If you’re a regular reader of this space, you may have noticed that the daily top ten links package has gone silent for the last few days. Truly regular readers of this space know that I’m a high school teacher and I coach cross country in the fall, and so my time is getting tight right now. So apologies for the slacking, but I hope you understand.
Anyway, here’s a lengthier rundown of the top news and news-ish stuff from the last few days.
Cool video of the day: my friend Rob Myers is trying to become only the third American to break 4:00 for the mile in each of ten consecutive years. Here we have a special one-off attempt at a Columbus-area high school track, paced by Canadian Olympian Nate Brannen. I won’t tell you how it worked out–you must see it yourself.
Note: I saw Myers try to qualify for the Olympic Trials at one of Indianapolis’ American Milers Club meets back in June, but he wasn’t close and felt really down. Having seen nothing else from him for the rest of the summer, I thought that might have been the last race of his career. Turns out he was just getting it all back together. Good on ya, Rob!
Podcasts
The weekly House of Run podcast is up. In addition to the usual deep discussion of the week’s events, Kevin and Jason have some fun at the expense of the GOP VP nominee and very accomplished runner, Paul Ryan.
You can download the podcast version of Wednesday’s Coffee Talk, the weekly Toledo-based radio show centering on college track and cross country. Hosted by Toledo head coach Kevin Hadsell, this week’s episode features coaches Mick Byrne (Wisconsin), John Goodridge (Eastern Michigan), and Ian Soloff (Portland), plus yours truly.
The latest On Track and Field podcast is now up. This is a Britain-based podcast and this week’s guest is Emma Jackson, a top English half-miler.
College news
Oregon State officially opened its brand-new track and field complex, with OSU alums like Dick Fosbury and Morgan Groth in attendance. Someday the Oregon State-Oregon dual meets will resume, and hopefully sooner rather than later.
Yesterday, the Ohio State men’s cross country team claimed an unofficial victory at Michigan State’s 8k Auto Owners Spartan Invitational. (The meet doesn’t keep team scores, but people do know how to add.)
Department of things we knew two months ago but were only officially announced now: Vin Lananna is stepping aside as Oregon’s head coach in order to concentrate on events and promotion in Track Town, women’s coach Robert Johnson becomes head coach.
Other news
Two links sent to me by the enigmatic Jon Gugala*. One is a road-trip photo essay from top US half-milers Pheobe Moore and Erica Wright called Running the Streets. Another is a story on Oregon distance runner Luke Puskedra, whose lifetime road-racing debut was in January’s Houston Half Marathon, where he ran a very good 61:36 and may have discovered he’s really meant for the roads.
*Jon likes a good joke, so I think I’m going to start giving him an increasingly strange adjective every time I refer to him.
Photo gallery: Team USA visits the White House, gets feted by the President and Vice President. No word on whether Biden said the track team’s 29 medals were “a big f***ing deal”, but it would be an appropriate comment.
At the White House, Aries Merritt talks about the changes he made that paid off in a dream season.
I love track history, so I’d really like to see this: the greatest ever collection of track and field memorabilia.
Double Olympic champion Mo Farah admits Britain’s “perfect” sporting summer is unlikely ever to be repeated.
Journalist Pat Butcher flies down to Rio to check out the host of the next Olympics, with a mixed report.
UK head coach Charles van Commenee made good on his promise to quit if the team didn’t make good on the medal goal, because he believes in accountability. His replacement has not been named, but the new Performance Director is Neil Black, the Canadian who has recently headed up UKA’s sports science and medicine. Unlike van Commenee, who was an outsider brought in specifically to shake things up, Black is an insider. Nicknamed “The Wolf” (after the Harvey Keitel character in Pulp Fiction who specializes in fixing problems), he is liked and respected by the athletes but promises to be even more hard-line than van Commenee.
Mike Rowbottom looks at the divisive force that was van Commenee.
From Let’s Run: the man responsible for outing Paul Ryan’s false marathon claims. Is he the Katie Couric of 2012?
Neil Wilson warns that the success of hosting a Summer Olympics comes at a dear price.