This is The Lap Count newsletter by Kyle Merber, as read by Chris Chavez. Join more than 16,000 people who stay up-to-date with all the thrilling action and biggest stories in the world of track & field – delivered right to your inbox every Wednesday morning. Subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://thelapcount.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In this week's newsletter: – The Best of Boston: Presented by Kyle 🏆 – Pick a number, any number: Which would pros take? #️⃣ – What are these kids up to? 👶 – College vs....

"Cherish the people around you. Coming to Stanford and having such an amazing team has made such a difference for me in the sport and just how I view it...This sport is tough. Some days it's so rewarding and you feel like you're on top of the world but then other days, it crushes you. Having that great support system and realizing that's the best thing you can gain from the sport. I've won a lot of races but at the end of the day, the people I've met and the friends I've made is most...

"I am so hungry. As soon as I finished the race, I said, 'I know I can do better. I know I raced wrong.' I need to go back to how I raced in high school. Even in high school, if I didn't get out front in an 800m, I didn't win. For outdoor, I need to race the way I race best." Georgetown freshman Tinoda Matsatsa, the NCAA 1000m record holder and a New Balance NIL athlete, chatted with Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber while at New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston. Matsatsa was just coming off an...

"With the NCAA, you just never know. You always have someone coming around...It's cool to see. People get to have their moments every season. There are highs and lows. It's sweet to see so much change between the athletes." While at New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston, Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber caught up with 2023 NCAA Cross Country Champion Graham Blanks. Unfortunately, he had to miss the indoor championship season due to injury but has returned to running ahead of the 2024 outdoor...

CITIUS MAG's Anderson Emerole reports from the 2024 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at The TRACK at New Balance in Boston as NAU's Nico Young and Florida's Parker Valby win both the 3000m and 5000m titles, Valby sets the new 5000m collegiate record in 14:52.79, Texas Tech's Terrence Jones wins both the 60m and 200m, Arkansas wins the women's team title, Texas Tech wins the men's team title, and more. For more interviews from the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, head over...

A month after dropping out of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials after about 21 miles, Betsy Saina made the decision to enter the 2024 Tokyo Marathon and it paid off massively. Saina put together a very short two-week build-up and ended up finishing fifth in 2:19:17. It was a PR by more than two minutes and moved her to No. 3 on the U.S. all-time women's marathoning list behind Emily Sisson and Keira D'Amato. In this episode, we talk about how she made the decision to race Tokyo, how she...

"We're here to medal. We worked so hard and no one worked harder than any of us. You just have to do it on the day. I think we all did it and it's so cool – obviously, it's indoors and sure there's an asterisk because it's not the Olympics or World Outdoor Champs, but it's a race when it matters. It's a championship. There are medals on the line and we are so competitive. We're going to run fearless. We're going to be like Hobbs Kessler, who is 20 years old and led that whole thing or Emily...

CITIUS MAG's Anderson Emerole reports from Glasgow, Scotland with a recap of Day 3 of the World Indoor Championships. – Team USA earned FOUR medals in the 1500m as New Zealand's George Beamish and Ethiopia's Freweyni Hailu came away with victories but Nikki Hiltz, Emily Mackay, Cole Hocker and Hobbs Kessler all came away with medals. – Bryce Hoppel clocked a world-leading 1:44.92 to improve upon his bronze medal from 2022 to win gold in the 800m final. Ethiopia's Tsige Duguma claimed gold...

CITIUS MAG's Anderson Emerole reports from Glasgow, Scotland with a recap of Day 2 of the World Indoor Championships. – Elle St. Pierre became the first U.S. woman to win the World Indoor 3000m title as she kicked down 10,000m world champion Gudaf Tsegay to claim gold. The win comes just 364 days after giving birth last March. – 1500m world champion Josh Kerr got the 3000m world title on home soil – just .61 ahead of Yared Nuguse, who earned his first global championship medal. – Femke Bol...

CITIUS MAG's Anderson Emerole reports from Glasgow, Scotland with a recap of Day 1 of the World Indoor Championships. – 60m world record holder Christian Coleman clocked the fastest time in the world this year with a 6.41 in the final to beat 100m and 200m world champion Noah Lyles by three hundredths to flip the results of their one-two finish from the U.S. Indoor Championships. – Kudos to Jamaica's Ackeem Blake on getting the bronze medal in the 60m final – Olympic and World Champion...

CITIUS MAG contributor Anderson Emerole is in Glasgow to bring you tons of interviews, updates and insights from the 2024 World Indoor Championships taking place from March 1-3. He breaks down: Men's 60m: Noah Lyles vs. Christian Coleman Men's 3000m: Getnet Wale vs. Selemon Barega vs. Josh Kerr vs. Yared Nuguse Women's 3000m: Gudaf Tsegay vs. Lemlem Hailu vs. Laura Muir vs. Elle St. Pierre vs. Jessica Hull Women's 60m: Aleia Hobbs vs. Julien Alfred Men's 400m: Karsten Warholm's...

Rory Linkletter is a Canadian marathoner for PUMA. He just ran 2:08:01 at the Seville Marathon to get under the Olympic qualifying standard. He is in a good position to get selected by Athletics Canada for Paris. Canadian record holder Cam Levins has already been selected for the team and assuming no one else runs faster than Rory in the next two months, he’ll be set to go to his first Olympics. Rory was a standout runner at BYU and then turned professional in 2019. He spent some time with...

"When I ran the Cherry Blossom (10 Miler), it was very windy. And what I did in that time (46:11), I felt like I could have sustained that pace for a while. Plus the environment – the wind, the temperature was very cold… Based on the training I was doing, my coach felt like I could go under 60 (minutes). We've been planning on just getting a solid half, and then a really fast half. It's really in my mind. So hopefully. Hopefully, after the track season this year I can find a really fast (half...

“I feel like that's why I got so emotional after that race – because this was the first time where I performed to my standards when it mattered. And that's such a big relief off my shoulders now, especially going into the Olympic year. It always felt a little phony for me to be like, ‘I'm going to make this team,’ or ‘I'm going to do this,’ because it hadn't happened yet. And now it has. And now I know that I can do it when it matters most.” Allie Wilson just won the U.S. Indoor...

This is The Lap Count newsletter by Kyle Merber, as read by Chris Chavez. Join more than 16,000 people who stay up-to-date with all the thrilling action and biggest stories in the world of track & field – delivered right to your inbox every Wednesday morning. Subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://thelapcount.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In this week's newsletter: – US Indoor Championships: Let the record show 🇺🇸 – MEMBERS ONLY: How to easily increase viewership 📺 – WERELD RECORD: FEMKE BOL 🇳🇱 – Is Tebogo...

"I was in Atlanta (for the 2020 Olympic Trials) watching on the sidewalks. Here, I was a player in the race. And now it's just focusing on 2028 and just continuing to get better each and every day. That's been my focus since I started running – just being faster today than I was yesterday and just checking off all those boxes to do that. Focusing on the process makes the outcome not easy to get over, but it makes it more bearable knowing how far you've come and how far you still have to...

This is The Lap Count newsletter by Kyle Merber, as read by Chris Chavez. Join more than 16,000 people who stay up-to-date with all the thrilling action and biggest stories in the world of track & field – delivered right to your inbox every Wednesday morning. Subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://thelapcount.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In this week's newsletter: – The Tragic Loss of Kelvin Kiptum 🕊 – When he can walk the walk after all the talk 🗣 – The World Record You Didn’t See Coming 🇧🇸 – The Wanamaker...

"For the longest time, my definition of mental toughness was being in the call room and not being scared and not being nervous. As I get older, I think mental toughness or mental resilience is being scared, being nervous, but knowing you're mentally robust and that you can handle these stressful situations. And trusting your fitness is there, trusting yourself and your instincts, that all the pieces are there and it's not going to fail. It's okay to be nervous." It's been almost three years...

"One thing I've learned this year is I want to take things as opportunities and not be so scared. I look at things just as, ‘It's so cool that I got to be in that race,’ because when I was going into that mile, it was my first time ever being in an ‘A’ race. Instead of just freaking out, I was like, ‘This is such a cool opportunity. I get to run with these girls.’ So instead of freaking out, I’m just looking at it as I just get to try something new and see how it goes." Providence junior...

Emergency podcast! Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber jump on the mic from The Armory to recap all of the thrilling action at the 2024 Millrose Games in New York City, where two world records were set and numerous national records went down. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Bandit is a performance-running brand based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2022, they just had 9 athletes compete in the Marathon Trials and told those stories via their documentary-style YouTube series "Dialed": Check those...

This Sunday is shaping up to be a huge day for sports fans – I’m talking, of course, about the 116th Millrose Games. What snacks will you bring to your viewing party? (No wrong answers.) Which brands will have the funniest commercials? (My money’s on Peacock.) Will Taylor Swift be there? (No.) These questions are surely top of mind for all of us as we gear up for the most important sporting event of mid-February. There’s no Usher halftime show planned, but the historic New York-based track...

"I just felt like I just needed to get to the finish line, touch the finish line, and then celebrate. I don't feel like it is real yet. I don't know that it will until I'm back home and into my routine. But I keep getting little reminders that I am now going to be on an Olympic team, and I almost break down in tears every time." An average high school runner, Minnesota Distance Elite’s Dakotah Lindwurm walked onto the team at Northern State University, but wound up a two-time NCAA Division...

"Starting to talk with Alistair (Cragg), I was really excited about his ambition and excitement for the (PUMA Elite) team. He wanted to create a situation where we would be contending for World teams, Olympic teams and eventually contending on those bigger stages as well. At first, hearing those goals sounded a little bit scary. Exciting, but scary. So it's really cool to start seeing some of it actually come together." My guest for today’s episode is Fiona O’Keeffe – the 2024 U.S. Olympic...

"My running talent has taken me to so many places. I've come to this country, I became a citizen, and that's an opportunity that a lot of people don't have. And I got it, and I'm very thankful for that. That’s why I feel it would be a great honor for me to make the Olympics. That's why I keep pursuing that dream. And I know it's going to be valid one time." My guest for today’s episode is Elkanah Kibet. The 40-year-old was in third place by 15 seconds going into the final mile of the U.S....

"I think this one was fun because we went into it with the attitude that it's a prelim… This is the prelim and our goal is to qualify. I still had pressure, I felt like I had to beat Clayton to qualify, but also there was the scenario where we both made the team. And that was the goal. That's all we really wanted. It wasn't like, ‘I need to beat Clayton' or  ‘Clayton needs to beat me.’ Our goal was to make the team." My guest for today’s episode is U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champion...