Plus Hellen Obiri in the women's 3000, a battle of World Championship medalists in the men's 800, and a Rai Benjamin-Abderrahman Samba matchup in the hurdles.
Archived Homepage For May 28, 2021
Archived Homepage For May 28, 2021
Big Weekend on Tap
Big Weekend on Tap
Jonathan Gault gets you ready for one of the busiest weekends of the running year.
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.
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).
On The Boards
On The Boards
Midweek ACtion
Kibet missed worlds because he didn't have enough drug tests.
Big News
Francine Niyonsaba just missed the standard in the last week.
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
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 final 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).
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.
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.
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
Klecker's mom won the 1992 Olympic Marathon Trials and his dad was the 50 mile world record holder.
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
