The Latest Covid-19 Related Running News

• Remember That Study That Came Out Last Week Saying You Need Way More Than 6 Feet Of Social Distancing To Run Safely, Outside Magazine Explains In 3,000+ Words Why It’s Actually Very Good Science That being said, many familiar with the study think it’s still worth running. “I’m a runner, and I wouldn’t feel guilty or terrified if I occasionally passed within four meters (about 13 feet) of someone else but equally, I would try not to make a habit of it.”
• RRW: Shoe Companies Are Still Paying Athletes Endorsement Contracts In 2020 But They Are Saving A Lot As They Won’t Be Paying Out Any Bonuses If There Is No Competition The track and field athletes that rely primarily on sponsorship money are doing ok during the Covid-19 crisis but marathoners are hurting as they are missing out on appearance fees.
• Good Idea: World Athletics And International Institute For Race Medicine Form Outbreak Prevention Task Force The task force will include representatives from a ton of other sports including the UCI, FIS, ITU, IPS and FISA and will disseminate recommendations to prevent disease outbreaks in mass gatherings.
• Molly Seidel Is Embracing Uncertainty And “Rolling With The Punches Right Now”
• French Aren’t Sure What To Do About Official Equipment Supplier For 2020 And 2024 Olympics For the 2020 Olympics, it’s Lacoste but the 2024 contract for Le Coq Sportif was supposed to begin on January 1, 2021. The US doesn’t have this problem as the stupidly hired a bunch of ex-Nike employees to do a no-compete bid with Nike for 20+ years.
• US’s Largest Half Marathon – Brooklyn Half Marathon – Is Canceled The NYRR is offering full refunds or one can decline the refund and get a non-complimentary guaranteed entry for 2021. All NYRR events through the end of May are canceled.
• Women’s Running‘s Erin Strout Is Missing The Boston Marathon And Fearful It Won’t Take Place In September “Without the Boston Marathon, how do we know it’s spring?”
• Tokyo Marathon Will Let 2020 Mass Participation Entrants Run In Either 2021 Or 2022
• Japan Will Allow People Who Don’t Get Refunds For Canceled Sporting Events To Get A Tax Deduction If you don’t seek a refund for a canceled sporting event or race, you can claim it as a charity donation in Japan.

Jump Into The LetsRun.com Time Machine

LRC I Was Bored, So I Went Back And Watched Ritz, Webb, & Hall Battle At The 2000 Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships Jonathan 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

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 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 1,500m 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: 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.
*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

More On Athletes Dealing With / Reacting To The Pandemic

• Mondo Duplantis’ World Record Bib Sells For $3,000 Duplantis auctioned off his bib to raise money to donate for coronavirus relief.
• Team of South Sudanese Sprinters is Enjoying Being Stranded in Japan, Training For Olympics During Covid-19 Crisis A local town gives them everything they need free of charge.
• Article From The Kenyan Media On The Training And Financial Disruptions Facing Athletes During The Coronavirus They talk a lot about how the pandemic has given an opportunity for e-sports to thrive.
• Spanish Racewalker Jesus Angel Garcia Still Planning On Competing At The Tokyo Games At 51 Years Old As His Last Olympics Before Retiring

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 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.