by Larry Eder
Jesse Williams, 2011 WC, photo by PhotoRun.net
EME NEWS (DEC 21, 2011)
BLOCK TWO YEARS BAN
KYIV
(UKR): Former 100 m World Champion Zhanna Block was given a 2 years ban
for breaking anti-doping rules in years 2002-2003. IAAF reported about
the case to Ukrainian Athletics Federation and Block travelled to the
country (she lives in USA since 2001) to have a hearing in October.
Subsquently Ukrainian Athletics Federation decided with having the
evidence in the case to hand out a two years ban on December 15. The ban
will start on the date of the hearing, that is October 6, 2011. Block
won three world titles in her career, 2001 in Edmonton at 100 m, 1997 in
Athens at 200 m and 2003 in Birmingham indoors at 60 m. Her last
competition is dating back to 2006. Ukrainian Federation also banned
middle distance runner Svitlana Chervan (30) for possession of banned
drugs. In November 2010 in the truck on the border of Switzerland
customs officers found banned drug Genotropin with facilities for the
use of prohibited methods. In a written explanation for the IAAF Chervan
admitted her guilt and refused to have a hearing.
GREEN FOR BRUSSELS, CHICHEROVA TO BEGIN EARLY
ANTVERP
(BEL): Another top name for the Golden High Jump Gala in Antverp is
Sweden´s world medalist Emma Green Tregaro along with her younger
team-mate Ebba Jungmark. This is the come back meet of Tia Hellebaut and
also contracted to jump is World Champion Anna Chicherova of Russia.
Interestingly Chicherova will open her season already on January 9 in
Chelyabinsk at Lukashevich Memorial.
ARMSTRONG TOP AWARDS
OTTAWA
(CAN): Athletics Canada announced its 2011 annual award winners with
Dylan Armstrong getting the nod in three categories. Armstrong was
chosen as overall athlete of the year, as most outstanding athlete in
field events, and, as winner of the outstanding performance of the year.
The winners are chosen by Athletics Canada’s Awards Committee from the
nominee pool put forward by the athletics community. The award
recipients will be honoured at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Trials in
Calgary, Alta., which take place June 27-30. Christian Brennan is the
recipient of both the Phil A. Edwards Memorial Trophy for the
outstanding athlete of the year in track events and the Myrtle Cook
Trophy for the outstanding youth athlete of the year. Brennan
represented Canada in fine fashion on two occasions this season; at the
World Youth Championships and Pan American Games. Four-time 2011
Canadian Champion Reid Coolsaet of Hamilton, Ont., is the winner of the
Fred Begley Memorial Trophy for outstanding athlete of the year in
off-track events. On top of being crowned Canadian champion in the
5000-metres and 10 000-metres at the Canadian Track and Field
Championships, Coolsaet finished first at both the 10km road race and
half-marathon Canadian Championships. Reid also ran a personal best and
Olympic A standard time of 2:10:55 at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk is the recipient of Athletics Canada’s Coach of
the Year Award.
WILLIAMS AND CANTWELL FOR US OPEN
NEW
YORK (USA): High jump world champion Jesse Williams will compete in his
first meet of the indoor season in USA. He will be the star of US Open
in Madison Square Garden on January 28. Double world indoor champion
Christian Cantwell will be the star of high jump. Already earlier
announced are Bernard Lagat, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Asafa Powell,
David Oliver and Jenn Suhr. Also competing Adam Nelson and Ryan Whiting
in the Garden circle. Informs USATF.
OTHER NEWS
ZURICH
(SUI): Swiss 4×100 m record 38.62 from Weltklasse Samsung Diamond
League meet will not be approved by the national federation. The reason
is that Pascal Mancini, who was the first runner of the team, did not
the necessary IAAF approved exemption for using Ritalin. Mancini was
thinking that the exemption from Swiss Anti-Doping office would be
sufficient. Swiss media are informing.
VIENNA (AUT): Austrian marathon runner Susanne Pumper (41) is
again facing a doping problem. Austrian media are informing. She was
already banned for two years 2008-2010 (March). She won early October
Bregenz Marathon in 2:38:24. In case of confirmation she will face a
life ban.
OSAKA (JPN): Brett Larner informs that top clash of the 2012
Osaka International Women’s Marathon will be the Japanese Mizuki Noguchi
vs. Kayoko Fukushi. Also running Romanian olympic winner Constantina
Dita. Other Japanese top runners will be Azusa Nojiri and Risa
Shigetomo. The Japanese federation, has not announced clear-cut
selection criteria for the London Olympics marathon team. Given the slow
2:26:32 winning time at the first selection race, last month’s Yokohama
International Women’s Marathon, it’s possible that both Noguchi and
Fukushi could be chosen on the strength of their Osaka performances, but
it would likely take each of them pushing the other to the fastest
Japanese women’s time since Noguchi’s ’07 Tokyo International record for
that to happen. From International runners to mention also Russian
Lidiya Grigoryeva, Romanian Mihaela Botezan and Ukrainian Tetyana
Gamera-Shmyrko. Top pacemakers will be Hungarian Aniko Kalovics, Kenyan
Julia Mumbi and home runners Chizuru Ideta and Kumi Ogura.
KARLSRUHE (GER): German European indoor champion 2009 Ariane
Friedrich is back in good training and will compete indoors. It is
expected she will be jump at best German special event in Arnstadt on
February 4 and now she also confirmed for Karlsruhe on February 12 (IAAF
Indoor Permit). In 2009 at this meet she cleared her indoor best of 205
cm after great clash with Blanka Vlasic (also 205). She finished
unbeaten that indoor season. After heavy injury she had one year ago a
major surgery and missed whole 2011. Already earlier confirmed for
Karlsruhe are other German stars David Storl, Martina Strutz and Silke
Spiegelburg.
INDIANAPOLIS (USA): USATF informs about the US Team for
Edinburgh CC race on January 7. Bobby Mack is the sole returning athlete
after finishing sixth last year to finish as the second American en
route to the team’s silver medal. Mack will be joined by team captain
Bobby Curtis who ran the second fastest 10,000m time by an American in
2011 with his 27:24.67 effort at the Stanford Payton Jordan Cardinal
Invitational. Mack and Curtis will be joined by recent USATF National
Club Cross Country Champion Jon Grey and Aaron Braun who finished as the
runner-up in the same race. Neely Spence will lead the senior women’s
team after finishing as the runner-up at the recent USATF Club Cross
Country Championships.
VIENNA (AUT): Middle distance runner Andreas Vojta and hurder
Beate Schrott are Austrian Athletes of the Year. In the poll which was a
mixture of internet voting by public and another vote by experts. They
will recieve the Trophy “Golden Emil” in February. The best young
athlete in the country is European junior discus champion Lukas
Weisshaidinger. Vojta defended his win from last year ahead of
decathlete Dominik Distelberger and marathon runner Gunther Weidlinger.
In women ranking second marathon and mountain runner Andrea Mayr and
third ultra runner Sabine Hofer.
AUCKLAND (NZL): Exhaustion has forced Jacko Gill out of the
Millennium Shot Put competition. NZ media are informing. The final meet
is being held on the North Shore on Thursday evening. The 17-year-old
Takapuna athlete says his efforts over the past two weeks including
qualifying for the London Olympic Games, breaking his own World Youth
record and becoming the 2nd best ever junior in the world have taken
quite a physical and mental toll on him.
LONDON (GBR): The British Olympic Association (BOA) has
announced Mo Farah as Athletics’ 2011 Olympic Athlete of the Year. The
award was introduced in 2005, to mark the BOA’s Centenary Year and the
success of London being awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. The BOA
presented a trophy to each of the 33 summer and winter Olympic sports
for them to award on an annual basis to their top performing athlete of
the year. Farah has also been shortlisted in BBC’s Sports Personality of
the Year where the results will be known on Thursday.
CHICAGO (USA): NFL fans will remember Willie Gault as the
fleet receiver who was the second Chicago Bear to step up and sing solo
in the team’s famous rendition of “The Super Bowl Shuffle” during their
championship season of 1985. In athletics he was 110 m hurdles world
medalist and 4×100 m world champion 1983. Now, the Securities and
Exchange Commission is accusing him of shuffling the deck in an
allegedly corrupt business venture. The SEC website says the following
about Gault’s actions as CEO of Heart Tronics, which sells a
heart-monitoring device called the Fidelity 100. Local media are
informing.
OSTRAVA (CZE): By the end of 2013 the city of Ostrava will
invest ten million euro into new tribunes of the stadium and in April
2014 new infrastructure for eight million euro will be finished. Long
term experiences with every day practise of athletics as well as big
international events are projected into all adjustments. “Renovation of
the Municipal Stadium Ostrava -VÃtkovice will begin immediately after
51st IAAF World Challenge Meeting Ostrava Golden Spike. In the first
stage new tribune and all new surfaces will be built. All the background
and electricity network will also be renovated. In April 2014 the
stadium shall be finished including its surroundings, administration
buildings and entrance areas,” said the City of Ostrava Vice-Mayor
Martin Štěpánek, member of European Team Championships 2014 bidding
committee. The European Investment Bank and the Czech Ministry of
Education and Sports will participate on funding of the project apart
from the City of Ostrava.
CASTELBUONO (ITA): Italy’s oldest elite road race, the Giro
Podistico di Castelbuono in Sicily, has earned the IAAF Gold Label,
organizers announced earlier this week. The race, which will celebrate
it’s 100th anniversary next year, is now a certified 10-K. The new
distance was first used in 2011, replacing the approximately
11-kilometer distance which had been traditionally used. Also, the race
will be moved to September for the first time from its usual July 26,
date to avoid conflicting with the Olympic Games. Boston and New York
City Marathon champion Geoffrey Mutai was the 2011 champion,
establishing a course record of 29:05. Informs RRW.
NEW YORK (USA): Race Results Weekly informs that the depth of
performances by Kenyan men at the marathon distance in 2011 was simply
staggering, according to an analysis by statistician Ken Young of the
Association of Road Racing Statisticians. A compilation of marathon
results through mid-December, showed that Kenyan men ran 2:20:00 or
faster 719 times this year. That total was achieved by 474 different
athletes, who amassed 135 victories and 319 podium finishes. Moreover,
Kenyan men were victorious at all six World Marathon Majors events held
this year (Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York and the World
Championships in Daegu, South Korea), and recorded victories at other
important marathons in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Chunchon, Dubai, Eindhoven,
Frankfurt, Fukuoka, Otsu, Paris, Prague, Rotterdam, Valencia, and
Xiamen amongst others. At the top of the list, Kenyan men broke 2:06:00
15 times (11 performers), 2:07:00 31 times (24 performers), and 2:08:00
47 times (37 performers). By contrast, men from Ethiopia, Kenya’s
traditional distance running rivals, broke 2:06 just once, 2:07:00 3
times, and 2:08:00 9 times. Within the top-50 times in the world this
year (2:07:28), men from Kenya achieved all of them but nine. Only one
North American (Ryan Hall, 2:04:58), and one South American (Marilson
Gomes Dos Santos, 2:06:34) made the top-50 performances. The fastest
European of 2011, Ukraine’s Oleksandr Sitkovskyy, clocked 2:09:26, a
time surpassed by 70 Kenyans. Lesser-known Luka Kipkemboi Chelimo also
achieved a noteworthy feat. Chelimo, 34, broke 2:20 more than any other
Kenyan this year, achieving the feat seven times. He also won four
marathons: Donying, China (2:13:37); Montreal, Canada (2:13:45);
Chongquing, China (2:16:27); and Perth, Australia (2:17:03).
SAO PAULO (KEN): Organizers of Corrida Internacional de São
Silvestre on December 31 confirmed that top home runner Marilson Gomes
dos Santos will compete and trying for fourth win at the event. From top
Kenyans confirmed are Matthew Kisorio, top marathon runners Martin Lel
and Duncan Kibet. The race will start for men at 5.30 pm local time.
RESULTS
ZHUHAI
(CHN, Dec 18): Additional results from half marathon here in China from
Tilastopaja. El Hassan Elabbasi of Morocco won in 1:01:38 ahead of US
Mohamed Trafeh 1:01:39 and Kenyan Stanley Biwott 1:01:39. In women race
Gladys Cherono achieved 1:10:43 beating Tadelech Bekele 1:11:44 and
former World champion Catherine Ndereba 1:11:59.
MOODBIDRI (IND, Dec 21): Solid half marathon meet record at
the 72nd All India Inter-University Athletics Championships. Suresh
Kumar clocked 1:03:58.
NOTE
DOHA (QAT): The 3:34.43 of Qatari Hamza Driouch is not
official Asian Junior record informs Heinrich Hubbeling. The official
mark belongs to Bilal Mansour Ali from Bahrain 3:31.49 in 2007 although
his age was retroactively not confirmed
