November 28, 2019 | LetsRun.com

LRC Podcast / Turkey Trot News

RRW: Eric Jenkins, Edna Kiplagat Win Blustery Manchester Road Race Jenkins outkicked Edward Cheserek by 3-seconds while Kiplagat beat out Sally Kipyego by 13-seconds. *Discuss
*Local Fox Article With Video Interviews

Turkey Trots on the forums: Gobble, gobble: Official Turkey Trots Results Thread
Turkey Trot DEVASTATION
Did anyone get “chicked” at their Turkey Trot today?

LRC Gobble, Gobble: Post NCAA Cross Country Turkey Trot Podcast NCAAs are in the books and Turkey Trots are here.

Past Winners Edward Chesrek And Sally Kipyego Lead Fields For The Manchester Road Race Cheserek faces Donn Cabral, Eric Jenkins, Hillary Bor, Johnny Gregorek and Andy Butchart. The women’s race also has Edna Kiplagat, Molly Seidel and Sharon Lokedi.
Hartford Courant: Local Olympian Donn Cabral Feeling Good About The Manchester Road Race Cabral is a Connecticut native so grew up running this race. He says winning it “would be on the same level as making the Olympic team.”
Strong Winds In Forecast For Manchester Road Race Winds could be greater than 20mph.
Runner’s World History Lesson: How The Turkey Trot Became The Most Popular Race In America The first turkey trot was an 8k XC race 123 years ago in Buffalo, NY (it’s also the oldest race on the continent). Six runners started and only four finished, but today it’s capped at 14,000.

Upcoming Action

December 15: 2017 World XC Silver Medalist Leonard Barsoton, Former Olympic 10,000 Bronze Medalist Tariku Bekele And Israel’s Euro 10,000 Champ Lonah Salpeter Lead Field For Kolkata 25k
December 8: Elisha Barno (2:09:32) And Jane Kibii (2:30:01) Lead Fields For CIM
December 8: Final Entries For Euro XC Champs
February 4: Jakob Ingebrigsten Announced For Dusseldorf Indoor Meet 1500m Older brother Filip will also race.
February 8: Olympic Champ Ryan Crouser Vs World Champ Joe Kovacs Announced For Millrose Games Shot Put
World Athletics Announces Continental Tour For 2020 This will be a series of one-day meets to make up for the cuts to the DL.

Doping News

New Blood Doping Test Could Be Approved For Tokyo 2020 The new test would allow the detection of blood doping for many months instead of only days.
*The Telegraph: IOC Confident New Genetic Drug Testing Can Help War On Doping Rather than testing for traces of the drug in a person’s urine, the test identifies changes to a person’s genetic structure.
Good Read: Brother Colm O’Connell Talks About How Kenyan Distance Running Has Been Tainted By Doping “It is still a small section, but that’s enough to damage all of Kenya, and cast a doubt on everybody.” O’Connell also talked said he doesn’t know if David Rudisha will be able to make a comeback, but that he still dreams of Tokyo 2020.
17-Year-Old Kenyan Angela Ndungwa Munguti Gets 4-Year Drug Ban After Testing Positive For A Steroid The former African Youth Games 800m silver medalist is the 43rd Kenyan suspended for doping this year.
Ethiopian Marathoner Etaferahu Temesgen Wodaj (2:27:21) Gets Provisional Suspension After Testing Positive For EPO *Discuss

NCAA XC Champs Men’s Results Women’s Results

LRC Final Men’s XC Champs: #3 BYU Shocks #1 NAU To Win 1st Title, Iowa State’s Edwin Kurgat Delivers As Favorite Edwin Kurgat of Iowa State came through as the individual favorite but there was a big upset in the team race as BYU won its 1st-ever title.

LRC Final Arkansas Holds Off BYU To Complete Triple Crown, Weini Kelati Runs Becomes Second Foot Locker/NCAA Champ Both Arkansas (NCAA title #1) and Weini Kelati (NCAA title #1 to go with her Foot Locker title) made history in Terre Haute. LRC Post-Race Interviews Hear from the stars of Saturday’s action.

MB Talk:
Official 2019 NCAA XC Discussion Thread
NAU GOES HOME DEVASTATED!!!!!! 4th ranked BYU stunned NAU to win the men’s title whils Arkansas won the women’s to complete the calendar-year triple crown. Edwin Kurgat and Weini Kelati were your individual champions.
The Athlete Special goes home devastated almost 34 minutes and almost dead last.
Just ran the NCAA course in Terre Haute — a couple observations
Fiona O’Keeffe out of NCAA
Worth running for NAU?
NCAA Banquet Photos Up
What is the worst team score in men’s NCAA XC history?
NAU and Mike Smith Training

UK Admin Stuff

BBC: Some Of Britain’s Top Athletes Threaten Legal Action Against BOA Over Olympic Sponsorship Regulations Earlier this year the IOC softened its stance on the Rule 40 sponsorship restrictions and said national Olympic committees are free to implement them as they see fit. The USOPC relaxed its rules, but GB athletes weren’t happy with the limited changes made by the BOA.
*The Telegraph: “Adam Gemili Leads Team GB Group Threatening Legal Action Over BOA’s ‘Window Dressing Relaxation’ Of Rules” Mo Farah, Laura Muir and Katarina Johnson-Thompson are also among the athletes who could sue the BOA.
Incoming UK Athletics Chief Zara Hyde Peters Faces Questions Over Her Husband’s Coaching Past There are allegations that her husband was allowed to continue coaching at a club where she was vice-chair despite being banned from teaching over an “inappropriate relationship” with a 15-year-old schoolgirl. *BBC Article
UK Sport Under Pressure To Lead Probe Into Accusations Against New UK Athletics Chief
British Athletics Appoint Interim Performance Leadership Team Ahead Of Tokyo 2020 To Replace Neil Black Their top choice (sprint/hurdle coach Stephen Maguire) turned them down, so the pair of Steve Paulding (former cyclist) and Tommy Yule (former weightlifter) are taking over on a temporary basis.

NCAA XC Banquet Photos *Full Gallery Here

NCAA Previews

LRC 2019 NCAA XC Women’s Team Preview: Arkansas Tries To Erase NCAA XC Demons, Chases 2019 Sweep & First XC Title The Arkansas women are looking to complete the calendar-year triple crown but they have never won an NCAA XC crown and they’ve under-performed at 8 straight NCAAs. That being said, they have been utterly dominant this year and just perfect-scored their regional. LRC 2019 NCAA XC Men’s Team Preview: New Faces, Same Old NAU; Can Colorado Channel The Spirit Of ’04 And Pull The Upset? #1 NAU seems poised to become just the third men’s team to win 4 straight NCAA XC titles but #2 Colorado has a good team and #4 Stanford has 5 sub-13:50 guys. Can someone pull off a big upset? LRC NCAA XC Men’s Individual Preview: Can The American Drought Finally End, Or Will Favored Edwin Kurgat Of Iowa State Complete Perfect Season? Galen Rupp was the last American man to win an NCAA XC title in 2008. Conner Mantz, Joe Klecker and Thomas Ratcliffe hope that changes on Saturday. LRC NCAA XC Women’s Individual Preview: Alicia Monson Vs. Weini Kelati Is A Duel For The Ages In their last 8 races, each has won four times. Both are better than ever but only one will win on Saturday.

World Athletics Award / Admin News

Renaud Lavillenie And Valerie Adams Become The First Active Athletes To Join The World Athletics Council As Full Voting Members This is a change following governance reforms introduced in 2016.
Legends Gather In Monaco To Celebrate The Mile At The World Athletics Heritage Mile Night Attendees included Hicham El Guerrouj, Jim Ryun, John Walker, Kip Keino, Seb Coe, Eamonn Coghlan and Steve Cram.
New Zealand’s Three-Time Olympic Champion Peter Snell Tried To Defy A Heart Attack To Attend The World Athletics Heritage Mile Night 80-year-old Snell had his heart episode last week, but still went to the Dallas airport to fly to Monaco. However he decided at the last minute not to board the flight because of how ill he was feeling.
Roger Bannister And Diane Leather Charles (The First Woman To Run A Sub-5 Minute Mile) Among The Honorees At World Athletics Heritage Mile Night Some meets and mile races were also honored, including the Millrose Games, which is the world’s oldest indoor meet.
Finalists Announced For World Athletics Photograph Of The Year The photos are of Grant Holloway, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Antigua HJer Priscilla Frederick.
World Athletics Takes A Look At The Confederation Of African Athletics (CAA) Development Centers These seven centers train athletes, coaches and officials in Africa and are part of an initiative to “breed African talent on home soil.”

Kenya / South Africa News

WR Holder Brigid Kosgei Says That Winning The Olympics Is Her “Main Target And Challenge In 2020”
Athletics South Africa President Aleck Skhosana Doesn’t Want To Send Athletes To Tokyo If They Aren’t Going To Win Medals “If we are not going to go there and deliver what is expected of us, then we should not go there. We are not visitors. That’s our policy and philosophy at ASA.”
Eliud Kipchoge Gets Honorary Doctorate Degree From Laikipia University In Kenya
Nike Launches Short 3 Minute Film To Celebrate Caster Semenya The video titled, “The Birthplace of Dreams” shows Semenya touring around her small village in South Africa, talking about her start in sport. You can watch it here.

A Look Back At The 2019 NCAA XC Meet and the Last 10 NCAA XC Meets

LRC The LetsRun.com Decade Awards: Which NCAA Cross Country Programs & Athletes Were the Best of the 2010s? We hand out awards, including Runner of the Decade, Upset of the Decade, & Program of the Decade. Plus, what were the best single-season teams of the last 10 years? *Discuss

LRC WTW: Was BYU’s Win Really an Upset? How Would an All-Star High School Team Do at NCAAs? A full look back at the 2019 NCAA cross country champs.

UK News

New UK Athletics Chief Zara Hyde Forced To Stand Down Before Job Begins After Allegations About Her Husband It was alleged her husband was allowed to continue coaching at a club where she was vice-chair after he was banned from teaching over alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl. *BBC article
The Guardian: UK Athletics Thrown Into Crisis As New CEO Loses Job Before Starting An insider said the Hyde Peters’s scandal confirms track is “the most dysfunctional Olympic sport in Britain”.
December 8: Andrew Butchart Leads Announced Team GB For Euro XC Champs The women’s team includes Jess Judd and Kate Avery.
GB’s Former 400m Olympic Champ Christine Ohuruogu Talks About Why She Doesn’t Comment On Doping Debates She says, “I never cast aspersions – not with my history.” (She served a one year ban for three missed tests.)
Dina Asher-Smith And Katarina Johnson-Thompson Nominated For BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award
GB Olympic 4×400 Bronze Medalist Anyika Onuora Retires From The Sport The 35-year-old said, “Physically, I can do any workout. But mentally, I’m not where I want to be so I just want to move onto the next chapter of my life.
Another Short Course: Leeds Abbey Dash 10k Found To Be 23m Short; Charlotte Arter’s 31:34 Won’t Count

Athlete Of The Year News

Eliud Kipchoge And Dalilah Muhammad Named World Athletes Of The Year Other end-of-year awards from World Athletics included male and female rising star, which went to world 5,000m silver medalist Selemon Barega and world HJ silver medalist Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
Adam Gemili And Katarina Johnson-Thompson Voted British Athletes Of The Year
World Marathon 4th Placer Callum Hawkins Named Scottish Athlete Of The Year Hawkins beat out other shortlisted athletes, including Laura Muir, Eilish McColgan and Jake Wightman.

Non-LRC NCAA Coverage *DII And DIII Results

The Denver Post: Colorado Men Third At NCAA XC Behind Joe Klecker’s Runner-Up Finish Coach Mark Wetmore on finishing one point by NAU: “I’m pleased to end up on the podium today, but I wouldn’t mind for it to have been one point less. I should have yelled louder out there somewhere.”
The Denver Post: Colorado Women Finishes 10th At NCAAs Wetmore: “Our team wasn’t brilliant, but they got around the course.”
Colorado School Of Mines Men And Adams State Women Win NCAA DII XC Champs Colorado School of Mines had the largest margin of victory (79 points) since 1978 while Adams State equaled the lowest score in meet history with 23 points.
Pomona-Pitzer Men And Johns Hopkins Women Win DIII NCAA XC Champs Pomona-Pitzer had never finished in the NCAA top 5. Three-time defending champions North Central were second 18 points back.
USTFCCCA DI Champs Recap
Oklahoma City Men And Madonna Women Win NAIA XC Championships

Assorted Distance News

Paul Chelimo Writes Advice Letter To His Younger Self Chelimo says he doesn’t regret passing up the opportunity to be coached by Renato Canova to go to college in the US instead.
Preview: Uganda’s Maxwell Rotich And Kenya’s Eva Cherono The Favorites At The World Athletics XC Permit Meet In Alcobendas, Spain
Mark Carroll Named New BAA High Performance Coach Carroll was a two-time Olympian for Ireland and a collegiate coach for more than a decade. Former US 1,500m Olympian Morgan Uceny is the team’s assistant coach.
Eliud Kipchoge Hints At Defending His London And Olympic Marathon Titles
Laura Muir Reveals She Was Close To Missing Doha 2019 After Tearing A Calf Muscle In July
December 8: Saitama International Marathon Elite Field Released Ethiopia’s Belaynesh Oljira (2:21:53 ) and Kenya’s debuting Peres Jepchirchir (1:05:06 half PR) highlight.

More On The Tokyo 2020 Marathon Move

IOC President Thomas Bach Accuses Athletes Of Selfish Motives Over Marathon And Racewalk Debate Bach: “There are one or two voices of athletes who think they would be better prepared for races in heat than the others and wanted to benefit from this …” A counterpoint to this is that the temperature in Sapporo isn’t guaranteed to be cooler than Tokyo.
IOC’s John Coates Insists That The Men’s Marathon Be Held On The Last Day Of The Olympics There’s been talk about moving the day because of logistical difficulties, but Coates said, “It is to be held on the last day of the Olympics, and the athletes must be put on a plane and returned (to Tokyo) in time for the closing ceremonies.”
Japan Olympic Trials Winner Shogo Nakamura Says The IOC Needs To Decide On The Marathon Course As Soon As Possible So Athletes Can Prepare For It

General Tokyo 2020 News

Construction Work On Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium Completed The final cost was $1.2 billion.
Tokyo 2020 Spectators Will Be Allowed To Bring Drinks Into Games Venues Spectators will be allowed to bring one bottled non-alcoholic drink up to 750ml to combat the hot temperatures.
AP: Tokyo Olympics Getting Some Flak For Failing To Use French In Addition To Japanese And English Article 23 of the Olympic Charter specifies that French and English are the official languages of the games, but so far news conferences and signs have all been in Japanese or English.
Airbnb Becomes A Leading Olympic Partner Through 2028 Thomas Bach praised the deal saying it would “provide accommodation that will reduce the cost for the Olympic Games organizers” and “minimize the need for (new) construction.”

The US Olympic Marathon Trials Will Be Here Before You Know It (Feb. 29th)

LRC The Road To Sapporo: Assessing The Women’s Field At The 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials From Jordan Hasay (50%) to Stephanie Bruce (5%), we break down the odds for the contenders at the 2020 US Olympic Trials. LRC The Road To Sapporo: Where The US Men’s Marathoners Stand 3+ Months Out From The Olympic Trials Jonathan Gault breaks down the Americans’ chances of making the 2020 Olympic marathon team – from Galen Rupp (90%) to Dathan Ritzenhein (5%) and Benard Lagat (5%). MB: Who are the favorites for the 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials? We tell you here.

Nike Issues

Saucony Sponsored Molly Huddle Is Concerned About The Nike AlphaFly She tweeted that she was “kinda nervous how [they] would affect the Olympic Trials.”
Mary Cain Still Calling On Nike To Hold Third-Party Probe Into Disbanded Oregon Project Cain says she thinks Nike has “kind of victim-blamed her” and asked if she planned on taking any legal action she said, “I don’t really know going forward. The truth is a lot of that I’m keeping closer to my chest.”

More Weekend Distance Action

Crazy: 138 Men Go Sub-29 For 10,000m At Two Meets In Japan Evans Keitany won the Hachioji long distance meet in 27:46.63 to lead 12 under 28-minutes.
Britain’s Jessica Piasecki Moves to #5 on All Time UK List With 2:25:29 In Her Debut Ethiopia’s Nigussie Sahlesilassie won the men’s race in 2:10:14.
Liam Brady After Winning Irish XC Champs Men’s Title: “I said if he wants to beat me, he’ll have to be willing to die for it as well.”
Fionnuala McCormack Dominates Irish XC Champs With Her 9th Title As Her Younger Sister Una Takes Third McCormack won easily by 1:41. She and her sister are the first siblings to ever both get on the podium in this race.
Japan Post Leads Start to Finish to Win National Corporate Women’s Ekiden
Burundi’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo And Kenya’s Eva Cherono Win World Athletics XC Series Meet In Alcobendas, Spain
Athletics Weekly Weekly Round-Up

Assorted European News

Jess Judd And Ben Connor Take Victories At GB European XC Trials Former NCAA champ Kate Avery was third in the women’s race.
Track Is Popular Somewhere: The 2020 British Championships Sell Out In Three Days
Poland’s 2015 World Discus Champ Piotr Malachowski Announces His Plan To Retire At The End Of The 2020 Season The 36-year-old is dreaming of Olympic gold after finishing 2nd in 2008 and 2016.
European Athletics Athletes Committee Responds To Diamond League Changes They say they don’t think cutting events is the answer and “sets a dangerous precedent.”

More Cain / Hasay News:

Jordan Hasay Addresses The Mary Cain – Alberto Salazar Scandal Hasay says she believes NOP was a bad fit for Cain when she was still so young and that she can sympathize with both sides of the issue. She says Salazar is “obsessed about weight, but he’s obsessed about everything.” She added that he even told her to gain weight sometimes. *MB: RW Alberto wanted Hasay to wear a wetsuit at Boston 2018 and other fun stuff
Paula Radcliffe Clarifies Her Coaching Role With Jordan Hasay “It’s not an official coaching role since I am not actually qualified to coach … my role is more of a mentor/advisor than a coach.”
Podcast Interview With LRC’s Own Jon Gault From The Sports Opinions Podcast Gault talks about Mary Cain‘s allegations against Alberto Salazar as well as DL changes and his beloved New England Patriots.
Kara Goucher Criticizes Nike Doing An Internal Investigation Nike executive John Capriotti emailed Goucher as part of Nike’s investigation into Mary Cain‘s allegations against Alberto Salazar, but Goucher argued they should hire an independent third party to conduct the investigation.
Outside: Mary Cain And The Dark Side Of Pro Running

Pre-Race NCAA News

LRC Early Votes For Prediction Contest: LRC Nation HEAVILY Back Arkansas, NAU and Edwin Kurgat NAU is getting more than 28 x more votes than Colorado and Edwin Kurgat is gettng more than 11 x as many individual votes as Conner Mantz. Arkansas is getting more than 6 x more votes than Stanford while Alicia Monson narrowly leads Weini Kelati in the women’s individual race. LRC Mark Wetmore Shares His Thoughts On Alberto Salazar, Mary Cain, And Dr. Jeffrey Brown Wetmore called for a lifetime ban for Brown and revealed how he keeps a healthy environment for his women at Colorado. “Our system is not created by men for men. I try to be polite and stay out of the way.” LRC Fueled & Strengthened By Past Failures, Taylor Werner & A Senior-Heavy Arkansas Team Are Ready For Their NCAA XC Moment Can Werner, who has finished 104th and 81st at the last two NCAAs, lead Arkansas to their first-ever NCAA XC women’s title? LRC NAU’s Starting Lineup Revealed; Coach Mike Smith Praises Lumberjacks’ Team-Focused Attitude NAU is so good that coach Mike Smith had a tough choice to make in figuring out what 7 runners should run NCAAs. We exclusively tell you who made the cut here. “They don’t just have four or five very good runners. They seem to have 10,” said Mark Wetmore.