by Larry Eder
Jessica Ennis, gold medalist, heptathlon, Berlin 2009 photo by PhotoRun.net.
Jessica Ennis started her race to win the hepathlon in 2012 with her brilliant win in Berlin in August 2009. British sports journalists voted
Ennis as the Sportswomen of the Year for 2009! Congrats to Jessica Ennis!
BURKA, BEKELE, SALADINO
NIJMEGEN (NED): Gelete Burka, the Ethiopian title defender from Valencia 2008 (after disqualification of Russian runners) at 1500 m is aiming to repeat the success at World Indoor Championships in Doha. She also wants to do some indoor races before, informs Global Sports Communication, the Dutch based agency headed by Jos Hermens. In other top names plans from Global Sports Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia will focus on a few fast indoor races. The calendar will be known later. Long Jump olympic winner Irving Saladino of Panama is also heading towards indoor season. The Olympic champion competed only once so far at World Indoors and won a silver in Moscow 2006.
KALLUR DECISION IN JANUARY
STOCKHOLM (SWE): World indoor record holder Susanna Kallur is looking forward to compete again during indoor season 2010. As Swedish TV informs she is without pain and gradually progressing. She has been injured since 2008 and underwent two surgeries. She had training camp in San Diego and in January the final decision about the competition program will be made.
NO GOLD AT OLYMPICS 2000
LAUSANNE (SUI): Sydney‘s Olympic Games created another record today, more than nine years after the flame was extinguished, when it was decided that the women‘s 100 meters will be the first event in the 113-year history of the Games where no gold medal will be awarded because the first two across the line, Marion Jones and Ekaterina Thanou, have both had their careers stained by doping. Writes insidethegames.biz. Jones, who won record five medals, forfeited all three of her gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay after belatedly confessing to doping and then serving time this year in a Texas federal prison for perjury. But the 100m gold will now not be inherited by the Greek runner-up Thanou, who was banned last year by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from Olympic competition after she missed three compulsory drug tests within 18 months. Instead the IOC‘s ruling Executive Board, meeting in Lausanne on Wednesday, have decided to leave the position blank, which has never happened before. Jamaica‘s Tanya Lawrence, who originally finished third, will move up to joint silver medallist with Thanou while her team-mate Merlene Ottey will get the bronze, her ninth Olympic medal in a career that started at Moscow in 1980. Mark Adams, the IOC spokesman, said: „The actual awarding of a gold medal, of any medal, is certainly not a right and therefore in this case it will not happen.†Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas, the current IAAF Council member goes from silver to gold in the 200m with Sri Lanka‘s Susanthika Jayasinghe moving up to silver and Jamaica‘s Beverly McDonald to bronze. Russia‘s Tatyana Kotova moves from fourth to bronze in the long jump. The reallocation of the medals for the 4x400m and 4x100m relays, where Jones’s teams placed first and third respectively, is still pending the outcome of an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
OTHER NEWS
LOS ANGELES (USA): Victor Conte, the architect of the biggest doping scandal in history, has hit out at the International Olympic Committee‘s (IOC) decision to award medals from the 2000 Games in Sydney to women beaten by Marion Jones. He exclusively told insidethegames: „I believe the Olympic medal adjustments being made as a result of the Marion Jones case create a very difficult situation for all parties concerned. Back in 2000, there was no independent anti-doping federation in place for several of the countries which have female athletes that will now receive medal upgrades. It‘s simply my opinion that some of these women in the competitions in which Marion participated may have also been using drugs. It‘s certainly possible.†Conte claims that it is not fair that athletes should be upgraded when they may not have faced the same anti-doping procedures as Jones, even though she managed to pass every test she undertook in the run-up to Sydney.
NAIROBI (KEN): Question-marks are remaining over preparations of African Championships scheduled for July 28 to August 1 at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. At a press briefing Isaiah Kiplagat and David Okeyo admitted there were ‘bottlenecks’ in the organization of Nairobi 2010 and they would ‘not carry the cross’ alone. At the event’s re-launch two weeks ago, Prime Minister Raila seemed to put the myriad problems that had beset the event behind saying, „The journey to hosting the Africa Senior Athletics Championship has just begun. It will be no simple task and it requires full commitment.“
MONTE CARLO (MON): IAAF informs that Tsegaye Kebede has only been running marathons for two and a half years, but in that short span of time he has reached a level of accomplishment that no one else has in history. With his 2:05:18 course record victory at Fukuoka, a 2:05:20 runner-up at London in April and 2:08:35 bronze medal at the Berlin World Championships, the 22-year-old Ethiopian averaged 2:06:24 in 2009, the fastest ever for three marathons in a calendar year. In fact, he did it in less than eight months.
LONDON (GBR): Heptathlon world champion Jessica Ennis was voted the Sports Journalists‘ Association (SJA) Sportswoman of the Year, reward for her outstanding performance at the World Championships in Berlin in August. The Sheffield athlete, 23, who edged out world gymnastics champion Beth Tweddle, succeeds 2008 winner Rebecca Adlington as Sportswoman of the Year, and follows a long line of fellow athletes to have won the prize, the most recent being Paula Radcliffe when she won the marathon world title in 2005. The achievement of triple jumper Phillips Idowu, Britain‘s other gold medallist in Berlin, was also recognized when he was awarded the prize for outstanding performance. Jenson Button, who clinched the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship for the Brawn team, was voted Sportsman of the Year. Writes insidethegames.biz.
HOUSTON (USA): US Olympic bronze medalist and record holder at 3000, 5000 and 10 000 meters Shalane Flanagan will make her half-marathon debut in January at the 2010 USA Half Marathon Championships hosted by the Aramco Houston Half Marathon. Joining Flanagan on the starting line January 17, 2010 will be the top two finishers from the 2009 national championships. Magdalena Lewy Boulet, who crossed the finish line in 1:11:47, will be back to defend her title. Runner-up Kelly Jaske will also be among the top seeds in the race. Informs trackandfieldnews.com.
SYDNEY (AUS): Comeback of 400 m hurdles world champion Jana Rawlinson is scheduled for Devonport Carnival on December 29 where she is scheduled to run the Devonport Gift over 400 meters.
VOLGOGRAD (RUS): 2004 olympic high jump champion Yelena Slesarenko staged successfully a youth competition having her name in the title. In total nearly 300 participants were registered. Slesarenko was also awarded the city medal, what is the highest award here.
BARCELONA (ESP): This Christmas athletics fans can surprise best friends and family with a special and original gift: three-day passes for the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010. Organizers are offering the possibility to be different this year and surprise loved-ones with a great present they will be very grateful.
BERLIN (GER): IAAF World Challenge League meeting ISTAF of Berlin signed IEC in Sports and ARD/ZDF to secure its future. The scheduled date for the event is Aug 22, 2010
DUBLIN (IRL): The SPAR European Cross Country Championships seems to be the stage on which European Athletics Rising Star of the Year award winners want to shine. Stephanie Twell, the 2008 Rising Star, took her third successive gold medal last year in Brussels and this year‘s award winner, Norway‘s Karoline Bjerkeli GrÅ™vdal, is the overwhelming favorite to follow in the British runner‘s footsteps in this respect as well on Sunday in Dublin. Like his compatriot GrÅ™vdal, Norway‘s Sondre Nordstad Moen is hotly tipped to strike gold in Dublin on Sunday – meaning a nation that has yet to savour victory at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships is now in the enviable position of having two race favorites. Writes European Athletics.
RESULTS
DOHA (QAT, Dec 9): Two gold medals during second day of Gymnasiade 2009 for Hungary. Marcell Deak-Nagy won the 400 m in 47.42 and Anastazia Nguyen the 100 m in 11.90. Also two golds for Italy. Alessia Trost cleared 1.89 in high jump and Jose Bencosme achieved 51.76 at 400 m hurdles. Ukrainian European Youth Olympic Festival winner Viktoriya Klochko won the discus (51.79). Estonian Liina Lasmaa dominated the javelin (51.70) and 15-years old Briton Emelia Gorecka won the 3000 m in 9:49.16.
For more on the sport of athletics, please click on http://www.runningnetwork.com
