January 9, 2020 | LetsRun.com

What’s Happening With The Ex-Members Of The NOP?

LRC Where Are The Former Alberto Salazar-Coached NOP Athletes Headed? Clayton Murphy Returns to College Coach Lee Labadie We reached out to the agents of all of the NOP athletes coached by Alberto Salazar to find out who will be coaching them in this Olympic year and know the answer for Clayton Murphy. Plus might Yomif Kejelcha and Sifan Hassan leave Oregon?

LRC Mary Cain Is Officially Back on the Track As She Races the Men and Finishes Her First Track Race Since 2016 Cain did something she likely once took for granted, finish a track race. She ran 9:25 for 3000. Her time was equivalent to a 4:24 1500 and 16:33 5000. Her next race is Jan 25 vs pros and Katelyn Tuohy in the 3k at the Dr. Sander invite.

Mid-D News

Jakob Ingebrigsten Cancels His Indoor Season Due To Injury Sustained Back At Euro XC Champs (translated) Ingebrigsten’s coach/father said that he injured his glute and was also very tired after last season. Therefore he’s canceled his indoor season and postponed going to his planned high altitude training camp in South Africa.
*MB: Jakob incurred a glute injury in the Euro XCs
Olympic 1,500m Champ Faith Kipyegon Reveals She Changed Coaches To Patrick Sang Last Year In A Bid To Come Back Faster From Her Maternity Leave She might not have won in Doha last year, but she did get silver and ran 3:54.22 after not racing at all in 2018.

NCAA News

The Number Of NCAA Track Teams Has Increased Dramatically Over The Last Decade From 2009 to 2019 there have been 141 men’s teams and 170 women’s teams added to the NCAA. This makes track the largest growing men’s sport and second women’s behind lacrosse.
The Bowerman: 2020 Men’s Preseason Watch List Two distance runners made the list with Devin Dixon and Oliver Hoare.
The Bowerman: 2020 Women’s Preseason Watch List Half the list is made up of distance runners with Weini Kelati, Katie Izzo, Dani Jones, Alicia Monson and Taylor Werner.
South Carolina’s 400m NCAA Champ Wadeline Jonathas Goes Pro Jonathas was 3rd at USAs and then 4th at Worlds, also running a leg of the US’s gold medal-winning 4 x 400.
2020 NCAA Champs Outdoor Schedule Released

Assorted Pro Distance News

World U20 3,000 Silver Medalist Leonard Bett (28:06) And Betty Chepkemoi (32:14.9) Win Kenyan XC Champs
Jenny Simpson Talks About Her 2020 Resolutions, Winter Training And Being A Night Owl To fight her night owl tendencies, Simpson is instituting a “wind-down routine” in 2020 that will get her to bed at the time she plans.
Arizona Daily Sun: NAZ Elite’s 2019 In Review Shows Why 2020 Could Be A Big Year NAZ has a slew of runners hoping to qualify for Tokyo in the marathon, led by Scott Fauble and his 2:09:09.
Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon Braced For Tokyo Face Off With Sifan Hassan “I normally prefer not to talk about somebody else but it is true that she (Hassan) was on form (last year) … I know we shall meet again this year and let’s wait and see what happens (laughs).”
Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With OT Qualifier And 2:31 Marathoner Katy Jermann Jermann talks about the OT and running at an elite level while working as a teacher.

Kenyan Distance News

Kenya’s Tokyo Olympic Marathon Team Will Be Named This Month They are choosing the team early to give athletes plenty of time to focus their training and racing plans.
With Just 169 Days Until The Kenyan Olympic Trials, There Is Concern That The Kip Keino Stadium Won’t Be Ready In Time Apparently the track is in good shape, but the rest is incomplete or in need of maintenance.
World Bronze Medalist Rhonex Kipruto Dreaming Of Ending Kenya’s Olympic 10,000 Gold Drought At Tokyo 2020 Only one Kenyan has won Olympic 10,000m gold and it was back at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
Now Recovered From “Monster Injury” In 2019, Elijah Manangoi Is Ready To Go For 1,500m Gold At Tokyo 2020 He says he “wants to forget” the knee injury that kept him from Doha Worlds.

The Decade Has Ended

LRC LetsRun.com’s Decade Awards: Alberto Salazar Is Our Person Of The Decade + Best Runner, Best Upset, Doping Excuse Of The Decade, & More! In a decade marked by controversy, it’s fitting that Alberto Salazar is our Person of the Decade as controversy clung to Salazar like a paper clip to a magnet. Plus who wins our world and US athlete of the decade honors?

LRC US And World Runners Of The Decade: Jenny Simpson, Matthew Centrowitz, Caster Semenya And Eliud Kipchoge

LRC 2019 LetsRun.com World And American Rankings: Donavan Brazier And Ajee’ Wilson Are World #1s The 6th annual world and US distance rankings are here and for the first time ever two Americans are #1 in the world in their events.

Rojo Speaks: The 2010s Are History: It Was Both The Best And Worst Of Times For Track And Field Fans What a crazy decade. From Chris Solinsky‘s 26:59 at the start of the decade to Brigid Kosgei‘s 2:14:04 at the end, there were plenty of high highs but the lows were also big as well as Olympic champs at 800, 1,500, steeple and the marathon were all banned from the sport. What does it all mean? LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson looks for meaning and tries to figure it all out by taking you back in a time machine to January 1, 2010.

Looking Ahead To The 2020 Indoor Season

European Athletics: Nine Europeans To Follow During The 2020 Indoor Season Their list includes Armand Duplantis, Karsten Warholm, Dafne Schippers and Mariya Lasitskene. No distance runners.
Ticket Program Announced, Mascot Unveiled For The 2020 World Indoor Championships In Nanjing, China The mascot is a squirrel named Cedar.
Chinese Sprint Star Su Bingtian Leads More Than 4,000 Runners On New Years Day Jog In China Bingtian, the Asian co-record holder in the 100m, leads the runners along with Cedar, the mascot for the 2020 World Indoor Champs in Nanjing.

More End Of Year/Decade News

Caster Semenya Tops This List Of Biggest Controversies In Women’s Sport They also mention Sifan Hassan‘s double gold being “marred by Alberto Salazar allegations.”
Video: USTFCCCA Collegiate Decade In Review Highlight Reel
Athletes Share Their New Year’s Resolutions British pole vault record holder Holly Bradshaw wants to spend less time on her phone and do more social things. A lot of the others were kind of boring and said they didn’t really have a resolution.
European Athletics: Nine European Athletes Lead The World Lists In 2019 Nine athletes, but ten events as Sifan Hassan lead both the 1,500m and 10,000m.
Leroy Burrell Named University Of Houston’s Coach Of The Decade
Athletics Weekly’s Year-In-Review

RIP Nike Vaporflys?

Could Nike’s Controversial Shoes Be Banned By World Athletics In 2020? Irish journalist Cathal Dennehy reports that a World Athletics technical committee that has been studying the shoes has drafted a rule that will limit the allowable thickness of a shoe’s midsole.
Good Read: Independent Ireland Opinion Piece: “Ban These Shoes … Just Do It.” “Over the last few years, athletes have been forced to fight for Olympic places, major medals, against rivals who are smuggling a gun to a knife fight.”
MB: Should we allow Employee 1.1 to attempt to go sub-5 in the mile for a 17th straight year on a downhill course or on a treadmill at 0% grade since he isn’t wearing the Vaporflys?

Better Running Shoes

LRC The 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.

Upcoming Road Action

January 19: Past Winners And Top Americans Will Lead Elite Fields For The Houston Marathon And Half Marathon In the men’s half, Americans Shadrack Biwott, Jared Ward, Sam Chelanga, Diego Estrada and Matt Llano face Ethiopian record holder Jemal Yimer (58:33), defending champ Shura Kitata (59:16) and Jake Robertson (59:58). Jordan Hasay, Molly Huddle, Sara Hall and Aliphine Tuliamuk lead the American women against #8 all-time Caroline Kipkirui (65:07). In the marathon, Asian record holder Hassan El Abbassi (2:04:43) leads the men’s field while Biruktayit Degefa (2:22:40) will try to defend her women’s title.
Sunday: World 10,000 Bronze Medalist Rhonex Kipruto Lining Up Against European Half-Marathon Record Holder Julien Wanders At The Valencia 10k Kipruto said after this he’ll turn his attention to training to make the Kenyan Olympic team in the 10,000.

World XC In North America?

LRC World XC In Canada?! Victoria, BC Hoping To Host 2023 World Cross-Country Championships After Hosting 2020 Pan Am XC Cup This February Victoria is hosting the 2023 Pan AM XC Cup and the 2023 Can Am XC Race (a race open to the public) this February with the goal of hosting the 2023 Worlds.

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 5,000m 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.

Sprints And Jumps

Good Read: GB’s 2019 European 400m Leader Laviai Nielsen Says Parkrun Helped Her Bounce Back From The Depression She Felt After Not Making The World Final In Doha “It was nice to remind myself that running could be enjoyable because after Doha I needed that.”
Four-Time British Champion Morgan Lake Used To Hate The High Jump Lake used to only do the HJ because it was part of the heptathlon, but now it’s her main event, although she’s sometimes still tempted to go back to the heptathlon.
The Nassau Guardian Chooses Sprinters Shaunae Miller-Uibo And Steven Gardiner As Their Athletes Of The Decade Miller-Uibo is the reigning Olympic 400m champ and also has two silvers and a bronze from World Championships. Gardiner won Doha 400m gold as well as silver in 2017 and a 4 x 400 bronze at Rio 2016.
Jamaican World 4 X 100 World Champ Jonielle Smith Back In Training After Car Crash In Florida Last Weekend
February 11: Seven Polish Stars Set For Orleen Cup Indoor Meet Includes Euro indoor 60m champ Ewa Swoboda and world PV bronze medalists Piotr Lisek.

More New Year News/Results

GB’s Eilish McColgan Wins NYRR Midnight Run McColgan won the 4-mile race easily in 20:50 while Mary Cain took runner-up honors in 21:43. McColgan said she was a bit tired from walking 7 miles of NYC sightseeing that morning including climbing the 700 steps to the top of the Statue of Liberty. *Results
*MB: Mary Cain 2nd in NYRR 4 Mile Midnight Run
Conseslus Kipruto’s One Shoe Victory In The At The 2018 Zurich Steeplechase DL Final Voted As The Top Diamond League Moment Ever Kipruto lost his shoe with six laps to go, but managed to still just beat out Soufiane El Bakkali for the win.
Australia’s Andrew Buchanan (62:50) Wins Year-End Half Marathon In Tokyo
Meijo University Wins Second-Straight Mount Fuji Women’s Ekiden National Title
Athletics Weekly’s 2020 Top Athletics Calendar
Key Dates And Events (European) For Your 2020 Calendar

Non-Distance News

Christian Taylor Shares The How And Why Behind Starting The Athletics Association To Fight Against Some Major Changes Being Made By World Athletics Taylor says a big boost to their cause was the 200m being removed because that made it so no sprinter feels safe.
IAAF Profile On 19-Year-Old Brazil 400 Hurdler Alison dos Santos, Who Had A Huge Breakthrough In 2019 Dos Santos had a big breakthrough in 2019, dropping his PR 1.5 seconds to 48.28 and finishing 7th at Worlds.
RIP Scottish Olympic Shot Putter Mike Lindsay, 81 Lindsay was 5th in the shot put at the 1960 Rome Olympics and won silver medals in both the shot and discus at the 1962 Commonwealth Games.

End- Of-Year Racing

LRC Steve Spence’s Legendary Sub-5:00 Mile Streak Comes To An End After 43 Years There had been one constant in the world since 1976 Steve Spence broke 5:00 every year in the mile. A last-ditch attempt on December 30th came up short and Spence’s streak is history.
*MB: Steve Spence’s 5:00 mile streak ends at 43 years
*MB: Employee 1.1’s 17-year sub-5 streak is on the line. Can he break 5 today at age 32 with almost zero training?

Belgium’s Bashir Abdi (27:47) And Ethiopia’s Helen Bekele Tola (30:50) Win San Silvestre Vallecana 10k In Madrid Tola beat world marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich by 7 seconds.
Italy’s Eyob Faniel (28:21) And Kenya’s World 5,000 Silver Medalist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi (15:30) Victorious At The Boclassic Silvesterlauf Faniel got an upset win over world 5,000m leader Telahun Haile Bekele by 7 seconds, becoming the first Italian to win since 1988. Kipkemboi beat world half champ Netsanet Gudeta and tied the CR.
Early Celebration Costs Ugandan Teenager Jacob Kiplimo The Win As He Gets Nipped By Kibiwott Kandie At The San Silvestre De Sao Paulo 15k Kandie ran 42:59 to Kiplimo’s 43:00. Marathon WR holder Brigid Kosgei won the women’s race comfortably in 48:54.
*World Athletics Recap

Olympic News

Tokyo 2020 Celebrate Start Of Olympic Year They sent out a tweet that said “This is our year” and had a video with their two mascots flying through space.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium Hosting Its First Sporting Event Today; The Final Game For A National Soccer Tournament
InsideTheGames’ David Owen: Welcome To The Decade Of Sponsorship – And Global Warming

Another Low Key Racing Weekend

Upcoming Indoor Action

February 8: Nick Willis, Chris O’Hare, Eric Jenkins And Filip Ingebrigsten Headline Fields For NYRR Wanamaker Mile At The Millrose Games Field also includes Ben Blankenship, Johnny Gregorek, Charlie Grice and Josh Kerr.
January 31: Steeplechase WR Holder Beatrice Chepkoech Vs. Winny Chebet And Axuamwit Embaya Set For The Karlsruhe Indoor Meeting In Germany
Olympians And NCAA Champions Will Star In Stacked 3,000s At The Millrose Games The men’s race has Olympic silver medalist Paul Tanui, NCAA champ Edwin Kurgat, Justyn Knight, Joe Klecker and Hassan Mead. NCAA champ Weini Kelati, Alicia Monson, Allie Ostrander and Katie Mackey lead the women’s field.
February 11: Poland’s European Champ Adam Kszczot Vs. Sweden’s Runner-Up Andreas Kramer In The 800 At The Stockholm Indoor Sparet GP
February 11: Top Polish Athletes Confirmed For Orlen Cup Indoor Meet Fields will include some top throwers and Euro indoor PV champ Pawel Wojciechowski and PV world bronze medalist Piotr Lisek.

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.”