Neither of the two young Ethiopians medalled at the Olympics but both look like major players in the years to come. Since finishing 4th in the 10,000 in Tokyo, the 20-year old Aregawi has won the DL final and run 12:52 and 12:49 on the roads.
Archived Homepage For January 02, 2022
Archived Homepage For January 02, 2022
An Amazing Year Ends With A Bang
More New Year's Action
- Spain’s Mohamed Katir (27:45) And Ethiopia's Degitu Azimeraw (30:26) Win San Silvestre Vallencana New Year's Eve 10k In Madrid Olympic 5000m silver medalist Hellen Obiri was supposed to headline this event, but had to pull out at the last minute after testing positive for COVID.
- Tadese Worku (28:18) And Dawit Seyaum (15:22) Win Boclassic 10k/5k In Italy Worku, the world U20 3000m champ, beat out Tamirat Tola by 8-seconds while Syaum finished 2-seconds ahead of #3 all-time steeplchaser Norah Jeruto.
- Honda Wins First-Ever New Year Ekiden Corporate National Title They beat out corporate team Subaru by just over a minute.
- Heavy Favorites Aoyama Gakuin University Takes Hakone Ekiden Day One They took the day one win by over two and a half minutes over defending champ Komazawa University.
On The Boards
On The Boards
A Cautionary Tale
- Gambling Addict Who Lost Around $1 Million On Lottery Tickets Credits Running With Saving Him From His Addiction Adam Osmond's addiction to lottery tickets and scratch-offs cost him his gas station business (at one point he won $50,000 and put it right back into more tickets), but he says running helped cure him by giving him a way to channel his energy positively.
High School News
- High School Olympic Trials Qualifier Sophia Gorriaran Wins 500m 757 Showdown At Virginia Beach She ran 1:12.17 to put herself #11 on the all-time list and beat out Kayla Davis (1:15.57).
- Hana Moll Clears Best Junior Pole Vault Mark In Prep History With 4.45m The mark puts her #2 on the all-time US under-20 indoor list.
- Dyestat's 2021 Year-In-Review
End-Of-Year News
- TFN: US is top track team in world if you score all the events by world ranking (10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1) 1. US 226; 2. Kenya 102; 3. Canada 72; 4. Ethiopia 60; 5. tie, Australia & Poland 40. *Wild TFN stat - The longest any man currently has been ranked #1 in the world is 2 years in a row
- Kenya's Year in Review: It was an amazing year for Kenya Kenya enjoyed a ton of success in 2021 with Korir, Kipyegon, Chepchirchir and Kipchoge winning Olympic gold, the country hosting World Jrs, and Ferdinand Omurwa running 9.77. But Agnes Tirop was murdered and the Kenyan men failed to win steeplechase gold.
- Athletics Weekly's 12 most popular stories of 2021
Distance News As 2021 Comes To An End
- Seb Coe has little sympathy for those who test positive, says they are "architects of their own downfall" - Mirror Online We imagine Jarrion Lawson and Ajee Wilson wouldn't agree with the following qutoe from Coe: "I am sorry to say this, and I am not going to be romantic or emotional about it, they are the architects of their own downfall here. The rules are very clear. It is not arcane maritime law."
- Dr Matt Long analyzes the Ingebrigtsen's training - Are threshold intervals the key? "I’m not that concerned if the intensity is too low, that’s more a discussion about speed, but you should definitely not have too high intensity in training because it affects the road forward and we have to make adjustments depending on recovery," said Gjert.
- Bring Back the Mile: The Best Mile Moments of 2021 It was quite the year in the mile. A record 35 U.S. men clocked their first sub-4 minute mile on the track (previous record was 29 in 2018), the men's SU collegiate record was destroyed and 4 guys from Va Tech did it in the same race.
- Athletics: What does science say about massage - Does it actually do anything?
- Ireland's Andrew Coscoran didn't make waves in his 1 year at Florida State, but now he's an Olympic semifinalist At FSU, he got knocked out in a brutal fight, finished 242nd at NCAA xc and never finished a race at the ACC track championships. Now he's a 3:35 Olympic semi-finalist at age 25.
- Antrim half-marathon creator and Olympian James McIlroy honored with British Empire Medal.
Women's News
- An in-depth look at the female members of the NN Running Team in Ethiopia How did they start with running and what challenges did they face as a woman?
- Meijo wins 4th-Straight Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden National Title as 18-year old Seira Fuwa steals individual headlines Meijo University was unstoppable again, leading start to finish to win but Fuwa stole the individual glory as the 30:45 10,000 runner went out in 15:09 for her 10.5 km leg.
News From The Commonwealth
- Britain's oldest marathoner this year (85) took up running after being kicked out of the military for being homosexual in 1963 He's a bit miffed that he recently had to lie about his age to get into a local half marathon.
- New UK athletics chief executive Mark Munro thinks Scotland's Josh Kerr and Jemma Reekie should be household names "I'm not convinced the Scottish media make enough of those athletes," said Munro.
- Former Canadian marathon record holder Rachel Cliff is pregnant After missing out on the Olympics in agonizing fashion for the 2nd straight Games, she's got something to look forward to. The dad is her husband, Canadian Olympic steepler Chris Winter.
Non-Distance News
- India's 1st-ever track gold medallist Neeraj Chopra is training well and focused on breaking 90m barrier He's in the process of losing a lot of weight as he gained 12-13kg (26-28 lbs) after winning in Tokyo. His pb is 88.07.
*Neeraj Chopra: '[A] Medal Is One Thing, Distance Is Another' - Canadian sprint legend Bruny Surin named to Order of Canada The 4-time Olympian won Olympic 4 x 100 gold i 1996 but also has done a lot after retirement to support student-athletes and promote healthy lifestyles as his foundation awards more than $20,000 to student-athletes every year.
- Sydney McLaughlin's 51.46 WR at the Olympics is TFN's Women's Performance of The Year
- Karsten Warholm’s 45.94 WR at the Olympics is TFN's Men's Performance of The Year
- Ron Jones, sprinter and British captain at Mexico Olympics, dies aged 87
Previous Women In The News
- Trenton’s Athing Mu is a legend in the making Real Women Online does a nice profile of America's 800 gold medallist who struggled early in Covid but found herself while spending time with her sister in North Dakota.
- Faith Kipyegon - how the Kenyan Olympic legend recovered from pregnancy She basically took one entire year off from running as she stopped working out 4-5 months into the pregnancy and didn't start cross training until 7 months after giving birth.
- MB: Betsy Saina has given birth. How soon will the new American be making Worlds teams?
- MB: Shannon Rowbury is pregnant with her 2nd child. Does this mean she's done at age 37? If so, what an amazing career.
- MB: Last week, Sara Vaughn signed the first contract of her life - anyone know who with?
- After retiring in September, marathon great Mary Keitany says she will focus on charity work "My community has been supportive throughout my running career and this is the only way I can reciprocate their gesture," said Keitany who said her first-ever race was a Shoe4Africa Cha
Interesting Reads
- Tim Mack writes about how he went from an unsponsored guy who failed to make two Olympic teams to a gold medallist
- Mike Powell and Willie Banks' ex-coach Randy Huntington is now the head coach of the Chinese track team And they think so highly of him, he's now helping out for the Winter Olympics.
- NBC's Olympic ratings continued to fall in 2021 but NBC still turned a profit 45% of Americans watched some of the Olympics. That number used to be roughly 70% as late as 2012 before streaming took off.
*MB: Good news/Bad news about the Olympics. Ratings in the US were way down, but NBC still made money - The pandemic was super hard on the Zuni Native Americans in New Mexico, but they returned to action and won their 21st state title
Upcoming Action
- Olympic 5000m Silver Medalist Hellen Obiri Highlights San Silvestre Vallecana Road 10k In Madrid On New Year's Eve She is up against 2:19:25 marathoner Degitu Azimeraw and Israel's Lonah Salpeter. Rodrigue Kwizera leads the men's race after a solid XC season and is up against Spain's 12:50 man Mohamed Katir.
- Two-Time World 5000m Champ Muktar Edris Will Go For A Fourth Victory At The Boclassic 10k On New Year's Eve World 5000m silver medallist Margaret Kipkemboi will try to defend her title in the women's 5000.
- Trayvon Bromell Vs Christian Coleman Showdown Set For Millrose Games 60m
- Grant Holloway Set For New Balance Indoor Grand Prix On February 6 Ellinor Purrier and Trayvon Bromell have also been announced.
More 2021 Recaps/Reviews
- Toni Reavis Gives A Stats Breakdown Of Women's Marathon In 2021 Like the men, the women made a resurgence in 2021 after the 2020 marathon cancellations. After the number of 2:27:05s (the equivalent to 2:10 for a man on WA scoring tables) dropped 60% in 202, it was back up to the same as 2018 (50 short of 2019). Ethiopia lead the way with 55 women sub 2:27:05 and Kenya was second with 44. USA had 6 women break that time.
- The Rich Get Richer: The Diamond League Is Giving $20,000 Each To The Ten Most Consistent DL Performers Of 2021 Not a bad deal, winning more prize money for having been consistent and winning a lot of prize money. Timothy Cheruiyot and Faith Kipyegon were chosen as the most consistent distance runners.
- US Women’s Olympic 4×400 Win Named One Of ABC's Top 10 Sports Moments Of 2021 It was 8th on their list. Tom Brady won #1; Simone Biles was #2.
- Elaine Thompson-Herah Named The International Sports Press Association's (AIPS) Best Female Athlete Of The Year She was voted by a panel of 529 journalists from 114 countries. Polish soccer player Robert Lewandowski won the men's equivalent; other track athletes in the top-10 were Eliud Kipchoge, Karsten Warholm, Mondo Duplantis, Sifan Hassan and Faith Kipyegon.
- InsideTheGames: "Mutaz Essa Barshim And Gianmarco Tamberi Raised The Bar To Sublime Heights"
*MB Archive: What just happened? Everyone gets a (gold) medal. Did they just hand out two gold medals in the HJ instead of doing a jumpoff? - World Athletics 2021 Review: Road Running *Hurdles *Jumps
- Athletics Weekly's 2021 World Merit Rankings: Men's Distance *Men's Sprints/Hurdles *Women's Jumps *Women's Throws
Distance News
- Olympic Silver Medalist Laura Muir: "Hopefully I'll be one of those crazy people running marathons when they are 80." “Running races brings me happiness whether I do well or not. Doing well makes me happier, but running just makes me happy."
- Two California High School XC Runners Hospitalized After Driver Runs Red Light Both required surgery and were reportedly in stable condition.
- MB: Florida man goes missing for 36 hours during a 3.4 mile loop during a 100 mile ultra, found across the interstate disoriented
Olympic News
- Good For Her: USA Swimming Official Resigns After 30-Years Of Service In Protest Of Transgender Participation Cynthia Millen said, "I told my fellow officials that I can no longer participate in a sport which allows biological men to compete against women. Everything fair about swimming is being destroyed. ...That’s a male body swimming against females, and that male body can never change. That male body will always be a male body."
*MB: Cynthia Millen 30 year veteran of USA Swimming resigns in protest over Trans athlete Lia Thomas - Russian Olympic Committee President Claims Moscow Can "Expect: To Host Future Olympics Russia was banned from entering the race for the 2032 games because of doping sanctions.
- Ukraine Wants To Host The 2030 Winter Olympics
Japan Ekiden News
- January 2-3: 2022 Hakone Ekiden Preview This is the biggest race of the year on the Japanese Ekiden calendar.
- Japan Running News: Four Days Of Championship Ekiden Racing Ahead The Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden on Dec. 30th, the New Year Ekiden national championships on Jan. 1st and the Hakone Ekiden on January 2-3.
- Sendai Ikuei Girls And Sera Boys Win Record-Breaking National High School Ekiden Titles
Long Distance News
- Sifan Hassan Named Dutch Sportswoman Of The Year; Says She Wants To Try The Marathon She plans to make her marathon debut in 2023.
- The Charlotte Observer: "He Started High School Knowing Nothing About Running. He'll Finish As A 100-Mile Champ." Owen Thornton showed up to the first day of XC practice without even knowing it involved running, but by sophomore year had run his first marathon and won his first 100 miler as a senior.
- MB: Big news in France. Florian Carvalho (3:33, 13:27, 27:55, 1:01, 2:10) has covid
2021 Rankings And Reviews
- The Telegraph Starts Out Their Countdown Of The Year's 10 Best Women's Sport Moments With Elaine Thomas-Herah's Olympic Double Ben Bloom bashed her a bit as he writes, "[Thompson-Herah] has little of the showmanship of Usain Bolt, nor the grace of her Jamaican team-mate and closest rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. Frankly, she does not care for either attribute."
- The Guardian Chooses Gianmarco Tamberi And Mutaz Barshim's Olympic High Jump Tie As One Of Their "Jaw-Dropping Sport Moments Of 2021" Until Tokyo there had not been a shared Olympic track and field gold medal since 1912.
- T&F News' U.S. Men’s AOY Top 10 Voting Ryan Crouser received all the #1 votes while Rai Benjamin was #2.
- T&F News' U.S. Women’s AOY Top 10 Voting Sydney McLaughlin dominated with all but one of the first place votes. Athing Mu was their solid #2.
- Takashi Ichida And Ririka Hironaka Top Japanese Distance Rankings For 2021 Hironaka was 9th and 7th in her 5000/10,000 double at the Olympics while Ichida ran the #4 all-time Japanese half-marathon with 60:19.
- Athletics Weekly's 2021 World Merit Rankings - Women's Distance
- Athletics Weekly's 2021 Merit Rankings - Women's Sprints And Hurdles Elaine Thompson-Herah was obviously top in the 100 and 200.
- World Athletics 2021 Review: Throws
- World Athletics 2021 Review: Multi-Events
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
