2012 Ostrava Golden Spikes, a crowd pleaser, by Larry Eder

Conditions were cold and windy! Hence, modest times.

This is going to be a long season. Usain Bolt kept all happy with a jet lagged, but exciting effort to watch, as he moved to lead at seventy meters and won in 10.04 with octagarian, for a sprinter, Kim Collons, in second, in 10.13.

Wallace Spearmon won the 200m in 20.15. Spearmon, who is undefeated, took the initiative off the turn, flying like a bat out of hell to the finish. Spearmon is looking like London silver medalist. In 4 x 100m, Spearmon and Patton flew, as part of winning team in 38.65.

LaShawn Merritt is back. The 2008/2009 gold medalist came off the turn, in third, and the, dynamo hum, he was taking names and charging down the straight. He runs through the finish on fire with victory. Merritt will make others cry in London. 45.13? Watch what he does in Eugene.

When I think of Adam Kszczot, I see an Olympic medalist. His win over 800m here showed that Kszcot should not have run Istanbul.But he got the

Real bad race out of the way, and he should run well this summer.

In a 3,000m so boring, I flossed my teeth, Isaih Koech should have scared the pants off some of his compatriots. Koech ran 59.1 for last 400m, and 2:31.24 for last 1,000m. Andy Baddeley ran pb in 3,000m. Andy is my fave for UK trials at 1,500m.

Dylan Armstrong of Canada is rounding into shape, with his 21.29. Armstrong is fit and rounding into shape. Tomazs Majewski, who looks like a giant deadhead, took second with a throw of 21.01m. Majewski, 2008 Olympic champ is prone to analysis, yet mellow. He is not happy with his throwing, knowing he is a few weeks from the big one. 

Vasely won the men’s Javelin. What was good was Andreas Thorkildsen, Olympic champ, make the mental changes to improve seven meters in one throw, taking second in 84.72m. He wants London gold, he just, as 1968 decathlon gold medalist Bill Twoomey says, has to covet the medal.

Renaud Lavillenie won the pole vault on his third attempt at 5.90m. Renaud tried 6.00m three times, but no cigar. Perhaps next week?

Veronica Campbell Brown does not like to loose. The 200m diva has been on a roll, holding off Carmelita Jeter in Shanghai, and dusting the field at 200 meters. VCB is just, well, fast.

Sanya Richards-Ross is just running with purpose. Coach Clyde Hart must be smiling. Sanya just flew off the turn and that last 100m was well, bellissimo! 50.65 in those conditions is very good with less than a mile before the Trials. 

Stambolova ran Euro leader. LaShinda Demus has a month to be ready, as she was lukewarm today. 57? She runs faster in workouts.

Spotakova won the javelin. 

Pamela Jelimo is telling the world that she is back, winning the 800m in 1:58.50. Caster Semenya moved to second. Caster and Jelimo in London?

Can you say 1:53?

Tiffany Porter, of Great Britian, won the 100m hurdles, in 12.65. Priscilla Lopes Schliep, of Canada, new mom, took second in 12.82. Lolo Jones was third in 12.94. Jones has to focus on track this month to make a very toughly contested 100m hurdles at the Trials of miles.

EME NEWS (MAY 25, 2012)

Czech javelin wins, Bolt 10.04 and Lavillenie 590

OSTRAVA (CZE, May 25): The Czech javelin throwers were the stars of 51st Ostrava Golden Spike (IAAF World Challenge). Barbora Å potáková improved the world leading mark to 67,78 m, and Vítezslav Veselý won and beat again the Olympic winner Andreas Thorkildsen (84.72) and company with his second best of the career 85.67. Super star Usain Bolt won 100 meter race but his time 10,04 (-0.8) in the headwind and cold weather. In total (counting also the hammer) meet records were registered in six events and world leads in three events. The awards for the top results of the evening went to Spotakova and Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie who opened his summer season here in superb shape. His second-jump success at 5.78, followed by a first-leap clearance at a world-leading-equaling 5.83 brought him victory. But he wasn’t finished. The Frenchman then asked for a world-leading 5.90 (third improvement of the meet record) and succeeded on his third attempt, after which he had three unsuccessful tries at 6.00. Karsten Dilla of Germany matched his personal best of 5.72, as did Britain’s Steve Lewis, with Dilla taking second on a countback. Wallace Spearmon, taking a curve-friendly lane six, had the best start and made this a gun-to-tape win in 20.14 against a headwind of 0.3.  Defending Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt had this race under control from start to finish as he moved solidly in front over the back stretch and then coasted home in 45.13, shutting down ten metres before the finish. Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, seeking to be the first athlete to compete in both the Olympic Game and Paralympic Games in the same year, was somewhat off the mark tonight with his last-place 47.66. Midway through the back stretch in the 800 m Andrew Osagie of Britain made a move past Holusa and gave the appearance of trying to challenge Adam Kszczot, but the Pole stretched his lead even more through the final curve and controlled the final stages en route to a 1:44.90 victory in his first outdoor race of the season. Osagie’s efforts brought him second in 1:45.24, as Kenyan Abraham Rotich (1:45.52) and Hamid Oualich of France (PB 1:45.96) crossed the line ahead of Holusa (1:46.63) With a kilometre remaining, Isiah Koech held a lead of 15 metres and continued to stretch it out over the penultimate lap. A pack of six runners behind him apparently were satisfied to hand the victory to the 18-year-old Kenyan as they began to have a tactical race among themselves for the next spots. Koech obliged them by crossing the finish line first in 7:37.14. Meanwhile in back of Koech with 300 left, another junior Cornelius Kangogo pushed the pace with a hard sprint and challenged the others to go with him. Off the final curve, Kangogo accelerated down the final stretch and was almost clipped by Andy Baddeley. The Briton ran wide and passed four runners over the last 70 metres but he couldn’t quite catch Kangogo, who clocked 7:39.73 to Baddeley’s PB and EL 7:39.86. Dexter Faulk was away from the start first and he parlayed this early advantage into a dominating 13.13 win, equalling his PB from the Ostrava meeting three years ago. A secondary race was developing behind Faulk as Jeff Porter of the US pushed hard at the end to take second in 13.29 ahead of countryman Ryan Wilson (13.35) and two Britons, Andy Pozzi (13.36) and Lawrence Clarke (PB 13.42). In the on-going derby to find the sixteen fastest 4×100 relay teams for the London Olympics, it was not a national team but an international quartet of All-Stars (Jeff Porter, Kim Collins, Davis Patton, Wallace Spearmon) which won from lane eight in 38.59 for a new Golden Spike meeting record. Chasing that group to the finish was a Canadian team (Sam Effah, Gavin Smellie, Jared Connaughton, Justyn Warner) with 38.77, just ahead of the Polish team (Kamil Masztak, Darek Kuc, Robert Kubaczyk, Kamil Krynski) with 38.88 (EL). Dylan Armstrong tossed a winning 21.29 in the sixth round to win the contest. Defending Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown came out of the blocks quickly and scored a gun-to-tape victory in a season-best 22.38 against a headwind of 0.3.  A powerful finish by Sanya Richards-Ross was enough for 50.65 400 m victory. The Kenyan Pa
mela Jelimo accelerated well over the final back stretch as Caster Semenya started her own kick, of sorts. But there was no doubt that Jelimo would easily win, which she did in 1:58.49. The South African’s final sprint brought her past many runners in the final 80 metres as she captured the runner-up spot in 2:00.80. Britain’s Tiffany Porter blasted away from the start and was racing only against the clock, which she stopped in 12.65, equalling the Golden Spike meeting record.  Vania Stambolova took over the lead off the seventh hurdle and sailed to a 54.15 victory. Second home Zuzana Hejnova followed Stambolova into the tape in 55.28, while Britain’s Perri Shakes-Drayton ran strongly at the end for third (55.82). Meanwhile, world champion Lashinda Demus continued to fade, perhaps when she saw her futile position, and she came home in sixth with 57.43. Slovenian Brent Larue won the national 400 m hurdles in European leading 49.61. 

OTHER NEWS

OSLO (NOR): Hurdles world champion Sally Pearson will open her European part of the season in Oslo at Bislett Games on June 7. She will remain then in Europe until the Olympic Games. 

BRUSSELS (BEL) : Defending Olympic high jump champion Tia Hellebaut will not travel to Finland for the European championships. Hellebaut does not believe she can be in top shape at both the European championships and the London Olympic Games and therefore prioritizes the Olympic Games reports Het Belang Van Limburg.

OSLO (NOW): With a time of 43.84 the Belgian 4x100m women’s relay team is very close to qualifying for the London Olympic Games. The team of Anne Zagré, Elodie Ouedraogo, Hanna Mariën and Olivia Borlée is currently ranked 17 th in the world and will attempt to improve on that position this weekend at the IFAM meeting in Oordegem, Belgium, writes sporza.be.

REHLINGEN (GER): New meeting director of the Pfhingstsportfest in Rehlingen, Lutwin Jungmann has announced a top field of over 300 athletes of 30 nationalities for the meeting on May 28 th . Especially the pole vault competitions look promising with the presence of Silke Spiegelburg, Jirina Ptacnikova and Kristina Gadschiew in the women’s event and Karsten Dilla, Björn Otto and Raphael Holzdeppe with the men. Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch, Nadja Kampschulte and Lavern Spencer are the big names in the women’s high jump while Cindy Roleder faces Sarah Claxton, Isabelle Pedersen and Nadine Hildenbrand in the 100m hurdles. Other top names are Nicola Sanders in the 400m and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi over 800m.

LAUSANNE (SUI): Luch Moscow have dominated the European Champion Clubs Cup for a decade-and-a-half and they are the favourites to triumph again in both the men’s and women’s competitions in the Portuguese coastal town of Vila Real de Santo António this weekend reports European athletics. The Russian club can count on Sergey Mudrov, the 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships high jump gold medallist, pole vaulter Alexandr Gripich, Igor Spasovkhodskiy, the 2005 European Athletics Indoor Championships triple jump gold medallist, Maxsim Sidorov, the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships shot put bronze medallist and Aleksey Zagorniy, the 2009 World Championships bronze medallist and number two hammer thrower in the world last year. The women’s team is led by high jumper Svetlana Shkolina,the in-form pole vaulter Anastasiya Savchenko, Yelena Sokolova and hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko. Bulgaria’s Ivet Lalova is out to contribute points for her club Enka while Elvan Abeylegesse, Turkey’s 2010 European Athletics Championships 10,000m gold medallist and 2008 Olympic Games 5000m and 10,000m silver medallist, will also compete for Enka.

LAUSANNE (SUI): Helsinki 2012 have unveiled their app for this summer’s European Athletics Championships. In cooperation with Fonecta, the app, named ‘Appy’ like the event mascot, was released for download reports European athletics. The app will provide live competition results, along with athlete profiles and the latest event news. In addition to all these functions, daily competitions will be posted to enter along with race day pictures and local information.

SCARBOROUGH (TRI): BP, an Official Partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has thrown their support behind three of T&T’s Olympic medal hopefuls Renny Quow, Cleopatra Borel and Michelle Lee-Ahye. The support will include promotion of the athlete as the three are in Trinidad and Tobago at the moment where they will be involved in promotional events visiting their primary and secondary schools reports trackalerts.com.

QUEBEC CITY (CAN): United States Olympic Committee (USOC) chairman Larry Probst believes that a “roadblock” has now been removed from a successful American bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games after the USOC announced that they have reached a deal with the IOC on their high profile revenue-sharing dispute following years of negotiations. The new deal, which will begin in 2020 and run for 20 years, will see the USOC retain their 20 per cent share of global sponsorship revenue but have its share of US broadcast rights deals cut to 7%  on any increases in broadcast deals. The USOC’s marketing share has also been cut in half to 10 per cent on increases in sponsorship revenue. In addition, the USOC has agreed to contribute to the administrative costs of staging the Games and they will provide 15 million dollar through 2020 and 20 million dollar after 2020. The new deal also covers issues related to ownership of Olympic rights, trademarks and historic TV footage reports Insidethegames.

LONDON (GBR): The Mo Farah Foundation, which was founded by Mo and his wife Tania at the end of 2011 after a personal visit to Somalia,will host their first annual fundraising ball on the 1st September 2012 in aid of the East African famine crisis that is affecting millions of people in the Somalia region. Supporting Mo in this worthy cause are some of the most prominent names in sport which so far includes Kolo Toure, Paula Radcliffe, Steve Cram and Ugo Monye.

RABAT (MAR): Justin Gatlin is the top star of this weekend’s IAAF World challenge meeting of Rabat. Gatlin takes on top sprinter Kim Collins. Marroco’s top distance star will be present as well. Amine Laalou is the home favourite for the 800m as he is facing with Ethiopia’s Mohamed Amman, while Abdalaati Iguider is the top name in the 1500m with Ryan Gregson, Jeroen D’Hoedt and Florian Carvalho also in the race. Great Brittan is well presented in the 400m hurdles with David Greene, Jack  Green and Nathan Woodward taking on Felix Sanchez. Current top long jumpers Alexander Menkov and Greg Rutherford face off in the men’s long jump while Tia Hellebaut is making her first high jump appearance of the season. There’s also a top field in the women’s triple jump with IBARGUEN Katarina Ibarguen, Olga Saladukha, Paraskevi Papachristou and Dana Veldakova.

NEW YORK (USA): David Rudisha said he wants to make Sebastian Coe proud at the 2012 London Games. More than that, he wants to honor Coe and Wilson Kipketer, his two inspirations, by winning the Olympic 800-meter gold medal those two World Record-setting legends never got. But beforehand, Rudisha will compete in the U.S., for the first time ever, at the adidas Grand Prix on June 9 organizers of the Adidas GP report.

NAIROBI (KEN): Athletics Kenya and the National Olympics Committee of Kenya have dismissed claims of widespread doping among its renowned middle and long distance runners as alleged by a German Television journalist over the weekend.The Kenyan Sports officials say the defaming reports claiming blood doping was rife within the country’s famous high altitude camps, was clearly meant to scuttle their athletes preparations for the Londo
n Olympic games reports the AIPS. 

RESULTS

HENGELO (NED, May 26): Canadian Dylan Armstrong despite early morning flight from Vienna won the city shot put at FBK Games in Hengelo with season best of 21.44 m. 

GOLD COAST (AUS, May 26): At the Queensland Athletics Winter Series meet Mitchell Watt kick started his 2012 campaign with a leap of 821, in round two of the long jump, the furthest he has ever recorded at an opening competition.

DESSAU (GER, May 25): The 14th Anhalt meet saw fast women 1500 m by home runners Corina Harrer 4:05.62 European lead and Denise Krebs 4:06.01. Another European lead by Krystian Zalewski in steeple 8:25.50, but the winner was Haron Langat of Kenya 8:25.12. Another Kenyan win in fast 1500 m by Benson Seurei with 3:34.60 (best European Bartosz Nowicki of Poland 3:37.81). Another top Polish result 225 in the high jump by Szymon Kiecana (PB). In top pole vault Lukasz Michalski cleared 562 to beat Bjorn Otto also 562. World champion Pawel Wojciechowski was fourth (552). Zarck Visser of South Africa achieved 806 (+1.2) in the long jump and Mark Frank 81.50 in the javelin. In women throws high quality 20.21 shot put by Chinese Gong Lijiao and discus by Nadine Muller 65.65 over world champion Li Yanfeng 64.73. 

TAIPEI (TPE, May 25-26): During first day of TPE International Open Angelo Taylor clocked 48.71 meet record at 400 m hurdles. In 4×100 m heats Hongkong was the fastest with 39.17. Maria Natalia Londa leaped to national record for Indonesia in long jump (655, +0.3). Li Wen-Hu who is home athlete improved women discus national record to 60.23 m. In second day Michael Frater of Jamaica won the 100 m in 10.05 and Will Claye leaped to 803 (+0.7) long jump win.

SINN (GER, May 25): Levern Spencer of St. Lucia won the high jump meet here with 188 cm. Hup Wei Lee of Malaysia with 218 topped the men competition.

ULM (GER, May 25): Good quality scores at first decathlon meet of Ulm. Mathias Brugger got 7942 decathlon Helsinki qualifiyng mark. Second Steffen Kahlert 7877 ahead of Matthias Prey 7863. Carolin Schafer was the best in heptathlon with 6072 points. 

RIGA (LAT, May 25): Igors Sokolovs got 77.70 in the hammer. 

VAXJO (SWE, May 25): Kim Amb of Sweden improved in javelin here to 81.84 m.

PUEBLO (USA, May 24): Solid personal bests in heats of NCAA second category championships. Terrel Lotton 20.48 (0.0) in the 200 m and Josh Edmonds 45.89 in the 400 m. 

BUCURESTI (ROU, May 25): Best results from the first day of national GP meet 4:14.97 by Roxana Birca in the 1500 m and 60.06 of Nicoleta Grasu in discus. 

JACKSONVILLE (USA, May 25): East regional NCAA event saw Kimberlyn Duncan in top sprinting form in heats 11.18 (+1.5) and 22.68 (-0.6). Kemar Hyman of Cayman Islands posted the fastest 100 m heat time 10.11 (+1.2), Maurice Mitchell 20.22 (+0.7) in the 200 m and David Verburg 45.08 in the 400 m.

AUSTIN (USA, May 25): Windy times at West regional NCAA meet but the top mark came from Mike Berry with 44.86 in the 400 m heats. Amaechi Morton clocked 49.06 in the 400 m hurdles heats and Ray Higgs of Bahamas leaped to 823 (+3.6) in the long jump qualification. English Gardner was the fastest in women 100 m semis 11.06 (+2.3) and Jamaican Andrew Riley in 100 m semis 10.03 (+4.3). Top legal time for Zye Boey 10.15 (+1.5) personal best and in heats Ameer Webb 10.17 (+1.7) PB and windy 20.20 (+2.4) in the 200 m. 

For full results, please see: