More Indoor Results: Mondo Gets Pole Vault WR!

• Mondo Duplantis Says He Received A Text Message From Renaud Lavillenie The Morning He Broke His World PV Record The message read, “Have a good day baby, but not too good.” Duplantis says Lavillenie was his idol growing up so he was pumped to be the person to “succeed him.”
• Mondo Duplantis Breaks Pole Vault World Record With 6.17m In Torun Duplantis cleared it on his second attempt. Afterwards he said, “It’s something that I wanted since I was three years old. It’s a big year, but it’s a good way to start it.” *Video/Discussion
• Sam Kendricks Breaks North American Pole Vault Record With 6.01m Clearance At The Perche Elite Tour Meet In France
• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Wins 60m At The Mile Western Relays In 7.32 Seconds; Asafa Powell Won The Men’s Race In 6.73
• George Kusche Breaks His Own Nebraska School Record With 7:50.93 At The Husker Invitational
• Garret Scantling Posts 8th Best All-Time US Heptathlon To Win At The USATF Indoor Combined Events Championships
• Annie Kunz Wins With 8th Beset All-Time US Pentathlon At USATF Indoor Combined Champs

HOKA ONE ONE Takes On The Marathon Trials (Sponsored)

HOKA ONE ONE Trials Athlete Of The Day #4:

LRC Be Inspired By Swarnjit Boyal’s Incredible US Olympic Trials Story Learn how Boyal has progressed from being cut twice in college, to being a walkon, to a conference champion, and now a US Olympic Trials qualifier. Read his incredible story.

More Shoe News

• Nike Claims The Version Of The Alphafly Worn By Eliud Kipchoge To Break 2 Hours Would Be Legal Under The New Rules They also say that widespread reports that the shoes contained three carbon plates were false.
• Sean Ingle: “The Great Shoe War Has Switched Lanes To The Track, But Nike Still Leads The Field” Ingle tells an interesting story about how a Russian HJer set a world record in 1957 wearing shoes with a huge heel. The difference is that that the governing body at the time actually stepped in and quickly banned the shoe.
• Paula Radcliffe Thinks Shoe Technology Advances Will Continue And Lead To More Broken Records “One of the biggest reasons that the shoe technology has come on so much is not the plate they talk about but the foam, and the fact it saves energy in your legs. The hardest thing in a marathon is getting to 20 miles and finding that your legs are dead and you can’t get any more return back from them.”
• Why The World Athletics Nike AlphaFly Ban Is a Nike Dream Scenario Nike couldn’t pay for better marketing if they tried.
• Non-Nike: Saucony Teased Biodegradable Shoes In Their Super Bowl Ad The brands says it will use no plastics and a stitching process from the late 1800s. But will the shoes be able to run a sub-2 hour marathon? That’s the question.

Assorted Tokyo 2020 News

• Tokyo Olympics Chief ‘Seriously Worried’ About Spread Of Coronavirus Japan has had 20 confirmed cases — the largest number outside China.
• Edwin Moses Thinks IOC Stopping Athletes From Protesting At The Olympics Will “Be Impossible”
  *Previously: IOC Says No Kneeling Or Any Form Of Political Protests Allowed At Tokyo 2020
• British Athletics Publish Standards For Tokyo 2020 You need to be top-2 at the British trials and have the World Athletics standard. If you don’t and get an invite from WA anyway (based on global ranking), you need to have the British standard or they have to consider you to have “future global medal potential.”
• Canada The Latest Country To Relax Rule 40 Guidelines Ahead Of Tokyo 2020 The US and Australia previously relaxed their rules, but British athletes have threatened legal action against the BOA, saying their guidelines are still too strict.
• IPC Believes That Coronavirus Has Had “Minimal Impact” On Tokyo 2020 Planning So Far

Despite The New Rules, The Vaporfly Story Isn’t Going Away

• World Athletics Denies Tipping Off Nike Over New Running Shoe Regulations; Says They Could Re-Evaluate After A New Study At The End Of The Year Apparently Nike just happened to come out with shoes with a 39.5mm heel days after the limit was set at 40mm. Some are crying foul as Seb Coe used to be a paid Nike brand ambassador.
• Recommended Read: Ross Tucker Explains Why “Failure To Regulate ‘Super Shoes'” Is Hurting The Sport Of Running Tucker explains how letting everyone use the “super shoes” isn’t enough because some people respond way more to the shoes than others.
  *MB: Incredible Read. Ross Tucker: The Vaporflys Need To Be Banned
• Great Quotes: Irish Marathoner Fionnuala McCormack: “I Want To Improve From Training, Not Technology” “I wish it never happened. … I don’t want to have to try them. I don’t know what position I’m in now. You’re not competing on a level playing field if you don’t have the same shoes. But I don’t want to have to wear the shoes. … For me, I would question my times …”
• InsideTheGames’ Mike Rowbottom: “World Athletics Treading Carefully On The Vaporfly Question”

Mid-Week Track News

MB: Stewart McSweyn and Jessica Hull Win 5000s, Secure Spots on Australian Olympic Teams at Melbourne Track Classic McSweyn crushed his last 2k, running 5:03.08 for a 13:38.77. You can watch a full replay of the meet here. Results are here. Find out why Morgan McDonald skipped the meet here.
*World Athletics Recap Hull says her debate now is whether to do the 5,000m or 1,500m in Tokyo.

LRC Erik Sowinski Pulls A “Symmonds,” Joins Brooks Beasts Sowinski wasn’t renewed by Nike after the 2019 season, but it didn’t take him long to land on his feet.

Tragic News – RIP

• Ethiopian Distance Runner Abadi Hadis Dies At The Age Of 22 The 2016 Olympian and 2017 World XC bronze medalist reportedly died from a “complicated illness.”
  *MB: Terrible news, Ethiopia’s Abadi Hadis (12:56/26:56/58:44) has passed away at just 22
• Two High School Runners Killed And Four Injured During Practice By Hit-Run Driver In Oklahoma The driver reportedly hopped the curb and hit the runners on the sidewalk.
  *Local Article With More Details On The Driver, Max Townsend The 57-year-old has a long criminal history that includes drunk driving and child abuse. Apparently his own 29-year-old son was killed in a hit-and-run days earlier.
  *MB: Tragic Accident

More Solid Results From The Weekend

• Emily Lipari Ran The #8 All-Time US Indoor 5,000m With 15:07.44 At The BU Scarlet And White Invitational Behind her, Sharon Lokedi was 2nd in 15:13.04. In the women’s 1,500m, Cory McGee moved to #5 on the all-time US indoor list with a 4:04.75 victory. BTC’s Josh Thompson won the men’s 1,500m in 3:37.21 and Willy Fink took the 3,000m in 7:44.21.
• Germany’s Marc Reuther Ran World-Leading 1:45.39 In Erfurt (Second Fastest Ever By A German Indoors)
• Kenyans Davis Kiplangat And Lydia Lagat Win Almond Blossom XC Race In Portugal Kiplangat beat out Richard Yator by just 1 second while Lagat dominated by 20.
• GB’s World Indoor 60H Champ Andrew Pozzi Ran World-Leading 7.52 To Win Over 110H World Champ Pascal Martinot-Lagarde In Paris
• 43-Year-Old Japanese Woman Sets Marathon WR For Visually Impaired With 2:54:22

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.*Razorback Full Results
• 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

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.