FELIX NO INDOORS

INDIANAPOLIS (USA): Fresh US Athlete of the Year Allyson Felix admitted she will be more orientated towards the 400 m in the future. “I think I am definitely open more to it now. I definitely want to run in Rio and looking at the reality of that, I’m more accepting of that I think will determine that. The 400m maybe suites me more so I think I am more accepting of that,” she was quoted as saying by the USATF website. She will also continue to chase her 200 m best: “Definitely. I have gained a lot of confidence from running at the Trials and from this year to now see where I can go with it.” Felix did not start yet with training and confirmed she will not compete indoors next winter. “It has been really great. I have been able to do a lot of things and speak about a lot of things I am passionate about. Right now I am in the middle of getting ready for the Glamour Woman of the Year Awards (Monday) in New York and I’m getting ready to go to Africa. It’s really been amazing. I have been able to do so many things I have always wanted to do,” Felix said about her current activities.

CLARKE YES INDOORS

JEFFERSON CITY (USA): From the big group of Jamaican sub 10 sprinters (8 in 2012) one confirmed he will compete during the coming indoor season. It is the 31 years old Pan Am Games winner Lerone Clarke. He clocked two sub 10 times in his career (both are 9.99) and improved hugely last indoor season to 6.47 at the 60 m and won meetings in Lievin, Birmingham and Fayetteville. At World Indoors due to low sound system he was out from heats (7.05).

EA PREMIUM MEETINGS

LAUSANNE (SUI): The confirmed Calendar of European Athletics Premium meetings for 2013 is having 8 events. That is four less than in 2012. No longer in this category Montreuil, Nancy and Sotteville meets in France, Torino in Italy and Kusocinski Memorial in Szczecin. All except of Torino (not at all in the calendar) are now in the Classic category. New meeting in this category in comparison with 2012 is the Gugl Games event of Linz which returned last year after break in the Classic category. The dates of Premium meetings: Jun 8 Bydgoszcz, Jun 10 Praha, Jun 26 Reims, Jun 28 Lille, Jul 13 Heusden-Zolder, Aug 23-25 Eberstadt (high jump), Aug 26 Linz, Sep 3 Rovereto.

EA CLASSIC MEETINGS

LAUSANNE (SUI): The number of European Athletics Classic Meetings is increased from 12 to 19 in 2013. Not only the events coming from Premium category (Montreuil, Nancy, Sotteville, Szczecin) but also new or renewed members here are Riga meeting, Kalamata in Greece, Goteborg Games, Nurmi Games in Turku and Terra Sarda in Italy. No longer in this category is Cezmi Or Memorial in Istanbul and Linz was upgraded. The dates of Classic meetings: May 30 Riga, May 31 Dessau, Jun 1 Kalamata, Jun 3 Montreuil, Jun 4 Velenje, Jun 12 Huelva, Jun 15 Szczecin, Jun 15 Goteborg, Jun 16 Turku, Jun 26 Sardinia, Jun 27 Sollentuna, Jun 30 Zhukovskiy, Jul 2 Nancy, Jul 8 Sotteville, Jul 10 Budapest, Jul 17 Luzern, Jul 25 Karlstad, Aug 25 Dubnica, Sep 1 Padova.

TOP NAMES FOR TORINO

TORINO (ITA): Italian London Games marathon 8th placer and national record holder Valeria Straneo will run the 26th Turin Marathon Gran Premio La Stampa which will be held this Sunday. After NYC cancellation in the field also Hilda Kibet representing Netherlands, Ethiopian Derbe Gebesa and Italian Emma Quaglia. Marathon debut for Berlin Worlds 2009 sixth placer at the 5000 m Kenyan Iness Chenonge. In the men field top Kenyans Daniel Rono (2:06:58) and Nicholas Kiprutto Koech (2:07:23). Also running Jackson Kiprono Kirwa and Ukrainian Oleksandr Sitkovskyy who was 12th in the Olympic marathon. Debuts for Kenyan Patrick Terer who was bronze winner in steeple at World Junior Championships 2008 and Ethiopian Seboka Niguse with 1:02:58 half best. On the Italian side competing Giuliano Battocletti and Stefano Scaini.

OTHER NEWS

PRAGUE (CZE): Czech Athletics Federation was happy with viewing figures from Saturday´s Czech Athlete of the Year Gala. The live transmission at main channel of the public broadcaster Czech Television was the most viewe
d programme of that time slot in the country. In total the figure increased by 150 000 viewers to 680 000. Informed federation president Libor Varhanik.

BARCELONA (TRI): New host at the IAAF Centenary Gala in Barcelona in two weeks will be Trinidad´s former top sprinter and current NBC athletics commentator Ato Boldon. He confirmed that on his twitter: „Excited to be in Barcelona next week to host the @iaaforg Athletes of the Year /100th ann. gala. TnF stars past/present/future will be there.” In the past the hosts of the World Athletics Gala were French Marc Maury and former Canadian 400 m runner Charmaine Crooks.

FUKUOKA (JPN): Brett Larner informs on his blog that new addition into the elite field of Fukuoka Marathon on December 2 are triple London Marathon winner Kenyan Martin Lel and five other overseas athletes with London Olympics participant Briton Scott Overall, Canadian 10 000 m national record holder Simon Bairu and Americans Tim Nelson, Ryan Vail, and Brent Vaughan. All six athletes were scheduled to run the New York City Marathon which was canceled.

SORIA (ESP): IAAF CC Circuit continues this Sunday with second event in Soria, Spain and Kenyans Emmanuel Bett and John Kipkoech will be the top favorites for the 19th edition at the 10 km. Bett was third and Kipkoech fifth last Sunday in the Atapuerca opener. In the women 8 km Linet Masai who was second in Burgos will not run as she returned back to Kenya.

JOHANNESBURG (RSA): Gideon Sam is set to be re-elected unopposed as President of South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) after challenger Irvin Khoza had a change of heart and withdrew from the election. Khoza, who had been the chairman of the Organising Committee of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, decided that he would support Sam at the election in Johannesburg on November 24 following a successful performance at London 2012. Informs insidethegames.

LONDON (GBR): Insidethegames writes that London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and chief executive Paul Deighton are set to face criticism when they appear before city politicians for the first time since the end of the Olympics and Paralympics despite revealing that they had set a new record for ticket sales. A written submission by Deighton to the London Assembly has revealed that London 2012 raised GBP 569 million from ticket sales towards its overall budget of 2.4 billion GBP and sold 10.99 million tickets out of a total of 11.3 million that were available for the Olympics and Paralympics. The previous highest figure raised from ticket sales was USD 551 million (Ł347 million/€433 million) generated by Sydney in 2000. The London 2012 figures reveal that a total of 319,000 tickets remained unsold – 263,000 for the Olympics and 55,000 for the Paralympics – the majority of which were for the early rounds of the football tournament.

LONDON (GBR): Sportcal.com informs that China is the Global Sports Nation for 2012, ahead of the United Kingdom and Russia, according to a new report that analyses the success of nations in attracting major sports events. The Global Sports Impact (GSI) Project is an extensive study by Sportcal, the leading sports market research company, which has analysed nearly 700 major sporting events between 2007 and 2018. Events that have been included in the study are events that are constantly rotated throughout the world and can be hosted in more than one continent. In fourth and fifth places in the index are Italy and Canada, in sixth place Germany ahead of Brazil and France, USA and the Netherlands complete the top 10.

WARSZAWA (POL): Poland announced its team for the Chiba Ekiden in Japan on November 23. In the team also former European indoor champion Lidia Chojecka and one of the top European steeple runners Lukasz Parszczynski. The squad: Marcin Blazinski, Arkadiusz Gardzielewski, Radoslaw Kleczek, Lukasz Parszczynski, Lidia Chojecka, Agnieszka Gortel-Maciuk, Aleksandra Lisowska and Dominika Nowakowska.

RESULTS

CAUCA (COL, Nov 13): At 19th National Games (first day of athletics) olympic triple medalist Caterine Ibarguen won the long jump with competition record 669 cm. Fast hurdles by Lina Flores 12.95 ahead of Brigita Merlano 13.07. Rafith Rodriguez won the 400 m in 46.38 and Paulo Villar the 110 m hurdles in 13.93.

CORRECTION

PARIS (FRA): French marathon record holder Christelle Daunay will not compete for first time this weekend since June this year. In a not correct translation, she will only start to run in this days.