A Jam-Packed Week of National Records and Fast Times

This is the CITIUS MAG Newsletter, a weekly round-up of the biggest stories in the running and track & field community with analysis and commentary by me, Chris Chavez. If you’ve been forwarded this email or stumbled upon a link online, you can sign up and subscribe here:

First off, Many thanks to everyone who bought a ticket and watched the virtual world premiere of “A Time and A Place” last Saturday night. The emails and notes that I received about it were very kind. Super proud of the work done by Ryan Sterner and Stephen Kersh to bring the NAZ journey to screens. If you missed out on last week’s screening, you’re not out of luck! NAZ Elite is hosting another one at the end of the month to commemorate the one-year anniversary. Get your tickets before that screening also sells out.

This was a jam-packed past 7 days of news within the sport so let’s dive right into it.

NOTABLE NEWS

– It’s been heartbreaking to see all the news reports coming out of Texas in the past week with people suffering in the cold and then the enraging reports seeing Ted Cruz flee to Mexico for a vacation.

While the Texas Qualifier is far from anyone’s mind right now, please know that the race organizers are monitoring the situation closely. But right now the main focus is helping our friends in Austin get back on their feet. To that end, we’re donating $500 to the Austin Mutual Aid (both @austinmutualaidhotels and @austinmutualaid on Venmo) and would encourage you to check out their website and pitch in what you can. It was helpful to look at this Mutual Aid Directory that has been compiled by members of the Texas Sunrise Movement as other ways to help those in Texas.

Beyond this, I personally think this just continues to underscore the importance that as a country we should be investing in climate science, trusting scientists and improving/modernizing existing infrastructures to be more green and sustainable.

– With regards to some of the competitors in the meet, it’s 2021 and the fields continue to be fluid with scratches and changing plans. We announced Colleen Quigley will run in the women’s 1,500m on Saturday. Hobbs Kessler, who just broke the U.S. high school indoor mile record, will go for the 1,500m Olympic Trials qualifier in a heat paced for a 3:37.50 finish. Natoya Goule will be in the women’s 800m against Ajee Wilson on Saturday night. Hagos Gebrhiwet was going to be in the 5,000m but joins the list of scratches that includes Ben True, Molly Huddle and Aisha Praught.

– Eliud Kipchoge announced he will be returning to Hamburg for a marathon, eight years after he made his 26.2-mile debut in 2:05:30. The race will be organized by the NN Running Team and Hamburg Marathon and host about 100 elite athletes on a 10.5-kilometer looped course. Given the limited opportunities to race this spring, this could be the only time we see him compete before the 2020 Olympic Marathon in Sapporo. This is also Kipchoge’s first marathon since his eighth place finish in 2:06:49 at last year’s elite-only edition of the London Marathon.

– On Friday afternoon, 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk released a statement saying that he is now training alongside Noah Lyles and Shaunae Miller under coach Lance Brauman in Florida. In 2016, his coach Tannie Ans Botha made worldwide headlines during the Olympics when he broke the world record. Van Niekerk is looking to get anywhere close to his world record shape since he tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee during a celebrity tag rugby match in 2017. His fastest performance since the injury was a 45.58 last summer in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

– USTFCCCA and ESPN announced that the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will be broadcast live on TV through 2023. The 2020 championships, which were postponed from last fall to March 15, 2021 will be on ESPNU and on the ESPN App. The teams and individuals chosen for the championship will be revealed in a selection show on NCAA.com on March 7 at 1 p.m. ET

– USA Track and Field announced Spokane’s Podium will host the 2022 U.S. Indoor Track and Championships that will assemble the team for the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

– The Athletics Integrity Unit released its disciplinary tribunal’s decision to ban five former Russian Athletics officials, including former president Dmitry Shlyakhtin, for four years after they forged documents and offered up fake explanations regarding an investigation into the whereabouts failures by high jumper Danil Lysenko. The New York Times’ recap of the decision breaks it down well where there was an instance where the investigators were given the address of a testing clinic but there was just a construction site.

– Russia’s name has been banned from the next two Olympics but the country’s athletes will be competing under “ROC” – which stands for Russian Olympic Committee but immediately reminds me of Jay-Z’s ROC Nation. Athletes won’t be able to rep the Russian flag and the national anthem won’t play at the Tokyo Summer Games and the Beijing Winter Games since the country remains banned for its widespread anti-doping violations.

– The 2:23 Foundation will be offering a virtual run in memory of Ahmaud Arbery’s death nearly a year ago. You can sign up for it here.

– The Save Clemson XC and Track and Field coalition has received word from a generous benefactor that they will match every dollar they raise up to $10,000 through Friday. Consider donating here.

CRAZY RESULTS IN THE PAST WEEK

So much happened last weekend that some of this might feel like old news to you but I figured I’d still include it with some stats and quick analysis…

– Just hours after I sent last week’s newsletter on Friday afternoon, the Oregon Ducks’ squad of Cooper Teare, Cole Hocker and Charlie Hunter ran 3:50.39; 3:50.55 and 3:53.49 for the mile, respectively. Just wild. Those are the fastest, second-fastest and sixth-fastest times in NCAA history. Teare and Hocker now sit at No. 7 and No. 8 on the all-time list for the indoor mile behind Yomif Kejelcha (3:47.01); Hicham El Guerrouj (3:48.45); Edward Cheserek (3:49.44); Eamonn Coghlan (3:49.78); Bernard Lagat (3:49.89) and Johnny Gregorek (3:49.98). A fun fact is that half of the men on that list ran for the University of Oregon.

– Grant Holloway is undefeated in 2021. The list of the fastest performances of the year is pretty funny.

– At that same meet in Torun, Ethiopia’s Lemlem Hailu took another big win in the women’s 3,000m in 8:31.24. The 19-year-old beat steeplechase world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech by .48 seconds. Chepkoech ran a world record of 14:43 in the road 5K just three days earlier.

– Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay clocked a 1:57:52 for 800 meters, which puts her ninth on the all-time list. Some of the times ahead of her were set by Russians in the 90s so take those with a grain of salt that she might actually be higher up.

– While there were no Millrose Games being held in New York City last weekend, a high-caliber meet was held in the city with the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix happening on Staten Island. Unfortunately, no media was allowed in person so I watched from home and chatted it up with others on Clubhouse, which was fun. Here were some of the notable results:

• American record holder Ajee Wilson opened her season with a 2:01.79 win in the women’s 800m ahead of Kaela Edwards (2:02.17)

• It wasn’t much of a hot take but I called it in the previous newsletter when I said that Elle Purrier would break Jenny Simpson’s two-mile American record of 9:18.35 from 2015. Purrier went a 9:10.28 to win. Emma Coburn also got under the previous record with 9:15.71 for second place.

• Donavan Brazier must have received a little bonus from his contract when he broke his own American record in the indoor 800 by .01 seconds with his 1:44.21 victory. He made it look easy. His 200m splits were 24.72-26.44-26.22-26.84.

• Recent podcast guest Bryce Hoppel called his shot and ran 2:16.27 to break David Torrence’s indoor 1,000m 2:16.76 record from 2014. Unfortunately, he had to pull out of next week’s Texas Qualifier.

• The Australian men’s 1,500m national record fell with Ollie Hoare winning a spicy race in 3:32.35 ahead of Jake Wightman’s 3:34.48. 20-year-old Sam Tanner took down the New Zealand national record in 3:34.72. Sam Prakel was the top American in fourth place in 3:36.36.

• Rocking Dunder Mifflin socks, Noah Lyles ran 20.80 for the 200 meters and kind of shrugged at the performance afterward.

• Michael Norman and his training partner Rai Benjamin duked it out in a 400. Norman took the win 45.34 to Benjamin’s 45.39. This was Norman’s first race since his 9.86 for 100m last summer. First time indoors since 2018.

– Donavan Brazier’s world lead in the 800 meters didn’t stand for too long since Great Britain’s Elliot Giles ran 1:43.63 to become the second-fastest man for 800 meters indoors. The world record still belongs to Kenya’s Wilson Kipketer, who ran 1:42.67 in 1997. Giles is 26 and this just makes the first showdown between him and Brazier outdoors more exciting. It’s wild to think that Giles didn’t even reach the final of the 2019 world championships and here he is running faster than the world champion. Want to learn more about Giles? There’s a short documentary series on him on YouTube.

ON THE CITIUS MAG PODCAST NETWORK

“For me, it’s about staying in the moment. That’s always been the hardest thing for me. It’s allowing myself to be where I am and feel good about where I am as opposed to ‘I have to do X, Y and Z to be better.’ At some point, you realize even if you hit those goals if you’re a competitive and driven person who has a tendency to think that way, it’s just going to reset and you’re going to have another set of goals that you want to hit and so there’s never a point where you sit back and think, ‘Man, I’m accomplishing a lot and I feel good.’ I want to keep feeling that way and allow myself to be excited.

It’s been a while since Leah joined the CITIUS MAG Podcast. Now she’s got a new sponsor, a new home and a new last name after getting married to Louis Falland in 2020. Most importantly, she’s running really well on the track and just paced Elle Purrier to an American record in the two-mile at the New Balance Indoor Games, which were held in New York City. I recorded this conversation with Leah at the end of January and since then she’s run 4:12 for the win in a 1,500m at a small meet in Arizona. Her personal best of 4:11.04 was set in 2015 so things are trending in the right direction.

Leah first appeared on the CITIUS MAG Podcast in 2018 after she wrote a blog post called “Dear Struggling Runner.”

You can catch the latest episode of the podcast on iTunes so subscribe and leave a five-star review. We are also on Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify!

– Dana Giordano’s latest episode of “More Than Running” was my favorite to produce so far this season. She chats with Emily Infeld, who is now in her ninth year with the Bowerman Track Club. Emily discusses mental health and how to keep yourself in the present moment while training, especially when you’re on one of the best teams in the country. It was nice to hear her talk about her friendships with some of her competitors and how Aisha Praught-Leer drove over to her after Infeld had to undergo surgery for an injury.

– David Melly finally gets the answer behind why Eric Avila runs everything in a speed suit on the latest episode of “Run Your Mouth,”

–The Running Things Considered guys got On Athletics Club’s Joe Klecker on their show. They ran through some of his Minnesota Roots and some cool stories about how deep his family’s running history and recognition go.

– Heather Caplan, an anti-diet dietician, joins Emma Zimmerman on Social Sport to discuss weight-stigma in sports and beyond. “I try to recognize that me showing up in a space with a straight-sized body, and white privilege, and cis-gender privilege, etc., brings a certain tone to the message…as a thin or straight-sized person talking about intuitive eating or talking about weight-inclusive care, I might make that message more palatable to someone because I present as their version of health.”

– I’ve enjoyed seeing Jonathan Levitt’s “For The Long Run Podcast” grow over time. He invited me onto the show to discuss some of my career, my growth as a runner and a few thoughts on sponsorships within the running community. Check it out here.

That’s it from me in the latest edition of the CITIUS MAG Newsletter. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, learned something new or have any questions or commentary on anything featured in this issue, feel free to hit my inbox: [email protected]

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