by Larry Eder
HOOKER SPLITS FROM PARNOV
PERTH (AUS): Olympic winner from Beijing Steven Hooker split with coach Alex Parnov with intentions to move to the US. The split was a mutual decision that both Parnov and Hooker agreed with. Australian media are informing. Hooker recently married Russian partner and 800/1500 m runner Yekaterina Kostetskaya in a Melbourne ceremony and the vaulter organised a meeting last month with Athletics Australia’s high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth and WA Institute of Sport coaching group manager Simon Jones to advise them of his intentions. It is understood Hooker’s plans include a year’s sabbatical travelling between the US and the UK, allowing him to train alongside close friends Brad Walker and Steven Lewis, but is more tapered towards a reduced training load, allowing him to focus more time and attention on his personal life.
ADEN GETS CONTRACT IN ALGERIA
ALGERS (ALG): Top coach for middle distances Jama Aden signed a contract with Algerian Athletics Federation to train some of the Algerian hopes like Mohamed Bilal and Belbachir Tabti who are World Junior Finalists from Barcelona. But the main issue in Algeria for him was the fact the he coached Taofik Makhloufi to olympic gold medal in the 1500 m. Aden was oficially invited to meet Algerian sports minister Mohamed Tahmi and recieved 25 000 E award. Makhloufi also said he will have his first training camp for next season early November in Ethiopia. French media are informing.
BOLT TO PLAY FOOTBALL
KINGSTON (JAM): The world’s fastest man Usain Bolt is set to display his football skills at the 26th annual staging of the Bell/Ziadie Memorial Football Festival on Monday. Bolt, a regular participant in the event, will lead the Digicel-sponsored Usain Bolt Invitational team, which will also feature his Racers teammate Jermaine Gonzales, while West Indies star batsman Chris Gayle will also be playing, but for the Masters & Celebrities team. Informs Trackalerts. At the end of his Japan stay Nissan announced that it has extended its partnership with the “World’s Fastest Man” Usain Bolt. Not only has the Japanese automaker named the Olympic sprinter its honorary “Director of Excitement,” but it also revealed a one-off “Bolt” version GT-R, a sports car introduced in 2007.
SPRINTERS WEDDING IN CANADA
TORONTO (CAN): Canadian fastest couple married on Friday. Justyn Warner (10.09, olympic semifinalist) and Nikkita Holder (12.80 also olympic semifinalist). The wedding took place at St. Pauls on the Hill Church in Toronto. Among around 200 guests also other top athletes like Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, Phylicia George, Tremaine Harris, Anson Henry, Crystal Emmanuel among others. Coaches Anthony McCleary and Desai Williams provided a warm felt speech in honor of the newly weds. She will be now wearing the name Warner.
EA CALENDAR PUBLISHED
ST. JULIANS (MLT): European Athletics Calendar for 2013 is now published at EA website after the calendar day on Friday in Malta. Some one day meetings are still waiting for the permit confirmation which will be finalised at the EA Council meeting early November in Bucuresti, Romania. In 2013 in Europe the top events will be European Indoor Championships in Goteborg in March and 4th European Team Championships (top league in Gateshead) in June. Also staged will be in July European U23 Championships in Tampere and European Junior Championships in Rieti. From special championships or cups the European Cup Race Walking will be held in Dudince, Slovakia, European Cup 10 000 m in Pravets, Bulgaria and European CC Championships in Belgrade in December. Without a organiser remaining is European Cup Winter Throwing in March. The European Athletics Convention will end with the European Athletics Awards Night at Manoel Theatre of Valletta on Saturday.
OTHER NEWS
EINDHOVEN (NED): Kenyan Eric Ndiema has already achieved a lot more any other teenage runner has ever done, even compared to other notoriously prodigious Kenyan athletes, but he is still looking to make an even more indelible mark before he turns 20. Ndiema, then only 18, ran a world junior best for the classic marathon distance of 2:06.77 when he came home third at the 2011 Amsterdam Marathon and showed that it was no fluke with a fourth-place finish at the 2012 Paris Marathon in 2:06:37 six months ago. He celebrates his 20th birthday on December 28 but before then the youngster from the Mount Elgon area close to the border between Kenya and Uganda is aiming to become the first teenager to go under the 2:06 barrier at the 2012 De Lage Landen Marathon in Eindhoven on Sunday. The even will be streamed live on the website of the local broadcaster Omroep Brabant. The race organisers are hoping that the existing men’s and women’s course records of 2:05:48 and 2:24.33, set Kenya’s Jafred Kipchumba and Georgina Rono last year, will be challenged. The weather forecast is for cloudy weather with the possibility of light rain. The temperature should be from 9 to 12 degrees Celsius. Approximately 180,000 spectators lined the streets of the Eindhoven in 2
011 for the festival of running, which incorporates four other races and there are high hopes that those numbers will be exceeded this year. The organizers are informing.
KYIV (UKR): Specialized stadium for long throws which is the part of National Sport Complex ‘Olimpiyskyy’ in the Kyiv city center razed to the ground. Ukrainian Athletic Federation (FLAU) is fighting for this throwing stadium in court from 2003. FLAU’s President Valeriy Borzov resumed that without this area main Ukrainian stadium will be ineligible to hold mail Championships in athletics. “We have saved an athletic track at the Olimpiyskyy Stadium to have ability to invite big athletics events in the future. Certainly, we meant to use this throwing stadium as warm-up area for long throws. If we lose it we’ll have nearest throwing warm-up area more that 20km far from main athletics arena. Moreover this stadium is the last training area for Hammer and Discus throwers in Ukrainian capital.” Athletics Federation of Kiev organized protest action against start of illegal building on that throwing area appealing to the local authorities after what building activity was stopped once again.
MOSCOW (RUS): Discus European Champion and silver Olympic medalist Darya Pishchalnikova came back home after short rehabilitation stay in Germany. “Nothing serious I just needed some treatment after such intense season” said Darya to All Sports news agency. “On October 10 I started my preparation for the next year at the training camp in Sochi. But big loadings we’ll begin from November only. I would prefer to change my usual training camp from Adler to Finland or Portugal. It doesn’t mean that I have bad training facilities in Adler. Everything is great there. But I spent 12 years in this training camp. I think that it’s natural if I want to change a scene for a time.”
MONACO (MON): To mark Saturday´s public opening of the IAAF Centenary Historic Exhibition in the Museu OlÃmpic i de l’Esport Joan Antoni Samaranch, Barcelona, Spain, (Saturday 13 October to Sunday 25 November 2012), the IAAF is delighted to announce that High Jump legends Iolanda Balas and Stefka Kostadinova are to be inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame.
KINGSTON (JAM): Olympic sprinters and medalists Veronica Campbell-Brown and Nesta Carter, along with cricketer Stafanie Taylor, have been shortlisted for the eighth annual Courtney Walsh Award for Excellence. The recipient of the award will be announced on the night of the award ceremony scheduled for October 18.
KINGSTON (JAM): The other Jamaican sprint star Yohan Blake will lead Food For The Poor’s 5K Walk/Run For Hunger on Saturday November 17 at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach, Florida. “It’s really great that Food For The Poor is stepping up to help more people overcome poverty,” said Blake, one of the world’s fastest and most promising sprinters. Blake’s participation in the charity’s 5K Walk/Run is especially significant because both the athlete’s and the non-profit’s legacies had their origins in Spanish Town, Jamaica. Informs www.caribbean360.com.
TEL AVIV (ISR): The triple olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix will visit Tel Aviv, Israel from October 30 to November 1 to inspire the city’s running community and participate in the most popular running event in Israel: Nike Night Run Tel Aviv.
KOLN (GER): The best elite fields ever are ready for Sunday´s Koln Marathon. Both course records 2:08:36 of Kenyan Evans Ruto (recently improved his best in Kosice) from 2009 and 2:27:29 of Angelina Kanana back in first edition of the race in 1997 (2:27:29) will be under threat. This year the elite fields were composed by Jos Hermens and hid Global Sports Communication team. Top male favorite is Ethiopian Seboka Tola, the winner of Dusseldorf in Spring and 2:06:17 PB in January in Dubai. In the women category Kenyan Helena Kiprop with 2:23:37 top result is the main name.
BONN (GER): The World junior gold and silver medalist Shanice Craft was named the Junior Sports Personality of the Year in Germany. The German Sporthilfe Foundation announced. Craft won the shot pur and was second in discus in July in Barcelona. The award is also accompanied with the 6000 E prize money.
ROMA (ITA): Walking olympic winner 2008 Alex Schwazer will be questioned by the Italian Olympic Committee on 16 October after being excluded from the London Olympic Games for doping. He failed an out-of-competition test before arriving in London and was removed from Italy’s team before competing. He then admitted using the blood-boosting hormone EPO and said he was quitting the sport. Schwazer was placed under investigation last month by a Rome court and is being investigated by prosecutors in his hometown of Bolzano and in Padova, where an inquiry into banned physician Michele Ferrari is based. Schwazer admitted consulting with Ferrari.
ROMA (ITA): Italian high jumper Elena Meuti (29, 192 in 2006) was found positive to a THC metabolites during a doping test carried out during the Italian Club Championships in Modena on 22-23 September and was suspended by the Italian Olympic Committee. Before Modena Meuti, fourth at the World Junior Championships in Kingston 2002 and 12th at the European Championships in Gothenburg
2006, had announced her retirement from sport. .
KINGSTON (JAM): Jason Morgan’s mark of 67.15m has been rejected as a Jamaican record. He achieved 67.15m, at a meeting at the University of Louisiana, Monroe on May 12 but this discus competition was not in the official programme, and it was added at the list minute. The rejection of Morgan’s mark, means that, Traves Smikle, who threw 67.12m to win at the National Championships in June, is now the official national record holder. Writes Trackalerts.
RESULTS
GLEINA (GER, Oct 13): Poland´s Grzegorz Sudol won the German 50 km walk championships in fast 3:46:01. National title for Carsten Schmidt with 4:14:41. Junior 30 km winner Carl Dohmann got 2:15:01 ahead of Hagen Pohle 2:17:41.
CORRECTION
MOSCOW (RUS): Javelin thrower Valeriy Iordan is of course rapper (not raper).
