June 23, 2020 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For June 23, 2020

Quote Of The Day

“Dick never stopped pushing. There was no such thing as a relaxed family run around the block. Every run ended in a sprint. Dick’s elbow would always find a way to edge out the person next to him, even if it was his young daughter.”

– Lily Buerkle talking about her father, two-time Olympian and former indoor mile world record holder Dick Buerkle, who passed away Monday at the age of 72.

Nico Young Runs 13:50

MB: Nico Young Goes For Galen Rupp’s 13:37 US HS Record But Comes Up Short – Running 13:50 Young died big time over the last 1600 which he ran in 4:33 but moves to #4 on the all-time US HS list. Galen Rupp was supposed to rabbit but pulled out with an injury. Someone thought it was a good idea to set the event up with pacers, timers, and a live camera crew but only announce it an hour before it started and to hold it in 79 degree weather instead of waiting a day for it to be 10 degrees cooler. *Race replay here

More General Coronavirus Stuff

193 Athletes Offered Grants From Athlete Welfare Fund To Help Them Through Financial Troubles Caused By Coronavirus Athletes from 58 member federations received $3000 each. Apparently Hicham El Guerrouj was one of the ones to come up with the idea for the fund.
World #1 Tennis Player Novak Djokovic Tests Positive For Coronavirus
MB:Bowdoin College No fall Sports, wow!
British Boxers To Resume Contact Training As Virus Restrictions Ease

Doping News

Ethiopian Long Distance Runner Etaferahu Temesgen Wodaj Gets 12-Year Ban For Doping, Tampering With Evidence And Non-Compliance Wodaj tested positive for EPO and then tried to fake a TUE from a doctor that didn’t exist from a clinic that had been shut down for weeks. A tweet from LRC’s Jon Gault gets highlighted.
AIU Bans Kenyan 2:10 Marathoner Japhet Kipchirchir After Failing A Drug Test
Russia Says Its Athletes Should Be Allowed To Compete Internationally Even If The Russian Athletics Federation’s $5 Million Doping Fine Isn’t Paid On Time The Russian Athletics Federation was fined $10 million over the Danil Lysenko scandal, half of which is due July 1. World Athletics has said it will not grant a deferral of the payment of the fine.
WADA Publish Final Version Of Athletes’ Anti-Doping Rights Act The Act will “outline equality of opportunity, fair testing programs, medical treatment, justice, accountability, education, data protection and other areas.”

More Lamine Diack Trial News

Lamine Diack’s Lawyers Says That He Should Not Be Made Into A “Scapegoat” His lawyer asked judges to, “Resist the temptation to make this case an exemplary case, and Lamine Diack a scapegoat to purify the IAAF.”
Diack’s Lawyers Argue The 87-Year-Old Will Die In Jail If Sentenced

Running Through Coronavirus

London Marathon Organizers “Still Have Hope” The Race Will Go On In October Race director Hugh Brasher said he “hopes that the world will have found a way through coronavirus” by October. There will be another update on the event on July 28.
Runner’s World Asks If You Should Be Running With A Mask? If you’re running solo and away from people, obviously you don’t need to. If you’re running in a more crowded area, maybe it could help.

Last Week Was The One-Year Anniversary Of Gabe Grunewald’s Passing

Recommended Read: On The One-Year Anniversary Of Gabe Grunewald’s Passing, Her Husband Justin Reflects On Loss, Struggle And Resilience “The biggest thing I learned in the last year is that you can lose everything in one day, but it doesn’t mean everything will be gone forever. As time passed, those empty slots have been refilled. Not in the same way, but in different ways. Gabriele always was and always will be my North Star.”
RR #2: Chip Gaines Tells The Story About How He Randomly Met Gabe Grunewald And How Even In A Short Time, She Had A Profound Impact On His Life Gaines ended up hosting a marathon to raise money for the Brave Like Gabe Foundation and Grunewald trained him to run it, but the whole friendship only formed because Gaines had randomly “heckled” Justin Grunewald running in Central Park.
Carrie Tollefson Interview With Elite Runner And Best Friend Of Gabe Grunewald Ladia Albertson-Junkans
Tollefson Podcast With A Friend Of Gabe Grunewald’s Who Also Had Super-Rare Cancer
Interview With Cancer Survivor Who Raised Over $10,000 For The Brave Like Gabe Foundation

Since You Can’t Go To A Movie Theater, You Should Consider Watching This New Feature Film At Home While In Covid-19 Quarantine

LRC Sudanese Refugee Turned Olympian Guor Mading Maker’s Incredible Life Story Is Now A Feature Film: “Runner” 8 of his 9 siblings were killed in the Sudanese Civil War but Guor Maker (née Marial) somehow survived and eventually thrived despite the odds and competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Marathons. Maker is the subject of a new feature-length documentary that will premiere this weekend in conjunction with World Refugee Day. *Click Here To Find Out How To Watch

Christian Coleman Could Miss Olympics After Three Missed Tests But The Drug Tester Didn’t Even Try To Call Him?

LRC World’s Fastest Man May Face An Olympic Ban For Missing Yet Another Drug Test Christian Coleman may be facing a two-year ban, but we’re not sure he should be banned as some significant questions remain about his case. The authorities ADMIT they made no attempt to call Coleman when they could not locate him.
*MB: Christian Coleman facing suspension for three missed tests

AP:Coleman Is Accusing AIU Of Making A “Purposeful Attempt” To Make Him Miss A Test For the test in question, Coleman says he was shopping for Christmas presents near his home and documents show the testers didn’t call him.

European News

2021 London Marathon Will Host The GB Olympic Trials This year’s London Marathon was supposed to be the trials before it was postponed until October due to coronavirus. UKA also said there would be no more pre-selections (2:08 man Callum Hawkins is the only man pre-selected and no women were).
Good Read:Athletics Weekly Interviews GB Sprinter Adam Gemili Gemili talks about training during the coronavirus, proving he’s not “the forgotten man” and about wanting to go into sport governance after he’s done competing.
Renaud Lavillenie Believes Mondo Duplantis Could Vault 6.25m Talking about Duplantis beating his WR this indoor season, Lavillenie said, “I knew he was a guy who was able to break my record, but I didn’t think he would do it in 2020.”
Qualifying Standards For 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships Published

Mass Running Events Coming Back!?

Hamburg Marathon Optimistic It Can Be Held With 10,000 Runners and Elites on September 13th in GermanyGives us hope that the Berlin Marathon may be held this year in a COVID safe manner. Hamburg is planning on being held despite there being a ban on mass events in Germany through October 24th, because organizers came up are implementing a rigorous anti-COVID hygiene plan.
*Discuss

Assorted Distance News

RIP: Recommended Read:Two-Time US Olympian And Former Indoor Mile World Record Holder Dick Buerkle Dies At Age 72 Buerkle had an impressive life and career and a crazy story of what happened in the lead-up to his 3:54.93 indoor mile WR.
*MB: R.I.P. Dick Buerkle, Former indoor mile wr holder
MB:BYU’s Connor Mantz (8:42) And Casey Clinger (8:54) Run 3,200m TIme Trial At Altitude
TJ Jones (8:22) And Alex Eykelbosch (9:47) Top British Miler’s Club 3k Virtual Time Trial Leaderboard
Jane Parks Appointed International Road Course Measurer For Oregon22 She is the first woman to be appointed to this position for a World Athletics Series.
MileSplit: A Quick Look Back On Katelyn Tuohy’s Historic HS Career

Doping News

Michael Frater Says Losing His Beijing 4×100 Gold Medal “Will Hurt For The Rest Of My Life” Like Usain Bolt and the rest of the Jamaican squad, Frater was stripped of his Olympic gold after Nesta Carter‘s retested sample came back positive for a banned stimulant.
GB Distance Runner Luke Traynor Gets 2-Year Ban After Testing Positive For Cocaine Traynor admitted to taking the drug, saying it was a one-time mistake in a social situation.

Looking Ahead

MB:Fargo Marathon is on in August!!!!!!
Mondo Duplantis And Daniel Stahl Will Lead Team Sweden For World Continental Meet In Karlstad On July 8th The meet will be a Sweden vs. Norway dual with ten events.
Switzerland To Hold Pole Vaults In Downtown Lausanne Shopping Center In September Mondo Duplantis, Sam Kendricks, Sandi Morris and Katerini Stefanidi are competing.

Protest News

Michael Johnson Wants More Athletes To Speak Out Against Racism He says he used to tell athletes it was “up to them” whether they wanted to get involved in movements, but with this one he says “you are complicit if you’re silent.”
NCAA Bans All Championship Events In Mississippi Over State Flag With Confederate Emblem
More Calls For IOC To Abolish Rule 50 (The Rule That Bans “Demonstration Or Political, Religious Or Racial Propaganda” At The Olympics) Last week IOC president Thomas Bach said Rule 50 could be reviewed.
European Athletics Executive Board Backs Black Lives Matter

A Lot Of Coleman / Naser Criticism From The UK

LRC In Christian Coleman Case, Track & Field Cannot Win No matter the outcome of the Christian Coleman saga, somebody is going to be unhappy. So it goes, as track & field suffers another self-inflicted wound.

Multiple GB Stars Call Out Christian Coleman And Salwa Eid Naser Over Missed Drug Tests Hurdler Eilidh Doyle said that even when she was in the hospital for three days having her baby, her “first thought” was “I better update my whereabouts.”
Michael Johnson Criticizes Christian Coleman Over Missed Tests Johnson tweeted, “To allow this to happen again will lead people to believe either you’re doping or you don’t take seriously the anti-doping efforts of the sport. What reason do we have to believe otherwise?”
The Telegraph: “Christian Coleman And Salwa Eid Naser Are Stretching Athletics’ Credibility To Breaking Point” The writer absolutely rips into these athletes. On Coleman he says, “Such repeat transgressions are never mere quirks of fate. They are explained only by rank stupidity or a cynical contempt for the system. Coleman is, at the very least, a diagram of hubris and self-pity.”
Christian Coleman Could Seek “Deal” That Would Let Him Compete At Tokyo 2021 Coleman said that a two-year ban would be “overkill” and he’s hoping his suspension would only be a year.

USATF Publishes False Info On Its Own Website

LRC USATF Corrects Their Own Error; Still Unclear If Marks This Summer Will Count For Olympic Trials Qualifying USATF says its statement that marks achieved this summer would not count for Olympic Trials qualification was not “finalized” so it’s possible marks will count. At least it’s not as bad as last year, when USATF was forced to re-pick its entire Pan American Games squad because it failed to follow its own selection policy.
*MB: USATF says statement it published on its website saying you couldn’t qualify for the Trials during Covid-19 wasn’t actually true.

The AIU Says They Purposely Don’t Call Athletes?

The AIU Says Testers Are Not Obliged To Call Athletes When They Aren’t Home To Be Tested Their statement said, “the lack of any telephone call does not give the athlete a defence to the assertion of a missed test” and added that drug control officers were specifically asked not to call athletes as it “provides an opportunity for evasion or other improper conduct which can limit the efficacy of testing.”
Podcast Interview With Christian Coleman On Missed Drug Test Coleman says he wasn’t at home for the beginning of his testing window, but arrived home before the end of it. The tester says he was there the whole time. So someone is lying.

Trying To Come Back From Coronavirus

2020 High School Outdoor Track Championships Cancelled Due To Coronavirus The meet was initially postponed from June to July 30.
Beijing Cancels Sports Events As City Tightens Coronavirus Restrictions After Outbreak At Market The number of new cases there reached its highest level since March.
Runner’s World Asks Experts If It Is Safe To Run In Groups Again Experts say you can probably run with a training partner or two, but to still avoid big groups.
Last Weekend There Was A Spartan Obstacle Race With 1,000 Participants In Florida To mitigate risks, the race had less participants, a lot of available hand sanitizer and tried to keep people spaced and took out some of its staple obstacles.
IOC Survey Finds 50% Of Athletes Struggled To Stay Motivated During The Pandemic 56% of athletes were finding it hard to train effectively.
World Athletics Publishes Outbreak-Prevention Guidelines For Competition Organizers
USATF Updates Event Hosting Guidance
University Of Oregon Athletes Returned To On-Campus Facilities On A Limited Basis This Week
Some Irish Olympic Hopefuls Are Frustrated That Tracks Remain Closed Despite Coronavirus Restrictions Being Lifted

We’ve Brought John Kellogg Out Of Retirement – Our Summer Training Program Is Back

LRCHigh Schoolers And College Runners- Train Smarter This Summer With The LetsRun.com Summer Training Program If you aren’t sure what you should be doing for summer training and want to be your best this fall, sign up for our summer training program. Get a daily training schedule, interact with our team, and be your best this fall.

Tokyo 2021 / Japan Coronavirus News

Two Japanese Economists Are Pessimistic About Tokyo 2020 Going Ahead Next Year Without A Coronavirus Vaccine They predicted that holding the Games in 2021 will cause a large economic loss if people don’t want to travel to Japan.
USOPC Head Warns Of Further Cuts If Next Year’s Tokyo Games Are Cancelled Already, 51 staff members have been laid off and another 33 furloughed.
Tokyo Sees Its First Road Race In Over Three Months The Smile Marathon was the first road race since the Tokyo elite-only race on March 1st.
Tokyo Reports 35 New Coronavirus Cases As Weekly Average Grows
November 23 Fukuchiyama Marathon Canceled In Japan Organizers said they were concerned about “the potential for a second and third wave of the infection.”
February 2021 Himeji Castle Marathon In Japan To Decide By August Whether To Cancel

Saturday Night Virtual Track Meet – OTC Vs. ATC

RRW: OTC Defeats ATC At Return Of The Dual OTC won the meet with six points to one. They swept the 600m with Nijel Amos (1:17.2) and Chanelle Price (1:27.9) taking the wins.
*Watch The Full Event Replay With Commentary By Tim Hutchings
*MB: 600m TT: the carnage of Nijel Amos
*MB:Oregon Track Club Vs. Atlanta Track Club In Virtual Dual Meet Saturday Night
*Register Guard Article

RIP European Athletics President

European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Dies At Age 74 Hansen died on Saturday after failing to recover from a stroke he suffered he March.
Tributes Pour In For The Late Svein Arne Hansen Among those to share praise for Hansen were Seb Coe, Katerina Stefanidi, Colin Jackson, Dafne Schippers and Ivet Lalova. *AW Article
European Athletics: Svein Arne Hansen Remembered
European Athletics Article Dobromir Karamarinov has been serving as the interim president since Hansen’s stroke in March.

Happy Father’s Day

Recommended Read: ESPN:“Philadelphia Eagles Receiver (And Olympic LJer) Marquise Goodwin And Wife Morgan Persevere Through Pain For The Promise Of Family” Goodwin and his wife tell the emotional story of how after losing three children to pregnancy complications and premature births, they finally welcomed into the world a beautiful baby girl.

Hayward Field Not Yet Open For Business

Oregon Coach Robert Johnson Isn’t Sure When He’ll Move Into His Office At Hayward Field Johnson’s office will be in the new 10-story tower at Hayward, but due to coronavirus he doesn’t know when he’ll be moving into it. While football is allowed back on campus, he doesn’t expect cross country and track athletes to be allowed back on campus until July.
With Hayward Field Construction Complete, The University Of Oregon Takes Possession There are no immediate plans for a public unveiling. The whole reconstruction project is estimated to have cost more than $200 million.

Happy 40th Birthday, Craig Mottram

Throwback Thursday #11
LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched Craig Mottram Battle Augustine Choge In Melbourne At The 2006 Commonwealth Games In honor of Craig Mottram‘s 40th birthday today, we revisit the race he called “the greatest race I have ever done in my life” – his incredible duel with Kenya’s Augustine Choge in the 2006 Commonwealth Games 5,000m final.
*MB: Time flies. Happy 40th birthday Craig Mottram. We celebrate by featuring your 2006 CG silver on Throwback Thursday

Diack Trial Updates – Will Anyone Even Serve Time For One Of The Biggest Sporting Scandals Of All-Time?

Prosecutors Request 4-Year Jail Term And $562,000 Fine For Ex-IAAF President Lamine Diack Apparently since he’s been under house arrest since 2015, the chances of him serving time inside actual prison are low. They are requesting a five-year prison sentence and equivalent fine for Papa Massata Diack, but he has refused to be extradited from Senegal so he also is unlikely to serve any jail time.
Lamine Diack Admits He Should Have Been More Vigilant As IAAF President, but Denies Knowledge Of His Son’s Actions His son, Papa Massata Diack, is alleged to have siphoned off $11.3 million in one instance alone.
AP:Paris Trial Of Diacks Exposes Dark Backdrop Of Golden Era One WADA lawyer said, “It’s like one of those American films, where the old Mafiosi sit at the back of a restaurant eating spaghetti, making or breaking lives. Mr. Diack acted like an omnipotent patriarch.”