by Larry Eder
EME NEWS (JUN 12, 2013)
Makhloufi is out
DAKAR (SEN): Before Wednesday IAAF World Challenge meet in Dakar not good news. 1500 m Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi from Algeria won’t take part due to flu-like symptoms.
Barrett and Duncan with DMG
ATLANTA (USA): Doyle Management Group (DMG) announced its 2013 signing class. The agency now represents high jump olympic medalist Brigetta Barrett of the University of Arizona, miler Andy Bayer of Indiana University, and NCAA 200 m champion Kimberlyn Duncan and long jumping Jamaican Damar Forbes of LSU. “Paul has a reputation for handling his athletes with great care, and at the end of the day, I felt most comfortable with him,” says Barrett. “I feel like our personalities and energies match.”
Marra asked for Olympic gold medalists to get WC
EUGENE (USA): Register Guard writes that Harry Marra, who coaches Olympic gold medalist and decathlon world record-holder Ashton Eaton, of Oregon Track Club Elite, has a bone of contention with the qualifying system in US for the World Championships. Marra submitted a proposal to USATF earlier this year asking that individual U.S. Olympic gold medalists be given similar byes into the World Championships in those years following the Summer Games. “The proposal I put through wasn’t just for Ashton,” Marra said. “It was for anybody in the U.S. who individually won a gold medal. Make it a waiver this year, and put ’em on the damn team. I don’t want to get too political, but I think the IAAF and IOC should come together on this. I’m all for the Olympic Trials, head to head, lay it all on the line, but in this case, if the sport is going to grow, let’s make sure the hot shots are all there. It makes sense.” World Championships wild card holders are Jesse Williams, Trey Hardee, Dwight Phillips, Christian Taylor, Jason Richardson, Carmelita Jeter, Jenny Simpson, Lashinda Demus and Brittney Reese. From Diamond Race winners Reese Hoffa, Charonda Williams, Dawn Harper-Nelson and Chaunte Lowe. There is another condition for this athletes they must compete at US Nationals in any event and any round only. Marra also added about current situation of Ashton Eaton: “100 percent healthy, excited and looking forward to it. We’re not worried about scores. The goal is to finish in the top three, make the team, and get ready for the wedding.” It should be noted that in some countries national federations are accepting byes for Olympic winners from national championships and trials (Kenya, Russia).
European Team Championships
FRANKFURT (GER): A total of 24 men and 25 have been named by DLV, the German Athletics Federation for European Team Championships in Gateshead. They include a string of leading performers: Olympic and European champion discus champion Robert Harting, Olympic and European pole vault silver medallist Bjorn Otto, European shot put champion David Storl, European indoor shot put champion Christina Schwanitz and Olympic bronze medal hammer thrower Betty Heidler. In Stockholm, Germany were beaten by 33.5 points as Russia won with 374 and Ukraine were third with 293. The aim of Germans is be in the top 3. In the strong pole vault Bjorn Otto and Martina Strutz will compete. More top names include Christina Obergfoll in javelin and Christian Reif in long jump.
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): Double European indoor champion Perri Shakes-Drayton has been selected as team captain of a British squad containing four Olympic medallists for the forthcoming European Team Championships in Gateshead. Writes Athletics Weekly. Double Olympic champion Mo Farah has been named for the 5000m, while fellow London 2012 gold medallist Greg Rutherford will line up in the long jump for the competition that takes place from June 22-23. Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz has been picked over UK No.1 in the high jump, Tom Parsons. Shakes-Drayton will once again drop the barriers in favour of the 400m flat, the event in which she won her individual European indoor gold earlier this year, leaving her main event to Eilidh Child, Britain’s No.1 400m hurdler this year. Also named in the team is the reigning World 400m hurdles champion Dai Greene, European indoor pole vault champion Holly Bleasdale and reigning World 1500m silver medallist Hannah England. In men sprints James Dasaolu is for the 100 m, Danny Talbot for the 200 m and Nigel Levine for the 400m, William Sharman for high hurdles. On the women side Asha Philip 100 m, Anyika Onuora 200 m and Tiffany Porter 100 m hurdles.
OTHER NEWS
LONDON (GBR): Britain’s reigning 100 metres T44 Paralympic champion Jonnie Peacock has dismissed the threat posed by rival Richard Browne at next month’s International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Athletics Championships in Lyon despite the American equalling his world record of 10.85sec at a race in Florida. Browne, a silver medallist behind Peacock at London 2012, ran the blistering time at the Star Athletics Sprint Meet in Monteverde, although the event on Saturday (June 8) was not an IPC sanctioned competition so the time will not stand as an official world record. Writes insidthegames.
BRUSSELS (BEL): Belgian top athletes such as Tia Hellebaut and Kim Gevaert are surprised the new national soccer stadium might not have a track. The exclusion of a track in the new national stadium would mean the IAAF Diamond League meeting Memorial Van Damme would stay in the current venue which seats 47.000 or move to a new venue.
SOFIA (BUL): Agencies are informing that European indoor 60 m champion from Goteborg Tezdzhan Naimova could face a life ban from athletics after a second doping offence in four years, the head of the Bulgarian federation Dobromir Karamarinov said. She tested positive for the banned steroid drostanolone at the European indoor championship in Goteborg in March. Naimova is provisionally suspended. In 2009, Naimova she was banned for two years for manipulating a doping sample. Interestingly another Bulgarian would gain from the situation, Ivet Lalova could get the bronze, silver for Myriam Soumare and gold for Mariya Ryemyen from Ukraine.
TOKYO (JPN): Brett Larner informs that alongside its post-National Championships announcement of the 41-member Japanese team for August’s Moscow World Championships, the Japanese Federation announced the teams it has selected for July’s Asian Athletics Championships in Pune, India and October’s East Asian Games in Tianjin, China. 26 men and 26 women will make up the Asian Athletics Championships team, with top names like sprinters Chisato Fukushima, Yuzo Kanemaru, Yuichi Kobayashi and Kei Takase, hurdlers Yasuhiro Fueki, Satomi Kubokura a
nd Hitomi Shimura and high jumper Miyuki Fukumoto doubling there and in Moscow. The East Asian Games team includes 30 men and 28 women, led by 2013 national champions Yuki Ebihara, Sota Hoshi, Shota Iizuka, Sho Kawamoto, Keisuke Ushiro, Ryota Yamagata and Seito Yamamoto.
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican 800 m record holder Kenia Sinclair is now a doubt for the upcoming Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association/Supreme Ventures National Senior Championships and the rest of the season after the effects of a car accident forced her to pull up while competing at a meet in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sinclair, now in Toronto, Canada, suffered back and neck spasms and will be seeking medical advice when she returns to her Florida base.
LONDON (GBR): The Telegraph informs that UK Athletics has gone back on its claim that it would be happy to appoint another foreign head coach to replace Peter Eriksson at the end of the season, saying it would like the successful candidate to be British – and that Toni Minichiello is in the running. Eriksson, who is Swedish, said last month he was returning home to Canada for personal reasons at the end of June with performance director Neil Black taking over head coaching duties temporarily. But Black, in place until the end of August’s World Championships, has no interest in continuing in the role long-term and is hopes to find a home-grown coach instead.
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica Observer informs that a number of Jamaica’s world-class athletes and their coaches, who have been preparing to compete at the World University Games in Kazan, this summer, could have their hopes dashed as there is only enough money to send a handful of athletes. “This year, Jamaica has the potential to top that medal haul. We could realistically win two medals from the 100 to 400 metres, plus a medal in all four relays, the 400 metres hurdles men and women and the 100-metre hurdles, men and women. Surpassing the nine medals in Shenzhen is very likely,” said Anthony Davis, president of the Jamaica Intercollegiate Sports Association (JISA).
ADDIS ABABA (ETH): Runnersworld informs that the greatest and most versatile distance runner in world history, the inspirational Ethiopian, World and Olympic champion is the namesake of the first Haile Gebrselassie Marathon, which will take place on Sunday, 20 October in Hawassa, Ethiopia. “It’s nice to have an event named after me, but it won’t make it any easier for the runners,” laughs Gebrselassie. “Ethiopians are proud of their marathon runners. We all look up to Abebe Bikila, the father of running in Ethiopia. Since him, we’ve had two other Olympic marathon champions and two world record holders. It is great to now be able to boast with our very own big marathon race. I am hoping for big things to happen.” Entries are limited to 1200 runners.
NAIROBI (KEN): Several athletes were locked out from competing at the National Youth Trials for the World Youth Championship on Tuesday at the Nyayo National stadium as Athletics Kenya reined in on age cheats. Writes Sportsnewsarena.com. The start was delayed for almost five hours, as AK painstakingly reviewed identification documents provided by the young runners eager to qualify for the championships in Ukraine. Some of the athletes had the correct documentations showing that they were born between 1996/97 as required by the IAAF rules but looked much more older. The scenario was worse in the boy’s 1500m where out of 16 athletes who appeared on the start list for heat one and two, only six qualified for the finals to be run Wednesday. AK would take action on the coaches who cleared the runners to compete at the trials. For instance coach Amos Rono had three of his 15 runners ruled overage. Joshua Nasikonde and Alfred Kipkiter are the favourites for the boy’s 800m whose final will be run on Wednesday. The two topped their respective heats in 1:48.9 and 1:52.2.
TORONTO (CAN): Two decades after he’d run his last race, Ben Johnson can still bring a crowd to its feet. More than twenty years after his fall from grace, Johnson was back on the track Tuesday night anchoring his pro-am relay team to victory as part of the Toronto International Track and Field Games at Varsity Stadium. “It’s been a long time,” Johnson said. “If I knew that this [race] was going to happen, I would have trained myself two or three months ago.” A crowd that nearly filled the grandstand stood and cheered on Johnson, who won by a good 30 metres. Now 51 years old and a grandfather, he still looked strong, roaring down the track at “three-quarter pace.”
MOSCOW (RUS): Javelin reigning world champion Mariya Abakumova told to All Sport news agency she’s going to pay maximum attention to technical practices nearest time. “I wasn’t able to make enough technical trainings cause of my compact competitions schedule with long flights. But now I’ll have time to make some corrections as my next official events will be in Gateshead only at European team championships. After coming back from Gateshead I’ll take pause in competitions and will focus on successful preparation to Universiade in Kazan” said 27-year-old Russian.
EUGENE (USA): Female sprinter English Gardner, who defended her NCAA title in the 100 m on Friday last week and was part of the Ducks’ relay team, announced afterward that she will skip her senior year to go pro. Gardner was the only collegiate runner to make the finals in the 100 at last year’s Olympic track trials.
KINGSTON (JAM): Trackalerts informs that 100 m world champion Yohan Blake has said he is not yet back to 100 per cent after his 20.72 last Saturday. “I am feeling good, not hundred (100 per cent), so I just have to go back in training,” he told reporters after the race.
CHEBOKSARY (RUS): President of All-Russian athletics federation Valentin Balakhnichev, race walk IAAF committee head Maurizio Damilano and head of Chuvashia Mikhail Ignatyev have met to discuss the possibilities to held in Cheboksary t
hree World Cups in walking in a row in 2016, 2018 and 2020. Chuvashia head suggested such initiative. President Balakhnichev underlined that realization of that project will favour the creation of Cheboksary big preparation center for international level walkers. Now Cheboksary is preparing to hold European team championships 2015.
GOTEBORG (SWE): Goteborg Grand Prix will on June 15 have not only Dayron Robles at 110 m hurdles but also good 800 m race. Ayanleh Suleiman from Djibouti, the world leader indoors at 1000 m with 2:17.08, was added to the start list. Even Yuriy Borzakovskiy will run and the aim is 1:45.26 meet record. Emma Green Tregaro will again face Ruth Beitia in the high jump. Michel Tornéus will compete against Sebastian Bayer and Louis Tsatoumas in men’s long jump. The world junior record holder, Angelica Bengtsson will get big support from the crowd as well as Göteborgs own Malin Dahlström. World champion Fabiana Murer will lead a good international field. The pole vault is situated right in front of the main stand in Göteborg. In the javelin the new 84 m thrower, Kim Amb will make a very interesting start.
MOSCOW (RUS): Long jump London Olympic medalist Yelena Sokolova informed All Sport news agency she is really satisfied with her current shape and technical details of her jump at Rome Diamond League meeting despite she was able to set only 4th place with 6.87m mark. “We agreed with my coach Dmitriy Sokolov that technical side of my jumps is improving from one event to another and that’s mean we are on the right way preparing to the Moscow 2013. I want to inform another important news: we decided to perform at World university games. Why? Because I like to compete at couple events during a few days. So on July 4 I’ll perform at Diamond League meeting in Lausanne and then to Kazan.”
RESULTS
TORONTO (CAN, Jun 11): Toronto International Games had home star in high jump Derek Drouin clearing excellent 233 ahead of Dusty Jonas 230. Fast 800 m by Melissa Bishop 2:00.84 ahead of British Marilyn Okoro 2:01.38. Jessica Zelinka won the anticipated hurdles in 13.06 (+0.4). In the men 100 m Jason Rogers of St. Kitts clocked 10.25 (0.0) ahead of Justyn Warner 10.32 and Jamaican Lerone Clarke 10.34. US 400 m wins for Mary Wineberg 51.86 and Manteo Mitchell 46.53. Canadian Noelle Montcalm improved to 55.96 at 400 m hurdles. Kate Van Buskirk clocked another Canadian PB 4:08.34 to win the 1500 m. US Gwen Berry won hammer 71.43, Heather Hamilton cleared 435 in pole vault and Taipei´s Huang Chang Ming the shot put 19.77.
NOTE
Traditional event by event preview of Oslo IAAF Diamond League will be posted in the evening.
