by Larry EderUsain Bolt has announced that he will be competing in the Rome Golden Gala meet on May 26. At the Houston Marathon press conference on Friday, Ryan Hall, the fastest active American marathon, who has had a quixotic last couple of years of racing, was sporting a beard which Ryan had started about three months ago.
Described as Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford portrayed this Western icon in the early 1970s), or just plain, “hairy”, Ryan seemed bemused about all of the concern about his beard, his lack of a coach, and his conversations with his creator.
Ryan told the assembled media that his training has gone well, and that he was testing himself on his way to Boston (about eleven weeks from this weekend). Hall does wear his faith, which seems quite genuine, on his proverbial sleeve.
In this day and age, a cynic might find room to berate Hall, however, I believe that his faith is one of his core strengths. How he races on Saturday is the key.
14 of the 16 publishers in the Running Network LLC met in Houston over the Chevron Houston Marathon weekend to discuss recent and upcoming challenges in media. They will also be covering the U.S. half marathon championships on Saturday, and the Chevron marathon and Aramco half marathon on Sunday!
EME NEWS (JAN 28,
2011)
BOLT TO
RUN 100 M
IN ROME
ROME
(ITA): Organizers of Compeed Golden Gala meet of Rome (May 26) announced the participation of
two superstars of current scene. Debuting at the meet will be fastest man on
earth Usain Bolt with a 100 m
race. Meet record is high quality 9.77 by Tyson Gay from 2009. Kenyan David
Rudisha will run the 800 m,
his first in Europe in the summer. He will
return to the country of his world record in Rieti. “I’m looking forward to
test the reaction of the Roman crowd, whose love for sports is well known
worldwide. I know that the Olympic stadium has a very fast track, as some of
the best sprinters ran remarkable times there in the last ten years. I hope to
put my name on that list, hopefully somewhere on the top. I am working hard to
be ready for the 26th of May,” Bolt said for IAAF. “It will be my first
European and Samsung Diamond League competition, in a season leading to the
IAAF World Championships in Daegu. I am fully recovered, after the injury I
suffered the last summer, and the training has been going according to the
plans of my coach. I am confident I will be able to get the best shape at the
right time in the summer. I only want to say to the people in Italy: come to the Rome Olympic Stadium on 26 May, we will enjoy
a great athletics party there.” Bolt will not run at this weekends Queens meet
in Kingston,
but some of the Jamaican top athletes will. The 2011 edition of the Golden Gala
will be the first of three with a new title sponsor. Compeed, the prestigious
brand from Johnson & Johnson, will add its name to the Golden Gala until
2013.
TURNER
READY FOR OLIVER
GLASGOW (GBR): European
Champion Andy Turner knows he faces a severe test when opening his indoor
season against David Oliver at the Aviva International Match in Glasgow on Saturday. Now
Turner after himself achieving a European and Commonwealth double, is hoping to
challenge the giant American in the annual five nation match between Great Britain, the USA,
Germany, Sweden and a
Commonwealth Select side. Turner said of their 60m hurdles encounter: “He’s
probably going to be going into the race full of confidence just based on what
he did last year. He was pretty much untouchable outdoors, head and shoulders
above anybody else in the world. He doesn’t know what it feels like to be
beaten at the moment. He hasn’t been beaten for ages.” Writes David Martin.
UKHOV
VS. SHUSTOV
HUSTOPECE (CZE): Second leg of
7th Moravia High Jump Tour is promising even more exciting battles than the
first one on Wednesday in Trinec. At “Hustopecske skakani” in Hustopece in
Southern part of Moravia near Brno in women competition added to young
sensation Mariya Kuchina and European medalist Emma Green will be Russian
fourth placer from Barcelona Svetlana Shkolina (in Cottbus on Wednesday 196)
and former great returning after health difficulties, the 2004 olympic winner
Yelena Slesarenko. Discussions are going on wether first two metres of the
season would be possible. And also whether the youngster Kuchina will have the
power to improve again from her 197 world junior all-time best and second best
in any conditions for a 18 years old jumper. Actually her mark is the bestr by
a junior since 1989. European Champion Aleksandr Shustov who is so far
undefeated this indoor will compete against his main rival, the world indoor
champion Ivan Ukhov. The Samsung Diamond League winner Ukhov is opening the
season in Czech Republic. But he can jump high even in
first competition of the year, last year he did the same with 237 opener in Hustopece.
This meet record is well remebered by the crowd here, because he did it without
touching the bar. Another new name will be 2007 World Champion Donald Thomas of
Bahamas.
Special guest in Hustopece, multiple world record holder Javier Sotomayor of Cuba. Live
results and hopefully also pictures at www.skakani.cz,
more info at: www.moravskavyskarskatour.cz.
OTHER NEWS
AMSTERDAM
(NED): European Decathlon silver medalist Eelco Sintnicolaas starts his indoor
season this weekend in Apeldoorn where he will
contest three events as a warm up for the European Athletics indoor combined
events in Tallinn.
Sintnicolaas confirmed he is in his best shape ever and aims at performing well
at the European indoor championships in Paris.
LAUSANNE
(SUI): Ticket sales for multi-day tickets for the 2011 European Athletics
Junior Championships in Tallinn,
Estonia are
open announced European Athletics. Fans can buy 4-day tickets only at this
point. The tickets are available for 15€, children and senior citizens can buy
the tickets for 9€.
PARIS (FRA): No less than 700
athletes from 50 different countries are expected to compete at European Indoor
Championships in Paris.
And the event is already booked out. The television coverage proposed by France
Télévisions will enable viewers to witness all the major events taking place on
the track in Paris.
France Télévisions will produce an international signal incorporating 27
cameras and 12 slow motion recorders for the various overseas television
stations broadcasting this event. During the three days of competition, France
Télévisions will broadcast nearly 20 hours of live footage on France 2, France
3 and France Ô. Eurovision secures that the championships will be shown in more
than 40 countries for around 150 hours. As a Member of the Union,
France Télévisions has accepted to act as Host Broadcaster for the
Championships. Eurovision, the premier distributor of sports and news content
for the world’s top broadcast and media platforms, will distribute live
coverage of the Championships on its global satellite and fibre network. Some
European channels will nevertheless be making the trip to Paris Bercy. Those
who have already confirmed include: Eurosport (in 3 languages, German, English
and French), TRT for Turkey, DR for Denmark, RTVS for Slovenia, NOS for
Holland, ERT for Greece, RTP for Portugal, SVT for Sweden, YLE for Finland, TVR
for Romania, ERR for Estonia, RTE for Ireland, VRT and RTBF for Belgium and the
BBC for the United Kingdom. Organizers are informing in a release.
BRUSSELS
(BEL): Defending 60m hurdles European indoor champion Eline Berings is looking
forward to defending her title in Paris.
The hurdler has had two difficult years in which she was knocked out in the
series of the Barcelona European Championships. Since changing her coach last
fall Berings told Belgian media she is feeling confident again and is in good
shape.
LONDON (GBR): World junior 400m
hurdles finalist and relay bronze medalist Jack Green is looking ahead to a
breakout 2011 season after being convinced by European and Commonwealth
champion David Greene to join him in Malcolm Arnold’s stable writes Athletics
Weekly. Green was all set to go to Nebraska
University at the end of 2010, but a
timely call by hurdles coaching guru Arnold
persuaded him to move to Bath.
Green has recently returned from the UKA warm-weather training trip to South Africa
and aims at qualifying for the 400m at the European indoor championships.
“Outdoors, Malcolm has set me the target of getting the World Championships A
standard (49.25), although I feel I could even dip under 49 seconds,” Greene
was quoted.
LONDON (GBR): Mark Lewis-Francis has admitted
his career-threatening injury problems and the loss of his Lottery funding last
year made him re-evaluate his attitude to athletics. 28-year-old sprinter now
claims he is hungrier than ever and will open his indoor season at the Aviva
International in Glasgow.
“To be honest, I don’t think I realised my potential as a youngster. As an
adult now, and an experienced athlete, I’d love to be running the kind of times
I was running then” Lewis-Francis was quoted in The Telegraph.
LAUSANNE (SUI): Former 400m hurdlers world
record holder Edwin Moses was honoured with a career World Fairplay Award in
recognition of his work on promoting drug-free and amateur sport announced the
International Fair Play Committee and the International Sports Journalists’
Association (AIPS). The Act of Fair Play Award for the year was given jointly
to three athletes – Decathlete Darius Draudvila, Amin Zadeh, an Iranian soccer
player, and Chinese wrestler Gao Feng. Draudvila received the prize after he
lent his pole to European decathlon bronze medallist winner Andrei Krauchanka,
who had broken his pole during the pole vault competition at the European
Championships in Barcelona.
The inaugural Power of Sport Award, was shared by three people–Nawal El
Moutawakel, May El Khalil and Erlingur Johansson. El Moutawakel was the first
Moroccan, African and Arab woman to win an Olympic gold medal when winning the
400m hurdles at the 1984 Olympic Games and is now a leading figure in the
International Olympic Committee.
GLASGOW (SCO): Former world
champion at 100 m
Kim Collins from St. Kitts announced 2011 will be his last year as a
professional athlete. Collins opens the season at the International match in Glasgow and confirmed for
the Scottish Sun he considers having made the Olympic 100m final the biggest
achievement of his career.
MADRID
(ESP): Decathlete Augustin Felix will lead the Spanish team at the
International combined events match in Reims
this weekend. Felix holds a personal best of 5784.
LONDON (GBR): Tottenham Hotspur
have released images showing for the first time how Crystal Palace would look
following a facelift which forms part of their legacy plan for athletics in
London after the 2012 Olympics. The images show an expanded stadium with 9,500
extra seats boosting the capacity to 25,000. Under Spurs’ plans the stadium
could be expanded by a further 15,000 – the level needed to stage a World or
European Athletics Championships. UK Athletics, which has formally supported
the rival West Ham’s bid which will retain a running track within the Stratford
Olympic Stadium, has described Tottenham’s plans for athletics as “incredibly
thin” reports Insidethegames.
PUNTA UMBRIA (ESP): His Royal
Highness the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbón y Grecia, visited the circuit
of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Punta UmbrÃa 2011, during an
event in Andalusia with the president of the Junta de AndalucÃa, José Antonio
Griñán, the minister of Tourism, Commerce and Sport of the Junta de AndalucÃa,
Luciano Alonso, the president of the Diputación de Huelva, Petronila Guerrero,
and the major of Punta UmbrÃa, Gonzalo RodrÃguez. The Prince of Asturias
reviewed the circuit and was very satisfied with the facilities that will host
Punta Umbria 2011 on March 20th. This event will place Andalusia
one more time in the focus of the best world sport events and confirm that this
region is an irresistible setting for sportspeople and sport tourism. The
expected visit of Prince Felipe was an important institutional support for the
organizers. Organizers are informing in a release.
SOCHI
(RUS): Russian Athletics Federation invited international judges for first time
for its Winter Walking Championships in Sochi
at the end of February. That would mean also world records will be possibly
ratified. Top judges Peter Marlow (GBR), Pierce O’Callaghan (IRL) and Luis
Saladie (ESP) were invited to Russia.
In past years marks better than ratified world records were not approved
because of missing international walking judges. For example last February the
1:25:11 of Anisiya Kirdyapkina at women´s 20 km race.
ZURICH (SUI): Organizers of famous Weltklasse
Zurich awarded the best volunteers of the year. „Life time Volunteer Achievment
Award” was given to Petr “Dubi” Kvet who is helping to coordinate nearly
everything in the stadium for many years. Kvet who is of Czech origin is a must
connected to Weltklasse meeting.
TORONTO
(CAN): Commonwealth Gold Medalist and seven-time Canadian champion in high jump
Nicole Forrester will be up for auction as a bachelorette in support for the Canadian Center for Abuse Awareness. The
inaugural Eligible Inc. Bachelor & Bachelorette Charity Auction takes
places on February 3rd, 2011at the Capitol Event Theatre in Toronto, Ontario.
Twenty-one famous bachelors and bachelorettes will be auctioned including
former Toronto Blue Jays baseball player Drew Taylor, and Elena Semikina,
reigning Miss Universe Canada 2010. The event will be hosted by four-time
Olympian Brian Stemmle. Dream date packages may include dinner, entertainment,
great life experiences, exceptional destinations and many other desirable
gifts.
RESULTS
ZAPORIZHZHYA (UKR, Jan 28):
Former world indoor medalist Tetyana Petlyuk won the 800 m during second day of
Ukrainian Cup meet in 2:03.86. Dmytro Tyden got the triple jump (16.60) and
Valeriya Mara clocked 9:13.99 at 3000
m. In both high jumps Oksana Okuneva (189) and Dmytro
Demyanyuk (220) were the winners.
COLUMBIA
(USA, Jan 26): Barbados
world junior hurdles finalist from 2008 Kierre Beckles clocked at 55 m hurdles new women
national record of 7.97 at local meet here.
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