November 08, 2020 Homepage Archive

Sprints, Jumps And Throws

Olympic TJ Silver Medalist Will Claye Says He Did Not Do One Jump In 2020 As He Wanted To Let His Body Rest “I did a lot of jumps mentally knowing the body doesn’t know whether those were real or not. The body takes those in as real reps.”
German Javelin Thrower Johannes Vetter Says His Goals For 2021 Are To Stay Healthy And Win Olympic Gold; Not To Break The WR Vetter moved to #2 all-time and came within a meter of the 24-year-old mark earlier this year when he threw 97.76m.
RIP British Two-Time Olympic Medalist Sprinter June Foulds, 86 Foulds won Olympic 4×100 bronze and silver at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics and also set numerous world records in relay events.

Upcoming Distance Action

RRW:Keira D’Amato To Make 10-Mile Record Attempt At Micro Race She’s trying to break the US all-women’s 10 mile record of 52:12 on November 23rd in the Washington DC area.
RRW: Virtual Manchester Road Race Features Current Elites And A Dozen Past Champions Those running the Thanksgiving Day race include Paul Chelimo, Donn Cabral, Johnny Gregorek, Molly Huddle, Eilish McColgan and Edna Kiplagat.
December 6: Strong Fields Announced For Elite-Only Valencia Marathon And Half-Marathon Birhanu Legese (2:02:48), world champ Lelisa Desisa, Rutia Aga (2:18:34) and world half champ Peres Chepchirchir lead the marathon field while 10k WR holder Rhonex Kipruto, world 5,000m record holder Letesenbet Gidey and Genzebe Dibaba are making their half debuts.
Sunday:Ethiopia’s Hailu Zewdu (2:06:31) And Kenya’s Diana Chemtai (2:22:07) Lead Istanbul Marathon Fields
Saturday: Paralympian Henry Wanyoike Leads Kenyan Team For “The Africa Challenge” – Virtual Race Between Kenya And South Africa
Lindsey Scherf Will Attempt To Break The Women’s 50k World Record At The Armory This Winter The current record is 3:07:20 by UK’s Aly Dixon from 2019 (about 6:04 mile pace). The race was originally set for Nov. 5th, but has been rescheduled.

Covid News – We Hope You Don’t Live In MA Or The UK

How The Latest Month-Long Lockdown Affects UK Athletics All group training is outlawed but you can train with one other person.
Starting Friday, Massachusetts Will Require Mask Wearing At All Times In All Public Places Even If You Are Socially Distanced *MA Rule
Covid-19 Breaks Out On K State Track Team – 10 Test Positive

Sprint News

Wayde van Niekerk Says He’s Going To Do A Few More Races Over The Next Few Weeks After His Recent 45.89 He predicts everything “will come together at the perfect time” in 2021.
Coach Is Mad As Kiwi Olympic 100m Hope Edward Osei-Nketia (10.19s) Has Broken His Arm In A Bike Accident

Random

Struggling With Anxiety During The Pandemic? Study shows lifting weights and doing lunges can help lower your anxiety. We imagine all exercise would basically show this.
Why Does It Feel Like You Run Faster In The Dark? It has everything to do with optic flow rates.
Ans Botha (van Niekerk’s Coach) And Helena Duplantis Are Two Of The Speakers At Online International Festival Of Athletics Coaching Conference This Weekend

Distance News

Interview With Michigan Pro Half Winner Keira D’Amato D’Amato says she’s planning on trying to break the US women’s-only 10-mile record on November 23rd. (Current record is 52:12 by Janet Cherobon-Bawcom from 2014 …fun fact, D’Amato held the finish line tape for that race.)
Podcast: Sara Hall on her Epic London Marathon Performance and How to Go Beyond Perceived Limits
Athletics Weekly Takes A Look Back At 1980 Olympic 800m Champ Steve Ovett’s 15 Best Races
World Athletics Marks Looks Back At Six Standout Moments From The World Athletics Relays The USA women’s DMR in 2015 makes their list.

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.

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.

Looking Back

Good Read: World Athletics:Remembering Grete Waitz On The Anniversary Of Her Ninth New York Marathon Victory The story behind Waitz’s first marathon is pretty interesting as she had never run more than 12 miles and wasn’t taking the race super seriously. Afterwards she threw her shoe at her husband for “getting her into this mess,” but had won the race by 9 minutes and set a new WR at 2:32:29.
A Look Back At When Yohan Blake Became The Youngest Ever World 100m Champion At Daegu 2011 After Usain Bolt was DQed for a false start, Blake won it in 9.92.
Julie Brown Named USATF Throwback Athlete Of The Week For Setting The US Women’s 5,000m Record At 16:14.0 In 1976

News From Japan

Runner Hit By Car During Nagasaki Prefecture High School Ekiden The runner went to the hospital, but did not suffer any life-threatening injuries.
2021 Nagano Marathon Will Go Ahead As Scheduled In April With Field Of 8,000, But No International Entries
Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga Suggests 2020 Would Be A Potential Opportunity To Meet With North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un

College News Of Note

Good News William & Mary Reinstates ALL Cut Sports, Including Men’s Track And Field
Bad News Clemson Axes Mens XC And Track Teams A school that is less than 10% Black/Hispanic just cut one of its more diverse sports.”Of Clemson’s men’s sports, only men’s track and field and cross-country could provide the Department with both substantial cost savings as well as the ability for long-term Title IX compliance.”
MB NCAA announces selection criteria for 2021 NCAA XCs How teams do at their conference championships is the #1 criteria. In terms of individual qualification, the #1 runner in every conference not on a qualifying team will automatically make it.
Alton McKenzie ’93 Named New Georgetown Director Of Track And Field/XC
A Look Back At Jim Ryun’s Only NCAA Outdoor Title In 1967 In 1966, freshmen weren’t allowed to compete at NCAAs and Ryun was TFN track and field athlete of the year.
11.31/22.42 Sprinter Amy Hunt Writes About Juggling Her 1st Year Ar Cambridge University While Being The World’s #1 Junior Sprinter
Track And Field News Tells You Where The Top HS Boys Recruits From The Class Of 2020 Went To College

Whom Did LRC Nation Vote For?

LRC Whom Did The LetsRun.com Visitors Support In The US Presidential Election? Click Here To Find Out LRC visitors say they overwhelmingly supported one of the US presidential candidates. Find out which one it was here.
*MB: Whom did the LetsRun.com visitors vote for in the 2020 US Presidential Election?

Previous Links That We Liked

Eliud Kipchoge Says Repeating As Olympic Marathon Champ Is His #1 Goal For 2021, Not Sure About Running London Two Months Later We think November’s NYC marathon would make a lot more sense.
Great News: The Oldest Continuous Road Race In The World – Buffalo’s YMCA Turkey Trot 8-K – Will Be Held For A Record 125th-Straight Year This Year Thousands normally run but only 125 will be allowed to run in-person this year. The rest will race virtually but the good news is the streak will continue.
Ex-Coogan’s Owner Peter Walsh Pens Column About Why He Voted On Tuesday “I [voted as a bar/restaurant owner who tossed out patrons who thought insulting women and dropping racist remarks was acceptable conduct.” *Peter Walsh Podcast *VIP Discuss
Cathal Dennehy Profiles Australian 800 Aces Peter Bol And Joseph Deng The Sudanese refugees have known each other for 13 years, train together, live together, both run 1:44 and dream of the Olympic final.
15-Year-Old Australian Breaks World U16 1,000m Mark With A 2:25.70
Wisconsin HS State XC Meet Was Run In 3 Waves, So The Winner Had To Wait 7 Hours To See If He Was The Winner

Previous 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

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

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.

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US News, HS Through Pro

Satellite XC Club Boys And Mt. Prospect XC Club Girls Win Hoka Postal Nationals Championship The virtual race saw teams submit their two-mile times with the best 5-man total time winning. Satellite XC averaged 9:27 with their top man running 9:07.78.
USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA Round-Up: DIII And NAIA Conference Champs
USATF Foundation Awards Pitch Johnson $1,500 Grants To 50 Athletes

Links That We Found Interesting

Norwegian 800 Record Holder Hedda Hynne Writes About What It’s Like To Date Your Coach And Go From 1:59.87 To 1:58.10 At Age 30
Oregon Track Writer Ken Goe Is Retiring Friday – Read His Final Column “I walked into The Oregonian in 1977 on my first day as the youngest full-time employee of the newsroom. I exit for a final time on Friday as the oldest.”
Reasons Why Next Weekend’s XC Town USA Meet Of Champions Is A Must-Run And Must-Watch event Newbury Park HS, Sydney Thorvaldson and Paul Chelimo are all racing.
Under Pressure: Why Athletes Choke
The Quest To Build A Better Sports Bra Sports bras are much better now than they were 40+ years ago when two jock straps were sewn together to form the first jogbra.
Sportswear Shop In Iten Is Hurting As Pros Aren’t Making Any Money At Road Races During Covid-19 A look at how the $$ earned by track athletes has transformed Eldoret.
Study Shows Running And Performing Other Aerobic Exercises On A Regular Basis For Just Six Months Can Boost Brain Function By 5.7 Per Cent

Doping News

UK Anti-Doping Has Done 1/3 The Amount Of Tests As Normal This Year And Jess Judd Says It’s Created A “Free-For-All” For Dopers
Euro Cross Winner Robel Fsiha’s Steroid Ban Is Confirmed He was given a four-year ban by the Swedish athletics federation for using artificial testosterone at his pre-Euro Cross training camp in Addis Ababa.
Russia’s CAS Appeal Has Concluded, Verdict Is Expected In 2 Months

Women’s News

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.