OLIVER TO OPEN THE SEASON

GAINESVILLE (USA):
Last year world best hurlder and US record holder David Oliver will
make his outdoor hurdles debut at 67th Florida Relays this Friday. He is
entered in the lists published by the organizers along with training colleagues
Joel Brown and Jamaican record holder Dwight Thomas. The Florida Relays began
more than 70 years ago in 1939, thanks to the vision and creativeness of the
Gators’ legendary head track and field coach Percy Beard. Since that first meet
72 years ago, the Pepsi Florida Relays have grown in epic proportions from the
small regional competitions on April Fool’s Day that featured 209 competitors,
to one of the nation’s premier track and field meets. Writes Gator´s website. Also
entered is long jump world champion Brittney Reese, she will compete in the 100 m. Former world and
olympic 100 m
winner Justin Gatlin is in the list along with Xavier Carter also for the short
dash. Olympic finalist Churandy Martina plans to test his sprint endurance in
the 400 m.
Last year US Championships second placer Johnny Dutch should compete in his
special event, the 400 m
hurdles. US record holder in sprints Tyson Gay informed via his twitter some
time ago he wants to run 4×400 m relay here. In the women events world medalist
Jamaican Deloreen Ennis-London is in the 100 m hurdles, Tiffany
Ross-Williams in the 400 m
hurdles, Natasha Hastings should run the 200 m and quarter-miler Novlene Williams-Mills
of Jamaica
is in the 800 m
entry list. Former world champion Tianna Madison is scheduled for long jump.

SANYA FOR WACO

WACO (USA): After running
the 200 m
already and commited to Allyson Felix duel in Rome at Golden Gala meet in the 400 m the reigning world
champion Sanya Richards-Ross plans for her season debut in the 400 m. It should happen at
the Michael Johnson/Dr. Pepper Invitational on April 23 in Waco.

VAN ZYL NOW 9TH IN 400/400H

LONDON (GBR): Athletics Weekly came out with fast
stats about the best athletes in the 400/400H combination after another
impressive improvement of South African LJ Van Zyl. He is now 9th best ever
with this years times 44.86 and 47.66, total of 2426 points. Top three are
Angelo Taylor 2501 (44.05+47.25), Kerron Clement 2473 (44.48+47.24) and Andre
Phillips 2460 (44.71+47.19). Only fourth is world record holder Kevin Young
2454 (45.11+46.78). Best European position for Harald Schmid as 8th and 2431
points (44.86+47.66).

SEMENYA AT THE NATIONALS

PRETORIA (RSA): World champion Caster Semenya will next
run at the South African Championships in Durban
(April 8-9). It will be most probably the 400 m and then she plans races at IAAF World
Challenge meet in Dakar on May 28 and most
probably at Prefontaine Classic in Eugene
on June 4. It is interesting to note that she clocked her 400 m best on Saturday some
50 minutes after winning the 800
m.

WANJIRU OUT OF LONDON

LONDON (GBR): Olympic winner Sammy Wanjiru is out of
31st London Marathon (Apr 17). The World Marathon Majors champion has been
forced to withdraw from next month’s race with a knee injury, organizers said
today. As RRW writes: “I am bitterly disappointed not to be able to race in London this year,”
Wanjiru, 24, said through a news release. “Winning the London Marathon in 2009
was one of the great achievements of my career and I was hoping to become the London champion again.”
He continued: “But I have been suffering some problems with my right knee
recently which meant I had to withdraw from the Lisbon Half-Marathon.
Unfortunately, it has not responded well enough for me to make my final
preparations for London.”
After winning last October’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon in a thrilling
sprint finish over Ethiopian Tesgaye Kebede, Wanjiru has faced several
difficulties. Last December, he was arrested at his home in Nyahururu and
charged with threatening his wife, striking a security guard, and possessing an
illegal AK-47 rifle. Wanjiru was released on bail, and his wife later withdrew
her charges against him (he still faces the weapons charge, however). Wanjiru
was also involved in a car accident last January on the Nairobi-Nyahururu road,
rolling his four wheel drive vehicle several times trying to avoid an oncoming
truck. Acting quickly, London race director Dave
Bedford has added three-time London
champion Martin Lel to the field (both athletes are represented by Federico
Rosa). Lel, 32, who has a 2:05:15 personal best, won the London race in 2005, 2007 and 2008.
Struggling with his own injury problems, Lel hasn’t run a marathon since
finishing fourth at the Olympic Games in 2008. He has, however, completed
several half-marathons, winning both the 2009 Lisbon and Great North Half-Marathons and
breaking one hour in both events.

OTHER NEWS

DUNEDIN (NZL): Athletics New
Zealand has announced that the 2012 New Zealand Track and Field championships will
be held in Auckland.
The event will celebrate the 125th anniversary of Athletics New Zealand and
will double as a 2012 Olympic Trial event. The date and venue will be announced
shortly. Athletics New Zealand Events Manager Will Stewart said “We are
stepping up the promotion and presentation of our key events and the Track
& Field Championships is our flagship event, so Athletics New Zealand and
the local organising committee are going to ensure that Auckland 2012 will be a
fantastic championship event.” The federation website announced.

PERTH (AUS): Australian news agency informs that
former world champion at 400 m
hurdles Jana Rawlinson is set to race on Australian soil for the first time in
five years at the Perth Track Classic on Thursday and Friday. And in her corner
will be the Melbourne-based coach Phil King, the husband of Australia’s other great 400m hurdler, Seoul 1988 Olympic champ
Debbie Flintoff-King. Rawlinson’s former coaches include Craig Hilliard and her
English husband Chris Rawlinson, who won the men’s 400m hurdles gold medal at
the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

FLAGSTAFF (USA) : German European track champion from 2006 Jan Fitschen
is currently training in Flagstaff in preparation of his marathon debut in
Dusseldorf in May and lets leichtathletik.de know he is in very good shape. The
former European 10.000m champion reaches mileage of up to 230 kilometers per
week while training in the Arizona
altitude.

LAUSANNE (SUI): Great Britain’s Lisa Dobriskey has
confirmed she will not try to double in the 800m and 1500m in the near future.
Dobriskey instead will focus on her pet event the 1500m explaining she hopes to
be competitive in the 1500m as she is more of an endurance runner.

LONDON (GBR): Colin Moynihan, the chairman of the
British Olympic Association (BOA), is under pressure after a senior Minister
from his own political party condemned his decision to take legal action
against London 2012 to try to get more money from the Games writes Insidethegames.

RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Brazil Sports Minister Orlando Silva is
seeking help from the country’s Congress to simplify bidding processes and
speed-up work ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympics and
Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Silva said the Congress could help by changing the current rules, thus allowing
construction work to be completed in time ahead of both events. Brazil is
facing significant challenges upgrading airports, renovating stadiums and
improving public transportation, and some recent reports have warned that the
slow pace in construction work may lead to missed deadlines reports
Insidethegames.

NAIROBI (KEN):
Kenya’s
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has announced that Kenya will bid for the
2020 Olympic
Games. “No other country in Africa has won as many medals at the
Olympics as Kenya and we are appealing to Brazil, who organizes the 2016
Olympic and Paralympic Games, to support us towards achieving this
goal,”
Ondinga was quoted in Chinadaily.com.

MADRID (ESP) : Spanish 5000 m record holder
Alemayehu Bezabeh has been cleared from his connection to the doping case
“Operacion Galgo”. Bezabeh was arrested by the Spanish police on December 9th
and was forced to withdrawn from the European cross country championships.
Bezabeh has now been released from all charges and is free to compete. Bezabeh
is currently training in Ethiopia.

ATHENS (GRE): The case continues. Greek sprinter of
the past Katerini Thanou appeared on Monday in the court in her trial over
alleged false statements to authorities in the 2004 Athens Olympics case. The
36-years old Thanou said she never doped and that she could not recall the
exact details of how a motorcycle accident involving her and another sprinter
Kostadinos Kenteris happened. The male sprinter was not present due to personal
travel to USA.
“I expect the judges to take into account the new information received and to
make a fair decision. I had more than 300 unannounced tests in my career. I
have never been found positive and we have heard so much over the last seven
years. I had no comment or reprimand from the international federation for some
misconduct,” Thanou was quoted by Greek media. The trial will continue on April
5 with the speeches of lawyers.

RESULTS

PERTH (AUS, Mar 25-26): Berlin
medalist Mitchell Watt remains in top shape when he leaped to 828 (+0.8) in
long jump during the Western Australia Championships. Aaroun Rouge-Serret
clocked windy 10.33 (+2.4) in the 100
m.

SAO PAULO (BRA, Mar 25): South American 100 m record holder Ana
Claudia da Silva is already in good shape as she clocked here 11.19 in her heat (+1.0),
only 0.04 behind her continental mark. In the finals she achieved 11.41 (+1.7).
In men´s 100 m
Carlos Roberto Moraes got 10.44 (-1.1). Thiago Mendes posted 13.74 (+1.4) in
the 110 m
hurdles. Nice double for Geisa Coutinho, she was timed with 23.38 (-2.2) in the
200 m
and 51.97 in
the 400 m.

ENVIGADO (COL,
Mar 27): Mexican Cristian Berdeja won the last event at Copa Panamericana in
walking. He clocked 3:59:14 at 50
km ahead of Colombian Fredy Hernandez (3:59:40, PB) and
Roland Saquipay of Ecuador
(4:01:20 in his debut at the distance). To correct the information from Sunday,
women 20 km
winner was 39-years old Evelyn Nunez of Guatemala with 1:36:04.

SAN JOSE (CRC, Mar 27): At the opening meet of the new
Estadio Nacional Mateo Edward from Panama achieved 10.57 (-1.0) in the
100 m.
He is 17-years old South American Youth champion. World 200 m medalist Alonso Edward
is his older brother.

VENLO (NED, Mar 27): Third placer at Sunday´s Venlo
Half-Marathon Jussi Utriainen clocked new Finnish record 1:02:50. Former mark
of Janne Holmen was 1:03:01 from Bristol 2001 World Championships.