Archived Homepage For December 21, 2021

Jakob 2.0?

World, meet Axel Vang Christensen - the 17-year old European phenom who gets up at 5:15 am to train and runs 100 mpw

Scandinavia's latest distance prodigy hails from Denmark and he's already beaten some of Jakob Ingebrigtsen's age records. At 15, he ran 14:06. At 16, he ran 7:59/8:42 st/13:44. At 17, he just recently destroyed the field to win the Euro U20 title by 25 seconds.

MB: Axel Vang Christensen Strikes Back - 14:06 5,000m & 9:06 steeple @15 years old
Speaking of Jakob, this is a good piece on him At 16, Jakob Ingebrigtsen told his dad, "I can quit today. The only way to be at my best is to have a normal life.”

NAZ Elite Updates

MB: Scott Fauble leaves NAZ Elite The 30-year old 2:09:42 marathoner posted on Instagram, "This was an incredibly difficult decision and not one that I made quickly or lightly. I truly believe in what NAZ Elite is doing from a business and culture standpoint."
2:12:52 Marathoner Rory Linkletter Also Leaves NAZ Elite
Arizona Daily Sun: Scott Smith Leaves Legacy With Flagstaff's NAZ Elite Upon Retirement NAZ Elite actually now has an award named after Smith, the Scott Smith Teammate Award.

On The Boards

Weekend Results

High School Olympic Trials Qualifier Sophia Gorriaran Runs Impressive 3000/400 Indoor Double With 9:55.50/55.45
Japan Weekend Road Results: Dominic Nyairo And Daichi Kamino Have Photo Finish At Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Nyairo won the sprint finish as both men were timed at 2:09:34. Reia Iwade won the women's race in 2:33:42.

COVID News

Seb Coe Gives His Opinion On Athletes And COVID Vaccines "I’m always aware about personal liberties. I’m not comfortable about telling athletes they have to be vaccinated — there may be good reasons why they choose not to be, and there may be health reasons why they choose not to be… But all I’d say, if they have the ability or potential to be vaccinated, I think it’s a sensible approach."
Canada's Jerome Indoor Games Canceled "Due To Looming Omicron Variant Threat"

Upcoming Indoor Action

Christian Coleman To Make His Return From 18-Month Suspension At Millrose Games Coleman says he's worked to do better with out of competition testing and has an alarm on his phone to remind him to update his schedule daily and a doorbell that alerts him to visitors.
Selemon Barega Vs Getnet Wale And Lamecha Girma Over 3000m Set For Torun, Poland On February 22 This will be a rematch from a meet last indoor season where Wale just missed Daniel Komen's indoor WR when he ran 7:24.98 to beat out Barega (7:26.10) and Girma (7:27.98).
Mondo Duplantis Vs Sam Kendricks Set For Sweden On February 9

The Bowerman Award

Athing Mu And JuVaughn Harrison Win 2021 Bowerman Award

It was an SEC sweep for the award for the top men's and women's collegiate track athletes of the year.

Coe Speaks

Seb Coe Calls Eugene 2022 World Champs "A Huge Moment For Us" Coe added, "Every sport is wanting to get into the U.S., and it is still the most potent sports marketing environment. Every member federation I sit down with is doing everything it can to get into the U.S. and for good reason."
T&F News Interviews With Seb Coe An interesting thing Coe said was about TV vs streaming. "In talking about growing our sport, we must never underestimate the value of television. I know it’s a popular nostrum at the moment to speak techie in everything and digitally in everything. But television is a really important vehicle for us. Most people watching athletics are still consuming on television.”

Podcast Listening

Nick Willis Talks Record Breaking Attempt at 20 Straight Years of Sub 4 Miles New Year's Eve at Armory + Foot Locker's Euro Cross, More

We'll have highlights from Willis' talk over the weekend but he also talked Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Asbel Kiprop and how dirty the sport is. Listen here in your favorite podcast app.
Friday 15: When will Jakob retire? Cross Country in the Olympics?, Jon talks to Seb Coe, Zombie NOP gets a name Our bonus pod for Supporters Club listeners.

Mboma should be in the intersex division but this is still an interesting read

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Good read: When she was 13, friends started abandoning Christine Mboma, now she's an Olympic medallist and star in Namibia They weren't abandoning her because the intersex athlete was hitting puberty. They were abandoning her because her mother died and she was an orphan and many in Africa "superstitiously believe they carry misfortune."

International Distance News

LRC Debates - When Should Jakob Ingebrgitsen Retire?

Rojo and French coach Pierre Jean Vazel talk about the impact of Super Shoes

Have you checked out Anna Legnani's new youtube show Love Athletics? Legnani was the former deputy director of communications for the IAAF.

Past Legends Speak & We Listen

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Past Legends Speak & We Listen

Marathon Great Takeyuki Nakayama criticizes boring rabbitted races - "The Marathon is a Drama Without a Script - When it's just the same old script it's boring as hell" Nakamyama, who was 4th at both the 1988 and 1992 Olympic marathons, famously went out in 61:55 in Fukuoka in 1987 when the WR was 2:07:12.
*MB: RR: Japanese marathon legend takes shot at today's rabbited races. "When it's just the same old script it's boring as hell"
A conversation with Canadian icon Bruce Kidd Kidd was once called “a symbol of Canadian manhood” by former Toronto mayor Nathan Phillips. At 18, he ran 13:42 for 5k. At 19, he won CG gold and bronze. He talks about his memoir 'A Runner's Journey'. Purchase here.

RIP Matt and Al

Runnerspace/Dyestat Remembers Matt Scherer: Matt Scherer's Passing Leaves A Void In Our Lives Scherer did it all in helping promote our beloved sport. He will be missed. The funeral service is Saturday in Illinois at 10:00 am local and will be live streamed.
*Fundraiser for his 4-year old daughter
*Obituary

Good read: Legends of the sport - including Alberto Juantorena, Dan O'Brien, Francie Larreau-Smith - remember Al Franken A slew of great memories have been compiled by Jeff Benjamin. We loved this quote from Ray Flynn. "There wasn't anyone he didn't know in track field and he didn't take no for an answer. "

Book Review

LRC Book Review: "Tokyo Countdown" by Geoff Wightman

Wightman, the stadium announcer for the Tokyo Olympics and father/coach of Olympic 1500 finalist Jake Wightman, has written a book full of behind-the-scenes stories in the leadup to last summer's Olympics.

Odds and Ends

Great news: Diamond League reverses course and says field eventers with best mark will be the winner, not just those with the best 6th round A few changes do remain. Only the top 3 will get a sixth attempt which will take place when all track competition is halted. and the top 3 will throw first in each round.
World Athletics partner Asics is working hard to reduce its carbon footprint In Tokyo, the Japanese athletes wore clothes "made from recycled clothes donated from around the country."
You can now call her Dr Thompson-Herah! Elaine Thompson conferred with honorary Doctor of Law degree by the University of Technology
5 stretches you can do in your door frame

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Jakob Ingebrigtsen The King, Hansons Brooks Dominates, Newbury Park vs the Collegians, & A Legend Passes

We recap the week in running from the Euro cross country champs to the USATF Club Nationals to the high school ranks to Bahrain.

Newbury Park Was Great At RunningLane - But How Great?

LRC Was the Course at the RunningLane Cross Country Championships Short? Well...

The day before RunningLane nationals, a high school coach wheeled the notoriously fast John Hunt Park course in Huntsville and measured it at 4935m. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
MB: Is the RunningLane Course 5K? Or Is It Short?

Kenyan Distance News

World Athletics Profile: Mary Keitany - From Shoeless Prodigy To Top Of The World The 4-time NYC Marathon champ Keitany grew up very poor and had to spend months at a time away from her family working as a live-in maid to help support her parents. She says she had no shoes for much of her childhood.
BBC: What Milestones Are Left For Eliud Kipchoge? Kipchoge: "A lot is still in my bucket list but the main one is to run all six major marathons and win all of them - that's my next challenge." Kipchoge still needs to win Boston, NYC and Tokyo.
*Eliud Kipchoge Says He'd Still Like To Improve His Half-Marathon PB (59:25) And Run An Official Sub-2 Hour Marathon
Sad News: Kenyan African Games 10,000m Runner Monica Chirchir Dies From Cancer She had been battling colon cancer since last year.

Other News

Vote For Your Best Diamond League Moments Of 2021
Olympic Champ Katie Nageotte And Sandi Morris Announced For Millrose Games Pole Vault
World Athletics: Five Books To Make You Rethink Your Running List includes Christopher McDougall's Born to Run.
NCAA Athletes Of The Week Are BYU's Aack McWhorter And Kentucky's Abby Steiner McWhorter matched the #8 best PV in NCAA history with 5.82m while Steiner broke the collegiate 300m record with 35.80.

Best of the LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast

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World, meet Axel Vang Christensen - the 17-year old European phenom who gets up at 5:15 am to train and runs 100 mpw

Athing Mu And JuVaughn Harrison Win 2021 Bowerman Award

Nick Willis Talks Record Breaking Attempt at 20 Straight Years of Sub 4 Miles New Year's Eve at Armory + Foot Locker's Euro Cross, More

LRC Book Review: "Tokyo Countdown" by Geoff Wightman

LRC WTW: Jakob Ingebrigtsen The King, Hansons Brooks Dominates, Newbury Park vs the Collegians, & A Legend Passes

LRC Was the Course at the RunningLane Cross Country Championships Short? Well...

American Record Pod: Yared Nuguse and Wood Kincaid Open Up

Webb, Ritz, and Hall

Madeline Manning Mims

Frank Shorter

LRC American Marathon Record Podcast: Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor

LRC Emily Sisson - The Next US Marathon Superstar?

LRC Woody Kincaid - On His American Record and Leaving Bowerman

LRC New Balance Boston's Mark Coogan

LRC Brooks Beasts' Danny Mackey

LRC OAC's Dathan Ritzenhein

The Rise of Syracuse: How a Cross Country Powerhouse Was Built From Scratch in 10 Years

26:59: The Story of Chris Solinsky's American Record and Upset of Galen Rupp

The Summer of Webb: An Inside Look at Alan Webb’s Magical 2007 Season

Dreams Become Reality: Jake Wightman Stuns Jakob Ingebrigtsen to Win World 1500m Title

Wejo Speaks: Why I Sucked in College

Escorting Paula - How LRC Co-Founder Weldon Johnson Paced Radcliffe To Her 1st World Record

American Strong: How American Teamwork Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston

LRC's Robert and Weldon Johnson Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”

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