August 3, 2019 | LetsRun.com

Our Weekly Recap Includes One Final Look Back At 2019 USAs

LRC WTW: 2019 Is The Greatest Year in US Women’s 1500 History, Meet Two US Studs You’ve Never Heard Of – Heather MacLean and Robert Downs – And More Plus Andy Bayer actually made a US team, Mo Ahmed owns Justyn Knight and marathon madness at Pan Ams.
*MB: Fact: 2019 is the greatest year in US women’s 1500 history

Caster Semenya Legal Update From Amby Burfoot

LRC After Latest Swiss Court Ruling, the Odds Are Against Caster Semenya Guest column by former Boston Marathon champ Amby Burfoot.

Medical News

More US Distance News

Bryce Hoppel Announces He’s Turning Pro After making the Worlds team, Hoppel has decided he will forgo his final year of eligibility at Kansas.
Friday Night In Raleigh, NC: Final Fields Set For 2019 Sir Walter Miler Brit Chris O’Hare leads the men’s mile along with Eric Avila, Sam Prakel while the women are led by Lauren Johnson, Heather Kampf, Stephanie Garcia and Cory McGee. *Live Results *Meet Home *Race Day Info (Live Stream With FloTrack Subscription)
A US Road Race That Got Overlooked During USAs: World Half Marathon Record Holder Joyciline Jepkosgei Wins Bix 7 Miler In 36:04 She beat fellow Kenyan Vicoty Chepngeno by 4 seconds.
*Kenya’s Leonard Barsoton Pulls Away To Win Bix 7 Miler In 32:34 He beat Boilermaker winner Gabiel Geay (32:40) as well as 7:58 steepler Jarius Birech (32:51) and Stephen Sambu (33:05).
Alexi Pappas Credits Her Father As Having A Critical Role In Her Career As She Trains To Try And Make Tokyo 2020 In The Marathon Pappas’ father raised her and her brother as a single parent after the suicide of her mother when Pappas was just four.
*MB: Alexi Pappas article in SF Examiner

Upcoming Summer Action In Europe

August 18: Christian Coleman Announced For Birmingham DL 100m He’ll be up against Andre de Grasse, Yohan Blake, Adam Gemili and Akani Simbine.
August 9-11: Final Entries Available For European Team Championships First League In Norway There will be a strong showing from the home team with Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m, Henrik Ingebrigtsen in the 3000m) and Filip Ingebrigtsen in the 5000m.
August 9-11: Entries Available For Euro Team Championships Super League In Poland Gesa Felicitas Krause leads the German team in the steeplechase.
August 10-11: Olympic Discus Champ Sandra Perkovic Highlights Entries At European Team Championships Second League In Croatia Euro 10,000m champ Lonah Chemtai Salpeteris doing the 3000/5000m double for Israel.
September 7: Sally Pearson Announced For Great North CityGames
This Fall In South America: GB Team Named For World Long Distance Mountain Running Champs In Argentina

RIP To Two Former Javelin Greats

Who Won The Shoe War At USAs?

LRC Nike-Sponsored Athletes Dominate 2019 USATF Outdoor Championships, Take Home 71.67% Of Top-3 Finishes In Track Events We take a look at who won the shoe war at USAs. In an absolute sense Nike CRUSHED it, but not if you adjust it on a per dollar of revenue basis.
*MB: Nike CRUSHES competition in sponsorship war at 2019 USAs. The swoosh sponsored 71.68% of top 3 finishers in track events.

Fall Marathon Season Will Be Here Soon

LRC Remember Amy Cragg? With the Olympic Trials Looming, the World Championship Medalist Is Heading to Chicago – Her 1st Marathon in 19 Months The 5th fastest American in history thinks she can still PR at age 35. She also reveals that that she thinks the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% shoes have helped her a lot.
*MB: Amy Cragg on Zoom Vapofly 4% Shoes: “I think they’re worth a lot..they kind of save your legs in training.”

Track News

TFN: Lopez Lomong Is Defying Age Conventions and Is 1st American To Win 1500, 5000 and 10,000 at USAs
Random, But Cool Bryce Hoppel’s dad is the GM of the Oakland A’s AA team in Midland, TX His sister played for the 35-0 2016 NCAA Division 2 national championship Lubbock Christian women’s basketball team.
Athletics Weekly lists 10 women watch at the Doha 2019 and Sydney McLaughlin makes the list but Dalilah Muhammad doesn’t
Three Brits Swept The 800 Medals At Euro U20s Last Month – Can They Follow in Footsteps of Seb Coe, Steve Cram, and Steve Ovett? We’ll go with no although 1:46.84 at 18 isn’t too shabby and Max Burgin (1:45.36 at 17) isn’t even one of the three
Brent Fougner announces retirement after 31 years at the helm of the University of Victoria Vikes cross country and track team; Hilary Stellingwerff steps in as interim head coach
European Team Champs are in the Ingebrigtsens’ hometown next week so all three will be playing a big role Jakob is in the 1500m with Henrik and Filip contesting the 3000m and 5000m respectively.
*August 9-11: Final Entries Available For European Team Championships First League In Norway

Doping News

Kenyan Athletes Speak Anonymously To Explain Why Hey Resort To Doping “If people stop cheating, I’ll stop. I cheat because others have cheated,” said one runner who also admitted to purposely finishing outside the top-3 if there was drug testing at a race.
*MB: ‘I cheat because others cheat’: Kenya struggles against doping
Premier League Soccer Player Mamadou Sakho Is Suing WADA For $16 Million Over Claims A Doping Test Damaged His Career Sakho was suspended in April 2016 for testing positive for the fat-burning substance higenamine, but the United European Football Association (UEFA) cleared Sakho saying that higenamine wasn’t explicitly on the banned list.

Multi-Event News

IAAF Profile On Germany’s Euro U23 Decathlon Champ Niklas Kaul Kaul talks about how important it is for multi-eventers to work on their weak events because that’s where the most points can be gained.
August 18: World And Olympic Champion Nafissatou Thiam Will Take On World Indoor Pentathlon Champ Katarina Johnson-Thompson At The Birmingham Grand Prix Long Jump

Semenya Won’t Race In Doha

Caster Semenya Out Of World Champs After Swiss Supreme Court Reverses Its Ruling That Suspended The IAAF Testosterone Rules Pending Her Appeal She said that she will continue on with her appeal despite her “disappointment” at not being able to defend her world title.

MB: “Caster Semenya to miss World Championships after court ruling”.
IAAF “Welcomes” Swiss Federal Tribunal’s Decision
Caster Semenya’s Appeal Unlikely To Succeed? “The Swiss Federal Supreme Court concludes, in a first summary examination, that Caster Semenya’s appeal does not appear with high probability to be well founded.”
NY Times: Ruling Leaves Caster Semenya With Few Good Options

Tokyo 2020 News

Fears Grow Over Tokyo 2020 Temperatures After 11 Died And More Than 5,000 Were Taken To Hospital Due To Heat-Related Medical Issues Last Week Of those people, 52.6% were 65 and older.
Kenya’s New Tokyo 2020 Chef De Mission Promises Every Coin Will Be Accounted For After Rio 2016 Scandal
IAAF Marks One Year To Go Until Track Action Begins At Tokyo 2020 They give a day-by-day rundown of which finals are on each day.

Assorted Distance News

Good Read: Canadian Steepler Matt Hughes Explains Why He Left The Bowerman Track Club Hughes says a combination of falling “out of love with running” and living long distance from his fiancee made him realize he needed to make some changes.
Former Kenyan Marathoner Speaks Anonymously About The Health Issues Caused By His EPO Use “I feel pain in my chest, my muscles are sore and I cough a lot. All I knew, was that once you dope, you end up running well. I never knew there would be such problems.”
World XC Silver Medalist Jacob Kiplimo Giving Up On The 5k/10k Double In Doha Due To Injury And Illness He hasn’t raced all track season so won’t be qualified in the 5,000, but automatically qualified in the 10,000 by finishing top 15 at World XC.
Sad News: Norwegian Runner Dies After Being Struck By Lightning During Italian Ultramarathon The 44-year-old woman was between aid stations during the 75-mile race which was called off 30 minutes before the lightning strike.

Road News

Brett Larner Runs Tokyo 2020 Olympic Marathon Course Exactly 1 Year Out From Race And Find It’s Going To Be Hot As Hell Virtually the entire run was run in 85+ heat (30+ C) with a humidity over 70%. *Video
*How Much Does Heat Slow Your Race Pace? According to the article, 85 degree weather would be more than 6 minutes slower in a marathon than 59.
4-time US Olympian Abdi Abdirahman is developing a race in his native Somalia “It’s the Rift Valley of Somalia. There are so many kids there who never had a chance.” *Toni Reavis mom and dad got married 10 days after they knew each other
Even though she got a green-card and relocated her family to Boulder, Edna Kiplagat is thrilled to represent Kenya and go for a 3rd world title in Doha
October’s Valencia Trinidad Alfonso EDP Half Marathon will feature a €70,000 (US$77,700) world record bonus, Plus an additional €30,000 (US$33,300) bonus if the men’s winner breaks the 58-minute barrier or if the women’s winner dips under 1:04:30.
$17,000 bonus on line if any Aussie sets All-comers record this weekend at Sunshine Coast Half-Marathon The records belong to Pat Carroll at 1:01:11 and Lisa Weightman at 1:09:00.
AW: There is a growing body of evidence of the physiological and psychological benefits of exercise both during treatment and post cancer treatment
Now that he’s graduated from Iowa St, Big 12 5000 champ Dan Curts is pumped to excel at Beach to Beacon this weekend

Sprint Stuff

People: Natasha Hastings Talks About Why She ‘Struggled’ to Accept Her Pregnancy At First She had fears of how it would affect her career, but says she was happy her sponsor, Under Armour, has continued to support her.
MB: Allyson Felix Signs Sponsorship Deal With Ahleta The contract includes “full protection during maternity.She wore Athleta clothing during USAs, but continues to wear Nike spikes.
IAAF Inside Athletics Podcast Interview With Sydney McLaughlin
Blessing Okagbare Slams Nigerian Federation For Shoddy Plans For All Africa Games And Not Enough Financial Support For Athletes
Spikes: Noah Lyles Writes Letter To His Inspiration, His Mom
AP: Allyson Felix competes for medals, campaigns for motherhood
Briana Williams Wins 200m In 23.70 At Belfast International GB’s Adam Gemili won the men’s 200 in 20.63.
BBC Podcast Interview With Michael Johnson Johnson talks about what it takes to be one of the greatest of all time.

Temperatures In Tokyo Hit 86 F (30 C) At 6AM One Year Out From The Olympic Marathon

The IAAF Look Back At Some Very Close Finishes At Past World Championships Just .01 separated the three medalists at in the 2003 world 100m final while Mare Dibaba won the 2015 marathon by just one second.