Thank you.

They should keep me going through the off season.

Well done! A good find!

Some Bobsleigh/Athletics crossover news. Lolo Jones is returning to Bobsleigh again. Also Ryan Bailey & Tyson Gay are having trials for the US team. I guess we can look forward to Bailey doing ice pick gestures towards the Jamaican Bobsleigh team. And I wonder if Tyson Gay will finally win (and keep) an Olympic medal.

Olivia no?

Oh wow. Very bad

Any of you fancy taking part in my 2016/17 Marathon Prediction Contest over on the Athletics Weekly forum?

If so, the first post and my most recent long post tell you all you need to know about what to do for Round 2, the Berlin marathon on Sunday.

You'll have missed Round 1 but since only your best 8 results of 10 rounds count for your final total, it's not a problem to start now.

Couple of interesting stories today.

Many will recall the stabbing of 3 British Athletics officals at the Alexander Stadium earlier this year. Lauren Jeska (international fell runner) has now pleaded guilty to a number of offences over the incident. It seems that Ms. Jeska was actually born Mr. Jeska and was going to be the subject of a review by British Athletics about seemingly not disclosing this fact and the suggestion is that this is what led to the attack.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...urder-11925181

New recruit for British Athletics?

The Antigua Observer is reporting that Miguel Francis (19.67s 200m) has requested a transfer of allegiance to Great Britain. The key here appears to be that although he has been representing Antigua & Barbuda he was born in Montserrat a British Overseas Territory, so entitled to a British passport.

http://antiguaobserver.com/francis-r...nited-kingdom/

I wonder why Francis wants to switch? As a 200m runner he's not exactly choosing a soft option. He trains with the Glen Mills group (Bolt et al & also Zharnel Hughes) in Jamaica.

Sure Antigua will be unhappy. Wouldn't surprise me if they do a Cuba so he'll have to wait a while before he becomes eligible for Britain.

BIB Seems to be some suggestion in the comments to that article that the full story of his non-appearance in Rio hasn't come out, perhaps some sort of falling out?

Another piece of news - Times are reporting that KJT has split with her coach Mike Holmes. Will be interesting to see what her new coaching set up is. Whatever she decides could make or break her career.

Well there could be a world class mult-eventer size hole in a training group in Sheffield very soon, it wouldn't happen would it?

And talking of female multi-eventers, no sign on social media of Morgan Lake going off to Uni anywhere yet. I heard it was a toss up between Lufbra or Bath.

Further to my last.

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/othe...-a3352326.html


Another interesting suggestion in the article.


KJT coming to Brum (I've got a spare room).

I wouldn't see that as two options, a multi-coach approach (Kelly Sotherton is also coaching some young multi-eventers) may be the way to go for KJT.

Just a reminder, Berlin Marathon this weekend, over what has now become established as the preferred course for World Record attempts..

http://www.bmw-berlin-marathon.com/e...mpetition.html

Here's a livestream.

To break the WR, Kipsang/Bekele need to cover the last 10km in about 29:15.

The leading pack got to halfway in 1:01:11.

Looks like there won't be a WR, but it's a great race between the leading two.

I reckon Bekele will win it.

-----

Indeed he does - unofficially, it's a 2:03:04 WL/NR! Second fastest all-time (just ahead of Kipchoge) on record-legal courses.

Yeah, good race. For a while it looked like Bekele was done but he stormed back.

Charlotte Purdue DNF'd between 20 & 25km. Starting at 2:29 pace she'd slipped to around 2:30:30 pace by that point.

Ummmmm.... anyone heard anything about their World Champs tickets? Since I got the email saying the tickets were mine I've heard nowt......

Key dates for British Athletics next year.

Indoor Trials - 11 -12 Feb - Sheffield
Indoor Grand Prix - 18 Feb - Birmingham
British Trials - 30 Jun - 2 Jul - Birmingham
Anniversary Games - 9 Jul - London
IAAF World Championships - 4 - 13 Aug - London
Birmingham Diamond League - 20 Aug - You'll never guess where

I wouldn't worry about them yet. The champs are still 10 months away, so the organisers won't be posting any tickets for some time.

The latest Fancy Bears hack of WADA should put the whole TUE controversy to bed once and for all - Harry Aikinies Aryeetey is one of the people who got one, so clearly TUEs do not have any performance-enhancing aspects at all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/37454046

We have two half-marathons taking place in Britain this weekend - the Great Scottish Run from Glasgow and the Cardiff Half-Marathon. The Cardiff one is IAAF recognised, so probably slightly the better field.

Cardiff elite Field news

http://www.cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk...half-marathon/

Glasgow men's field.

http://greatscottishrun.com/news-adv...-with-kipsiro/

Glasgow women's field features Tirunesh Dibaba

http://greatscottishrun.com/news-adv...-scottish-run/

The major Marathon is the IAAF Gold Label race in Lisbon, on what I imagine is a hilly course.

TV coverage seems to be:

National coverage of both on BBC Red Button
Regional live coverage on BBC1 Wales or Scotland for their own local race.

That made me laugh. Having said that Wiggins TUE does look well dodgy though

If you haven't already got them just a heads up that the special offer of £9 (£3 for children) for all tickets/sessions for the IPC Para Athletics in London next year runs out tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply Edward. I normally wouldn't worry but I could have sworn I read somewhere that the tickets would be posted around a month after payment. Must have got it wrong.....

This will be Tirunesh's 5th post-childbirth race. Three of them have been in the UK. Her next race in 3 weeks time will also be on our shores - the Great South Run (10 miles).