by Larry EderJust arrived in New York this evening for the ING New York City Marathon. The marathon is also hosting the 2009 U.S. men’s marathon championships..Martin Lel pulled out…Ryan Hall seems ready to race, and this could be the year an American male reaches the top of the medal stage, for the first time since 1982! We wish Ryan Hall much luck.
Ryan will have the likes of Meb Keflizighi, Abdi Abdiraham, Jorge Torres to push him, beside the world class marathoners from East Africa, there are 35,000 plus runners who will start the ING NYCM on Sunday, November 1, 2009.
And while many runners congregate at Rosie O’Gradys, many are flying into La Guardia and Kennedy airports, to be part of the moving, breathing city of runners, who will cross the five boroughs on Sunday, November 1.
Time to crash, then, visiting the NYCm events around New York. Will catch up tomorrow.
EME NEWS (OCT 29, 2009)
BOLT PLANS 7 RACES IN DL
KINGSTON (JAM): Athletics superstar number one Usain Bolt will return to regular training next week as he starts his preparation for the 2010 season. TrackAlerts.com informs that that he will compete in seven races in the new IAAF Diamond League next season, that according to coach Mills, will be at the top of their agenda. “The Diamond League is our major project next year, in which he’ll be running seven races between the 100 and 200 meters, that’s what we are going to be focusing on. Competing in the Diamond League is our number one priority we’ll then see how the rest of the season develops and we’ll take it from there.†Meanwhile, the triple world record holder who has had an extremely busy schedule since cutting short the 2009 season to return home to rest, is now in Africa and is due back home next week when coach Glen Mills is expecting him to show up for training. “We are expecting Usain to start training when he returns from Kenya on the first week in November,†he said. Bolt also believes it will take a couple of years to convince some people he is breaking world records without doping. “I‘ll continue running fast, I am clean without a doubt,†Bolt said Thursday at a conservation event in London. “As soon as you start running fast there‘s going to be a problem. It‘s going to take a couple of years for people to start believing that you‘re actually clean.
“If you continue running fast and doing it clean and then, over a period of time, all the tainting will go away. People will continue to say it until that period of time.†The Globe and Mail writes.
KOECH PLANS FOR DOHA 2010
NAIROBI (KEN): One of the best world steeplechasers Paul Kipsiele Koech plans to attack the gold medal at World Indoor Championships 2010 in Doha. At last global indoor event in Valencia 2008 he won a silver. Another ambition is to finish the indoor season once again as fastest performer of the year. Last indoor season he clocked 7:32.80 at 3000 m as fastest of the year. At World Championships in Berlin he was fourth in the steeple. He ended the year 2009 with the slowest time since 2002.
NO INDOORS FOR THORNBLAD
STOCKHOLM (SWE): Sweden´s high jump number one Linus Thornblad will miss the coming indoor season 2010. The 238 indoor peromer had a minor operation on his hip joint where some bone spur has been shaved off. He hopes to be back in summer. He is a fifth placer from World Indoor Championships in Berlin.
OTHER NEWS
ATHENS (GRE): Agencies are writing that IOC has not been happy that Greek Olympic officials let a hurdler serving a doping ban take part in the Vancouver flame relay. IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau says it was „inappropriate and a regrettable mistake“ for Greek officials to let disgraced hurdler Fani Halkia carry the flame Wednesday. Halkia is Olympic gold medalist at 400 m hurdles in 2004 and is banned until Sep 10, 2010.
SYDNEY (AUS): Olympic and world winner in Pole Vault Steve Hooker says claiming a world record is his greatest ambition. Writes Sydney Morning Herald. And he reckons he is ripe to do it in Australia this summer. Asked if he felt he was ready to better Bubka, Hooker, whose world championship win in Berlin in August gained him a nomination and a shot at the $50,000 prize in the main category of the awards, replied: „I‘m having a tilt at it this summer, definitely. ‚I think the most important thing for me is to get physically fit. I‘ve had a few injury problems throughout the summer in Europe, which were pretty well documented, but I think if I can overcome them and get a really good run-in to the season I‘m going to have a shot at it. I‘m looking at all of the events in Perth, including the national championships, which double as the Commonwealth Games trials, as well as the Sydney and Melbourne Grand Prix, as opportunities.“ Also the participation at World Indoor Championships in Doha is in his plan.
KINGSTON (JAM): World Championships sprint relay bronze medalist, Simeon Williamson of Great Britain, will be back in Jamaica to prepare for the 2010 track and field season. TrackAlerts.com informs. The British 100 metres champion is a cousin of national high jump record holder Germaine Mason, who switched allegiance to Britain, and won Olympics silver in Beijing 2008. Williamson is down to train with the Usain Bolt’s coach Glen Mills at Racers Track Club. Meanwhile, Barbadian sprinter Andrew Hinds, who was also with the MVP team for the last few years, is the other overseas newcomer to the Racers team, which also includes the world championships 100m fourth place finisher Daniel Bailey of Antigua. In the meantime Rosemarie White, Schillonie Calvert, 400 m hurdler Josef Robertson and former Calabar standout in the sprint hurdles Warren Weir are the local newcomers to the Racers Track Club this season.
NEW YOEK (USA): World Championships Pole Vault Silver Medalist, Chelsea Johnson will join Allyson Felix and Trey Hardee on Friday in New York to ring the NASDAQ closing bell. The trio will also host ESPN and New York Times editorial staff while in New York.
MONTE CARLO (MON): New competition rules for the season 2010/2011 in force from 1st November 2009 are available in pdf form to download from www.iaaf.org.
KINGSTON (JAM): The Jamaica Observer.com informs that seventeen of Jamaica‘s track and field athletes received lifetime membership to the Guardsman Group‘s health and fitness subsidiary, Gymkhana, at the company‘s corporate headquarters on Old Hope Road in Kingston. With locations in Kingston and Montego Bay, Gymkhana is well-known for its cadre of certified fitness trainers, wide range of fitness classes and is equipped to offer overall fitness services for the most discerning fitness buff. „I really appreciate this move by the Guardsman Group and Gymkhana and this will be a great way to keep fit. I am really looking forward to using the facility, especially when we are retired,“ Asafa Powel said.
ZURICH (SUI): Swiss top sprinter Marco Cribari (24, PB 20.54 at 200 m) announced his retirement from high level athletics. He plans to devote his time for the doctor´s studies in the future. He is quarterfinalist from Osaka and Berlin World Championships. He admits, that in coming years if possible, he might return to top sports.
NEW YORK (USA): More than 1,000 selected NYC schoolchildren race a quarter-mile or one mile and enjoy interactive clinics with professional runners and wheelchair athletes. Yuri Kano, Salina Kosgei and Jaouad Gharib headlined a “Best of the World†panel on Wednesday morning. While Kosgei of Kenya is among a very small group of runners with a winning record against two-time defending NYC Marathon champion Paula Radcliffe, Kano may be dealing with the highest expectations as she tries to become the first Japanese runner to win in New York. New York Road Runners on Wednesday honored eight Marathoners of the Decade to commemorate the 40th running of the New York Marathon. Honorees included 9-time winner Grete Waitz, and defending champions Paula Radcliffe and Marilson Gomes dos Santos. ING extended its title sponsor deal with the New York City Marathon through 2013. Universal Sports will have live coverage on Sunday.
SYDNEY (AUS): ATFS President Paul Jenes points out that the Sydney Olympic Stadium is being used for various codes of football. The warm-up track is the main athletic track known as SOPAC (Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Track). The whole complex is in the suburb of Homebush.
BEIJING (CHN): In the book by the former Chinese Olympic official, Yuan Weimin the first official confirmation of long-held suspicions that the remarkable Chinese distance runners, coached by the mercurial Ma Junren, had used illegal drugs. Ma has always insisted that hard training and dietary supplements of turtle blood and caterpillar fungus had propelled his runners to their standout performances. Writes New York Times. During training runs Ma would ride alongside his charges, shouting at them from the sidecar of a motorcycle. He has admitted that he berated and sometimes beat his runners if he thought they were being lazy or disobedient. Just days before the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Yuan says in his book, he made the wrenching decision to drop six of the seven distance runners from the Chinese squad, which was being coached by Ma. Yuan said they had failed in-house, pre-Olympic doping tests. Athletes in other disciplines also were bumped from the Olympic team in what was a huge loss of face for China. Ma retired as a coach in 2004, claiming he had a range of terminal illnesses. He has since reinvented himself as one of China’s leading breeders of purebred Tibetan mastiffs. Ma, who turned 65 recently, is not known to have responded to Yuan’s memoir.
BUDAPEST (HUN): In latest statistical survey of All-Athletics.com Kenya and Ethiopia dominate in both the male and the female countries rankings in the long-distance track events. In the men‘s rankings the two East-African running powers are followed by the USA and Spain while in the women‘s rankings they are chased by Russia, the USA, Portugal and Japan. In overall long distance ranking Kenya has 12 012 points over Ethiopia 11 677 and USA (11 082) with Spain as fourth (10 601) in the men order. In the women situation Kenya has 11 906, Ethiopia 11 743 and Russia 11 072. In individual events Kenya is the best in men´s and women´s steeple and women´s 5000 m. Ethiopia is the best in men´s 5000 m and men´s and women´s 10 000 m.
BUDAPEST (HUN): Frankfurt Marathon moved to 7th place in the marathon rankings of 2009. Ahead are London, Paris, Rotterdam, Chicago, Amsterdam and in Berlin in the top six.
DAKAR (SEN): The Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) has signed an exclusive contract with Sport Extra Time (SET). SET will then be the responsible of the Marketing and CAA TV rights management as from today. Sport Extra Time is a company which is specialized in the management of TV rights, Media and Marketing and the activities of which are concentrated in three geographical areas: Africa, Indian Ocean, and Oceania.
Special thanks to Alfons Juck, EME News.
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