September 24, 2020 Homepage Archive

A Story The World Needs To Know – We LOVED The Book On Their Story So Much We Had Them On Our Podcast

Podcast InterviewThe Stepanovs Share Their Story With LetsRun.com Would you risk your life and be willing to re-locate your family halfway across the globe simply because you believed in clean sport? These two heroes did just that.

LRC “The Russian Affair” By David Walsh: The Story Of The Stepanovs, As You’ve Never Heard It Before In his latest book, David Walsh – the Irish reporter who helped bring down Lance Armstrong – tells the story of the Russian doping scandal through the eyes of whistleblowers Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov, whose relationship was far more complicated than you could imagine. On, February 8, 2013, the couple was supposed to get divorced. Instead, the Stepanovs decided to bring down the Russian doping regime and save their relationship in the process. 5 stars out of 5. Let’s hope this is made into a movie. *Purchase here.
*London Times:“The candour with which they have allowed Walsh to tell their story is rare and gripping.”
*Walsh:“It’s a love story set against the backdrop of a doping thriller.”

More Recent Results

Hailemaryam Kiros (42:59) And Yalemzerf Yehualaw (50:15) Win Ethiopian 15k Race Serving As Trials For World Half Champs
NCAA XC Results:Notre Dame Men And Women Beat Louisville; Iowa State Men And Women Win Bob Timmons Classic The Kentucky men and women won the Commodore Classic and Arkansas swept the SEC Preview meet.
Craig Nowak (13:48) And Meriah Earle (16:28) Win Carlsbad Virtual 5000
Moldova’s Andrian Mardare Highlights Balkan Championships With Record Breaking Javelin Throw Of 83.60m
Lauren Bruce Breaks New Zealand National Hammer Record With 73.47m
AW Weekly Round-Up: Lewis Byng Breaks British U20 Shot Put Record With 19.73m

UK Sports Held Up By Spike In Coronavirus Cases

The Guardian:COVID Spike Leads UK Government To Pause Return Of Fans To Sports Stadiums They were supposed to have a partial return of fans to stadiums on October 1.
Return Of Parkrun In England Next Month “Unlikely” After Surge In UK Coronavirus Cases

COVID Related News

Police Still Investigating Usain Bolt’s Surprise Birthday Party Which Reportedly Broke Coronavirus Rules Both the Jamaican prime minister and minister of health say Bolt won’t get any special treatment in the investigation.
Government Proposal Calls For Non-Japanese Athletes To Go Through At Least Five COVID-19 Tests To Compete In Tokyo Olympics
Auckland, New Zealand Runners Angry They’re Being Singled Out And Barred From Rotorua Marathon COVID restrictions in New Zealand allow people to move and gather without constraint, except Aucklanders, who aren’t allowed to gather in groups of more than 10.
Organizers As Public Not To Come Watch The Hakone Ekiden In Person
More Than 10,000 Spectators Attend Baseball And Soccer Matches As Japan Eases Capacity Restrictions A maximum of 5,000 spectators had been permitted since July.
2020 USATF Annual Meeting To Be Held Virtually

NCAA News

Taylor Ewert Wins Collegiate Debut As Arkansas Sweeps SEC Preview Meet The Arkansas women dominated with a perfect 1-5 sweep. Ole Miss’ Mario Garcia Romo won the men’s race, but Arkansas still won the team title by 8 points. *Results
Eight Track Athletes Nominated For NCAA Woman Of The Year
Richmond.com Column: “Cutting Sports To Steal Endowments: They Myth Of Football Funded Athletics”

A Closer Look At The UMinn Men’s Track Cut

Star-Tribune Column: UMinn AD Made The Wrong Call – The Men’s Track Program Too Good To Cut The Gophers have a proud track and field tradition and even won the 1948 NCAA title at home.
Hundreds March In Support Of Men’s Track We loved the sign that read, “It’s not a budget problem, it’s a priority problem.”
*Mpls.St.Paul Magazine:“Gopher Athletes Protest Against Men’s Sports Cuts”
Instead Of Cutting Sports, Colleges Should Stop Spending Money Like Fools The article includes an amazing quote from a 1929 report on the excesses of college athletics that sounds like it was written today.
Cutting Men’s Track At UMinn Will Only Save $630,362- Just 0.84% Of The Predicted $75,000,000 Shortfall They Face
Outkick.com:NCAA Schools Cry Poverty, Use Pandemic To Cut Sports They Didn’t Want Anyway
MB:Leroy Burrell’s Desperate Letter To Save Men’s Track/XC Programs

USADA Nails A Guy And We Celebrate

LRC Drug Cheat Who Won US 15K Title in March Gets Popped (Twice!) For Taking Drugs Yet Again For some reason, even though people like Edward Cheserek and the Stepanovs can’t get citizenship, the US government decided to grant EPO cheat Ridouane Harroufi citizenship. He has rewarded them by showing his “good moral character” by testing positive two more times.
*MB: Unreal: Ridouane Harroufi – the doper whom the US made a citizen – gets popped for doping two more times!!!
*From The Archives: MB: Why wouldn’t testing positive for EPO be an automatic disqualifier for US citizenship? Ridouane Harroufi win US 15k title

Distance News

Good Read:Paul Chelimo Shares His Mantra: “Go hard or suffer the rest of your life.” Chelimo talks about his outlook on running, having a daughter, eventually moving to the marathon and tells a funny story about the time he had to swim to a long run.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen Profile: “A Prodigy’s Teenage Career At An End, Are World Records On The Horizon” The lengthy article gives a full rundown of Ingebrigtsen’s career, responds to some of his naysayers and talks about how his father predicted Jakob would run 3:25 in the next couple years.
Four World Champions Set For Kip Keino Classic In Kenya On October 3 Hellen Obiri, Timothy Cheruiyot, Conseslus Kipruto and Ethiopia’s world 5000m champ Muktar Edris are among those competing.
60:52 Half-Marathon Runner Noah Kipkemboi Is Excited To Be One Of The Pacers For The London Marathon Kipkemboi helped pace Kipchoge to his sub-2, but this will be his first time pacing a major marathon.
Japan’s 2021 Beppu-Oita Marathon Canceled The race was scheduled for February 7th.

World Half Champs Are October 17th In Poland

Callum Hawkins And Charlotte Purdue Lead Team GB For World Half Champs
Joshua Cheptegei And Jacob Kiplimo Lead Ugandan Team For World Half-Marathon Championships
Canada Names Team For World Half-Marathon Championships 2:26 marathoner Rachel Cliff leads the squad.

Big Finance-Related News From Nike

LRC John Capriotti – “The Most Powerful Man In Track” – Is Stepping Down At Nike; What Does It Mean For The Sport? Is the departure of the cutthroat Capriotti good or bad for the sport? Some say it’s a great thing as he repeatedly worked with those accused and convicted of doping while others are fearful it might be a sign that Nike is no longer fully committed to track and field. Will his successor continue to support track & field at the same level?
*MB: Oregonlive.com: Nike’s track and field overlord John Capriotti eyes consulting role in post-Nike future

Ken Goe:“Could John Capriotti’s Departure Mean Nike Is Scaling Back Its Support For Track? Not So Fast” Goe outlines some of the reasons it’s pretty obvious Nike isn’t going to be pulling back from track in the near future.

2020 World Half Gets A Big Addition And Subtraction

LRCWorld Half News: Kamworor OUT, Kiplimo IN, Ingebrigtsen Maybe? The 2020 World Half Marathon Championships are going to be incredible but they will not include three-time defending champ Geoffrey Kamworor. Kamworor fractured a tibia in a car accident in June and his agent has told LetsRun.com that the World Half is “not in his plans.” But 7:26/12:48 man Jacob Kiplimo has been added to the field and it also might include Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
*MB: Breaking: Geoffrey Kamworor out of 2020 world half
*MB: JAKOB I. to attend World Half in Poland against Kamwo and Cheptegei.

LRC It’s Here: The 1:59:40 GOAT Shirt Get the premium shirt that signals and celebrates greatness. Order today.

Covid Cancellations (And Postponements)

Not Just USATF:Japan Pulls Team From World Half Marathon Champs Due To COVID
2021 Kansas Relays Cancelled Due To Budget Shortfall Caused By COVID-19 The school says not having the relays will save at least $300,000. They used the word “postponed” but the word they were looking for was “cancelled” as there won’t be any meet in 2021.
Vienna City Marathon Pushed Back From April To September 2021 Due To COVID-19
Fukuoka Marathon Will Go Ahead With Limited Field Size On December 6th Besides the 10 or so invited elites, the field will be limited to the 80 fastest applicants with marathon marks under 2:25 and the 10 fastest with half marathon marks under 1:04.
Nagoya, World’s Largest Women-Only Marathon, To Go Ahead On March 14 With Entires Limited To Residents of Japan
Feb. 28 Iwaki Sunshine Marathon In Japan Canceled
Eliud Kipchoge Hopeful Of Competing In The Rescheduled Tokyo Olympics

NCAA News

Ken Goe:Men’s College Track Is Being Threatened In Budget-Strapped Division 1 Athletic Departments Goe has a scary stat about men’s non-revenue college sports as he writes, “There were 146 Division I men’s wrestling programs in 1981. There are 75 now. There were 210 Division I men’s gymnastics programs in 1969. There are 15 now …Men’s track could be the next sport to start circling the drain.”
It’s Official: D1 Board Of Directors Approves Plan For Holding Fall Championships In Spring NCAA XC will still be held on March 15, the same weekend as 2021 NCAA Indoors.
*MB: Not making this up: NCAA reschedules the NCAA XC championships for the same weekend as the 2021 NCAA indoors
There Will Be No Regionals For NCAA XC Champs; Teams Will Be Chosen By Committee
MB:What’s going on? HBO’s Real Sports pulls feature on debate over transgender women competing in sports at last minute It featured a segment with former Montana runner June Eastwood.
Washington Post:Cal XC Runner Andrew Cooper Wants To Dismantle The NCAA Among changes Cooper wants is a collective bargaining agreement for athletes.
*MB: WaPost article: Meet the Cal cross-country runner who wants to dismantle the NCAA
*MB: White Cal xc/track athlete quits via screenshot because NCAA is racist; surprised coach doesn’t respond.

Olympic Related News

ABC News:Tokyo Needs To Convince Sponsors Olympics Will Really Happen Tokyo organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto: “The fact the Olympics are going to take place — the fact itself — is not fully distributed to the public. People need to be more convinced that, yes, the Olympics will be taking place for sure.”
Japan May Ease COVID Entry Restrictions For Tokyo 2020 Athletes
IOC President Thomas Bach And New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga Have 15-Minute Phone Call To Discuss Tokyo 2020
Thomas Bach Says Phased Return Of Sport Around The World A Cause For “Confidence” Regarding Tokyo 2020
Canadian Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission Wants Clarity On Rule 50 And “Protected Spaces” For Demonstrations
IOC Urged To Expel Iran From Tokyo Games After Controversial Execution Of Young Wrestler The wrestler was accused of stabbing to death a security guard.
*IOC Vice President John Coates Hints That A Ban For Iran Is Unlikely After Execution Of Wrestling Champ

Distance News

Kenenisa Bekele Talks About His Prep Against Next Month’s Rescheduled London Marathon Bekele says his training has “been good so far but not super because of the [COVID] lockdown.”
Good Read:Lopez Lomong Talks About His Reluctance Transition To A 10,000m, But Says He Isn’t Done With The 5,000m Lomong says that he wants to do the 5000/10,000 double next year in Tokyo.
Mo Farah To Focus On 10,000m At Tokyo Olympics; Won’t Defend His 5,000m Title “I’m getting on a bit, and I think the key thing is to stick to one event and see what I can do.”
London Marathon To Cut Prize Money By Half For Next Month’s Race However, for first time there will be a separate prize pool for the top British runners.
Aisha Praught-Leer Says She’s Running Over 90 Miles Looking Ahead To Next Year’s Olympics “I am in the ‘meat’ of training for the season because I am preparing my body and mind to start a little bit early because I am not leaving anything to chance.”

Weekend International Action

World Athletics Weekend Round-Up:Kenya’s Nicolas Kimeli Runs 10,000m World Lead With 26:58.97 At The Gouden Spike Meet In The Netherlands At the Norwegian Championships, Jakob Ingebrigtsen had a solid double winning the 1,500/800 in 3:33.93 and 1:48.72 (he won the 1,500m by 13 seconds). Karsten Warholm won the 400H in 48.23, beating the rest of the field by more than five seconds.

Richard Kimunyan Wins Japan National Corporate Champis 10,000m In 27:01.42 It was a close three-way race as Bernard Koech (27:02.39) and Bedan Kroki (27:02.80) were right behind.
Top Three Go Sub-15 As Kenya’s Rebecca Njeri Wins Japan National Corporate Champs 5,000m In 14:55.32 Hitomi Niiya was a close second in 14:55.83, becoming just the second Japanese woman ever to break 15 minutes. Jonathan Ndiku won the men’s race in 13:10.64 over Bernard Koech (13:11.00).
*19-Year-Old Ririka Hironaka Wins Jr. Women’s 3000m In 8:52.80
World Athletics:2015 World Bronze Medallist Jianan Wang (LJ) And World Silver Medallist Liu Shiying (Javelin) Highlight Chinese Championships Wang won the LJ with a world-leading 8.36m while Shiying won the jav in 67.29m.
*Asian Games Medalist Zhang Deshun Claims Women’s 10,000m Title In 33:26.85 At Chinese Champs
Jonathan Davies And Ian Crowe-Wright Become The First Athletes In 11-Years To Run A Sub-4 Minute Mile In Scotland Davies won the race in 3:59.36 to Crow-Wright’s 3:59.61.
GB’s Charlotte Arter Wins Cardiff Sunset 5k In 15:59

Semenya Legal Battle Is Over, But Debate Continues

#LetHerRun Movement Started To Call On World Athletics To Reverse Testosterone Rules After Caster Semenya Defeated In Court They put out a video ad which is a gross misrepresentation of the situation with Semenya and claim World Athletics is sexist because women need to prove they’re women, but men don’t need to prove they’re men. (Obviously a woman competing against men wouldn’t get an advantage so it’s not an issue.)
MB: David Epstein explains why he no long supports the Semenya testosterone policies. In an interesting read, Epstein compares and contrasts his views with experts Joanna Harper and Ross Tucker.
South African Rights Group Wants To Petition The United Nations And African Union Over Caster Semenya Ruling As usual, people miss the point as one of the leaders compared Semenya’s testosterone to Usain Bolt’s “height and long legs.” We don’t divide sports by height; we do by sex.