POWELL VS. LEMAITRE

LAUSANNE (SUI): Just one month before the 36th edition
of Athletissima, athletes are showing a lot of interest for the meet, which is
part of the Samsung Diamond League. Already 10 world champions are confirmed.
The 100m should have eight sprinters who have already run under 10 seconds.
They will be lead Asafa Powell and Christophe Lemaître. In the 800m, David
Rudisha, the man who smashed the world record twice last year, will run against
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Alfred Kirwa Yego and Youssef Saad Kamel, who were gold,
silver and bronze medalist at the last World championships. In the 5000m, the
first confirmed athletes have all run under 13 minutes last year, with, for
example the Ethiopians Imane Merga and Tariku Bekele. The young Ethiopian Yenew
Alamirew, who has just set the world best performance of the year in the 3’000m
in Doha, will
also be in the race. The 110m hurdles will be led by the world record holder
Dayron Robles, whereas, in the 400m hurdles, we will see all medalists of the
last World championships in Berlin
with Kerron Clement, Javier Culson and Bershawn Jackson. The field events will
be just as fascinating, with Renaud Lavillenie confirmed in the pole vault,
Andreas Thorkildsen in the javelin, Teddy Tamgho versus Philipps Idowu in the
triple jump, Christian Cantwell versus Tomasz Majewski in the shot put (for
first time at the meet since 2000). In the women’s events, the following World
champions are already confirmed: Sanya Richards-Ross in the 400 m, Maryam Jamal in the 1500 m, Brigitte
Foster-Hylton in the 100 m
hurdles, Blanka Vlasic in the high jump and Dani Samuels in the discus throw.

IDOWU FOR POLAND

BYDGOSZCZ (POL): Enea Cup of Bydgoszcz on June 3 (EA Premium)! is having
as top names Philips Idowu in the triple jump, duel of 800 m runners Adam Kszczot
and Marcin Lewandowski against Mbulaeni Mulaudzi. Men´s pole vault will see the
revelation of the indoor season Pawel Wojciechowski against Raphael Holzdeppe
and Yevgeniy Lukyanenko. US Joel Brown is the star of the 110 m hurdles.

VCB FOR FAST TIMES

OSTRAVA (CZE): Olympic and world gold medalist
Veronica Campbell-Brown arrived on Friday to Ostrava to compete on Tuesday at 50th Ostrava
Golden Spike (IAAF World Challenge). It is her debut here, but an important
one. “It looks like this will be my last race before the Jamaican Trials, that
means an important one. I will run heats and finals, two possibilities for a
good time. My goal is to be faster as at my last meet and that was 10.92 in Shanghai,” said the sprinter who also
confirmed she will double at the national trials in order to qualify in both
sprints for Daegu. Also in Ostrava
on Friday in the lobby of the hotel already Sanya Richards-Ross, Kerron
Clement, Daniel Bailey, Yohan Blake and as a special guest for the jubilee meet
Maurice Greene who competed here back in 1995 during his first European tour.
The traditional children competition called Chocolate Spike had around 1000
kids running on Friday in the stadium.

SUPER GOTZIS

GOTZIS (AUT): The 37th edition of the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis features a
very strong men’s decathlon field event though Olympic Champion Brian Clay and
world record holder Roman Sebrle recently dropped out. World champions Trey
Hardee and Jessica Ennis lead the way in the Austrian leg of the IAAF Combined
Events Challenge. Hardee will be looking to win his first title in Götzis
against Cubans Leonel Suarez, Yordanis Garcia and Yunior Diaz and a strong
Dutch squad of Eelco Sintnicolaas and Ingmar Vos. Hardee’s compatriot Jake
Arnold, Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov,
Estonia’s Mikk
Pahapill and Andres Raja are among other top names to watch. The German squad
will be led by Pascal Berenbruch, Jan Felix Knobel, Norman Müller and Rico
Freimuth, who is the son of 1985 and 1988 Götzis winner Uwe Freimuth. European
champion Romain Barras will be missing in Götzis after injuries have slowed his
preparation for the 2011 season. In total the field features 18 men with a PB
of over 8000 points. In the women’s heptathlon Jessica Ennis makes her long
awaited return after injury ruined her indoor season. She will face tough
opposition though led by Nataliya Dobrynska, the 2008 Beijing
Olympic champion and 2010 World Indoor as well as last year’s European
Championships second-placer, Tatyana Chernova from Russia and German Jennifer Oeser.
Other top names are European indoor champion Antoinette Nana Djimou , Austra
Skujte, Margaret Simpson and Lilli Scharzkopf. Jessica Zelinka is making her
competitive return after giving birth to her first child.

SUPERB 5000 M RACE

HENGELO (NED): Dutch athletes Churandy Martina (100m),
Gregory Sedoc (110H), Bram Som (800m) and Yvonne Hak (800m) are expected to be
the Dutch stars at the FBK-Games in Hengelo
on May 29th (IAAF World Challenge). Sedoc takes on a strong hurdles field with
world record holder Dayron Robles as well as Terence Trammell starting their
2011 campaign. The men’s 800m features Polish top athletes Marcin Lewandowski
and Asam Kszczot while the women’s race shows the battle between European
silver medalist Yvonne Hak and British Jeanny Meadows. The women’s hurdles race
is a re-run from Rome
with Dawn Harper taking on Lolo Jones, Kellie Wells and Danielle Carruthers.
Strong distance races are foreseen with World champion Yusuf Saad Kamel, Mekonnen
Gebremedhin and Geoffrey Rono in the 1500m and up and coming star Yenew
Alamirew, Eliud Kipchoge and Augustine Choge in the 5000m. The women’s distance
races are highlighted by Maryam Jamal in the 1500m and Silvia Kibet in the
5000m. In the field events the clash between world champions Irving Saladino
and Dwight Philips is most interesting as well as Erik Cadées discus clash with
world champion Robert Harting, Piotr Malachowski, Virgilijus Alkna and fellow
Dutchman Rutger Smith. The men’s shot put will be held on Saturday at the Hengelo town square with
Rutger Smith taking on Christian Cantwell, Reese Hoffa, Adam Nelson and Dylan
Armstrong.

OTHER NEWS

LONDON (GBR) : Double European champion Mo Farah will
go head-to-head with compatriot Chris Thompson at both the Aviva Birmingham
Grand Prix and the Aviva London Grand Prix this summer. Farah and Thompson, who
achieved a memorable 1-2 at the European Championships last summer when
representing the Aviva Great Britain & Northern Ireland team over 10000m,
will drop down a distance to the 5000m for their very own battle of the Brits.
Mo Farah added he plans on running four Samsung Diamond League competitions
before the IAAF World Championships in Daegu.

ST JOHNS (ANT): Antigua sprinter Daniel Bailey is
looking forward to getting his season started and taking on trainingpartner
Usain Bolt when competing in Ostrava
on Tuesday. Bailey, who spoke to the Antigua Observer, said training has been
going very well as he has lost weight and gained muscle. Before starting the
season Bailey has bought tickets to watch his team Manchester United play the
Champions League final on Saturday. His main aim remains to get under 10
seconds, to do some PR (for Antigua & Barbuda) and to break the national
record.

LAUSANNE (SUI): Spanish walker Jesús Ángel García could
enter the athletics’ history books this summer as the first man to reach double
figures in world championships appearances. Garcia, who is 41, competed in
every World Championships since 1993 and is now named among Spain’s walkers
selected for the IAAF World championships in Daegu. Garcia made his debut at
the World Championships in Stuttgart
in 1993 where he won the 50km walk. In the initial Spanish selection Garcia is
joined by Mikel Odriozola and Jose Ignacio Diaz. Maria Vasco, Beatriz Pascual
and Maria Jose Poves are named for the women’s 20km writes European Athletics.

LAGOS (NIG): The women’s 100m race at this year’s Nigeria/Mobil track and
field championships scheduled for Calabar next month, will be the most
explosive in recent years, following the incredible 10.99 run by Oludamola
Osayomi last weekend in Brazil.
Blessing Okagbare, who will be aiming at breaking the 11 seconds barrier as
well, will be Osayomi’s biggest opposition reports Next.

JOHANNESBURG (RSA):South Africa will not launch a bid
for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics after the Government decided that it was
not the right time writes Insidethegames. South Africa’s Cabinet said it had
considered a request by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee
(Sascoc) to bid for 2020, but “has decided that it is better for the country to
consolidate the gains of the 2010 FIFA World Cup for now”. Durban,
Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth were all interested in
bidding.

BERLIN (GER): Germany
has appointed Michael Vesper as its Chef de Mission for next year’s Olympic
Games in London.
Vesper had fulfilled the same role at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Thomas Bach, the President
of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), and competitive sports
vice-president Christa Thiel will also take up key posts at the head of the
German delegation at the Games. Dr Bernd Wolfarth is the chief team doctor and
Klaus Eder is the senior physiotherapist of the team reports Insidethegames.

NEW YORK (USA): Another longtime NBC Sports
executive is leaving, a week after chief Dick Ebersol resigned. Ken Schanzer
announced his retirement Thursday after three decades at the network, including
the last 13 years as president of the sports division. At the request of the
company, Schanzer will stay on through the end of the summer informs Sports
illustrated.

LONDON (GBR): A recent report by EU Athletes finds that even in Europe,
the continent where the campaign to combat drug-taking should be at its most
sophisticated, more than half of all the national anti-doping agencies do not
meet the reporting standards required by the WADA Code, which was established
in 2003. Based on the 2009 figures only 20 of the 49 actually provided annual
reports, only 17 had adequate data and only 11 both published them and sent
them to WADA.

ALBANY (USA):
Before the air horn even sounds, a new record has been broken at the 33rd
annual Freihofer’s Run for Women set for Saturday, June 4th in Albany, NY.
With seven days to go until the prestigious 5K, 4,082 registrants have signed
up. This total betters the previous race day registration record of 4,029 set
in 2009.

TOKYO (JPN): Japan
announced its World Championships team for the walking. In the men´s 20 km the only selected
athlete so far is Yusuke Suzuki. In the 50 km Koichiro Morioka, Takayuki Tanii and
Hirooki Arai. Women will have full trio at 20 km with Kumi Otoshi,
Masumi Fuchise and Mayumu Kawasaki.

TOKYO (JPN): Japanese selection criteria for London
2012 were announced. First, the athletes must have Olympic “A” standard. Except
for the marathon, top Japanese in Daegu will be included in the Olympic team
provided he/she finishes in top 8
in Daegu. The winner of the national championships next
year will also make the Olympic team. The walkers must win the nationals with
time under: Men’s 20KmW (1:20:29) Women’s 20KmW (1:29:59) and M50KmW (3:51:59).
For the marathon, top Japanese in Daegu will make the Olympic team provided
he/she wins a medal. As with previous years, Fukuoka,
Tokyo and Lake
Biwa for men and Yokohama,
Osaka and Nagoya
for women will also serve as the Olympic qualifying races.

TORONTO (CAN): Haiti triple jump record holder
with 17.39 Samyr Laine signed an endorsement deal with Mizuno. “I am very
excited about the association and the support provided to me by Mizuno”.

RESULTS

MANCHESTER (GBR, May 27): Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius
stole the show with two gold medals as his Rest of the World side moved within
sight of victory after a whirlwind day at the BT Paralympic World Cup. He
clocked 11.04 (-0.2) in the 100
m and paralympic world record in the 400 m 47.28. “I’m extremely
chuffed. I came out here to enjoy the race and didn’t have any eyes on breaking
world records so to do it is fantastic. I wanted to run at my own pace and see
where it would take me and that’s exactly what happened. I’m so happy and
blessed to have the support I do here and I wish I could thank everyone. I’ve
been running here for the past seven years and it’s great to run in a place so
passionate about Paralympic sport and so educated when it comes to disability.
I truly am blessed and over the moon,” he was quoted at event website. His next
race is 50th Ostrava Golden Spike at 400 m (IAAF World Challenge) on Tuesday.

GOREE ISLAND
(SEN, May 27): The usual pre-programme at Goree Island
before Dakar Grand Prix (on Saturday) by shot putters was controlled by Cubans.
Carlos Veliz (20.18) and Misledys Gonzalez (18.36) won the competitions.