March 16, 2020 Homepage Archive

Free Book Chapter

LRC “Virgin Territory” Book Excerpt, Chapter 1: Playing It Risky – Craig Virgin’s 1980 World Cross Country Win Read about Craig’s win at World XC. Coming tomorrow chapter 17 from the book.

Some Non-Coronavirus Negative News

Disturbing:NCAA Champ And Olympian Erin Aldrich Syas Coach John Rembao Penetrated Her On A Flight When She Was 18 Aldrich and two other women filed a class action suit against “the NCAA, the NCAA board of governors and Rembao for what they allege were dozens of incidents of sexual harassment and sexual abuse when Rembao recruited and coached them.” The statue of limitations has passed for their cases.
World Athletics Scraps The Continental Cup After 43 Years No, this isn’t a coronavirus thing. World Athletics has just decided to discontinue the continent vs continent meet that was first held in 1977.
1952 Olympic Javelin And Wife Of Emil Zatopek Champion Dana Zatopkova Passes Away At Age 97 Zatopkova won the gold on the same day her husband won the 5,000m. *World Athletics Tribute

Boston And London Cancelled

The Boston Marathon Postponed Until September 14th Due To Coronavirus

London Marathon Postponed Until October 4
*BBC Article

New Dates Agreed On For China World Indoor Championships The championships were due to be held this week, but will now are March 19-21, 2021. The same weekend as World XC Champs.
Donald Trump Says It Would Be Better To Postpone Olympics Until 2021 Rather Than Cancel We agree but no need to do anything now and Trump now says there are lots of options available.
Prefontaine Classic Suspends Ticket Sales Because Of Uncertainty Over Coronavirus Tickets were to go on sale Friday, but the meet decided to delay that until the situation is more clear.
NY Times: Twenty-Four Hours When Sports Hit The Halt Button Andrew Keh writes, “Professional basketball disappeared first, then the college game followed; hockey melted away; baseball went on indefinite hiatus; and soccer took leave, as well.”
Greek Leg Of Olympic Torch Relay Cancelled Over “Unexpectedly Large Crowds” Despite recommendations for the public not to come out for the ceremony, there were crowds when the flame visited Sparta Friday morning. Actor Gerad Butler (who played King Leonidas in 300), got to carry the torch before the relay was cancelled.
*Olympic Torch Lit At Olympia Includes photos/video. *2nd Article
AFP:Worldwide Sports Collapse Piles Pressure On Olympics
Tokyo Governor Says Cancelling The Olympics Is “Unthinkable”
USATF Coronavirus Update

Our Weekly Recap And Podcast

LRC WTW: How Did Rupp And Tuliamuk Win? How Did Kipyego Hold Off Linden? USA Drug Cheats And Japanese Marathoning We take a deep dive into the splits of Galen Rupp‘s and Aliphine Tuliamuk‘s wins at the Trials and see how Sally Kipyego held off Des Linden.

LRC Weekly Podcast: NCAA Indoor Preview + Cancel Everything? We get your ready for NCAA Indoors and rejoice in the good news that the NCAA Indoors and Boston and London Marathons are still on – for now. It seems as if the next few weeks are a critical test for Boston/London. Will they show they truly care about the elite race like Tokyo? Or are they nothing but glorified fun runs?
*LRC Aliphine Tuliamuk Podcast
*LRC Ben Rosario Bonus Podcast

Women In The News – BTC Gets Lots Of Pub

Women’s Running Takes A Look At Shalane Flanagan’s Transition To Coaching And The Rise Of The BTC Women Flanagan says today’s athletes should be fast. “There’s just more information they have access to. There’s just no excuse for them not to be good.”
Vanessa Fraser Surprised Herself With Her 19-Second PR (14:48 5k) It was a long-sought breakthrough, a pretty incredible performance for someone who was never top 25 in NCAA XC and never top 3 on the track.
Vivian Cheruiyot Wants Another Olympic Gold In Tokyo: “I want to promise Kenyans a good fight in Tokyo.”
400H Star Eilidh Doyle Gave Birth In January But Is Still Planning On Competing In Tokyo “Training is a lot more fun when you get to have cuddles in between reps.”
Learn About Britain’s 1st Female Track And Field Olympic Medalist: Dorothy Tyler Was A Remarkable Character Who Should Be Far More Remembered Than She Is The two-time Olympic HS silver medalist thought Dick Fosbury was a cheat and also wasn’t afraid to call out one of her fellow competitors for being a man.

Tokyo 2021?

Tokyo Olympic President Dismisses Idea Of Postponing Olympics 1-2 Years, Says Board Member Who Floated Idea Has Apologized “There is no plan now to change our plans. I have spoken to Mr. Takahashi and he has apologized. He certainly said an outlandish thing.”
Previous:Tokyo Olympic Board Member Says That If Olympics Can’t Be Held In 2020, The Most Realistic Option Is 1-2 Year Delay

Coronavirus Updates

Molly Huddle Writes About How The Coronavirus Has Affected Her As A Pro Athlete Trying To Make Tokyo 2020 Huddle was affected at the Trials as she had to race in an older pair of shoes because the pair of Saucony flats she ordered never came because the Chinese factory had been shut down.
*MB: Molly Huddle article on Slate – She flew middle seat to ATL and had to race in flats that were worn down
2020 USATF Masters Indoor Championships Cancelled Due To Coronavirus
Coronavirus Strikes Again: Tokyo 2020 Olympic Flame Lighting (March 12th) To Be Held Without Spectators
Italian Olympic Committee Suspends All Sport In Country Amid Coronavirus Outbreak With 366 dead, Italy is the worst hit after China. Up to 16 million people in northern Italy now need permission to travel under quarantine rules.
World University XC Champs Were Also Postponed Due To Coronavirus
MB: Ohio State just canceled classes due to coronavirus
MB: MY SCHOOLS SHUTING DOWN WHITCH MEANS NO SPRING TRACK

Sprint Stuff

Wayde van Niekerk Says He “Still Wants So Much Greater Things” van Niekerk says he’s still hungry and wants to be back competing with the best in the world.
World Athletics Profile: How Motherhood Helped Allyson Felix Find Her Voice Not having her Nike contract renewed after giving birth motivated her to speak out about maternity protection for athletes which spurred Nike to change its contracts.
USA’s Mixed 4 X 400 World Record And Yaroslava Mahuchikh’s World U20 Indoor HJ Record Ratified By World Athletics The team of Wil London, Allyson Felix, Courtney Okolo and Michael Cherry ran 3:09.34 to win gold in Doha.

Shoe Debate/Analysis

Ireland’s 1984 Olympic Marathon Silver Medalist John Treacy Thinks Nike’s Shoes Are “Undermining The Integrity Of The Sport” “I think World Athletics have made a mistake, not only in allowing the advantage, which in my view is unfair, but putting other runners at a disadvantage if they are not wearing this shoe. And I think it needs to be looked at again, urgently.”
Japan Running News:28 Of The Top 30 Men At The Tokyo Marathon Used Nike Next% Or Alphaflys 10 Japanese men ran under 2:08 in the same race for the first time in history (all 10 were wearing the shoes). Remember, RW’s article said that 94% of finishers at the US Trials wore shoes with carbon fiber plates.

Some Actual Results!

South Africa’s Akani Simbine Runs The Fastest 100m Ever By An African On African Soil With 9.91 At The Athletics Gauteng North Championships Clarence Munyai won the 200m in 20.48 after clocking 20.23 in the semifinals and African U18 champion Prudence Sekgodiso won the U20 women’s 800m in 2:02.16.
MB: A USATF National Championship was held today: Tim Tollefson and Ashley Hawks Win USATF 50 Mile Trail Champs
China’s Two-Time World Shot Put Champion Gong Lijiao Throws A World-Leading 19.70m Shot Put In Beijing
World Athletics Recap: The Asian 20k Racewalking Championships Become The Japan Racewalking Championships As Koki Ikeda And Nanako Fujii Claim Titles And Olympic Spots Coronavirus didn’t cancel the race completely, but it did make it a national instead of international affair.

Not Cancelled … Yet

The 2020 Olympic Trials Are Still On For Hayward Field In June, But Ticket Sales Have Been Suspended Some tickets have been sold and if the event is cancelled, those will be refunded.
*USATF And TrackTown USA Statements
Drake Relays Still On Schedule …For Now The meet and Grand Blue Mile are still scheduled for April 22-25.
No Decision Yet On The Penn Relays

Caster Semenya Shooting For Tokyo 200m

Caster Semenya Switches To The 200m In Bid To Qualify For Tokyo 2020 Semenya’s PR is 24.26, but she did run an unofficial 23.49 at a low-key meet on Friday. The Olympic qualifying standard is 22.80.
*MB: Semenya switching to the 200
*Previous MB: What event/sport will Caster Semenya be competing in at Tokyo 2020?

Caster Semenya Says She’s “Supernatural” As She Pursues 200m Olympic Qualifying Time “We are chopping the times and I call myself supernatural. I can do anything I want.”

No NCAAs In 2020

MB: NCAA Cancels Indoors AND Outdoors

NCAA Cancels Remaining Winter And Spring Championships Due To Coronavirus Concerns This page is updated with the latest official coronavirus news and announcements from the NCAA.
Arkansas “Stunned” By NCAA Cancellation Arkansas men’s coach Chris Bucknam said, “It’ll sink in, I’m sure, in a few more hours. Right now I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around it.”
Mt. SAC Relays Canceled, But There Still Could Be A No-Spectator Elite Meet
Texas Relays Cancelled
The Oregonian:Coronavirus Scrubs Oregon Senior James West’s Hopes For NCAA Champs West had big hopes for NCAAs after breaking the 1,500m collegiate record two weeks ago, but now is afraid he may have run his last race for Oregon.

Coronavirus Talk

Podcast: Cancel Everything Running Related?! Listen to the best track and field running podcast on the planet which was recorded Wednesday before everything was actually cancelled.

Coronavirus Cancels Two Big HS Meets – 1 In Jamaica

US HS NBIN Are Cancelled
Coronavirus Strikes Again: Jamaican CHAMPS Are Cancelled After Country Sees Its 2nd Positive
Scientist Explains Why Running A Marathon Will Increase Your Odds Of Getting Coronavirus After a marathon, your immune system is compromised for a short while.
More Important Administrative News Seb Coe And World Athletics Gets Tough With Russia – Fines Them $10 Million, Says Only 10 Neutral Athletes Can Compete In Tokyo

Men’s News

3 Mid-Week Recommended Reads

RR#1:Eliud Kipchoge Talks In Great Detail About His 3 Previous Olympics He won bronze in 2004, silver in 2008 and gold in 2016.
RR#2:World Athletics Profiles Japanese Half Marathon NR Holder Hitomi Niiya Inspired by Naoko Takahashi‘s 2000 Olympic marathon gold, she took up the sport and became a teen phenom but quit at age 25 after finishing 5th at Worlds. She’s been drawn back as she likes to shop and wanted to buy a bag. Now she’s hoping to medal in front of the home fans.
RR#3: BBC:David Rudisha Discusses Battling Back From His Personal Struggles, Weight Gain And Injuries Over The Last Couple Years For A Chance To Win A Historic Third 800m Gold In Tokyo Rudisha hasn’t raced in two years and had a rough year with separating from his wife and his father dying. But he says, “I still feel like I still have something in me. I have not exhausted everything. There is something left in the tank and that is what I want to exhaust before I think of doing other things.”

18-Year-Old Lester Lescay Of Cuba Long Jumped 8.21m Over The Weekend If you think that’s good, realize he’s already the world leader at 8.28.

Celebrate The 40th Anniversary Of America’s First And Only Men’s World XC Champion

LRC Craig Virgin Recalls His Epic Victory At The World Cross-Country Championships, 40 Years Later Only one American man has ever won World XC. In his own words, Virgin describes how he survived his four “moments of truth” to win in Paris in 1980, where he celebrated with champagne long into the night.

NCAA News

LSU Stay #1 In Pre-NCAA Champs Men’s Rankings NAU moved up to #2 and Oregon down to #3. Texas is ranked #4.
No Changes To The Top 6 Teams In Pre-NCAA Champs Women’s Rankings LSU, Southern California, Texas A&M and Georgia are ranked 1-4.
Ken Goe: Indications Are The New Hayward Field Will Be Ready For This Year’s PAC-12 Meet Starting On May 16

Women’s Field Event News

British Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Reveals Her Body Image Struggles Growing Up She says she was “ashamed of my muscles” when she was younger. “I used to look at the photos of myself competing and critique myself. I don’t do that anymore.”
Olympic Discus Champ Sandra Perkovic Sets Early Season World Lead With 65.93m In Croatia
Katarina Johnson-Thompson Meets And Remenices With GB’s 1972 Olympic Pentathlon Champ Mary Peters Peters tells some interesting stories from her day as an athlete including how she trained in the hallways of the school where she worked (as a teacher and secretary) and once ran into and shattered a glass door. *2nd Article
World Athletics Profile On Mondon Duplantis’ Mother Helena, Who Represented Sweden In The Heptathlon At Multiple International Championships

More Shoes / Trials

Rojo Speaks It’s Official: Nike’s Vaporfly Shoe Technology And World Athletics’ Shoe Rules Have Ruined The Marathon (At Least Temporarily)The Olympic Trials and the first 3 super-elite marathons of 2020 show one thing: shoes really matter and they are creating an uneven playing field in the sport.

If You Have To Ask, It’s Probably Cancelled

Carlsbad 5,000 Postponed Until September 19
Kenyan Headline:Billions Lost As Fans Denied Kipchoge Vs. Bekele Clash
Two Oceans Marathon Latest Event To Be Cancelled Over Coronavirus The South African ultra was scheduled for April 11th.
Queensland Track Classic In Australia Postponed, Date TBD
IOC Tells Staff To Work From Home And Closes Olympic Museum
Manchester And Brighton Marathons (Scheduled For April) Also Postponed
Multiple US Olympic Trials Including Rowing And Wrestling Have Been Postponed
WSJ:Olympic Swimmers Searching For A Place To Train

More Coronavirus News

Haile Gebrselassie Says It’s “Heartbreaking” For The Athletes Who Have Trained For All These Cancelled Races “Many of our athletes were prepared for those races. As a retired athlete, when I look back at my time, [if] someone told me after my long preparation that this race is cancelled, just imagine. It’s really heart-breaking.”
Chicago/Boston Marathon Champion Lawrence Cherono Is Wary Of The Extended Effects The Coronavirus May Have On Athlete Careers Cherono says it will be difficult for athletes to prepare for the Olympics with so many races being cancelled and the uncertainty over Tokyo 2020.
World Athletics Racewalking Team Championships Postponed These championships were scheduled for May 2-3. World Athletics also commented on how they are having their staff start working from home.
Tokyo Governor Says Torch Relay To Continue With “Thorough Infection Measures” This despite the Greek leg being cancelled yesterday.

One Final Look At The US Olympic Marathon Trials (Sponsored By HOKA)

LRC How Did The HOKA Athletes Do At The 2020 Marathon Trials? 17 HOKA athletes took the Trials, led by Aliphine Tuliamuk, who won the Trials! How did everyone else do? Pretty darn well as HOKA put 3 in the top 8 for the women and 3 in the top 25 for the men.

2020 NCAA Indoors Are Fri. / Sat. But W/O Fans Schedule & Entries TV & Streaming

LRC Women’s Mid-D/Distance Preview: Dani Jones Chases Audacious 800/Mile Double We don’t expect her to pull it off as we think Nia Akins will win her first NCAA title in the 800, but if Jones wins just 1 NCAA title she’ll join Jenny Simpson and Adam Goucher for the most in CU history. Plus can Whittni Orton win her first in the 3,000?

LRC Men’s Mid-D/Distance Preview: Studs Galore & Wide-Open Races We break down the men’s distance action for this weekend’s NCAA Champs which are LOADED with 11 guys under 3:58, 12 guys under 7:50, 4 under 13:30 plus the fastest DMR team in NCAA history.
*MB: 2020 NCAA Indoors men’s fields are LOADED. Who you got?

NCAA Bans Fans From NCAA Indoors And All Winter Championships Some family members may be let in. If that’s the case, not much may change as most of the fans are family.
MB: Harvard scratches all runners from NCAAs against their will
Men’s 400 #7 Seed Elija Godwin Of Georgia Was Nearly Killed After Being Impaled By A Javelin Last Year “I realized a javelin was in my back, and right after that I started coughing up blood.” The javelin had pierced his left lung. “I’m thinking about movies – any movie I ever watched where a character is coughing up blood, they usually die.”
NCAA’s #1 Man At 400 – True Frosh Randolph Ross Of North Carolina A&T (45.44) – Is Thriving While Running With His Dad As The Coach He has already improved a ton from HS. In HS, he ran 21.25 and 46.60 and now he’s run 20.85 and 45.44.
South Africa’s George Kusche Of Nebraska Went For Win At Big 10s – Will He Do It Again At NCAAs?
Good Read:6 Years After Running 1:48.97 In HS, Western Oregon’s Derek Holdsworth Will Get His 1 And Only Chance For An NCAA Title This Weekend At D2 Nats

Bonus Podcasts

LRC Aliphine Tuliamuk Podcast: Smooth Sailing For 25 Miles AT The Trials, Eyeing A Medal In Sapporo Hear from the Olympic Marathon Trials champ.

LRC Ben Rosario HOKA NAZ Elite Coach And Coach Of 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials Champ Aliphine Tuliamuk How did coach Ben go about the big day, how did he build his team, and what are the plans for Sapporo?

Coronavirus In The News

NYRR Cancels This Weekend’s NYC Half
Kenya Imposes 30-Day International Travel Ban For Its Athletes Due To Coronavirus It’s not like there were that many big races to go to anyway.
Coronavirus Is Starting To Impact The Finances Of Kenyan Athletes “The virus is bad and it will affect the economy because many people depend on the races in Asia, Europe, Australia and other continents. What they earn from these races trickles down from managers all the way to our relatives,” said one athlete.
Kenya’s Sports Cabinet Secretary Is Called To Speak Before Parliament To Talk About Whether Tokyo 2020 Will Be Safe For Athletes
Penn Relays Organizers Monitoring Coronavirus Outbreak If they follow the lead of the Ivy League office, which stupidly canceled its basketball tournaments on Tuesday, then the meet has little chance of happening.
It’s Possible The Champs 2020 Will Be Held Without Spectators Even In Jamaica The issue is people coming from the US or elsewhere might have the disease. Jamaica just confirmed its 1st case and it was a young girl who arrived from the UK.
Announcement As To Whether Champs 2020 Will Be Cancelled Entirely Will Come Within 24 Hours Says Jamaica’s Health Minister
PodiumRunner: Worried That Your Race Will Get Cancelled Because Of Coronavirus? How To Cope

Mid-D News

Denver Post:Is Cruz Culpepper, Son Of Olympians Alan And Shayne, The Next Great American Miler? Culpepper just missed breaking 4 minutes indoors when he ran 4:00.10 to become the third-fastest 17-year-old in US history behind Jim Ryun (3:59.0) and Marty Liquori (3:59.8).
Nick Willis Secures New Zealand 1,500m Title In 3:42.94 He held off a late-charging Julian Oakley by just .05. He said part of his motivation was you get a lot of points for running at nationals with a quick time. Angie Petty won the women’s race in 4:18.14.
World Athletics Profile On Aussie 800m Record Holder Catriona Bisset Bissett talks about how she overcame her issues with depression, anxiety and an eating disorder to go from 2:09 to 1:58 over the course of two years.

Random But Interesting

1996 Olympic Shot Put Silver Medalist John Godina Ran His First Half Marathon Last Week In Atlanta “I see why people get hooked on this now because it’s more than just a sport. It’s something you can do forever.”
German Florian Neuschwander Breaks 50K Treadmill World Record He ran 2:57:25 to break the record by 1:38 which was set just six week earlier.
Japan’s National Public Broadcaster NHK To Provide Tokyo 2020 Olympic Coverage In 8k

Doping News

27 People, Including Trainers And Veterinarians, Indicted In Horse Racing Doping Scheme One horse trainer is accused of working with someone else to “quietly dispose of the bodies of dead horses,” rather than report those horses’ deaths to authorities. *Discuss
Jo Pavey And Other British Athletes Call On Authorities To Investigate UKA And Its Use Of Alberto Salazar And Thyroid Meds Former GB 800m runner Emma Jackson believes high levels of thyroxine, prescribed by a UKA doctor, ruined her career.
AIU Says They’re Taking On Potential “Rampant, Unchecked” Doping In The Marathon They have found that in 2018, in non-World Marathon Major races, 70 to 80 percent of the podium finishers didn’t have any out-of-competition tests in the 9 months leading up to the race.
CAS Hears Case For Five Russians Appealing Their Banns Including 2012 Olympic HJ Champ Ivan Ukhov
WADA Fail With Bid To Hold Russia Doping Case Hearing In Public WADA had asked for the hearing to be staged in public “to ensure that everybody understands the process and hears the arguments” and RUSADA agreed, but it sounds like either the IOC or Russian Olympic Committee prevented it.

Gender News

InsideTheGames:IOC Attempt To Find Balance Between Fairness And Inclusion In Debate Over Transgender Athletes The IOC dropped the ball on this one as their current rules require trans women athletes to keep testosterone levels under 10 nanomoles per liter when women’s levels normally range from 0.12 to 1.79 nmol/l. And many would argue transgender athletes shouldn’t be allowed to compete in the women’s category at all.
IOC Approve Joint Flagbearers And Quotas For Increased Gender Balance At Olympics Flags can now be carried by one man and one woman.
World Athletics:Gender Leadership On The Rise At All Levels Of Athletics
WA Vice President Ximena Restrepo: “Gender Equity Is Fundamental To Making Athletics Grow”

LRC Book Review

LRC Book Review: “Sporting Gender” Offers Much-Needed History And Context On A Challenging Topic Written by medical physicist Joanna Harper, the book is part scientific explainer, part history lesson, part personal story and attacks a tricky subject from multiple angles.