August 6, 2020 | LetsRun.com

2020 Isn’t Over Yet – Kipchoge Vs. Bekele Is Still On!

London Marathon Will Hold Elite-Only Race On October 4; Kipchoge, Bekele, & Brigid Kosgei All Confirmed The mass race has been cancelled, but London will still have an elite race on a closed, looped course in a “secure biosphere” in St. James’s Park. In addition, the 2021 edition has been moved from April to October.
*MB: London Marathon could be laps around a big park
*The Times Article (behind paywall)

Distance News

MB: BTC Time Trial On Friday – Shelby Houlihan one mile American record attempt? Mary Slaney has the record at 4:16.71. Houlihan’s 3:54.99 1,500m best converts to 4:13.79 for the mile.
Donavan Brazier Believes He Has A Shot At Breaking David Rudisha’s 800m World Record Brazier explained that this wasn’t a prediction though, calling Rudisha a “once-in-a-century athlete and saying, “1:40.91 is a really dangerous record to break.”
September 8: Sifan Hassan Set For Ostrava 5,000m Laura Muir is in the 800m while her training partner Jemma Reekie is in the 1,500m.
August 23: Japanese Record Holders Confirmed For Tokyo Golden Grand Prix Distance action will be highlighted by World U20 3,000m champ Nozomi Tanaka in the 1,500m. Last month she ran 4:08.68 to become the second fastest Japanese woman of all-time and will be eyeing the 4:07.86 national record.
Turkish Steeplechaser Gulcan Mingir Gets 2-Year Ban And Her Result Disqualified From The 2012 London Olympics The 9:13.53 runner tested positive for a steroid in a London re-test. Thankfully, she failed to make the final at those Games.

Well Worth 1 Hour Of Your Time

LRC The Stand: 52 Years Later, Tommie Smith & John Carlos’ Famous Protest Is As Relevant As Ever Tom Ratcliffe and Becky Paige, who teamed up for the terrific Bannister: Everest on the Track, have reunited for The Stand, which aims to tell the definitive story of Smith and Carlos’ protest on the Olympic 200m medal stand in 1968.
*Stream The Stand On Amazon

Running Book News:

Pro Marathoner Becky Wade Reviews New Book By Legendary Coach Joe Vigil Wade shares six interesting takeaways including the fact that at 90 years old, Vigil is still active and involved in the sport.
*Press Release: “Chasing Excellence” – New Biography On Legendary Coach Joe Vigil Released Vigil coached Adams State College to 19 DII national titles and coached 22 Olympians, including Denna Kastor when she won an Olympic bronze in the marathon.
MB: New book about FM

NCAA News

NCAA Supposed To Give Update On Fall Sports Championships Today The NCAA board of governors has the authority to cancel or postpone NCAA championships.
*MB: wtf is the NCAA doing
USTFCCCA Takes A Look Back At Marty Liquori’s First NCAA Mile Title In 1969 Liquori, then only a sophomore, beat out Jim Ryun who hadn’t lost an outdoor mile in four years and was the huge favorite.
DyeStat Lists NCAA Conference-By-Conference Break Down On Where Each Stands On Fall Sports
George Washington University Cuts Seven Athletics Programs Including Men’s Indoor Track They cited the pandemic and expected shortfall of $200 million.
*MB: GWU to cut men’s indoor track
MB: Former NAU XC Coach Eric Heins: Starting a NEW NCAA D3 track program ! Heins coached NAU to their first DI XC national victory and now will be the head coach for a new track program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

Highlights From Our Chat With The Olympic Silver Medalist

LRC Paul Chelimo’s Rise To the Top: “I’m Willing To Die In A Race” The Olympic 5,000m silver medalist joined the LRC podcast last week to discuss his beginnings in the sport, his rivalry with Lopez Lomong, why he once missed two drug tests, & much more. Plus Chelimo reveals his toughest workout ever and says he wants to run the 2028 Olympic marathon in LA.

Boston Bomber Death Sentence Overturned

Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Has His Death Penalty Sentence Overturned By US Court Of Appeals It was ruled that the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors to make sure they were impartial. So his conviction is still in place, but there will be a new penalty phase trial to determine his sentence where he could still receive the death penalty. *Discuss
*AP Article
*AP: Ruling Renews Fairness Debate In Boston Marathon Bomber Case

Sprint Stuff

Great News: False Alarm As Wayde Van Niekerk’s Second COVID-19 Test Turns Up Negative Unfortunately he still wasn’t able to compete in the Italian meet on Saturday which would have been his first international meet since 2017.
*Apparently Members From Van Niekerk’s Group Claim The 400m Star Never Tested Positive
August 23: Tokyo Olympic Stadium To Host The Seiko Golden GP; 100m Field Will Have Five Of The 11 Fastest Japanese Men Of All-Time Yoshihide Kiryū, the first Japanese man to go under 10-seconds (9.98), leads the field.
Noah Lyles On Christian Coleman’s Suspension: “You are just hoping for a little more responsibility. It hurts because we want to go to Tokyo and aim for the (4×100) world record.” Lyles says the whereabouts system has been “pretty easy” for him, although he admits to missing two tests in his career (in separate years).
A Look Back At The Career Of Carl Lewis The writer has some very high praise for Lewis.

LRC Content

LRC Running’s D-Day Podcast As London Marathon, 2020 NCAA Cross-Country Decisions Expected audio fixed Good news as the LRC crew expects the London Marathon to take place as an elite race.

LRC I Ran A Real Race With Real People, And It Was Glorious Believe it or not there is actual racing going on in a former COVID-19 hot spot – Connecticut.
Have You Run A Race Recently? Share Your Experience Here

LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched The 1993 World Championship 5,000 In one of distance running’s greatest efforts, Kenya’s Ismael Kirui ran 13:02 from the front to hold off Haile Gebrselassie and avenge his brother’s controversial Olympic defeat to Khalid Skah.

Will There Be Any College Sports This Fall?

NCAA Board Of Governors Leaves Decision On Fall NCAA Championships To Each Division D2 and D3 are already out. D1 needs to make their decision by August 21.

NCAA Division II Cancels All 2020 Fall Championships 11 of the 23 Division II conferences had already announced they would not compete during the traditional fall season. Like DIII, these championships are cancelled, not postponed until spring.
Division III Presidents Council Cancels Fall Championships For 2020 They considered holding the fall championships in the spring, but “found it was logistically untenable and financially prohibitive.”

*MB: RIP D3

Sprint Stuff

Lolo Jones Featured In HBO Sports Documentary, The Weight Of Gold; Says She’s Determined To Make It Back To The Olympics Jones is gunning for the Tokyo Olympic team, but says she doesn’t plan on trying to go back to bobsledding after missing the 2018 Games in what she called a “subjective process.”
The Guardian: “Usain Bolt’s Talent For Speed Becomes More Apparent Now It Is Denied To US” The writer explains how he chooses to believe Bolt’s WRs are clean even at the risk of “looking like a sap in 20 years’ time.”
Face2FaceAfrica.com: “Former Star Sprinter To Street Sweeper: Meet Jackie’s Forgotten Brother Mack Robinson”
Mildred “Babe” Didriksen Selected As USATF Throwback Athlete Of The Week For Her 80m Hurdles American Record In 1931

RIP News

RIP Kenyan 1972 Olympic Silver Medalist Ben Jipcho, 77 Jipcho won silver in the steeplechase, but is also credited with helping Kip Keino win 1500m gold in 1968 over Jim Ryun by acting as a pacesetter.
*Daily Nation Says Ben Jipcho Left Behind Five Widows And More Than 30 Children His first wife said Jipcho was hard working and greatly supported the family.
*Athletics Legend Jipcho Buried In Trans Nzoia
Russia’s 1956 And 1960 Olympic Triple Jump Bronze Medalist Vitold Kreyer Dies At 87
USATF Mourns Passing Of Race Walk Pioneer A.C. “Beto” Jaime, 84

High School Corner

DyeStat Lists NCAA Conference-By-Conference Break Down On Where Each State Stands On High School Fall Sports
From Last Week: MB: Sydney Masciarelli WORLD RECORD 1 mile w/ basketball The 2018 Foot Locker winner ran 5:08.57, not that much slower than her 4:58.62 PR (her 1,500m best is 4:34.72). 2015 World Championships runner Lauren Johnson had apparently just set the dribbling record at 5:16.36 a few weeks previously.

More Recent Results

MB: Oliver Hoare And Joe Klecker Become The First Two Men To Go Sub-4 In Colorado Klecker posted on Instagram that he ran 3:58.4 to Hoare’s 3:56.8. Those times convert to 3:51.16 and 3:52.72 according to NCAA altitude conversions.
Sweden’s Michaela Meijer Breaks Swedish PV Record With 4.83m On Her First Attempt
AW Weekly Round-Up: UK Athletics Comeback Continues

The Big Friendly 3 / BTC Intrasquad IV *Results

LRC Donavan Brazier Runs 1:43.84 In His 800 Opener; Bowerman TC Breaks World, American 4 X 1,500 Records In his first 800 in 304 days, the 2019 world champ split 50.80 for the first lap and 53.04 for the 2nd.
*MB: Schweizer > Houlihan in 4 x 1500 – 4:04 vs 4:05? The BTC women’s splits appear to be 4:07 for Quigley, 4:10 for Cranny, 4:04 for Schweizer and 4:05 for Houlihan. Grant Fisher had the fastest men’s split at 3:36.

MB Discussion

We Wish Them A Speedy Recovery

400m World Record Holder Wayde Van Niekerk Tests Positive For Coronavirus Van Niekerk was supposed to run the 100m and 400m at a meet in Italy, but will have to sit out and quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19. *MB: Van Niekerk Covid positive

Flagstaff Running Community Launches Run With Rivs Fundraiser For Local Legend Tommy Rivers Puzey, Who Is Battling A Rare Form Of Cancer You can participate by logging (or donating to) an endurance challenge anytime through August 9. All funds go to the Puzey family.

Olympic Champs That Win Multiple Golds Become Legends – World Athletics Should Make It As Easy As Possible

LRC What Track And Field Doubles Are Doable At The 2021 Olympics? We know the 100/200 will be doable, but what about the 200/400? The 1,500/5,000? The (gulp) … 100/400? We break them all down and propose a few easy solutions. World Athletics, are you paying attention? A few tweaks could make the schedule much more athlete-friendly.
*MB: What doubles are doable in Tokyo? LRC tells you and offers some simple changes

(Mostly) European Distance News

Pete Julian’s Group Will Spend August Training And Racing In Europe Julian said, “We’re doing the very best we can to stay safe and healthy. There are concerns, obviously. We’re in a pandemic. But this is their job. They seem up for it. They’re really responsible athletes.”
Few Results We Missed: European Leads From Sweden’s Andreas Kramer (1:45.86 In The 800m), Germany’s Alina Reh (15:27.46 In The 5,000m) And Sweden’s Kim Amb (86.49m In The Javelin)
*British Milers’ Club Holds Socially Distanced 800m Using Alternate Lanes
*GB’s Jo Zakrzewski Breaks Four National Ultra Running Records In One Race She ran 236k in 24 hours on the track.
Israeli Marathoner Bracha Deutsch Pleading With The IOC To Change The Day Of The Olympic Marathon So She Can Race The 2:32 marathoner is an Orthodox Jew and can’t race on Shabbat, a day of rest for Jewish people.
GB Ultra Runner Carla Molinaro Breaks The Land’s End To John O’Groats (LEJOG) Record She ran the length of Britain (874 miles) in 12 days, 30 minutes and 14 seconds.
2021 European 10,000m Cup Will Return To London On June 5 You probably know the race better as “the Night of the 10,000m PBs.”

Upcoming Stuff

Doha Diamond League Rescheduled For September 25 This is moved up about two weeks from the original rescheduled date on October 9.
Laura Muir, Renaud Lavillenie And World Silver Medalist Hjer Yaroslava Mahuchikh Announced For LOTTO Kamila Skolimowska Memorial In Poland On September 6 Polish social distancing rules will require the stadium be limited to 50% capacity, which means they can still have 27,000 spectators watch live.
USATF.TV Replaying The 2016 Olympic Trials For Free Each day is free to watch for 48 hours.
We Wish USATF Had Done The Same: One Month To Go Until The British Athletics Championships The championships are being held behind closed doors September 4-5.
European Athletics: Eleven Meets To Follow In Early August Must be nice.

On – The Swiss Running Brand – Gets Into Pro Running In A Big Way

LRC On Establishes Pro Group In Boulder To Be Coached by Dathan Ritzenhein; Joe Klecker Is Group’s First Signing The group will be called the On Athletics Club and features eight athletes (the remainder will be announced soon) led by Joe Klecker, who was signed before Ritz and given veto power over the coach of the group. Klecker will make his pro debut at the Music City Distance Carnival on August 15 and Ritz says he’s in incredible shape. “I did that exact workout at sea level a month before I ran 12:56 and broke the American record … He’s doing the kind of quality work that I was doing at my best.”
*MB: Breaking: On is starting a new training group in Boulder coached by Dathan Ritzenhein and headlined by Joe Klecker
*MB: Joe Klecker Sub 4 at altitude?! 3:58.4

Weekend Recap

Full World Athletics Weekend Recap

MB: Bob Beamon move over. Valarie Allman PRs by almost 10 feet to shatter US discus record by more than 3 feet!! She PRed by nearly 10 feet – 9 feet 11 inches to be exact – to set a new US record of 70.15 (230′ 2″).
MB: Jemma Reekie runs 1:59.52 to edge Laura Muir (1:59.54) in Italy as four break 2:00 in Italy
*Athletics Weekly Recap
MB: 1:44.81 Edose Ibadin – District Track Club
Katie Nageotte vaults 4.92, takes a few good cracks at AR
Germany’s Johannes Vetter Wins Javelin At The Kuortane Games With A European-Leading 86.94m
18-Year-Old Elina Tzengko Of Greece Breaks U20 Javelin Record With 63.96m.

Miling Legends Pay Tribute To Jim Ryun

LRC Behind The Scenes: An Inside Look At Jim Ryun’s Presidential Medal Of Freedom Celebration Hear what mile legends Alan Webb, Matthew Centrowitz, Seb Coe and Steve Cram had to say about Jim Ryun when he was honored with the highest US civilian honor last Friday. Centrowitz said of Ryun, “He’s a legend everywhere” whereas Coe called him an inspiration and the “greatest prep athlete of all time, in front of LeBron James and Tiger Woods.”

The Olympics Needs An MVP

LRC The Olympic Track & Field MVPs, Part II: 1964-2016 The 2020 Olympic track and field action was supposed to begin this week and we’re feeling nostalgic. Football has a Super Bowl MVP. Baseball has a World Series MVP. We need to have an Olympic MVP. Today, we name an Olympic MVP for every Olympics from 1964 to 2016.
*MB: Let the debate begin. Here are our Olympic MVPs from 1896 to 2016.

LRC The Olympic Track & Field MVPs, Part I: 1896-1960

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

LRC High 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.