November 04, 2020 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For November 04, 2020

Quote Of The Day

“You know you have Coronavirus when toothpaste, Stilton cheese, peanut butter and Marmite all taste the same – like nothing!!!”

– GB’s two-time Olympic champion Kelly Holmes talking about her coronavirus symptoms.

NCAA News

DyeStat:Former Princeton Star Russell Dinkins Uses Power Of Persuasive Writing To Help Save College Track Programs Dinkins has been involved in the fights to save track at Brown, William & Mary and Minnesota.
Arkansas Facing XC / Indoor Track Dilemma Women’s head coach Lance Harter: “Ultimately the No. 1 priority is our indoor season. But if we have people that are willing and able to run cross country we’ll take them and give them the experience.”
ASU XC And Track Athlete preparing For Unique Season With indoor and XC happening at the same time, distance runners will only be able to compete in one.
No Changes To The Top-3 Ranked Teams In Week 2 NCAA XC Poll NAU, BYU and Arkansas still sit 1-3 while Notre Dame moved up to #4.
Arkansas And New Mexico Women Remain Top Two In Updated NCAA Rankings NC State moved up to #3 and BYU down to #4.
Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse And Alabama’s Mercy Chelangat Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Nuguse was the individual winner at the ACC Championships while Chelangat won SECs.
USTFCCCA Share Their Recaps / Highlights From NCAA Conference Championship Weekend

Coronavirus News

GB’s Two-Time Olympic Champion Kelly Holms Documents Her Symptoms After Testing Positive For Coronavirus The 50-year-old says she has “never been laid down for so long” due to the illness.
There Is A Push In The UK To Keep Youth Outdoor Sports Exempt From Lockdown Bans Experts are worried about decreased activity levels in children and teens.
WADA Postpones 2021 Annual Symposium Due To Coronavirus It was scheduled for March in Lausanne, Switzerland.

RIP News

Former All-American HJer For Indiana, Ron Jones, Dies At 58 From Covid-19 Jones finished second at the 1984 NCAA Indoor Champs where he set a school record that lasted 26-years.
BBC:Tributes Paid To ‘True Gent’ Team GB Runner Chris Smith *Athletics Weekly article
Former 10-time Big 10 throws champ and ex-Wisconssin coach Jeff Braun died two weeks ago A good read. He went from 34 feet to 61 feet in the shot in HS.

With Few Races On the Horizon, You Have A New Option To Compete Virtually

LRC Cross-Country Finally Has Its Own Video Game – Download It For Free Ryan Craven, a guy who used to own Evan Jager in cross-country and the third-placer at 2005 Foot Locker nationals, spent 50+ hours a week this summer designing a cross-country video game. It’s available for download now for free (but tips are always nice)!
*MB: A cross country video games has been invented. Play it here for free.

Uh Oh …

Kenyan Police Searching For Olympic Steeple Champion Conseslus Kipruto For Allegedly Eloping With A Teenager The teenager had been reported missing but she was found a few days later with her parents claiming that Kipruto “defiled” her. *2nd Article *Discuss

NCAA XC *NCAA XC Results

Big 12 XC Oklahoma State Men Edge Iowa State On TIEBREAKER Both teams had 31 points and Iowa State had the better sixth man but the tiebreaker is 1 vs. 1 , 2 vs. 2, etc.
*Cailie Logue And Iowa State Women (39) Win Easily
ACC Yared Nuguse Gets Individual Win To Lead Notre Dame Men (40 Points) To Team Ttle The Wake Forest men impressed in 3rd as well as Thomas Ratcliffe DNFed.
*Dominique Clairmonte Gets Individual Win To Lead NC State Women (47 Points) To Team Title
*MB: ACC 2020 Cross Country Championships
SECArkansas Men (35) And Women (41) Win Titles The Ole Miss men got whipped despite going 1-2-3 in the men’s race.
*MB: sec xc championship

Give Yourself A Treat And Buy This New Book Now

LRC The 10 Craziest Things We Learned From “Win At All Costs,” The New Book About Alberto Salazar & The Nike Oregon Project From Salazar using the LetsRun message board to guide his 2011 Boston Marathon coaching to a drunken attempted kiss of Kara Goucher on the plane to the 2011 Worlds to Salazar crediting Chris Solinsky‘s 26:59 to Solinsky being on thyroid med, Matt Hart‘s fantastic new book has some fantastic revelations.
*MB: Matt Hart’s new Nike book is great – Salazar once tried to kiss Kara Goucher and said Solinsky ran 26:59 because of thyroid meds

LRC Book Review: “Win At All Costs” Tells The Definitive Story Of The Rise And Fall Of The Nike Oregon Project Author Matt Hart, who previously reported on NOP for the New York Times, has drawn upon hundreds of sources for a terrific book. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the story of the NOP under Alberto Salazar. Many of the details of the NOP saga were already well-known but Hart did a remarkable job of tying them all together in the definitive narrative. Plus he still breaks some major news with a few revelations as Hart also did plenty of his own reporting for Win At All Costs. 5 stars out of 5.

News From Outside The US

UK Athletics Gets £394,000 Grant From The UK Sport And Announces They Will Stage British Indoors And 2 DLs In 2021
RUSADA Head Rips Mo Farah And Team Sky: “All Russians [are] cheats, but Farah, Wiggins and (Chris) Froome are still heroes?”
Former Russian Athletics President Balakhnichev Doesn’t Appeal His French Criminal Conviction For Corruption Unless he was ever planning on vacationing in Europe, why would he bother? The Diacks have appealed, however.

Compare And Contrast Johua Vs. Mo

Joshua Cheptegei’s 5,000 WR Is Ratified Cheptegei seems focused to set more as he says, “My ambition is to dominate the track for the next five or six years.”
*MB: Was Cheptegei’s beatdown at World Half good for track?
Mo Farah Signs Up For “I’m a Celebrity” Reality TV Show In Britain Farah will be battling the elements for up to 22 days in a “Survivor” type show. Will he even be able to train?

News From Oregon

We Wish Him The Best In Retirement:The Oregonian’s Ken Goe Reflects On 43-Years Of Sportswriting In Oregon Goe has an interesting explanation of how he got into covering track (as a non-track guy himself). “If I didn’t have a great affinity for the sport, I really liked the people. …I fell in love with the people of the sport.”
Nike Says Oregon HQ Layoffs Will Reach 700 By January These layoffs actually aren’t related to the economic impact of COVID-19, but are part of a restructuring of the company.

Non-Distance Stuff

Wayde Van Niekerk Continues His Comeback With 400m Win In South Africa With 45.89 This is the fastest he’s ran since his injury in 2017 as he could only manage to run in the 47.42 in the last 400m race he ran in February.
Mother Of Reeva Steenkamp “Shook With Anger” When The BBC’s Oscar Pistorius Documentary Trailer Didn’t Mention Reeva By Name The BBC took down the initial trailer and are putting out a new one.
World Athletics Podcast With German Javelin Thrower Johannes Vetter
Two-Time World PV Champ Sam Kendricks To Participate In Texas Expo Explosion On New Year’s Day Kendricks will be there giving tips and answering questions for young vaulters.

Olympic Related Stuff

Tokyo 2020 Organizers Play Down Fears Next Year’s Postponed Games Will Be Behind Closed-Doors Concern was sparked because they’re offering ticket refunds, but it only makes sense to offer people a refund. They aren’t issuing them automatically.
President Trump Signed Bill Giving Congress Power To Remove USOPC Board Members The act protects amateur athletes from abuse from coaches/officials and requires the USOPC give the US Center for SafeSport $20 million a year.
COVID-19 Countermeasures Tested At Near-Full Tokyo 2020 Venue These measures include high-resolution cameras and sensors to monitor mask-wearing and the movement of fans and carbon dioxide and wind-speed monitoring devices.
Alan Abrahmson: IOC Must “Urgently” Re-Do Esports Strategy Abrahmson is responding to a piece written by IOC president Thomas Bach about the Olympics during the time of COVID.
Survey Reveals Tokyo 2020 Sponsors Are Concerned About Extra Payments To Continue Their Deals Good news was none of the companies surveyed said they were planning to end their sponsorship.
Tokyo 2020 Torches Start Eight-Month Tour Of Host City

Japan Distance News

Japan Running News:Komazawa Breaks Course Record in Anchor Stage Turnaround to Win Best-Ever National University Men’s Ekiden This was a very exciting race for ekiden fans with the top four teams finishing with a minute and a half of each other and Komazawa making a comeback from 9th place after stage 2.
Asahi Kasei And Fujitsu Win Regional Qualifiers For New Year Ekiden
Japan’s Former Hakone Ekiden Star Kazuma Kubota Retires at 27

Athlete Of The Year

Nominees Announced For 2020 World Athletics Male Athlete Of The Year The ten-athlete list includes Joshua Cheptegei, Donavan Brazier, Mondon Duplantis and Karsten Warholm.
Nominees Announced For 2020 Female World Athlete Of The Year Sifan Hassan, Letesenbet Gidey, Peres Jepchirchir, Laura Muir and six others made the short list.
Daily Nation:Kenyan Trio Nominated For World Athletics Award
Seven Europeans Nominated For 2020 World Athlete Of The Year Awards

Happy Halloween!

Athletics Weekly Talks To Athletes About Their “Scariest” And “Most Terrifying” Workouts Hear from Brits Tim Hutchings, Jake Wightman and others.
Sacramento State Track Team Does Event Group Costume Contest The women’s sprinters were judged the winners.
MileSplit Ranks The Best And Worst Horror Movie Runners How do the zombies in World War Z or Michael Myers rank?
Got Kids?World Athletics Turns Grant Holloway And Others Into Halloween Coloring Book

Random Running News

This Is A Real Headline:Japan High School Ekiden Race Moved Due To Invasion Of Wild Boars The race was supposed to be in a park, but the wild boars (video included) forced the race to be postponed and relocated to a track.
eBay Launches An Authenticity Guarantee To Weed Out Fake Sneakers After a shoe is sold, the seller ships the item to a facility where the sneaker will be inspected by a team of independent “authenticators” before being sent to the buyer.

Pre-Race NCAA News

LRC “It’s Been A Giant Relief”: In A Season Of Uncertainty, NCAA Conference Meets Offer Taste Of The Familiar How have 5 NCAA DI conferences including the ACC, Big 12, and SEC defied the odds and gotten ready for some big-time XC action? Find out here and learn what a conference meet looks like in the age of COVID.

LRC Superstar Freshmen Katelyn Tuohy And Marlee Starliper Will Not Race At ACs; NC State; Coach Laurie Henes Optimistic They’ll Be Ready For NCAAs in March “I am hopeful and I believe that both of them will be ready whenever there is an actual NCAA championship,” Henes told LetsRun.com.
*MB: Katelyn Tuohy Update: Tuohy and Marlee Starliper Will Not Race at ACCs; NC State Coach Optimistic They’ll Be Ready for NCAAs

Previews: *ACC *Big 12*SEC

Depressing As Hell – There Will Be No Spring Marathon Majors

2021 Boston Marathon Is Postponed 6 Months Out Race organizers are looking for a fall 2021 date but don’t have one yet. *BAA Press Release *Boston Globe
*MB: 2021 Boston Marathon Postponed.

Huge News: Christian Coleman Banned For 2 Years

LRC Christian Coleman’s Ban For Missing Three Drug Tests Is Upheld; World’s Fastest Man Will Miss The 2021 Olympics Coleman received no sympathy from a World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal, which concluded: “… the Athlete’s attitude to his obligations can fairly be described as entirely careless, perhaps even reckless.”
*Q&A: Sean Ingel succinctly explains why Christian Coleman was banned
*MB: Christian Coleman BANNED until May 2022 as AIU Tribunal upholds his ban for 3 missed drug tests

Harsh Criticism From The Telegraph‘s Oliver Brown:“No One Can Believe A Word Christian Coleman Says, The Tokyo Olympics Will Be Better Off Without Him” Brown wrote that the verdict “should serve as an enduring monument to [Coleman’s] stupidity.”
Christian Coleman’s Lawyer Says He Will Appeal “And This Will Be Resolved Well Before The US Olympic Trials”
Related: Michael Johnson Criticizes Decision Clearing Salwa Eid Naser Johnson also said he’d like whereabouts violations to result in a 4-year ban rather than 2 years.

Non-Pro Road News

NY Times:The NYC Marathon Was Canceled. Runners Ran The Course Anyway Aside from that, 28,000 people (from 130 countries and all 50 states) still signed up to run NYC virtually.
Atlanta Marathon Moves Its Race To The Atlanta Motor Speedway

High School Corner

MileSplit: Three Florida High School Runners Talk About The Impact Of Not Having A State Meet Due To Coronavirus They are missing out because their schools opted out of FHSAA competition.
Two More Victims Come Forward With Sexual Abuse Accusations Against Florida Youth Track Coach
Nike Cross Virtual Week #6 Recap

Russia Doping Updates

Evening Standard:Russian Whistleblowers Vitaly And Yuliya Stepanov Living In Fear, But Have No Regrets As Doping Saga Heads To Court Yuliya Stepanova: “My friend asked me, ‘If you go to Russia, what happens with you?’ I told her they probably will kill us and they say this is an accident.”
The Independent: Russia’s Sporting Future At Stake As CAS Hearing Started Monday Russia is appealing against the 4-year ban given to them by WADA which will keep them out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as Beijing 2022 and the 2022 World Cup. *BBC
Two Russian Track Officials Banned For Eight And Ten Years For Their Part In HJer Daniel Lysenko’s Doping Cover-Up Lysenko himself is facing an 8-year ban after he tried to use forged medical documents to excuse a failed drug test.

USA Women’s Distance News: Huddle Takes Down Three American Records

MB:Molly Huddle Breaks Three American Records At Once, The 15k, 10 Mile And One Hour In a time trial setup on the track, Huddle split 50:07.82 for 15k and 53:50 for 10 miles in route to her 17,930m one hour run.
NY Times: Des Linden Runs 31 Miles In Central Park On What Should Have Been NYC Marathon Weekend Linden ran this as part of her “calendar club” challenge which is seeing her run a mile for every calendar day of the month (496 total).
CNN Profile On Sara Hall:“I feel so, so grateful to be enjoying the sport the most I ever have at age 37.” Hall talks about London being the highlight of her career and adopting her four daughters from Ethiopia. *Discuss