LRC Caster Semenya will run the women’s 3000 at 2019 Prefontaine Classic

Ultramarathon Madness Continues (Sponsored by HOKA ONE ONE)

LRC GOAT: Yiannis Kouros’ 24-Hour Record of 303.306 KM (188.68 Miles) From 1997 Is The Greatest Ultramarathon World Record There’s no world record easier to understand in the ultramarathon world than, “How far can you run in a day?” And there’s been no human in history that has come anywhere close to Yiannis Kouros in a 24 hour period.
*MB: What are the best ultramarathon records?

Previous: LRC These Are 7 Of The Greatest But Not THE Greatest Ultra Records Camille Herron‘s 24-hour record, Jim Walmsley‘s Western States, Francois D’Haene‘s UTMB mark and a couple from Comrades all make the cut. Updated with UTMB correction.

Pod The Jim Walmsley Big Talk: 2 Hour Podcast We tried to cover it all from Jim’s recent 50 mile world best, to his high school career inspired by Ken Cormier, to his college career, to manning the nuclear silos, to getting “fired” from the Air Force, to taking the ultra world by storm, to his thoughts on the new Carbon X shoe. Who does he think are the greatest ultra runners of all-time? What about Eliud Kipchoge racing Killian Jornet? We even talk back yard ultras and how he checks LetsRun when in the mountains.

This Week’s Topic: MB: Who are the greatest ultramarathon runners in history? Give us your thougths and you could win free great.

More Weekend Track Results

• MB: Juco sprinter Kenny Bednarek, 20, runs amazing 19.82/44.83 double – 1 day after running windy 19.49!! He’s just the 2nd human to break 20 and 45 on the same day.
• Rina Nabeshima (31:44) And Kazuki Tamura (28:13) Win Japanese National 10,000m Titles Kenya’s Bernard Koech was the overall men’s race winner in 27:56 (Tamura was 4th place). At the East Japan Corporate Champs Jonathan Ndiku ran a 10,000m world leading 27:32.68 while Pauline Kamulu won the women’s race in 31:53
• Olympic And World Heptathlon Champ Nafissatou Thiam Makes Return From Injury With A 200m PB At Belgian Inter-Club Champs Running into a 1.5 m/s headwind Thiam broke her 200m PB with 24.37. She also threw 52.71m in the javelin and ran on the winning 4×100.
• Olympic Champ Ryan Crouser Throws Shot Put Stadium Record (22.67m) At Tucson Elite Classic
• DyeStat: High Schooler Katelynne Hart Wins 800/1600/3200 Triple At Illinois State Meet
• Golden Grand Prix Osaka: Michael Norman Equals PR Of 19.84 (-.4 m/s) To Win, Japan Makes Amends In 4 X 100 The Japanese team made amends for their World Relays debacle by running a world-leading 38.00 in the 4 x 100. *Results

Interesting Distance News

• 8 Years After Wanjiru’s Death, Kenyan Journalist Mutwiri Mutuota Reminisces About Sammy Wanjiru And Wonders How Many People Missed The Anniversary The great Eliud Kipchoge dedicated his 2016 Olympic gold to Wanjiru. “Studying the way he ran the marathon taught me so much,” said Kipchoge.
• Alysia Montano 1, Nike 0 Nike To Change Pregnancy Policy In Women’s Athlete Sponsorship Contracts Outrage grows after Alysia Montano shared her story in the NY Times. One LetsRun.com employee’s wife said she would not buy Nike. Nike says it will no longer punish its women endorsers who get pregnant.
• Comrades Ultra Will Be Run “Down” In Both 2020 And 2021 2021 is their centenary and only the town at the bottom of the course is large enough to host 34,000, which they hope to have (they had 34 in year #1).
• 10 Takeaways Following Declarations For NCAA Division 1 West Regionals Former NCAA 1,500/mile champs Dani Jones and Geordie Beamish are in the 5,000, not 1,500. Morgan McDonald is just the 5,000. *Entry Lists
• 10 Takeaways Following Declarations For NCAA Division 1 East Regionals Syracuse’s Paige Stoner has opted for the 10,000, where she is the #1 seed, not the steeple. Danae Rivers opts for the 800, not 1,500. *Entry Lists
• Japanese 10,000 Champs Highlight The Weekend In Japan They 10,000 Trials have been moved up so athletes can try to maximize world ranking points – rankings that USATF wants to do its best to ignore.
• Hellen Obiri Says She Wants To Do The 10,000/5,000 Double In Doha
• Hellen Obiri Will Make Her Road 10k Debut This Weekend At Great Manchester Run 10km
• Asia’s Leading Road 10km Race Is Sunday – TCS World 10K Bengaluru 2019 Matthew Kimeli and Agnes Tirop lead the fields.
• Irish Olympic Steeplechaser Sara Treacy Talks About Balancing Being A Doctor And Athlete

2019 USATF Distance Classic *Schedule And Results

LRC 2019 Oxy Recap: Nikki Hiltz Stays Hot, Rachel Schneider Gets A Big 5K PR, Aisha Praught Leer Gets A NR And Is Lawi Lalang Back? Plus recent LRC podcast guest Stephanie Bruce ran a 27-second PR at age 35 to get the Worlds standard.
*MB: 2019 USATF Distance Classic Official Discussion Thread
*MB: Is Steph Bruce update
*MB: Oxy Meet: winners and losers
*USATF Recap: Rachel Schneider’s 15:06.71 World Lead Highlights

Say Hello To The Eastern Track League

• Five Clubs Announce Formation Of The Eastern Track League The Atlanta TC, NJ-NY TC, Furman Elite, Nashville TC and District TC have combined forces to form six race series for athletes to chase qualifying marks. It started with the Swarthmore Last Chance meet on Monday and ends with a final on June 13th in DC.
• Ajee Wilson Ran A 4:08.17 To Beat Out Elinor Purrier (4:08.49) At The Swarthmore Last Chance Meet
• Friday: Start Lists For The Georgia Meet Of Champions In Atlanta

WADA Updates And Drama

• First Anti-Doping Case Based On Retrieved Moscow Lab Data Could Be Opened “Within Weeks” A WADA official said the process of preparing “a number of strong cases” had begun.
  *Previously: WADA Retrieves More Than 2,200 Samples From Moscow Lab
• WADA Agree On Change Of Procedure For Low-Level Clenbuterol Cases The steroid causes a problems for testers since it’s often found in meat consumed in some countries like China and Mexico.
• WADA Executive Committee Members Cleared Of Bullying Beckie Scott and Edwin Moses alleged that two other WADA members bullied Scott over her objection to the reinstatement of RUSADA, but an investigation found that while the responses “could be viewed as aggressive or disrespectful,” they “did not rise to the level of bullying or harassment.”
• The Telegraph: WADA Accused Of Double Standards After Executives Cleared Of Bullying Ed Moses and Beckie Scott accused WADA of “whitewashing.”
  *Scott And Moses Express”Extreme Disappointment” At Outcome Of WADA Bullying Investigation
  *Previously: Scott And Moses Decline To Participate In WADA Bullying Investigation After Claiming Process Is “Fatally Flawed”
• Marcos Diaz Vows To Collaborate With Former Rival And New WADA President Witold Banka; WADA Vice President Linda Helleland Formerly Withdrew From Election

More Upcoming Track Action

• Next Weekend: NCAA Regionals Entry Lists
• June 6: Paul Chelimo Vs. World Champ Muktar Edris And DL Champ Selemon Barega In The Rome DL 5,000m Also announced: Laura Muir is in the 1,500 and Nijel Amos in the 800m. Katerina Stefanidi vs. Sandi Morris in the PV, Elaine Thompson vs. Dafne Schippers in the 100m.
• July 12: Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Noah Lyles, Kevin Mayer Confirmed For Monaco DL Meet Miller-Uibo will be up against Dafne Schippers and Marie-Josee Ta Lou in the 200m. Lyles vs. China’s world indoor silver medalist Su Bingtian in the 100m.
• June 16: Quartet of the world’s best hurdlers to take to the streets of Boston at adidas Boost Boston Games Sharika Nelvis, Christina Clemons, Danielle Williams and Tobi Amusan will face off in Boston.
• June 16: Omar McLeod And Sergey Shubenkov Will Go Head-To-Head At The Rabat DL 110H
• May 25: World Silver Medallist Carolin Schäfer, 2015 Hypomeeting Winner Kai Kazmirek, Worlds Silver Medalist Rico Freimuth Among Latest Additions To Gotzis Hypo Multi-Event Meet

African Federation Woes

• IAAF May Ban Nigeria From Major Championships Including Worlds Over “Missing” $134,000 In 2017, the IAAF mistakenly paid $150,000 instead of $15,000 to the Nigerian federation and thus far, Nigeria has refused to return the excess payment.
  *InsideTheGames: Nigeria Given 2-Week Deadline To Repay Debt Or Face Sanctions
• Cause For Concern As Preparations For The 2020 Under-20 Championships In Nairobi Are Way Behind Schedule This Kenyan writer was harsh as he said, “Tokyo’s faultless work ethic [preparing for the 2020 Games] puts to shame Kenya’s lethargic, bureaucracy-laden run-up to next year’s competition.”

More Doping News

• Polish Sports Minister And Former Mid-D Runner Witold Banka Chosen To Succeed Craig Reedie As Next WADA President Banka was nominated ahead of Dominican Republic’s former swimmer Marcos Diaz and WADA vice president Linda Helleland. Banka’s plans include increasing the number of labs to address what he believes is a regional imbalance.
• Mexico’s Olympic Racewalk Silver Medalist Lupita Gonzalez Gets 4-Year Doping Ban She tested positive for steroids which she claimed was from eating contaminated meat. South African TJer Reneilwe Aphane also got a 3.5-year doping ban.
• Latvia’s 2012 London Olympic Long Jump 4th Placer Ineta Radevica Tests Positive For Steroids In Frozen Sample Retests She’ll get a 4-year ban, even though she’s already retired. An Armenian weightlifter also tested positive in the retests.