TEAM USA: FIVE YEARS DOWN THE ROAD

On Sunday mornings they scatter across Boulder County in Colorado.

One elite marathoner runs the Mesa Trail, headed toward Eldorado Canyon. Two Olympians pass each other near Boulder Reservoir. One small group of runners begins a 20-mile run on Magnolia Road as another group finishes.

The Sunday-morning scatter is symbolic of a broader disconnect among Boulder's distance runners, who frequently cross paths at major competitions but function largely as individual enterprises at home.

"When I first came here as a freshman, I noticed there's a bunch of elite athletes and for the most part they're all working by themselves," says Jorge Torres, the 2002 NCAA cross-country champion and a University of Colorado graduate. "There's no communication outside meets. They don't see each other or go out of their way to go train together."

Brad Hudson wants to change that.

A former Boulder-based marathoner and rising distance-running coach, Hudson is in the early stages of building a support system that will benefit all of the area's elite-level American runners and, he believes, create more unity in the process.

"There are a lot of pieces to being a good athlete," he says. "Good training is one, but there is so much more. As far as a support program, I think we could do some amazing things."

What Hudson proposes mirrors -- and, in fact, is part of -- what the new leadership of USA Track & Field's Long Distance Running Division hopes to do at a national level. The track governing body is making a renewed commitment to a network of training centers that it helped launch but proved unable to support financially to the extent it had hoped.

Both Hudson and LDR face a daunting challenge: finding the money to make it all happen.

REALITY CHECK

Slumping since the dissolution of a strong post-collegiate club system in the late 1980s, American distance running hit a low in 2000. For the first time in history, the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials produced just one male and one female qualifier for the Games.

The qualifying disaster precipitated a flurry of talks within the distance- running community.

Three months after the Trials, USATF and Running USA, a trade organization launched in 1999 with a financial boost from the track governing body, laid out plans for a system of elite distance-training centers under a Team USA banner. Each center, with proposed financial assistance from USATF and Running USA, was to provide its athletes with monthly stipends and access to coaching, medical care, training equipment, housing and workout facilities.

"We were in hurry-up mode at that point," says USATF President Bill Roe, who had been toying with the idea of a training center in the Northwest for several years. "We were taking as many ideas as we could and putting them together."

The rush was in part due to a lucrative offer from the New York City Marathon -- a dollar for every American entrant in that fall's race -- contingent on training centers opening by the end of 2000.

Initially, the Team USA program was comprised of a pair of already existing training groups, Hansons Running Shop of Rochester, Michigan and Team Brownstone of Rochester, New York.

"We had our program in place, and then there was talk about them wanting to do some things to promote USA distance-running development," says Hansons cofounder Keith Hanson. "Basically they didn't have the funding to do the sort of thing we were doing, so they asked if they could use our group as a model for what they wanted to accomplish with the Team USA program."

In mid-2001, two more centers -- Team USA Southern California, operating out of Mammoth Lakes and San Diego, and Minneapolis- based Team USA Minnesota -- welcomed their first groups of athletes.

At the outset, Running USA, the organizational link between the four loosely confederated centers, hoped to provide financial assistance for each Team USA group, but the trade organization's fundraising efforts met with far less support than expected.

"We thought we could raise $20,000-plus a year from individuals," says Running USA spokesman Ryan Lamppa. "That didn't happen. Nothing close to that happened, and those were the moneys that we had earmarked in our budget for stipends for the training centers."

TOP GUNS GET FUNDS

Running USA did secure long-term financial backing from Nike and the New York City Marathon. However, both asked that their dollars be sent to Team USA Southern California which was deemed the best bet to produce medal-contenders, with coaching luminaries Bob Larsen and Joe Vigil heading the group, and Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor among its athletes.

The request paid off.

Kastor, 12th in the 10,000-meter run in Sydney, won marathon bronze in Athens four years later, and Keflezighi earned silver to become the first American male to medal at the 26.2-mile distance since Frank Shorter's runner-up finish in 1976.

"(It) wasn't a bad idea and still isn't a bad idea today," Roe says. "That is obviously where potential and medals were. It's just that the other centers then got shunted to the side."

While those in charge of the other training centers celebrated the American distance running renaissance, their enthusiasm was coupled with frustration.

"They kind of went away from the original idea of developing runners to supporting entirely the Southern California group," Hanson says. "It was not a major issue except that we felt like we were a little misled when they used our group initially to promote this."

Running USA's financial support had amounted to small one-time stipends for Hansons and Team Brownstone. USATF put more than $2 million into LDR between 2000-2004 (much going for insurance and World Cross travel) but ran into challenges in attempting to provide direct financial support to the training centers.

Hamstrung by USOC requirements dictating the dispersal of developmental funds, USATF could offer only modest support to Team USA Southern California -- in the form of stipends for Larsen and Vigil -- and nothing at all to the other centers.

"When we requested development money from the USOC we didn't key on the other centers because they didn't have the people signed up that you needed to go after money like that," Roe says. "They didn't have the Deena or the Meb, so we focused on getting support for Joe and Bob to help them continue doing what they were doing for Deena and Meb and the other people within those groups."

When allocating funds to its various member bodies, the USOC works off a medal-potential rating system.

"There are three categories," Roe explains. "The good bets, the emerging events -- the ones that are primed to take the next step -- and then the long shots. They want most of their money going into the first two categories. They're not real interested in funding long shots."

Hansons and Team USA Minnesota, neither of which had banked on outside support, survived, but Team Brownstone dissolved. A fifth group, Team USA Monterey Bay, started in 2003 and coached by Boston legend Bob Sevene, nearly collapsed as well, before the Big Sur Marathon stepped in to finance the program.

"At first we were kind of disappointed because we thought it was something where you could get some support and they would help guide us," Patricia Goodwin, a Team USA Minnesota cofounder, says of Running USA and USATF. "We quickly got over that because it was the right thing to do. We didn't count on that making or breaking (us)."

Lamppa, whose Running USA office coordinates and promotes the Southern California group (now called Team Running USA), regrets that the trade organization couldn't do more to help the other training centers financially.

"If we would have had the extra dollars that weren't already dedicated funds, the other training centers would have received stipends beyond the first year," Lamppa says. "Obviously in that (time frame) our biggest disappointments were that we didn't secure big sponsors or four or five sponsors, and the fundraising on an individual side was very limited."

USATF REFINES ITS ROLE

Although Kastor's and Keflezighi's success in Athens won acclaim for the Team USA program, Roe isn't about to claim victory.

"It was a good step," the USATF president says. "It was successful for two people and a portion of the program, but we need more success than that. We need to look forward to the next step now and see if we can get more clubs funded and more athletes receiving funding."

After playing a lesser part in the training center program's first go-round, USATF is now embracing its role as the sole curator of a group that has been united in name but little else.

"USATF is responsible ultimately for distance development," National LDR Liaison Jim Estes says "We're in the process of refining the relationship USATF LDR has had and wants to have with all these programs, and on an equal basis."

Under the leadership of Estes, who joined USATF in 2004, and interim LDR chair Glen Latimer, this arm of the national federation is working to reopen channels of communication with the four remaining training centers and bring Hudson's Boulder group and North Carolina-based ZAP Fitness into the fold.

"To this point they've been out there blowing in the wind without any real direction or feedback or support on any number of things (from us)," Estes says. "We really appreciate the fact that these groups have gone out and hustled the best way they can to find support for their programs and we want to do what we can to help."

So far, so good, according to Keith Hanson, whose training group now carries the name Hansons-Brooks Distance Project.

"I have a lot better feeling," Hanson says.

Adds Goodwin, of Team USA Minnesota, "We're getting a lot more communication than we ever have."

For the time-being, LDR will focus on assisting the six centers in their search for long-term sponsorship while USATF continues drafting plans for a broader Elite Development Club system.

Regardless of whether the six centers become the EDC top tier or remain a separate entity under a Team USA heading, Estes hopes USATF will be able to provide each training group with direct financial support, both in the form of funds raised for the EDC program and USOC money. "We've got to stand up and be counted for the money USOC is providing because we've shown we do have medal potential in the marathon," he says.

LDR's plan for boosting U.S. distance running prospects isn't limited to fundraising. The division is helping the centers organize and market high-level domestic competitions, the first of which will be the Minnesota Distance Festival on May 21. LDR also wants to beef up American rosters for international competitions such as the Chiba Ekiden and Bolder Boulder 10K.

"We're all going to be independent and autonomous," Goodwin says. "But if we're communicating we can come up with things that have good synergy and will be good for the sport as a whole."

Nevertheless, success for LDR ultimately will hinge on its ability to find the money Running USA did not. Latimer, the division's chair, acknowledges as much: "It all comes down to dollars and cents and attracting quality athletes.

"We have some very good American athletes and we have to find a way for them to make that transition from college through to being top international performers."

SPONSOR SEARCH

In Boulder, Hudson envisions a program similar to that of the former United Postal Service cycling team, with a massage therapist, cook, nutritional specialist, as well as a team van that travels to competitions. He'd also like to provide his athletes with regular blood work-up opportunities.

"That's my dream -- to have a fully funded team like that," Hudson says. "But that costs a lot of money, and I don't have Phil Knight or my own $6 million behind me. If we had the money, we'd be in business."

With a burgeoning roster of athletes that includes Dathan Ritzenhein and Shayne Culpepper, Hudson does, however, have significant clout in the track and field world.

"Until I was really established as a coach it wasn't feasible," Hudson says. "It's hard to get people to believe in you -- especially because elite athletes are skeptical -- and now I'm having some success and people are believing in what I'm doing."

Latimer is helping search for a national sponsor for the Boulder group that won't conflict with athlete shoe contracts, Hudson says. The 37- year-old coach, meanwhile, is continuing to add to his stable of athletes and form tentative long-range plans.

While Hudson's training group will form the nucleus of the Boulder team, he plans to offer its benefits to Boulder-based American athletes, such as Torres, who work with different coaches.

"I think Brad's program is going to help out and make it feel more like a team environment," says Torres, who trains under CU coach Mark Wetmore. "To be able to say 'We're Team USA Boulder' and not 'I'm Jorge Torres, Reebok,' or 'I'm Dathan Ritzenhein, Nike.' There will be more bonding and there's something about synergy you can't explain that helps people train well together and takes them to the next level."

RIFT VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIPS

FIRST it was Kenya. Then Ethiopia and Kenya. Now it's Ethiopia, Kenya and Qatar. Not to mention Bahrain and Eritrea.

With the defection of male Kenyan runners to countries such as Qatar and Bahrain, the World Cross Country Championships increasingly resemble the Rift Valley Championships. If countries located continents away from the Rift want to mount the medal stand at World Cross, they may need to increase their imports and/or lean more heavily on their own top runners to compete.

On the women's side, non-African countries have a better shot at team medals.

Fewer African countries send women's teams to the Championships and defections of Rift Valley runners to other countries are rare among women. At World Cross in France last month, Ethiopia and Kenya were the only African teams among the 12 entered in the women's long course race. In the short course, five African teams competed among 16 total, with the U.S. taking third behind Ethiopia and Kenya. American women were fifth in the short course and fourth in the juniors. The American men's top showing came in the juniors (7th of 18 teams) while the senior finishes were disappointing: 13th out of 20 in the long course and 13th of 21 in the short.

In all three men's races, Ethiopia, Kenya and Qatar captured the team medals. Ethiopia, led by double senior race-winners Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Debaba, once again dominated the meet, although Kenya's junior men had a perfect score, taking places 1-4.

Kenya tried to put a good face on its performance, pointing to victories in both junior races. Yet all the other gold medals, team and individual, went to Ethiopians. Kenya's inability to stop the talent drain and manage its top athletes as tightly as Ethiopia does continues to dictate a lower step on the awards stand.

TOO CROWDED AT HOME

The large number of talented runners at home causes Kenyans to cast their allegiance with other countries for their breakthrough, 1992 Olympic 800-meter silver medalist Nixon Kiprotich tells The Nation (Nairobi). He says that agents are no longer interested in recruiting Kenyan runners because meet directors don't want to fill their fields with Kenyans. Wearing a different national singlet enhances a Kenyan's chances of an invitation to a big meet.

On the other hand, reports The Nation, international athlete representatives such as Renato Canova and Danielle Poli say that Kenyan runners often ignore their agreements to race, leaving only themselves to blame when meet directors give them a cold shoulder.

Ironically, the Kenyan-populated Qatari team did its pre-championships training at Kenyan running centers in Eldoret and Iten, under the direction of Canova, and won three bronze medals in the men's team standings.

With the IAAF planning to drop short course races and return to a single- day World Cross format in 2007, the Rift Valley monolith should only grow. Teams will be allowed nine, rather than six, entrants apiece.

NEW YORK VS MOMBASA?

With an eye toward soothing relations with big-city marathon directors (see "Breaking Away" below), the IAAF is "talking about finding the $2 million necessary to take the world cross-country championships to Central Park, New York, in 2007," writes Steven Downes of Scotland on Sunday.

The IAAF is also encouraging Mombasa, Kenya to apply for the 2007 meet. Final bid presentations are expected to be made at the IAAF Congress this summer.

SPURRING U.S. DISTANCE DEVELOPMENT

Erik Heinonen's special report above details USATF's renewed commitment to Team USA distance running. Two Nike-funded programs, the Nike Oregon Project and the Farm Team at Stanford, are also part of the U.S. post-collegiate support system. In addition, the Center for High Altitude Training at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff has just hired Jack Daniels, a highly respected exercise physiologist and coach, to establish a team of elite runners.

Daniels, a successful coach at Cortland State in New York, has also worked with the Farm Team and Nike's Athletics West program of the late 70s and early 80s.

The Flagstaff center has a contractual agreement with the USOC and a "Letter of Understanding" with USATF, says director Natalie Harlan, but receives no funding from those organizations. The center has hosted distance runners and other endurance athletes since it opened in 1994, but Daniels will be the first in-house coach affiliated with the center.

The Flagstaff program is unique in that one of its goals is to recruit emerging elite post-collegiate distance runners to serve as coaches and role models for a Community Olympic Development Program while they also pursue their own training at the center.

BREAKING AWAY

RACE directors of the London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Berlin marathons met in France last month to address promotion of road racing. A "Grand Slam scheme was the center of their plans," writes Steven Downes for Scotland on Sunday.

The directors expressed frustration with the IAAF and "their barely disguised anger has led them to consider breaking away from the track- oriented IAAF to look after their own affairs in professional road running," notes Downes.

One director told Downes, "It's been a year since some of us met at the last IAAF road-running and cross-country commission. Since then,we've not even received the minutes of that meeting, yet the IAAF has made the decision to drop the short races from the cross-country world championship -- something that we never discussed."

New York Marathon sponsor ING appears to be the force behind the idea of a $1 million prize for a Grand Slam win. Details are sketchy, and given the fact that top runners rarely race more than two marathons a year, the award may be offered for a career Slam.

Grand Slams in golf and tennis involve four events each and have proven elusive. Steffi Graf was the last to achieve a Grand Slam in tennis -- in 1988.

Paula Radcliffe, now with London, Chicago and New York wins, may be the inspiration for the marathon Grand Slam, reports Downes.

"Paula has the potential to be a huge star in the United States, and if she were to win a fourth major marathon, that would be a massive boost for our sport," another race director told Downes.

FALSE STARTS AND TRANSFERS

THE IAAF Council meets in Doha, Qatar this month, to focus on rule changes to be considered at the IAAF Congress in Helsinki this summer. Thus far, 207 rule changes have been proposed, along with 14 constitutional changes. Two areas of high interest are changes in the false start rule and transfer of allegiance of athletes.

The IAAF has yet to hammer out its position on the false start rule. Currently one false start against the field is allowed; a no-false-start rule is under consideration. IAAF Athletes' Commission member Frank Fredericks has polled the world's top-20 sprinters/hurdlers in ten events, with early results showing the athletes opposing a change, 26-18.

An IAAF website poll found only slightly more than 20 percent of the 1351 respondents wanted no false start at all.

The IAAF is proposing a transfer of allegiance policy similar to the IOC's. In most cases, an athlete could begin competing for a new country three years after new citizenship is acquired. The waiting period could be reduced to two years if the track federations from both the new and the old countries agree. In "truly exceptional circumstances" the waiting period could be zero if the IAAF Council approves.

REVAMPING ONE-DAY MEETS

The IAAF is also agonizing over how to boost its one-day outdoor meets. How can the federation artificially pull together meets of vastly different character and quality into an international circuit? Do they go with the market and just put all the top meets under the IAAF banner -- even though all those meet are European? How many meets should be on the circuit?

"In 2004, there were 34 different IAAF Permit Meets in four different levels," writes IAAF spokesman Nick Davies for Runner's World Daily. "Everyone agrees that this is too many meets, especially because the standard of fare varies wildly from excellent to mediocre to worse. We need fewer meets but better ones, because the only way to grab the attention in this increasingly cramped sports market is to have events that people feel they must see."

He suggests that IAAF Area Associations assume responsibility for another circuit level, to keep the lesser meets running, develop athletes and feed into a more compact circuit at the top.

SHORTS

* ATHENS OLYMPIC 400-meter champion Jeremy Wariner skipped the indoor season but is back in action outdoors. With the rise of LaShawn Merritt and Kerron Clement indoors, American stock in the one-lap race is at an all-time high. Youngsters Clement and Merritt (they're 19 and 18, respectively) now stand first and third all-time in the indoor 400 after Clement's surprising 44.57 world record last month in the NCAA championships. Merritt has already turned pro; Clement plans to do so after he completes the collegiate season. He's the defending NCAA outdoor champion -- in the 400 hurdles.

Track fans may have to wait some time to see Wariner, Merritt and Clement go head-to-head. Clement says he wants to run over the barriers in Helsinki next summer but hopes to be considered for relay duty in the 4 x 400. The prospect of Wariner vs Merritt and Clement vs Olympic hurdle champion Felix Sanchez should keep Helsinki fans happy.

* RUNNING two marathons within two weeks is virtually unheard of at the elite level, but two of China's top women runners completed such a double last month. The pair, Zhou Chunxiu and Zhang Shujing, both have PBs of 2:23. They both ran the Seoul Marathon (2:23 and 2:29, respectively) March 13 and then the March 26 Xiamen Marathon, the Chinese National Marathon Championship (2:29 for Zhou and 2:31 for Zhang).

* SPECTATORS who've endured grueling days of searing heat to watch the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials may get a reprieve in future years: two stadiums with covered seating appear to be in the bidding mix.

Icahn Stadium, a $45 million new facility on New York City's Randall Island, opened last month and hopes to attract the Trials and IAAF permit meets. Seating capacity is currently 5000 but an equal number of seats are to be added, on the backstretch. On the other side of the country, Hayward Field in Eugene, site of the 1972, '76 and '80 Trials, could return to Trials bidding. A recent track coaching change at the University of Oregon may encourage Nike to help the Oregon Track Club bid for the 2008 Trials.

USATF's timeline for the Trials bid was extended from March to the end of July, allowing Eugene, in particular, more time to secure financial backing. Besides Eugene and New York, four other cities have expressed interest in the Trials: Sacramento, New Orleans, Carson, Calif. and Columbus, Ohio. Site visits will be scheduled for late summer and the Trials awarded in mid October.

Sacramento had a $6.5 million budget for the 2004 Trials.

* BASED on the Hungarian (performance) Tables, Germany had five of the top 12 indoor meets this year, with Karlsrhue leading the pack, according to Track Profile Report. Norwich Union in Birmingham was a close second, followed by invitationals in Stuttgart, Boston and Fayetteville.

* GREECE hopes to see its Athens Olympic venues turned over for commercial use, as the country tries to pay back the $14.2 billion spent on the 2004 Games. The Associated Press reports that Greece has the biggest budget deficit in the European Union.

* THE USOC is in the midst of a two-month study of all 39 of the national governing bodies under its umbrella. The NGBs will be evaluated on "athlete performance and sport pipeline (including coaching), governance structure, management, ability to generate revenue and operational efficiency," reports the Colorado Springs Gazette.

* KUDOS to German long jumper Bianca Kappler who protested when she was awarded gold at the European Championships for a mark of 22-10 (6.96 meters). She told judges she couldn't have jumped that far. Meet officials agreed, believing that human error resulted in 6.69m (21- 11 1/2) being recorded as 6.96m.

HOLIDAY IN ATHENS?

WILL Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou sprint away from doping sanctions on a technicality? That seems to be the issue after the Greek track federation recently cleared them of charges related to three missed doping tests heading into the Athens Olympics. The federation ruled that the athletes had not, as required, been notified personally to appear for a doping test in the Olympic Village on Aug. 12. When the doping control officer was unable to locate the pair he instead gave the notification form to the leader of the Greek Olympic team.

The federation, did, however find the pair guilty of missing a test in Tel Aviv last July 28/29. And while Kenteris was found not guilty of missing a doping test in Chicago Aug. 11, Thanou was. Because athletes have to miss three doping tests before facing sanctions, the federation found the athletes not guilty on all charges.

The pair still "face a trial on charges brought separately by Greek prosecutors of missing the drug tests and faking a motorcycle accident to avoid testing in the Athens Games case," reports Reuters.

The IAAF -- or WADA's Dick Pound -- may have the next-to-last say in the case. The IAAF is likely to refer the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. If it doesn't, Pound says he will.

Until then, the IAAF's provisional suspension of the two sprinters is lifted and they're free to compete.

EPO TESTING: "GOOD FOR THE GARBAGE"

DR. CHRISTIANE Ayotte, head of the Montreal doping control laboratory, believes that despite the introduction of a urine test for EPO, such testing is ineffective because of the cost of out-of-competition testing.

"When the EPO urine test came and they tried the test in Paris, it was a mess," she tells The (Montreal) Gazette. "They were getting all kinds of positive tests, but it was on an experimental basis so they couldn't do anything. The first year, we got many positives. Now we're getting much less. So what happened? Did they stop using EPO? No. We know perfectly well they continue using EPO. We know what they're doing is they're taking EPO in advance, then they stop and replace this when it comes close to competition, with blood transfusions of their own blood.

"We do out-of-competition tests, but 70 percent of our out-of-competition tests are good for the garbage. We do it for convenience. We go four or five days before a big competition, when we have many athletes gathering for this, but they know they are going to be tested. It's not expensive because you're not sending one individual to chase one athlete. It's not expensive, but it's worth zero.

"If we test only the Tour de France and the Olympics, it's meaningless."

The Gazette notes that WADA officials disagree with Ayotte's assessment, saying that they are close to testing for EPO in a meaningful way.

ANTI-DOPING NOTEBOOK

* GERMANY performed 8,885 drugs tests (all sports) in 2004, returning 72 positives (0.8 percent), about twice the rate reported by the U.S. Anti- Doping Agency for last year. USADA conducted 8,051 total tests in 2004 and reported 41 violations including three non-analytical positives, three test refusals and one failure to appear. Comparing all violations to total tests shows a 0.5 percent rate; comparing positive tests to total tests computes to 0.4 percent.

* THE BALCO case could go to trial in September although at least one defendant, Greg Anderson (baseball star Barry Bonds' personal trainer) is negotiating a plea agreement. An evidentiary hearing was postponed from March 16 until June 6. The hearing is likely to focus on the legality of interviews conducted when IRS agents raided BALCO headquarters in 2003.

* THE U.S. CONGRESS is proposing a five-year appropriation of $51.7 million to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

* VICTIMS of the former East Germany's state-run sports doping program are seeking more than $3 million in compensation from Jenapharm, the German company which allegedly developed drugs, such as the anabolic steroid Oral-Turinabol, specifically for performance enhancement.

* TURKISH sports officials reduced middle-distance star Sureyya Ayhan's two-year suspension for a doping infraction to one year, but the IAAF says that the original ban stands in international competition.

* THE BELGIAN Senate reports that at least 80 percent of growth hormones and EPO produced worldwide is used in sports.

* OUTSPOKEN Nordic skier Becki Scott of Canada, who won a gold medal in the Salt Lake City Games after two skiers ahead of her were stripped of their medals for doping, has been named to a new athlete committee formed by WADA. Scott and WADA head Dick Pound had heated words for each other in 2002 after Pound claimed that 99 percent of the Winter Games athletes were drug-free. Rosa Mota, the 1988 Olympic marathon champion from Portugal, and 400 hurdler Stephane Diagana of France are the only track and field athletes on the 13-member committee.