STRONG WOMEN ADDED

FRANKFURT (GER): Strong Ethiopian and Kenyan competitors
have been added to the women’s field of the BMW Frankfurt Marathon, which will
see its 30th edition on 30th October. Merima Mohammed, Mamitu Daska, Fate Tola
and Agnes Kiprop will feature in Germany’s second major marathon
race. Five weeks after the Berlin
race, organisers of the BMW Frankfurt Marathon expect a record entry of about
14,000 runners and similar high-class results as seen last Sunday in the capital.
So far organisers of the BMW Frankfurt Marathon had announced a number of
European women elite runners, who will compete at the jubilee edition. Among
them were Germany’s Sabrina
Mockenhaupt (winner of Frankfurt in 2008/PB:
2:26:21), Liz Yelling (Great Britain/2:28:33), Aniko Kalovics
(Hungary/2:29:04), Kirsten Melkevik (Norway/2:29:12), Susanne Hahn
(Germany/2:29:26) and Andrea Mayr (Austria/2:30:43). Organizers are informing
in a release.

MAKAU IS SATISFIED

NAIROBI (KEN): The new World Marathon record holder Patrick Makau says
he’s satisfied with his season that winning the World Marathon Majors title
“will just be a bonus” to him. Makau moved to the top of the WMM standings with
60 points after he shattered Haile Gebrselassie’s 2008 World record by 21
seconds with a new time of 2:03:38 at Berlin Marathon on Sunday. “My aim in Berlin was to break the
world record and then target the Olympic Games. The rest, like winning the WMM,
will come as a bonus to me,” said Makau. “There is still Chicago Marathon and
New York City Marathon to go and anything can happen since Emmanuel is in
contention with only five points separating us.” Writes The Nation.

RULING EXPECTED NEXT WEEK

LONDON (GBR): The Independent writes that CAS is to
rule next week on a case between the US Olympic Committee and the International
Olympic Committee that could yet open the way for sprinter Dwain Chambers and
cyclist David Millar to compete at the London Olympics. The CAS had been
expected to give its decision this week but will now issue a binding judgement
next Thursday.

MVP ADMITS AREAS OF CONCERN

KINGSTON (JAM): MVP Track Club has admitted there are
areas of concern within the group and thus would be moving to make corrections.
The club made the revelation in a statement to the media on Wednesday, on the
heels of several athletes departing the UTech-based Club in recent times. “We
recognize and acknowledge that there are areas in which we can improve the
general and specific methods of operation for our group and will continue a process
of introspection and renewal, with the continued pursuit of building better
Jamaican athletes,” the club said in a statement. Writes Track Alerts.

446
305 IS THE FINAL NUMBER

DAEGU (KOR): The final number of spectators at IAAF World Championships
in Korea was 446 305 nearing
the 500 000 which was achieved in Berlin
two years ago. But for a country with not that big tradition in athletics this
is a impressive figure. The best day was the first day Saturday August 27
evening with 46 123 spectators followed by last evening Sunday September 4 with
35 194. From the morning sessions the best was Friday September 2 with 32 562
spectators.

JEGEDE JUMPING OVER CARS

LONDON (GBR): British long jumper JJ Jegede at a
launch event for the Mini London 2012 Edition in the capital, the England
champion sailed six meters over the roofs of the three cars. Hopefully the
Minis were covered by car insurance in case JJ didn’t make the distance and
damaged the paint work, or worse. He said afterwards that he was relieved the
challenge went off without a hitch, although the distance he was required to
clear was far short of the personal best of 8.04 meters he achieved
this year at UK Trials in Birmingham.
UK
media are informing.

OTHER NEWS

BERLIN (GER) : With the advice of the German
athletics association (DLV) NAsport will help with adjusting the rules and
regulations for materials used in Athletics. The aim is to make sure no
athletes get injured or hurts himself because of the use of certain implements.
A first congress concerning this topic will be held in March 2012 in Berlin writes Leichathletik.de.

LONDON (GBR): Haile Gebrselassie has called on London
2012 officials to consider the needs of marathon runners and bring forward the
start time of the race at next year’s Olympic Games in London. The Ethiopian said the proposed start
time of 11am “was not good” and interfered with the normal routine of marathon
athletes, who are used to very early starts. “Nine in the morning is better for
my routine,” he told Telegraph Sport.

TORONTO (CAN): Ethiopian Koren Yal is this year again
the favourite for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on 16 October. The
24 year old finished fourth last year in a time of 2:24.32 but hopes to break
the barrier of 2:24 in this year edition of this IAAF Silver Label Road Race.
“My fitness and preparation has been better than last year,” she said for the
IAAF.

AUSTIN (USA): World decathlon champion Trey
Hardee had successful surgery on the ACL in his right elbow. Hardee hurt
himself in his last javelin throw at the world championships, knowing that he
needed a big throw to win the gold medal. Once Hardee returned check-ups showed
the ACL was fully blown and surgery was needed. Hardee will be able to throw in
competitions as soon as April 2012 and keeps his goal of winning the 2012
Olympic Games.

AMSTERDAM (NED): Zimbabwe
track and field star Ngonidzashe Makusha missed the 10th All-Africa Games in Mozambique,
because of fatigue after a tough season, his Dutch agent Caroline Feith
clarified. Makusha was supposed to fly straight to Mozambique after the IAAF World
Championships in Daegu but did not show for the Games reports News Day.

EDINBURGH (GBR): Martin Mathathi and Lucy Kabuu winners of their
respective titles at the recent bupa Great North Run on Tyneside will chase
further victories in the sister event in Edinburgh on 2 October. The pair of
Kenyan’s immediately signed up for the bupa Great Edinburgh Run after scoring
phenomenal victories in the World’s biggest half marathon race from Newcastle to South Shields.
Now the duo who have remained in Teddington, West London, to prepare for their
next outing are looking for repeat performances in the 10 kilometers road
race, a distance over which they rank amongst the best in the world. Mathathi
will face fellow Kenyan John Kelai last year’s Commonwealth Games marathon
champion while Spain
will be represented by former European 10,000 silver medallist Chema Martinez
and Ayad Lamdassem who finished second at the European Cross Country last
December. Former World 5,000 bronze medallist Craig Mottram carries ther hopes
of Australia while Finn
Jussi Utrianen of Finland
second in this year’s Great Ireland Run will also be in the impressive field.
Kabuu is in a line up which includes fellow countrywoman and 2010 Commonwealth
Games Marathon champion Irene Jerotich while Poland’s former Olympic 1,500
finalist Anna Jakubczak will step up in distance. Helen Clitheroe the winner of
the bupa Great Manchester Run in May and an outstanding fifth on her half marathon
debut on Tyneside heads the British challengers. Kenyan Brimin Kipruto the
Olympic steeplechase champion has pulled out of the event after picking up and
injury at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu. Organizers are informing.

DAKAR (SEN): The African Athletics Confederation did its own ranking of
one day meetings (based on five best men and women results) and has Rabat with
11 808 as first ahead of Brazzaville 11 692 and Dakar 11 570. According to IAAF
scoring tables the best results achieved on the circuit in Africa in 2011 were
the 400 m
hurdles of Vania Stambolova (53.68) in Rabat on the women side and best male
results was the 21.75 shot put by Dylan Armstrong in Tangier. In the
All-Athletics.com rankings the best is Rabat
with 84 608 (26th in the world) ahead of Dakar
81 604 (42nd) and Brazzaville
79 140 (71st).

LONDON (GBR): Athletics Weekly writes that showing
off the scars on her ankle from the career-threatening fractures she endured
earlier this year, 2008 World Junior Champion Stephanie Twell made a successful
return to racing last weekend with the eighth fastest split of the day at the Aldershot and South of England Road Relays. The
22-year-old’s career looked to be in shreds in January when she broke her ankle
in three places while leading a cross country race in Belgium. “I
remember lying down and looking at my leg and I could see the bone underneath
the skin at an odd angle,” she said of her injury. “It was a spiral fracture,
diagonally up the bone, with a shard broken o? at the back.” She clocked 13:03,
the eighth best time of the day and the fifth best in her Aldershot,
Farnham & District team. She now plans to go to Kenya
in November with the UKA squad and then race at the European cross country
trials in Liverpool in late November. She is,
she believes, also still on course to compete for Britain in the 1500m at the 2012
Olympics, followed by the 5000m in 2016 and the marathon in 2020.

NEW YORK (USA):
Citi is the official bank sponsor of the 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams
and U.S. Olympic Committee. August marked a year out Tour leading up to the
London Games. Beijing 4th placer and reigning U.S. Olympic Trials Pole Vault
Champ, Derek Miles will participate in celebrating with a flag raising event in
Sioux Falls on October 6 and share his Olympic experience with Citibank
employees and community. Miles is a two time Olympian and current U.S. Champion
in 2011. He is a world finalist from Daegu with season best of 572 cm.

BRUSSELS (BEL): Almost 11,000 runners will participate
in the 8th edition of the Brussels Marathon & Half Marathon, on Sunday, 2
October. The participation figure will be a new record.

ATHENS (GRE): National athletics federation of Greece
SEGAS is in difficulties. The board of athletics federation has decided to
convene an extraordinary general meeting of club members on October 28 due to
cuts in funding from the state. The general assembly will decide the ways in
which the federation will react, and suggests that it is possible to suspend
its operation when the decisions of the Ministry of Finance (cutting the
finances by 40%) will not be changed.

CORRECTION

BEIJING (CHN): In the item about Beijing Marathon one
of the favorites Kenyan Peter Kamais won the 2010 edition of NYC Half-Marathon,
not in 2011.