Recent Distance Results

• Mogos Tuemay And Fotyen Tesfay Claim Ethiopian Double Victory At The Campaccio XC Meet In Italy Tuemay won by 10-seconds over world steeple silver medalist Lemecha Girma while Tesfay just beat out world 5000m silver medalist Margaret Kipkemboi Chelimo as they were both given the same time.
• Ethiopia’s Medina Deme Armino Rallies In The Last 500m To Win The Xiamen Marathon In 2:26:12 Over Her Compatriot Mesera Hussen (2:26:28) Birhan Nebebew won the men’s race in 2:08:16.

LetsRun.com Podcast *Subscribe Here

LRC 2020 Tokyo Predictions Podcast + Best Of LetsRun.com 2019 Who is more likely to get gold? Kenenisa Bekele or Evan Jager, Shelby Houlihan or Matthew Centrowitz, Ajee’ Wilson or Donavan Brazier? What about Bryce Hoppel or Clayton Murphy, Mo Farah or Muktar Edris? Who gets more medals? Jerry Schumacher‘s Bowerman Track Club or Pete Julian‘s unnamed group? Plus of course Alberto Salazar and Mary Cain talk.

Upcoming Distance Action

• January 24: #5 Fastest All-Time Worknesh Degefa (2:17:41) And Solomon Deksisa (2:04:40) Lead Fast Ethiopian Fields For The 2019 Dubai Marathon Degefa is up against Kebede Megertu Alemu (2:21:10) while Deksisa faces Seifu Tura (2:04:44).
• Sunday: Defending Champion Dejene Debela And Medina Deme Armino REturn To The Xiamen Marathon In China Debela is the Chicago runner-up last year with a 2:05:46 PR while Armino has run 2:27:25.
• Monday: World Steeple Silver Medalist Lamecha Girma Faces The Three Medalists From Euro XC Champs At The World Athletics XC Permit Meet In Italy World 5,000m silver medalist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi leads the women’s field against World XC 8th placer Eva Cherono.
• January 19: Defending Champions Cosmas Lagat (2:08:14) And Worknesh Alemu (2:24:42) Return To The Mumbai Marathon Lagat faces a field with 14 sub-2:10 men including 2:04:23 man Ayele Abshero. The women’s race has eight sub-2:28 runners, including Amane Beriso (2:20:48).

Anti-Doping News

• HJ World Champ Mariya Lasitskene Not Confident Russian Track Athletes Will Be Allowed At Tokyo 2020 Even If Russia Wins Its CAS Appeal “Even if Russia wins this trial, athletics will still remain the poorest, and everyone will regret us, and again do not know what to do with us.”
• Russia Finally Responds To Forgery Charges Over Danil Lysenko Case They responded yesterday after having the initial December 12th deadline extended. Remember, this is a complete separate corruption charge from the one going to CAS over Russia doctoring the Moscow lab data.
• Independent Audit Says That WADA Intelligence And Investigations Unit Is Suffering From “Acute” Lack Of Resources The audit urged WADA to hire three people “as soon as possible.”
• Outgoing President Craig Reedie Says WADA Is Better Positioned Than Ever To Fight Doping

Olympic News

• Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony Will Apparently Have Flying Cars And Mario At Rio 2016, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe dressed up as Mario in the handover segment of the Closing Ceremony.
• The Guardian Picks Twenty Athletes “Set To Light Up The Tokyo 2020 Olympics” Track athletes mentioned include Christian Coleman, Dina Asher Smith, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Russian HJer Mariya Lasitskene and New Zealand PVer Eliza McCartney.
• Thomas Bach Warns Athletes Against Political Protests At Tokyo 2020 Bach reiterated his opposition to the “growing politicization of sport” and claimed it “leads to no result and in the end just deepens existing divisions.”
• European Athletics Unveils A New Logo For 2020 Celebrating Its 50th Anniversary

Kenyan Distance News

• World 1,500m Champ Timothy Cheruiyot Dreaming Of Breaking Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1,500m World Record “Yes, I know the record has been there for long. In order to achieve that (lower) then we have to focus on our training and for sure the record will fall one day.” El G’s record is 3:26.00 and Cheruiyot has run 3:28.41.
• Eunice Sum Worried About Kenya’s Chances In The 800m At Tokyo 2020 “I have represented Kenya for the last eight years but I have not seen serious competitors in our category, unlike in the men’s where we have new runners season after season.”

Previous End-Of-Decade News

• RRW: What They Said – The Year In Quotes RRW gives their favorite quotes from 2019.
• MileSplit Shares Their Top 10 Best XC And Track Moments From 2019 We’ll save you having to click ten times and tell you Katelyn Tuohy‘s NXN win got #4 and #1 was Matthew Boling‘s crazy senior track season.
• Conseslus Kipruto’s One-Shoe Victory In 2018 The Diamond League Steeplechase Final In Zurich Voted Best Long Distance DL Moment Ever The Diamond League is exactly a decade old and they’re celebrating by having a fan vote for to pick the best moment in each event category. Kipruto lost his shoe with six laps to go, but managed to still just beat out Soufiane El Bakkali for the win.
• The Telegraph: “Sports People Of The Decade (Track): Usain Bolt And Caster Semenya – The Phenomenon And The Excluded Champion They call Bolt “the man who grew bigger than the sport.”
• IndyStar Chooses HJer Derek Drouin As Indiana’s Olympic Athlete Of The Decade Drouin won world gold in 2015 and then Olympic gold in 2016. 400H Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Spencer was 7th on their list of 10.
• Darrell Hill’s Shot Put Victory At The 2017 Diamond League Final In Brussels Voted Best Diamond League Throws Moment Ever Hill got an upset victory over favorites Olympic champ Ryan Crouser and world champ Tom Walsh.
• Track And Field Gets Highlighted Multiple Times In The Guardian’s Sports Photos Of The Decade Remember that Mo Farah photo that gave us all those great memes in 2012?
• Athletics Weekly’s British Athletics Annual Health Check Using stats they evaluate which events are struggling and which are thriving for UK athletes. They say that the 100/200 and marathon are all doing well, but the steeplechase and the men’s 400 are weak.

Doping Stuff

• Molly Huddle Advocates For The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act Which Would Criminalize Doping The bill passed last month in the House of Representatives and now needs to pass in the Senate.
• HJ World Champ Maria Lasitskene, Former 110H World Champ Sergey Shubenkov And Others Hit Out At Russian Federation In Open Letter
• Outgoing President Craig Reedie Says WADA Will Defend Russian Doping Decision With “Utmost Vigor” At CAS Reedie’s 6-year stint as WADA president will end January 1st when Poland’s Witold Bańka takes over.
• MB: US Heptathlete Alexandria Gochenour Gets 4-Year Doping Ban She was second at 2018 US Champs.
  *InsideTheGames Article She claims she is innocent and said, “My sample contained .01ng/mL of the substance. To put that into perspective, I believe that’s equal to about a grain of salt in an Olympic sized pool.”

More End Of The Year Stuff

• Dalilah Muhammad And Karsten Warholm Appear As Guests On World Athletics End Of Year Video Special
• Athletics Weekly’s Top 3 World Rankings For 2019 – Men Selemon Barega didn’t win a 5,000 all year but he gets the #1 ranking.
• Athletics Weekly’s Top 3 World Rankings For 2019 – Women Ajee Wilson gets the #1 nod in the 800 despite bronze at Worlds.
• AW’s Top 3 British Women’s Rankings
• AW’s Top 3 British Men’s Rankings
• Canadian Running’s Most Memorable Running Moments Of The Decade From the Boston marathon bombing to Salazar being banned, they have you covered. Only one moment involves in a Canadian.
• Three-Time Olympic Heptathlon Bronze Medalist Kelly Sotherton And Former British 1,500m Record Holder Frank Clement Recognized In New Year Honors List Sotherton is made an MBE and Clement got a BEM. *2nd Article
• Diane Clement, A Founder Of Both Vancouver Sun Run And Richmond Kajaks Track Club, Named As 2019 Member Of The Order Of Canada

Tokyo 2020

• Irish Times: Spirit Of Tokyo 1964 Sidetracked As Olympic Men’s Marathon Moves To Sapporo This Irish Times writer isn’t happy that the marathoners will be racing so far away from Tokyo.
• Japan Airlines To Offer 50,000 Free Flights To Foreign Nationals During Tokyo 2020 The tickets are designed to entice those who travel to Japan for the Games to visit other areas of the nation. They will be able to fly free from Tokyo to other local destinations.
• Reuters: Tokyo 2020 CEO Pledges To Keep Games Costs Under Budget They are reiterating that the budget will stay under $12 billion, but there is concern that moving the marathon and race walks to Sapporo will increase that.

Distance News

• Under Armour Starting A Pro Team In Flagstaff Running agent Stephen Haas, who also coaches Edward Cheserek, is behind the team’s formation. Former UC Berkeley coach Shayla Houlihan (sister of Shelby) will also coach. 2018 NCAA 10,000m champ Sharon Lokedi, Rachel Schneider, & Pat Casey are among the group’s starting members.
• Good Read: Suggestion From A Coach Helped Turned George Young Into A 4-Time Olympian When Young was a senior he hadn’t even heard of the steeplechase since it wasn’t a collegiate event.  He was preparing to enter the Army and be done with track, but his coach suggested he gave the steeple a try.
• MB: Katelyn Tuohy Does Goofy Video Interview “Running With The Toad”

Olympic News

• Tokyo 2020 Still Short 14,000 Hotel Rooms Required While Hosting The Games Estimates say visitors will increase by 7.9% from 2019.
• Sapporo Preparing To Bid To Host The 2030 Winter Olympics The city, which will host the 2020 Olympic marathons and race walks, also hosted the Winter Games back in 1972.
• The Vatican Plans To Create Its Own National Olympic Committee And March At The Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony The Vatican’s minister of sport said, “People are very attracted to the spectacle of sport. It means that sport touches something deep in the individual. But we must help this industry to adopt a code of ethical regulation, by always putting people at the center of the sport. Sport must be a means, not an end.”

Previous End Of Year / Decade News

• 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.

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