LRC Worlds Previews

• LRC Men’s Steeplechase Preview: Will Kenya’s 31-Year Streak of Dominance Come To An End? There have been few constants in the world since 1988 other than the fact that ever global track championship, a Kenyan-born man has won the men’s steeplechase title. 23 in a row. That streak could very well end in Doha.
• LRC Men’s 800 Preview: Donavan Brazier Chases America’s First Gold Since Dave Wottle In 1972 Can Donavan Brazier end America’s 47-year gold medal drought in the men’s 800?
• LRC Women’s 10K Preview: Sifan Hassan Chases First World Outdoor Title Under Alberto Salazar‘s tutelage, Hassan has put together a year for the ages in 2019; can she end it with a gold medal at Worlds against Hellen Obiri?
• LRC Men’s 5K Preview: With No Clear Favorite, Could Jakob Ingebrigtsen Earn Europe’s First Men’s 5K Medal In 20 Years? Due to USATF’s foolish policy, a 12:58 American won’t be in this race. And a lot of the guys who could have won this race – Mo Farah, Joshua Cheptegei, Yomif Kejelcha – aren’t running it. Who will step up in their absence? Might it be Canada’s Mo Ahmed?
• LRC Women’s Steeple Preview: USA & Kenya Duke It Out In A Grudge Match Two years ago, Americans Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs shocked the world in London. Now the Kenyans, led by WR holder Beatrice Chepkoech, are out for revenge.

• LRC Men’s 100 Preview: Christian Coleman, Justin Gatlin, & Controversy As Post-Usain Bolt Era Begins For the first time in more than 15 years, Usain Bolt won’t be at Worlds. Who will take over his title of World’s fastest man? Christian Coleman is poised to do just that but not without a little controversy.
• LRC Women’s 800 Preview: Ajee’ Wilson’s Time Has Finally Come It’s time to get read for Worlds as they start on Friday. Wilson is the favorite for gold but might America sweep the medals and go 1-2-3?
• LRC Women’s Marathon Preview: Five Sub-2:20 Women Do Battle In Midnight Marathon Along Doha Corniche The women’s marathon is full of some studs – including some studs the AWM Majors don’t seen to want to touch – like the third-fastest women’s marathoner in history – Ruth Chepngetich. The race is perfect for US viewing – 4:59 PM ET on Friday.

Doha Is Gonna Be Hot

• The Telegraph: Fears Growing Over Safety Of World Champs Marathon Runners Despite Midnight Start Humidity levels are supposed to be more than 80%. Seb Coe: “Heat is actually not the big issue. Clearly the issue is humidity … It will be tough.”
• InsideTheGames’ Mike Rowbottom Writes About The Challenge For Night-Time Marathon Runners In The Doha Heat “Many of the runners will be used to running in hot conditions, but none will have run a Championship marathon at such a time, finishing in the early hours of the morning. Mentally, physically and physiologically it is going to be a new test for all.”
• MB: French website reports 2019 World Championship marathon may be cancelled due to hot weather – IAAF denies report The IAAF tweeted that they have “not considered postponing or cancelling any road event …”
• Canadian Racewalker Evan Dunfee Anxious About Racing In “Insane” Late Night Competition In Qatar Because of the Doha heat, the race is being run at 11:30 PM, so won’t finish until after 3 AM. On the bright side, it actually won’t feel that late for Dunfee because Qatar is 10 hours ahead of Vancouver.

Doping News

• Seb Coe Confirms AIU Is Looking Into German Report On Kenyan EPO Doping “I’m sure they will report back as soon as they’ve established the facts to the IAAF.”
• German Website Reports Two Kenyans On The World Team Were Caught Taking Epo Via Hidden Camera The video shows a male and female athlete, but doesn’t show their faces and the article doesn’t name them.
  *MB: BREAKING. Two kenyans filmed with hidden camera taking epo
• No Change To Russian Athletics Federation Status After IAAF Council Meeting Taskforce chairman Rune Andersen said that while progress has been made, there are still issues including the allegations that banned coaches are still working with athletes. On the Moscow lab data, he said “The AIU has not yet confirmed that the data is authentic and untampered.”

Our Annual Top 10 NCAA XC Countdown

Terre Haute – Men – MB: Hand them their 4th straight title right now? NAU holds out two runners, stlll DESTROYS Stanford in Terre Haute The final score wasn’t close, 31 to 51, but Stanford’s 5-man average was only 10 seconds back. *Arizona Daily Sun Recap
*Women: #5 Arkansas Edges #8 Stanford 49 To 54 #3 Washington had 66 and #4 Michigan 75.

Boston: MB: They’re back baby. #13 Syracuse DESTROYS #3 Washington and #21 Arkansas in Boston

LRC 2019 NCAA Men’s XC Preview: #5 Washington Through #1 Northern Arizona Who is going to win NCAAs? One of these five teams.
*MB: And your 2019 NCAA men’s xc team champion will be …

LRC 2019 NCAA Women’s XC Preview: #5 NC State Through #1 New Mexico #2 Colorado certainly has a chance to repeat but it’s an odd year and that means UNM is the team to beat.

Previous: LRC 2019 NCAA Men’s XC Season Preview: Men’s Teams #10 Oklahoma State Through #6 Notre Dame We begin our 2019 NCAA XC countdown by unveiling the back half of the LRC top 10, which includes some big names – #10 Okla. State, #9 Portland, #8 Colorado, #7 Oregon, #6 Notre Dame.

LRC 2019 NCAA Women’s XC Preview: #10 Michigan State Through #6 Washington In between those two we have #9 Oregon, #8 Michigan and #7 Stanford.
*MB: My gooodness. When did the NCAA start letting teams take pre-season altitude trips?

NAU Frosh Drew Bosley, Who Was Twice Top 10 At Foot Locker, Admits He Never Even Ran 7 Days A Week In HS

And So It Begins

Stockholm Loses Its Diamond League Status The IAAF is cutting down the series to 13 meets and Stockholm was one to get cut. Meet director Jan Kowalski put a positive spin on it, though, saying, “We now have the possibility to arrange exactly the competition we want, without being steered by directives from the Diamond League …”

Sprints And Jumps

• Podcast Interview With Allyson Felix On Maternity Rights And Clean Sport Felix comments on the Christian Coleman case and how she’s only missed one test in her career (taking an exam at USC).
• Noah Lyles Features In Coca-Cola’s Tokyo 2020 “6-Pack”
• Recommended Read: DyeStat Profile On Pole Vaulter Daylis Caballero Vega, Who Talks About Her Journey From Cuban Defector To US Citizen Caballero Vega was part of the Cuban 2012 Olympic team, but defected at the 2013 Drake Relays. She competed for Team USA for the first time earlier this month at The Match.
• Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev Tunes Up For Doha With 20.08 Victory In The 200m At The Gloria Cup In Turkey

Seb Coe Defends The IAAF’s Position On Semenya And Other XY Athletes

• Seb Coe Defends The IAAF’s Stance On Caster Semenya, Saying They Have A “Responsibility To Protect” Female Athletes “It may be in 30 years, 40 years time society takes a different view and we have other classifications, I don’t know. But at this point my responsibility was to protect two classifications and that’s what we feel we’ve done.” *2nd Article
• Seb Coe On Semenya: “I hope that she does come back onto the track and I do hope that the athletes with that condition to take the medical direction that allows them to do that.”

Some Big Names Won’t Be In Doha

• MB: Genzebe Dibaba Will Miss Worlds Due To Plantar Fascia Issues A statement from her managing company said she had plantar fascitis and a partial rupture which occurred during the Zurich DL meet.
• MB: Nick Willis Misses World Championships By One Spot Due To Four “Gift Athletes” Willis didn’t have the standard, but expected to get in based on his position on the descending order list. However, four “universality athletes” (wild card athletes who get in because their country doesn’t have an athlete qualified in any event) ended up getting in ahead of him in the 1,500.
• Kenyan Trials Winner Jackline Wambui (1:58.79) Withdraws From Kenya’s World Team At The Last Minute Article also mentions that it is unclear what will happen with the men’s 5,000m squad as AK is waiting for a response from the AIU on two athletes who weren’t drug tested enough.
  *Update: Jackline Wambui Out Of Worlds After Refusing To Take Testosterone Level Test The same goes for Linda Kageha, who was on Kenya’s mixed 4 x 400 team.
• MB: Nick Willis isn’t only one being screwed over by the IAAF and slow runners – Mark English also won’t be going to Worlds

More Pre-Worlds News

• Potential Big Payday Awaits Athletes In Doha Over $7.5 million in prize money will be available with the winner of each event getting $60,000 (plus an extra $100,000 for a world record).
• Weakened South African Team Named For World Champs The team is lead by defending LJ world champ Luvo Manyonga, but will be missing some of their big stars like Wayde van Niekerk (injury), Caster Semenya (testosterone rules) and 100m NR holder Carina Horn (doping).
• Richard Kilty Voted GB Team Captain For Doha
• 29 Russians Will Compete In Doha As Neutral Athletes Defending champ Mariya Lasitskene is the favorite in the HJ and there are other medal contenders including 2015 world 110H champ Sergei Shubenkov.
• Allyson Felix Named Part Of US 4 X 400 Relay Pool Felix won’t compete in an individual race as she was only 6th in the 400m at USAs.

Find A Better Pair Of Running Shoes

LRC Want A Running Shoe That Lasts? The 10 Most Durable Running Shoes As Rated By You The most durable running shoes as rated by you.