BLAKE
FOR NYC

NEW YORK
(USA): World Champion at 100 m Yohan Blake is the first top name in the group
of superstars expected at the 2012 adidas Grand Prix on June 9, part of Samsung
Diamond League. „The Gibson Relays last weekend were a great start for my
2012 season,” said Blake, of the event at National Stadium in Kingston on Feb.
25 in which he came from behind to anchor his 4×400-meter and 4×100-meter teams
to victory. „I am already looking forward to that fast track in New York City
on June 9th.” More athlete announcements for the 2012 event are expected soon.
It is first summer meet confirmed for Blake, it is expected he will also take
part in Kingston early May at the IAAF World Challenge meet. He is currently
not planning competitions in Europe before Jamaican Trials end of the June. His
main rivals will do so, Usain Bolt has Ostrava, Rome and Oslo in the plan,
Asafa Powell so far announced Rome.

SAVIGNE
14.55, DURAND 3:39.36

METZ
(FRA, Feb 29): Last international all-events indoor meeting in the season in
Europe Moselle Athlelor in Metz saw fast 1500 m for men and season best for
former world champion Yargelis Savigne of Cuba in the triple jump 14.55 m.
French Yohan Durand clocked new indoor PB at 1500 m 3:39.36 ahead of young
Ethiopian Alemayehu Zebene also PB 3:39.68 and experienced Kenyan Ismael
Kombich 3:39.86. Interestingly Durand is Istanbul bound for 3000 m. European
U23 Champion Florian Carvalho was 5th in indoor PB 3:40.53. Training partner of
Dayron Robles young Cuban Orlando Ortega also clocked lifetime best in the 60 m
hurdles 7.57 ahead of French Cedric Lavanne 7.61. 2009 European U23 winner
Yannick Fonsat won the 400 m in indoor best 46.64 ahead of current best Spanish
Mark Ujakpor 46.81. In the fast 60 m Nigerian Peter Emelieze achieved 6.61
ahead of Cuban Yuniel Perez 6.63 and Ramil Guliyev 6.64. German Hendrik Gruber
equaled his PB of 570 in third attempt to beat world medalist Romain Mesnil 565
in the pole vault. In women events Muriel Hurtis showed solid shape with good
23.23 in the 200 m (fourth fastest by an European in 2012). Carima Louami was
the best in the 60 m (7.28) over Istanbul bound duo Ina Eftimova of Bulgaria
7.28 and Vida Anim of Ghana 7.29. 38-years Christine Arron was good 5th (7.31
and even 7.30 in heats). Russian Yekaterina Kupina won the 800 m in 2:03.14.

ABAKUMOVA
64.00, LYSENKO 71.25

ADLER
(RUS, Feb 27-29): World champion Tatyana Lysenko achieved 71.25 to win the
Russian Winter Throwing hammer title. Former medalist Gulfiya Khanafeyeva was
second (68.23). Even more impressive 79.06 by Sergey Litvinov in men´s hammer
ahead of Kiril Ikonnikov 76.63. World silver winner Mariya Abakumova achieved
impressive 64.00 ahead of Lada Chernova 59.47 and Marina Maksimova 59.30 in
women javelin. Veteran Sergey Makarov in solid shape won the men´s javelin with
82.20, in the U23 category Dmitriy Tarabin 80.49. Former European champion
Darya Pishchalnikova won the discus 60.74. Her brother Bogdan got 64.77 but
while competing with U23 throwers as during the senior competition he already
had to travel to Moscow to visit the British Embassy because of olympic
paper-work.

Y.
LEWIS ADDED FOR PEARSON

MELBOURNE
(AUS): The Australian Olympic Trials will be a two day event in Lakeside
Stadium at Albert Park of Melbourne, second day being also the traditional
opening of 3rd IAAF World Challenge series on Saturday. In exciting news, US
Yvette Lewis will join world champion Sally Pearson in the 100 m hurdles. The
26-year-old Pan-Am Games gold medallist Lewis has enjoyed a busy indoor
season including 19 races over the 60m hurdles. Her best time of 7.95 came in
the heats of the USA indoor trials in Albuquerque but a false start in the
final ended the chance of a likely spot in the team bound for the world
indoor championships in Istanbul. Other stars are David Rudisha in the 800 m
(vs. US Nick Symmonds), Asbel Kiprop in the 1500 m (Friday), very solid men´s
5000 m field and home stars as fresh record holder Alana Boyd in the pole
vault, discus throwers Dani Samuels and Ben Harradine and new jumping name
Henry Frayne (triple jump on Friday).

ISTANBUL TEAMS

SERBIA:
Sends only shot putter Asmir Kolasinac.

GRENADA:
World champion Kirani James should be joined by Rondell Bartholomew in the 400
m.

MOLDOVA:
To Elena Popescu in the 800 m also long jumper Alexandru Cuharenco was added.

CROATIA:
The only participating athlete is confirmed now, the high jumper Ana Simic.

IRELAND:
Three athletes will be 2006 World indoor champion at 60 m hurdles Derval
O´Rourke, Ciaran O´Lionaird at 1500 m and male hurdler Ben Reynolds.
Quarter-miler Brian Gregan who also had the standard made the decision not to
compete in order to now turn his focus on training and preparation for the
European Championships in Helsinki.

DENMARK:
Pole vault record holder Caroline Bonde Holm will be joined by shot putter Kim
Christensen.

NAMIBIA:
The only representative will be women national sprints champion Globina Mayova
for the 60 m.

INDIA:
The only athlete female jumper Mayookha Johny will compete not in the long jump
but in the triple jump.

OTHER NEWS

LONDON
(GBR): European and Commonwealth hurdles champion Andy Turner hopes the
positive energy of the British crowd can inspire him to a place on the
Olympic podium. The 31-year-old will soon head out for some intensive
warm-weather training in the United States before fine tuning his preparations
ahead of the Olympic trials.

NAIROBI
(KEN): After numerous false starts, Olympic 800m champion Pamela Jelimo finally
come out to speak about a promising career blighted by injuries and loss
of form, which saw her drop from grace to grass in a span of three years.
All was too much that Jelimo had to seek an alternative training ground away
from Kapsabet and she opted to come to Nairobi. Jelimo’s local management led
by Barnabas Korir were able to convince her to return to training. She immersed
herself in the preparation exercises and has since emerged with a greatly
enhanced reputation. She returned to action at meeting in Nairobi, opting to
run in the 4x400m relay race doing 53.01 seconds in her lap. Later she went to
Dusseldorf and Lievin for first ever indoor races. „I only had my family
around. Most people lost hope in me, but my family, my coach (Ben Engelhardt)
and my management team knew I could make it and after putting in so much
in training to get back into my shape, I look forward to answer my critics
in Istanbul,” said Jelimo. Kenyan media are informing.

LONDON
(GBR): New Balance has launched a film and campaign entitled The British
Miler which celebrates the mile event in Britain and highlights seven of its
athletes who are seeking a 1,500 meters place at the London 2012 Olympics
Games. Set against the backdrop of Britain’s proud history in the mile and
1500m events, including the epochal achievement of Roger Bannister in running
the first sub-four minute mile in 1954, The British Miler follows Beijing 2008
Olympic finalist Andy Baddeley and six of his leading rivals – Tom Lancashire,
Lee Emanuel, Colin McCourt, Nick McCormick, James Brewer and Ricky Stevenson –
as they compete for one of only three available places on the 2012 British
team.

DUSSELDORF(GER):
Chinese hurdles star Liu Xiang trains currently in Dusseldorf, Germany. He is
in preparation for World Indoor Championships in Istanbul and has realistic
medal hopes with second fastest of the season 7.41.

AMSTERDAM
(NED) : Dutch former European 800m champion Bram Som has succesfully finalized
a training camp in Kenya and confirmed he will run his first 1500m of the
season at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Doha on May 11th. Som also
confirmed he likely to run the 1500m at the European Championships in Helsinki
before heading to London for the Olympic Games according to losseveter.nl.

APELDOORN
(NED): Dutch sensation Dafne Schippers believes she could get a spot in
the 60m final at the IAAF World indoor championships in Istanbul. After
improving her 60m time to 7.19 at the Dutch national championships Schippers
confirmed she is looking forward to run faster in Istanbul. The 19 year-old
will continue this summer with the heptathlon and hopes to qualify for the
Olympic heptathlon when competing at the IAAF CE Challenge meeting in Götzis.

BRUSSELS
(BEL): There will be after one year break again the international meeting in
Gent in 2013 confirmed organizers Golazo. The international meeting was not
staged this year due to lack of interest by sponsors and spectators. The
provisional date for next year would be February 10th 2013.

LAUSANNE
(SUI): After missing last summer with a calf injury, Irish David Gillick
has certainly not hung up his spikes but has been working hard at his British
training base in Loughborough. Gillick, who has decided not to compete indoors,
has set his sights on a medal at the 2012 European Athletics Championships
in Helsinki. “The plan is to finish some pre-season training in America, later
next month, and finish off there with a few races, just to get going
again,” Gillick told the Irish media.

ROTTERDAM
(NED): Rotterdam is to bid for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games reports
Insidethegames. The Dutch city joins a field that already includes Buenos
Aires in Argentina, Glasgow, Medellín in Colombia and Guadalajara in Mexico. A bid
from the Netherlands had been expected before the deadline but it had been
widely assumed it would be from the capital, The Hague, rather than Rotterdam,
which is home to Europe’s largest port.

EUROPEAN CUP WINTER THROWING

GERMANY:
In total 15 athletes were selected. Top names Nadine Kleinert in shot put and
mainly world medalist Nadine Muller in discus. Also to note Istanbul bound shot
putter Candy Bauer and European U23 Champions Sarah Mayer in javelin and Julia
Fischer in discus. Also to note discus thrower Martin Wierig.

CZECH
REPUBLIC: Trio of throwers is headed by hammer U23 record holder Katerina
Safrankova. Together with European U23 finalist 2011 in hammer Tereza Kralova
and U23 shot putter Marketa Cervenkova who improved in the indoor season to
16.03.

UKRAINE:
In the team 16 throwers. To mention discus thrower Kateryna Karsak, Istanbul
bound shot putter Galina Obleshchuk and hammer throwers Oleksiy Sokirskiy and
Irina Novozhilova. In the U23 category the favorite hammer thrower Andriy
Martinyuk.

RESULTS

FIARFAX
(USA, Feb 26): Jamaican Richard Phillips clocked excellent 7.67 at 60 m hurdles
here.

WINDHOEK
(NAM, Feb 25): Hitjivirue Kaanjuka clocked 10.39 (0.0) at 100 m to get the best
result during Namibian Championships.

SAGAMU
(NGR, Feb 28): Elvis Ukale won the 300 m in 33.75 at Nigerian All-Comers meet