January 12, 2021 Homepage Archive

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.

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

RRW A New Outdoor Track Meet Will Be Held In Austin, Texas On February 26-27 That Will Target Olympic And Olympic Trials Qualifying Marks

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 MentionLuis 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.

US Distance Interviews

Bowerman Track Club’s Andrew Bumbalough Retires From The Sport In this podcast interview, the 13:12/2:10:56 runner talks about the decision, his career and transitioning into coaching. *Video Version Of Interview
*MB: Andrew Bumbalough retires
MB:Ryan Hill Details Why He Left Nike BTC For Hoka NAZ 55-minute video interview.
Olympic Channel Podcast With Emma Coburn Talking About Her 2021 Goals She also talks about starting the Athletics Association with Christian Taylor.

Hosting News – Could 2025 Worlds Go To Kenya?

Kenya Confirms It’s Bidding For The 2025 World Championships Eugene hosted the World Junior Championships in 2014 before they won the bid to host 2021 Worlds and Kenya is set to host World Juniors (U20s) this summer.
Host City Bidding Process Launched For 2025 Worlds, 2023 World Relays And The New 2023 World Road Running Championships The new World Athletics Road Running Championships will combine the World Half Champs with a road 5k championship race and recreational races for the masses.
World Athletics Due To Choose The Hosts For 2025 World Champs In December 2021

Distance Profiles

Recommended Read:Lengthy T&F News Interview With Sara Hall On Everything From The Olympic Marathon Trials To Parenting To What’s Next Hall says she can’t “wrap her head” around why they put the marathon trials on a very hilly course when the Games will be flat. She also says she’ll try to make Tokyo on the track, but if not isn’t counting herself out of 2024.
Good Read:RIP: Legendary GB Miler Bill Nankeville Dies At Age 95- The two-time Olympian was 6th in the 1,500m at the 1948 London Games. He also ran on a relay team with Roger Bannister to break the 4 x 1 mile record in 1953.
Ben Rosario Gives Some Updates On Aliphine Tuliamuk As She Prepares To Give Birth This Month Rosario: “I just think this is an ideal situation for her. That’s a weird thing to say. A happy Aliphine is a dangerous Aliphine when it comes to competing.”

Tokyo 2020 News

British Olympic Association Says Team GB Athletes Won’t Jump The Queue To Get COVID-19 Vaccine Ahead Of Tokyo Games This was in response to Dick Pound‘s statement where he suggested athletes could skip ahead to get the vaccine.
IOC Member Dick Pound Isn’t Sure The Tokyo Games Will Happen “I can’t be certain because the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus.”
The Telegraph: Tokyo Olympic Officials Planning For “Safe And Secure” Games Despite State Of Emergency Being Declared In Tokyo Officials tried to spin the state of emergency as a good thing saying it “offers an opportunity for Tokyo 2020 to plan …”
USA Today:“Yes, There Will Be An Olympics In 2021, Organizers Say. Here’s What They Will Look Like.”

LetsJump.com

Ukraine’s World HJ Silver Medalist Yaroslava Mahuchikh Opens Her Season With 2.02m To Match Her Own Indoor NR
Aussie Nina Kennedy Clears 4.75m To Win PV In Perth Commonwealth Games champ Kurtis Marschall won the men’s event in 5.80m.
Olympic HJer Chaunte Lowe Wins NCAA’s 2021 Inspiration Award For Sharing Her Battle With Breast Cancer The 36-year-old was diagnosed in June 2019, but is now cancer free and working towards trying to make her fifth Olympics.
Russian Olympic HJ Champ And Doper Anna Chicherova Reverses Retirement Decision The 38-year-old was going to retire at the end of 2020. It’s unclear if she’ll be able to compete internationally as World Athletics previously denied her neutral athlete application.
Q&A:Canadian Olympic PVer And Former NCAA Runner-Up Kelsie Ahbe Retires She’s now pursuing a career in nursing.

LRC Exclusives

LRCPodcast: 2021 (Tokyo Olympic) Predictions + Supershoes With Geoff Burns We give out our predictions for the 2021 Olympics and talk to supershoe expert Geoff Burns to see if the playing field is anywhere close to level (no, it is not).
Discuss: Geoff Burns on super spikes “2021 on the track is going to look like 2018 on the roads”

Breaking News: LRC A LetsRun.com Poster Who Does Not Have A Super-Hot Wife, A Sub-14 5k PR, Or A Million-Dollar Job Won Our Marathon Project Prediction Contest
*MB: Confession: Guy who won our prediction contest admits he doesn’t make 7 figures over have a super hot spouse

Sprint / Field Links

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

Saucony announces that it has signed Canadian marathon champion and Olympian-to-be Trevor Hofbauer (2:09:51 pb)

Sponsorship MB Chatter

What Pro runners have not had their contracts renewed?
Kate Grace leaves BTC, but stays with Nike
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!?!?!

Olympics-Related News

Survey Finds 80% Of Japanese People Want Tokyo 2020 Cancelled Or Postponed 35.3% wanted it cancelled and 44.8% said it should be postponed again.
Dick Pound Calls Out The US Over Olympic Reform Bill (Which Allows The US Government To Interfere With The USOPC) And WADA Disputes “We will have to wait and see but at some point if the U.S. becomes a rogue state I think we will start looking at whether the Games in Los Angeles should proceed.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Leads Tributes To Dick Pound As He Steps Down From WADA Foundation Board
Oldest Living Olympic Champion Celebrates 100th Birthday Hungary’s Ágnes Keleti has 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics.

Sponsorship Changes

LRC Keeping Track Of Pros Who Have Switched Sponsors In 2021 A number of pros are no longer being sponsored by Nike. A bunch of them including Sandi Morris and Gesa Krause have signed with Puma.