2019 IAAF World Relays *Schedule And Results *TV & Streaming *Event-By-Event Previews *Live Blog

Day 2: Poland Upsets US In Women’s 4 X 400, T&T Beats US In Men’s 4 X 400, Brazil Beats US In 4 X 100
*MB: Are you kidding me? USA manages to lose both men’s 4 x 400, women’s 4 x 400 and men’s 4 x 100 at World Relays

• Despite 3 High-Profile Losses, US Still Tops Points Table With More Than Twice As Many Points As Anyone Else
• Jamaicans Take Second Spot In World Relays Points Table
• Athletics Weekly: “Brazil win 4x100m as GB’s men are third in Yokohama”
• Great Britain Men Win 4 X 100m World Relays Bronze Despite Baton Error But Adam Gemili Injury Causes Concern
• IAAF: First Wave Of Relay Teams Qualify For Doha 2019 Worlds 10 of the 16 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 spots at Worlds were up for grabs. Same for 12 of the 16 mixed 4 x 400 spots.

Day 1: MB: Donavan Brazier and Ce’aira Brown win gold, Japan (not the US) botches men’s 4 x 100

• IAAF Day 1 Recap: On Night Of Dramatic Event Debuts, US Dominates – IAAF World Relays Yokohama 2019, Day 1
• USATF Recap: US Wins Both Finals On Day 1 Of 2019 IAAF World Relays Gold in the 2 x 2 x 400 as well as the shuttle hurdle relay. The US women had a world lead in the 4 x 100 and while the US men won their heat and beat China, Canada and Japan, they only had the 4th best time of the day.
• Home Calamity As Japan’s Male 4 X 100m Runners Fail To Make Final
• Lukewarm Results For Jamaica On Chilly World Relays Opening Day – Chilly For Jamaica Means 20 C (68F)
• British Women Blunder In 4 X 100m At World Relays Two years ago, the British men screwed up and four months later they won Worlds.
• MB: Australia false starts in shuttle hurdle relays final at 2019 IAAF World Relays, event is run with just 2 teams

LRC What Are The Best Ultramarathon Records? There are some AMAZING ultra records out there, but we want to know what are the best. Tell us your choice and you could win a pair of HOKA ONE ONE shoes as our month long exploration of the ultra scene continues. (Sponsored content by HOKA ONE ONE)
*MB: What are the best ultramarathon records? (Sponsored by HOKA)

Distance News That Passed Our Vetting Process

• An Early Look At What We Can Expect For 2021 World XC In Bathurst Bathurst, the first inland settlement in Australia, is hilly so the course is going to be hilly but will have sections where you can get in a rhythm. It’s also known for car racing so expect some automobile racing themes.
• Article Reveals That Caster Semenya At Times Was Required To Show Her Genitals As A Kid To Run In Her Native South Africa So can we stop with the nonsense that this whole thing was invented by people intent on discriminating against people from sub-Sahara Africa?
• Steve Magness Tries To Answer All of Your Questions Regarding The Caster Semenya Controversy
• NY Times: Why Runners Shouldn’t Wear Flip Flops In The Summer
• Meet The Latest Dreamer, Colby Mehman,  Who Is Living In His Van While He Shoots For The Olympic Marathon Trials
• Sad News: Great Stirling XCountry Meet Is No More It was one of the highlights of a slow January for LRC nation.
  *Runners “Gutted” As Stirling Marathon Chiefs Announce Event Will Be Axed From 2020
• Emily Sisson Reveals She Thrived On High Mileage During Her Debut Marathon Buildup “I felt a little less sore doing 115-mile weeks where I wasn’t getting on the track as much than I did [before] doing 90 miles getting on the track a few times a week.”
• Runner’s World Takes A Look At 2 Guys Who Like To Hoard Shoes They have 567 pairs between the two of them.
• Penn Relays Honored By IAAF Penn was named as one of 11 winners of the IAAF World Athletics Heritage Plaque, awarded for outstanding contribution to “the worldwide history and development of the sport of track and field and of out-of-stadia athletics.”
  *Hakone Ekiden Also Honored
• American Star Hasay Coming To Run Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon In June
• New Book: Doping In Elite Sports The academic leaning book interviews 55 former dopers.  Buy here.

Pre-World Relays News

• Event-By-Event Previews The mixed gender relay, aka the “clown show” according to Carl Lewis, will be taking place more than once.
• Latest Updates / Live Blog From Japan
• Athletics Weekly: IAAF World Relays: Who, What And When?
• Kenya Drops Two Sprinters From World Relays Team As They Also Are XY And Have Elevated Testosterone Kenya’s 100m and 200m champion Maximilla Imali and 400m runner Evangeline Makena aren’t competing.
• IAAF Shares Five Reasons They’re Looking Forward To The World Relay Champs If you’re looking for good distance racing, the closest you’ll come will be the mixed 2 x 2 x 400, which will feature 800m runners.
• Seb Coe: World Relays Are “Most Vibrant And Exciting” Event In Athletics Calendar
• Mixture Of Fun And Focus Fueling British Athletics Team At World Relays The article starts with the following provocative sentence, “What is the point of the World Relays?”
• World Relays To Provide Jamaica A Pre-Worlds Test With no Bolt and no VCB, can the Jamaicans remain relevant?
  *SAFP Is Running
  *Christophe Lemaitre Pulls Out And Flies Home With Knee Injury
  *Yohan Blake Withdraws From The World Relays Blake’s agent said that Blake didn’t feel he could travel all the way to Japan just to run one race.
• Interesting Read: Does Track & Field Have A Popularity Problem? Or A Marketing Problem? The author points out that NASCAR gets promoted on NBC Sports, but there hasn’t been any mention of the IAAF World Relays even though they’re streaming them.

More Marathon News

• 2019 Boston Marathon Running Form Analysis Jae Gruenke gives an interesting analysis of how Lelisa Desisa‘s form broke down at the end of the exciting finish and talks about how she’s worked with Jordan Hasay to try to run more like the top Africans.
• Eliud Kipchoge Says Going For Sub-2 Hours Isn’t About The Money “My team doesn’t put money in front and for sure it’s not about business and money involved … It’s good to make history, it’s good to leave a memorable mark in athletics.”
• Nice Story: Des Linden Gives Her Boston Bib To 3-Year-Old Super-Fan Who Wore A Makeshift One Out Of A Post-It Note The three-year-old is a big fan and Linden said his bib needed an “upgrade.”

High School Distance Corner

• MB: Danish 14-Year-Old Alex Vang Christensen Runs 30:50 For 10,000 The time was over a minute faster than the world best for 14-year-olds.
• MB: CBA- 5 man average of 4:15 for 1600m in one race Their top guy was 4:10.97 and their 5th man was 4:18.69. The team also recently had a four man average of 9:14 in one 3200m race.

Random Running Stuff

• Dog “Bandits” One Of The Toughest Ultras In The World At The Marathon des Sables (Sahara Desert Ultra) The dog ran six days out of the seven day race and became very popular with the runners. All the social media posts altered the owner who had lost and was able to pick the dog up at the finish line.
• Mom And 8-Month-Old Daughter Shatter Stroller Half Marathon Record By More Than Five Minutes Lauren Stroud ran 1:22:29. Alan Webb‘s wife, Julia Webb, apparently broke the record in 2016 with 1:22:57, but it was never ratified by Guinness.
• BBC: Belfast Marathon Organizers Admit Their Course Was .3 Miles Too Long They said it was “human error” as the lead car driver diverted from the route.

Olympic News

• Mondo To Supply Athletics Track At Tokyo 2020 For Eighth Consecutive Olympic Games The company has done the track surface and equipment for every Games since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
• Site Traffic Overwhelms Tokyo 2020 Ticket Website On Opening Day The website struggled from the moment it opened with long wait times due to the high volume.
• Head Of UK Sport Katherine Grainger Has Plans For GB To Host The Olympics Again And Top The Medal Tables GB was 2nd only behind the US at Rio 2016.
• Japan Considers Use Of Military Airbase For Commercial Flights During Tokyo 2020
• Los Angeles Releases “Privately-Funded, Balanced Budget” For 2028 Olympics The budget is $6.9 million, which is up from the original estimate of $5.3 billion.