by Larry Eder
Steve Hooker, winning in Millrose, 2009, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Track and field is all about the minutae. Nine Beijing winners will be competing in Doha, 5 Men (Robles, Hooker, Saladina, Majewski, Clay) and 4 women (Campbell-Brown, Isinbayeva, Vili, Dobrynskay). From Berlin, it is 12 champs, five men (Rybakov, Hooker, Idowu, Cantwell, Hardee) and seven women (Cheruiyot, Vlasic, Rogowska, Reese, Savigne, Vili, Ennis). Add two more medalist if you count relay runners Kerron Clement and Allyson Felix. Can’t wait to see three great days of global track & field!
Allyson Felix, WC 200 meter champ, photo by PhotoRun.net.
DOHA NEWS
Christian Cantwell, WC 2009 Gold medalist, photo by PhotoRun.net.
USA: While distance runners have been known to step down in distance from time to time, what American Desiree Davila will be attempting at this weekend’s IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha has to be considered more of a plunge. Davila, who finished 11th at the IAAF World Championships Marathon last summer in Berlin in a personal best 2:27:53, will be running less than one-tenth of that distance when she lines up for the first round of the 3000m on Friday afternoon. Writes RRW.
STATS: This is first World Indoor Championships when before no world record in championships event was registered through the season before. The only one women 4×800 m from Russia would be this time ok. Russian federation general secretary Mikhail Butov confirmed all was ok this time with the doping control.
BERLIN WINNERS: From individual last summer World Champions five men (Rybakov, Hooker, Idowu, Cantwell, Hardee) and seven women (Cheruiyot, Vlasic, Rogowska, Reese, Savigne, Vili, Ennis) should compete in Doha. Two more to add are US Kerron Clement and Allyson Felix if lining up in the relays.
BEIJING WINNERS: Nine in total is the number of individual Olympic 2008 gold medalists scheduled to compete in Doha. Five men (Robles, Hooker, Saladino, Majewski, Clay) and four women (Campbell-Brown, Isinbayeva, Vili, Dobrynska) are in this list.
PREVIOUS CHAMPIONS: Total number of gold medalists competing from previous world indoor championships before 2008 (title defenders were already mentioned in EME NEWS) is having 6 men (Lagat, Trammell, Rybakov, Olsson, W. Davis and Sebrle) and 6 women (Sturrup, L. Barber, Nazarova, Felicien, Rybova, Feofanova). Here some of the title defenders are added as they won also before 2008 (Cantwell, Defar, Isinbayeva and Gomes in pentathlon).
MOST MEDALS: Cubans Javier Sotomayor (4-1-1) and Ivan Pedroso (5-0-0) are the men medalist leaders, from competing athletes in Doha chances to upgrade in top sections for Roman Sebrle (2-0-3), Yaroslav Rybakov (1-3-0), Terrence Trammell (2-0-1), Bryan Clay (1-2-0), Liu Xiang (1-1-1), Christian Olsson (2-0-0) and Christian Cantwell (2-0-0). On the women side Maria Mutola (7-1-1) could be overtaken as Russian Natalya Nazarova (7-1-0) competes and has a good chance to get her 8th gold in the relay. Yelena Isinbayeva is also close to top (3-1-0), Meseret Defar (3-0-1), Svetlana Feofanova (1-1-2), Naide Gomes (2-0-1), Blanka Vlasic (1-1-1), Nadezhda Ostapchuk (0-0-3) and Lidia Chojecka (0-0-3).
LOC: The Organising Committee of the IAAF 2010 World Indoor Championships in Athletics paid a productive visits to Dukhan and Ras Lafan areas recently to promote for the prestigious event. In last weekend, a delegate of 2010 WIC marketing committee arrived in Dukhan city on west coast of Qatar on the sideline of beach volleyball championship organised there by Qatar Petroleum. The WIC committee members delivered a brief summary about the 2010 World Indoor championship and exposed some tickets for sale to around 5,000 fans who overwhelmingly responded to the committee offer. According to statistics of 2010 WIC marketing committee 80% of tickets were sold until now , three days before the start.
OTHER NEWS
KINGSTON (JAM): TrackAlerts.com informs that anticipated sprint events clash between the USA and Jamaica, is off, at least for the time being. So said Jamaica’s track and field boss, Howard Aris at a press conference on Tuesday to announce the annual Jamaica International Invitation Meet, scheduled for Saturday, May 1. It was proposed that the face-off mainly in the 4×100m and 4×400m relays would have been a part of the May event but lack of adequate feedback from the US authorities has caused the matter to be put on hold. The May meet has attracted a budget of Jamaican Dollars 61 million (nearly 700 000 USD) and the government has pledged Jamaican Dollars 27 million (around 300 000 USD) in support and from what the feedback reveals it will be another stellar occasion with the usual complement of local and foreign athletes down to compete.
LONDON (GBR): Duncan Mackay, the editor of insidethegames.biz and keen athletics writer and observer, has been voted the Internet Writer of the Year at the annual British Sports Journalists’ Association (SJA) Awards dinner in London. It was further recognition for insidethegames which, since it was set up by Mackay and his late wife Lorraine in October 2005, has established itself as the number one site in the world for news on the Olympic Movement and other major multi-sport events.
BUDAPEST (HUN): Indoor meetings season is over. In rankings of all-athletics.com the last big one day event Lievin Pas de Calais meet ended as 5th. Number one of indoor 2010 season is Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham (46 196) over Stuttgart Sparkassen Cup (45 986) and Dusseldorf PSD Bank Meeting (44 943). Fourth position for GE Galan of Stockholm (44 718) with Lievin fifth (43 806). Sixth position for Boston Reebok Indoor Games (43 795). In indoor special meetings category number one is Pedro´s Cup in Bydgoszcz (10 338) with Arnstadt High Jump second (10 315) and Zepter Pole Vault Stars of Donetsk third (10 088). Top six are rounded with three high jump meetings, Hustopece in Czech Republic (9764), Banska Bystrica in Slovakia (9731) and Trinec in Czech again (9699). More on scoring at www.all-athletics.com.
VIENNA (AUT): The Austrian national anti-doping agency NADA informed it has started proceedings against 36-year-old sprinter Bettina Muller-Weissina for allegedly trying to order growth hormones from an unidentified man, who had already been under investigation for selling doping products. This informations are coming from reports of Sportwoche Magazine last november.
JOHANNESBURG (RSA): South African Olympic body Sascoc said it would force the IAAF to speed up its decision on Caster Semenya’s athletic future if her suspension dragged on for too long. Writes www.eyewitnessnews.co.za. Semenya has not raced since she won the women’s 800 world title in Berlin last year and Sascoc felt the pending decision on her was taking too long. She has been barred from competing locally and internationally until the IAAF gives its verdict after analysing her gender test results.
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