Photo: Dane Schubert

Earlier today it was announced that superstar high school miler Mary Cain will miss the World Indoor Championships due to a small injury. Heather Kampf will take her spot.

I felt some disappointment hearing this. Cain is a big-time crowd favorite in no small part because she gives us an unusual combination: a great champion who is also an underdog. Had she run at the Worlds, she likely would have been in the mix for a medal–gold was a long shot but possible–but she’s still just 17 years old.

And think about this: Cain is a serious student, still in high school, and would have missed more than a week of class to go to Poland for the Worlds. AP exams are just two months away. Missing out on this trip, while obviously disappointing to Cain, may not have been all bad from her perspective.

Links

Kevin Sully previewed the Worlds with his Monday Morning Run.

I recapped the weekend’s college conference championship action and picked my Three Stars and Team Players.

News

Runner’s World’s Morning Report recaps the weekend’s action.

Cain’s withdrawal headlines Ken Goe’s daily Oregon track & field rundown, plus the morning’s news links.

USA Track and Field announced its teams for the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, four men and four women. Club affiliation is not mentioned in the release, but virtually all are members of a pro/semi-pro running club.
More from USA Track and Field

Provisional World Indoor Championships entry lists have been released by the IAAF.
More from the IAAF

Jon Gugala’s story on Heather Kampf and her surprise spot on the team for the World Indoors.
More from Competitor.com

“We all know Usain Bolt is one of the fastest people on Earth. Now, students have shown his superhuman speeds would actually allow him to fly like a bird on one of Saturn’s moons while wearing a wingsuit.” OK, then.
More from ITV

The EAA rounds up the weekend’s European cross country action.
More from the EAA

Bruny Surin, Canada’s two-time world indoor champion, provides “a champion’s guide to the 60 meters”.
More from Spikes Mag

Scott Bush catches up with Amy Van Alstine, the surprise USA cross country champion.
More from RunnerSpace

Updates to the pro fields at the Boston Marathon: Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman in, Moses Mosop and Dathan Ritzenhein out with injury.
More from Boston Marathon

WBZ-Boston profiles Desi (Davila) Linden on her preparations for the Boston Marathon, her first trip back to that race since nearly winning in 2011.
More from CBS Boston

High school runner sprints to finish, legs buckle, falls, crawls to finish. Becomes 8th fastest high school miler in US history in the process.
More from Dyestat

Video of the day

On Saturday, Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic put up the longest discus throw since the Soviet Union broke up. You can brush up on your Serbo-Croatian, too.

Stat corner

Regarding the above, here are the 50 longest throws since 1993.

70.51	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Split	1-Mar	2014
70.02	Natalya Sadova	RUS	Thessaloníki	23-Jun	1999
70.00	Xiao Yanling	CHN	Shanghai	18-Oct	1997
69.68	Mette Bergmann	NOR	Florø	27-May	1995
69.66	Ilke Wyludda	GER	Atlanta	29-Jul	1996
69.51	Franka Dietzsch	GER	Wiesbaden	8-May	1999
69.38	Natalya Sadova	RUS	Halle	24-May	2003
69.20	Ilke Wyludda	GER	Norden	20-Aug	1995
69.14	Irina Yatchenko	BLR	Stayki	31-Jul	2004
69.11	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	London	4-Aug	2012
68.96	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Lausanne	4-Jul	2013
68.91	Franka Dietzsch	GER	Stendal	30-Aug	1998
68.89	Nadine Müller	GER	Bar	18-Mar	2012
68.84	Ellina Zvereva	BLR	Stayki	19-May	1995
68.80	Nicoleta Grasu	ROU	Poiana Brasov	7-Aug	1999
68.77	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Stockholm	17-Aug	2012
68.72	Daniela Costian	AUS	Auckland	22-Jan	1994
68.72	Ilke Wyludda	GER	Helsinki	10-Aug	1994
68.70	Nicoleta Grasu	ROU	Bucuresti	4-Mar	2000
68.64	Ellina Zvereva	BLR	Göteborg	12-Aug	1995
68.63	Natalya Sadova	RUS	Kazan	8-Jul	2004
68.60	Ellina Zvereva	BLR	Villeneuve d’Ascq	25-May	1996
68.57	Natalya Sadova	RUS	Edmonton	11-Aug	2001
68.54	Ilke Wyludda	GER	Oslo	21-Jul	1995
68.52	Beatrice Faumuina	NZL	Oslo	4-Jul	1997
68.51	Franka Dietzsch	GER	Schönebeck	16-Jun	2006
68.50	Natalya Sadova	RUS	Moskva	5-Sep	1998
68.48	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	New York City	25-May	2013
68.40	Ellina Zvereva	BLR	Sydney	27-Sep	2000
68.36	Ilke Wyludda	GER	Birmingham	25-Jun	1994
68.34	Ilke Wyludda	GER	Chemnitz	19-May	1996
68.32	Irina Yatchenko	BLR	Gomel	3-Jul	1997
68.31	Nicoleta Grasu	ROU	Athínai	11-Jun	2001
68.28	Beatrice Faumuina	NZL	Melbourne	2-Mar	1997
68.25	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Roma	6-Jun	2013
68.24	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Shanghai	19-May	2012
68.24	Mette Bergmann	NOR	Oslo	21-Jul	1995
68.23	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Ad-Dawhah	10-May	2013
68.23	Nicoleta Grasu	ROU	Rethimnó	29-May	1999
68.21	Natalya Sadova	RUS	Athínai	16-Jun	1999
68.14	Franka Dietzsch	GER	Sevilla	23-Aug	1999
68.14	Ellina Zvereva	BLR	Minsk	1-Jun	1996
68.14	Larisa Korotkevich	RUS	Vénissieux	2-Jul	1993
68.06	Franka Dietzsch	GER	Halle	19-May	2007
68.06	Franka Dietzsch	GER	Haniá	14-Jun	2000
68.03	Yarelis Barrios	CUB	La Habana	22-Mar	2012
67.99	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Moskva	11-Aug	2013
67.98	Li Yanfeng	CHN	Schönebeck	5-Jun	2011
67.96	Sandra Perkovic	CRO	Split	26-Feb	2011
67.96	Ilke Wyludda	GER	Duisburg	18-Jun	1995