April 6, 2020 | LetsRun.com

March April Madness

LRC LRC Decides: Who is the Greatest American Distance Runner of All Time? We’re in week four without sports, and we imagine you’re starting to get bored. In tha tlight, we decided it’s time for another bracket. This time we ask LRC nation to help us choose the GOAT American distance runner.

LRC American Distance GOAT Play-In Game: Alan Webb vs. Chris Solinsky vs. Jim Walmsley Who gets the final spot in the 64-athlete tournament?

Tokyo News

Japan Businessman Admits To Giving Gifts For Successful Tokyo Olympic Bid Haruyuki Takahasi admits to giving gifts (including digital cameras and Seiko watches) to lobby IOC officials including Lamine Diack. Takahasi was paid $8.2 million by the Tokyo bid committee to “wine and dine” people who could help Tokyo win the Olympics.
Tokyo Olympics Expects To Secure Athletes Villages And All Competition Venues For 2021 Games The athletes village was scheduled to be sold off in autumn, but organizers are hoping to re-secure it and all 41 competition venues again for 2021.
IOC Confirm Revised Qualification Deadline For Tokyo 2020 Games The qualification period will end June 29, 2021.
Tokyo Government Considering Use Of Olympic Facilities To House People With Coronavirus Symptoms
Daily Rise In Tokyo Coronavirus Cases Passes 100 For First Time
IOC Considering Postponement Of Athletes’ Commission Elections After Tokyo 2020 Delayed To 2021 The current members’ terms would have expired at this year’s Olympics.

This Week’s Podcast

We Guarantee You’re Entertained
LRC 800m Star, YouTuber, & RunGum CEO Nick Symmonds + Balcony And Backyard Marathons Ranked Listen to the best track and field running podcast on the planet.

More General Coronavirus In Sport News

2022 Set To Be A Busy Summer With The World Championships, Commonwealth Games And European Championships All On The Schedule Seb Coe: “All three [events] are probably going to have to give a bit, and they’re probably going to take a bit. Ultimately, the number one objective is ‘how do we do this for the athletes?'”
Three Championships In 6-Weeks Gives Athletes A Chance At A Gold Medal Hatrick Seb Coe said they want to arrange the schedule so tripling is an option, at least for non-distance athletes.
Former UKA Head Ed Warner Thinks UKA Should “Gift” The Anniversary Games To Tokyo To Solve London Stadium Clash With West Ham Soccer Club West Ham doesn’t want to let UKA use the London Stadium for the Anniversary Games in July as their soccer season will be pushed back. This bickering all might be irrelevant anyway if the coronavirus pandemic continues into the summer.
The Guardian: “From Marble Racing To Balcony Marathons, The ‘Sports’ Filling The Void”
Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates Taking Voluntary 20% Pay Cut In Response To Pandemic Even after the pay cut, he’ll still get paid $287,000+ for 2020.

Tokyo Olympics News

RRW: Olympic Marathons To Remain In Sapporo
Political Rival Of Japanese Prime Minister Casts Doubts On New Dates For Tokyo Games Shigeru Ishiba is leading polls to be Japan’s next Prime Minister and fears the coronavirus could still be too out of control to hold the Olympics even next year.
Olympic Flame For Postponed Tokyo 2020 Goes On Display In Fukushima The flame will be on display until it moves to Tokyo at the end of the month, but visitors are required to wear a mask.

The Sporting Calendar Is A Mess

RRW: September Could Be Blockbuster Month For Athletics & Road Running The calendar is going to be super-crowded to say the least.
More USATF Events From May Through July Have Been Cancelled This includes Oxy, US U20 Champs, the Thorpe Cup and World Masters Champs.
BBC: After Coronavirus Sport Set For Hectic Year Approaching 2021

Tokyo Olympics Dates Officially Set For July-August 2021

Rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics To Open On July 23, 2021 The Closing Ceremony will take place on August 8th. The dates were originally from July 24 to August 9, 2020.
Eugene World Championships Confirmed For 2022 Numerous sporting events planned for 2021 will be moved to make room for the Olympics.

Seb Coe Speaks

Seb Coe Says Having The Olympics In The Spring Would Not Be Ideal Coe pointed out that it would be difficult for track athletes to peak in April and May, but that they would remain flexible, saying, “At this stage it’s fair to say nothing is on the table, nothing is off the table.”
*MB: Renato Canova: Olympic organizers are considering holding next spring. Personally I don’t think that one can be a real opportunity.
*MB: If the Olympics are held in spring of 2021, when and where should USATF hold the Olympic Trials?
Seb Coe Writes Open Letter To The Athletics Community “In sport we have a unique opportunity not to tip toe around things and tweak at the edges. We have the chance to think bigger, to rip up the blueprints and banish the ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it’ mentality.”
Seb Coe Says Eugene World Champs Could Move To 2022 Coe said it would still be possible to have a 2022 and 2023 Championships back-to-back.
Seb Coe Says Athletes Who Are Currently Qualified For The Olympics Will Keep Their Spots Coe says that accounts for half the places at the Tokyo Games. This policy will go for all sports (6,200 total athletes are already qualified). *2nd Article
Seb Coe Says Olympic Qualification Process And Late Season Meets Being Studied World Athletics hoping to offer a series of meets beginning in August and running through October.

Doping News

USADA Head Travis Tygart Fears Athletes Could “Take Advantage” Of Reduced Testing “People around the world have indicated significant reductions [in testing], in some places it may have shut down entirely.”
Four Russian Athletes, Including Two Former Olympic Champions, Accused Of Doping By The AIU 2008 Olympic HJ champ and 2012 Olympic 400H champ Natalia Antyukh have been charged based on evidence from the McLaren report. So too have 2007 world 1,500m silver medalist Yelena Soboleva and hammer thrower Oksana Kondratyeva.
What A Lunatic: Russia’s 2-Time Olympic Gymnast Gold Medalist Svetlana Khorkina Claims Postponing Tokyo 2020 Is A Punishment From God For Offending Russia She said, “I think this all happened because they shouldn’t have offended Russia, including our athletes. There is a reason why there is a line in our national anthem that says our land is protected by the Lord. … I think this was God’s punishment.”

LRC Tokyo Postponement Coverage

LRC 6 Big Questions In The Wake Of IOC’s Decision To Postpone Olympics To 2021 What happens to Eugene 2021? What happens to people with Olympic qualifiers from 2019? Which athletes gain from the postponement and which ones are hurt by it? And a proposal for what to do with the 2020 US Champs.
*MB: Olympics are officially delayed for up to one year

LRC With Olympics Postponed, Sprint Star Noah Lyles Gets A Taste Of Cross-Country Training Perhaps no one has the potential to gain more from the 2020 Olympics than Lyles, but he’s relieved that the Olympics have been moved to 2021 as he’s been forced to dodge dog walkers while trying to train in a local park.
*MB: Sprint star Noah Lyles talks about 2020 Olympic postponement – “Actually seeing it delayed gives me a bit of security.”

Mike Smith Lifts The Veil On Galen Rupp’s Training

LRC Mike Smith Q&A Part II: On Choosing To Coach Galen Rupp, “Defending The Process,” & Rupp’s Human Side Smith said that he was careful not to let preconceived notions cloud his judgment when deciding whether to work with Rupp. “The second we abandon our critical thinking or our process with this stuff … I worry about that.”
*MB: Mike Smith Part II: Smith explains why he agreed to work with Galen Rupp

LRC Mike Smith Q&A, Part I: On Galen Rupp’s Commitment, Restructuring His Training & That 24 X 400 Workout
*MB: Mike Smith lifts the veil on Galen Rupp’s training and talks about what makes him great

NCAA Coronavirus News

AP: College Athletics Directors Bracing For Financial Crisis With the cancelling of March Madness and other winter/spring sports, plus the possibility of disruption to the start of football season, ADs are expecting a major loss in revenue. Cancelling March Madness alone cost the NCAA $375 million.
*DyeStat: College Athletic Departments Face Prospect Of ‘Ice Age’ If Football Season Is Severely Impacted By Pandemic
NCAA Division 1 Council Votes To Provide Scholarship Relief, Extend Eligibility For Spring Student-Athletes They also voted not to extend any relief for winter sport athletes who had completed all or part of their regular seasons, but had national championships canceled.
Ken Goe: “Granting Athletes In Spring Sports Another Season of Eligibility Creates Other Problems” The NCAA ruling leaves what to do with scholarships up to individual schools, which means some athletes could have their scholarships stay at the same level while others will have them reduced or even eliminated.
UO Cocah Robert Johnson Is Social Distancing And Thinking About What’s Next He has questions about how the NCAA’s ruling is going to be applied specifically in the PAC-12. He says that Hayward Field would have been ready for this year’s PAC-12 Champs if they had happened.
Ken Goe: If The Coronavirus Forces Colleges To Cut Athletic Programs, What Happens To Track? Goe writes, “It’s possible many athletic directors soon will have to take a meat cleaver to their athletic budgets. … Non-revenue sports such as track and field are money drains.”

With No Current Races, Take This Time To Look Back

NY Times: When The Tokyo Olympics Went Missing Interesting history lesson on how Tokyo was actually supposed to host the 1940 Olympics, but gave them up because of Japan’s war with China. The Olympics were eventually cancelled altogether because of WWII.
MB: Blast from the past. 1998 NCAA XCountry. Goucher over Abdi. Lagat 7th.
A Look Back At When Roger Bannister Ran The First Sub-4 Minute Mile
9.58 – When Usain Bolt Became the Fastest Man In History
World Athletics Watch Parties: Today’s Race Is The 400m Final From The Doha 2019 World Champs
USTFCCCA Looks Back To 1994 When Arkansas’ Erick Walder Jumped 8.74m To Break Carl Lewis’ Collegiate LJ Record
USATF Throwback Athlete Of The Week Honors: Louise Ritter Breaks The Women’s American High Jump Record In 1980 With 1.94m
European Athletics: Remember When … Athens Staged The 2004 Olympic Games
European Athletics Looks Back On When Barcelona Hosted The 1992 Olympics

Kenya Isn’t Sleeping On The Coronavirus

Kenya’s Former Marathon WR Holder Wilson Kipsang Arrested For Drinking In Iten While Breaking Coronavirus Curfew Law A group of nearly 20 people was found drinking in a popular club at 9PM, breaking the 7PM curfew that is currently in effect due to the coronavirus pandemic. Police said the group resisted arrest, forcing them to call for reinforcement.
*MB: Wilson Kipsang ARRESTED for breaking COVID19 curfew
Bahamas Distance Runner O’Neil Williams Detained In Kenya For Breaking Coronavirus Social Distancing Regulations He was only running with one training partner, but Kenya has regulations in place that say you can only run alone.
12 Athletes Arrested In Kenya For Breaking Coronavirus Rules By Training Together As A Group
Former 1,500m World Champ Elijah Manangoi Urges Fellow Kenyan Runners Not To Give Up And To Keep Training “I have opted to look at the cancellation and postponement in sports activities with hope so as not to get depressed further. That is what is helping me continue with training.”
Daily Nation Checks In With How How US-Based Kenyan Runners Are Adjusting To The Virus Shutdown Includes some quotes from Betsy Saina, Michael Saruni and Emmanuel Korir.

Running Industry News

The Boston Marathon Is Offering Refunds For The First Time Many cancelled events aren’t offering refunds or deferred entries, but the BAA is letting you defer your entry to the new September 14th date or get a refund.
New Balance To Start Producing Face Masks To Help Prevent Spread Of Coronavirus New Balance also announced they gave $2 million in grants to help support local, regional and global communities dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under Armour Manufacturing Face Masks For Hospital Workers Amid Coronavirus Pandemic They plan to manufacture and distribute more than 500,000 fabric face masks.
MB: Grandmas Marathon registrants go home DEVASTATED!!

Eliud Kipchoge Gets Some Big GQ Coverage

GQ Goes To Kenya To Catch Up And Do A Cool Photo Shoot With Eliud Kipchoge Knox Robinson tries to find the secrets to Kipchoge’s sub-2 and find there are no secrets other than dedication and consistency.
*MB: KIPCHOGE SHOWS OFF SOME SERIOUS DRIP FOR GQ

Eliud Kipchoge Believes Delayed Olympics Could Actually Help Him Defend His Title Asked if the Olympics could be the 35-year-old’s last race, Kipchoge said it was too early to say and that he was just focusing on keeping his family safe during the current pandemic.

Sport Rescheduling

Fixing The 2021 Sporting Calendar Will Be Like A “Huge Jigsaw Puzzle” Says Thomas Bach “If you take out one piece, the whole puzzle is destroyed. Everything has to come together.”
Grandma’s Marathon Cancelled For The First Time In Its 44-Year History Organizers cite predictions that the coronavirus will peak in June. They are not offering refunds for the $110-$135 entry fee or deferred entry for next year’s race.
Athletics Weekly Looks At The Ever Changing World Athletics Calendar So many events from March through July have been postponed or cancelled.

How Are Athletes Dealing With Social Distancing / Olympic Cancellation?

NY Post: With The Olympics Called Off, Sydney McLaughlin Takes Training Cues From “Rocky” McLaughlin says she’s doing workouts with her training partners via FaceTime and going for runs or using the stairwell in her building for cardio.
Good Read: Wayde Van Niekerk Says Olympic Postponement Came As A Huge Relief To Him Because He Was Worried About Getting His 77-Year-Old Coach Sick When He Saw Her In Training And not to mention, Van Niekerk is definitely someone who benefits from the Olympics being postponed as he was still on the road back from injury and hasn’t raced fast in a long time. With so many events being cancelled, his opportunities to tune up would have been limited.
Donavan Brazier Is Training Solo In The Trails Around Portland As The Nike Track And Weight Room Are Closed Talking about Brazier’s training before he won Worlds, coach Pete Julian said, “I’ve been around this sport my whole life. There was stuff he was doing in training that maybe one or two other men on the planet can do, and I’m not sure who they are.”
Geoffrey Kamworor Says He Will Continue Training Hard Through Coronavirus “Life has to continue as well as training. I don’t know how my figure will be by the time I will be running. I have hope that I will be extra fit to face the challenges and opponents when that time comes for the competition.”

More Cancellations, Will The Season Start Late Summer?

Ken Goe: Coronavirus Has Delayed The Trials And Pre Is Unlikely, So What Meet Opens Hayward Field? Goe writes, “It’s hard to know what meet will serve as Hayward’s grand reopening. I continue to hope for some sort of elite meet, be it a delayed Pre Classic, an abbreviated national championships, or even a regional meet that would include the many elite athletes who live and train on the West Coast.”
MB: Western States cancelled
OTC Elite Athletes Hoping For Late-Summer Meets The Register Guard talks to OTC members Ben Blankenship and Hanna Green about how they’re dealing with the cancellations.
Nairobi Athletics Meet, The First Leg Of The World Athletics Continental Tour, Is Postponed Until September The meet was scheduled for May 2nd.
Jamaica Invitational Postponed Due To Coronavirus The meet was scheduled for May 2nd.
2020 Paris European Championships Organizers Remain Hopeful They Will Still Take Place The event is scheduled for the end of August.
*European Athletics Athletes Committee Happy There Is A Chance 2020 Euro Champs In Paris Could Still Happen

This Week’s Podcast

LRC Coach Sean Brosnan Tells His Cool Story – How He Went From Journeyman Runner To Top High School Coach In 4 Years + Tokyo Cancelled + Greatest American Runner Bracket Brosnan picked the brains of, did workouts with, & ran under many of the greats including Alberto Salazar, Scott Simmons, Joe Vigil, Brad Hudson & Steve Scott.

Guelph Coach Gets Banned

Guelph Coach Dave Scott-Thomas Banned For Life By Athletics Canada Scott-Thomas has been accused of inappropriate relationships with athletes; the article notes that the allegations haven’t been proven in court.
*MB: Guelph Implodes

Free Book Chapters – Purchase Your Autographed Book From Craig Virgin Now

LRC “Virgin Territory” Chapter 17: Front Runner Inc: When Pro Runners Had To Pretend They Weren’t Pro Hard to believe guys in their 60s now had to pretend they weren’t pro runners.

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.

A Race Has Been Added To the Calendar And It’s This Saturday – You Can Run It At Home On Your Treadmill If Need Be

LRC Looking For A Race? A Sporting Event To Follow? The Quarantine Backyard Ultra Is Saturday Good news, runners and sports fans. You can compete in this race virtually from home (or watch it from home), and as long as you can run 4.167 miles in an hour, you have a shot at victory. And it’s free to enter.
*MB: 2020 Quarantine Backyard Ultra Race! Official Race Discussion Thread

Anti-Doping News

Athletics Integrity Unit Acknowledges That Its Anti-Doping Program Will Be “Severely Disrupted” Due To Coronavirus They say they will still conduct “priority testing missions in those places where it is feasible and safe to do so.”
CAS Hearings In Russia’s Case Against WADA Could Begin In July; Could Be Delayed By Coronavirus Russia is appealing the sanctions imposed by WADA as punishment for the manipulation of the Moscow Laboratory data.
UKAD Head Nicole Sapstead Warns Athletes They Aren’t Off Anti-Doping’s Radar Despite Reduced Testing She said it would be “naive” for athletes and coaches to think they would leave no trace of their activity.
Anti-Doping Association Of Kenya Director Says “Gaps” In Testing Might Be Addressed Through Additional Targeted Testing When The Sporting World Returns To Normal

GB News

UK Athletics Calling On West Ham Soccer Team To Waive Tenancy Rights For London Stadium So It Can Stage The Anniversary Games This Summer Cancellations due to coronavirus have completely messed up the sporting schedule, pushing the soccer season later into the summer. The way the contract is written, soccer would get precedence over track and field.
Meet The New UK Athletics Chief Executive, Joanna Coates It’ll be a bit of a trial by fire for Coates as six days after she took over, the Olympics were postponed and she’s already dealing with a number of other problems and controversies at UKA. *Independent: New UKA Chief Joanna Coates Has Ambitions Beyond Increasing Medal Count
Wimbledon 2020 Cancelled Due To Coronavirus Pandemic

US Distance News

Donn Cabral Says Pushing Back The Tokyo Games A Year “Is Really Tough” Cabral said he was finally in a good place after a couple of “subpar” years and was looking forward to trying to make his third Olympics. He admits that if it was pushed back to 2022 he “would have gone for it.”
Colleen Quigley: “I Was Devastated When COVID-19 Postponed The Olympics – But Now I See It As An Opportunity” Quigley says she the day the Olympics were postponed she comforted herself by having pizza, wine and ice cream with her boyfriend, but now she’s looking at the positive of having another year to get ready for Tokyo.
Q&A With US Ultrarunner Joseph Gray Gray says his favorite competition memory came when he was nearing the finish line on his way to winning his second World Mountain Running title.

Other Covid-19 News

Sad News: RIP Mary Roman: Two-Time Masters WR Holder Has Died Of Covid-19 At Age 84
Former GB Javelin Star Turned Soccer Player Running A Marathon In Six-Meter Back Garden To Raise Money For The National Health Service
British Athletics Medical Officer And Other Experts Give Their Coronavirus Guide For Athletes Most of this info is common sense or well known health facts, but they do advise that if you get coronavirus you don’t return to exercise too soon as there is a risk it could cause heart and/or lung complications.

Tokyo Games Expected For July 2021

A Spike In Tokyo’s Coronavirus Cases Following Olympic Postponement Has Raised Questions As To Whether Japan Purposely Understated The Extent Of The Outbreak Former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyma: “In order to make an impression that the city was taking control of the coronavirus, Tokyo avoided making strict requests and made the number of patients look smaller. The coronavirus has spread while they waited. (For Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike) it was Olympics first, not Tokyo’s residents.”
Vin Lananna Hopes “2022 Is On The Table” For The Olympics The IOC has already said summer of 2021 at the latest.
Opinion Piece: “Tokyo 2021 Is Golden Chance To Close Big Sport Circus And Give The Olympics Back” Barney Ronay writes, “Games officials have the power to purge profiteering from elite competition and rewrite how we watch and enjoy sport.”
Tokyo’s Tourism Industry Asks Government For Support After Impact Of Tokyo 2020 Postponement

RIP: Coronavirus Strikes Former Track Greats

MB: RIP: 1980 NCAA 110H runner-up and ex-NFL player Orlando McDaniel has died of Covid-19 He was 59 years old.
Spain’s Former World XC Medalist Santiago Llorente Dies At Age 61 From Coronavirus

Will There Be A 2020 Diamond League?

World Athletics Postpones All May Diamond League Meets Stockholm (scheduled for May 24), Naples/Rome (May 28) and Rabat (May 31) are all postponed. An alternative calendar for the 2020 season will be announced in “due course.”

Update On LRC Coronavirus Patient’s Condition

LRC Update: LetsRun.com Visitor With COVID-19 Continues To Recover Good news as “justthefacts” condition continued to improve over the weekend and his fever is gone.

LRC What’s It Like For A Runner To Have COVID-19? A Long-Time LetsRun.com Visitor Shares His Story Of Being Infected With The Coronavirus A long-term visitor to LetsRun.com wants to share his story of what it is like to have the coronavirus. He also wants a LetsRun.com singlet when he gets better.
Discussion: I tested Positive for COVID here is my story