by Larry EderTirunesh Dibaba, who ran and won both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Beijing, will be running indoors in Bosotn on February 7, it was announced today. Dibaba, one of the most versatile middle distance runners of any age, was the first women to win the 5k/10k Olympic double in Beijing last summer. She is also the current indoor world record holder, at 3,000 and 5,000 meters.
Tirunesh Dibaba, and her patented kick in heat and humidity of Beijing, August 2008.
EME NEWS (JAN 8, 2009)
Second race of Dibaba announced
BOSTON (USA): Double Olympic winner Tirunesh Dibaba will have her second race of the coming indoor season at 14th Reebok Boston Indoor Games on February 7. Earlier it was announced she will compete in Birmingham at Aviva Grand Prix on February 21. Her event im both meetings will be 3000 m. Her main rival Meseret Defar will compete on the same day February 7 at Stuttgart IAAF Permit meeting also at 3000 m. The second meet of Defar for winter 2009 is not known yet. Defar holds the world indoor record 8:23.72 from Stuttgart 2007. In the same year Dibaba clocked the valid 5000 m world indoor record 14:27.42 in Boston.
Kaki for Stuttgart
STUTTGART (GER): World Indoor Champion Abubaker Kaki of Sudan will start his indoor season in Stuttgart on February 7. He will run the 1000 m where he clocked world junior best at this distance last year in Stockholm (2:15.77). He wants to attack the senior world indoor record 2:14.96 of Wilson Kipketer (2000). Then he competes in Stockholm on February 18 (the event to be determined yet). He will end his indoor campaign in Prague´s 02 arena running 800 m on February 26.
Boquillet new meet director in Paris
PARIS (FRA): Former agent Laurent Boquillet who was helping the famous Morrocan Hicham El Guerrouj in his best years will be the new meeting director of Paris Golden League event planned for July 17 in 2009. He was appointed by national federation president Bernard Amsalem and replaces long-time boss Gerard Rousselle. The federation is overseeing the meeting after the main sponsor Gaz de France ended its commitment and also returned the shares in the organising body. Boquillet, who turns 43 on Jan. 21, was a professional triathlete from 1984 through 1990. After his competitive career, he worked in marketing at Oakley and Nike, before doing a four-year stint with ASO, working on the Paris International Marathon. He spent another four years as an athlete’s agent, then became director of sports marketing at adidas France. In 2006 he was named CEO of Juventus Merchandising, a Nike subsidiary. A new title sponsor has yet to be announced.
Majewski not planning for Torino
WARSZAWA (POL): A number of Poland´s top athletes is not planning on to compete at European Indoor Championships in Torino. Mainly Olympic gold medalist in Shot Put Tomasz Majewski will have only a short indoor season and wants to end in February. Also not preparing for Torino are for example hurdlers Artur Noga, Anna Jesien and Marek Plawgo, pole vaulter Monika Pyrek and runner Wioletta Frankiewicz. Best high jumper Michal Bieniek just recently injured heavily his Achilles and is also doubtful for summer season.
Howard to begin in MSG
NEW YORK (USA): Best US high jumper Chaunte Howard will start her indoor season at famous Millrose Games on January 31 in New York. She is looking for an improvement this winter as her indoor best 195 is behind the outdoor 201 from 2006.
OTHER NEWS
DRESDEN (GER): The best current German high jumper Raul Spank will compete at International Indoor Jumping meet in Dresden on January 23. The Olympic fifth placer who improved in Beijing to 232 cm will so begin here the international campaign 2009. His main rival will be 2005 World Champion Yuri Krimarenko of Ukraine and another Ukrainian Oleksandr Nartov who is European Junior Champion 2007. In second event of the evening women´s Pole Vault the Russian Anastasiya Shvedova with 465 cm best will be the strongest opponent for home jumpers headed by Lisa Ryzih, Martina Strutz and Anna Battke.
MONTE CARLO (MON): IAAF confirmed 6 months eligibility for Colombian javelin record holder Noraldo Palacios (79.09 in 2006) which ended on Christmas Day last year after he tested positive in May at International meet in Sao Paulo. Saudi Arabian junior sprinter Adel Al-Asiri was positive for norandrosterone at World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz and is banned until July 14, 2010. His best is 21.11 at 200 m and was initially 8th in Bydgoszcz finals.
HOUSTON (USA): Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga, the fourth place finisher in the Beijing Olympic Marathon finisher will race at the Chevron Houston Marathon on 18 January. Merga’s performance in China (2:10:21) was part of an impressive year of running for the 28-year-old from Nekemte, Ethiopia. Most recently, Merga clocked a personal best and a course record of 59:15 in winning the New Delhi Half Marathon on 9 November 2008. Prior to the Games, he ran a PB of 2:06:38 to finish sixth at the London Marathon in April, to become the second fastest Ethiopian marathoner of all-time, only World record holder Haile Gebrselassie has run faster. The course record in Houston of 2:10:04 was set in 1989 by Richard Kaitany (KEN), and is Merga’s aim. Informs IAAF. Joining Merga in Houston will be three-time Chevron Houston Marathon winner and David Cheruiyot of Kenya. Cheruiyot won back-to-back marathons in 2005 and 2006 and added his third Houston title in 2008. The women’s race starting field is headed by another Ethiopian Teyiba Erkesso (ETH). Erkesso, 25, who ran a PB of 51:44 at the 2007 Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, will be running her debut marathon and is expected to challenge Houston’s 2:24:40 course record set by her compatriot, Tune, in 2008.
STOCKHOLM (SWE): As expected Swedish star Carolina Kluft will only run 60 m sprints during the coming indoor season as she is recovering from a stress fracture. Her first international meet will be Goteborg EA Permit on January 29. That also possibly closes the door for her to qualify for European indoor Championships in Torino unless she achieves the qualification standard at 60 m. Her best is 7.40 from 2005.
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica Observer informs that fastest man on earth Usain Bolt was forced to cut short a Christmas visit to his family after the absence of piped water in the community forced him to make a four-mile trek to the Windsor River for a bath. “It is a shame that the world’s fastest man does not have any water to bathe. He had to cut his visit by a day and a half because there was no water for him to use,” rued Bolt’s father, Wellesley. The triple Olympic gold medallist, who arrived in his Sherwood Content hometown on Christmas Eve with the intent to stay until the following Sunday, had to take off early on Saturday when the chronic water shortage which traumatises the daily lives of the residents got to him. Some residents now rely heavily on rainfall as their main source of water supply.
RENO (USA): There was a story behind the story at last weekend’s 19th annual UCS Spirit Pole Vault Summit, the world’s largest three-day event of its kind, which annually attracts about 1,000 jumpers and almost 2,000 spectators. Informs Track and Field News. The concept of a U.S. Pole Vault Tour was proposed during a closed-door meeting with 25 of the nation’s elite pole-vaulters and embraced by the likes of 2008 Olympic gold medalist Stacy Dragila, 2004 Olympic silver medalist Toby Stevenson and 2007 World Outdoor champ Brad Walker. Tour co-founder Tye Harvey, the 2001 World Indoor silver medallist, and Jeff Hartwig, a two-time Olympian and four-time USA Outdoor champ, delivered an in depth 60-minute tour proposal. The U.S. Pole Vault Tour – proposed as multi-sponsored, nationally televised two-day events – is scheduled to debut in May or June in Sacramento. The proposed USPV seven-city tour will conclude with a Tour Championship.
ROMA (ITA): One of the favorites for gold medal in Torino European Indoors home Long Jump star Andrew Howe is having his training camp from January 5 until 31 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is joined by his mother/coach/agent Renee Felton there.
INDIANAPOLIS (USA): USATF presented the Visa Championship calendar for summer. The series is having six stops. Beginning as usual with USA vs. The World relays at Penn Relays (April 25) and Drake Relays in Des Moines (the same April 25). It continues on May 17 at adidas Track Classic in Carson followed by Reebok Grand Prix IAAF Permit on May 30 and Nike Prefontaine Classic on June 7 in Eugene (also IAAF GP). The final stage is the Outdoor National Championships in Eugene on June 25-28.
NEW YORK (USA): Race Results Weekly describes the 2008 as the greatest year for the number of fast marathons times run throughout the world, according to statistics compiled by the Association of Road Running Statisticians and published in the latest edition of the Analytical Distance Runner.
In 2008 there were 1342 sub-2:20 statistically valid performances by men, up 11% from 2007, the previous record year. Truly elite performances also exploded, with 257 sub-2:12 marks, 169 sub-2:11, 106 sub-2:10, and 66 sub-2:09. Each of those totals were records. At the very highest end of the sport, sub-2:08 performances grew to 36, up 33% from the previous record in 2003, while there were 16 sub-2:07’s, and seven sub-2:06’s. All of these totals set records. The story was similar on the women’ side, except at the very top end. There were 1353 performances below 2:50, up 16% from the previous record of 1164 set in 2006. Truly elite performances (sub-2:32) hit 199, up 21% from the previous record, and sub-2:30 marks hit 136, also a record. Performances, however, at the very highest end of marathon running for women did not break new ground There were 32 sub-2:26’s (the annual record is 38 set in 2003), just ten sub-2:24’s (record is 20, 2003), and just two sub-2:22’s (record is 9, 2006). Only one woman, Irina Mikitenko of Germany, broke 2:20 (2:19:19).
NEW YORK (USA): Agencies are informing that Olympic 400 m Hurdles and 4×400 m relay gold medalist Angelo Taylor is leading a delegation of athletes on a goodwill tour of military bases throughout Kuwait and Iraq. He plans to discuss his experience at the Beijing Olympics, visit hospitals and view parts of the war-torn countries that aren’t often seen in the media.
YEKATERINBURG (RUS): 2004 800 m Olympic gold medalist Yuriy Borzakovskiy said he is still considering to compete at European Indoor Championships in Torino. After his 500 m PB in Yekaterinburg his next outing will be the 1000 m at Russian Winter meet on February 1 in Moscow. Then two meets in Germany will follow (Stuttgart and Dusseldorf). Russian Championships are next in plan and then a question mark remains over Stockholm on Feb 18. “Depends whether they will stage 800 or 1000,” he said for All-Sport. Only at that time depending on his shape he will make the decision about Torino. He wants to travel to Italy only in shape to attack the highest positions. For summer the goal is clear – gold medal from World Championships in Berlin.
FRANKFURT (GER): Organisers of the Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon proudly announced that their race has been upgraded by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to the prestigious Gold Label level. For this year only eleven marathon races worldwide have so far received the golden label from the IAAF. Adding other events a total of 19 events can boost the Gold Label. Besides the marathon races of Berlin and Hamburg, Frankfurt Marathon is the only German road race in the gold label category of the IAAF. The Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon, which will be staged for the 28th time on 25th October, is Germany’s oldest city marathon. But it was only in recent years that the race through the nation’s financial capital developed very strong regarding both the participation and the elite race. In 2008 Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot (Kenya) improved the course record to 2:07:21. Last year’s race also had a record number of finishers. 9,469 runners crossed the line inside the Frankfurt festive hall, making it Germany’s third biggest marathon behind Berlin and Hamburg. Organizers are informing in a release.
LAUSANNE (SUI): The SPAR European Cross Country Championships were the highlight of the European Athletics month of December and following this, European Athletics is pleased to announce that athletes from 8 countries have been nominated for the European Athlete of the Month. The voting will close on Wednesday January 14 at 12 noon. In the men nomination are runners Sergiy Lebid, Andrea Lalli, Florian Carvalho, Alemayehu Bezabeh, Pieter Desmet and Antonio Silva. On women side also runners Hilda Kibet, Susan Kuijken, Stephanie Twell, Veerle Dejaeghere, Sara Moreira and Ines Monteiro.
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): UK Athletics has opted to prepare its teams for this year’s IAAF World Cross County Championships at home rather than set up a holding camp in Cyprus. The AVIVA Great Britain sides after in-depth research by UKA physiologists will prior to the championships in Amman on March 28, hold a week long preparation period probably at at Loughborough or St Mary’s University College, Twickenham. UKA after taking professional advice believe either High Performance Centres will offer better facilities than in Cyprus which would be of miminal value in the lead up for the trip to Jordan. The team will be selected on March 10 and named a day after selectors return from the European Indoor Championships in Turin which take place from March 6-8.
RESULTS
ST. PETERBURG (RUS, Jan 7): During last day of City Cup meet the relay world champion Natalya Antyukh clocked 23.97 at 200 m. Tatyana Vtorishina scored 4289 points in pentathlon. In men´s heptathlon Sergey Dorofeyev achieved 5521 points.
