by Larry EderShort note today, off to Chicago for the B of A Chicago Marathon! Watch for some good info this weekend!
KIPLAGAT REMAINS
NAIROBI (KEN): No changes in Athletics Kenya in next four years. Current president and IAAF Council member Isaiah Kiplagat and his entire team retained their seats during national elections Thursday, thereby receiving a fresh mandate to manage athletics affairs in the country. Inorms The Nation.
Kiplagat faced opposition from former world steeple champion Moses Kiptanui for the chairman’s position. Kiptanui was no match for Kiplagat, who received votes from 55 delegates against Kiptanui’s eight. Secretary general David Okeyo and treasurer Joseph Kinyua also remained in functions. Kiplagat’s victory was the fourth in a row, having taken over the chairman’s position from Paul Boit in 1992.
PRIZE MONEY CONFIRMED
MONTE CARLO: IAAF confirmed the prize money of 245,000 USD for the IAAF / CAIXA World Half Marathon Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday. Individual winners will get 30 000 USD and the best teams 15 000 USD.
FOFANAH THREATENING
CONAKRY (GUI): 100 m hurdles African champion Fatmata Fofanah is threatening to change citizenship. The US-based hurdler, frustrated by the lack of support from her country, has sent a letter to the Guinean Federation, asking to be released so that she may look for another country to represent. Since her return from Beijing, Fofanah has been sent back from her training camp in Atlanta due to non-payment of the fees. „Lack of money” is the answer that comes from most interlocutors, „an insult to me”, she explains „because we all know about the astronomical sums alloted to football in Guinea. Yet football has not brought back anything to the country in a long time”…. „I would truly like to keep representing Guinea, that I like very much, but there are too many uncertainties in the management of my sport in Guinea. Most trip preparations are surrounded by uncertainties. Either the plane tickets are delivered late or are never delivered. Or the travel or competition allowances are missing”….”All the analyses I’ve done since I’ve been in the national team show that Guinea won’t help me … Aware of diverging and irreconcilable viewpoints, I believe it’s time to separate” – Le Jour de Guinée informs.
FELIX THINKS MORE ABOUT 400 m
LOS ANGELES (USA): Triple world champion Allyson Felix revealed in IAAF diaries that 2009 will be a very different year for her. „I have to wait four more years to accomplish my ultimate goal so in the meantime I’m exploring what my focus will be until then. I’m seriously considering concentrating on the longer sprints this year but I have not made any final decisions,” she was quoted.
OTHER NEWS
BERLIN (GER): The new Berlin road race, the ASICS Grand 10 Berlin, will see its inaugural edition this Sunday with a number of prominent German athletes: Olympic Champion Dieter Baumann (5.000 m in 1992) will run the 10 k race while Waldemar Cierpinski (Olympic Marathon Champion in 1976 and 1980) as well as the Triathlon Olympic Champion from Tokyo Jan Frodeno will participate in a 2×5 k relay. The organisers from BERLIN RUNS, a new group which already successfully has taken over as the organiser of Berlin’s traditional 25 k race in May, expect the race to have more than 6,000 runners. Organisers are informing in a release. After a long absence due to an injury André Pollmächer starts his comeback, now concentrating on road running. The promising German distance runner will be up against Kenyans Simon Kasimili and Peter Koech while German steeple chaser Filmon Ghirmai, who is coached by Dieter Baumann, could also play a part. The women’s 10 k race will feature the German trio Ulrike Maisch, Claudia Dreher and Julia Viellehner.
MONTE CARLO: Dentsu, the marketing Agency of the IAAF, has secured an agreement to ensure that the IAAF World Athletic Series competitions will be widely broadcast in China from 2010. After a competitive tender process, the TV rights for the People’s Republic of China have been awarded to Shanghai Media Group (SMG) for the period of 2010/2013. SMG’s offer not only had a strong financial component but will also ensure wide exposure and coverage. Shanghai Media Group operates 11 regional terrestrial stations across China with household penetration in excess of 800 Million households.
LONDON (GBR): Britain´s athletes will soon start fulfilling their potential claimed 400 m Olympic gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu, who is set to face her own new challenger at London 2012. While cycling, rowing, sailing and swimming excelled during the Games in Beijing the athletes failed to hit the target of five medals set by National Lottery distributor UK Sport. They won four medals, but Ohuruogu’s victory in the 400 metres was the only gold. Informs insidethegames.com.
CHICAGO (USA): Race organizers and local officials hope that Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon will highlight the city’s status as a candidate city for the 2016 Olympic Games. Some 250 volunteers from Chicago’s Olympic bid committee will be on the race course to lead fans in cheering, and Olympians from different sports will be on hand throughout the week; some will even hand out finisher medals. Informs Race Results Weekly.
LIEVIN (FRA): After a two year break due to hall renovation, the Liévin meet is back for the 2009 indoor season. It will be held on February 10, three days before the Paris-Bercy meet, set up in 2007 to compensate for the loss of Liévin, l’Equipe informs.
LAUSANNE (SUI): Up to 5000 samples taken during the Olympics in Beijing earlier this year could be re-tested to check to see if any contain a newly detected drug, it was announced. The unprecedented move by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will see all the samples from Beijing flown to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory in Lausanne to be analysed. The samples will be reopened and tested for CERA(Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator), an advanced version of the blood booster EPO (Erythropoietin). The IOC stores samples from the Olympics for eight years, leaving open the possibility to retest them when new detection methods are devised. Target for re-testing could be mainly endurance sports.
KIYEV (UKR): Sergey Lebid is synonymous with the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and the Ukrainian is getting ready to defend the crown in December that he has won seven times. Informs European Athletics. Lebid won for the first time in 1998 and was then victorious on five consecutive occasions between 2001 and 2005 before regaining the title last year. „I’m definitely going to be in Brussels to defend my title in December. Not only that, I’m the only person to have run in all 14 of the previous races so obviously I want to keep my streak going. I would have to have a broken leg not to at the start,” joked Lebid, who is now 33-years-old. The European event will be held on December 14.
SOFIA (BUL): Bulgarian athletics federation confirmed two years ban for middle distance runner Daniela Yordanova. She is 32 years old and her career might end so. Her both samples confirmed presence of testosterone from out of competition test on June 13. Her ban started from August 18 and will end on August 18, 2010.
BERLIN (GER): Berlin´s mayor Klaus Wowereit announced that the blue track at Olympic Stadium will remain also after World Championships 2009. He said this within the discussions by football club Hertha Berlin and in the wake in the recent Stuttgart decision to remove the track because of football interests.
MOSCOW (RUS): All-Sport informs that Yelena Isinbayeva will not compete at European Indoor Championships in Turin, Italy next march. The double Olympic winner and world record holder plans to have indoor season, but will not be at the main European event as it happened also in 2007 with Birmingham. This was confirmed for All-Sport by her coach Vitaliy Petrov. Isinbayeva will start her training for next season on November 15 in Monte Carlo and from December will move to the base in Formia, Italy.
PRAGUE (CZE): Olympic champion and javelin world record holder Barbora Spotakova informed at a press conference that she will not change anything in her preparation for 2009. „Why to change something what is working well,” she said. She will start her preparations in Zadov later in November and in December she will travel to Lanzarote, Grand Canaria. Recently she had holidays in Turkey, now she goes to Hungary. During indoor season she again plans to compete in additional events like 60 m Hurdles or 200 m what she did also in the past.
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica is set to host the inaugural international 100 metre beach sprint in Negril in November 2009, Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett has announced. Informs Jamaica Observer. „One of the most important events that is already attracting world attention is the first-ever world 100-metre beach sprint to be held in Negril in November 2009,” Bartlett stated. „We announced this in Beijing and it has the attention of the world.” Bartlett, who was speaking at a reception, held in honour of the athletes at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Tuesday night, revealed that Mondo Tracks will be contracted to prepare the surface to be used for the unprecedented event. It will be a track which will be transportable.
KINGSTON (JAM): Relay Olympic winner Dwight Thomas (competed in heats) said he will return to the 110 m hurdles next season. He did not run the hurdles competitively since his 13.34 personal best for third at the US Open in Stanford, California, in May 2004, said the Olympic results motivated him to return to the event. „In 2005, I did 13.3 practising more than once and 13.3 could have got you fifth place at this Olympic Games, so it was sad to see,” said Thomas, who has a personal best of 10.00 in the 100m and 20.32 in the 200m.
Used with permission of Alfons Juck.
