April 2, 2019 | LetsRun.com

Week That Was

LRC WTW: 7 Final Thoughts About World XC + Emily Sisson Delivers Is Burundi on its way to being the newest East African distance power? How in the world did the US men lose to Tanzania? Plus Dom Scott went for it big-time (and blew up big-time) and a look back at Eliud Kipchoge‘s four runs at World XC.

IAAF Facing Another Legal Challenge

US Lawyer Launches Legal Challenge To Get Women’s 50k Race Walk Into The Tokyo 2020 Olympics On Basis Of Gender Equality We have a better solution to achieve gender equality: remove the men’s 50k race walk.

2019 World XC *Results

LRC Redemption: Joshua Cheptegei Conquers Kiplimo, Kamworor And The Course To Become World Champion 2 years ago, Cheptegei wilted in the heat while leading before the home Ugandan crowd. Today, he conquered the tough, magnificent Aarhus course that broke the US men’s team that finished 11th. Kirubel Erassa ran a good first leg for the US relay team that finished 4th.

LRC Won And Done: Hellen Obiri Wins Her First (And Last) World Cross-Country Title Obiri is not a 10k runner or a cross-country runner, but she showed why she is one of the best runners on the planet by winning on the tough course. Stephanie Bruce was the top American woman as the Bowerman women really struggled.

Having Conquered Cross-Country, Hellen Obiri Turns Focus Back To The Track Obiri, the world 5,000m champ, isn’t interested in doing more XC and is in no hurry to move to the roads full-time. She still plans to keep her focus on the track.
IAAF: Kenya’s World U20 5,000m Champ Beatrice Chebet Prevails In Dramatic Finish In Women’s U20 Race Chebet and Ethiopians Alemitu Tariku and Tsigie Gebreselama all crossed the line together at 20:50 with Tariku initially being announced the winner. However a photo finish showed that Chebet had crossed first.
IAAF: Milkesa Mengesha Leads Ethiopian 1-2 In Men’s U20 Race With Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo taking bronze, it was the first time since 1984 that Kenya didn’t win an individual medal in the men’s U20 race.
*MB: Congrats to Jakob Ingebrigtsen for finishing 12th at World Jr XC. He’s not afraid to lay it on the line.
IAAF: Ethiopia Gains Revenge On Kenya In Mixed Relay Kenya and Ethiopia were neck-and-neck for the first three legs, but a strong finish from former world U20 1,500 champ Fantu Worku gave Ethiopia the win.
*MB: Should the US give back its Mixed Relay bronze medal at World XC since it only got it because of this DQ (video)?
RRW: Joshua Cheptegei Rebounds From Kampala Meltdown To Take World Cross-Country Gold
Former NCAA Champ Kate Avery Leads British Women To Fourth With 30th-Place Finish
Athletics Weekly Staff Member Shares His Experience Running Mass Participation Race At World XC
JRN: Japanese U20 Women Win Team Bronze at World Cross-Country Championships

Assorted Distance News

Callum Hawkins Is Excited For London Thinks He Has “Point To Prove” After Commonwealth Games Collapse “I don’t want to be known as the guy who fell over on a bridge; I want to be known as the guy who wins medals and runs quick times.”
IAAF And Athletics Kenya Reach Understanding On New Diamond League Format Seb Coe and IAAF CEO Jon Ridgeon claim that the changes won’t disadvantage East African athletes, explaining that the 5,000 was removed since athletes won’t run that many 5,000s over a season, but they can race the 3000 more often. *InsideTheGames Article
Podcast Interview With Kara Goucher Carrie Tollefson talks to Goucher about her plans to race her first trail marathon this summer at Leadville, her new book, and running memories.

Happy April Fools!

HS News Of Note

White Men Can Jump: Matthew Boling Currently Leads The US HS List In Both The Long Jump (8.03 – 26’10”) And 100 (10.22) The LJ mark is the longest HS mark in the US in nearly a decade.
Kingston College Men Win 1st Boys ChampsTitle In A Decade As Edwin Allen Girls Win 6th-Straight
IAAF Jamaica Boys & Girls Champs Recap Mid-distance got some attention as Calabar’s Kimar Farquharson ran 1:48.67 to break a 31-year-old meet record.
Fast 100m Times Get Spotlight At Champs Oblique Seville of Calabar just missed Zharnel Hughes’s record as he won in 10.13 as Kevona Davis of Edwin Allen won the girls 100 in 11.19. 14-year-old Tina Clayton ran a 11.27 100m as 13-year-old Christopher Scott ran 10.73.
Double World Junior Gold Medalist Briana Williams, Who Lives In Florida But Competes For Jamaica, Attends Champs And Wishes She Competed In Them We don’t think anything is stopping her from going to HS in Jamaica.
Steve Cram Says Health And Safety In Schools Is Hobbling British Athletics Cram thinks the schools are too risk averse to teach hurdles, long jump and pole vault.

Previous Non-World XC News

Toni Reavis: Can Distance Running Pull Itself Back From The Brink? “Like baseball, athletics (track & field) is a 19th-century pastoral sport, perfect for the settings and pace of the 19th century, but too loosely configured and time-consuming for the 21st.”
Barkley Marathons 2019 Is Coming Up – Everything You Need To Know About The World’s Craziest Race
Medical Expert Says Solution To Semenya-Type Cases Might Be To Have A “Third Sex” Competition That will be the only solution if there isn’t an testosterone cap.
Q&A With Athing Mu, Who Is Keeping Everything In Perspective
Valerie Adams Gives Birth To Second Child Several Weeks Early, But Baby And Mom Seem To Be Doing Pretty Well
Competitor Agrees With LetsRun.com: New Boston Marathon Rules Will Kill Off The Underdog Story Why they aren’t starting the elite men with everyone else is beyond stupid.
Ken Goe: It’s Time For The Sport To Put Spectators First “The entirety of track and field has been run too long by participants for participants.”
Looking To Race And Learn At The Same Time? Last Week, The Selma-To-Montgomery Relay Was Held Not sure why it’s 51 miles when Dr. Martin Luther King‘s march was 54 miles.
How To Boost Your Metabolism As You Get Older Guys in particular need to watch out as theirs slows more than it does for women.

Masters WRs

Meet Team LetsRun.com, Which Just Doubled In Number

LRC From 15:40 In College To 13:57 At Age 28, Meet Matt Crowe, The LetsRun.com Men’s Entrant To 2019 World Cross-Country Crowe is 28-year-old American with a 13:57 PR who is currently living in London. The story of how he got there, going from 15:40 in college to 13:57, is incredible.
*MB: Team LetsRun.com just doubled in size – Meet Matt Crowe – We’re sending him to 2019 World XC as well

Previous Non-World XC News

Toni Reavis: Can Distance Running Pull Itself Back From The Brink? “Like baseball, athletics (track & field) is a 19th-century pastoral sport, perfect for the settings and pace of the 19th century, but too loosely configured and time-consuming for the 21st.”
Barkley Marathons 2019 Is Coming Up – Everything You Need To Know About The World’s Craziest Race
Medical Expert Says Solution To Semenya-Type Cases Might Be To Have A “Third Sex” Competition That will be the only solution if there isn’t an testosterone cap.
Q&A With Athing Mu, Who Is Keeping Everything In Perspective
Valerie Adams Gives Birth To Second Child Several Weeks Early, But Baby And Mom Seem To Be Doing Pretty Well
Competitor Agrees With LetsRun.com: New Boston Marathon Rules Will Kill Off The Underdog Story Why they aren’t starting the elite men with everyone else is beyond stupid.
Ken Goe: It’s Time For The Sport To Put Spectators First “The entirety of track and field has been run too long by participants for participants.”
Looking To Race And Learn At The Same Time? Last Week, The Selma-To-Montgomery Relay Was Held Not sure why it’s 51 miles when Dr. Martin Luther King‘s march was 54 miles.
How To Boost Your Metabolism As You Get Older Guys in particular need to watch out as theirs slows more than it does for women.

Masters WRs

Meet Team LetsRun.com, Which Just Doubled In Number

LRC Meet Kelsey Bruce, The LetsRun.com Entrant At The 2019 World Cross-Country Championships This week, we’re doing something that the athletics federations of Belgium, Finland, and the Netherlands couldn’t manage. We’re sending an athlete to the World Cross Country Championships. Meet Kelsey Bruce. The former DII runner has chopped her marathon PR from 2:48 to 2:31 in less than three years, and is pumped to race the world’s best.
*MB: Meet Kelsey Bruce: We’re sending the former DII runner, who has improved from 2:48 to 2:31 in the marathon, to 2019 World XC

More Upcoming Action

April 7: Edward Cheserek To Headline 2019 Carlsbad 5,000 We will see what kind of time Cheserek can put down at the historically fast 5k.
April 7: Switzerland’s Tadesse Abraham (2:0640) And Kenya’s Defending Champion Nancy Kiprop (2:22:46) Abraham faces nine other sub-2:10 men while Kiprop is up against Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa (2:23:46).
April 23: Grand Blue Mile Opens 2019 Bring Back The Mile Grand Prix Tour The five race road mile series starts in April and ends in October with the Navy Mile in DC.
Tickets On Sale For 2019 World Relay Champs The World Relays are on May 11-12 in Yokohama, Japan.

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

LRC Abbott World Marathon Majors And Athletics Integrity Unit Announce Expanded Out-Of-Competition Testing And Investigation Program The WMMs are putting their money into keeping the sport clean. Others like agents and sponsors need to start joining them.

IAAF Clears Four More Russians To Compete As Neutral Athletes Includes Russian national junior indoor 3,000m champ Lilia Mendaeva. Overall this season, 69 Russians have been approved, 15 have been refused and 162 applications have yet to be processed.

Post-Weekend NCAA News

More Weekend US Track Highlights World leads from North Carolina A&T’s Trevor Stewart (45.18 in the 400m), Florida’s Sharrika Barnett (50.96 in the 400m), Ohio State’s Anavia Battle (22.54 in the 200m), LSU’s Tonea Marshall (12.96 in the 100H) and Jenn Suhr (4.91m in the PV). Also, LSU freshman Sha’Carri Richardson ran the fastest US junior 100m in any conditions with 10.91 (4.3 wind).
Texas Tech And Texas A&M Men Remain 1-2 In Updated NCAA Rankings Florida moved up to 3rd and BYU to 4th.
Southern California Women Remain #1 In Updated NCAA Rankings Arkansas moved up from 4th to 2nd while Texas A&M and LSU moved down to 3-4. Oregon is ranked 5th.
Event-By-Event Top 10 Marks From The Collegiate Weekend

2019 World XC *Results

Having Conquered Cross-Country, Hellen Obiri Turns Focus Back To The Track Obiri, the world 5,000m champ, isn’t interested in doing more XC and is in no hurry to move to the roads full-time. She still plans to keep her focus on the track.
IAAF: Kenya’s World U20 5,000m Champ Beatrice Chebet Prevails In Dramatic Finish In Women’s U20 Race Chebet and Ethiopians Alemitu Tariku and Tsigie Gebreselama all crossed the line together at 20:50 with Tariku initially being announced the winner. However a photo finish showed that Chebet had crossed first.
IAAF: Milkesa Mengesha Leads Ethiopian 1-2 In Men’s U20 Race With Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo taking bronze, it was the first time since 1984 that Kenya didn’t win an individual medal in the men’s U20 race.
*MB: Congrats to Jakob Ingebrigtsen for finishing 12th at World Jr XC. He’s not afraid to lay it on the line.
IAAF: Ethiopia Gains Revenge On Kenya In Mixed Relay Kenya and Ethiopia were neck-and-neck for the first three legs, but a strong finish from former world U20 1,500 champ Fantu Worku gave Ethiopia the win.
*MB: Should the US give back its Mixed Relay bronze medal at World XC since it only got it because of this DQ (video)?
RRW: Joshua Cheptegei Rebounds From Kampala Meltdown To Take World Cross-Country Gold
Former NCAA Champ Kate Avery Leads British Women To Fourth With 30th-Place Finish
Athletics Weekly Staff Member Shares His Experience Running Mass Participation Race At World XC
JRN: Japanese U20 Women Win Team Bronze at World Cross-Country Championships

Semenya News

Athletics South Africa Claim The Delay In The CAS Hearing Is “Entirely Due To The IAAF Seeking To Amend The Regulations” The despite previous articles saying that the IAAF and Semenya both filed additional submissions and materials to be reviewed.
Athletics South Africa Accuse IAAF And Seb Coe Of Breaching Confidentiality Agreement In Caster Semenya Case However, Reuters writes that “there is no evidence to suggest this.”

World Cross LRC Message Board Discussion

Outside World XC Coverage

Athletics Weekly: Believe The Hype. Aarhus Is Exceptional
Trackerati Calls Denmark World XC Director The “Saviour Of Modern Cross-Country,” Says Course Is “One Of The Greatest Cross-Country Courses Ever Conceived”
British Champ Jenny Nesbitt Pumped For World XC Test
World XC Legends Lynn Jennings, John Treacy And Paul Tergat Mesmerize 200 ElementarySchool Students In Denmark Tergat was asked by a kid to say something “African.”
2018 800 World #1 Emmanuel Korir Left Behind As Team Kenya Departs For Aarhus He’s got visa issues but expected to join the team a day late.
Kenya’s Newest Teenage Star Rhonex Kipruto Says David Rudisha And Eliud Kipchoge Were His Childhood Idols He also says the road 10k world record of 26:44 is a big goal of his for 2019.
A Look Back At XC’s History In The Olympics

Previous World XC News

Athletics Weekly: Why Aarhus Can Save The World Cross We aren’t the only ones super-pumped about the event.
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.
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.
IAAF Facts And Figures PDF On 2019 World XC Champs

Tweets By letsrundotcom

Some More Post-World XC News

IAAF: After Winning His First Global Senior Title, Joshua Cheptegei Now Wants More Cheptegei wants to “dominate the track for the next five or six years” and then consider moving to the marathon.
You Always Remember Your First: Ugandan Journalist Praises Joshua Cheptegai For Being The First Ugandan To Win World XC Senior Gold “Many outstanding athletes become number one. But not all champions can enjoy the distinguished honor of being first.”
Fionnuala McCormack Not Satisfied With 18th Place At World XC Six Months After Giving Birth She was a fan of the course, though, saying, “It was real cross-country. This was proper tough – real hills, real muck, real water, everything was real about it …”

Weekend Track Action All Weekend NCAA Coverage Major NCAA Results *Stanford Full Results

MB: Emily Sisson Runs 30:49 In Stanford 10,000m, Moves To #3 On US List, Beats Molly Huddle (30:58) Allie Ostrander was 3rd (32:06).
UW’s Olivia Gruver Sets Women’s NCAA Women’s Pole Vault Record With 4.73m At Stanford She broke the previous record of 4.72m held by Sandi Morris from 2015.
Olympic 400H Champ Dalilah Muhammad Runs 23.35 To Beat Out Brianna Rollins-McNeal In Stanford 200m Rollins-McNeal was 3rd in 23.45. Muhammad also won the 400m in 52.63.
The Oregonian: Jessica Hull’s 15:34 Win Highlights UO Results From Stanford She broke her PR by almost a minute to move to #4 on the Oregon all-time list.
DyeStat Rundown Some More Highlights From Stanford BYU’s Conner Mantz (28:18.18) and Clayton Young (28:18.50) ran the two fastest 10,000 times in the world this year. Vashti Cunningham won the HJ with 1.94m.
MB: Redshirt Indiana Freshman Arjun Jha runs 13:56 at Stanford
Texas A&M Men And Women Earn Team Of The Meet Honors At Texas Relays *Results
Kansas Bryce Hoppel Remains Undefeated, Wins 800 At Texas Relays In Outdoor Debut
Ashtin Zamzow Becomes First Texas Athlete To Win Heptathlon At Texas Relays With 12th-Best Showing In NCAA History (6148)
MB: Grant Holloway runs 13.28 WL and 20.60 200 at Florida Relays *Results
Gainesville.com: Gators Show No Signs Of Slowing At Florida Relays

Weekend Road Results

Ethiopians Jimma Shambel (2:10:28) And Aberu Mekuria (2:24:30) Win The Chongqing Marathon In China The men’s race came down to the wire with Shambel and Kenya’s Edwin Kibet Koech clocking the same time and 3rd and 4th place finishing within 10 seconds.
Kenyans Gilbert Masai (61:43) And Gladys Kipkoech (70:19) Win Warsaw Half Marathon

Pre-World XC News From Denmark

Day 3 – Press Conference Day: LRC Seb Coe Loves World XC And Wants More Participation – But If That Is To Happen, He Needs To Change His Approach

LRC Courtney Frerichs Is Excited For The Challenge Of 2019 World XC: “It’s going to be an experience that we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives.”

LRC USA XC Legend Lynn Jennings On Aarhus Course: “The best and the toughest cross-country course I have seen.”

Day 2: LRC 2019 World XC: A Tour Of The Toughest Cross-Country Course We’ve Ever Seen It’s also the toughest course that Shalane Flanagan and Tim Hutchings have seen as well.
*MB: Boots are on the ground at World XC – The course is LIVING UP TO THE HYPE AND GETTING RAVE REVIEWS

LRC Denmark Podcast #2: The Most Difficult World Cross-Country Course We Ever Seen + Kelsey Bruce Speaks This podcast features a 20-minute interview with Kelsey Bruce, who has safely arrived in Denmark. Plus we reveal that we’ve also sent a man to compete at World XC.
*Denmark Podcast #1

LRC Goes To World XC Day 1 In Denmark: Bikes, A Strip Club, & The Little Mermaid We recap everything that LRC’s Weldon Johnson & Jonathan Gault got up to on Wednesday in beautiful Copenhagen.