February 02, 2020 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For February 02, 2020

Quote Of The Day

When five-time Olympian Bernard Lagat posted a photo of himself in what appeared to be Alphafly shoes this week, someone asked how much they would cost. One reply summed up what is at stake for the sport: ‘The price is integrity.’”

-the final paragraph from Ben Bloom‘s article on World Athletics new shoe rules.

Marathon Month Is Here (Sponsored By HOKA ONE ONE)

LRC HOKA ONE ONE Is Ready To Take On The Marathon Trials We’re making February Marathon Month on LetsRun.com. HOKA ONE ONE has partnered with us to bring to life the stories of their 17 athletes competing at the Trials in Atlanta. From the dreamers, to the contenders, to the debutantes, to the mountain men and women, we’ll bring their stories to life and help you get pumped up for the Trials, plus get some training advice.

Japan Olympic News

This Week’s Podcast

LRC Pro Track Is Back: Brazier And Hoppel Impress, Mary Cain Vs. Katelyn Tuohy + Rojo’s Rants Get your weekly fix on the running world.
Been Gone The Last Few Weeks? 2 of our most famous podcast listeners were guests the 2 previous weeks:
*Boston Marathon Champ And American Legend Des Linden Talked Trials, Ultras And More And explains her $50 tip to LetsRun.com
*Foot Locker High School National Champ Josh Methner

Why Name The Team Before The Spring Marathon Season?

MB Athletics Kenya Names Eliud Kipchoge, Lawrence Cherono, Amos Kipruto, Brigid Kosgei, Ruth Chepngetich And Vivian Cheruiyot To Its Olympic Marathon Team Yet again a federation making a dumb decision. We see no benefit to naming the team now if you aren’t going to forbid the runners from running a spring marathon. Cheruiyot will be on her 5th Olympic team – a record for Kenya. Pretty impressive since she started in 2000 and missed out on 2004.

More Sprint Stuff

Kansas City Chiefs Receiver Tyreek Hill Says He Wants To Try To Make The 2020 US Olympic Team Hill has 100/200 PRs of 10.19 and 20.14 from his senior year of high school in 2012. He says he’d have to lose a lot of weight as he’s 195 pounds and weighed 175 when he ran in high school.
*MB: Tyreek Hill says he wants to try out for 2020 Olympic team
Apparently Demek Kempt Is Facing Some Criticism In Jamaica For Calling Asafa Powell An “Old Guy” 37-year-old Powell responded by saying, “Age is just a number …I am still feeling very strong, still feeling as fast as I did years ago,” Powell said.
Q&A With GB’s Dina Asher-Smith About Her Winter Training Routine She talks about having to train in the cold, wind and snow. Does she not have access to an indoor track?
World Athletics Podcast Interview With World 400H Champ Karsten Warholm Sounds like they go off on some interesting tangents ,including talking about skydiving and horse racing.
Video Interview With Shamier Little After 2nd Place Run In NBIGP 300m Little was happy with her run and said she was focused on winning a medal at World Indoors, but that obviously won’t be happening now
Two Scottish Records Went Down Over The Weekend – Alisha Reese With 7.33 In The 60m And Nikki Manson With 1.92m In The HJ

Previous Vaporfly Stuff

Wall St. Journal Video Of Nike Vaporfly Controversy Has More Than 3.5 Million V iews
What the Wall Street Journal video didn’t reveal The video ends with a guy running a mile in the Vaporflys and a mile in the Adios Boosts. What it didn’t reveal was his HR was 5 bpm less in the Vaporflys and his stride frequency was about 3 strides/minute lower in the Vaporfly.
The Telegraph Opinion Piece:“Nike’s Vaporfly Shoes Are Fine – But The Sport’s Integrity Is At Stake If Their Next Version Is Not Banned” Ben Bloom writes, “The Alphafly is a step too far. When five-time Olympian Bernard Lagat posted a photo of him in what appeared to be Alphafly shoes this week, someone asked how much they would cost. One reply summed up what is at stake for the sport: ‘the price is integrity.'”

Vaporfly Related MB Talk:

February 8th Will Be A Good Day For Indoor Action

NXN Champ Nico Young Going After The American Junior 3,000m Record In The Pro Race At Millrose Chris Derrick has the record at 7:56.31 (Drew Hunter has the HS record at 7:59.33).
NYRR Gives A Rundown Of The Top Men And Women Competing At This Year’s Millrose Games Highlights will include the men’s and women’s 800 where Donavan Brazier faces Bryce Hoppel, Michael Saruin, Isaiah Harris and Ajee Wilson faces Laura Muir.
Strong Pole Vaults Set For Perche Elite Tour De Rouen With Sam Kendricks Vs. Renaud Lavillenie And Euro Silver And Bronze Medalists Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou Vs. Holly Bradshaw
Trio Of 60H Medalists Will Face-Off At The Orlen Copernicus Cup In Poland With GB’s Andrew Pozzi, Serbia’s Milan Trajkovic And US’s Jarret Eaton

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

Weekend Indoor Action *All Weekend NCAA Coverage

Dreams Become Reality:Jemma Reekie Runs 1:57.91 To Break Scottish Record And Beat Laura Muir Pretty impressive for someone with a 2:01 outdoor PR. *Discussion/Video Of Race
The Oregon Men Break The Collegiate Record In The DMR With 9:24.52 Running at the Razorback Invy, the team of James West, Jacob Miller, Charlie Hunter and Cooper Teare broke the former record (9:25.97) set by Texas in 2008. Teare ran the 1,600m leg in 3:55.45.
*MB: OREGON DMR COLLEGIATE RECORD
Ella Donaghu Breaks Stanford Indoor Mile Record With 3:33.71 Victory At Razorback Invy She ran faster than Elise Cranny‘s 4:34.48, but slower than Cranny ran on Washington’s oversized track (4:31.29).
Allyson Felix Opens Seaon With 60m Victory (7.35) At Power Five Invitational In Michigan GB’s Cindy Ofili edged Tiffany Porter in the60H 8.19 (8.181) to 8.19 (8.188).
High School MB CRUZ CULPEPPER Runs 4:01.81 for full mile at UW The son of two Olympians is producing at a high level.
Brandon Miller’s 1:52.10 800m Among HS US#1s at Music City HS Invitational
USTFCCCA Weekend Collegiate Preview

The World Reacts To The New Shoe Rules

LRC Olympian And Key Vaporfly Researcher Shalaya Kipp Talks To LRC About World Athletics’ New Shoe Regulations And The Shoe Nicknamed “The Magic” Kipp, who worked on the study that gave the Vaporflys their 4% name, is pleased by the new regulations as she thinks within a year or two athletes will have a level playing field. Or listen to Kipp’s remarks as a podcast here.

LRC5 Takeaways About World Atheltics New Shoe Rules Soon the back of the packers at major marathons will be running in technology superior to the winners.

The Irish Times‘ Ian O’Riordan Reminds Us How Fair Or Unfair, Shoe Technology Innovations Has Always Been A Thing From Bill Bowerman‘s waffle iron to the now standard tongue loop for shoe laces, Nike’s often been ahead of the curve, but other companies have been there too.
Ben Bloom: Integrity Of Athletics The Price Tag For Nike’s Latest Shoe “When five-time Olympian Bernard Lagat posted a photo of himself in what appeared to be Alphafly shoes this week, someone asked how much they would cost. One reply summed up what is at stake for the sport: “The price is integrity.”
Rojo Raves (And Moans About) Vaporflys In NY Post “They made an incredible shoe … [but[ running is not supposed to be about who has the best technology. It’s supposed to be about who pushes the hardest, has the most talent and trains the hardest,” said Rojo, who referred to Nike’s action in 2016 when they secretly released it and made it look like other shoes as “shady.”
BBC Takes A Look At The Technology Behind The Vaporfly
AP:World Athletics Sees Risk In Shoe Technology, But Clears Nike Design

More Indoor Action

Ukraine’s World Silver Medalist Yaroslava Mahuchikh Tops Her Own World U20 Record With A 2.02m Victory At The Karlsruhe Indoor Meet In Germany The 18-year-old also took 3 unsuccessful attempts at 2.04m.
*Earlier In The Week: Yaroslava Mahuchikh Clears 1.98m To Win Springer Meeting In Germany She took failed attempts at 2.02m, which would have broke her own world U20 record.
World Athletics Karlsruhe Meet Recap: World Champs 6th Placer Fantu Worku Domindates The 3,000m In A World-Leading 8:37.58 Bethwel Birgen won the men’s 3000m in 7:38.50 while Axumawit Embaye prevailing took the women’s 1500m in 4:07.94. Mostafa Smaili won the men’s 800m in a world leading 1:46.38.

Will Russia Ever Learn?

Interesting In Depth Analysis Of Russian Track And Field Doping Data This analysis looks at 29,544 results achieved by 354 Russian athletes during the 1993-2019 period to compare performances between athletes that were busted for doping to athletes who never tested positive. It also looks at how the results of banned athletes during their disqualified period compare to when they passed doping tests.
Russia Edging Towards Blanket Track And Field Ban After Athletics Integrity Unit Suggests The Expulsion Of RusAF From Membership Of World Athletics The AIU said that in response to evidence officials forged documents to cover-up a whereabouts violation by high jumper Danil Lysenko, RusAF had not put “forward any material or evidence” to answer the case against it and showed a “total lack of contrition.”
World Athletics Statement; Won’t Be Considering Any Applications For “Neutral Athlete” Status “Instead of admitting the charges and expressing contrition, RusAF has instead ‘gone to great lengths to deny any involvement in the matter, blame others and attack the process.'”
Reuters: RUSADA Official Says Banned Race Walking Coach Viktor Chegin Still Working With Athletes RUSADA deputy head Margarita Pakhnotskaya: “Chegin is working to this day. He is hidden by security guards. He walks around in a hood and glasses. He changes vehicles. To catch him we would need the police, a law enforcement operation, wiretaps and so on.”

World Indoors Postponed

Nanjing, China World Indoor Championships Postponed Until March 2021 The World Athletics statement read, “We know that China is doing all it can to contain the new Coronavirus … [but] the advice from our medical team, who are in contact with the World Health Organisation, is that the spread of the Coronavirus both within China and outside the country is still at a concerning level.”
*MB: 2020 World Indoors in China is POSTPONED until 2021 due to Coronavirus

Nike Is Done Investigating Itself

Nike’s Investigation Of The Oregon Project’s Treatment Of Women Is Complete The report will not be released to the public but Erin Strout reports Nike will be increasing its number of female coaches, investing into scientific research on the impact that elite training has on girls/women, hiring a VP to have “strategic oversight” of Nike’s female athletes and more.
*MB: Nike’s NOP investigation is complete – Cain declined to participate but calls them “weak and cowardly”

World Indoors Are In DangerPostponed

Coronavirus Threatens World Indoor Championships In Nanjing, China World Athletics confirmed that it is in close discussions with the World Health Organization and is monitoring the situation “carefully.”
*MB: Olympic soccer qualifying tournament for Feb moved out of Nanjing, China. Will World Indoors be next? What’s a good alternative?
*MB: Coronavirus is going to kill AT LEAST 3% of all of us.
Asian Indoor Championships Cancelled Amid Coronavirus Outbreak They were scheduled to take place February 12-13. World Indoors are March 13-15.
Health Minister Might Barr Jamaican Athletes From Going To World Indoors In Nanjing
Coronavirus Outbreak Forces Cancellation Of Opening Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Test Event
Bird’s Nest Stadium Among Public Buildings Closing In China Because Of Coronavirus

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.