by Larry EderMo Farah is the European Athlete of the year, for 2012, repeating from 2011. His amazing double, winning the golds in both the 10,000 meters and also the 5,000 meters, had London’s Olympic stadium rocking for two days!
Farah repeated
LAUSANNE (SUI): Mo Farah has been voted the 2012 winner of the men’s European Athlete of the Year Award. Farah becomes just the second athlete to be named as the European Athlete of the Year for a second consecutive year, following on from Swedish triple jumper Christian Olsson in 2003 and 2004, after his phenomenal double success over 5000m and 10,000m at the London 2012 Olympic Games writes European Athletics. Farah, 29, defended his European 5000m title in Helsinki to become the first man to win consecutive gold medals over the distance at the European Athletics Championships. Six weeks later, he captivated the 80,000 capacity crowd in the Olympic Stadium with two wins executed in spectacular fashion with blistering finishes over the last lap to become the first Briton to win Olympic titles in long distance running events. Farah was already last year the 6th British male winner of this award and first ever long distance runner. French athletes are following in the rankings, pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie is second and sprinter Christophe Lemaitre despite not winning an olympic medal is third. Behind him olympic winners Ivan Ukhov, Robert Harting and Tomasz Majewski. Another sprinter is 7th Churandy Martina. Then again oly winners are coming. Krisztian Pars is 8th and Greg Rutherford 10th. Between them Kevin Borlee. French steeple runner Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad is 11th, Vitezslav Vesely 12th, Fabrizio Donato 13th, Russian oly winner at 50 km walk Sergey Kirdyapkin is 14th and British high jumper Robbie Grabarz 15th.
OTHER NEWS
KAPCHORWA (UGA): Olympic gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich’s security has been beefed up, the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) of Kapchorwa told Allafrica.com. She disclosed that the marathoner has now been assigned a bodyguard and this will start immediately he returns from China where he is on an official visit.
LAKE PLACID (USA): Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones is among a group of Olympic track athletes who were invited and are expected to compete in the U.S. women’s bobsled push championships reports Sports Illustrated.
MOSCOW (RUS): The opening of ticket sales for the IAAF World Championships, Moscow 2013, were announced by the Local Organising Committee at a press conference in the Russian capital. The IAAF World Championships opening ceremony is scheduled for 10 August, the first day of the competition. Over 4000 athletes and official guests from 212 counties will take part in the Moscow World Championships. Over 200,000 spectators are expected to attend. Almost 1 year before the IAAF World Championships, the Organising Committee will start selling tickets on the internet on 15 October 2012.www.mos2013.ru will publish all details about booking and purchasing of tickets. And starting in February 2013 there will be massive sale of tickets for all spectator tribunes which, as well as on the internet, will take place at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex and other ticket booths around the city. Informs IAAF.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): The Brazilian Government has announced new criteria for ranking hotels and accommodation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games that Rio de Janeiro hosts in 2016. The one to five star system will now be issued exclusively by the Brazilian Government to those hotels assessed according to the Brazilian System for the Qualification of Accommodation. The system follows international models from France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and other major tourist destinations reports Insidethegames.
LONDON (GBR): Athletics Weekly published its greatest distance runners of all time. They assesed top 10 men and 10 women from the metric mile up to the marathon. When comparing athletes across a range of events, spanning several decades that have seen many changes within the sport, there is never going to be a completely water-tight method of ranking athletes. But six years ago former AW editor Mel Watman devised a scoring system that allocates points for major championship medals, world records and world No.1 rankings, and used it to rate the top 10 athletes in every event. AW have now brought those point scores up to date and have factored in extra points for medals won at the World Cross. Kenenisa Bekele is the number one with 285 points ahead of Paavo Nurmi 258 and Haile Gebrselassie 222. Fourth place Emil Zatopek 168, fifth Hicham El Guerrouj 162, Hannes Kolehmainen 156, Lasse Viren 133, Said Aouita 120, Paul Tergat 118 and Vladimir Kuts 114. Women leader of the ranking is Tirunesh Dibaba with 178 just ahead of Ingrid Kristiansen 176 and Tatyana Kazankin 145. Fourth place for Grete Waitz 140 ahead of Wang Junxia 128, Paula Radcliffe 100, Lyudmila Bragina 98, Meseret Defar 92, Derartu Tulu 87 and Catherine Ndereba 81.
MONACO (MON): The IAAF announced that EUROVISION, through its wholly owned subsidiary Eurovision Production Coordination (EPC), together with VGTRK, the Russian state broadcaster, has been appointed as official Host Broadcaster for the next edition of the IAAF World Championships, which takes place in Moscow from 10-18 August 2013. EPC and VGTRK will deliver all Host Broadcast services, including provision of the integrated broadcast feed, additional feeds and a daily highlights programme.
JOHANNESBURG (RSA): South African middle distance queen Caster Semenya is still recharging her batteries after she bagged the silver medal in the women’s 800 metres final at the London Olympic Games in August. SA media are informing. Semenya, who was nominated in two categories on Thursday for the 2012 SA Sports Awards, said she would begin focusing her attention on next year’s World Athletics Championships in Moscow, where she hoped to take revenge on Russia’s Mariya Savinova, who beat her to the line in the Olympic final. Semenya’s popularity was again highlighted on Thursday night when she was nominated for the Sports Woman of the Year and Sports Star of the Year awards. She said she would soon start with her pre-season training, and her main aim next year was to reclaim her world title in the Russian capital. SA media are informing.
