by Larry EderDawn Harper, who has gold and silver medals in the 100 meter hurdles in Beijing and London, is back in training. Athlete summit today at Disney in Orlando. First comments on USATF Convention have been positive. Indoor season is on for 2012-13 as many meets were held last weekend….Note, that as I will be at TRE from today until Thursday, watch for beaucoup de tweets from the Convention center off runblogrun.com.
Special recognition for Karus
DARMSTADT (GER): This is a very special story and very inspirational one. German 2012 steeple champion Benedikt Karus (22, best of 8:37.84) did not qualify for European CC Championships in Budapest. The reason is the fact that he did a bone marrow donation at the beginning of November to safe a 13-years old boy´s life. Karus is a medicine student. “The boy needed my help now, I can fulfill my sports dreams also in next year,” he commented.
Plans for Tia and Hans
BRUSSELS (BEL): Belgian Athletes of the Year 2012 detailed their goals for the coming year. High jump star Tia Hellebaut said her first top event of the year will be the European Indoor Championships in Goteborg. She is in training since October and already was at a training camp in Lanzarote. Moscow Worlds remains the top goal of the year 2013. Decathlete Hans Van Alphen three weeks ago celebrated the birth of his daughter and also prepares for top challenges in 2013 including Goteborg and Moscow World Championships.
Harper to start with training
LOS ANGELES (USA): Olympic winner from Beijing 2008 and silver winner from London 2012 Dawn Harper is starting her preparation for 2013. She confirmed on her twitter after return from USATF meeting in Daytona Beach. “Had a great time in Florida but its time to get back to LA and officially start the rumble of 2013 season. Super excited!!!” Let´s see whether she competes also indoors, she did not had a full indoor pro season yet in her career. Her indoor best 7.98 at 60 m hurdles comes from 2006, when she finished third at NCAA Championships.
OTHER NEWS
KOLN (GER): Olympic silver winner in pole vault German Bjorn Otto changes the clubs. He goes from LAV Bayer Uerdingen/Dormagen to ASV Koln. It is already a second top vaulter after Karsten Dilla who is leaving the Dormagen club.
ATLANTA (USA): Olympic and world sprint winner Veronica Campbell-Brown in her latest instalment of her IAAF Diary says that she is now fully in training for the 2013 season. “I spent a week in Jamaica doing some work with my Foundation and of course training and wrestling with the temptation to indulge in table delicacies. I am quite pleased with the progress of my Foundation and the positive impact it is having in the lives of the girls that are being provided for and we are looking forward to further inroads,”she was quoted as saying. She is not planning to compete indoors in 2013.
AMSTERDAM (NED) : Dutch media report that sprinter Brian Mariano has been arrested at the Curaçao airport after cocaine was found hidden in his bag. Mariano told the police he was not aware of the drugs and that the cocaine must have been placed in his bag by somebody else. The package of 720 grams of cocaine was not big enough to keep Mariano in custody and the sprinter has been released.
NEW YORK (USA): The New York Road Runners club and its insurers have been waging a pitched battle the past four weeks over how much money race organizers will be able to reclaim in the wake of last month’s cancelled New York City Marathon. At stake in negotiations among the running club, insurance broker Lloyd’s and the members of its syndicate is the financial health of one of the country’s foremost athletics clubs, as well as some 15 million USD in nonrefundable entry fees that runners paid when they registered for the race earlier in the year, plus millions more paid in ticket sales and sponsorships.
MONTE CARLO (MON): Olympic champions and World Athletes of the Year Usain Bolt and Allyson Felix are among the 2012 Olympic champions featured in the 2013 IAAF Wall Calendar, which is available now. Other athletes featured include David Rudisha, Aries Merritt and Mo Farah. The calendar also includes Sally Pearson, high jumper Anna Chicherova, Ethiopian distance legends Tirunesh Dibaba and World junior double sprint champion Antonique Strachan reports the IAAF.
NAIROBI (KEN): Former World marathon record holder Paul Tergat has been named to the Johnnie Walker whisky’s hall of fame which shares and celebrates the life stories of some of the world’s most inspirational men through the global ‘Walk With Giants’ campaign. Tergat becomes the fifth person from Africa to be named to the Johnnie Walker whisky’s hall of fame after fellow athletics legend Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia, entrepreneur Prince Kofi Amoabeng from Ghana, musician Manu Dibango from Cameroon and retired soccer player Samson Siasia from Nigeria reports The Standard Media.
PARIS (FRA): French runner Mehiedine Mekhissi is facing mediation by the justice office of Reims in the case of violation against an official of the CREPS training facilities. Mekhissi’s burst of violence in October caused the official to miss one day of work. Police officials confirmed the mediation is a normal procedure in this type of case.
BRUSSELS (BEL): Former Belgian pole vault record holder Fanny Smets will be coached as of now by Wim Vandeven who is the partner of Tia Hellebaut and is coaching not only her but also decathlete Hans Van Alphen. He will be responsible for the physical aspects of training, while Dutch former world champion Rens Blom will remain her technical coach for pole vault. Blom also announced he will comeback to jump and will have less time for coaching. Smets has a personal best of 430 from last summer, but due to the fact that it was achieved on market square in Recklinghausen, Germany this mark was not recognised as national record.
NEW YORK (USA): Race Results Weekly informs that Competitor Group Inc., the owner and operator of the Rock ‘n’ Roll road race series in the United States and Europe and the largest commercial operator of road races in the United States, announced today that they had been sold, with ownership changing from one private equity firm to another. Falconhead Capital sold the company to Calera Capital. Scott Dickey, president and CEO, and Steve Gintowt, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, will continue to lead the company.
AARGAU (SUI): Aaargauerzeitung informs that Portugal runner Bruno Albuquerque is currently living in Villingen, Switzerland. It is because he fell in love with Carina Marques who lives in Aargau but is from Portugal origin. The 23-years old runner has big goals, he wants to compete at European Championships 2014 in Zurich At recent road races in Switzerland he was always the top European runners (Rapperswil, Bulle, Basel). He competes for BTV Aarau club, but remains also club member at home in Portugal. He was finalist at European U23 Championships 2011 in the 5000 m and has PB of 13:52.66.
LONDON (GBR): Insidethegames informs that former double world 400 m hurdles champion Jana Pittman has launched a bid to represent Australia in the bobsleigh at Sochi 2014 in the Winter Paralympics. She has been selected to have a trial as a brakewoman for the country’s bobsled team under the gudiance of pilot Astrid Radjenovic. “Astrid and I actually grew up together,” said Pittman. Pittman is due to make bobsled debut in the World Cup at Altenberg, Germany, on December 31 having had her first practice run on ice just two days before.
LONDON (GBR): Sportscal informs that Channel 4 is to hand over IAAF World Athletics Championships rights to BBC a year earlier than expected. That would mean BBC would cover already the 2013 event in Mosco
w. Channel 4 wants to concentrate on Paralympics and connected activities.
LONDON (GBR): Olympic gold medal winning heptathlete and Jaguar Academy of Sport Ambassador Jessica Ennis has been named ‘Most Inspirational Sportswoman of the Year’ at the 2012 Jaguar Academy of Sport Awards. The event, hosted by David Walliams and Kirsty Gallacher at The Savoy, celebrated some of the most inspirational British sporting performances over the past year. The esteemed Jaguar Academy of Sport Patrons Award for Sporting Legacy went to Lord Sebastian Coe whose instrumental role over the past seven years culminated in 2012 as he brought the Olympic and Paralympic Games to the capital. Mo Farah won the prestigious ‘Jump off the Sofa Moment’ award for his emphatic 5000 m win at the Olympic Games on what was dubbed Super Saturday.
LAUSANNE (SUI): AP informs that four months after the highs of the London Olympics, the IOC is turning to less uplifting matters: drug-tainted medals from past games, ethics violations in ticket sales and suspension of national Olympic bodies. The fate of Lance Armstrong’s bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games and doping cases involving five medalists from the 2004 Athens Olympics are high on the agenda for the IOC’s two-day executive board meeting starting Tuesday in Lausanne.
FUKUOKA (JPN): Marathon expert Ken Nakamura says 2012 was the best for marathon ever concerning the depth of the results. Highest number of performers per year was registered in the sub 2:05 region with 11, sub 2:06 with 23 runners, sub 2:07 with 43, sub 2:08 with 79, sub 2:09 with 123 and sub 2:10 with 175 runners. The same goes for women with 6 runners under 2:20, 16 under 2:22, 33 under 2:24, 64 under 2:26, 100 under 2:28 and 148 under 2:30.
MACAU (MAC): Agent Wellay Amare explains what happened at Macau Marathon and that could be the reason for slow times. He says athletes have missed the course and they have run around 46 km instead of the classic distance. Responsible for the wrong route was supposedly the timing car. Also change the female winner it was Ehitu Kiros Reda not Akeza Kiros.
RESULTS
EAUBONNE (FRA, Dec 2): French Thomas Martinot-Lagarde clocked 7.88 at 60 m hurdles during an indoor meet, Cindy Billaud was timed with 8.32.
SACRAMENTO (USA, Dec 2): RRW informs that it was a tough day for running with strong winds and sometimes heavy rains. Home wins at 30th California International marathon. Daniel Tapia clocked 2:16:30 and Alisha Williams 2:34:58 personal best. Second Clara Peterson also life-time mark 2:35:36. Third Russian Nataliya Sergeyeva 2:38:23 (PB).
GEORGE TOWN (CAY, Dec 2): Interesting to note the Cayman Islands Marathon winner. It is former US miler Jon Rankin who represents Cayman Islands now. His best at 1500 m is 3:35.26 from 2005. He debuted in marathon last Sunday with 2:43:10 at age of 30.
HAVERFORD (USA, Dec 1): At Jack Pyrah Invitational indoor meet World junior 800 m champion Ajee Wilson clocked 500 m meet record 1:13.69.
JONESBORO (USA, Dec 2): Solid shape of Sharika Nelvis (22) who clocked at Kick off Classic meet 6.86 at 55 m and 7.70 at 55 m hurdles.
SAN JOSE (CRC, Dec 2): Fernando Cabada of USA won the Costa Rica Marathon in 2:19:37. Kenyan Leah Kigen was the top woman in 2:59:45.
LES MUREAUX (FRA, Dec 2): African wins at the 57th Cross National des Mureaux. Ethiopian Chaltutafa Waka won the women 4.81 km in 14:19 ahead of Moroccan Rkia El Moukim 14:23 and Kenyan Mary Wacera 14:44. In men 9.03 km Kenyans dominated with Albert Rop 24:20 ahead of Cyprian Kimurgur 24:24 and Paul Melly 24:27.
