves off the mat and offer common sense solutions to keep the crown jewel of US track and field – the Olympic Trials – exciting and to save the Diamond League 5,000. Along the way we wonder if Brigid Kosgei is now the favorite for next month’s London Marathon.

It’s Unfortunate The Only Women Comfortable Enough To Speak Up On This Issue Are Retired

Paula Radcliffe, Kelly Holmes And Former Olympic Swimmer Sharron Davies Asking IOC To Research “Residual Benefits” Of Being A Transgender Athlete Right now a transgender athlete who keeps their testosterone below a certain level for a year can compete in women’s Olympic sports, but there are a lot of benefits biological males have besides testosterone.
Two University Of Montreal Professors Call Testosterone Rules For Female Athletes “Unscientific” One of them accused the IAAF of “policing women’s bodies” and said, “We don’t need to be protected from women just as men in sport aren’t protected from other men.” We assume she doesn’t count anti-doping rules which protect men and women. *BBC Article

Corruption / Doping News

France Seeking The Arrest OF Two Russian Former Track Officials French judges have issued arrest warrants for former Russian Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev and former head distance coach Alexei Melnikov as part of investigation of doping cover-up scandal. *BBC Article
*InsideTheGames: It’s Unlikely French Authorities Will Ever Actually Arrest Balakhnichev Or Melnikov Like Papa Massata Diack, these two are unlikely to ever travel somewhere where France has jurisdiction to arrest them.
Never Too Early For An Olympic Scandal: Japan Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda Resigns Following Bribery Allegations He is also leaving his role as an IOC member over the allegations he authorized bribes used to secure Tokyo’s successful bid for the 2020 Games. Payments made have been linked to Papa Massata Diack. *2nd Article
At Least 21 Athletes Suspected Of Blood Doping After Being Linked To German Doctor Arrested In A Doping Raid Last Month The athletes and sports haven’t been named.

Unbelievably Stupid

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 medalist 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 at 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 Juniors 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.

Non-Distance News

10% Of Olympic Gold Medalists Come From Countries That Don’t Even Have Anti-Doping Agencies “It is not a fair environment.”
French Feminist Groups Asks For Hijab To Be Banned Fom Paris 2024, Nike-Sponsored American Fencer Fights Back: “I’ll be in my Nike pro hijab every damn day.” Never let a good opportunity to market go to waste.
19-Year-Old Christopher Taylor Runs 45.99 At Digicel Grand Prix Final
Zharnel Hughes 10.20 (-1.3 m/s), Asafa Powell 10.35 (-1.1 m/s) Win 100m Heats At GC Foster Classic
Carl Lewis Tells TMZ He Could Have Run The 40-Yard Dash In Under 4.0 Seconds Nope, Christian Coleman only did it in 4.12.
Double Olympic Javelin Medallist Keshorn Walcot Says His Main Goal In 2019 Is “To Be Healthy” Keshorn, 25, won Olympic gold at 19 in 2012.

Meb Speaks To LRC

LRC Podcast Guest Meb Keflezighi: Will There Be Marathon #27? New Olympic Qualifying Procedures, Epic World Cross Course, Should Beto Have Run The 3k? Marathon legend Meb Keflezighi joins us on the show to talk about his legendary career and new book.
LRC This Week’s Big Chat: Meb Keflezighi Has Got A New Book Out Called “26 Marathons” – Will There Be A 27th At The Trials?

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Meb Keflezighi: Will There Be Marathon #27? New Olympic Qualifying Procedures, Epic World Cross Course, Should Beto Have Run the 3k?

Semenya Decision Delayed

LRC CAS Delays Caster Semenya Case For At Least A Month In a guest post for LRC, Amby Burfoot gives some background on the case and references studies demonstrating the overrepresentation of DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) athletes in the women’s 800.

CAS Delays Decision On Caster Semenya Until Late April They were supposed to announce their decision on March 26, but they say that the IAAF and Semenya have filed additional submissions and materials. The IAAF rule says that hyperandrogenous athletes need to keep their testosterone below a certain level for 6 months, but they have now created a “special transitional period” so that affected athletes could still compete at Worlds if they lower their levels within one week of the CAS decision (assuming CAS rules in favor of the IAAF).

Indoor Athletes Of The Year

Donovan Brazier Is T&F News US Men’s Indoor Athlete Of The Year
Ajee Wilson Is T&F News’ US Wen’s Indoor Athlete Of The Year
Grant Holloway Is T&F News’ Men’s NCAA Indoor Athlete Of The Year Winning a 60/60H NCAA double with a national record with a 3rd in the LJ and a leg on the 4 x 400 … yeah, that’ll do it.
Lexi Jacobus Is T&F News’ Women’s NCAA Indoor Athlete Of The Year The Arkansas athlete moved to #2 on the all-time NCAA list with her 4.70m in the PV.
Katelyn Tuohy Is T&F News’ Girls High School Indoor Athlete Of The Year It came down to Tuohy or Athing Mu, but Tuohy was undefeated while Mu lost to another prep at NBIN.
Sam Affolder Is T&F News’ Boys High School Indoor Athlete Of The Year Affolder ran splits of 4:06.21, 4:06.19 and 1:51.37 on Loudon Valley relay teams.

Collegiate News

Good Read: DyeStat: Inside All-American And Two-Time NXN Champ Casey Clinger’s Two-Year Mission To Japan An interesting look into Clinger’s life as a missionary in Japan which has included helping people in the aftermath of earthquakes, a lot of snow shoveling and barely running.
*MB: All American Casey Clinger steps away from college to serve as a missionary – His Story
University Of Arizona Coach Fred Harvey Accused Of Assaulting An Athlete; UA Facing Possible $10 Million Lawsuit The former team member Michael Grabowski says Harvey threw him down causing him to faint. He claims he was kicked off the team and lost his scholarship because he complained about being bullied by teammates.
*MB: University of Arizona cross country coach accused of assaulting athlete
Tony Sandoval To Retire After 37 Years At Cal Sandoval has coached 12 individual national champions and 6 Olympians.
*MB: Cal Director Tony Sandoval Asked to Retire?
Pre-Season Men’s Outdoor Rankings Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida are ranked 1-4.
Women’s Outdoor Pre-Season Rankings Southern California, Texas A&M, LSU and Arkansas have the top 4 spots.
In Case You Missed This: High School Sprint Star Tyrese Cooper Is Going To Oregon The 20.46/45.23 man chose Oregon over Texas and Ohio State.
Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From First Week Of Outdoor Season
MB: College XC teams with a “team house”?

More Distance News

Cam Levins Feels Like He’s “A Natural” At The Marathon Distance “I don’t know if I’ve stepped into an event before and had it feel so natural like this. I feel I’m built for the marathon.”
Forbes: Short Q&A With Des Linden Did you know Linden has her own coffee company with Ben True called Linden & True?
David Rudisha’s Father, Daniel, Is Buried In Kenya Those at the funeral included Kip Keino, Moses Tanui and Milcah Chemos.
Germany’s Euro U23 XC Champ Alina Reh Wins Citylauf Dresden 10k In A Course Record 32:09

African Distance News: Semenya Does 5,000m

Caster Semenya Opens Her Season With A 1,500/5,000 Double Win In South Africa Semenya won the 1,500 in 4:14 and double backed in the 5,000 with 16:11. Is she preparing in case she loses her CAS case? The IAAF testosterone rules are only for events up to a mile.
Ezekiel Kemboi Prepping For His Marathon Debut In Hamburg On April 28th Kemboi has been coached by Eliud Kipchoge‘s coach, Patrick Sang and says, “I have been training hard on the roads. I started training last year, my body is fit for the marathons and my timing is equally good.”
Eliud Kipchoge Donates One Of The Shoes He Wore Winning Olympic Marathon Gold For IAAF Heritage Exhibition Opening In Doha Next Month

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Next Week’s World XC Looks Like It Will Be Amazing

LRC Mud, Beer And VIKINGS! A Behind-The-Scenes Look At How The Incredible 2019 World XC Course Was Designed Organizers are planning one hell of a party for next week’s World XC Champs. The course features mud, water, and sand pits, a beer tent, a portion that runs over the roof of a museum, and a Viking Zone. And it’s all inspired by Chuck Norris.
*MB: 2019 World XC looks like it’s going to be LEGENDARY! Someone hire Jakob Larsen to run all of track and field

Sprints / Field Event News

Ge Manqui Breaks Chinese 60m Record With 7.10 At The China National Indoor Grand Prix Wang Shaojie broke the 22-year-old Chinese indoor 1,500m record with 3:45.36, World champ Gong Lijiao won the women’s shot put (19.14m), and Asian Games silver medalist Zhang Yaoguang won the LJ with 8.00m.
France Names Team Of 40 For World Relay Champs Includes sprinter Christophe Lemaitre and Jimmy Vicaut.
Profile On Spanish Triple Jumper Ana Peleteiro And Her Coach, 2000 Olympic LJ Champ Cuba’s Ivan Pedroso She gives him a lot of credit in helping her to the 14.73m jump which broke the national record and won Euro gold this winter.
Olympic Shot Put Champ Ryan Crouser Writes A Letter To His Younger Self Crouser says he thinks it’s good he didn’t specialize in one sport at too young an age as he played football, basketball and other sports which taught him more “reactive” body movements.