January 28, 2020 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For January 28, 2020

Quote Of The Day

“Even if I do nothing else the rest of my career, at least I have that [world title]. But I’d like to get more accolades … that’s the beauty of track and field. Yeah, I won last year, but there’s so many more things you can possibly do. I’ve got more medals to win, I’ve got records to break, and I have so much more to do in the sport.”

– Donavan Brazier talking after Saturday’s New Balance Grand Prix about how even though he won a world title last year, he’s still hungry for more.

**Pro Track Is Back *NBIGP Results**

NBIGP LRC Donavan Brazier Dominates, Bryce Hoppel Starts A New Win Streak, & More Thoughts From The 2020 NBIGP Jessica Hull won a tight 1,500. Pro track and field is back.
*NBIGP Live Thread
*Post-Race Interviews

World Athletics Boston Recap: Nia Ali Wins 60H In 7.94; Harvard Grad Gabby Thomas Wins 300m In 36.52
Demek Kemp Cruises Past Asafa Powell In Boston 60m Kemp won in 6.50; Powell was 5th in 6.71.
Jake Wightman Breaks GB 1,000m Record In Boston With 2:18.51 (2nd Behind Bryce Hoppel) He broke the previous record of 2:17.86 which had stood 28 years.
Ciara Mageean Sets New Irish 1,500m Indoor Record In Boston With 4:06.42 (3rd place)

Edward Cheserek Update

MB: Breaking: King Ches to Compete for Kenya Ches will go for a World Indoor qualifier this weekend and says he’ll compete for Kenya if he makes the World Indoor and/or Olympic team.

Looking Ahead At The 2020 Track Season

World Athletics:Ten Cities Across Four Continents To Host Gold Meetings In 2020 Continental Tour It starts with Nairobi on May 2nd, which will be the first African host city.
European Athletics:Eight Anticipated Highlights Of The Indoor Permit Meeting Series

We Reveal The $ecrets Of The Sport

LRC How To Turn Pro In Track & Field, Part III: Case Studies Of Grant Fisher And Morgan McDonald What does the timeline look like for a top NCAA star as a senior? We walk you through how Morgan McDonald and Grant Fisher reached decisions on their professional futures in the final part of our series on how to turn professional in track & field.

Previous:Part II: Signing The Shoe Contract So you’ve hired an agent. Now it’s time to secure a shoe deal. Do you go for the biggest offer, or the one that lets you work with your preferred coach? Do you chase bonuses or go with a smaller, more secure contract? And what about that reduction clause thing? We explain it all in Part II.

Part I: Finding An Agent What happens between an athlete’s final NCAA race and their professional debut? From finding an agent to signing a contract, our three-part series tells you everything you need to know.
*MB: LRC Investigates: How To Turn Pro In Track & Field

World HJ Champ Maria Lasitskene Continues To Bash Russian Fed; Might Sue

Maria Lasitskene Considering Filing A Lawsuit Against The Russian Athletics Federation “Their actions have been detrimental and are resulting in my deprivations in moral, reputational and financial aspects. According to my preliminary estimations, it should be a multi-million lawsuit in case I completely miss this winter season.”
Eight Russian Track Athletes Added To RUSADA’s Testing Pool; Maria Lasitskene Fears This Is A “Bad Sign” Lasitskene thinks this was ordered by World Athletics so they could remove her from the international testing pool and revoke her neutral status.
Maria Lasitskene May Train Abroad Ahead Of Tokyo, But Says She’ll Never Try To Compete For Another Country

Links That Passed Our Vetting Process As They Were Interesting Or Informative

UK Anti-Doping Issues Press Release Saying They Haven’t Refused Any WADA Requests In Regards To Mo Farah That’s not really the point. The whole furor arose because their head said she might not hand over samples without “credible evidence.”
Inside Hitomi Niiya’s Japanese Half Marathon NR, Pacer Tsuyoshi Ugachi Shares His Thoughts: “It was important that she have the moment to shine all to herself.” The Japanese covered all the details in Houston as her pacer, who has PRs of 27:40, 60:58, and 2:10:50, spent a week with her in Houston.
3-Time Alaska State XC Champ And 6-Time Track Champ Kendall Kramer Becomes First American To Win Individual Medal In Cross-Country Skiing At Winter Youth Olympic Games
Dina Asher Smith Writes Column Looking At Track Stars Who Have Made Statements With Their Appearance Over The Years From Gail Devers‘ nails to Cathy Freeman‘s bodysuit, Asher-Smith thinks the results are empowering.
Ever Heard That You Aren’t Firing? That’s Probably Not True Strengthening your calves is way more important anyway.

Boston Is Going To Entertain In April And This Weekend

RRW 2020 Boston Marathon Field Released: 8 Sub-2:21 Women, 10 Sub-2:07 Men Scheduled To Race The field also includes Ethiopian half marathon record holder Jemal Yimer (58:33), who will be making his marathon debut.
*MB: Boston Elite Field Announced

World Athletics Indoor Tour Begins This Weekend With New Balance Indoor Grand Prix – Here’s How You Can Follow The Tour On TV/Online

London Will Entertain Twice As Well – Once In March And Then In April

Mo Farah To Race Kenenisa Bekele At Vitality Half Marathon In March Bekele has only one career half marathon in his career on his resume, but boy oh boy was it a classic.
*MB: Mo Farah set to get spanked by Kenenisa Bekele at Big Half

Kenyan Distance News

Brigid Kosgei Will Race RAK Half On Feb 21 If her shoes aren’t banned by then, we imagine the WR will be CRUSHED. Mosinet Geremew and Julien Wanders are in the men’s field.
Hellen Obiri Will Go For Her Ffth Kenya Defence Forces Cross-Country Title On Friday
Recommended Read:Eliud Kipchoge Talks About A Slew Of Topics, Including Keeping A Training Diary, Kenyan Doping, Making Lots Of Money And Facing Kenenisa Bekele In London Talking about living a relatively modest lifestyle despite his wealth, Kipchoge said, “I don’t envy people with big cars, helicopters and everything … that’s their life. What I want is to inspire someone … I don’t think I need a one million-dollar car to drive around.”
World Bronze Medalist Amos Kipruto Using The Tokyo Marathon As Buildup For Tokyo 2020 That is, assuming the 2:05:43 man is selected for the team.
Choosing The Tokyo 2020 Marathon Squad Is Leaving Athletics Kenya Bosses With Sleepless Nights
Robert Keter’s 13:22 World Record From The Urban Trail Lille 5k In November Ratified By World Athletics The road 5k has only been officially recognized as a WR since November 2017. The fastest recorded time is Sammy Kipketer‘s 13:00 from Carlsbad in 2000.

RIP: Kobe Bryant Dies In Helicopter Crash

MB: RIP Kobe Bryant: Bryant killed in helicopter crash in CA
IOC President Thomas Bach Leads Tribute To Double Olympic Gold Medalist Kobe Bryant Bryant was part of the US team that won Olympic gold medals at Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Bach said, “After retiring from the game he loved so much, he continued to support the Olympic Movement and was an inspiration for the Olympic Games LA 2028.”
Usain Bolt And Yohan Blake Among Track Stars To Pay Tribute To Kobe Bryant Americans Will Claye, Lolo Jones and Wallace Spearmon were also among those to make posts on social media.
MB: Pat Porter or Kobe Bryant? Which Death Impacted You Most?
MB: No disrespect to Kobe Bryant but 9 people lost their lives but hardly a word about them in the media

More Weekend Track Results BU Terrier All Weekend NCAA Coverage

World Athletics Weekend Indoor Round-Up:Keni Harrison Wins 60H At Martin Luther King Invy In Albuquerque With 7.81 In Houston, Jenn Suhr cleared 4.75m in the PV.
NAU’s Tyler Day Runs New American Collegiate Record With 13:16.95 At BU Terrier Classic Day was second behind Paul Tanui, who won in 13:15.72; Eric Jenkins was 3rd (13:22.32).
*MB: Tyler MF Day 13:16.95 — takes down Galen Rupp’s American Collegiate Indoor Record
2020 BU Terrier Classic Results Besides the men’s 5,000m, some other highlights included Craig Engels winning the mile in 3:56.85, Raevyn Rogers in the 1,000m (2:39.00), Laura Galvan in the women’s mile (4:31.89) and Julie-Anne Staehli in the 3,000m (8:47.97).
USTFCCCA NCAA Weekend In Review Kansas’ Gleb Dudarev threw #5 all-time in the weight throw with 24.38m.
Briana Williams Wins 60m (7.15) At Queens/Grace Jackson Meet In Kingston Oshane Bailey won the men’s race in 6.65; MVP’s Nesta Carter was 6th (6.75).
Valerie Adams Secures Olympic Qualifier In First Competition In Almost 18 Months She threw 18.65m in her first competition since giving birth to her second child last March. Tom Walsh won the men’s event with 21.10m.

LetsSprint.com

Briana Williams Says She Doesn’t Feel Burdened By Expectations “To me it isn’t pressure, I’m young but I have the mind of a professional, and I know others are expecting me to be at the top this year since I’m a fresh new pro. But I always remind myself to just go out there, have fun and do my best.”
February 15:Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce And World Indoor 60m Champ Murielle Ahoure Going Head-To-Head At The Muller Indoor GP In Glasgow
South African Relay Coach Wants Under 37.60 And A Medal For The Men’s 4 X 100 At Tokyo 2020 They ran 37.73 seconds for 5th in Doha, after setting an African record of 37.65 in the heats.
Matthew Boling Named High School Athlete Of The Year (All Sports) At Houston Sports Award
17-Year-Old Malaysian Sprinter Gets 4-Year Doping Ban For Steroid Use

Random Other News

Former Premier League General Secretary Nic Coward Appointed Interim UK Athletics Chief Executive Originally, Zara Hyde Peters was given the permanent role but decided not to take it up when allegations about her husband came out in November.
Hong Kong Marathon Cancelled In Wake Of Coronavirus (Potentially Lethal Virus) Outbreak
NBC Renews Snapchat Partnership For Tokyo 2020

Japanese Distance News

Former Japanese Marathon National Record Holder Yuta Shitara Wants To Run 2:04 At The Tokyo Marathon March 1st But he doesn’t just want to run 2:04. The 2:06:11 man says hif he doesn’t run 2:04, he won’t “deserve to run in the Tokyo Olympics” and went as far as to say that if he runs 2:05, he’d “probably turn it (the Olympics) down.”
Sunday:Haftamnesh Tesfay Leads A Quartet Of Sub-2:22 Women While The Japanese Battle It Out For An Olympic Spot At The Women’s Osaka Marathon *Japan Running News Preview: A Sub-2:22:22 Will Earn The Japanese Women An Olympic Spot

Vaporfly News

Interesting Read Helmut Winter: Stats Reveal Elite Marathon Times Have Dropped 1:45 For Men, 3:00 For Women In Last 2 Years, Possibly Due To VF

MB:Can the owners of this site finally stop crying about/doing free advertisement for the Vaporfly all day long?
Unfit Journalist Puts On Vaporflys, Knocks 2.5 Minutes Off A 42-Minute Run
Paula Radcliffe On Vaporflys: “I’m kind of sitting on the fence a little bit with how much the shoes on their own are distorting the competition.” Go to the last 35 seconds of the interview from Radcliffe, who is doing the commentary in Dubai.
From Paul Tergat’s Filas To Eliud Kipchoge’s Alphaflys, AW Shoe Guru Looks At History Of Carbon Fiber-Plated Shoes Tergat set his marathon WR in shoes that had a fiber plate.
Wall Street Journal Produces 8-Minute Video On Vaporfly Controversy

Women’s News Of Note

Foot Locker Champ Zofia Dudek Has Long-Term Vision For Track She wants to be competing in the middle of the summer – at World Juniors in Kenya – but is feeling good after taking 2 weeks off following XC.
Saitama International Marathon To Be Discontinued The women’s elite race which was only 5 years old featured a $6.4 million budget but only 1 elite Japanese woman ran it last year as the pros didn’t like it as it was so hilly. Amateurs, however, love it and it may be brought back in 2021 as it’s one of Japan’s biggest races with 20,000 runners.
What’s A Week Of Training Like With Team Boss (Joe Bosshard’s Group)? Aisha Praught-Leer Shares A Week Of Her Training The hard days are hard and include weights and the easy days are easy.
How Katie Izzo Has Gone From Breaking Her Tibia And Fibula In 2016 To A 15:13 Indoor 5,000 For Arkansas Her PR for Cal Poly was 16:08.
Olivia Baker Talks About Her Bittersweet 2019 Campaign Her first year as a pro saw her finish 4th at USAs but she didn’t have the 2:00.60 standard which would have gotten her to Doha as Ajee won the DL. The Stanford grad now trains in Austin, TX where she has a running book club with Keturah Orji.
After Making The 800m Final In Doha, Ce’Aira Brown Is Considering Doubling Up In The 800 And 1,500 At The 2020 Trials “I’m with the 1,500 girls on strength days and the 800 girls on speed days.”

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.

Road / XC Action

Steeplechase Specialists Leonard Kipkemoi Bett (Kenya) And Winfred Mutile Yavi (Bahrain) Win At The Cinque Mulini XC Race In Italy Kipkemoi beat out world U20 XC silver medalist Tadese Worku by just a second.
Mizuki Matsuda Wins Osaka Women’s Marathon With 2:21:47 Matsuda was 4th at the Japanese Olympic Trials, but ran fast enough here to have a shot to replace the 3rd placer from those trials (as long as no one runs faster than here at Nagoya in March). Second place was Bahrain’s Mimi Belete in 2:22:40. *World Athletics Recap
50K Treadmill World Record Broken By Ultra Runner Mario Mendoza He ran 2:59:03 to break Michael Wardian‘s 2015 record by 46 seconds. He did it in a high school gymnasium in Oregon with students cheering and Max King there as MC to hype the crowd.
Athletics Weekly Recap Weekend GB XC Action Callum Johnson and Jess Judd won Northern England XC Champs while Adam Hickey and Jess Gibbon won South England XC.
USATF Recap Of 2020 50k Racewalk Olympic Trials
*MB: Trans Man to Compete in Olympic Trials

High Jump News

GB HJer Morgan Lake Is “Looking To Find The Joy In The Sport Again” Ahead Of Tokyo 2020 Lake explains how she’s moved back in with her parents after 4 years away and is having her father coach her. She says, “When I’m happier I jump better.”
2-Time NCAA High Jump Champ JaCorian Duffield Retires At Age 27 Duffield, who won NCAA titles indoor and outdoor in 2015, says he’s retiring after a string of injuries, but is “at peace” with the decision. He has a job lined up doing contracting and purchasing at an Air Force Base outside Denver.

2020 Dubai Marathon Full Race Replay Tracking / Results

LRC Worknesh Degefa (2:19:38) Dominates; 11 Men Run 2:06 As Dubai Marathon Comes Down To Mad Dash Over Final Kilometer The post-Vaporfly marathon madness continued in Dubai. Four marathons in history have seen 11 men break 2:08; three have taken place in the last four months.
*MB:Official 2020 Dubai Marathon Discussion Thread
*World Athletics Recap

Random Olympic-Related News

NCAA To Allow Elite Olympic Athletes To Receive Compensation For Training And Travel Expenses This would allow them to accept money also for travel for their parents and coaches.
Japan On Track To Hit 30 Gold Medal Target For Tokyo Olympics This would put them 4th behind the USA’s projected 47 golds, China’s 43 and Russia’s 25, but would be way more than the 12 golds they won in Rio. On the flip side, GB are projected to win 25 medals (all colors) less than they did in Rio.
Japan’s Olympic Ceremonies Uniforms Unveiled
Late Night Train Services Planned For Tokyo 2020

Parenting News

Baby Bolt Coming Soon!!! Usain Bolt’s GF Is Pregnant
Former GB Marathoner Turned Coach Jo Wilkinson Tells Parents How To Coach Their Own Kids – Don’t “I’ve realised when it comes to my son’s running, my job is to be his mum and let his coach do the coaching.”

Men In The News

Famed Australian Agent And Broadcaster Maurie Plant Has Died At 66, Tributes Pour In He played a big role in the careers of Sally Pearson, Catherine Freeman, Steve Hooker and others and was loved by many. *Len Johnson *Athletics Weekly
2020 Paralympic Star? Q&A With Michael Roeger, WHo Became The 1st One-Armed Person To Break 2:20 In The Marathon He actually was hoping to run 2:16 but ran 2:19:33.
Recommended Read: RW:Lyme Disease Almost Ended Robby Andrews’ Career. Here’s What Finally Cured Him Spoiler alert: It wasn’t just traditional medicine. *Discuss
GB Marathoner Callum Hawkins Is Using A Garden Shed To Train For The Heat At Tokyo 2020 Hawkins has been running on a treadmill in his shed with heaters to simulate the hot conditions he’ll face this summer. Talking about being 4th place at the last two World Championships, Hawkins said, “I try not to let it get me down and try not to let it discourage me, but I think I am a little bit disappointed and won’t ever quite get over it unless I win a medal at Tokyo.” *Video