Dwight Phillips, 2011 WC, photo by PhotoRun.net

I remember watching Dwight Phillips in an interview in 2007 Osaka, when he took the bronze medal. He gave it a stiff upper lip, but he was not happy. In 2008, Dwight did not make the team. In 2009, I watched him come back and clobber the competition with a huge 8.74m run at the US champs, then, a fine 8.54m jump took the gold in Berlin. In 2011, Phillips made the team, but did not look like the gold medal favorite until the qualifying when he took the longest jump in front of Mitchell Watt. In the final, Dwight dropped an 8.31m in round 1 and 8.45m in round 2, and then fouled four straight times. HIs 8.45m took the gold medal in Daegu, and the fourth gold medal in World Champ long jump should make some folks consider the guy a pretty tough contender for London 2012.

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PHILLIPS
TO START EARLY MAY

ATLANTA
(USA): Four time long jump world champion Dwight Phillips is in good
preparation for the summer and is aiming to succeed at Olympic Games in London.
As usual he was not competing during the indoor season. Under the guidance of
coach Rana Reider he plans four to five meets before US Olympic Trials.
Phillips is scheduled to start to compete early May and the exact schedule will
be revealed later, informs his agent Caroline Feith. He is olympic gold
medalist from 2004.

SANYA
FOR 100 M AT TEXAS RELAYS

AUSTIN
(USA): Fresh world indoor champion Sanya Richards-Ross is scheduled to run the
100 m and 4×400 m relay at the 85th Texas Relays (invitational events day on
March 31). She revealed that on her twitter. Her last 100 m is dated back to
May 2008 (11.26 in Carson) and personal best from 2007 is high quality 10.97.
Decathlon world champion Trey Hardee is listed in the long jump and discus
throw. Interesting to see in the published entry list the retired high jumper
Amy Acuff who last time competed back in 2009 and is world and olympic finalist
in her career. In the menÂ´s long jump also 2010 World indoor champion Fabrice
Lapierre of Australia should compete.

BOLT
STARTS WITH FASTER WORK

KINGSTON
(JAM): Star sprinter Usain Bolt who is scheduled to open his season in Kingston
on May 5 and plans to continue to Europe with Ostrava, Rome and Oslo end of May
and early June before the Jamaican Trials said in an interview with
Independent.co.uk: â€žI am feeling good, training hard and looking forward to
August in London. Training is going well. The hard winter work has been done
and now we are starting the faster work to get ready for the track season.”

LAST
TOP CC RACE

ALA DEI
SARDI (ITA): One of the last top cross country races will be traditionally as
in the past the 36th edition of the Trofeo Alasport. This year among entries
for men 11 km race olympic and world gold medalist Asbel Kiprop along with Paul
Tanui, Thomas Longosiwa and William Kibor. Young generation of Africans will be
led by world junior medalist 2010 John Kipkoech of Kenya and fresh African
junior CC Champion Ethiopian Muktar Awel. Top home entry will be Daniele
Meucci, European medalist from Barcelona 2010. In the women 5.5 km race former
world champion Maryam Jamal of Bahrain will have to deal with Kenyans Priscah
Jepleting and Mercy Cherono along with Ethiopian Gedo Sule Utura.

OTHER NEWS

LISBON
(POR): On Saturday Portugal and Spain runners will seek olympic qualification
in the 10 000 m national championships race which will be also Iberian
Challenge. From top home runners competing will be European CC medalist Jose
Rocha, Tiago Costa and Rui Teixeira. On the women side Ana Dias and Salome
Rocha. From Spanish side strong contingent led by Jesus Espana and Sergio
Sanchez, and on the women side Diana Martin, Gema Barrachina and Jacqueline
Martin. Olympic A standards are 27:45 and 31:45.

BUENOS
AIRES (ARG): Youth Olympic Games winner Braian Toledo is World youth best
holder with 700 g javelin 89.34 and senior national record holder for Argentina
and junior South American record holder with 79.53 with senior implement. At
age of 18 his main aim is to attack the gold at World Junior Championships in
Barcelona in the summer. But his dream is Olympic glory. Tattooed on the inside
of his left wrist are the Olympic rings and the name Jan Zelezny, his idol.
London Games are for Toledo the possibility to gain lot of experience towards
the Rio 2016 Games which will be on his continent. â€žI started football and saw
it was not possible, it was hard, my mum couldn’t afford to pay for the minibus
to River every day. We weren’t in a position to spend money that wasn’t
for our daily food,” Toledo explains for international media his relation to
the main sport in the country.

LONDON
(GBR): The dark blue, white and red team kit that will be worn by British
athletes at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been unveiled at a special
event by adidas, the Official Sportswear Provider of Team GB and ParalympicsGB.
Created by acclaimed British designer Stella McCartney who was appointed by
adidas as creative director for the project, the kit has been manufactured to
combine style with performance. McCartney was on hand here at the unveiling to
watch as over 30 of Britain’s top London 2012 medal prospects, including triple
jumper Phillips Idowu and heptathlete Jessica Ennis, took to the catwalk to
show off the competition kit, training wear, the presentation suit, footwear
and accessories. Informs insidethegames.

KINGSTON
(JAM): The Organizers of the JN Jamaica Invitational meet (IAAF World
Challenge), set for May 5 here in Kingston, have informed that Grenadian World
400m champion Kirani James has withdrawn. Informs Trackalerts. He is expected
to start the season later, in second half of May at one of Asian meetings.

KHARKOV
(UKR): Regional section of National Olympic Committee in Kharkov was able with
help from sponsors to award an athlete with a flat. It was to world class
middle distance runner Anna Mishchenko. She is 2008 Olympic finalist, European 2010
finalist at the 1500 m. The 28 years old runner won last years the 1500 m at
top meetings in Doha, Daegu and Rabat.

ISTANBUL
(TUR): Insidethegames informs that UEFA President Michel Platini promised today
to vote for Turkey if the country goes ahead with a bid for the 2020
European Championships – but not if Istanbul pursues its drive to stage the
Olympics and Paralympics in the same year. Turkey lost out by one vote to
France for Euro 2016 and Platini, speaking at the UEFA Congress, said the
country deserved to have another chance. It would be impossible, however, to
host both events in the same year and the Turkish authorities needed to make up
their minds which way to go. Istanbul just recently organised a succesfull
edition of World Indoor Championships and is bidding for European Indoor
Championships 2015. Next week UEFA opens the bidding process for Euro 2020,
with a decision on hosting due to be taken at the end of 2103 or early
2014. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chooses its 2020 host in Buenos
Aires on September 7 next year with Doha, Madrid, Tokyo and Baku also in the
running.

LAUSANNE
(SUI): European Athletics informs that the organisation and content of European
Athletics Convention will be among the main topics for discussion when the
European Athletics Reflection Commission meets in Frankfurt this weekend. In
the presence of European Athletics President HansjÃ¶rg Wirz, the Reflection
Commission, led by European Athletics Vice-President Karel PilnÃ½, will also
discuss the daily style of functioning of different European Athletics member
federations and the 2011 IAAF Congress and Elections among other topics during
the 24-25 March meeting.

MANCHESTER
(GBR): A record 40,000 participants are scheduled to compete in the Bupa
Great Manchester Run on May 20, the 10th time the race will be staged. The 10
kilometers event is one of the most prestigious mass participation running
events in the world and has an impressive list of entrants, including the
four-time winner Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie (pictured below winning last year’s
Run), considered by many to be the greatest distance runner in history.

NEW YORK
(USA): Marketwatch.co informs that Nike, the world’s largest shoe maker, said
that its fiscal third-quarter profit rose a better-than-expected 7% on
stronger sales, with orders pointing to healthy retail appetite well into summer.
Months before the summer Olympics gets underway, Nike is moving to use products
introduced for athletes into top-sellers in stores, reports MarketWatch’s
Andria Cheng.

TALLINN
(EST): Former European long jump indoor champion Ksenija Balta returned from
Helsinki with good news. After seeing Dr. Illka Toulikouralt a new knee
surgery is not needed. She had one in February and is plagued by injuries since
last year. Balta can now look into the future with optimisim although it is not
sure when she will be able to start her training and whether it could be on
time for London Olympic Games.

TOKYO
(JPN): Brett Larner informs on his blog that after canceled last year in the
aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami disasters, the organizers of the 22nd
Kasumigaura Marathon announced record 27,353 people who entered this year’s
race, scheduled for April 15. The number makes it the third-largest marathon in
Japan after the Tokyo and Osaka. 2011 World Championships marathoner Yuki
Kawauchi will appear as an invited athlete, pacing his younger brother Koki
Kawauchi through his marathon debut.

RESULTS

WAITAKERE
(NZL, Mar 23): Surprise 100 m winner during first day of New Zealand
Championships was Joseph Millar with lifetime best 10.36 (+1.9). Solid also
junior 100 m winner Kodi Harman with 10.56 into -1.8 wind. Olympic medalist
Nick Willis won the 5000 m in 13:54.29.

MELBOURNE
(AUS, Mar 22): At Vic Milers Club meet at Box Hill former world indoor champion
Tamsyn Manou clocked very solid 2:02.84 to win the women 800 m.

SAD NEWS

OXFORD
(USA): Local media are informing that former Ole Miss track and field
All-American John Yarbrough (26) died early Saturday morning in a car
accident in Orlando, Fla. Yarbrough’s older brother, Linnie (29), who was an
All-American track athlete and a football player at Middle Tennessee State
University, was also in the car and is in critical condition with a head
injury. John had 110m hurdles PB 13.36 from 2010, Linnie even faster 13.34 in
2007.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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