February 29, 2020 Homepage Archive

US Olympic Marathon Trials Tracking & ResultsPost-Race Videos

LRC Galen Rupp Is Golden As Unsponsored Jake Riley And 43-Year-Old Abdi Abdirahman Make Olympic Marathon Team Rupp won it handily in 2:09:20 while there was a 3-way battle for the last two spots with Riley taking 2nd (2:10:02), and Abdi 3rd (2:10:03). Leonard Korir finished the dreaded 4th in 2:10:06.

LRCIn A Wildly Unpredictable Race, Aliphine Tuliamuk, Molly Seidel, & Sally Kipyego Earn Olympic Marathon Spots updatedTuliamuk and Seidel make their first Olympics (Seidel in her marathon debut) and Kipyego makes her first US team. Des Linden tried to reel in Kipyego, but came up short in 4th (2:29:03).

LRC Unsponsored Jake Riley Makes All The Right Moves To Earn Olympic Berth In Atlanta Jake Riley was a big surprise at the Trials.

LRCLive Marathon Trials Thread

Conference Champs Weekend *USTFCCCA Conference Champs Central

Conference-By-Conference Team Rankings
ACC: *Live Results *Meet Home *ESPN Broadcast
Big 12: *Live Results *Meet Home *ESPN Broadcast
Big Ten: *Live Results *Meet Home *FloTrack Broadcast
MPSF: *Live Results *Meet Home *FloTrack Broadcast
*Ken Goe:The Oregon Ducks Aren’t Invested In The MPSF Indoor Champs Based on the fact that they sent their top mid-d guys to BU instead.
SEC: *Live Results *Meet Home *SEC Network
Ivy (HEPS): *Live Results *Meet Home *ESPN Broadcast

Assorted Distance News

Podcast Interview With Elle Purrier Carrie Tollefson talks about Purrier about setting the indoor mile American record, growing up on a farm, Tokyo 2020 and “her love story.”
Brigid Kosgei’s 2:14:04 Marathon WR Ratified By World Athletics It’s officially the WR, but Paula Radcliffe‘s 2:15:25 will always be the pre-Vaporfly mark. World Athletics also ratified the University of Houston’s 3:01.51 world indoor 4 x 400m record.
A Missed Result: Recent Japan Half Marathon Record Setter Hitomi Niiy Wins Auckland 5,000m In 15:07.02; Nick Willis Takes Close 1,500m In 3:41.7 Willis beat out compatriot Rorey Hunter by .04. Tom Walsh won the shot with 21.66m as Canada’s Sarah Mitton threw more than a half meter PR (18.84m) to get a surprise win over Valerie Adams (18.73m).
World Athletics Podcast Interview With 1983 World 1,500m Champ Steve Cram The former mile WR holder looks back on his mid-d battles with Seb Coe and talks about his transition from athlete to broadcaster.
Japan Announces Team For The 2020 World Half-Marathon Championships The team is led by #2 Japan all-time Taku Fujimoto (60:06) and Japanese marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura. *Japan Running News Article
Kristina Schou Madsen Becomes First Woman To Win World Marathon Challenge She ran an average of 3:25:57 for seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

Sprints/Jumps

Good Read:Sandi Morris Explains Why She’s The “Queen Of Third Attempts” And Why She Wishes The PV Could Be More Like The LJ Morris also talks about Mondo Duplantis‘s recent WRs and her own goal of breaking the women’s WR.
May 2:Christian Coleman And Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Announced For The Jamaica Invitational Other big names announced include Noah Lyles, Justin Gatlin, Yohan Blake, Andre Degrasse, Keni Harrison and Dalilah Muhammad.
Albanian Sprinter Klodina Shala Caught Steroid Doping In London 2012 Retests The now 40-year-old was tested, but actually didn’t race at London 2012 as she withdrew with injury.

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Bernard Lagat’s Sister Is Fast, False Starts In The Half Marathon, And More Vaporfly Talk? Bernard Lagat‘s sister may have found a new distance, the NCAA DMR heated up, there was a false start in the world record in the half marathon, and of course Rojo has some Vaporfly talk.

More International Results From The Weekend

Mondo Duplantis Concludes His Indoor Season With 6.01m Victory In France Duplantis made another attempt at 6.19m to try and break his own WR, but failed his three attempts. He did become the first PVer since Sergey Bubka in 1991 to clear six meters in five consecutive competitions. Former WR Renaud Lavillenie was runner-up with 5.94m.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh Clears 2.01m At Ukraine Indoor Champs
Zimbabwe’s Sasha Zhoya Runs World Indoor U20 60H Record With 7.34 In Miramas He broke the record by .06 which had belonged to US’s Trey Cunningham.
Tamari Davis Wins Her Pro Debut At The USC Indoor Open With 7.20 Seconds In The Women’s 60m

Weekend Road Results

Ethiopia’s Mekuant Ayenew (2:04:46) And Uganda Juliet Chekwel (2:23:13) Win With Course Records At The Seville Marathon Both races had strong depth as seven men finished sub-2:07 and 14 broke 2:08 while seven women went sub-2:28.
*MB: Kevin Seaward – Fastest teacher in the world?
*MB:Spanish Javier Guerra (36 yo) ran 2:07:24 in Sevilla Marathon
MB: Bernard Lagat’s sister and FSU GRAD Violah Lagat 66:47 in Half Marathon Debut She won the Napoli City Half Marathon. Henry Rono (60:04) won the men’s race.

British Indoor Champs *Results

BBC Day 2 Recap:Guy Learmonth Leapfrogs His Way To PR And British 800m Title With 1:46.89 Learmonth avoided a collision and jumped over a fallen runner on the final lap, managing to come back and catch former NCAA champ Josh Kerr (finished 4th) and hold off Andrew Osagie (1:46.98). *Race Video *Video Interview With Learmonth
17-Year-Old Amy Hunt Wins 60m National Title At British Indoor Champs With the bigger names absent, Hunt won easily in 7.39. On the men’s side, Andrew Robertson won in 6.66 while 41-year-old Dwain Chambers competed, but didn’t make the final, saying, “This is a chance to have a little bit more fun before the wheels fall off.”
BBC Day 1 Recap: Sophie Cook Wins GB Pole Vault Title With 4.50m David King (7.78) and Yasmin Miller (8.29) took the 60H titles.

The TJ WR Goes Down In Madrid

Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas Breaks Indoor Triple Jump Record With 15.43m In Madrid The two-time world champ broke the 16-year-old record by 7cm on her final jump. Ethiopia’s Getnet Wale set a MR and secured the World Athletics Indoor Tour title by winning the 3,000m in 7:39.96 over Bethwel Birgen (7:40.23) and Selemon Barega (7:40.30). Gudaf Tsegay won her third consecutive 1500m. Christina Clemons (7.82) beat out Nia Ali with a MR in the 60H and Ronnie Baker set one in the 60m (6.44).
*GB’s Andrew Pozzi Remains Unbeaten With A Season’s Best 7.48 In The Madrid 60H
*Croatian Shot Putter Filip Mihaljevic Wins Madrid And The World Athletics Tour With A National Record 21.74m

Will This Current HS Phenom Ever Make The Olympics?

LRC LRC Q&A: NXN Champ Nico Young On His Favorite Race, Toughest Workout, & Why He Chose NAUNico also shares who his favorite pros are – Galen Rupp and Justyn Knight.

DyeStat Video Interview

Trials On The Forums

Tokyo Marathon *TV And Streaming Info (7 PM ET Sat. Night)

World Athletics Preview:Course Record Assault On Tap For The Tokyo Marathon (Targeting Sub-2:03:58 And 2:19:47) Birhanu Legese (2:02:48), Getaneh Molla (2:03:34) and Sisay Lemma (2:03:36) lead the men’s race along with several other sub-2:05 men. On the women’s side, there are five sub-2:20 runners led by Ruti Aga (2:18:34) and Birhane Dibaba (2:18:46).
Japan Running News Preview The third spot for Japan’s men’s Olympic marathon squad is on the line, but a time faster than the 2:05:50 national record would be needed.
Tokyo Marathon Elite Athlete Press Conference (Full Video) It’s in English.

Our Final HOKA ONE ONE Trials Athlete Of The Day (Sponsored By HOKA ONE ONE)

LRC Kellyn Taylor: After Finishing 4th In 2016, Can #4 Seed Kellyn Taylor Earn Career-Defining Olympic Spot? On the one hand, Kellyn Taylor says her “life is not and will never be all about running.” On the other hand, she says if you are a pro runner, you need to be an Olympian as it’s a career-defining accomplishment.

LRC HOKA NAZ Elite Pros Podcast Before The Trials: Can One Of Them Make The Team!? Hear from Kellyn Taylor, Stephanie Bruce, Aliphine Tuliamuk (3 of the top 10 seeds on the women’s side) and Scott Fauble (#3 seed for men), Sid Vaughn and Scott Smith (2:11 marathon).

Coronavirus News

Britain Rules Out Stepping In To Host The 2020 Olympics If Coronavirus Threatens Hosting It In Tokyo IOC member Dick Pound has said there is a risk of cancellation if the virus is not contained by the end of May.
MB: Daily Mail has article that says Marathon Runner was Super Spreader in Italy. 38 years old. In Serious Condition
Lake Biwa Marathon Organizers Ask People Not To Come Cheer Because Of Coronavirus Fears
Japan Withdraws From The World University XC Championships Due To Coronavirus The meet is next week in Morocco.
The Telegraph: How Coronavirus Could Affect The Olympics, Euro 2020, Six Nations And Other Sporting Events This Year They actually have an interactive map which lists the coronavirus cases, deaths and recoveries per country.
Reuters: Careers Could End Without Olympic Highlight If Tokyo Games Are Cancelled New Zealand performance director Scott Goodman talked about how this was likely the last games for veterans like Nick Willis and Valerie Adams.
MB: Coronavirus is in California – First case not from known infected person – Sh!t just got real!
MB:What are the odds Boston will be cancelled this year due to coronavirus?
Tokyo 2020 To Consider Downsizing Torch Relay Because Of Coronavirus

Trials Question Of The Day

LRC How Will Jim Walmsley Do At The Trials? Does America’s ultra marathoner really have a shot?
*Discussion Here

Trials Talk On The Boards

General Olympic / Hosting News

Asian XC Championships In Hong Kong Postponed Over Coronavirus The event was supposed to be held March 29th.
Miracle On Ice” Gold Medal Sells For Nearly $320,000 At Auction The gold medal won by Steve Christoff at the 1990 Lake Placid Games sold for $319,800. His jersey from the gold medal winning game sold for $116,850.
President Trump To Be Briefed On LA 2028 Preparations During California Visit
LA Places Largest Order For Electric Buses In US History For 2028 Olympics They’re trying to become more eco-friendly, ordering 155 buses hoping that the city’s buses will produce zero emissions by 2028.
Data Suggests There Could Be “Dangerous Levels” Of Air Pollution At The 2020 Commonwealth Games In Birmingham
Japanese Emperor Naruhito Excited For Tokyo 2020 Despite Coronavirus Outbreak The 60-year-old talked about his memories watching the 1964 Tokyo Games.
Tokyo 2020 Drops Indigenous Ainu Dance From Opening Ceremony It’s a controversial decision as the Ainu people have been subjected to discrimination in Japan.
Tokyo 2020 Online Ticket Sales Will Launch Worldwide In May

Weekend NCAA / HS Action *All NCAA Coverage

South Dakota’s Chris Nilsen Breaks Mondo Duplantis’ Collegiate Pole Vault Record With 5.93m At The Nebraska Tune-Up (includes video) Duplantis’ 5.92m record was exactly one day short of one year old.
USTFCCCA NCAA Weekend In Review There was fast DMR action this weekend lead by Notre Dame men (9:25.80) over Wisconsin (9:25.84) and the Notre Dame women (11:04.27) over Michigan (11:05.89).
*MB: Alex Wilson DMR – Notre Dame 9:25.80
MB:Ct HS sophomore goes sub-9:00 indoors wearing VAPORFLYS

Coronavirus News

Tokyo Governor Criticizes “Inappropriate” Offer From London To Host Olympics Because Of Coronavirus Crisis The offer came from London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey who said London may need to “step up” to host the games instead of Tokyo.
Japanese Virologist Says That If The Tokyo Games Were Tomorrow, They’d Need To Be Cancelled Due To The Current Coronavirus Climate Dr. Hitoshi Oshitani, a former advisor during the SARS pandemic in the early 2000s, said “Right now we don’t have an effective strategy …but by the end of July we may be in a different situation.”
Beggars Must Not Be Choosers:Minister Of Sport Says Russia Is Ready To Host Any Sporting Events That Need Relocating Due To Coronavirus
Chinese Anti-Doping Agency To Resume Testing In China After Temporary Suspension Due To Coronavirus
Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori: “I pray to God every day that the coronavirus will just vanish.” Organizers have said there is no chance the Games will be cancelled or postponed, but Japan is one of the riskiest places in the world for the spread of the virus.
Tokyo 2020 Postpones Volunteer Training Due To Coronavirus Outbreak

Trials Question Of The Day

LRC Which “Old Guy” – Ritz (37), Abdi (43), Or Lagat (45), Has Best Shot At Marathon Trials? Ritz (37) will be Lagat’s age (45) in LA 2028, which is nuts.
*Yesterday: Trials Question of the Day: Will Jordan Hasay Make the Olympic Team?

RRW:Just Back From Training In Kenya, Bernard Lagat Eyes Record Sixth Olympic Team
Large Panel Of Marathon Experts (Which Included LRC’s Jon Gault) Predicts Olympic Trials Top 3 For the men, they chose Jared Ward, Leonard Korir and Galen Rupp. Emily Sisson, Molly Huddle and Sara Hall for the women.
Interesting:Runner’s World Chooses Their “Best Moments At The Olympic Marathon Trials”
Carrie Tollefson Interviews Tierney Wolfgram, The Youngest Competitor In The Olympic Marathon Trials Wolfgram ran 2:40:03 as a 15-year-old to qualify.

More Marathon Trials Coverage

Q&A With Galen Rupp Ahead Of The Trials Rupp talks about coming back from injury, getting older, how much mileage he does on the underwater treadmill and what’s been different training under Mike Smith.
RRW:Seven-Hundred Strong, Atlanta Is The People’s Trials
ESPN:Family First, But Olympics Next For U.S. Marathon Hopeful Jared Ward? Ward, his wife and four kids all spent the night in the same hotel room before the NYC Marathon (where Ward was 6th in a 2:10:45 PR).
Des Linden: “I’m not going to the Trials to have a good experience and have some fun. I’m going there to make a team.”
Sara Hall Ahead Of The Trials: “I don’t think I could have trained any harder.”
Abdi Abdirahman Doesn’t Think Age Will Be A Factor In Atlanta He says it’s the best buildup he’s ever had.
Marathon Rookie Emily Sisson Is Prepared For Anything At The Marathon Trials This is only her second marathon so Sisson said she’s still trying to figure out what works best for her.
Podcast Interview With Sam Chelanga Talking About Coming Out Of Retirement
Podcast Interview With Atlanta Track Club Director Of Marketing And Communication Jay Holder Holder talks about what type of person will win on the Olympic Marathon Trials course and what it’s like preparing to host the OT.
Reuters: Nike Shoe Debate Rages As Runners Weigh Advantages At US Marathon Trials
Chris Chavez’s Marathon Trials Preview/Predictions

Previous NCAA News

RIP Former Legendary Penn State Coach Harry Groves Groves was an NCAA coach for 53-years, including 38 seasons as head coach of Penn State.
Top Men’s Ranked NCAA Teams Stay The Same With NAU, LSU And Florida Sitting 1-3
No Changes To Top 7 Ranked Women’s Teams As LSU, Georgia And Arkansas Sit 1-3
MB: 38 Athletes Quit Emory University XC/Track Team Amid “Culture Shift”
South Dakota’s Chris Nilsen And Notre Dame’s Rachel Tanczos Were Last Week’s NCAA Athletes Of The Week Nilsen broke Mondo Duplantis‘s NCAA pole vault record with 5.93m while Tanczos threw 23.31m in the weight throw to move to #11 on the all-time NCAA list.
Event-By-Event Top-10 NCAA Marks From Last Week

More Trials Coverage

LRCMarathon Trials Preview Podcast Get the lowdown from the LRC crew before they departed for Atlanta.

If You Read One Article Before The Trials, It Needs To Be This
LRC Mile-By-Mile Analysis Of How The Hills Will Impact The 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials Olympic Marathon Trials coaches, participants, race fans, and TV commentators, please do yourself a favor and print out the chart above and carry it with you in a pocket on Saturday.
*MB: JK is a genius Part III: Here is his mile by mile analysis of how much the hills will impact the 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials

LRC The Women’s Underdogs The group of underdogs is pretty darn talented. It includes an Olympic medalist, a trained firefighter who was third in last year’s USA 10k on the track, a woman who was 4th in Chicago last year and more.

LRC Turning Down A Contract To Race In The Vaporflys? Vaporfly > Alphafly? How Shoes Will Affect The US Olympic Marathon Trials If you’d like to pretend footwear isn’t going to be an important topic of discussion at this weekend’s US Olympic Trials, enjoy your time in Candy Land.

Our Trials Coverage Is Insane – Even More

LRC Which Woman Is Most Likely To Make The US Olympic Marathon Team? Des Linden, Emily Sisson, Jordan Hasay, Sara Hall, Molly Huddle, Kellyn Taylor, Sally Kipyego, Emma Bates, Aliphine Tuliamuk, Stephanie Bruce.
*MB: Which woman is most likely to make the team? Des, Sisson, Hasay, Huddle, Hall?

LRC 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials Preview: The Men’s Underdogs – From Bernard Lagat To Jim Walmsley The odds are the Olympic team will consist of 3 of the “Big 4” of Rupp, Korir, Fauble and Ward, but here are 26 underdogs with a chance if 2 of the 4 falter. From 45-year-old Bernard Lagat to 24-year-old Jerrell Mock, meet those with “a chance.”

HOKA ONE ONE Takes On The Marathon Trials (Sponsored By HOKA ONE ONE) – Meet The Full-Time HOKA Pros

LRC Scott Fauble: Does HOKA’s Fastest American Pro Get To The Top of American Distance Running At the Trials? Scott Fauble is arguable America’s best male long distance runner who hasn’t been on an Olympic team. Can he change that?

New Salazar News

BBC Panorama: Alberto Salazar’s Spectacular Fall From Grace Some new allegations against Salazar, including from former Stanford runner Ari Lambie who says Salazar changed her birth control, had her take thyroid meds she didn’t need and gave her an unknown supplement followed by a drug test.
More BBC On Mo Farah:Details On UK Athletics Involvement In Helping Farah Get L-Carnitine And Farah’s Initial Denial To USADA That He Took It Before London Marathon
*MB: Ariana Lambie speaks about her time in NOP, says she was given a supplement by Salazar & told to take a drug test after it
*MB: Goucher says Salazar “was obsessed with the size of my breasts”

Mo Farah Speaks

Mo Farah Admits To Lying About His Link To Jama Aden Farah says that when he was asked about it years ago and said Aden was just a fan that asked for a “selfie,” he was lying and in reality he’s “known Jama for many years.”
Athletics Weekly: Mo Farah Tackles Tough Topics Farah says he’s suffered “financially and emotionally” due to his links with Alberto Salazar. He his coach Gary Lough also say they were “blindsided” by the news when Salazar’s ban was announced.
Former UK Athletics Chairman Ed Warner Says He Advised Mo Farah To Leave Alberto Salazar In 2015 Warner: “I would have loved Mo to walk away. … I personally tried to persuade him to change coach. … He was adamant he wasn’t going to change his coach.”