DOUBLE FOR THE DUCKS AND THE TALE OF THE MAGIC BURRITO
'Inside Line' The Free Weekly Newsletter From Trackstaa
This week’s newsletter is brought to you by...us :) yes, our Trackstaa store is now live and you can purchase merchandise direct from our website to help support us to keep bringing you content across all of our platforms. The first merch drop includes a special edition, ‘performance enhancing burrito’ T. Click here to check out the range.
Shelby Houlihan Banned for FOUR years
As founder members of the National Society for the Protection Against Cruelty to Burritos (NSPCB) this week’s news has hit us hard. ‘Authentic’ Mexican Burritos are often the most cruelly treated and this week we're finally glad we can shine a light on the plight that many Burritos face. Uncastrated pig offal burritos are amongst the most discriminated against despite being all but extinct from the USA (I know, right?), primarily because in some forms when it contains no less than 310g of said meat it can apparently result in humans gaining super-strength and speed. #PerformanceEnhancingBurrito
Okay, so all joking aside (it took me hours to come up with that one paragraph of mediocre comedy), the huge news this week is that Shelby Houlihan, US record holder in the 1500m and the 5000m has tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, with proven physiological and performance benefits and has been banned from all competition for FOUR years. If you’ve been living under a rock, in a cave or maybe inside a burrito this week and you don’t know the background you’ve come to the right place. You can click right here to read our article which sets out the main facts.
4 days on since the news broke, however, we have a little more information and that is that CAS unanimously decided that Houlihan had failed to demonstrate, even on the balance of probabilities, that the illicit substance found in her system was due to anything other than intentional doping - perhaps because it turns out that she didn’t actually eat a pork burrito (she should banned just for that crime, in my opinion), but the place where she ate steak burrito also served pork burritos too...Hmm. They also held, by majority, that she had failed to establish that the procedures and rules were incorrectly followed (you can read the press release here ). For want of a better phrase, it’s a bit of an evidential slam dunk which is why many, including us here at Trackstaa, were surprised that there was a seemingly continuous stream of athletes, previously so apparently committed to clean sport, intent on putting out messages (incredibly long, detailed, emotional messages) of support whilst simultaneously proclaiming her innocence.
We put our thoughts out there on our YouTube channel which you can watch here but essentially whether Shelby is being truthful or not is no longer the point. She’s failed a doping test and lost her appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, perhaps it sounds harsh but until she can establish and prove that she has not doped (and, by the way, we sincerely hope she can and does) , we must treat her as though she has cheated. Doing anything else risks doing interminable damage to the reputation and integrity of the sport which is far bigger than even Shelby Houlihan. For this reason we were pleased to see USATF change its original decision and disqualify her from running in the Olympic Trials this weekend.
Our final point is this, we all need to consider whether we can look ourselves in the eye and accept that had Shelby been an athlete of colour, representing a nation such as Ethiopia for example, the reaction to a positive test for nandrolone wouldn’t have created any debate about whether she was clean or not. Perhaps, of everything to come out this week, this is the most revealing point of all.
Two Former USA Olympians Withdraw from the Trials Through Injury
Nothing like Bowerman TC to steal all the headlines but this week Evan Jager, reigning Olympic Silver medalist in the 3000m SC, announced that due to injury he will not be competing in this weekend’s Olympic Trials. Incredibly he confirmed that a recent MRI scan revealed up to 16cm of tearing in one of the muscles in his leg. THese injuries explain why he’s been absent from the track meets so far this year but it’s a huge blow for the athlete who even after achieving the best US performance in the SC since 1952, hoped to go one better in Tokyo.
Similarly for Shannon Rowbury, who was hoping to make her fourth US Olympic Team, she has to withdraw due to a stress fracture and that will keep her off running until at least July where she hopes to return to competitive action in the Autumn.
Double for the Ducks at the NCAAs
The NCAA Outdoor Championships didn’t disappoint with incredible performances across the board. Here are some of our favourite performances
Starting close to home, was the unexpected but wonderful performance of Patrick Dever, the Tulsa Hurricane following in the footsteps of Marc Scott (2017) to win the 10,000m championship with a stunning final 80m in which an electric kick saw him glide past his competitors, including Connor Mantz the favourite for the win. His time of 27:41.87 was the quickest 10,000m NCAA time in 42 years and there 9 others behind him who surpassed the previous meet record too. One of those was 19 year old British athlete Charles Hicks
In the men’s 1500, the expected showdown between Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse turned into the great spectacle that we all expected. Cole Hocker closed in 52 seconds to take the win and defeat the record holder and reigning NCAA 1500m champion. Hocker finishined in a personal best 3:35.35 and ran the second fastest collegiate time ever. Astonishing when you think he’s only a freshman.
Athing Mu continued her incredible dominance in the 400m with a collegiate record 49.57. She cruised to victory with everyone else merely trailing in her wake. Surprisingly, she’ll be running the 800m at the Olympic Trials this week and so it will be fascinating to see how she gets on. Even more astonishing was her 48 second anchor leg in the 4x400m to guide Texas A&M to a collegiate 4 x 400m record.
Oliver Dustin should switch to the 200m
To further highlight the strength of British 800m running, 20 year old Oliver Dustin, former European U20 champion, broke Seb Coe’s GB U23 record to come from about 20 metres behind with 230 to go to win in an astonishing 1:43.82. The fastest anyone has gone over 800m outdoors this season and the 5th fastest ever outdoors for a British athlete. Elliot Giles who ran the fastest indoor time of the year in February (1:43.63) was third ahead of fellow Brit Jake Heyward in ninth (1:47.95).
If you haven’t seen the video, head over to Trackstaa’s Instragram on 12th June to watch him seemingly turn on his jet pack with about 210 to go as he appeared to fly past everyone else like they weren’t even there. Nobody put it better than Lloyd Kempson:
Florence Diamond League Review
We discussed Jakob Ingebrigsten’s performance in last week’s newsletter and we wrote a further article this week which you can read here. After his brilliant race, he said, “I do a lot of training so I know I’m able to run fast. At the same time, my main focus is not the 5km but most of training is for the 5km, so for me to be able to run fast in the 1500m, I know that I’m also able to run fast in the 5km.”
He wasn’t the only athlete to run however, with stellar performances coming from Sifan Hassan, again, as she defeated a field that wouldn’t look out of place in the biggest championships in athletics. What a week for the Ethiopian born Dutch athlete. One week after running the second fastest 10,000m in history, she came to Italy and ran a world-lead 3:53.63. Laura Muir furthered her hopes for a shot at an Olympic medal with a 3:55.59, but she was just beaten to second by Faith Kipyegon, who set a Kenyan record 3:53.91.
In a manner typical of Sifan’s character, she said afterwards, “It was an amazing race. I thought Faith was going to beat me in the last 400m because I haven’t been working on speed and I just came from 10,000m so I don’t know where my speed came from, it surprised me.”
It was another Diamond League victory for Dina Asher Smith who is starting to show some impressive form ahead of a busy Olympic summer. She was dominant in the final and clocked a pleasing 22.06 into a breath of headwind. “I know I’m in good shape and I’m happy...but I know I can go quicker so I’m excited to be able to go again”, she said afterwards.
In the hurdles, 2 meeting records for Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Omar McLeod who set 12.38 and 13.01 in the 100 and 110m hurdles respectively. In the 400 edition, Femke Bol took the win in 53.44.
There was a world lead in the Steeplechase too, Morocco’s El Bakkali finished in 8:08.54 to beat Tadese Takele of Ethiopia whilst the favorite Conseslus Kipruto dropped out midway through the race.
Watford BMC Review
On a hot and sticky day in Watford last weekend, there aren’t many of those by the way, the British Milers Club put on a brilliant display of domestic athletics. Some of the key results include a victory for Ben Pattison in the 800m (1:46.80) and another win, just outside the Olympic qualifying time, for Ellie Baker (2:00.45).
In the 1500m, a breakthrough for U23 Matt Stonier (3:39.17) whilst the women’s race was won by another U23 in Erin Wallace (4:08.10), beatin experienced runners in Holly Archer and Jess Judd in the process.
Andy Butchart delivered an exhibition display to cruise to a meeting record 7:43.57 in the 3000m whilst the men’s 5000m was a very interesting race, run at a canter by U23 Tulsa Hurricane, Isaac Akers in 13:47.31 beating a strong field including Rory Leonard (formerly of this parish) and Dan Jarvis.
For the full results, click here.
Allie Ostrander announces eating disorder battle
This week saw Allie Ostrander of the Brooks’ Beasts announce that she had admitted herself to a partial-hospitalisation programme for eating disorder. A hugely brave admission and she conceded her social media post, “This has been the hardest thing I’ve done in my life...I’m rally scared, but I always tell myself that being scared isn’t a good reason to not step to the line for a race and I think that rings true here as well.”
USATF Track and Field Olympic Trials Gets Underway in Style
The first day of the Olympic Trials cemented its place in history as Ryan Crouser, threw a shot put further than anyone else in history. The previous World Record, 23.12m, was held by Randy Barnes and had stood insurmountable since 1990 and after several nearly efforts, Crouser finally did it. He threw the shot put so far in fact, it was essentially out of the sector. Measuring in at an incredible 23m 37cm. Joe Kovacs and Payton Otterdahl will join him in the US Olympic Team.
The big event on the track was the men’s 10,000m final. It became clear early on in the race that it wouldn’t be quick enough for a sub-olympic standard time and so with a slow race, the excitement all came at once in the final lap where there still 4 men in contention. 28 year old Woody Kincaid, aiming to qualify for his first Olympics after disappointment in previous international championships, grabbed the bull by the horns and dropped an unmatchable 53.47 last 400m to take the win in 27:53.62, less than a second ahead of his Bowerman teammate, Grant Fisher (27:54.29). The fairytale story was Joe Klecker of the ‘On Running Team’, finishing 3rd in 27:54.90. Galen Rupp, already going to the games in the Marathon, and the 8 time USA 10,000m champion, finished sixth.