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Guest LRC Editorial

LRC Want an intelligent, nuanced read on Caster Semenya before IAAF ruling? Amby Burfoot: The Whole World Is Watching: Caster Semenya vs IAAF In this in-depth piece, Burfoot argues that intersex pro athletes like Semenya should only be allowed to compete in the female category if their testosterone is below a certain level.
*MB: What’s at stake in Semenya vs. IAAF — Amby Burfoot breaks down the monumental looming CAS decision

This Weekend’s Track Action All NCAA Results Mt. SAC Relays Live Results Entries Schedule Meet Home

LRC Michael Norman Opens Up Season With Sensational 43.45 400 Meters The American is now tied with Jeremy Wariner as the fourth-fastest man in history and in the process he shattered Michael Johnson‘s record for fastest time ever run in April. Updated with Norman quotes.
*MB: Michael MF Norman!!! 43.45!
*MB: Michael Norman can break 1:40 in the 800. Change my mind

Texas Tech’s/Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru Runs 9.95/19.76 Double (Wind-Legal) In Less Than 1 Hour At Baylor That’s VERY impressive. He’s the 10th man in history to do it on the same day.

Ryan Crouser Throws 22.74 (74′ 7¼”) – Best Shot Since 1990!

Beach Invy At Long Beach State: Omar Craddock Gets Upset Triple Jump Win Over Christian Taylor With 17.68m Craddock moved to #9 on the all-time US list. In the PV, recent NCAA record setter Olivia Gruver won with a MR of 4.66m. Chris Nilsen broke the men’s PV meet record with 5.82m.
Good Read: MileSplit: Cole Sprout Runs First Sub-9 3200m On Colorado Soil With 8:57.15 The race wasn’t without controversy though as Sprout and some others were initially DQd for cutting in too soon before the break. The DQ was overturned, the time might still not count as the official state record.
IAAF Mt. SAC Recap: Vashti Cunningham wins HJ at 1.97m, Sydney McLaughlin 50.1 relay at Mt Sac
Dalilah Muhammad (51.62) Beats Kendall Ellis (51.75) In Women’s 400 “I’m disappointed,” Ellis said. “Tried to go but there was nothing left.”
LA Times: Mt. SAC Relays Will Finally Return To Mt. SAC Next Year As Construction Is Almost Done
DyeStat Mt. SAC Women’s Recap: Keni Harrison Runs 100H World Leading 12.63
*DyeStat Men’s Mt. SAC Recap USC’s Isaiah Jewett ran the 2nd fastest NCAA 800m of the year with 1:46.11 to beat out Georgetown’s Joseph White (1:46.31).
MB: Japanese HSer Aaron Tatsunami Clay runs 3:44.86 1500
MB: Stanford CLEANED UP at Cardinal Classic 3 guys broke 13:40, led by Grant Fisher‘s 13:29.
MB: Ex-High School Studs Cooper Teare and Thomas Ratcliffe Crush 5k’s at Stanford Both ran 13:32.
18-Year-Old Ayden Owens Of USC Scores 8,130 Points In Collegiate Decathlon Debut At Bryan Clay In the process, he beat the indoor NCAA multi champ, set a Puerto Rican NR, set a USC school record and moved to #3 all time on the U20 list.
Oregon Freshman Max Vollmer Scored 7,840 Points At The Bryan Clay Invitational
Georgia’s Denzel Comenentia Throws 76.80m NCAA Hammer Lead At Mt. SAC He also broke his own Dutch national record. Nike pro Marcel Lomincky won the competition with 77.15m.
MB: More Proof That Track’s Regular Season Is Almost Totally Meaningless: NCAA Star Morgan McDonald Runs “B” Heat At Bryan Clay

Week That Was

LRC Edna Kiplagat Gets Her Green Card, Greg Meyer Gets His 10-Mile Record Back, Jordan Hasay Is Back, And An Indoor Marathon World Record Plus we compare the 2000 Boston finish to 2019 and look at how many sub-2:10 marathons have been run by Ethiopia, Kenya, and the USA.

Boston Podcast

LRC 2019 Boston Marathon Recap Podcast: Cherono Wins Mad Sprint, Jordan Hasay Is BAACK, Scott Fauble AND Jared Ward Sub-2:10 Is Jordan Hasay America’s best marathoner? Which celebrity was best in Boston? Might Galen Rupp not make the Olympics? Plus an interview with the guy who won the wave 1 start, Stephen VanGampleare.

Other Distance News

Israel Merkle Named USATF Athlete Of The Week After Winning USA 100k Road Championships By Almost 20 Minutes He ran 6:54:33 (6:40 pace) for the 100k (62.14 miles) race. Caroline Cotsakis won the women’s race in 9:48:48 (9:29 pace). *Results
Kenya Picks Up 11 More Medals At The Africa Under-20 Championships

More NCAA News

Men’s Mid-Outdoor Bowerman Watch List Update No big changes, Grant Fisher and Morgan McDonald are still the lone distance runners.
Women’s Bowerman Watch List Update Nine of the ten women remained the same with Jessica Hull, Danae Rivers and Alicia Monson repping the distances.
Penn Relays Start April 25th: Men’s Entries *Women’s Entries

More Upcoming Track Action

April 26: Drake Relays Announce Women’s 400H And Long Jump Fields Kori Carter has the fastest PR in the 400H and is up against Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Spencer. 2018 US champion Sha’Keela Saunders leads the LJ.
May 3: World Champ Ramil Guliyev And Dina Asher-Smith Vs. Marie-Josee Ta Lou Head 200m Fields For Doha 2018 rivals Jamaica’s Janieve Russell and Olympic champ Dalilah Muhammad will face off in the 400H.
June 12th: Polish Stars Confirmed For The Irena Szewinska Memorial In Bydgoszcz The meet was previously known as the Bydgoszcz Cup, but was renamed in memory of the late Polish 1976 Olympic 400 champ (and first woman to break 50) Irena Szewinska.
June 30: Ryan Crouser And Tom Walsh Lead Field Of Nine 22m Shot Putters For The Pre Classic At Stanford

2020 Olympic Track And Field Schedule Released

LRC How Will The Tokyo Weather (And A 6 AM Start) Affect The 2020 Olympic Marathons? Should The Start Be Moved To Night? The conditions for the 2020 Olympic marathons are going to brutal. We tell you what past races it most likely will resemble and agree with Brett Larner – the races should be run at night.

LRC Want To Watch Olympic Track And Field In 2020? We Hope You Like Getting Up Early Before Work Track fans on the East Coast will be able to watch most distance finals from the 2020 Olympics live as they get ready for work. West Coast fans, we suggest you take the week off as it’s going to be super early for you.

Tokyo 2020 Marathons To Start At 6AM To Avoid The Heat Japanese medics warned that running the race mid-morning could “lead to deaths” from heatstroke.
IAAF Competitions Director Paul Hardy Says The 2020 Schedule Is “Substantially Different” From Past Olympics The schedule will still allow for all the traditional distance and sprint doubles.

Distance News

Olympic 800m Silver Medalist Francine Niyonsaba Admits She Also Has Naturally High Levels Of Testosterone There was evidence that Niyonsaba had the same high testosterone condition as Caster Semenya, but we believe this is the first time it’s been officially confirmed.
*MB: Francine Niyonsaba admits to high testosterone.
Tirunesh Dibaba Withdraws From The London Marathon The release just says “for personal reasons.”
MB: Chris Derrick is OUT of London Marathon Derrick said he was “doing the best marathon training of my career” but says he got greedy in training and pushed through a plantar fascia issue.
Caster Semenya Honored On Time Magazine’s List Of The 100 Most Influential People Of 2019 Other athletes on the list include LeBron James and Tiger Woods.
Laura Muir Writes A Letter To Her Younger Self Muir reveals she was interested in animals from a young age and even had pet rats.

Week That Was

WTWWTW: Asbel Kiprop is Dirty, Michael Norman is Superfast and So Is Divine Oduduru, Plus the Quaxs Family vs the Centros

Don’t let Kiprop’s doping ban jade you too much as there still were some incredible performances you can hope were clean this past week.

LRC *What are the World’s Best Sub 10/Sub 20 One-Day Doubles? We Rank Them Justin Gatlin tops the list but Ato Boldon deserves special praise. The newest entrant – Texas Tech’s Divine Oduduru – joins the list at #3.

Distance News / Road Results

Asbel Kiprop’s 4-Year Doping Ban Upheld By Athletics Integrity Unit
*Asbel Kiprop: “I’m innocent.” “It’s sad that the world will believe that I am guilty of taking the performance-enhancing drugs and yet I have been at the forefront of fighting doping in the sport.”
*Daily Nation: Why Asbel Kiprop’s Multi-Pronged Doping Defence Failed
*Capital Sports: Kiprop Insists On Innocence Despite Ban
*MB: Kenyan doper Asbel Kiprop (1500m), banned for 4 years by AIU due to convincingly made out case, can still appeal to CAS

Crescent City Classic 8:58 Steepler Celliphine Chespol Wins Women’s 10k Title In First-Ever 10k In 31:40
*7:58 Steepler Jairus Birech Wins Men’s Crescent City Classic 10k Title In 27:52
*Kevin Castille (30:52) And Jen Rhines (35:34) Win Masters Titles
*MB: CELLIPHINE CHESPOL: her potential at 17 yrs old, greater than Kenenisa Bekele – Vipam
*MB: Parker Stinson goes for broke but still ends up top American He ran 29:10 the hard way – 14:04 – 15:06.

Uganda’s Jackson Kiprop (2:10:39) And Ethiopia’s Meskerem Hunde (2:33:32) Win Nagano Marathon In Japan Kiprop beat out Derese Geleta by just 3-seconds.
International road recap by IAAF: 59:56 and 68:04 half marathons in China lead the way (link fixed)
MB: Tirunesh Dibaba Is OUT Of The 2019 London Marathon As She’s Pregnant With Child #2
3-Time Comrades Champ Bongmusa Mthembu Comes From Behind To Win Two Oceans As Gerda Steyn Repeats As Women’s Champ It was close at the finish as the article says Mthembu only passed Sintayehu Legese 4km from the finish and Legese ended up 4th. *Top 4 Results
*MB: Zach Ornelas Two Oceans 56k, 3:19, 9th overall The MB poster says he’s the 1st American ever in the top 10.
*Male Runner, 35, Dies During Two Oceans Half Marathon
USATF 1 Mile Road Championships Is Tuesday In Iowa – Masters, Lipari Eye Repeat But They’ll Have Plenty Of Competition Kyle Merber, Lawi Lalang, Nikki Hiltz, Shannon Osika, etc.
Kate Avery’s Comeback From Injury Is Going Well, But She’s Not Quite Back To Training Like She Used To

Sprint / Vault News

Coach Thinks Kiwi 17-Year-Old Sprint Star Eddie Osei-Nketia Can Also Star For All Blacks Sevens In Rugby He’s already run 10.19 and 20.76 at 17.
Kiwi Pole Vault Star Olivia McTaggart Will Need Surgery After Pole Snaps (Video)
The Great Clyde Hart, 85, Is Finally Hanging Up His Stopwatch After This Season Best known for coaching Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner to Olympic 400 gold, he doesn’t want to be remembered as a 400 coach. “I was a track coach.”
Kendall Ellis Making Her Pro Debut At Mt. SAC Ellis is doing just fine financially but her former USC teammate Jaide Stepter has been a pro for years and still doesn’t have a contract even after running 50.63 last year.
DuckSports Profile On Oregon Sprinter Cravon Gillespie, Who Will Be Competing At His Former Stomping Grounds At Mt. Sac.
HSer Matthew Boling Runs 10.11w, Garners Headline In Italian Press As “The Fastest White Ever?”

More Boston Leftovers

Good Read: Outside: Scott Fauble Explains Why He Shares All His Training On Strava “This isn’t a sport like football or basketball where you can out-game plan somebody. You show up and you’re either fit or not. Whether you share your training or not isn’t going to change how fit or unfit you are.”
*MB: Scott Fauble Wants to Tell You His Strava Secrets
Good Read: Former Track Star Who Lost Feet To Frostbite Ran A World Best For Double Amputees At Boston Marko Cheseto ran 2:42:24 to beat the previous world best of 2:42:52 from 2010.
*MB Archives: ESPN documentary on UAA runner, Marko Cheseto
Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Looking Toward Tokyo 2020 After 11th Place Finish In Boston McCormack set a 44-second PR just 6 months after giving birth to her daughter, Isla.
AP: Marine Running Marathon For Fallen Friends Crawled To The Boston Marathon Finish Line When Micah Herndon‘s legs seized up, he crawled the last 100 yards to the finish. He says he uses running to help deal with post-traumatic stress from his time overseas. *NBC News Video
*MB: Marine crawls over finish line in Boston: Overdone?
MB: China bans 3 Boston Marathon cheats for life for giving country a bad name
Interesting: The Telegraph Looks Back At When Katherine Switzer Was Chased By An Official For Wearing A Bib During The 1967 Boston Marathon Switzer was running with her nationally ranked hammer thrower boyfriend (future ex-husband) Tom Miller, who was removed from the Amateur Athletic Union for body checking the official who tried to wrestle away her bib.
Joan Benoit Samuelsonn Crushed Her Goal With A 3:04 At The Boston Marathon The 61-year-old wanted to run within 40 minutes of her 2:35:15 winning time from 40 years ago, but topped that by coming in less than 30 minutes over that time.
Lawrence Cherono Dedicates His Boston Marathon Victory To His Family “I want to dedicate my win to my wife and my brother who gave me all the support during my training.”
How Did The Celebrities Do At This Year’s Boston Marathon? Former Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson ran the BAA 5k in 31:54 and her her husband, NFL player Andrew East, ran 4:43:05 for the marathon.
RW’s Most Inspiring Photos From Boston Did you know Meb Keflezighi was the Boston grand marshal?

Notre Dame And Paris 2024

IOC Pledges $562,000 To Help Restore Notre Dame Ahead Of The 2024 Paris Olympics France’s president says he wants to see Notre Dame restored within five years.
InsideTheGames‘ David Owen: “Notre Dame Fire Will Change Paris 2024” Owens writes, “The disaster may provide embattled French President Emmanuel Macron with an opportunity, for a time, to conjure a much-needed sense of national unity …”

News From The IAAF

World’s Largest Ever Athletics Exhibition Opens In Largest Shopping Mall in Doha – Will Stay Open Through Worlds During the opening ceremony Lasse Viren donated the pair of shoes he wore when running the marathon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Seb Coecontributed the spikes and vest he wore when winning the Olympic 1500.
IAAF Releases Consensus Statement On Nutrition For Athletes Looks like mostly basic info (nutrition and protein can help rehab muscle injuries for example), but with 16 different articles there is sure to be some good information in there.

Sprint Stuff

Recommended Read: USA Today Profiles Noah Lyles And His Journey Going Pro Right Out Of High School Also includes a video with interviews with Lyles, his mother and his coach. Talking about the “next Usain Bolt” Lyes says, “Whatever Usain did was awesome. … I see that as a great way to say, ‘I’m going to break that, and then I’m going to get even bigger than him.'”
Kenya Not Sending 4 X 100 Or 4 X 400 Relay Teams To The IAAF World Relays Apparently the only one they hit the standard in was the men’s 4 x 400, but the IAAF didn’t ratify the meet it came at. Kenya will still send 4 x 200 and mixed relay teams where there were no standards.
RIP: New Zealand’s First Female Olympic Gold Medalist And Former Long Jump WR Holder Yvette Corlett Has Died, Aged 89 She won the LJ at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.
Jamaica Names 80-Strong Team For Carifta Games Includes the Ato Boldon-coached Briana Williams.

NCAA Stuff

UCLA College Admissions Scandal: LA Times Alleges Parents Paid $100,000 To Get Their Daughter Into UCLA As A Track Athlete Reportedly a woman athlete got into the school and onto the track team even though former UCLA track coach Mike Maynard said she wasn’t “athletically up to the performance level” of UCLA, but he felt “manipulated” into listing her as a recruit.
South Carolina’s Quincy Hall And The University Of The Incarnate Word’s Sarea Alexander Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Hall set the NCAA 400m lead with 44.53 while Alexander tied the NCAA LJ lead with 6.60m.
No Changes To The Top 3 Men’s Teams In Updated Men’s NCAA Rankings Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Florida sit 1-3 while LSU moved up from 6th to 4th.
Top 3 Women’s NCAA Teams Remain Unchanged With Southern California, Texas A&M And Arkansas LSU moved up one spot to 4th.

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Some Final Boston Articles

LRC Meet Stephen VanGampleare – The 2019 Boston Marathon “Open Division” Champion The BAA didn’t let amateurs run with the pros in Boston this year. That didn’t stop Stephen VanGampleare from beating several of them even though they were given a 2-minute head start. In the end, he ended up with a nearly 6-minute PR and Olympic Trials qualifier that shocked himself. “(I) still kind of am in a little bit of disbelief that I actually hit that time.”
*MB: Lawrence Cherono beat less than 70 men to win the Boston Marathon, Steven VanGampleare beat more than 7k to win the open race

LRC 2019 Boston Marathon Report Cards: Ranking The Top 10 & the Americans, A Through (DN)F Jared Ward gave himself an A-, what did the other pros get in Boston?

Previous Distance News

Recommended Read A Few Years Ago, Anna Shields Was A College Dropout Who Bought A Pair Of Shoes At Target To Win A Steps Contest At Work; Now She’s A 2:04/4:12 Runner And an NAIA superstar at age 28 for Point Park.
Toni Reavis Likes The Separate Elite Start In Boston As He Wants There To Be Standards For Professionalism “Professional marathon fields should have entry standards just like the regular Boston qualifiers have standards.”
Kenyans Picking Up Plenty Of Medals At African U20 Champs 9:48 won the girls steeple and 8:14 the boys 3k.

Pre-Race Two Oceans News

Two Oceans Course Is Altered Just Days Before The Race A dispute in the Hout Bay Imizamo Yethu informal settlement area is causing a big course change.
Outrage As It’s Learned That Two Oceans Won’t Be Screened On TV The traditional broadcaster has major financial woes.

Paula Radcliffe Speaking Out For Women’s Sport

Paula Radcliffe Reveals She’s Suffered “Vicious” And “Aggressive” Online Abuse Since Supporting The IAAF’s Case Against Caster Semenya Radcliffe says on Twitter “there are some really weird, crazy people … It was hateful some of the stuff, things that I wouldn’t say to another human being. It’s just wrong.”
Paula Radcliffe Warns Caster Semenya Verdict Could Be The Death Of Women’s Sport Radcliffe fears country will start cherry picking athletes with hyperandrogenism and force them into sport or that this ruling could open the door for transgender athletes to compete without any hormone treatments.

Doping News

Former WADA Head David Howman Says That Drug Testing Methods Are Stuck In The 1970s “We all know that urine analysis has not advanced much. We’re still in a position where we’re getting the same number of positive cases each year, and many of them are in the category of what I call the ‘dopey dopers’ – the inadvertent dopers, or the ones who are just darned stupid.”
Proving David Howman’s Point: Sport Ireland Reveals They Had Only One Anti-Doping Violation In 1,112 Tests In 2018 The only athlete caught was a boxer who tested positive for cannabis.
Game Of Thrones Actor And The Reigning “World’s Strongest Man” Admits To Steroid Use Is anyone really surprised that “The Mountain” takes steroids?
WADA Reportedly Set To Launch A New Quick And Easy Testing Method For The 2020 Games Supposedly rather than taking a blood sample from the vein, the new cheaper and easier method would only require a finger prick and a few drops of blood for a “dried blood spot testing.”