by Larry EderAntonio Pettigrew‘s fall from grace was quick and sad. One of the few world class athletes who competed at the elite level for nearly a decade, Pettigrew was well liked from his days at St. Augustine’s College to his admission of using performance-enhancing drugs several years ago. No more information has been released. Keep his wife and young son in your thoughts and prayers....
EME NEWS (AUG 10, 2010)
Bolt ends his season
MUNICH (GER): Usain Bolt ends his season. After an assessment from his
medical team his management company Pace Sports Management confirmed
that fastest man in the world will close his 2010 track season and
cancel his participation in the IAAF Diamond League meetings –
Weltklasse Zurich and Memorial van Damme, Brussels. Usain was examined
on Monday by Dr Hans Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich who found a problem in
his lower back. He has a tightness that restricts his ability to
generate power in his stride and continuing to race in this condition
could risk injury to his hamstrings or calf muscles. With a view to his
future career further treatment to loosen his back followed by a period
of rest will be in his best interest. Pace also informs that the MRI
scan on his Achilles tendon showed that it has now completely healed.
“I am very disappointed to miss two of the top meetings on the circuit
– Zurich & Brussels – but trust that it is better for me not to
take any risks this year. 2011 and 2012 are very important Championship
years and I hope to be back fully fit and healthy. I would like to
thank everyone for their support and look forward to coming back
stronger next year.” Bolt is currently joint world leader in the 100 m
and also has the fastest times of the year in the 200 m , 300 m and
4×100 m.
SwedÃsh SP record
GOTEBORG (SWE, Aug 10): Folksam Grand Prix meeting in the
Slottskogsvallen Stadium saw excellent women shot put. US Michelle
Carter won with 18.80 over Jill Camarena (18.79) and Trinidad´s
Cleopatra Borel-Brown (18.25). Fourth placer Helena Engman achieved new
Swedish record 18.17. The only Swedish medalist from Barcelona Emma
Green won the high jump with 195. Good also the 800 m won by US Erin
Donohue (2:00.34) over home Charlotte Schonbeck who improved from 2:03 level
to 2:00.70. Third Ingvill Makestad clocked new Norwegian record
2:00.82. Canadian Carline Muir won the 300 m in life-time best 37.25
and US Bianca Knight the 100 m (11.40, -0.7). Another US win for discus
thrower Becky Breisch (60.00). Best male result was the season best for
British long jump record holder Greg Rutherford who leaped to 810
(+0.8). He missed Barcelona due to injury. Solid also shot put by US
athletes Ryan Whiting (20.52) and Cory Martin (20.10). Jesse Williams
cleared 222 as Mickael Hanany of France and won on count-back. More US
wins for Rae Edwards in the 200 m (21.05, +0.1), Fred Townsend at 110 m
hurdles (13.66, -0.4) and Duane Solomon in the 800 m 1:46.71 over
Briton Tom Lancashire (1:46.74) and Czech Barcelona finalist Jakub
Holusa (1:46.87). Kenyan Boaz Lalang won the 1500 m (3:39.09) and
Australian Yucef Abdi the steeple (8:25.31).
OTHER NEWS
FRANKFURT (GER): German silver medal winners from Barcelona Silke
Spiegelburg (pole vault) and Carsten Schlangen (1500 m) will not be
available for European select at IAAF Continental Cup. That was
confirmed by German Athletics Federation. But discus thrower Robert
Harting despite of planned surgery will still go to Split. In women
pole vault will be then next in row another German Lisa Ryzih with
Svetlana Feofanova. In men´s 1500 m with champion Arturo Casado next
will be French Yoann Kowal.
BERLIN (GER): Despite back problems plans bronze winner in high jump
Ariane Friedrich her participation at ISTAF in Berlin on August 22
(IAAF World Challenge). Heptathlon medal winner Jennifer Oeser has leg
problem and hopes to run the hurdles at ISTAF meet.
NEW YORK (USA): The 36 year-old Briton Mara Yamauchi who won the NYC
Half-Marathon last March, announced that she will compete in the 41st
ING New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 7, for the first time.
Should she win the race, she would become the fourth British woman to
do so, following in the footsteps of Priscilla Welch (1987), Liz
McColgan (1991) and Paula Radcliffe (2004, ’07-’08). Yamauchi, who
finished sixth in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Marathon and has a career
best time of 2:23:12, had planned to run New York last year, but was
forced to withdraw due to a foot injury. She last ran a marathon in
London last April after enduring a six-day journey from New Mexico to
London because of the volcanic ash plume which snarled air travel
throughout Europe. She finished tenth in 2:26:16, saying her ordeal
cost her about one or two minutes on the finish line. Writes RRW.
FALMOUTH (USA): New Zealand’s Nick Willis has been confirmed for the
CIGNA Falmouth invitational mile. The invitational mile will be held on
august 14th, a day before the 38th CIGNA Falmouth Road Race.
LONDON (GBR): Olympic champion Dayron Robles has pulled out of the
London Diamond league meeting this week explaining he has not yet fully
recovered from a slight injury he sustained last month. He hopes to be
ready for later events in Europe. Still the race will have world leader
David Oliver, European champion Andy Turner and European leader Petr
Svoboda.
LONDON (GBR): 16 year old world junior champion Jodie Williams has been
training with Allyson Felix, who is in London for the London Grand
Prix, and has been receiving precious advice from the sprint star.
Felix assured her to work hard on athletics but not at the exclusion of
all else. She also told Williams to learn how to handle defeat as it is
hard to deal with after always winning as a junior. Felix is doubling
in London, first day the 200 m and second day the 400 m (against
Eurochamp Firova).
KAMPALA (UGA): IAAF president Lamine Diack has promised to back a bid
from Uganda to organize the 2017 IAAF World cross country
championships. Hosting an international event is one of the main
targets for the Ugandan Athletics federation as they seek to become
only the fourth country to hold the event.
DUBNICA (SVK): The 8th Athletics Bridge in Slovak city of Dubnica (Aug
22, EA Classic) will have as the main star the Barcelona winner Libor
Charfreitag in hammer. The first senior Slovak gold medalist since
independency and also world leader will have there his first
competition after Spain. “There were many celebrations, but now I m
back in training. I still have things to achieve this season, mainly at
IAAF Continental Cup and within the IAAF Hammer Challenge. And also I
never won in Dubnica so want to give something to my fans,” he said. He
will compete against bronze winner from Barcelona Hungarian Krisztian
Pars and current best overseas throwers Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistian
(he is also IAAF Hammer Challenge leader) and Ali Al-Zankawi of Kuweit.
Also competing will be another three world leaders. US world champion
Christian Cantwell in shot put and Chaunte Howard-Lowe in high jump
along with Cuban Yargelis Savigne in the triple jump. Sprint star will
be US Champion Walter Dix who could become the first ever sprinter to
clock sub 10 in the Slovakian territory. A good sign was his
improvement to 9.88 last Sunday in Switzerland. The fastest 100 m time
in Slovakia comes from 1988 when Calvin Smith achieved in Bratislava
10.07. From other Barcelona medalists Russian 400 m hurdles winner
Natalya Antyukh is scheduled to run, Hungarian 110 m hurdler Daniel
Kiss (bronze) and Ukrainian pole vaulter Maksim Mazuryk (silver) also.
More Slovak home top names will be Barcelona 800 m fourth placer Lucia
Klocova in her international debut in the 1500 m, triple jumper Dana
Veldakova and Jozef Repcik who will contest the 1000 m. Special guest
will be Chicago Black Hawks NHL Stanley Cup winner Tomas Kopecky who
comes from Dubnica.
MONTE CARLO (MON): IAAF informs that the IAAF Statistics
Handbook for the IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup, Split, Croatia is now
available on the IAAF website for download.
BRUSSELS (BEL): Indian Champion at 800 m Tintu Luka with 2:01.61
improvement this year will get a unique chance to run at Van Damme
Memorial in Brussels on Aug 27. Confirmed meet director Wilfried Meert.
Men´s pole vault will see another duel of world and olympic winner
Steven Hooker with European Champion Renaud Lavillenie of France.
MOSCOW (RUS): Meeting director of Russian Winter IAAF Indoor Permit
Mikhail Butov confirmed that the event will again have men´s 600 m on
the programme. Star of the event in CSKA Hall should be former olympic
winner Yuriy Borzakovskiy who because of an injury did not compete at
European Championships in Barcelona. Moscow meet has the date February
6 in 2011.
KYIV (UKR): IAAF Cross Country permit meetings next season 2010/11 will
have in total 12 events, 3 held still this winter and remaining 9 early
next year. It is the same number as last season. The only change is in
the second Spanish event, last season it was in Soria, next season it
will be in Burgos, the Cross de Atapuerca which had in last season
continental status. The dates – Nov 6: Burgos, Nov 13: Oeiras, Dec 19:
Brussels, Jan 8: Edinburgh, Jan 16: Sevilla, Jan 22: Belfast, Feb 6:
San Vitore, Feb 12: Nairobi, Feb 13: Chiba, Feb 19: Albufeira, Feb 26:
Fukuoka, Feb 27: Diekirch.
KYIV (UKR): IAAF Combined Events Challenge will consist as in this
season from five competitions. Dates: May 7-8: Desenzano, May 28-29:
Gotzis, Jun 15-16: Kladno, Jun 18-19: Ratingen, Sep 17-18: Talence.
Scores will be coming also from African, USA, Asian Championships,
European Combined Events Cup, Universiade in China, Pan Am Games and of
course from World Championships in Daegu.
KYIV (UKR): Third IAAF circuit with approved dates for 2011 is the
walking one. IAAF Permit Race Walking calendar will have four meetings
(not part is Krakow in Poland in comparison to 2010 and added is
Chihuahua in Mexico where this year the World Cup was staged). The
dates: Mar 5: Chihuahua, Apr 9: Rio Maior, Apr 24: Taicang (China), May
1: Sesto San Giovanni. The final is provisionally scheduled for La
Coruna on September 18. Also part of the circuit are World
Championships races from Daegu. Another possibilities to score will
come from continental walking meetings.
MADRID (ESP): Excellent TV shares from European Championships are also
reported from the home country Spain. Teledeporte had an average share
of the whole event 2,0 and Catalan station EI 33 even 2,1. Both figures
are over monthly averages of the whole stations. For example men´s 1500
m final had 7.4 share what is nearly 750 000 viewers.
PRAGUE (CZE): Czech TV sports channel CT4 for first time exclusively
broadcasted the European Championships (in the past also other channels
CT2 and CT1 showed some days and events) and in the prime time (between
7 and 10 pm) the shares achieved excellent 6.79 percent. That is a
record figure for this dedicated sports channel which started in 2006.
It happened during the evening with women javelin final where Barbora
Spotakova was fighting for gold medal. Average share of Barcelona
broadcast was 5.13 percent in CT4.
STOCKHOLM (SWE): Another TV viewing highlight was the last Friday 100 m
race at DN Galan Samsung Diamond League meeting, The race was watched
by more than one million viewers in Swedish Television SVT. Informs the
station on its website. Exact figure mentioned is 1,02 millions.
SAD NEWS
CHAPEL HILL (USA): US media are informing that former top quartermiler
Antonio Pettigrew, a graduate of St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh who
was stripped of an Olympic gold medal after admitting to using
performance-enhancing drugs, was found dead early Tuesday, authorities
said. Two friends found Pettigrew in his 2008 White Dodge Aspen on a
bridge on U.S. Highway 751 near Jordan Lake at about 3:15 a.m. and
called Chatham County deputies for help. The friends went looking for
Pettigrew after he did not show up for work Monday, authorities said.
Deputies determined Pettigrew was dead but found no signs of trauma.
His body has been sent to a medical examiner for an autopsy.
