LAST LAP — September - Track & Field News (2024)

HERE’S THIS MONTH’S collection of short takes on generally off-track activities that have gone/will go a long way towards shaping the way the sport is headed.

Updated Medals Awarded In Paris

In a ceremony at the Eiffel Tower, 10 Olympians — 8 of them in track — from the ’00, ’08 & ’12 Games received upgraded medals.

•From Sydney: Beverly McDonald (Jamaica), 200 bronze.
•From Beijing: Chelsea Hammond-Ross (Jamaica), LJ bronze.
•From London: Erik Kynard (US), HJ gold; Derek Drouin (Canada), HJ silver; Abebe Aregawi (Ethiopia), 1500 bronze; Lashinda Demus (US), 400H gold; Zuzana Hejnová (Czechia), 400H silver; Kaliese Spencer (Jamaica), 400H bronze.

Coe Reiterates Support For Winter Olympics XC
As track kicked off in Paris, WA head Seb Coe was quick to flog the universal nature of our sport, noting that the potential inclusion of cross country at the Winter Olympics could help the sport become even more universal by opening up opportunities for Africa.

“The potential for the co-creation of a 2-sport option with cyclo-cross is something I discussed… some months ago,” explained Coe. “We’ve had some good discussions — though with a lot of detail still to be sorted — about the idea of sharing the same course with cyclo-cross. It would add a bit of jeopardy into cross country, which of course is something that we’ve welcomed in that discipline in recent years.

“For me there’s one really important element in this: I’ve always wanted to see cross country back at the Olympics. It’s obviously more at home in the winter, it’s historically and traditionally a winter sport. And it gives Africa an opportunity to play a serious part in the Winter Games.”

More USATF Money For Road Trials

With WA’s World Road Champs — mile, 5K, half-marathon — set to become an annual event starting next year in San Diego, USATF has decided to infuse more prize money in its selection race in order to field stronger teams on a global level.

A USATF release explained it was the unanimous decision of the USA Running Circuit as well as the men’s and women’s LDR committees to reallocate the monies that currently are spread around all of USATF’s road events.

A total of $100,000 will be split between the genders at the three selection events for the World Road Champs, with another $50,000 going to the top athletes in the Road Circuit final standings. The goal is to start reviewing bids for hosting those selection races in September, with the goal of selecting all the hosts for ’25 and ’26 by October 01.

A New High-Tech Meet

Coming soon, with an experimental competition set for Fribourg, Switzerland, on September 01, is “Track Lab.” Organizers say it has “strong support” from World Athletics, European Athletics and the Diamond League.

What will look different? For one, it’s a team competition, with 6 teams competing in 8 disciplines. The team selection will happen publicly the night before.

The false start reaction time limit will be 0.000 instead of the current 0.100 threshold, bringing gambling back into the sprints.

Laser technology will be used in the pole vault and long jump. In the vault, the measurement will be based on the highest point the athlete actually clears. In the long jump, measurement will be from the takeoff point. In the javelin, only the best throw of each athlete will be measured.

Who’s game? Notable names include hurdler Nadine Visser, vaulter Angelica Moser, javelin thrower Anderson Peters and others. The meeting will be streamed live on YouTube.

Knighton Not Out Of The Woods Yet

Young U.S. sprinter Erriyon Knighton was the beneficiary of an expedited hearing by USADA and was cleared of a Trenbolone positive in time to run in Paris, where he took 4th in the 200.

Subsequently, however, the AIU has appealed the findings of the U.S. arbitration panel and the case is now off to CAS for an appeal.

Said USADA’s Travis Tygart, “The real issue in this case is WADA’s bad rule. Trenbolone, the substance in Knighton’s case, is a known livestock enhancer and known to be found in the meat supply.

“We have advocated for the rules around contamination to formally change for years, and WADA has refused to act swiftly.”

How Many Teaspoons Do You Use?

Many point at supershoes shoes as the reason behind the ongoing explosion in distance performances. Perhaps, suggests a report in the London Telegraph, we’ve overlooked another major factor.

Apparently elite distance runners — by some estimates, as many as 80% of them — are gulping down baking soda. It’s long been known that sodium bicarbonate and its alkaline properties can enhance performance by counteracting the lactic acid buildup in the muscles. Trouble is, eating any significant amount before exercise can lead to nasty diarrhea.

Enter a Swedish company named Maurten which developed what it calls a “bicarb system” that delivers the sodium bicarbonate in a way that bypasses stomach acids and the resulting diarrhea. Four servings cost $70. And it’s selling like hotcakes. The company estimates that two-thirds of the middle-distance and distance medalists at Budapest were using its product. Now it says that sales have “exploded” since then.

Among Maurten’s nutritional partners are the On and NN running teams. Reportedly, Kelvin Kiptum used bicarb before his marathon WR. Olympic 800 winner Keely Hodgkinson has been open about using the substance, which is neither banned nor restricted by WADA.

Says Jenny Meadows, the ‘09 World 800 bronze medalist who now helps husband Trevor Painter coach Hodgkinson, “Two hours before the race starting — you can see almost every single person having it. So you’ve not got an advantage because everyone is using it. You are at a disadvantage if you don’t use it.”

Relay Blunder Enrages Lewis

The by-now-almost-expected U.S. men’s 4×1 disaster in Paris brought a strong response from Olympic legend Carl Lewis, who himself anchored two gold medals in the relay, both of them WRs.

He tweeted, “It is time to blow up the system. This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that EVERYONE at @usatf is more concerned with relationships than winning. No athlete should step on the track and run another relay until this program is changed from top to bottom.”

Ironically, the head U.S. relay coach is Mike Marsh, longtime Santa Monica TC teammate of Lewis. Marsh led off the ’92 relay that Lewis anchored.

Women’s Hurdles Not High Enough?

Has Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone made the 400H look too easy? Maybe so. Her new WR of 50.37 is faster than the Olympic qualifying standard of 50.95 for the flat 400, and indeed, would have been the No. 9 time in the Paris semis.

That perhaps is what has sparked recent informal discussions that WA head Seb Coe has referred to about possibly raising the height of the hurdles. Currently, the women run over 30-inch (76cm) barriers, while the men go over 36-inchers (91.4cm) for the one-lap event.

“There’s probably a case now for looking at the height of the hurdles because these guys don’t really look like they are breaking their form very much – that’s a mixture of good hurdling and probably the height,” said Coe.

“The innovation teams will be looking at all sorts of things. It’s very much a personal view, I’ve spoken to a couple of 400-meter hurdlers and they think that actually, it’s probably something we might want to look at.”

Bumping the 400s to the next logical height (using existing equipment) would be 33 inches (84cm), but that would make them the same height as the 100H, which doesn’t make sense, so the straightaway barriers should be jumped up to 36 inches (91.4cm). There have been calls to do that anyway for years.

(W)ADA vs. (US)ADA

The ongoing conflict between USADA and WADA continues, with the global agency revealing that USADA used athlete informants 2011–14. Apparently USADA recruited several athletes it had caught with drug violations and let them continue competing in exchange for information on other violators.

“WADA is now aware of at least three cases where athletes who had committed serious anti-doping rule violations were allowed to continue to compete for years while they acted as undercover agents for USADA, without it notifying WADA and without there being any provision allowing such a practice under the code or USADA’s own rules,” the international organization says.

“It’s an effective way to get at these bigger, systemic problems,” explains USADA head Travis Tygart, who says that in one case, intelligence emerged that helped a federal law enforcement investigation into human and drug trafficking.

USADA informed WADA in ’21 of the practice, and suspended it when told to. WADA admits that in the case of the highest profile athlete, it agreed with USADA that prosecuting that athlete would jeopardize the athlete’s safety.

Officials at USADA say that the situation has now been made public by WADA as part of a “smear campaign” that has followed U.S. reaction to WADA’s handling of 21 Chinese swimming positives.

And CHINADA Takes A Shot

In yet another front in the war among the anti-dopers, the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) says that 31% of U.S. athletes were not adequately tested in the 12 months leading up to the ’21 Olympics.

The Chinese statement came after news broke of Erriyon Knighton’s Trenbolone case. It read, in part, “If Trenbolone is indeed a common contaminant in the United States, CHINADA would like to remind athletes from all over the world, including American athletes, to pay close attention to the meat contamination problem in the country when training and competing there, to strengthen doping risk prevention measures, and to eat meat products with caution.”

It added, “In light of the above, we strongly call on the International Testing Agency to intensify testing on the U.S. track & field athletes.” CHINADA also called on the AIU to intensify its scrutiny of Americans.

Coe For IOC President?

We’ve long reported that WA chief Seb Coe has his eye on the IOC presidency. Now that reigning president Thomas Bach has indicated he will not continue in office — a suggestion some of his allies bandied about that would require an amendment to the Olympic Charter since he is aged-out — the campaigning is about to begin.

Says Coe, “I’ve always made it clear that, if an opportunity arose, I would obviously give it serious thought. The opportunity has arisen and clearly I need to think about that.”

He added, “I have been involved in the Olympic movement for the larger part of my life. I have chaired an Olympic Games from bid through to delivery and two years of legacy after that. I have been privileged to compete in two Olympic Games. I have chaired a national Olympic committee, and I now have the best job in the world as president of the No. 1 Olympic sport. These are experiences that if you put together, and other aspects of my life, I think would be beneficial to the role.”

The election is set for March ’25. Any candidate wishing to run must declare so in a letter to the IOC president by September 15. The list of candidates will be published the next day. ◻︎