by Larry EderIn my mind, Oprah Winfrey is the most influential women in the country. Her television show, her magazine, her Book club and her fascinating digital and TV based after show leads the way in terms of bringing women especially to using multi media platforms.
That Marion Jones is on the show is no accident. If Marion wants redemption on this side of the grave, Oprah is the place to start. Do not get me wrong, I think that, in the end, Oprah is entertainment, but she is very careful, much of the time, to use her bully pulpit to promote good causes. Her self control over Barak Obama should be lauded-as the daily TV show lauding her candidate would have, I believe, made the presidential contest a wipe out.
But, Oprah, Marion Jones? Isn’t it best that some people a) take their just desserts and b) sit in their cold corner of hell in order that they do not do it again. We shall see how many shows she hits after this….
EME NEWS (OCT 29, 2008)
Lobodin new CE head, Pechonkina and Makarov to continue
MOSCOW (RUS): News from background of Russian Athletics. Former world indoor and European outdoor medalist Lev Lobodin was named Russian head-coach for multi-events. He is also personal coach of Aleksander Pogorelov who was 4th in Olympic decathlon in Beijing. Lobodin ended his career in 2004 after he did not finish the Olympic event in Athens. 400 m Hurdles world record holder Yulia Pechonkina plans her return to training and competing and wants to be at World Championships 2009 in Berlin. Because of her illness she was not competing in 2008, but her health situation is improving every day as her coach Valentin Maslakov confirmed for All-Sport. Former world champion in Javelin throw Sergey Makarov (35) changed his plan and will not retire. He already started the preparation for next year and wants to compete in 2009. In Beijing he did not qualify. 2004 High Jump Olympic winner Yelena Slesarenko initially thought not to compete indoors 2009, but as she started to train already the final decision will be made in December. The option that she will be jumping in winter still exists.
Strong Tokyo women field
TOKYO (JPN): The jubilee 30th Tokyo Women Marathon has its international field announced. But it will be the last edition of the women only race. It will be incorporated in future into Tokyo Marathon which is open for general runners and is held in February. Women marathon began in 1979 as the first women’s marathon in the world to have the approval of the International Association of Athletics Federations. Also, the Metropolitan Police Department expressed the opinion that, from the viewpoint of traffic control, it would be difficult to continue two marathon races in the center of Tokyo every year. Tokyo hopes for future with classic mass race and elite fields in both categories aim for World Marathon Majors. For this years edition Russian Svetlana Zakharova who was second in London and 22nd in Beijing in Olympic Marathon and has a best 2:21:31 from 2002 is the top name. Other top European runners are Briton Mara Yamauchi who won this year Osaka Ladies Marathon and was 6th in Beijing and Ukrainian Tetyana Filonyuk who improved this year to 2:28:40 as 6th in Paris and was also 31st in Olympic race. African challenge will be headed by Kenyan Salina Kosgei (4th in London and 10th at Olympics this year) with 2:23:22 best and legendary Ethiopian Derartu Tulu (36). The 10 000 m track double Olympic winner has 2:23:30 best from Helsinki World Championships 2005 (4th), but this year was only second in Madrid marathon with 2:36:32. Another Ethiopian Elfenesh Alemu (33, 2:24:29 from 2001) is returning after three years, last time she ran a marathon was back in 2005 when she was second in Boston and third in Tokyo. Also to note the participation of Amsterdam 2007 winner Magdeline Chemjor of Kenya with 2:28:16 best. Home group leader is Berlin winner from 2004 Yoko Shibui (2:19:41) who is going to run her first marathon of the year after 10 000 m 17th place in Beijing. She last time run the marathon at this event a year ago as seventh (2:34:19). Last year 2004 Olympic winner Mizuki Noguchi got the course record 2:21:37.
OTHER NEWS
TORONTO (CAN): Charles Dubin, a former top judge who was best known for heading an inquiry into drug use in amateur sport, has died, aged 87, following a bout with pneumonia. He chaired the high-profile Canadian commission that was formed after sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal for testing positive for anabolic steroids at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, to examine the use of drugs and banned practices intended to increase performance at the Seoul Games.
BUCURESTI (ROM): Romanian Shot Put record holder Gheorghe Guset (40) is facing serious health problems. As Romanian media are informing, the kidney transplant surgery was successful and he was transferred into the Intensive Care section of the Urology and Renal Transplant Institute (IUTR) in Cluj Napoca. Guset will will spend there the following two weeks approximately. The kidney received from a citizen of Bucuresti proved to be compatible with the athlete’s body. He is 39 times national champion and his Romanian records are 21.04 indoor from 2006 and 20.84 outdoor from 1999. He was fourth at European Indoor Championships 2000 in Gent. He last time competed in July 2007 winning the national title.
TORONTO (CAN): The teammates of Congolese born Canadian marathoner Danny Kassap at University of Toronto have launched a call to help pay the runner’s medical expenses a month after his near fatal cardiac arrest at the Berlin marathon on September 28. (http://www.dannykassapfund.com/). The athlete collapsed around the 5km mark, and could only be resuscitated thanks to the quick intervention of the race paramedics. He suffered “ventricular fibrillation” (an uncoordinated contraction of the cardiac muscle) brought on by myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart), which in turn was caused by a cold virus. He was placed in a medically-induced coma for several days, and remained in a Berlin hospital for over two weeks before he was able to return home to Toronto. Doctors are cautiously optimistic that he will make a full recovery. Danny Kassap looked for asylum after the 2001 Francophone Games in Ottawa but faced numerous legal setbacks before getting legal residence in April 2008 and citizenship in August 2008. He made his debut in the marathon in 2004 clocking 2:14:50 for victory at the Toronto Waterfront marathon. In 2008, he finished 15th of the London marathon (2:15:20), his first competition outside Canada, still working full time. In Berlin, he was looking to secure a spot on his first Canadian national team for the next World Championships in the same city.
KINGSTON (JAM): A small gathering was at the Hotel Pegasus in Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon to attend a luncheon function in honour of former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell put on by owners of his sponsoring Lucozade brand, the international outfit, GlaxoSmithKline. The ceremony was to say thanks to the Beijing sprint relay gold medalist and world record holder for representing the product in fine and impressive style. In presenting a book with autographed messages from the athlete’s well wishers, the company’s Marketing Manager, Robeth Streete expressed their appreciation to Powell for his performances during the 2008 season which he ended with a personal best of 9.72 seconds the exact time done by his countryman Usain Bolt to shatter his record in New York City on May 31. Powell in turn presented to the company executive a framed photograph of his triumphant finish to the Beijing sprint relay.
NEW YORK (USA): Former Olympic Medalist Marion Jones had her first Interview after prison in the famous Oprah Winfrey show. In Jones’ first tell-all interview since she was released from prison last month, the disgraced track star tells Oprah Winfrey she thought she could bluff her way out of trouble when confronted by federal investigators about her steroid use. It will be broadcasted on Wednesday. In January, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas sentenced Jones to six months in prison for lying about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and her connection to a check-fraud scheme. Jones is on probation and had to get permission to appear on the show, which devoted its full hour to the interview. Jones breaks down at one point during the interview when she tells Oprah about the letter she wrote to her two small children. Informs nydailynews.com.
MONTREAL (CAN): World Anti-Doping Agency informed it has now received the results of the 300 drug tests from the Beijing Olympics that it had previously reported as missing. WADA’s team of independent observers had reported the missing results in their final report on the Beijing drug-testing program earlier this month. The International Olympic Committee said the mix-up was due to a “communication problem” between the Beijing lab and the observers, and that all the results had been traced and later sent to the WADA team. WADA said the biggest group of missing test results, about 180, were for EPO controls. The best news is also that all this additional tests were negative. The IOC still plans to retest Beijing samples for traces of CERA, the new blood-boosting drug that was recently detected in the samples of four cyclists from the Tour de France.
WARSZAWA (POL): On Monday at age of 46 former Poland´s international miler Grzegorz Basiak died. In 1984 he clocked his best 3:39.59 at 1500 m. Indoors he broke at that time national record with 3:40.03 in 1985. This record lasted until 2002 when Pawel Czapiewski registered 3:38.96. In 1984 he was 5th at European Indoor Championships in Goteborg. Informs Polish Federation website.
LJUBLJANA (SLO): Slovenian hammer olympic winner Primoz Kozmus will prepare for next season in Medulin in warmer climate and in February, March plans to travel to Australia. There he also wants compete at Melbourne Grand Prix. Top 800 m runner and world finalist from Osaka Brigita Langerholc will also go to “Down Under” and will not compete indoors. On the other hand Olympic finalist and national record holder in triple jump Marija Sestak plans to be in top shape in winter and attack the podium at European Indoor Championships. Her main preparation place will be Budapest, Hungary as in Slovenia no hall for athletics is available. Informs www.siol.net.
MELBOURNE (AUS): Steve Landells of Spikesmag.com recently interviewed Australia’s Pole Vault Olympic winner Steven Hooker. About his future plans he said: “I plan to compete overseas and do the indoor season, that’s something I always enjoy doing. It’s nice to go overseas and get the ball rolling then the Australian season starts at the end of February with our meets including the Melbourne Grand Prix.” The 26-years old athlete is Ocenian indoor record holder with 581 from 2007 and this mark will be under threat.
NEW YORK SPECIAL
NEW YORK (USA): Interesting debut in New York on Sunday by former Eritrean Bolota Asmerom who represents USA since June 2002. The World Indoor participant in 2003 and 2004 competed in 2000 for his African country at Sydney Games and is year by year slowly stepping up with the events. The 30 years old athlete just closely missed the Olympic participation at 5000 m as he was 4th at the trials. In October he debuted in San Jose at Half Marathon with solid 1:03:29.
NEW YORK (USA): Universal Sports, a television channel and website dedicated to Olympic and action sports, will show Sunday’s ING New York City Marathon live on both broadcast television and on-line. The television broadcast is accessible in many major American cities on free, digital broadcast TV, including New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. The on-line broadcast is available free and to anyone in the world who logs on to http://www.universalsports.com with a fast internet connection. Informs Race Results Weekly.
NEW YORK (USA): Before Sunday´s New York City marathon some stats as provided by Ken Nakamura. The best year in category sub 2:10 was 1999 with six runners with such time. In women sub 2:25 the best in 2003 with three. In the rankings of marathons based on average of ten best results New York is 12th in the men section (2:08:22 average) and 7th in women (2:23:36 average). Top three are Berlin (2:05:34), London (2:05:58) and Chicago (2:06:12) in men consideration and London (2:19:47), Chicago (2:20:25) and Berlin (2:21:01) in women ranking. It should be noted that NY course is one of the toughest among top races.
RESULTS
CASABLANCA (MAR, Oct 26): Tunisian marathon record holder Adil Annani was the winner of the first International Casablanca marathon, clocking 2:12:03. He finished ahead of Kilonzo Musyoka of Kenya (2:12:22) and Ethiopian Yemane Adhane (2:13:29). The women’s race was claimed by Kaori Yoshida of Japan (2:31:44) ahead of home Asmae Leghzaoui (2:34:42) and Ethiopian Yeshi Esayas (2:38:18).
Courtesy of Alfons Juck, EME News.
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