Between Kelati, Monson, Seidel, Emily Infeld, and Natosha Rogers, the women's race should be spectacular. On the men's side, can ADP/WCAP extend its win streak to five years?
*MB: Official 2022 USA XC Discussion Thread: Kelati vs Monson XVIII - Who you got? Does ADP continue to DOMINATE?
Archived Homepage For January 07, 2022
Archived Homepage For January 07, 2022
USA XC Is Saturday at 4 PM ET
What Was Popular In 2021?
What were LetsRun.com junkies obsessing about in 2021... American distance stars, doping, and of course drama.
- 2022 Millrose Keeps Getting Better and Better - All Three US Olympians at 1500 + Plus Konstanze Klosterhalfen Will Be In Women's Mile As if Athing Mu vs. Ajee' Wilson, Ryan Crouser vs Joe Kovacs, Trayvon Bromell vs Christian Coleman and an absolutely stacked men's 3000m with Cole Hocker, Edward Cheserek, Drew Hunter, Conner Mantz, Yared Nuguse, Cooper Teare, and Joe Klekcer wasn't enough. Buy tickets here.
On The Boards
On The Boards
Podcasts
Podcasts
The crew was back to welcome in the Year and make some big predictions for 2022. Will Flojo's 100m record go down? Could Galen Rupp really win Worlds? What about Jakob Ingebrigtsen or Tim Cheruiyot breaking El Guerrouj's 1500m record? Will we see a 3:4X w 1500, 13:5x w 5000, and sub 29 10k in 2022?
Plus which US and Worlds 4th placers are most likely to move up into the top 3? And who is most likely to make Team USA - Evan Jager or Colleen Quigley? SC Friday 15 podcast.
The Latest News of Note
"I think the most difficult part of this announcement as a professional athlete is that I am finally giving up on my dream of making an Olympic Team. Do I think I would have a shot in 2024? Absolutely."
- Mary Cain is proud she helped bring Alberto Salazar down
- Karsten Warholm admits he watches his WR run "every time I have a bad day and need some motivation to go to practice"
- Warholm realizes topping his 2021 exploits is going to be hard: "45.94 is not the sort of thing you can do every Diamond League race. It is going to be tough."
- Warholm continues to take shots at others' super spikes: "I think it is probably - it will be the last time somebody wins the Olympics in a shoe that thin."
- Dawit Seyaum and Addisu Yihune - the 18-year old with a 12:58 pb - win Campaccio in San Giorgio su Legnano XC meet in Italy
Previous Women In The News
The 1st-grade teacher balances 85-105 mile weeks around her job but is thriving under Lee Troop as she's wacked 41 seconds of her 5000 pb (15:59 to 15:18), 1:33 off her 10k pb (33:42 to 32:09), and run 70:11/2:31:51, and finished 7th in Chicago. She's also eating better. “I don’t know if I have had anorexia, but I definitely had disordered eating in college." Not bad for someone who was never top 100 at NCAA xc.
Interesting Reads About Men
This two-part feature on Bideau by Dave McNeil is very interesting. *Part II
*Melbourne Track Club team members skipped closing ceremony in Tokyo to party alone in the village and contemplate getting better in the future
- Why I Still Love Racing at Age 82 - Outside Online "Last night I raced 3,000 meters on the track. I finished last, way out the back, lapped and re-lapped by the entire field. But I ran hard and broke a record that had stood for ten years," writes Roger Robinson about his 16:03 clocking.
Odds & Ends
- DyeStat.com remembers the legends we lost in 2021 Way too many people died way too young including Cameron Burrell, Agnes Tirop, and Paul McMullen. And we'll miss old legends like Al Franken and John McDonnell.
- UK Athletics - What makes a track a track? Does it need to be 400m? Can it be dirt or grass or must it be a synthetic surface?
- Athletics Ireland has a new plan aimed to correct the male-female imbalance in Irish athletics coaching At the intro level of coaching education which takes a few hours, 46%of participants are women, but at the top tier "which requires participants to commit to five weekends of 9-5 work, and one weekend of assessment" the percentage drops to 7%.
- Christine Mboma and her coach are named African female athlete of the year and coach of the year It's amazing how possessing internal testes in female sports can turn two unknowns into the best in the continent within a few months.
- Haven't exercised in years? No worries, new study on mice shows your muscle remember how to get fit and will respond much more quickly than if you had never exercised before Muscle memory is real.
Sifan Hassan Reflects On Her Olympic Triple
- Sifan Hassan Talking About How She Felt At The End Of Her Olympic Triple: "Honestly, at that moment, I was just so happy to survive." "I was really in pain, I was suffering so much, I was sweating very, very, very hard, all my face was burning, my hand was burning, all my body was burning. I felt I had no water inside me. I thought I was going to pass out. In that moment I didn't mind about gold, I just wanted to be alive and healthy."
Upcoming Distance Action
- Entries For This Weekend's USATF XC Champs Weini Kelati and Molly Seidel are in the women's race while the men's race has Ben Blankenship, Sam Chelanga, Hillary Bor and Kirubel Erassa, Shadrack Kipchirchir and Leonard Korir.
- Three Time World XC Champ Geoffrey Kamworor And World Half-Marathon Record Holder Letesenbet Gidey Announced For The Memorial Agnes Tirop World XC Tour The race honoring the late Agnes Tirop is on February 12 in Eldoret.
Sprint Stuff
- Trayvon Bromell Says He's Friends With Usain Bolt And Yohan Blake And That Blake Consoled Him After Bromell Failed To Make The Tokyo 100m Final Bromell: "After the Games, Yohan came and sat down with me in Tokyo and told me how proud he was of my comeback."
- Olympic Silver Medalist And 100H WR Holder Keni Harrison Announced For Millrose Games 60H She'll be up against a field that includes three other Tokyo Olympic finalists.
- India's Fastest U-23 Sprinter, Taranjeet Kaur, Faces 4-Year Ban After Failing In-Competition Drug Test She ran 11.50 to win the 100m at India's national champs and was second in the 200m.
- Olympic 400H Sixth Placer Rasmus Magi Named Estonia's Male Athlete Of The Year
British Legends In The News
- Olympic Silver Medalist Peter Elliott Writes About When He Finally Became A Champion At The 1990 Commonwealth Games Elliott's build-up to the CWG included running a "secret" 1200m time trial where he purposely leaked the result to psych out his rivals.
- Paris 1924 Olympic 400 Champ Eric Liddell Entered Into The Scottish Rugby Hall Of Fame The hero of the movie "Chariots of Fire" was apparently also a great rugby player as well as sprinter.
World Athletics Admin News
- Seb Coe Says World Athletics Will Make Sure Russians Can Compete At Eugene World Champs HJ Olympic champ Mariya Lasitskene and two-time PV world champ Anzhelika Sidorov were denied travel visas for the Pre Classic last year.
- World Athletics Does Not "Anticipate Any Issues" With Kosovans Competing At The World Indoor Championships In Belegrade, Serbia Kosovo and Serbia have had border restrictions in place since Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but a condition for hosting is not preventing athletes from any country from competing.
- European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov's 2022 New Year Message
Olympic News
- IOC Member Dick Pound Says Beijing Olympics Could Be Cancelled Because Of COVID But Chances Are "Very Slim" “Right now, the lines are cast off and the boat is leaving the dock, unless Armageddon happens and public health authorities say we lock down every country."
- IOC President Thomas Bach Gives New Year's Message; Insists The Olympics Must Be Above Politics Ahead Of Beijing 2022Bach claims, "The Olympic Games stand above any conflict."
- Los Angeles 2028 Chairperson Insists Homelessness Is Not Its "Problem To Solve" And Instead Is "Everybody's Problem To Solve"A 2020 study estimates that 63,706 people in LA are homeless. Critics of LA 2028 say hosting the Olympics is going to make homelessness worse.
- Egypt Plans To Bid For 2036 OlympicsThey would become the first African nation to host the Games.
- Flag Football Wants To Be Included In The 2028 Olympics
- More Worldwide Protests Calling For Boycott Of 2022 Olympics
Post Hakone Ekiden Stats
- Japan Running News Analyzes Some Stats From The 2022 Hakone Ekiden
- Breakdown Of Hakone Ekiden Broadcast And Spectator Numbers Viewership for the two days averaged 27.2%, down from the 32.2% last year.
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
‒ Mary Cain talking to Women's Running about her legacy.