Start Off The New Year With A New Book

LRC Out of Thin Air Book Review: A Deep Look Into Ethiopian Running Culture Despite producing 42 of the 100 fastest men’s marathoners of all time and distance legends like Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, few English-speaking writers have truly explored Ethiopian running culture. Michael Crawley changes that with his new book. 5 stars out of 5. Purchase here.

LRC Free Book Excerpt: Why “Idil” Is More Important Than Talent For Amhara Ethiopian Runners We greatly enjoyed Michael Crawley‘s new book on Ethiopian distance running and this free excerpt will show you why. Did you know that most Ethiopians don’t believe in the idea of “talent”? Plus Crawley explains why pursuing a running career isn’t always an option for Ethiopians.

Japan Distance News

• Recommended Read: The Captivating Allure Of The Hakone Ekiden, One Of Japan’s Most Popular Annual Sporting Events What is it about this 10-leg, 217km relay race that gets half the Japanese population to tune in and sees the athletes treated like pop stars?
• Osaka Women’s Marathon Looks To Go Ahead Despite Coronavirus Pending State Of Emergency The January 31st race has Tokyo Olympic marathon team members Mao Ichiyama and Honami Maeda among the less-than-100-athlete field.

Indoors 2021

Armory Closing For Indoor Season To “Support A Community Initiative” They hosted more than 20 meets using “stringent health protocols” during the start of the indoor season and don’t give a specific reason why they are stopping, but becoming a COVID vaccine center seems a logical possibility.

Results From East Africa

• Abe Gashahun (28:20) And Tsigie Gebreselama (32:33) Win Great Ethiopian Run 10k Gashahun just beat out world U20 XC silver medalist Tadese Worku by one second while Gebreselama won by two seconds.
• Abel Kipsang Wins The 1,600m At First Leg Of Athletics Kenya Relay Series No, that’s not a typo. AK vice president Paul Mutwii explained the distance was moved up from 1,500m to “test the athlete’s endurance.”

Will There Be Any Action This Winter?

2021 USATF Indoor Championships Cancelled Due To Coronavirus USATF says their COVID-19 Working Group was working on a “rigorous set of protocols” that would let them hold the championships, but the restrictions in New Mexico were too severe.

LRC Good News: There Will Be A 2021 Indoor Track Season But It Will Look Much Different Than Normal There will be a 2021 indoor season, but college meets will be more exclusive than ever, and USA Indoors is very much up in the air. Thankfully Paul Doyle has stepped up and created the  four-meet American Track League that will air on ESPN as he doesn’t know of a single college meet that will accept unattached athletes.
*MB: New ESPN Indoor Track Series

More Whereabouts Doping Bans

• Kenya’s Former World Junior 800m Champ Alfred Kipketer Gets 2-Year Ban After Missing Four Drug Tests In A Year The 2016 Olympic finalist didn’t give any explanation for three of the four failed tests
  *MB: Alfred Kipketer banned for two years
• Olympic LJ Silver Medalist Luvo Manyonga Gets Provisional Suspension For Whereabouts Failures Manyonga has battled a drug addiction in the past and was previously suspended 18-months after testing positive for crystal meth.

NCAA News

The Stride Report Ranks The Top 25 Men’s Distance Runners In The NCAA *#1-13 *#14-25 *Honorable Mention Luis Grijalva and Yareg Nuguse are 1-2.
Top 25 Women: *#1-13 *#14-25 *Honorable Mention  Ella Donaghu and Katie Izzo are #1-2.

• Annie Fuller (2:08/4:17) To Finish Eligibility At Texas A&M
• 28:40 Man Shea Foster Says He’ll Finish His NCAA Career At Oklahoma State
• Nia Akins (Brooks Beasts) Is Given NCAA’s Prestigious Today’s Top 10 Award She is the first Penn student-athlete and just the 12th Ivy Leaguer to be honored since the award started being given annually in 1973.

Big News From Kenya

• World Half Marathon WR Holder Kibiwot Kandie Says He’ll Focus On Track In 2021 To Try To Get 10,000 Glory – His 5,000 And 10,000 Track PRs Are Only 14:19/28:45.
• Athletics Kenya Senior Vice President Says “Definitely” There Will Be Changes Made To Kenyan Olympic Marathon Team Based On Current Fitness Let’s hope they aren’t dumb enough to dump Kipchoge.
• Peres Chepchirchir – LetsRun.com’s Runner Of The Year – Says She Hopes She’s Named To The Kenyan Olympic Team The problem is her is that before Covid-19 Kenya named a pretty darn good team of Brigid Kosgei, Ruth Chepngetich and Vivian Cheruiyot. “My new year wish is to see if Athletics Kenya can consider my performance and make an amendment on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon team by including me in the squad,” said Chepchirchir.