BUBKA´S RECOMMENDATIONS

MOSCOW (RUS): IAAF Vice President and IOC Presidency candidate Sergey Bubka, head of the IOC’s Entourage Commission, will put forward a series of recommendations to be discussed by the organisation’s Executive Board at its meeting in Moscow on August 9. „It is clear, I am chair of the Entourage Commission and we are working right now for entourage sanctions,” said Bubka, one of six IOC members currently running to replace Jacques Rogge as President. „We have already done our work and the final stage, the Executive Board of IOC will approve this and this we will presented to sports institutions to implement.” „Of course there are some positive cases that are unpleasant, we don’t like them but in some way we must see it as positive,” said Bubka, a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). „The system works…you will pay the price if you go the wrong way, this is a very important message,” Bubka added.

MIKHNEVICH CONFIRMED

MONACO (MON): IAAF informs on its website that in the case of Belarus shot putter Andrey Mikhnevich which followed the IAAF’s re-testing of a selection of doping samples collected at the 2005 IAAF World Championships, Helsinki, Finland has now concluded with the sanction of ‘Lifetime ineligibility as from 26.12.12. His results are annulled from August 2005 beginning with his sixth place finish in the men’s Shot Put in Helsinki. He will lost at IAAF level the silver medal from the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 2006 and 2010, and the bronze medal from the 2007 and 2011 IAAF World Championships. Mikhnevich was also bronze medallist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and it is now for the IOC to decide on the annulment of his result in Beijing (and any consequent medal re-allocation).

SEVEN CONFIRMED, REST IS OPEN

MONACO (MON): The 2013 IAAF Diamond League has reached a mid-season break as the world’s best athletes prepare to compete at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow. With just three meetings left in the series, there are still many events where the Diamond Race is wide open. The Diamond Race has already been decided in seven disciplines so far – the men’s Triple Jump (Taylor), women’s 400m (Montsho), women’s 1500m (Aregawi), women’s 100m Hurdles (Harper-Nelson), women’s 400m Hurdles (Hejnova), women’s Discus (Perkovic) and women’s Javelin (Obergfoll). In the remaining 25 disciplines, however, it is still all to play for at the remaining meetings in Stockholm, Zurich and Brussels.

MOSCOW NEWS

BRUSSELS (BEL): Belgian decathlete Thomas Van der Plaetsen toldlosseveter.nl he is hugely relieved after winning the World University Games and qualifying for the IAAF World championships. Van der Plaetsen was out for most of 2012 and 2013 with a hamstring injury and was unsure about his ability to perform at the highest level this year. The 22-year old’s aim for Moscow is to improve his personal best to 8200 points.

BEIJING (CHN): Five of China’s reigning global medallists in race walking events have been named on the team for the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow. Olympic 20km Race Walk champion Chen Ding will contest his specialist event alongside Olympic bronze medallist Wang Zhen and Olympic fourth-place finisher Cai Zelin. Si Tianfeng, the Olympic bronze medallist, will compete in the 50km Race Walk with the two men who finished ahead of him at the Race Walking National Games: Wu Qianlong and Li Jianbo. Liu Hong, who took silver in Daegu two years ago, leads the Chinese women in the 20km Race Walk while Olympic bronze medallist Qieyang Shenjie has also been named in the event. There are several other medal hopes on the team of 53 athletes. Li Jinzhe, the long jumper who won at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting, goes to Moscow ranked fourth on this year’s world season lists. Also high jumper Wang Yu and women shot putter Gong Lijiao.

PARIS (FRA): Pascal Martinot-Lagarde is ok for French team in Moscow after recent injury. Three athletes will double in Russia. Sprinters Myriam Soumare, Christophe Lemaitre and Jimmy Vicaut. European 100m junior champion Stella Akakpo is over the moon with her selection for the IAAF World championships where she will run in both the 100m and 4x100m.

ROMA (ITA): Out from Italian team is high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi because of muscle problem. Italian team is now at 57 members, also out hurdler Emmanuele Abate (achilles) and female 400 m hurdler Manuele Gentili.

YEREVAN (ARM): Only one athlete long jumper Amaliya Aroyan will represent Armenia in Moscow.

KYIV (UKR): Ukraine is sending a team of 61 athletes (33 women and 28 men) to Moscow World Championships. The strong women squad will be headed by reigning triple jump champion Olha Saladukha and London Olympic short relay bronze team in full strength (Povh, Pohrebnyak, Ryemyen, Bryzhina, Stuy, Pyatachenko). Among other names 800m European indoor champion Natalia Lupu, European indoor medalist Hanna Melnychenko for heptathlon and javelin European champion Vira Rebryk. The main medal hope in men team is high jump world leader Bohdan Bondarenko. Oleksiy Kasyanov in decathlon, Roman Avramenko in javelin, Viktor Kuznetsov in triple jump and Yuriy Krimarenko in high jump are also in the list. London Olympic silver medalist in javelin Oleksandr Pyatnytsya and 4th placer in hammer Oleksiy Sokyrskyy pulled out of the team.

OSLO (NOR): 11 athletes have been named in Norway’s team for the World Championships in Moscow, including double olympic winner in javelin Andreas Thorkildsen. Jaysuma Saidy Ndure has been selected for the 100m and 200m. The talented Ingebrigtsen family has one representative in the squad. Olympic 5th placer, Henrik will compete again in the 1500m and will hope for better luck than he had at the European u23s where he fell and didn’t progress from the heats. Ezinne Okparaebo is named for the 100m, she placed 4th at last year’s European Championships. Two of Norway’s top performers at the Youth and Junior level will attempt to be competitive at the senior stage. The 21 year old Isabelle Pederson will compete in the 100m hurdles after setting a personal best of 13.04 (+0.5) this year while Karoline Grovdal will compete in the 5000m. The 23 year old European silver medallist, Tonje Angelsen, will compete in what will be a very competitive high jump competition, her best this year is 192.

ST GEORGE’S (GRN): Grenada will have two athletes at the World Championships, Kirani James in the 400m and Kurt Felix in the decathlon. James is the defending champion and the current world leader. His best time this year is the 43.96 he ran to win the Diamond League in Paris. Felix failed to finish in the London Games decathlon after winning the division one NCAA Championships.

ABUJA (NGR): Nigeria will send a team of 19 athletes to the World Championships. The team is led by Blessing Okagbare who could medal in all three of her individual events (and relay). The 24 year old will compete in both short sprints as well as the Long Jump. She has set personal bests in all these events this year, running 10.79 (+1.1) and 22.31 (+1.3) and jumping 7.00 (0.0). 22 year old Regina George will compete in the 400m, she set a personal best of 50.99 this year that ranks her just outside the top 20 in the world. Ajoke Adumoso will run the 400m hurdles, her season’s best is 55.10. The women’s team will have a 4x100m relay and a 4x400m relay while the men will only have a 4x400m.

AUCKLAND (NZL): New Zealand has named 9 athletes in their team for the World Championships, headlined by the Olympic Shot Put Champion Valerie Adams. Also in the team are twins Zane and Jake Robertson who will compete in the 5000 and 10 000 meters respectively. Zane ran13:13.83 in Belgium to earn his spot on the team after Jake ran 27:45.46 earlier in the year at Stanford. Angie Smit will run the 800m after running a personal best of 2:00.03 for 4th at the World University Games. Also in the squad is Beijing silver medallist Nick Willis. Willis hasn’t been demonstrating the amazing form that he has shown the past two seasons, his best this year is 3:34.68. The lone male thrower on the squad is Stuart Farquhar who will compete in the javelin, his season’s best is 81.07.

OTHER NEWS

AMSTERDAM (NED): Dutch long jumper Ignasious Gaisah confirmed he will compete at the Amsterdam Flame Games on August 31st in the long jump. The former jumper from Ghana is now cleared to compete for The Netherlands and will represent his new country when competing at the IAAF World championships.

LAUSANNE (SUI): The last month saw the European Athletics Junior Championships in Rieti, Italy, and the European Athletics U23 Championships in Tampere, Finland, and both meeting have the top performers there among the nominations for the European Athlete of the Month. In addition, the calendar last month included one European Athletics Premium Meetings, four European Athletics Classic Permit Meetings and four IAAF Diamond League meetings. Consequently, European Athletics is consequently pleased to announce that athletes from 13 different countries have been nominated for the July award. The voting will close on 16 August at noon CET.

MOSCOW (RUS): 4x100m relay Beijing Olympic champion, European and world medalist Aleksandra Fedoriva-Shpayer gave a birth to her daughter Varvara. The littlegirl (51cm and 3.7 kg) was born on July 31. Her mother and coach Lyudmila informed Rusathletics that both mother and baby are doing well and Aleksandra is aiming to come back into athletics after recovery period in 2014.

COPENHAGEN (DEN): The Copenhagen Athletics Games will see on August 1 return of 2008 Olympic medalist Walter Dix who is scheduled to run the 100 m. Dylan Armstrong is the star of the shot put, in women 100 m US Muna Lee with hurdler Vashti Thomas. Nick Ekelund-Arenander as the top Danish athlete is in the 400 m against Estonian Marek Niit, Poland´s talent Rafal Omelko and Israeli record holder Donald Sanford.

CHEB (CZE): New (yellow) track will be inaugurated in Czech city of Cheb, western part of Czech Republic. Top Czech stars will run at special distances. Zuzana Hejnova will try on Friday improve her own world best at 300 m hurdles 38.75 from this May. European Champion at 400 m Pavel Maslak is going to run the 500 m with the aim to break the one minute barrier or at least the Czech all-time best 1:00.7 by Josef Trousil back in 1967. Jamaican hurdler Josef Robertson runs the 300 m but the main foreign attraction will be 2003 World Champion Kim Collins who is scheduled to compete in the 60 m and 150 m.

MYRTLE BEACH (USA): The 100 m World Champion in 2005 Lauryn Williams is the latest American sprinter to start competing in the bobsleigh. The 29 year retired from athletics this season. She will begin her bobsled career this week at the summer US Championships in Calgary.

SACRAMENTO (USA): Big time track and field may be headed back to Sacramento. The Sacramento Sports Commission – an arm of the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau – has bid for the 2014 United States Track and Field Outdoor Championships, according to Commission Director Mike Sophia. Local media are informing. The Sacramento proposal for the 2014 meet included Sacramento State as the venue, with the meet to be scheduled June 26-29. There is a possibility the national juniors competition could be held here in conjunction with the 2014 National Championships.

RESULTS

CARDIFF (GBR, Jul 31) At the Welsh Athletics International: Richard Peters 4:00.25 mile, Ben Sumner 50.66 400H and Isobel Pooley 1.88 High Jump.

OITA (JPN, Jul 31): On the second day of the National High School Championships super talent Yoshihide Kiryu won the boys’ 100 m in a meet record time of 10.19 (+0.1). In the heats he ran 10.50 s and in the semi-finals 10.32 s, winning both before the final where he took 0.05 s off the old meet record set nineteen years ago. Kiryu also anchored Rakunan’s 4×100 m relay team to win their semi-final in 40.50. Informs Brett Larner.

ALYTUS (LTU, Jul 31): Lithuania won youth Baltic match with 412 points over Latvia 301.5 and Estonia 275.5.

TOKYO (JPN, Jul 28): Japanese sprinters confirmed good shape as Ryota Yamagata clocked 10.23 (+0.1) and the relay team 38.90. Keisuke Nozawa posted 49.92 at 400 m hurdles.

NOTE

MONACO (MON): The IAAF Statistics e-book for the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow is now available to download from the IAAF website. Produced in collaboration with the Association of Track & Field Statisticians (ATFS) and edited by renowned statistician Mark Butler, the 800-page book is nothing short of a tantalising historical and statistical feast for media and fans alike.