Pole Vault Record Nearly Goes Down In Dusseldorf *Results

Mondo Duplantis Clears 6.00m In Dusseldorf; Narrowly Misses 6.17m World Record Duplantis’ second attempt was “painfully close” to breaking Renaud Lavillenie‘s 6.16m WR as he just nudged the bar slightly with his knee on the way over and brushed it with his arm on the way down. Besides the PV, distance events highlighted the meet as Beatrice Chepkoech broke her own Kenyan national indoor 1500m record with a 4:02.09 win over Axumawit Embaye (4:02.96). Filip Ingebrigtsen won the men’s race in 3:36.32 while Selemon Barega ran 7:35.71 to win a competitive 3000m over Getnet Wale (7:36.03) and Bethwel Birgen (7:46.21). There was an upset in the men’s 800 where Germany’s Marc Reuther ran 1:46.13 to end Adam Kszczot‘s (1:46.42) seven straight Dusseldorf victory winning streak.
*MB: Pole Vault WR under threat in Dusseldorf?

Weekend Indoor Action *All Weekend NCAA Coverage

2020 UW Invitational: Evan Jager Is Back With 3:56 Mile Win; Shelby Houlihan Runs Impressive 4:23/2:01 Double Behind Houlihan, Karissa Schweizer ran a quick 4:24.32 for second while Sean McGorty came in behind Jager with 3:57.19. Besides Jager and Houlihan, the rest of BTC cleaned house as well with Colleen Quigley winning the 3,000m in 8:44.83 and Marc Scott taking the men’s race in 7:49.65.
*DyeStat Recap Houlihan: “I wasn’t expecting to run the times that I ran back to back. I’m pleasantly surprised with that.”

• 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
  *Was Jemma Reekie’s 800m Breakthrough Another Instance Of Nike Mechanical Doping? Reekie broke her PR by nearly four seconds, but was wearing a Nike prototype spike. Her coach says that the shoes were legal and would be available for retail shortly.
• 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
• MB: Power Five Invite/Michigan – Mary Cain Back in the Mile (6th – 4:42.78) Julie-Ann Staehli won the race in 4:33.80. Shannon Osika won the 800m in 2:02.11. *Full Results
• MB: Matt Boling Run 20.90 200M At Razorback Meet He was 5th overall; Texas Micaiah Harris won the race in 20.49.
• Ella Donaghu Breaks Stanford Indoor Mile Record With 4:33.71 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.

LRC 5 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

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 Views
• 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:

• Ryan Hall finds a 2:09 in old school shoes more “inspiring” than a 2:01 in Vaporflys.
• Is Running turning into an Expensive Sport?
• Nike Pegasus 37 – Inspired by the Next%

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