Tirunesh Dibaba is out of Exxon Bislett Games, by Alfons Juck, Note by Larry Eder

Tirunesh Dibaba, on her website www.tiruneshdibaba.net., announced a small injury, so no 5k matchup with Defar.
Mariya Savinova, at a meet in Moscow,the Third Moscow Open, in front of 1,500, ran the world leading 800 meters of 1:57.60. Jillian Schwartz set an Israeli All comers record with her 4.42m jump
in Tel Aviv.
And the question of the day, who was more impressive in Eugene? Evan Jager or German Fernandez? In my mind, German is quite impressive with his AR, and Even, with his style, and his charging with 200 meters to go, opened my eyes, so the answer is c) both are impressive in their own rights! Wow, that was hard. ( Fam gets a bow of the hat, and an adult beverage next time I see him).

Okay sports fans, Larry is flying all night to get home, so do not expect any 3 am updates, perhaps seven am, but no three am.
Photo of the men/s 5,000 meter final, US Champs 09, by PhotoRun.net.

KOZMUS THE STAR
VELENJE (SLO): Slovenian hammer olympic winner Primoz Kozmus will be the biggest star of 14th International meet in Velenje (EA Classic) on Thursday July 2. He is yet to throw 80 metres this year and home meet will be the best possibility. Excellent line-up also for another top Slovenian athlete, the High jump olympic finalist Rozle Prezelj. He will face Beijing silver winner from Great Britain Germaine Mason and former world champion Vyacheslav Voronin of Russia. Sprinter Matic Osovnikar will have as main rival Aziz Zakari of Ghana at the 100 m. Shot put olympic finalist 2004 Miran Vodovnik will be there against Briton Carl Myerscough. Overseas athletes are favorites in other events like Brazilian Rogerio Bispo in Long jump, Canadian champion Jared McLeod at 110 m hurdles, Australian Nick Bromley at 800 m and Africans Abel Mutai with Gary Roba at steeple. Hungarian Krisztina Papp is going to race with Kenyan Mary Wacera at 3000 m. Fastest European at 100 m Bettina Muller-Weissina is the favorite, home Sabina Veit at 200 m. Jamaican Kaliese Spencer at 400 m and Australian Alana Boyd in pole vault are the other top names. Interesting long jump duel between world junior champion Ivana Spanovic of Serbia and Slovak world finalist Jana Veldakova. The meet is held to honor the mining fest in nice evening atmosphere close to the lake.
SAVINOVA WORLD LEADING 800 m
MOSCOW (RUS): Third Moscow Open meet (EA Premium category) registered in 21-22 degrees and before 1500 spectators in Luzhniki Stadium world leading 800 m for European indoor champion Mariya Savinova who clocked 1:57.90. U23 athlete Yelena Kosanova as second also improved to 1:58.60. Excellent battle in women long jump which resulted to best marks in Europe this year. Naide Gomes of Portugal achieved 694 (+1.8) and also had twice 692 in the series, olympic winner and world champion Tatyana Lebedeva debuted into the season after achilles surgery end of last year with great 693 (+1.5) and also had 690 in the series. Third Olga Kucherenko leaped to new PB 691 (+0.1) and fourth Irina Meleshina (formerly Simagina) achieved 682 (+0.9). European indoor champion Antonina Krivoshapka started the season with new PB and European leading 50.24 at 400 m beating Lyudmila Litvinova (50.86) and Natalya Nazarova (50.96). Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus won the shot put (19.88) beating Romanian Anca Heltne who improved her outdoor best to 19.08. In the 200 m battle of 4×100 olympic gold medalists Yulia Guschchina achieved 22.87 (+0.5) as first ahead of Anastasiya Kapachinskaya (22.96), Aleksandra Fedoriva (23.00), Yulia Chermoshanskaya (23.17) and Yevgeniya Polyakova (23.39). Anna Alminova posted fast 4:03.77 at 1500 m, Anastasiya Solovyova was the best at 100 m hurdles (13.02, +0.4). In men events Ivan Ukhov with 234 in first won the high jump over Beijing bronze winner Yaroslav Rybakov who cleared also 234, but in third. Former world champion Andrey Mikhnevich of Belarus improved to season best in shot put with 21.02 (also 21.00 in the series), second Russian Pavel Sofin new PB 20.80 and only third olympic winner Tomasz Majewski (20.48). Bulgarian Momchil Karailiev won the triple jump (17.10) and Olympic winner 2004 Yuriy Borzakovskiy dominated the 800 m in 1:46.90. Hungarian Krisztian Pars remains unbeaten with 79.28 hammer win over Igor Sokolovs of Latvia (78.23) and Mohamed Al-Zankawi who achieved new Kuwait national record 77.44. Ukrainian Maksim Mazuryk cleared 570 in third to win the pole vault. Kenyan Patrick Langat confirmed favorite role with steeple win 8:21.38 ahead of best Russian Ildar Minshin (8:27.20). Roman Smirnov was the lucky 100 m winner (10.49, +0.7) after two favorites were disqualified for false starts (Kim Collins and talented Ramil Guliyev of Azerbaijan).
IOANNOU 230, CASANAS 65.68
PESCARA (ITA, July 1): Kyriacos Ioannou of Cyprus won the high jump during second day of athletics at 16th Mediterranean Games in Italy with new event best 230 cm. Greek Konstantinos Baniotis as second cleared 228 and Serbian veteran Dragutin Topic 226 as third. Another Games record for Spanish discus winner Frank Casanas (65.58). At 100 m excellent 10.15 by French Martial Mbandjock (+1.0, windy 10.14 in heats) beating Italians Emanuele Di Gregorio (10.21) and Fabio Cerutti (10.23) with Morrocan Aziz Ouhadi new national record 10.29 as fourth. In women events Greek Georgia Kokloni won the 100 m (11.41), French Phara Anacharsis the 400 m hurdles (56.66) and Morrocan Hanana Ouhaddou the 5000 m (15:12.75).
NO DIBABA
ADDIS ABABA (ETH): Ethiopia’s Olympic 5000m and 10000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba has withdrawn from the 5000m race at the 2009 Bislett Games on Friday due to a minor injury. Informs www.tiruneshdibaba.net. Ethiopia‘s Olympic 5000m and 10000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba has withdrawn from the 5000m race at the 2009 Bislett Games on Friday due to a minor injury. „I did a speed session on the track on Tuesday and felt a slight pain in my leg,“ Tirunesh told her website www.tiruneshdibaba.net . „I hope it is nothing serious, but I did not want to risk my chances of successfully defending my world 10000m title in Berlin next month.“ After taking a few days off, Tirunesh will continue her training this week, but has not decided on her next competition outing.
OTHER NEWS
NAIROBI (KEN): Berlin Half Marathon champion Bernard Kipyego is the lucky beneficiary of the coach’s wild card, having been named to join Sammy Kitwara and Gedion Ngatunyi in Kenya’s 10,000m squad for the World Athletics championship in Berlin, Germany, in August. Informs Kenyan media. Linet Masai, the World Cross Country silver medallist, will remain the lone candidate in the women’s race as second-placed Lineth Chepkurui has yet to clock the required qualifying time of 31:45.00.“We will only take one woman to Berlin in 10,000m. She won the trials and I’m sorry the other two, Chepkurui and Philes Ongori, were too far behind. But should they run faster, we will be forced to include them,” AK chairman Isaiah Kiplagat was quoted. He also announced that all elite athletes invited for the national team’s training camp in Eldoret must report by July 5. Coaches will have two weeks to assess the athletes’ fitness before the national trials on July 25 where the rest of the team will be picked.
MADRID (ESP): The Madrid International Meeting on July 4th which belongs to the IAAF Grand Prix will have five Olympic champions in their different specialities: Irving Saladino who this season has performed 8,63 metres in Eugene, second performance of the season, and the winner in Beijing‘ 2008 in the triple jump, the Portuguese Nelson Evora, who has a personal best in the long jump of 8,10 metres (2007). They will meet South African Godfrey Mokoena, world indoor champion in Valencia‘2008. Another event with the presence of an Olympic Champion is the female triple jump thanks to Russian Tatyana Lebedeva, winner in the long jump in Athens‘2004. Her main rivals will be the athlete from Sudan, of Cuban origin, Yamilé Aldama, Jamaican Trecia Smith, Russian Anna Pyatykh and Olga Rypakova from Kazakhstan. Then, there is the female pole vault with 2000 Olympic champion Stacy Dragila from the U.S. This veteran athlete, 38 years old, who performed six world records, is still in good shape and capable of jumping 4,55 metres. The fifth Olympic champion in Moratalaz will be Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna, winner in Sydney‘2000 and Athens‘2004 in the discus throw. He will face in Moratalaz the pair of two best Spanish throwers: Spanish record holder Mario Pestano and Frank Casańas. One of the most thrilling races will be the 800 metres, with the presence of South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Olympic silver medallist in Athens‘2004 and with one of the best all-time performances in this event (1:42.89). In Madrid he will face high quality rivals like Latvian Dmitrijs Milkevics, Brazilian Fabiano Peçanha or Spanish Antonio Reina, Juan Carlos Higuero and Arturo Casado. In the 1.500 metres event the reference name will be Portuguese Rui Silva, current European indoor champion. Spanish army will be leaded by the silver medallist in Torino, Diego Ruiz, Reyes Estévez and Alvaro Rodríguez. At the same time, the female version of this race will count with the presence of the best all-time Spanish athlete, Marta Domínguez who will face Spanish record holder Natalia Rodríguez. Other big names of the meeting will be Spanish Ruth Beitia in high jump, Spanish record holder with 2,02 metres and current European indoor silver medallist, Slovak world leader Martina Hrasnova in the hammer throw (76,90 metres), American Dexter Faulk in 110 metres hurdles (13.13), event in which we will count with the presence of the Spanish record holder Jackson Quińónez (13.33) or Irish David Gillick, double European indoor champion in 400 metres.
LAUSANNE (SUI): The month of June saw the outdoor track & field season get into full swing. Following major competitions such as the SPAR European Team Championships and European Cup Combined Events, European Athletics is pleased to announce the nominations for the European Athlete of the Month for June representing 16 countries. Then emailed to the European Athletics media and thousands of fans who have already signed up to receive news from European Athletics. The poll is situated in the Fan Zone of the European Athletics website, where the public, media and a group of expert statisticians will cast their votes with each category counting as 33.3 percent of the vote. The voting will close on Friday 10 July at noon Swiss local time. The European Athlete of the Month initiative was launched in January 2007 and is designed to recognise outstanding performers at all levels of the sport in Europe. No athlete who has previously served a two year anti-doping ban can be nominated for the European Athlete of the Month.
PARIS (FRA): On 17th July, it‘ll be party-time at the Stade de France. Jamaica will be the focus of all the entertainment proposed this year: the colors, the music, everything will be in place to pay special homage to the country where athletics is king. And the king is Usain Bolt. However, it will also be an opportunity to put on a display of top level athletics to a wide audience, so it is important the public are able to „decipher“ the various disciplines and be offered explanations about what‘s happening in the stadium so that it is accessible to all. Before spectators have even found their seats, they can enjoy some entertainment organized in and around the Stadium the minute they arrive. Notably this includes two Jamaican Villages (one on each side of the Stadium) provided by the sports gear manufacturer and partner to both the Meeting and to Usain Bolt – PUMA – a village where you are offered the chance to run against the fastest man in the world – at the end of the aptly named „speed trap“ test (between 17:30 and 19:00). 8 or 9 winners will be retained to run a 100m on the Stade de France track – the whole thing judged by Mr Usain BOLT in person! There will also be a Jamaican market to taste the „local“ smoothies and a „flash/photo“ measuring your speed in front of a blue screen, culminating with each participant being in a photofinish with Usain Bolt. On the Field a sound from DJ ZEBRA will be heard.
RESULTS
YPSILANTI (USA, June 30): Ryan Crouser‘s world youth-leading throw 21.55 m in the boy‘s shot put got competiton started at the 2009 World Youth Track & Field Trials at Eastern Michigan‘s Rynearson Stadium. 2007 World Youth sprint medley relay gold medalist Ashton Purvis won her heat in the girl‘s 100m and 200m rounds, running 11.65 and 23.78w, respectively, and Texas state champion Prezel Hardy (Killeen, Texas) had the fastest boy‘s time in 100m qualifying at 10.68w.
SINGAPORE (SIN, June 30-July 1): At 1st Asian Youth Games Chinese girls with solid results. Li Zhixuan 4:34.44 at 1500 m and Huiquin 375 in Pole Vault. Taiwan´s Wu Ming-Chia cleared 175 in high jump.
TEL AVIV (ISR, July 1): US Jillian Schwartz cleared 442 an all-comers record in pole vault during 73rd Israeli National Championships. Irina Lenskiy equalled meet record at 100 m hurdles (13.06, +1.4). Dmitriy Gluschenko clocked 10.49 (+0.7) to win the 100 metres.
Special thanks to Alfons Juck, EME News.
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