BLAKE
GOOD IN CRICKET

KINGSTON (JAM): Sprinter Yohan Blake once
again proved he is good in other areas of sport. This week he was the top
performer at the St Jago Twenty20 Celebrity cricket match. Blake who improved
last summer to 9.89 and 19.78 had a good all-round performance, first by taking
five wickets for seven runs then returned to hit 40 to lead his Yellow team to
victory Garth Garvey’s Green team. National 400 m record holder Jermaine
Gonzales also showed he is useful with the cricket bat, scoring 22 (2×6, 1×4)
for Garvey’s Green team. Garvey led the way for his team with 68. Writes
TrackAlerts.

QUESTIONS
ABOUT ASKINA MEETING

KASSEL
(GER): Leichtathletik.de writes that Askina Meeting (EA Classic event) will
return from Baunatal to the city of Kassel
in 2011. That is at least the decision of the regional Hessen Athletics
Federation HLV. They also ended the cooperation with meet organiser Heinz
Husselman. But Husselman was quoted as saying that he hopes still to find agreement
with HLV. Main issue in the whole situation is the fact, that there are unpaid
bills from Husselman towards athletes and managers for past edition of the
meet. For the moment the date is set for June 8, 2011 in renewed Aue
Stadium. But questionmarks are remaining. It is also special because Kassel will host in 2011
the German Championships.

OPREA
AOY

BUCURESTI (ROU): European
triple jump silver medalist Marian Oprea was named Romanian Athlete of the Year
2010 by the council of Romanian Athletics Federation. Oprea also won IAAF
Continental Cup in Split.
In the final nomination also discus thrower Nicoleta Grasu, world junior
champion at 800 m
Mirela Lavric, world junior silver medalist in discus Andrei Gag, Bianca Razor
who won world junior bronze in the 400 m, Alina Rotaru second at Youth Olympic
Games in long jump and young mountain runner Denisa Ionela Dragomir.

COSTS
FOR THE RENOVATION

KINGSTON
(JAM): TrackAlerts reports that it will cost the Jamaican Government just under
100 million of Jamaican dollars (approximately US$1.1 million) to re-lay the
National Stadium track in Kingston.
The country’s information minister, Daryl Vaz earlier this week, at the weekly
cabinet press briefing, said $97 million is the estimated budget to carry out
the necessary repairs to the tracks at the National Stadium and Stadium East.
Minister Vaz also said German company BSW Berleburger Schaumstoffwerk, the same
company that laid Usain Bolt’s track at the University of the West
Indies earlier this year, will be responsible for the repairs.

SPANISH
UPDATES

MADRID
(ESP): Steeple World champion Marta Dominguez will appear on Wednesday before
the judge at the court in Madrid
in relation to Operation Galgo. Meanwhile sources told Spanish agency EFE that
2009 European CC Champion Alemayehu Bezabeh has a good chance that he will be
not sanctioned in the whole case. There is reasonable evidence that he was
decieved. Bezabeh might be able to return to the competition immediately.

IDOWU
NO FOR PARIS

LONDON
(GBR): Triple jump European champion Philips Idowu is not planning to compete
at European Indoor event next March in Paris.
He was quoted as saying by The Independent that according to his 18-month plan
towards London 2012 he plans only two competitions next indoors. The Aviva Grand
Prix in Birmingham on February 19 and the Stockholm meet three days
later. “The European indoors just doesn’t fit into the plan. It’ll be great for
Teddy. He’s jumping in front of a home crowd. He’ll probably jump well and put
in a good performance but a year later he’s got to come to London and compete against me in front of my
home crowd. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be an exciting couple of years
in the triple jump,” Idowu said for Independent.

RESULTS

HOFU (JPN, Dec 19): Mongolia´s
marathon record holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir won the Hofu Marathon in 2:14:49. It
was his fifth marathon of the year and third fastest career time. Women winner
Hiroko Yoshitomi achieved new course record 2:38:01.

MUNICH (GER, Dec 18): Malte Mohr won the
Christmas Pole Vault meet with 565 clearance. Second was experienced Tim
Lobinger (545) ahead of Fabian Schulze (535).

NYAHURURU (KEN, Dec 18): In the
6th leg of Kenyan CC series Matthew Kisorio beat by 0.4 Charles Kibet in the
men´s 12 km
race (34:53 for both). The event was held under clear skies with the 600
runners – 97 junior women, 187 junior men, 110 senior women and 200 senior men
– battling mild head wind in the first kilometre of the 2km loop. Writes The
Nation. The senior women’s 8km race had big names and at the end of the four
laps it was Sharon Cherop who emerged victorious in 26:13. Linet Chepkirui took
the second position in 26:26.

GIFU
(JPN, Dec 19): Tenmaya, department store based in Okayama,
home town of Hitomi Kinue
and Yuko Arimori, both Olympic silver medalists, won the 30th annual JPN
Corporate team Women’s Ekiden Championships. It was first victory for Tenmaya,
who finished second last year, in 2:14:35. Track record holder Kayoko Fukushi
was fastest in 3rd stage (10
km) in 31:26 but her team Wacoal was at the end only
8th.

BRYANSK (RUS, Dec 18): Igor Gostev sprinted
to hand-timed 6.4 at 60 m
during 4th Sinyayev Memorial indoor meet. In women´s 60 m Yuna Mekhti-Zade got 7.0.
In 1000 m
race Yekaterina Martynova was timed at 2:46.9.

MOSCOW (RUS, Dec 18): During first day of
Student Competitions European junior champion 2009 Aleksandr Menkov leaped to 790 in long jump. Yevgeniy
Ustavshchikov posted 6.75 to win the 60 m. Former hurdles European indoor champion
Aleksandra Antonova tried long jump (571) and shot put (10.85).

DRESDEN (GER, Dec 18): High jump world bronze
medalist Raul Spank showed his versatility as he clocked 8.11 to win the 60 m hurdles here.

PAROW (RSA, Dec 18): In the
fourth and final leg of Yellow Pages Summer Series (the real series returns in
February) Leigh Julius achieved 6.81 at 60 m and was beatean at 150 m (15.70) by Sergio
Mullins (15.63). Cornel Fredericks
continued in winning, this time 35.15 at 300 m hurdles. African relay champion Sibusiso
Sishi got 33.27 at 300 m.
Cindy Stewart was the fastest woman in 7.45 and 17.85 (60/150 m double). In the
mile Dean Brummer (son of Deon Brummer a known runner in the eighties) was the
best in 4:07.91 ahead of Samson Ngoepe (4:11.12).

ALLENDALE (USA, Dec 16): NAIA indoor champion
Rumeal McKinney won the 60 m
at Grand Valley State Holiday Open meet in 6.72.

CORRECTION

LONDON (GBR): Correction in regard to the
Great British Runners publication. Jason Henderson corrects: “We drew on many
past issues of Athletics Weekly – and of course Mel was editor and a writer for
many of the magazines 65-year history, so we gave him a credit in the credits
panel. But the bookzine itself was written by a variety of Athletics Weekly
staff.”