VLASIC FOR BIRMINGHAM

BIRMINGHAM (GBR): Croatian European and world champion Blanka Vlasic
joins the fastest man on the planet in 2010, Tyson Gay, former World Record
holder Asafa Powell and British stars Phillips Idowu, Mo Farah and Christine
Ohuruogu as part of the star-studded line-up set to feature in the inaugural
Samsung Diamond League event at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium. The event on 10
July, the second of an unprecedented three Aviva Series meets being held in the
west midlands this year, will be the ninth stop of the global athletics tour
and just seven weeks before Vlasic travels to Daegu attempting to retain the
World Championship title she has held for the past four years. Vlasic is no
stranger to the UK, having competed at the Aviva London Grand Prix on four
occasions – taking top spot in both 2009 and 2010 – and having already competed
in Birmingham, albeit indoors, at the European Indoor Championships in 2007 and
World Indoor Championships in 2003. Organizers are informing in a release.

SEBRLE IS READY, CHERNOVA WOMEN
TOP NAME

KLADNO (CZE): Roman Sebrle is fit to compete in his 74th career
decathlon on Wednesday and Thursday at the 5th TNT-Fortuna Meeting in Kladno
near Praha (IAAF CE Challenge). He was injured (stomach and hamstring muscles)
and missed Gotzis, now is ready to attack the Daegu qualifier 8200 points.
Sebrle at age of 36 scored his first 8000+ back in 1996. His main rivals will
be reigning European champion Romain Barras of France, olympic and world medalists
Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan
and Andrej Kravchenko of Belarus.
Sebrle competed in all previous four editions of Kladno (winner in 2007, second
in 2008 and 2009 and last year walked into the finish line due to injury in the
opening 100 m).
His main test of fitness will be hurdles at the beginning of the second day.
Among the favorites also Cuban trio headed by World 2009 medalist Leonel Suarez
with Yordanis Garcia and Yunior Diaz. Women heptathlon has olympic bronze
medalist and Gotzis second placer Tatyana Chernova as the top name. Also
competing Poland´s Karolina Tyminska (7th in Beijing 2008), Latvian European
U23 Champion 2009 Aige Grabuste and Dutch Jolanda Keizer
who is European indoor pentathlon 2009 silver winner and aims to complete her
first heptathlon since Beijing 2008 (9th). Meeting records are coming from the
first edition in 2007 (8697 Roman Sebrle and 6421 Lyudmila Blonska) and mainly
in heptathlon there is a good chance to break it. World leads are too high
possibly (8698 Trey Hardee and 6790 Jessica Ennis) but European decathlon lead
is a solid possibility (8398 Mikk Pahapill). The meet is 3rd this year in the
calendar of IAAF Combined Events Challenge and good weather and solid crowds
are expected supported by live TV transmission by Czech TV sports channel CT4
Sport.

EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS NEWS

PARIS (FRA) : France
has announced its team for the European Team Championships on June 18 – 19
which features sprint star Christophe Lemaître (for both 100 m and 200 m) and European indoor
medalists Renaud Lavillenie,  Teddy
Tamgho and Kafetien Gomis. On the women’s team strongest athletes are Veronique
Mang (100 m),
Myriam Soumare (200 m),
Muriel Hurtis (400 m)
and Eloyse Lesueur in long jump. Melanie Melfort should score good points in
high jump

BERLIN (GER): European 100m champion Verena Sailer
will not be on the German team for the European Team Championships as she is
still struggling with Achilles problems. Maren Schulte will replace her in the
4×100 m. Already before Marion Wagner was selected for the 100 m. In the men´s 4×100 m
Alex Platini Menga will replace Martin Keller.

MADRID (ESP): Spain’s
selection for the European Team Championships in Stockholm this weekend is highlighted by a
group of strong middle and long distance athletes. Manuel Olmedo, Juan Carlos
Huguero and Jesus Espana lead the men’s team while the women’s team features
Nuria Fernandez and Natalia Rodriguez. Also on the team are Ruth Beitia and
Josephine Onyia.

BIRMINGHAM (GBR): World triple jump champion Phillips
Idowu has withdrawn from this weekend’s European Team Championships in Stockholm, UK
Athletics have confirmed. No reason has been given for the 32-year-old’s
absence, with a statement saying more detail will be given at Friday’s
pre-event press conference. Writes BBC. Kolo Adedoyin will jump instead of him.
Long jumper Greg Rutherford will also be missing due to illness, with Chris
Tomlinson taking his place.

LISBON (POR): Portugal is sending its strongest team to Stockholm with
European indoor and outdoor champion Francis Obikwelu (100 m), multiple medalist at
different levels Rui Silva (3000
m), olympic winner Nelson Evora in triple jump and
recent European Cup 10 000
m winner Youssef el Kalai for the 5000 m. Women headliner is
Naide Gomes for long jump and top runners Sara Moreira for 1500 m and Dulce Felix for
3/5 km double.

MINSK (BLR): European shot put champion Andrey Mikhnevich leads the Belarus team to Stockholm. Also selected 2000 Olympic gold
medalist Yanina Provalinskaya-Karolchik in shot put, Yulia Nesterenko who won
in Athens 2004 runs the 100 m
and 4×100 m. World leader Veronika Shutkova is entered for long jump. In usual
strong hammer Pavel Krivitskiy and Elena Matoshko are selected. Also high
quality by Svetlana Usovich at 400
m and Marina Arzamasova in the 800 m. Alina Talay already
clocked sub 13 in
the 100 m
hurdles this year.

OTHER NEWS

LONDON (GBR): Proctor & Gamble have followed up
their worldwide sponsorship of the Olympic Games by signing a deal to become a
partner of the London 2012 Paralympics writes Insidethegames. The company plans
to extend its dedicated to mums campaign that is the cornerstone of its Olympic
marketing campaign to the Paralympics.

KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican sprinter Steve Mullings said
to Carribean track life it is going to take a 9.7 performance to win the 100m
at the Jamaican National Trials but claims he will be ready to do that.
Mullings, who spoke just after winning the Adidas Grand Prix in New York, also added
that people should not count out Asafa Powell.

BRISBANE (AUS): Former double world champion Jana Pittman has lost the
chance of seeking a third world 400m hurdles title. She has undergone minor
surgery on her left Achilles tendon which will prevent her from achieving the
state of fitness she would need to be competitive in Daegu. Instead she will
build up for the Olympics. Australian media are informing.

EUGENE (USA):  Track Focus blog informs that US
mile record-holder Alan Webb will not compete next week at US Championships.
Apparently, an injury setback interrupted his training. He wrote following
email to Track Focus: I will not be running at (U.S.) championships. I strained a
muscle in my shin that I couldn’t seem to get right. It is much improved now
but have had to take a little break.”

BALTIMORE (USA):
Defending long jump world champion Brittney Reese is confirmed for Lausanne, Monaco
and Zurich Diamond League meets this summer. She was so far winner in Rome and third in New
York in the Diamond circuit. Informs her management.

KINGSTON (JAM): Fastest man on earth is back to Jamaica.
Usain Bolt after three races in Rome, Ostrava and Oslo arrived
back to Jamaica
and wrote on his twitter: “I am back in jam hot as hell but I like it a lot.”
His next race in Europe is Areva in Paris
on July 8 at the 200 m.

DAEGU (KOR): The IAAF World Championships in Daegu are getting in Korea
exclusive messages of support. For example popular Korean singer Lee Seung-ki
sent a message of support, the same from famous Korean TV Comedian Kim Byung Man.

BUDAPEST (HUN): Seven new leaders emerged in the latest
All-Athletics.com World Rankings. In the Men’s 200m Walter Dix took over the
lead from Wallace Spearmon. Silas Kiplagat is the current nr.1 in the Men’s 1500 m. Imane Merga leads
the Men’s 10 000m.  Robert Harting
overtook Piotr Malachowski in the Men’s Discus Throw. Amantle Montsho regained
the lead in the Women’s 400m and Christina Obergföll is in nr.1 position again,
exactly 3 years after she had lost the leading position. The rankings are
published each Wednesday.

RESULTS

BANGALORE (IND,
Jun 14): Kerala become overall champions in the National Senior Inter-State
Athletics Championships which concluded at Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Tuesday.
Best result from Ankit Sharma during last day with 774 in long jump. Indian
leading middle distance runner Tintu Luka returns to track on a big stage after
a lay-off of eight months and won in 2:05.32 at the 800 m. Sajeesh Joseph was the
best at the 800 m
(1:47.34).

ADDITIONS

BRAZZAVILLE (CGO): Athletes coordinator of Brazzaville meeting Aziz
Daouda confirmed for EME NEWS he is not seeing any reason to doubt the shot put
results at the meeting. “We had 6 different shots, all with IAAF
certification,” he wrote in a message. Leading statistictians are questioning
the marks of Carlos Veliz of Cuba
(this year 20.18) and here 21.40 and Damian Kusiak of Poland (this year 20.10) and here
20.65.

DES MOINES (USA): From the NCAA Championships to note (from AI of Peter
Matthews) that the 20 year-old Curtis Beach (who as a result moved up from
sixth to second with a pb 8084) ran the 1500m in 3:59.13. This was the first
sub-4 minute time in a decathlon of over 8000 points. Beach is presently very
weak in the throws but his other pbs include 10.78 100, 46.90 400, 1:50.75 800,
14.56 110H, 2.07 HJ, 4.80 PV and 7.40 LJ.

MIRAMAR (USA, Jun 11): Ronald Forbes equalled his Cayman Islands
national record with 13.50 (-0.4) at 110 m hurdles here and Tahesia Harrigan from
British Virgin Islands improved her national record to 11.12 (-0.2) at the 100 m.

SAD NEWS

PARIS (FRA): French media are informing that at age of 78 died Christian
Collardot, who was 1960 Olympic Games long jump 6th placer and achieved
national record 773 cm.