RUDISHA TO DEBUT AT THE 1000 M

OSTRAVA (CZE): World
record holder and IAAF AOY 2010
Kenyan David Rudisha will make his 1000 m debut at the jubilee 50th
Ostrava Golden
Spike Meeting on May 31. Organizers announced at a press conference. It
will be
his fourth appearance in the Czech city (second in 2008 and winner in
2009 and
2010). The event itself will also be staged for first time. “I’m very
happy to
be running again in Ostrava.
It is a good meeting; of course one of my favourites. This year it’s
exciting
for me to be running a new distance; my first time to try 1000 meters. I
understand why people might ask me about the world record but really I
can’t
talk of this yet…..I aim to run a strong race and to run well but I
think it
is not realistic to think of world record for my first attempt at the
distance.
Maybe in the future I can come back to do this in Ostrava,” Rudisha said
in a statement for the
organizers. After two races in Australia
(1:43.88 and 1:44:80) he plans two competitions before Ostrava. In Doha
and in Rome Rudisha will check his 800 m shape. Russian world´s
top high jumper Ivan Ukhov is well known in Czech Republic,
but from indoor competitions. Now he will for first time jump outdoors
in Ostrava. Organizers are
hoping he may attack the meet (231) or stadium (232) records. The
Russian who
was undefeated last indoor season will debut outdoors in Ostrava. His
indoor debuts in last two years
were remarkable (237 and 238
in Hustopece). But it should be admitted, his outdoor
best is 236. His main rival will be home star Jaroslav Baba who won
silver at
European Indoor Championships. Baba now lives in Prague
but comes from Ostrava
area and trained at the City Stadium of Ostrava since beginning of his
career
for 10 years. Men´s high jump will be staged at the meet for first time
since
2007. Third top name announced is “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius from
South Africa
for the 400 m.
He recently improved to excellent 45.61 what is Daegu B-qualifier. “I am
very
excited to be competing in Ostrava,
I have never had the opportunity to compete there yet and I know the
organizers
have been trying to get me to compete here for the past couple of
seasons and I
am glad this time round the dates could work out. I know the field will
be strong
in the 400m and the race tough but I will most certainly look to try and
achieve the IAAF A standard in Ostrava
and give it my best. I have only followed the meeting on TV here in SA
and it
always seem such a great meet to compete in with the crowd always
supporting
the athletes,” the Paralympic gold medalist said for the organizers.
Pistorius
will race this weekend at South African Championships and plans before
Ostrava to compete at Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

MORE KENYANS FOR VIENNA

VIENNA (AUT): A group of strong Kenyans have been
signed for the 28th edition of the Vienna City Marathon on 17th April. Among
them is the former IAAF World Half Marathon Champion Paul Kirui. While the
Kenyans are expected to target the 2:07:38 course record they will additionally
give Haile Gebrselassie quite a run through the Austrian capital. Ethiopia’s
superstar will be competing in the half marathon and run a unique chase race.
The elite marathon runners will get a head start and it will be Haile’s aim to
catch them before he finishes his half marathon. The time difference at the
start has yet to be determined. More than 30,000 runners have already entered
the various events of the Vienna City Marathon. One of his strongest opponents
will be Patrick Ivuti. Isaac Macharia is another experienced marathon runner
who will compete in the Vienna City Marathon. Actually his best result so far
came in a race with Haile Gebrselassie. When the Ethiopian took the Dubai
Marathon in 2008 with 2:04:53 the Kenyan was second in 2:07:16. Joseph Ngeny
and Wilson Kigen could also play a part when it comes to determining the Vienna
City Marathon champion.

BALCIUNAITE BAN CONFIRMED

VILNIUS (LTU): Unfortunately the doping case of
Lithuanian long distance runner Zivile Balciunaite (32) is confirmed. She is
banned for two years, the Lithuanian Athletics Federation informed after the
meeting of its disciplinary committee. She won the marathon at European
Championships in Barcelona
with 2:31:14 but will now be disqualified and forced to return the gold medal.
Agencies are writing that her test in Barcelona
showed a deviation from the allowed ratio between the male sex hormone
testosterone and epitestosterone. Balciunaite was provisionally banned already
end of last year. Her ban will end on Sep 6, 2012 and that means she will miss
also Olympic Games in London.
The lawyers of the runners are considering an appeal to CAS in Lausanne. Gold medal from European
Championships Marathon will so go to Russian Nailya Yulamanova, silver for
Italian Anna Incerti and bronze for Ukrainian Tetyana Filonyuk.

OTHER NEWS

ISTANBUL (GBR): British coach John Trower will be
technical adviser to Turkish javelin talent Fatih Avan till 2012 London Games.
He will arrive to Turkey
in late April for one week and after that will in different time frames support
the young thrower and his coach Metin Altintas. In similar position is helping
in Turkey
for hammer throwers Slovenian Vladimir Kevo, the former coach of olympic gold
medalist Primoz Kozmus. The 22 years old Avan improved in March at European Cup
Winter Throwing to national record 80.19 m.

KINGSTON (JAM): Track superstar Usain Bolt continues to
make headlines in the international press. Bolt is to appear in a feature story
in VIBE Magazine, the popular and highly regarded urban American music and
lifestyle publication. This comes on the heels of recent articles in the
British publications News & Star and This Is London. Hip hop star ’50 Cent’
is featured on the issue’s cover and it also includes a story on reggae legend
Bob Marley. Bolt on his facebook is now very close to 4 millions fans.

LAUSANNE (SUI): March was an action-packed month for
European athletes, with the European Cup Winter Throwing in Sofia, IAAF World
Cross Country Championships and a number of race walking and road races across
the continent. The highly successful European Athletics Indoor Championships in
Paris also took
place early last month but performances at the event were taken into account
during voting for February’s European Athlete of the Month. Following this,
European Athletics is pleased to announce these athletes from 14 countries have
been nominated for the European Athlete of the Month award for March. The
voting will close on Monday 18 April at noon.

PARIS (FRA) : The French Athletics Federation (FFA) has signed a
convention against homophobia in sports. The convention was proposed by the
French Minister of Sport and urges the FFA to help in the fight against
homophobia and discrimination in general.

BERLIN (GER) : The German national championships will
be televised on the national television channels ARD and ZDF. ARD takes care of
the broadcasting on Saturday July 23rd, while ZDF will televise the event on
Sunday July 24th. In total the event will be televised for over 4 hours reports
leichtathletik.de.

BERLIN (GER): After her disappointing display at the
Berlin Half Marathon Sabrina Mockenhaupt wrote on her website she wants to
forget the race as soon as possible. Mockenhaupt stressed that her early exit
from the race had nothing to do with injury but admits she suffered from the
heat and went out too fast. The German athlete now wants to refocus, forget
about the race and will announce a new competition soon.

LONDON (GBR): David Bedford, the race director of the
Virgin London Marathon, has quit his position as manager of the 2012 Olympic
marathon because of his “frustration” with the Games organizers. Bedford’s
colleague at the London Marathon, chief executive Nick Bitel, has revealed that
the 61-year-old former world 10,000 meters record holder stood down from his
Olympic role in February. “We are a professional business run by professionals
and it was very difficult to work for another organisation who in the main have
never organised an event of their own.” Bedford
was quoted. Bedford also described the handling
of the decision to cut out East End boroughs
from the marathon route as “appalling” writes Insidethegames.

MADRID (ESP): President of the International
Triathlon Union (ITU) Marisol Casado has been appointed chair of a worldwide
project to create a Global Framework for Recognition of Coaching Competence and
Qualifications reports Insidethegames. The announcement was made by the
Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) at its 35th
General Assembly. Marisol Casado along with Patrick Baumann, Secretary General
of the International Basketball Federation, were elected as new Council Members
of ASOIF. Dr Hassan Moustafa, President of the International Handball
Federation, was re-elected. Pat McQuaid, President of UCI remains
Vice-President. ASOIF thanked outgoing Council Members, Bruno Grandi and Bob
Elphinston for their great contribution during the last years. ASOIF head Denis
Oswald said the calendar of events is already full and is not seeing place for
new European Games.

LONDON (GBR): International sports federations will
be insured for up to 100 million dollar in the event the 2012 London Olympics
are canceled because of war or terrorism. Andrew Ryan, director of the
Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, says the 26 sports on
the Olympic program will pay in into the policy.

LONDON (GBR): WADA’s chief executive David Howman
said these athletes try to manipulate their drug test results by drinking two
liters or more of water diluting the test results to such a degree they are no
longer able to provide a positive case. Howman also suggested that the
collection and testing of back-up B samples should be scrapped in order to save
time and money in the fight against drugs writes The Telegraph.

LONDON (GBR): New guidelines over athletes’ gender at
the London 2012 Olympics will be announced by the International Olympic
Committee. In an attempt to avoid any embarrassing repetition of the Caster
Semenya case, the IOC’s executive board, who are meeting in London, will agree on the new guidelines and
the testing regime for determining gender. Prof Arne Ljunqvist, head of the
IOC’s medical commission, is expected to appear at a news conference to explain
the new rules following the meeting.

NEW YORK (USA):
Chiefs running back Jamaal
Charles says he will revisit his track-and-field career should the NFL
lockout
drag on for months. Charles, who was a track All-American at the
University of Texas, participated most notably in the 400 meter hurdles.
In
this event he won a bronze medal at World Youth Championships 2003 in
Sherbrooke and in 2006 posted 10.23 in the 100 m. He also said he has
talked with Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, Eagles wide receiver
DeSean
Jackson and Titans running back Chris Johnson about joining him on the
track-and-field circuit this summer.

AMSTERDAM (NED): Kenyan Eliud Kiptanui is one of the
favourites for this week’s ABN AMRO Rotterdam Marathon. Kiptanui made a great
display in his debut marathon in Prague where he
ran 2:05.39 but later on disappointed in the marathon of Berlin. Kiptanui is now aiming for a strong
performance in Rotterdam
even claiming he could one day get close to Haile Gebreselassie’s world record
writes losseveter.nl.

FRANKFURT (GER): Representatives of 60 athletics clubs and 45 Member
Federations attending the first European Athletics Clubs Conference, which took
place in Frankfurt, Germany,
from 1-3 April, have called on European Athletics to increase its support for
the development of national athletics clubs systems across Europe.
In an unanimously adopted communiqué, the 120 participants asked a newly
created European Athletics Clubs Working Group to promote the exchange of ideas
and best practice with regard to club operations, propose ways to develop the
international competition system for clubs and suggest activities that
integrate clubs in the delivery of European Athletics’ ‘Your Sport for Life’
strategy.

BERLIN (GER): The organizers of ISTAF meeting in Berlin (Sep 11) is
offering 25 percent discount for tickets if bought until May 15. That concerns
tickets in categories 2, 3 and 4.
In total 60 000 spectators are expected at the most
traditional one day meeting in Germany.

ATHENS (GRE): Agencies are informing that Greek
sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou won’t face maximum sentences if
convicted in a perjury trial, under recommendations made in court Tuesday. The
Sydney Olympic medalists are on trial, accused of faking a motorcycle accident
on the eve of the Athens Games in 2004 after missing a doping test that led to
their sporting suspension. The perjury charge carries a maximum sentence of
five years in prison. Public persecutor Giorgos Petrou urged the court to
reduce their sentence if convicted, accusing their coach Christos Tzekos of
being primarily responsible. Tzekos denied all allegations for Greek media.

RESULTS

GERMISTON (RSA, Apr 3): Talented Lebogang Moeng improved in the finals
at South African U23 Championships to 20.58 (+0.5) in the 200 m. Also impressive the
20.67 (+0.8) by junior champion Wade van Niekerk. Two more top results from U23
category. Cornel Fredericks
clocked 48.95 in
the 400 m
hurdles and Luvo Manyonga leaped to 807 in long jump.