Archived Homepage For December 14, 2022
Archived Homepage For December 14, 2022
Week That Was

The Christmas lull in running is almost here but last week was a good one in terms of action. We break it down for you including the richest half-marathon in the world in Saudi Arabia which with little fanfare paid women and men equal prize money and where women were allowed to race in shorts.

Marathon Trials

The board recommended that Chattanooga, TN host the Trials, but the national office chose Orlando, FL instead. The reason why is unclear and those involved in the process are declining to comment. This is reminiscent of a similar controversy from the 2016 Marathon Trials when when the men's and women's long distance running committees recommended Houston, but Max Siegel overrode them and chose Los Angeles.

Kenyan Distance News
Randolph Ross' Ban Finalized

After Ross missed his third test he altered an automatic email “allegedly confirming an update made to his whereabouts information," but when questioned he admitted he faked it

End-Of-Year Awards/Review
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More From The Weekend
Club XC Champs

Hocker won the individual men's title for the OTC while BAA's Bethany Hasz beat out Natosha Rogers (Hansons-Brooks) for the women's title by one second.

Kenya Chooses Their Team For World XC

Sawe beat out Commonwealth Games 10,000m silver medalist Daniel Ebenyo (28:28) and former half-marathon WR holder Kibiwott Kandie (28:31) while two-time world XC champ Geoffrey Kamworor made the Kenyan team finishing 6th in his return from a stress fracture. On the women's side, Loibach won over a field that included 2017 world XC champ Irene Cheptai who finished 3rd.

Euro XC Champs

Ingebrigstsen pulled away with less than a half mile to go to win by 9-seconds over GB's Emile Cairess. Grovdal won a battle with Germany's Euro 5000m champ Konstanze Klosterhalfen, pulling away in the last 200m to win by 4-seconds. In the men's team battle, France barely beat out hosts Italy by 1 point while the German women had 3 in the top 4 to win the team title comfortably.

Footlocker CC Live

Mathison won by about 11 seconds and his time was the fastest since Drew Hunter won in 2015.

    She won by 6 seconds in 16:49.2, the eight-fastest time ever at the Balboa Park course, and joined Aisling Cuffe as national a national champ from her high school.

    Honolulu Marathon Weekend
    Doping / Corruption News
    Supporters Club Podcast

    The stars of our sport we're making news this week and we break it down on the Supporters Club only podcast.

    Matthew Centrowitz is living in Utah and coaching himself, Noah Lyles wants to run the 100 and the 200 in 2023, Allyson Felix's full story on her Nike contract expiring comes out, and Sydney McLaughlin is a big star in our sport but a minor celebrity in LA.

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    NAU edged Oklahoma State on the tie breaker as Charles Hicks outlasted Nico Young.

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    Katelyn Tuohy ran down a game Parker Valby to get the win and help lead NC State to the win over the New Mexico pack.

    Meet Teshome Mekonen

    Teshome Mekonen became a US citizen in August and beat Conner Mantz by a minute earlier this year at the NYC Half. Learn about his story from Tigray to Harlem.

    Rojo and Mara Yamauchi Editorial

    For nearly 40 years, the NYC Marathon has been known for being a trailblazer that paid its male and female athletes the same prize money. Sadly, that changed on Sunday. Guess what sex dominated the new non-binary gender division at Sunday's 2022 New York City Marathon? Olympian Mara Yamauchi joins Robert Johnson in this guest column.

    Trials Awarded

    What will the course be like? What type of weather can we expect? We break it down for you.

    Post NYC Updates

    The good news is the Brazilian star is recovering well after going to the hospital. His agent explains what he thinks happened.

    • Which Super Shoes Did The Best In NYC? While Nike shoes dominated in numbers, there were plenty of other shoe brands to finish in the top-10 men and women including a surprise win by Under Armour on the feet of Sharon Lokedi.
    • NYRR's Post-Race Release Specifically Omits Nonbinary Winner's Time They listed the winning times for the men's, women's, and wheelchair divisions, but not the nonbinary. Maybe they didn't want to highlight the fact that they gave thousands in prize money to biological men who ran significantly slower than many women who got nothing?
    Engels Speaks

    Engels says he enjoyed his time with UAC but needed to train in a place where he either had consistent training partners or a coach with him every day.

    How Would You Attack The Doping Problem?

    Instead of just complaining about anti-doping it's time to try and do something about. Submit your best anti-doping proposals.

        Has Kenya found a new super drug? What is going on?

        And have the Kenyans found a new super drug? Kipyokei is one of 10 athletes in the last two years to test positive for the same substance, triamcinolone acetonide, a drug once used by Lance Armstrong and Brad Wiggins. Why are they suddenly all testing positive for it now?

        Disturbing Stuff

        Allegations regarding the Huntington University track and field team where Nick Johnson used to coach and his wife Lauren Johnson now coaches continue to come out thanks to the great reporting by David Woods and continue to get more grim. Two national champions for Huntington claim their coach gave them unknown injections and have asked that their national titles be invalidated. One claims she was raped by Nick. Police reports show Nick, who had already pled guilty to a felony after admitting to impersonating a University of Oregon staffer so he could take a teen recruit on a trip where the teen told police many sexual acts took place, has admitted to having sex with two other athletes and his wife admitted she didn’t tell anyone at Huntington as she didn’t want them to lose their jobs. She’s now the head coach. If that’s not bad enough, there are now allegations of PED usage. Did PEDs cause the Johnsons to leave the Oregon Track Club?

        The series used the elites to build themselves up as the majors in our sport but now is forsaking the pros once the image is established. In the process, they just screwed Eliud Kipchoge out of $200,000 after the fact as the cut is effective immediately. Wow.

        Kipchoge loving the LetsRun Shirt in Berlin
        History was made 20 years ago

        And he ran his marathon PB to boot.

        Ross Tucker Speaks

        We paid one of the top sports scientists in the world to analyze the Shelby Houlihan doping case and CAS ruling. He has 2 pieces for us, the piece above is an opinion piece where he answers our questions. In a 2nd more technical piece, Ross goes through the CAS decision step by step and outlines in clear terms exactly what Houlihan argued and why he thinks CAS ultimately (correctly) ruled against her.

          Your latest American stars share their insights.

          Three legends of the sport.

          One of the greatest US runners ever.

          We chatted with Frank on the 50th anniversary of his Olympic Marathon gold

          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
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          Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
          Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level