by Larry Eder
Only 3 defenders confirmed as not competing
DAEGU (KOR): All but 3 individual title defenders from Berlin 2009
should compete in Daegu. From title defenders not competing as of now Mbulaeni
Mulaudzi at 800 m (injury), Marta Dominguez in the steeple (birth of
the child) and Steffi Nerius in javelin (end of the career). Also
marathon women winner Bai Xue of China has had injury problems and there
is a good chance she will not be there. Other title defenders should
compete, including Kenenisa Bekele or Yusuf Saad Kamel who were recently
not active in competing. Latest question marks comes from Croatia about
Blanka Vlasic. List of most other notable absentees from Daegu reads
like this: 100 m/200 m: Tyson Gay injury, 200 m: Wallace Spearmon
injury, 400 m: Jeremy Wariner injury, 1500 m: Nixon Chepseba not
qualified, steeple: Paul Kipsiele Koech not qualified, steeple: Gulnara
Samitova-Galkina, not qualified, long distances: Tirunesh Dibaba,
injured, 100mH: Lolo Jones, not qualified and injured, mar: Haile
Gebrselassie, concentrating on fall marathon, mar: Paula Radcliffe,
concentrating on fall marathon, high jump: Andrey Silnov, not qualified,
high jump: Chaunte Howard-Lowe, not qualifed after maternity, Ariane
Friedrich, injured, triple jump: Teddy Tamgho, injured, hamme: Aleksey
Zagorniy, injured. Also a group of other top marathon runners
concentrating on fall races.
Prize money and WR bonus as in the past
MONTE CARLO (MON): IAAF confirmed the financial bonuses for top 8
placers for Daegu and world record bonuses as at previous championships.
Once again, the IAAF is proud to present its World Record Programme at
the Daegu World Championships where athletes achieving a World Record
will be eligible for a special World Record Award of $100,000 offered by
Toyota (men events) and TDK (women events). At last event in Berlin
Usain Bolt got the bonus twice and Anita Wlodarczyk for her hammer
record. The performance must be an improvement on the existing IAAF
World Record. Good news that in difficult financial situation everywhere
IAAF confirmed the prize money with 60 000 USD for individual winners
(30 000, 20 000 for other medalists, going until 8th worth of 4000) and
80 000 USD for winning relays. The World Marathon Cup teams will get 20
000 USD for win, 15 000 for second and 12 000 for third. Informs IAAF in
a release.
Jamaican 100 m wins: Harvey and Russell
SHENZHEN (CHN, Aug 17): Second day of athletics at World University
Games saw Jamaica winning both 100 m finals. Jacques Harvey clocked
10.14 (-0.2) in close race with Lithuanian Rytis Sakalauskas who
improved his national record to 10.14 as second. Bronze for home Su
Bingtian 10.27 ahead of other European sprinters Ronalds Arajs of Latvia
10.29 and British European U23 Champion James Alaka 10.29. Carrie
Russell dominated clearly women 100 m with twice recording new PB 11.05
in semifinals and finals (+0.5 and -0.7). Rest of the podium for
Europeans Hrystyna Stuy of Ukraine (11.34) and Lithuanian Lina
Grincikaite (11.44). Suguru Osako won the 10 000 m for Japan in 28:42.83
over South African Stephen Mokoka 28:53.09. Other finals of the day
were technical events. Poland´s European U23 winner from Ostrava Pawel
Fajdek was a clear hammer number one with 78.14 (ahead of Slovak NCAA
bound Marcel Lomnicky 73.90). Another gold for Poland by Berlin finalist
Zaneta Glanc in discus with life-time best 63.99 beating Lithuanian
Zinaide Sendriute 62.49 and Russians Svetlana Saykina (60.81) and Vera
Ganeyeva (60.29). Russians dominated women long jump when World indoor
finalist 2010 Anna Nazarova leaped to 672 (+0.6) over Yulia Pidluzhnaya
656 (-0.5). Bronze for German Melanie Bauschke 651 (-0.1). European
junior champion Marcell Deak Nagy of Hungary was the fastest in men´s
400 m semifinals (45.86), US national champion and Daegu bound Jeshua
Anderson was the best in 400 m hurdles heats (49.78). Russian champ
Ildar Minshin was the best in the steeple first round (8:45.32) and
Turkish Binnaz Uslu in women steeple heats (9:47.29). Russians were
fastest in other women prelims, Yelena Migunova in the 400 m semifinals
(52.03) and Yelena Kofanova in the 800 m semifinals (2:01.14). Vasiliy
Kharlamov is the overnight decathlon leader with 4083 points. Hungarian
Eva Orban was the best in women hammer qualification (68.63) and Les
Copeland of Fiji in men´s javelin prelim with national record 80.45 m.
OTHER DAEGU NEWS (Vlasic, K. Bekele, Mulaudzi)
FRANKFURT (GER): World junior champion 2010 in javelin Till Woschler is
out from German team for Daegu. It is a muscle injury (below elbow
tendon).
SPLIT (CRO): High jump world champion Blanka Vlasic informs on her
website that she has injury worries. It is partial torn of her left
muscle semimembranosus. It is not the same injury that troubled her
before this season. The decision about her participation at the World
Championships will be announced on Friday at a press conference.
SYDNEY (AUS): Double Olympic medallist in walking Jared Tallent has in
recent days joined almost all of the Australian Flame team in the IAAF
world championships athlete village, with the star walker set to take
full advantage of his early arrival before the gun sounds for the men’s
20km walk on Sunday, August 28. Looking to acclimatise to the hot and
humid conditions of the host city, Tallent, who will also compete in the
50km walk, has arrived in Daegu (KOR) after spending much of his year
training in the altitude house and heat room of the Australian Institute
of Sport. “I’ve headed overseas for a couple of races but based myself
primarily in Canberra this year, training at home and using the
facilities at the AIS. I have spent plenty of time in the altitude house
and even more in the heat room so that I can prepare for the hot
conditions that we’ll face,” Tallent said. Another top walker aiming for
a double in Daegu is Slovak Matej Toth.
JOHANNESBURG (RSA): Website time-to-run.com informs that Mbulaeni
Mulaudzi will not defend his 800 m title in Daegu. He was struggling
with injury earlier in the year and as the site informs, it returned and
did not recovered despite treatment. “His hamstring problem is
affecting his lower back,” said his coach JP van der Merwe. In other SA
news runnerspace.com writes that there appears to be something seriously
wrong with Caster Semenya. These are the rumours doing the rounds over
the past few weeks in local athletics circles. She withdrew from World
University Games due to an injury.
PARIS (FRA): In French 4×100 m team former european indoor record holder
Ronald Pognon replaces injured Barcelona individual medalist Martial
Mbandjock.
STOCKHOLM (SWE): Sweden is sending 16 athletes to Daegu. Good chances
for high position for triple jump 2004 olympic winner Christian Olsson
and for high jumper Emma Green Tregaro. Former combined events star
Carolina Kluft is competing in the long jump. Due to injuries not
competing world junior record holder in pole vault Angelica Bengtsson
and shot put record holder Helena Engman. The team – men – PV: Jeng, LJ:
Torneus, TJ: Olsson, DT: N. Arrhenius, L. Arrhenius, HT: Jons, JT:
Wallin, 20 kmw: Ibanez, 50kmw: Gustafsson. Women – 200 m and 400 m:
Hjelmer, Mar: Andersson, HJ: Jungmark, Green Tregaro, PV: Dahlstrom, LJ:
Kluft, Hept: Samuelsson.
BRUSSELS (BEL): Correct the Belgian team EME NEWS listed, not competing
in decathlon is Hans van Alphen, but in the 100 m hurdles Anna Zagre.
NAIROBI (KEN): East Standard informs that David Rudisha asserted that
the fact he has no major medal will work to his advantage and propel him
to win his first world title. “Perhaps going into this championships
without a major title like the Olympics or World title is a plus because
it does not put me under any pressure and gives me the room to run my
race,” he said while training in Kasarani. “I will not take chances
despite my status as the world record holder. I respect everyone going
into the championships and only hope to win in my race,” he added.
Elsewhere, 1500 m runner Hellen Obiri, who is making a debut at the
world championship, says she hopes to do well in the new 4-lap
speciality which she has picked after stiff competition saw her switch
from the 800m distance. Obiri admitted that it will be challenging
coping with the pressure in 1,500m but she hopes to finish within the
medal brackets.
PORT OF SPAIN (TRI): Members of Trinidad and Tobago’s men’s 4×100
metres relay squad for the August 27-September 4 World Track and Field
Championships, in Daegu, Korea, have thrown their support behind Darrel
Brown, saying they wanted the 26-year-old sprinter to be part of the
team. Informs Trinidad Express.
DAEGU (KOR): World indoor champion at 800 m in 2008 Tamsyn Manou will
not run in the 400 metres relay for Australia in the World Championships
starting next week. Whether she was ever planning to is a matter of
conjecture, communication and protocol.
It emerged yesterday that Manou had pulled out of the relay team for the
world championships in Daegu, South Korea, next week. Writes The Age.
Seemingly she had done so out of anger at not being picked for her pet
event, the 800 metres. She said on her Facebook page that she was upset
at missing the event and it seemed this was behind her decision not to
run in the relay. Manou clarified that, yes, she was disappointed not to
be in the Australian team for the 800 metres in Daegu, but insisted she
had never intended to run in the 400 metres relay. She said she had
told Athletics Australia and had the emails to prove it.
ADDIS ABABA (ETH): Despite not racing on the track since September 12,
2009 (3000 m winner at last IAAF World Athletics Final) Kenenisa Bekele
will travel to Daegu and try to defend his 10 000 m title. “He is going
to Daegu and will run. He is training well,” his agent Jos Hermens told
Reuters. Bekele never lost in his career a 10 000 m track race. “He is a
special runner. Even without competitions he can be there with the
best,” said Hermens for EME NEWS.
OTHER NEWS
LONDON (GBR): Insidethegames informs that the Olympic Park was one of
the main targets for rioters in London last week but the Metropolitan
Police were able to prevent an attack because of intelligence they
picked-up on social networking sites like Twitter, senior officials told
the House of Commons. The Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner
Lynne Owens told the Home Affairs Committee that rioters in Hackney, one
of the five Olympic Host Boroughs, had planned to storm the Olympic
Park and Westfield Straford City, which is adjacent to the facilities
being built for London 2012 and is due to officially open next month.
Westfield is also due to be the headquarters for several teams and
sponsors during the Games, including Team GB.
MONTE CARLO (MON): IAAF confirmed new TV deals for Daegu across the
Asia-Pacific region, and in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia and
Albania. Dentsu, the IAAF Commercial Partner for media rights outside
Europe and Africa, has finalised a deal with the Asia-Pacific
Broadcasting Union for extended highlights of the 2011 IAAF World
Championships, Daegu, Korea covering 10 Asian territories and some
Pacific Islands who will all be broadcasting ‘free to air’. The
territories covered are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Macao, Mongolia,
Myanmar, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Timor, the Pacific
territories of Fiji and Papua New Guinea, as well as an array of smaller
islands.
LAUSANNE (SUI): The United States Olympic Committee is challenging the
IOC on Wednesday over a doping rule that currently bars American
sprinter LaShawn Merritt from the 2012 London Games. The Court of
Arbitration for Sport says it intends to issue a verdict in September on
the legality of the so-called “six-month rule.” A announcement is
expected in one month time. Merritt was named in US Team for Daegu
despite not running at the US Trials and hopes to be cleared if
qualified also for Olympic Games 2012.
BRUSSELS (BEL): 2008 Olympic high jump winner Tia Hellebaut is working
on her comeback after giving birth to her second child. She confirmed
that for Belgian media. “Last week I got my spikes for the first time
and completed first training. It feels different to jump with spikes
than with normal shoes. Now I really feel like I’m back in the high
jump,” she said after clearing 160 in the training. She plans to return
into competition after her usual training camp in South Africa end of
January.
OTTAWA (CAN): Athletics Canada announced that they have secured the
rights to host the 2015 Panamerican Junior Athletics Championships, held
every two years, the championships stack up the best under-20
competition for junior aged athletes outside of the IAAF World Junior
Championships. Canada last hosted this event in 2005 when it took place
in Windsor, Ont. This past spring a call for interested parties went
out with a record eleven cities expressing interest to host the event in
2015. The potential host communities have until January 31, 2012 to
submit their formal bid candidature. Short listed candidates will make
their final presentations in Ottawa, Ont., during Athletics Canada’s
2012 Annual General Meeting in May with the host city selected shortly
after in early June.
RESULTS
SAMSUN (TUR, Aug 15): European U23 silver medalist Tugba Karakaya
improved at special trials race during Turkish Junior Club League Finals
at 1500 m to fast 4:03.41. That means standards for Daegu and London
for her. It is also second best mark of 2011 in Europe in the U23
category.
REGENSDORF (SUI, Aug 16): Marc Schneeberger posted good 33.40 in the 300
m and Nicole Buchler cleared 420 in the pole vault at a local meet.
