100 DAYS UNTIL THE WORLDS

MOSCOW (RUS): With exactly 100 days to go until the start of the 14th IAAF World Championships in Moscow which will take place from Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 August, the final countdown to the greatest sporting event of 2013 has begun. The biennial IAAF World Championships are often trumpeted as being the largest sporting competition after the Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup, and again the statistics from the last edition bore witness to that statement. By the end of Daegu 2011, teams from 200 National Member Federations comprising 1849 athletes had officially accredited, and in all 16 nations won gold medals, 41 took medals and 66 placed athletes in the top eight finishers, proving once again that Athletics is the most universal of all sports. These figures were matched by the world-wide popularity of the 2011 IAAF World Championships which were watched by a 5 billion TV audience in over 200 territories, with more than 3000 representatives of the media. Writes the IAAF.

GAY TO DOUBLE AT US CHAMPS

ORLANDO (USA): US 100 m record holder Tyson Gay said for Spikes that he plans to compete in the 100 m at the Jamaica International Invitational this weekend. This will be followed by New York Diamond League on May 25 and one other meet before the US Trials. There he intends to compete in both the 100m and 200m, the latter an event he has competed in only once since 2010. Even entering his third decade, Gay is adamant he can make a major impact in 2013. He draws encouragement from the fact Linford Christie landed the 1992 Olympic 100m title at the age of 32. With a fair wind and a sustained injury-free period, Gay is confident he can make an impact this summer and beyond. “My hip gives me a problem here and there but besides that I’m going well and training good,” he says. “If I run smart and stay healthy, I think my best years are ahead of me,” Spikes informs.

BORGES FOR BRAZILIAN TOUR

SAO PAULO (BRA): Cuban World silver pole vault medalist Lazaro Borges will compete at the Brazilian leg of IAAF World Challenge. But he will not only compete in Belem on May 12 but also at the other meets of Brazilian Tour in Uberlandia on May 16 and Sao Paulo on May 19. Also confirmed for pole vault Korean record holder Yoo Suk Kim, Canadian Jason Wurster and Edi Maia of Portugal. Home squad is strong with Augusto Oliveira and Fabio Gomes.

CHICHEROVA FIRST MEET SINCE RIETI 2012

TOKYO (JPN): At Sunday´s Seiko Golden Grand Prix on May 5 (IAAF World Challenge) Russian olympic and world winner Anna Chicherova is the top star of the technical events. She will contest her first competition since last September in Rieti. Among the rivals Poland´s Kamila Stepaniuk amd Kazakhstan´s Marina Aitova. In women long jump US Olympic medalist Janay DeLoach-Soukup will fight against other US jumpers Chelsea Hayes and Funmi Jimoh. In women shot put US record holder Jill Camarena-Williams is against German Nadine Kleinert, Hungarian Anita Marton, Romanian Anca Heltne and Jeneve McCall. Fresh from national record Yuki Ebihara is the favorite of the women javelin.

OTHER NEWS

LISSE (NED): Dutch sprinter Brian Mariano will return to competition at the Ter Specke Bokaal in Lisse on May 11th. Mariano was arrested on Curaçao with cocaine in his bag just a few months ago but has continued his training and is looking forward to competing for the first time this year. Other top Dutch athletes will also compete in Lisse, such as European indoor heptathlon champion Eelco Sintnicolaas, hurdler Gregory Sedoc and top thrower Erik Cadée. In the women’s event combined eventers Dafne Schippers, Remona Fransen and Nadine Broersen lead the way. Interesting as well will be the duel between Yvonne Hak and Ethiopian Sifan Hassan over 1000m. Hassan will be able to represent The Netherlands later this year.

LEIDEN (NED): Khalid Choukoud is the first top name to confirm his start at the 10K race part of the 23rd edition of the Leiden Marathon. More names will be announced later. The full marathon race, to be held on May 26th, features Kenyans Sammy Chumba (2:10.49), Sammy Korir, David Marus and Simon Kipgnetich. In the women’s race Italian Merima Hashim (2:33.52) takes on Ethiopia’s Yewubet Wubet and Wondemu Molla.

BERLIN (GER): She has just returned from a trai
ning camp in South Africa and is leaving again for a two week camp in Portugal. German thrower Nadine Müller is in good shape and told leichtathletik.de she hopes to execute over 500 throws while in the warm weather of Portugal. Müller also confirmed she will commence her season in the last weekend of May at the throwing meet in Halle.

LONDON (GBR): The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has said it is disappointed with a decision made by the judge in Spain’s „Operation Puerto” doping trial to destroy all the evidence from the case instead of making it available to other sports bodies and has hinted it is considering an appeal. Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes had always denied doping but said in his opening testimony that he not only had clients in cycling – dozens of cyclists were implicated in spite of only a few being sanctioned – but also in other sports including football, tennis, athletics and boxing, although he did not say whether he had helped them dope. The some 211 blood bags from 35 different people found in Fuentes’ offices were labeled with codenames, believed to relate to top-level cyclists and possibly other athletes, but the doctor maintained the aim of the blood transfusions was to protect athletes’ health and improve performance during training.

MELBOURNE (AUS): An announcement by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), Athletics Australia (AA) and Little Athletics Australia (LAA) with references to the commencement of a review into a potential merger of AA and LAA. „A merger would fully unify the governance and administration of athletics in Australia, making its governance structure consistent with other major Australian sports. The ASC would support a merger with a one-off investment of $2 million in recognition of the integration costs that would be incurred and opportunities for new investment that may be opened up for the sport through a combined entity. This is in addition to the Australia’s Winning Edge investment commitments announced last week. The review process will take approximately six weeks and an announcement on the conclusions of this review will be made by 30 June this year.”

PARIS (FRA): Eurosport, Europe’s leading sports entertainment group, which broadcasts in 20 languages and reaches 131 million homes across 54 countries, will broadcast the Ostrava Golden Spike athletics meeting on Thursday June 27th. The IAAF World Challenge meet in the Czech Republic will host for the 7th time athletics’ top star Usain Bolt. He will compete in the 4×100 m relay with fellow Racers TC members headed by Yohan Blake. Coach Glen Mills will select the remaining members at a later stage. Also already confirmed for the event are other Olympic gold medalists from London 2012 like Kirani James or Renaud Lavillenie.

BERLIN (GER): Once again a world-class field has been assembled for Sunday’s BIG 25 Berlin. Vincent Kipruto will head the men’s field. The Kenyan is the silver medal winner from the World Championships’ marathon in Daegu in 2011. The women’s race will see a world record attempt: Lucy Kabuu intends to attack the mark of 1:19:53, which her fellow-Kenyan Mary Keitany established in the BIG 25 Berlin in 2010. Adding other running events organisers expect around 10,000 athletes to take part in the race, which finishes inside the Berlin Olympic Stadium. The BIG 25 Berlin is Germany’s oldest big city road race. It will see its 33rd edition on Sunday. One of main rivals for Kipruto will be Jacob Kendagor who was third in Berlin in 2012 with 1:11:59. The Kenyan has recently won the half marathon in Berlin this April with a personal best of 59:36. There are three other Kenyans who could do very well on Sunday: Elisha Rotich, Richard Sigei and Philemon Cheboi. But a 17 year-old runner from Eritrea could produce a surprise: Ghirmay Ghebreslassie won the Easter Race in Paderborn in April.

OTTAWA (CAN): Athletics Canada’s Hall of Fame will grow by ten when the class of 2013 is officially inducted in Moncton, New-Brunswick on June 20, 2013. Five athletes, one coach, three in memoriam and one builder will be enriched at a special ceremony held in conjunction with the Canadian Championships and World Trials. From athletes Mark Boswell, Jerome Drayton, Diane Jones Konihowski, Chantal Petitclerc and Michael Smith.

BRATISLAVA (SVK): The Slovak athletics federation announced the selection of the Slovak race walking teams for the upcoming 10th European Cup in Dudince, Slovakia on 19 May. The strongest is the men´s 20 km team led by a Slovak number one competitor Matej Toth who won over the weekend the Sesto San Giovanni leg of IAAF Walking Challenge. He will also defend his second place from Portuguese city of Olhao in 2011. Other team spots belong to the Olympian Anton Kucmin, Dusan Majdan and Zdeno Babik. The head coach Roman Bencik selected full teams also for other 4 events – men´s 50 km, women´s 20 km, and junior men and women 10 km.

BUDAPEST (HUN): After the spring marathon season comes slowly to an end London Marathon is leading the 2013 marathon rankings ofall-athletics.com with 10 702 points. Second place for Dubai 10 048, third is Tokyo 9870, fourth Seoul 9808 and fifth Rotterdam 9732 ahead of Xiamen 9421 and Daegu 9406. Eighth is Dusseldorf 9335 over Vienna 9307 ahead of Boston 9299. More at www.all-athletics.com.

LAGOS (NGR): Unfortunately, the indisciplined behaviour put up by the performing athletes during the 2nd Leg of the Golde
n League in Benin city, Edo State on Saturday 27th led to the suspension of the League and the subsequent ban slammed on the ring leaders of that unruly action. The actions taken were to avert the complete breakdown of law and order and the protection of the law abiding athletes. Nigerian Athletics Federation says. Consequently, the Technical Committee was directed to meet with the critical stakeholders which are the states AAA and Athletics club owners/managers in order to brief them on the development as well as to collectively find a way forward. A total of 12 clubs were represented at the meeting. One of the conclusions was that the club owners therefore lent their full support to the suspension of the League, but pleaded that with the number of clubs already in the process of meeting the conditions set for re-registration, the Board should reconsider the decision to suspend the League. The other is that athletes will be able to enter to the meets only via State AAA, Clubs and Military.

DUSSELDORF (GER): Twelve pole vaulters will compete in the departure area of Düsseldorf Airport as part of Düsseldorf Airport Sports, a free all-day event and sports-related program for travelers and day visitors alike. German Olympic silver medal winner Björn Otto is one of 12 athletes who will compete. Also Raphael Holzdeppe is scheduled to jump.

PITTSBURG (USA): This year, organizers increased the purse at the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 5. A total of 100 000 USD is up for grabs in all events this weekend. Specifically, the half-marathon prize money increased from 25 200 to 34 500. Returning this year, is last year’s champion, James Kirwa. The Kenyan clocked 2:14:09 to win last year’s race. Joseph Mutinda from Kenya and Tumicha Horsa from Ethiopia will be challenging him for the win. Also in the mix is American Jed Christiansen who took fifth in the half last year; he’s a 2:18 marathoner. On the women’s side, Mary Akor is the top-seeded American.

SAN DIEGO (USA): New event this Sunday in San Diego. RE:RUN is where the street meets the track, in a live sporting event that combines a 5k and 10k race with a premier invitational track meet. On Sunday at near San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park. Run, jog, or walk in the morning 5 km race that begins and ends at historic Balboa Stadium. After the morning race, participants will enter Balboa Stadium to watch top tier athletes compete for glory and a prize purse of 60 000 USD. Among the names listed only for middle and long distances Lopez Lomong, Erik Sowinski, Alysia Montano, Duane Solomon, Brenda Martinez, Kenyan Boaz Lalang, Australian Ryan Gregson and Zoe Buckman.

MONACO (MON): The IAAF announced the opening of the brand new Fans Section of its official website, www.iaaf.org. The Fans section is the latest development of the IAAF communications and promotions strategy following the unveiling of the IAAF’s new image on the internet last October.

NEW YORK (USA): A quartet of top Africans, led by multiple world record holder Leonard Patrick Komon, will chase the biggest 10-K prize in all of American road running at the 9th annual UAE Healthy Kidney 10-K here on Saturday, May 11. Informs Race Results Weekly. Komon will try to break his own event record of 27:35, a mark he set in winning the 2011 edition of the event. Should he do that, and also win the race, he’ll take home a payday of 55 000 USD (25 000 1st place + 30 000 meet record bonus). His opponents not easy – Kenya’s Edwin Soi, Ethiopia’s Abera Kuma, and Uganda’s Moses Kipsiro. Also entered is Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi who will run his first road race of 2013 after being forced to withdraw from both the NYC Half in March and Boston Marathon in April with a calf injury. Australia’s three best distance runners–Collis Birmingham, Ben St. Lawrence and Brett Robinson–will also be take part.

RESULTS

FIRENZE (ITA, May 2): After first day of 26th Multistars combined events meet which moved from Desenzano to Firenze (IAAF CE Challenge) Belarus olympic medalist 2008 Andriy Krauchanka in his first decathlon since last year Gotzis which he did not finish leads with 4225 points (11.16-739-14.76-207-49.27). The only other with 4000+ overnight is Poland´s Pawel Wiesoliek 4114 (including 210 in the high jump and other four personal bests). Young Dutch heptathletes are leading after Thursday. 20-years old Anouk Vetter assembled very good 3553 points (14.12 PB -175- 13.86 PB -24.95) ahead of 18 years old Nadine Visser 3392 (13.72 hurdles). Third Brazilian Tamara de Souza 3381 ahead of Briton Karla Drew 3379 and another Dutch Myrte Goor 3364. Poland´s Agnieszka Borowska cleared good 187 in the high jump, she is 7th with 3303 points.

MONDOVI (ITA, May 1): At the track walking olympic medalist Elisa Rigaudo clocked 42:29.06 in the women 10 000 m. She only missed by 6 seconds the Italian all-time top mark 42:23.7 by Ileana Salvador in 1993. Rigaudo will compete for Italy at European Cup later this month in Dudince.

LYNCHBURG (USA, May 1): At Liberty Twilight meet Barbara Pierre clocked windy 10.99 (+2.5) in the 100 m. Dominic Berger posted also windy 13.54 (+3.2) at 110 m hurdles. German Martina Schultze cleared 435 in the pole vault.

BAD BOLL (GER, May 1): German shot putter Marco Schmidt started here with 19.66 m.