Yet Another LRC Exclusive

LRC Q&A: Anti-Doping Expert Sergei Iljukov Discusses Doping in Kenya & Russia, What World Athletics Is Doing Right — And How the Global Anti-Doping System Can Still Improve Iljukov recently conducted a study that indirectly suggested the effects of doping were between 2.0% and 3.4% in distance events and points out that 68% of the Russian 1500 women that ran an elite time at the Russian champs were eventually banned.

More Women In The News

• Elle Purrier Has Been Training At Home And Helping Out At Her Family’s Dairy Farm During Covid-19 (TFN Sub Required) As for the Olympics, she admits she definitely wants to run the 1500 over the 5000. “I definitely have more fun with the 1500 and the mile. That’s what I would prefer to do, but I kind of just do what Mark tells me to do. So, you know…” Rather than finish the sentence, Purrier breaks into a chuckle. Ask her again in a year.
  *Purrier’s Family Gave Away 4,000 Gallons Of Free Milk To The Local Community On Friday
• ’84 Boston Champ And ’92 Olympic Bronze Medalist Lorraine Moller Talks About The Importance Of Internal Patience And Tells People To Get Off Their GPS Watches The Lydiard disciple has a great quote: “Athletes don’t have the time or head space during a race to check their running data, make a cell phone call to their coach and wait for him to call back with instructions on whether to increase or decrease their pace after downloading it into a computer.”
• Mary Keitany Is Injured And Not Training Right Now “I am still nursing a hip injury, which I picked up early in 2019 in London. I had run it off in my preparations for the New York marathon, but it seems it had not cleared completely. I have been advised by the doctors to rest.”
• 1984 Olympic 3,000 Silver Medalist Wendy Sly Recalls Her Favorite Olympic Moments She recalls watching Ian Stewart kick down Steve Prefontaine for bronze and many more.
• Four Running Tips from Former 2-Time Foot Locker Champ Melody Fairchild Her first book, GIRLS RUNNING, is coming out soon.
• Catching Up With Reigning Olympic Shot Champ Michelle Carter, Who Is Making The Most Of The Covid-19 Crisis “I’ve been doing things I always wanted to do but never had the time to do.”

Interesting Reads / Watches

• Doper Jemima Sumgong Calls On Athletics Kenya To Start A “Counseling Department” To Help Convicted Dopers (And Other Struggling Athletes) Cope With Downfall She has a point as the number of top pros who have spiraled out of control from Wanjiru to Kiprop to Rudisha to Bungei is quite high.
• 1968 Boston Marathon Champ Amby Burfoot Says Secret Vapofly Usage In 2016 By Nike Athletes Was “Absolutely Unfair.” “It was equivalent to letting one group of pole vaulters use fibreglass while everyone else was consigned to bamboo or some other stiff material,” Burfoot told AFP.
• Matthew Boling Posts Video Of Him Long Jumping Over Red Solo Cups To Tik Tok And It Has Gotten Hundreds Of Thousands Of Views The video isn’t even that good. People are just bored and SportsCenter retweeted it.
• Lopez Lomong, Matt Tegenkamp And Andrew Bumbalough Look Back And Recall Running In The 5,000 Where Lopez Kicked A Lap Early And Still Won (Video)

Previous News From Kenya

• Kenya’s Ministry Of Sport To Hand Out Food To 58 Needy Athletes IDd By Eliud Kipchoge As Struggling Eliud Kipchoge has helped us identify the needy athletes who really deserve to get these food packages as an initial relief. These are athletes who were meant to participate in the World Youth Championship in July and other local races.” Eventually they hope to give out $94 to up to 1000 athletes.
• Catching Up With Marathon WR Holder Brigid Kosgei During Covid-19 “With good preparations, I still believe a new world record time is still achievable and I will be giving it another attempt. I won’t say when and which race but I will be trying it soon.”
• Eliud Kipchoge On Training During Isolation – Part One

He Will Be Missed

LRC Dathan Ritzenhein Hangs ‘Em Up: We Pick Our 5 Favorite Moments From His Career Between a 12:56 American record in Zurich, bronze at World Half and World Jr. XC, two dominant Foot Locker wins, and an NCAA XC title over Ryan Hall, there were plenty of highlights during Ritz’s lengthy career.
*MB: Breaking: Dathan Ritzenhein Retires at 37

• Mlive.com: Ritz: ‘I’ve been blessed with an amazing, long career’ Ritz has few regrets and now will turn to coaching which he describes as a “passion.” He’ll still run and was headed out for a 12-mile trail run. *Ritz’s Career In Photos
• Toni Reavis Says Goodbye To Ritz

Throwback Thursday

LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched The 1983 World Cross-Country Championships Journey back to 1983, when America was a cross-country superpower, the world’s best runners including marathoners ran at World XC, and a guy named Bekele was the best XC runner in the world. In a field loaded with stars, the top four men were separated by just one second. The 4th place finisher? Alberto Salazar. The race also included the likes of Miruts Yifter, Pat Porter, Steve Jones, Rob de Castella, and Alberto Cova.

From The Guardian‘s Archive: 7 May 1930 A Feature On Mile WR Holder Paavo Nurmi Nurmi revolutionized the mile by showing you should run all four laps fast (not rest in the middle) and by going to a more upright style.

Continue Taking That Trip Down Memory Lane

• 66 Years Ago, Roger Bannister 1st Broke 4 – Here Is How Athletics Weekly Covered It At The Time
  *MB: TRACK HISTORY: On this day in 1954 Roger Bannister ran the First Sub-4 Mile
• Here Is How Track & Field News Covered Steve Prefontaine’s Frosh Year At Oregon
• While You Are Taking A Trip Down Memory Lane, Re-Experience Cathy Freeman’s Olympic Gold In Sydney 2000 – One Of Track’s Iconic Moments