by Larry Eder
Meb Keflizighi, 2009 ING NYCM champion, 2009 USA Marathon Champion, photo by PhotoRun.net.
In discussing the decathlon, top decathletes will tell you that the athlete who makes the least mistakes wins the decathlon. Such can also be said with the marathon. Meb Keflizighi ran his race through the five boroughs of New York City masterfully, and without any mistakes. He was close enough to the front to know if a move was real or affected, and that the ING NYCM is a marathon of attrition. His move came at 24 miles, and right after that, near the place that is good friend, Ryan Shay, had fallen nearly two years before, Meb made, as Tim Leydon of Sports Illustrated observed, a sign of the cross, and charged to the finish.
Now, Meb is the toast of the U.S. marathon world, and we hope he makes a few bucks in his next marathon! But, where will it be? The selfish side of me hopes that BAA Boston takes the plunge and brings Meb back, who knows the second time at Boston just might be the charm!
EME NEWS (NOV 4, 2009)
Vlasic back in training
SPLIT (CRO): Croatian high jump world champion Blanka Vlasic already started her preparation for the coming indoor season. The 208 jumper wants to try to defend her World Indoor gold medal from Valencia 2008 and plans full undercover campaign with mixture of special high jump meetings and classic all-events meetings. The details about her schedule will be known later. Seeing her shape in the second part of the 2009 summer the attack towards the world indoor record (208 by Kajsa Bergqvist) is not unrealistic.
100 days to Vancouver
VANCOUVER (CAN): The world of sport is counting exactly 100 days until Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, next February. Athletics is affected as the games will be held during the indoor season. Former athletes (mainly sprinters) are usually competing in bob-sleigh. Another impact is the IOC Session where top athletics officials like IAAF President Lamine Diack on Senior Vice-President Sergey Bubka are expected to take part.
Zelezny returns to Barcelona
PRAGUE (CZE): Legendary javelin thrower Jan Zelezny won his first of three olympic gold medals in Barcelona 1992. Early December he will return to the place as special guest of Czech Tennis Davis Cup Team. In the finals of this competition home Spain will face Czech Republic. Zelezny is keen supporter of the team and will visit the match also because as meeting director of prestigious Ostrava Golden Spike Meeting he is relying on the economical qualities of the marketing agency TK PLUS from Prostejov which is also responsible for the Czech tennis Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams.
Helsinki is the only candidate
BARCELONA (ESP): The European Athletics Council will meet in Barcelona for the first time from 8 until 10 November. The main topic on the agenda is the decision about the venue of the 21st edition of the European Athletics Championships. Helsinki is the candidate to host the event in 2012. It will be for first time that European Championships will switch to two years staging period. This new version will be without walking events and marathon. The plans to organise the event in 2012 are from June 27 until July 1, what is one month before the Olympic Games in London. The council will also discuss different current topics regarding Barcelona 2010, specially the time-table should be approved. Other topics are new permit system for one day meetings, IAAF Continental Cup in Split and selection process of European Team, decision about European Cup Race Walking in 2011.
OTHER NEWS
NEW YORK (USA): Fresh NYC Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi thinks about his next marathon. There are two options in spring 2010, London or Boston. Media are speculating that Boston could be the choice. The last American to win Boston was Greg Meyer in 1983.
DALLAS (USA): Multiple olympic and world winner, legendary Carl Lewis has agreed to have TIAGO Worldwide act on his behalf for appearances and speaking engagements throughout the US and world. This agreement is not the first time TIAGO Worldwide has worked with the 9-time Olympic champion dating back to the mid-80s when TIAGO founder Troy James, was the assistant meet director for the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle Indoor meets. Writes TIAGO in a release. Lewis comes on board with other Olympic champions and world record holders Frank Shorter, former rival Mike Powell, Henry Rono, Arturo Barrios and others.
NAIROBI (KEN): As The Nation writes, controversy and confusion marred the official launch of the Maasai Mara marathon on Tuesday with Athletics Kenya threatening to ban any local athlete who takes part in the event set for November 29. However, organisers of the event came out fighting and displayed a letter from AK which sanctioned the race, saying they would proceed with their plans. The race’s technical director, John Konchellah, a brother of former World 800m champion Billy Konchellah, said they had not contravened any law and urged AK to support the venture, which would see for the first time, a marathon race competed in the Mara Game Reserve. But AK chairman Isaiah Kiplagat cautioned any athletes planning to take part in the race that they would be banned from any national championship.
Kiplagat had sanctioned the race to be held on November 7, but the organisers – led by Robert Ouko – said that was too close to the Standard Chartered marathon (held on October 25) and opted to push theirs forward for a higher turn out. “We could not host this event on the said dates, we therefore pushed it to November 29. But we are not doing anything wrong. Maybe they (AK) need to tell us which other date is available,†said Ouko.
KINGSTON (JAM): World 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt and his Racers Track Club teammates will definitely have a synthetic track to prepare for international meets on the grounds of the University of West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus. Writes Jamaica Observer. Speaking with the Observer in an exclusive interview from Kenya, Bolt’s agent Ricky Simms confirmed that a contract has been signed with Germany-based Athletic Track specialist company Regupol to construct the track. Regupol is also one of four companies currently bidding to the Jamaican Government for the contract to refurbish the two worn-out Mondo tracks at the National Stadium and Stadium East facilities.
KAMPALA (UGA): Best Ugandan runner of past years and 2007 world bronze medallist Moses Kipsiro is set to defend his 10km title in the MTN Kampala marathon due November 22. The start and finish of the sixth edition will be at Kololo Airstrip. Ugandan Vision is writing. Former world 3000m steeplechase champion from 2005 Dorcus Inzikuru has also confirmed her participation in the 10km race which she won three years back. Kipsiro, a silver medallist at this year’s world cross country in Amman, Jordan, will be up against a number of elite runners among them world junior 3000m steeplechase runner-up Benjamin Kiplagat and world mountain running champion Geoffrey Kusuro.
NEW YORK (USA): NYC marathon website writes that estimated number of starters was 43 741 and estimated number of finishers 43 475. Both figures are record breaking in the marathon history. More than 6800 marathoners ran for charity this year in an effort to raise USD 21 million for worthy causes.
MONTREAL (CAN): The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) launched its new Web site today, coinciding with its tenth anniversary on November 10, 2009. An entirely new section, called “Anti-Doping Community”, where each from the groups of including athletes, the sport movement and governments will find information specifically related to their anti-doping responsibilities and areas of interest.
AUCKLAND (NZL): Athletics competition between New Zealand and Australia has been re-kindled by Athletics New Zealand with a test match between the Trans Tasman rivals to be staged at Waitakere in February. The last time the two countries met was at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium in March 2001. The International Test Match, unveiled by Athletics New Zealand will be known as Trans Tasman 21 Athletics Match (TT21). The match will be held on Saturday 20 February 2010 at the Douglas Track and Field facility in Waitakere, Auckland. Athletics NZ Sport Manager Brett Addison is pleased to be able to provide this level of competition for our future international representatives. “This is going to be a good opportunity for our top young athletes to go head to head against Australia. We are really pleased that this initiative has come off,†he said. Writes athletics.org.nz.
BUDAPEST (HUN): News from All-Athletics.com website. In the combined events rankings of countries the current leaders are Cuban men and Ukrainian women, in walking in both rankings Russia is the clear leader. In the combined ranking (men and women) of this years marathons New York City Marathon is 11th but the 3rd highest in the promotion score category which is based on the level of participating athletes.
BRATISLAVA (SVK): First Czecho-Slovak 220 high jumper Roman Moravec died after short illness at age of 59. He achieved the 220 in 1971 and competed at Olympic Games in Munich 1972. His best position was the 8th place at European Indoor Championships 1972 in Grenoble, France. Three times he competed at European Championships (1971, 1974 and 1978) and also won a bronze at Universiade 1973. After ending of his sports career, he was working at Physical Education Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.
RESULTS
KWANGJU (KOR, Oct 30): Korean athletics is having a medal prospect for next years World Junior Championships in Canada. The 18 years old Park Bong-Ko improved at National Grand Prix Meeting the Korean junior 400 m record to solid 46.16.
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