British Road Action

• Mo Farah (28:15) And Steph Twell (31:55) Defend Their Titles At The Vitality London 10,000m Farah triumphed over Olympic 5,000 6th placer Andy Butchart by 13 seconds while Twell won her race by 38 seconds. *BBC
• Chris O’Hare (4:00) And Melissa Courtney (4:31) Win Westminster Mile Titles; Laura Muir Only 3rd O’Hare just missed on trying to run the first sub-4 at this race, beating out Elliott Giles (4:01). The women’s race was very close as Sarah McDonald was second (also timed 4:31) and Muir was 3rd (4:32).
  *MB:Laura Muir only third in Westminster Mile. Chris O’Hare runs 4′ flat.
• Steph Twell And Her Husband Joe Morwood Break WR For Fastest Couple Holding Hands (4:50)
• British Masters Mile Records Fall In WestminsterCraig Sharp (4:32) and former Olympian Alyson Dixon (5:01) were the fastest overall masters.

Lawyers, Take A Look At This

LRC Book Review: “The Complete History Of Cross-Country Running” Is A Fraudulent Piece Of Plagiarism We first alerted author Andrew Hutchinson and publisher Skyhorse Publishing about the issue in January 2018 after Hutchinson ripped off pieces from LRC, Running with the Buffaloes, Runner’s Word, Sports Illustrated and more. Sixteen months later, the book is back up for sale and full of plagiarism.
*MB:Lawyers of LetsRun, anyone want to sue Skyhorse and Andrew Hutchinson for statutory damages?

Ultramarathon Exploration (Sponsored By HOKA ONE ONE)

LRC A Former Crew Member Of Ultramarathon Legend Yiannis Kouros Shares Some Stories Kouros holds the #1 ultramarathon record in the books – the men’s 24 hour record of 188.68 miles (303.506 km). This crew member reveals Kouros wanted to break 320 km and much more.

• The First Leg Of The World Mountain Running Association World Cup Was Held Friday In France Read all about it here.
• South America Will Host World Mountain Champs For The First Time Later This Year You too can host if you pony up $300-400k.
• Previous: LRCGOAT: 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?”
  *LRCThese Are 7 Of The Greatest But Not THE Greatest Ultra RecordsCamille 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.
• MB:What are the best ultramarathon records?

Corruption/ Scandal Corner/ A Lot Of Corruption Charges Surround Doha’s 2019 World Champs Bid

• Qatari President Of French Soccer Club PSG Charged With Corruption Over Bidding Process For 2019 World ChampionshipsNasser Al-Khelaïfi made a $3.5 million payment to Papa Massata Diack’s company. *2nd Article
• BeIN Sports Chief Yousef Al-Obaidly Another Suspect In Doha Worlds Bidding Scandal Apparently it takes a lot of bribes to buy a world championships.
• France’s Financial Prosecutor Calls For Former IAAF President Lamine Diack To Stand Trial The French investigation has been going on since 2015 with Diack being under house arrest and charged with corruption and money laundering.

Lance Armstrong On His Doping Scandal: “It wasn’t legal – but I wouldn’t change a thing.” Armstrong did say however, that he wishes he handled the doping questions differently. “I never should have taken it on, especially knowing that most of what they said was true.”

More Intersex Controversy News

• LGBTQ Sports Website Rips Nick Symmonds For Not Supporting Caster Semenya Competing Untreated Against Women Their original headline was, “Pro-LGBTQ Runner Nick Symmonds throws Caster Semenya under the bus.”
• Caster Semenya Representative Says It’s “Safe To Say” Semenya Will Be Racing 3,000m And Up During Appeal ProcessDr. Seema Patel, a supporter of Semenya’s at Nottingham Law School, says her grounds for appeal remain “very limited.”
• Margaret Wambui Does Another Interview About IAAF Testosterone Rules Apparently she is considering competing in the 100/200 since the IAAF’s rules only cover the 400-1,500.

More Distance News

• Worlds Silver Medalist Timothy Cheruiyot Looking Forward To Stockholm 1,500m Next Week Cheruiyot wasn’t thrilled with his 3:32 season opener in Doha earlier this month, but stays he’s only been doing speedwork for three weeks.
• Video:Take An Inside Look At Emma Bates’s “Off The Grid” Life In Southwest Idaho She talks about not being happy when she was living and training in Boston and her life was just about running.
• Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Roberta Groner Groner, a mother of three, ran 2:29 at the age of 41 and wants to go for the Masters American record (2:27:47 by Deena Kastor).
• RIP:Former Marathon World Record Holder Dale Greig Dies At 81 Years Old Greig ran 3:27:45 in 1964 and won the inaugural World Masters Marathon in 1974 (3:45.21).
• MB:Mo Farah now doing Instagram Ads for a random bathroom product? LOL

Some Midweek Results

• Gudaf Tsegay Highlights Nanjing World Challenge Meet With A 3:59.57 Victory In The 1,500m Tsegay beat out Axumawit Embaye (4:00.17) and Sifan Hassan (4:00.53). Nijel Amos impressed in the 800m with a 1:44.38 win over Kenya’s Cornelius Tuwei (1:44.91). Nelly Jepkosgei ran 1:59.98 to win the 800m .04 ahead of Shanghai DL winner Rababe Arafi. Benjamin Kigen won the steeple in 8:08.94. Non-distance action was highlighted by the sprint hurdles where Orlando Ortega beat out Omar McLeod by .01 in the 110H and four women finished within .02 of each other with Brianna McNeal winning. *Results
• Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle Wins Street Meet Long Jump In Nanjing With 8.21m
• World Javelin Champ Barbora Spotakova Competes For The First Time In Almost 2 Years With A 63.85m Victory In The Czech Republic Spotakova didn’t compete at all last year as she took time off to have a baby.

Pregnancy/Sponsorship News

• Allyson Felix Shares Her Own Nike Pregnancy Story Felix reveals that Nike wanted to reduce her contract by 70% when she started her comeback from pregnancy.
  *MB: Allyson Felix joins the anti-Nike pregancy bandwagon
• Under Armour, New Balance And Asics Say They Honor Contracts Of Sponsored Athletes Throughout Their Pregnancy Now retired miler Sarah Brown praised New Balance saying, “There’s a clear difference when you invest in the person than when they just invest in the performance.”
• Olympic 4 X 400 Champ Natasha Hastings Runs Down The Obstacles Of Being A Pregnant Olympic Hopeful Hastings is 5.5 months pregnant and still hoping to make it to Tokyo 2020. Under Armour has continued to sponsor her during her pregnancy.