March 25, 2019 | LetsRun.com

It Was A Slow Weekend In Terms Of Action, But Here’s What Happened

Ethiopia’s Askale Merachi (2:24:11) Shatters Course Record To Win LA Marathon As 3 Women Break 2:30 No one had broken 2:30 since 2014.
Elisha Barno (2:11:46) Catches Fading John Korir (Wesley’s Brother) With 150m Left To Win Closest Race In LA Marathon History Juan Luis Barrios was third in 2:11:59.
Olympic Marathon Silver Medalist Priscah Jeptoo Returns To Action After 2-Year Maternity Break With Impressive 1:08:26 Win At Stramilano Half The men’s half was won by Vincent Rerimoi in 1:00:10 as steeplechaser Jairus Birech ran 60:32.
Deena Kastor Breaks Masters 8k Record At Chicago’s Shamrock Shuffle With 27:12 (5:29 Pace) Olivia Pratt (26:26) and Joe Moore (23:18) won the overall races.
Laura Weightman Produces Another 10k PR As She Ran 31:40 Over 10km In The Netherlands To Move To #4 All-Time For GBR. Kenya’s Evaline Chirchir won in 31:17.
Interesting Read: 153 Runners Recently Ran A Race Across The World’s Largest Lake – Welcome To The Baikal Ice Marathon In Siberia The New York Times news service profiles this crazy race which was won in 3:05 :05 this year.
Sergey Polikarpov Breaks M60 3,000m World Record With A 9:43.11
NCAA Weekend Recap: Grant Holloway Opens Up Outdoors (7.97m LJ) As Several Throwers Impress *All NCAA Results

Interesting Distance News During A Slow Weekend Of Action

Zimbabwe Athletics Federation Has Big Hopes For St. Benedict Prep’s Alfred Chawonza – The Nation’s #1 HS 800 Recruit The same HS that was home to Edward Cheserek is now home to a guy who ran 1:49 in 2016, had the fastest HS times in the country indoors and just signed with Texas Tech.
*MB: Nation’s #1 HS 800 recruit signs with Texas Tech as “they have one of the best mid-distance programs in the country.” True?
New Zealand’s Sub-4 HSer And UW Recruit Sam Tanner Is Also A Very Good Surfer
*MB: In addition to being the youngest sub-4 runner in New Zealand history, Sam Tanner is also a hell of a surfer
Good Read: 2,000+ Word Profile Of 32-Year-Old Jenny Simpson, Who Wants To Make The Most Of The Rest Of Her Career
After Considering Retirement, America’s 2nd-Fastest 800 Man Ever, Duane Solomon, Is Ready To Start Competing Again The 34-year-old is un-sponsored but dreaming of 2020. He was supposed to run a 400 on Saturday but ended up as a DNS. “I want other athletes to watch me at these upcoming seasons and know that its never over unless you want it to be over.”
Daiso, Discount Shop Chain With 85% Female Employees, Launches Women’s Pro Ekiden Team With 5 18-Year-Old Runners The goal is to win the championship within 10 years.

Going Pro

Katelyn Tuohy Commits To High School Running Through XC 2019, But Not After That Her coach Brian Diglio: “She needs a high level of competition she’s not getting from high school.” Also some interesting quotes from Mary Cain‘s former high school coach at Bronxville.
Good Read: MileSplit Interview With Ato Boldon About High Schoolers Going Pro “I think it’s almost never the right choice.”

Collegiate News *USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA Coverage

May 29-30: 2019 Stanford Invitational Entry Lists Fields include Molly Huddle, Emily Sisson in the 10,000, Andy Bayer, Morgan McDonald in the 5,000, Jessica Hull, Weini Kelati, Ednah Kurgat in the 5,000 and Brianna Rollins vs. Kristi Castlin in the 100.
USTFCCCA: Old Guard Still Standing In Collegiate Outdoor Record Book There are 14 all-time bests (out of 42 total) that were set more than 20 years ago and three that are 40 years old.
Ken Goe: Success Indoors By UO Women Raises Outdoor Expectations Coach Robert Johnson thought they could be fifth, but they pulled off a surprise 3rd.
NCAA Athletes Of Last Week Were Houston’s 4 X 100 Relay And Stanford’s Mackenzie Little Collegiate record holder Houston ran 38.82 while Little opened her season with 194 feet, 2 inches in the javelin.

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?

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.

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.

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

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2019 World XC Is Going To Be Amazing *Entry Lists

Men’s Preview: LRC The Race of the Year Is Here: Get Ready for a Five-Way Slugfest in the Men’s Race at 2019 World XC What a race. If you call yourself a distance fan, you need to be up at 9 am ET on Saturday morning to watch this one – the greatest race on turf. Will Geoffrey Kamworor join John Ngugi, Paul Tergat, and Kenenisa Bekele as a world xc legend?

Organizer Of 2019 World XC Criticizes European Countries For Not Sending More Entrants “European participation is up – true. I am not particularly impressed, though,” said Jakob Larsen. Germany, Netherlands and Turkey are sending only 1 or 2 athletes while Belgium is sending zero.
Want To Race It? MB: We Are Looking For A US Pro That Isn’t Scared To Take On The World’s Best – We’ll Fly You To World XC If all pros took this event seriously, it would be the marquee event in distance running save the Olympics. So if you want to race, we may send you there. Email us.
Athletics Weekly: Why Aarhus Can Save The World Cross We aren’t the only ones super-pumped about next week’s event.

If Only Every American Felt This Way Hellen Obiri Is Thrilled To Be Competing At Her 1st World XC Champs “I am so happy that I made the team to compete in my first ever World Cross-Country Championships. It was my dream to compete at the World Cross and since it’s the only international medal that I am missing, I am looking forward to winning gold, that will be one of my greatest achievement in my career.”
IAAF: A Look Back At 5 Dramatic Moments In World XC History From the time when the entire Ethiopian men’s team kicked a lap too early to the time Sonia O’Sullivan and Paula Radcliffe were sent the wrong way with 400m remaining, the IAAF has you covered.
*MB: WTF: Did this really happen? In 1981, the entire Ethiopian xc team kicked a lap too early at Worlds? Virgin won title
Sifan Hassan pulls out of World XC, The article says she’s training in Ethiopia, not Portland. Another article says she’ll run the Berlin Half in April.
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

More IAAF News Good For IAAF: IAAF Fires Back And Rips Into Author Of UN Resolution Saying IAAF May Be Violating UN’s Rule On Human Rights In Caster Semenya Case “There are many generic and inaccurate statements contained in the motion presented to the Human Rights Council so it is difficult to know where to start. The common ground is that we both believe it is important to preserve fair competition in female sport so women are free to compete in national and international sport.”

Non-Distance News

Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryu Pulls Off Double At Queensland Track Classic (10.08, 2.0 m/s, 20.39 PR, 1.5m/s) Kiryu is the only Japanese man that has gone sub-10.
Lisa Adams, Valerie’s Sister, Sets New Paralympic World Record In Shot Put Lisa has “hemiplegia – a form of cerebral palsy that affects the movement and growth of muscles on the limbs of one side of her body.” Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki (21.32) Upsets Tom Walsh (20.84) In Shot In NZ *Video
After Missing Most Of Last Year With Myocarditis, Or Inflammation Of The Heart Muscle, Jacko Gill’s Comeback Is Gathering Mathering Momentum Gill is purposely less strong than before as his coach wants to focus on speed, not strength.
South African Federation Says Big Stars Like Wayde van Niekerk And Caster Semenya Need To Compete At Nationals If they don’t and three others end up getting the qualifying time for worlds, then they won’t be selected.

More Distance News

Henry Rono’s Relatives And Neighbors Claim He Owns Properties And Doesn’t Need To Beg To Return Home Rono has been in the US for 33 years and has begged for an airline ticket to return home to Kenya. A celebration has been planned for when he arrives, although this article doesn’t specify when that is.
*Previously: Kenyan County Governor Offers Lifeline To Struggling Legend Henry Rono After struggling with alcoholism, Rono had been working as a security guard in Albuquerque and said that he couldn’t afford to get back to Kenya.
Alberto Salazar On Jordan Hasay: “She has been running over 100 miles a week and has not had foot problems. Hopefully, that is behind her.” Salazar says he had hoped she’d be under 70 minutes rather than over at last weekend’s Shamrock Run 15k, but that he was still “pleased with it.”
Japan’s Oldest-Ever Olympic Marathoner Suehiro Ishikawa Retires At 39 Ishikawa was 36 when he competed at Rio 2016, but now says he’s ready to retire after he DNFed for the first time ever earlier this month.
Calls For “Rudisha Stadium” To Be Built In Narok County To Honor The Late Daniel Rudisha Rudisha was part of the relay that won Kenya’s first 4 x 400 medal at the Olympics in 1968.
IAAF: Paula Radcliffe Discusses Girls’ Empowerment Through Sport At “She Runs-Active Girls’ Lead Event In Paris Seb Coe: “Sport, and athletics in particular, develops many of the skills that a leader requires, including confidence, capability, integrity and work ethic.”

More On IAAF Neutering The 5,000

Kenya’s World Junior 5,000 Champ Edward Zakayo Expresses Concern Over The IAAF’s Decision To Cut Distance Events From The Diamond League “The decision means most of the distance athletes like me will not get the chance to make a smooth progress from one event to another … we have no alternative but to drop to the road races and the marathon, which will very hard for the younger runners like me.”
MB: Eliud Kipchoge Weighs In on IAAF’s Decision to Kill off Distance Running on the Track On Instagram Kipchoge wrote, “9 out of 10 seasons I broke 13:00 on the 5,000m. It’s the distance which has been crucial for my career and has helped me to become the athlete I am today.”
*LRC Archives: A Look Back At A Race For The Ages: Eliud Kipchoge Takes Down Kenenisa Bekele & El Guerrouj At The 2003 World Championships
IAAF Say Diamond League Meets Are Still Free To Include A 5,000, Just Not In The 90-Minute TV Window Yeah, and the fact that the big prize money will be in the 3,000 won’t water down those 5,000 fields at all.

Masters, Paralympic And Youth News

Brian Reynolds Broke Half Marathon Double Amputee World Record At The NYC Half He finished in 1:19:43.
Athletics Weekly Preview: Top Masters Athletes Head To Torun For The World Masters Indoor Champs
USATF Recap: Fast Times At The US Masters 8k Championships
USATF Masters Indoor Champs Concluded With 23 World Records, 21 American Records
*94-Year-Old Lindberg’s Age Group World Record Highlights Day 2 At USATF Masters Indoor Championships *Day 1 Recap
IAAF Teams Up With The World Marathon Majors To Sponsor The First World Masters Conference In Torun Strength and endurance training methods and techniques for masters athletes will be the key topics discussed.
USATF: Brianna White, Da’mira Allen Highlight 2019 USATF Hershey Youth Indoor Champs *Day 2 Recap *Day 1

Our Weekly Recap

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”?

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.

Doping News: Strange Details From Asbel Kiprop Case

IAAF Disciplinary Tribunal Delays Decision On Asbel Kiprop Doping Case For Three More Weeks Kiprop still maintains that his sample was tampered with and that a drug tester asked for a bribe as his lawyer points out that Kiprop’s samples taken five days before and two days after his failed test were clean.
Asbel Kiprop’s Lawyer Says That Kiprop’s “A” And “B” Samples Yielded Different Results The article doesn’t get into detail, but we assume they were both positive for EPO or Kiprop would have been cleared. His lawyer also notes that one of the samples was initially sent to the wrong address than it was meant to and that the A/B samples were tested by different labs.
Russian Racewalker Aleksandr Ivanov To Be Stripped Of Multiple Medals Over Doping Among the medals he loses is his 2013 world gold.

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 over-representation of DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) athletes in the women’s 800.

United Nations Backs Caster Semenya In CAS Case A South African politician called Semenya’s case “a struggle for all women in the world against discrimination, sexism, and patriarchy.”
Caster Semenya “Optimistic” Of Victory In CAS Appeal Against IAAF Rules
Video Interview With Caster Semenya Talking About Meeting Nelson Mandela
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).

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

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.

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.