Yet Another Big Name Kenyan Goes Down

Breaking: MB 2017 London Marathon Champ Daniel Wanjiru Is Popped For Doping The AIU has cited him for a biological passport violation. Add him to the list of Rita Jeptoo, Jemima Sumgong, Emily Chebet, Asbel Kiprop, and Wilson Kipsang,

Other Doping News:

• Olympic Athletes Are Being Allowed To Drug Test Themselves During Coronavirus Pandemic While Being Observed Via Zoom Or FaceTime They are collecting and sending in their own urine and blood. Olympic swimmer Lilly King said, “here are way too many factors that would go into providing a tainted sample for you to really pull that off during the test unless you were a ridiculously high-level crook.”
• Paul Tergat Calls For Doping To Be Criminalized In Kenya “The cases are so rampant not like in my days as a runner. As a nation, we need to come hard on dopers; criminalize this nonsense.”

March April Madness (Get Your Sweet 16 Votes In By Wednesday At Midnight)

LRC American Distance GOAT, Second Round Recap: Pre Goes Down As A Star-Studded Sweet 16 Is Set – Vote Now The gloves are now off as our quest to find the Greatest American Distance Runner of All Time is now down to the Sweet 16 and the matchups are incredible. Who is a bigger American GOAT – Galen Rupp or Meb Keflezighi, Matthew Centrowitz or Jim Ryun, Shalane Flanagan or Lynn Jennings, and Jenny Simpson or Emma Coburn?
*MB: Unreal Sweet 16 American GOAT Matchups: Rupp vs Meb, Centro vs Ryun, Flanagan vs. Jennings and Coburn vs. Simpson.

Vote Now
*Vote In The Women’s Sweet 16!
*Vote In The Men’s Sweet 16!

Looking Back At Some Great T&F Performances

• European Athletics: On This Day 17 Years Ago Paula Radcliffe Clocked Her 2:15:25 Marathon WR In London Includes some interesting quotes from Radcliffe and Steve Cram about commentating the race with Brendan Foster.
• USTFCCCA Remembers When Maggie Ewen Shattered The 10-Year-Old Collegiate Hammer Record And Then Broke It Again The Next Year Her record is now 74.53m.
• European Athletics: “Remember When Czech Javelin Thrower Jan Zelezny Threw 95.54m In 1993, Adding Over 4 Meters To The Previous WR”

British News

• Paula Radcliffe Pays Heartfelt Tribute To Her Father, Who Passed Away On Wednesday She posted, “Yesterday I lost the best dad anyone could ever wish for. The kindest, wisest, most patient and brave man who leaves behind so many people who loved him so much and whose lives he enriched.”
• Eilidh Doyle’s Mailman Brother Delivers Her Upgraded 2013 World 4 X 400 Silver Medal “My brother Jamie is the postman where we live now so it was a nice surprise when he came to the door with a package and said: ‘I think this one might be a medal.'”
• GB Ultra-Runner Ben Smith Still Training For US 50 State Capital Challenge The plan is a 104-day, 114,000-mile run-and-cycle around all 50 US state capitals.
• Former GB Olympian Iwan Thomas Hopes The UK Will Have Two Gold Medals In Dina Asher-Smith And Katarina Johnson-Thompson They’re the current world champions so on paper are the favorites right now, but the Games are over a year away.
• British Championships Moved To August 8-9 Due To Coronavirus They were originally scheduled for June 20-21.

Tokyo / IOC News

• Tokyo 2020 CEO Hints Games Could Be In Doubt In 2021 Toshiro Muto: “I don’t think anyone would be able to say if it is going to be possible to get it under control by next July or not. We’re certainly are not in a position to give you a clear answer.”
• Many Doping Cheats Banned From The 2020 Olympics Will Be Free To Compete At The Games In 2021 This seems like common sense to us, but for anyone who needs an explanation, a WADA spokesperson said, “There is no provision in the Code for Anti-Doping Organisations to cherry-pick periods of time in which the athlete would have more or fewer events to compete in.”
• Olympic Flame Taken Off Display And Tokyo 2020 Staff Working From Home As Japan Declares State Of Emergency Over Coronavirus
• Thomas Bach’s Planned Visit To Japan Next Month Cancelled Due To Coroanvirus Travel Restrictions
• IOC President Thomas Bach Calls For People To Stay Strong And Active And Celebrate A “Festival Of Resilience” At The Tokyo Games Next Year

Sport History

• Embed from Getty Images

  Francie Larrieu Smith’s 10,000m American Record Earns Her USATF Throwback Athlete Of The Week Honors Larrieu Smith made it through to the round of 32 in our American Distance GOAT bracket. She’s up against Joan Benoit Samuelson. Vote here.

• AP: 40 Years Later, Edwin Moses Still Says The Decision To Boycott The 1980 Moscow Olympics Was “Horrible” Publicly, President Jimmy Carter said it was “one of my most difficult decisions,” but reportedly, in private conversation with an Olympic wrestler he apologized and called it a “bad decision.”
• European Athletics Looks Back At Some Running History, When Greece’s Spiridon Louis Won Olympic Marathon Gold At The First Modern Games In 1896 Louis ran 2:58:50 to become Europe’s first Olympic track and field champion.
• European Athletics Highlights “Eight Outstanding Sibling Acts” Includes the Ingebrigsten and Borlee brothers.
• A Look Back At Linford Christie’s Career The Brit won Olympic 100m gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with 9.96 seconds.
• Paula Radcliffe’s Legacy Lies On As London Marathon Celebrates 39th Anniversary
• Top Highlights From The History Of The London Marathon

A Must Read If You Care About Doping Or Justice

LRC The Amazing Story Of How Jarrion Lawson Cleared His Name: He Showed That The Head Of A WADA Lab Provided False Testimony Against Him Jarrion Lawson is free to compete once again after his legal team was able to show that Christiane Ayotte, the head of the WADA-accredited doping control lab at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Laval, Quebec, lied while testifying during his case.
*MB: The amazing story of how Jarrion Lawson cleared himself: He showed the head of a WADA lab provided false testimony against him.

Athletics Calendar Revamp

LRC 3 Thoughts On The World Athletics Championships In Eugene Being Rescheduled To July 15-24, 2022 The first track World Championships in the US will be the earliest Worlds in history. What does it all mean?

LRC World Athletics Says Forget About Qualifying For Olympics Until December And Some Athletes Aren’t Happy “This takes away the last bit of hope of making 2020 a productive, meaningful year in our career” said 2017 steeplechase world champion Emma Coburn. But others, including Olympic pole vault champ Katerina Stefanidi, support the move.

• Delayed World Track And Field Championships Set For July 15-24, 2022 Eugene 2021 has been postponed so it doesn’t clash with the Olympics and it was moved up to July from August so it didn’t clash with Euro Champs and the Commonwealth Games.
• World Athletics Suspends All Olympic Qualification Until December 1 They are trying to make it fair for different countries which will open up later than others, but we think an ‘A’ standard should count no matter when it happens.
  *MB: Overreaction or justified? World Athletics pauses all Olympic qualification until December 1
• TrackTown USA’s Organizing Committee Is Back At Work On Postponed Olympic Trials New dates have not been set, but the assumption is they will be scheduled for late June again.
• TCS World 10k Bengaluru 2020 Rescheduled From May 17th To September 13th

With No Current Races, Take This Time To Look Back

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