RUNAWAY RABBITS. The hired pacesetter for the Abu Dhabi Marathon did his duty through 30K, then felt so good that he continued on to win the $100,000 winner’s prize. Reuben Kipyego negative-split his 2:04:40 PR performance. And fellow Kenyan Martin Cheruiyot stole the Málaga 26-miler in Spain, running 2:10:08 despite being the designated pacesetter…
Shot king Ryan Crouser has entered the coaching wars, taking a volunteer assistant position at Arkansas, while Tianna Bartoletta will be assistant coach for sprints and jumps at Cal…
Italy’s Diamond League meet is in search of a new home. Its traditional lodging in Rome’s Olympic Stadium is not available next May because of Europe’s Championships in soccer…
The European Championships next year in Paris will require that all competitors complete an online anti-doping course in order to participate…
WR holder Kevin Young suffered broken ribs and head trauma after a double-decker bus crash in Wales, where he is working on a masters in Sports Ethics & Integrity. He says that at one point “I remember going airborne, rushing forward and I kind of flew in the air like Superman.”…
Former marathon WR holder Wilson Kipsang suffered minor injuries in a car crash in Kenya that totaled his vehicle…
Former 800 great Yuriy Borzakovskiy has resigned as vice president of the Russian federation in protest of their response to the doping scandal. He will remain national team coach. Borzakovsky’s resignation followed that of the federation head, ’96 Olympic 800/1500 champ Svetlana Masterkova…
Euro 10,000 champ Morhad Amdouni of Germany has been implicated by German channel ARD in a doping scandal, but with no official investigation underway, he plans to keep competing…
USATF is exploring the creation of a cross country grand prix to provide more opportunity for post-collegiate runners…
Alysha Newman, the Canadian record holder in the pole vault, will showcase another notable skill when she joins the National Ballet of Canada for a performance of The Nutcracker.…
Mitch Garner, president of the Road Runners Club of America, has joined the USATF Board Of Directors…
Former Oregon star Edward Cheserek has announced that he and NCAA champ Sharon Lokedi of Kansas are engaged…
The USTFCCCA has elected Houston coach Leroy Burrell as its new president for a 3-year term…
Jim Murphy, longtime chair of USATF’s law and legislation committee, won the Giegengack Award, the organization’s top honor for volunteers…
Hoping to see a steeplechase World Record in ’20? Conseslus Kipruto says the cutbacks to the event on the DL circuit will mean it will take him longer to break the 7:53.63 set by Saïf Shaheen in ’04. “The decision to axe steeplechase out of Diamond League is to make it hard for any potential challengers,” he says. “But I have not lost hope.”…
Japan has considered not allowing its sprinters to double in the 100 and 200 in Tokyo, to keep them fresh for the 4 x 100, where they have a very good medal shot…
Ugandan 800 runner Annet Negesa (1:59.08 PR) has been granted asylum in Germany. She feared for her life in Uganda following the revelation that she has DSD. She had surgery in ’12 to remove her internal testes and has not raced since…
Jamaican 400H prospect Shiann Salmon, the silver medalist at the ’18 World Juniors, is now being coached by Tonja Buford-Bailey…
Five track athletes are among the candidates for a spot on the IOC athletes’ commission: Mutaz Barshim (Qatar), Fedrick Dacres (Jamaica), Ben Youssef Meité (Côte d’Ivoire), Roberto Sawyers (Costa Rica) and Katerína Stefanídi (Greece)…
Eliud Kipchoge has called on the Kenyan federation to start providing translators for the use of Kenyan athletes in overseas marathons, saying that athletes need help to avoid “communications breakdowns” and cannot afford the cost of bringing translators on their own…
Ukraine canceled its December training camp and will be cutting back on its camps in other countries because of a funding shortfall…
Pete Cava, 73, died on December 18 in Indianapolis of an aneurism. For many years he was director of press operations for USATF…
Sandy Ford-Centonze, 59, died on December 14 of cancer. The longtime Dartmouth head coach led the program for 28 years after stints at Appalachian State and Vermont…
The IOC has announced a budget of $5 million to store doping samples for up to 10 years…
Eugene may be facing some housing challenges at the ’21 Worlds, as 1500 promised beds from a student housing owner may not be available in a dispute centering on the state’s new rent control law…
French steepler Ophélie Claude-Boxberger’s doping case is getting interesting. She was released from police custody after 48 hours as investigators are now exploring whether she was injected with EPO without her knowledge by her mother’s boyfriend…
Sports officials in the Australian state of Queensland say they will bid for the ’32 Olympics in conjunction with the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, if they can be assured of government funding support…
USTFCCCA is planning on inducting its first class into a Collegiate Hall Of Fame in ’21…
Spokane has unveiled plans for a 200m banked, hydraulic track at its new Sportsplex complex. The $53 million project—which embraces other sports as well—is expected to open in August ’21…
Speaking things complex, the SPIRE complex in Geneva, Ohio, has been sold to a Baltimore investment firm, which says it intends to keep it as a prominent regional track venue…
The Stawell Gift, Australia’s most prestigious professional footrace, is in jeopardy after organizers rejected a $964,000 bailout package from the state government because it was tied to a demand for management changes. The 120m handicap race begun way back in 1878, run up a grassy slope every Easter weekend, offers a $27,000 first-place prize…
The British federation is being hit with charges that it encouraged athletes to be tested for hypothyroidism so they could be prescribed performance-enhancing drugs legally…
Berlin and Hamburg have both dropped out of the hunt for the ’32 Games, though Germany’s Rhein-Ruhr district is still game…
Running commentator Toni Reavis’s take on new shoe technology and the current explosion in marathon numbers: in the last 4 years, the number of men’s 2:10 marathoners has nearly doubled, from 150 in ’16 to 293 in ’19; women saw a notable increase as well at the 2:30 benchmark: 177 in ’16 to 339 in ’19.
TASS reported in mid-December that 88 Russian tracksters and 9 coaches are currently serving doping bans. The ban on Russia has been extended 12 times by the IAAF/WA because of repeated failures by the federation to cooperate. ◻︎
