Herculis Meeting on July 20, AVIVA London July 13th and 14th, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

MERRITT, KIPROP ADDED

MONACO (MON): More new names for Herculis Samsung Diamond League on July 20 include David Oliver, Aries Merritt and Jeff Porter at 110 m hurdles. European Champion Churandy Martina will compete in the 200 m. US Trials winner Nick Symmonds is added into the 800 m line-up with Eurowinner 2010 Marcin Lewandowski and Danish Andreas Bube. His only meet before the Games will be in Monaco for olympic winner Asbel Kiprop in the 1500 m with him another US Trials winner Leo Manzano. US duo Jesse Williams and Erik Kynard will be in the high jump. First meet in Europe this year for Tianna Madison in the 100 m, in the 400 m hurdles Czech European silver winner Denisa Rosolova and her team mate Jirina Ptacnikova will compete against Yelena Isinbaeva in the pole vault. Women triple will have British World indoor champion Yamile Aldama and 3000 m US 1500 m world champion Jenny Simpson. At a press conference in Monaco special guest was Isinbaeva who said: „I want to get higher than 485 in Monaco, it is a very good track, fast and soft. I love to compete here and want to do my best!”

GEMILI 10.05 THE FAST TALENT

BARCELONA (ESP, Jul 11): New meet record and UK junior record for British super talent Adam Gemili with 10.05 (+0.1) in the 100 m. He is now tied for 6th place in junior all-time lists. Second place and PB for Aaron Ernest of USA in 10.17 and third for Jamaican Odean Skeen in 10.28 PB. Out of podium US Tyreek Hill and Jamaican Jazeel Murphy, both in 10.29. Gemili´s next meet – the Olympic Games. Second day of World Junior Championships at Montjuic Stadium started in the morning with 10 000 m race walk and ended with a Russian double. Gold for Ekaterina Medvedeva in 45:41.74 ahead of her team-mate Nadezhda Leontyeva in 45:43.64. Bronze for Sandra Arenas of Colombia in 45:44.46 NJR. For kiwi young star Jacko Gill Wednesday will be well remembered. He started in the morning with 21.50 meet record in the qualification and ended with another one 22.20 to win the finals. He wanted to attack the world junior record of David Storl 22.73 m. Silver for Polish Krzysztof Brzozowski with 21.78 (national junior record) and bronze for Australian Damien Birkinhead 21.14, another national junior mark. Ethiopian girls dominated the 5000 m with Buze Diriba winning in 15:32.94 ahead of Ruti Aga 15:32.95 PB and Kenyan Agnes Chebet was third 15:36.74 PB. World junior record holder Sergey Morgunov confirmed his top position with long jump win (809, +0.4). Here second Danish Andrej Trajkovski 782 NJR and third US Jarrion Lawson (764/761) over Chinese Huang (764/753). Exciting javelin women predicted a win for the Chinese Liu with who with second throw got 59.20 PB. But last attempt of Sweden´s Sophie Flinck was magical 61.40, new senior record for her country at age of 17. Third place for Serbian Marija Vucenovic 57.12. Decathlon men saw Gunnar Nixon of USA changing everything in last race and taking the lead with a final 8018 points, US junior record. Second the earlier leader Jake Stein of Australia 7951 Oceanian junior record and third Dutch Tim Dekker 7815. In girls 100 m Antonique Strachan of Bahamas was timed with 11.20 (+1.7) after a slow start. Silver for Turkish Nimet Karakus in 11.36 and Brasilian Tamiris De Liz got bronze in 11.45. In the morning semifinals in women 800 m impressive British power with two best Jessica Judd 2:02.30 and Emily Pidgeon 2:02.32. Cuban Farrill and French Belocian should be the two stars of 110 m hurdles finals after a qualifying times of 13.28 (+0.8) and 13.30 (-0.5, national junior record) in the semis. 400 m men semifinals were amazing with Dominican Luguelin Santos running well and easy 45.98. Arman Hall and Aldrich Bailey from USA appear both in great shape with 46.42 and 45.79 respectively. Curious the story of Kenyan Alphas Kishoiyan not ready for the start in first semifinal and after complaint by AK and admission of judges he made the re-run alone and qualified with 46.46.

BOLT IN GOOD SITUATION

LONDON (GBR): Usain Bolt’s agent revealed that the triple Olympic champion has made a full recovery from muscle tightness that hampered him at the Jamaican Olympic trials and is training normally and “good to go” to defend his titles in London. Ricky Simms said for Daily Telegraph the problem was nothing more serious than a tight hamstring and said that he was fully recovered and training normally. He added that Bolt was now in London, his usual European base during the summer, and would be remaining there until he joins up with his countrymen at Jamaica’s pre-Olympic base in Birmingham before a few days before opening ceremony. The decision of the coach not to compete before the Games remains valid.

OTHER NEWS

 
BRUSSELS (BEL): Former Belgian athlete Patrick Van Craenenbroeck will produce bronze statutes for all event winners at this year’s Samsung Diamond League meeting of Brussels. Van Craenenbroeck has known Ivo Van Damme as an athlete when competing in the 400m hurdles.

BRUSSELS (BEL): 13 Belgian athletes have been announced to star at the Memorial Ivo Van Damme (Samsung Diamond League meeting). Borlée twins Kevin and Jonathan will contest the 400m, while also Tia Hellebaut, Elodie Ouedraogo and Svetlana Bolshakova are set to compete. According to a survey these are also the most popular Belgian athletes at the moment reports sporza.be.

KONIGS WUSTERHAUSEN (GER): This year’s edition of the German meeting of Konigs Wusterhausen is cancelled, organizers have informed. The meeting has a budget of 90.000 euro but could only collect about 60.000 euro. Traditionally the meeting is being held on the Friday before the ISTAF meeting in Berlin.

BARCELONA (ESP): Jamaican 800m junior athlete Simoya Campbell, according to team doctor Lincoln Cox, appears to be suffering from cerebral seizure. Simoya Campbell pulled out of the women’s 800m at the World Junior Championships after complaining of not feeling well and was rushed to Hospital del Mar in Barcelona according to trackalerts.com.

KINGSTON (JAM): The Supreme Ventures Foundation (SVF) announced its support of local sports, through a 229 885 USD contribution to the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), for Jamaica’s team to the London 2012 Olympic Games writes trackalerts.com.

NEW YORK (USA): Users of Facebook, later this summer, will be reminded about NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games in London and viewers of NBC’s coverage, at the same time, will be nudged to talk about the Games on Facebook. The virtuous circle is part of a collaboration between NBCUniversal’s NBC Olympics division and Facebook, the social networking Web site according to the New York Times.

BARCELONA (ESP): A special IAAF International Youth Athletics Conference is being held from 16 and 17 July in Barcelona, Spain, and will be opened by IAAF Vice-President Sergey Bubka. The conference, which is supported by the IAAF Centenary Main Partner VTB and Supporting Partners adidas and Mondo, takes place following the IAAF World Junior Championships in the Catalan capital giving the opportunity for coaches from the 180 countries already assembled for the championships to attend. The conference is one of the many events being organised to mark the year of the Centenary of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and has as its main topic the “training and competition of young athletes”. The 300 delegates will hear from and interact with renowned expert lecturers who will outline different physiological and methodological approaches specific to the coaching of youth athletes. Informs the IAAF.

ATLANTA (USA): On Track Management group headed by Claude Bryan signed to represent NCAA Champions Andrew Riley from Jamaica (100m & 110mH) and Maurice Mitchell (200m) and 400 m runner Torrin Lawrence, both USA.

LONDON (GBR): Top US long distance runner Ga
len Rupp who will double in the 5000m and 10,000m at the London Olympics, is now represented by PACE Sports Management, the athlete management firm owned by Ricky Simms, based in Teddington, Middlesex, England. Simms already represented Rupp’s key training partner, world 5000m champion Mo Farah. Both Rupp and Farah are coached by Alberto Salazar and run for Nike’s Oregon Distance Project. Rupp had previously been represented by Michael Johnson.

BUDAPEST (HUN): In Hungary a positive doping test is announced by one of the olympic team members. The name will be revealed only after the B-analysis will be staged. Hungarian media are suspecting it could be discus thrower Robert Fazekas. Stanozolol was the substance found in the sample.

WARSZAWA (POL): Polish media are informing about positive doping test of shot putter Damian Kusiak, who was not competing at European Championships in Helsinki. He was to be selected also for London Games but now faces two years ban. In his sample stanozolol was found. Kusiak improved this year to 20.45 and was second at National Championships.

MOSCOW (RUS): Russian Olympic team is currently at three training camps divided by different groups. In Novogorsk, Kislovodsk and Cheboksary and also some are training at their home bases. But on July 20 the whole team should report to Novogorsk. First group of around 23-24 athletes will travel to London on July 20 and others by smaller groups form July 29.

NYMBURK (CZE): Reigning hammer olympic winner Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia is training in Czech center in Nymburk. He will remain there until July 28. He admits that he competed only very few times this year but hopes he still can have the right competitive shape in London. His new coach Primoz Cetrtic is with him and his training throws are close to 76 meters. Kozmus knows: „Gold is maybe not realistic, but I will fight,” said Kozmus.

HALDENSLEBEN (GER): The International meet in Haldensleben, Germany on July 15 will have some top names competing. Mainly 2009 World Champion at 800 m Caster Semenya, sprinters Marc Burns, Derrick Atkins and Kemar Hyman along with olympic long jump medalist Khotso Mokoena.

MADRID (ESP): Spanish European indoor champion 2011 Manuel Olmedo gave up his dream to compete at London Games. At the Madrid meet he clocked only 1:56.28 in the 800 m. He admitted he must work in his health and full fitness. „There is no way to recover. Miracles do not exist in this,” he said.

OLYMPIC TEAMS FROM ASIAN COUNTRIES (from Heinrich Hubbeling)

INDIA: 8 men and 6 women, the team: men – Renjith Maheswary (TJ), Vikas Gowda (DT); Om Prakash Singh Karhana (SP); Gurmeet Singh, Baljinder Singh and K T Irfan (all 20km Walk); Basant Bahadur Rana (50km Walk); Ram Singh Yadav (Marathon). Women – Tintu Luka (800m); Sudha Singh (3000 m St); Sahana Kumari (HJ), Mayookha Johny (TJ); Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil (DT).

IRAN: 9 men and 1 women. Top name is discus world medalist Ehsan Hadadi. Men – Reza Ghasemi (100 m); Sajjad Hashemi (400 m); Sajjad Moradi (800 m); Rouhollah Ashgari (110 m H); Mohammed Arzandeh (LJ); Amin Nikfar (SP); Ehsan Haddadi (DT); Kaveh Mousavi (HT); Ebrahim Rahimian (20 km Walk). The only women is shot putter Leila Rajabi.

SAUDI ARABIA: 10 men team. Youssef Ahmad Al-Masrahi (400 m); Abdulaziz Ladan Mohamed (800 m); Mohamed Othman Shahween & Emad Hamed Noor (1500 m); Hussein Jamman Al-Hamdah & Abdullah Abdelaziz Al-Joud (5000 m); Moukhled Al-Outaibi (5000 m & 10000 m ); Ali Ahmad Al-Amri (3000 m St); Ahmad Khader Al-Moualed (110 m H); Sultan Mubarak Al-Dawoodi (DT).

INDONESIA: Male sprinter Fernando Lumain and female marathon runner Triyaningsih.

 
JORDAN: Marathon runner Abu Drais and female triple jumper Rima Taha Farid.

 
LEBANON: Hurdles record holder at 110 m Ahmad Hazer and female sprinter Gretta Taslakian.

 
MALAYSIA: High jumper Lee Hup Wei and women 400 m hurdles runners Noraseela Mohd Khalid.

 
MONGOLIA: Two marathon runners, Ser-Od Bat-Ochir on the men side and Lursanikhundeg Otgonbayar on the women part.

 
MYANMAR: Male 400 m runner Thet Zaw Win and female marathon runner Ni Lar San.

 
PHILIPPINES: Steeple runner Rene Herrera and female long jump record holder Marestella Torres.

 
SINGAPORE: Sprinter Gary Yeo Foo Ee and women 100 m hurdles runner Dipna Lim Prasad.

 
SRI LANKA: Male marathon runner Anuradha I. Cooray and female 400mHurdler Christine Merrill.

 
VIETNAM: Two women high jumper Duong Thi Viet Anh and walker Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc.

 
BAHRAIN: Four men: Belal Mansoor 800 m, 1500 m, Bilisuma Shumi 5000 m, Mahbob Hasan 10 000 m and Adam Ismail marathon. Strong women part has former world champion Maryam Yusuf Jamal in the 1500 m along with Mimi Belete and Genzebe Shumi. In the 5000 m Tejitu Daba, Shitaye Eshetu and in the 10 000 m and Lishan Dula in marathon.