April 17, 2020 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For April 17, 2020

Quote Of The Day

“I remember back in 2017 the achilles tear I suffered led to excruciating pain, so to tear my right side and not have any indication that it was initially torn was tough to deal with. People say it would be awesome not to have to feel pain, but to feel pain is a good thing. Being able to feel pain is a warning system for our body for a reason.”

– Canada’s Olympic high jump champ Derek Drouin talking about not being able to feel pain in his right side from chest to toes because of a badly herniated disc in his neck.

Throwback Thursday #2 Is Here

LRC I Was Bored, So I Went Back And Watched Ritz, Webb, & Hall Battle At The 2000 Foot Locker Cross-Country ChampionshipsJonathan Gault revisits one of the most-hyped races in the history of US high school cross-country, in which the top three finishers all eventually became American record holders. Plus X-ray graphics, Discmen, hanging chads, and why Sara Hall‘s win in the girls’ race was way better than you remember.
*MB Discussion

Last Week: LRC I Was Bored, So I Went Back And Watched The 1998 NCAA Cross-Country Championships

LetsJump.com

Sandi Morris And Her Father Constructed Her Own Pole Vault Setup To Use During The Pandemic Near Her Parents’ Home In South Carolina The project took three weeks and cost $4,000 (plus a pole vault mat which was loaned to her).
HJer Alessia Trost Writes About Living And Training In Lockdown In Italy “In Italy it means the only reason you can leave your home, besides an emergency, is to get food or go to the pharmacy. If you have a dog you can take it for a walk, but you must stay within 200m of your house. If you’re an athlete, it means doing all your training in your living room and if, like me, you live alone, it means you haven’t met anyone for a month. It’s weird. It’s sad.”
World Athletics:On The Rebound From A Slate Of Injuries, Canadian Olympic HJ Champ Derek Drouin Greets Tokyo Postponement With Cautious Optimism “I’m not going to lie, I was relieved for my own personal reasons that I had another year (to prepare for the Tokyo Games), although having said that I was also really hoping I would have the opportunity to jump this summer (and I’m not sure that is going to be the case).”

Miscellaneous Coronavirus News

The Penn Relays Is Going To Hold An E-Sports Version Of The Meet Using The Video Game Minecraft The livestream will be at twitch.tv/thepennrelays from 12:00 to 5:00PM ET on April 24.
Runner’s World Says More Cities Should Do Like Oakland And Close Down Streets To Cars To Give A Space For Runners, Cyclists And Pedestrians To Socially Distance Oakland is closing a total of 74 miles of streets to through traffic.
Tour De France Given New Dates In August And September Due To Coronavirus
*MB: Tour De France postponed!
Dick Pound Warns That The IOC Should Plan On Coronavirus Impacting Revenue For Beijing 2022
RW Does A Rundown Of Major Running Events Postponed Or Cancelled By The Coronavirus Pandemic
Tokyo 2020 Torch Designer Creates DIY Face Visor To Help Protect Healthy Workers

NCAA News

NCAA Council Considering One-Time Transfer Waiver Next Week Student-athletes would be able to change schools for the next sports calendar and be cleared to play immediately, without sitting out a season.
NCAA Bans Teams From Having Virtual Workouts They cited safety concerns as one of the main reasons for their decision to ban virtual workouts.
*MB: NCAA JUST BANNED VIRTUAL WORKOUTS
Five Major Football Conferences Are Allowing The NCAA To Relax Requirements, Including The Minimum Number Of Sports A School Must Sponsor DI schools are required to sponsor at least 16 varsity sports, but with money lost from coronavirus, schools might be looking to cut programs to save money.
Longtime Duke Coach Norm Ogilvie Announces His Retirement Ogilvie has had 30 seasons on the Duke coaching staff.
University Of Wisconsin Says They Won’t Give Their Spring Athletes Another Season Of Eligibility And Tells Their Seniors To “Move On” Athletic director Barry Alvarez: “What we tried to do was encourage our seniors to go ahead and, if you’re going to graduate, graduate and move on with your life. We appreciate everything that you’ve done. But move forward. The future is in question, and we can’t promise you anything.”
*MB: Olli Hoare’s career at Wisconsin is over – Wisco. says no waivers for Spring Athletes.

European News

GB Distance Runner Jo Pavey Targeting Her Sixth Olympics At Age Of 47 Pavey also talks about how she’s adjusted her training during the coronavirus and tactics she uses to keep her kids active.
France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde Auctions Off His Competition Vest From 2019 Worlds Where He Won 110H Bronze It sold for $1,600, which is going towards helping nurses at a local hospital.
UK Mass Participation Events Including The London Marathon Launching Campaign To Help Charities Cover The Expected $5 Income Shortfall Many people who run mass-participation races do so for charity, so there is a knock-on effect with so many events being cancelled.
How Europe’s Athletes Are Making A Difference During The COVID-19 Outbreak Some are raising money while others are encouraging kids to stay active while staying home.
European Athletics President Sveine Arne Hansen Thankful For Messages Of Support After His Stroke Last Month

More Sport Rescheduling And Cancellations

Seb Coe Hoping For A “Belated” August Start To Outdoor Season It’d go from August to October. It would be nice if people getting the “A” standard would get credit for it.
The Athletics Association Wants To Discuss The Qualification System For Tokyo 2020 With World Athletics In a poll, 60% of athletes said they would like results from before the December 1st cutoff to count as Olympic qualifiers.
RRW:Utica Boilermaker 15K Postponed Until September It was scheduled for July 12th.
USATF Junior Olympic Championships Cancelled Due To COVID-19 They were to be held in Florida July 27-August 2.
New Dates Confirmed For 2020 RunCzech Series The spring events through June have been cancelled with the Olomouc Half starting things off August 31st.

Distance News – Podcast w/ Meb Monday Night

Sweden’s European XC Champ Robel Fsiha Fails Doping Test Fsiha failed the test in November in Ethiopia.
Listen To A Live Podcast With Meb Keflezighi Monday At 7PM ET You can submit your questions for Meb by 5PM ET to get a chance to win a prize. *Stream Link
Conseslus Kipruto Disappointed He Won’t Have The Chance To Defend His Olympic Steeplechase Title And Chase The WR In 2020 Kipruto says it’s frustrating as his training was going very well. Now he’s cut it down to just training 3-4 days a week.

General Coronavirus Stuff

Runner’s World Cautions That The Viral Simulations On How Disease Can Spread While Running Was Not A Peer-Reviewed Study The simulations showed that running six feet behind someone could still be dangerous in spreading the coronavirus, but RW says that the simulations which work for air flow might not apply to microbiology.
*MB: ‘Horrifying’ simulation reveals dangers of hobby jogging during the C virus lockdowns
RW:How Running And Fitness Companies Are Responding And Helping During The Coronavirus Pandemic A lot of sport companies including Nike, New Balance, adidas and Under Armour have stepped up to provide financial support or make needed equipment like masks.
Towers From The 2018 Asian Games Athletes’ Village Turned Into Coronavirus Facilities Seven of the ten towers in Jakarta, Indonesia are being used as medical facilities.

Results?

An Actual Result:Sweden’s Simon Pettersson Throws A European-Leading Discus Mark Of 66.93m From a local meet in Vaxjo, Sweden.
*MB: COVID – Sweden not locking down
MB:Austrian Runner Andreas Vojta claims 28:28 road 10k at 174 lbs

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.

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

March April Madness (Get Your Elite 8 Votes In By Sunday At Midnight)

LRC American Distance GOAT Sweet 16 Recap: Ryun Defeats Centro, Rupp Takes Down Meb, & MoreOur quest to anoint the great American Distance runner of all-time is down to the Elite 8. Who had the better career: Frank Shorter or Galen Rupp, Bernard Lagat or Jim Ryun, Deena Kastor or Shalane Flanagan, and Joan Benoit Samuelson or Jenny Simpson.

Vote Now
*Vote In The Men’s Semifinals! Who had the better career: Frank Shorter or Galen Rupp, Bernard Lagat or Jim Ryun?
*Vote In The Women’s Semifinals Who had the better career: Deena Kastor or Shalane Flanagan, Joan Benoit Samuelson or Jenny Simpson?

US Distance News

NY Times:“Jacob Riley and Molly Seidel came out of obscurity to qualify for the Olympic Games. Everything about their lives changed. Then it changed again.” Seidel: “It’s been the highest of highs and lowest of lows.”
Evan Jager Podcast Interview Talking About His Career And Training During The COVID-19 Pandemic Jager touches on training, goals and whether or not he should get a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
USATF Q&A With Marathoner Neely Spence Gracey Spence Gracey says one of her favorite competition memories was her marathon debut at the 2016 Boston Marathon where she finished as the top American (9th overall).

More Track history

World Athletics: 10 Of The Greatest Athletics Examples Of Perseverance A few distance runners including Lasse Viren and Hicham El Guerrouj make their list.
Irish Distance Great Sonia O’Sullivan Looks Back Fondly At When She Got To Watch Marcus O’Sullivan Win The Wanamaker Mile At The 1988 Millrose Games
Hammer Thrower Erin Gilreath Is USATF Throback Athlete Of The Week For Breaking The AR With 73.87m Back In 2004

Dirty Side Of Sport

Russian Track Coach Andrei Eremenko Gets 4-Year Ban For Attempting To Bribe A Doping Tester The coach tried to give a bribe to provide a sample for their his hurdler Yulia Malueva, who got a 4-year ban in 2018 for failing to give a sample.
Athletics Kenya head warns athletes that they have nowhere to hide in the war against doping “I want to tell the athletes that there is nowhere to hide with the systems put in place. Wherever you go or even if you are retired, the records will always be there and one day, you will be caught.”
BBC:Welsh Indoor 1500m Champion Kate Seary Says Welsh Athletics Has Failed In Its Duties After Former Coach Phil Banning Was Convicted Of Abusing Girls Seary, 23, was coached by Banning for a decade and, although she was not abused. *AW article

Usain Bolt Takes On Coronavirus

Usain Bolt Sends Funny Tweet About “Social Distancing” Bolt sent out a photo of him “social distancing” at the finish line of the 2008 Olympic 100m (where he won in a then-world record of 9.69).
Usain Bolt Donates $3,700 To Coronavirus Relief Telethon In Jamaica

Yet Another Big Name Kenyan Goes Down

Breaking:MB2017 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.
*Daniel Wanjiru Denies Wrongdoing After Provisional Ban “I am clean in the sports I do. I feel I am already seen as a sinner of doping, but I am not. I am innocent.”

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, “There 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.”

More On Rescheduling Worlds

Oregon22 CEO Neils De Vos Says New World Championships Dates Will Work Well He said he’s glad World Champs are “going first” before European Champs and the Commonwealth Games.
University Of Oregon Says It’s Adhering To Health Guidelines On The Hayward Field Reconstruction Project Apparently an unidentified subcontractor complained it wasn’t possible to complete his part of the project while following social distancing guidelines.
MVP Track Club President Bruce James Is Happy With Date Of 2022 Worlds Younger Jamaicans who don’t make Worlds will likely do the CGs, which is just how it normally is.
European Athletics Support Dates For Re-Scheduled Eugene World Champs, Which Puts Them A Full Month Before European Champs In Munich
Ken Goe: “Hayward Field Should Provide Track Cans A Visual Feast In 2022”
Alan Abrahamson Doesn’t Think The New Dates For Eugene Worlds Will Help Grow Track And Field In The United States Abrahamson points out that other sports don’t hold their championships in July, but we think it’s a good thing it’s going to have less competition for attention and we don’t see how putting it in August would grow the sport in the US any more than July.
The Sports Examiner: Did World Athletics Give The U.S. Golden Gift With July Dates For 2022 World Champs?

Random Sports Quizzes

Sports Quiz: What Are The Stories Behind These Iconic Photos? There are a few track ones and they’re pretty easy, but if you’re bored …
The Guardian: Mascots Behaving Badly – When Giant Furry Fans Overstepped The Mark One T&F reference when the 2010 World Champs mascot Berlino gave Jamaica’s Melaine Walker a piggy-back ride after she won the 400H. *Video

Runners Doing Good

LRC Running Helped Prepare Dr. Michael Joyner (The Guy Who Predicted The Sub-2:00 Marathon) To Help Lead The COVID-19 Fight Dr. Michael Joyner is on the leadership team of the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project.

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.”

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 ProHard 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.

Sprint Stuff

Good Read:Wayde Van Niekerk: “I am hungrier than before. Sub-43 is definitely where I want to go.” Van Nikerk talks about wanting to break his own WR and being happy about Olympic postponement because he didn’t want to be around his 78-year-old coach during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sydney McLaughlin Talks About Making The Olympics As A 17-Year-Old And Looking Ahead To “really Go[ing] To The Olympics” In Tokyo “I feel like I’m halfway through my story, but technically it’s just starting. It’s really motivating to know that we’ve done this, and there’s still so much more to do.”
Why Did Blessing Okagbare’s Marriage To Former NFL Player Jude Otegheri Crash? A source close to Okagbare said that she tried “to keep the marriage going” and that “the husband was the problem.” The source said the husband is demanding $260,000 from Okagbare.
Justin Gatlin Wants One Last Olympic “Moment” At Tokyo 2021 He had planned on retiring this year after Tokyo, but will keep going through next year when he’ll be 39-years-old.
Kenyan 400m Champion Alphas Kishoyian Calls It Quits On The 2020 Season “I had really worked hard for this season with my focus being the 2020 Olympic Games and other races. I have now cancelled all my plans. My health comes first.”

Multi-Event News

Athletics Weekly Wonders Who Would Win A Hypothetical “Dream Heptathlon” Who would win between Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Nafi Thiam, Carolina Kluft and Sabine Braun? No spoilers, but it was close with the winner taking it by 6-points.
Germany’s World Decathlon Champ Niklas Kaul Considers Olympic Postponement An Advantage For Him Kaul feels the extra time will let him work on improving his weak events.

High School Corner

T&F News:Cruz Culpepper Was Almost A High School Sub-4 Miler An interesting note from the article was that the prep who ran 4:00.10 indoors was training with Joe Bosshard‘s pro group (which includes Emma Coburn and others).
DyeStat:Where All 50 States Stand On Spring Sports – Mississippi, Utah, Tennessee Latest To Shut Down Spring Sports
MileSplit Video Interview With Lauren Ping Ping ran a 4:48 in a virtual mile event a couple weeks ago.
*MB: THE PINGS ARE BACK BABY!
DyeStat:With Cancellation Of California Spring Sports Schedule, Potential Historic Track And Field Season Left Unrealized It’s the first incomplete track and field schedule in California since World War II.
2020 Carifta Games Cancelled They were originally postponed, but now they are outright cancelled.

More Looks Back At T&F History

The Guardian Looks Back At When New Zeland Mile Legend John Walker Raced A Mile At A Famous Cricket Match In 1977 An interesting bit of trivia, Walker was the first person to run sub-4 100 times and ended his career with 135 total.
NBC Sports Showing Two Weeks With Nearly 100 Hours Of Olympic Highlights From The Past 30+ Years
European Athletics: Remember When London Staged The 2012 Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020 News

Estimates In Japan Put The Overall Costs Of Olympic Postponement At $2 Billion To $6 Billion Japan will have to pay most of that, with the IOC paying “several hundred million.”
Tokyo Has No “Plan B” If The Olympics Ended Up Getting Postponed Again Because Of Coronavirus
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Flame Moved To A “Secret Location” In Japan Apparently they are going to keep it lit for the next year.
Olympic City Of Sapporo Brought Back Into State Of Emergency The city which will host the Olympic marathon and racewalks was originally not part of the Prime Minister’s declaration a week ago.

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

LRC Had Two Podcasts Last Week *All Here

#2 Guest Dr. Michael Joyner Talks COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project + Backyard Ultra Controversial Finish + Olympic Qualifying Cancelled + Eugene 2022 + American GOAT Joyner, the guy who predicted the sub-2 hour marathon, is now working on treatments for COVID-19.

#1 The Mike Wardian Podcast At age 45, has Wardian found his unbeatable event – the Backyard Ultra? Rojo seems to think so as Wardian hardly ever needs to sleep. After running 262+ miles over 63 hours without any sleep, Wardian proceeded to go to work. As of 5 pm Wednesday, he’d slept a total of 4:45 since Saturday morning.
*MB: Meet Mike Wardian – The World’s #1 Runner – Is He The “Eliud Kipchoge” Of Backyard Ultras?

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