August 13, 2019 | LetsRun.com

Trying To Stop The Conspiracy Theories One At A Time

LRC Sorry Conspiracy Theorists, Rosie Ruiz Has Actually Died — Here Is Her Death Certificate Some had wondered if Ruiz’s death might have been another hoax. Afterall, she did fake her way to the 1980 Boston Marathon crown.

NCAA Updates

MB: NCAA 1500m champ Sinclaire Johnson going pro Johnson finished 4th at USAs with a 4:03.72 PB and will be represented by Ricky Simms.
Three Men’s 110 Hurdlers Transferring From Oregon USATF U20 champ Eric Edwards Jr. is transferring to Louisiana State, 2018 Pac 12 champ Braxton Canady to Florida State and NCAA qualifier Joseph Anderson to a school TBD.
MB: Bobby Lockhart as new Cal XC/Distance coach

Coaching Controversy

British Coach Jailed For “Regime Of Sexual Abuse” Against Teenage Girls Philip Banning will get 7.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to 18 indecent assault charges dating back to the 1970s.
Russian Athletics Federation Promises To Enforce Stricter Rules To Prevent Banned Coaches Being Granted Licenses Some of this is so basic it’s amazing it wasn’t already in the rules. But we like the rule that says a coach can get denied a license if they have more than one athlete with a doping violation.
ESPN: “44 years. 41 Allegations. How the past caught up to a former Olympian.” Conrad Montgomery Avondale Mainwaring was arrested after being accused of being a serial child molester dating back to the 1970s. He’s a former Olympian who coached Olympic athletes including two-time Olympic 400H champ Felix Sanchez.
*MB: ESPN: Track coach busted for serial molestation: its not just a problem in gymnastics
Lehigh Head Coach Issues Apology To Team Over Alleged Insensitive Comments
*MB: Lehigh Track Coach Insensitive Comments

European Team Championships Super League *Results

IAAF: Poland Triumphs At European Team Championships Super League Poland scored 345 points to beat defending champs Germany (317.5 points), which won a tight battle for 2nd just 1.5 points ahead of France and 2 points ahead of Italy. Poland got a pair of distance wins from Adam Kszczot in the 800m (1:46.97) and Sofia Ennaoui in the 1,500m (4:08.37).
*European Athletics: History Is Made As Hosts Poland Are Crowned Champions For The First Time
BBC: Richard Kilty Won The Men’s 200 In 20.66 To Lead GB To 5th Place At Euro Team Champs
GB 4 X 400 DQed For Naming Reserve Shot Putter In Team Shot putter Youcef Zatat, who didn’t even travel to the meet, was included in the lineup instead of sprinter Rabah Yousif due to a technical error.
IAAF Recap: Throwers Shine On Days 1 And 2 Of European Team Championships Michal Haratyk dominated the shot put with 21.83m and Julian Weber the javelin with 86.86m. Gesa-Felicitas Krause won the steeplechase in 9:36.24 while Marcin Lewandowski won the 1,500m unchallenged in 3:47.88. Yolanda Ngarambe won the flat 3,000m in 9:07.67 and Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa the 5,000 (13:43.30).
Hosts Poland In Pole Position After Five Victories On Day Two Of Euro Team Champs Super League
Julian Weber (Men’s Javelin) And Claudine Vita (Women’s Discus) Give Germany The Perfect Start At Euro Team Champs

Distance Action

Spain’s Kilian Jornet And Switzerland’s Maude Mathys Smash Course Records At The Sierre-Zinal Mountain Race Jim Walmsley finished 3rd, more than six minutes behind Jornet.
*MB: Walmsley Can’t Compete Against Kilian Because of HOKA Shoes
October 20: Abera Kuma And Dibabe Kuma Trying To Become First Brother-Sister Duo To Win Toronto Waterfront Marathon Their PRs are 2:05:50 and 2:23:34.
Emily Lipari (4:34) And Robert Domanic (4:08) Win Liberty Mile In Pittsburgh Lipari beat a good field that included Jessica Harris, Eleanor Fulton, Rachel Schneider and Heather Kampf.
August 18: Leonard Korir, Stephen Sambu, Scott Fauble, Sara Hall And Des Linden Lead Fields For Falmouth Road Race

Sprint/Field News

Good Read: An Inside Look At Dalilah Muhammad’s 52.20 400H World Record Muhammad and her coach, Lawrence Johnson, explain that they went into this season going for the WR and Johnson says he thinks she could have run 51.6 or 51.7 if she “ran the perfect race.”
*MB: Can Delilah Muhammad break 2 in the 800? The article mentions she ran mile time trials between 5:07 and 5:17 and the 800m in 2:06.
Video: Sydney McLaughlin To Feature With Serena Williams, JJ Watt, Eli Manning And Other Athletes On Gatorade’s 2020 “Beat The Heat” Calendar The link is a comedic ad with Peyton Manning recruiting the athletes for the calendar. Apparently McLaughlin is slated for June. You can message the Gatorade twitter account if you want a copy.
European Athletics Looks Back At Jonathan Edwards’ 18.29m Triple Jump WR From 1995 Edwards broke the record with 18.16m and followed it up immediately with 18.29m. It was the first time ever the world record had been broken back-to-back in the same TJ competition.
Ashton Eaton And Brianne Theisen-Eaton Named IAAF Ambassadors For Doha World Champs

IAAF Inside Athletics Video Interview With Colombia’s Olympic TJ Champ Caterine Ibarguen “The passion has always existed. It’s something that runs in my veins. When I compete, I feel happiness, I feel a connection with the crowd, like they can feel what’s on my mind.”

Upcoming DL Action

August 18: WR Holder Keni Harrison Takes On World Leader Danielle Williams In Birmingham 100 Hurdles The field also includes Olympic champ Brianna McNeal, NCAA champ Janeek Brown and two-time world indoor champ Nia Ali.
Katerina Stefanidi And Jenn Suhr Lead Stack Pole Vault Field For The Birmingham DL Meet Others competing include New Zealand’s #3 all-time Eliza McCartney, USA’s Katie Nageotte and Cuba’s former world champ Yarisley Silva.
Stacked Women’s 200m Set For Birmingham Diamond League The field includes Olympic 400m champ Shaunae Miller-Uibo, double. Olympic champ Elaine Thompson, two-time world champ Dafne Schippers and triple European champion Dina Asher-Smith.
August 24: World 400H Champ Karsten Warholm And Double Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson Announced For Paris Diamond League Thompson will face African champion Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Dafne Schippers.

Sprint Stuff: A Former Olympic Champ Hangs ‘Em Up

Australia’s 2012 Olympic 100H Champ Sally Pearson Retires, Effective Immediately The 32-year-old said that she’s had six injuries this year and doesn’t think her body would make it to Tokyo 2020. The news is surprising as she had given no indication she was considering retiring and was being announced for upcoming meets just a few days ago.

GB’s Olympic 4 X 400 Bronze Medalist Eilidh Doyle Announces Her Season Is Over After Revealing She’s Pregnant The 32-year-old says she’s due in January and isn’t planning on retiring yet.

This Weekend’s Action

Konstanze Klosterhalfen Crushes NR And PR … Runs Solo 14:26! Second place in the race was 15:19!
*MB: Epic German TV blunder? Did German TV totally mis-ID Konstanze Klosterhalfen’s mom in middle of her record run?

40-Year-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 DQed for running 40m short.
Sam Parsons 2nd At German 5k Champs
Malaika Mihambo Improves Her Own World Long Jump Lead To 7.16m To Win German Champs
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

Pan Am Games Results TV And Streaming

LRC 5 Takeaways From Pan Ams: NCAA Stars Bounce Back (But Hoppel Struggles), Remember The Name Justin Robinson, & Why Did So Many Americans No Show? Redemption was sweet for Marco Arop and Carlos Villarreal, but where were US champs Donavan Brazier, Craig Engels, Teahna Daniels and more?

IAAF: Canada’s And Mississippi State’s Marco Arop Breaks Pan Am Games 800m Record (1:44.25) On Final Day Of Track Action In Lima There was another meet record from Canada’s Geneviève Lalonde in the steeplechase (9:41.45), beating US’s Marisa Howard (9:43.78) and from Grenada’s Anderson Peters in the javelin (87.31m). Brazil’s Altobeli da Silva won the men’s steeple in 8:32.34. Team USA got four gold medals on the final day from Gwen Berry (hammer), Omar Craddock (TJ), Chris Nilsen (PV) and the women’s 4 x 400.
Nikki Hiltz Sprints To Pan Am 1,500m Gold Hiltz ran 4:07.14 to beat Aisha Praught (4:08.26) and Alexa Efraimson (4:08.63). This was the first time an American has won this event in 20 years.
IAAF Friday Recap: Venezuela’s Yulima Rojas Jumps World-Leading 15.11m To Win The Triple Jump Brazil’s Ederson Pereira won the 10,000 in 28:27.47 while USA went 2-3 with Reid Buchanan (28:28.41) and Lawi Lalang (28:31.75). Mexico’s Laura Galván won the 5,000m in 15:35.47 just 40 minutes after she finished 4th in the 1,500m. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the 200m in 22.43. Ecuador’s Alex Quinonez took the men’s race in 20.27.
USATF Friday Recap: Kara Winger Wins Javelin Gold With 62.32m
Olympic Champ Caterine Ibarguen Pulled Out Of Pan Am Games TJ With Foot Injury
MB: 2019 Pan Am Games Official Thread

Sport Politics At Pan Am Games

Gwen Berry Staged Podium Protest After Winning Pan Am Games Hammer Gold Berry raised her right fist at the end of her medal ceremony, mirroring the act of sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics.
MB: Carl Lewis blasts president Donald Trump as “misogynist and racist” at the Pan American Games
*The Guardian: Carl Lewis Backs Equal Pay In Sports And Attacks “Racist” Donald Trump
US Fencer Takes Knee During National Anthem At Pan Am Games

Non-Distance News

Good Read: World 400H Champ Karsten Warholm Writes About His Relationship With His Coach, Leif Olav Alnes Warholm says that he had to talk Leif into letting him run Euro Indoors, so they put out some funny pictures of Warholm pretending to torture his coach to convince him.
Athletics Integrity Unit Concludes Case Against Russian Heptathlete Tatyana Chernova After She Accepts Doping Violation From McLaren Report She’s already been stripped of major medals including her 2008 Olympic bronze and 2011 World gold, but now she’s also DQd from more results in 2015 and 2016.
Olympic Heptathlon Champ Nafissatou Thiam Says She Doesn’t Have Much Of A Relationship With GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson Or Other International Heptathletes “When I’m in competition it’s really hard for me to get out of it and talk. I’m very closed, I would say.”
OlympicChannel.com Takes A Look At What Triple Jumper Rivals Caterine Ibarguen And Yulimar Rojas Have In Common Both had tough childhoods, are coached by former Cuban jumpers and share a love of soccer.

European Team Championships First League *Results

IAAF: Portugal Wins European Team Champs First League Crown As Ingebrigsten Brothers Shine On Home Track Portugal won with 302 points over Belarus (281) and Norway (269). They took victory despite winning only 4 out of 40 events over three days.
*European Athletics: Portugal Storm To Promotion Into Super League With Victory In Norway
Chris O’Donnell Was The Star Performer For Ireland At Euro Team Champs, Taking Second In The 400m And Anchoring The 4×400 To Victory
Jakob And FIlip Ingebrigsten Help Keep Norway In Title Contention With Victories At Euro Team Champs First League Both of them won comfortably, Filip the 5,000 in 13:37.09 and Jakob the 1,500 in 3:43.43.
Euro Team Champs First League Day 1 Recap

GB’s Commonwealth Games Champ Nick Miller Complains That The Hammer Throw Has Been Disrespected By The Diamond League Right now the hammer and the 10,000 (and race walk) are the only Olympic track and field events not in the DL, but that’ll change next year when eight more events get cut.

Distance News

IAAF Advice To My Younger Self Series: Kenenisa Bekele Is Bekele talking to his younger self or current self when he writes this line, “Maintaining fitness levels and full health as an athlete in your mid-30s will be hard. But don’t give up. Stick with it and aim to sign off your career on a high.”
Sunday: Jim Walmsley Vs. Kilian Jornet At World Mountain Running Race In Switzerland
Geoffrey Kamworor Hoping Third Time’s The Charm At World Champs 10,000

Podcast

LRC Bryce Hoppel’s Dad, The GM Of Midland Rockhounds, Joins Us To Discuss Marketing Track, Baseball, And His Son Going Pro + Rosie Ruiz RIP, Koko Runs 14:26, Pan Am Games, Rudisha Update Subscribe today on itunes or listen below or at link above.

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Koko Goes 14:26, How Damn Hot Will It Be For Tokyo Olympics? Sam Kendricks Sets American Record Emily Infeld ran her first race in a year and a half, Koko went 14:26, and a cool video with Sam Kendricks.

Abbott World Marathon Major News

LRC 2019 TCS New York City Marathon Elite Fields Released: 4 Thoughts On This Year’s Race, Which Includes US Olympians Des Linden And Jared Ward The good news is the women’s race has some real firepower up front with 3 reigning major champions who have all run sub-2:19. The bad news is the men’s race will set a record low in terms of depth for a recent Abbott World Marathon Major.
*MB: 2019 TCS NYC New York City Marathon Field Released – Mary Keitany, Lelisa Desisa + Desi & Jared Ward Are In Included.

LRC Rosie Ruiz – The Most Famous Marathon Cheat In History – Has Died At Age 66 For 8 days, Ruiz was the 1980 Boston Marathon winner. Then it came out that she only ran the final half mile of the course.
*MB: Did Rosie Ruiz Die This Week?

Des Linden Is A Bit Jaded About The Olympics After The Doping Busts From The Rio Marathon “Quite frankly, the last experience is a hard sell to get back out there to try to compete for medals when you’re not even really sure what the field is all about.”

Pro Contract News

Bryce Hoppel Explains Why It Was The Right Time To Turn Pro Hoppel said it wasn’t an opportunity he could pass up and that the Kansas coaches encouraged him to do it.
37-Year-Old Jenn Suhr Signs New 3-Year Deal With adidas Suhr said in a Twitter post, “I will finish my 17-year career with the same agent (Global Athletics), the same shoe company (adidas), and the same coach!”
Bowling Green State Grad Rachel Walny Signs Pro Contract With Elite Runner Management Walny was 23rd at 2018 NCAA XC Champs.

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.”

Distance News

Lengthy Article On XY Runner Margaret Wambui Who Says This Has Been The “Toughest Year Of [Her] Life” Wambui says she’d not mind competing in a separate category with Caster Semenya if that became a thing.
GB Distance Runner Eilish McColgan Upset By “Skinny” Comments On Social Media McColgan responded with “Go body shame elsewhere” after a commentator said she looked a “bit too” skinny.
Craig Engels Talks About Watching Videos Of All Matt Centrowitz’s Races “It’s something I do before I go to bed every night, watch a few videos so I can dream about it or something. … Sometimes I get a little antsy but most of the time Centro puts me to sleep.”
The IAAF Looks Back At Five Upset Winners From Past World Championships First on their list is North Korea’s Jong Song Ok who won the women’s marathon at 1999 Worlds. In hot conditions, she took 3 minutes off her PB to beat Ethiopia’s Olympic champ Fatuma Roba. Then she never competed international again.
RR: IAAF Profile On Training Partnerns And Mile World Record Holders Sifan Hassan And Yomif Kejelcha Hassan jokes that she’s been like Kejelcha’s sister, taking him everywhere as he doesn’t know much English. They also talk about how tough it was adjusting to the higher training load at NOP.
Japan Running News: Running The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Marathon Course Part Three Brett Larner ran most of the Olympic course, taking temperature and humidity readings every half hour. This was his third time out on the course; you can read about his first and second times here and here.
MB: David Rudisha’s Team Responds After Wife’s Disturbing Post Rudisha’s wife made a post (now deleted) on Facebook indicating some family drama. Rudisha’s manager says he might not compete this year due to injury.

Other Championship News

T&F News Predicts The 2019 World Champs Medalists They predict ten golds for Team USA (Ajee Wilson and Emma Coburn being the only two distance medals).
More Fears About Tokyo 2020 Heat After Construction Worker Dies From Heatstroke While Working At Olympic Construction Site The heatwave has killed in the heatwave between July 29th and August 4th. 18,347 people have gone to the hospital.
Defending World Champions Pierre-Ambroise Bosse (800m) And Kevin Mayer (Decathlon) Lead First Wave Of French Team Delection For Doha 2019
Athletics Weekly Recap Of British Masters Championships Pretty cool that some former elites were competing and breaking age group records including 1956 Olympic steeple 8th placer Eric Shirley won the M90 800m, 200m and set a British record of 1:54.92 in the 400m. 1970 Commonwealth Games discus champ Rosemary Chrimes broke a national record in the W80 category.

Good News: Federal Government Looking Into Connecticut Transgender Policy

At Some Point, Common Sense Must Prevail: Federal Office For Civil Rights Investigating Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Over Their Transgender Policy They’re also investigating whether or not girls faced retaliation for advocating against the state’s policy, which allows biological boys to compete in women’s sports without any kind of hormone treatment. *NBC Article

Previous Pan Am Games Coverage

MB: Wow: Guy who didn’t even make NCAA finals – Carlos Villareal of Arizona/Mexico – just won the Pan Am 1500 gold in 3:39 USA’s Johnny Gregorek won silver in 3:40.42.
IAAF Thursday Recap: Yarisley Silva Wins Her Third-Straight Pan Am Pole Vault Title With 4.75m Other winners included Colombia’s Anthony Zambrano (44.83) and Jamaica’s Sharicka Jackson (50.73) in the 400m, Costa Rica’s Andrea Vargas in the 100H (12.86), Brazil’s Alison Alves dos Santos in the 400H (48.45), Canada’s Sage Watson in the 400H (55.16).
USATF Thursday Pan Am Recap: Team USA Claims Medals In Nine Of Ten Event Finals
MB: 2019 Pan Am Games Official Thread Natoya Goule wins 800 over Rose Almanza. Canada’s Natasha Wodak won the 10,000 in 31:55. Athing Mu was eliminated in the 800. Mexico’s Fernando Martínez won the 5,000 in 13:58.
IAAF Wednesday Recap: Brazil’s Darlan Romani Sets Games Record To Win Shot Put In 22.07m Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson (11.18) and USA’s Mike Rodgers (10.09) won the 100m titles while Canada’s Damian Warner took the decathlon. Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarria won the LJ with 8.27m.
The Gleaner: Elaine Thompson Takes Pan Am 100m Gold In Stride While Natoya Goule Creates History In 800m Goule is the first Jamaican to win a medal in the women’s 800m at the Pan Am Games.
USATF Wednesday Pan Am Highlights
IAAF Tuesday Recap: Cuba’s Yaime Pére Set A Meet Record In The Discus With A 66.58m Victory Jamaica’s Fedrick Dacres also set a Games record winning the men’s discus in 67.68m. British Virgin Islands won their first Pan Am medal ever from Chantel Malone in the LJ (6.68m).
USATF Tuesday Pan Am Highlights
Profile On USA’s Sarah Pagano Ahead Of Pan Am Games 10,000

Assorted Distance News

Jared Ward Blogs About Why He Is Running NYC Rather Than Skipping A Fall Marathon To “Save Up” For The 2020 Trials Ward gives a list of reasons, but this is definitely a key one: “The 1-2 marathons/year that I run account for roughly half of my annual income. Coming off a good New York Marathon last fall and a great Boston present unique financial incentives to run.”
Cory McGee Talks About Rebounding From USATF Champs DQ To Win The Sir Walter Miler “I’m really happy with a win, but at the same time it made me a little bit sad to wonder how USAs would have gone had I been able to be in the final.”
14-Year-Old Kate Peters Runs 1:16 Half Marathon She’s also recently run 16:49 for 5,000m and 9:55 for 3,000m. She has access to Nike training facilities through her father, who works in IT and she has designed her own summer training program, running 60 miles a week.
*MB: 14 y/o girl runs 1:16 half-marathon
Start Time For Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Marathons Brought Forward To Combat Heat They’re moving from 7AM to 6:30AM.

Better Running Shoes

LRC Top 10 Most Comfortable Running Shoes As Rated By You We got over 1,500+ shoe reviews last month and decided to do something with them. People rate shoes different ways but when we ask them what they want they often say “comfort.”

More Recent European Results

MB: Multi Time World Cross Country Skiing Champion And Doper Therese Johaug Wins 10,000 At Norway Champs Video shows her winning in 32:20.86 and then going to the ground in lane 1, almost causing a collision with a lapped runner behind her.
Karsten Warholm Won The 400m (45.54) And 400H (47.43) At Norwegian Champs
IAAF Go Through Some Highlights From Germany, Norway, Turkey, China And Nigeria National Champs
European Champion Michal Haratyk Throws Polish Shot Put Record Of 22.32m
Birchfield Men And Thames Valley Women Retain Their National League Titles In The UK

Track/NFL Crossovers

Good Read: Former All-American Shot Putter Austin Droogsma Is Trying To Make It In The NFL Droogsma didn’t play any football in college, but one day got a random call from the NY Giants to come try out. Now he has a three-year $1.7 million contract and is working to earn a place on the team (But the dream was short lived as the Giants have cut Droogsma).
RIP Former 10.0 NCAA Sprinter And Three-Time Super Bowl Champion Cliff Branch Running for Colorado, Branch ran 10.0 in the semis at the 1972 NCAA Championships and finished 5th in the final.