The 6-2, 138-lb Mead says a pre-workout drink he bought from a vending machine was the likely source of the PEDs. "I was out there just lifting to gain a bit of muscle."
Archived Homepage For November 30, 2022
Archived Homepage For November 30, 2022
A Former US Champion Is Banned
International XC News
- December 11: Jakob Ingebrigtsen And Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal To Defend Titles At European Cross Country Championships Will it be double good for Norway again in 2022?
- Emile Cairess And Jess Warner-Judd Win GB Euro XC Champs Trials Cairess, the UK road 10k record holder who is coached by Renato Canova, beat out a field that included Marc Scott (3rd place).
- Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera And Kenya's Lucy Mawia Win Alcobendas, Spain XC Meet
- Serbia’s Elzan Bibic And Sweden’s Sarah Lahti Win Warandecross XC Race In Tilburg, Netherlands
On The Boards
On The Boards
Thanksgiving Leftovers
- Update: Runner DQ'd After Collision At Troy Turkey Trot The DQ'd runner claims he was veering right to avoid a manhole cover.
*MB: Dirty move at Local Turkey Trot - MB: CJ Albertson Runs 13:52 At His Local Turkey Trot Second place was 15:01.
High School XC Action
The time was also the second-fastest XC 5k in high school history, only behind Jenna Hutchins' 15:58. *DyeStat Recap
*MB: Irene Riggs 16:02 5k @ WakeMed!!! Broke a Tuohy record by 20 seconds!
- California State Meet: Four Straight For Newbury Park Boys, Three-Peat For Buchanan Girls Lex Young lead a Newbury 1-3 sweep, winning in 14:27.9 over his twin brother Leo Young (14:38.4) and Aaron Sahlman (14:41.1). *Results
*MB: Leo's last 500 at State
- DyeStat: Great Oak Boys Remind California Of Greatness Once More With Seventh Division 1 State Title
- #1 Kinetic (Saratoga) Girls Score 19 Points To Win NXR New York
- Champs XC Regional Round-Up: Midwest, Northeast, South Regions
*MB: Champs Northeast is done - Champs Sports XC Champs Qualifiers
- Full Nike Team Nationals Team And Individual Qualifiers
- MB: 8 California teams will be at NXN this year
Japan Distance News - Deepest 10,000m Ever
- Emmanuel Kiplagat Wins Deepest Ever 10,000m In 27:07.59 At The Hachioji Long Distance The top 24 broke 28 minutes, breaking the previous record of 21. A total of 116 men broke 29 minutes at the meet.
- Margaret Akidor Breaks Japan 3000m All-Comers Record By 3 Seconds Nittai University Time Trials Akidor took almost 20 seconds off her PB to win in 8:32.53.
- Shiseido Wins First National Corporate Women's Ekiden Title Since 2006
Good And Bad News For Kenyans
- Bad: World Athletics Discussing Kenyan Doping Situation At Council Meeting Next Week Right now Kenya is one of the seven countries deemed a "Category A" federation by the AIU (the highest doping risk) which means Kenyan athletes need to have at least three doping tests in the 10 months before a major event.
*AP: Kenya Faces Threat Of Athletics Ban For Doping "Crisis" A Kenyan government minister has written to Seb Coe urging him not to ban the country. - Good: US Embassy Reduces Visa Wait Time For Kenyans Last summer sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala almost missed the World Championships in Eugene because of visa delays.
Tuohy Goes Pro
The NCAA's NIL guidelines blurred the lines between collegiate and professional track & field, and Tuohy is the first top athlete to cash in. Jonathan Gault talked to Spencer Nel, head of sports marketing at adidas to find out what Tuohy going pro really means.
Other News
- InsideTheGames: "Has FIFA World Cup Already Ended Hopes Of Doha Hosting The 2036 Olympics Games?" There have been multiple controversies including deciding at the last minute not to sell beer at the FIFA stadium.
- Japanese Advertising Company Dentsu Raided Over Suspected Bid-Rigging For Tokyo 2020
- 2023 Budapest World Championships Tickets Go On Sale December 12th
Cross Country News
- 10 Storylines To Follow At California State XC Championships Newbury Park twins Leo and Lex Young could become the first brothers in state history to go 1-2 at this meet.
- Preview: Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera and Kenya's Lucy Mawia Lead Fields For Alcobendas XC Meet On Sunday
- Athletics Kenya Is Having A Separate World XC Trials Due To Australia Visa Deadline The Kenyan national XC champs are on January 21st, but the deadline for an Australian visa for World XC is December 11th, so they are having a separate trial race on December 10th.
- National High School Boys XC Team Rankings Newbury Park is #1.
- National High School Girls Team XC Rankings Saratoga is ranked #1.
- Rundown Of The European XC Trial Races This Weekend
Manchester Road Race Was Super Fast
The top 5 men broke Edward Cheserek's old course record of 21:15.
- MB: 10 am ET. Manchester Road Race - Best Turkey Trot of them all. Official Discussion Thread
- Pre-Race: Weini Kelati had a monster race last year at Manchester- going out in 4:30 - and says she's in similar shape this year
- Conner Mantz admits he jumped into training too quickly after Chicago, already running more than 100+ admits he jumped into training too quickly after Chicago, already running more than 100+. “My workouts have been off and on. I’ve had some of the best of my life and some of the worst since high school. It’s been kind of frustrating.”
Links That Passed Our Human Alogorithm
- Click here to see the best 26 track and field photos of 2022 The three finalists can be found here.
- NC State women get featured in The NY Times - "The secret to a national cross-country title? Fun" Of course having some of the best recruits in the country doesn't hurt either.
- Asafa Powell turned 40 this week and he threw himself both a birthday and retirement party It's hard to believe the former 100m WR holder never finished higher than third at a global championship and never won an individual Olympic medal.
- Yoga for runners: two poses for a strong core
Past Stars In The News
- Legendary Iowa St. coach Bill Bergan - who guided cyclones to 1989 and 1994 NCAA xc titles - dies at 80
*Des Moines Register: "If Iowa State had a Mount Rushmore for head coaches, Bill Bergan certainly would be included." - Eamonn Coghlan is now 70– A look back at career highlights for the ‘Chairman Of The Boards’ on his milestone biirthday 4 NCAA titles, a WC gold and 7 Wanamaker mile titles.
- Jim Thorpe film on fast track to production The film will focus on his time at boarding school in PA where they tried to take the Indian out of him. But when he died, Oklahoma wouldn't build him a monument so he was buried in PA after two towns agreed to rename themselves, Jim Thorpe, PA.
The Latest Distance News
- A look back at all of the WA Platinum Marathons of 2022 We at LetsRun probably should start focusing on these rather than the marketing gimmick known as the Abbott World Marathon Majors. The platinum marathons are all of the Abbott majors plus Nagoya, Seoul, Amsterdam and Valencia.
- Stewy McSweyn recaps his 2022 on Inside Running Podcast
- Ciara Mageean named Irish Athlete of the Year In addition to win CG and European silver, she also won Brussels in 3:56.63.
- Katelyn Tuohy does 20-minute video interview after NCAA win - “We all buy into the team aspect of cross country."
- Looking for something to cook on Thanksgiving? Try Emma Coburn's pumpkin spice muffins
- "Two Gods of the Mountain" Hakone Ekiden uphill superstars say supershoes suck for uphill running
- Toni Reavis was at last weekend's Virtus XC champs for those with intellectual impairment
Previous Distance News
- A Streak Ends: FM Won't Have A Team At NXN For The First Time Ever The FM girls finished second at NY State Champs behind #1 ranked Saratoga, but two runners are nursing injuries so are ending their season. The team's streak ends at 13 years for the girls and 12 years for the boys.
- Two-Time World Marathon Champ Abel Kirui Is Still Dreaming Big At 40-Years-Old Kirui is talking about making the Kenyan 2023 World and 2024 Olympic teams and says he recently ran 2:11 for 42k in training at altitude.
- Boniface Mulwa Runs 61:17 To Win The Ageo City Half Marathon In Japan In the ridiculously deep race, 25th place was 63:05, 50th place was 63:29 and 175th place was 65:58
- Runners Beat Cyclists In "Harriers Vs Cyclists" XC Race In Great Britain
- Coros Introduces Limited-Edition Molly Seidel Watch The watch band has Seidel’s “full send” catchphrase on it.
Sprinters In The News
- Matt Hudson-Smith praised by Christine Ohuruogu for leading Great Britain's 400m revival Hudson-Smith moved up every few weeks as he won WC bronze, CG silver and Euro gold.
- Tobi Amusan named 1 of 100 most influential African women for 2022
Former Pros Moving To Coaching?
- David Rudisha Admits He's Too Old For A Comeback, Says He's Considering Transitioning To Coaching Rudisha said, “Actually I was thinking of coming back but at my age, I can’t make it in my specialty ...I would have liked to shift to long-distance races, but my body is meant for short races."
- Former Olympic 110H Champ And WR Holder Aries Merritt Now A Coach At Brown University Former Jamaican long jump Olympian Damar Forbes was also added to the coaching staff.
Miscellaneous
- Seb Coe Guarantees That Tokyo Will Host All The Medal Events At The 2025 World Championships The marathon won't be held 500+ miles away this time like it was at the Tokyo Olympics.
- USATF Awards $4,000 Maternity Grant To 100m Hurdler Christina Clemons Clemons was 13th at the 2022 US Champs while being two months pregnant.
- RIP Canadian Olympian Sig Ohlemann Ohlemann was at Oregon during Bill Bowerman's time and competed at the 1960 Rome Olympics in the 800m, 4x100 and 4x400.
- World Athletics Announces Nominees For Nominees 2022 Member Federations Award The six nominees are Jamaica, Kenya, Spain, Brazil, Guam and South Korea.
UCLA In The News
- Former UCLA Decathlete And Actor Sentenced To Prison For $28.4M Cannabis Vaping Scam 53-year-old David Bunevacz, a former Philippines national team member, was sentenced to 17-years in federal prison.
- University Of California Regents Will Decide On December 14rh Whether UCLA Can Leave The PAC 12 For The Big Ten
UK News
- Marc Scott And Jess Warner-Judd Lead Fields For British European XC Trials On Saturday
- Philip Sesemann (48:48) And Steph Pennycook (56:40) Win Brampton To Carlisle 10 Mile But 66-Year-Old Alastair Walker Steals The Headlines Walker, a former elite open runner, ran 55:19 (chip time) to beat the M65 world best (though the course isn't record eligible).
- World 1500m Champ Jake Wightman Will Race Over 2000m At The Birmingham World Indoor Meet February 25
- AW: Crystal Palace (The "Spiritual Home Of British Athletics") Temporarily Shut Down Due To Safety Concerns There are safety fears relating to concrete pillars supporting floodlights.
*BBC: Crystal Palace Stadium - Former Home Of Athletics "Managed To Disrepair" Besides safety issues, there are many other problems including a leaky roof and sanitary concerns with animal excrement on the outside stands. - British XC Round-Up
Recommended Watch
- MB: Guy puts on a race in a busy airport no permission and with top runners and no one stops him Brit Dan Jarvis won the race in 67:30. World Athletics lists his PRs at 4:04, 14:08 (5k) and 8:37 (steeple).
More Recent Results
- Sarah Biehl delivers historic performance at 60th annual JFK 50 At America's oldest ultra marathon she ran 6:05:42 to crush the course record by more than 6 minutes. Garrett Corcoran won the men's race in 5:29:47.
- Abe Gashaw (28:32) And Tigist Ketema (32:54) Win Great Ethiopian Run 10k
- Burundi’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo And Turkey’s Yasemin Can Win Itálica XC Race In Seville, Spain
- Aouani books European Cross ticket on Italy XC team with victory at La Mandria Park test event
- Round-Up Of Last Week's Japan Distance Races
Anti-Doping News
- Former World Javelin Champ Julius Yego Says Kenyan Athletes Are On A Road To "nowhere" If The Current Doping Trend Continues One Athletics Kenya official is worried Kenya is "almost going the Russian way" and a government official said they "are going to criminalize doping to levels you cannot imagine" in their "war against doping."
- France's Former World Triple Jump Champ Teddy Tamgho Gets On-Year Retroactive Ban For Competing While Ineligible He competed while he was banned in 2014-2015 for three whereabouts failures. Tamgho hasn't competed since 2019.
- WADA President Warns That RUSADA Reinstatement Wont Be Automatic When The Process Begins This December Witold Banka said, "The process will be robustly assessed, we are not naive. We will need to verify each and every one of the reinstatement conditions, verifying is not simply accepting anyone’s word for it."
- RUSADA Calls For "Non-Political Decision" On Reinstatement The current sanctions against RUSADA expire on December 17.
- InsideTheGames: "Kenya Nominated For World Athletics Federation Award Despite Doping Crisis"
- Witold Bańka Re-Elected As WADA President Banka has been at the head of WADA since 2020.
- WADA Close To Revealing The First "Athlete Ombuds" They hope this position will provide a neutral and impartial dispute resolution for athletes.
NAU edged Oklahoma State on the tie breaker as Charles Hicks outlasted Nico Young.
Katelyn Tuohy ran down a game Parker Valby to get the win and help lead NC State to the win over the New Mexico pack.
Women's NCAA Talk
- KATELYN TUOHY AND NC STATE WINS
- Can Tuohy and Valby fans agree to a truce?
- OFFICIAL 2022 WOMENS Individual NCAA D1 XC Championships Predictions
- This is Katelyn Tuohy's world and were just living it
- Katelyn Tuohy wins first NCAA XC Individual Champion !!!!
- U of Colorado investigating running program over weight management program.
Non-DI XC Action
- Johns Hopkins Win Record Eighth NCAA D3 Women's Title; Alex Phillip (24:37) And Kassie Parker (21:06 For 6k) Repeat As Individual Champs MIT won the men's team title.
*USTFCCCA Recap *Results - NCAA D2 XC Regionals Recap *Results
*MB: Adam State STUNNED, US #2 places 7th in south central region, WTF happened ?!?!
- Lina May Hangs Onto Lead To Beat Addy Wiley At NAIA Cross Country Championships May ran 16:50.9 to beat high school mile record holder Wiley by 8 seconds. Abraham Chelangam won the men's title in 23:41.9. Team titles went to Dordt (Iowa) men and Taylor (Ind.) women. *Results *USTFCCCA Recap
- Newbury Park Wins Fourth Straight CIF Southern Victory Lex Young won the Division 2 race in 14:38.1 over his twin brother Leo Young (14:38.2) with Aaron Sahlman in 3rd (14:43.8). But the fastest time of the day was by Matthew Donis (14:35.0) in the Division 1 race.
- Great Oak Wins 11th CIF Southern Section Crown The fastest times came from Payton Godsey (16:54.2) winning the Division 4 race and Sadie Engelhardt (17:12.8) winning Division 2.
- Southwest NXR Recap
- NXR South Recap
- Mt. SAC Men And Women Win California Community College Championships
Looking Ahead To Indoor
- Jakob Ingebrigtsen And Mondo Duplantis Announced For Lievin Indoor Meet On February 14 Ingebrigtsen set the 1500m world indoor record here last season.
- Katie Nageotte Vs Sandi Morris Pole Vault Set For Millrose Games In February
Women's Running Health Issues
- University Of Colorado Is Conducting An Investigation Into Their XC Program After Accusations Of Unhealthy Fixation On Weight Some athletes have complained about the way the coaches use body composition analysis to pressure athletes to cut weight/fat. But coach Mark Wetmore defended the program saying, “Weight is an irrelevant measure as it tells us nothing about our athletes’ health or fitness. We don’t know any of our athletes’ weights. But body composition is one factor that influences an athlete’s health and performance."
*MB: U of Colorado investigating running program over weight management program.
- Runner's World: "Is High School Running in Need of a Reckoning?" RW looks at the connection between girls training at a high level in high school and having health issues like bone-damage later on.
- UK's Eilish McColgan Wants More Research Into How Women's Periods Affect Performance “I still don’t really have the answers as to how to calm my symptoms down every month, or what’s a healthy way to do it, rather than a lot of athletes just go on the pill and it stops their cycle entirely. We’re sort of realizing that is not the healthiest way for a female to operate."
A Major Doping Ban
Scantling said, “Just such an unfortunate situation. I worked so hard to get into the position that I was in. But one mistake alters the whole course of my career. ...Unfortunately, there’s no leniency for being forgetful, you have to accept responsibility and move on."
Short Course?
- Camille Herron's 100m World Record Won't Count After The Course Was Found To Be Short A slight course change due to safety concerns meant that it differed from the one that was certified by USATF. The new course has been measured five times by three different measurers and four out of the five came up short (about 716 feet). The race director and Herron argue the course was 100 miles, but this ultimately falls on the race director for not recertifying the course after it was altered.
Meet Teshome Mekonen
Teshome Mekonen became a US citizen in August and beat Conner Mantz by a minute earlier this year at the NYC Half. Learn about his story from Tigray to Harlem.
RIP to an American legend
In the early days of LRC, Young was called "perhaps the most complete American distance runner ever" as he made Olympic teams in the steeple (60, 64, 68), marathon (68) and 5k (72) before going on to a great coaching career.
Post-NYC News
2022 was a historically fast year for women's marathoning, the #2-4 men's marathoners in the world might all train together, and the NYC Marathon has a security problem.
Rojo and Mara Yamauchi Editorial
For nearly 40 years, the NYC Marathon has been known for being a trailblazer that paid its male and female athletes the same prize money. Sadly, that changed on Sunday. Guess what sex dominated the new non-binary gender division at Sunday's 2022 New York City Marathon? Olympian Mara Yamauchi joins Robert Johnson in this guest column.
WMM
The WMMs seemingly don't want anyone to know who won the series title, and for good reason, as the winners are being screwed out of $200,000 each.
Trials Awarded
What will the course be like? What type of weather can we expect? We break it down for you.
Post NYC Updates
The good news is the Brazilian star is recovering well after going to the hospital. His agent explains what he thinks happened.
- Which Super Shoes Did The Best In NYC? While Nike shoes dominated in numbers, there were plenty of other shoe brands to finish in the top-10 men and women including a surprise win by Under Armour on the feet of Sharon Lokedi.
- NYRR's Post-Race Release Specifically Omits Nonbinary Winner's Time They listed the winning times for the men's, women's, and wheelchair divisions, but not the nonbinary. Maybe they didn't want to highlight the fact that they gave thousands in prize money to biological men who ran significantly slower than many women who got nothing?
Engels Speaks
Engels says he enjoyed his time with UAC but needed to train in a place where he either had consistent training partners or a coach with him every day.
How Would You Attack The Doping Problem?
Instead of just complaining about anti-doping it's time to try and do something about. Submit your best anti-doping proposals.
Has Kenya found a new super drug? What is going on?
And have the Kenyans found a new super drug? Kipyokei is one of 10 athletes in the last two years to test positive for the same substance, triamcinolone acetonide, a drug once used by Lance Armstrong and Brad Wiggins. Why are they suddenly all testing positive for it now?
- MB: Has Kenya found a super drug? 2021 Boston champ is one of 10 Kenyans to test positive for triamcinolone acetonide since 2021
- 23 Kenyans Have Been Banned For Doping In 2022 2:23:40 marathoner Betty Wilson Lempus (won the Paris Half in 65:46 last year) was also banned and both she and Kipyokei were charged with obstructing the AIU’s investigation by providing false information or documentation.
Disturbing Stuff
Allegations regarding the Huntington University track and field team where Nick Johnson used to coach and his wife Lauren Johnson now coaches continue to come out thanks to the great reporting by David Woods and continue to get more grim. Two national champions for Huntington claim their coach gave them unknown injections and have asked that their national titles be invalidated. One claims she was raped by Nick. Police reports show Nick, who had already pled guilty to a felony after admitting to impersonating a University of Oregon staffer so he could take a teen recruit on a trip where the teen told police many sexual acts took place, has admitted to having sex with two other athletes and his wife admitted she didn’t tell anyone at Huntington as she didn’t want them to lose their jobs. She’s now the head coach. If that’s not bad enough, there are now allegations of PED usage. Did PEDs cause the Johnsons to leave the Oregon Track Club?
- David Woods' Indy Star Expose: Christian college coach created a culture of doping and sex, star runners allege.
- Gregg Doyel Indy Star: Coach goes to prison, so Huntington hired his wife
- Huntington University places head cross country coach and assistant on leave
- MB: Coach-athlete sex, rape and PEDs at Huntington University? Nick Johnson scandal gets grimmer thanks to David Woods
The series used the elites to build themselves up as the majors in our sport but now is forsaking the pros once the image is established. In the process, they just screwed Eliud Kipchoge out of $200,000 after the fact as the cut is effective immediately. Wow.
Kipchoge loving the LetsRun Shirt in Berlin
Jakob Ingebrigtsen listens to the Letsrun podcast. Why don't you?
History was made 20 years ago
And he ran his marathon PB to boot.
Ross Tucker Speaks
We paid one of the top sports scientists in the world to analyze the Shelby Houlihan doping case and CAS ruling. He has 2 pieces for us, the piece above is an opinion piece where he answers our questions. In a 2nd more technical piece, Ross goes through the CAS decision step by step and outlines in clear terms exactly what Houlihan argued and why he thinks CAS ultimately (correctly) ruled against her.
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
