by Larry EderNow is the time for planning for 2009. USATF, European Athletics are all asking the hard questions now, how do we redefine our sport? What are we not communicating about the greatness, the beauty, the simplicity of our sport that the world’s sports fans are not seeing? Much is at stake…
EME NEWS (OCT 16, 2008)
Cheboror and Bushendich favorites
AMSTERDAM (NED): Former winners Robert Cheboror and Solomon Bushendich will be among the favorites at Sunday’s 33rd ING Amsterdam Marathon. Cheboror won the event in 2004 with a personal best of 2:06:23 while Bushendich took the title two years ago in 2:08:52, also a personal best. The strong field assembled include eight men who have run under 2:10. In addition to Cheboror and Busendich, the field includes Kenyans Paul Kiprop Kirui (2:06:44), James Rotich (2:07:12), Jackson Koech (2:08:02), Paul Malakwen Kosgei (2:09:15) and Albert Matebor (2:09:33) and Dejene Berhanu (2:08:46) of Ethiopia.
Others in the elite field include Frenchman El Hassan Lahsinni (2:10:10), Kenyan Jonathan Kipkorir Kosgei (2:10:18), Abiyote Guta (2:10:38) of Ethiopia and newcomer Silas Toek (2:10:40), also from Kenya. An outsider will be Fabiano Joseph of Tanzania (2:13:24). Running their debuts over the distance are Kenyans Francis Kibiwott, Jonathan Maiyo, Dennis Ndiso, Benjamin Limo and Ethiopian Solomon Tsige. The women’s field is headed by a trio of sub-2:30 runners: Kenyan Beatrice Omwanza (2:27:19), and Adenech Zekiros (2:27:32) and Mindaye Gishu (2:28:30) of Ethiopia. Kenyan Lydia Cheromei, who won the Fortis Half Marathon in Rotterdam last month with a career best 1:08:32, will be making her marathon debut. Informs Race Results Weekly.
Dibaba and Jelimo ratified
MONTE CARLO: IAAF ratified more world records of 2008. The women senior mark of Tirunesh Dibaba 14:11.15 at 5000 m from Oslo Bislett Games on June 6. Also the world junior record of Abubaker Kaki 1:42.69 at 800 m from the same event. And finally the remaining (fifth) world junior mark of Pamela Jelimo at 800 m with 1:54.01 in Zurich at Weltklasse on Aug 29.
Convention started
AMSTERDAM (NED): One-Day Meeting Organisers Forum started on Thursday the European Athletics Convention in Amsterdam. In very good attendance of all level of meetings the discussions iniciated changes into future. They were orientated towards the categorisation of the meetings, mandatory events at the meetings, categorisation of the athletes depending on their position in world lists and integration of stakeholders (athletes, managers, meet organisers, federations, coaches, media and TV).
New meetings in EA category
GOTEBORG (SWE): The Swedish Indoor Meeting Samsunggalan of Goteborg (sprints and jumps) planned for Jan 29 got promotion into European Athletics Indoor Permit meetings. In the outdoor Premium Category new meeting is the Moscow Open planned for the Russian capital city for July 1. That means that not only Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain, but also now Russia (with Znamenskiy Memorial) is having two meetings in the highest category of European Premium Meetings. In the second category of Classic Meetings of EA new members are Pavel Pavlov Meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria (June 27) and as already informed the Pedro´s Cup of Szczecin in Poland (Sep 2). Downgraded were from Premium category to Classic the meetings in Luzern (July 15) and Linz (July 20, coming back after one year of break).
Miles a paraglider
LONDON (GBR): US pole vault champion Derek Miles is among the world’s best in his chosen field but in his downtime he likes to do something even more risky and go paragliding! He chats to spikesmag.com about his passion for altitude. Informs the agent of Miles Karen Locke. “I’ve avoided serious injury but it’s always a balancing act. It is difficult to do during the season, especially if I step off a ledge and twist my ankle, so I tend to do paragliding more out of the season. It’s a little bit hairy at times because of the wind conditions but sometimes when there is a really beautiful sunset and we fly over some water that is when it can be real fun and I can relax and enjoy it. It’s a great release. You immerse yourself in pole vaulting so much it’s easy to become overwhelmed by it. Paragliding keeps me refreshed and rejuvenated,” said Miles.
Demolition
MADRID (ESP): This Tuesday the demolition of the old stadium of Vallehermoso in Madrid started. The works will take five months. The new stadium will be an athletics stadium (8 lanes) with a spectator capacity of 10.000.
Used with permission of Alfons Juck.
Runblogrun.com encourages you to check out the sites of Shooting Star Media, inc. (www.shootingstarmediainc.com): American Track & Field (www.american-trackandfield.com), Athletes Only (www.atf-athlete.com), California Track & Running News (www.caltrack.com), MIssouri Runner & Triathlete (www.morunandtri.com), Latinos Corriendo(www.latinoscorriendo.com), Coaching
Athletics Quarterly (www.coachingathleticsq.com), and USATF Fast Forward (www.usatf.org). All of the above magazine websites can be found at RunningNetwork.com (www.runningnetwork.com).
