by Larry EderUsain Bolt has confirmed that he will race the Great City Sprint 150 meters on Sunday, May 16, 2009. His last two week odyssey from rolling his BMW M3, to having thorns removed from his left foot, to last week’s gentle testing of his left foot seems to have worked…and the sporting world sighs in relief.
Usain Bolt, after his 200 meter World Record, Beijing, August 2008, photo by PhotoRun.net.
BOLT OK
KINGSTON (JAM): Triple Olympic Champion and World record holder Usain Bolt today confirmed that he will race in the Great City Sprint 150m in Manchester on Sunday 17th May. The 22 year old resumed training on Friday following a car accident 9 days earlier and made further progress over the weekend. “He will run in spikes for the first time this evening but looks OK and will be fine for Manchesterâ€, confirmed his coach Glen Mills from their Kingston base. A keen Manchester United fan Usain is looking forward to meeting the team in Manchester and being introduced to the crowd at the home game against Arsenal on Saturday. He will also attend the Manchester United Players Awards on Sunday night where he will present ‘Fans Player of the Year’. Usain’s competition in Manchester include fellow PACE athletes Simeon Williamson, Andy Turner, Mario Forsythe and Xavier Brown while Olympic, World and Commonwealth 400m Champion Christine Ohuruogu heads the women’s line up. The world’s fastest 10k runner in 2009 Vivian Cheruiyot leads the entries in the BUPA Great Manchester 10k on Sunday morning. Male star will be Haile Gebrselassie.
MATETE TO COACH
REDUIT (MRI): Zambia‘s 1991 World 400m hurdles champion Sammy Matete has been appointed as a coach at the IAAF High Performance Centre in Mauritius, initially for a six month period. Matete also won a 1996 Olympic Games 400m hurdles silver medal and silver medals at the 1993 and 1995 World Championships in his specialist discipline. His last race was at the 2001 Paris Golden League meeting and he retired shortly afterwards. In recent years, he has been concentrating on his business interests and coaching young athletes in the area around his home in the Zambian city of Kitwe. „I‘m excited because I‘m going back to something that I love to do. I‘m excited about giving something to African athletes and I‘m looking forward to it. I‘m also a little bit sad because I‘m leaving behind my ‚Sport For Youth‘ project in Kitwe but I‘ll come back to that at a later stage,“ Matete told the BBC.
OTHER NEWS
ST. PETERBURG (RUS): Russian runner Olga Komyagina became a mother on May 5. She celebrated birth of a daughter.
TOKYO (JPN): Former marathon Olympic winner Naoko Takahashi who is no longer an elite athlete received bad news recently. Her long time sponsor Phiten did not renew her contract. She had four years estimated 600 million yen contract with Phiten since June of 2005, which will expire at the end of the month.
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica Observer writes, that retaining the 100 m world title in Berlin and lowering her personal best of 10.85 are top priorities for Jamaica‘s sprint queen Veronica Campbell-Brown this season. „I am hoping I can run at least 10.6, a little closer to the world record (10.49), but I don‘t know. I just have to continue to work hard and see where my talent will take me,“ Campbell-Brown told the Sunday Observer recently. „I‘m more focused on running faster in the 100m and I believe that once my 100m is fast that will make my 200m easier,“ reasoned the first and only athlete (male or female) to have won 100m titles at the World Youth, World Junior and World Senior levels. Already guaranteed a spot in the 100m in Berlin by virtue of being the defending champion from Osaka 2007, Campbell-Brown is hoping to be ‚third-time lucky‘ in the 200m after placing fourth and second in Helsinki and Osaka, respectively.
LONDON (GBR): Insidethegames.com informs that Football will not be treated differently to any other Olympic sport when it comes to the controversial whereabouts rule, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said. FIFA and European football body UEFA have pressed for changes, arguing the rule is harsh and unfair and should apply only to teams and not individual players. David Howman, the director general of WADA, said: „FIFA was represented today at the meeting by their representative [chief medical officer] Jiri Dvorak … and he put to rest the indication that there has been some sort of arrangement. There is none and he conceded there was none by making that very clear statement.“ The debate over athletes‘ privacy versus efforts to guarantee clean, fair sport has raged in recent weeks, with a European Union panel last month recommending WADA reassess the rule, which they said contravened the bloc‘s privacy laws.Howman said the rule would only require a small minority of footballers to declare their whereabouts, while decisions on the number of players to be tested would ultimately rest with individual leagues and countries‘ national Olympic committees.
DOHA/HAMBURG (GER): German agency dpa informs that top athletics stars including Croatian high jump queen Blanka Vlasic are considering a boycott of the opening Golden League meet, the ISTAF in Berlin on June 14, over an appearance money controversy. Vlasic‘s Austrian manager Harald Edletzberger told German Press Agency dpa at the Qatar Super Grand Prix that ‚there have been discussions to this effect among managers in Doha‘ on the weekend. ISTAF meeting director Gerhard Janetzky told dpa on the weekend that talks are ongoing with athletes‘ managers and attributed the news from Doha to the tough negotiations in economically difficult times. IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told dpa that he wasn‘t aware yet of such a letter from the managers.
WATTENSCHEID (GER): European 10 000 m champion Jan Fitschen from Germany has given up hope to compete at the home World championships in Berlin. He suffers from pain in the plantar tendon of his right foot.
SICHUAN (CHN): Chinese 110m hurdler and former world record holder Liu Xiang and actor Jackie Chan visited and encouraged young survivors of the earthquake that shocked the Sichuan province one year ago.
LISBON (POR): Portugal selected first names for World Championships marathon. Luis Feiteira and Fernando Silva were named after their PB´s in Praha. Jose Moreira with 2:14:57 is also in the team. In women selection for the moment Marisa Barros with 2:26:03.
RESULTS
LAUSANNE (SUI, May 10): Marco Cribari clocked good 32.92 at 300 m.
GENEVE (SUI, May 10): Ethiopian Germa Tsige won the Geneve Marathon in 2:19:49. Former pro cyclist Laurent Dufaux was third in 2:40:14. He is so the best from former cyclists trying marathon (Laurent Jalabert 2:45:52 and Lance Armstrong 2:46:45).
RUBIERA (ITA, May 10): Stefano Baldini won the Italian 10.000m championships in 28:53.42 ahead of Daniele Caimmi (28:57.46).
TISZAUJVAROS (HUN, May 9): National 10 000 m champions are Albert Minczer (30:00.80) and Zita Kacser (36:03.38).
BILBAO (ESP, May 9): Alvaro Rodriguez won the road mile 4:30 and Natalia Rodriguez was the best woman (5:10).
TALAVERA DE LA REINA (ESP, May 9): 2007 European Indoor champion Juan Carlos Higuero was the best in the fourth double mile on the road with 9:29. Second Ethiopian Gebremehdin Mekonen clocked 9:30. Portugal Sara Moreira won the women race in 10:23 beating Hamburg marathon winner Alessandra Aguilar 10:32.
RABAT (MAR, May 10): Kenyan Wilson Chebet won the Rabat Half-marathon in fast 1:00:41 ahead of home Ahmed Baday (1:01:03). Asmae Leghzaoui clocked 1:10:28 as best woman ahead of Kenyan Irene Kwambai (1:12:14).
CARDIFF (GBR, May 10): Return of European 400 m Hurdles medallist, Rhys Williams who ran 51.02 in his first hurdles race since august 2006. He is now coached by respected Malcolm Arnold.
ULM (GER, May 10): Kenyan Stephen Koech won the 3rd Ulm City run at 10 km with 29:06 one second ahead of his team-mate Collins Kibet (29:07).
JERSEY CITA (USA, May 9): Russian Liliya Shobukhova who so greatly debuted in London Marathon won another road race in USA. At 6th Riker Danzig Newport 10 km she achieved 32:19. Kenyan Silas Sang was the best man in 28:53.
CAIRO (EGY, May 8): New Egyptian hammer record at national championships for Mohsen Anani with 76.40 m.
EUGENE (USA, May 9-10): Ashton Eaton scored 8091 points at Pac 10 combined events.. Canadian Brianne Theisen improved to 5986 points to win the heptathlon.
LENS (FRA, May 10): Unknown Kenyan William Suparimuk won the La Route du Louvre Marathon on the course from Lille to Lens after 2:16:31. Another Kenyan Moses Kibor was second (2:16:36). Informs Race Results Weekly.
SANTO DOMINGO (DOM, May 10): At Dominican Republic Grand Prix Meeting in the expected 400 m Jamaican favorite Michael Blackwood clocked 46.00 to win. Former US runner Alvin Harrison was second (46.22) ahead of Cuban William Collazo (46.25). Home Carlos Jorge won the 100 m in 10.35 and US Ashlee Kidd the women 200 m in 23.17.
MUFREESBORO (USA, May 10): Canadian Gavin Smellie improved in the finals of Sun Belt Conference clocking 10.29 (+1.1) PB at 100 m.
Special thanks to Alfons Juck, EME News.
To reach runblogrun, please email runblogrun@gmail.com
