More Rome Coverage

LRC Rest Of Rome Recap: Jemma Reekie Earns Revenge, & Elaine Thompson Is BACK Reekie negative-split her way to a big 800 win, while Thompson obliterated the 100m field with a world-leading 10.85.

• Mondo Duplantis Breaks Sergey Bubka’s World Outdoor PV Best With 6.15m “There has been a bit of confusion since they changed the rule to one world record (for both indoors and outdoors). Some people didn’t understand that the indoor world record I have is the world record, it covers both spectrums. I wanted to do the outdoor best just to clear the confusion – I have both!”
• The Guardian: Jemma Reekie Savors Diamond League 800m Win Over Housemate Laura Muir Reekie won in 1.59.76 over Norway’s Hedda Hynne and Muir in third. *The Telegraph article
• Jacob Kiplimo Beats Jakob Ingebrigsten In 3000m As Three Men Went Sub-7:30 Kiplimo and Ingebrigtsen ran 7:26.64 and 7:27.05 for the #8 and #9 fastest times ever.

Lamine Diack Found Guilty

Recommended Read Sean Ingle: How Lamine Diack’s 16-Year Reign In Charge Of IAAF Led To A Jail Term The article talks about a €3.2m payment for total protection and $15m being funneled to the company run by Diack’s company. In other news, USATF legally paid out more than $24 million to those who negotiated its no-bid Nike deal.
*MB: Lamine Diack goes down- going to prison for 2 years

Previous: Former World Athletics (IAAF) President Lamine Diack Found Guilty Of Corruption And Sentenced To Two Years In Prison He was also charged a $590,000 fine. It’s not clear if he will face any actual jail time as he’s been under house arrest for the past two years.

More Results: Van Niekerk Returns

• Wayde Van Niekerk Makes International Return With 45.58 Victory In Bellinzona, Switzerland This was his first international race since 2017 London World Champs. Van Niekerk said on Instagram afterwards, “Forgot how to race for a moment, but it’s lovely being back on track.”
  *MB: Wayde V NK: 45.61 tonight for opener
• World Steeple Silver Medallist Lamecha Girma Wins Close 1500m With 3:35.67 PB In Bellinzona Girma beat out GB’s Piers Copeland (3:35.69) and world 5000m silver medallist Selemon Barega (3:36.07).
  *MB: Barega goes home devastated!!
• Norway’s Hedda Hynne Runs World-Leading 1:58.10 To Win Bellinzona 800m The time was also a new Norwegian record.
  *MB: A 30-year old most of you have never heard of, Hedda Hynne of Norway, just ran a 1:58:10 world’s best
• AW Weekly Round-Up: Dina Asher Smith Blasts To Fast 150m With 17.12 On Her Home Track She was just .06 off the UK record. Elsewhere in Poland, Piers Copeland won the 1,500m in 3:37.51.

Random Running Records

• Good Read: NY Post: Meet Aaron Yoder, The World’s Fastest Backward Runner Yoder broke his own backwards mile record by 24 seconds with 5:30.
• BYU’s Whittni Orton Breaks World Record For Running A Mile While Dribbling A Basketball She ran 4:58.56. It’s the third time this record has been broken in 2020.

Weekend Distance Results

• MB: 16-Yr Old Rheinhard Harrison comes up well short of 4 – Runs 4:08.65 He’s run 4:01, 4:02 and now 4:08 in recent weeks.
• MB: Sir Mo wins Antrim Coast Half Marathon but falls well short of British Record With 60:27, Lily Partridge wins women’s race in 71:36 Marc Scott ran 60:39 in his debut to finish 2nd and move to No.3 on the UK all-time rankings. Ben Connor was 3rd in 60:55 (#4 all-time UK).
  *MB: What does Farah have to do at the Antrim HM to prove he’s back?
• MB: Huge Upset!! Army Women DOMINATE Syracuse in XC Syracuse men won their race handily. Syracuse’s JP Trojan and Amanda Vestri were the individual winners.
• MB: 60-Year old Tommy Hughes runs 71:09 to obliterate 60+ half record. A message board poster notes his time is only 35 seconds per mile off the mile age group record and would be the equivalent of a pro man running a half in 55 minutes.
• 2:11:50 And 2:17:01 Win Chaski Challenge Virtual Marathon Relay
  *Pre-Race: Chaski Challenge Virtual Marathon Relay This international team event has eight Olympians with a ton of sub-2:10 and sub-2:33 runners, including Jared Ward and Des Linden.
  *AP Article: Go, Avatar, Go: Icons Track Virtual Team Marathon Progress

Book Review

LRC “From Coal Mine To Finish Line” By James McLatchie McLatchie, one of eight siblings who grew up in a one-room house in Scotland, has lived a very interesting life and spent a lifetime in running, from winning age-group titles as a boy in Scotland, to beating Jim Ryun in the mile, to coaching Olympians. Most recently, at age 77, he and his wife coached a team to the NXN high school national title in the US. That being said, the book isn’t our favorite but maybe worth a purchase for high school coaches as he shares his entire final month of training prior to NXN. *Purchase Here

How Many More Programs Will Covid Cut?

MB: Minnesota Cuts NCAA Men’s Track And Field Program Minnesota has a $123 million athletic budget and a brand new track and field facility but Covid-19 has cost them dearly and they are cutting men’s track, tennis and gymnastics.

More NCAA News:

• Ken Goe: Coronavirus Pandemic Is Forcing College Track And Cross-Country Coaches To Rethink Everything Goe asked some coaches what they thought about the proposed late winter/early spring XC season. Oregon’s Robert Johnson was against it, saying, “Too important a year (with the Olympics) for that in the big picture.”
• Hurricane Laura Takes Toll On McNeese State University Athletics Facilities The Category 4 storm had winds as high as 150 miles per hour and did massive damage to many buildings on the campus.

2020 Ostrava Golden Spike *Results

LRC 2020 Ostrava Golden Spike Recap: Jacob Kiplimo Comes From Behind To Stun Selemon Barega In Thrilling 5,000 As Both Men Break 12:50 No world records fell today in Ostrava but there was plenty of great action with a ton of BIG names picking up wins as the likes of Laura Muir, Faith Kipyegon, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Ryan Crouser, Karsten Warholm, Christian Taylor and Sifan Hassan all vanquished the competition.

• Dafne Schippers Storms To European 150m Best Of 16.56 In Ostrava
• World Athletics: Jacob Kiplimo, Ryan Crouser, Christian Taylor and Faith Kipyegon Impress In Ostrava
• MB: Ostrava Golden Spike – Official Discussion Thread
• MB: Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Lewandowski, McSweyn – 1,500 Ostrava.
• MB: Barega’s 5,000m race against time in Ostrava. How fast will he run??