Music City Distance Carnival

2017 Music City Distance Carnival Results: High School Junior Brodey Hasty Runs 4:01.76 Mile Other winners included Ghana’s Alex Amankwah in the 800 with 1:45.67, Laura Roesler (2:00.54) over Natoya Goule (2:00.56) in the 800, Sara Vaughn in the 1,500 (4:06.64), Chad Noelle over Canadian Olympian Nate Brannen in the 1,500 (3:42.12) and Donnie Cowart (8:30) and Emily Oren (9:40) in the steeples.
*MB: Brodey Hasty 4:01.75

• Register-Guard:Oregon Ducks Hold Off Georgia To Win NCAA Women’s Crown Oregon bounced back from disaster when Deajah Stevens fell and was DQed before the line in the 200m.
• Georgia’s Heptathlon Champ Kendell Williams On The 4 X 4:“It was hard to watch … we’re definitely a field-event school … it is hard to win a championship with just field events.”
• Robert Johnson To The 4 X 400 Squad:“I hate to put this on you. But I also want to put it on you because I wouldn’t want it to come down to any other group of girls on our team.”
• IAAF:Florida’s Kyra Jefferson Blasts To NCAA 200m Record With 22.02 UTEP’s Tobi Amusan also posted a fast time to win the 100H in 12.57.
• Siblings Share Moments, Make Memories At NCAAs The top finishing siblings were Kendell and Devon Williams with Kendell winning the heptathlon and Devon 2nd in the decathlon.
• Weeks Sisters Sweep NCAA Elite90 Scholar-Athlete Award The award goes to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at NCAAs. Tori Weeks won the outdoor award while Lexi Weeks was the top scholar-athlete indoors.
• The Oregonian:“Overlooked Before NCAAs, Oregon’s Brooke Feldmeier Comes Through” Feldmeier wasn’t supposed to score, but PRed by 1.59 seconds to get UO 6 crucial points in the 800.
• Some Post-NCAA Stats From USTFCCARaevyn Rogers became the first woman in meet history to win three consecutive 800 titles.

Olympic News

• Mixed Gender 4 X 400 Relay Added To The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games As Is 3-On-3 Basketball They shouldn’t add a mixed gender 4 x 400 unless they get rid of the regular 4 x 400s. Adding events that dilute other events doesn’t grow sports – it kills them. Anyone remember short course XC? The same is true for the 3-on-3 basketball. Mediocre nations with 1 good player will just now give up on the 5 x 5 game.
• IOC Announces There Will Be 105 Fewer Track Athletes In Tokyo
• IAAF Statement On Olympic Changes: The IAAF Welcome The Additional Event, But Question The Logistics Of Adding Another 4 X 400 To The Program The IAAF was also “disappointed” by the high reduction in the overall athlete quota and are concerned it will hurt the Olympic participation of some nations with non-competitive programs.
  *MB: 2020 Olympics add 4×400 Mixed Relay… Another Easy Gold for the U.S.?
• IOC Executive Board Approve Joint Awarding Plans For 2024 And 2028 Olympic Games It still has to be ratified at an Extraordinary IOC Session, but if you read between the lines, this is all basically red tape that will culminate with Paris 2024 and LA 2028.

Usain Bolt’s Final Race In Jamaica Is Saturday *Schedule*Start Lists

• Friend’s Death Hangs Heavy Over Bolt’s Final Jamaica Run Bolt, who was a pallbearer, admits he lost fitness while grieving but says he’s excited for his last track race in Jamaica. “I know it’s going to be a lot of emotions on the day because it’s my last time. I know the fans are going to miss it and I will miss it also because I know the energy is going to be good in the stadium so I’m looking forward to it.”
• Good Read:The Guardian:“Usain Bolt Ready To Go Supersonic One Last Time For His Jamaica Farewell” Bolt should go out in Jamaica with a win as the biggest competition (Yohan Blake and SA’s Akani Simbine) are in a separate 100m race earlier in the meet.
• Aside From Bolt, Racers GP Is Stacked With Mo Farah, David Rudisha, Wayde Van Niekerk, Christian Taylor, Allyson Felix All Competing
• The Telegraph:“Jamaica Facing Up To Its Future Without Usain Bolt: Their Perfectly Normal Icon”(You need to register to access “premium” articles.)
• BBC Video:Usain Bolt To “Put On A Show” For His Last Race In Jamaica

Other Distance News

• Podcast:Carrie Tollefson Interviews Recent Comrades Marathon Champion Camille Herron
• Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen Poised For European Champs Glory After Breaking The Four-Minute Barrier In The Rom DL 1,500

• GB Euro Mountain Running Champs Team Announced

Sanctions Coming For The NOP Team Doc?

NY Times Says That USADA Has Notified Dr. Jeffrey Brown Of The Nike Oregon Project That He’s Committed Rules Violations The logical question then is, “Will Alberto Salazar be charged as well?”
*MB: Dr. Brown notified of doping charges – Is Alberto Salazar next? 

Runner’s World Recalls The Key Developments In The Alleged NOP Doping Scandal That Has Now Been In The Press For 2+ Years

Interesting Reads

• In The Name Of Berlino, Pat Butcher Urges Everyone To Try To Save Berlin’s Olympic Stadium Personally, we think large stadiums should be built for other sports (NFL in the US) but designed so a track can be built up over the first few rows for a few million.
• Yuki Kawauchi Thinks It’s Absurd That Japanese Runners Are Obsessed With 2020 Olympics “It feels a bit like during the war era.There’s this Great Cause called the Tokyo Olympics, and everyone has to march in that direction. If you step out of line even just a tiny bit people say, ‘You’re a traitor!’ I hate that kind of atmosphere.”
• Runner’s World Editor-In-Chief David Willey Is Stepping Down After 14 Years At The Helm He just ran a 3:28 marathon at age 49.
• Diego Estrada Syas His Mom Told Him If They’s Stayed In Mexico He Would Have Fathered A Kid By Age 15 And Become A Bricklayer
• Welsh Athlete Who Was 4th At World Orienteering Champs Runs 29:06 10k
• Frank Shorter Goes Back To His HS And Gives A Speech At Graduation He went out for XC after making a bet with a friend after initially trying to play football and baseball.
• Sanya Richards-Ross Breaks Silence On Sport’s Last Taboo With Incendiary Claim About Prevalence Of Abortions 
• Armand Duplantis Remembers Back To When He Won World Juniors As A 15-Year-Old

Other News

• Meet The Woman Meb Keflezighi Hand Picked To Run The NYC Marathon Running helped Nora Allen deal with her anxiety and depression after she attempted suicide.
• Study Finds The More Miles You Run, The More Likely Your Friends And Family Are To Up Their Weekly Mileage, Too
• Yesterday Was Global Running Day We hope you got your run in.

Our Weekly Recap – The Week That Was

LRCWTW: It's Okay To Wear Makeup In War, Several HS Girls Do Better Than Sub-4, And An American Wins Comrades

Distance News: Despite Cancer, Grunewald Still Shooting For USAs

• And You Thought You Had A Busy Week:Gabriele Grunewald Has A Live Biopsy On Monday, Chemotherapy On Tuesday And A Race On Saturday Even though she’s starting chemo, Grunewald hasn’t given up on qualifying for USAs and will shoot for the 4:09.50 standard at the Music City Distance Carnival.
• MB:Galen Rupp Will Open His Season Saturday In The 10,000 At The Portland Track Festival
• MB:Kenenisa Bekele And Tirunesh Dibaba Lead Ethiopian Marathon Squad For Worlds The men’s squad also has Olympic 10,000 bronze medalist and Dubai winner Tamira Tola and 2:04-man Tsegaye Mekonen. The women’s squad also has defending champ Mare Dibaba, Tokyo/Berlin runner-up Birhane Dibaba and Dubai runner-up Shure Demise.
• Caster Semenya Is Juggling Her Race Schedule With Her Exams As She Finishes Up Her Degree Semenya has one more semester as a sports science student at the University of North West in South Africa.

US Road Stuff

• NY Times:Chinese Real Estate Conglomerate Dalian Wanda Acquires Competitor Group The company that bought the Ironman series for $650 million in 2015 adds the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon series, making it one of the largest endurance sports organizations in the world.
• When You’re An Elite Marathoner, You Can Film Your Kids Races Like This Meb Keflezighi‘s family ran at the Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego 5K while Meb ran alongside with the camera.
• Darius Terry (3:54) And Tori Tsolis (4:22) Win State Street Mile In Santa Barbara The gradual downhill race calls itself the “fastest mile in the west.”
• Jeffrey Eggleston Won The San Diego Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon In 2:21:18
• 94-Year-Old Becomes The Oldest Woman To Complete A Half Marathon At The San Diego Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Harriette Thompson completed the distance in 3:42:56 (17-minute mile pace).