You'd never know it from the media but the Covid-19 rate in Japan is currently half of what it is in the United States.
Archived Homepage For May 27, 2021
Archived Homepage For May 27, 2021
The Latest LRC Exclusives
The Latest LRC Exclusives
World Marathon Major winners Dickson Chumba (2:04:32 pb) and Ruti Aga (2:18:34 pb) are taking part, as is 2019 Valencia champ Kinde Atanaw (2:03:51 pb). We tell you how it works and what to watch for -- and you can watch live on LetsRun on Sunday (6:30 a.m. CET).
The Diamond League is back and the Olympic Trials are fast approaching. Is Evan Jager in trouble? What about Drew Hunter? Plus meet the US's teen 800 phenoms. Your week in running.
On The Boards
On The Boards
NCAA Regionals Have Begun
- LSU men have strong 1st day at regionals Laird ran 10.00w/20.50.
- So did Oregon men
- MB: Official NCAA East & West Preliminary Thread Share your observations and surprises here.
- MB: Where was Blaise Ferro? NAU's 27:58 man was a DNS.
- MB: Why is NCAA East So Much FASTER than the West?
- MB: Trey Cunningham DNS @East prelims 1st rd
Video of the Day
The Japanese 90+ team has run 8:49 for the 4 x 400 to destroy the old WR led by an incredible anchor at 6:40 pace.
Pro Distance News
If he's successful, he could be the 2022 World Champs as his ban ends in February.
- Athletics Canada has a tough choice to make for Olympic marathon team as three men have run 2:10 and only 2 spots remain The team will be picked on June 3rd. Some may try to prove fitness this weekend. Others are relying on the Canadians to check out their Strava.
- Watch Thursday's Manchester Invitational with Ciara Mageean Mageean, Dai Greene, Andy Butchart, Morgan McDonald and many others for free The first finals is at 19:10 time locally (4:10 pm ET).
- Peachtree will host USATF 10k Road Champs on July 4th - Olympic marathoners Aliphine Tuliamuk, Jake Riley and Abdi Abdirahman will all race
- Amy Cragg officially retires and joins Puma's new North Carolina group as an assistant coach Her husband, Alistair, is the head coach.
- Podium Runner names Stillwater, Minnesota and Boise, Idaho as 2 of the 5 best running towns in America
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
Previous Distance News
- Brigid Kosgei Says She Is Fit And Healthy Again As She Eyes Olympic Marathon Gold In Tokyo Kosgei says that she is recovered from the "minor injury" which was to blame for her disappointing 5th place (66:01) finish at last month's Istanbul Half.
- Retired 2:23 British Marathoner Mara Yamauchi Shares Five Tips To Help You Deal With Pre-Competition Nerves
Throwing News
- Valerie Adams' younger sister Lisa makes the Kiwi Paralympics team Valerie is her coach. Lisa has cerebal palsy.
- Jamaica's Shadae Lawrence says she's not surprised by her 67.05m national record in the discus from Saturday
- British hammer thrower Sophie Hitchon - who broke the British women's 28-year field event medal drought with a bronze in 2016 - retires at age 29
Sprints And Jumps
- Thunderstorms Cancelled Yesterday's USATF Invitational In Prairie View, Texas Rachel McCoy cleared 1.96m in the HJ and Chris Nilsen won the PV with 5.90m before the event was cancelled.
- 100H WR Holder Keni Harrison Looking For Redemption At The Olympic Trials After Her 2016 Choke She was undefeated in every other race that 2016 season, but finished only 6th at the Trials and didn't make it to Rio.
- World Athletics' Ones To Watch In Tokyo: Hurdles And Steeplechase Could 37-year-old Dawn Harper Nelson make her third Olympics after coming out of her 2018 retirement?
- Dina Asher-Smith Non-Committal When Asked If She Would Break Protest Rules By Kneeling On Olympic Podium “But, erm, I feel like if you feel that’s what you, kind of... I don’t want to incite anything. But I do think it’s a shame about the restrictions.”
Other Random News
- NY Times: The Secret Psychology of Sneaker Colors If you thought those super vibrant colors were random, guess again.
- The Telegraph: The Crystal Palace Scandal - How British Athletics' Spiritual Home Has Been Left To Rot Multiple failed efforts at redevelopment have left the iconic stadium "crumbling."
- AW Extensive Rundown Of All Last Week's Track/Road Action
- InsideTheGames Writer Reflects On The 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 25-Years Later These are the Olympics where Michael Johnson ran his 19.32 200m WR (a mark that stood 12-years until Usain Bolt broke it at the 2008 Games).
Multi-Event News
- World Athletics Podcast With Decathlon Stars Ashton Eaton, Kevin Mayer And Roman Sebrle, The Only Three To Ever Break The 9000 Point Barrier They each have held the WR at one point with Mayer the current record holder at 9126 points.
- GB Sprinter Adam Gimili Says Katarina Johnson-Thompson Is "In A Good Place" And Backs Her To Win Heptathlon Gold In Tokyo An achilles injury last year means she hasn't competed against this year.
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
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
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
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
Klecker's mom won the 1992 Olympic Marathon Trials and his dad was the 50 mile world record holder.
RIP to a legend
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
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.
Your latest American stars share their insights.
American Record Holders
American Record Holders
Keira D'Amato, the new American record holder in the marathon, was joined by Deena Kastor, who held the record for 15 years.
Sisson was the guest on the LetsRun.com Track Talk podcast after she became the first American to go sub 67 in the half marathon on a record-eligible course. Podcast highlights above. Full pod here.
Woody Kincaid joined us after he broke the American record indoors at 5000. He talks above why he left the Bowerman Track Club. Podcast highlights and link to full podcast here.
Coogan's New Balance Boston team had 3 Olympians in 2021 and 2022 could be the biggest year yet for the program with 2 new additions and the TRACK at New Balance coming on March 1st.
Danny Mackey has taken the Brooks Beasts from an unproven club to the Olympic podium in its first decade.
Dathan Ritzenhein is the first of the top pro coaches to sit down and talk about his club heading into the 2022 campaign.
Best of Jon Gault
Best of Jon Gault
Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
LetsRun Classics
LetsRun Classics
