BOLT IS IN PARIS

PARIS (FRA): Usain Bolt arrived
on Monday to Paris. Receptive and relaxed, he responded to questions for nearly
thirty minutes, evoking the state of his fitness, his eagerness to compete with
Asafa Powell over the 100 m
on Friday evening at the Stade de France, his ambitions as regards his time, as
well as his passion for shopping. Afterwards Usain Bolt was presented with
a plaster plaque of his footprints, designed to be displayed in the Stade
de France, close to that of one of his idols, Zinedine Zidane. „With Asafa
Powell taking the start, plus runners like Yohan Blake and Daniel Bailey,
I know the 100 m
will be a great race. Asafa is ready. He’s proven to be highly consistent
this season, with a fair number of times close to the 9”80 mark. He’s
waiting for me. In view of my performance in Lausanne (9”82), I should be
able to run 9”70 if conditions are good on Friday evening. I’m not yet at the
very peak of my abilities, but I’m undoubtedly at around 80%. I can’t yet
run a bend. The doctor has recommended that I wait five weeks before
I tackle curve sprints. As such I may not run a single 200 m this season. All’s well
down the straight though,” Bolt was quoted in a release from the
organizers. Interestingly in the 100
m field for Paris no US runner is competing. Three home
runners (Lemaitre, Mbandjock, Pognon), 6 Caribbean sprinters (3 from Jamaica
Bolt, Powell, Blake, with Bailey, Martina and Thompson).

BOLT ON SPANISH WIN

PARIS (FRA): „Spain deserved to
win as they played better football in extra time. Both teams cancelled each
other out in the first half but it was an exciting 2nd half with a few
chances that could have gone in,” the fastest man on earth was quoted on World
Cup finals. His favorite team remains Argentina and in clubs Manchester United.

SAVINOVA ALSO PRE-SELECTED

SARANSK (RUS): World leader at 800 m Mariya Savinova is also
pre-selected for European Championships in Barcelona and is not running her
special distance at national championships in Saransk. She will most probably
compete in the 1500 m.

STEEPLE CHAMPIONS

SARANSK (RUS, Jul 12): First
champions crowned at Russian Championships were on Monday evening (still 30
degrees) in steeple races Ildar Minshin (8:24.10) and Lyubov Kharlamova (9:30.75).
Both have good chances to be selected for Barcelona. Race winner was Moldovan
guest Ion Luchianov (8:23.67) and Andrey Farnosov was distant third (8:30.17).
In women race second Lyudmila Kuzmina is also having her chance (9:34.88) as
Yuliya Zarudneva was pre-selected. In women´s 400 m semifinals Natalya
Nazarova clocked the fastest 50.88, in men´s Vladimir Krasnov 46.39. No major
casualties were reported. Yuriy Borzakovskiy was the fastest in men´s 800 m heats (1:48.40). In
women heats two sub 2 minutes were recorded by Svetlana Klyuka (1:59:56) and
Tatyana Andrianova (1:59.86). Natalya Antyukh (55.20) was the fastest in
women´s 400 m
hurdles first round. Long jump qualifications saw as best marks 675 by Lyudmila
Kolchanova (Tatyana Lebedeva is not competing) and 795 by Dmitriy Plotnikov
(major upset here three fouls by 8 meters jumper Aleksandr Menkov).

SOLID FIELDS IN LIEGE

LIEGE (BEL): Tuesday´s
international meet in Liege will have fine distance races in the programme. For
example men´s 3000 m,
women steeple, in women 800 m
Ukrainian Natalya Lupu runs against Jamaican record holder Kenia Sinclair. In
pole vault home star Kevin Rans will jump with strong German group headed by DL
winner Malte Mohr. US Damu Cherry is the top name in women´s 100 m hurdles, in men´s
hurdles another US representative Ryan Wilson. 400 m hurdles will have
Justin Gaymon in duel with Belgian improvement Michael Bultheel. Fast 100 m could be expected from
Jamaicans Mario Forsythe, Steve Mullings against US Travid Padgett, Xavier
Carter and Marc Burns of Trinidad.

ROBLES, CANTWELL, JETER IN MOROCCO

TANGIER (MAR): Third Meeting
d’athlétisme Prince Hértier Moulay Hassan ( the son of the moroccan king
Mohammed VI) on July 18th will have world stars competing. In Tangier, northern
part of the country, Dayron Robles runs the 110 m hurdles. In shot put
Christian Cantwell the current world number one will throw against Reese Hoffa.
Excellent 100 m
duel is expected in women race as Carmelita Jeter competes against Sherone
Simpson. In men´s sprints 100
m will see Travis Padgett vs. Mario Forsythe, Xavier
Carter is the star of 200 m.
Local hero Amine Laalou runs the 800
m, world indoor champion Bernard Lagat competes in the 1500 m. In packed 3000 m with Kenyans and top
home runners Australian Craig Mottram is the name to watch. New female stars of
Moroccan running scene will be there too, Halima Hachlaf in the 800 m and Btissam Lakhouad in
the 1500 m.
Technical events top names are Russian Svetlana Feofanova in pole vault and
Cuban Yareli Barrios in discus. NCAA Champion Andrew Wheating is scheduled to
run here his first pro 1500 m
after competing at 800 m
on Friday in Paris. The meet is organized buy Hicham El Guerrouj.

OTHER NEWS

DUBLIN (IRL): Athletics Ireland
has announced a 30-strong team for the 20th European Athletics
Championships in Barcelona. The team includes three relay teams. Final
selection for the team will be announced on July 27th. The squad was selected
following last weekend’s national championships. The team will feature all of
Ireland’s top athletes including David Gillick, who will run in the 400m,
Derval O’Rourke, who will compete in the 100m Hurdles and Paul Hession in the
100m and 200m. World silver medallist Olive Loughnane is also listed in the
squad despite having to pull out of the National Championships on medical
advice, as a precaution. She is now cleared to compete and is optimistic
ahead of the championships. Gordon Kennedy is also listed in the team and will
compete in the 400m after he achieved the qualification time in Santry
yesterday. Paralympian Jason Smyth is also named in the squad and will compete
in the 100m pending medical clearance on a minor injury. A new
addition to the Irish team is Pole Vaulter, Tori Pena, who won the event at the
National Championships on Saturday. Athletics Ireland informs.

LONDON (GBR): World 400 metres record holder
Michael Johnson received an honorary doctorate from the University of
Sunderland on Monday. Informs David Martin. The 42-year-old American who set
his still standing record time of 43.18sec when winning the 1999 IAAF World
Championship title in Seville, received the award from university chancellor
and former world mile record holder Steve Cram. Johnson who is currently in the
north east working on a BBC television programme to celebrate the 30th
anniversary of this year’s bupa Great North Run, received the degree for his
„outstanding contribution and ambassadorial role” in athletics. The honour was
presented to him alongside thousands of graduate students at the Stadium of
Light, the home of Sunderland’s Premier League football team.

BERLIN (GER): German hurdler
Willi Mathiszik will not compete in this weekend’s German Championships due to
injury. This means he will also have to skip the European Championships in
Barcelona at the end of the month.

KINGSTON (JAM): The Jamaican
Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) has dissolved its Board of directors after
a review by the WADA found potential conflict of interests. Jamaica
Olympic Association (JOA) President Mike Fennell revealed that all 15 members
had their contracts terminated by the country’s Sports Minister. The timing of
the announcement, just one week after the IAAF provisionally suspended Olympic
champion Shelly-Ann Fraser is unfortunate but the events are reported to be two
totally independent cases reports insidethegames.

PARIS (FRA): The French
athletics association has announced its team for the European championships.
Stars of the team will be young sprintstar Christophe Lemaître who qualified
with a blistering 9.98 and 20.16 and triple jumper Teddy Tamgho. Along
with Martial Mbandjock and Ronald Pognon the French 4x100m team has high hopes
of bringing home a medal. Medal hopes also lay in the 3000m steeplechase
with Bouabdellah Tahri and Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad as well as in the men’s
pole vault with Renaud Lavollenie, Damiel Dossevi and Romain Mesnil. Salim
Sdiri has good chances in the long jump while Romain Barras will try it in the
decathlon. interestingly Muriel Hurtis-Houairi will compete in the 400m
athle.com reports.

INDIANAPOLIS (USA): The USA’s
men’s 8Km championships, a stop on the 2011 edition of the USA Running
Circuit, will be held in Carmel, Indiana on June 11th 2011. The event will
offer a marathon, half marathon, 1-mile Family fitness walk and the 8 km championships which holds
a prize money purse of 20,000 dollar confirms USATF.

RESULTS

ALBERTVILLE (FRA. Jul 12):
Israel Jillian Schwartz cleared 456 at this EAP meet in France ahead of US
Becky Holliday (435). Olympic discus winner Stephanie Trafton-Brown won her
event with 58.54. Jamaican relay world champion Simone Facey won the 100 m in 11.61 (+1.0). Briton
Mark Findlay posted 10.30 (+0.1) 100
m win over Ivory Coast Ben Meite (also 10.30, he later
won the 200 m
in 20.85, -0.6). US Ryan Fontenot clocked 13.74 (-2.2) at 110 m hurdles.