October 13, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Sifan Hassan Out Of World Half

Sifan Hassan Pulls Out Of World Half-Marathon Champs Hassan said she and her coach decided to end her season early to start preparing for the Olympic year.
*MB: Breaking: Sifan Hassan pulls out of World Half Marathon Champs. What double should she do in Tokyo 2021?

Non-Distance News

US Record Holder Valarie Allman Talks About How A Background In Dance Has Helped Her Excel In The Discus Throw Allman says dance was her “first love” and she only decided to try throwing because she wanted to go to the throwers annual spaghetti dinner.
The Virginian Pilot: “Grant Hollway’s Olympic Dreams Were Delayed, But The World Champion Is Looking At A Bright Future” Holloway says he’s getting used to the idea of being one of the top runners in the world instead of looking up to them. “I remember there was a picture that a fan sent me, and I was looking at Orlando Ortega like he was one of the greatest. … Now I’m there.”
European 400H Champ Lea Sprunger Plans To Retire At End of The 2021 Season The 30-year-old was 4th at Doha World Champs.
GB Sprinter Bianca Williams Threatens To Boycott Investigation Into Police As She Feels Racism Allegation Isn’t Being Treated Seriously Enough Williams complains that the incident is being investigated as a “‘respect and courtesy’ issue rather than an ‘honesty and integrity’ issue.”
Flo-Jo Named USATF Throwback Athlete Of The Week On September 29 at the 1988 Olympics, Flo-Jo ran the still standing 21.34 200m WR.

Negative News

RIP: USA’s 1952 Olympic 400H Champion Charlie Moore Dies At Age Of 91 Besides his medals, Moore was known for pioneering the 13-step approach between hurdles.
A Friend Of Oscar Pistorius Who Has Visited Him In Prison Says He Is More Concerned With Getting Forgiveness Than Getting Out On Parole Pistorius’ former teacher says he is afraid he will get backlash when he’s on parole. The teacher also said he told Pistorus he doubts he would forgive Pistorius if it was his daughter.
81 Russian Athletes Test Positive For COVID-19 At Training Camps

Good News

MB: University Of Minnesota Reinstates Outdoor T&F, Indoor Remains Permanently Cut This has to be considered a big win as the other men’s sports remain cut, but we don’t understand the logic of not having indoors in Minnesota where it’s cold as ****. Plus if you already have an outdoor team, indoors costs hardly anything additional.

The Latest NCAA Polls
Boost Treadmills National XC Poll No. 2 (Oct. 8, 2020) – Notre Dame Men, Arkansas Women Are #1

RIP

1980 Irish Olympic Marathoner Pat Hooper Dies Suddenly At Age 68 Hooper had a PR of 2:17:46 and competed at the Moscow Games alongside his younger brother, Dick.
Former Oregon NCAA Shot Put Champion Neal Steinhauer Dies At Age 76 He won NCAAs in 1965 as a sophomore and was also runner-up twice.

Women In The News

Sonia O’Sullivan Writes About What Life Was Like In The London Marathon Bubble “There has always been talk of the elite athlete living within the bubble of their own sport, and in ways living in a pandemic bubble is no different: just another bubble within the bubble.”
Allie Kieffer Talks About Her Recent 15:40 PR And Her New Coach Liz McColgan The former Olympic silver medalist thinks Kieffer’s best is yet to come.
Shalane Flanagan Reveals Her Favorite Marathon Training Meal Recipe – Thai Quinoa Salad
Two-Time Olympic Trials Qualifier Is Posting Her Baby Bump Photos On Social Media Using Common Running Items As A Comparison Tool
Author Remembers How He Was At A Party Where People Booed Cathy Freeman When She Lit The Olympic Flame 20 Years Ago Not everyone was apparently on board in support of the Aboriginal movement in Australia.
Study Reveals Women Who Have An Exercise Routine Before Menopause May Have A Lower Risk Of Developing Heart Disease And Type 2 Diabetes Later In Life It also reveals even if you start exercising after menopause you are better off as well. So we’re not sure what the point is. Just exercise.

The LRC Visitors React To The World Records On Our Message Board

Our Thoughts/Prayers Go Out To Goucher And Her Family

CNN Video Interview: Kara Goucher Critical Of President Trump Tweet About Coronavirus Goucher was critical of his tweet about not letting COVID “dominate your life” as her grandfather passed away yesterday from coronavirus.
*MB: Kara Goucher On CNN
InsideTheGames: World Athletics Championship Silver Medalist Criticizes Trump For Downplaying Coronavirus “Today my 95 (96 next week) year old grandpa was diagnosed with COVID … His life is worthy. Please, please wear a mask.”

The 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon Leaderboard / Results Men’s Preview Women’s Preview TV & Streaming

LRC Shura Kitata Snaps Eliud Kipchoge’s 10-Race Win Streak To Win 2020 London Marathon With a half mile left, 4 men were still battling it out for the win. With 200 meters to go, it was a 3-way sprint finish. Shockingly, none of those men was Eliud Kipchoge.

LRC Analysis Eliud Kipchoge Lost A Marathon – What Happened? For the first time in over seven years, Eliud Kipchoge was beaten in a marathon. Here’s how it happened.

Distance Results

Japan Weekend Recap: Bedan Karoki Runs 27:08.91 At The Chubu Corporate Track and Field Championships At The Nagasaki Nighter Time Trials, Bernard Koech won the men’s 10,000m in 27:31.13 and Rika Kaseda took the women’s race in 32:04.99.
MB: Chris Robertson Breaks American Beer Mile Record With 4:37
AW Weekly Round-Up Filip Ingebrigtsen won the Norwegian XC Championships.
Frank Lara Named The New USATF 15k Champion After Initial Winner Ridouane Harroufi’s Doping Ban

Assorted Distance News

British Distance Great Brendan Foster Knighted In Queen’s Birthday Honors It wasn’t the first time Foster was honored by the Queen. 50 years ago he received his Commonwealth 1,500m bronze from the Queen in Edinburgh.
*World Athletics Article
Ukraine’s Viktoriya Khapilina (2:27:57) And Morocco’s Youssef Sbaai (2:13:03) Break Course Records At Sofia Marathon In Bulgaria The men’s race was super close as Sbaai finished with the same time as countryman Radouan Nouini.
NAU Men And Women XC Will Compete This Fall All Big Sky teams are allowed to compete in two meets this fall. NAU will race at the OSU Invitational on October 17.
Vienna City Marathon Celebrating The First Year Anniversary Of Eliud Kipchoge Sub-2 Hour With A Special Challenge On Monday The challenge is to cover as much distance as possible in 1:59:40.
Laura Muir, Jemma Reekie And Jake Wightman Get Three-Way Tie For Scottish Athlete Of The Year Award A Scottish Athletics director said the panel “could not split the achievements” of the three so did a joint award.

Olympic Stuff

Government Advisor Expects Tokyo 2020-Related COVID-19 Spike The advisor said, “In the situation we’re in, I wouldn’t say ‘stop worrying, it’s OK to hold the Games’,’ but at the current level I think it can be done with care. We (health experts) are the ones who need to show how and where to take precautions.”
IOC Deny Claim They Tried To Block French Investigation Into Frankie Fredericks Corruption Case Fredericks was accused of accepting a bribe of $299,300 in 2009 from Papa Massatta Diack.
NBC Sports Extends Twitter Olympics Content Deal For Tokyo 2020
USOPC Chief Plays Down Suggestions US Government Bill Could Breach IOC Rules Sarah Hirshland said they had “ample discussion” with the IOC about the bill.
InsideTheGames Looks Back At The Start Of The 1964 Tokyo Olympics – “A Games Seen As A Symbol Of Hope And Confidence”
USOPC Suing Insurance Carriers, Blaming Them For Lack Of Settlement With Nassar Victims They accused the insurance companies of stalling and not processing their contractual obligations.

Women’s Distance News

Des Linden Is Planning On Running A Ton Of Mileage In October; 496 Total With A 196-Mile Final Week This isn’t a training plan, but a unique “Calendar Club” challenge she’s doing with her husband where they will run one mile for every calendar day (so 1 mile on October 1st and 31 miles on Halloween).
Sara Hall Is Proud Of Her London Performance Because Running Alone Has Never Been Her Strength With the leaders taking off at WR pace, Hall says she “ran almost every step of the race alone.”
Athletics Weekly Profiles 19-Year-Old British 800m Champion Keely Hodgkinson The 2:01.16 runner says she wants to try to make the Tokyo Games. “I’m only 19 so I’d go into the British Champs (and trials) and if I make it then fabulous but if I don’t it’s not the end of the world as I’ll still hopefully have another 10-15 years to go to an Olympics.”

WR Analysis

LRC Analysis 8 Takeaways After Cheptegei And Gidey Smash World Records In Valencia Cheptegei went 13:07+ – 13:03+ to set the new 10,000 mark and wipe Kenenisa Bekele from the record books while Gidey, who hadn’t won a 5,000 race in four years, broke Tirunesh Dibaba‘s 5,000 world record.

Don’t Die While Running

How Should You Train If You Get Covid-19? Two weeks of full recovery is recommended with slow return to activity. As with any viral infection, you need to let your body recover.

Sprints / Hurdles News

Wayde van Niekerk Pens Column In South African Press: “It is an honour to be in my position, and I do not take it lightly”. “My role as a national ambassador comes with a responsibility to do my best, to dedicate myself to my sport and to be a role model for my fans.”
Kyron McMaster, Tori Franklin And Natoya Goule Are 3 Of 10 Athletes That Have Had To Relocate To Powdersville, SC To Train During Covid-19 Their former NCAA homes closed their doors to them.
An Investigation Has Started To See If Stop And Search Of British Sprinter Bianca Williams Was Racially Motivated In The UK
The Newly-Formed Running Industry Diversity Coalition – Which Launched This Week – Has Big Plans

News From Europe

UK Athletics Relays Guru Quits After Being Overlooked For Head Coaching Job – Dealing Blow To Britain’s Tokyo 2021 Preparations Stephen Maguire had incredible results but was reportedly upset he was snubbed for his former assistant Christian Malcolm.
ON Makes 4.5-Minute Animated Film About Two Ultra Runners Doing 42 Hours In Mountains; Film Already Has Amassed 400,000+ YouTube Views Part of the journey included a summit of Mont Blanc. Watch here.
Housemates And Training Mates Laura Muir & Jemma Reekie Are Both Nominated For Scottish Athletics’ Performer Of The Year Award
Karsten Warholm Is Still Racing; He Ran And Won A 400 On Monday In 45.56

Admin News

Good News For USA Athletes: Stephen A. Schwarzman Pledges $8,000,000 To USATF Foundation To Support Elite Athletes The gift will provide 65 athletes with annual awards of $30,000 for the next Olympic cycle.
Vladimir Putin Claims Russian Athletes Are Victims Of “Unsportsmanlike Means” By Rivals Yeah, how dare the rest of the world call out Russia for state sponsored doping.
World Players Association Calls On WADA To Ensure Athletes Currently Serving Recreational Drugs Ban Can Apply For Reduction WADA recently changed rules to decrease punishments for recreational drug use. The new rules go into effect on January 1, 2021.
Caribbean Association Of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) President Brian Lewis Claims Thomas Bach’s Speech At The 2014 Sochi Olympics Broke Rule 50 In that speech Bach talked about world leaders keeping politics out of sports and tolerance which Lewis says was referencing Russia’s anti-gay laws.
Senior Board Member For Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Resigns Due To “Growing Frustration” At “Lack Of Transparency” He is the second member of the Birmingham 2022 board to quit in controversial circumstances in recent months.
Multi-Million Dollar Legal Cases Still Outstanding 10 Years After The Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games

London Women

LRC American Sara Hall Runs The Race Of Her Life To Finish 2nd In 2020 London Marathon In 2:22:01 An American hadn’t finished in the top 3 in London since 2006 but Sara Hall ran the race of her life and mowed down everyone in the field save Brigid Kosgei (2:18:58) to finish second in 2:22:01 after outkicking world champ Ruth Chepngetich. US Olympian Molly Seidel was 6th (2:25:13).

Women’s Recap Brigid Kosgei DOMINATES 2020 London Marathon, American Sara Hall Shocks Field To Finish Second Kosgei winning convincingly may not have been a shock but the name of the second-place finisher sure was – Sara Hall.

FBK After Summer Competition In Hengelo *Full Results + Video Replay

LRC Sifan Hassan Runs 29:36 To Shatter Paula Radcliffe’s 30:01 European Record On a cool and rainy night, Sifan Hassan attacked Almaz Ayana‘s 29:17.45 world record as she went out in 14:37 before fading to a European record time of 29:36.67. In the other races, Kipyegon, Kejelcha and McSweyn struggled in the conditions.
*MB: Official Hengelo Discussion Thread: Kipyegon WR attempt, Hassan ER attempt, McSweyn NR attempt + Kejelcha & more!
*MB: Hassan #4 All-Time 10000m – 29:36.67 in rainy conditions in Hengelo
*World Athletics Recap

Road News

World Athletics Weekend Road Preview: Kenya’s Jonathan Maiyo (2:04:56) And Japan’s Haruka Yamaguchi (2:26:35) Lead The Fields For The Sofia Marathon In Bulgaria At the Bucharest Marathon in Romania, Ezekiel Kiprop Koech (2:10:02) and Lilian Chemweno (2:41:26) lead the race.
GB’s Callum Hawkins Out Of World Half Champs With Ankle Injury Charlotte Purdue also pulled out of the women’s squad.
2018 Winner Yuma Hattori Announced To Be Returning To The Fukuoka Marathon On December 6 The 2:07:27 man says he wants to break the 2:05:29 Japanese record.
2021 Tokyo Marathon Officially Moved To October 17 The race was originally scheduled for March 7th, but a source early in the week said it was being moved to the fall.

Yes, Kipchoge Really Lost A Marathon Last Sunday

Eliud Kipchoge Gives Video Interview After London “The first lesson is to know that I am also human and can be beaten. The second is I’m now able to implement what disappointment is.”
Patrick Sang Reacts To Kipchoge’s Loss And Says Weather Cost Kipchoge “We went to the competition prepared, but the weather conditions were a bit too much.”

Be Inspired By Two Great Coaches

Nice Profile Of Caryl Smith Gilbert On How She Has Risen To The Tops Of The NCAA Ranks Her USC team won the NCAA title in 2018.
Great Profile Of Former Grant (Oregon) HS Coach Mark Cotton, Who Recently Turned 90 “He didn’t coach for the elite athlete,” Binder says. “He coached for the 100th kid on the team.”

NN World Record Day Delivered Free Race Replay Results

Race Recap Joshua Cheptegei (26:11:00) And Letesenbet Gidey (14:06.62) Break Men’s 10,000 And Women’s 5,000 World Records In Valencia It was a special day for distance fans as a 12-year-old women’s world record and a 16-year-old men’s world record fell in Valencia.

Interesting Read: How Long Will It Be Before Cheptegei Rocks The Marathon? Toni Reavis does some research and compares the amount of time that passed between 10,000 PR and marathon PR for former track greats Paul Tergat, Kenenisa Bekele, Haile G and Eliud Kipchoge. It was anywhere from 6 to 14 years.
Toni Reavis: Watching A Kenyan WR Holder Help Pace And Then Embrace An Ethiopian WR Holder Made My Day The fact that Chepkoech rabbited this race was amazing. Her attitude about doing it was even more amazing.
The Telegraph: New world records raise “further questions about legitimacy of shoe technology”
The Guardian: Cheptegei And Gidey Smash World Records Using Controversial Spikes “Both records will inspire controversy,” writes Sean Ingle.
Some Of Kenya’s World Half Team Talk Sh** About Cheptegei’s Chances At World Half “Cheptegei and his colleagues are more of track athletes than road racing. We shall teach him a few tips in road racing. We are ready for him,” said one member. The #1 Kenyan, Kibiwott Kandie, who recently ran 58:38, was more respectful but admitted he wanted to win for Geoffrey Kamworor. “I feel honored and happy to represent my country for the first time.”
Kandie: “I have trained hard.”

London Leftovers

Recommended Read: World Athletics Profile: Inspired And Advised By Legends, Shura Kitata’s Rise Continues With London Marathon Triumph Read how Kitata’s coach hid his posit
ive COVID test from him so he wasn’t emotionally affected before London, what advice Kitata got from Kenenisa Bekele and how Kitata explains why “[Kipchoge] is always the king to us, even when he is beaten.”BBC: New British Marathon Champion Natasha Cockram Now Targeting Tokyo Games After 13th Place (2:33:19) In London Cockram shares some interesting insights from the athlete “bubble” where everyone wore a “bump-around” device which would beep incessantly if you got too close to someone else.
After 2:09:49 In London Stephen Scullion Is The Fastest Irishman Of All Time On A Record-Eligible Course, But He Doesn’t Have The Irish Record John Treacy ran 2:09:15 in Boston in 1988 and that is currently the record even though Boston isn’t record-eligible. Apparently Athletics Ireland is going to review the issue in the “near future.”
People: Prince Harry Makes Surprise Visit To Couple Running The London Marathon In L.A.

The Slippery Slope To The End Of College Track And Field May Start On Friday When The UMinn Trustees Vote

Guest Op-Ed College Track And Field (And Women’s Sports) Is Under Attack At The University Of Minnesota NCAA track and field and women’s sport’s future may be decided on Friday in Minnesota. If the men’s track, gymnastics and tennis teams are cut, then Minnesota will need to ax 77 women’s participants to be in compliance with Title IX. That would mark a total reduction of women’s opportunities by more than 29% in less than five years.