SILNOV
235 IN FIRST ATTEMPT

MOSCOW
(RUS, Feb 1): Reigning olympic winner Andrey Silnov comes into the top shape.
After clearing 231 last Saturday in Hustopece he was able to win the Moscow Cup
special high jump meet with 235 first attempt clearance. He equaled so the
world lead of his country-mate Aleksey Dmitrik. Young Andrey Patrakov bettered
his PB to 230 in first attempt and was surprisingly second ahead of two
champions. World indoor winner Ivan Ukhov was third, also 230 in first (then
passed 233 and attacked 235) but had more earlier failures. Fourth European
champion Aleksandr Shustov got 230 in third attempt. Good fifth Ukrainian
Andriy Protsenko with 227 cm.

BLAKE
TO RUN NEXT WEEK

KINGSTON
(JAM): World champion at 100 m Yohan Blake is having good training sessions
currently with Racers TC under the leadership of coach Glen Mills. His next
competitions are at Camperdown Classic on February 11 and Gibson Relays on
February 25. The events will be decided shortly before the meets by the coach.
But it should be 400 m and/or relay appearances. „He should open his summer
season with the Kingston International Invitational meet in early May, and stay
to run in the North America region. The races will be specified later, but
there are no intentions at the present time for Yohan to be running in Europe
before the Jamaican Trials at end of June, but we continue to look at all
options,” said his agent Cubie Seegobin. Blake´s 400 m best is 46.80 from
February 2009.

ISINBAEVA
VS. BLEASDALE IN POLAND

BYDGOSZCZ
(POL): The indoor Pedro´s Cup in Bydgoszcz (EA Permit, February 8) is having
new top name. Pole vault queen Yelena Isinbaeva from Russia will have there her
second meet of the year after 470 opener in Volgograd. And it will be a tough
outing as she will face the revelation of the indoor season Briton Holly
Bleasdale (recently improved to 487). In the Lucznicka hall also both top
Polish jumpers will compete, world champion Anna Rogowska and world medalist
Monika Pyrek. Daegu bronze winner Svetlana Feofanova is also in the list. Men´s
pole vault will see world champion Pawel Wojciechowski in duel against silver
winner from Korea last year Cuban Lazaro Borges. In the field also home Lukasz
Michalski, German Karsten Dilla and olympic medalist Yevgeniy Lukyanenko from
Russia. Men´s shot put as third event of the evening is having home star
olympic winner Tomasz Majewski against two US World Champions Christian
Cantwell and Reese Hoffa (along with Ryan Whiting).

KABUU
STILL AIMS FOR OLYMPICS

NAIROBI
(KEN): Lucy Kabuu who became the third Kenyan woman to run a sub 2:20
marathon when runner up in last Friday’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon is
hoping the performance may have earned her an Olympic Games place. She is now
third on Kenya’s All-Time list behind Catherine Ndereba and Mary Keitany who
have best marks of 2:18:47 and 2:19:19 which they achieved with their
respective victories at the 2001 Chicago Marathon and last year’s Virgin London
Marathon. Now she is waiting to hear whether she will be added to the list of
six women who have been provisionally chosen for the 2012 London Olympic Games,
although it is understood Athletics Kenya believe she doesn’t have the
experience to merit inclusion on the short list. AK with many world class
contenders to choose from, recently announced Keitany, Edna Kiplagat, Priscah
Jeptoo and Sharon Cherop,who claimed a clean sweep of the medals at last
summer’s IAAF World Championships, Florence Kiplagat the BMW Berlin champion
and Lydia Cheromei as their choices. The 27-year-old who finished just three
seconds behind Asefelech Mergia who clocked an Ethiopian record, said of her
chances: “I will wait for any outcome from AK since you never know what could
happen.” Kabuu having conquered the endurance event and insisting she can run
under 2:17 with Paris on 15 April or Chicago in the autumn on her mind, added:
“I should achieve that with a flat course and good weather conditions.”
Informs David Martin.

VLASIC
AFTER SURGERY

GOTEBORG
(SWE): On Tuesday high jump star Blanka Vlasic underwent an arthroscopic
surgery (operated by Dr. Leif Sward) on her joint and heal of her bouncing foot
in Goteborg. Starting the surgery had shown far worse shape than results of
magnetic resonance that was done before. The critical areas were cleaned and
everything went well. It has been established 10% damage of Achilles tendon.
Blanka woke up from general anesthesia a few minutes after the surgery.
Vlasic plans to travel home on February 2. She informs on her website. Because
of Vlasic passing the indoor season also the planned indoor high jump meeting
in Split was cancelled.

OTHER NEWS

VIENNA
(AUT): Austrian Athlete of the Year 2011 middle distance runner Andreas Vojta
was satisfied with European leading 3:38.99 in the 1500 m during Vienna Indoor
Classic meet also fulfilled standards for Istanbul and Helsinki. It is also
second best Austrian indoor ever behind the national record 3:38.50 by Robert
Nemeth. But he revealed his plans and Istanbul and Helsinki are not included,
his main aim is towards Olympic Games in London. „I will still have some good
training, will compete also in cross races and during Helsinki will have
altitude training.

ISTANBUL
(TUR): Turkish media are informing that IAAF officials who visited the Ataköy
Athletics Arena in Istanbul last weekend were happy to see the arena almost
ready for the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championship. Speaking to the press after
his visit to the arena, Helmut Digel, an IAAF delegate from Germany, stated
that the arena was totally empty on their first visit and added, “At that time,
the Turkish Athleticism Federation promised us they would undertake much work
by our next visit, and we see that they have kept their promise. The technical
details have superbly been implemented in the arena. However, there are still
things that need to be done; for instance, the heating issue. The arena must be
no colder than 18 degrees Celsius. I believe Turkish officials will easily
solve this issue.” The hall for 5000 spectators was built in 9 months. During
the weekend National Indoor Championships were held in the hall, next big event
is Balkan Championships planned for February 18.

LINZ
(AUT): Thursday´s Gugl indoor meet in Linz will have top field in women 60 m
hurdles with world indoor champion 2010 Lolo Jones, 2006 Derval O´Rourke and US
champion Kellie Wells, also running Yvette Lewis winner from Vienna on Tuesday.
In the men´s 60 m US Josh Norman will clash with Nigerian Ogho-Oghene Egwero.
In the pole vault Greek record holder Kostas Filippidis is facing Germans Malte
Mohr, Fabian Schulze and veteran Tim Lobinger along with Czech Daegu finalist
Jan Kudlicka. German Christina Schwanitz is the top name in women shot put, US
Funmi Jimoh and Brianna Glenn in women long jump. Men´s long jump will see
former world indoor champion Ignisious Gaisah of Ghana.

ST
JOHN’S (ANT): Antiguan sprinter Daniel “Bakka” Bailey had a start to his
2012 indoor season when he finished 6th in the rare 50 m at the USA Track and
Field US Open at Madison Square Garden. Despite the last position Bailey clocked
new national record 5.75. “It was my first race. I know I should have
done better and when I watched over the race I realised that I made
a lot of mistakes. So it is just these things for me to just go and
correct them and get it right; but these things happen,” he said. “If you go
into a drag-race and you ‘mis-shift’ a gear, you will get passed. So
these things happen and when you do foolishness in a race, then you will
get punished and that’s how it is. But I am over that now. It was my first
race, my first indoor race, 50 metres, and I have to move on from that to
get ready for Birmingham in the next two weeks,” Bailey added for Antiguan
media. Bailey also plans to compete for Antigua at World Indoor Championships
in Istanbul.

STRASBOURG
(FRA): A meet where world champion Yohan Blake clocked 9.98 as second will
not be staged in 2012. The meet of Strasbourg planned for July 8 is cancelled
because of financial reasons. The organisers are missing 150 000 to 180 000
euros in their budget and so unable to stage a meet of quality compared to
last year.

TALLINN
(EST): Last year Tallinn saw during International combined events championships
world record of US Ashton Eaton in heptathlon. This year the competition is
back with European Athletics Permis status. Unfortunately one of top
international entries Belgian decathlete Thomas Van der Plaetsen has withdrawn
from the event. He slightly sprained his ankle when running over hurdles in his
last training before traveling to Tallinn and will prematurely end his indoor
season. But olympic medalist Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan wants to attack the
6000 points, the same also for Dutch European medalist Eelco Sintnicolaas and
best home Andres Raja. Top name for women pentathlon is Ida Marcussen of
Norway.

ADDIS ABABA
(ETH): Dubai marathon winner Aselefech Mergia said that she will spent her
winning prize money (250 000 USD) into creation of jobs in her country. When
asked what she will be doing with the huge prize money, she said: “I will
invest the money in Ethiopia and create work for the poor people there and even
help them. Frankly, I am so active in running that I haven’t even got
the time to spend my prize money last year,” said Mergia for Ethiosports.

GAINESVILLE
(USA): Fast junior sprinter Marvin Bracy has signed his Letter of Intent to
play for Florida State University. He chose Florida State over the University
of Florida, University of Georgia, and Notre Dame University. The star wide
receiver out of Boone High School in Orlando, Florida has been committed since
July. He runs a 4.39 40-yard dash. Although, Marvin will mostly need some
time to learn the wide receiver position, he should compete for playing time
returning kicks early. Florida State’s elite track and field program factored
into Bracy’s decision. The Under Armor All-American football player is also an
All-American track and field athlete. Now that the recruiting process is over
for Marvin, his focus will turn to trying to qualify for the Olympics. Bracy
has been timed at 10.02 in a wind-aided 100-meter dash last year. Last
weekend he clocked US HS record at 55 m with 6.08. Local media are informing.

NEW YORK
(USA): Morgan Uceny, Track & Field News’ top-ranked women’s 1500 m runner
in the world in 2011, will headline an stellar field of runners in the
800-meter run at the 105th Millrose Games, February 11 at The Armory’s New
Balance Track & Field Center. Uceny will compete against 2011 U.S. Indoor
800m champion Phoebe Wright, World Championships finalist Maggie Vessey and
2011 World Youth Champion Ajee Wilson. Organizers are informing on their
website.

LOS
ANGELES (USA): US sprinting star Allyson Felix is undecided about the double
for Olympic Games. She was competing in Daegu in four events and won four
medals. “I will prepare myself for it but I won’t make a decision if
I will attempt to run it at Olympic Trials until later in the season,” she
said for IAAF.

LAUSANNE
(SUI): Management student Sabina Alihodzic of Slovenia has become the very
first person to receive a European Athletics and UNESCO certificate
recognising the volunteer work of members of the European Athletics Young
Leaders Community writes European Athletics. The 23-year-old Alihodzic is an
active member of the Athletics Club Velenje, where she enjoys coaching
youngsters and organising youth competitions.

LAUSANNE
(SUI): The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has released a ‘Say NO! To Doping’
video clip as the latest element in an awareness campaign that is fast gaining
worldwide support. The 30-second clip emphasizes the true values of sport and
delivers a very clear message that genuine sporting success and enjoyment
comes only through hard work and fair play, not through doping reports
asoif.com. WADA also plans a Media Symposium in Lausanne, next Tuesday,
February 7. The Symposium will include presentations from WADA President John
Fahey and WADA Director General David Howman, on the developments in
anti-doping and changes required to meet future challenges.

HAVANA
(CUB): Cuba’s best-known Olympic athlete, world record holder Dayron Robles,
complaines about terrible training conditions as he prepares to defend his gold
medal in the 110-meter hurdles this summer in London. „The Olympic games are
already there and we don’t have even half of what you need to train well,”
Robles said in an interview with The Associated Press. „Conditions are
terrible. There’s no stimulus. They don’t give you the necessary things for
training so you’re always upset, and what’s worst is that people generally don’t
know anything about it and will judge me by the results,” Robles was quoted. He
should soon arrive to Europe for international meetings, his first race
announced is Lievin on February 14.

BOSTON
(USA): Saturday´s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston will see also women´s
300 m race. Top name is World 4×100 m relay champion Bianca Knight who posted
last year in Fayetteville impressive 36.41 at this distance. Also in the field
quarter miler DeeDee Trotter.

RESULTS

BRN0
(CZE, Feb 1): Young Martin Heindl cleared 221 cm in the high jump here.

FRANKFURT
(GER, Feb 1): Anika Roloff improved her indoor best to 435 in the pole vault
and beat at German University Championships favorite Anna Battke (430).

BALLARAT
(AUS, Jan 28): Australian versatile long distance runner Collis Birmingham
improved his 800 m personal best to 1:49.36 here. He is Oceanian record holder
at 10 000 m.

CORRECTION

ALMERIA
(ESP): Correction to nationality. Olga Kalendarova-Ochal the winner of half
marathon here is running for Poland. She was born in Ukraine, but has Polish
husband. She got Polish citizenship in 2011.