RACE OF THE YEAR? Will a Mondo vs SAFP 100 happen? Says Duplantis, I’m still ready to do it. “I have been wanting to run the 100m since 2018, when I ran it in high school. “I hope I can do it sooner rather than later… It would not be until after the Olympics, but I would not like to do it too late to still be in shape.” With Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce retiring after this season, the matchup would have to take place this year…
Rebecca Richtman has been hired to coach the Purdue cross country team…
David Shoehalter is retiring as the Yale head at the end of the current season…
Florida State’s Bob Braman has announced his impending retirement, after 21 years leading the Seminoles…
Another retiree: UCLA chief Avery Anderson…
Elise Cranny is no longer with Team Boss, and is instead training in Flagstaff with Northern Arizona assistant Jarred Cornfield…
A poll of Athletics Weekly readers gave Hicham El Guerrouj the nod as the “ultimate supermiler.” He tallied 27% while Seb Coe and Herb Elliott got 14% each from the British magazine…
The same weekend Letesenbet Gidey lost the 10,000 World Record, she tied the knot to longtime partner Deacon Fessaha Kiros…
The latest athlete to be honored with her own Barbie doll is Polish sprinter Ewa Svoboda…
In winning her fourth-straight Div. II heptathlon title — this one with a Trials-qualifying 6002 — Cheyenne Nesbitt of Saginaw Valley has become the first woman in any division to win 4 straight heptathlons…
Daniel Ebenyo, the World Champs silver medalist who finished 8th at the Kenyan 10,000 trials at the Prefontaine Classic, is pleading with Kenyan officials to name him to the Olympic team. He says because of visa problems, he got to Eugene late: “It was stressful but I thank God that I made it because it wasn’t my fault.”…
Michelle Rohl has qualified for the Trials 20K racewalk at age 58. Her first was in ’92…
When Matthew Boling ran his 400 PR of 44.98 in Kingston in April, he became the seventh man in history to go sub-10, sub-20 and sub-45. The others, in alphabetical order: Kenny Bednarek, Tyson Gay, Fred Kerley, Michael Norman, Letsile Tebogo, and Wayde van Niekerk. For full bragging rights, note that Boling can also claim an 8-meter long jump…
Long a watering hole for track fans after events at Hayward Field, Eugene’s Wild Duck Café has reopened under new ownership…
Buzeneh Deba, the winner of the ’14 Boston Marathon, never got her prize money because it was initially awarded to Rita Jeptoo, who was late disqualified for doping. The organizers never recovered the money, and never paid Deba. Recent stories about it inspired local businessman and running fan Doug Guyer to pay Deba $75,000. He called Boston’s policy “ridiculous.”…
Ekaterina Guliyev is fighting her doping ban at CAS, hoping to hang onto her silver medal from the ’12 Olympic 800. The former Russian now competes for Turkey, where she placed 3rd in the indoor nationals this season…
WADA has lifted its sanctions against Tunisia’s anti-doping agency, after a 2-week suspension. The Tunisian government confirmed that it brought its national rules in line with WADA’s code…
The organizer of the Enhanced Games claims that currently there are 50-100 Paris Olympians who are involved in the registration process for his doping-allowed event…
Reportedly, Caster Semenya’s recent appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is the last possible step in her case to overturn World Athletics’ requirement that she lower her testosterone levels in order to compete. A decision is expected this summer…
Erick Wainaina has been arrested in Japan. An Olympic medalist in the marathon in ’96 and ’00, the Japan-based Kenyan is charged with slapping the faces of two people at a Tokyo train station. “I was drunk and don’t remember, but I think it’s true,” he commented…
Chad Noelle, former Oklahoma State runner and coach of Kaela Edwards and others through the Apex Track Club, has been temporarily suspended by USATF for misconduct. No other details have been released…
The Olympic Channel has released new episodes of its documentary series, “The Starting Line.” One of them features sprinter Michael Norman. The series is available for free via olympics.com…
The Mondo Duplantis documentary, “Born To Fly,” is also available on olympics.com starting May 31…
Marathon great Eliud Kipchoge has revealed that after Kelvin Kiptum’s death in a car crash in February, he was the target of an online trolling operation blaming him. “I received a lot of bad things; that they will burn the (training) camp, they will burn my investments in town, they will burn my house, they will burn my family… My girl was in boarding school – that was positive that she had no access as far as social media is concerned – but it’s tough for my boys to hear ‘Your dad has killed somebody’”…
UT San Antonio’s Michael Roth was disqualified for unsportsmanlike behavior after apparently winning the American Athletic Conference 400 in a PR 45.78. Before the line, he turned to his opposition and made a hand gesture. The Canadian said on Instagram, “Soft disqualification, but it’s alright. I still have work to do.”…
The organizers of the next World Championships, Tokyo25, have released their logo, based on the them of “The World — Tokyo — Connecting.” The design was developed with the participation of many people through a design competition. Said Mitsugi Ogata, president of the LOC, “We hope the new logo will inspire competing athletes and become familiar to many people, both in Japan and abroad.”…
The IOC has lost what has been reported as its largest sponsor. Toyota says it is done, reportedly unhappy that its money was “not used effectively to support athletes and promote sports.” The deal, when it was first announced in ’15, was said to be worth $835 million…
Despite on-the-ground reports over the years that the economic benefits promised from hosting the Olympic Games often don’t materialize, a new study says that the Paris Games will generate between $7.24 and $12B in benefits to the region…
In being named to the Ethiopian marathon team for Paris, Kenenisa Bekele, now 41, is back in the Olympic arena after 12 years away. This will be his third Games, after winning golds in ’04 (10K) and ’08 (5K & 10K)…
Inspired by a program in Australia, Canadian businessman Sanjay Malaviya has donated $2.9 million to a fund to reward Canada’s medalists, both in the Olympics and Paralympics. “I just wanted the dollars to go directly to the athletes.”…
The Kenyan sports ministry has closed down its major athletics stadiums, two in Nairobi and one in Eldoret, so that it can begin renovating them for its hosting of the ’27 Africa Cup of Nations. Understandably, the move has not pleased the country’s track athletes, some of whom have threatened to boycott the Olympic trials…
Cuban great Alberto Juantorena, winner of the 400 and 800 at the ’76 Olympics, was honored with WA’s Gold Order of Merit recently. He served for 36 years on WA’s Council and is still VP of Cuba’s Olympic Committee…
In the May print edition, the London Marathon results inadvertently repeated the women’s agate in place of the men’s. The top 10: 1. Alexander Mutiso (Ken) 2:04:01; 2. Kenenisa Bekele (Eth) 2:04:15; 3. Emile Cairess (GB) 2:06:46 PR; 4. Mahamed Mahamed (GB) 2:07:05 PR; 5. Hassan Chahdi (Fra) 2:07:30 PR; 6. Henok Tesfay (Eri) 2:09:22; 7. Hendrik Pfeiffer (Ger) 2:10:00; 8. Kinde Atanaw (Eth) 2:10:03; 9. Johannes Motschmann (Ger) 2:10:39 PR; 10. Brian Shrader (US) 2:10:50…
Wilfred Bungei, who won the Olympic 800 in ’08, is worried that Kenya has lost its dominance of the steeplechase. He is urging that the country’s legends be involved in the training process. “It’s imperative to involve them in preparing the current teams as they possess invaluable knowledge and experience in this domain.”…
Fred Kerley’s not afraid to make bold statements. Case in point: in mid-May, the sprinter tweeted, “World Record next time I touch the 100m.”