August 4, 2019 | LetsRun.com

This Weekend’s Action

Konstanze Klosterhalfen Crushes NR And PR … Runs Solo 14:26! Second place in the race was 15:19!

40 yr old Lisa Weightman nabs $17,000 for breaking Australian all-comers’ record in half marathon by clocking 68:48 The money will help a lot as she’s currently unsponsored. In the men’s race, Jack Rayner crossed the finish line minutes before anyone else but was DQd for running 40m short.
Chris O’Hare (3:54.81) And Cory McGee (4:27.97) Win 2019 Sir Walter Miler Titles In The Rain
Alex Korio (27:34) And J. Jepkosgei (31:05) DESTROY Beach To Beacon Fields As Emily Infeld Returns To Action In 4th (32:39) It was Infeld’s first race since February of 2018. Top American honors for the men went to Scott Fauble in 6th (28:59) as top non-African born honors went to Brett Robinson in 4th (28:43). Chris Derrick, Abdi, Bumbalough, Sharon Lokedi and others raced as well.
*For 1st Time In Its 22-Year-History, Beach To Beacon Had Drug Testing This Year Aisling Cuffe got woken up at 5:37 AM on Friday.
Jakob I Runs 3.36.33 Solo At The Norwegian Championship
China’s Newly-Minted 19.88 Sprinter Xie Zhenye Comes From Behind To Win 100 Trials Over Su Bingtian (10.03 To 10.19)

RIP World’s first sub-2:14 marathoner – Basil Heatley (2:13:55 in 1964) – dies at age 85

LRC Exclusives

LRC WTW: 2019 Is The Greatest Year In US Women’s 1,500 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

LRC Remember Amy Cragg? With The Olympic Trials Looming, The World Championships 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.”

Road News

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 State, Big 12 5,000 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.

USAs Leftovers

Ken Goe Complains That The Live NBC Broadcast Of USAs Ended Right Before Dalilah Muhammad Set Her WR If you were watching on NBC Gold you were fine, but if you were watching on NBC in Oregon, there was confusion as it wasn’t made clear by USATF that it would be shown on a 3-hour tape delay.
Allyson Felix Says The “Fire Is There” As She Looks Ahead To Tokyo 2020 After Finishing Only 6th In The USAs 400m “I want to be back in the Olympics. I want them more than anything. I want to go out on my terms.”
USTFCCCA: How Did The Collegians Do At USAs?
Clip Of Everyone Piling On Sam Kendricks In The Pole Vault Pit After He Cleared 6.06m To Win USAs
AP: Noah Lyles Leads New Cast Of Young US Athletes Eager To Make Their Mark 34-year-old Michael Rodgers envies the youth of guys like Lyles as he said, “They’re younger and they can get out of bed and feel nothing. I feel new stuff every day. But they push me to work harder.”
Headline In The Kenyan Press: “East African Stars Dominate US Track National Meet”
USATF: USAs By The Numbers Aside from Dalilah Muhammad‘s world record, there were two other American records and a total of 14 Drake Stadium records.
Dalilah Muhammad Says She Actually Got Injured In A “Crazy Fall” Two Weeks Before USAs She said she was just “hoping for the best” at USAs, but it looks like the extra rest helped her.

Coaching / Admin News

Athletics Weekly: Seb Coe Set For Unopposed Re-Election As IAAF President The IAAF council votes officially happen on September 25th, right before Worlds.
Athletics Illustrated: Seb Coe To Be Re-Elected IAAF President Unopposed, But Record Numbers Standing For Other Positions A group of 11 candidates will be chasing the four available spots as vice-president, one of whom must be female.
Athletics Kenya President Jackson Tuwei Running For IAAF Vice President
If You Missed This Last Week: JJ Clark Named New Stanford Director Of Track And Field Clark has lead the Connecticut women’s program for the last five years.
*MB: UConn’s JJ Clark New Coach At Stanford
Purdue University Fort Wayne Adding Men’s Track As most news is usually about schools cutting track/XC, it’s nice to see one adding it.
Asics Pro And Former Six-Time All-American Rachel Johnson Joins Liberty Coaching Staff
Texas Club Track Coach Forced To Resign After Accusations Of Inappropriate Communications With Minors Article includes photos of the conversations between the coach and athlete via Snapchat.

Justice Is Served

LRC USATF Ordered To Re-Pick Entire 2019 Pan Am Games Team Based On 2019 Comprehensive List LetsRun.com put up the $2,000 for this arbitration case to be held and with the help of pro bono lawyer David Greifinger prevailed. Those of you who wanted to contribute can now do so here.
*MB: USATF completely botches selection of 2019 Pan American Games team

Interesting Reads

August 2nd Is The Date Of The Women’s Olympic Marathon In Tokyo 2020 – Find Out Why Here Kinue Hitomi was Japan’s 1st ever Olympic medalist on that date in 1928 and she also died on that date in 1931. She set world records in the 100, 200, LJ, TJ and won an Olympic silver in the 800. *Wikipedia
Brett Larner Runs Tokyo 2020 Olympic Marathon Course Exactly 1 Year Out From Race And Finds 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.
NCAA 400m Champ Wadeline Jonathas Went All-Out In An 800 Time Trial At 1st Day Of Practice And Ran Herself Into Hospital She showed up at South Carolina as a 9-time DIII champ with a 52.81 PR and now is the NCAA DI champ and made it to Worlds and has run 50.44.
Charlene Rendina Honors Catriona Bisset For Breaking Her Australian 800 Record After 43 Years

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.
*Paper in India:European Court Of Human Rights May Well Be The Last Court Of Appeal To Overturn The Restrictions Placed On Semenya We disagree. It’s not a human right to compete in a restricted category of professional sports.

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 1,500m, Henrik Ingebrigtsen in the 3,000m) and Filip Ingebrigtsen in the 5,000m.
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 3,000/5,000m 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.

Track News

TFN: Lopez Lomong Is Defying Age Conventions And Is 1st American To Win 1,500, 5,000 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 To Watch At The Doha 2019 And Sydney McLaughlin Make 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 3 Will Be Playing A Big Role Jakob is in the 1,500m with Henrik and Filip contesting the 3,000m and 5,000m 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.