Reigning Champions Cheruiyot and Erkesso Return to Boston Marathon Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot turned in one of history’s greatest marathoning performances in 2010, obliterating the course record with a 2:05:52. He’ll 
be challenged on April 18 in Boston by fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai, who has a marathon best of 2:04:55, and 2:06-and-change runners Ryan Hall, Gilbert Yegon, Tadese Tola, Evans Cheruiyot and Sylvester Teimet. Joining that bunch are 2010 ING New York City champion Gebregziabher Gebremariam, the newly crowned Chevron Houston course recordholder Bekana Daba and 2010 Boston runner-up Tekeste Kebede. Others in the field include Philip Sanga, Feleke Cherkos, Deressa Edae, Stephen Kibiwot, Peter Kamais Moses Kigen Kipkosgei, Shadrack Kiplagat and American Antonio Vega. Irish Olympian Alistair Cragg and Kenyan Moses Mosop will make their marathon debuts.
Ethiopia’s Teyba Erkesso returns as defending champion, as does 2010 
runnerup Tatyana Pushkareva, in a women’s field with 16 athletes who’ve run 26.2 miles in 2:26:20 or better. Past Boston champions Salina Kosgei, Dire Tune and four-time winner Catherine Ndereba will be back, with Sharon Cherop, Caroline Kilel, Hellen Mugo, Alice Timbilili also racing from Hopkinton to Boston. Americans Kara Goucher, Desiree Davila, and Blake Russell are also entered, along with Kim Smith, Galina Bogomolova, Merima Mohammed, Werknesh Kidane (Gebremariam’s wife) Florence Kiplagat (Mosop’s wife), Silvia Skvortsova, Teyba Naser, Woynishet Girma and Yuliya Ruban. (photos of Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot and Teyba Erkesso by Victah Sailer)
Boston Marathon Made Him No 2011 Offer Asserts Keflezighi He was fifth in Boston in 2010 and writes “I really thought that I could do something special on April 18 for the race, for US distance running, and, yes, for myself and my family,” but Meb Keflezighi claims that although 
conversations with John Hancock Financial Services, the sponsor of the Boston Marathon’s elite field, began last July and continued until late January, “no offer was made” for his participation in 2011′s race. “It’s not that I’m not getting what I want, it’s that John Hancock did not make me an offer at all. As much as I respect the opportunity to run the Boston Marathon, I would have accepted any reasonable offer,” Keflezighi maintains.
For now, he affirms he’ll focus on “doing my very best in the 2011 NYC Half-Marathon on March 20 and will have a chance to run shorter races on the road and possibly on the track this spring and summer,” including “some great road races that I have not been able to run yet because of spring marathons in my schedule.” And he believes not running in Boston “probably makes it possible for me to run both a full marathon this fall and compete in the Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston on January 14, 2012.” A statement from Brian Carmichael, Director of Corporate Communications for Hancock, says “As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on athlete negotiations.” (photo of Meb Keflezighi by Jeff Dengate) More
Our own Peter Vigneron has followed up on this story and spoken with Merhawi Keflezighi, Meb’s brother and agent. Vigneron’s article can be found Here.
Lukas Verzbicas Chases HS Indoor 2-Mile Record in NYC In the same Saturday night race at the Armory in New York where Bernard Lagat will be trying to smash Doug Padilla’s 1990 American indoor 
two-mile mark of 8:15.02, Illinois phenom Verzbicas will attempt to break the American high school best of 8:40.0 set by Gerry Lindgren way back in 1964. The event is billed as the NYRR Deuce Record Challenge. Verzbicas, who’ll attend the University of Oregon in the fall, already has the U.S. high school indoor 5000-meter record. Robby Andrews of the University of Virginia and Russell Brown, the winner of the mile at last weekend’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, will “rabbit” for Lagat, while former Georgetown standout Liam Boylan-Pett will pace Verzbicas. The NYRR Deuce Record Challenge is part of the NYRR Saturday Night at the Armory III collegiate meet at the New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armory. The race can be watched live at www.armorytrack.com beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. (photo of Lukas Verzbicas by Victah Sailer)
Isaiah Koech Sets World Junior Indoor 5000 Record of 12:53.29 Whatever else happens on the track this weekend, it will be tough to surpass the remarkable performance of Koech at the PSD Bank Meeting in Düsseldorf, Germany on Friday. He’s still just 17, and his time improved on the previous World Junior indoor best by nearly 40 seconds. And it was the first indoor race of his life, and only his second 5000. He defeated his Kenyan countryman, Olympic silver medalist Eliud Kipchoge, who finished in 12:55.72, as he became just the fourth man of any age to break 13:00 for 5000 meters indoors. This is impressive stuff, folks. In the same Dusseldorf meet, Nixon Chepseba of Kenya broke 3:35 in the 1500 for the second time in a week, clocking 3:34.63 in 2010′s best time for the distance. More
Should Joseph Chirlee Have Been Able to Race at USA Cross Country? Chirlee is originally from Kenya but he’s now an American citizen – and a private in the U.S. Army. But the IAAF, track and field and cross country’s international governing body, won’t let him represent the U.S. until two years after his change of citizenship. That meant he couldn’t be in next month’s World Cross Country Championships. And that moved USA Track & Field to bar Chirlee from last Saturday’s USA Cross Country Championships, which is the selection meet for the Worlds. Was this fair, or necessary? The field in cross country is literally wide open, and he wasn’t taking up someone else’s … space, as he might be in an eight-lane track final. Does the USATF rule barring someone from a national championships if he or she can’t yet represent the United States globally have to be applied uniformly to every running discipline? Can the rule be modified…and when? At “More,” Scott Douglas covers the issues raised by Chirlee’s case in a discussion with USATF’s chief public affairs officer. More
Injury Forces Lolo Jones to End Her Indoor Track Season The two-time World Indoor 60-meter hurdles gold medalist has said via Twitter “I’m sorry you guys. I tried everything to get healthy. I regret to say I will not be able to run my last three races in Europe due to an injury.” She’ll turn her attention to trying to get ready for the outdoor World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. More
Mac Fleet Is Back and Ready for a Swift Mile The former Foot Locker Cross country titleist set a University of Oregon indoor mile record of 3:57.70 in 2010 and was second at the NCAA Indoor Championships. But a lingering issue caused Fleet to have foot surgery last summer and he redshirted the fall cross country season. Coach Vin Lananna now says Fleet is “ready to run” and he’ll be at the Husky Classic in Seattle this weekend. “This is a good opportunity to see where he’s at. I feel confident he’ll do a good job,” asserts Lananna. Oregon will have Matthew Centrowitz entered in the meet in a 3000. More
With Blake Russell, Bob Sevene Relies on Coaching ‘By Instinct’ This blog entry by Russell, a 2008 Olympic marathoner, was just posted, but she wrote it awhile ago and since then, she’s placed fifth at the USA 
Cross Country Championships, qualifying for World Cross country in Spain, and has been announced as an April 18 Boston Marathon entrant. She’s coached by the legendary Bob Sevene and “the game plan is in Sev’s head,” as Blake Russell puts it. “He coaches more by instinct, by what he sees when I run. He has a master plan in his head, but he’s not afraid to make adjustments. He might not decide what a workout will be until that day. That tends to work with my personality. Sometimes I tease him that he is making it up on the fly, but I know that’s not the case.” Russell says that after 11 years, she’s become quite good at guessing what the day’s workout might be, but “I know I’m in trouble when he starts writing down a workout – it’s because the workout is going to be long.” (photo of Blake Russell by Victah Sailer) More
Registration for Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Begins Monday From February 14 to 25, registration will be available at GrandmasMarathon.com for all half-marathon hopefuls. The 5,700 spots for the race will be drawn in a random lottery; acceptance for the race will be confirmed via e-mail during the week of February 28. Runners not selected will receive an e-mail notifying them that their entry was not among those chosen.The Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth is on June 18 and is on the second half of the Grandma’s Marathon course. More
Canton, Ohio Will Inaugurate a Marathon in 2012 They’re thinking way ahead. The first 26.2-miler in the city will be on June 17, 2012 beginning at Stadium Park and ending on the 40-yard line in Fawcett Stadium. The day’s events will also include a half marathon and a 10k. There will also be five-person marathon relays. More
Liu Xiang, Encouraged, Thinks About the 2011 World Championships The 2004 Olympic 110-meter hurdles gold medalist was just third in his 60-meter hurdles race in 7.60 seconds in Dusseldorf, Germany on Friday but, given all his injury, surgery, and rehab travails of recent years, he saw the result as a positive step. “I feel very good and I will be getting better. I already look forward to the World Championships (in Daegu, South Korea). I want to do really well there,” Liu stated. More
For Washington State’s Jeshua Anderson, Practice Does Make Perfect Pretty darn close, in any case. Anderson was the NCAA 400-meter hurdles champion in his freshman and sophomore years and pushes every long sprint interval hard in practice. “You have a mindset that you are going to 
win,” Anderson explains. “You know what’s going to happen because you’ve done it so much in practice. When you get to the race it is second nature.” He did have a rare stumble in the hurdles at the NCAAs outdoors last spring, losing to South Carolina’s Johnny Dutch. “It’s a blessing that it happened because, had it not happened, if I had won, I probably would have definitely gone pro,” notes Anderson. “For me to finish out my collegiate career here is a blessing. I don’t want to leave and not get that degree that I’ve been working toward.” His 2011 goal is to break the NCAA 400-meter hurdles record of 47.10 set by Samuel Matete of Auburn in 1991. (photo of Jeshua Anderson by Victah Sailer) More
Former Oklahoma State Star Ryan Vail Is Coaching in Portland On Thursday, we told you that former Olympic 5000-meter runner Jonathon Riley was coaching at the University of Portland, chiefly to help develop the school’s star distance runner, Alaska native Trevor Dunbar. It turns out that Vail, who helped Oklahoma State win the 2009 NCAA Cross country crown and is now running professionally, is also at Portland to help mentor Dunbar. “I’m going to work closely with Trevor,” Vail, who went to high school in Gresham, Oregon. “I’ll do some long workouts with him.” More
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