Voting Now Open – 64 Races … 8 Remain … 1 Champion

LRC LRC’s Race Of The Decade: It’s Time For The Elite Eight One of our four #1 seeds is out as the LetRun faithful showed no sentimentality for the late, great Sammy Wanjiru as his last marathon victory at the 2010 Chicago Marathon lost out to Eliud Kipchoge’s world record in Berlin in 2018. Vote now to determine who makes it to the final 4. Voting closes at midnight ET on Thursday.

End-Of-Year Awards

• Eliud Kipchoge Voted BBC World Sport Star Of The Year
• The Bowerman Presentation Returns To Orlando On Thursday, December 19 It will be aired live at 7PM ET on ESPN. Men’s finalists are Mondo Duplantis, Grant Holloway and Divine Oduduru. Women’s finalists are Janeek Brown, Yanis David and Sha’Carri Richardson.
• Dina Asher-Smith’s Coach John Blackie Wins BBC Coach Of The Year Award
• Dina Asher-Smith Finishes Third In BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Cricket player Ben Stokes won the award.
• World Champion Racewalker Yusuke Suzuki Named Japanese Athlete Of The Year “I was in darkness for two-and-a-half years, while I was hurt from 2015-18. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do and even thought I should quit. So I would like to deeply express my appreciation to those who brought me back to this stage.”
• Joyciline Jepkosgei Voted 2019 New York Road Runners Pro Performer Of The Year Jepkosgei won the NYC Marathon in the second-fastest time in event history as well as the NYC Half.
• World Champions Niklas Kaul (Decathlon) And Malaika Mihambo (LJ) Win German Sports Personality Of The Year Awards
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee Honored With An Award From The US Olympic Endowment The award is given to an “individual or group who has made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

Des Is Going For 2020 Olympic Trials And 2020 Boston Marathon Double

LRC Thoughts On The 2020 Boston Marathon: Des Linden’s Double, East African Olympic Teams, & How To Fix World Marathon Majors Des Linden is 1 of 8 former champs returning to Boston in 2020 and we spoke to her about her trying to do the Olympic Trials/Boston double just 7 weeks apart.
*MB:Des Linden doing the Trials AND Boston!!

RRW:8 Prior Champions, Including Des Linden, To Run 2020 Boston Marathon Besides Linden, other past Boston winners include Yuki Kawauchi, Edna Kiplagat, Geoffrey Kirui, Caroline Rotich and Lelisa Desisa.

2019 Foot Locker XC *Full Results *Race Replay *LRC FL Preview

LRC Josh Methner Dominates, Poland’s Zofia Dudek (16:45) Wins Thrilling Battle With Marlee Starliper To Claim 2019 Foot Locker Titles The girls race was a classic as four girls entered the final hill together. In the end, Zofia Dudek came from behind to win with the 5th-fastest time in history.

DyeStat Profile On Graydon Morris Who Became Just The Second Male Athlete To Qualify For Foot Locker Four Times Jorge Torres (from 1995 to 1998) is the only other male runner to do that.

Foot Locker MB Discussion

• Official 2019 Foot Locker Nationals XC Thread
• Methner wins footlocker and proving all the LR haters wrong
• A Pole just won Foot Locker. A Pole just won Foot Locker. List of runners who were born outside of the US who have won Foot Locker
• 2019 girls Foot Locker predictions and discussion!
• 2019 boys Foot Locker predictions and discussion!
• If you were in charge of Footlocker Nationals, how would you compete with NXN?

Russian Doping News

• Chair Of The British Athletes Commission Quits WADA Over Refusal To Ban Russia From All Sport Victoria Aggar: “I simply can no longer be a part of an organisation that places politics over principle.”
• Former WADA President Dick Pound: Taking Off The Gloves – Russia Called To Account” “The velvet glove treatment did not produce the hoped-for conduct change within Russia’s sport-doping culture.”
• AP:WADA Committee Chairman Defends Partial Russian Ban Jonathan Taylor: “We have to be careful as well, because those who say it should be blanket ban … it’ll be thrown out in court. We have to focus on what happened in 2018 and ’19. That was the cover-up of the cover-up of the original doping.”
• USOPC Chair Concerned About How Russians Prove They’re Clean
• WADA Director General Olivier Niggli Admits There Is A “Great Polarization Of Athlete Views” On Russia
• Reuters:Russian Track Athletes Could Still Be At Tokyo 2020 As Neutrals

Zatopek 10,000m *Results

Stewart McSweyn Runs 27:23.80 To Break Australian 10,000m Record At Zatopek 10,000m Former NCAA XC champ Patrick Tiernan was runner-up with 27:31.20. Genevieve Gregson (formerly LaCaze) won the women’s race in 32:47.83.
*World Athletics Recap

Important Doping News

• French Marathoner Clemence Calvin, Who Got Court Order Lifting Drug Suspension So She Could Run A 2:23 NR In Paris, Is Actually Banned For 4 Years Days before this year’s Paris marathon, she got a court order lifting her suspension for refusing a drug test in Morocco as she said the testers impersonated police officers. The ban was recently upheld but she called the recent hearing a “masquerade” and is appealing.
• Russian News Agency Admits 88 Track Athletes And 9 Coaches Are Currently Banned For Doping That’s very high since roughly only 500 are in the testing pool.

Sprint News Of Note 

• Yohan Blake States The Obvious To Indian Press – Usain Bolt Overshadowed My Career & Without Him I’d Be The World’s Fastest Man That’s true as his 19.26 was incredible. He also complains that Glen Mills rarely let him race Bolt.
• Back From Illness And Injury, Kirani James Looks Ahead To 2020 With Optimism He seems to have Graves disease under control and is optimistic he can win a third Olympic medal in 2020 after finishing 5th at Worlds this year.

Distance News

• Defending Champions Dominate At Southeast Asian Games Vietnam’s Duong Van Thai completed the 800/1,500 double for the 2nd straight champs.
• Edward Cheserek And Sharon Lokedi Get Engaged The 17-time NCAA champ and the 1-time champ are set to be hitched as King Ches proposed to Queen Ches in Hawaii.
• Turkey’s Kaan Kigen Özbilen Shares The Keys To His 2:04:16 ER – “The majority of this comes from genetics.” Training with Eliud Kipchoge probably doesn’t hurt either.
• Good ReadNot Everyone Wearing Vaporflys Qualified At CIM On Trying Aand Failing) To OTQ At CIM
• Eliud Kipchoge Was The #2 Personality Searched For On Google In Kenya In 2019 The #1 spot went to  Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore while the INEOS 159 event was the 9th most searched for event.
• US Ambassador Visits Kipchoge And Goes For A Run With Him 
  *MB: Kyle McCarter, US Ambassador fo Kenya, runs with Eliud Kipchoge. What are his PRs? 
• Olympian Nicole Sifuentes Talks About The Key Of Learning To Train By Effort Instead Of Being A Slave To Technology Or A Prescribed Workout “Before you head out that door, think about the purpose of your run. If I was running so slowly and still felt tired, I would slow down or cut my run short. If I felt amazing and it was a hard workout day, I would push my limits.”
• Japanese Authorities Will Now Start Testing At HS National Champs For … Iron Injections
• Looking For A Unique Christmas Gift? Buy This Classic 1965 Steeple Photo For £55
• Reporter Who Was Grabbed On Butt During Road Race Files Police Charges And Appears On National TV Meanwhile, the groper is trying to apologize in person.
• Runner Who Slapped Reporter’s Butt During Savannah Bridge Run Is Banned From Future Races
• Why Every Runner Needs Trail Shoes For Winter

Sprint / Field News

• 10.39/20.46/45.23 Prep Tyrese Cooper Will Start His Career At Hinds Community College And Not Oregon Where He Signed His HS coach said this, “I honestly have no idea why he is no longer at Oregon.”
• Kiwi Pole Vault Star Eliza McCartney Reveals She May “… have a genetic disorder that causes autoimmune inflammation, particularly affecting tendons.”
• Pole Vault Mat Flies Into Stands, Seriously Injures Two In Stands In Wellington, New Zealand

Doping News: WADA Drops The Ban Hammer On Russia

Russia Gets Four Year Ban – Will Miss 2020 Olympics And 2022 World Cup The ban has been handed down by WADA and RUSADA still has 21 days to appeal. And as it was previously, Russian athletes who can prove they are clean can compete as neutral athletes.

• The Telegraph:Russia Escapes Complete Sporting Exile Despite WADA’s 4-Year Ban With exceptions for neutral athletes and certain events that don’t fall under WADA’s jurisdiction, many, including Travis Tygart and WADA vice president Linda Hellelan are saying that this 4-year ban is too lenient.
  *The Telegraph: Doubts Raised Over Credibility Of WADA’s Sanctions Russia will still be able to compete in the European soccer championships and while they can’t play in the World Cup, they can play in their home qualifiers as Russia and in Russia.
• Travis Tygart Says Witnesses In Alberto Salazar Case Had “Death Threats Not To Testify” Tygart talks about possibly going after a longer ban for Salazar, calls Paula Radcliffe‘s comments “nonsensical” and touches on Russia and Lance Armstrong.
• WADA Vice President Linda Helleland:“I’m not happy with the decision we made today. But this is as far as we could go.”
• NY Times:Russia Banned From Olympics and Global Sports for 4 Years Over Doping
• Russian Fencing Federation President Tells Craig Reedie Not To Turn Fight Against Doping Into A “Lynching”
• NY Times Article Last Week: “Russian Doping Blurs Innocence And Guilt, With Olympics Caught In Middle”

Euro XC Champs *Results*Race Replays

• Sweden’s Robel Fsiha Defeats The Favorites To Win Euro XC Champs Fsiha beat out Turkeys Aras Kaya by 11 seconds as well as Julien Wanders (4th), Andrew Butchart (5th) and defending champ Filip Ingebrigsten (12th).
• Turkey’s Yasemin Can Wins Her Fourth Consecutive Euro XC Title She won the race by 15 seconds ahead of Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal.
• Jakob Ingebrigtsen Cruises To His Fourth Euro XC U20 Title He won the race by a record margin 38-seconds ahead of second place. Italy’s Nadia Battocletti won the women’s U20 race.
• GB Win Five Team Gold Medals, Including Men’s And Women’s Senior Races At Euro XC Champs In the men’s race they nipped Belgium by just 2 points while the women beat out Ireland by 15 points. *BBC Article
• Fionnuala McCormack’s Fourth-Place Finish Leads Ireland Women To Team Silver *BBC article
• France’s Jimmy Gressier Wins His Third Straight U23 Title; Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller Defends Her U23 Title