by Larry Eder
15 LONDON WINNERS AT WELTKLASSE
ZURICH (SUI): Big Olympic revenge for Weltklasse of Zurich on August 30. The meet is already sold out. 15 London winners will compete, together 42 medalists in 17 events. Among the participants also multiple medalists from London (Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Carmelita Jeter und Vivian Cheruiyot). Hurdles winner Felix Sanchez will celebrate his 35th birthday right on the day of Weltklasse and he will try for his 5th Zurich win after being the best in 2001-2004 period in a row. The day before will see top shot putters at Zurich Main Station with both Olympic winners Tomasz Majewski and Valerie Adams. Eliane from „Biggest Swiss Talent” music show will be the singing performer of the evening. Olympic winners not competing in their winning events will be Allyson Felix at 100 m and Natalya Antyukh at 400 m. Usain Bolt is still to decide between 100 m and 200 m.
HERO WELCOME IN UGANDA
KAMPALA (UGA): Uganda’s only gold medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games Stephen Kiprotich received a arousing welcome on top of a promotion to the Assistant Superintendent of Prisons and ($80,000) from President Yoweri Museveni. The runner, who also got gifts from the Ugandan community in London before he traveled, is also expected to get a winning bonus of over $60,000 from his sponsor Nike. Kiprotich beat two time World marathon champion Abel Kirui and reigning London Marathon champion Wilson Kipsang, both from Kenya to a gold medal on his first appearance at the London 2012 Olympic Games, winning Uganda their second gold medal after John Aki Bua’s heroic performance in 1972. The Nike sponsored Prison warden was welcomed by his wife, children and a number of minister led by Education and sports minister Jessica Alupo, before inspecting a gourd honour by the Prison services, just moments after Commissioner for Prisons Johnson Byabaishajja recommended a promotion to Assistant Superintendent of Prison to the born again athlete. Informs AIPS.
MAKAU FOR FRANKFURT MARATHON
FRANKFURT (GER): World marathon record holder Patrick Makau will run the BMW Frankfurt Marathon on 28th October. Organisers of Germany’s oldest city marathon, which will see its 31st edition, have confirmed the most spectacular signing in the history of their event. The 27 year-old Kenyan had established the present record of 2:03:38 in Berlin a year ago. After surprisingly being omitted from Olympic selection Patrick Makau opted for the German IAAF Gold Label Road Race, that has established itself among the world’s top marathons in recent years. Wilson Kipsang’s current course record had been the fifth in a row broken at the BMW Frankfurt Marathon. Since 2007 the mark was improved from 2:07:58 to 2:03:42, showing the enormous development of the elite race.
GATLIN WINDY 9.81 IN FRANCE
ALBI (FRA, Aug 15): The 8th Decanation match saw olympic medalist Justin Gatlin posting windy 9.81 (+4.1) over Dwain Chambers 10.05 and Jamaican revelation Jason Young 10.10 (in Luzern in July fast 200 m). Season best for US hurdler David Oliver 13.07 (+0.3) over Russian Sergey Shubenkov 13.12 and Maksim Lynsha with new Belarus record 13.36 over Garfield Darien 13.38. Olympic winner Renaud Lavillenie cleared 583 to win the pole vault (tried at 590). Another olympic medalists lost their events. Brigetta Barrett 192 in high jump to Russian Irina Gordeyeva 195 and German Betty Heidler 72.07 in hammer to Cuban Yipsi Moreno 73.96. The match was won by USA 66 over Russia 56, Germany 39 and France 38, other athletes competed as guests. From men events to note 8:23.28 by Tarik Langat of Turkey in steeple over French miler Yoann Kowal 8:23.37 PB. Cory Martin won the shot put with season best 21.19 over Maksim Sidorov of Russia 21.03. In the hammer Kiril Ikonnikov in fight of olympic finalists was better with 77.12 than Lukas Melich 76.63 and Oleksiy Sokirskyy 74.58. Five strong US women wins for Alysia Montano 1:58.97 in the 800 m (over Elena Kofanova 1:59.10), Shannon Rowbury at 1500 m (4:12.66), Christina Manning over the hurdles 12.93 (+0.6), Bridget Franek in steeple 9:38.48 and Michelle Carter in shot put 18.87. In the 100 m Ukrainian Viktoriya Pyatachenko showed solid shape with 11.30 win (+0.5) over Lauryn Williams 11.31 and Aleen Bailey 11.34. Belarus Veronika Shutkova was the best in the long jump (664, +0.8) over Russian olympic 5th placer Anna Nazarova 662 (+0.2).
OTHER NEWS
BRUSSELS (BEL): Following a 6th place in the 4x400m in London, Belgian relay head coach Jacques Borlée announced he is no longer happy with the athletes Nils Duerinck, Arnaud Destatte and Arnaud Ghislain. The three athletes, who have been part of the project for some years, will be replaced by Jente Bouckaert and Stef Vanhaeren reports Sporza.
LONDON (GBR): Austrian marathon runner Gunther Weidlinger has ruptured his Achilles tendon during the Olympic Marathon. Weidlinger was seen on the ground during the race and later was carried away in a wheelchair.
BERLIN (GER): Germany’s top stars are set to compete at the Berlin Flyes street competition. Both Bjorn Otto and Raphael Holzdeppe are on the start list in the pole vault. European long jump champion Sebastian Bayer will also be present and will be joined by female counterparts Sosthene Moguenara and Melanie Bauschke reports leichtathletik.de.
LONDON (GBR): During celebrations at Downing Street for Mo Farah’s double Olympic achievements. Farah’s coach Alberto Salazar admitted Farah was a weakling when coming to train with him. Salazar said: ‘When Mo came to me 18 months ago, he was a skinny distance runner with a great engine but no upper body. He was the weakest athlete I’d ever trained, in terms of core strength and being able to do push-ups, sit-ups and single-leg squats. He was a 90lb weakling.’ Writes The Daily Mail.
BUDAPEST (HUN): London Olympics results level was far higher than at previous two Olympics. Based on All-Athletics.com scoring London got 195 146 points over Beijing 191 749 and Athens 190 871.
LONDON (GBR): Record audience for London Olympics helps NBC to justify emphasis on tape-delayed coverage. This year’s Olympic Games in London attracted 219.4 million unique television viewers to the coverage of NBC, the US national television network, making them the most-watched event in the country’s history.
BRUSSELS (BEL): This year, Shaggy is the musical act to close the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme. He is also the perfect warm up for the party people who are attending the Jamaican Party, the Memorial’s official afterparty, which has also sold out. It is almost impossible to find a better artist to connect sports and partying. Shaggy was born in Kingston (Jamaica), moved to the United States and served in the Marine Corps in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Afterwards, he decided to work in the music industry. The consequences of that decision are known all over the world: hits such as Oh Carolina, Boombastic and It Wasn’t Me. September 7, Shaggy will perform these hits in a sold out King Baudouin Stadium to end this night of athletics (with several Jamaican top athletes). Afterwards, he will perform at the Jamaican Party, the Memorial’s official afterparty, right around the corner in Hall 2 of the Heysel. The Jamaican Party will also have Usain Bolt as guest DJ, TLP and DJ Sake. Shaggy will also be accompanied by Precious Wilson, the Jamaican singer who became famous with her hit song One Way Ticket.
HAMBURG (GER): German olympians were welcomed like heroes in Hamburg. With a big welcome party on Wednesday morning, thousands of Hamburg citizens, the German Olympic athletes welcomed in the Hanseatic city. Accompanied with around 100 small boats continued the dream ship MS Germany, a 217 of the 392 Olympians on board from London. The 36 hours journey from London to Hamburg, was hosted by the German Olympic Sports Federation (DSB), the Olympic athletes, their friends and relatives.
LONDON (GBR): A consortium led by Australian firm DESIGNSPORT has won a competition to design a new national stadium and sports village in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The new stadium will seat 60,000 spectators and will meet both FIFA and Olympic standards, and is shaped like a coffee bean – representing Ethiopia’s main source of income. DESIGNSPORT won the competition in conjunction with the Australian Laboratory for Visionary Architecture and local Ethiopian artists JDAW. The new stadium and village will be the largest sports infrastructure project carried out in Ethiopia. The current national stadium in Addis Ababa can hold 35,000 spectators. Informs insidethegames.
NIJMEGEN (NED): With 3 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 7 bronze medals the team of Global Sports Communication, the agency of Jos Hermens, looks back on a great Olympic Games in London. Gold medalists from Hermens team were both marathon winners Tiki Gelana and Stephen Kiprotich along with Chinese walker Ding Chen. Global Sports Communication showed with the two gold and one silver medal on the marathon that they have a great group of marathon athletes at the moment. We will definitely see those athletes back in the fall marathons. Unless some disappointments like the injuries of Liu Xiang and Genzebe Dibaba and the crash of Brimin Kipruto in the 3000mSC final, they believe that those athletes will recover and that they will be back at the World Championships in Moscow in 2013.
LONDON (GBR): Following surgery on his Achilles tendon, hurdler Liu Xiang told Chinese press agency Xinhua he is determined to continue his career. Previously it was already announced the his surgery in London had gone very well.
EBERSTADT (GER): Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov has confirmed his participation at the Eberstadt high jump meeting, men competition on Saturday. Also European champions Robbie Grabarz with Aleksandr Shustov will jump. Women competition on Sunday will see olympic medalist Svetlana Shkolina against European champ Ruth Beitia and 2008 olympic winner Tia Hellebaut. Best German high jumper Ariane Friedrich already ended her season.
BERLIN (GER): Following the disqualification of Nadzheya Ostapchuck from the London Olympic Games, European shot put champion Nadine Kleinert has urged for harder consequences when athletes are caught for doping. For Die Welt, Kleinert said she would like to see doping offenders face time in prison while adding that only drastic punishments will keep athletes away from doping. Kleinert, who had announced to end her career after the London Olympics added that the news around Ostapchuck had convinced her to extend her career with another year.
LAUSANNE (SUI): French 1500 m runner Mehdi Baala, has had to finally call a halt to his season. According to his coach, Jean-Michel Dirringer, Baala has been unable to get into sufficient shape to make his return to the track possible for the end of season meetings that remain writes European Athletics. Baala was one of the big-name absentees from the French team after suffering from plantar fasciitis in his left foot in June.
LONDON (GBR): British discus star Lawrence Okoye is considering a return to rugby after his Olympic dream ended in despair as he finished last in the discus final. The 20-year-old was a promising wing before he turned down contract offers from Premiership clubs last year to concentrate on his athletics career. But now Okoye, who also deferred entry to study law at Oxford University last year, has told The Sun that he is considering a return to rugby.
ORLANDO (USA): Former University of Florida football and track star Jeff Demps will pursue a career in the NFL. The Olympic relay silver medalist has signed a representation agreement for football with the goal of playing in the 2012 season a source close to Demps told nfl.com.
BRISBANE (AUS): After consulting with her coach Sharon Hannan and her manager Robert Joske, and advising Athletics Australia High Performance Manager Eric Hollingsworth, Sally Pearson has chosen to cancel her remaining races in Europe after a lengthy period of training and competing overseas. On leaving the Olympic Village, Pearson has spent three days with extended family in England. She will return home to take a further eight weeks holiday before returning to training on the GoldCoast to begin her assault on the 2013 Australian Athletics Tour and defending her world title at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
RESULTS
DOMAZLICE (CZE, Aug 15): Czech 400 m record holder Pavel Maslak posted a fast 300 m here with 32.41. In the 300 m hurdles Josef Prorok was timed with 36.42. Petr Frydrych after olympic qualification achieved solid 77.81 in the javelin.
SONDERSHAUSEN (GER, Aug 15): The International meet in Germany saw olympic winner Robert Harting extending his winning-streak to 30 competitions with 65.92 over Poland´s Przemyslaw Czajkowski 61.91. Canadian olympic finalist Dylan Armstrong achieved 21.12 in the shot put over German Ralf Bartels 20.40. Fast sprints for home Julian Reus 10.22 (+0.2) and 20.77 (+0.2). Discus olympic 5th placer Nadine Muller got solid 64.17 win.
