December 25, 2019 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas!!!

“Christmas is on a Wednesday this year so an easy day, I’ll just go for 20km.”

– Eliud Kipchoge talking to Athletics Weekly about his Christmas training plans.

Traveling? Or Already Tired Of The Relatives? Listen To One Of Our Podcasts

LRCEnd Of The Decade Podcast: Who Are Our Runners Of The Decade? And Person Of The Decade? We hand out our Runners of the Decade Awards both for the world and US and also our Person of the Decade. Plus we respond to Alysia Montaño’s claims of misogyny in the race of the decade voting.

Injured?

Might Low-Intensity Ultrasound In Your Home Coming From A Handheld, Battery-Powered Device Be The Key To Solving Your Achilles Or Knee Problems? You can wear the device for hours. More info at samrecover.com.

Administrative News

USATF Announces TV Schedule For 2020 Indoor Season
It Looks Like Spartan Race And Tough Mudder Are Merging In 2020
Doha 800 Semi-Finalist Alexandra Bell Is Considering Legal Action Against UK Athletics After Being Denied Funding Despite Hitting Selection Criteria She thinks Barry Fudge has a personal vendetta against her as she says he told her she doesn’t have the “medal mentality.” “He doesn’t know me from Adam. I just don’t understand how I can be judged on his opinion.”
British Journalist Clearly Isn’t Happy About Brexit And What’s Happened To Britain Since 2012 Olympics: Even As the Olympics Lit Up The Nation, We Were Already On The Path To Disaster “We were on our way to becoming bitterly divided, politically banjaxed and an international laughing stock. A basket case of a country, hopelessly broken in two by dint of having asked itself a profound question, and returning an answer that has broken all before it.”

Tokyo 2020 Marathon Course Finalized

Tokyo 2020 Unveils Full Olympic Marathon Course In Sapporo The route features a large loop which is about the length of a half marathon, followed by a second smaller loop which will be completed twice.
Japan Running News: Second Half Of Sapporo Olympic Marathon Course To Be Two Laps Of 10k Loop
*Course Map *World Athletics Article
Reuters:Tokyo 2020, IOC Still To Decide Who Pays For Marathon Move

Assorted Admin News

Interesting Read:Seb Coe Talks About Making Changes To Clean Up The Sport, Fight Corruption ANd Make It More Popular Talking about the controversial Nike marathon shoes he said, “My natural instinct is to be very careful about strangling innovation. Innovation in running shoes is a part of the sport. This is about balance, we recognise that. I can think even in my athletics lifetime, when I was pavement-pounding in flats, and by the 1980s the engineering in shoes lessened the injury.”
Seb Coe Supports Christian Taylor’s New Athletics Association And Says He “Will Always Encourage Athletes To Have A Voice” “Within 20 minutes of Christian Taylor talking about this I was on the phone to him. I said, ‘Christian, I absolutely encourage you to do this …'”
English Institute Of Sport Issues Health Instructions To Olympic Athletes, Including Where To Sit On The Plane Apparently there is a place to sit on the plane so the air conditions “leaves them less exposed to bugs from other people.” They wouldn’t give up where that is, though.
Public Security Intelligence Agency Warns Of Cyber-Attack Threat Before Tokyo 2020 There have been malicious emails sent disguised to look like they are coming from a Tokyo 2020 staff member.
UK Sport Confident That Team GB Can Improve Rio Olympic Medal Haul At Tokyo 2020 GB broke a historical trend in 2016 by being a host nation in 2012 and not winning less medals at the next Olympics. They took home 67 medals in Rio.
European Athletics U20 Championships Returns To Tallinn In 2021

Slow Weekend Ahead Of The Holidays

MB:Chad Hall just ran a 1:03 half!!!!! The younger brother of Ryan Hall ran 1:03:44 at the San Diego Holiday Half Marathon this weekend. Matt Welch won the race in 62:25. *Results
Japan’s Daichi Kamino Takes Advantage Of Wrong Turn By North Korea’s Ri Kang Bom To Win Asian Marathon Champs In 2:12:18 Bom was just three seconds back in 2nd while North Korea’s Ri Kwang Ok won the women’s race in 2:30:56.
MB:Jessica Hull Finishes 4th At Aussie Mile Champs (4:37.87) Georgia Griffith won the race in 4:36.29. *Results
Sendai Ikuei Girls And Boys Sweep National High School Ekiden Titles

Sprint Stuff

Noah Lyles Selected As T&F News’ Men’s US Athlete Of The Year Lyles took the award for the second year in a row, taking 22 of the 31 votes.
Dalilah Muhammad Voted T&F News Women’s US Athlete Of The Year Muhammad was chosen unanimously, picking up all 32 of the votes.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Talks To The Telegraph About Coming Back From Childbirth To Have One Of The Best Seasons Of Her Career In 2019 Fraser-Pryce struggled after having an emergency C-section, but didn’t listen to people who said she should just “bow out now.”
Dina Asher-Smith Knows Being World Champ In 2019 Doesn’t Mean Anything For 2020 “It’s a new year, while you might be world champion this year, next you might be ranked fourth, you might not even make the final.”
Dina Asher Smith: “This Is What It Takes To Be A Gold Medal Sprinter” “Leading into a major championship, I go into my own world for the four weeks beforehand.”
Multis: The Guardian Profiles GB’s World Heptathlon Champ Katarina Johnson-Thompson Who Looks Back At Her Turbulent Career Doha 2019 marked Johnson-Thompson overcoming years of injuries and poor championship performances.

Voting Now Open – 64 Races … 2 Remain … 1 Champion

LRC Rudisha Vs. Kipchoge: It’s The LRC Race Of The Decade Final Our quest to determine the RACE OF THE DECADE, has come down to this: Which was the better race: David Rudisha’s WR in London or Kipchoge’s in Berlin?
*MB: Alysia Montaño mad that no women’s races made top 4 in LRC’s race of the decade She calls it misogyny that the fans voted 4 men’s races as the best Races of the Decade. Meanwhile, the finalists also voted the same two finalists in the World Athletics Moment Of the Decade voting.

Joe Kovacs’ 75′ Shot Put Is Easily TFN’s Men’s Performance Of The Year Kipchoge was nowhere to be seen as his sub-2 was 17th and his London win was 27th. Kenenisa Bekele‘s 2:01:41 was #3.
Dalilah Muhammad’s 52.16 WR Is TFN’s #1 Women’s Performance Of The Year Brigid Kosgei‘s 2:14:04 was only #4 as 5 voters didn’t even put it on their ballots at all as it was aided by super shoes. Hassan’s 3:51 WC win was #4.
1 Eurosport Journalist Says Kipchoge’s Sub-2 With “Insane Trampoline Shoes And Elite Cycling Tactics” Is His Sporting Moment Of 2019 We’re not sure if that’s a compliment as another guy said a snooker pro taking 6 minutes to take a single shot was his #1 moment.
Stat Attack – A Look AT The NN Running Team’s Amazing 2019 They 3 fastest marathoners of the year are all Team NN as are the road 5k and 10k WR holders.
Conseslus Kipruto’s Win With 1 Shoe At 2018 Zurich DL Final Is Named Diamond League Distance Moment Of The Decade Sadly, the steeple will no longer be in the DL Final.

Youngsters In The News

Record Breaker Max Burgin (1:45:36 At Age 17), Talks About His Year And How He’s Getting Ready For Some Road 5ks It started off perfectly but then he got injured. In the long-term that might be a blessing in disguise but it was hard to deal with. “From my point of view, from June onwards, it was very frustrating.”
World U18 200 WR Holder Amy Hunt Recalls Her Magical 2019 In one race, she went from never having broken 23 seconds to running 22.42 to break Candace Hill‘s 22.43 WR. Now she’s appearing in Vogue as a result. Let’s hope in 4 years time, she’s not unable to break 23 like Hill.
Marco Arop, The Two-Time NCAA Runner-Up For Miss St. And WC Finalist, Goes Pro He was NCAA runner-up 2018 outdoors and 2019 indoors but didn’t even make it out of NCAA Regionals outdoors as he was injured but rebounded and got 7th at Worlds.
Matthew Boling’s US 4 X 100 Teammate, Arian Smith (10.31 100), Is Also Going To Georgia (But To Play Football) Want to see what world class track speed looks like on a football field? Watch this clip.
RRMeet Max Lewis – Middle School XC Runner And Bone Marrow Transplant Survivor This is an inspiring read. Also if you are a middle school or HS XC coach, this has some great inspirational ideas as Max’s coach seems amazing. It also reminds us all to join the Be The Match Registry right now.

Big Recruiting News

MB:KATELYN TUOHY TO NC STATE Tuohy made the announcement today via Instagram.
*MB Thread Earlier This Month: Tuohy should go to NC State!!!

MB: NICO YOUNG COMMITS TO NAU!!!
NAIA Champ Stacey-Ann Williams Transfers To Texas She won five NAIA national championships (2019 outdoor 400m, 4 x 100m, 4 x 400m; 2019 Indoor 400m, 4 x 400m). She has a 52.60 400m PR.

Looking Back At The Year And Decade

Karsten Warholm Is T&F News’s World Men’s Athlete Of The Year Warholm easily won the vote for #1, but Americans cleaned up the top-10 rankings with Noah Lyles 2nd, Sam Kendricks 6th, Donavan Brazier 7th, Christian Coleman 8th, Rai Benjamin 9th and Christian Taylor 10th.
Dalilah Muhammad Chosen As T&F News’s World Women’s Athlete Of The Year Muhammad dominated the vote with Sifan Hassan coming in ranked 2nd. Hammer world champ DeAnna Price was the only other American to make their top-10 world rankings.
Bring Back The Mile’s Best Moments Of 2019
European Athletics Gives Their A To Z Of The Decade (Part 1) “F is for Family” highlights the Ingebrigstens and H is for (Sifan) Hassan.
10 Memorable French Victories In European Championships History

Doping Stuff

Japanese High School Coaches Not Optimistic Iron Injection Abuse Can Be Prevented By Testing Testing has been introduced as there is currently concern in Japanese high school running that iron injections are being misused to enhance performance.
Russian Athletics Federation Granted 3-Week Extension To Respond To AIU Charges RusAF officials are accused of obstructing an anti-doping investigation into world indoor HJ champ Danil Lysenko.
New WADA Data Highlights The Effectiveness Of Gas Chromatography In Fight Against Doping WADA’s 2018 Testing Figures Report found that this method yielded a 3.52% adverse analytical finding compared to the overall figure of just 1.42%.
Seb Coe Insists Russian Athletes Unable To Compete At Tokyo 2020 Unless “Absolutely Comfortable” They Are Clean
Want To Make The Sport More Honest? AIU Seeking Candidates For Two Positions On Its Board
Egyptian Javelin Thrower Ihab Abdelrahman Has His 4-Year Ban Reduced, Meaning He’s Eligible To Compete Starting January 2020

USATF Championship News

2020 USATF XC Championships Will Be Held At Mission Bay Park In San Diego This course was also used for the 2008 and 2011 championships.
Schedule Released For 2020 USATF Indoor Championships In Albuquerque The two day meet will be held February 14-15.

General Olympic / T&F News

Seb Coe Says The Diamond League Needed To Change To Go After Young Audiences Coe also talked about how each event will be judged at the end of the year based on its popularity and interest in social media. He added that it was “no coincidence” they finally got a sponsor after making all these changes.
Usain Bolt Among Stars To Feature In Saturday’s Inauguration Of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium
Tokyo Unveils Final Olympic Budget Of $12.6 Billion This doesn’t include the millions it will cost to move the marathon to Sapporo as local organizers are debating with the IOC who should pay that cost.
Sport Ireland Confirms Maternity Pay For Pregnant Athletes They will continue to receive financial support until sixth months after birth.
Airbnb’s Sponsorship Deal With The IOC Causing Controversy For Paris 2024 They fought and won their case with the European Union court that they shouldn’t be subject to French property regulations and taxes since they are an online platform. French hoteliers are not happy about it.

Better Running Shoes

LRCThe 10 Most Popular Running Shoes On LetsRun.com Before we do our final call of shoe reviews in 2019, we decided to take a look at what shoes are the most popluar on LetsRun. Four shoe lines dominant, the Nike Pegasus, the Brooks Ghost, the HOKA Clifton and the Saucony Kinvara. These four might be a great place to start when looking for a new pair of shoes.

Free Ultra Training Advice

Camille Herron’s Shares The Secrets To Being The Best 24-Hour Women’s Runner In History – Don’t Run Too Much She’s planning on making her 48=hour debut between December 28 and January 1.
How Camille Herron Fuels Ultras – Don’t Be Afriad To Eat Taco Bell “I eat pretty healthy normally but ultra running is all about what you’re craving and at 2 A.M. in the middle of an ultra, I was craving Taco Bell.”
Jonathan Albon, 3-Time Skyrunner World Series Champ, Shares His Secrets Similar to Camille Herron, he thinks you can run too much and he often does a lot of training at just 120 bpm. “I think there’s a big thing about overtraining but I’m starting to realize it’s more about over-running – running isn’t the best thing for you, some people can handle more than others. My body definitely prefers less running but it still wants the load so I’ve tried to replace that with cycling.”
More Ultra News: Scottish woman runs 50k every day for 10 straight days on a 400m track
More Free Coaching Advice British Pole Vault Star Holly Bradshaw’s Free Advice To Parents: Remember To Tell Your Kids That Learning To Lose/Deal With Adversity Is A Key Part Of All Sports

International Distance News

Filbert Bayi Recounts His Legendary 1,500m World Record Run In 1974 Running at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, Bayi led from gun to tape to win gold for Tanzania in a WR of 3:32.2.
World Athletics Profile:After Record-Shattering Run, Olympic Glory Is Next On Brigi Kosgei’s Agenda On speaking to Paula Radcliffe after the race, Kosgei said, “She was happy, somehow she was happy. Somehow! She didn’t believe her record had gone.”
GB Marathoner Callum Hawkins Hoping To Go Into Tokyo 2020 “Calmer” Than He Was At His First Games In Rio “Olympics can be more pressure, it can be a difficult experience to get over due to the enormity of it. You are sort of in awe of it all, going in to it. I have experienced it already in Rio, so hopefully I can go in calmer and focus more on the race.”
GB’s Charlotte Arter Talks About How Setting The Parkrun World Record (15:50) Set Her On The Track To Try And Qualify For Tokyo 2020