January 10, 2016 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For January 10, 2016

Quote Of The Day

“I didn’t expect it (to win). Mo is such a great runner. I just wanted to be out there and try to run with him and compete. I saw my teammate Scott Fauble come up to next to me with 800 to go and I could tell he was feeling good so I got excited and tried to move. I kept just waiting for Mo to kick past me in the homestretch as I could hear people shouting at him. … Cross country makes the variables a bit more uneven and it’s also early season. It’s what makes cross country exciting – you never know what’s going to happen..”

– Garrett Heath talking after yesterday’s Great Edinburgh XC meet where he pulled off a major upset yet again, as he smoked Mo Farah in the final meters to win by 2 seconds.

2016 Great Edinburgh XC Results Video Highlight *Full Race Replays

LRC Garrett Heath Does It Again, Takes Another Huge Scalp And Beats Mo Farah At 2016 Great Edinburgh XCountry International Challenge In the past in Edinburgh, Heath has taken down the likes of Asbel Kiprop and Kenenisa Bekele. Now he’s beaten Mo Farah by 2 seconds in a sprint finish. UK’sKate Avery (formerly of Iona) won 4 seconds ahead of Ireland’sFionnuala McCormack.

Athletics Weekly: “Garrett Heath, The King Of Holyrood Park” *IAAF Recap
Phillip Rocha And Katie Rainsberger Lead USA Junior Squads With 5th Place Finishes Amy Van Alstine was the first American in the women’s senior race in 6th.
Brits Win Overall Team Title Europe was 2nd, USA 3rd. *All Results
Kate Avery:“It is the biggest win of my career. I have always been in the medals, but not on top, always the bridesmaid.” We guess she isn’t counting winning NCAAs.
Fionnuala McCormack Says Runner-Up Finish A “Nice Place To Start The Year”
MB: Official 2016 Great Edinburgh XC Live Discussion Thread – Farah vs. Heath
MB: FARAH GOES HOME DEVASTATED — SMOKED BY GARRETT MF HEATH — USA!!!!!!
MB: Garrett Health is a savage

News From Kenya

Kenya Jittery As They Anticipate Next Week’s WADA Doping Report Early reports have said the report will focus on the IAAF and Kenya.
2010 World Indoor 1,500 Bronze Medalist Haron Keitany Raring To Go After Returning From Chronic Hip Injury After logging almost no results since 2011, the 3:30 man says he’s finally healthy and dreaming of making Kenya’s Olympic squad.
Former Road 10K WR Holder And 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist Micah Kogo Hoping To Drop A Big Time At The Paris Marathon In April Kogo (2:06:56 PR) is still dreaming of Olympic glory and hoping he can run fast enough in Paris to make the Kenyan Rio 2016 squad. *2nd Article
Caleb Ndiku Focused On Defending His 3,000m World Indoor Title “I want to win and it will start with the Indoor.”

Midweek Action

Thursday’s XC Action: Imane Merga And Alice Aprot Win 59th Campaccio Cross-Country Race World Jr. XC champ Yasin Haji was 2nd and steeple star Jairus Birech was third. Aprot broke the CR ahead of Ruth Jebet and Linet Masai. *Photos
*LRC Archives: Ritz Won This Race Last Year

The Press Reacts To The IAAF Getting Ahead Of Next Week’s WADA Report And Banning 3 Officials For Life

Meet The IAAF Insider Who Had The Guts To Expose Everything – Sean Wallace-Jones Hajo Seppelt wasn’t needed for this case to come out as Wallace-Jones was willing to shake up the IAAF.
Expose Of IAAF Cover-Up Began At A Hotel Bar In Tokyo
Independent:Lifetime Bans For Officials Are Nothing Compared To What Will Come Out Next Week When WADA’s Dick Pound Releases His “Wow” Factor
Guardian:Sebastian Coe’s “Roadmap To Reform” Endangered By Wreckage Left By Old Regime

LetsRun.com Debates

Day 2 LRC Predictions For The New Year: Will Mo Farah Win Double Gold (Again)? Will Tirunesh Dibaba Win Triple Gold? Will Kenenisa Bekele Even Compete? The LRC staff debates all of that and more.

Day 1: LRC Predictions For The New Year: How Many Mid-D/Distance Medals Will Team USA Win At The 2016 Rio Olympics?
*MB: Crazy thought: Might Centro be America’s best hope for a 5000 medal in Rio?

Brooks Distance News

Was Brooks, Now Nike: MB:AMY CRAGG (HASTINGS) Joins Bowerman Track Club This isn’t a big shock since Cragg has been training with Shalane Flanagan for a while now.
*MB:Amy Hastings Cragg to Portland
Brooks Beasts Coach Danny Mackey Writes About The Process Of Building A Team Mackey believes that a lot of benefits come from the team environment, rather than athletes training off alone as “lone wolves.”
Nick Symmonds Talks About How In 2016 The Answer Is Often “I better not, it’s an Olympic year.” Symmonds also announces athletes now sponsored by Run Gum, including Will Leer, Kyle Merber and Emily Infeld.

Indoor Season Is Here

Florida Men Top Pre-Season Indoor Rankings Texas and Oregon are ranked 2-3.
Arkansas Women Lead SEC-Heavy Pre-Season Indoor Rankings Georgia and Texas are 2-3.

Don’t Call It A Comeback

After Two Surgeries Within A Year, Lolo Jones Still Shooting For Rio “You just have to tell yourself, ‘I can do this,’ and look at where you started from – take joy in the small things that you have overcome to get where you’re at.”
*Jones On Decision To Remain A Virgin: “It’s extremely hard. It brings a lot of lonely nights.”
Kenya’s 1,500m Commonwealth Games Champ James Magut Ready To Return After Nursing A Groin Injury For The Last 6 Months The 3:30 man had to pull out of the World Military Games when he re-aggravated it last year.
GB Mid-D Runner Jemma Simpson Likely To Miss Olympics With Foot Injury She ruptured a tendon in her foot and says she will need a “miracle” to qualify for GB’s team as she can’t run until at least April.

The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials Are Going To Be Amazing

Breaking News Chris Derrick Reveals That He’s Training For The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials The men’s Trials just continue to get more and more interesting as Derrick has confirmed to LetsRun.com that he is currently training for the Trials. Only 10 men in US history who have a 10,000 PR faster than Derrick’s 27:31 have ever raced a marathon.
*MB: Breaking: Chris Derrick, “I am currently training for the marathon trials”

Good News Indiana Coach Ron Helmer Doing Well After Kidney Transplant He’s had a tough run of late as within a few months he got cancer, had his kidney fail and had his wife suddenly die.

This Week’s Action

Canadian 10,000 Record Holder Natasha Wodak Racing Prairie Inn Harriers’ Pioneer 8K This Weekend This was the race in which Wodak (née Fraser) ran 25:28 in 2013 – a time so fast that many didn’t believe it was real or was short. Two years later, she showed she’s the real deal by getting the Canadian 10,000 record.
*MB: Natasha Fraser runs 25:28
The 59th Edition Of The Famous Campaccio Cross-Country Meeting Is Wednesday – Race Preview*Start Lists
This Month: Past Dubai Champs Mamitu Daska And Mulu Seboka Are Added To 2016 Dubai Marathon Field 2013 champ Tirfi Tsegaye was an earlier commit, so 3 of the last 6 winners will be racing.

The Latest Doping News

Yes! Japan Parliament Is Considering Criminalizing Doping Ahead Of 2020 Games
German Athletes Can Now Face Prison Terms Of Three Years If They DopeSir Craig Reedie, President of the WADA, has said he is “completely opposed to the criminalization of athletes.” We disagree. Lock up those who steal.
Larry Eder Gives His Thoughts On The Leaked Emails, And What It Actually Means (If Anything) He thinks Papa Diack is on a “scorched earth” policy. Papa should realize no one will come out looking as bad as he does.
Law Firm Sent Hajo Seppelt 3 Different Letters Warning Him IAAF Might Take Legal Action Against Him If He Defamed Them

It Is Amazing In 2016 How Few Women (In All Sports) Coach Top Men

81-Year-Old Woman Coaches Josh Clarke, Australia’s Top 100m Man Clarke’s coach is NancyAtterton, who won Commonwealth 4 x 100 gold in 1954. Clarke won the Australian title last year in 10.19.

GB News

Good Read:Jessica Ennis-Hill: “Juggling everything and becoming a mum is the hardest thing I’ve done.” Ennis has joined the ranks of women who are trying and succeeding in competing as pros not long after giving birth.
2016 A Make-Or-Break Year For GB Sprinter James Dasaolu The 28-year-old became the second fastest Brit ever in 2013 with 9.91, but hasn’t broken 10 seconds since, had a terrible 2015 and is now only on “relay funding.”
Adam Gemili A “Name To Watch” In 2016 This year, Gemili broke 10 seconds for the first time this year when he ran 9.97, but then ruptured his hamstring a step after the finish line. Will he come back in 2016?

IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With US’s Shot Put World Indoor Champ Ryan Whiting One of Whiting’s throwing songs is “Duel of the Fates” from Star Wars.

Running Times Talks To A Coach, Strength Trainer And Biomechanist To See Which Strength Training Exercises Are Worth Your Time Most of them don’t come to a consensus so you can read their arguments and decide for yourself.

Nick Willis And Jordan Hasay Putting In The Miles For 2016

Nick Willis Training Harder Than Ever Ahead Of Rio 2016 Willis says he’s finally stayed healthy enough to do “a real man’s training as opposed to making the most of the talent I had without really being able to put in the real work.”
Jordan Hasay Running 100-Mile Weeks And Eating 5,000 Calories A Day Training For Rio 2016

More 2015 Highlights

Which American Runners Took Home the Most Prize Money In 2015?Molly Huddle was the top earner with more than $150,000 in prize money this year; Jared Ward was the top man at $105,166. The Americans are way behind the top international earners as Ethiopians Aselefech Mergia and Lelisa Desisa earned $307,000 and $275,000 respectively.
DyeStat Gives The Top 15 High School Highlights Of 2015
Sprinter Candace Hill tops the list with Grant Fisher‘s and Matthew Maton‘s 3:59.38 miles next.
IAAF Recap The Highlights From Each Of The 12 World Challenge Meets In 2015

News From Kenya

After Three “Disaster” Years, Abel Kirui Believes He Will Bounce Back In 2016 Kirui is still dreaming of not only making the Kenyan Olympic squad, but winning marathon gold to add to his 2012 silver. He’ll start 2016 with the Tokyo Marathon in February.
Athletics Kenya Will Select World Indoor Team In January
A Rundown Of Kenya’s Most Impressive Athletes In 2015 Jav thrower Julius Yego tops the list of thirteen.

Latest Doping Stuff: Mo Farah Takes Some Shots

Mo Farah Calls Out Spain’s Alemayehu Bezabeh For Doping; Says He Wants Lifetime Bans For Drug Cheats Bezabeh beat Farah at the 2009 Euro XC Champs and was later banned for 2 years for doping.
Steve Magness Criticizes Seb Coe, Saying His Relationship With Nike Put Him In Denial Magness thinks Coe and others at the IAAF ignore what they don’t want to hear and spend too much time in “politician mode.”
IAAF Will Face More Criticisms From WADA Report This Week, But They Won’t Be BannedDick Pound:“Like all organisations, there’s an effort to try to distance the organisation from the conduct that occurred … I’m sorry, but these are not people unrelated to the IAAF … this is an IAAF problem. It’s not just a couple of bad people.”
IAAF Urges Any Witnesses With Knowledge About Extortion Of Moroccan Or Turkish Athletes To Come Forward
GB Marathoner Disillusioned By Doping Scandals And No Longer Advises Young Runner To Aim For “Hollow” Olympics The 2008 Olympic 6th placer was satisfied when she ended her career, but now looks back in disgust at the areas where she was cheated.

Olympic News

Protests Against Rising Transport Prices In Rio Grow Violent Masked protesters threw rocks at police, who in turn used tear gas, stun grenades and pepper spray on the protesters.
Italy’s Premier Matteo Renzi Reiterates Support For Rome 2024 Bid

Sprint Stuff

Who Will Replace Usain Bolt As The Top Jamaican Sprinter When He Retires?Yohan Blake is clearly the most likely candidate if he can get (and stay) healthy.
Usain Bolt-Signed Shoes Stolen From A Car In Southern England The victim had paid a lot of money for the spikes at a charity auction and for some foolish reason, left them overnight in his car.
David Oliver Shares Some Random Facts About Himself He’s big on DIY projects, started track as a terrible LJer, was really shy as a kid and “not a super popular dude in high school.”
Justin Gatlin Explains How He Used To Long Jump With An Unorthodox Technique He based his form off of the well known Michael Jordan “Air Jordan” logo.
A Historical Progression Of Sprinting Top Speed World Bests Bolt is obviously the fastest recorded at 12.35 m/s (27.63 mph).
UK’s Richard Kilty Wants To Become Only The Second Person To Win Back-To-Back World Indoor 60m Titles

Hosting News – Is It Worth It?

Will Spending $45 Million In Public Money On The 2021 World Championships Generate $568 Million For The Economy? That is what TrackTown USA is trying to convince Oregon government officials of anyway.
Small Fire In Rio Olympic Park May Have Been Started On Purpose The fire happened after a demonstration by former workers who were laid off without receiving their last month’s salary or severance pay.
Tokyo 2020 Logo Contest Down To A Shortlist Of Four The original logo was scrapped due to plagiarism.
Preliminary Entries Of 699 Athletes Set For Portland World Indoors

February Will Be Here Before You Know It

Molly Huddle And Andre De Grasse To Star In 2016 NYRR Millrose Games On Feb. 20th Can Huddle challenge Shalane Flanagan‘s 14:47.62 AR?
Marathoner Aaron Braun’s Baby Is Due The Day Before The Olympic Marathon Trials

Track Town Poland FTW

Bydgoszcz, Poland Named Host Of 2016 World Juniors That’s Being Stripped From Kazan, Russia *LRCBydgoszcz Photos
More On Bydgoszcz – Track Town, Poland Bydgoszcz has hosted a lot of big events in recent years, including World Youths, World Juniors and World XC twice.

Doping News: IAAF Officially Bans Russian Doping Scandal Officials

IAAF Ethics Commission Bans Four Senior Officials Involved In Russian Doping Cover-Ups – Three For Life Papa Massata Diack, Valentin Balakhnichev, Alexei Melnikov get lifetime bans and former anti-doping director Gabriel Dollé ridiculously only gets 5 years. *IAAF Statement *WADA Statement
*Full Decision Text “In GD [Dollé]’s case such ban is also appropriate but in his case for five years only; his sins were those of omission, not commission.”
One Week To Go: Second Part Of WADA Doping Probe To Come Out On Thursday Next WeekDick Pound will once again present the findings which will center on the IAAF and Kenya.
Russian Deputy Sports Minister Loses Place On WADA Foundation BoardPavel Kolobkov is barred from participating until RUSADA is compliant again.
Former Blood Doping Cyclist David Millar Says That The IAAF Knew Back In 2009 That Track Was “Riddled” He claims they knew, but did nothing about it.
IAAF Ethics Commission Appoints Two New Members; No Longer All Male CouncilJustice Catherine O’Regan is a former South African judge and Annabel Pennefather is a distinguished Singaporean lawyer.

More Distance Stuff

Sara Hall Now Being Coached By Husband, Ryan Hall In this interview with Carrie Tollefson, Hall talks about her training/strategy for the OT and adopting her 4 Ethiopian daughters.
Imane Merga And Alice Aprot Win Campaccio XC Meet In Italy Merga just beat out Yasin Haji as they had identical times with Jarius Birech and Thomas Longosiwa 3rd and 4th. Aprot beat out Ruth Jebet by 4 seconds as Linet Masai and Mercy Cherono were 3-4.
February 14: Meseret Defar And Brenda Martinez Announced For New Balance Indoor Grand PrixTrayvon Bromell in the sprints.

Olympic News

Rio Olympic Stadium Administrators “Fire 75% Of Staff” Only 8 Months Out From Rio 2016 The goal is to cut costs while the facility is under Olympic control.
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve:Take A Look At What Would Have Been Hamburg’s Olympic Logo If They Hadn’t Pulled Out Of The 2024 Bid

Will You Run More Than Mark Zuckerberg In 2016?

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Wants To Run A Mile A Day In 2016 LRC message boarders were quick to call him out on a number of points.
Mark Zuckerberg Wants Us To Run A Mile A Day In 2016, But He’s Doing It All Wrong Blogger points out that Zuckerberg is heel striking and being over optimistic when he says it’ll take less than 10 minutes.
MB: Is the Mark Zuckerberg running challenge real?

Radical Group Wants Referendum On Rome 2024 Bid

Kenya’s Stars Are Already Locked In On Rio

Geoffrey Kamworor Says He’ll Do World Half – Where He Wants WR – And Then Olympic 10,000 – No Spring Marathon A smart plan as there is little chance Mo Farah is losing unless Kamworor is 100% ready.
Vivian Cheruiyot Says She’s Going To Double In 2016 And Thinks She Can Win Gold In Both “I feel strong and focused on the task ahead, which is to double in the two races. I have the strength and stamina to weather the storm and win.”

Field Event News

Last Weekend’s Top Action

Jacksonville Half Marathon:27 Men Go Under The 65:00 Trials Standard As Jonathan Grey Wins In 62:47 Over Fernando Cabada (63:25) And Chris Derrick (63:41) The top 14 women went under the 1:15 standard as Stephanie Dinius won in 1:13:27.
*MB:27 sub-1:05 at Jax half
*43-Year-old Kevin Castille Qualified With 1:04:33 Castille was our QOD earlier this week.

Japan’s Biggest Race: Aoyama Gakuin University Becomes First School In 39 Years To Lead Hakone Ekiden From Start To Finish A freshman with no 10k or half marathon experience and only a 14:15 5k PR ran the opening leg on day 2 and came away with a leg course record.

Indoor Track: *Abbey D’Agostino Races Men And Runs 8:51.88 3k Training partners Liz Costello (9:01) and Cory McGee (9:16) were also in her race.
*Brian Herron Runs 21.84 And 48.76 Indoors In Alabama To Break Two Freshman High School National Indoor Records

2015 In Review And An Obituary

Elaine Thompson Went From Unknown To 5th Fastest All-Time At 200m In 2015 Thompson ran 21.66, while Dafne Schippers ran 21.63, the fastest time in 17 years. Allyson Felix‘s PR is 21.69.
Blogger Mark Cullen Picks Emily Infeld And UW Alum Meron Simon As His 2015 Athletes Of The Year Do you remember what they both have in common? Read to find out.
Track & Field News Chooses Ashton Eaton’s And Genzebe Dibaba’s Decathlon And 1,500 WRs As Top Performances Of 2015
IAAF 2015 Diamond League Review – Part 1 Read the highlights from Doha through the adidas GP in NYC. *DL Review – Part 2 Paris through Brussels.
RIP: Obituary On Sylvester Stein, Anti-Apartheid Author, Running Journalist, And Masters Sprint Champ He had an interesting life to say the least.

2016 Has Begun

Mike Kigen Dominates San Silvestre Vallecana 10K In 27: 35 As Evan Jager Finishes Runner-Up (28:54)Ezekiel Kemboi was a non-factor as he finished 21st. Linet Masai won the women’s race in 31:38.
*MB:Jager vs Kemboi in road 10K for New Years
Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola (28:28) Beats Out Muktar Edris (28:44) And Imane Merga (28:56) To Win Boclassic New Year’s Eve Race In Italy Steepler Jarius Birech and NZ’s Zane Robertson were 4th and 5th. World XC bronze medalist Netsanet Gudeta won the women’s 5K (15:57) over Janet Kisa (16:02) and World Champs 4th placer Viola Kibiwot (16:02). *Full Results
RRW:Daniel Winn And Sarah Pagano Win NYRR Midnight Run Winn beat out Louis Serafini and Joe Stilin while Pagano won over Katie Matthews with UK’s Lisa Dobriskey 5th.
*MB: So who won the midnight race in Central Park?
Kenya’s Vincent Kipruto (2:10:18) And Ethiopia’s Worknesh Edesa (2:24:04) Win Xiamen Marathon In China The men’s race came down to a final 200m kick with Kipruto beating out Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata by only 2 seconds.
Jan. 30th: Lolo Jones And Kristi Castlin Racing Over 60H At Camel City Elite Meet

LetsRun.com Debates

LRCLetsRun.com Debates: Is It Time To Panic For Mary Cain? How Many World Records Will Be Set In 2016?Mary Cain‘s 1,500 PR was set in May of 2013. Is this a make-or-break year for her? We analyze that question in great detail and talk about Ajee Wilson and wonder how many world records will go down in 2016?

Doping News

Dick Pound Says That IAAF Officials, Including Seb Coe And Sergey Bubka, Should Have Acted Quicker To Change Its Outdated Governance Structure “They had a [19th-century] constitution in a 21st-century organisation.”
Mo Farah On Doping Problems: “I want to be able to race against clean athletes.” He also said, “I’m getting bored of [questions about Salazar].” *Guardian Article
*Farah Backs Seb Coe To Clean Up The Sport “He’s doing a great job. Obviously it’s going to take time, but he’s all up for it.”
Dutch Olympic Discus Champion Ria Stalman Admits To Using Steroids Ahead Of 1984 Los Angeles Games
WADA Confirms That IAAF Bribes And Blackmail Extended Behind Russia And Included Asli Cakir Alptekin Alptekin won 1,500 Olympic gold, but should have been banned before the Games based on her blood profile.

Will History Be Made?

LRCTirunesh Dibaba Is "Training Well" And Planning On Going For Unprecedented 3rd Olympic 10,000 Gold In Rio

Seven distance stars have won double Olympic 10,000 gold - Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Lasse Viren, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Derartu Tulu - but no one has ever won three. *Discuss

Free Training Info

Sonia O’Sullivan’s Free Training Advice For An Olympic Year: Pushing Too Hard Doesn’t Always Pay*Sonia O’Sullivan is interested to see how Ireland does now that Russian and Turk dopers are being cracked down on.
Photos Of How Many Top European Athletes Train In The Winter Includes a great video of Greg Rutherford doing stairs with his two labs.

A Look Back At The Geniuses Of LetsRun From 2015

LRCLRC $200,015 Running Warehouse NCAA XC Prediction Contest Recap

A pre-med student, a collegiate record holder, and a guy dating someone on the Syracuse team took home the prizes.

Brighten Your Thursday With Some Amusing Videos

MileSplit Vines: The Best Relay Fails – How Not To Hand Off
Funny Video: Decathlon On Ice You might be impressed with how fast this school mascot can do the 400m on a frozen track.

Portland World Indoor/Outdoor Champs News – Did $400,000 In Donations Buy 2021 Worlds $40 Million In State Support?

Register-Guard: Oregon Governor’s Top Aide Was Very Much Against Request For $40 Million In State Aid For 2021 Worlds – After $400,000 In Donations Poured In From Phil Knight, Nike And Others, The Governor Was All For It Emails show Governor Kitzhaber‘s administration was initially extremely skeptical of a $40 million state subsidy request by TrackTown USA. However, after Knight, Nike, and UO officials gave nearly $400,000 to Kitzhaber (who has since resigned in scandal) in a six-week period, Kitzhaber was all for it.
Nike Giving $13.5 Million To The University Of Oregon For Hayward Field Renovations They have given the first half with the second half dependent on further fundraising.
Public Gets A First Look At The New Indoor Track Set Up In A Portland Warehouse For World Indoors The warehouse has been dubbed the “House Of Track” and will stage several high performance meets before the track is dismantled and moved to the Portland Convention Center for Worlds.

Doping News

Seb Coe Unveils “Reform Roadmap” With A 10-Point Plan To Rebuild Faith In The IAAF The plan includes doubling the anti-doping budget from $4m to $8m, doubling the international testing pool of athletes to one thousand, creating a separate integrity unit and appointing a CEO. *The Guardian
NY Times:Finding A Common Thread In The Al Jazeera Doping Report Nearly all of the athletes Charles Sly named are clients of Jason Riley, a fitness trainer and business partner of Sly as they founded a nutritional supplement company together.
Opinion Piece: Treatment Of German Journalist Hajo Seppelt Says It All About The IAAF Seppelt has received three legal threats from the IAAF. “Basic common instinct tells us that the IAAF should be working with Seppelt and the Stepanovs. That they have been threatened and ignored speaks volumes.”
Painkiller And Hormonal Medication Remain Legal As New WADA Prohibited List Comes Into Force Thyroid hormonal medication remains permitted, despite calls by USADA and UKAD for it to be banned.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko Will Meet With IAAF Inspection Commission On January 11th

A Little Random, But Interesting

2:11 Marathoner Bob Hodge “HODGIE-SAN” Remembers A 20+ Mile New Year’s Day Run With Bill Rodgers
Athletics Weekly Looks At Athlete Superstitions And Finds Scientists Say They Actually Help Performance They “can distract an athlete from anxiety or nerves.”
*MB:Pre race rituals & superstitions post here!
*MB: What did you do the day before and the day of your best race?
Australia Won’t Ban Athletes From Using Social Media In Rio Many thought they would as they had previously hinted they’d urge people to “tweet or compete” after a swimmer famously said it cost her Olympic gold in 2012.
*MB: Australians were considering banning all Olympians from social media – decide not to
A Bad Year For Sport? Not For Nike And adidas Nike’s stock was up 29% on the year while adidas soared 55%. The article doesn’t mention Under Armour, which was up over 50% mid-year before closing up more than 20%.

Footballers In The News

Nice Article On Former Double World Jr. Gold Medalist Margus Hunt, Who Is Thriving For Cincinnati Bengals In case you aren’t aware of Hunt, read up on him below as he’s a FREAK.
*MB: Margus Hunt – 6-8, 280lbs – More raw Decathlon talent than Ashton?
*MB: How many of you have heard of Margus Hunt? Elite T&F athlete who looks to be going to the NFL
Bills WR Marquise Goodwin Will Attempt To Qualify For 2016 Summer Olympics Goodwin, who only has 3 catches over the last 2 years, was a 2-time NCAA champ who competed in 2012 in the LJ. He also wants to do World Indoors.

Doping And Rio $ News

Spanish Agency To Investigate Whether Athletes Jumped Fence At New Year’s Road Race In Spain Reports on Facebook said athletes were jumping the fence to avoid doping controls at the San Silvestre Crevillentina 10km.
Rio Olympic Stadium Is Without Water Or Electricity After Not Paying $225,000 In Utility Bills
Swiss Anti-Doping Says It Won’t Work With IAAF Until WADA Doping Investigation Concluded

RIP To A Local Legend

Recommended Tribute:WP: “Charlottesville Mourns A Moving Landmark, ‘Running Man’ After He Is Hit By An SUV” 55-year-old Philip Weber was a local legend in Charlottesville and known to most only as “Running Man.” He earned his fame from running miles and miles on the roads every day since the 1980s, always shirtless and in short shorts regardless of the weather.
NBC29 WVIR Video: Community Remembers Charlottesville’s “Running Man”
Great Profile/Video On “Running Man” From This November Weber lived a simple life and got by with not much money so he could spend more of his time running. He put thousands of miles on each pair of shoes, repairing them as he went with duct tape and Shoe Goo.
MB:Charlottesville Runners – Did you know ‘Running Man’? Killed by SUV?

Indoor Stuff

Kenya Will Be Choosing Their World Indoor Squad By Committee Rather Than Trials Might be hard to choose runners in January based on “current form.”
Roof Of Texas Tech Indoor Training Center Collapses Due To Heavy Snow Thankfully, no one was hurt and the building was actually scheduled to be torn down and replaced this spring.

LetsRun.com’s Look Back At 2015 *Year-End Rankings

Wejo A Look Back At 2015: Tsepo Mathibelle Is My Athlete Of Year, Evan Jager’s 8:00:45 Is My Race Of Year, Plus My Unknown Person Of Year And One Regret Wejo hands out high praise to two unknowns – one literally and one figurative. The anonymous source at the IAAF for Hajo Seppelt‘s work is is Person of the Year and Tsepo Mathibelle, who blew up at Worlds, is his Athlete of the Year.

Rojo: The Year Of Doping And Corruption, No One Is Too Big To Fall, Domination By Stars On The Men’s Side And New Faces On The Women’s Rojo is far from depressed by the doping/corruption scandals of 2015 as it shows no person is too big to fall. He has high praise forHajo Seppelt and Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanov, looks at the domination by stars on the men’s side and new faces on the women’s side, plus the emergence of Eric Jenkins and Emily Sisson.

Gault Kipchoge’s 2:04:00 Without Insoles, Dibaba’s 3:50:07, Bolt > Gatlin, The Greatness Of Montaño, Symmonds, Farah And Cheserek What a year: Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:04:00 with his shoes falling apart, Genzebe Dibaba ran 3:50.07 with both her shoes, Bolt defeated Gatlin, and Montaño, Symmonds, Farah, and Cheserek kept winning.