Cover shot of People’s Youth Daily, August 2008, by Larry Eder

Achilles surgery is difficult, even in this day and age. Li uXiang has been very honest about his condition at this time, admitting to pain in his heel still as he works out. We wish him the very best, and hope, for his sake and his country’s, that Liu, one of China’s most popular athletes,
has a complete recovery…to his former world beating hurdler form !

LIU NOT FEELING TO WIN

SHANGHAI (CHN): Usain Bolt and
Liu Xiang had successfull
press conference on Friday in Shanghai. 
„I said it before, I can be beaten but I really work hard not
to be,” said Bolt who runs his second 200 m of the year on Sunday. Home hero Liu
Xiang predicted he would not finish in the top three on Sunday. The reason he
mentioned is that he still feels pain after surgery on the injury that forced
him out of the Beijing Olympics. Steve Hooker has given more information on his
competition schedule for Athletics.com.au. Hooker will compete this weekend at
the IAAF Diamond League in Shanghai and from there will continue in the Diamond
League competitions featuring men’s pole vault on the program, in Oslo, New
York, Lausanne, Paris, London and Brussels. Also he will contest the
Continental Cup in Split, held on September 3-4 and the Great North City Games
in Newcastle, September 18-19. He will finish his season in Commonwealth Games
in New Delhi, India, in October.

KIMUTAI GETS 10K WIN

NAIROBI (KEN, May 21): Kiplimo
Kimutai won the 10 000 m
at Army Forces Championships in Nyayo Stadium. His time excellent for altitude
28:25.5. William Chebon was second in 28:26.4 to edge out Kiprono Menjo, who
was timed at 28:32.5, while Mark Kiptoo had to settle for the fourth slot with
28:37.4, ahead of Shadrack Kosgei 28:43.8 and Barnabas Kosgei 28:48.3. In the
women’s race, Lineth Chepkurui, fresh from setting a new world 12km best
in San Francisco, was the best after 33:50.2 to beat Ines Chenonge 33:52.3 and
Sharon Chemutai 33:54.3. Peninah Arusei was the fourth finisher in 33:58.3.
Another top performance was registered by Olympic 1500 m champion Nancy Lagat
who won in 4:29.6.

FIRST DAY

MOSCOW (RUS, May 21): European
Youth Olympic Trials started in Russia, top six in each event (but only one per
country) will qualify for Youth Olympic Games in Singapore later in the summer.
Briton David Bolarinwa won the 100
m (10.68, -0.9). Hungarian Anastazia Ngyuen was the
fastest girl clocking 11.80 (+1.5) beating fastest from heats Anne Tagoe of
Great Britain (11.88, but 11.62
in heats). Ukrainain Ihor Lyaschenko won 10 000 m walk in fast
41:44.34. Also girls 2000 m
steeple saw a win for Ukraine represented by Oksana Rayta (6:48.27).

MELKAMU RETURNS

OSTRAVA (CZE): Ethiopian world
silver medalist from Berlin at 10
000 m Meselech Melkamu will be the star of the 10 000 m race in the Czech
leg of IAAF World Challenge. She will come to Ostrava for sixth time already
and fifth time in a row. It is special place for her. She still has from
Ostrava 2007 her 5k PB, she debuted at 10 k in Ostrava 2008 and last year
beat in exciting race both future world champions Linet Masai and Vivian
Cheruiyot. Melkamu will come from Shanghai 5000 m and organizers are
hoping she might attack at the meet record of Tirunesh Dibaba from 2008
(31:03.37).

IDOWU, CHAMBERS

RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Top
events on Sunday IAAF World Challenge Meeting in Rio de Janiero, the 26th
annual of GP Brasil Caixa de Atletismo (switching venues in the past Sao Paulo,
Rio, Belem and back to Rio) are men´s triple jump and 100 m. World champion Philips
Idowu of Great Britain competes against Cubans, world leader Alexis Copello and
Osniel Tosca. Home stars Jadel Gregorio and Jefferson Sabino will jump too. In
the 100 m
World indoor champion Dwain Chambers runs for first time at IAAF meet in last
years against US Michael Rodgers, Daniel Bailey of Antigua and olympic medalist
Richard Thompson of Trinidad. In the 400 m hurdles Justin Gaymon, Andres Silva,
Markino Buckley, Josef Robertson are rounding very solid field with best home
runner Mahau Suguimati of Japan origin. Tajikistan´s Dilshod Nazarov, Latvian
Igors Sokolovs and Ukrainian Artem Rubanko are the favorites in the IAAF Hammer
Challenge men´s event. The meet will be held in the morning local time.

OTHER NEWS

PARIS (FRA): European indoor
champion Renaud Lavillenie will open his season in Forbach on May 30. The main
for the pole vaulter this season is European Championships and Diamond League.

ROME (ITA): Rome has been
selected as Italy’s bidding city for the 2020 Olympic Games writes
insidethegames. After the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) valued Venice’s bid
insufficient Rome won the vote 68 to 1. 
CONI president Giovanni Petrucci believes Rome can bring a very
strong bid and has a good chance of winning. The bid has a proposed
budget of 61 million dollar and holds 70 percent of existing venues.

MOSCOW (RUS): Alexander Zhukov
will be formally installed as the new President of the Russian Olympic
Committee (ROC) after Leonid Tyagachev resigned in March in the wake of
Russia’s worst ever performance at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Zhukov has been overseeing preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics and was
the only candidate.

MONACO (MON): The IAAF
announced in a press release to be very satisfied about the evolution in
the program of the Athletics’ World Plan in the past five months. It is the
IAAF’s aim to make athletics the base sport for young people within school programs
and has therefore set up activities such as the IAAF Kid’s athletics and School
and Youth programs. In recent months the programs have been successfully set up
in Spain, Australia, the Arabian Peninsula, Russia, Haiti, Egypt and Uganda
writes iaaf.org.

BRUSSELS (BEL): The Flemish
doping tribunal has judged it is not in a position to accept the case of
Belgian long distance athlete Monder Rizki. The athlete was late to fill in his
whereabouts system on three occasions and therefore faces a one year
suspension. However the tribunal is only appointed for Flemish subjects and at
the time of  the offense Rizki was no
longer attached to a Flemish club.

PARIS (FRA): Double World
silver medalist Romain Mesnil will not participate in the French interclub
final this weekend. Mesnil sustained a small injury to the calf while on
a training camp in Monaco but remains confident for the rest of the season
and especially for the European championships. Mesnil, who still is looking for
a clothing sponsor, will focus his season mainly around the French Alma
Athlé Tour he said in a press conference.

BARCELONA (ESP): In an
interview with the Barcelona 2010 organizing committee David Gillick confirmed
to be in good shape and ready for a good performance in the European championships
in July. Ireland´s Gillick, who holds a personal best of 44.77, believes
the Barcelona 400m final could be the greatest in the history of European
athletics. In a race with strong competitors and the right conditions
Gillick doesn’t exclude getting close to the European record that stands at
44.33.

RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA):
International Olympic Committee observers were pleased with advanced venue
planning but gave warnings to RIO 2016 officials following the conclusion of
their first three-day inspection visit. They must quickly establish
a Olympic Delivery Authority to assist with Games organization across all
stakeholders. Informs morethanthegames.co.uk.

MONACO (MON): Herculis IAAF
Diamond League meeting has announced its second series ambassador (after Tyson
Gay) with javelin world record holder Barbora Spotakova. Spotakova aims at
breaking the meeting record of 67.20
in what will be her last meeting before going for the
gold medal during the European Championships in Barcelona.

BEAVERTON (USA): Nike announced
strategic management changes to continue to drive growth and reinforce its
commitment to developing management talent around the world. Global brand and
general management veteran Joaquin Hidalgo will work as Vice President of
Emerging Markets reporting to President of Nike Global Operations, Gary
DeStefano. Jayme Martin, a strong and strategic business leader with 13
years of Nike experience, becomes the company’s Vice President of Global
Running reporting to Global Brand & Category Management Vice President,
Trevor Edwards. Davide Grasso, a proven and seasoned brand leader becomes
Vice President of Global Brand Marketing reporting to Global Brand &
Category Management Vice President, Trevor Edwards. Leslie Lane becomes the
Managing Director and Vice President of the Nike Foundation, reporting to Nike
Foundation CEO and President Maria Eitel. Nike informs in a release.

LAUSANNE (SUI): The coming
months will see major changes in the structure of elite athletics meetings,
both in Europe and worldwide, thanks to the launch of the IAAF Diamond League.
Europe will have a central role as 10 of the 14 Diamond League meetings
will be held on the continent. The creation of the Diamond League has also
brought with it greater responsibilities and opportunities for the continental
federations to develop and enhance their own series of top level one-day
meetings. The 2010 calendar consists of 11 European Athletics Outdoor Premium
Meetings and 16 European Athletics Outdoor Classic Meetings. „There are many
things that we have to try to do simultaneously but there are three key points
that European Athletics is looking at for the future. We have to try to provide
financial support for the meetings, so we are looking for sponsors. I have
to be honest and say that we have been unlucky that the European-wide economic
crisis has happened at a time when we believe that we are getting the
right structure for the European Athletics one-day meetings. Secondly, we also
have to improve event presentation and get meeting organisers thinking hard
about this issue, which is why we have planned the first European Athletics
seminar for event presentation (this was scheduled for 24-25 April in Brussels
and is now rescheduled for later this year because of the European airspace
closures following the volcanic eruption in Iceland). We will have experts in
this field there and bring together many of the Premium and Classic Meeting
organisers. Thirdly, we want to have many more European athletes competing in
European Athletics meetings,” explains EA Vice-President Jose Luis de Carlos.

LAUSANNE (SUI): Top athletes
are nominated by European national federations for the positions in the EA
Athletes Commission. The elections will be staged during European Championships
in Barcelona. Netherlands nominated 2005 pole vault world champion Rens Blom,
Czech Republic sends best decathlete of all times Roman Sebrle and Slovakia
2007 world hammer bronze winner Libor Charfreitag.

LONDON (GBR): UK media are
reporting that olympic medalist Kelly Sotherton has been ruled out for the rest
of the season with a back problem. She will be so not in the position to
defend her Commonwealth heptathlon title in Delhi in October. The 33-year-old
will also miss July’s European Championships.

BERLIN (GER): The 69th ISTAF
meet (part of IAAF World Challenge) on Aug 22 will work under new structure and
old leader Gerhard Janetzky (Berlin Athletics Federation). New main sponsor is
Vattenfall Europe AG and for marketing new responsible company is TOP
Sportmarketing GmbH. Ticket costs will be at 9 Euro level. Involved is also
Berlin City Senate. The day before on Aug 21 a Festival of Berlin Sports
will be organised with different events and most probably women hammer throw.

DESSAU (GER): The EA Classic
meet of Dessau (May 28) will have Kenyan olympic gold medalist Pamela Jelimo at
800 m as
top international star. South African olympic medalist Khotso Mokoena is the
main name in the long jump. Latvian Vadim Vasilevskis competes in javelin throw
with Finnish representatives Teemu Wirkkala and Ari Mannio. In women javelin
Russian Doha winner Mariya Abakumova will compete against top Germans. Men´s
high jump will have world medalist Raul Spank (against 2007 Osaka winner Donald
Thomas) and women triple jump the 2005 world champion Trecia Smith of Jamaica,.

RESULTS

TUCSON (USA, May 20): Excellent
shot put at throwing meet. Ryan Whiting achieved 21.53 and Russ Winger outdoor
best 21.25. Becky Breisch achieved in discus 61.55 and Kara Patterson 60.33 in javelin.

BUCURESTI (ROU, May 21): During
first day of national Grand Prix meet Nicoleta Grasu achieved 59.65 in women discus and
Sergiu Ursu 61.99 in
men´s discus.

EWING (USA, May 20): Ashad
Agyapong clocked 10.32 at 100
m (+1.6).

STRETFORD (GBR, May 18):
Jennifer Meadows started her season here at local meet with 53.85 over 400 m, she runs on Sunday
Shanghai Diamond League at 800
m.