January 5, 2021 | LetsRun.com

A New Year Means New Sponsorship Deals

LRC Ryan Hill Joins HOKA ONE ONE NAZ Elite Jonathan Gault breaks the news that Hill, the 2015 US 5k champ, is leaving Bowerman TC and is headed to Flagstaff, where he’ll chase his first Olympic berth.
*MB: Ryan Hill leaves BTC

Sponsorship MB Chatter

What Pro runners have not had their contracts renewed?
Kyle Merber makes official retirement announcement “I’m not done running, I’m just done getting paid for it.”
Why Would Saucony Drop Molly Seidel?
Ben True to Reebok Boston!?!?!

Japan Ends 2020 And Starts 2021 With Ekiden Action

Recommended Read: Komazawa Pulls Off Last-Second Come-From-Behind 2021 Hakone Ekiden Win After an “out-of-nowhere” day 1 win, underdog Soka University started the final day with a 2:14 lead and were poised to make history with a 3:19 lead going into the final 23km leg. But Komazawa caught up with 2km to go to pull off the first anchor stage comeback at Hakone in 20 years.
*Soka University Wins First-Ever Hakone Ekiden Day One Title

Fujitsu Wins Its 1st New Year Ekiden Title Since 2009 Olympic marathon Trials winner Shogo Nakamura gave Fujitsu the lead on the 4th leg and they never gave it back. Some new course records were set on legs 2 and 3. How about 21:53 for 8.3 km and 37:39 for 13.6?

2020 Podcasts Are In The Books

LRC Final Podcast of The Year: 2020 Track And Field Trivia, Year In Review See if you can do better than Rojo and Wejo in our 2020 track and field trivia contest.

LRC Remembering Rafer Johnson: Meb Keflezighi, Bob Larsen, Angel Martinez Share Their Memories The world lost an incredible man with the death of Olympic decathlon champ Rafer Johnson. We had 3 distance runners share their memories of this titan.

Random Articles That Make The Cut

Andy Young Says Covid-19 Olympic Delay Was A Blessing In Disguise For Jemma Reekie “Tokyo 2020 was probably 12 months too soon for Jemma, experience-wise.”
Track Used For 1995 World Indoors Is Being Returned To Its Original Home In Barcelona Due To Covid-19 It had been in Sabadell but the arena there is being used as a field hospital.
An Interesting Article On How NY-Born Eric Favors Of South Carolina Became An Irish Shot Put Star
Kelly Holmes Reveals It Took Her 13 Days To Feel “Semi-Human” After She Got Covid-19 By day 16, she was working out twice a day.
World Athletics 2020 Sprint Review
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta Signs Anti-Doping Amendment Bill Into Law
Thiam: “I know I can do something big in Tokyo because I’m so much stronger now.”
Coe Says GB’s Olympic Contenders Should Seek Advice From Ennis-Hill Sebastian Coe has urged Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson to seek out Jessica Ennis-Hill for advice on how to deal with the pressure of going for gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

NCAA News

Sprints / Jumps

The Tokyo 2020 Delay Was An “Incredible Chance” For GB Teenage Sprinter Amy Hunt “We’ve been given this extra year and it’s a year to get fitter and faster before trying to make our first Olympic team. So I think it’s worked out really well for me.”
The Evening Standard Looks To 2021: Dina Asher-Smith Set To Shine As Christian Coleman Misses Out As Usain Bolt Successor
Mondo Duplantis Believes He Can Go Even Higher “Growing up as a kid in event you see [Sergey] Bubka as almost this mythological creature. … Any record where you can knock him down a ranking is a pretty special feeling.”

Doping News

AIU Only Performed 60% Of Its Planned Out-Of-Competition Testing During COVID-19 Pandemic
Russian President Vladimir Putin And IOC President Thomas Bach Hold First Telephone Conversation Since CAS Decision To Halve Ban Bach’s close relationship with Putin has been criticized in the past.
US Track Athlete Jasmine Blocker Accepts Public Warning For Failing To Obtain A TUE Before Using Prohibited Medication

Doping News

Brenda Martinez Accepts No Fault Finding After Testing Positive For Banned Substance It was determined that she ingested the banned diuretic/masking agent without fault or negligence via a prescribed medication and therefore will not face any ban.
*MB: Brenda Martinez tested positive but is cleared by USADA
Chinese Government Criminalizes Doping Offenders face up to three years in prison and a fine.
Doping Whistleblowers Vitaly And Yulia Stepanov Have No Plans To Return To Russia Talking about their life in the US, Vitaly said, “Nobody really knows who we are. We don’t have many friends, but we do have friends that we appreciate and we are proud that they are part of our life.”

Big Week Of Ekiden Racing In Japan

Saturday: 2021 Hakone Ekiden Preview Brett Larner calls this Japan’s “biggest race of the year.”
Friday: 2021 New Year Ekiden Preview
Wednesday: Mount Fuji Women’s Ekiden Preview

Coe Defends Super Shoes

Seb Coe Shrugs Off Concerns That Nike Track Spikes Give Unfair Advantage Coe said he was “pretty calm” about the game-changing spikes and did not want to “stifle innovation.” He added that he thinks it’s a good thing for shoe companies to try to outdo each other.
Coe: “I don’t think we’ve reached that point where world records are being handed out like confetti. World records do matter.” However, Coe admits that they were “relatively late” getting in on monitoring the new shoe technology.

Sprint Stuff

Usain Bolt’s 9.58 A Decade On – The Science Behind The World’s Fastest Man Biomechanics expert Dr. Peter Weyand says it is a misconception that Bolt was a slow starter. In Bolt’s WR race, only Dwain Chambers was ahead of him after the first few strides.
Allyson Felix Plans On Having More Children After The Tokyo Olympics
Grenada Sprinter Bralon Taplin Gets Second Doping Ban For Whereabouts Failures Taplin was already banned for 4-years in 2019 and once his suspension ends in 2023, his next ban will go three years until 2026.
Tough Guidelines As Track And Field Set To Restart In Jamaica

Goodbye, 2020

LRC LetsRun.com’s Best Articles Of 2020: How To Turn Pro, Farewell To Coogan’s, Solinsky’s 26:59 Revisited And More We sifted through the hundreds of articles we published in 2020 to find the very best stories of the year. From a guide on how to turn professional, to a diatribe on the Vaporflys, to a a remembrance of Haile G‘s 12:44, to the inside scoop on Chris Solinsky‘s AR at 2010 Payton Jordan, check out the work we were proudest of in 2020.

LRC The 2020 LetsRun.com Awards Are Here: Best Runner, Best Comeback, Biggest Disappointment, Most Inspirational & More 2020 was full of highs and lows – just ask Sara Hall. We hand out awards for a year unlike any other.
*MB: The 2020 LetsRun.com Awards Are Out – Best Runner, Best Comeback, Biggest Disappointment, Most Inspirational & More

LRC The Best LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast Episodes Of 2020: Jim Ryun, Deena Kastor, The Big 3 Reunited, & More Though 2020 featured fewer races than normal, we had plenty to talk about as we cranked out 68 episodes of the LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast as we landed some incredible guests, including an Olympic gold medalist, a Boston Marathon champion, a world record holder, and one of the most popular authors on the planet. A look at eight of our best episodes of 2020.

News From The Americas

A Legend Has Died Joe Clark – Inspiration For Lean On Me – And Father Of Olympians Joetta , Hazel And Stanford Coach JJ Dies At 82
Toni Reavis’ Top 10 Most Popular Columns Of 2020 His column ripping the NY Times Op-Ed entitled, “Jogging Has Always Excluded Black People,” for being total BS was #2.
Natasha Wodak Reveals How She Chopped Nearly 9 Minutes Off Her PR And Ran 2:26:19 At Age 39
Cool Gesture Briana Williams Gives Over 100 Kids Christmas Gifts In Montego Bay Accompanied by Santa, she gave out gifts in the community where her mom grew up.
PodiumRunner: The 21 Best Running Shoes Of 2020 They don’t list a single shoe from Nike and only one shoe under $100 ($99).
Fat-Ass 50k Will Be Held On Vancouver For 28th-Straight Year On New Year’s It ends with a dip in the Pacific.

Assorted Pro Distance News

New Year’s Eve: San Silvestre Preview: Hellen Obiri And Genzebe Dibaba Trying To Break 5k And 10k World Records (translated)
*MB: Will PAUL CHELIMO get the American 10K record on Thursday?
Ryan Hill Leaving The Bowerman Track Club For A New Team And Sponsor In 2021 Looks like he’ll be joining Alistair Cragg‘s group in Chapel Hill.
European Athletics 6-Minute “My Story” Mini-Documentary On Jakob Ingebrigsten “My dream is to win as much as possible and run as fast as possible. I wouldn’t say that I am 100 percent if I’m not the fastest ever.”
Kelly Holmes: Why Your Struggles Can Make Success So Much Sweeter “Too many people give up, unfortunately, before they know how much they can achieve in life and I’m just pleased that I didn’t so that I can pass that message on.”

Other News

Bills Fan Runs Marathon Around Monday Night Football Game A dare over some beers led to a marathon in a Josh Allen jersey and raising $3,200 for a children’s hospital.
NY Times: With Each Run, A City Shaken By Racism Is ‘Finding the Greater Good’ A ~5 mile route one man, William Jones III, ran solo for years has grown into a group morning run with up to 75 people.
Boston Leg Of The World Athletics Indoor Tour Rescheduled From February 6 To February 13 This is a reaction to the cancellation of the Millrose Games which was supposed to be the newest edition to the World Athletics Tour.

Japan Ekiden Updates

Tokyo 2020 Updates

Japan Bans Foreign Visitors As COVID-19 Cases Spike And New Faster-Spreading Strain Detected No foreign travelers will be allowed to enter the country until at least the end of January.
Japanese Olympic Minister Under Fire For Breaking COVID-19 Guidelines She attended a group dinner with over five people. There were six! 😱
AFP: Masked And Muted Olympics To Dominate Crowded 2021 Sports Calendar
Tokyo 2020 Host Towns Facing Uncertainty And Concerns Over COVID-19

More 2020 In Review

World Athletics’ 2020 Review: Road And Cross-Country It was a year of world records from the 5k to the half marathon.
World Athletics’ 2020 Review: Hurdles On the men’s side, Orlando Ortega‘s 13.11 was was the slowest world-leading time in 33-years. For the women, only 17 runners broke the 13-second barrier whereas 65 had last year.
World Athletics Videos: 20 Moments In 2020
DyeStat’s Top Zoom Interviews Of 2020
DyeStat’s Photos Of The Year For 2020

Give The Gift Of LetsRun.com This Holiday Season

More New Year Stuff

GB Athlete New Year Resolutions And 2021 Targets Thank you to British champions Jess Judd (5,000m) and Keely Hodgkinson (800m) for actually giving a straight answer to the resolution question.
NAZ Elite 2020 Review: From Aliphine Tuliamuk’s OT Win To The Marathon Project
USATF 2020 Review: Despite Difficult Year, Team USATF Shined Bright
DyeStat’s 2020 Memoriam – Paying Respects To Prominent Members Of The Track Community Who Died This Year
Athletics Weekly’s 2020 Quiz

New Year’s Eve And New Year’s Action

Paul Chelimo Doesn’t Come Close To American Record In Spain He was third in 28:14 as Daniel Ebenyo won on 27:41. Yulemzerf Yehualaw Densa (31:17) crushed Ruth Chepngetich (31:50) to win women’s title.
Genzebe Dibaba Comes Up Short In 5k WR Attempt As She Runs 15:00 In Barcelona She went out hard (5:52 for 2k) but faded and failed to get the 14:44 record.
Hellen Obiri Fails To Get 29:43 WR As She Wins In 30:53 After Falling 2 Minutes Into The Race
World 5,000 Silver Medalist Margaret Kipkemboi Wins Italy’s Bolzano 10k In 30:43 Dorcas Jepchirchir was 2nd as 8:59 steeplechaser Norah Tanui was third in 30:46.
19-Year-Old Ugandan Oscar Chelimo Wins Bolzano Men’s 5k In 13:18 Unheralded Belgian Robin Hendrix just missed the European 5k road record in 2nd in 13:19 as Muktar Edris was just 6th in 13:24.

Previous News From Kenya

Kenyan Senate Unanimously Passes Bill That Criminalizes Doping With Jail Sentences
Senators Ask Government To Exempt Athletes From Double Taxation Some think it’s unfair runners often get taxed where the race is held and then again in Kenya.

The History Of Seb Coe

Athletics Weekly: Seb Coe: Britain’s Greatest-Ever Athlete? AW is putting out a six-part series on Coe, this one focusing on the highlights of his racing career including his top 10 races.
Coe Chronicles – The Junior Years A rundown of Coe’s races from 15-19 years old.
Coe Chronicles: 1976 To 1979 – Early Senior Strides To First World Record

More 2020 Highlights

World Athletics’ 2020 Middle And Long Distance Review The highlight of the year can be summed up in two words: Joshua Cheptegei.
Athletics Weekly’s 2020 Recap They run through the month-by-month highlights.
Runner’s World: Average Running Pace And Running Data in 2020 – How Covid Affected Running There was more running, but it was done at a slower pace.
DyeStat: 20 Men Who Made The Most Of A Difficult Year In 2020 Joshua Cheptegei, Galen Rupp and Donavan Brazier are among those on their list.
DyeStat: 20 Women Who Made The Most Of A Difficult Year In 2020 The list includes the BTC women, Sara Hall and Keira D’Amato.
World And European LJ Champion Malaika Mihambo Named German Athlete of The Year She held the world lead both indoors (7.07m) and outdoors (7.03m).

End-Of-Year Action

Stewart McSweyn Breaks Australian All-Comers Record With World-Leading 3:50.61 Mile Stewart had a pacer for the first 800m, but ran the second half solo and won by 19 seconds.
*MB: WTF Stewy McSewyn runs 3:50.61 mile in of all places Penguin Tasmania!
Paul Chelimo Racing The San Silvestre 10k On New Year’s Eve (translated) He’s going to be trying to break the US 10k record of 27:48 held jointly by Bernard Lagat and Mark Nenow. (Note: The usual course is not record eligible as it’s downhill, but this year the mass race is cancelled and the elite-only looped course is record eligible.)
AW Weekly Round-Up: Former NCAA XC Champ Kate Avery Wins Podium 5k In The UK (16:18)