4 x 4 PRODIGIES. It was impressive when Servite of Anaheim—Jace Wells 47.5, Jorden Wells 47.8, Kamil Pellovello 47.14, Jaelen Hunter 45.62—won the Cal State title with the No. 3 time ever, 3:07.62, but consider this: all are just sophs…
Mid-distance prodigy Cooper Lutkenhaus, the World Indoor 800 champion at 17, opted to start his outdoor season with his first-ever 1500. He managed 9th in his heat at the LA Track Festival in a modest 3:45.10. “I don’t know what I was really expecting… but I just wanted a hard, solid effort. I felt like I did that. I definitely could work on some things.”
Heptathlete Kristine Blaževiča has joined the Illinois staff as an assistant coach…
Andrea Blackett has been named the women’s head at Rice…
Villanova’s Marco Langon says he will be turning pro after this season…
Parker Valby is now being coached by Joe Bosshard and training with Emma Coburn & Company. Coburn told LetsRun’s Jonathan Gault, “We’re really close friends and I love training with her and being around her. And if I can guide her in any way, that’s great, but she’s a smart girl and she knows how to work hard. I certainly don’t have to teach her how to work or how to be disciplined or how to be dedicated.”…
Hannah Brier broke the national record in the 200 with her 22.79, but the race came 8 days after the selection deadline that Team Wales officials had set for the Commonwealth Games. She will not be going…
Britain’s CJ Ujah, part of its 4×1 gold squad at the ’17 Worlds, has been arrested on charges of cryptocurrency fraud…
UK Athletics is bracing itself for a potentially huge fine in the case of a Paralympian who died when a throwing cage fell on him while training. The federation pled guilty to corporate manslaughter charges. Sentencing guidelines call for a fine ranging from $242,000 to $26.9 million…
Prep coach Blake Crutsinger was hit by a shot at an early May competition in Texas, sustaining a skull fracture and brain swelling in what officials called a freak accident…
A DQ for unsportsmanlike behavior landed on a North Carolina prep after he raised his arm in celebration after winning an event at the state championships. The controversy went viral, as raising an arm is a quite commonplace celebration in most contexts in our sport. The state association eventually reversed the call.
Meanwhile, a “celebration” DQ of Clara Adams, a winner at last year’s State Meet, for discharging a fire extinguisher toward her feet has resulted in a lawsuit against the California federation…
The Kenyan U20 Trials to pick a team for the World event in Eugene this summer will not be an all-comers affair. Athletics Kenya officials say they are only inviting 200-plus athletes who have been previously identified as prospects, and requiring them to submit to stringent antidoping and age verification procedures.
Nominations have been opened for USATF’s Hall Of Fame, which hasn’t added any members in 5 years. Categories include Athletes, Coaches and Contributors…
Legendary hammer thrower Anita Włodarczyk is the subject of a new Polish documentary called “Anit.” It shows the champion “as we’ve never seen her before.”…
Texas Tech has honored coach Wes Kittley, the longest tenured head coach in school history in any sport, by naming a street after him. The street that winds through the athletic facilities is now the “Wes Kittley Drive Of Champions.”…
Drew Beroset ran the fastest 1600 ever at a high school dual meet, clocking 4:00.82 at Chattanooga’s Baylor School. Beroset, who had run 4:05.61 for 5th in the mile at Nike Indoors, handily topped the 4:10.79 runner-up time…
Parker Morse, 52, died of a cardiac event on May 4. Onetime webmaster for Runner’s World, he later wrote for WA and coordinated reporting on the elite races at the Boston Marathon…
Ethiopian marathoner Yebrgual Melese, 36, died on a training run in Addis Ababa on May 12. In ’15 she was the Chicago runner-up and she had a PR of 2:19:36…
The French government is not at all pleased with the IOC’s requiring genetic sex testing for women. The sports minister calls the rule discriminatory, adding that forced genetic testing is illegal in France except for medical, judicial or scientific research purposes…
The Russian sports minister says that the outcast nation has serious hopes of participating in the ’28 Olympics, while expressing displeasure that the IOC is advocating for Belarus’s return but not Russia’s (WA says it still opposes any return to international competition by Belarus)…
The IOC has put a hold on bidding for the 2030 Youth Olympics, saying that it is “rethinking” its purpose in holding the event. This summer’s edition is set for Dakar, Senegal…
Toruń, Poland, is bidding to host the ’29 European Indoor…
The ’26 European Para Athletics meet has been canceled after the federation failed to find a nation to host the event…
IOC head Kristy Coventry has put the kibosh on cross country making its way into the Winter Olympics for ’30. However, a working group will address the question for later Games…
The Finnish government is investing $11.6 million into the 2030 European Championships in Helsinki, covering a third of the event budget…
Hamburg officials had been hoping to be part of a regional German bid to host an upcoming Olympics. Voters shot that down in a referendum, going 54.9–45.1 against…
The German parliament threw its support behind Berlin for a bid to host the ’36, ’40 or ’44 Games…
A British Olympic bid is brewing in the north of England. Centered in Manchester, which tried unsuccessfully to get the ’96 and ’00 Games, the regional plan already has strong local government support…
After two years, Athlos is expanding. The all-women’s fixture founded by Alexis Ohanian is reportedly planning a London meet for this fall. It is set for September 18, two weeks before the New York City event. Word is that prize money will be nearly tripled this year…
The highlight of the much-ballyhooed Enhanced Games probably came in the post-race banter. Fred Kerley, who won the 100 in 9.97, said that his opponents “got to do better than that.” Marvin Bracy-Williams reportedly took offense, to which Kerley responded, “I’m here to disrespect the field. I’m not here to be buddies. There’s money on the line.”…
Those concerned about foreign track athletes in the NCAA are perhaps a little more concerned after Regionals. A decade ago, 70.8% of the men’s 10K national qualifiers were American. This year the number has plunged to 20.8%. The women’s decline is not as stark — though still substantial — from 70.8% to 41.7%…
Western Kentucky has embarked on a renovation of its Charles Ruter track complex, which was established in ’08…
Arizona’s Drachman Stadium was renovated to host this year’s Big 12 meet. Work began last fall on the project…
Athletes and journalists panned conditions at the recent African Championships in Accra, Ghana, from food shortages for the athletes to lack of space for journalists to work…
Keely Hodgkinson’s running career is on a hot streak, and in addition to talking a lot about breaking the 800 WR and winning more medals, she’s admitted to having some stat-nerd goals: “I was thinking about it the other day: ‘Wouldn’t it be really cool if I could do a sub-50, a sub-2 and a sub-4 in my career?’ It’s very difficult. But it’s a nice little challenge to have in the background.”…
The greatest name for a pole-using athlete ever? Possibly the nod goes to Latvia’s Valters Kreišs.
