October 22, 2019 | LetsRun.com

Nike Related News

Recommended Read: The Guardian’s Sean Ingle: “No Record Is Safe With IAAF Poised To Allow Arms Race In Shoes To Run And Run” Ingle’s sources say that the IAAF’s technological committee is going to clear the Nike Next% and even go so far to say any shoe should be legal as long as it gives no “motor assistance.”
NIKE CEO Mark Parker To Step Down; Former Ebay CEO John Donahoe Set To Be His Replacement
MB: Nike ceo resignation

Week That Was

LRC Leonard Korir Runs 2:07, Unknown Canadian Runs 2:09, Plus Fast Times in Toronto and Delhi Leonard Korir was only 11th in Amsterdam but he now is looking like a strong bet for the US Olympic team + fast times on Torono and New Delhi.

2020 Diamond League News

IAAF Finalizes Diamond League Schedule With 14 Meets And 1 Final For 2020 This means that none of the current meets were cut and they’ve added a meet in China (city TBD) as part of their sponsorship agreement with Wanda Group. The IAAF also announced they’re launching a second-tier World Athletics Continental Tour series with events that are cut from the DL.
Gateshead To Replace Birmingham For 2020 Diamond League Gateshead is stepping in as the Birmingham stadium is being redeveloped for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Are The Diamond League Changes A “Major Headache” For Athletics Kenya The article talks about conflicts between DL meets and national trials, but that’s no different than it is for any other country.

Canadian Olympic Trials / 2019 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon *Results

Philemon Rono (2:05:00) And Magdalyne Masai Robertson (2:22:16) Set Canadian Soil Records As Trevor Hofbauer Lowers PR From 2:16: To 2:09:25 To Win Canadian Champs

Pre-Race: RRW: After Food Poisoning Nightmare, Betsy Saina To Run Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Saina struggled with food poisoning for the three days before Chicago and was forced to drop out after going through halfway in 4th place. Knowing she was in great shape, she wanted the chance for another race.

RRW: Marathon Debut A Big Leap In Distance For Former BYU Runner Rory Linkletter

Non-Distance Stuff

Even More Kipchoge / Vaporfly News

Eliud Kipchoge Sues Radio Station That Immediately Starting Using His Likeness Without Permission After He Broke 2:00 They even had the gall to rename some of their stations “Kipchoge radio.”
Toni Reavis Published A Poem In Honor Of Eliud Kipchoge – “Sub Two-Hour Man”
FoxSports: No Longer A Shoe – Nike And The “Technological Doping” Debate
On Twitter: Kara Goucher And Blake Russell Wrote To The IAAF After The 2016 Marathon Trials About How The Nike Vaporflys Were Unethical
The Independent: “From The Tour De France To The Hundred, The Rise Of Manufactured Sport Is Altering Its Very Fundamentals” “The idea of sport as a made-for-television event is nothing new, but this feels a step beyond: a willingness by governing bodies and bright entrepreneurs to renegotiate its rules, rhythms and traditions.”
BBC: “Athletics In An Era Of Exciting Possibilities, But Also Faces More Questions Than Ever”
US’s Jake Riley About The Nike Vaporflys: “It feels like running on trampolines.”
MB: IAAF To Investigate Nike Vaporfly Next%
MB: Trevor Noah defends Eliud Kipchoge, “You can’t give the shoes the credit, if anything, him being Kenya is the cheating part”
MB: News Flash: Carbon fiber does not bend and propel, it breaks
MB: How come the shoe guys never thought of the 4% technology until now?

Catching Up With Doha World Champions

IAAF Profile: How Muktar Edris Went From Injured Team Player To Two-Time World Champion After dealing with a couple years of injuries and sub-par training, Edris didn’t have high expectations for Doha and was actually hoping to help one of his teammates win gold.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson: “Being labeled world champion has an authority to it,” she says. “But it’s weird to me because I feel like the same person, with the same emotions, doubts and fears.” Johnson-Thompson talks about how things have changed, but stayed the same since winning her world title.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson Plays Down Role As Tokyo 2020 Favorite She won Worlds, but Olympic champ Nafi Thiam still has a better PR.
IAAF Profile On World 50k Racewalk Champ Evan Dunfee

Major Marathon News

IOC Announces That The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Marathon And Racewalks Are Being Moved To Sappaoro This is due to fears over the Tokyo heat, as Sapporo is the northern-most and coolest prefecture in Japan. Temperatures there are as much as 40 degrees F cooler than in Tokyo during the day at the time of the Games.

The Telegraph: “Olympic Organizers Learn From Doha Chaos” The article points out that half the women’s marathon field dropped out at Doha Worlds.

Non-Distance Stuff

Gambling.com Says That The Men’s High Jump Is The Favorite To Be The Next World Record Broken 2/1 odds to be broken first. Men’s LJ and men’s TJ are next on the list at 7/2 and 11/2 odds.
Yohan Blake Reportedly Thinking About Splitting With Coach After World Champs Disappointment Racers coach Patrick Dawson took over coaching Blake in January after Blake and Glen Mills parted ways, but Blake’s manager says he was “coaching himself” for a lot of this year.
Ato Boldon Thinks Trinidad And Tobago’s Medal Chances At Tokyo 2020 Are Slim “We have to be honest, it is going to be tough to win a medal. We will have chances, maybe one or two, including Keshorn Walcott, but it is not going to be easy.”
Finland’s 2007 World Javelin Champ Tero Pitkamaki Announces His Retirement At Age Of 36 “This is a bit of a grieving process for me. Although it was well known that this day would come and I could prepare for it a little, it still feels empty and depressing. Fortunately javelin is just a sport and there is much more to life.”

Chicago Marathon *Tracking & Results

LRC Final Brigid Kosgei Runs 2:14:04, Shatters Women’s Marathon World Record At 2019 Chicago Marathon Paula Radcliffe‘s legendary 2:15:25 world record is history after 16+ years.

LRC Final Lawrence Cherono Sprints To 2019 Chicago Marathon Title, His 2nd Straight Major Win Just as he did in Boston earlier this year, Lawrence Cherono won a thrilling sprint finish for the title today in Chicago. Meanwhile, former NOP teammates Mo Farah and Galen Rupp both struggled but 10 Americans broke 2:12.

Brigid Kosgei World Record Running Form Analysis Running technique expert Jae Gruenke writes that the changes to Kosgei’s form since London 2019 are “massive” and hypothesizes that it could have to do with the new Nike shoes. Gruenke is not a fan of them and even goes as far to say “don’t buy those effing shoes.”
Brigid Kosgei Says She Believes She A Woman Can Run 2:10 This Guardian article also points out that Kosgei’s agent is Federico Rosa, who has had a “worrying number of banned athletes.”
Jordan Hasay’s Father Says That She Had To Drop Out After Suffering A Hamstring Injury At Mile Two
Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Takes Almost 4 Minutes Off Her PR To Finish 5th In Chicago With 2:26:47 That moves her to #2 on the Irish all-time list.
Runner’s World Points Out That Brigid Kosgei Ran Her Last 7k Faster Than Mo Farah Kosgei ran 22:50 from the 35k mark to the finish while Farah ran 23:35.
RW: A PR Day For American Men In Chicago Four US men ran under 2:11 and six placed in the top 15.
RW Looks At How Well The American Women Did In Chicago Five US women finished inside the top 10.
RRW: Brigid Kosgei Smashes World Record At Chicago Marathon
Paula Radcliffe Admits To Mixed Feelings About Her WR Being Broken “If you had told me when I set it in 2003, that it would last that long I wouldn’t have believed it.”
IAAF Chicago Recap Paula Radcliffe: “When I saw how fast Brigid was running in the first half of the race, I knew she had a good chance of getting the record.”
NY Times Recap

OTB:

MB: BRIGID KOSGEI WTF 2:14:04!!!
MB: Galen Rupp drops out of 2019 Chicago Marathon just before 23 miles
MB: Jordan Hasay drops out after going out over 3 hour pace
MB: Statement from agent Ricky Simms on Galen Rupp/Jordan Hasay DNFs in Chicago
MB: Mo Farah goes home DEVASTATED and outclassed Farah was 8th in 2:09:58.
MB: Parker Stinson goes home ELATED! LRC haters go home DEVASTATED!
MB: Emma Bates Top American Woman at Chicago
MB: Official Discussion Thread

Athlete Of The Year News

Nominees Announced For IAAF Male World Athlete Of The Year The 11 nominees are Eliud Kipchoge, Timothy Cheruiyot, Joshua Cheptegei, Donavan Brazier, Christian Coleman, Sam Kendricks, Noah Lyles, Christian Taylor, Daniel Stahl, Karsten Warholm and Steven Gardiner.
Men’s European Athlete Of The Year Nominees Announced Distance runners to make the list are Marcin Lewandowski and Amel Tuka.
Women’s European Athlete Of The Year Nominees Announced Distance runners to make the list are Sifan Hassan, Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Gesa Felicitas Krause.
Euro Men’s Rising Star Nominees
Euro Women’s Rising Star Nominees

An All-Time Great Hangs ‘Em Up

LRC Shalane Flanagan Retires: Is She The US GOAT? + Top 5 Moments in Her Career Flanagan may not have been the greatest track, xc or marathon runner in US history, but if you take all three together – is the she the US women’s distance GOAT? *Discuss: Flanagan Retires

Fellow Pros React To Shalane Flanagan’s Retirement Includes posts from Meb Keflezighi, Kara Goucher, Paula Radcliffe, Emma Coburn and others.
Shalane Flanagan’s Career In Photos
Runner’s World Article On Shalane Flanagan’s Retirement *AP Article
Shalane Flanagan Joins 2019 TCS New York City Marathon Broadcast Team

Non-Distance News

MB: Pittsburgh Steeler Arrested after Allegedly Assaulting Canadaian Pole Vaulter Girlfriend Anthony Chickillo
Former Olympic Champ Veronica Campbell-Brown Statue Unveiled In Jamaica
Sandi Morris Gets Married Morris married her boyfriend, Tyrone Smith, this past weekend.
IAAF Inside Athletics Video Interview With Australia’s Commonwealth HJ Champ Brandon Starc

Drug News

MB: Did world record holder Brigid Kosgei miss three tests? Her coach, Eric Kimaiyo, said, “There are three times the anti-doping officials did not test her and they made a big deal out of it yet she was sick or had left the training venue when they arrived.”
Ethiopia’s 27:00 Man Berehanu Tsegu Suspended After Testing Positive For EPO
*MB: Ethiopia’s Berehanu Tsegu (27:00/59:22) busted for doping
Are Natural Painkillers Better Than NSAIDs Like Ibuprofen Meds For Runners? To be honest, the results don’t look that much better.

It Was A Big NCAA XC Weekend Wisco Results Army-Navy Results Pre-Nats Results All NCAA Results

Pre-Nats: LRC Conner Mantz & Erica Birk Lead BYU To Big Day At 2019 Pre-Nats BYU took home both individual titles and the men’s team title but #8 Washington upset them to win the women’s team race.

Wisco: LRC Edwin Kurgat & Alicia Monson Stamp Themselves As NCAA Title Contenders As NAU Men & Arkansas Women Roll At 2019 Nuttycombe Invite We break down the biggest regular-season NCAA meet of the season for you. As good as NAU and Arkansas were, the men from the ACC were bad as their top 4 teams all bombed. Plus it looks like the American men’s losing streak at NCAAs will continue.

Road News

Bernard Lagat Is All In For The Olympic Marathon Trials And Hoping To Make His Sixth Olympic Team 44-year-old Lagat says he was inspired when he ran as a pacer for Eliud Kipchoge‘s sub-2 hour run. “Who sets limits? I’m going to say, I’m old, so what? I’m going to continue training hard.”
IAAF Weekend Road Preview: Quick Times Antipated In Amsterdam, Toronto, Delhi And Lisbon Hagos Gebrhiwet makes his half-marathon debut at the Delhi Half against seven sub-60 minute men. Tsehay Gemechu (66:50) will try to defend against Caroline Kipkirui (65:07). Former half-marathon WR holder Peres Jepchirchir and Jorum Okombo (58:48) headline in Lisbon. Solomon Deksisa (2:04:40) and Linet Masai (2:23:46) lead at the Amsterdam Marathon, with Philemon Rono (2:06:52) at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Sunday: GB’s Eilish McColgan Hoping To Emulate Her Mother Liz McColgan By Becoming A Two-Time Great South Run Winner In the men’s race Chris Thompson is going for a record fourth victory.

Sub-2 And The Shoes

Recommended Read: Track And Field News: The $64,000 Question: “Is It The Shoes?” Sports scientist Geoff Burns fears there is going to be a shoe “arms race” which will devalue past and present performances. LRC’s Jon Gault gets a mention.
Interesting Question: InsideTheGames: “Has Eliud Kipchoge’s Glorious Effort Marred The Marathon’s Future?” Mike Rowbottom asks how will the first person to go sub-2 in a normal race feel about Kipchoge? “Will they feel strangely robbed?”
The Guardian Asks What Effect “Green-Line” Laser Tech Will Have On The “Off-The-Cuff Spontaneity Of Live Sport” Distance running isn’t the only sport where lasers and other tech are changing the way the sport is played.
MB: Ryan Hall speaks out against Kipchoge and shoes Hall says, “When a shoe company puts multiple carbon fiber plates in a show with cushion between the plates, it is no longer a shoe, it’s a spring and a clear mechanical advantage …”
MB: If Vaporfly weren’t made by Nike no one would ever want to ban them
MB: Vaporfly for high school calculus
MB: Does anybody jog in Vaporfly Next%?

LetsRun.com Corner

LRC Podcast: The Week The Marathon Broke: Eliud Kipchoge Goes Sub-2 Hours, Brigid Kosgei 2:14:04 + US Olympic Marathon Trials Preview Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei took the marathon where it has never been before. We break it all down.
*Thread Of Week On Podcast: Adjusting Top Lists To Account For The Shoes
*Hilarious, Explosive Listener Audio On The Podcast

LRC Meet The Winners Of The Running Warehouse Worlds Prediction Contest: Mutual Fund Guy, A Newlywed And An Aerospace Engineer Triumph Meet the true winners of the World Champs.

Testosterone And Women’s Sports

New IAAF Rules Say Transgender Female Athletes Must Lower Their Testosterone Levels By Half Athlete testosterone levels need to be less than five nanomoles per liter for a period of 12 months before they can be eligible. The previous limit was 10 nanomoles. *BBC Article
New Study Confirms Testosterone Boosts Women’s Athletics Performance While we certainly didn’t need a study to tell us this, it’s good to have some data and apparently this is a rare study that actually got approval to give testosterone to healthy women. Women in the study who were given a hormone cream increased their running time to exhaustion by 21.17 seconds (8.5%).
IAAF Strongly Denies Forcing Operations On DSD Athletes As French Sport Minister Investigates

Giving Some Love To Weekend Road Results That Were Largely Ignored Due To Marathon Madness

Brillian Kipkoech (1:07:40 CR) Wins $20,000 at 2019 B.A.A. Half Marathon Philemon Kiplimo won $10,000 in the men’s race with a 61:58.
Elvin Kibet, Who Cried The 1st Time She Got To Wear The Army Singlet, Wins Army Ten-Miler With 54:05 CR Rojo is now wondering if Kibet could be a dark horse candidate for the 2020 US Olympic team. She is, after all, the sister of 2-time WC silver medalist Sylvia Kibet. *MB: Darkhorse pick for 2020 US Olympic Team – Elvin Kibet?
Molly Huddle Wins $9,000 at Reebok 10K for Women With 31:50 Emily Infeld was third in 32:14 and Molly Seidel fourth in 32:52.
Sheila Chepkirui Breaks African All-Comers’ Record With 30:55 At The Durban 10k She beat Evaline Chirchir by two seconds. Stephen Mokoka won the men’s race in 28:12.
Enos Kales (58:28) And Naomi Jebet (1:08:51) Win Paris 20k
Eritrea’s Petro Mamu And Kenya’s Lucy Murigi Win Smarna Gora Mountain Race In Slovenia Scotland’s Andrew Doublas and Ireland’s Sarah McCormack finished farther back, but won the overall WMRA World Cup series titles.
Marc Scott And Charlotte Arter Win Cardiff Cross Challenge

Eliud Kipchoge Breaks 2:00 *Full Event Replay

LRC What Does It All Mean? Four Thoughts On Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 Marathon Be inspired by Kipchoge’s greatness and the unifying power of the feat even if it won’t count as a World Record. That being said, the shoe technology needs to be fair to all moving forward. *NYTimes *BBC *WSJ

LRC MBoard Talk

Amsterdam And Other Road Results *Amsterdam Results

MB: Leonard Korir Runs 2:07:56 In Amsterdam, #5 Ever For US
*IAAF Recap Vincent Kipchumba won the race in 2:05:09 as the top-4 broke 2:06. Degitu Azmeraw broke the CR and ran the second-fastest debut in history with a 2:19:26 victory over Tigist Girma (2:19:52).

Ethiopians Andamlak Belihu (59:10) And Tsehay Gemechu (66:00) Win The Delhi Half-Marathon The top-4 men broke the one hour barrier while Gemechu just beat out Yelamzerf Yehalaw by 1-second.
Three Course Records Go Down In Lisbon As Andualem Shiferaw (2:06:00), Titus Ekiru (60:10) And Peres Jepchirchir (66:54) Win The Lisbon Marathon And Half-Marathon Sechale Dalasa won the women’s marathon in 2:29:51.
Eilish McColgan Breaks Her Mother’s Scottish 10 Mile Record To Win The Great South Run In 51:36 She broke her mother’s 52:00 mark from 1997 and also moved to #2 on the UK all-time list behind Paula Radcliffe’s 51:11. Marc Scott won the men’s race in 46:57.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen Runs 27:54 National Record In His 10k Debut Ingebrigtsen broke Sondre Nordstad Moen‘s 27:55 record. The time was also the fastest by a European this year and a Euro U20 best.

Assorted Distance News

Running Legends Steve Jones, Rod Dixon And Geoff Smith Weren’t Impressed With Eliud Kipchoge’s Sub-2 Hour Marathon Jones called it a “circus style drama” and said, “It’s a bit like Evil Knievel jumping the Grand Canyon or someone eating 100 hotdogs in 10 minutes.”
Idaho Statesman: Emma Bates Is An Olympic Hopeful In The Marathon Bates has a funny quote from before Chicago, where she said running with guys isn’t always helpful because “they don’t want a girl to pass them” so they surge and then fall off.
Former NAU All-American Matt McElroy Wins International Triathlon Union World Cup In South Korea

Not Everyone Is Happy About IOC’s Tokyo 2020 Announcement

Tokyo Governor Surprised By IOC Decision To Move Olympic Marathon To Sapporo His reaction suggests a “disconnect between the IOC and the host city” with local organizers calling it a “proposal” rather than a done deal.
Canada’s World Champs Racewalk Bronze Medalist Evan Dunfee Hits Out At IOC Decision To Move Tokyo 2020 Events To Sapporo Dunfee tweeted, “Hey, @iaaforg @iocmedia, I’m assuming this means you’ll be paying for my family and friends flights and accommodations who have already booked for Tokyo? … Was there ANY consultation with athletes over this? Prepare for the heat, respect the heat, thrive.”

Negative Nike News

The Oregonian: “Defiant And Defensive, Nike Only Sabotages Itself” The Oregonian laments that instead of using this opportunity to show some “humility” Nike blamed critics for the shutdown of NOP due to “uniformed innuendo and unsubstantiated assertions.”
Excellent Read: Meet Liz McColgan, The Original Woman To Be Dropped By Nike When Pregnant But Overcame That To Be World Champ She says Nike dropped her the moment she announced her pregnancy. Less than four months after giving birth, she won World XC bronze and 9 months after birth, she won World 10,000 gold.
The Sunday Post: Mark Daly: “It Was A Marathon Not A Sprint But Downfall Of Doping Coach Alberto Salazar Is A Great Victory For Sport” Daly writes, “For Salazar’s prestigious Nike Oregon Project to become too toxic even for Nike is more than noteworthy. Yes, outwardly Nike is still standing by Salazar as he appeals his ban, but dumping the Project – his project – signifies that Salazar and everything he stood for at the company is finished.”
MB: Kara Goucher throws shade at Paula Radcliffe on twitter

Week That Was

LRC What A Week: Kipchoge Goes Sub-2 In Marathon, Paula Radcliffe’s World Record Gets Destroyed By Brigid Kosgei, 10 Americans Go Sub-2:12,Is Rupp In Trouble For The Trials? Eliud Kipchoge went sub-2 in the marathon, Paula Radcliffe’s world record was destroyed by Brigid Kosgei, and 10 Americans went sub-2:12. Is Galen Rupp’s spot on the Olympic team in jeopardy? We make sense of it all.

LRC Top Track Agent Will Repay Commissions Earned From Athlete Who Tested Positive For PEDs We have a new model as to how all track and field agents should behave if one of their athletes gets busted for PEDs. Davor Savija, head of Ikaika Sports, has announced they’ll be repaying the commissions they received for one of their athletes who tested positive.

Track Awards

IAAF Announces Nominees For Female World Athlete Of The Year They are Brigid Kosgei, Sifan Hassan, Hellen Obiri, Beatrice Chepkoech, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Mariya Lasitskene, Malaika Mihambo, Dalilah Muhammad, Salwa Eid Naser and Yulimar Rojas.
Former World And Olympic 400m Champ Christine Ohuruogu Inducted Into England Hall Of Fame
Best Photos Of 2019 To Be Recognized At World Athletics Awards Any professional photographer who has been officially accredited at an athletics event in 2019 can submit a photo. There is also a contest for the best fan photo of the year which anyone can submit.

More MB Talk From Chicago And INEOS Sub-2

MB: What shoe were the Americans wearing in Chicago?
MB: Brigid Kosgei Demands Own Ineos Challenge! She tweeted that she would like to take the INEOS 1:59 challenge and to also meet Michelle Obama.
MB: Bitter (and defeated) Brits Start Whisper Campaign to Discredit Brigid Kosgei for Breaking Radcliffe Record Both Tim Hutchings and Mara Yamauchi tweeted out statements expressing their incredulity.
MB: Does anyone seriously want vaporflys banned? We would like to see any new shoe type be made available to the public for 6 months before it’s used in elite competition in order to ensure all athletes have fair access to the new technology.
MB: What could Kipchoge run for a 1500m today