by Larry Eder
Teams from fifty-four nations will be competing in the 2013 European Indoor Athletics championships, which start in Goteborg, Sweden on Friday, March 1. Runblogrun, as we did in 2011, will be covering the meet live. This year, however, we will be using our Live blog software to provide one page with several feeds to view and commentating from RBR. We will also be covering the USA Indoor as well.
Bernie Montoya, Jacob Thomson, Brooks PR two mile,
GOTEBORG NEWS
ROME (ITA): News from Italian teams are saying at the the team will have 40 athletes. After Fabrizio Donato also sprinter Fabio Cerutti withdrew. Then the latest cancellations from hurdler Emanuele Abate (lack of shape) and female 800 m runner and 2009 medalist Elisa Cusma (flu). On the other hand green light for high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi after flu symptoms.
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): British hurdler Andy Pozzi selected for Goteborg will not travel due to injury. Also change in the relay selection, Conrad Williams is out and will be replaced by Michael Warner.
GOTEBORG (SWE): The Göteborg 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships get underway on Friday with strong support from sponsors. Alongside European Athletics long-standing International Partners SPAR, OMEGA, Le Gruyère AOC and Eurovision, Official Partners SKF, Göteborg Energi and Volvo are backing the world’s biggest indoor athletics event in 2013. Samsung, Bauhaus, Mediatec and Puma are also Official National Partners for the championships. “We are very satisfied with the outcome of our partner sales for the championships,” said Göteborg 2013 General Secretary Anders Albertsson. “The joint sales approach with European Athletics has proved itself to be successful. The total sales have a gross value of over 1 million euros, which is more than the budget target.”
GOTEBORG (SWE): European Athletics announced that it will stream live the Göteborg 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships with English-language commentary. The live streaming platform athttp://eurovision.digotel.com/
GOTEBORG (SWE): European Athletics informs that a study team led by the chairman of the European Athletics Medical & Anti Doping Commission is extending its ongoing injury and illness surveillance programme at the Göteborg 2013 European Athletic Indoor Championships. Pedro Branco and his team will be conducting a feasibility study using web-based IT tools for collecting injury and illness data from athletes and team physicians during the event. The aim is to test and further develop a tailor-made solution for data collection in athletics.
SHOT PUT: The competition starts already on Thursday with men shot put qualification at the Market Square (under the roof).
OTHER NEWS
SYDNEY (AUS): Hurdles Olympic champion Sally Pearson will delight audiences at the Qantas Australian Athletics Tour when she starts in the women’s 100m and 200m at the Sydney Track Classic on Saturday 9 March. In an exciting development for the showcase meet in New South Wales, entry lists also confirm the participation of her fellow London 2012 medallists Mitchell Watt and Jared Tallent in the men’s long jump and men’s 5000m walk respectively.
KOBE (JPN): Marathon European Champion Viktor Rothlin is in Japan already since last week. On Sunday he will run his spring marathon, the Lake Biwa race. “I m looking forward to the race. For Japanese runners it is world championships qualification so there will be a group of runners attacking 2:07-2:08 final time. In case all will be ok I want to be part of that group,” he said.
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): Athletics Weekly writes that on announcing the British team for the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg next month, UK Athletics head coach Peter Eriksson declined to give a medal target, but revealed he wanted to improve on Paris 2011. That aim was made a little harder with the news that Marilyn Okoro has been elevated to bronze medal position, following the retrospective disqualification of Russian Yuliya Rusanova, who has been found guilty of a drug violation. Okoro had already moved up from fifth place to fourth place after the original gold medal-winner Yevgeniya Zinurova was disqualified last June retroactively for a doping offence, which saw fellow Brit Jenny Meadows’ silver upgraded to a gold.
TAICANG (CHN): The IAAF Race Walking Challenge returns to Taicang, China, on Friday. It’s the third successive time this competition has been held and needless to say, Chinese athletes will be the favourites in both races. Informs the IAAF. Asian record-holder Wang Zhen, is not competing this time, but home fans will not be left without replacements. The men’s 20km walk is highlighted by the London Olympic champion Chen Ding. The strongest opponent to 20-year-old Chen will be fellow countryman Cai Zelin. Australia’s Jared Tallent, a three-time Olympic medallist, returns to Taicang for the third successive 20km race. On the women’s side, the winner of the previous two races here, Liu Hong, is also missing. The main favorites will be so 22-year-old Qieyang Shenjie the olympic bronze winner and 19-year-old Lu Xiuzhi will kick-start her first senior season in this race.
DESSAU (GER): Belgian Olympic winner 2008 Tia Hellebaut confirmed for one more meet after European Indoors. She will jump at the Dessau meet on March 6. Also in the field Ana Simic of Croatia and top German Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch. In the second event of the meet, men pole vault Bjorn Otto will clash with Raphael Holzdeppe.
NEW YORK (USA): Meb Keflezighi, Abdi Abdirahman, and Dathan Ritzenhein headline the field for the NYC Half 2013, it was announced by New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. All are 2012 Olympians: Keflezighi won the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and finished fourth in London; Abdirahman finished third at the Trials to make his fourth U.S. Olympic team; and Ritzenhein competed at his third Olympics after earning a spot at 10,000 meters.
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica Gleaner writes that World 100 m champion, Yohan Blake, is encouraged by his efforts in two appearances – the Clubs and Institutions’ 4x100m that his team won and a near recovery in the 4x400m at Saturday’s 37th Gibson Relays. “I’m very pleased, I am feeling really good and I am ready to invade,” said Blake. “It was a good run, the 4x100m was exceptional for me running the third leg; I think I am getting better on the curve.” Blake also said: “Trust me, in terms of physical conditioning, it’s going exceptionally well, it’s over the top and it’s right where I wanted it to be,” he added. “I started training a little late and for me to be able to come out here and do all of this, I feel very good about where I am physically.”
SHEFFIELD (GBR): The Guardian writes that olympic winner Jessica Ennis when asked if she would be happy to pay her coach Tony Minichiello’s wages, Ennis does not hesitate. “Yes obviously,” she says of the man with whom she has achieved world, European and now Olympic gold. The pair have been working together since she was 13 and are famously close. Ennis speaks softly and with real affection when she adds: “I would love to see him in a much better position than he is now. We had such a great year both of us last year, but, yeah, whatever works to allow him to be at the track to coach and do what he does – not just what he did last year but it’s been years of coaching and hard work.”
LONDON (GBR): Bizjournals.com writes that Nike said Lord Sebastian Coe will serve an international ambassader promoting its program tackling global inactivity.
RESULTS
ADLER (RUS, Feb 27): Russian Winter Throwing Champ
ionships started with olympic winner Tatyana Lysenko getting world leading 74.07 in hammer. Anna Bulgakova got 72.78 and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva 71.41 as second and third. Sofia Palkina achieved new Russian U17 record with 3 kg hammer 62.50. Aleksey Khudyakov won junior discus with 61.46.
SANTA ROSA (ARG, Feb 23): Olympic finalist German Lauro achieved good 20.59 in the shot put.
HAVANA (CUB, Feb 22-23): Top triple jump marks at Cuban open meet, unfortunately without wind measurement. Ernesto Reve 17.35 and Liuba Zaldivar 14.20 ahead of Mabel Gay 14.17. In hammer Roberto Janet 74.06 and in javelin Guillermo Martinez 79.50.
BOROVETS (BUL, Feb 27): Bulgarian CC Champions are Yolo Nikolov in men 10 km (35:20) and Milka Mikhayilova in women 8 km (33:07).
CORRECTIONS
AMES (USA): Hurdler Greggmar Swift is from Barbados and not from Bahamas.
ZHUKOVSKIY (RUS): Valentin Maslakov was elected head of Moscow Region Athletics Federation, not Moscow City.
GOTEBORG (SWE): In the Goteborg preview in women pole vault Anna Rogowska is winner of 2011 Euroindoors, not 2009.
