Brisbane central business district, with the B...

Image via Wikipedia

The Australian track tour is starting and there are some good performances already! On March 3, in Melbourne, Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp will be among the athletes running the 5,000 meters.

On February 26, Galen Rupp will be running a 10,000 meters in Auckland, New Zealand as he and several athletes from New Zealand and Australia chase the A and B standards for 10,000 meters for the upcoming World Championships in Daegu, Korea. Rupp ran a 13:21 for 5,000 meters this past evening in Dusseldorf, and finished fourth, in a race won by an 18 year old Kenyan, Isaiah Koech, in 12:53.29WJR!

BRISBANE (AUS, Feb 11):
Australian Athletics Tour started with Beijing
hurdles Olympics silver medallist Sally Pearson blistering the straight to win
the 100m at the Brisbane Athletics Classic in 11.35 (+0.2) and later the 200 m in 23.05 (+0.4). Discus
world champion Dani Samuels won with 59.72 m. Lachlan Renshaw posted solid 1:47.35
in the 800 m.
Berlin relay medalist Ben Offereins won the 400 m in 46.25 and young
Henry Frayne (20) won the long jump with excellent 798 (+0.5). Chris Noffke was
second (759) and Mitchell Watt was second in the 100 m (10.54). Sprints double
winner Matt Davies got 10.43 and 21.13 (here only 0.01 ahead of 400 m specialist Sean Wroe).
New ZealandÂ´s Andrea Miller came close to her 100 m hurdles national record
with 13.15 (+0.4, the mark is 13.10). Second meet of the series will be in Hobart on February 20.

ADAMS GETS
THE AWARD AGAIN

AUCKLAND
(NZL): Shot put olympic and world winner Valerie Adams was named Sportswoman of
the year for the fifth year in a row at the prestigious Halberg Awards dinner
in Auckland
last evening. Informs Athletics New
Zealand. Adams
said that it was a real honour to make it number five. The international
meeting in Christchurch on February 26 will be Adams first appearance this season.

400 M HURDLES
WORLD BEST ATTACKS

VAL DU REUIL (FRA): At
SaturdayÂ´s International meeting here again 400 m hurdles will be staged
and world best attacks could be expected. In menÂ´s race legendary Felix Sanchez
will clash with US Reuben McCoy. In womenÂ´s race Sheena Tosta the Beijing silver medalist
will debut at the distance indoors. Target marks 49.73 of Sanchez last year at
the same meet and 58.66 of Moroccan Hayat Lambarki end of January in Bordeaux. Also to note
that Christine Arron is entered for 60 m and Finnish record holder Osku Torro (233
this year) in menÂ´s high jump.

SAILER
RETURNS

KARLSRUHE
(GER): The SundayÂ´s BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe
(IAAF Indoor Permit) will see as usual fast women on the straight. European
Champion Verena Sailer is finally ready for her season debut but she will have
it tough against fastest European of the 2011 season Olesya Povh of Ukraine. Also
French Barcelona medalists Myriam Soumare and Veronique Mang will be there. In
the 60 m
hurdles despite the late withdrawal of Lolo Jones the crowd will see world
leader Kellie Wells against two best Europeans German Carolin Nytra and
Norwegian record holder Christina Vukicevic. Not to forget other medalists from
the world level Perdita Felicien and Derval OÂ´Rourke.

SOM IS
OUT

GENT
(BEL): Dutch Bram Som has withdrawn from the 600m race at the Belgacom Flanders
Indoor (IAAF indoor Permit meeting) due to illness. The organization has
attracted Sudanese Ahmed Ismael Ismael to replace Som in the highly anticipated
600m race in which the BorlÃ©e twins want to attack the 600m indoor world best.
The mark is 1:15.12 by German Nico Motchebon in Sindelfingen, 1999. Other highlights steeple
olympic winner Brimin Kipruto in the 1500 m against Daniel Komen, 2000 m steeple with Paul
Kipsiele Koech in attack to improve his own world best of 5:17.04 last year at
the same meeting. Improved US Aries Merritt is the star of 60 m hurdles and local fans
will cheer in triple jump for Svetlana Bolshakova in duel with European
Champion Olga Saladuha.

COMBINED
EVENTERS ATTACKING

LAUSANNE
(SUI): Currently the fifth best marks in menÂ´s heptathlon and womenÂ´s
pentathlon to qualify for Paris
based on this years results are 5867 and 4339 points. This weekend combined
events championships are beeing held in many countries and this picture could
be changed. Also all-time hero Roman Sebrle who is not in this top five with
his 5848 in
Tallinn is forced to compete at Czech CE
nationals in Prague.
“There is no other chance, I must compete when I want to be in Paris. The illness from which I suffered in Estonia is ok
by now,” said Sebrle. In the heptathlon top five 5965 Kharlamov/RUS, 5951
Distelberger/AUT, 5901 Van der Plaetsen/BEL, 5881 Logvinenko/RUS and 5867
Dudas/SRB. In womenÂ´s pentathlon: 4422 Sadeiko/EST, 4406 Hejnova/CZE, 4383
Kand/EST, 4369 Grabuste/LAT and 4339 Rath/GER.

OTHER NEWS

HANNUIT (BEL): The last part of
the Lotto CrossCup cross country series will start this weekend with the cross
country race of Hannuit. Belgian athletes Sigrid Vanden Bempt, Veerle
Dejaeghere and Xenia Luxem will face tough opposition from European junior
champion Stephanie Twell and Brussels Crosscup winner Caroline Chepkwony. In
the men’s race Jeroen D’Hoedt is the hot favourite along with Atelaw Bekele and
last year’s winner Onesphore Nkuzimana of Burundi.

VANCOUVER
(CAN): New revelations about the bidding for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver indicate
possible violations of IOC ethics rules. The revelations come in a new book
written by John Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.
Reports based on excerpts disclose an alleged secret deal for Russia’s three
IOC votes in the campaign to host the 2010 Olympics writes npr.org.

SHEFFIELD (GBR): Kelly
Sotherton will get her first major test in the 400m when competing this weekend
at the Aviva Indoor Trials and UK Championships in Sheffield.
Sotherton recently switched to the 400m in an attempt to make the British
Olympic 4x400m squad but also wants to score high in the individual 400m, in
which she has a personal best of 52.47. Sotherton is facing tough competition
from Jenny Meadows, who is fine-tuning her speed ahead of the European indoor
championships. Also competing is Jodie Williams and Jeanette Kwakye in the 60m
as well as Dwain Chambers, Mark Lewis-Francis, Craig Pickering and Harry
Aikines-Aryeetey in the men’s race. Busiest athlete of the weekend will be
heptathlete Jessica Ennis who will be contesting 4 events: high jump, shot put,
long jump and 60m hurdles confirms Athletics Weekly.

APELDOORN (NED): Some good duels are expected
at the Dutch National indoor championships this weekend. European indoor gold
and silver medalist Gregory Sedoc and Marcel Van der Westen will go head to
head in the 60m hurdles, while Brian Mariano and Patrick Van Luijk duel it out
in the 60m. In the women’s sprint race junior sensation Dafne Schippers will
take on once again fellow junior Jamile Samuel. Schippers will also compete in
the long jump in which she needs 645 to qualify for Paris. European silver decathlon medalist
Eelco Sintnicolaas takes on the specialists in the pole vault, where
Robbert-Jan Jansen is the favorite. Rutger Smith will make his long awaited
return in the shot put while Yvonne Hak changes things up with an appearance in
the 1500m.

MELBOURNE (AUS): Pole vault
coach Mark Stewart has been coaching three of China’s best pole vaulters Quan
Yang, Yao Lu and Xiang Xia. Stewart, who is responsible for starting the career
of Steve Hooker, works with the athletes through a translator as the athletes
don’t speak any English. The athletes are competing in Australia for the duration of their
training camp.

LONDON (GBR): The British Olympic Association
(BOA) will be issuing guidelines for Twitter to all 26 sports participating at
the London 2012 Games in the hopes of avoiding unwanted headlines. The BOA has
stressed the guidelines will in no way be enforced upon athletes and they will
not be a set of rules or restrictions but will offer helpful advice on
effective use of social networks reports Insidethegames.

RESULTS

MOGILYOV (BLR, Feb 11): In the
morning session of first day of Belarus Indoor Championships Vitaliy Talanov
won the 10 000 m
walk in 42:16.80 and Sergey Litovchik 3000 m steeple in 8:42.68.

–

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
View all posts