by Larry Eder
Bernard Lagat, Galen Rupp, Rbk BIG 5,000m, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Alfons Juck notes that Kerron Clement and Allyson Felix are running the 400 meters at the US Indoor champs. The Men’s shot should also be a great battle. But, in my mind, the toughest race of the weekend, should be the men’s 3,000 meters, with Bernard Lagat, Galen Rupp and Chris Solinsky!
HONOR FOR BOLT
KINGSTON (JAM): TrackAlerts.com informs that Queen’s University, Belfast, will soon honor top sprinter Usain Bolt. The fastest man on earth should receive an honorary doctorate for distinction in sport.
POWELL AIMS HIGH, GAY BACK IN TRAINING
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican sprint star Asafa Powell believes the newly set up Diamond league will be conductive to breaking the world 100m record held by Usain Bolt at 9.58. With the highly anticipated line up of Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay the record could be broken again this year said Powell for trackalerts.com. It is not clear yet at which three meets all top three sprinters will meet in direct clash. Powell should start the IAAF Diamond League already early May in Doha. Bolt so far confirmed New York and Paris and Gay is back in full training after autumn surgery.
CARL IN VANCOUVER
VANCOUVER (CAN): Athletics star Carl Lewis is the latest of a series of big names to motivate and fire up the USA curling team at the Vancouver winter Olympics. Lewis has never played curling but reminded the team that they were all Olympians just like him and equated the hack from which curlers push themselves down the ice to starting blocks writes Reuters.
CLEMENT AND FELIX TO RUN 400 M AT USATF CHAMPS
ALBUQUERQUE (USA): Two names appear as more than interesting in the entries list for this weekend´s US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque. Both are world champions and so far this year were virtually not competing so far. Hurdles Berlin gold medalist Kerron Clement is entered for 400 m and for the same women event the 200 m world champion Allyson Felix. Clement clocked 60 m PB 6.89 in Boston and Felix achieved 52.05 end of January. It is not immediately known whether both are also seeking Doha qualification. Clement is any case world indoor record holder at 400 m with 44.57 from 2005.
INJURY SENDS OUT NELSON
ATLANTA (USA): Former world champion Adam Nelson will not compete at US Championships this weekend because of injury. He will leave the door open for the favorites Christian Cantwell and Reese Hoffa but as usual also others can surprise from the second line (Dan Taylor, Ryan Whiting, Cory Martin, Sheldon Battle). While doing bench-press last week, he injured the pectoralis muscle on his non-throwing side. Confirms his agent Paul Doyle. It looked like possible for him to compete but after some days that was not the case and he is forced to change his plan for summer preparation. Nelson competed only at one World Indoors, in Lisbon 2001 he won a silver medal.
DOHA NEWS
PANAMA: Olympic champion Irving Saladino plans to compete at World Indoor Championships in Doha. That was confirmed by his management Global Sports Communications. He has a silver from World Indoors in Moscow 2006. Saladino who had a no mark in Berlin finals (also due to injury) will most probably travel to Qatar without a single competition in 2010. His big rival Dwight Phillips is passing on Doha. The 2009 World Champion is not entered for the weekend´s US National Championships, serving as World Indoor Qualifier. Interestingly only 3 jumpers so far this indoor season went over the IAAF qualifying standard 810. Technically jumpers with 810 or more from 2009 could also be selected.
SWITZERLAND: After national championships four athletes have been confirmed for World Indoors. Male sprinters Rolf Malcolm Fongué and Pascal Mancini along with two women, pole vaulter Nicole Büchler and hurdler Lisa Urech.
SERBIA: Best Serbian female athlete triple jumper Biljana Topic will not compete in Doha due to leg injury.
LITHUANIA: Five athletes have been named from Lithuania for Doha after weekend´s national event. Four women sprinter Lina Grincikaite, Austra Skujyte for shot put, Egle Balciunaite for 800 m and young high jumper Airine Palsyte. Only male representative will be Vitalij Kozlov for 800 m.
OTHER NEWS
MELBOURNE (AUS): The Melbourne track classic meet is leading up to an Australian-New Zealand clash at the 1500m. Nick Willis, who just posted a new national indoor record in Birmingham is taking on Australians Jeff Riseley, Jeremy Roff and Mitch Kealey. Willis is aiming to defend his Commonwealth Games title later this year in which he most likely will face the Australians again. Olympic and World championships 3000m steeplechase representative Youcef Abdi will also join the elite field. The Melbourne Track Classic on March 4 is the final stopover on the 2010 Australian Athletics Tour, which continues this Saturday night with the Sydney Track Classic at Sydney Olympic Park writes athletics.org.au.
EUGENE (USA): American Ian Dobson and his wife Julie Lucas have joined the Oregon Track Club Elite writes trackfocus.com. Dobson compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 5000 meters. Dobson, who is a native Oregonian, recently split with the Mammouth Track Club and Adidas.
LONDON (GBR): British runner Jo Pavey is aiming for her marathon debut later this year as she recommences her international athletic career writes David Martin. Pavey’s anticipated move to the longer distances had to be put on hold because of the birth of her first child Jacob who was born in September, however at this point Pavey is ready and excited to contest her first ever marathon.
BARCELONA (ESP): Israel is the first country to have sent the preliminary entry list for the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010. According to the registration, the Israeli squad will travel to Barcelona with 13 athletes – ten men and three women. All countries will have to send their preliminary entry list until Saturday, 27 February. The team’s then have time until 18 July to modify their list. On this day, at 12pm, the registration for Barcelona 2010 will close.
NEW YORK (USA): Promising USA distance runner Serena Burla will undergo surgery for a malignant tumor in her leg. „About three weeks ago, I was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in my right hamstring during a check-up for a nagging right knee irritation,“ the 27 year-old Burla wrote in a statement to friends which she subsequently approved for public release. „The good news is that it has not spread to other parts of my body. I‘ll undergo surgery and further treatment at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City next Friday.“ She finished 17th (second American) at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships last October in a then personal best of 1:10:55. She dropped that time to 1:10:08 at the 2010 USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston last January, finishing second to Olympic bronze medallist, Shalane Flanagan. Burla had planned to compete in the NYC Half-Marathon on March 21, but withdrew from the race after getting her diagnosis. Writes Race Results Weekly.
MALMO (SWE): New coach of best swedish male high jumper Linus Thornblad will be renowned expert Yannick Tregaro who leads currently the preparation of Christian Olsson and Emma Green among others. Former coach of Thornblad Stanislav Szczyrba moved to Qatar and he was seeking new coach. The distance from Goteborg to Malmo should not be a problem for the duo.
RESULTS
BUDAPEST (HUN, Feb 20): Anita Marton again improved her national U23 record in shot put with 17.64 m.
MADRID (ESP, Feb 20): Excellent jumping by Cubans at a meet here. Wilfredo Martinez leaped to second best of the season 818 in long jump. Mabel Gay posted 14.22 in triple jump.
SEVILLA (ESP, Feb 18): Fast 600 m test of Antonio Reina in 1:17.67.
KIENBAUM (GER, Feb 21): At Winter Throwing European Cup Trials Nadine Muller achieved in discus 62.67. Markus Munch won men´s discus 60.54 and Mareike Ritweg women javelin (60.25).
ANN ARBOR (USA, Feb 20): Guyana´s sprinter Adam Harris clocked 6.65 at 60 m and Canadian Nicole Forrester cleared 187 and tried at Canadian Doha standard 194. She missed closely and still hopes her three 192 in Europe will be considered for the World Championships.
NORMAN (USA, Feb 20): Berlin 6th place in women shot put Michelle Carter achieved here 18.10 m. Talented Jason Henderson leaped to 790 PB in long jump.
TRABZON (TUR, Feb 21): Mehmet Caglayan won the 30th Trabzon half-marathon in 1:04:23 ahead of Kenyan Moses Too (1:05:04).
VERONA (ITA, Feb 21): Hillary Mutai of Kenya won the 3rd Verona Marathon in 2:17:43 two seconds ahead of his colleague Hosea Kiplagat (2:17:45). Ethiopian Etafereh Getahun clocked course record 2:35:43 in women category.
GUADALAJARA (MEX, Feb 21): Kenyan Julius Ketter won the 24th Guadalajara half-marathon in 1:02:56. Ethiopian Alene Amana was the best woman in 1:15:26. Writes RRW.
JACKSONVILLE (USA, Feb 21): Russian Andrey Bryzgalov won the 3rd marathon here in course record 2:15:43 ahead of Kenyan Samwel Nganga (2:16:51). Ethiopian Bezunesh Daba won the women´s race in 2:33:08 what is also new course record ahead of 48-years old Russian veteran Ramilya Burangulova (2:37:46).
CHENNAI (IND, Feb 21): Kenya‘s Augustine Ronoh claimed the top honors in the Chennai Marathon in 2:14:05.
MANAGUA (NCA, Feb 20): CAC cross-country champions were runners from home Nicaragua. Aldy Villalobos in women 8 km after 29:50 and Albert Medina in men´s 12 km (37:37).
SMARA (ALG, Feb 22): The tenth anniversary Sahara Marathon was won this morning, Monday, by Jon Salvador of Spain, in a record time of 2.42.40. Informs Pat Butcher. Salvador, 43, from the Basque city of Bilbao has run the half-marathon three times here in the past, winning twice, and finishing third. He only decided 10 days ago to return to the event. „I had stopped training for the event, but my local town hall decided to send me ten days ago. I paced one of my colleagues, Teresa Pulido in the Amsterdam Marathon last October, and surprised myself by running 2.32, so I decided to run the full marathon here this time. There was also a record entry of over 800 runners from 28 countries, for the 10th anniversary of this extraordinary event. The race is run through the deserts of western Algeria, between three refugee camps, housing up to 200,000 Saharawi people, exiled from their Western Sahara home since 1975.
STATS
VALENCIA (ESP): According to Carlos Fernandez Canet, David Njagi‘s 2:09:45 is the fastest-ever marathon on Spanish soil. It surpasses the aided time of Stefano Baldini of 2:09:59 (90m downhill) in Madrid in 2001, and the 2:10:03 all-comers record by Richard Nerurkar run at the World Cup in San Sebastián in 1993. Writes David Monti.
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