Archived Homepage For May 26, 2021

Upcoming Action This Weekend And Beyond

Friday And Saturday: Stacked American Fields Set For Portland Track Festival Galen Rupp makes his return in the 10,000m while other top entries include: M1500 - Matt Centrowitz, Nick Willis, Craig Engels, Hobbs Kessler, W1500 - Shelby Houlihan, M800 - Donavan Brazier (Centro is also listed here), W800 - Kate Grace, Raevyn Rogers, Brenda Martinez, M5000 - Lopez Lomong, W5000 - Karissa Schweizer, Wsteeple - Courtney Frerichs, Allie Ostrander.
June 5: Return Of Mo Farah Highlights Euro 10,000m Cup BTC's Marc Scott is also in the men's race while Eilish McColgan is in the women's.
June 10: Sifan Hassan Vs Faith Kipyegon Over 1500m Highlights Florence Diamond League Two-time world HJ champ Mutaz Barshim and Olympic PV champ Katerina Stefanidi have also been announced.
June 12: Molly Seidel, Sara Hall, Molly Huddle, Des Linden And Edna Kiplagat Lead Field For New York Mini 10k
Entry Lists For Friday's Doha DL

NCAA News - Regionals Start Wednesday

LSU And Oregon Men Stay 1-2 In Latest NCAA Rankings BYU moved up from 5th to 3rd and USC down to 4th.
LSU Women Remain #1 In Latest NCAA Rankings As USC Moves Up To #2 Arkansas and Texas A&M are ranked 3-4.
Register Guard: Five Things To Watch As Oregon Men Open NCAA West Prelim On Wednesday
Video/Notes: Texas A&M Coach Pat Henry Previews NCAA West Regional

On The Boards

Coronavirus Continues To Plague Major European Events

Ukraine Withdraws From European Team Championships After Two Team Members Test Positive What's the point of testing everyone if the athletes with negative tests don't get to go? Are we going to keep an entire country out of the Olympics if one person at a training camp tests positive?
Tallinn, Estonia Confirmed As New Hosts Of The European Under-23 Championships This July Estonia stepped up as the new hosts after the Norway government refused to make exceptions to strict COVID travel restrictions into the country.

Mothers In The News

GB 800m Runner Lynsey Sharp Is Pregnant, But Says She's Not Done Competing Sharp and her fiancé, 2016 Olympic 5000m runner Andrew Butchart, are having a child later this year.
Washington Post: Aliphine Tuliamuk And Other Mothers Still Hoping An Exception Will Be Made To The No Foreign Spectators Rule In Tokyo For Mom's With Babies Tuliamuk is still breast feeding her daughter and that she "cannot imagine her not being" there with her.

LetsThrow.com

GB Discus Record Holder And 2012 Olympian Lawrence Okoye Says He's "Physically A Superior Animal" After Trying To Make It In The NFL Okoye spent 7-years away from the track trying to make it in the NFL, but never got to play a regular season NFL game. Now he's 3-years into his track comeback and hoping to make it to Tokyo.
World Athletics History Lesson: Czech Jan Zelezny's 98.48m Javelin World Record Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary Zelezny says he thinks he could have thrown over 100m if he had a chance to use a carbon-fiber javelin they use today, but his at the time was aluminum.
Athletics Weekly: Is Jan Zelezny’s World Javelin Record On Borrowed Time? Germany's Johannes Vetter is one of only two men to come within 5 meters of Zelezny's record as he threw 97.76m last fall.
British Throwers Stand Out At Loughborough Invitational Lawrence Okoye continued his comeback with 64.61m win.
Euro Champ Christin Hussong Throws 66.96m MR To Win Javelin In Rehlingen, Germany

Shepherd Saves Lives During Deadly Chinese Ultra

Sheep Herder Hero Saves Six Runners During Deadly Chinese Ultramarathon

Zhu Keming rescued multiple runners from the storm, helping them take shelter in a cave where he had stored supplies. Keming even carried one unconscious runner to the cave and wrapped him in blankets.

iRunFar Article With A Lot More Details Elite runner Jing Liang, who had won all three previous editions of this race, was among those who died. Apparently only one man from the top 6 survived.
*MB: Holy crap! 21 dead in Chinese 100km ultra

North American Distance News

Cam Levins Hits Olympic Standard With 2:10:14 Victory At The S7 Marathon In Austria Levins now gives himself a chance to be selected for Tokyo as he is one of four Canadian men with the standard.
*MB: Cam Levins 2:10:13 in rainy conditions
Q&A With Sean McGorty Talking About His Transition To The Steeplechase McGorty debuted with an impressive 8:20.77 earlier this month, but says he's still not sure about whether he'll do the steeple or 5000m at the Trials.

Japanese News

Japanese Men Break M90 4x400m World Record By Almost Four Minutes (Includes Video) That's an average of 2:12 a man, although their fastest leg split 1:40.
Vincent Yegon Solo's 27:30.24 To Highlight Day 1-2 Of Kanto Regionals College Meet In Japan 19-year-old Shotaro Ishihara ran 28:01.80 to set a under-20 world lead (#2 on the Japan all-time U20 list).
*Kanto Regionals Day 3 And 4 Highlights Samson Ndirangu put up the fastest 5000m with 13:39.92.
Hakone Champ Komazawa University's Anchor Takuma Ishikawa Arrested on Suspicion of Sex With Underage Girl The 21-year-old said, "I thought she was 18," but she was only 17.

Tokyo 2020 And Vaccine News

State Department Advises US Citizens Against Traveling To Japan Because Of Sharp Increase In COVID-19 Cases The "Level 4: Do Not Travel" advisory is their highest cautionary warning level.
GB Sprinter Adam Gemili Refutes Claims That All Team GB Athletes Will Be Vaccinated Before The Games Since Some Don't Want It At All The IOC has already said that taking the vaccine is not mandatory to compete at Tokyo 2020.
*British Olympic Committee Confirms All Athletes And Support Staff Will Be Vaccinated Before Leaving For Japan They are taking advantage of the IOC's offer to provide vaccines.
IOC Might Offer COVID Vaccines For 20,000 People Working At Tokyo 2020 Currently only 2.1% of people in Japan are vaccinated.
Dina Asher-Smith And Sha-Carri Richardson Are Against The IOC's Rule 50 Ban On Podium Protests
Mass Vaccination Center Opens In Tokyo 60 Days Before The Games Their goal is to vaccinate all residents 65 and older by the end of July.

The DL Opener Was Today in Gateshead

LRC 2021 Gateshead DL Recap: Dina Asher-Smith Wins Sprint Showdown as Hillary Bor Becomes 3rd American to Win a DL Steeple

In other action, Laura Muir and Jakob Ingebrigtsen lived up their favorite status and got wins in the 1500s.

Official 2021 Gateshead DL Opening Day Discussion Thread
American Hillary Bor just won the Gateshead DL steeple - Is that HOKA's 1st DL victory ever?
Jakob opens at 3:36 vs Cheptegei opens at 3:37
The Telegraph: Dina Asher-Smith Serves Notice Of Olympics Intent With Impressive Win In Gateshead She beat out Sha'Carri Richardson 11.35 to 11.44. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was 4th (11.51).
World Athletics: Sam Kendricks Gets Upset PV Win Over Mondo Duplantis In PV There was a bit of an upset in the PV where Duplantis out to Kendricks, 5.74m to 5.55m.

adidas Boost Boston Games

LRC Wayde van Niekerk Pulls Up Limping in the 200, Isiah Young Upsets Noah Lyles at 2021 adidas Boost Boston Games

It was not a great day for WVN or Lyles, but US hurdle stars Keni Harrison (12.49) and Grant Holloway (13.20) both looked great in winning their races.

Natoya Goule Takes Down Ajee Wilson Over 600m in 1:24 Marcop Arop won the men's race as Bryce Hoppel and Michael Saruni were DNSs.
Clayton Murphy Gets Some Redemption, Wins adidas Boost Boston Mile Over Prakel, Avila & Lewandowski Nikki Hiltz won the women's race with a world-leading 4:31.
Rheinhardt Harrison Only 4th, Jaylen Slade Only 3rd in HS Race at Adidas Boost Boston
Van Niekerk Pulls Up Lame in Boost Games - Jerome Blake Runs 19.89 Straight 200m
World Athletics Recap

High School / NCAA News

Chloe Foerster Runs Fastest Girls High School 800m In Oregon In 42 Years With 2:05.66
MB: Freshmen from Boise Idaho Samantha Smith runs insane times in State meet - 4:50/10:33
MB: Wisconsin HSer (Joshua Truchon) goes 8:44 tonight
DyeStat Profile On D2 Thrower Zada Swoopes To Quit Basketball To Focus On Track And Will Now Compete In Three Events At NCAA Champs “I love basketball, but track, there’s just something about track; to have those groups of people that love the same thing as you, and they support and care for you like a family. Whereas basketball, I didn’t fit in. When I got to track, I felt like I had never left.”
MileSplit Asks Which State Has Performed Best At State? Based on their data, it's Georgia. Texas is second.
Official Qualifiers Announced For NCAA DIII Outdoor Championships

LRC Joe Klecker Podcast - Olympic Hopeful and Running Royal (Sponsored by ON)

Klecker's mom won the 1992 Olympic Marathon Trials and his dad was the 50 mile world record holder.

RIP to a legend

MB: British Marathon Legend Ron Hill Dies at Age 82

The former Boston (2:10:30 CR), European and Commonwealth Games marathon champion was the world's second sub-2:10 guy. He also ran every day for 52 years.

Tragedy Strikes Chinese Ultramarathon

21 Runners Die at Chinese 100k Ultramarathon Due to Severe Weather

High winds and freezing rain lead to many runners getting lost or stranded on the course and dying from hypothermia. More than 1200 rescuers were deployed using thermal-imaging drones to try and save runners.

More Weekend Action

Ryan Crouser Moves to #3 All-Time With 23.01m Shot Put at USATF Throws Festival In Arizona

The throw puts him just 11cm short of Randy Barnes' 31-year-old WR. Besides throws, the women's HJ was a highlight with Vashti Cunningham clearing 1.99m.
*USATF Recap Rudy Winkler won a competitive hammer throw with 81.44m.

Lemlem Hailu Beats Genzebe Dibaba in Andujar, Spain 5,000m, 15:02.27 To 15:09.61 Ethiopian Freweyni Hailu won the 800m in 1:59.92 while Venezuela’s world triple jump champ Yulimar Rojas scared the WR with 15.43m (the 25-year-old WR is 15.50m).
Netherlands' Jorinde Van Klinken Throws Big Discus PR With World Leading 70.22m at USATF Throws Festival It was the world’s longest throw in three years.
Poland's 4-Time Hammer World Champ Pawel Fajdek Throws European-Leading 81.62m in Andujar, Spain It's his farthest throw since 2017.
AW Preview: Great Domestic Battles Ahead at Loughborough International on Sunday

Friday Night: Trials Of Miles NYC

Results

MB: Trials of Miles NYC Discussion Thread - Sifan Hassan/Clayton Murphy Racing 800 (free YouTube replay) Hassan beat Nikki Hiltz, 2:01.54 to 2:01.82. Tonatiu Lopez won the men's race in 1:45.24 (Murphy was back in 7th place with 1:47.29). Dani Aragon won the women's 1,500m in 4:07.66.

Roisin Willis Sets Age-16 800m Record With 2:00.78
Athing Mu held the previous age-16 best at 2:01.38. The time puts Willis #4 on the all-time prep list.
MB: Murphy 1:47 vs Hassan 2:01- which is worse?
MB: Malcolm Gladwell beats Chris Chavez over mile

More Pre-Gateshead Coverage

World Athletics Preview: World Stars Raring To Go
Sean Ingle: "Sha'Carri Richardson May Be The Most Exciting Sprint Star Since Usain Bolt" Ingle writes that it's not just the fast times, but, "It's everything else too. The look. The backstory. The attitude. And, yes, the baggage (referring to having drug cheat Dennis Mitchell as her coach).
*MB: British media is compares Sha'Carri Richardson to Usain Bolt - and for good reason
Dina Asher-Smith Backs Herself To Beat Sha-Carrie Richardson At Gateshead DL
Sha'Carri Richardson: "Flo-Jo is my idol." She says breaking Flo'Jo's 33-year-old 100m WR (10.49) is her goal.
The Telegraph: Dina Asher-Smith Vs The World - Why She Faces The Fight Of Her Life To Win A 100m Olympic Medal Gateshead will give a good indicator of how things stack up heading to Tokyo.
Laura Muir Wants To End Streak Of Near-Misses In Tokyo This Year
Boston Boost: USATF Preview: All-Star Sprinters Head To Historic Boylston Street For Adidas Boost Boston

COVID Issues

Lane County (Eugene) 10,000 COVID Shots Away From Moving To "Low Risk" 62% of the county is vaccinated, which is only 3% from their "low-risk" threshold.
European Under 23 Championships Won't Be In Norway This Summer As Government Refuses To Give Exemptions For Strict COVID Quarantine Rules European Athletics is looking into finding a new host for the meet later this summer.
Return Of Parkrun In The UK Delayed Until June 26th After Less Than Half Of Venues Gave Approval For June 5th There have been pushes from Seb Coe, the London mayor and others to get the weekly 5k races going again.

Doping / Corruption News

WADA Approves Dried Blood Spot Document With Hopes It Can Be In Widespread Use By 2022 Winter Olympics There are many advantages of the dried blood spot method including less cost and storage space needed and easier sample collection and transportation.
World Athletics Approves 23 Russians To Compete As Neutral Athletes That makes 27 approved so far, but only 10 will be allowed to compete as neutrals at the Olympics.
Senegal Denies That It Paid Lamine Diack's Legal Fees With all the bribes he and his son took when he was head of the IAAF, we're sure that more than covered it.
WADA Says It Wants To Work Collaboratively With The US On Its Ongoing Governance Reforms

Throwing Action

Tokyo Updates

IOC Official John Coates Says The Olympics Can Be Held Even When Tokyo Is In A State Of Emergency Coates: "We’ve successfully seen five sports hold their test events during the state of emergency ...so the answer is absolutely yes."
Another Japan Prefecture Put Under State Of Emergency Due To COVID That makes 10 out of Japan's 47 prefectures.

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Sheep Herder Hero Saves Six Runners During Deadly Chinese Ultramarathon

LRC 2021 Gateshead DL Recap: Dina Asher-Smith Wins Sprint Showdown as Hillary Bor Becomes 3rd American to Win a DL Steeple

LRC Wayde van Niekerk Pulls Up Limping in the 200, Isiah Young Upsets Noah Lyles at 2021 adidas Boost Boston Games

LRC Joe Klecker Podcast - Olympic Hopeful and Running Royal (Sponsored by ON)

MB: British Marathon Legend Ron Hill Dies at Age 82

21 Runners Die at Chinese 100k Ultramarathon Due to Severe Weather

Ryan Crouser Moves to #3 All-Time With 23.01m Shot Put at USATF Throws Festival In Arizona

American Record Pod: Yared Nuguse and Wood Kincaid Open Up

Webb, Ritz, and Hall

Madeline Manning Mims

Frank Shorter

LRC American Marathon Record Podcast: Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor

LRC Emily Sisson - The Next US Marathon Superstar?

LRC Woody Kincaid - On His American Record and Leaving Bowerman

LRC New Balance Boston's Mark Coogan

LRC Brooks Beasts' Danny Mackey

LRC OAC's Dathan Ritzenhein

The Rise of Syracuse: How a Cross Country Powerhouse Was Built From Scratch in 10 Years

26:59: The Story of Chris Solinsky's American Record and Upset of Galen Rupp

The Summer of Webb: An Inside Look at Alan Webb’s Magical 2007 Season

Dreams Become Reality: Jake Wightman Stuns Jakob Ingebrigtsen to Win World 1500m Title

Wejo Speaks: Why I Sucked in College

Escorting Paula - How LRC Co-Founder Weldon Johnson Paced Radcliffe To Her 1st World Record

American Strong: How American Teamwork Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston

LRC's Robert and Weldon Johnson Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”

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