February 07, 2021 Homepage Archive

ATL #3 *Entries, TV/Streaming Information

BREAKING: HOBBS KESSLER 3:57.66 MILE NEW HS RECORD!!! Kessler set a huge PR to break Drew Hunter‘s indoor record of 3:57.81. However, he stepped inside the rail with 250m to go, will he be DQed?

LRC ATL #3 Preview: Bromell Vs. Baker & A Fast Men’s Mile On Super Bowl Sunday? The third ATL meet of 2021 will be held directly before Super Bowl LV, so you can switch over to the big game at 6:30 p.m. ET and not miss a second. Trayvon Bromell vs. Ronnie Baker is the big showdown, pitting two of the world’s fastest men at 60 meters.

Big HS News

Doug Soles, Who Has Coached Great Oak To 14 CA HS State Titles And One NXN Title, Is Resigning After This Year It sounds like the known conservative is tired of being harassed. Recently pictures of his kids were put up on social media.
*MB: Soles will resign at Great Oak and leave California

Winter NCAA XC

FSU XC Winter Invite:
Women: #8 Colorado Edge #4 Stanford (72 To 77) Stanford’s Ella Donaghu was the individual winner as Stanford frosh Zofia Dudek impressed in 3rd in her debut.

Men: #12 Stanford Wins With 67 As #6 Iowa State And #13 Colorado Both Score 98 Iowa State’s Wesley Kiptoo was DOMINANT as he won by 15 seconds.
*MB: Kiptoo wins, breaks course record, Stanford freshmen (Dudek, Sprout) impress in debut
*MB: Colorado-Iowa State-Stanford @ FSU Winter XC Classic (2/5)

More NCAA XC: Oregon’s Jackson Mestler Wins Oregon XC Open 8k In 24:01 Mestler came in ahead of a seven-man wave of seven University of Portland runners. Oregon’s Carmela Cardama Baez won the women’s 5K in 16:41. *Results
USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA XC Round-Up American Athletic and Southern Conference Athletic Conference Championships.

Olympic News

President Of Tokyo Organizing Committee Apologizes For Suggesting Women Talk Too Much In Meetings. 83-year-old Yoshiro Mori suggested women’s speaking time in meetings should be limited “or else we’ll never be able to finish.”
*Tokyo Olympics Chief Says Women Talk Too Much At Meetings, Calls It “Annoying”
*MB: Business people, do men or women talk more in your work meetings? Or is it the same? (Re: Sexist Tokyo Olympic Comments)
Athletic Kenya Head Jack Tuwei: “I am hoping and praying that the (Olympic) games will not be cancelled.” He also says many Kenyans are depressed that RAK Half was cancelled as they wanted to make some money
Alan Abrahamson Calls On Thomas Bach And The Olympic Movement To Organize A Vaccine Drive To Rid The World Of Covid-19 By The Time The 2022 Winter Games Start He wants Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Oprah Winfrey involved and wants Mitt Romney to run the effort.
Jonathan Marks – Agent To Many Olympic Stars – Calls For Normal Olympic Format To Be Scrapped His somehow seems to think adding e-sports and mixed martial arts will save the day.

Tokyo 2021 – No Bars And No Verbal Cheering?

MB: Tokyo Organizers publish 1st “playbook” for Olympics so Games can go ahead, verbal cheering will be banned as will trips to restaurants and bars during one’s 1st 14 days in the country The 1st set of rules which are supposed to evolve over time are technically for international federation and technical officials.

More Administrative News NCAA Division III Cancels Winter Championships

Very Disappointing News

RRW Much-Hyped 2021 RAK Half-Marathon Is Cancelled Two Weeks Out Due To Covid-19 The race was scheduled for February 19th and was to feature stacked fields, including Kibiwott Kandie, Jacob Kiplimo, Geoffrey Kamworor, Ababel Yeshaneh and Brigid Kosgei.

More COVID Cancellations:

LA Marathon Postponed Again Due To COVID Concerns The race was originally scheduled for March and then pushed back to May. Now it’s been moved to later in the year, date TBD.
Nagano Marathon In Japan Cancelled The race was scheduled for April.
2021 USATF Youth Indoor Championships Cancelled
2021 European Throwing Cup In Portugal Postponed

Save Men’s Track

Clemson University’s Cutting Of Men’s Track Prompts Federal Civil Rights Complaint The complaint alleges that Clemson University is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination.
Committee To Reinstate Central Michigan Men’s Track And Field Hosts Virtual Town Hall The committee says they’ve had multiple meetings with the university over the last few months and that men’s track and field is still on the table as an option at CMU.

Distance News

Geoffrey Kamworor Targeting Half Marathon WR In Return From Injury Kamworor was supposed to go up against a stacked field later this month at the now cancelled RAK Half.
Robert Kiprop And Daisy Cherotich Win Discovery Kenya XC Champs
Nibrat Melak And Zewditu Aderew Win Jan Meda XC Race In Ethiopia 65-minute half marathoner Senbere Teferi anchored her mixed-gender relay team to the win while Melak won over a field that included world 5,000 champ Muktar Edris.
MB:Keira D’Amato has signed Pro contract She said she will reveal which shoe company at her next race.

COVID Related Updates From The UK / Ireland

British Athletes Call Out UK Athletics Over Lack Of Competition Opportunities Despite Government Exemptions For Elite Sport Former world 400H champ Dai Greene: “I don’t understand how the Government can say it’s OK for elite sport to go ahead and then in a non-contact sport with very limited fields we can’t seem to hold the smallest of competitions.”
UK Athletics Using Three “Micro-Meeting Qualifiers” To Choose Team For Euro Indoor Champs This in place of the cancelled British Indoor Champs.
Ireland Looking At Having Smaller “Elite Only” Micro Meet In Place Of Their Cancelled Indoor Champs
Welsh Government Eases COVID Restrictions To Allow Two People To Train Together Partly Due To Complaints From Female Athletes Some Welsh sprinters are among those who said they’ve been harassed by strangers when training in public.

Really Good Or All-Time Great Good?

LRC VIP Cooper Teare & The Record-Breaking Oregon DMR Team Discuss Their 2021 Plans: “This Will Be One of Those All-Time Great Oregon Teams“ Jonathan Gault talked to coach Ben Thomas and the Oregon distance stars to get their plans for the rest of the year. They reveal they “might” do XC, but after running an NCAA record of 9:19.42 in their season opener it looks like the goal is the NCAA team title indoors. “The way these guys have stuck with it and kept their edge, it’s been really special,” said Thomas. Plus how does the squad compares to the all-time great Oregon squads? (Sub required. 100% of subscriptions through Wednesday go to Jonathan Gault in honor of his 30th bday).
*MB:Catching up with Cooper Teare and the studly Oregon distance squad. Teare reveals they “might” do xc.
*MB: U of O Men: Rivaling their best Mid-D team Ever??

NCAA Indoor

MB: Athing Mu runs 50.52 for open 400 m – Can she break 49 in the 400 outdoors this year? That’s #4 all-time in US history.
Tripp Piperi Breaks Ryan Crouser’s Texas Indoor Shot Put Record With 21.74m
Arkansas Men Nab Team Victory At Arkansas Qualifier Home Meet They beat Missouri by just 7 points. *Full Results
Arkansas Women Total Seven Victories To Take Dominant Team Victory At Home
Good News:DII Affirms Plans To Host Winter Championships
USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA Indoor Round-Up

Sprints / Jumps

Mondo Duplantis Regains World PV Lead With 6.03m To Beat Renaud Lavillenie And Chris Nilsen At The Perche Elite Tour Meet GB’s Holly Bradshaw won the women’s competition in a world-leading 4.85m.
Reigning Olympic 400m Silver Medalist Kirani James Doesn’t Know When He’ll Open His Season He hasn’t competed since the 2019 World Champs and it’s just 6-months to go until Tokyo.

International Track Results

Jacko Gill Throws 21.52m PR To Beat Rival Tom Walsh In Christchurch Shot Put Valerie Adams won the women’s competition with a season’s best 18.41m.
Germany’s World LJ Champ Malaika Mihambo Jumps 6.77m World Lead To Win ISTAF Indoor Berlin Meet US’s Christina Clemons set a world lead in the 60H with 7.83.
Men’s ISTAF Berlin 60H Comes Down To Photo Finish Between US’s Aaron Mallett And Olympic Silver Medalist Orlando Ortega Both were timed at 7.64, but Mallett got the win.

Women In The News

Video Interview With Lauren Gregory Of Arkansas She’s #1 in the NCAA in the mile and 3k. Can she lead the Hogs to the NCAA title at home?
Athing Mu Is Loving Her Decision To Go To College, Not Turn Pro
*Mu Will Run Open 400 This Weekend
Indoor HJ World Record Holder Kajsa Bergqvist (2.08m) Calls 19-Year-Old Jaroslava Mahuchikh “… the greatest high jump talent that has ever existed,” “I’m not surprised. She has raised her heights constantly and is, as I see it, the greatest high jump talent that has ever existed.”
Q&A With Elizabeth Mathews, Youth Coach And Mom Of Australian Olympian Luke Matthews
35-Year-Old Australian Mom Lauren Reid Talks About Her Recent 15:45 Parkrun WR She appears to have a 15:57 track PR. She also wrote about it on Instagram here.
The History Of Inequality In Women’s Running
Dina Asher-Smith On Fame: “I always say nobody is really in track and field to get famous.” That may be true, but Asher-Smith, who has had the same coach (John Blackie) since age 8, is famous in the UK.
Lucia Stafford And Coach Terry Radchenko Talk About Running A World-Leading 4:05 1,500m Lucia is the younger sis of Gabriel Debues-Stafford.
Former Irish hurdler Derval O’Rourke Adds To The Praises Of Jerry Kiernan, Who Died Recently Jerry Kiernan would give her all of his notes two hours before a TV broadcast. “[It’s] really unusual in that world, for someone to be so generous.”
World LJ Champ Malaika Mihambo: “When I was 12 I dreamt of being number one but these were just dreams.”

Mid-D News

MB: It’s official. Colleen Quigley has left the BTC. The LRC message board has been vindicated yet again as for days people were saying the OP was making things up.
Virtue Signal UK Athletics Ethics Committee To Examine Charlie Grice’s Decision To Join Pete Julian’s Group Since Julian Assisted The Now-Banned Alberto Salazar Grice’s decision to work with Julian, who was Salazar’s assistant, has not been referred to the UK Athletics “new standards, ethics and rules committee.”
NCAA DII 800 Champ Thomas Staines (1:45.57) Of CSU-Pueblo Signs With UnderArmour’s The District Track Club While raised in the US, he’ll run for GBR as both his mom and dad were British Olympians. Linda was a 50.98 400 runner while dad Gary was a 3:53 miler and 13:14 guy.
Video Chat With Big 10 XC Champ And 3:39 1,500 Runner George Kusche
Catching Up With Puerto Rico’s 800 Stars Wesley Vazquez And Ryan Sanchez Vazquez reveals a sports hernia derailed him in 2020 while Sanchez reveals his step-dad has him on a new weight training program.
Laura Muir Will Not Defend European Indoor titles “In the year of the Olympics, we tend to focus on the outdoors,” said Muir, who will compete some indoors however.
Britain’s Jamie Webb PRs Again (1:46.45) To Win 800 In Ostrava
*Full Ostrava Recap By World Athletics Three-time world indoor champion Pavel Maslak won the 400m in a season’s best of 46.22.

Mid-D News

Cruz Culpepper And Father Alan Now On Father-Son Sub-4 List Bring Back The Mile keeps a list of the 13 father/son combos (the Culpepper’s are the 9th fastest).
RRW:Triple South African Champion Marius Van Heerden Has Died From COVID-19 The former middle-distance runner was only 46-years-old.
Laura Muir Skipping European Indoor Champs To Focus On The Olympics She says she didn’t do a big indoor season in 2016 either.

It’s NCAA XC Season Too

Colorado Buffaloes Ready For Unusual XC / Indoor Season Mark Wetmore: “Every coach in the country is looking at that chessboard strategically … our distance runners are beginning the season as cross-country runners.”
MB:Colorado-Iowa State-Stanford @ FSU Winter XC Classic (2/5)
NCAA DI Men’s XC Regional Rankings
NCAA DI Women’s XC Regional Rankings

Olympic News

Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori Says The Olympic Will Go Ahead “However The Coronavirus Evolves” “We must go beyond discussion about whether we will hold it or not. It’s about how we will do it.”
Does He Get A Say In This?Bill Gates Claims Staging Of Tokyo 2020 Dependent On COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Gates said having Tokyo was “still possible” if the vaccine rollout goes well.
Paris 2024 Already Working On Contingency Plan If COVID Crisis Is Not Over

Upset Alert / Monday Afternoon XC Action

LRC BYU Upsets #1 NAU As Conner Mantz Wins, Nico Young Impresses, & BYU Sweeps Team Titles At Silver State Collegiate Challenge In Las Vegas The #2 BYU men may have upset #1 NAU, but NAU held out one of the top runners in the country in Luis Grijalva. Young finished an impressive second as NAU’s Taryn O’Neill won the women’s race.
*Discuss: Luis Grijalva/NAU Vs. Yared Nuguse/ND @ Silver State Collegiate XC Challenge
*MB: Nico Young – top 10 guy at NCAAs?

Women’s Running News

Lolo Jones Is Now A World Bobsled Champion Jones helped the former Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries win her record fourth world title.
T&F News Talks To Athing Mu And Texas A&M Coach Pat Henry About The Stellar Start To Her Collegiate Career Henry talks about how normally they would “pace themselves into a season” but because of the uncertainty with COVID, you have to “hit the ground running.”
Ajee Wilson Looking Forward To Racing For The First Time In A Year At The New Balance Brand Prix On Staten Island Next Week She says she doesn’t know what kind of performance to expect, but says she’s healthy and been training well.
Lemlem Hailu’s 4:01.57 World U20 Indoor 1,500m Record Ratified By World Athletics She set the record almost a year ago on February 19, 2020.
Athletics Weekly Looks Back At Some Milestones In Women’s Athletics Over The Last 100+ Years

COVID Cancellations

RRW:Two Oceans Marathon Cancelled Due To COVID-19
Athletics Ireland Confirm Indoor Micro Meet For February 20-21 The event takes the place of the cancelled Irish Indoor Champs and will allow athletes to qualify for Euro Indoors.
April’s Kasumigaura Marathon In Japan Canceled

Doping News

Brianna McNeal Calls Anti-Doping System “Pretty Messed Up” And Says She’s “Very Clean” McNeal has been provisionally suspended for “tampering” and says she will give more details “once all of this blows over.”
Kenya’s James Kibet Gets 4-Year Doping Ban After Testing Positive For Steroids As part of his defense, Kibet submitted a video recording of a Kenyan pig farmer explaining how he feeds his pigs supplements.

This Week’s Pod – Our New Intro Music Is Here

LRC Diamond Hands: Bryce Hoppel, Oregon DMR, Keith Gill And The Unveiling Of LetsRun.com Theme Song From Andrew Brick Johnson On this week’s pod, we start by unveiling a musical intro produced for us by Hollywood film composer and pianist Andrew Johnson. Then there was a ton to talk about as Keith Gill was tearing it up off the track while young Americans were tearing it up on the track. Plus in honor of Jonathan’s 30th birthday, we announce that 100% of all new VIP subscriptions this week will go directly into Jonathan’s bank account. Sign up now.

LRC A Ranking Of The US Father-Son Sub-4 Mile Combos: Alan And Cruz Culpepper Join The List At #3 Over the weekend, Cruz Culpepper joined his dad as a sub-4 miler. We’ve updated the rankings of US father-son sub-4 combos as a result.